Its good to be with you once again. Let us sing
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Scripture 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 11,
Peter writes, ‘Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.’
Let us go into a time of prayer. To help us, please sing with me: As We Are Gathered
Time Of Prayer
Father God I come before you today in need of your healing hand. In you all things are possible. Hold my heart within yours, and renew my mind, body, and soul. I am lost, but I come to you with grace. You gave us life, and you also give us the gift of infinite joy. Give me the strength to move forward on the path you've laid out for me. Guide me towards better health, and give me the wisdom to identify those you've placed around me to help me get better. Amen
Let us share in The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
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How Much Do You Want Peace
The thought of being asleep at night in our homes and having a burglar breaking in is frightening, isn’t it? I mean, imagine you’re lying in bed in the middle of the night and you hear someone in the house. The alarm, the fear, not just robbing us of a TV set and jewellery; they’re robbing us of a good night’s sleep. It’s like that in life. It seems that there are so many people and things out there that want to rob us of our peace.
We can be going along just fine when someone says or does something, and it steals our peace and our joy. We need to pursue peace deliberately, to make peace a priority in our lives. Peace makes such a difference not only to our own lives but to all the people around us. And if we’re going to live a life of peace, we have to do it on purpose. We need to know how to deal with the peace robbers.
But there will be no peace as long as we don’t make peace with God. Because of all our shortcomings, all the things we have done wrong, our rebellion against God, we’ve all done it. None of us are without sin. I know people don’t like to use the word sin anymore. It’s sounds to judgmental, old-fashioned. But we’re not like that when we go to court and see someone being convicted of a crime. We want them to be punished. We have this innate sense of justice. And I believe that comes from God.
If you’ve ever read any of the Old Testament, it’s the story of Israel’s struggling with God. They could never live up to His standard of perfection. And so, His plan for peace happened at that first Christmas.
In 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 11, Peter writes, ‘Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.’
Those two go hand in hand. A number of years ago, I was listening to someone speaking who challenged me in just this way to take a deliberate decision for peace. Peace just doesn’t flop in our laps, even when we’ve made peace with God through Jesus, even when we’ve repented, another old-fashioned word again, turned away from evil to do good. The world out there wants to rob us of our peace, and it’s a big thing to learn to deal with those peace robbers—the whole world, people, their foibles, their weaknesses, failures, deliberate acts, circumstances. Things just happen. They rob us of our peace.
To be honest I’m not an organised person “per se.” I have to consciously set time aside to get things organised. And if you are like that, God is going to put some people around you to deal with that problem in your life.
One thing I am though is, an on-time person. The worst thing you can do to me is waste my time. If you’re like that, God is going to put some people in your life who are going to deal with that problem. All the time, there are going to be people who don’t match up to our expectations.
Often, it’s not their fault; it’s just who they are. It’s just how God’s made them. We have a choice. We can let them rob us of our peace, or we can let it wash by. And yes, that can be hard. Sometimes I want to pound the table and grit my teeth, but we have to learn to let some of those things wash by. You see, losing my peace isn’t going to make it any better. In fact, when I lose my peace over something small and stupid as someone being late, it’s going to make my life a whole lot worse.
It doesn’t mean that we pitch for the lowest common denominator. Not at all. It means that I have to walk in love and gentleness. I have to forgive people instantaneously even before I do things. Because I know what they’re like, to value them for the wonderful gifts that God’s woven into their DNA and accept the things that I’d rather change as part of that blessed bundle. Not easy some days.
The question that I’m asking is this, how much do you want peace? Pursue peace. Seek it out and pursue it. It’s a deliberate decision. It’s learning to die to myself. My selfish nature isn’t always in such a great hurry to die, you know. He wants to hang around. It wants to hang on to me and ruin my peace.
How much do you want peace? Because just a little while ago, we celebrated Jesus coming to this earth. Jesus who is the Prince of Peace to bring you peace.
As we all journey through 2024, how much do you want peace? Are we prepared to spend some time with God every day to drink in His peace? Are we prepared to turn away from the evil stuff and do good, to get right with God in our day-to-day lives? Are we prepared to rely on God and to walk in love and to not let those little things rob us of our peace?
Let me say this, when we make a decision to pursue peace, when we make a decision that says Jesus Christ died to give me peace with God on this earth no matter what happens to me. And I’m will live that peace, when I roll out of bed and put my feet on the floor.
I’m going to look God in the eye every morning, say Lord, I will live in your peace today, and I’m going to do everything that I need to do to live that peace. When we take that decision, it makes a huge difference to our lives. Let me just accept people for what they are. Let the little things run by every day, making a deliberate decision. I am going to live in peace.
When those little peace robbers come attacking me, and they will, I’ll just let them wash by. Sure, we have to deal with things, and we have to set them right, but I will accept those people the way they are. It’s God’s plan. Dying to self brings peace. Loving others, however challenging things might be, is something that words can’t describe. And sadly, all too often, we can completely lose sight of the enormity of that.
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As we come to the close of our worship, enjoy, The International Staff Songsters:
He Sought Me
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
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