Peace

Happy Sunday and Merry Christmas. Thank you for watching and thank you also for your support of David Shivers Ministries. If you would like to give, there's an address on my website davidshivers.com. And there's also a donate button located there.

My ministry is a 501c3 not for profit and I would like to thank my board of directors for their encouragement. Charlie Duncan, Charlie Bennett, and my nephew Jordan Shivers are great to work with. It's hard to believe that this is the last Sunday before Christmas. Thus far we have looked at hope, love, and joy.

Today I will talk about peace. The peace of Christ in this crazy world. Years ago in the time of kings and knights, a great knight came home from a long, long journey. He went to the king he served and he said, "Your majesty, I have been conquering and pillaging your enemies south of the great river."

The king replied, "I have no enemy south of the great river." After a long pause, the knight responded, "Sir, you do now." Isn't that the way it goes? One moment all is well and then suddenly you find out new enemies are there.

Some of you have had a tough year. Your earthly peace has been shaken by the enemy of bad health or the loss of a loved one or the loss of a job or a problem that takes your thoughts to places they should not go. It seems that there's always something. We have looked at Luke chapter 2 in weeks past.

I want to look at it today again and look at one verse from the message that the shepherds received from the angels. It's found in verse 14. The angels said, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men." The word peace here in the original Greek language is eirene.

It means peace or quietness or rest. It can also mean exemption from the rage and havoc of war. I love that definition, exemption from the havoc of war. We need that exemption today.

In Philippians 4, we read of peace that passes understanding. That's exactly what the angels were sharing with the shepherds that night. When we give glory to God in the highest, we will have peace. And as a byproduct, we will have goodwill toward men.

Isn't the opposite true? When we ignore God, our peace is gone. And we aren't good to our fellow man. We see the results of that in our society today.

A school shooting recently, murders nightly in big cities, over a thousand in Chicago thus far this year. Political hatred and division calls this world to truly be a war zone. Yet for believers, there can be peace. It's not automatic.

We must pursue it. We must choose which world to concentrate on. We find some beautiful words in the 26th chapter of the book of Isaiah. We'll look at the first three verses.

We are told, "In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks. Open the gates that the righteous nation nation which keeps the truth may enter in.

You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you." If you look at these verses in your Bible, you'll see the promise of peace, well, really perfect peace, comes after the words in that day. Some say that this is referring to the second coming when Christ returns and all is well. I find that hard to believe since the these words were written 700 years before the first coming of Christ.

The best interpretation for in that day is the day of our salvation. If that day has already come for you, these words from Isaiah 26 are for you and they're so important. This really is a song about protection. God protects us like a fortified city.

One modern translation puts it this way, "We are surrounded by the walls of God's salvation. We are surrounded by the walls of God's salvation." That's a beautiful picture. Those who heard Isaiah speak these words knew that their protection from the invasion of the Assyrians or the Babylonians or any other enemy depended on strong fortified walls.

Isaiah is letting them know that true protection comes from salvation and a right relationship with God. In today's language, we might say that God is our bulletproof vest or our vaccination or our safety net. You get the picture. It is vital that our salvation is at the forefront of our thoughts.

If we put our problems at the forefront, we diminish what God has done for us. On Sunday morning, the 13th of January 2018, at 8:07 a.m., an emergency alert was accidentally issued by the emergency alert system of Hawaii. The alert went over television, radio, and a text to every cell phone. The alert warned everyone to immediately seek shelter because there was an incoming ballistic missile, nuclear war.

The message concluded, "This is not a drill." For the next 38 minutes and 13 seconds until a correction was issued, people thought it was the end of their world. People ran for shelter. The phone systems crashed because people were calling their families to tell them goodbye.

I read of one man who had a heart attack because of the stress. Finally, after those long 38 minutes, the emergency alert system sent a message letting everyone know it was a mistake. Can you imagine what you would have done under such a circumstance? I wonder how I would have responded.

Hopefully, I would have thanked God for a good life and looked forward to heaven. The peace of God should always be with us. It is our choice. Panic or peace.

Once we are saved, we have a tremendous promise in verse 3 of Isaiah 26. We are told there, "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you." If you're worried that you cannot do that in your situation, I have good news. God's the power here, not us.

God will give us and keep us in perfect peace, not just peace. Since we're in the Old Testament here, the word for peace is shalom. Actually, it is shalom shalom, peace peace. God will do that for you.

There is one condition. We must keep our minds on him. We need to understand that the God that created this universe is more than able to give us peace through any difficulty we might have. We have a choice.

We can seek the peace of God or we can fall to pieces. I love how Paul ends his second letter to the Thessalonians. He says, "Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and all ways. The Lord be with all of you."

I pray that for you today. May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and all ways, and may the Lord always be with you. Merry Christmas. Let's pray.

Father, my friends that watch this, I know some of their situations and it's been tough. But I've also heard from many that have gotten that peace that passes understanding because you have taken charge. And they have focused on you. So Lord, we pray for perfect peace in an imperfect world.

And we know that is possible. You have promised it and you offer it. Let us accept it and live it every day. In Jesus' name.

Amen. God bless. Merry Christmas.