It's so good to be with you guys.
I'm glad you're here today. You survived the time change.
You guys look good. You worship well.
Before I jump into the sermon, I I want to real quick on a
business note for the church. If you are on the church board,
I need to meet with you for like 2 minutes right after service.
There's no crisis, there's nothing bad happening.
We just need to do a quick approval of something for our
election process. And so if you're on the church
board, when we wrap up service, I'll just meet you right down
here. It'll be quick.
I appreciate that. But I want, I want to get, we're
going to move into this sermon, but I want to start with some
audience participation. Are you ready to participate?
Do you love it when I make you participate?
All right, so if someone's near you, I'm going to ask you to
share something with them. What is it?
What is it that takes away your peace?
What is it? Is it?
Is it social media? Is it things?
Is it finances? What is it that that takes away
your peace? Go ahead, share it with someone.
Come on, get involved. We're going to be talking to
each other today. It's good.
I like it. There's life.
All right, all right, So thank you guys for participating.
I'm going to keep having you participate.
We're going to say some words together.
We're going to get focused on the text.
I'm just I'll share since I didn't talk to anyone up here.
I want to follow my own rules as well.
So I'll just, I'll just confess to you guys.
One of the things that takes away my piece more than anything
else is I don't like to have broken relationships or or
disagreements between me and anyone else.
And so if there is, if there's something that's wrong with
someone else, it bothers me. OK, my wife's it's gas prices
and a lot of other things. Don't tell her I said that, but
but for me, it's it's mainly relational stuff.
So, so my question for you is this, how many of you have at
some point had a sleepless night because you didn't have peace
about something? Maybe it was you lost an hour of
sleep last night and you just didn't have peace about it.
Congratulations, you're here. And if you're online,
congratulations, you're online. You made it.
Thanks for worshipping with us. But, but I'm guessing almost all
of us have had a night where we just couldn't sleep.
And maybe there was something going on our lives.
Maybe there was a situation and it kept us up.
And maybe at some point you even gave up and said, I'm not even
going to try anymore. I'm going to get up.
I'm going to go do something else because it's it's pointless
to try to sleep. I'm guessing we've all been
there today. We're continue our series, the
King we need, and we're going to talk about the King of peace.
Jesus Christ is our peace. So we're going to be looking at
a few different ways that Jesus is our peace.
But my prayer for you today is that as we read God's word and
as we study God's word, that he will give you peace.
And my prayer is that nobody will walk out of this place
today without the peace of Christ ruling their hearts.
So stand with me. Ephesians chapter 2 is where
we're at. We stand because this is God's
word and we believe that this is the word of God that's written
for us and that God wants to speak to us today.
And so we're in Ephesians chapter 2, we're going verse 11
through 22 and this talks about our peace in Jesus Christ says
therefore remember, say, remember, we're we're going to
talk to each other today. Therefore remember that formerly
you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by
those who call themselves the circumcision, which is done in
the body by hands, Remember that at that time you were separate
from Christ, excluded from citizenship and Israel and
foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and
without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who
were once, who once were far away, have been brought near by
the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who
made the two groups one, and has destroyed the barrier, the
dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in His flesh the
Law with its commands and regulations.
His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of
the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of
them to God through the cross by which He put to death their
hostility. He came and preached peace to
you who are far away, and peace to those who were near.
For through Him we both have access to the Father by 1
Spirit. Consequently, and we read part
of this last week, consequently, you are no longer foreigners and
strangers, but your fellow citizens with God's people and
also members of His household. Build on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the
chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is
joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord
and in him. You too are being built together
to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.
Praise the Lord, have a seat. This is good stuff.
There are three parts. I'm going to try to get this
through this quicker than I did in first service because I
really think we need to respond at the end, and I think it's
important today. There's three types of peace
that this talks about, and Jesus is our peace.
Three types. I think the first one, we've got
to get this one right before we can move to the next two.
But the first one is this. It's peace with God.
If we don't get this part right, if we don't get peace with God
right, that we have no chance of having peace in this world or
having peace with others. So it starts with peace with
God. Yesterday we had the service for
Corey Betcher, a member of our church who passed away.
And Pastor Dale spoke on Ephesians 2 verses one through
10. I want you to hear this.
It says, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and
sins. Let me say that again, As for
you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which
you used to live when you followed the ways of this world.
And the ruler of the Kingdom of the air, the Spirit who is now
at work, and those who are disobedient.
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the
cravings of our flesh and following its desires and
thoughts like the rest. We were by nature deserving of
wrath. But because of His great love
for us, if that doesn't get you crying, then you don't cry like
I do. Because of His great love for
us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even
when we were dead. In transgressions it is by grace
you have been saved. Say grace with me.
Grace, grace, it is by grace you have been saved.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the
heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages
He might show his incomparable rich the incomparable riches of
his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
In case you didn't get it earlier.
For it is by grace you have been saved.
Through faith, say grace. It is by grace you have been
saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves.
It is a gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast.
For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do
good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.
This is the beauty of the gospel, guys.
I mean, we could just stop there and we're good, right?
The beauty of the gospel right there.
The truth of the matter is this. Every single person in this
room, every single person watching online at one time was
dead. In our transgressions, every
single one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God. Every single one of us has lived
selfishly and sinfully, and every one of us, because of
that, was deserving of destruction and death.
But verse 4, because of his great love for us through Jesus
Christ and his grace, you've been saved.
This is so important, guys. We, we can't miss this because
but we have a tendency in the church to forget, to forget how
we got here. We have a tendency in the church
as we continue to come to church.
And by the way, hey, time change today.
Congratulations, you're here and if you're online, you didn't
make it here, but congratulations, you're watching
today and we're glad you're with us.
Listen, hey, I don't care how many times you've come to
church. I don't care how many times
you've read the Bible or prayed or or said the creeds or any of
those things. You can't earn your salvation.
There's nothing you could do to earn your salvation.
It is by the grace of God that you've been saved.
It's not once you hit 100 church services, boom, you're in.
How many of you you've seen those at, at businesses,
especially blue collar, you know, facilities and stuff like
that, They'll have the, the thing on the wall.
It's been this many days since our last incident.
Yeah, it's not. Once you hit 50 days of not
cursing at anyone or 50 days of not shaking your fist in
traffic, hopefully that's all you do.
Or, or 50 days of just behaving a good way.
That's not how you're saved. The truth of the matter is every
single one of us, sin and fall, has fallen short of the glory of
God. And there's nothing we could do
on our own to save ourselves. That's the bad news.
But the gospel is good news. The God who created this world
loves you so much that He sent his one and only Son, Jesus
Christ to die on a cross and through His death and
resurrection, His grace saves you.
Praise the Lord. All you have to do, all you have
to do is respond in faith and the grace of God does the work
of salvation. Praise the Lord.
Don't get that wrong, because if you get that wrong, it leads us
to all sorts of problems. When you start to think it's
you, that's good. When you start to think you're
the reason you're saved, you start to look at others
differently and you start to look at trouble differently.
You start to say things like, God, why is this happening to
me? I don't deserve this or hey, I'm
not like them, so why me? It's by grace you've been saved.
So that gets us to verse 11. Definitely not getting done
quicker than first service, but it's OK, we're here.
Hang with me. Verse 11.
Therefore, remember, say, remember, this is an important
word. Remember that formerly, formerly
you were you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised
by those who call themselves the circumcision, which is done by
the body and in the body by human hands.
Remember that at that time you were separated from Christ.
You were separate from Christ. You were excluded from
citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenant
covenants of the promise without hope and without God in the
world, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have
been brought near by the blood of Christ.
This is huge. Here it says, Remember that you
once were lost. It says you were once if you're
Gentiles, which by the way, I think just about all of us are.
If you know, if you're Jewish here and you're here, praise God
and you know what you have been brought in.
But the truth is there were the Jews who believed they were
God's chosen people, and then there were the Gentiles and, and
through Christ both are brought to God.
But it says remember that you were once lost.
You were once far away. You once had no hope that this
language might not mean a lot to us.
Remember that you were, you were once one of the ones that was
called the uncircumcised. That doesn't mean a lot to us in
our day, but in this day this was a huge deal.
It would be like if we think of the people that we would look at
and say that they are the enemy, Those people, if you will, the,
the outcast, the people that wouldn't be accepted, That's
that word they remember. Guys, church, please look at me.
I don't care if you've been coming to church here for 50
years. I don't care what you've
accomplished. I mean, I do, those are good
things. I do care about those things.
But as far as salvation goes, let's remember that every single
one of us was once lost. And it's only by the grace of
Jesus Christ that we are saved, that we are found.
There's no other way. So remember, say, remember, you
were once one of them. You were gone.
You had no hope but praise God. Jesus is our peace with God.
We were separated. We no longer have to be
separated. We can approach the throne of
grace boldly, and we can have salvation through Jesus.
Praise God. It's only through the grace of
God in the blood of Jesus that any of us are here.
You may be thinking today, No, no, no, I'm pretty sure I drove
myself here. No, it was a decision that I
made a lot. It was what I did.
No, listen, without the grace of God, there's not a single one of
us that would be here today. It's through Jesus and his grace
that we're here. So remember that.
Number one, we have peace with God.
I've got good news today. If you don't know that you had,
you can have peace with God. God loves you so much that he
sent his one and only Son, Jesus Christ to die on a cross for
forgiveness for your sins. You may be in here and you may
be thinking, hey, you don't know my sin.
You don't know how rotten I've been and I don't.
God does. And verse 4 of Ephesians 2,
because of his great love for you, the good news today, the
gospel is this. Today you can have peace with
God. No matter what you've done,
where you've been, there's peace for you today through Jesus
Christ, which leads us to #2 peace with others.
This is a tricky 1. How many of you know that it's
tough to be at peace with others?
All right, let's do some more audience participation.
What really gets your blood boiling?
Come on, go ahead. Share it with someone around
you. Don't be angry.
Don't be carnal now. But what, what, what, what
really gets to you? It's tough to be at peace with
others. I mean, we've got to drive on
the roads, right? We've got to drive our cars.
And other people are driving their cars.
And that's problematic, right? All right, just all right.
I might have lost you guys. You guys are deep in
conversation. This is great.
This is good. Come back, come back.
All right, good. You can finish that conversation
later. It's good.
Just this last week, I peace with others is difficult.
Just this last week I, I was in Nashville with Eli, my oldest
son, and we were having a great time and I, I really felt like
it, it was really going well. And you know, I, I struggle with
peace with others sometimes because people drive too slow.
Do you struggle with that? Or when a light turns, they
don't turn or go. You know, what I really struggle
with is when people struggle with me not going when the light
turns green. And I'm not kidding.
Like, we were having a great Monday and Tuesday we're down in
Nashville and we're driving on Tuesday.
We're actually getting ready to head back home.
And it had been such a good time.
And I stop at a light and I look down for a minute.
And as I'm looking down, the light turns green.
And when I look back up, Oh no, I haven't gone.
And the car behind me starts honking at me and the guys
gesturing at me. Oh, man, I struggle.
I struggle when that happens. Honest mistake.
I looked down for two seconds. You know, it's tough to be at
peace with others. And it was funny because Eli,
this is confession, guys. Eli said, Dad, how did you get
road rage so fast? Now, listen, I, I didn't call
any names. I didn't do anything, you know,
too terrible. I might have gotten behind the
guy, and you know, I forgive me. Lord, peace with others is
tough, OK? Peace with, I don't know what it
is that gets to you. There's lots of things.
But let's be honest, peace with others is difficult, especially
when someone's treating you poorly, right?
And that happens all the time. I've got good news.
We not only have peace with God, but we can have peace with
others through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 214 says, For He
himself is our peace who made two groups.
One, He's destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility
between you slow drivers and us fast drivers.
That's not what this is talking about.
By setting aside in the flesh in His flesh the Law and its
commands and regulations for His, His purpose was to create
in Himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace,
and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the
cross by which He put to death their hostility.
He came and preached peace to those to you who were far away,
and peace to those who are near. For through Him we both have
access to the Father by 1 Spirit.
Now this is really talking about Jews and Gentiles.
It's talking about two people groups.
We had the Jews who were God's chosen people and they had their
law and they followed the law and they believed everyone
should follow the law. And then we had the Gentiles who
were on the outside and they didn't have the law.
OK, let's, let's talk about something.
How How could God's chosen people, the Jewish people, be
saved through the law? No through good behavior through
X amount of days error free. No through the blood of Jesus
Christ. What about the Gentiles that
didn't have the law? How are they saved?
Through the blood of Jesus Christ and his body.
He did what the law couldn't do. He fulfilled the law, and in his
flesh and his death and resurrection.
He brought two groups together as one.
I want you to know that if God loves verse 4, if God loves us
so much that he gave his one and only son to die on a cross for
us so that we could be saved, What's the word that we have to,
we have to remember, say, Remember.
Remember that you were once over here.
Remember that you were once outside, you were once lost.
You once didn't have hope, but because of Christ, the grace of
Christ brings you salvation and peace with God.
Here's the thing guys, when we remember who we were and what
Jesus has done for us, how can we ever look at someone else and
think that they don't deserve the grace of God?
How can we ever look at someone with hate?
How can we ever look at someone and think that they're not good
enough? Remember, once you weren't good
enough, you were lost, you were dead, and there's nothing you
could do. But because of His great love
for us, can I tell you that that love is not just for those of us
that come to church on Spring Forward Sunday on time.
It's not just for us Nazarenes or Christians.
It's because God so loved the world.
So even the people that you think are the worst of the
worst, the gospel is good news. Because of His great love for
all of us, He sent his one and only Son to die on a cross that
whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting
life. There's no room for hatred.
There's no room for division. First, John 2 says anyone who
claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is
still in darkness. Anyone who loves their brother
or sister lives in the light and there is nothing in them that to
make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother
or sister is in darkness and is walking around, walks around in
darkness. They do not know where they're
going because the darkness has blinded them.
If, if we hate others, guys, God's not first in our life.
Hear me church, if you have hatred in your heart for others,
then God's not first in your heart.
There's no room for hatred for God.
So love the world that he gave his one and only Son, not for
God. So love the gold standard,
standard Christians, the spring forward on time Christians.
Guys, there's no levels to this. Because I'm a pastor, that
doesn't mean I'm a gold level Christian and you're not Because
you've been at church 50 years doesn't mean you're on a
different field than everybody else.
There are people that are lost and there's the grace of God
that brings us salvation. Because of God's grace, we not
only have peace with God, but we can have peace with each other.
Now, listen, a few things I want to talk about really quick.
Number one, I'm not saying that you should let other people
abuse you. I'm not saying that you have to
live with abuse and hurt. What I'm saying is you can't
live with hatred, and if you'll fully surrender your heart to
Christ and you'll allow Him to be the King of peace in your
life, He will give you peace even when people cut you off in
traffic. And I'm sorry to make light of
it. He'll give you peace even when
people hurt you in major ways. We're going to hear a story
about that later. We can have peace with others
now. Now I also understand that you
can do everything in your power to have to be at peace with
someone else and they can choose not to accept that.
And it causes I told you I'm I don't like broken relationships.
And there have been times that I've realized that no matter
what I do, it doesn't always end the way I want it to.
But if we'll learn to see others the way Jesus does, if we'll
learn to love others even when they don't deserve it, we'll
have peace. There's no place for hate.
So we have peace with God through Christ.
We have peace with others through Christ.
Maybe there's some of you today that are just walking through
some difficulty and you you've got some tension and the
temptation is to be hateful or mad and your peace is being
stolen because of something that other people are doing.
I've got good news to you for you today.
Jesus is our peace. If we'll surrender it to him, He
will give you peace. The third is peace in this
world. On this one's a tough one, isn't
it? This world severely lacks peace.
We're in the middle of war right now.
Across the world, there's war. People are displaced from their
homes and their countries and it's a difficult time when
there's war, isn't it not just that.
If you turn on the TV and you watch the news, are they
reporting about all the peace? No, they're reporting about all
the lack of peace, the shootings, all of that stuff.
You're on social media. I don't care if you comment
about the church or sports or politics or any.
You could make a comment about hot dogs and there's going to be
division and maybe even hatred. Hot dogs for sure.
I mean, I should have picked something good like, you know,
like pizza or tacos. But we live in a world that
lacks peace severely, even at kids sporting events.
And have you been to a kids sports game lately?
There's not peace there. I got good news for you.
Jesus is our peace and a world that severely lacks peace, verse
19 says. Consequently, you're no longer
foreigners and strangers, but your fellow citizens with God's
people and also members of his household built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus
himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building is
joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord
and in Him you 2 are being built together to become a dwelling
place in which God lives by His Spirit.
I've got good news for you. We can have peace in this world
because you are invited into the Kingdom of God and you, if
you're a follower of Christ, are being built into His holy
temple. Have you ever walked into an old
cathedral or temple? We talked about this last week.
Isn't it one of the most peaceful places in the world?
Guys, if you need just a little bit of peace, come in here on a
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, come just sit in our
sanctuary and just, it's a peaceful place.
But can I tell you, as we talked about last week, it's not the
building that God is raising His holy temple in US.
And that because we're a part of one family, His family, we can
live at peace even when the world around us is broken and
hurting. We can have peace in Christ.
Everything else can be falling apart, but we have the hope of
salvation and eternity with Jesus Christ, and that gives us
peace. John 14.
Jesus says all this. I have spoken while still with
you, but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you
of everything I've said to you. 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. Do not be afraid if you've ever
had one of those nights that you couldn't sleep.
I, I, I've told you this story before, but I remember about 5
or 6 years after high school. See, I grew up thinking that I
was going to be at least a college basketball player.
And I would love to be a pro basketball player, but I think I
knew better than that. But high school really didn't
end the way I wanted it to. Things were going really well.
It seemed like there was a plan. And all of a sudden my coach
decided that I wasn't worthy of playing anymore.
And I don't know how to put that other than just to say I no
longer got to play for the second-half of my senior year.
And it it was one of the biggest hurts of my life.
So much so that five or six years after high school, I'm
sitting in my house in South Carolina and I can't sleep at
night because of what this guy did.
And listen, you guys have been through worse than that, haven't
you? But but the hurt was so deep
because all my life I dreamed of something and it felt like it
was taken away. And one night I couldn't sleep.
5-6 years later, I couldn't sleep at night.
All I could think about was the hurt.
And then the Holy Spirit came. See, Jesus walked this earth and
he was a source of peace. He says I give you my peace.
Think about the peace of Jesus, the peace that when the storm
was going and the disciples and him are in the boat, He says
calm down, peace, be still. The peace of Christ that when he
hung on a cross, he said, Father, forgive them as they
beat him and tortured him. That's the peace of Christ that
we're given. And when Jesus left, he said,
I'm giving you God is giving you the Spirit of God, the Spirit of
Jesus, the Holy Spirit to live within us.
So how do we have peace in a broken world?
We walk in step with the Spirit and you may have a night this
week where you can't sleep. Can I encourage you?
Can I encourage you to walk with the Spirit and allow the Holy
Spirit to give you peace? He will.
And that night I realized, hey, it's not about what this guy did
or what my plans were. God is good and He's with me.
John 16. I've told you these things so
that in me you may have peace in this world.
You will have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the
world. I told you Jesus came and died
on the cross so you could have a forgiveness and salvation for
your sins. But that's not the end of the
story. He resurrected from the dead.
He defeated sin and death. So not only do we have
salvation, but we have victory over sin and death.
No matter how bad it gets out there, it can't touch our
salvation and our eternity. We have victory in Christ.
Tim Keller, who is a pastor and theologian, has a lot of really
good books. He passed away a few years ago.
He says if the resurrect, if Jesus truly was resurrected from
the dead, then everything is going to be OK.
Because if God has power over sin and death and God has power
over the people that have hurt you, God has power over the
situation at work. God has power over all of it,
and because we have resurrection power, everything's going to be
OK. How do we walk in a world filled
with war and division and hatred over hot dogs and all sorts of
stuff? Take heart.
God has overcome the world. As I was actually listening to a
sermon earlier this week and preparing for this sermon and a
story was Sharon. It was about a story and a movie
that I had never seen before. And I thought, I've got to go
see that. And I want to tell you a little
bit about that story. How many of you have seen the
movie Unbroken? OK, How many of you have heard
the story of Louie Zamperini? How many of you have heard the
story beyond the movie? OK, I want to tell you guys the
story of Louie Zamperini. He was an Olympic athlete, he
was a runner, he competed at a young age, he broke some
records. Things were good.
He did pretty well in the Olympics, I believe it was in
Germany. And then his goal and his plan
was four years later in the Olympics in Japan.
He would run again and most likely win and dominate.
So he had this plan in this trajectory, but then war came
and the Olympics were cancelled. And instead of going and running
in the Olympics, he ended up fighting a war in Japan.
And and one day they were on a rescue mission.
He and some of his fellow soldiers and they were on a
plane looking for others that had wrecked at sea.
And their plane went down and he and his fellow soldiers were
stuck. He and a couple others were
stuck at sea. He survived over 40 days just
floating in the ocean on a raft over 40 days.
During that time, at one point he said, God, if you, if you get
me through this, I'll do anything you want.
Well, God got him through that part.
But I hate to say it got worse. He was found, but he was found
by the Japanese soldiers. And so he was taken to a prison
camp. And he spent years in a Japanese
prison camp where he was beaten, he was tortured, he was abused
and was lucky to live through it.
I mean, it's a it's, it's a tough movie.
It's a good movie, but it's a tough movie watching what he
went through. Well, the war ended and he came
home. He was a hero.
And and this is where I say there's a story beyond the movie
because I think the movie, I was really hoping the movie would
tell his story. And it it only told part of it.
See, the movie's called Unbroken.
But guys, the truth of the matter was Louie Zamperini came
home a broken man. He came home a hero.
He got married. But because of the struggle,
because of the bitterness, because of his hatred for the
people that had hurt him and abused him.
And guys, it was, I mean, it is tough stuff because he held
hatred and bitterness in his heart.
His life just spiraled and, and he became an alcoholic and, and,
and was drinking and, and it got so bad that his wife, this war
hero, his wife was getting ready to leave him.
He was a broken man and she just couldn't do it anymore.
And one night in 1949, she went to a Billy Graham crusade and
turned her life over to Jesus. And she came home and said, I'm
not going to divorce you and told him about Jesus.
And you know what? He still wasn't there.
But later he attended a Billy Graham crusade and on the second
night he gave his heart to Christ.
Here are a couple things that are are from articles and quotes
of his it says Louis survival and survivor instincts.
Those same instincts that kept him alive at sea and in prison
offered no help when he returned home.
Unlike the war, when he had faced obstacles and overcome
them, this time he did not have. I did not have the same
confidence. He said, See, then I'd taken
survival training courses, knew that I was in great physical
shape. But at this point, he realized
the greatest enemy was not something outside of himself,
but within. He was no longer a prisoner of
war, but he remained a slave to sin.
And he went to the Billy Graham crusade.
And this is his testimony. I dropped to my knees and for
the first time worship team come on up.
I dropped to my knees and for the first time in in my life I
truly humbled myself before the Lord.
I asked him to forgive me for not having kept the promises I
made during the war for my sinful life.
I made no excuses. I didn't rationalize.
I did not blame. He had said, God had said
whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
So I took him at his word, begged for his pardon, and asked
Jesus to come into my life. Louis Zamperini, a guy who had a
promising future. And it all changed over 40 days
suffering at sea, a couple years in a Japanese prison camp,
tortured, beaten, abused, comes home.
He's a broken man. He's so broken that that things
have fallen completely apart. He's not at peace with God.
He's not at peace with others and he's certainly not at peace
with the world around him. But one night he went to a Billy
Graham crusade and he turned his life to Jesus.
And the part I really think they missed and they should have
shown is that he got peace with God.
His peace with God changed his heart.
And all of a sudden those people that abused him and hurt him, he
went back to Japan and made peace with them.
And he was a man that lived at peace because of Jesus Christ.
Stand with me. We're going to sing a song and I
want to ask you to respond. I know we're a few minutes over
our time, but listen guys, today, this is too important.
Maybe today you came in and you're struggling and you're
just not at peace. Maybe you feel like what you've
done has made you not good enough.
Today I've got good news. Jesus Christ died on a cross so
that you could have peace with God today.
If you've never asked for forgiveness, all it takes is
saying, Lord, forgive me for when I've done wrong.
I want you to be my peace and my salvation.
Today you can say that prayer. Maybe some of you today are
really struggling because you're just not at peace with others.
If that's the case today, you can have peace through Jesus
Christ. Today.
If you've got issues with other people, surrender them to Jesus
and his Holy Spirit will lead you to peace.
And maybe you're just struggling with the world and war and
hatred and division. Today, Jesus Christ can be your
peace. So as we sing this last song,
The Goodness of God, I just want to invite you to respond to
God's Word. The altars are always open.
You can come and pray and you can ask God to be your peace.
If you need someone to pray with you, Jerry and and others,
myself will be over there. We'll pray with you, but I want
you to respond to God's word. And my prayer is that, as I said
at the beginning, every single one of us today will walk out
with the peace of Christ in our hearts.
Father, speak to us. I thank you for your great love
for us and your grace that we don't deserve.
But you're here. So whether we're struggling with
you, whether we're struggling with others, whether we're
struggling with the world around us, I pray today we would
surrender it to you and that you would be our peace.
We love you, Jesus. We respond to you now in Jesus
name, Amen. I love you Lord, before your
mercy never fails me. All my days I've been held in
your hands from the moment that I wake up until I lay my head.
Who I will sing how the goodness of God home alive.
You have been faithful all my life.
You have been so slow, gone with every breath that I am able.
Oh I will see of the goodness of God.
I love your voice. You have led me through the fire
in darkest nights. You are closed like no other.
I've known you as a father, I've known you as a friend, and I
have lived in the goodness of God, crossing all my life.
And all my life you have been paid for home alive.
You have been told someone with every bread that I am able who I
will see of the goodness of God. Oh, this is running after it's.
Running after me. Your girl, this is running
after. It's running after me.
With my life laid down, I'm surrender now.
I give you everything for your girl.
This is running after. It's running after me.
In all my life you have been faithful.
In all my life you have been so, so good.
With every bread that I am able, whom I will see of the goodness
of God. My life you have been days home.
Oh, my life you have been so so God.
With every breath that I am made by.
Let's pray together. Father, I thank you that you're
here, and I thank you that you love each person here, each
person online, maybe even someone who will watch this
later this week. You love us so much that you
gave your one and only Son that we could have life and we could
have peace and salvation through Jesus.
Lord, help us to be at peace with you today.
Help us to be at peace with each other.
Help us to love you so much that we're willing to see others and
love others the way that you love them and give us peace in
this world. Oh, we love you.
I thank you for each one that's responded to you and each one
that's maybe and just standing and worshiping.
Lord, I pray that you would be our peace today.
We love you. We thank you.
You are good, you are awesome. In Jesus name, Amen.
Hey, before you go, I need the board down here after service.
But as you go, don't go into a chaotic world with a chaotic
heart. Go with a heart filled with
peace. God bless you.
Have a great week. The.
Music. Music.