When Peace Gets Personal - Part B

I call it a peace without ripples. There's no undercurrent of anxiety. It's total well-being. It's internal tranquility.

You go, sounds good to me, how do I get that? By focusing your thoughts. It says you will keep him in peace, peace, perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you.

Stayed means fixed, glued. God offers you his peace, but you must actively receive it. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how God's peace can flourish in your life. Now we want to tell you about a resource that shines light on the rapidly shifting landscape of the Middle East and how it impacts you. The beating heart of Bible prophecy is the land of Israel and the Middle East. Joel Rosenberg has his finger on the pulse of the world-shaking changes happening right now, and he unveils them in his new nonfiction book, Enemies and Allies. This is the first book of its kind that takes you inside the oval office, inside the palaces of the kings and crown princes, the presidents and the prime ministers, in Israel and in the Arab world. As we ask them, what do you think about religious freedom, about making peace with Israel, about the threat from Iran, about U.S.-Arab relations, U.S.-Israel relations? Enemies and Allies, from multiple New York Times bestselling author Joel Rosenberg, takes you on an unforgettable journey inside the turbulent Middle East. You'll go behind closed doors to hear from the very kings and crown princes, presidents and prime ministers who are leading the charge. Enemies and Allies includes exclusive, never-before-published quotes, insights and analysis from the author's conversations with some of the world's most controversial leaders. Your hardcover copy of Enemies and Allies is our thanks for your generous gift of $35 or more today.

To give, call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskipp.com. Okay, we're in Isaiah chapter 26 as Skip Heitzig starts today's study. The Jewish people have in history been ruled by many different nations. They've had many taskmasters over them. They have suffered a slavery and takeover by a number of different groups. I think of the Egyptians. I think of the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Medo-Persians, the Syrians, the Romans, right?

There's a long list of that. All of that is over. Now it's just their Messiah. And there's peace in the land and there's peace in their hearts.

So that's the future. Peace is found in God. It is forecast for the kingdom. Here's the third fundamental fact of personal peace. It flourishes with virtue. It flourishes with virtue.

Look at verse 2. Open the gates, that is open the gates of the city, that does it say the nation will come in? What kind of nation is it? The righteous nation.

Here's the description. Which keeps the truth may enter in. What I want you to notice is the relationship here between peace and righteousness. The righteous nation.

These are people who keep the truth, that is they remain faithful. Do you know that right living, obedient living, righteousness will help you experience peace? And if you wonder, gosh I'm always lacking peace.

I'm sort of like that picture of the screen. Could it be that in your war with sin, sin is winning? Right? That'll rob you of peace quicker than anything else. There's always a relationship between righteousness and peace. What did Paul say? The fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, this is what the Spirit produces is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, etc.

etc. It produces peace. In contrast to that, Isaiah 48 says, there is no peace says the Lord says the Lord for the wicked.

He says it again, Isaiah 57, there is no peace says my God for the wicked. So then, personal peace is a byproduct of right living and sin is the great disturber of the peace. What will disturb and disrupt your peace faster than anything else is sin. It hinders fellowship with God. It causes anguish of heart.

It is like an intruder, a house breaker, a thief that comes in to rob you of peace. That is why confession is so important. Confession of sin. You go, why do we confess our sins?

Why do I have to tell God I'm a sinner? Doesn't He already know it? Yes, He already knows it. Believe me, He knows it. But He sure likes to hear you say it. He likes it when you just go, okay, I admit it. I'm busted.

I'm sorry. I've done that. The Bible talks a lot about confession because when you confess to God your sin, you are dealing with guilt and you are restoring personal peace. That's what restores peace. David wrote about this. He wrote about his own experience where he refused to confess his sin. It was the sin of Bathsheba. When he committed adultery, he just sort of held it in. Didn't talk about it.

He's a man. And so Psalm 32, he writes, when I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Then I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord. I still remember July of a long time ago when I gave my life to Christ.

I remember that summer. I remember when I watched Billy Graham on television and I said my little prayer on my bedroom. And I always tell people, I never saw a bright light.

I never heard a voice from heaven. But I sure felt something. And what I felt was a burden lift. I felt like it was like, whew, man, I've been living under such guilt for so long and all that is lifted now. And that's because I confessed my sin and admitted my need and asked Jesus to fix it. And I was unburdened. And I got to tell you, I have experienced that feeling many times since.

Many times since. I had a friend who said, you know what confession is like, Skip? It's like brushing your teeth. I go, what? Well, then what do you say?

You're going, what? You know what it's like this morning when you got up in the morning and you brushed your teeth? Felt good, right? I mean, I don't know about you, but when I brush my teeth in the morning, you know what I say afterwards? Ah, right? That minty, fresh feeling, right?

All that bacteria and gunk has been in my mouth all night long. Ooh. And then shh.

Ah. Confession feels like that for the soul. It unburdens the soul.

It deals with the guilt. Psalm 119 says, Great peace have those who love your law. Here's a description of people in that kingdom, the kingdom age, who will love the law of God. It's when you break God's law that it robs you of peace. So a few fundamentals of personal peace. It's found in God. It's forecast for the future kingdom. It flourishes with virtue.

I'll give you a fourth. It is fostered by focus. What I mean by that is it is related to your thought life, your focus, what you contemplate, what you think about. Go back to verse 3. Here's the essence of the promise. You, God, you, will keep Him, I'm going to put or her, you know, it's sort of a general term for God's people. You will keep Him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. First of all, let's talk about perfect peace. It doesn't say you'll keep Him in peace, but you'll keep Him in perfect peace. What is perfect peace?

What's the difference between like peace and perfect peace? Well, it's an interesting idea here because in the original Hebrew, the word for perfect is the same word for peace. In fact, in Hebrew, it says you will keep Him in peace, peace. That's how it's written in Hebrew.

You will keep Him in shalom, shalom. It's the same word. It is just repeated, and it's called the idiom of reduplication, the idiom of reduplication. That is, whenever you take a word and you double it, you now intensify its meaning. So like in the New Testament, Jesus said, verily, verily.

It's not just verily or truly, but it's truly, truly, verily, verily. So when it's peace, peace, it's perfect peace. And so when the Hebrew does that, it just simply means complete, genuine, deep, satisfying peace. That kind of peace, right? A settled heart. I call it a peace without ripples. There's no undercurrent of anxiety. It's total well-being. It's internal tranquility.

You go, sounds good to me. How do I get that? By focusing your thoughts. It says you will keep Him in peace, peace, perfect peace, whose mind whose mind is stayed on you. Stayed means fixed, glued, focused, concentrated on. It refers to a steadfast mind, one that's been disciplined to constantly focus on one thing.

One thing. It's like Psalm 112. It says, the righteous will not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is steadfast.

Same idea. Stayed, fixed, steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established.

He will not be afraid. So simply put, it's when we focus on His love, His power, His ability, His care, His plan, His intentions for me, which is always good. All things work together for good to those that love God. It's when I focus on that. Have you noticed that our peace can easily be disrupted by outside thoughts? My wife tells me I have ADD.

I don't know if that's true or not. But anyway, she always says I get distracted with all sorts of thoughts. And I have discovered that thoughts, other thoughts, can easily disrupt us from the one thing we should be thinking about.

Right? We hear a report. We hear a news report. We get a doctor's diagnosis. Somebody tells us of something one of our children was involved in, maybe a car accident. Our peace is suddenly disrupted by the news that we hear.

A letter from a lawyer will often steal your peace. Neuroscientists tell us that the human mind in one day has about 70,000 thoughts. That just seems monumental to me.

70,000? What do we think about all day? Well, 70,000 things, 70,000 thoughts, that's 25.5 million a year.

Here's what we all need to do. How many ever thoughts you have during the day? You need to learn to harness your thoughts. You need to learn to tell your brain, your mind, your heart, however you want to call it, what to think on.

You tell it that. The Bible calls that bringing every thought into captivity. That's 2 Corinthians chapter 10. We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Just picture that for a second. Here's your thoughts.

Your thoughts are taking you in one direction. Grab that thought. Lasso it up. Chain it up. Bring it to Christ.

Say, here, Lord, you take it. And let me focus now on your love and your power and your care and your ability, bringing every thought captive. Philippians chapter 4 verse 8. Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things or think on these things. We have to be very careful about what input we allow in our lives, what we allow ourselves to see, what we allow ourselves to hear, what we allow ourselves therefore to think about, and bring those thoughts into captivity. Personal peace is fostered by focus. Let me give you a final component, a final fundamental of personal peace. Personal peace is formed by trust. You will keep him in perfect peace, verse 3, whose mind is stayed on you, focused on you, concentrated on you, because he trusts in you. The reason he focuses his thoughts is because he trusts in you, is the thought. And then in verse 4 is the command, trust in the Lord forever.

So let's follow the thought so far in this message. The peace that we're talking about, the personal peace, comes directly from God. It is given to his righteous ones, his obedient ones, who focus their thoughts on him. And the reason they focus their thoughts on him is because they trust him. And the reason they trust him is because he's trustworthy. You only trust somebody who's trustworthy. Because God is trustworthy, his children focus their thoughts on him because they trust in him. They trust in him. Do you realize God designed you to be dependent on him? You know, I know I'm talking to Americans, right?

We love our independence. God designed you to be dependent on him. In fact, I would say that the whole problem of sin is independence from God. That's really the definition of sin. Sin started when man said, I'm going to be independent of what God wants. That was sin. That's where it all started.

God designed us to be dependent on him. Now here's one of the most famous verses on trusting God ever to be found. You know it. You know it by heart.

I'll prove it to you. Proverbs 3 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. See how well you know that verse? Verses.

What a great promise. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. When you trust a trustworthy God, the experience you walk away with is perfect peace. Perfect peace. Isaiah 30 reminds us, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.

In quiet and confidence will be your strength. Seems to me that we live in an era where we are given two choices. It's either going to be trust or it's going to be torment. Those are our two choices.

Either we trust God and we say God is sovereign. I don't get this whole virus thing. I don't know how. This is so weird. Isn't this weird? What a weird year this is. Can you believe it? Unprecedented.

But God is sovereign and I trust him. Or torment. This is nuts. This is crazy. Who knows what could happen next? Anything can happen.

Everything's random. That's torment. And that's this.

Right? That's the scream. Torment.

Not this. It's either trust or torment. Most people opt for which one? Most people in the world opt for torment.

They do. Here's why. Or here's the proof of that. One source that I read said 60% of illnesses are due to emotional stress.

Wow. 60% of illnesses are due to emotional stress. Things like fear, sorrow, envy, hatred, guilt all help to produce physical disease.

Another report I read just yesterday said 90% of illnesses and diseases are stress related. Okay back to that thing of trust. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path.

Not only will he direct your path but he's going to give you something. It's called peace. Because it says in Proverbs 3 verse 8 that same scripture says when you trust the Lord it will be health to your flesh. It will be health to your flesh. The word flesh in that text literally is navel. And everybody wants a healthy navel.

Right? That's an old Hebrew way of talking about your nervous system. It will be you want a healthy nervous system? Trust the Lord. Trust the Lord.

It'll be the best thing for your nerves. That's the idea of that text. Trust the Lord with all your heart. We live in a great modern era of technology and innovation and medical advancement.

But you know what? Medical science can add years to your life but trusting God will add life to your years. You want real life. You want real peace.

You want something deeper than just existence. Trust in the Lord. That's why that's why words of truth are so important. That's why Bible study is so important.

That's why coming to church singing these songs together reading the word together is so important. It brings it helps restore peace. Jesus said these things I have spoken to you that in me you might have peace.

I'm telling you this so that you'll be peaceful. So be fixed on God. Be stayed on Him. Be fixated on His truth. Meditate on His truth. Especially with all the bad news going on out there. Especially don't get up in the morning and read Twitter or Instagram as the first thing. You'll just be all day long. Get yourself some good news first.

Get yourself fixed on truth and God and His love and His care. There's a great story about about a couple. Actually it doesn't start out great but it sort of ends kind of funny. This couple had been married 40 years and after 40 years of marriage the husband died sadly and so his wife was left alone and as the months went by and about a year passed she was having a conversation with one of her friends who happened to own a pet store and her friend said you know I would just have you ever thought about getting a pet.

I know that that won't replace a life partner but it would sure help. So she goes yeah that's not a bad idea. She goes down to her friend's pet store and she looks at all the pets and tries to decide which one should I get. You know I'm not going to get the iguana.

That's not really helpful or the grasshopper is not a good thing but maybe a dog. So she pets the dogs. Nah you know and she cats. No way I'm not going to get a cat.

Cats don't care about me. So she is she's thinking what to get and she goes you know I'd really love an animal that could talk back to me and the pet store owner said oh you want a parrot. I happen to have a parrot. It's quite expensive but it can be trained to talk.

In fact this parrot will be a chatterbox. So she goes okay she bought the parrot. Cost her a lot of money. She bought it.

Took it home. Came back a week later and the pet store owner said that bird's talking it up right and she said nope hadn't said a word yet. She's a little frustrated. Pet store owner said well have you have you bought a mirror for the cage.

Said no. Goes well I've discovered that you know when the bird sees its reflection in a mirror it sort of feels like it's not alone like there's another bird there it'll start talking. So she goes okay she bought the mirror and she starts talking. So she buys a mirror puts it in the cage.

Comes back a week later. Pet store owner said did it work. Owner said nope didn't work. Bird's not saying a word yet. Pet store owner said well did you buy a ladder for the cage. I've discovered that when a bird sees itself in the mirror it goes up and down the ladder you know gets a little energy going it starts talking. So she buys a ladder takes it home puts it in the cage comes back a week later.

Nothing. She's really frustrated at this point. Pet store owner said well do you have a swing in the cage. Because you know I've discovered sometimes when a bird sees itself in the mirror and goes up and down the ladder if it can just move a little bit more on a swing it'll talk.

So she buys a swing takes it home puts it in the cage comes back a week later fuming mad. The pet store owner said is that bird talking yet. The lady said my bird is dead. This expensive parrot that I lay down hard cold cash for is dead at the bottom of the cage. Pet store owner said man I'm shocked.

Really I'm shocked. Did that bird say anything at all. And the lady said well yes as a matter of fact it did as it lay there taking its last few breaths it says don't they have any food down there at that store. All of the world's gymnastics that they are telling you to do to get peace what you really need is to eat. You need food.

You need nourishment. You need God's promises. You need God's truth. And when you get God's truth and you stay fixed on that fixed on him and you trust him as his child you walk away with peace. Peace. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from the series Give Peace a Chance. Now if you love Bible study a trip to Israel is a life changer.

Your Bible study will never be the same. Skip has lived in Israel and led tours many many times. Here he is to invite you on his next tour. You know there's always something new to see and experience in Israel and I'm so excited to let you know that I'm taking another tour group to Israel next spring in 2022. You're in for an incredible time as we travel throughout Israel and experience the culture that's so unique to that country. We'll start on the Mediterranean Sea and head north seeing places like Caesarea and Nazareth the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. We'll spend several days in and around Jerusalem and see the Temple Mount, Calvary, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Mount of Olives and much more. This remarkable itinerary is made richer with times of worship, Bible study, and lots of fellowship. Now I've been to Israel a number of times over the years and I can honestly say that visiting the places where the events of the scriptures unfolded, where Jesus lived, taught, and healed, it just never gets old. I can't wait to see you in Israel. Start planning and saving now to tour Israel with Skip Heitzig. Information at inspirationcruises.com slash cabq. That's inspirationcruises.com slash c-a-b-q. Tune in again tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares how you can neutralize anxiety so God's peace can reign in your life. Be sure to join us. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications. Connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.