Latest / The Daily Word / June 17 – Peace: The Referee
Transcript
- Cory: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good we hours of the night, whatever time you are joining us. Welcome to the Daily Word Podcast from Lakeshore Christian Fellowship. My name is Corey. It's my privilege to pastor Arkitabacambas. And today is June the seventeenth. Our New Testament reading came from Colossians three, and the verse I want to look at with you is verse 15. Reading out of the New King James today, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. Now, in this verse, Paul uses a word that is only found here in the New Testament to talk about letting the peace of God rule in our hearts. And that's the word Brabeo. And what this word literally speaks to, it came from the world of athletics and sports. And it spoke of a judge, an umpire, what we think of as a referee in a sporting event, whose job was to sit there and call things foul, call things safe, to say you were out of bounds here, or to say that was a good play. And that is what Paul is saying. peace of God, the peace of God should be doing in our hearts. It should be calling the shots. And I know that's kind of hard sometimes to wrap our brain around because we often think of peace as something that we have to pursue. We have to go and we have to chase after peace. We have to fight for peace, but it's actually a little bit different in the kingdom of God than it is in the world. I I remember a few years ago I was having a conversation with a guy and and in the course of talking with him, I found out that he was a new age spiritual instructor. He he had a side gig where he was earning money by by doing guided meditation and and all these things. And in the process of talking with him he started telling me about a routine that he had developed where If he checked all of his boxes, if he spent X number of hours doing this and X amount of time doing that, he was able to attain a peace that he had that was the best peace that he had ever experienced. But as he's describing this piece to me, I'm I'm listening to him and I'm thinking about the peace that I have. And Jesus, and all I can think about is the fact that my gosh, guy, you have to do a lot of work to get this peace that you have. And between like you and I, I've talked to people who came out of the new age that had done all the same kind of things that this guy was describing to get peace. And when they come to know Jesus, they'll tell you the peace that Jesus has is better. So not only is this guy having to work. And strive and and and do all these things that if he doesn't do them, there's no peace to be had. All that work and effort is being put into a peace that is inferior to the peace that Jesus gives us. But we often think that that's how peace works for us too, that we have to go. And if we do our Bible reading, if we do our devotion, if we spend X amount of time in worship, we can attain peace. But that's not the way it works in the Christian life. Let me show you. John 14, verse 27, Jesus is speaking here. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. See, our peace is a gift from Jesus, and he didn't give it to us the way the world gives gifts. We don't have to earn it. There's nothing we have to do to check the right boxes for for Jesus to give it to us to begin with. And there's no strings attached. There's no if we don't if we don't like do our part to bring reciprocity, there's no there's no Jesus isn't waiting there to just yink the peace away from us because we didn't do our part. No, Jesus gave this gift of peace to us just the way That he gave the gift of salvation to us. It's free. It's something he, out of his supreme goodness, made available to us. And when we get access to his peace, the peace that allowed him to sleep in the back of a boat while a storm is raging and his disciples are freaking out, the peace that allowed him to go to the cross as a sheep goes to slaughter. Without defending or fighting or calling angels to take him down off of that cross, that same peace that Jesus had, that's the peace that he makes available to us. And when we have access to that peace, what Paul is revealing here is that it becomes the the ruler, the guardian, the referee in our heart. And when something comes up. That presses against that piece, it has the ability, it should have the ability to throw a flag on the play if it's something that isn't right. It should have the ability to say, this is a disruptor. This this player that's coming on the field is not lawfully and rightfully here. We need to eject it out of the game. That's what the peace of God does in our heart. It calls foul on thoughts, on actions, on on situations that the world presents to us, and it says, nope, this is a violator, this is not according this, this, this, where this is gonna take you is not according to the peace that Jesus provided. So how do we respond when the peace throws The flag. Well, well, Paul shows us one of the ways in Colossians 3 15. This verse we've already read. At the very end, he says, and be thankful. And be thankful. And the original Greek that that brings the idea of be becoming thankful people, like continuously be becoming thankful, more and more thankful people. And it's not the only time here that that Paul has connected that idea of peace. And thankfulness, another really well-known one we'll take a quick look at comes from Philippians 4, 6 through 7. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. Regard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. See this peace. That is a gift, this peace that is a referee in our hearts when it calls foul. We come to the Lord and we bring whatever it's highlighting, whatever it's saying, this thing is foul. We take that thing to the Lord, we bring it to him with a heart of thanksgiving, with a heart of thankfulness, a heart that says, This thing is violating my peace. And I know, Lord, that you have provision. For whatever this problem is. If it's an issue in my family that wants to rob my peace, you have provision to fix that problem. If it's sickness or an ailment or a symptom that I'm feeling, Lord, you have provision. And I'm so thankful that you have already provided for my healing in this area. Whatever it is. That is disrupting that peace, we bring that to the Lord and we say, Lord, I thank you that you already have an answer for this. And we pray and we bring our supplication to the Lord and we leave it at his feet. And when we do that, the peace of God is acting to guard our hearts from all things that would come and would war against us. And would try to steal the gift that Jesus gave us, that peace. And that's how peace is beyond understanding. It's a gift from God that we don't have to earn the way the world has to earn all that it offers. So What is our application for this? Well, in what areas am I not allowing peace to be the umpire? Is there any part of my life where it's not being the referee that when it calls foul on a play, I'm just continuing to allow that thing to come in and have its way? And when those things arise, am I going? And being thankful to the Lord that he already has an answer for whatever The problem is. Let's pray. Father God, I just thank you. I thank you, Lord, that you're so much better than we have any understanding of. You gave us your peace. You gave us so many beautiful blessings. And as we dive into the word, you have so much to teach us about the way your kingdom operates, about the way your world works. Thank you, Jesus, that peace comes and guards our heart. And one of the ways it guards our heart is by calling foul. Lord, I pray that you would help us to be responders, that we would be doers of the word and not hearers only. That when something comes up and our peace things, nah, no, no, no, no, no, that's that's not for us, that's not for us, that's foul, that's foul, get that out of here, that we would respond to that thing in faith by coming to you thankfully and laying that issue at your feet. So that your peace that you've given us, that's a gift that we don't have to earn, doesn't get disrupted. We thank you, Jesus. We thank you, Holy Spirit. We thank you, Father, that every time we come to your word, you're just opening our eyes to see your beauty. And we praise you and we thank you in the name of Jesus. Amen.