This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Ignite the Light Ministries Radio and Podcast. It is our mission to help listeners develop a deeper relationship with Jesus by sharing what the Bible says and what it means. We aim to encourage and equip you to serve others, share the gospel, and reflect Christ in every aspect of your life. I'm Pastor Wyatt Cud.
Thank you for tuning in. This morning, as I was going over my notes for the sermon, I have so much I want to say on this topic of finding peace, and 25 minutes is just not enough.
So there are going to be plenty of things on this topic that there's just more to be said.
So I want to preface going into this topic with that.
So, when I was on the mission trip to Guadal, yes, this time would dismiss for Children's Church if we would like to. My balance. Yeah, it's the cute baby. Oh man, does somebody else want a free test?
Okay.
So when I was on our mission trip to Guatemala, there was one of the guys that went with us. He was Paula Martin's son. His name was Kevin. Never met him before, but on the bus ride to to land, we landed in the plane. And then the bus ride was several hours before we reached our destination, and we both sat in the back of the bus like the cool kids, and got to have one of the most interesting conversations with this guy, getting to know him.
Kevin has been through it; he's not had an easy life, but in all respects, he's quite successful, at least from my point of view.
Now, and he said something that just really stuck out to me. He said, "For all the things that people go through, for all the things that people chase after, we're really all searching for the same thing. We are all just looking for peace, and that stuck with me." Reflecting on my own life, reflecting on the things I pray for, you know, reflecting on the things I try aim at. Kevin's right, man. Everything we everything we aim for, what we have in common is we are all just looking for peace.
That's a powerful thought.
Now there was a question asked in the question box on the topic of grief. How do I deal with grief? And I'm going to try to address that. In this sermon, albeit indirectly, by answering this question, man, how do I, how do I have peace? How do I find peace?
I have good news. There is an answer. But let me tell you a little bit about myself. When I was a kid, I I used to hate reading. I used to hate reading, and I remember I went to my grandparents' house for a week.
Grandparents on my mom's side, and my grandmother took me to the public library, and she said, "Wyatt, you can check out any book that you want." And I said, "I don't want to do that. Why would I ever do that?" And she said, "Wyatt, let me rephrase that." You are going to check out a book, and you are going to read it.
Now it can be one that you pick, or it can be one I pick for you. But we're going to go home. You're going to sit in that chair, and you are going to read it, and you are going to like it. Oh man, I wasn't happy. I don't even remember what book I picked.
But I'm thinking, man, this is gonna be this is gonna be a terrible week. I don't want to read. But I sat down. Grandma was true to her word. There was no getting around it.
I was reading this book. And I opened that book, and gradually I started, I started getting into it. Then I was engaged. I'm like, okay, this is good. Grandma, thank you for not giving me a choice because I didn't know what was good for me.
Now, these days, my office has more books than I can count. I do a lot of reading, and I've started doing this thing. I have one section on my bookshelf. That I call the hate read section, and it's it's books that I know I disagree with. It's books that you know.
So so like what I got on this shelf, I have the Book of Mormon. I have the teachings of Buddha. I have the Tao teaching. I got the Communist Manifesto. I have not read that book.
I don't want to read it, but it's there. It has been on there for five years. I don't want to read that book. The reason being is that. Through these different philosophies or way of thinking about things, we approach them knowing that they are wrong or incomplete in some way.
Guys, let me tell you something. I'm discovering it is still true that everyone is trying to answer that question: How do I find peace? Every religion, every philosophy, every political system, every self-help book, every drug addict, every human heart is all reaching for that thing—peace. How do I find it? How do I get it?
That means something. There's something in all of us—this this yearning for peace. And I find it interesting that though people can go about very various different ways of trying to achieve this peace, they can be they can be vastly different, vastly incorrect. The presence of that desire for peace is in everyone.
So, what does what does God tell us about this?
Well, if we look in Genesis, God tells us that the way things are. Is not how they used to be. We have this picture in Genesis in the garden of a man and a woman in perfect relationship with each other, perfectly complementing one another. But what precedes that? What comes before that is a perfect relationship with God.
They are working side by side, walking side by side with God in perfect relationship, in perfect friendship. In an uncompromised union with the Maker of everything, there was peace.
Now, what we see in this picture in the garden is that. The man and the woman—they're not complete without each other. We're meant to complement one another. Even still, we see that there is work to be done. They were to name the animals.
They were to be good stewards of the garden.
So they weren't just sitting around doing nothing. They had work to do. The source of peace—it comes from walking in the garden with God. That's where peace is found. Amen.
This is the picture of peace that Genesis gives us.
Okay, so what about today? Why is there longing? Why do we struggle to find peace? Why do we have all these different ideas, religions, and philosophies trying to remedy the lack of peace?
Well, this peace did not remain because Genesis three. We have the fall of man. Can I tell you something? If you're struggling with peace today, if you're struggling with grief, if you're struggling with loss, if you feel that the world is not as it should be, can I tell you something? You're experiencing the world accurately.
We live. In a fallen world, things don't work the way they should. Relationships don't work the way they should. We grieve over death and loss as we should, because God made us to walk with Him in the garden, and the world we are in is fallen. C.S.
Lewis writes in his book *Mere Christianity*: "If I find in myself a desire of which nothing in this world can satisfy," It must mean I was made for a different world. Love that. If I find in myself a desire for peace, I must have been designed to find it. I must have been designed to have it. I must have been built to receive it.
I might take that a step further and say, if I find in myself an aversion or a resentment of the reality of death. Then something is wrong with that. Perhaps death is a foreign insert into our world. Perhaps death doesn't naturally belong. More on that here in a minute.
Whatever you're going through, whatever you find is getting in the way of your experience of peace. This is an important part, Church. I want you to hear me. We live in a fallen world. Your pain is real.
Your longing is real. The lack of peace is real. Let me just confirm that you haven't missed anything. In fact, you're right where you need to be. God has put us right here where we need to be.
We live in a fallen world. The suffering, the longing we experience is real.
Now, that may seem obvious. Like, well, why does that even need to be said? Because well, there are some other ways of thinking about things. Buddhism, for example, would suggest that the world, your your self, and suffering is an illusion. We'll get to that here in a second.
But it's important that we establish: yes, the tension of I desire peace and I'm struggling to find it is real. You haven't missed anything.
Okay, so then we ask: all right, can anything be done about it? All right. Let's go back here to Genesis, Genesis three.
So death has entered the world as a consequence of humanity's rebellion. Adam and Eve ate from the knowledge, the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil when they were told not to. Humanity rebelled against God, stepped away from walking with Him.
Now there's some other things that entered the world as a consequence. We have death, but let's look with Eve's curse. She is pain in childbearing, and her desire will be for her husband, and he will rule over her.
Now, the connotation of that is sinful. It will be a sinful desire over her husband, and he will sinfully rule over her. But what we have here, her curse is pertaining to relationships. Adam needs or Eve's relationship, so far as with her husband and with the children that will come. There is a curse put on relationships, broadly speaking.
Because of the fall, our relationships with each other don't exactly work the way they should. Sin has inserted itself. Our relationships suffer from that. All right. So, what about Adam's curse?
Adam's curse is vocational. Says Genesis three seventeen to twenty. Cursed is the ground because of you. There will be thorns and thistle to work through. You will work by the sweat of your brow.
You will eat your food until you return to the ground. You're going to sweat. You're going to suffer. You're going to bleed for your vocation. That is a that is a curse of work.
Now we get to why these curses are. Are gendered, specific to man and woman. Broadly speaking, I'd say women are very good with people. Men tend to be good with things. Those are generalizations.
Because of sin, our relationships with people and our relationships with work is tainted. It does not work the way it should.
So we have death. We have tainted relationships, and our work is tainted as well. Then, last thing, Adam and Eve are what? What comes next? They're cast out of the garden.
God provides for their needs. He provides them clothing before he does that, because he's loving. But God and He continues to provide for our needs. But they are cast out of the garden. That perfect walking in step and perfect relationship with God, sin has created a gap.
Sin has created a separation from the source. Theologically speaking, that is where our peace went. That is why there is a burning desire in every human heart for peace, and so many are unable to find it because we are made in the image of God. We are made to be walking in perfect relationship with Him, but because of the effects of sin, there is a separation. Great, okay, but can anything be done about it?
Yes, and no. Yes and no. It's both. The curse does not simply go away. I guess I don't have to tell you guys that we're living it.
The curse does not simply go away, but it can be overcome. The suffering of work, yes. The suffering in relationships, yes. The reality of death, because of Jesus, yes. Walking again with God and perfect fellowship in the garden, yes.
Now, it's probably now's probably a good time to talk about Jesus. Don't you think? Very clearly, we see Romans three twenty three. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Not just Adam and Eve; we are all guilty of sin.
Romans six twenty three. It says, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Then it says Romans five eight. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Philippians two. I'm going to summarize it.
It tells us that Jesus, being in the very nature of God, Set aside his divine attributes, made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. He stepped into creation as a man, humbled himself to death, even death on a cross. Why did he do this? What's the result? Romans five one it tells us: therefore, since we have been justified through faith.
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There it is. God loves us enough that He sent His own Son to cover our sins, the original cause of the fall, to cover our sins, and to bring us back into peace, into that relationship, into walking with God. He's bringing us back. The God we once walked with.
Is calling us back. Come back. Come walk with me again. Because of Jesus, our sins can be forgiven. We can be brought back into relationship of walking with God.
Now you'll notice Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. It hasn't simply undone. The effects of the original curse that will come with new creation. We look around; that's clear. But what he has done, I would argue, it might be better than that.
Jesus has demonstrated that sin, the the curse of sin. Is overcomeable. He overcame it. He came and he lived in this world, and he yet did not sin. He overcame death.
He taught a new way of doing relationships. He worked by the sweat of his brow through the thorns and thistle, and still produced before God the perfect sacrifice. And that's what work is. Work, work is the act of making a sacrifice now for something greater later. That's exactly what Jesus did.
He made the ultimate sacrifice for the redemption of all mankind. What does this mean? Means all the things in this world that cause us suffering can be overcome through Christ. Peace, fellowship with God can be renewed again through Christ.
Now, isn't that good news?
So, previously we said the we established the reality of the fall. Suffering is real. Unmet desires for peace is real. Can anything be done about it? Yes, there is a path, albeit a very narrow path, from suffering into peace through Christ.
We can find peace. Got to establish that first. Things first. We can find peace. How?
All right. Let me give you some wrong answers first. By trusting in the Lord. By trusting in the Lord. That's the right answer.
That's the right answer. By trusting in the Lord. Full stop. Full stop. But let me give you some wrong answers first.
All right. So the first answer people will try. Is hedonism? It's the practice of chasing after every pleasure, big or small, indulging your sin. If I indulge my sin, maybe I will find peace.
That's hedonism.
Now, sin—it's it's selfishness towards other people, it's rebellion towards God, and I'd also add, sin by and large is always a violation of your conscience. God has impressed on our hearts right and wrong. If we are violating our conscience, we are stepping into sin. Do not violate your conscience. It will bring short-term pleasure, but it's going to be at cost to the mid and long-term.
Sin will not bring you peace. The best thing indulging sin can accomplish is maybe numbing the present, but it will not bring you peace. And if we think about the picture of Genesis, like that's kind of obvious. Is not sin the thing that wound us up in this place to begin with?
So it's important we understand indulging in sin and the forbidden fruit. That's what took away our peace to begin with.
So if we want peace, sin is not the answer. Hedonism is not the answer. Pursuing pleasure is not the answer.
Okay, next one, idolatry.
Now, if if we're practicing it, we don't call it that. But I call it that. That is elevating anything else to the status of God. It can be a good thing too. We can take something good and put it at the level or above God.
Man, if I just had more money, I would be happy. If I could just get the girl, then I would be happy. If I could just get a bigger house, then I would be happy. If I could get a newer car, or maybe if I could develop more skills, or if I could read more books, or if I could just get the body that I wanted, then I would be happy. We say happy, but really, we're chasing peace.
It's a lie. It's a lie. Now it's different than hedonism because I think the thing we idolize is not necessarily wrong itself. It can be a good thing, but it has to be in submission to Christ and His direction.
So hedonism it does not work. It cannot provide peace because that thing is not the source. All right. Now, what about some other philosophies here?
So we'll. I'll give you a couple of ones that I've been studying recently.
So you got Taoism, you got Buddhism, common among people who are seeing the flaws with atheism. You know, there is no God. They'll see flaws, cracks in this idea, and then they'll go east.
So Taoism would say the world is God, and by extension, you are God. Suffering happens when we forget that, and then try to distinguish ourselves from it. Bruce, something y'all might be familiar with. Bruce Lee famously quoted, "Be water, my friend." You guys heard that? Be water.
Okay, all right. But that it's exactly that. It's accept and adapt to everything. That's how you find peace. That's a Taoism.
It's the Yin Yang. Problem here is it suggests we ought to accept the unacceptable. You got six million Jews being put to death and by Nazis in the nineteen forties. What do you say? Be water, my friend.
No, that's that's unacceptable. If everything is acceptable, well then Taoism offers no reason to fight for what is right. All right. Now we have Buddhism. Buddhism would say the world and yourself is an illusion.
What am I supposed to do with my suffering then? If it's just an illusion, it's not exactly affirming, is it? Right? And it would say that escaping suffering and finding peace is to let go of all your desires. There's maybe there's something to that, but logically, to let go of all of your desires, you would first have to desire to do so.
So that doesn't work. There's a there's a story about Buddha. He's going around to these villages asking for alms, and he goes up to a farmer, and he's plowing his field. He's working hard, and the Buddha comes up and is asking for essentially a handout. And he says, "Well, I plow, and so you know, I do my work, and then I eat.
Do you plow? Do you have a farm? Do you do the work?" And Buddha says, "Yes, I do. You know, trust is my seed, rain is my composure, clarity is my plow, my mind is." The harness, and of course, in the story, the farmer's "Whoa, that's so insightful!" Get this man some food. But I'm reading it and I'm thinking, "Man, Buddha, you are a freeloader!
Like that's the most useless thing I've ever heard. All this talk of letting go of your desires, and here you are going up to this farmer and asking for a snack. Go find your own field.
So it's useless. You know what Jesus was? A carpenter. That's it." The biggest thing with both of these religions is they're incomplete. Fundamentally, they are incomplete.
They don't give you anything to aim at. There's no North Star. They give you zero things to pursue that are good. It's just let go of everything.
So they end up becoming their own justification for the sinful things that your heart wants to pursue.
So here we are back to the first point: sin is the thing that robbed you of peace. You can't escape suffering. You can't just accept it, and that's the end of the story. And numbing suffering with sin stops working pretty quickly.
So what does Christianity tell us to do? What is the right answer? Tell me. How do I find peace? Matthew sixteen twenty four.
Pick up your cross and follow me. Pick up your cross and follow me. That's it. That's the path. It's not avoiding suffering or running away so that we may find peace.
No, no. Christianity. Christ teaches and demonstrates it Himself. It is through suffering. Christ models this through the cross that we go through suffering into peace, not around it, not away from it, but by punching a hole directly through it and going to the other side.
Christ went before us, man. He models the way.
So that he's already on the other side. He's the North Star that we aim at. We have something to aim at. We're aiming at becoming like Christ. Ephesians six.
We have this beautiful picture of putting on the full armor of God. Guys, what is armor for? It protects you. It protects you. But armor assumes you're going to war.
Assumes you're fighting for something. Psalm one forty four one it says, "Praise be to the Lord, my Rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle." Some of the Eastern religions suggest just dropping your desire, don't pursue anything. That's where you're going to find peace. It's not true. Peace is found in fighting and aiming at the right thing and throwing your whole self at it.
The right thing to aim at. Is becoming like Christ, and we have the promise that the Holy Spirit walks with us, lock key and step, every step of the way. Hey there! I hope this sermon has enriched your day. If you like this message, I want to personally invite you to join us for Sunday worship.
We have two locations in Virginia: Trinity Methodist Church in Concord and Mount Comfort Methodist Church in Appomattox. Come join us Sunday morning at 9:45, and we will help you get connected. As always, I'm Pastor Wyatt Hud. Thank you for tuning in.
