Anxious for Nothing!

 Read Philippians 4:6-7

There are two short verses today, but they pack a big punch.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Which brings us to restraints & constraints. That’s how Paul paired these verses. Restraints are things that we must not do. Constraints are those things that we must do.

We will take the first part in this service—the restraints.  Don’t do this.  There seem to be a bunch of those in the Bible. Don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t cheat on your spouse, don’t covet what others have should sound familiar, and I am still in the top 10.

Go to Leviticus if you need some more, thou shalt nots. But this restraint doesn’t sound like a command. It doesn’t feel like a don’t even think about having other gods directive.

It is part of a coupling of what to do and what not to do, with the end result being peace, which is more than we can comprehend.

In the middle of this very conflicted world, we have peace, and it is more than we can comprehend.

Consider the words of Jesus from John’s gospel.

 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

That’s a good place to land, in a peace that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

So, let’s look at the restraints proffered in Philippians. Do not be anxious or be anxious for nothing. It’s a familiar tact.

·       Don’t be anxious.

·       Don’t worry.

·       Don’t’ be afraid

·       Don’t rely on your own understanding.

·       Don’t store up treasures on earth.

·       Don’t think that your anger can bring about God’s righteousness.

·       Don’t run with scissors.

·       Don’t spend it all in one place.

That’s a good list, but it doesn’t include the how. That’s in the second part of the verse, which we will discuss more in the next service. For now, consider that if you can worry, then you can pray. I first considered this thought years ago when I read The Purpose-Driven Life.

If I become anxious, pray.

If I start to worry, pray.

If I am afraid, pray.

If I am selling myself on my own understanding, pray.

If I am starting to feel self-righteous in my anger, pray.

If I am running with scissors, walk.

The prayer part is the constraint part—the must do part. To have any degree of efficacy in the second part, we need to master the first part.

These two conditions should create dissonance in your hearts and minds:  Worry and Trusting God.  We either trust or we don’t.

These two conditions should create dissonance in your hearts and minds: Anxiety and Assurance. We can either be anxious or rest in the assurance that all of God’s promises are true.

These two conditions should create dissonance in your hearts and minds: Fear and Faith. It’s one or the other.

Paul’s counsel is to get rid of the obstacle and pursue relief in prayer.

The promise is that if we abide in the restraints and constraints, our problems will go away. No, the promise is that we will have peace even in the middle of the world’s conflict, confusion, and continuing controversy.

It’s a peace not reliant upon what happens to the circumstance that is elicting anxiousness or worry. It’s one of those, the numbers don’t add up but I still have peace.

If we consider the syntax further, we see that nothing is excluded from the category. Be anxious for nothing.  Nothing means nothing. There is no thing, no circumstance, no force excluded here. Nothing is too difficult or too complicated for God.

Nothing!

I used to run about 7 miles a day, 5 or 6 days a week.  It was a good distance. I could run it, get showered and back in uniform, and finish my day.

I wanted a little more challenge but couldn’t give up more time for more mileage, so I got an old, metal-plated flak vest to run with. It added a few pounds and was good for kicking my workout up a notch.

Had I opted to add a hundred-pound pack to my back, the debilitating effects would have outweighed the benefits. No question.

You can run with a hundred-pound pack for a couple of miles and not have any ill effects. At the end of a long hike in full gear, we would often run the last mile or two.

But trying this for much more than that works against you.

It’s the same for holding on to your anxiousness while you pray to God. You can carry a little burden while you give things to God, but not a lot.

You are still working on the problem or circumstance but not debilitated by it. You still have peace. You might not understand how you can have peace, but you can.

Quit holding on to your anxiousness first, then let God do the heavy lifting.

Be anxious for NOTHING!

Amen.

 

In Everything

 Read Philippians 4:6-7

We begin in Rome where Paul was imprisoned. Paul wrote to the first church that he planted in Europe. That church was in Philippi.

The letter begins with a standard salutation: This letter is from Paul, except the text notes that it is from Paul and Timothy. Most scholars agree that the style of the letter suggests that Paul was the sole author.

It’s sort of like your Christmas letters that some families send out. It’s from the Smith Family or the Jones Family, but we all know that Mom wrote it.

And we note that Paul gave thanks for these believers in Philippi. He called them partners in the gospel. Paul is telling his modern-day readers that these guys got it from the beginning.

He didn’t have to reiterate time and again that salvation flows from grace, not law. He didn’t have to counsel them on leaving some believers on the outside while enjoying the benefits of fellowship with a select group.

He didn’t have to chastise them about something getting in the way of their faith. There is no, you were running a good race, who cut you off verbiage.

I think Paul enjoyed writing this letter. He enjoyed thinking about this group of believers he met by the river years earlier.

It’s in the first part of this letter that we see words we hear and use again and again: Confident that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.

For the believer who struggles with life, not because life is tough, but because he or she realizes that they can’t hit the mark every time, Paul provides comfort in his counsel.

 You stay the course and do your part, knowing that God will get you where you can’t get yourself.

I will borrow Isaiah’s words for a moment and ask if you can see what is happening here in the first part of this letter.

Do you not perceive it?

Perceive what?

Fellowship. Can you not perceive it? Can you not taste it?  Do we know it?

You might be wondering, what fellowship? Paul was writing from prison.

It is a fellowship that comes in doing things greater than themselves. That’s a nondescriptive descriptor by itself. I’ll try it this way.

When we do things that are too difficult to do alone, but we do them with other believers, we know a fellowship that doesn’t visit people in their comfort zones.

Taking this gospel to a world that did not have a relationship with God was impossible. That world had a relationship with gods they had created for themselves but they did not know the one true God.

Paul was on a mission from God to take the gospel to this world. Paul noted that he became all things to all people so that some might be saved.

He planted churches and wrote most of his church plants letters of counsel and correction. Paul sent joy and rejoicing to these Philippian believers. Sure, they had much to learn, but they were partners in the gospel.

There was fellowship in doing great—even impossible things—together. It is a fellowship that I long for us to know better.

The Marines have a saying when asked about doing the impossible: We do difficult things every day; the impossible just takes a little longer.

Doing things together that are too difficult, even impossible, and then knowing the camaraderie of accomplishing those things through Christ produces a fellowship few know. Paul and the Philippians had this fellowship.

The gospel was going into the world. Paul had a big assignment, but now he had a partner. Timothy was his protégé and partner, but Philippi was a whole congregation planted in the middle of Rome (East) and they were partners.

When we consider the church at Philippi, we see that they had genuine fellowship. Let’s move on for the moment.

Philippians brings us the words: to live is Christ and to die is gain.

We note words often repeated in the Christian world: Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

We stop there too often and make these verses a sword of revenge. Christians sometimes say these words, wanting to share in God’s righteous anger. Oh, yeah, one day God is going to get you!

The words that Paul penned say that this reverence and profession will be to the glory of God. Don’t get caught up in trying to share in God’s righteous anger. I know there are Christians and even Christian preachers teaching that if God’s wrath could be poured out on it, then it’s OK for us to be angry with it.

That's a good argument, unless you want to be biblical. We have two examples: Jesus and Satan. Jesus set aside his equality with God, humbled himself, and became a servant.

Lucifer, on the other hand, wanted what God had. He wanted to be God. Being an angel wasn’t enough.

Jesus lived and died for us in humility. Satan wants to steal, kill, and destroy. Don’t let righteous anger have you take the yoke of Satan instead of Jesus. Our anger does not get us to righteousness.

Moving on. Paul told the Philippians and he is telling us to work out—live out our salvation with fear and trembling. Live the rest of your life for God. Bringing glory to his name in everything we do is now our daily standard.

Paul wrote elsewhere that we should live a life worthy of the calling that we have received.

Paul noted that he counted all of his worldly status and accolades as loss. He didn’t throw them away. He used them in his ministry—even his Roman citizenship—to advance the gospel. He encouraged the Philippians to press on towards the goal.

We finally come to Chapter 4. We note Paul’s familiarity with the congregation, telling two women who were very much working to spread the love of God through the gospel to sort out whatever was getting in the way. He didn’t pick a side. He said, you took yourself out of the game. Put yourself back in.

Then we come to joy and rejoicing. Paul said to rejoice, and he said it twice. That one is on the test. At last, we come to the scripture for today.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Which brings us to restraints & constraints. That’s how Paul paired these verses. Restraints are things that we must not do. Constraints are those things that we must do.

We discussed the restraints in the first service. Now, let’s examine the second part of this coupling.

It begins: In everything.

In everything!

That’s all the time and in all circumstances. That’s a lot. That’s everything. That’s always. That is governing in the whole of our lives.

What is?

Coming before God and talking it through. Paul lists three things—prayer, petition, and thanksgiving. I begin with thanksgiving. If you have been paying attention over the past couple of decades, you might note that I begin a prayer with thanksgiving about 99% of the time.

Even when someone is going through the loss of a loved one, I give thanks to God first. I am thankful that this whole loss thing doesn’t revolve around me. God’s got this, and I thank him for it even when it doesn’t seem to be a time of thanksgiving.

Paul did not prescribe an order or even a ranking. Thanksgiving just fits up front when I pray. It shows up again and again later in my prayers, but it is where I start.

Then we come to petition. These are the requests that we put before the throne of grace. We come boldly before the throne of grace. We ask for what we need and we need what we ask for to accomplish the mission given to us.

We ask our Father in heaven for what we need and do it without any anxiety. We are his servants. We desire to take whatever we are given and put it to work immediately to produce a return for our Master.

So we are thankful, and we ask for what we need.  Anything else?

How about prayer?

Isn’t that what we have been talking about?

Yes, but prayer is more than thanking and asking. It’s conversing with God almighty as if he had called you friend, son, or daughter. It’s just talking to the One who loves you more than anyone else, and we should keep the conversation going all day long.

It’s like getting to work with your best friend and talk about anything and everything all day long, and not worried about the boss telling you that you talk too much.

Prayer, petition, and thanksgiving should be our daily constraints. We should not do them only because we are instructed to, but because we recognize the value of doing them. This is a twofer: We obey and we understand. We get it.

When we couple this with being anxious for nothing, we have a balanced approach to Christian life.

This would be the perfect place to wrap up, except that I wanted to share something with you that I have shared with the session once or twice over the years, and it might have been included in a First Light sermon somewhere along the way.

It is also a topic that bores people to tears each time. What is it?

Front-end analysis, and no, that has nothing to do with your vehicle. It’s about working more on the front end of a process so that corrections are minor instead of addressing things later on when they might have grown into a larger issue.

What?

What if we started the day setting aside anything that caused us to worry, then went into prayer, petition, and thanksgiving?

Start with prayer, that’s nothing new. Most of us start our days with a prayer oif some sorts.  True, but let’s not stop there.

Let’s say you start to worry about something an hour or maybe ten minutes later. Fix it then—at once—now. Make the correction immediately. Don’t drag it out.

I’m worried—what can I do?

Pray. If you can worry, you can pray.

If you are getting angry, then stop and pray.

If your eyes are not on Jesus, stop, pray, refocus on the target.

When? Now!  Do it as soon as you detect that you are off course.

Consider the whole front end of the process business. Visualize a fifteen-degree angle. Why not a two-hundred-degree angle?

The first angle is a cute angle (acute), and using the second angle in my example would be obtuse.

Let’s look at the small angle. There is not much space between the initial side and the terminal side where the angle begins, but there is a whole lot of space between the lines the farther from the initial vertex you get.

Fixing something early—near the front end—is a smaller task than later on. I understand that we want to do things and get them going and over with and that working on the front end of things adds time when we think we should be on to something else.

But it also keeps us on course. I will use an example from Stephen Covey. It deals with leaders and managers, but it applies here as well.

Imagine a well-organized company hired to cut a path through thick Jungle vegetation. Strong men with sharp blades hack away, while others are ready to take their place when the blades get dull.

Men and women are behind them, sharpening blades. The rotation of the cutters and the work of the blade sharpeners look like a well-oiled machine.

The leader climbs a tall tree to get the overall picture. He notes the company is getting off course and shouts down, “Wrong direction!”

To which the managers reply, “Shut up. We’re making good progress.”

This front end of the process and course correction business applies to more than a couple of verses in Philippians, but today, we keep our focus there.

·       Anxious for nothing

·       Prayer

·       Petition

·       Thanksgiving

Let’s return to where we started: fellowship and doing things more significant than ourselves.

See if these apply to you in some way:

·       I want to do God’s will.

·       I want to put his words into practice.

·       I want to be known as belonging to Jesus by my love.

·       I want to fulfill the commission that Christ gave me.

·       I want to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

The list could continue, but these will likely fit most of us. I start my day wanting to do all of these, and the next thing that I know, I say something that I shouldn’t have, or my mind drifts to something that causes me to worry or get angry. I get off course. I take my eyes off Jesus.

Don’t put that course correction on hold. Fix it now. Thank God now. Ask him for help now. Let him know you want to get back on course and press on towards the goal.

Don’t procrastinate. I was going to set up a Procrastinators Anonymous group to help with this, but I haven’t gotten around to it.

Don’t wait until you get around to it!

A week or two ago, I gave everyone in the session meeting and everyone at the First Light Service a Round Tuit. It’s a coin-sized reminder to do things now. Don’t delay. Don’t wait until your get around to it.

Paul’s counsel is simple. My guidance from the full biblical witness might bore you, disrupt your comfort zone, or seem like a pain at the time, but the time invested at the front end of things—most often our days—produces dividends for us, and we produce better dividends for our Master.

Let’s begin our days with Paul’s counsel and continue to address our constraints and restraints with the same counsel as the day progresses.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

OBTW—you get a peace that is more than we can comprehend.

I want you to know this peace—one that goes beyond what we understand.  I also want you to know the fellowship for doing incredible things with other believers and the fellowship it produces.

Amen.

Don't Worry. Be Joyful!

 Read Philippians 4

As we come to the last part of this letter, we see that Paul loves this church and they love him.  They sent him a gift and he has been provisioned for his time in Rome.

We see Paul encouraging these believers to follow the model of Christ—who gave up all to die for our sins.  This is the model that Paul seeks to follow and he encourages this church to do the same.

Paul told this church body that as they contend with those who are preaching Jesus Plus, use his example to stop them in their tracks.  If they want a measuring contest, Paul can give them one, but everything on Paul’s resume that the Jesus Plus group would count as something important, Paul counts for loss as far as right standing with God. 

Paul had the better religious resume, but he counted it for nothing as far as right-standing with God goes.

Only the blood of Jesus gets you to right standing with God.  There is a lifelong discourse and course of practice in discipleship that follows, but only by grace through faith are we saved. 

There is one more thing of note about the church in Philippi.  Two women of some standing in the congregation were arguing and evidently, it was disruptive enough that the church in Philippi thought Paul should know about it.

We don’t get to see the session minutes from the church in Philippi, but we see how Paul addressed the matter.

He didn’t say, send me sworn statements.

He didn’t say, send me the preliminary inquiry conducted into the matter.

He didn’t even ask for the CSI report.

He wrote that he asked each of these women to reconcile with each other, without regard to the matter itself.

 

This had to be tough for these ladies to swallow, for when you are on a quest to be right, it is hard to know the right path to follow.

Thus, Paul asked the body of believers to assist in the matter.  What matter? Was it the color of the carpet or the frequency of serving the Lord’s Supper? Was it how we baptize or the color of the dishwashers in the kitchen?  We don’t know.

We don’t know, but Paul thought that reconciliation with each other and with the body was worth addressing. He appealed to both women—ladies who had been a part of the church-building effort while Paul was in Philippi—to be of one mind in the Lord.

What’s that mean?  Set aside individual egos and agendas and seek the will of God.  Start by saying, “It’s not all about me.”

Consider the previous counsel to regard others more highly than ourselves.

Paul was saying, we have bigger fish to fry.  We are on a mission from God.  Whatever it is that is getting in the way of running your race of faith, deal with it, and get back in your race.

Time is of the essence. You have purposeful things to do.  How can you press on towards the goal when you are at odds with each other?

Next come words that applied to these women, to the church at Phillip, to the church at large, and very much to the church as we near the end of the age.

Rejoice in the Lord always!

Paul didn’t say rejoice in your paycheck.

He didn’t say rejoice in your extra federal holiday.

He didn’t say rejoice in the fact that gas is twice as high in California.

He said to rejoice in the Lord.  The Greek word for rejoice is χαίρω (chairó).  Essentially, it means glad for grace.  The Greek words for rejoice, joy, and grace are what we call cognates.  They all have the same etymological connections.

They all proceed from the favor of the Lord.

When Paul speaks of rejoicing, it’s more than if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.  It is the joy that proceeds from living in the favor of the Lord.

There are many commentaries and essays about joy and happiness, but they proceed from our modern linguistics.   They are worthy of some thought, but seek the roots of rejoicing.  They come from the favor of God.

Our joy is not in our wealth or in our circumstances or in what’s for lunch.  Our joy is in the Lord; therefore, we should rejoice in the Lord. We can be happy with our circumstances or with our lunch but our joy in life comes from living in the favor of God.

Imagine if you will, that your joy is in your paycheck.  Imagine that your joy is in your good looks.  Imagine that your joy is in your new outfit or your new car or your new job.

You don’t have to imagine.  Look all around you as people think they have found happiness in their new relationship, even though they just broke up two days ago, or if you check the Facebook page of high school kids, they went from losing the life-long love of their life to finding a new one in two hours.

Look around you at people who think they found happiness in their fancy new car and then get their fancy new insurance bill and fancy new OMG surprise at the pump, not to mention that first ding on the driver’s side door.

Look around you at people so excited about how much money they make only to find out that now they crave something more.

We all experience these sorts of things but we don’t all bank on these things bringing us joy in the world.  Our joy is in the Lord.

Does that mean we never have one moment of sorrow?  No, the psalmist recognizes that we are still human, but in that humanity, we seek the divine joy of the Lord.

Sorrow may last for the night but joy comes in the morning.

 

But even so, sometimes we worry.  We worry mostly about things that are beyond our control.  We worry instead of praying.  We worry and get nothing good in return.

Paul notes what God has noted in so many messages to us—don’t worry.  Worry cannot add one hour to your life.  Worry doesn’t put a roof over your head or food on the dining room table.

Worry only works against you.  Don’t do it.  Listen to Paul’s words.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Don’t worry.  Don’t be anxious.  Don’t fret over anything. 

Yes, you are late on your rent payments.  The price of gas has gone up.  Groceries have gone up. I don’t know what my test results will say. I live in tornado alley. The murder hornets are on their way, and this time they are stopping and asking for directions.

 Worry won’t help.  What do we do, then?

Pray.  In everything by prayer and petition.  We do what the hymn says.  We take it to the Lord in prayer.

We bring every situation and circumstance to the Lord.  We come first with a spirit of gratefulness and thanksgiving, for we know that our joy is in the Lord.  Our salvation is in the Lord. God loves us with an everlasting love.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Thank you, Lord. 

Before we offer up the things that trouble us, we offer our thanks for the things that have been done for us.  God himself took away our sin and make us right with him.  Thank you, Lord.  Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! If we consider all that God has done for us, we will be thankful, even when our human nature tells us to worry.

Now that we have come in this spirit of thankfulness, here’s some other stuff that I am struggling with.  Yes, that includes ending a sentence with a preposition.

Give it all to God and be thankful that you have such a loving and understanding God to give it to.  Be thankful that our God is faithful and just to forgive. 

Come to him with thanksgiving and praise and then confidently ask him for what you need.  Guess what?  He already knows.  He is answering your prayers before you know what to pray.

How will God respond?

He will give you peace that you can’t understand.  He will give you peace even though he might not give you what you asked for in your prayer.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds. The joy that we know in the Lord is a close friend with the peace that we have in the Lord.

The promise is not that you will figure out all of the answers to all of your troubles, but that you may enjoy the Lord’s peace even when you can’t find one answer to one of your problems.

There is a meme going around that I see a lot on veteran’s sites.  Stay away from those sites unless you have served.  You will find the humor of those who have spent time under fire to be a little off-center to be polite.  I fit right in.

There is also a lot of encouragement on those sites for we still lose 22 veterans a day to suicide.  The meme that I speak of reminds us that we have survived 100% of our worst days.  Hang in there for one more.

Paul reminds us that our joy is in the Lord and our peace is in the Lord.  Jesus said that we would have trouble in the world, but to take courage for he has overcome the world.

We cannot be anchored to our trials and troubles.  They are part of our journey.  Our trust in the Lord through these trials and tribulations is what defines our character.

Jesus told us that his yoke is easy and his burden is light We were never meant to carry the loads that some of us carry.  Give these troubles to the Lord and receive his peace.  It is a peace that goes beyond what we can understand but a peace that guards us at the core.  It guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Our joy is in the Lord.

Our peace is in the Lord.

Troubles belong to the world and Jesus has overcome the world.

Bobby McFerrin took a crack at this.

Here's a little song I wrote

You might want to sing it note for note

Don't worry, be happy

In every life we have some trouble

When you worry you make it double

Don't worry, be happy

Don't worry, be happy now

There’s more, but I won’t sing it all.

The landlord say your rent is late

He may have to litigate

Don't worry, be happy

This is one of those tunes for which it is easy to make up your own lyrics. I will spare you mine and just remind you of Paul’s counsel.

Be anxious for nothing.

Live in the joy of the Lord.

Receive the peace of the Lord.

Respond in love as your live out your salvation.

Now it’s on to the Colossians.

Amen.

There is no peace for the wicked

Read Isaiah 57

We have spent most of the year talking about love, love and action, and now love and peace.  I think that we understand that peace is an incredible gift from God, who is in his very essence Love.

God is love.  God loves us.  God has given us this fantastic gift of peace.

Jesus said that he gave us his peace.  It’s not the same peace that the world promises.  It is a gift from God that does not depend upon our circumstances.

Jesus promised us that the world is full of trouble and that won’t change for the better until he comes again.  In fact, we should expect the ways of the world to get worse.  But we are to receive the peace that Jesus offers and live by courage.  By his stripes we are healed.  He has overcome the world.  Sin and death are defeated.

We are counseled by the apostle Paul to be anxious for nothing.  Do not be anxious—worrisome—about anything.  Instead we go God with everything, coming to him first with thanksgiving, but turning everything over to him; and we are told that the peace of God that goes beyond anything we can actually understand will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

The peace of God that transcends our human understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen. Hallelujah!  We should just march right into the fellowship meal right now in a victory march, singing Victory in Jesus. 

If somebody asked you if Tom ever challenges you with his messages, I think most would say, “When doesn’t he?”

I have challenged you to connect the disconnected, reach out to the lost, love one another, love your neighbor, love the alien in the land, love your enemy, do the work of an evangelist, press on towards the goal, confess and get back in your race, aim and flush, and you could probably add to that list.

But in recent weeks, I have challenged you in a different way.  I have challenged you to receive the Lord’s peace.  I have challenged you to kick fear to the curb and receive the Lord’s peace.  It is his gift to us and it comes without strings attached to our circumstances.

I have also challenged you to disturb the peace people have made with the world.  I have suggested to you that if you have truly professed Jesus as Lord and Savior and are really working to be his disciple and you do not have peace, to look in the mirror and see if fear has crept into your life.

God told us that there are two models here.  Fear the Lord or fear the world.  Fear the Lord is the correct choice.  So, while you are looking in the mirror, if you see fear creeping into your life, kick it to the curb.  It is not a gift of God.  It is a tool of the enemy.  The only fear that you should have is the fear of the Lord and know that this fear is the starting point for doing things God’s way.

Your destination is perfect loves which casts out fear!

We have two modes to live by:  Courage or fear.  The correct mode—the mode being that which occurs most often in our life—is courage.  Yes, fear may sneak in every once in a while, but when we realize it’s there, it’s got to go.  Courage is how we are to live.

All the men need to go home and watch the movie Courageous again to get pumped up about this courage thing.

My messages have consistently reminded us that if we are doing what God has called us to do, and pouring ourselves into that purpose, we will have peace.

My challenge to you is to receive the Lord’s peace.  It is a really great gift!

But this morning I want you to understand that God’s peace is not for everybody.  We are blessed that God grants us his peace so readily.

But there is no peace for the wicked!  Those who continue to reject God will have no peace.  Let’s add what the Bible calls fools to that group.  The fool says in his heart that there is no God.

The wicked are consigned to their circumstances.  The only peace that they will know is what they wrestle from their circumstances in this life.  They will not know God’s peace, but we do, now and forever.

The wicked do not wish you well, especially if you have come to disrupt their peace with the world.  They have contempt for what you have.  They do not hunger for God’s peace, but they are not happy that you have something that they don’t.  it’s quite a conundrum.

They want their efforts at worshiping the idols of this world, seeking the things of this world first, and singing in their best Frank Sinatra voice, I did it my way to get them rewards.  They ignore the word of God.  For century after century, they have ignored God’s prophets. 

Today, in the western world, almost anything that stands out against God and goodness and faithfulness is elevated to the level of something to be worshiped.  And God’s word says THAT DOG DON’T HUNT!

There is no peace for the wicked!

Now, for the faithful, we sometimes think it’s the other way around.  We see people getting away ungodliness time and time again.  Actually, we see a glimpse of a time when they get away with things.  Nothing is hidden from God. 

God will judge the living and the dead.  We will all stand in judgment.  For the wicked, this will not be a good day.  They cannot withstand the coming judgment.

Our human hearts want to say, “Good!  They will get what they deserve!”  And as much as God desires none to perish, it seems that somehow, someway, people set their hearts and minds against God. 

We must not set our hearts and minds against those who are against God.  Understand that we don’t hang out with them as friends.  Bad company corrupts good character.  When we deal with the wicked and foolish, our hearts and minds are 100% in mission mode.

We don’t judge or condemn is the better word.  Jesus dined with sinners, but he did not adopt their ways.  We don’t walk on the other side of the road, but we don’t join the party either.

We are Christ’s ambassadors.  We venture into foreign territory, but we don’t go native. 

We bring a message:  Repent and believe the good news!  There is salvation, hope, and peace for those who will turn away from the world and seek God first.  We know God through his divine Message that we call Jesus, Yeshua, or the Christ.

And the fact that the wicked will not know peace is our best tool.  The wicked, the foolish, and all those set against the one true God will not know peace, but we do.

Those living in rebellion against God will never know peace.  They will try everything the world throws at them to get what we have but what we have is a gift from God to his children.

The wicked can’t get here from there.  They can’t have the peace that we know so long as they rebel against God.  We could leave that as the end of the story, but we know all too well that it is not.  God not only wants them to turn away from the wickedness that they seek, but he is also working on us as well.

God is shaping our human heart to be just like his divine heart, and that heart desires that none perish.  That divine heart desires that all come to repent and know salvation in God and he made a way through Christ Jesus for that to take place.  God made a way!  God did not make any eternal reprobates.  He didn’t make any shills.  He didn’t make anyone to be thrown away.  Their predestination is to be with him.

Some have chosen wickedness.  They want to take God’s love story and turn it into a personal tragedy. 

They continue to deny the gift of love and life and peace offered to all humankind.  And our heart which is being shaped into one just like God’s tells us, let me talk with them one more time.  Let me do one more act of kindness.  Let me be God’s light one more time.

Lord, let me be so salty this time that even the wicked will taste your goodness and turn away from evil.

But understand that when we venture into these mission areas, we must be in mission mode.  

Understand that we are sent not invited into the world that does not know God.

In a very short time, we will sit down and enjoy a meal, and fellowship, and peace as only believers can enjoy.  Enjoy this time.  Enjoy each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.  Just know God’s peace because you are his children.

But sometime in the next few days, you will encounter someone who has rejected God and worships so many things of this world.  They will not have peace and they will not like the fact that you do.

We could just walk on by.  We could say, “Tough luck, buddy.”  We could think, “Dude, you are going to get exactly what you deserve.”

Or we could remember that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  That verse so messes up the walk on by thing.

Here’s the thing.  We are his disciples.  We do the work he gave us.  It is not a burden.  That doesn’t mean that we are walking the primrose path.  It means that we know to do exactly what he has purposed us to do.  

When I am doing exactly what I know God has designed me to do, it’s never that difficult.  There’s stuff that you have to deal with, but it just not that hard when you think about it.

But you have to be in mission mode.  In fact, I suggest that before you venture into ministering to the ungodly, you say these words to yourself:  I’M ON A MISSION FROM GOD!

Here’s the thing.  You might be a little nervous the first time or two that you do this, but God’s peace will not abandon you. 

You might be treated unkindly.  You might be called names.  In this country, your life is normally not at risk.  People might say mean things about you on Facebook, but God’s peace will be with you.

The wicked cannot know his peace, but we do.

One day, we will stand before Jesus, not to account for our sins.  He has taken care of every one of them.  God tells us that he will not only forgive but forget.  To me that’s cool beans.

It’s great to be forgiven, but even a forgiven soul doesn’t need to be reminded every 10,000 years or so about the time he spit in the grits back in 1972.  God forgives and forgets.  It is as if we were given an entirely new history.

But we will all stand before God and be judged for what we have done after he took our sins away.  These are things I don’t want to hear:

Didn’t love your enemies, huh?

Didn’t want to share salvation and my peace with those folks, hmmm?

Didn’t think they were worthy of salvation?

What do I want to hear?  Let’s go with, “Well done good and faithful servant.”

Understand that living in God’s peace—knowing this wonderful gift daily—does not make us content with the so many who continue to reject God.

We are at peace in the middle of a world of trouble but we are not content that so many continue to reject God.  We are not at the point where we can examine our commission and say:  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

The wicked will not know peace.  God said, there is no peace for the wicked.  Will we take that as their just reward or is it a mission statement for us, perhaps just one more time, to speak words of salvation and hope and peace.

Be his light and love, be the salt of the earth, and speak his words of life, hope, and peace once more.  Just one more time to those who do not know God’s peace.

We know God’s peace.  Are we ready to leave this place and seek the same for others?  Are you ready to say, I’M ON A MISSION FROM GOD!

Amen.