The Missing Peace - how you can find peace down in your soul

[0:00] Praise the Lord. We do thank the Lord for all his gifts and blessings. I heard a good! report is a point for prayer about our state government's deliberations about legalising! prostitution that failed. So that's a blessing, a great victory that some moral and common sense would prevail in those who would govern us. So that's a great answer to prayer. We're going to go to the Word of God, to Isaiah 57. We'll get there shortly and spending more time really on Isaiah 26. But I'm talking about the subject of peace and the missing piece you could say. There's a missing piece of the puzzle. Now who's ever tried to complete a big jigsaw puzzle and it's a mammoth project and you finally get to that last stage and there's just, oh, there's one piece missing. There's a piece missing and it's so frustrating, isn't it? And really and truly people have a piece missing, a missing piece. People are searching for peace and they're missing it. They hope maybe they can find it in some enjoyment of life or maybe taking a trip somewhere or some substance they can partake of as if peace is found in a bottle or of some kind as such or in a needle. They search in vain for peace and they can lose heart. It's the human lot, isn't it? At times we see that there's a vain search and there is a missing peace, a missing peace. Now we see in the word of God, Isaiah 57, we see it talks about peace and the lack of peace. And I'll have to get some help here. We've got a little technical hitch again. So we thank the Lord for our helpful helpers. I'd like to give you a little signal now and again. Thanks,

[2:10] Diane. Isaiah 57 verse 20 through 21, it says, but the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God to the wicked. No peace, saith my God to the wicked. You know, there's a saying that's still common today. When someone says they're having something going wrong, you say there's no peace to the wicked. You know, it's from the Bible. It says there is no peace, saith my God to the wicked. And it's still true today.

[2:49] Some people have no real peace, no soul peace. They're troubled in their soul. Life is full of depression and restlessness. It's like the wicked are like a troubled sea that casts up mire and dirt.

[3:05] Something is missing. Peace is missing. That's what's missing. And God's word shows us where it is to be found. Peace actually is found in a person, as we see in Isaiah 26 verses 3 through 4. Isaiah 26 verses 3 through 4. It says, Verse 4 there it says, There's a promise there, there's an assurance there from God's word, trust in the Lord.

[3:45] Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. We know the human lot of life. Many are restless. They're burdened down, filled with cares and worries. That's the human lot. You know, the rain falls on the just and the unjust. We all share that. At times we have those times where fears and troubles can overwhelm our thoughts and thinking can be disturbed. And yet some never get the peace of God that helps us in such times of troubles. We're talking here of real peace, a peace that's deep down, deep in our soul. Some would search for peace and it's an elusive thing for them. They search in vain for a man-made kind of peace. And there's some churches who would kind of trot out a watered down kind of message that it's all about peace and love without any substance of truth. They set aside truth and righteousness and they preach a kind of message that's about positivity and positive thinking and as if that's the way to get peace without yielding to God. And we know that is wrong. And our Lord rebukes that in Ezekiel.

[5:04] The next one, Ezekiel 13 verse 10. It says, Because even because they have seduced my people, saying peace and there was no peace. So for these ones, we see that God rebukes such false prophets where there's some that give this kind of positive kind of message, positive thinking kind of message, just like a kind of positive thinking guru would do, as if peace is found in kind of just confessing positivity.

[5:31] And our Lord says, that's not right. You can't proclaim peace because there is no peace in that kind of message. And so where is peace found? We must find peace, but outside of Christ there is no peace, zero peace. No peace saith my God to the wicked. Outside of Christ, outside of his saving, there is no genuine true peace found there. Some would vainly search for peace as they do, as they continue to do, continually on this vain search, going through Eastern mysticism or practicing maybe secular philosophies or New Age chanting and mantras, sitting at the feet of some guru.

[6:13] Some would try to find happiness by laughing clubs. Who's ever heard of those? Apparently there's one in Elizabeth you can join at the Grenville Centre. There's a laughter club, a laughing club.

[6:25] So you just sort of laugh out your troubles. Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with laughing because it's a good thing to laugh. And he likes a good laugh. We can all use one, can't we? But our real peace doesn't come by kind of some manufactured laughing by some method such as that.

[6:43] Truly and really, it's not the peace that God's word tells us of. Some would go to positive thinking coaches and have some kind of counselling or some kind of coaching to have a good mental outlook and such.

[6:59] Now, not saying that's necessarily wrong. We could maybe benefit from that. But the real peace that is soul deep, heart deep peace is something that we must find. It's something essential. It's a missing peace and we must find that, that real peace. And the Bible, the word of God shows us, yes, it is possible.

[7:18] It can be found. How can we know true peace? That's a really important question. How is that peace found? How can we find such peace? The Bible shows us how we can have peace of mind. Wow. Wouldn't you like that?

[7:35] That true peace of mind where we can have a restfulness in our soul, in our thinking. The Bible shows us that it is possible to have true peace of mind. Notice where again we see that it matters where we focus our mind.

[7:54] Isaiah 26.3 again, Thou, God, wilt keep him, the person who needs peace, in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee. It matters where your mind is, where your mind is. What's between the two ears?

[8:12] Well, it's between these two ears. There's an amazing computer in there. And this mind of ours, it gathers millions, billions of bits of sensory data every second, which tell us how to feel and think and react and have that sense of well-being. Billions of bits of data every second. They're saying this is what science is saying. And our mind is actually, the Bible shows us, a kind of spiritual battleground. We face many giants, doubts and concerns and fears about what tomorrow holds.

[8:46] And life can overwhelm us. And that's true for Christians. We're not immune to some of those things that we're bombarded with in our minds. It's about how we deal with it. It's about what our focus is. Stayed on thee. Negativity can overwhelm us. It's said that the average person has over 200 negative thoughts a day. Wow. I don't know if you had your 200 already, but that's a lot, isn't it?

[9:22] 200 negative thoughts. They could be worries or jealousies or insecurities, maybe craving for forbidden things. The average person with even mild depression can have as many as 600 negative thoughts a day. This is what people reckon. That's a lot of negativity, isn't it? 600 negative thoughts a day. It's, you know, how do you count that? It's for some, could be more, could be less.

[9:51] But there's negative thoughts, there's thinking, there's, our mind is constantly having to struggle with these things, these thoughts. And it can have a significant impact on our walk with God.

[10:03] And our mind can be deceived such that we're confused about half-truths. You know, when someone says something in one ear and someone says the opposite in the other, who do you believe? How do you reconcile that? You know, when you hear two sides of a story, who's telling you the truth? You know, it boggles the mind when you have such situations. You know, as a pastor, you can believe it. I'm constantly bombarded with, who do you believe when you're hearing two sides of it? Paul tells of those who are the enemies of the cross. Next is Philippians 3.19. It says of them who are the enemies of the cross, their end is destruction, whose God is their belly and whose glory is their shame and who mind, notice, mind, earthly things. It's where you set your mind, on earthly things or stayed on him.

[10:59] As Christians, we're impacted by earthly things. We suffer, we face situations that are troubled and hardship and hurts. And they impact us and they can take over our thinking. And for some, it's all they think about is the earthly. They just think about the earthly and they don't stop and think, is there more to life than this? And we can all be affected. When we tune into the music of the culture, it can rob us of peace. When we watch movies or certain things that might be questionable, it can shape our thinking and mould us to the culture of the value system of the world. God says, it's not a good thing to mind earthly things. We can fill our minds so much with earthly things that there's no space left for heavenly things, for the consideration of heavenly things. Of some, they resist God so much that they harden their hearts. Now the Bible talks about a stony heart, rock solid, hardened, hardened towards the things of God. Whereas God wants to soften our heart such that he can enter in, so he can replace that heart, that stony heart with a heart of flesh. In Hebrews 4 verse 7 it says,

[12:30] Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. It's a repeated theme through scripture of this hardening of heart. Will you hear his voice? That's the question. Hear his voice. Sometimes we may not like what he says. You know, it's like some people, they kind of take their Bible and they want to tear some pages out. Oh, I don't like that bit. Or they get the black texter and they try to, well, that's, I'm going to highlight my Bible. I'm going to put the black texter through that one so I don't have to read that verse. It's a bit too convicting for me. You know, they don't like what they read. It's like when some people go to the doctor and the doctor says, okay, I'm going to tell you here, tell you straight, you've got to lose some weight, you've got to stop smoking, whatever it be, otherwise you're going to get worse or whatever it be. And you get offended at what the doctor says. But actually the doctor is the only one telling you the truth.

[13:24] It's good to hear what your doctor says. It's good to hear what Dr. Jesus says. Amen. What the great physician of our soul says in his word and take his prescription. Amen.

[13:36] The truth hurts, doesn't it? The truth hurts. It hurts today. And we have to, it says, hear his voice and harden not your hearts. Do something about it. You know, we can hear what the doctor says and disregard it. We can see, hear what Jesus, our Lord says and disregard it. We can harden our hearts or we can do something about it. Now, another thing we can do when someone gives us some word of advice or counsel is we can neglect it. It's easy to be neglectful, isn't it? The flesh will find some excuse, some reasoning for its sin. And we can all think of a way how we can excuse something that deep, deep down we know it's wrong and we try to make excuses for it. We reason, reason why.

[14:28] But really we have to fess up and go to God. You know, when we were doing some witnessing yesterday, there's a man who came to me and he said he needed a priest to make a confession.

[14:42] So, now, of course, we know that that's not what you do. You don't go to a priest to a confessional box and behind some black curtain and tell him all your deepest, darkest secrets and your sins.

[14:56] But I told him there is a priest you can go to. Amen. There is a great high priest. And you can confess straight to him. And I think it was a good thing with that gentleman, despite his confusion, that he had a sense of his sin. That is a good thing to have, isn't it?

[15:16] That's the starting point of trusting Christ is to know you're a sinner. And we're able to share quite thoroughly with him and had a good conversation. But we notice here that we need to be God conscious and conscious of his leading, to go to prayer, to seek his face, to find his peace over our daily decisions. We see that the Lord Jesus says this in John 14, 27. He says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.

[15:47] Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Notice it's about what occupies your heart. The world offers peace. Yes, it does. But it's a so-called peace. That's not what we need.

[16:00] How is God's peace different? He says, My peace, the peace of our Lord. My peace I give to you. And think of the Lord's peace, the peace of Christ, our Lord. His peace is not short-lived.

[16:13] It's not dependent on circumstance or treatments or medications. And what we need is God's peace. He says, My peace, it's contrary, it's in contradiction to the world's kind of peace, which is empty and vain. God's peace repairs the heart. It regards our hearts. We see in Philippians 4, verse 7, it says, And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. How can we achieve this, this ultimate mind state? Do we need to go to some monastery perhaps and flagellate ourselves with some scourge and maybe lie on beds of nails or wear sackcloth and ashes? No, none of that. We need a change of mind, a change of heart, a new mind. This mind state comes when we put our trust in him, when our mind is stayed on thee, on God. It's possible for us to have this mind, this state of mind, this new state of mind, the mind of Christ. It says, 1 Corinthians 2, 16 tells us of the mind of Christ. It says we have the mind of Christ. What a radical concept that is, that you and me in our human frame, in our human thinking can have such a change of mind that we have the very mind of Christ. That he would give us a mind, an attitude like his mind. How he would see things and how he would treat people, how he would love and care. And Paul had this kind of spirit we see in Acts 20, verse 19. He tells us, Serving the Lord with all humility of mind. He talks about tears and temptations of trials. He says, I have served the Lord with all humility of mind. Notice the kind of mind Paul had, a humility of mind.

[18:16] Elsewhere it tells of a humbleness of mind. What's stopping us from having the mind of Christ? Could it be pride? That we have to bow our will down to him, to our God, to humble ourselves and bow down under the mighty hand of God? Is pride stopping us? I think it can. We see Proverbs 16, 19. It says, Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud. A humble spirit is something that's very precious. It's very important. It's very blessed to have a humble spirit. And it goes contrary, I know for me, it's contrary to, my inclination is to be prideful, to be proud. It's kind of in me to be prideful, to have pride. But our closeness to God starts here, it says, humility, humility. And notice

[19:23] Isaiah 57, verse 15. It says, For thus saith the high and lofty one, the high and lofty one, he's eternal. He's so high and heavenly. He's so lofty. He's so above and over. The one who inhabits eternity, it says, whose name is holy. It's his name. He says, I dwell in the high and holy place. He dwells in the high and holy place. This is the one we're talking about is God, the high and lofty one, the eternal one who inhabits eternity. His name is holy. He lives in the high and holy place. It goes on to say, I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Notice there this high and lofty one, as the next part says, he dwells in the contrite and humble spirit. Next. He dwells in that high, the humble spirit, the contrite and humble. Don't you want God to live in your heart? Don't you want Jesus to take control of your thinking that you can have the very mind of Christ? God says it can be such, but we have to be contrite and humble. We have to say, Lord, take me, take me, take what I am. I'm humbling myself. Next we say, do you think we need the grace of God? Go back one, James 4 verse 6, it says, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith,

[21:05] God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Maybe it's not there. James 4 verse 6, it says he gives more grace, he resists the proud, but he gives grace unto the humble.

[21:16] To lack grace is such a missing piece, isn't it? To lack grace, to lack humility. James 4 verse 10, it says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty, in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. James 4 verse 10. Maybe we are downcast because we have not bowed to the master. He wants to lift us up, but maybe we're too proud before him. We can be downcast because we have not bowed to the master. There's a promise there, James 4 verse 10. Humble yourselves therefore in the sight of God and he shall lift you up. Now you might feel like a preacher, I'm at a real low point. I'm at a real low point in my life right now. You don't know what's going on for me. He shall lift you up, it says. But you have to humble yourself first.

[22:25] Say, God, help me. I need you. Jesus, save me. Then he will lift you up. And how does that happen? It happens as we let go of pride. We have to come to a place where we let go of our pride. In 1 Peter 5, it talks about being subject one to another, clothed with humility.

[22:47] God resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble. And it says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Sorry, the words aren't quite falling, but hold it there. Just leave it there for now. Just hold it there. 1 Peter 5 talks about humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Like I was saying before, this man yesterday that I met, he was very pressed. He needed to confess to a priest. He knew he was a sinner. He was conscious of his sin. Pointed him to the one priest to go to. There's one priest to go to. The great high priest. The chief high priest. The perfect high priest. The one and only priest that you can confess your sin to and know that he will help you. Not to some mere man, but straight to God. Straight to him.

[23:42] And he gives grace to the humble. So when we come under the mighty hand of God, his hand over us is not to hurt us, but to help us. His hand over us is not to punish us as if he's some big thumb on us. But his hand is underneath are the everlasting arms and his hands are over us. He says, no man can pluck you out of my hand, out of the Father's hand. The hand of God over your life is a blessed place to be. Under his keeping. Under his shelter. And it's found as we humble ourselves. That's where it begins. As we humble ourselves under his lordship, his kingly rule. And we read here, Colossians 3.15, the peace of God can rule in our hearts.

[24:29] The peace of God can rule in our hearts. Don't you want that kind of rule over your life? To have a sovereign who loves you. Not just some government that might have its own interest or direction. And might be a godless one. Not some dictator or despot who's going to be a, you know, some burdensome rule over your life. This one who wants to rule over your life is the king of kings and the lord of lords. He is the most perfect one. And he wants to take authority over your heart and life to sit as king over your heart. And when God's peace takes command, that's a blessed place to be.

[25:14] It truly is. I know Julie and I know a man and we've got a bit of a joke that we say when we like something and because he used to say it all the time. He used to say, you know, about some, maybe some benefit or, you know, some nice place to go or some nice thing to do. He would say, won't that be nice? Won't that be nice? And just think, if God's peace was to take command, won't that be nice?

[25:43] Won't that be nice when the government will be on his shoulders? Won't that be nice? Won't that be perfect? Won't that be glorious? One day it shall be, the government shall be on his shoulders. And one day he will rule and reign over the rightful place, the rightful throne that he should occupy as the one enthroned in dominion over this planet and the whole universe. For the meantime, he's given temporary control to the god of this world, small g, who's doing damage to it. But one day the one who rightfully deserves to be the king will rule and reign. And the wonderful truth is that he can rule in your heart. Won't that be nice? To know that Jesus is ruling over your heart. And his very peace can be there. As he takes command, that's a blessed place to be. When he offers rest to the soul. And Isaiah 26.3, it says, they will keep him in perfect peace. His mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee.

[26:41] So notice here the peace of God. It says that God's peace is constant. He will keep you in perfect peace. It's abiding peace. This is not a peace that comes and goes, dependent on happenstance. God will keep us in perfect peace. Perfect peace. There's healing there. God's peace. That our mind can be renewed, washed in this cleansing stream. In this world that will foul up our minds with filthy thoughts and defilement. That our hearts can be washed, our mind can be brainwashed in a good way. In this cleansing stream, the washing of water by the word. This is pure water. Better than purer tap. This is the best of the best, isn't it? A washing of water by the word. There's nothing more pure and perfect and crystal clear than the precious word of God that can wash our minds, our hearts, our lives.

[27:34] The Bible says, love the Lord thy God amongst other things with all thy mind. How do we do that? To love God with our mind. Yes, it is possible. Jesus says to you, love God with all your mind. And that could include, I put to you, about our decision making. When we make decisions, do we have God in our mind? Do we think, what would God think about that decision that I'm about to make? What would God think about that which I'm contemplating? It's a new way of thinking really, isn't it? Our brain gets born again. Wow, that'd be something, wouldn't it? Won't that be nice? Now, when we tune into a brand new wavelength, we adopt a new thinking, a new thought patterns, a whole new mindset. 2 Corinthians 10 verse 5 talks about bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And as I say, he's not some slave master. If we were to put our every thought into captivity, that he would captivate our every thought, all of our thinking, that's a good place to be. Perfect peace is possible.

[28:46] Perfect peace is possible. And just go back a couple there. Perfect peace becomes possible when we trust in God. Stop trusting in yourself. It tells in the Bible about some, they trusted in themselves. Let's talk about the Pharisees. They trusted in themselves. They trusted in what they could do in their works. The Bible says don't trust in yourself. Trust in God. It says thou will keep him in perfect peace. His mind is stayed on the, yeah, just hold it there.

[29:18] So simply trust in God. In God. Not in other things. Trust in him. And it gives you a whole new outlook on life, an uplook. It changes your whole thinking processes. You get rewired.

[29:34] And you start to see, wow, I've got a reason to be. He has made me and I've got some, something good is happening in my soul. And we've got whole new communication channels with the one who made us, our designer and maker. And one who loves us, the lover of our soul. We can trust him. Trust him. And we can seek his will and find what is the best way to live. He says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Make that number one. All these things should be added. Question is, are we carnally minded? Just thinking about the fleshly thinking or pleasing ourselves? Or are we kingdom minded? Seek ye first his kingdom, his righteousness.

[30:21] Friends, today I want to urge you these truths. I pray that there's some encouragement here to think how we can have perfect peace. We can have a clear mind, a clear conscience. As much as our conscience will always be conflicted as we are made conscious of things that ought not to be.

[30:41] But this is an ultimate mind control. That's a good one. A good one because if God has mind control of our mind, his will for us is the best that it can be. It's the best choices we can make. It's the best life we can live. It's to be living as would honour and please our master. And we can have peace even in the midst of troubled times. Even when there's grief and loss and hardship and hard things to cope with, we'll have his hand walking us through the valley.

[31:14] He'll have his hand guiding our steps. This peace of which we speak is not found at the end of a needle. It's not found at the bar of a hotel. It's not found at the feet of a guru. Where is this peace found? Colossians 1 verse 20 it says, and having made peace through the blood of his cross.

[31:37] That's how it's found. The peace that I'm speaking of today, it's not found in a needle, in a hotel, in a guru. It's found at the blood of his cross. By the blood of his cross. The blood shed to reconcile us. To make us right with God. And we can rest in that. You can rest in that. You can put your rest in that. Your trust in that. In his overshadowing care over you. This one who loves you more than you can ever be loved. His love is everlasting from everlasting to everlasting. There's no greater love that a man lay down his life for us. That Christ loves you so that he shed his blood. And why can we rest in God's overshadowing care? Because God keeps his promises. Now you might have had people promise you things. Oh, cross my heart and hope to die. And they let you down. They fail you. They lied.

[32:34] But Jesus never fails. And Jesus always keeps his promises. And his book, this book that is illegal in 52 countries on this globe, 52 countries ban this book, make it illegal or persecute you in some fashion if you've got one. This book, this illegal banned book holds the key. It holds the key for you.

[33:02] And it says that by the blood of his cross we can have peace. We can have peace. You see Psalm 119 verse 165, a psalm that talks much of this book. It says, Great peace, great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. There's great peace here. There's great promises. Great, exceeding great, exceeding great and precious promises.

[33:26] May the considerations of our life be made with the thought of, is it true? Will we be truth tellers? Living truthfully according to truth. Some people can yarn on about what they feel or think or what their view or opinion is. What matters is the truth. Is it true? Is it in the book? Can we accord with the book? Are we Bible minded people such that the word of God governs our life, our thinking, our thought patterns? What are you seeking after? In Psalm 10 verse 4 it says, The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. There are some who couldn't care less about the things of God. Oh I've got better things to do. There's a footy game on today. Or whatever it be. You know, oh I've got to go down the beach.

[34:18] It's nice. Whatever it be. They will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. Why? Pride. Pride. They're thoughtless of God. God is not in all their thoughts. He doesn't feature in their thinking. There's a missing piece and they don't even realise it. Maybe they've not got quite to the end of the jigsaw puzzle of life and they get to the jigsaw puzzle of life and they get to their last days and they think, oh something's missing. If only they'd noticed sooner they could have found that missing piece who is Christ himself. Having your mind stayed on God is the wise thing to do.

[35:02] It's the best thing to do. It's the principal thing to do. Proverbs 4 we read that wisdom is the principal thing. Verse 7 there. There's other verses around it which are not displayed. It talks about getting wisdom. Forsake her not, it says. She'll preserve thee. Wisdom is the principal thing.

[35:21] Therefore get wisdom. Get this. Get wisdom. With all thy getting, get understanding. There's other verses which are not shown here. Exalt her. She'll promote thee. She'll bring thee honour when you embrace her. A crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. Wisdom is the principal thing. There's much said about wisdom in the Proverbs. We see wisdom and wisdom is truly reflected in the very person of our Saviour. He is wisdom with a capital W. Get wisdom. It's the principal thing. You know some people go through life and they miss the main point. The main point of life is to know your maker and to trust him. To know his saving. There's such a blatant lack of wisdom these days. So much learning.

[36:04] So much knowledge. It's the knowledge age. The so-called information age. But there's a missing piece people. The true wisdom is lacking. It's missing. And the word tells us how to get wisdom.

[36:17] It says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The beginning of wisdom. It says in Proverbs 9 verse 10. And the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Now the Lord calls us to grow up in our mind. In our thinking. Some people are held back. They're slowed down. They're slowed down in their maturity in Christ. You know there's a phrase today that talks about children that when they're growing up that they're developmentally delayed. You know there's something holding them back from growing to their full capacity. They're developmentally delayed. I put to you today some people are spiritually delayed. Spiritually delayed. They've got spiritual muscles but they're weak.

[37:03] They're not strong. They're kind of failing. Not at their full potential. They lack that piece of the puzzle. And we need to come to that knowledge. It talks in the word. In 1 Corinthians 14 verse 20 it talks about be not children in understanding. It talks about in understanding be men. In other words grow up. Get a mind that is matured. Make willful decisions that are rightful ones. In 1 Corinthians 13 and 11 it says Paul writes how as a child he once spoke as a child. He understood as a child but now as a man he's put away childish things. At times you see these days don't you some adults who look like they've never grown up. Now sometimes that's a good thing. We should be a bit youthful and kind of have a little bit of the youthfulness. There's nothing wrong with having a bit of vigour. But I'm talking about some people that they've never grown up in that they're still occupied with maybe shoot them up games. Now I might be treading on some toes here. But they just spend idly spending time on shoot them up games or such things. You think wow that time's just gone.

[38:18] It's just gone out the window. Or maybe games and trinkets and immaturity. Things that are childish things. It's time to grow up and put away the childish things. It's good for us to do that.

[38:31] And to be in understanding as men. To grow up spiritually. To make spiritual progress. And the devil would like you to just play around. Continue to play games. Rather than get on the running track. And go forward for God. Now the ultimate childish thing is to reject God isn't it?

[38:53] To lose that. To lose him. To not know him. To have that lack of peace. Of that missing peace. Who is God himself. Is such a great tragic loss. We see Romans 5. It talks about that by being justified by faith we have peace with God. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. We've got access it says.

[39:15] By faith. Into this grace. We stand in it. We rejoice in it. In the hope of the glory of God. How do we get peace with God? By being justified by faith. So that we believe. We put our trust.

[39:28] And we put our faith in him. In his justifying. In his saving. And we receive that. It says by faith. And then the next one is Philippians 4. It talks about as we have that peace.

[39:40] We can know the peace of God in our day by day. So Romans 5 was talking about peace with God. Romans Philippians 4 is talking about the peace of God. And it says it will keep our hearts and minds. It talks about that we can pray. Make our requests made known to God.

[39:59] And friends. How do we get the peace of God? Pray through. Trust him. Hang on to his word. His promises. Confess his truth over your life. Know his peace. His overshadowing care.

[40:15] That he will grant it. His words promise. Promises you. My peace I'll give to you. He says. And his words ring true. They're still true today. His words echo still through the centuries.

[40:28] Through the ages. Matthew 11. He still says these words to us today. He says. Come unto me. All ye that labour. And are heavy laden. And what? Let's say it together. I will give you rest.

[40:47] Verse 29. It says. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart. And you shall find rest unto your souls. His words call out still. He beckons still.

[41:00] What is the point of all of this today? Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Take him at his word. Come unto him as he calls you to. Put your faith in him.

[41:17] And to close again. Isaiah 26. It says. Thou wilt keep him in perfect, perfect peace. His mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever. For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

[41:32] What it's saying for us here just to quickly line it up in short words. Place your faith in him. Set your mind on him.

[41:45] And keep it there. And trust in the Lord. You will have peace. Peace. Perfect peace. Everlasting peace. Friends, I urge you today.

[41:56] If you've not trusted Christ as your Lord and Saviour, we may have the peace of God. We might have peace with God. By faith in Christ.

[42:08] As we put our trust in the blood of his cross, we can know peace. Not the blood of animals or the works of flesh and man, of religion, but entirely because of the blood of his cross, we can have peace today.

[42:21] You can know that peace. You can know and not have that missing peace. You can know the peace of God. I urge you today. And believers, let's take his promises.

[42:32] Let's hear his voice. Even if it be the doctor telling us something we don't want to hear. Let's act on his word, on his voice to us today. And be encouraged to know that peace of God.

[42:44] It passes all understanding. It keeps our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Praise the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you are the Prince of Peace. You are the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.

[42:56] You want your peace to rule in our hearts. Lord, take control in that good way that you want to. Brainwash us, Lord, as it were, in that good way that we need it. That cleansing power.

[43:08] Lord, let us come by faith to realise the blood of your cross makes this all happen. As we have faith in you, as we place our trust in you, as our mind has stayed on you.

[43:18] Lord, we can let our affection be on that which matters. We can put away the childish things and the things that would detour us from your will. Lord, help us to be a people, rock solid, standing strong, to growing firmer and stronger and growing in our faith, Lord, that we can be such a people that we can know the peace of God and the peace with God.

[43:42] We thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.