Peace In Times of Trouble - Part 1

Welcome to the intense podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, February 3 when things go wrong, anxious, stressed and worried.

Today's podcast amplifies Christ encouraging words that offer peace in times of trouble. Being able to experience these in our heart is becoming an increasing gel so you know what else the questionable health cannot be at peace when we are continually being confronted with such outrageous violence in our life and how can we be at peace when it seems that Albert bodies are besieged all kinds of killer diseases, and how can we be pleased when the person's word is admittedly in a more when love and loyalty are simply passing emotions that people experience when our finances are no more certain that tomorrow's weather when someone is always ridiculing what we believe, how do you expect to have peace of that caliber society and that caliber circumstance for that's what I will talk about in this message. I want you to turn if you will. The gospel of John XIV chapter because in this chapter, Jesus gives us a word concerning this whole idea of peace and that is how do we experience peace in times of great trouble. We all going to experience trouble in our life is always going to be trouble. As long as we live on this planet, we gonna face it, it's not going to get into better it's going to get worse. And all you have to do is little while relies as you look back a few years. It is getting worse and worse. So if you intend to live where there is no trouble and no heart ache and no suffering and no death. Then you have to find some of the planet to live on because that's just not the way it's going to be is always going to be these difficulties, hardships, trials, violence, bloodshed, animosity, jealousy, covetousness, and all the rest and what we have to ask is not how do we escape it, but how do we live in such a fashion that we can live with peace in our heart. No matter what. Well you little background before we read this devotee what's happening is the night before the crucifixion Jesus has been experiencing the Passover supper was disciples and the they been talking about lots of things and the process of doing so he said to them, one of you is going to betray me. You can imagine the kind of troublesome heart immediately began to erupt in all of and then he began. Of course talk about having to leave them and he was going to be separated from him, and that they would undergo all kinds of difficulty and hardship and then the process of explaining all these things he said to peters that Peter you going to not be three times and so imagine what kind of trouble. Most of fill their heart here is the Messiah, the one Dave walk with and talk with and they watched all these miracles he says he's God. He says these Messiah I he says if you seen him using the father and now he says that one of them has betrayed him. Now he's having until one of the others of themselves that the these are the 93 times and he's going to leave them on the you can imagine what kind of also frustration and anxiety and fear gripped their hearts.

Well, the process of doing that when you look at this first verse having told of all that is what he says let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God believe also in me.

What wait a minute you said that one of us is going to betray you peters going 93 times you get me the Levi's and you telling us don't be troubled. Doesn't sound very smart. Here's what that verse really says be troubled no longer what he says be troubled no longer believe in God believe also in me. Now the reason I take time to talk about that particular incident is because I was to see something here that times really haven't changed a whole lot when it comes to human nature that just as these things trouble them you and troubled in life about different things.

All of us face different kinds of trouble.

Those things that trouble our heart those things that steal our peace those things that fragment our emotions those things that cause us to doubt may be at times those things that cause us to begin to wonder what God if you're there while you allow these things to happen. So for the most part there's a great absence of peace in the heart of most people and so the question is how can I have that kind of peace. How can I experience genuine tranquility in my heart. How can I be still in the midst of a stall.

How can my heart be quiet when there's so many things around me that caused me so much heartache and things that threaten my safety and threaten my future and threaten our security and print my very life cannot even believe it is a way to be peaceful in the world in which I live where there is that what you listen carefully, because I do not ever want to stand here and give you some pie-in-the-sky kind of off the cup brief the biblical verse of Scripture on something disabled. If you just do this and so his will have. If this didn't work.

I would be standing here telling you, does if you couldn't have peace in great difficulty and hardship in trials and threats in your life. I would not tell you could you absolutely can. And Jesus is certainly the key to that, but I want to listen carefully because you see it's forever in the Scripture that God intends for you and me to be able to live in peace.

Now the world in which these people were living was a very difficult world just to exist just to be alive. For most people because so many of them were slain. They were just eking out a living. And so Jesus certainly will not make promises that were not practical, real livable. That could make a difference in a person's life. So when he said, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you not as the world gives do I give to you. He says don't allow your heart to keep on being trouble and keep on being fearful. Now I think about the promises of Scripture. For example, he says in the Psalms 34 Psalm. He says, seek peace and pursue it. Why would God tell us to seek peace and pursue it if he not intend for us and had not prepared for us a possibility of having these as for example in second grade. In chapter 13 verse 11, he said, live in peace.

Why would he say live in peace if we could not live in peace because they were very troublesome time, he says, for example, in Colossians chapter 3 verse 15 he says allow peace to rule in your heart that is above everything else. Allow peace to rule in your heart so it is very evident in the Scriptures that he certainly wants us to live with a sense of peace. If you think about all of Paul's epistles. Beginning in Romans and first and second Corinthians in Galatians and Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and intimidated to Timothy, Titus, the Thessalonians in and flame in every single letter he wrote no exception.

In his salutation. He said to them grace and peace be on the why because he knew have very important, listen the grace of God always precedes the piece he says, peace be unto you, that is the tranquility and the calmness of the stillness of the quietness that Christ and only Christ can give the human heart. You see, he knew that and the people what it was to a person like Timothy of Philemon at the Titus over the rest of the church, like Ephesus, aroma, he was saying to all of them peace. You and if you think about how Paul also described God. He said he identified them. For example, in the Roman city heat, he called him the God of peace. And if you recall in Isaiah when he was talking about Jesus. Wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of peace.

And Paul also called him the Lord of peace and so certainly God is a God of peace and he wants peace in your life in my life. There was God wants us to be able to live in a troublesome turbulent to both of us uncertain, insecure, violent dishes, wicked bile needy world with a sense of assurance confidence peace in our heart that no matter what happens he wants to give us a piece that cannot be shaken cannot be stolen from laws unless we choose to lay it down. Jesus said my peace I give to you. Therefore, he says, no longer allow your heart to keep on being a trouble no longer keep on. He says being fearful and so when he makes this promise what I want you to see is this he's making this promise not to a group of disciples who have it all together, not to a group of disciples who have no frustrations, no anxieties, no peers and no frustrations about the belief he's making this promise to them in the most troublesome time of their entire life and he says don't be fearful and longer. Don't be trouble in your heart and longer, my peace I give to you not as the world gives your body you let not your heart be troubled. Now I was a look at this 27 first because it is an awesome promise, but it is a promise that is very practical. Let's think about where they are.

They are living in the three darkest days on this earth.

Here they are all of history is getting ready to move at this moment DC before Christ. A.D.

After our Lord everything that they depended upon is about to leave him.

They put their whole trust in him.

They left everything for him and now he says I'm going to leave you that he says I'm coming again but you know what you oftentimes so troubled in your heart and your ache is so deep and your pain is so excruciating is very difficult to hear. Sometimes things we need to hear in spite of that his was happening there whole world is getting ready to fall apart and imagine Peter's feeling when he said you mean to tell me longer than I you three times. No way. What I devastating blow, but it was a warning to and so on. The light of that here. He says my peace. I'm going to give you is think about it for moment. They were very very sad because he was about to leave, they were very listen MLS that they were ashamed because what had they been talking about your member. They talked about present, who's going to be the greatest among who's going to sit by your side in the kingdom so selfish they were about so many things and so they were ashamed of themselves. They certainly were very perplexed very perplexed because they were suffering in their own minds.

How can he be the Messiah.

And now someone who crucified. How can he be God, and now some of you doing, how can he be one with the father.

How can he die.

How can you be crucified, be buried still in the tomb and be resurrected numerous let's think about it we can read this accept this because 2000 years ago.

It happened we have the revelation of God's word and then living in the turmoil living in the uncertainty feeling the pain and the fear of it all. Besides that, if they crucified him, holding under them.

Because after all, everybody knows they been with him that part of the program and so this is what they're facing. And he says to them, my peace I give to you that what kind of peace was that was that some little idea that was very impractical. Was he just selling their conscience and quieting them for the moment I was he offering them something that would last for a lifetime. Whatever he offered.

And remember this verse in Hebrews 13 he says, verse eight Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever. I watch this here is the big misunderstanding that oftentimes people have the readers rest. Description says let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God believe also in me then that means as a Christian. Once you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior.

You not to let troubles bother you anymore to be stressful over anything not allow these things.

You don't get perturbed. You don't get ruffled interstate life with a grain of salt, and use move on through life and none of these things happened that is not what he was saying that is not what that said listen what he said. He said no longer let allow it to trouble you.

Did he understand, they were troubled yes. And the reason I know he didn't mean that some pie-in-the-sky countable unit is pray and talk to God that things will be fine, but how many of us to pray and talk together thing wasn't found right.

We all have we prayed told John everything wasn't fun. If that's all it took to be real simple.

There are troubles their heartbreaks, their persecutions, their trials, their losses in life with his loved ones or finances or whatever it might be that all kinds of troubles we face in life and Jesus answer isn't just well just leave the best. Just think positively no, that doesn't get rid of a whole lot of trouble in life and so what I want you to see is this Jesus had moments in his life for the Bible says he was troubled in his spirit.

Therefore, I know Jesus wasn't saying just this simple. Has anybody ever said to you will start feeling that way. I think sometimes parents say that the children then you wonder why they get angry at you because you telling them to do something you can't do justice on I will not feel this way in a long, when you hurting all those self-imposed words will not eliminate this storm. This civil war going on inside of your heart and so when Jesus said this he understood where they were and therefore that isn't what God is saying God is not saying, just don't be trouble. He knows you're not going through trouble that's with the grace of God is all about times we fail times we do get anxious we do get fearful when things hit us on the blind side we see them coming.

It's easy sometimes to become fearful and anxious about these things. What he's saying is this. He's not saying don't ever be troubled to never be anxious though never fret or worry though, never fear.

He's saying, don't let it conquer you. You don't have to live in it. It may hit you.

You may experience it, but you can step above it. You don't have to live in it. He's not saying don't ever be trouble, but don't stay in it.

Don't stay in the attitude of trouble. I was he's not saying, because he knows that you not cannot live in a world without trouble, and without facing troubles and I was just looking out about one of the offices that in touch this week is that looking out the window and all of a sudden hear two cars.

One of them sideswiped so the throes of them around big rack right there in front of my eyes and here comes the eminences in the police and everybody else and I was thinking you know what these two cars. These people both on the same direction on their way. More than likely talk about where they were going what they would go there with a given suddenly letting a warning lots of trouble. Life is very very uncertain but you not consider home and think, oh my Lord I came get the car I kingdom Expressway was we could think up enough things that would threaten as a real anymore get out of the house and you think about hurricanes and tornadoes and earthquakes result once thing in there in the survey know anywhere you go. Doesn't work so you can't live that way God wants his people to live in peace and to be able to live above these trials of these tribulations and heartaches now notice what he said.

He said my peace I give the nod is the world. So there is a peace that the world that is the world system has to offer. Now here's the difference now watch this.

What is the difference. The difference is this. If you asked the average person what would it take to make you give you peace in your heart. 99% of my gun talk about some circumstance in their life at this circumstance would change if I could control this is the difference. The difference in the peace that he gives the peace that the world has to offer. Is this the peace the world has to offer.

Usually is surrounded are involved in my outward circumstances, the peace that he gives listen is not based on circumstances, but a relationship is a relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ. It's a relationship with God who is omnipotent and omniscient and omnipresent, its relationship with God, who is my father, my shepherd, my protector, my refuge, my strength, he is my strength and my fortress, the one whom I can depend upon, any moment at any point of the time in life, no matter what's going on so it's not a matter of circumstances.

That's what the world says would change my circumstances now have peace. No, the world's idea pieces if I work at it.

I work at a hard enough produce my own peace. Well the peace he gives. He says, is a gift. He says the Holy Spirit who lives on the inside of his children will listen will bear the fruit of peace. That is, it is the spirit of God living on the inside of us, who enables us strengthens ours gives us the capacity and the power to face danger.

Harding troubles trials relations pain, suffering and loss and the same time not be overwhelmed by not be overcome by feeling the hurt the people have, yes, but somehow having an awesome sense of peace and tranquility and quietness through it all, the world's looking at circumstances God says is not circumstances is relationship.

They are looking at the idea of what we can do is is no it's not about what you can do it. He says, is absolutely the gift of God, thank you for listening to part one have peace in times of trouble.

If you like to know more about Charles Stanley more in touch ministries by in-house data lighting podcast is a presentation in touch ministries Atlanta, Georgia