you
Lord these teachings would sink deep down into our ears and we set this time before you and ask for your blessing now in Jesus name
We pray them
Men this morning. We're continuing to talk about the fruit of the Spirit. We've been doing this since last Sunday
We talked about love and joy
Of course the Bible verse that this is based on is Galatians chapter 5 verse 22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy
Peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law and this morning
We're focusing on the third thing on that list
Which is peace now peace can either be internal or external right when we talk about having peace
We could be talking about peace inside your heart, or we could be talking about peace
Externally with other people and in this verse it's primarily inner peace
That's in view here when we talk about the fruit of the Spirit in our heart being loved joy peace
Etc where you just were there in isaiah 26 it says in verse number three that will keep him in perfect
peace
Whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusted in thee and today there are so many people
stressed out worried
Anxious and there are all kinds of news headlines
We could look at about how there's just an all-time high in the United States of America this
Generation is more worried more anxious more stressed out than any previous generation
And I'm here to tell you that a big part of that is that we are getting away from
The Lord Jesus Christ and his word and the fruit of the Spirit is peace
And if we don't have the Lord Jesus Christ ruling and reigning and if we don't have the Holy Spirit's fullness in our lives
Well, then yeah, there's not gonna be peace
Is there and so I think that's a big part of it now as I talked about in the joy sermon last Sunday night
Yeah, there is obviously a physical component
There is a psychological component
But the spiritual component is the big one and if you really want to invest in something to have peace in your life
You're gonna get the most dividends from investing on the spiritual side
And so the Bible
Promises that God will keep him in perfect
Peace whose mind is stayed on him because he trusts in him right if we keep our focus on the things of God
We're gonna have perfect. Peace. Whereas our society as it drifts further and further from God
There's gonna be less and less peace in the hearts of God's people
Let alone the unsaved who don't even have the Holy Spirit in the first place
But flip over if you would die Isaiah chapter 57 you're already there in chapter 26
So just flip to the right a few pages to Isaiah 57
While you're turning there, I'm gonna read you a few verses Romans 15 13 says this now the God of hope
Fill you with all
Joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope
Through the power of the Holy Ghost and so not only do we have that fruit of the Spirit list
But the Apostle Paul elsewhere says that joy and peace come through the power of the Holy Ghost
Psalm 4 verse 7 we talked about this one last week in the joy sermon thou has put gladness in my heart
More than in the time that their corn and their wine increased, right?
But then he says I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord only
Makest me to dwell in
Safety so again when he talks about being in peace here
He's talking about being able to sleep at night because he's not stressed out about anything
He's not worried about anything
He's not anxious about anything and even if ten thousands of people will encamp themselves round about him
He says I'm not gonna fear because God is with me
I can go to sleep at night and rest assured and of course we think about the Lord Jesus Christ
when he's on that ship and they're going across the Sea of Galilee and
Everybody's panicking everybody's freaking out in the midst of a serious storm. Where's Jesus? He's in the bottom of the ship asleep
Perfectly at peace and he even rebukes the disciples and says
How is it that you have no faith? Why are you so stressed out? Why are you so worried? Where is your faith?
he says in Luke's account and so
Isaiah 57
Is gonna show us that living a life in the flesh
Living a sinful life is gonna rob you of your peace. Look what the Bible says in verse 19 there. I
Create the fruit of the lips
Peace peace to him that is far off and to him that is near sayeth the Lord and I will heal him
Right, so God can fix you. God can give you peace
God can take away your anxiety
But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters
Cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace sayeth my God to the wicked, right?
You're not gonna have peace when you're out there living a sinful wicked
ungodly life
Right, if you're walking with God God's blessing you your mind stayed on him
That's how you can overcome a lot of the worry stress and anxiety in your life
And look, I think this is something that we all deal with in our modern society
because in some ways our lives can be a little bit stressful and
Our lives can be complicated in a lot of ways and we can be stressed out worried. We need peace
I mean, I don't know about you. I want this in my life. And so I want to walk in the spirit
You know, just the love alone is worth the price of admission right just to have joy, but man peace
That's another big one, isn't it that we all want in our lives?
Well, it's like everybody wants it, but everybody's looking for it the wrong way
Right. We've got to get right with God. That's how we're gonna have these things in our lives
But the Bible says, you know in this passage that the wicked they're like the troubled sea when it cannot rest
Whose waters cast up mire and dirt and the thing is if you go to the ocean if you go to beaches
there will be those beaches that are really clear and pristine and
You can just see all the little fishies swimming around and it might have a beautiful like blue tent or a green tent
And if you don't know I'm talking about sign up for one of these mission strips
You'll figure it out, but then you know you go to other places and it'll be the same ocean
But it'll just be brown, you know, like when we go to Guyana on mission strips, for example
And we go to Georgetown Guyana, you know, you got a beautiful beach
Except you're gonna have to Photoshop that water because it's brown and it looks very unappealing
because of the fact that a lot of
Dirt and mire has been cast up. It's been stirred up and the same thing with rivers and streams, right?
You have these really clear streams and then other streams that are just brown
Why are they brown because the dirt and the mire has been cast up?
And so when we think about
Peace the sea is a great illustration of this because remember when Jesus calms the storm on the Sea of Galilee
It's just like glass. It's like crystal where you have just a smooth lake, but then you have on the other hand
raging waves of the sea
Foaming out their own shape, you know
You have that illustration of a lack of peace and what the Bible is saying here is that wicked people are never gonna be able
To have peace in their hearts because of the fact that you know, peace comes from God
He's the prince of peace. Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. They're like the troubled sea when it cannot rest
whose waters cast up mire and dirt and
So people whose life for example flip over if you would to
Ecclesiastes chapter 5 just a couple books to the left in your Bible people whose life is dominated by the love of money
For example, they have no peace
Right people instead of living for God instead of having their minds stayed on the Lord
They're just obsessed on the things of this world notably money riches prosperity. They're not gonna have any peace
Look what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 10 he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver
Nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This is also vanity. There's no satisfaction in
Chasing after the almighty dollar look at verse 11 when goods increase
They're increased that eat them and what good is there to the owners thereof?
Save the beholding of them with their eyes, you know
So they amass all these riches and they have all these houses and cars and fancy clothes and again today
What good are they except you just get to look at them just the beholding of them with your eyes?
Oh, wow, you get to look at your 20 card. You can't even have them all you don't have time to drive them all
You don't have time to live in all these houses and at the end of the day whether I'm living in a big house
Or a small house, you know
If you got your own bed to sleep in then you're probably gonna be comfortable and you're probably gonna be fine
You might even be comfortable sharing a bed. But the point is that
The lifestyle of the rich and famous it really isn't what it's cracked up to be. It's not that great
It doesn't bring them inner peace or fulfilling joy or happiness, you know, and and people think oh if I just had some more money
Then I could be at peace, you know, I'm just stressed out because of money
I'm just stressed out and I'm worried about money
If I had a bunch of money, I wouldn't be so worried or stressed out. That's not really the way life works
Okay, because people who have a bunch of money they just stress out about something else
They're just worried about something else. Look what the Bible says in verse 12 the sleep of a laboring man is sweet
Whether he eat little or much
But the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep another way of saying
That would be the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep
Okay. Now I don't know about you, but my sleep is super important to me
You know, I make it a huge priority to get enough sleep
I sleep for eight hours virtually every night and if I miss any sleep, I try to make it up later
Okay, because I find that I can get more done
With let you know with the 16 hours in the day if I get that good eight hours of sleep
I'm gonna be more productive and get more done than if I only sleep for five six hours, and then I have more time
But I'm less productive. And so if you're working with your brain, it's important that you get enough sleep. It's good for your health
It's good for your mood
Like I'm very big on getting enough sleep and you know
One of the worst feelings in the world the worst is to be laying in bed
and you're super tired and you can't fall asleep, isn't it horrible torture and
By the way, evil governments and regimes. They literally torture people by not letting them sleep
You know, they keep them awake for days and days and and as soon as they start to fall asleep
They shake them away
That's a form of torture because it's horrible and any of you who have dealt with
Insomnia or struggling to fall asleep, you know that this is one of the worst things. It's terrible
It really just messes with you and it ruins your whole day and it's one of the worst things
And so when I read this, you know, the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. I'm like count me out
Count me then
I don't want to be rich if being rich means that I'm stressed out and so worried about my money
Because folks let me tell you something if you got nothing you got nothing to lose and
These people that are rich they have a lot to lose and then they just stress and worry
About how they can hang on to all their money. So on the one end of the spectrum spectrum
You have the very poor person
He's stressed and worried because he doesn't know where his next meal is gonna come from. So he's stressed out
Then you have the rich person. He's stressed out because he's like, oh man, I got all these millions of dollars
You know, what if I lose it, how do I hang on to it?
Who am I gonna leave it to for the next part?
And there's all these worries about being you know, a good investor of this money and blah blah blah
That's why we should strive as Proverbs chapter 30 teaches just for that middle way of life where we're neither poor nor rich
Because being stressed out to where you can't sleep
Sounds horrible sounds like torture
You can keep your money because I think that I would pay any amount of money to be able to sleep well at night
If that was a problem in my life, I'd be willing to give up the money so I can sleep well at night
Well, how do you sleep well at night?
You have peace you walk with God you have your mind stayed on the Lord you focus on the things of God
And obviously there are practical tips to help you fall asleep at night
If you're struggling with that as a medical problem or whatever, but my point is though
I don't want to compound any physical or psychological problems by having a spiritual problem
That doesn't let me sleep at night, you know, and I find that God gives his beloved sleep, right?
What does the Bible say?
It's vain for you to rise up early to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrows for so he giveth his beloved
Sleep sleep is a blessing from God
peace is the fruit of the spirit and the last thing I want to do is be in a situation where I can't sleep at
Night because I have a bad conscience or because I have too much money or because my mind is on all the wrong things
And again, I'm not chastising if you can't sleep at night. I feel bad for you. I've gone through it
Everybody's gone through it, you know there and you know
Contact the church if you're having trouble sleep
I can give you some tips on sleeping besides the spiritual tips. But again, the spiritual is the big one
Spiritual is the big one. Okay, it's the most important thing and it trumps everything else
Obviously we want to take care of the physical and psychological things as well
But the Bible says in 1st Timothy 6 you don't have to turn there but it says
Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches
But in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy right having your trust in the Lord gives you peace
Trusting in money, even if you have tons of money, even if you have a great portfolio according to the Bible
It doesn't give you peace
The abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. Whereas the sleep of a laboring man is sweet
You know whether he little or much he can have
Lots of money little bit of money lots of food little bit of food, but at the end of the day working hard
You can sleep at night because you're tired because you worked hard all day and it makes you tired and that helps you go to
Sleep and so in many ways you're gonna be happier than say for example, Michael Jackson, you know if you think about Michael Jackson
He's a super wealthy guy super famous guy that a lot of people would look up to as being just always so great
So wonderful and everything, but the guy could not sleep at night
To the point where he had a literal doctor
Like putting him under at night, you know, like when you go to surgery and they put you under with anesthesia
He had a literal
anesthesiologist in his house
Anesthetizing him so that he could go to sleep at night
Right what? Oh boy. I'd love to have that life. You know, I want my nose to fall off too
You know, God doesn't bless these wicked people these
Ungodly people who get their riches by and you say well, you know, why are you why are you on Michael this morning?
You
Know what? I remember this goes this goes way back for me. This goes back a really long time for me
I was four years old. Okay, it all goes back to when I was four years old. I
Went to kindergarten a year early
So I was with the five-year-olds, but I was four and I went to kindergarten and I came home
From the first day of kindergarten and I told my parents I said mom dad
I said there's a kid at school
who keeps grabbing his private and saying I want to be Michael Jackson when I grow up and
They said stay away from that kid and I'm like
Okay, I'm gonna stay away from that kid
Okay, so this goes way back for me
All right, so I was warned about Michael Jackson the early is, you know some guy who makes a living grabbing himself
Making obscene gestures
Right, let alone all the other things that we found out later that he was doing
Right. This is a wicked person. It's a sinful ungodly wicked person
Jehovah's Witness into the bargain and
I'm telling you when you have to be anesthetized to go to bed at night. You're not living a blessed life
You don't have peace in your heart. You're not walking in the spirit
You're not filled with the Holy Spirit
I would never want to trade places with people living that kind of lifestyle and
I'm glad I listened to my parents and stayed away from that kid who wanted to be Michael Jackson when he grows up
He's probably a Michael Jackson impersonator in Vegas right now. I don't know. Maybe he did grow up to become Michael Jackson. I
Don't know
But the Bible says in
Philippians chapter 4 and
If you would flip over to John chapter 16
John chapter 16, but the Bible says in Philippians 4 verse 6 be careful for nothing
But in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving
Let your requests be made known unto God. And so when the Bible says be careful for nothing. It's saying don't
Have a lot of care about something. Don't worry about anything. Don't have anxiety
Don't be stressed out about anything be careful for nothing mean like full of care and worry concern
He says be careful for nothing
but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God and
The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus
so the Bible says look if we stop stressing stop worrying and just pray about everything and
Just let our requests be made known unto God being thankful with Thanksgiving just let him know our request
Then we can just sleep at night and just go to bed and just realize hey, you know what the ball is in God's court
It's in God's hands. Now. We've given it over to the Lord. We tell him about our problems
Tell him what we're worried about and then it says the peace of God and watch this the peace of God which passes all understanding
Will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus look the peace of God
Passes all understanding meaning that those who are saved Christians, but not only that they're also filled with the Spirit
They're also walking in the Spirit. They have a peace that other people can't even process
They can't even understand it. They don't even know what we're talking about
They don't get it because they've never been a saved Christian who's walking with God
Who's given everything over to the Lord in prayer and just fully trusting in God his mind is stayed on the Lord
That's a peace that passes all understanding or to the Bible
They don't get it they don't understand it, but you know those that have lived that life have experienced it
the Bible also says in Psalm 119 165 great peace have they which love thy law and
Nothing shall offend them great. Peace have they which love God's law and nothing shall offend them now
Jesus taught the exact same thing in John 16 where I just had you turn we'll look at that in a moment
But in this context offended
means
Caused to sin or cause to fall away. It's it's sort of a different meaning of offended than we're normally thinking of
So when the Bible says great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them
It's saying nothing is gonna sort of knock them off of their course of serving God, you know, they're serving God
They're living for God. They're serious about things of God
They're not gonna be offended like like knocked out of that course and cause to fail cause to fall away cause to sin
And if you look up the word offend throughout the King James Bible
You'll see it used that way a lot. In fact, like for example the famous verse, you know if thy right I offend thee
Pluck it off and cast it from thee the idea there if thy right I offend thee is talking about
It's not saying that you're you know, your right eye made it
You know a racial joke that you weren't comfortable with or something what you know when the Bible says if thy right I offend thee
It's saying your right eye is like leading you into sin
Okay, it talks about like offending these little ones
It means causing them to you know
Fall away from serving God or causing them to go off into sin or something to get off the right path
And so, you know, for example the Bible talks about the seed in the parable of the sower
That was sown in stony places and it says that that person does not have a root in himself
But doerth for a while for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word by and by he's offended
You know, so the Christian who does not have their root down
Any little persecution or tribulation and they're offended like oh man, I'm quitting I'm out
I'm quitting the church. I'm not serving God anymore. I can't believe this happened to me. Look at John chapter 16
We'll see Jesus taught the same thing as Psalms. It says in verse 1 these things
Have I spoken unto you that ye should not be offended?
They shall put you out of the synagogues
Yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service
He's saying look I don't want you to be offended when the persecution and tribulation comes look these things are gonna happen
They're gonna put you out of the synagogues
He that killeth you will think that he's doing God a service then we get to Bill Clinton's favorite verse John 16 3 and these
Things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me
He's saying look they're gonna do things these things to you because they're wicked. They're gonna persecute you
I'm warning you in advance about these things so that when they happen you won't freak out
You won't be offended. You won't quit. You won't fall away because look when bad things come at us
It's a lot easier to deal with them if we're prepared for them
When we're surprised that's when it's really hard to deal with things
That's why God's constantly warning us about how all who live godly in Christ. Jesus will suffer persecution
But look at verse 33, you know, we could read the whole chapter, of course
But jumping into verse 33 we get to the conclusion
It says these things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace
In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world
So isn't it interesting Psalm said great. Peace have they which love thy law. Nothing shall offend them
Then Jesus said hey, I'm writing this so you won't be offended and then he says in me
You will have peace
in
The world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world and so there's great peace in
Loving the law of God loving the Word of God having your mind
Fixed upon the things of God so that even if the world is coming down around you and you're in the midst of
tribulation and affliction and
Severe persecution you can still have peace
God
Can give you peace Jesus can give you peace you can be of good cheer knowing
Well, you know what Christ has already overcome the world
We're on the winning side weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning
And so there's a lot of peace in that that can help us sleep at night
Now if you would go to James chapter 3 James chapter 3 toward the very end of the New Testament James chapter 3
So so far we've been focused on the internal component of peace
Right inner peace peace in your heart where you can be surrounded by enemies, but you have peace
Low on money still have peace
Relationships falling apart still have peace no money in the bank
No job
You have peace because you're trusting in the Lord and you know that God has always come through for you in the past
He's gonna come through for you in the future and you've already made your request made known unto God and now
You can just relax and have the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus
But I'm here to tell you this morning also that inner peace
Also leads to peace with others
whereas
Envy and discontentment in your heart leads to conflict with others, right?
so when you're not at peace within yourself and you are just thinking about everything that you don't have and all the things that are
Wrong and and you're looking at other people and you're envying them and you're bothered by everyone else and you're discontented in your own heart
That's gonna lead to conflict with others. Whereas peace in your heart will lead to peace with others, right?
What goes on in our heart ends up manifesting in our lives. Look at verse 14
the Bible says in James 3 14
but if you have bitter envying and
Strife in your hearts glory not and lie not against the truth this wisdom descendeth not from above but is
earthly
Sensual devilish and if you think about the word
Sensual does that sound like the work of the flesh or the work or the fruit of the Spirit?
Because in Galatians chapter 5 you have this contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit
So the one who is earthly
Sounds like they're walking in the flesh
Sensual that sounds like the flesh right devilish
Obviously when you are not walking in the spirit and you're living a life of sin, right?
You're following the will of the devil in that sense. And so that wisdom that
Thinks it's okay to have all this bitter envying and strife in your heart. That's not from above that is
Earthly sensual devilish for where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil
Work people have envy in their hearts they end up doing evil deeds
Evil work confusion every reward. Here's what's funny is on the one hand you'll have
effective
servants of God doing good works for God having a unified peaceful church that gets along with one another and
Producing spiritual fruits for the kingdom of God and be like I so envious. Oh you have so much stripe
It's like no, that's not the way it works because we're envying and strife is there's confusion in every evil work
So when you have a fruitful
Effective righteous Church doing great works for God. It's because there's not envying and strife there
but then when you see a bunch of just harmful evil people lashing out with lies and slander and
Garbage trash talk, you know, that's where the envying and strife is
Those are the people that are earthly sensual devilish that's why they don't produce good works
They produce evil work, right, you know, it's again
I talked about this recently this this foolish teaching or foolish idea that says oh, man
That church is it does a ton of soul-winning wins a ton of people to Christ, but it's a bad church
News flash bad churches don't win a ton of people to Christ
Bad people don't win a ton of people to Christ. That's stupid
That doesn't make any sense and I'm not gonna re-preach that sermon on Aaron's rod that budded
But the Bible says here but the wisdom that is from above is first pure
then peaceable
gentle and easy to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy and the
Fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace
And so what we see here is that on the one hand we have people that are envious and strife filled in their hearts
And then on the other hand we have the fruit of righteousness being sown in peace of them that make peace
So we have peaceful people and then we have envious people
These are the two things and we're gonna see this more in the next couple verses
But first I want to point out in verse 17. It says the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable
What the Bible is not saying is hey peace at all costs
peace first then purity
No, obviously we need to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered under the Saints
Obviously, there are things that we are not going to compromise on
there are biblical truths that we must stand on that we must fight for and
Obviously, there's a biblical example of calling out false prophets who are teaching damnable heresy and so forth
Like we have all that in Scripture
And so we don't want to just say peace over everything peace at all costs. No, it's first pure then peaceable
That's the order right first pure. It's more important to have doctrinal purity
Okay, it's more important to be pure in our lives than to just have peace
Just well, let's just get along with everybody
So let's just say that you know Muslims are worshiping the same God as we are and let's just say that Jews are worshiping the same
God and we can all just sort of you know have peace. No, there's got to be purity
The wisdom that's from above is first pure then peaceable. So we got to get that order, right?
So we don't sacrifice purity for peace
But peace is a virtue
We should strive for peace. We should seek peace and what you'll find is that the people have peace in their hearts
They're gonna be able to have peace with other people as well
Whereas the people have bitter envy and strife in their hearts. They're not gonna be able to get along with anybody now
Of course, we have this chapter division
But we don't ever want to see the chapter divisions in the Bible as a really hard break
Right because first of all these chapter divisions in the New Testament are not even part of the original text, right?
The chapter divisions were added centuries after the New Testament was written
And so sometimes the chapter divisions are a hard break
But usually they're not and so usually you would do well to read from the end of one chapter
Right into the beginning of the next and this is one of those examples because we just finished talking about
You know having bitter envying and strife in your hearts
Versus the wisdom that's from above which is first pure then peaceable and people who make peace and so forth
But then we roll directly into chapter 4 and what does it say from whence come wars and findings among you now?
Wouldn't you say that wars and findings are the opposite of peace?
And again, we've switched from talking about inner peace to what outer peace external peace peace with other people
So he says from whence come wars and findings among you. Where is a lack of peace coming from?
Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members. So here's what he's saying
Warfare externally is a manifestation of an internal warfare
Right war starts in your heart
envying and strife in your heart and then that manifests towards you fighting with everybody not getting along with anybody whereas again having
Inner peace is gonna manifest in being able to be a team player being able to get along with people
Peace starts inside works its way out envy and strife starts in your heart works its way out
You
Lust and have not you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight in war yet
You have not because you ask not you ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts
And so again, we see a person who is not satisfied in their heart. They're not content
They don't have the peace of God which passes all understanding therefore
They're lashing out at other people and fighting with everyone around them
But then he says this he says he adulterous and adulterous is know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God
Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God and the idea here is that we're not saying
That you're gonna be friends with everybody
The Bible is not saying be everyone's friend be everyone's buddy
Because he says you don't want to be a friend of the world that could make you an enemy of God
So we don't have to be friends with everybody
But what we do need to do is strive to live a quiet and peaceable life as the Bible says
Strive to live a peaceable life and in the local church
We must have peace in order to be an effective team. We got to have unity
We got to have peace and in order for us to have unity and peace as a church
We need to each individually have peace in our hearts
Because you could drop somebody into this environment
Which is a very peaceful environment. Our church is one of the most unified churches
I've ever seen we have very great unity on doctrine on
Soul winning on purpose. I mean we are on the same page around here, buddy
We are on the same page
It's it's great to have a team where there's real team spirit and a real attitude of camaraderie and unit unity
And so forth you could drop in a person with strife in their heart though
And they're not going to be able to get along and just gel and be a part of the team
they're gonna end up clashing with everyone and
The problem is not us the problems them
The Bible says in Romans 12 18 if it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men
Right. We're supposed to strive to live peaceably with all men
The Bible says in Matthew 5 9 blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God
Right, and I think the best definition for a peacemaker is
Someone who takes two people that are striving with one another and is able to set them at one again
right the person who instead of coming in and
Throwing wood onto the fire and throwing gasoline onto the strife fire
they will actually come along and try to actually resolve things make peace and
Actually get people on the same page and try to produce unity try to put out fires and diffuse these
Fights rather than trying to rile people up and and make things worse
You know again the Bible says in 1st Timothy 2 1 that it's God's will
You know that we live a quiet and peaceable life it says in 1st Timothy 2 2
Now here's the thing if we have peace and unity in the local church
We're gonna be more effective at getting people saved look at 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3
You know the Bible said
That we may lead a quiet in 1st Timothy 2 it said that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life and all godliness and
Honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who will have all men to be saved and to come
Into the knowledge of truth so God wants all men to be saved
God wants all men to come to the knowledge of the truth and
he says
God wants us to live in quiet and peaceable life
Because really the endgame is
He wants people to get saved, and if we're using all our energy on
strife and fighting and bitterness right then
We're not gonna be able to be as effective at getting people saved because we're so tied up in and distracted by all of the internal
Fighting and again. We're not supposed to even try to get along with the whole world. That's just a fool's errand
You're not gonna get along with every person out there in this world, and we don't have to get along with every church
Because obviously there are churches out there that are wicked
And we don't want anything to do with them and no we don't want to get along with them
We don't want to have unity with them
But we want to have is unity within our local body here want to have unity in our house
When I've unity in the local church we want to as much as we can get along with the people at our job
Get along with the people on our street because those kind of fights and strife and bickering
They're not gonna help us do more for God
We've got to have unity in the local church says in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 13
But ye brethren be not weary in well-doing and if any man obey not our word by this epistle
Note that man watch this and have no company with him that he may be ashamed
Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother now
Are we talking about a saved person or an unsaved person according to verse 15?
Talking about saved people because the Bible says admonish him as a brother. We're talking about a brother. He's a brother in Christ
Okay, and he's saying look if there are people in the church that are not getting along
They're not on board get rid of these people and of course the Bible talks about
Throwing people out of the church who are railers who are covetous who have
Envy and stripe these kind of people that can't get along that can't function in the local church and be a team player
Get rid of them says if any man obey not our word by this epistle
Note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed say hey get rid of people
That are causing these kind of problems. It's not saying to hate them
Right, it was not saying we hate them
It says count him not as an enemy
But admonish him as brother you see throwing people out of the church is a biblical punishment
And there's a ton of scripture on it Matthew 18
1st Corinthians 5 2nd Thessalonians 3 and more okay
We could talk about that Romans chapter 16 talks about there is a doctrine in Scripture
About throwing people out of church, and it's we refer to this as church discipline
This is what most people call it in the Christian world church discipline is when someone gets church disciplined
It means basically that they are thrown out of the church or someone's called being excommunicated
Now here's the thing about a lot of people are just like oh, I can't believe that but but folks
It's really the only recourse that the church has if someone refuses to hear the church
Because if the church tells someone hey you need to straighten up and fly right here
You can't keep acting this way you can't keep doing this, and they just say I'm just gonna keep doing it
What else can we do?
the only punishment that we have the only recourse that we have is to
Throw that person out excommunicate that person which is why Jesus explains that in Matthew 18 and tells you
Basically that to treat that person as a heathen and a publican if they won't hear the church
They're out 1st Corinthians 5 put away from among yourselves that wicked person because a little leaven leavens the whole lump
It's not worth ruining the church to have that one bozo in there
Who's committing these grievous sins and look none of us is perfect none of us without sin
But we're talking about certain grievous sins that disturb the peace of the church that disturb the purity of the church certain extreme
Grievous things where people need to be tossed
Or people that are just troublemakers, and they can't get along they got to go
You know the Bible says in Romans 16 verse 17 now. I beseech you brethren mark them which caused divisions and offenses
Contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them for they that are such served not our Lord Jesus Christ
But their own belly and by good words and fair speeches
Deceive the hearts of the simple so look frankly at faith for Baptist Church
You know people who can't get along with others and are not team players have to go now
it's funny whenever I preach about how our church has all this great unity and
just how
Unified we are and how much peace there is and how we're on the same page and everything like that
This is what people will will criticize. They'll say well
Yeah, of course of course everybody's on the same page you threw out everybody who fought you
Who's never heard that criticism before like yeah, of course there's unity at Faith Award of course everybody's on the pastor
Anderson's program he threw out everybody who wasn't and
I'm just like yeah
exactly
But here's what's funny about that. What's funny about that is that we're sitting here in a packed auditorium this morning
So pastor Anderson just throws everybody out then who are all these people?
Who are all these people here this morning?
You know what apparently there were still hundreds of people
Who are team players who do love God who do want to serve God?
Who do want to get along with their brothers and sisters in Christ who do want to get on board with the?
programming of this soul winning powerhouse here called Faith Award Baptist Church
Apparently some people want to serve God and be a team player
And they're not just interested in their own little ulterior motives serve in their own belly
Well you got rid of everybody
That's funny if I got rid of everybody
Why is our church eight times the size of your church or five times the size of your church?
if
We got rid of everybody
No, we didn't get rid of everybody we got rid of evil troublemakers
And I'm not saying that and I'm not just talking about unsaved people because there are some like unsaved Judases who creep in
We know that but you know what they're even saved Christians though where they get that bitterness in their heart
They get that envy in their heart they get strife in their heart and look none of us is immune
To that happening because even if we as saved Christians if we walk in the flesh
We're gonna do the works of the flesh
We're gonna have all that
Bitterness and resentment and all those things that will cause us to not get along with our brothers and sisters in Christ
So it's a oh you got rid of the yeah, you got rid of the people who were you know fighting you yeah, we did
exactly
What's your question?
And look we just had a guy recently that we threw out of the church
I'm just gonna say his name his first name because and I'm gonna say his name because he makes a public
Spectacle of himself every chance he gets so it's not like there's no point in me hiding this guy's identity when he's
When he's online doing these things and saying these things every day
But anyway this guy's name is Robert. You know maybe that means something to you. Maybe it doesn't
there's a guy named Robert and here's the thing about this guy is that he came to our church and
And
By his own admission. He said oh, I got problems with anger
I got problems getting along with people and stuff and and this is what I struggle with but this guy
Was fighting with so many people now look I never had a problem with this guy like he never fought with me
I never had a crossword from him
I never clashed with this guy at all, but I think everybody else did you know and so basically this guy was just
constantly
Just blowing up at people like just yelling at people cussing people out
Just maligning people publicly on social media
He was just he would just kind of just go crazy on people and then we would we would approach this guy
And I use the word we loosely because you know typically I will send
One of my employees to talk to people like this because you know I like to delegate as a leader
And so you know I think it's probably brother segura that would usually kind of deliver the message
Hey, you know you need to straighten up here, and then he you know he would tell this guy
Hey, you can't do this. You can't just attack people these are our brothers and sisters in Christ. These are our friends
It's our church. You need to chill out and oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry, and he just does it again. Oh, sorry do it again
Oh, and we were like super patient with this guy and people wanted this guy thrown out so bad
But I'm always trying to just like see the best in people
Give people the benefit of the doubt and I you know if anything I'd rather give like too many chances to people
Because I understand that none of us is perfect
We all have different things that we struggle with and different problems
And so we were just giving this guy grace giving him grace giving him grace
But I mean everybody and their brother had told this guy
You need to chill out you need to stop being angry you need to stop yelling at people
You need to start getting along and be peaceful and everybody's telling him this
Finally it got to a point where it was just kind of the last straw. We're just like okay. We're done
You just you can't come to church here anymore
You're out, and you know and we said we even said like look we don't hate you
We're not throwing you in the trash, but you have shown a pattern here of every time you're rebuked. You don't fix anything and
So therefore you know you need to go to another church
And because usually when we excommunicate people they shouldn't be allowed to go to any church if they're thrown out for being a railer
Because they're unrepentant railers. They should not be allowed at any church, but because this guy kept expressing repentance
You know that's why we didn't want to just excommunicate him because he was repentant at least outwardly and
So we just told the guy look you need to go to church
somewhere else you need to go somewhere and just sit down and shut up and
Just learn something and and because you're just blowing off your mouth
And you're you've you've you've pissed everyone in the church off and so you can't really be here
So we're like we're we're still trying to extend grace to this guy and say like let's let's have you go somewhere else and just
And we recommended multiple churches in the area here that are good churches
You know and the and you know the number one church
I always recommend if you if you get bitter and disgruntled or something you know the number one church that I always recommend is
Yeah, I believe it's called Valley Baptist pastor Kevin Cowling out in East Mesa
You know I think that's a great church, and so I've typically recommended people go there
We recommended other churches too that are good churches in the area
There are other good soul-winning churches in this area, man
Now here's the thing about that though some bozo online recently said oh most of the old IFP is so winning
Really, that's funny. That's hilarious there are 10,000 IFP churches across America
Most of them aren't so winning you think there's 5,000 churches soul-winning right now
Dream on sucker, okay
there the vat and even the ones that have soul-winning in in Arizona here many of them do it once per month and
Many of them it's a door hanger or tracks or visitation. It's not actually soul-winning
I I really like that fantasy world you're living in where most
Independent Baptists do soul-winning, but nah
The vast majority do zero soul-winning and the ones who do do soul-winning
It's doo-doo soul-winning you know because it's basically like it's basically like once a month or a door hanger whatever
Sorry about that. I didn't mean to do that
but but anyway
Here's the thing about this okay? Is that you know we told this guy to you know we're trying to help him
Okay, yeah, that's what I'll do. What does he do?
He goes to some church in town
That's not a good church that we would not recommend. He goes to the most bozo church in this whole city
And they just immediately put this guy behind the pulpit
And so now the guys online
Doing a sermon where he just basically just talks trash about faithful word, and you just hear all these like female
Amen, it's like hey, man
That's right. Praise the Lord
And it's just like he gets up and just trash talks our church
But this is what was so hilarious is that he literally says in the description of the video
He says you know what I was an angry person when I went to faithful word faithful word created a monster
And I'm just like dude. We we were telling you every week
Be nice be kind
Stop being angry stop yelling at people stop fighting with people and then he had the gall to say
Faithful word created a monster, and I'm just thinking to myself like you know what you got this guy who can't get along with anybody
You know what he's our gift to the biggest hater church the most bozo church like
Have fun with this guy
enjoy
And
You know what's fun and like I said the people that are actually like excommunicated because they're unrepentant
unrepentant fornicators
unrepentant drunkards
unrepentant railers
These people you know they should not be allowed to come to church in or we've had people try to come to our church after
They got thrown out of another church
And we tell if you got thrown out of that other church for a biblical reason you're not welcome here
You got to make that right?
But you got these churches that are just like oh you got thrown out by faithful work of me you poor, baby. You know
and
Here's what you want to know what the punishment you say is God gonna punish that God doesn't even have to punish them
Because you know why God doesn't have to punish them because the punishment is that they have to have those people in their church
Like like here's the thing we kicked those people out for a reason because they were hindering the cause of Christ here in our church
And so we were we were purging people that were not a blessing
So then if these others well, we'll take you
It's like wow you're just bringing in
Unrepentant people you're bringing in corruption you're bringing in toxicity. God doesn't even have to punish you
I don't have to get mad at you. I don't have to do anything because you're doing it to yourself
by harboring all these weird fugitives from faithful word
And I'm not talking about people who left on good terms and look there are a lot of people who've left on good terms
God bless them. Yeah, I hope they're doing great serving God in another good independent Baptist Church
That's all I'm talking about think about people were thrown out of the church
Okay, and and like I said, I'm slow to throw people out
People claim that I throw people out drop of that people who actually know what goes on around here
They know how many times they have to beg me to throw people out and I'm just like hey
Let's give him one more chance and even this guy I even said to brother seguro when he brought it to me
I said hey, can we give him one more chance and Chris is like, no, I don't think so
I'm not even I'm kind of embarrassed to say that I'm kind of ashamed to say that but it's the truth
Ask for the segura even this time when we threw this guy out
I said, well, what do you think about if we give him one more chance brother? Say girls like that's not gonna work pastor
He's already this is that chance and I'm just like, okay throw him out
I try not to throw people out. But but look if somebody needs to be thrown out we'll do it and
We have thrown a lot of people out over the years and we'll continue to do so, you know when it's with
And the only reason I was hesitant with him is because he keeps putting on a show of repenting
That's why like like if he was unrepentant, I would have just been like out
the reason that I was so
Ridiculously gracious is because I'm just that verse is always popping into my mind where it says
Hey
If your brother trespassed against you seven times in a day and seven times in a day
Comes and says I repent I'm thinking like that's pretty much this guy's life story
And then that verse is coming into my mind you got to forgive him
But but then it's but again, there was no eventually you got to switch to a different scripture bring forth
Therefore fruits meet for repentance
Like because you start to question the repentance though when it becomes that extreme and that's why that was a difficult decision
But apparently it was the right decision based on
You know bros recent activities online or recent activity. Okay, just his activities online
Period every day for weeks or months or whatever and if you say I don't know who that is well
Amen
But you know and like I said, I'm not even saying that the guy's not saved
You know what? I mean?
I don't necessarily even think that
Because you know what and this is what's so funny is that people just automatically assume if somebody is doing wrong
Oh, they must not be saved
Folks saved people can be big-time
bozos and can do some really sinful and wicked things
You know and and that's why this whole argument about whether this guy's saved or not
It's kind of a fruitless argument because it's like certain people whether they're saved or not. They're not right with God
They're way out of bounds on God's will whether they're saved or not. It's between them and the Lord
I hope that we see them all in heaven
but that doesn't change the fact that we've got to
Separate ourselves from certain people that are not helping our mission
Also, by the way go if you would do first Thessalonians chapter 5 I'm almost done first Thessalonians chapter 5 also
Let me just say this people who hate the pastor of their church must go
They're out and let me and you say oh, that's a cult or whatever. You know what? Everything's a cult now. Everybody's a cold
Everybody's a narcissist
Everything's gaslighting
Everything's a cold. Everything's abuse
Everything everybody's a groomer. Like it's like these words are so overused. It's just like cold cold cold. Everything's a cold
Let me turn this back around on you. Okay?
Anyone who goes to a church where they hate the pastor is a psychopath. How about that?
How about that?
Why would you go to a church where you hate the pastor you must be a psychopath because normal people
Go to a church that they like
Right and just stop and think about it, you know do even people in this world
Forget the church for a second people's world. Do they go to movies that they hate?
Do they go to concerts of bands that they hate?
Do they go to restaurants where they hate the food?
Just
Stop and think about they go to the store and they buy books that they hate
They go and say this is my most hated author
Let me check out all the books out of the library that I can from him and and why oh, I hate this TV show
I watch it every night. Is that what people in this world do?
What would you say about someone who did that
That they're crazy
Okay, well guess what it's just as crazy to go to a church that you hate listen to preaching from a pastor you hate
It makes no sense any normal person if they hated their pastor would go somewhere else would be like I hate this pastor
I'm going somewhere else
but then people like you can't just throw people out because they hate you I'm throwing out psychopaths and
People who go to this church and hate me are crazy and they're out
And what does the Bible say? It says in first if you want to label it a cult call it whatever you want
I don't care what you call it
It's not a cult a bible-believing church that effectively goes out and gets people saved and has a great spirit
Happy people who hang out in fellowship for an hour after the service three times a week
they come to church three times a week and they hang around for an hour or two hours and
Hang out and have a beautiful time and everybody's smiling and happy and then going out and winning a bunch of souls to Christ
I don't know it would arose be any less beautiful if you called it by any other name
First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 12 says we beseech you brethren to know them
Which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love
For their work's sake it's not about their personality. It's not about the person. It's about the work
For their work's sake and here's the key and be at peace among yourselves. How can you be at peace among yourselves?
If you don't esteem those who are over you in the Lord that are preaching to you in the Lord if you don't esteem them
Very highly in love for their work's sake how can you be at peace among yourselves if you have a faction in the church?
That hates their own pastor
How can you have peace in the church?
go to another go to a hater Church and joy and
We'll see which rod buds
There's no peace when there's anarchy
Anarchy does not produce peace does it?
Discipline produces peace, which is why the Bible says no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous
Nevertheless afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness
Discipline yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
Thereby and so all that to say this this morning
The fruit of the Spirit is peace. We all want it
Right, we all want to sleep at night
one of the most beautiful things is to go to bed at night and to sleep eight hours and wake up feeling refreshed and
there you know, there are physical and psychological components, but there's also a spiritual component to that having a clear conscience and
Of being right with the Lord trusting the Lord and the things that you are stressed and worried about
Giving those things over to the Lord in prayer
walk in the spirit be filled with the spirit and
Have less anxiety
be calm
Be at peace be relaxed
walk with God and
Understand what it's like to actually not be super stressed and worried and anxious about things because you know God's taking care of it
that's a beautiful feeling and
Then the second thing we talked about this morning was the fact that if you do have that kind of inner peace
That comes from being filled with the spirit
It is going to allow you to be a team player in the local church because you're not all
Discontent and upset and stressed out and worried about what everybody else do and being a busybody about everything else
because you have all this envy and strife and covetousness in your heart if
You are chill in your heart because you have the peace of God which passes all understanding
You think it's gonna be easier or harder for you to get along with other people?
Peace in your heart peace with other people and I'm not talking about getting along with some transvestite or something
I'm not you know, I'm talking about getting along with the people were supposed to get along with our you know
our family in our home our
local church
Right the people that we actually need to deal with
right we could get along with those people because we have peace in our heart and then you got these people with war in their
Heart and they just they're they're fighting with everybody lashing out against everybody and the churches are filled with confusion and every
Evil work people are confused about what the church believes
People are confused about what salvation is because the pastor's saying one thing the tracts in the back are saying something else
The guest speakers saying something else statement of faith is saying something else salvation is all over the place
confusion and every evil work
Slandering good men of God slandering good churches slandering good people and soul winners
The wisdom that's from above is first pure
there's no confusion about the doctrine because we keep it pure and
It's peaceable
right, and so we all want to get along with our families our spouse our children and
We want to get along with our fellow church members
we need the Holy Spirit's power to do it and
Most of all we want to have peace in our heart and
We want to go through life not super stressed because it's torture being stressed and worried and anxious
It's horrible. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer God
We thank you so much for the peace that passes all understanding Lord
Thank you for letting us be able to just rest and and sleep and feel good and and and does this know that you're in
Control you're at the helm
You've got things under control Lord God, please just bless our church and Lord help us to continue having the beautiful
Spirit of unity that we have the beautiful
Camaraderie and friendship and Brotherhood that we share here Lord and
Lord I pray that our church would continue to grow as
you add people to the church that are like-minded that love you and that love one another and
Lord God help us to continue being fruitful and
Winning souls to Christ and we'll give you all the honor and glory and in Jesus name we pray. Amen
Amen the right ladies gentlemen, take your hymnals, please go to him 112 him number 112
Be still my soul him number
112 we'll begin on that first verse now 112 be still my soul. The Lord is on my side number
112 we'll begin on that first verse now 112 we'll begin on that first verse now
My
My soul
Please do my joy
I
Got
To
My whole my
Oh
Right
Please fill my soul
Waves and winds
While
still my soul, the hour is tasting on, when we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone, sorrow for God, love's purest joy is restored.
Be still my soul, when change and tears are past, all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.