[0:00] But we are here because of the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God, the love of God. And Psalm 46, the verse on the screen, reminds us, Come and see what the Lord has done.
[0:14] He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. Our God is not a God who stands looking at our world, as it were, wringing his hands, saying, oh, what a terrible mess they're in.
[0:27] There's nothing I can do to help them. He is a God who intercedes and is at work in our world. And though we remember two terrible world wars, and we will remember as well, of course, ongoing conflicts and wars and suffering, even to this day, there is the glorious truth that our Lord Jesus Christ is coming again when wars will cease to the ends of the earth.
[0:52] There will be true peace which the world is seeking. It's found in Christ, the Prince of Peace. So let's stand and sing the praise of that Lord Jesus, 146, crowning with many crowns the Lamb upon the throne.
[1:10] In that hymn, it reminds us that our God is the God who is over all, and our Lord Jesus is the Lord of peace.
[1:21] So let's stand and sing 146. Oh, all the fold.
[1:34] Oh, let's stand and blend theetimes. Tell him we that he shalllya Patel. CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS
[2:37] CHOIR SINGS Even today, O Lord our God, you are the one who is the Lord of the universe, the King of the nations.
[2:50] You are the one who is master of this world. Whether this world recognizes or accepts or acknowledges you for who you truly are, that doesn't change who you truly are.
[3:03] But on this Remembrance Sunday, as we seek your face as we come to bring you our thanks and our praise and our worship, for that is what you deserve, that is rightfully yours, remember again, O Lord our God, that this is a broken world, a world which is full of conflict, heartache, sorrow, suffering and death.
[3:35] Remember that this world in which we live does not know peace, does not know the God of peace. In fact, if we were to put our finger on why our world is at war, why our world is so filled with these things of which we sorrow and grieve over, we know it is down to one single reality.
[4:03] we have rejected you. We have gone our own way. We have set up our own religions.
[4:15] We have done things according to our own selfish, self-centered greed and demands. And O Lord our God, our world is in this state because of our own making.
[4:32] we have no one to blame but ourselves. And yet we thank you and bless you, O God, that though we have rejected you and though as a world we live in ignorance of you, yet, O Lord, you have not abandoned this world or given up on the people of this world.
[4:52] Thank you that you are not a God who, as it were, looks down your nose at the people of this world or a God who simply tuts and shakes his head at all the misery that we've created and brought upon ourselves and others.
[5:08] But you are the God who is in this world yourself and the God who in your Son, Jesus Christ, has known in your own life what it is to suffer, what it is to be hated, what it is to be rejected, what it is to sorrow and to shed tears of grief.
[5:34] We thank you that we do not have a God who is an ivory tower God, but a God who came into the filth and dirt of our world and who came with one purpose and mission, that he should experience suffering beyond the suffering of any person who has ever lived, not just physically upon the cross as he suffered and died, but particularly where he himself experienced hell, the judgment and justice of God against sin.
[6:06] And he did that all not only that he might experience and feel and know, but especially that he might bring peace to this world, that he might bring peace between men and women and God, that he might bring peace peace, that is a peace beyond anything that we can find here, a peace which heals broken hearts, a peace which sets captives free, a peace which dries tear-ridden cheeks, a peace which fills and supplies and satisfies and above all lasts.
[6:50] We pray again for our world on this Remembrance Sunday that Lord Jesus Christ, O Lord, our God Almighty, he who is the Holy Spirit, be at work we pray, fulfilling your goodwill and purposes in this world and through your church to bring real peace and real life.
[7:15] For we ask these things in the name Jesus Christ, your Son, our Saviour and King. Amen. Jesus taught us our Father who art in heaven, and through our Lord.
[7:30] I will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
[7:53] For God is the kingdom and power and glory forever and ever and ever. Amen. Well, let's turn together in our Bibles and we're going to read from Ephesians and chapter 2 and we're going to read the whole chapter together.
[8:12] So Ephesians and chapter 2, if you've got one of the church Bibles, one of the red Bibles, then that's page 1173. Page 1173.
[8:26] Ephesians and chapter 2 beginning at verse 1 and reading through to the end of the chapter, that's verse 22. Here is God's faithful word.
[8:43] As for you, that's Christian believers, that's to whom Paul is writing this letter, 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 of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
[9:04] All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh, following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
[9:17] But 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.
[9:32] 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 the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
[9:51] for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this not from ourselves, it is the 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.
[10:16] 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 human hands, remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
[10:41] But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with all its commands and regulations.
[11:03] 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.
[11:20] He came and preached peace to you who are far away and peace to those who are near, for through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ himself as the chief cornerstone.
[11:45] in him the whole building is joined together, 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.
[12:02] And let us come to him. Let us pray. O Lord our God, we come to you as we have already thought, you are the God of this world, the true God, the living God, the active, the engaging God.
[12:20] And we thank you again, O Lord, that in all our lives you are the one to whom we can come, the one we can turn to, the one that we can call to.
[12:32] Lord, you are the one who is there for your people all the time, not simply as a person we can talk to, to complain to, or moan to, or unburden ourselves to, but more than that, we thank you that you are the God whose love for us, your people, and your compassion for the people of this world means that you cannot, do not, and will not stand idly by and see the world destroying itself.
[13:03] Neither will you stand idly by when we pray and ask for your help, but you yourself have promised to hear us and to help us, and we know that each one of us who are Christians here this morning, we know and have experienced that in our lives again and again and again and again.
[13:20] Countless opportunities, countless times when we have prayed and, oh Lord, you have worked and ministered. Lord, not as some magic spell, but because of your great love.
[13:32] You've acted, Lord, according to our prayers. Lord, not to do always what we've asked, but always what you know is for our best. Christ, and we thank you that this is by no way possible through chance, but it must be the divine and mighty hand of God.
[13:50] And so, Lord, when we come to you, we pray for this world. We know that we are asking a God who is able to do incredible things, and we know that we come to a God who wants and desires to do and always will do the right thing.
[14:08] Lord, we come to you for our world because we know that it is broken and it is damaged and it is, as we thought before, a suffering world. We particularly want to pray for those who are, at this time, bearing the consequences of war.
[14:23] We think of those people in Syria, Lord, who are in refugee camps and have fled their country, their home, or those even now who are beginning perhaps to be able to return home.
[14:35] Lord, their homes are destroyed, they have nothing. We pray, Lord, for a full and complete cessation of that civil war in Syria. We do want to give you thanks, Lord, for the pushing back of Islamic State throughout Iraq particularly.
[14:52] We thank you for those who have given their lives to defeat that evil, wicked regime. We pray, Lord, again for Iraq, Lord, that you would bring healing to that nation and that land and peace.
[15:04] We thank you for the many Christians that were there before this war. Many Christians who loved you in churches that were thriving. But, Lord, have many been killed and many have been driven out.
[15:15] Oh, Lord, be with them and help them. We pray, Lord, for the ongoing calamity and crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh and those, again, driven from their homes simply by violent, ungodly, wicked men and women.
[15:32] We pray, Lord, in your mercy that you would reach to them. And we thank you for those who are working in all these areas and many other areas of conflict who are giving of their time, their energy, their labors, some of them even their lives to help.
[15:46] We thank you, O Lord, that you have left within every person that remnant of your image, your even sin which is spoiled and martyr. Still, we cannot help but have compassion because we are made by a compassionate God.
[16:01] And again, we ask, O Lord, that you would help us and help us not to be indifferent ourselves but to be active and working for peace. You have said, blessed are the peacemakers.
[16:14] We again remember those of our own countrymen, those soldiers and those who are still recovering from injuries in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
[16:27] We pray, O Lord, for those who have been disabled and we pray, O Lord, that where they may feel there is no hope, where they find and realize there is hope in you, that every life is precious, no matter how physically marred it may be, O Lord, our God, or emotionally damaged it may be.
[16:45] Lord, every life is important to you. So we pray again, Lord, that you would be with them and help them. And for those who continue to suffer for many, many years after war, Lord, who still are scarred, O Lord, bring your healing, we pray.
[17:02] We thank you for the work of British Legion and other charities like them. We pray, Lord, that you would use them and work through them to do good. And so we bring all these prayers to you and ask again for our world and our nation, O Lord, that you would come with your grace and goodness, for we know that only as you change the human heart, then can you change or will there be change in human history.
[17:26] Change those hearts that are bent on evil and wickedness. Bring them under the submission of your power and your peace. We ask it all in Jesus' name.
[17:38] Amen. Amen. If you have your Bibles to hand, and I would encourage you to have a Bible to hand, then turn back to Ephesians and chapter 2, to the chapter we read just a little while ago, Ephesians and chapter 2.
[17:56] A few years ago, a modern newspaper in the UK investigated the history, as it were, of the world to find out how much of the time, recorded time, written time, historical time, they could find where there had been peace, where there had been no conflicts, where there had been no wars.
[18:32] And to the best of their judgment, and the best of their understanding, as they read history and recorded it, they found out that, as far as they could tell, the entire world has been at peace less than 8% of the time.
[18:50] They looked through 3,500 years of history, and of course, many, many parts of that history were lost and never known about, but as far as they were recorded history, and saw that in those 3,500 years, it was only 280 years where there had not been major conflict of one kind or another.
[19:11] They also discovered, as well, that there had been, over that time, in excess of 8,000 peace treaties made, and inevitably, each one of them was broken.
[19:24] On average, they lasted only two years. The world in which we live, and this Remembrance Day, is a world of war. It always has been a world of war.
[19:37] And until the Lord Jesus Christ comes, it shall be a world of war. Then it's surprising, perhaps, for us to read of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the promise of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah chapter 9, a promise that we often turn to and read about.
[20:00] And it says this, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. The government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
[20:18] Why is he called the Prince of Peace? Because he is the greatest broker of peace. He is the one who is the most excellent peace maker.
[20:33] I was to ask some of you of a certain generation, who comes to mind when you hear the word the king? You probably would think of Elvis Presley.
[20:46] If some of you are my generation, and maybe a little bit younger, maybe a little bit older, if I was to say to you, who do you think of when I use the title, the boss? Bruce Springsteen.
[20:58] Why do these men get such great nicknames from? Well, because they are considered almost universally as being excellent musicians and songwriters that have ever been known.
[21:14] For Christ we call the Prince of Peace, is to say that when it comes to giving true and lasting and real and enduring peace, there's no one who can touch him.
[21:26] There's no one who is like him. And so when we look at the narrative, the story, the record of the life of the Lord Jesus, we find again and again, keeps cropping up this word peace.
[21:41] Coming into Advent, very soon, coming into the time we look to the birth of Christ, the Son of God coming into this world, and when the angels who were there at his birth sang out and spoke to the shepherds, what did they say?
[21:53] On earth, peace to men on whom God's favor rests. In the life of the Lord Jesus, when he ministered and healed, when he went to the sick and the lame and the suffering and those who were in great distress of heart, he not only physically healed their ailments, and he did that many, many times, but often he would go far deeper, such as when he spoke to the woman who had been bleeding profusely for 12 years and no one had been able to cure and she spent all her money on the doctors of her day after Jesus healed her in Mark 5, he says to her, go in peace.
[22:32] Be freed from your suffering. When Jesus was with his disciples on the night before his trial and his crucifixion and his death, he promised them that as they grieved and mourned over him, there would be peace similar to his own peace that they would experience in John 14.
[22:57] He says, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. In the face of death. When he rose again from the dead on that third day, that first Easter Sunday, his first words to his grieving disciples who had locked themselves away in an upper room because they were afraid that if the Romans and the authorities had killed Jesus, they might come after them.
[23:23] Jesus, we're told, in his resurrection body, in a real way as they saw him enter the room and he came and stood among them and what did he say to them? Peace be with you.
[23:35] But of course, words of peace are easy, aren't they? Anybody can talk about peace. Anybody can promise peace.
[23:46] Anybody can wish for peace and dream for peace. But words are never a guarantee of real peace. Back in August 1939, Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister at the time, had a policy of appeasement in regards to Nazi Germany.
[24:07] Whatever Hitler wanted, he gave in return for a guarantee of peace. And he went to Berlin and spoke with Hitler. And as he got off the plane back in England, he waved in the air a peace treaty signed by Hitler.
[24:19] He spoke bravely of peace with honor, peace in our time. Within two weeks, Hitler's armies had invaded Poland.
[24:31] And we were set on the course of a terrible bloody war. So the peace that Christ Jesus gives and promises has to be more than words.
[24:44] It has to have more substance than simply saying peace or speaking peace or promises. peace. The reality is that when the Bible speaks of Jesus as the Prince of Peace and his coming being the bringing of peace, we realize that in that babe that was born in Bethlehem, in that man who ministered and lived amongst the people of this world in all the grime and sin and suffering, we actually have somebody who is the embodiment of peace.
[25:13] Jesus is peace himself. He is the person of peace. His character is peace. His nature is peace. His ministry and mission was one of peace. He is peace personified.
[25:28] Walking around in a world of conflict. That's why I read as I did from Ephesians in chapter 2 and why hopefully you've got your finger in there because in verse 14 of chapter 2, we read that Paul tells us, he himself is our peace.
[25:46] He himself is our peace. For the believer, for the Christian, for the person who has come to know and trust in Jesus, Christ has become for us peace itself. We are the recipients of peace.
[25:59] He goes on to say, doesn't he there, verse 17 of that tame chapter, Jesus came into this world. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who are near.
[26:11] He's talking about those who are outside of the family of God's people, the Jewish nation, and those who are inside. So to all people, Jew and Gentile, every person, he came and preached peace.
[26:26] Jesus' ministry and mission in this world was one to preach peace in a world of conflict and warfare. I told later on, verse 15, he has made peace.
[26:50] At the very end of chapter 6 of the letter of Ephesians, we're told that the message Jesus preaches and the message that Christians have is the good news, the gospel of peace.
[27:03] So what's this peace? What is this peace that Jesus came to bring? What's this peace that his very life, as it were, was the guarantee of, and through his life we have the experience of?
[27:16] Of course, when we speak about peace, when we talk about peace on a day like today, it means one thing. It means a cessation of conflict. It means an end of war. When there is peace or a peace treaty or a peace agreement, it means that those two aggressive, hostile enemies no longer are attacking each other, fighting against each other.
[27:37] They are at peace with one another. Therefore, if Jesus is the prince of peace to bring peace, it must mean that there is war without him.
[27:52] In other words, he is the prince of peace, and therefore for him to bring peace, it must be that there is already an ongoing conflict, there is enmity, there is hostility taking place, which he is the only one that can stop.
[28:06] The terrible news in our world, which is far worse if it's conceivable, and it is conceivable, and we need to recognize it, the terrible news for our world is that the peace that we do not have with one another is a direct result because we are at war with God.
[28:30] In Colossians, in Paul's letter there, he speaks to the believers and he tells them, once you were alienated from God and were enemies.
[28:45] And that's true of every single human being on the planet, every single person who has ever lived, it's true of you. Sin is the rejection of God as our rightful governing king.
[29:04] Sin is siding ourselves against God. It's opposing ourselves against God. Sin is not simply being naughty or doing something wrong or being selfish or greedy and proud, those things are true, but it begins within our hearts saying, I will do what I want and I will reject God's good and faithful and loving laws.
[29:35] We have set ourselves up in enmity to God, in opposition to God. And we haven't done that necessarily consciously to begin with. It may be something that we haven't even thought about when we do what we want, but when we're doing what we want, when we're pleasing ourselves, when we're putting ourselves and our desires before the good things that God has required of us, we are making ourselves his enemy.
[30:05] And since we all sin, we are all enemies of God. Since we all are selfish and we all are greedy and we all have rejected his rightful rule over our lives, then we are all rebels and have, as it were, struck up a war between us and God.
[30:22] And don't think for a moment, dear friends, that God is indifferent to that. Don't think for a moment that God doesn't care, that he looks down on us, he says, well, they're just puny people and I'm God, I don't really care, they can do what they like if they want to ruin themselves, if they want to oppose me.
[30:36] No, God cares. God is violently moved against our sin. God is engaged with that treachery of our hearts.
[30:47] It's not something that God simply ignores or something that God counts as unimportant. The Bible tells us that it raises up his righteous and just anger against us.
[31:00] And so we read there in Ephesians 2 that terrible truth. Like the rest of people, verse 3, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
[31:13] God's wrath, God's anger, God's justice. We are deserving of it. Do you remember, I'm sure you do this from time to time, things go wrong in your life and things are difficult and you're sort of, whether you're a Christian or not, and probably if you're not a Christian you're more prone to this, you say, God, what have I done to deserve this?
[31:32] Because we lost our job or because something difficult has happened or something very painful and some of those things may be very, very real and painful.
[31:44] But the reality is this, that actually we are deserving of God's anger. Those things that take part in our lives are not primarily because God is angry with us, they are the results and consequences of our own actions often or the actions of others.
[31:59] What's the outcome likely to be when two armies go to war?
[32:20] Well, if they're equally balanced, if they're equally armed, if they're equally powerful, then it can be a long protracted war as the Second World War was and other wars.
[32:34] What about if one of those armies is the most powerful, almighty, unstoppable force in the whole universe and on the other side, it's a puny human being?
[32:54] Who's going to win the war? I think you could lay pretty good odds on the most powerful, incredible, forceful, almighty God and you'd get pretty short odds on the human being.
[33:09] What is the point of warring with God when it is impossible for us to win? Why live your life day by day, moment by moment, in hostility and anger and rejection and ignorance of God when you know that it is impossible for you to come out on the other side of that conflict with anything apart from utter annihilation, destruction and failure.
[33:49] Unless there is a peace deal that's brokered between you and God, there is no doubt that you certainly will be eternally lost. Unless there is a peace deal between you and God, there has come a day when you are called before God and you will have to surrender to Him, but if that day is not while you are alive in this world, then it will be a day of judgment and utter damnation and terrible sorrow and unbelievable grief.
[34:25] But that is why Jesus Christ came as the Prince of Peace. Because without Him we are lost. Without Him we are surely going to be engulfed and overthrown by the Almighty God.
[34:40] That's why the angels at His birth declared that He has come to secure peace on earth on those whom God's favor rests. That's why He is the Prince of Peace.
[34:51] That's why Paul speaks of Him elsewhere as the Lord of Peace in 2 Thessalonians and God as the God of Peace in Philippians chapter 4. The peace that the Lord Jesus Christ brokered between God and man between a just and holy God and rebellious and treacherous people is a peace that lasts.
[35:14] A peace that satisfies. A peace that is kept. A peace that is eternal. But to broker that peace a sacrifice had to be made blood had to be shed suffering had to be endured.
[35:34] It should have been us but it was Christ instead Himself. Colossians chapter 1 and verse 19 we read this God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Christ and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through His blood shed on the cross.
[36:08] On the cross Jesus Christ brokered peace secured peace between us and God. He took the punishment He took the blame He took the guilt He took the consequences of your sin and mine and our enmity to God.
[36:24] He took it all to guarantee peace with God. And so with confidence we read in Romans 5 therefore since we have been justified that's declared right declared accepted declared at peace with God through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[36:46] No longer are we God's enemies we are His friends. No longer are we opposed and alienated from God but we become His children. We are brought into His family. Can you imagine that?
[37:02] Taking and embracing His enemies. Taking and embracing those who caused Him the greatest suffering in the universe who've taken and killed His Son.
[37:15] Imagine that what incredible love there is what incredible mercy and grace there is that God is willing and glad to receive and to welcome and to forgive and to as it were put an end to all our war.
[37:34] How does that happen in our lives in our experiences as well when we surrender? There can't be peace unless we surrender. I can remember even though it was a long time ago and I was only a child in the 1970s how a Japanese soldier who had been posted on an isolated Pacific island was discovered who still thought the Second World War was going on.
[38:03] A man in his 60s. Because he'd received no orders from anybody else or been told that there was peace he lived his life always on the alert always as if he was going to be invaded or attacked.
[38:18] In fact when they discovered him the only way they could get him to stop and change his attitude was for his commanding officer who was himself in his 70s had to come on the island and command him and order him to cease.
[38:36] How many of us dear friends we have peace there between us and God it's available we can enjoy it we can be right with him and here we are we're like that Japanese soldier in our own bubble of this world and we're saying no I'm going to continue to fight God I'm going to continue to resist his calls to my life I'm going to continue to go my own way and trust in myself.
[38:57] isn't it foolish? Isn't it better to submit to God to surrender to him to make peace with him who has made peace for us and that peace that Christ brings us into as we enter into a right relationship with God as we know our sins are forgiven it has a very real effect upon our lives it's not simply some theoretical idea or some spiritual idea it's not simply something that isn't tangible that we can't touch when the peace of Christ becomes a reality in our lives not only do we know a new relationship with God which is our experience but we know three types of peace within our lives as well three realities of peace peace peace as it were that speaks to us with the same power as the
[40:01] Lord Jesus spoke the words of peace to the storm that raged around the disciples and by which they feared for their lives peace this new found peace that we have with God comes in three ways first of all it comes that we might experience peace with our past peace with our past haven't we all got a past that we are not at peace with are we the people who who say to ourselves if only I hadn't done that if only I had done this aren't there those nagging disappointments in our lives aren't there those accusations that seem to press in on us in our lowest moments that say you it's a mess you've left a wake of mess you've left you've haven't we got those skeletons in our cupboards the trouble with them is that every now and then their heads pop out the doors and remind us just what a mess of things we've made and we can't change it we can't turn the time clock back we can't however much
[41:23] Doctor Who may be able to travel through time and put things right but we can be certain of this that God does not hold those sins against us we can be certain of this that God has forgiven us we can be certain of this that we can let go of that regret of that failure of that sin of that foolishness of that sorrow we can let go of it because God has forgiven us cast our sins as far away as the east is from the west has plunged them in the deepest sea peace with our past have you peace with your past are you still walking around with that burden upon you that regret that grief that sorrow those nightmares even when we know peace with God there's peace with our past peace with the peace with the moment in which we live we live again like those disciples on that sea of Galilee when they're being tossed and buffeted back and forth by the winds and the waves and the storms and they are gripped with fear
[42:55] Jesus speaks into their hearts and minds the words of peace peace be still was he speaking only to the waves or was he speaking to their very hearts and lives as well surely both have you got peace with your present peace with yourself in the way that you're living your life at the moment in the relationships that you're involved with the way that you're dealing with and handling your finances your money have you got peace concerning the day ahead the week ahead are you anxious are you fearful are you aware that things are not as they should be peace with our present comes by knowing that we have a God to whom we can bring all things in prayer here's what Paul writes to the believers in Philippians in chapter 4 he says do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to
[44:09] God and the peace of God in other words the consequence of bringing all of our concerns to him of bringing all of our needs to him all of our problems to him our troubles to him when we bring them to him in one sense we are we are surrendering them to him and the peace of God which transcends all understanding in other words it's a supernatural peace it's not a normal peace or an everyday peace the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus remember when Jesus said to his disciples in John in chapter 14 my peace I leave with you my peace I give you not as the world gives the peace of the world as we've seen is a peace which is fleeting and passing and often it's not even real at all it's just external and outward it's just it's just hidden under the covers the peace that
[45:14] Christ gives is a peace which is real and it penetrates and it cleanses and it quietens the waters of our troubled minds and hearts perplexed peace then pray finally dear friends surely this is what our world is crying out for crying out for more than anything else peace with each other how can we have a world of peace only dear friends when we have peace in our hearts with God can we have peace with another Jesus in that sermon on the mount speaks about the believer the Christian he says blessed is the peacemaker Christ is the supreme peacemaker but as believers we are called to be sub peacemakers part of his making peace with our past is the power for us to be able to forgive those who have hurt us and harmed us and damaged us part of having peace in our present is the ability to practice patience and love with those who rub us up the wrong way if you want to learn peace and patience and love the best place to learn it is in a church isn't it because we're a horrible lot aren't we we're still sinful and we're still selfish and we still get it wrong and we have to work together and share together if you want to learn peace and patience then join a church because there the ruler the Christ within our hearts deals with us those rough edges are knocked off colossians 3 15 let the peace of christ rule your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace that's what the church is to be not peaceful because it's quiet and you can contemplate but peacemaking peace encouraging why are men and women always fighting arguing because they are not at peace with God they are not at peace with themselves and therefore they shall never be at peace with one another only as we submit to
[47:35] Jesus Christ the prince of peace does he give us a powerful peace and as I said before the peace he gives is not as the world gives everlasting full free personal what about you is Jesus Christ your prince of peace have you surrendered have you given up the fight fight you just can't possibly win so keeping on is only exhausting yourself like punching a brick wall how can you be God submit to him and receive the peace that surpasses all understanding now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way the Lord be with all of you amen will can be with a love my god and come with ah can det Dec as were good and they can they after they can get