My Peace I Give Unto U the Path to Peace (biblical Examples)

[Music Intro] [Speaker 1] Churchisms and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God waitly desires a godly home front. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May ye be blessed as ye listen. [Music continues] [Speaker 2] Do whatsoever he asks you to do. Do whatsoever he asks you to do. And we saw with the marriage at Cana that there was an issue. There was a challenge. There was a challenge about the wine. And he gave an instruction: fetch water. Pour the water into the pot. Take again from the pot and give to the governor of the feast. And we noticed that they took that instruction just as he has said it. And we saw that in taking that instruction just as he has said it, what came out of it was rest for their soul. And that took us to Philippians 4:6 last week where we began to look at, where we saw the Bible says, "Be anxious about nothing." Be anxious about nothing. But in everything, through prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto the Lord. And the Bible says, "Then the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your heart and soul." We saw that many times, the reason why people don't enjoy the peace of God is because they could not just take to that simple instruction: be anxious about nothing. Just take time to tell God about everything. Instead of being anxious about anything, the instruction is very simple: be anxious about nothing. But rather in everything, in everything, through prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving, let your request be made known to the Lord and then the consequence of that is that you will experience peace. That was where we ended last week, and I said we'll be taking the matter from there this week. As we move on this week, let us have a word of prayer. Almighty and everlasting Father, we appreciate you for your love. We thank you for your mercies. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for all who you are and all that you are to us. Lord, we commit ourselves into your hands again today. We who are here physically and our brethren everywhere who are connecting with us this evening as we press on on this matter of "My peace I give to you," particularly as we try to look at biblical examples of men who cast their cares upon the Lord and how your peace was able to take charge of their situation. Lord, we pray this evening, meet with each and every one of us in the name of Jesus Christ. Our eyes on you, oh Lord. Let nothing prevail against your purpose for our gathering this evening in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now, we are taking our fellowship this evening from where we left it. Philippians 4:6 and 7. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, but in everything, by prayer, supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your heart and minds through Christ Jesus." Now, when you look at what the Bible, what the Word of God wants us to see in this place, I mentioned something in passing last week and I want to take it from there. You will notice that in coming to God in prayers, when the Bible says be anxious about nothing but in everything by prayers and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known, then the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and mind, you will notice that fundamentally speaking, when we come to the place of prayer, when we follow the instructions of the Lord, the Lord said be anxious about nothing. Is there something that is making you restless? Is there something that is giving you serious concern? Is there something that is making you afraid? Is there something that is giving you worries? Now, the scripture is saying don't be anxious about that thing, whatever it is. He said don't be anxious about it, but through prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving, tell the Lord what you want and then the peace of God will guard your heart. It means when we bring matters to the Lord, the first thing that God wants to address is not the situation of the circumstance that surrounds us. Rather, the first thing that God wants to address is the situation of your heart. I don't know whether you are understanding me. I don't know whether you are getting me very clearly. You see, when you bring a matter to God, the first thing, the immediate thing that heaven deals with is not the circumstance of the situation of the situation that is bothering you. The first thing that God deals with is the situation of your heart. God will first address your heart. In other words, I want you to relate this matter to something we raised in Matthew 24. Let's see that Matthew 24, something we raised at the beginning. We raised something in Matthew 24. Let's go to that scripture. Matthew 24. Now, Jesus was speaking to the disciples and about what will be the end of the age. He says, "For many will come in my name saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of war. See that you are not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." Now, you remember we said something at the beginning. We said when you look at what the Lord is raising in Matthew 24:6, that you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, see to it that you are not troubled. We said ordinarily, ordinarily, when you hear of war and you hear of rumors of war, ordinarily, it is impossible not to be afraid. Let me take it to more practical things in addition to this matter. When somebody is not meeting your expectation, or when you see the wicked prospers, for you not to be provoked is something that is, you know, ordinarily, something will jump up in your own heart and you want to retaliate, you want to get provoked, you get angry. You see ordinarily. I'm showing you the words of the Lord. I'm comparing this Matthew 24 with the matters that were raised in Matthew chapter 5. We are just putting them side by side so that we can learn a very important thing from this matter that we are discussing. He says in Matthew 5, from verse 38, he says, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also." You know ordinarily, this is not ordinarily possible. Are you understanding me? Ordinarily, what is ordinarily possible is what was written in verse 38: an eye for an eye. You slap me, I slap you back. God no vex. One for one. Justice was done. That is what is more natural to us. That is what is more agreeable to us. That is what ordinarily will give you peace. But if somebody slaps you and you don't have the opportunity to slap yours back, you know ordinarily you will not be at peace. You will be restless. You will be under the weight of that evil that person did. And then you will be, you know, "God will punish that person." You know, "God will do this." And even sometimes, if you cannot slap back, you curse, you desire evil on the person, you wish that a calamity will come upon that person. You know, it is not natural to us. What is more natural to us is to resist an evil person. And so, when it looks as if an evil person is prospering, it is so difficult for us. It's so difficult for us. When the Master, when you look at it again, he says, "If anyone wants to sue you to take your tunic, let him have your cloak also." You will realize that how will somebody want to take my shirt and I also give him the suit, the coat alongside with it? Normally, if that person wants to do that, I do everything for him not to take the shirt. That is what is more natural. You see, what I'm talking about, paths to peace. And what I'm trying to make you see in that scripture is that when we come to God in prayers, the first thing that God wants to deal with is not the situation of the circumstance that surrounds you. No. What God first wants to deal with, what is giving you trouble is not the situation of the circumstance. What is giving you trouble is the situation of the circumstance of your heart. And so, the first thing you need to see in the pathway to peace is that when we are not at peace, the problem has nothing to do with the situation that surrounds us. Where the problem is emanating from is emanating from the situation of our heart. So, many times when you say, "I cannot have peace because of what is happening to me. I cannot have peace because this is happening to me. I don't have peace because that is happening to me." No, brother. No, sister. That is not the correct evaluation of that situation. The correct evaluation of your situation is that you are not having peace because of the situation of the response of your heart to the situation of the circumstance that surrounds you. And so, it is important for you to first get this very clear. When you see a people say that look, the situation of Nigeria is making me restless, I don't have peace, in fact, I cannot sleep, in fact, I'm afraid, I'm afraid for this. You see, it is just natural. That is the state of a natural man. That is what is natural to us. But there is a light in God that transcends this natural response. That is why Jesus was saying in Matthew 24, "You will hear of wars, you will hear of rumors of war, but see to it." That "see to it" that the Lord Jesus was talking about is talking about make sure that you bring your heart under the atmosphere of the presence of God so that the situation of your heart will be, will have a guard, will have a guard. That guard is the peace of God. There is a peace of God that passes understanding. Somebody can be doing you evil, somebody can be compelling you to go one mile, to go two miles, and yet you are at peace. You are not disturbed. You are not afraid. Nothing is giving you problem. You are just at rest. Things are just okay with you. It looks as if—is this an exaggeration? Is this thing really possible? But look, it's the reality of the Christian life. And I want to show you something in Psalm 37 about this matter. Let's see Psalm 37. Let's see Psalm 37 on this matter. Psalm 37. Look at what the Bible says again in Psalm 37. The Word of God says, "Do not fret because of evil men, nor be envious of workers of iniquity." Now, naturally, naturally, what is the state of a natural man? You tend to get disappointed when evil people prosper. Is that not true? Is that not true with your heart? When you see evil people doing evil and they are prospering with it? You know, you notice—go and check it very well except you are not trying to be sincere. You will notice that somehow you become restless. Peace will depart from your heart. You start looking for—this evil, this injustice. No, this thing cannot go. I must stop it. And particularly if that evil is directed against your interest. You will notice that you will start getting bottled up. If it's a situation in which you cannot talk, you will start getting bottled up. And if it's a situation in which you can talk, you will notice that something, your heart will no more be at peace. There will be this agitation. There will be this no—this person cannot prosper in this thing. No, I will stop him. I will do that. Are you understanding me? I'm trying to make you understand when the Bible is talking about peace. "My peace I give unto you." And I'm trying to show you the paths to peace. And I'm building on what the scripture says in Philippians 4:6 and 7. Now, you will notice that you will start getting agitated, you will start getting disturbed, you will start fuming. Where you cannot fume, you start grumbling. Where you can address the person back, you give the person what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 where we are coming from: an eye for an eye. You slap me, I slap you back. Do you notice that when the person gives you one and you give the person two, your mind is at peace that yes, I've done my own? But when you cannot give back your own, you will become restless. Now, look at what the Bible says. "Do not fret yourself because of evildoers, neither be envious of workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like grass and wither as the green herb." Now, he says, "Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." I will come much more properly to this matter of the verse 3 and the verse 4. These are practical steps to peace. I will come back to those things later. He says, "Commit your ways to the Lord, trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass." Now, do you notice that what the Bible is saying in Philippians chapter 4 verse 6 and 7 is exactly what the Bible is saying in Psalm 37 verse 5? He says, "Commit your way to the Lord." In Philippians, he says, "Be anxious about nothing." Don't be anxious about oppression. Don't be anxious about cheating. Don't be anxious about injustice. Don't be anxious when it looks as if your right is being taken away. Don't be anxious when it looks as if your interest is not protected. Don't be anxious. He said be anxious about nothing. Are you seeing a similar thing in this place? He says, "Commit your ways to the Lord." Commit it to him. Just commit it to him. Now, when you look at that Philippians where we are coming from, he says, "And the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your heart and soul." Now, when you look at this place, he says, "Trust in the Lord. He will bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday." Verse 7: "Rest on the Lord, wait patiently for him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings evil schemes to pass. Cease from anger, forsake wrath. Do not fret, it only causes harm." Now, you know what I'm trying to show you. You know I made a fundamental statement before we came to this point. I said when you notice on any matter, any issue of life, any matter at all—I mean, just think of anything in this life—when you notice that on any matter you are not at peace, because the Lord said in Matthew 24, even when you hear of war and of rumors of war, he says see to it that you are not afraid. You are hearing war, you are seeing war, rumors that destruction is coming. He says see to it that you are not afraid. The reason why you are not at peace is not because of the situation of the circumstance that surrounds you. No. That's not the reason. No. It is not because somebody slapped you and was able to slap and then he went away with it. That circumstance, that is not what is making you to be restless. No. It is not because this person is cheating. That is not the real reason for your restlessness. You will understand it because the Lord said when you hear of war and of rumors of wars, see to it that you are not troubled. When the Lord said somebody slap you, turn the other one. It means when he slaps you and you become restless, it is not the slap that makes you restless. Something else is making you restless. That's why you could not turn the other one. That thing that is making you restless is the first thing that God addresses in the place of prayer. The peace of God will first deal with your heart. God will not first deal with the situation because it is not the situation that is making you to be restless. It is not the situation that is taking peace away from you. It is not what is happening around you, brother. Please understand this truth. Sister, understand this truth. It is not what is happening around you. It is not the situation that surrounds you that is taking peace from you. What is taking peace from you is the situation of your own heart. That is why when people say what is happening in Nigeria is making me afraid, is making me restless, brother, sister, can you come to this understanding today that what is making you restless is not the war and the rumors of war? No. What is making you restless is not that you were cheated. What is making you restless is not that somebody took away your right. What is making you restless, the real factor making you restless, is that your heart have not experienced something. Something needs to operate. That thing is what we call the peace of God. And God is showing you how that thing can operate. The way he can operate first and foremost is that in every matter, in every matter of life, in anything that is happening around your life, in anything that may be happening to you, can you just take the yoke of Jesus? You remember I said that last week. He said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." And what will happen to you? "You will find rest for your soul." All you need is to take his yoke. You remember what I said about his yoke? I said just do what he says. Just do what he says, and you will find rest for your soul. The rest for your soul is not going to come from the situation of your circumstance. The rest for your soul is going to come from taking his yoke upon you and learning from him. Hallelujah. Brethren, are you understanding me? Is there restlessness in your marriage? Is there restlessness in your business? Is there restlessness in your academics? Is there restlessness in your finance? Is there restlessness concerning your children? Is there restlessness somewhere? That thing that is giving you restlessness, can I simply tell you this? It is because you allowed it. You will say no, I did not allow it. You need to know how it happened. Do you notice that what the Lord said is that see to it that you are not troubled? See to it. See to it. When we are troubled, the problem is not with the wars and the rumors of wars around our life. The issues don't lie in the circumstance of our situations. No. The issue lies in the circumstance of our heart. And when you bring the matter to me, when he said be anxious about nothing but in everything through prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, now when you make that request known, the first thing God does is to deal with your heart. The peace of God will first guard your heart and guard your soul. The first thing God will address is the situation of your heart. Once God addresses the situation of your heart, you will discover your situation will not have changed, but you will be at peace. Hallelujah. Your situation will not have changed. The situation will still remain the way they are. But you just discover that what was troubling you before will be making you to laugh. And then the world will be asking you, "Ah, come. Do you know? Do you know what is happening to you? Do you know that?" You just tell them, "It is well." They will say, "Sister, you said this thing three days ago. How is it now?" "It is well." "Ah, brother, you have been saying this thing for the past four days. Situation have not changed. Are you not afraid of what will happen?" "Don't worry, it is well." And they begin to wonder, "Ah, is this person normal?" But actually, you are normal. The normalcy about you is that you can now see it the way God sees it. That's the normalcy. Any man who cannot see it the way God sees it is not normal. Hallelujah. That's the reality of the situation, brethren. Normalcy. That's why I tell people when things are happening around them, I said, "Brother or sister, let's first bring our spirit to its normal state." There is a normalcy, and we can never come to this normalcy until the peace of God does something to our heart. If you look at that scripture, he says, "Then the peace of God will guard your heart." It is not something natural. If you are looking for natural paths to peace, brother, you can be looking for the peace that the world gives. The peace that the world gives is like that. I will give you another such kind of example. Do you remember when Jairus' daughter was dying? And Jairus ran to Jesus Christ and related the story. "Please, please, please, please, my daughter, my daughter, my daughter is dying. Come and help me." And Jesus said, "Okay, let us go there." And as they were going, there was an interruption. There was this woman with the issue of blood. And then, having touched Jesus, Jesus said, "I'm sorry, somebody touched me." And when Peter was saying, "Master, Master, I don't understand you. Crowds are touching you. Somebody cannot be touching you. The crowds are touching you." I just see Jairus saying, "Heh, let's just go on time. Let's go on time. The girl is dying." I don't know whether you understand me, because for him, there was an emergency. For Jesus, there was no emergency. May God help you to see as God sees. And then I just see eventually that Jesus kept looking around. And I see Jairus almost pulling the coat. "Oga, please, let's go. The girl will soon die." And then just while Jesus was still speaking again, "Oh, daughter, your faith has made you well." I see Jairus saying, "Quickly summarize this talk and let us move on. Let's move on. There's an emergency." And just while Jesus was saying, "Your faith has made you whole," report came. "Ah, Daddy, Daddy, no hope again. Don't bother the Master. The girl is dead." And you will notice something. I see Jairus just say, "You see? That is what I was saying. But for this foolish woman that caused this interruption. If this woman have not interrupted us, ah, this woman is a devil." I'm trying to make you see the thinking of the man. But a separate thing going on where? With the Lord. And as they just told Jairus that, "Don't bother to call him," Jesus said, "Don't be afraid. Only believe." Are you seeing that? Are you following me? There was an emergency. Why was there emergency in the heart of Jairus? Because he could not see as the Lord sees. To him, the Lord and the woman must be abnormal. They are wasting time. Emergency! Let's move fast! Do you know that is our situation many times when we have a dying girl? When something is dying in our lives. When something looks like heh, Lord, Lord, Lord, you are not counting the year. All those things that you are looking at is not what the Lord is looking at. So, the first thing God does with a man when he comes into his presence is not to address the situation. It's to make the man see as God sees. That is why the Bible says the peace of God. When you bring it, it's not that the peace of God is going to address the situation. No, that's not the first thing God is going to do. The peace of God is first going to do what? Guard your heart. When he says guard the heart, you know what he's saying? He's going to—let me put it for you this way. As a man thinketh, the Bible says so he is. So, when he said he will guard your heart, what do you think he's going to do? What's he going to do? He's going to change the way you think. And that is why when you look at all those other things he said. When somebody slaps you, please, what the state of your heart? What would be the state of your heart? Why are you agitated? "I have been cheated." Is that not the state of your heart? That is why you became restless. And so you could not turn the other side. Is that not true? Is that not true? That is the truth. That's why you became restless. That's why you are shaking. But if your thinking, if your seeing the situation is not that you are cheated, but that ah, it will be well with this person. Ah, I pity this young man. You know something happened with a brother and I began to understand this thing very well. He was to do something with a commercial driver. The commercial driver, you know, it's like let me give an example. There was a bargain that you bring something for me from Lagos, you bring it to Akure, I'll pay you 10,000 Naira. And we were both coming. We got to somewhere near the Akure—means my house. That is what we agreed. We got to somewhere around the market, Oja-Oba, the vehicle went bad. He could not get to the house. And I said ah, what do we do now? What do we do? He said ah, he doesn't know what you will do now. That he doesn't know what you will do now. He said okay, so how do you want us to address it? The man said he doesn't even know now that but that what will happen is that he will need to put one or two things in place. Let me have 10,000. The brother gave 10,000. But at the end of the day, by the time the whole thing will turn, they still could not get the thing to his house. He will now be the one to get another vehicle to take it. So, the man made they were making arrangement for another vehicle. The brother now said okay, pay the vehicle. And driver said [unclear: best guess: ori e lo daru] [speaking in Yoruba/local dialect]. [Unclear: spoken language]. Please what will be your feeling? I'm telling you a true-life situation. But do you know, do you know what happened? Well, the brother just smiled. He said, "I'm just afraid for the commercial driver. I'm pitying him. He doesn't know who I am." People with him would have known that they can't be cheated. [Unclear: spoken language]. But for another brother, how do you handle that? It's going to be me and you, Jesus apart! Jesus apart! You must give me my 10,000 money! You see, your trouble relates to the attitude of your heart. That is the situation. The matter is about the heart. Don't you know that? I was, my brethren, I was so challenged that day that ah, oh Jesus, this is wonderful. And then the commercial driver just entered into his vehicle, just closed the thing and then drove away. And then he thought that he had done something serious to the brother. But for the brother, has he done anything serious? What was the brother actually doing? [Unclear: spoken language]. So in the real sense of it, was he not turning the other side? He had been slapped one way. Was he not doing good for evil? Was he not giving his enemy needed prayer? And he was praying for his enemy. But look at how some of us handle these kind of situations today. Situation of cheating, situation of oppression, the wicked prospers, somebody is taking your right and he's telling you that are you not serious, why you don't enter, have I not helped you to get a vehicle, come on pay for it [unclear: spoken language], just enter his car and drove away. For some of us, that day have been spoiled for us. The next person that meets you will meet your anger. There will be transfer of aggression. But I'm showing you something. I'm showing you something that that is why when God wants to begin the matter of peace with us, the first thing he's telling us is "Can you bring the matter to me?" If you are not at peace, the problem is not with the circumstance of your situation. Where's the problem? The problem is with the circumstance of your heart. And so, what God wants you to do when he said the peace of God that passes all understanding, when that peace is first coming, it's going to first land on your heart. That's the first landing place. When it lands here, he's guarding the heart, he's redirecting the heart, he's redirecting the heart. And what he's redirecting is the way you think, the way you see it, the way you perceive it, your attitude to it. And he begins to redirect all of that. He begins to redirect all of that. And suddenly, suddenly, you will just see that the brother that was behaving somehow before begins to become very normal. And do you know, do you know that until that peace of God first guard our hearts, it becomes very difficult for God to deal with our situation? Do you get what I've just said? Do you get what I've just said? That's why I'm illustrating it with the life of Jairus. Jesus did not just keep quiet and said, "Jairus, let's be going." The miracle of Jesus was first in the heart of Jairus. "Fear not. Only believe." All this thing in your heart heh, my daughter, oh, and I see Jairus wanting to be scattered, be broken. He said fear not, don't be afraid, only believe. Do you see that the miracle of God did not begin from the death of the daughter? Where did it begin from? It begins from the situation of the heart of the father to the death of the daughter. That's what you are seeing. Because God's intervention in our situation follows from our trust in him. So, if the Lord don't first guard our heart, don't forget, a double-minded man cannot receive anything from the Lord. Brethren, let us pray this evening. Oh, precious Father, we thank you. Almighty God, we bless your name. Everlasting Father, we lift you high. Thank you, Lord, for this evening. Thank you, Lord, for this evening. Lord, help us that we may live our lives as followers of the Lord, disciples of Jesus. Lord, help us that we may follow you. Help us to follow you. Help us, Lord, that we may follow in your steps in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, our God, we pray this evening, every situation of restlessness, every situation where there is no peace, everywhere there is a dying girl, where a girl is dying and it looks like there's an emergency, everywhere it looks like oh, God, come quick, quick, quick, where it looks like ah, things are getting out of hands. Oh, God, help everywhere there is a feeling of hurt and pain, of oppression from cheating. Lord, anywhere there is any kind of restlessness, oh, Lord, our God, let your peace guard our heart. Let it guard our heart. Let it guard our heart in the name of Jesus Christ. So that, Lord, our eyes can see your intervention in the name of Jesus Christ. For surely, Lord, as you told Mary and Martha, if we believe, we shall see the glory of God. Lord, surely we shall see your glory in the land of the living in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you, blessed Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. [Music] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission hit. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class, every Monday 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles Club, every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Family Life Seminars, regular school outreaches, and every day counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location, Life Camp by the First Bridge, Ilere Community opposite Very Joy Filling Station along Ijetu road, Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 080833861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.