The following blog post contains notes and application questions from our October 13, 2019 message, Peace. For more from this series, check out This Is The Life.
Discussing and Applying the Sermon
- Is your life marked more by stress or by peace? Discuss why you answered the way you did with your community group.
- In what external circumstance are you most likely to look for peace?
- Memorize Philippians 4:4-8 to help “Think everything you believe (as opposed to believe everything you think).
Summary
Is your life ever marked by stress or anxiety? If so, what do you do in order to find relief? As we continue our series, “This is the Life,” John Elmore teaches us about external peace, eternal peace, and internal peace.
Key Takeaways
- Peace: An untroubled heart that comes from trusting God.
- Shalom: completeness, wholeness, soundness of body, soul and mind.
- Peace is mentioned 429 times in the Bible; it’s been a felt-longing ever since Genesis 3.
- Peace is not dependent on external circumstances, but on an eternal God who gives internal peace.
- We are prone to buy the lie that we can get peace from external circumstances (money, home, relationships, job, health, etc.). These very things—the things we think will give us peace—are the highest causes of stress in our lives.
- Like a fly is drawn to that which decays, when we seek peace from external circumstances we worship the false idols of: Pleasures, Treasures, and Measures.
- Eternal life gives you eternal perspective. Eternal perspective gives peace despite external circumstances.
- Jesus: “My kingdom is not of this world.” Where is your kingdom?
- Eternal peace and perspective doesn’t necessarily mean having internal peace…you can be saved and still be a completely stressed out wreck.
- Internal Peace: Unshakable peace from Prayer, Perspective, Practice, People, and Presence—despite all external circumstances.
- Don’t believe everything you think. Think everything you believe.
- Remember, peace is a fruit of the Spirit, not from you or your circumstances.
Memorable Quotes
- “Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God in the midst of trouble.” -Sheila Walsh
- "Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.” -CS Lewis (The Problem of Pain)
- “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”― C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
- “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you.” Augustine of Hippo (354–430), in Confessions
Mentioned or Recommended Resources
- Suggested Scripture study: 1 Peter 2:23; John 14:27; John 16:33; 1 John 2:15-17; Matthew 11:28-29; Romans 6:23; John 18:36; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Hebrews 11:16; Philippians 4:6-9; Isaiah 26:3; Galatians 5:22-23; Romans 8:6; Proverbs 3:1-2
- Sermon: Missing Out: On Peace
- Sermon: The USA: United States of Anxiety
- Sermon: Anxiety: A Perspective Problem