Jehovah Shalom: The Lord is Peace

If you want peace, that comes with a mindset. Dr. Tony Evans talks about the benefits of adding focus to your faith. With God's point of view comes God's presence, and with God's presence comes life and peace. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. When you look around and take stock of what's going on in your life, Dr. Evans says your perception depends on your perspective. Today he explains how we can see life from a more peaceful point of view.

Let's join him. Whether it's within the heart or the home of the church or the broader society, turmoil rules today. Some perhaps would not use the word turmoil, they just say drama. Today's name for God is Jehovah Shalom. The translation is, The Lord is Peace.

That's the translation. The Lord is Peace. This is the book of Judges. Knowing the book will help you to understand the passage. The previous book, Joshua, Joshua has led the people into the promised land. They're now in Canaan land, having been delivered from Egypt land. But in the land of promise, they were experiencing chaos.

So evidently, you can arrive at the place God wants you and still have drama. We read in verse 1 of Judges chapter 6, The sons of Israel dealt what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years. They had rebelled against God, and the consequence of their rebellion was enslavement to that which they were supposed to hold in slavery. They had rebelled against God, they did evil in the sight of the Lord, so God let the enemy win instead of letting them win in the promised land. Verse 6, So Israel was brought very low because of Midian. Why did Midian bring them low?

Because the Lord let Midian bring them low. The angel of the Lord comes in verse 11 and sits down under the oak. There's a young man there named Gideon, verse 11 says, who was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midians.

So here we are. We're now introduced to a man named Gideon, and the angel of the Lord says to him, The Lord is with you, O violent warrior. Gideon said to him in verse 13, O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, then why is all this happening to us? And where are all the miracles which our father told us about, saying, Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt, but now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hands of Midian?

Isn't that your question? If God is for me, where is He? He says, I can't find God in all this drama.

He really answers his own question. I'm not sure whether he knew it or not, but he answers it at the end of verse 13. He says, but now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hands of Midian.

Okay, so here it is. God is with us in the general sense because we're His children, but in the specific sense, that is in my drama, He is with you when you are with Him. If you are not with Him, you will not experiencing Him being with you, me or us. The Lord looked at him and said in verse 14, Go in your strength, that is with the abilities I've given you, and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian, have I not sent you?

He caused an ordinary man to an extraordinary task, and he was gonna use the same man who had the questions. Well, Gideon hears this, and he said, Look, I gotta be sure. I gotta be sure, because I'm gonna go out here and get myself killed. I have to be sure.

Verse 17, If I now have found favor in your sight, show me a sign that it is you who is speaking to me. I need to be sure I'm not dreaming. I need to be sure this is for real. I need to be sure this is not a mirage.

I need to be certain that this is you. So he goes and gets some meat. He gets some unleavened bread. He gets some broth. He makes himself a stew. He puts the stew down in front of the angel of the Lord, verse 21, and the angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat, and the unleavened bread and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.

Wow. He brings the meat, the unleavened bread, the broth, puts it down there, no fire. The angel of the Lord touches the rock that is sitting on and not only does it light up, it's cooked to nothingness. And the angel disappears, and Gideon decides, yep, this is real. He asked God—here it is—to verify His presence.

That's what he asked. Verify that this is you talking, because sometimes you're not sure. Is this God? Is this me? Is this real? Is this Memorex? I am not sure.

So I need certainty here, because this is too serious. When Gideon, verse 22, saw that he was the angel of the Lord, he said, Alas, O Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face, because the angel of the Lord is the same as O Lord God. It was God being manifested in a visible form. The Lord said to him, here it is, Peace be to you. Do not fear you shall not die. Why did the angel tell him that? Because you couldn't live and see God.

He says, Don't worry, you're not gonna die. Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and named it, here it is, Jehovah-Shalom. The Lord is peace.

So that raises the question, doesn't it? What is peace? Let me tell you what peace is not. Peace is not a truce. Peace is not simply ceasefire. Because a lot of people who cease fire still live in a cold war.

You may not be fighting and fussing with your mate all day, you're just not talking to each other. And you think a cold war equals peace. That's just truce. It's just ceasefire. The word shalom means whole, complete, or well-being.

It is to have things ordered, or to say it as we say, no more drama. Peace is well-being in spite of circumstances, because me and God are on the same page. Isaiah 57 verses 20 to 21 says that sin interrupts peace. It says there is no peace for the wicked and those who are in rebellion against God. Just like the Midians were allowed to overrun Israel, God allows hell to overrun us when we are disconnected from Him by sin. If you and I are unwilling to address the sin, don't look for the peace.

You can't have it. You can get distractions, you can create distractions to help you forget how bad things really are. But peace is when you don't have to create artificial distraction. An unwillingness to address the sin is a refusal to receive the peace.

To see God put it together in your heart, home, you know, church, society. Jehovah shalom. The Lord is peace.

Don't misquote that. Doesn't say the money is peace. Doesn't say the position is peace, the power is peace, the job is peace, the relationship is peace. Doesn't say any of that. It says Jehovah shalom. The Lord is peace.

So that raises a question. How do I get it? I got it, but how do I get it? Because I need it. You need it.

We need it. I may not be able to change my circumstances right now, but how do I get the inner well-being to deal with it and be whole? How do I get the ability to handle my drama the same way Gideon did? So that raises the question. How did Gideon get it?

Well, we just looked at it. You know how Gideon got it? One simple way, yet it's profound. He got peace when he knew the Lord was with him. He has not yet fought the Midianites. He's not yet solved the problem of the Midianites. The Midianites are still an issue, but he builds an altar, has a worship service before his problem has been solved. He didn't get peace because he's with the Midianites because he hasn't whipped the Midianites yet. They're still out there like hordes, but he builds an altar and praises God for peace. He praises God for peace, not because his situation has changed. He's praising God for peace because God has showed up in his situation. It is the realization of the divine presence that gives him the peace. You can go wherever you want to go, spend whatever you want to spend, do whatever you want to do. If God is not in the middle of it, you won't have peace.

The best you'll get is deflection, not peace. More from Dr. Evans on the spiritual way to deal with drama in our lives when he continues our message in just a moment. Stay with us. There are so many ways that God has demonstrated his faithfulness to me and to this ministry over these 40 years. You know, there were times when we just weren't sure we were going to make it.

We got down to our last paycheck for our staff. After that, there was no money to pay anyone, and I remember us having a special prayer time and asking God to intervene. And then, out of nowhere, a donor's heart was touched, and they wrote us a note and said, God placed it on my heart to send you this gift, and it was able to sustain us a while longer until we were able to rebuild.

I praise God for 40 years of his favor on us. One of the goals of this ministry has always been to provide the tools and resources to help listeners like you dig deep into the subject matter. that Dr. Evans presents in these daily broadcasts. You can do that right now with the help of Tony's devotional, Experience the Power of God's Names. It goes hand in hand with the message we're hearing today. When you learn the deep meaning behind the many ways God has referred to in the Bible, you'll discover there's a description that matches up to any situation you find yourself in. These daily studies will help you work through them one by one, unlocking their meaning and learning what they say about how God wants to relate with you. If you contact us right away, we'll send you a copy of Experience the Power of God's Names as our thank-you gift in return for your donation to help us keep Tony's teaching coming your way on this station. Along with the devotional, we'll also send all 14 full-length messages on CD and digital download from Volumes 1 and 2 of Tony's current series, Knowing God's Names. Time is limited on this special double offer, so don't wait. Make the arrangements today by visiting TonyEvans.org, or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are standing by day and night to help with your request.

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Start today. TonyEvans.org. ...he was going to put together an army of 34,000 men or something, and God said, nah, too many, $300 is all I need. Wait a minute. You want me to go out there, look like a fool, in front of all of those armies with the 300 Spartans? You want me to go out there with the 300? That's all you want? No, Gideon, that's all I need. Give me 300 of the right.

Not 34,000 will look good with numbers. He tells me in chapter 7, he says, just HBO, you help a brother out? Sneak over there and listen to what the enemy is saying. So he did a little surveillance and went over there and he heard some of the guys talking, and some of the Midianites were talking, and they said, them Israelites gonna kill us. They didn't know. God had already gotten them scared. He'd already gotten them shaken up. He'd already got them—they were already beaten.

That's why God only needed 300, because he knew some information. He had some inside scope. Anyway, the last question.

My question, your question, our question. How do I get to know that he's there? Since him being there is the key to peace, how do I get to know that he's there? Romans chapter 8. Let me read verses 5 through 7. For those who are according to the flesh set their mind on the things of the flesh. But those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. He says, if you want to have peace, you've got to set your mind.

You need a mindset. If you want peace, and peace is tied to divine presence, that comes with a mindset. The mindset on the flesh is death, and death is separation from God.

That's what death is. He's talking to Christians. The mindset on the human point of view, the man perspective, the world's perspective, you don't even have to be following the devil, you just got to be mannish. The Bible calls it carnally minded. That does not operate with the mindset of the Spirit.

God's point of view. Another way of saying the Spirit's mind is God's point of view. God's view of a matter is the Spirit mind.

You must set it, because if you won't set it, you won't use it. See, if your mindset is earthly, that's what you're going to use. He says the mindset, the frame of thinking that you operate by, must be Spirit, that is God's point of view, and with God's point of view comes God's presence, and with God's presence comes life and peace. If you want God's presence, you must have His mindset. If you do not have His mindset, you do not have His presence. If you do not have His presence, you do not experience His life. If you do not experience His life, you don't share His peace. If you want His peace, you have to have His life. To have His life is to have His presence.

To have His presence, you have to have His mindset. I don't have to set my clock. I don't really have to set my clock. There was a time when I had to set my clock if I wanted to get up early, but now I don't have to set my clock externally because it's been set internally.

I got an inside clock, and the inside clock tells me to get up because I've gotten so used to operating by a clock. It's not that it's not set. It's just not set externally. It's now just set up in my frame of reference because I automatically wake up.

That didn't just happen. That happened coming from setting it intentionally, and then I began to operate because I'd gotten used to operating that way. You see, if you're not used to operating in the Spirit, you've got to intentionally set it until you've done it enough until you are built in to respond that way. See, so many of us have been so carnal for so long that our inside clock is set carnally. We don't have to try to be sinful. We don't have to try to be unrighteous.

We don't have to try to be rebellious. The clock just goes off because it's been set that way for so long. So you must reset the clock intentionally until you learn to get up to God's point of view. And when you learn to get up to God's point of view, it will be set that way so that that will be your reaction and you will know it's your reaction because when you don't react that way, that will become odd.

It'll be—you'll feel weird when you go back to the old world time because you've been so used to operating on the godsend. Have you ever been at a concert and you hear the orchestra warm up and you listen to all the discord? You know, the violinist trying to get everything tweaked, and you just got a bunch of noise.

It sounds like chaos. And all of a sudden, out of the shadows comes the conductor with the stick, and he taps it. And the noise, discord, calms down. And he raises it.

And he wrings out his arms. And all of a sudden, that which was chaos before he showed up becomes harmonious when he shows up. Before he showed up, ain't nothing but drama. It's a bunch of noise that does not relate to anything. It's everybody doing their thing and nothing connected with nobody else. But when he shows up and makes his presence known and raises his arms, all of a sudden what was discord now becomes harmony.

Everybody's on the same page. It makes sense. It brings blessing. Why?

Not because it was that way. It was because when the conductor showed up, his presence changed what was happening in the room. Our problem is we're trying to make music with the conductor off stage, and we're wondering why there's so much drama when we keep the conductor outside and wonder why we can't have good music in my heart, in my home, in the church, in the world, but we want the conductor to stay outside or just make an appearance and leave again.

He wants to run the orchestra. And by his presence, harmony prevails. Dr. Evans will come back in a moment with a final question you need to answer if you want that kind of harmony in your life. First, though, the lesson we've been hearing today is from a series called Knowing God's Names. This two-volume, 14-message collection is available on CD and digital download. And if you contact us right away, we'll send you the complete collection as our thank-you gift when you support Tony's ministry with a financial contribution. Remember, we depend completely on your help to bring you this program and to support our work with pastors, families, and churches looking for new ways to impact their communities. Let us send you Knowing God's Names, along with Tony's popular devotional book I mentioned earlier, Experience the Power of God's Names. Just visit tonyevans.org for details on this limited-time double offer. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, coming up next time, God's people are supposed to be just that, God's people, special, unique, set apart, or to use the Bible's term, sanctified. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans will help us unpack the meaning of that word when he talks about why God is called the Lord who sanctifies.

Right now, though, he's back with his final thought for today. The question is, do you want peace? Only one person gives it, Jehovah Shalom. But he only gives it on his terms. I will keep him in perfect peace, Isaiah 26 says, whose mind is stayed on me.

I will keep him in perfect peace. You want to know why are you not losing your mind when everything around you has lost its mind? Why are you not crazy when your world is crazy? Why are you together when things are falling apart? Because the conductor has been allowed to make his presence known in your mind. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.