What do you think of when you hear the word: peace?  Today’s aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is PEACE.  Let’s quickly review where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re heading in our Back to Basics series:  THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT.  The Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 5:22-23:  ²²But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23 NLT  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  When Jesus Christ is in charge of our lives, when the Holy Spirit fills and empowers us the outcome of our lives is (say it with me:) love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  So, how’s it going?  How has it gone in the past week? Have you exhibited these nine characteristics in your relationships with family members? At school? At work? On the playground? In your cars?  After all, that’s the point of this series—at the end of the day, we’ll be able to look back and see God’s hand on our lives.  We’ll be able to see the “fruit” that God is “growing” in us.  So, how’s it growing?

    We’ve already looked closely at LOVE and JOY, the first two aspects of the Fruit of the Spirit.  We’ve emphasized that LOVE is an action, not a feeling.  Love comes when we stay connected to Jesus.  Last Sunday, Brad showed us that JOY works in our lives from the inside out, that joy isn’t related to our circumstances. Happiness comes and goes with our circumstances, but joy’s an abiding sense of God’s goodness and grace regardless of our circumstances.

     Today, we move to PEACE.  What DO you think of when you hear the word peace?  Dictionary.com defines peace in these ways:

1.	the normal, nonwarring condition of a nation, group of nations, or the world.

2.	(often initial capital letter ) an agreement or treaty between warring or antagonistic nations, groups, etc., to end hostilities and abstain from further fighting or antagonism: the Peace of Ryswick.

3.	a state of mutual harmony between people or groups, esp. in personal relations: Try to live in peace with your neighbors.

4.	the normal freedom from civil commotion and violence of a community; public order and security: He was arrested for being drunk and disturbing the peace.

5.	cessation of or freedom from any strife or dissension.

6.	freedom of the mind from annoyance, distraction, anxiety, an obsession, etc.; tranquillity; serenity.

7.	a state of tranquillity or serenity: May he rest in peace.

8.	a state or condition conducive to, proceeding from, or characterized by tranquillity: the peace of a mountain resort.

9.	silence; stillness: The cawing of a crow broke the afternoon's peace.

We could sum up by saying that peace is the absence of war, and a state of tranquility.  That would fairly state the world’s definition of peace.  But for followers of Jesus peace means way more than that.  Absence of war is great.  A state of tranquility is good, but peace as we find it in the Old Testament word “Shalom” and the New Testament word “Eirene” goes many levels deeper than the absence of war and a state of tranquility.  Peace, in biblical terms, means a sense of well-being given by God that extends not only into each of our hearts, but through the community as a whole, and which incorporates our salvation as part of it.  In fact, in today’s Scripture reading focusing on peace, the Apostle Paul tells us that God’s peace goes beyond anything we can understand.  It’s deeper than our minds and hearts can comprehend.  As we read Philippians 4:4-9 together in a moment, we’ll see that Paul connects joy and peace.  We’ll see that our joy and peace is connected to our hope in Jesus and His promise to come again.  We’ll see that in living our lives day by day we either demonstrate the joy and peace of God—or the lack thereof.  Let’s stand right now, and read God’s word together as we find it in Philippians 4:4-9:

     ⁴Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! ⁵Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. 

⁶Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. 

⁸And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. ⁹Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.   Let’s pray……….Amen.  (Please be seated.)

Always be full of joy in the Lord.  I say it again—rejoice!  Paul’s joy in Jesus was so constant that he reminded the Philippian believers to ALWAYS be full of joy in the Lord.  Another translation reads:  Rejoice in the Lord always!  I will say it again: Rejoice!  Remember joy isn’t happiness.  It isn’t a warm, fuzzy feeling based on our circumstances.  Joy is an abiding sense of well-being based on the Spirit’s presence in us. It comes from the inside out.  This sense of well-being is related to peace.  Paul tells us when God’s joy is abiding in us worry disappears. In fact, he tells us not to worry about anything, but to pray about EVERYTHING!  He tells us to tell God what we need, and thank God for what He’s done.   If those words sound familiar--that’s good, because we just read them together a month ago, when we focused on the aspect of prayer known as supplication.  Peace in our lives comes when we hand everything over to God, give Him complete control and recognize that He’s blessed us abundantly.

  Two weeks ago, Nancy and I were driving to Cranberry in her car.  It WAS our “good car,” the 2002 Dodge Intrepid.  As we drove up the hill toward Lowe’s on 228 the engine “hesitated.”  As we started down the hill, the engine “died.”  I coasted the car into Lowe’s parking lot.  When I lifted the hood and looked under it, there was anti-freeze everywhere.  I pulled out the oil dipstick and there was anti-freeze in the oil.  I don’t know much about cars, but I knew that wasn’t a good sign.  I called a tow truck and had the car towed to Paul Friedline’s Auto service center in Mars.  It was a Saturday afternoon, so I left a message on Paul’s business phone about why the car was there and asked him to give me a call when he knew what was going on with it.  Let me ask you a question, “Do you think that in that moment that I DIDN’T WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING, that I PRAYED ABOUT EVERYTHING, and THANKED GOD FOR WHAT HE HAD DONE?”  I wish I could say I didn’t and I did—that is that I DIDN’T worry about anything and that I DID pray about everything, but I did worry some, because I knew we weren’t talking about an oil change, and I wasn’t feeling particularly grateful.  But then I started thinking.  We had a cell phone with us, which permitted us to call AAA, and Bill Gebhart, who came and picked us up.  We were only four miles from Friedlines, which meant the tow cost only $3, since the first three miles are free! The next day, which was Sunday, I mentioned to George Trinidad that our car had “blown up,” which I would find out soon enough was true, and he said, “You can have my car if you need one.”  Actually, Bill had offered us a truck the day before as well.  And my 1989 Honda was still running like a top!  So, there was still a lot to say, “Thank you, God!” about, wasn’t there? 

When Paul called with the news that the engine was not worth fixing, I was in the middle of writing this message.  That was probably a good thing, because I was already focused on peace, joy, and not worrying about anything, but praying about everything and giving God thanks.  I needed those things as Paul said the best he could figure it would cost about $2,600 to get a used engine and put it in the Dodge.  As soon as I hung up from the conversation, I called another New Life person—Dave Norris, and asked him what he thought about the situation.  He said he thought he could find an engine for the car, which sounded good.  At that point, I realized something:  God has provided my family and me with a lot of good friends, who He uses to help us in times of difficulty.  That’s one of the ways He answers our prayers.  As I reflected on that, the words of Philippians 4:7 became so much more real:  ⁷Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.  A blown engine is never a good thing, but having brothers in Christ who are there to help out in that kind of situation is.  I started experiencing God’s peace.  I didn’t know if another engine could be found, or what it would it would cost, but I realized that God cared about it.  I realized the relationships and solutions God brings to our lives when we trust Him and thank Him, and let Him worry about our problems, are part of the peace that exceeds anything we can understand.  That’s the peace that guards our hearts and minds as we live in Christ Jesus.  That peace doesn’t take away our trials, our troubles, our temptations, but it gets us through them.

Those who don’t know Jesus, those who don’t trust Him as Savior and Lord can never know the love, the joy, the peace, the patience and right on down the line that we can know in and through Him!  Whether it’s a blown engine, or a bad test score, or a devastating illness, or a friend who isn’t there when we need him or her, God knows all these things, and He’s there to meet every need.  I’m so grateful to God to be part of a church family where people are ready to be answers to our prayers.  I’m grateful to God to be able to give Him the challenges I face and to receive His peace.  Aren’t you?  I don’t know how folks do it who rely only on themselves, who don’t have the peace that passes human understanding, because they’re on their own.  [Let’s turn right now to this morning’s worship drama:  Happily Convicted, for a presentation of how God’s peace and joy may come even in the most challenging circumstances…  [Worship Drama:  Happily Convicted]  Did you see THAT coming?  Did you see the “prisoner” being the one who was at peace, while the “free” one wasn’t?  Peace or the lack of it, as joy or the lack of it isn’t determined by our circumstances, but by what we do with them.

The Apostle Paul makes it clear that peace is part of our lives as those who trust Jesus.  When we’re tempted to let anger, or depression, or despair overwhelm us—AND WE WILL BE TEMPTED TO LET THOSE THINGS OVERWHELM US—Jesus will overcome them when we refuse to worry, when we pray about everything, when we give God thanks even in situations that drive us crazy—not FOR those situations—but IN those situations.  What’s going on in your life right now that’s tempting you to respond with anger, or depression or despair?  Are you responding in those ways?  It’s absolutely normal to do that, until we trust God enough to obey Him in those hard times as well as the good times.  The thing is when I turned to God in the midst of the car situation, the car didn’t miraculously get “healed.”  I didn’t find a couple thousand dollars growing on the trees we just planted in the front yard a few weeks back.  The situation didn’t change a bit in that moment.  But peace flowed through me.  An outsider could hear this account and say, “Man, you’re crazy.”  That’s what Paul means when he tells us that when we turn it all over to Jesus we receive a peace that exceeds anything we can understand.  When we “get there,” that’s when we’re always putting God first, not worrying about anything, praying about everything, giving Him thanks for giving us all we need all the time, then we’ll know that peace 24/7/365.

We don’t start at 24/7/365, though.  Maybe it’s 12 minutes, one day, this week.  The Fruit of the Spirit is like every other fruit: It takes time to grow!  When we plant grass, or trees, or bushes, or vegetables, we don’t get a full grown plant the next day.  We don’t harvest a crop the next day, do we?  It takes time.  Trees can take decades to become what we want them to be.  Our lives produce fruit according to the investment we make in the ways of Jesus, according to our trust in Him.  Look again, at what Paul said in Philippians 4:8-9:  ⁸And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. ⁹Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.  If we want a “harvest” of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in our lives, we’ll have to fix our thoughts on God and His ways. Then we’ll have to put into practice what we’ve learned, received, heard and seen in God’s word and in godly people around us. 

I’ve said many times that growing up spiritually is not automatic.  Growing physically is. When a baby’s born, if that child is fed and loved and receives care, he or she will grow from a baby, to a toddler, to a child, to an adolescent, to an adult, to an older adult, and eventually will die.  The course is inevitable.  But spiritual growth is NOT inevitable.  That’s why we look around and see so many people who call themselves Christians, who don’t look any more like Jesus today than they did a year ago, or five years ago, or fifty years ago.  That’s why we don’t automatically respond to challenges in our own lives by not worrying, by praying about everything, by giving thanks to God for all He’s done.  Growth and fruit in the life of a believer takes place by commitment and action, or it doesn’t happen at all.

Following Jesus isn’t magic.  We don’t get “born again,” and in that moment we’re fully mature, bearing all the aspects of the Fruit of the Spirit.  When we get “born again” we’re babies spiritually, and we remain babies until we give control of our lives to Jesus, until we study His word, pray regularly, and receive the filling of the Holy Spirit over and over and over again.  Friends, listen carefully right now:  You and I are as mature in Jesus, we’re bearing as much Fruit of the Spirit in our lives as we want.  No more.  No less.  Are you experiencing the peace that goes beyond anything you can understand right now?  If not, then you’re worrying about stuff, right?  You’re letting the world’s thinking crowd out the Holy Spirit.  We can’t have it both ways.  When I heard $2,600, the natural inclination of my heart was to worry, was to be concerned, was to get side-tracked from God’s ways.  Thank God I was in the middle of His word, preparing this message. It reminded me NOT to worry. It reminded me to start praying.  It reminded me to thank God for what I’ve received.  The end result of the process was peace, peace that the world will never understand.

Do you want that in your life?  Do you want love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control to be your way of responding to life?  Then the path is simple.  If we want that, we must let the Holy Spirit fill and control us—today, tomorrow, the next day and the next.  We’ll never work ourselves into living the Fruit of the Spirit.  We’ll never teach ourselves to live the Fruit of the Spirit.  We can only OPEN ourselves to living it in and through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.  The reason we fail to grow so many times in our lives as followers of Jesus, is we’re unwilling to admit that the only thing we can do is LET GOD LEAD AND EMPOWER US.  That’s a position of weakness.  It’s a position of subordination.  It’s a position of humility.  We’re Americans.  We don’t like those realities.  So, we don’t grow in the Spirit.  We don’t grow in the Fruit of the Spirit, and the world looks on and asks, “Why would I want to be a Christian, when they aren’t any different than us?”

I’m so glad that I have finally begun to realize that when I’m weak, then God can be strong in me; that as long as I have to have control, God can’t.  Since the beginning of the year, I’ve known peace that I’ve never known before. The Fruit of the Spirit is growing and the anger that used to be central in my days is all but gone.  I don’t say that to say, “Look at me!”  I say that to say, “Look at God! Isn’t He awesome!”  When we let God work in our hearts, our minds, our spirits, our lives---the transformation is quick and obvious.  Paul said that we must fix our thoughts on the true, the honorable, the right, the pure, the lovely, the admirable, on everything that’s excellent and worthy of praise.  We must keep practicing what we’ve learned, received, heard and seen in the Gospel and the lives of godly believers. When we do that the God of peace will be with us.  Our part is fixing our will on God.  God’s part is filling us with Himself!  That’s the only “formula” for growing the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

The question is:  Do we want to grow?  Because we are as mature in Jesus, and we’re growing as much fruit of the Spirit in our lives as we want right now.  God promises that if we fix our desires on Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts.  But only if we desire His desires!  As we go out today that’s a message the world is not going to teach us.  The world is going to tell us, on the one hand, that what’s important is getting good grades in school, working hard, keeping our noses to the grindstone.  On the other hand they’re going to tell us to go after everything that makes us feel good, to grab all the gusto we can.  The world’s going to hope that we don’t see how absurd it is to seek after such opposite goals; that we don’t wonder why we’re always feeling so conflicted and confused.  Here’s TODAY’S CHALLENGE:  I will fix my thoughts and actions on God’s best, so I will experience His peace.  The world doesn’t understand God’s peace, because God’s peace is beyond anything humans can understand.  Yet, we know when we have it.  Do you want it?  Then say the challenge with me:  TODAY’S CHALLENGE:  I will fix my thoughts and actions on God’s best, so I will experience His peace.  As we live out that challenge, our growth in the Fruit of the Spirit will accelerate, and we’ll know love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control as we’ve never known it before.  That will be a good thing for EVERYONE —for us, and for the world, because at the end of the day God’s ways are ALWAYS the best ways.  Amen?  Amen.  Let’s pray……. Amen.