Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, July 3rd. Did you know that for believers in Jesus, true contentment has nothing to do with circumstances? Let's learn the key to continuing peace as Dr. Stanley's Life Principle Series moves forward. Well, how can you live with this continuing peace, this serenity, this inner quietness, this innocence of security and tranquility?
That overrides, no matter what's going on around us, how can we experience that? Well, we can because it's the offer of our Lord Himself. Now, I want you to go back to, go back to John for a moment in that fourteenth chapter and let's look to see what he said. He said in this fourteenth chapter and the twenty-seventh verse, if you'll notice how he distinguishes between the two. He says, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives give I unto you. He says, let not your hearts be troubled any longer. Now, when he said my peace I give to you, what did he mean when he said my peace? Well, he's certainly talking about a different kind of peace than we'd had before. And when he says, listen, not as the world gives. So, what is Jesus saying? He says there's a difference between the peace He gives and the peace that the world has to offer. So, what is this peace that Jesus offers?
Well, first of all, it has to do with Him. He said, my peace. Remember what Jesus said about His relationship to the Father? He said, if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father.
I and the Father are one. And so, if He and the Father are one, the peace that He's offering us is godly peace. It is a heavenly peace. It is a practical peace. It is a peace, listen, that doesn't come and go with circumstances. It is a peace that can be continuing.
My peace I give to you. Quietness and contentment. Serenity, that is this overwhelming sense of security.
Fearless. Where does all that come from when we are facing circumstances that are absolutely beyond us? Jesus said, my peace I give to you. Don't allow your heart to be troubled any longer.
It comes from Him. So, you're looking and trying to find some peace in your life and you've tried this and you've tried that and you've tried the other. There's only one place to find it and that's Jesus. You say, I don't even believe in Him, then you'll never have peace. You say, well, I've tried that.
No, no, listen. Once you understand what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and you understand that, you'll discover that you can have a peace that overrides anything and everything that you have to face in life. You say, well, that doesn't even sound reasonable.
It's not reasonable. That's what Paul said. He said, it surpasses understanding. There is a peace. There is a tranquility. And you see in the Greek, the word peace means to bind together.
So, what happens? Jesus was talking about His relationship to the Father. His relationship to the Father was one. That is, what brings us into that relationship is a sense of oneness. Now, when you think about one that you think about two people, for example, who have the same ideas maybe about things, who are in agreement.
And I think of all the words that I could use, I would say the word agreement is probably the best one. And that is, when you and Jesus Christ, when you and God the Father, when you and the Spirit of God, when you are in agreement with Him, there's going to be peace. When you're in disagreement, there's not going to be, which simply says this. You can be a believer and not experience this continuing peace of God.
Why? If you're in disagreement with God about your life when He knows what is best, He has the best will for your life, best plan, and you're in disagreement about it. You say, well, what do you mean?
I mean, simply this. Here's what you want to do, but you know in your heart that's not what God wants you to do. And so, you wrestle, you're fretting with God about it. You don't have any peace. As long as you're out of the will of God, you're not going to have any peace. And the truth is, the more you know Him, and the better you know Him, the more you know that for you to violate the will of God, step out of the will of God, argue with God, become angry with God, try to walk away from Him, you're not going to have any peace.
It's absolutely impossible. He is the source of peace. That's what Paul said in Divisions chapter two. He says, Jesus is our peace. When you trusted Him as your personal Savior, He came into your life to dwell in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
You have the peace of God within you and you can, you have the capacity to experience this peace that is absolutely capable of enabling you to override the pain, the heartache, the suffering, the misunderstanding, and all the things that you and I deal with in life. So, I want you to turn to the thirty-third verse of this sixteenth chapter again now, and listen to what he said. He said, these things I've spoken to you. Now, he's been talking to them, say fourteen, fifteen, sixteen chapters, and encouraging them.
Remember, he said to them, I'm not going to leave you as often. So, these are tremendously encouraging chapters to anybody. Then he says in the thirty-third verse, these things I've spoken to you so that, listen, in me, not in the world, that is from me, not from the world. In me, you may have peace. In the world tribulation, but He says, take courage, I have overcome the world. Now, what does He say? He's saying simply this, that the key to peace is the relationship with Jesus.
Now watch this, watch this carefully. Where do people look for peace? In circumstances. If I could just change this circumstance and change that.
If I could have this or have that. That's where they look for peace. He said, no, it's not in circumstances, it's in a relationship. And until a person has a personal relationship by faith, having surrendered themselves to Christ, and then beginning to live obediently before Him, there's not going to be any peace. There's not going to be any peace. There's not going to be any peace. There's not going to be any peace.
There's not going to be any peace. My peace I give to you. He says this peace that I'm offering is in me.
It's in a relationship. And that relationship must be a relationship of faith and of obedience and of love toward Him. There's one source of peace, and listen carefully, you cannot live in disobedience to the will of God. You cannot live in abundance to the will of God. You cannot live in obedience to the will of God. You cannot live in abundance to the will of God. But if you have, how much wealth you have, none of it is going to give you peace.
He's made it very simple. And He says, besides, the peace I'm going to give you is going to be so awesome you can't even understand it. You won't even be able to understand why you can be so tranquil and serene in your heart I may not be able to understand it, but I can experience it. So, think about this. He said, I and the Father are one. You've seen Me, you've seen the Father.
He and the Father had perfect oneness with each other. So, let me ask you this question. What is it in your life that's keeping you from being one with the Lord Jesus? You cannot live in sin and have peace.
You cannot. You can reason in any way you want to. You cannot have peace and live in sin to a holy God who loved you enough to die for you, who loved you enough to not only save you, but listen, to come into your life in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit and do what? And provide this peace.
Now, think about this. When you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, the Holy Spirit, third person of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, makes the Godhead. He came into your life sent by God, listen, for the primary purpose of enabling you and me to experience and to do and to achieve what humanly we never can. If we will be at one with Him, if we will cooperate with Him, He will do what? He will enable us to have love and joy and peace and goodness and kindness and serenity and self-control. In other words, all of these things are the fruit of the Spirit, that is, it's what He produces in us.
Circumstances are not the issue. Whenever I am at one with Him, He is able to live out through your life and my life everything we want to become. Jesus said, my peace I give unto you.
He says, in me, Jesus says, in me is where you find that peace. Not in the world, but in me. This is why it is futile. It is a waste of time. It is a waste of resources.
It's a waste of a person's life. Why live miserable when you can have peace? Now, does this mean that you will reach some stage in your life where there'll be no more troubles and no more heartaches and everything is going to go smooth?
No, it doesn't. Jesus didn't have that, but here's what it means. It doesn't mean the absence in our circumstances of all things that would trouble us, but it simply means this, because of that intimate relationship, because I know who He is and who He is in me and who I am in Him, and because of these awesome promises He's made, because He lives out every promise He's ever made, because of who He is within me, because within me there is the living God in the presence of the Spirit of God. No matter what comes our way, no matter how awful the circumstances, no matter how awesome they may be, no matter how often they change, there can be a tranquility, a serenity, a calmness, and a quietness that anchors my soul so that I'm not blown by the winds of adversity and heartache. Not like the waves of the sea, but absolutely stabilized, because Jesus is our peace.
There is no other way. I'd be happy for somebody to tell me, is there any other way to have peace? Paul said, He is our peace. And he knew that being within us, He's the source of our peace every single day, if I understand that. Now listen, do I have any responsibility?
Yes, I do. One of those things I must remember is this. I must claim what is mine. What is mine?
What is yours? You have the Spirit of God within you. You have the awesome supernatural power of God within you.
You have the potential for everything God has for your life within you through the Holy Spirit. I have to claim it. So I come into a situation that could cause me a lot of turmoil. I have to claim who I am. I'm a child of God. What I have, the Spirit of God within me, who is the source of peace within my life.
And the second thing I must do is to get my focus right. Whatever you focus on, when troubles and trials and heartache come, He says, I'm to set my focus upon Him. Why? Because He is your peace. He's not just the source of it, He is your peace. And you say, well, you mean to tell me that if I'm going through pain, I'm to focus on Him?
Yes. Why? Well, focusing on pain does what?
Just makes it worse. Now, if He is my peace, what is He going to do? When I focus upon Him, He is going to remind me of some things. You're my Son, and I love You. And remember, I'm only going to allow those things in your life, when you respond correctly, that's going to turn out for your good. So, I know you're hurting today, it's going to turn out for your good. I know you miss her, but it's going to turn out for your good. I know you've lost them, but it's going to turn out.
I'm going to show you. In other words, listen, when God is reassuring you in the midst of heartache and trial and tribulation in your life, when He is there to reassure you that He understands He's going to bring you through this, you don't have to give in, you don't have to give up, you don't have to throw up your hands, you trust Him. That's what the whole Christian life is about. And many of us have lived long enough to understand and have gone through enough different kind of troubles and heartaches that what I'm saying to you is absolutely the truth. The Bible says it is the truth, and I want you to understand, you do not have to be thrown off course. You do not have to throw up your hands.
You don't have to go to alcohol and drugs and sex and immorality and all the rest. It's Christ, Jesus within you. He says, I am your peace. In me, He says, you find it. Then we make a choice.
We make a choice to fuss about our circumstances, try to change our circumstances, and argue with God about them. I always say, All right, Lord, You said You're my peace. I'm claiming that by faith right now, that in spite of what I'm going through, You're going to tranquilize my heart. You're going to give me a serenity and quietness and assurance and comfort in my life. I'm here to tell you, I've been a Christian long enough. He keeps His Word.
And I think any pastor can tell you, we've all been through enough stuff that if you can be tried, tested, tempted, browbeaten, you name it, there is a peace that absolutely overrides everything the devil can throw at you. It's yours for the asking. You see, you say, What must I do? Just what I said. Claim it. In other words, it's yours. Trust Him. Get your focus on Him.
He's the, in other words, He's the source. Let me ask you a question. How did you get saved? Well, I did the following things.
No, no, no, no, no. You only did one thing. God made this so simple. You only did one thing. You trusted Him to do what He said He would do.
He said if you would confess your sins, place your trust in Him as your personal Savior, He'd save you. That's what you did. You didn't have to raise a hand. You didn't have to take a step. You didn't go anywhere.
You didn't give anything in other words. You trusted Him. And what did He do? He changed your eternal destiny in that moment. He wrote your name in the Lamb's Book of Life. He said, He said, He said, You've been saved. You've been saved. You've been saved. You've been saved. You've been saved. You've been saved. You're a child of the living God.
And what did you do? You accepted. You received what He had to offer. If He can do that in a one-time event, can He not do that every day of your life?
Yes. It's a matter of trusting Him, claiming it, and getting your focus on the source of peace rather than the source of life. It's a matter of trusting Him. It's a matter of trusting Him. It's a matter of trusting Him. It's a matter of trusting Him. And in fact, you're sitting there maybe somewhere in your home or where a restaurant or wherever it may be, and you're there and you're so frustrated, your circumstances are totally out of control.
All I want you to do is to at least consider this. If Jesus said something, don't you think it's the truth? If He had a reason to do it, why would He have a reason to do it? Because He's the Son of God. He's the Son of God. He's the Son of God. He's the Son of God. And He didn't ever name one sin He committed.
Never. The people who don't even believe in Him will say, well, I know He was a good man. Well, how good was He? So good He never made a mistake. So good He never sinned. Wait a minute.
There must be something different about Him. You know why? Because He's the Son of God. And I'm going to read it to you.
It says, It is the acceptance of Jesus Christ as my personal Savior through faith, and His work at the cross, of shedding His blood, bringing about atonement for my sin, and then indwelling me with the Holy Spirit, whose responsibility it is to live out the life of Jesus through me. Because that's what He does. It is what we do. It's what He does.
So what is my responsibility? To yield to Him. You see, as long as there's oneness, I can have peace. And when I decide that I don't agree with Him about anything, my peace is gone. Does it get any simpler than that?
I didn't say it was easy, but it's simple. You want peace? You've got to have Jesus. Give up the war fighting against Him, no longer an enemy, no longer under wrath, no longer separated from Him, no longer without peace. It is yours for the asking.
He will not disappoint you. Thank you for listening to part two of The Key to Continuing Peace. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia. We'll see you next time.
