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Sermon Series: Jesus Is...The Prince of PeaceIsaiah 9:6 & Psalm 37:1-11PSBC 12/24/00 AM In a nutshell: Peace is given by the owner of peace–Jesus. Peace is
received by being MEEK, as outlined in Psalm 37. I. Introduction A. Lake vs. Waterfall Two painters were commissioned by a king to paint a painting which illustrated "peace". The first chose to paint a scene of a still, lone, lake nestled in a valley, surrounded by a meadow, tall aspen trees, and snow capped mountains. The second painter chose to paint a thundering waterfall, with a fragile birch tree bending over the foam. When you looked closely, where two branches made a fork at the top of the tree, he painted a small nest with a robin sitting on her eggs. Which painting do you think the king chose? I'll tell you in a little while! B. Transition During Advent, we've been looking at one of the greatest descriptions of Christmas ever given to human beings. The description is found in four names given to Jesus, in... Isa 9:6 And if you haven't guessed it yet, this morning we're going to be looking at the meaning of that last name, Prince of Peace. II. Prince of Peace–Taking the phrase apart A. Prince When a Jewish person of Isaiah's day talked about a "prince", he wasn't merely talking about an heir to a throne, or the son of a king. The fact was that there were many "princes" in the various eastern cultures that surrounded the Promised Land. Most of those princes would never be kings; they weren't born into families where their fathers were kings; and they never in their lives, would rise above that title of "prince". Rather, in Isaiah's day, the term "prince" meant... a chief, or exclusive owner. So, it wasn't unusual in that culture, (and we still see remnants of this in the Arab world today) to have princes over armies, or princes over people groups, or princes over clans, or princes over territories. So, when Isaiah gives the title, Prince of Peace, to Jesus, he is saying that the concept of "peace" belongs exclusively to Jesus–He's literally Peace's Prince. Consequently, if any of us want peace, we have to go through Jesus to get it. Now, that's going to take some adjustment in our thinking. Because, that
means that... But what is peace? B. Peace Illustration: You may have had a similar experience to what I had growing up. You may have had a grandmother or mother who braided "rag rugs". My grandmother did this, a lot! We had braided rag rugs throughout our farm house. The thing about rag rugs, was that they were made into a complete whole rug by the expert weaving together of pieces or fragments of rags or material. Grandma had one rag rug in her dining room that literally was big enough to cover the entire floor of that room. It took her over two years to make it. That was a lot of rags! Well, that's the idea behind the Hebrew word for peace, Shalom. Peace means
"to bind together the fragments of life into a meaningful whole." When
you are assured that all things will work out in your life for an ultimate
meaning that makes perfect sense, you have peace. III. MEEKNESS - Entirely dependent on God So, how do you get it? How do you get peace from the owner of peace, so the fragments of your life is woven together into a meaningful whole? For that we have to go to one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, Psalm 37. And I want you to first look at a key verse nestled about a quarter of the way into this Psalm... Ps 37:11 Do you see it? The way you get peace, from the one who owns peace, is by being MEEK! A. Definition of Meek But what you think of as meek, and what the Bible means when it talks about being meek are probably two very different things. If you're like me, you probably think of someone who is meek in terms of the cartoon character, Charlie Brown. Someone who is down-trodden, inept, mousey or a nerd. But that isn't at all what God had in mind when he said, "The meek will...enjoy great peace." The Hebrew word for meek, means, "Entirely Dependent On God." Illustration: When I first made the decision to follow Jesus Christ as the leader of my life, when I was in college, I thought that doing that, was just something you decided to do, then you did it–similar to a new year's resolution. "I think I'll totally depend on God today." I would say this or think this, and that was the genuine desire of my heart–but when it came right down to it, I couldn't do it. In reality, I didn't have a clue how to follow God so that I was entirely dependent on Him. Oh, I tried. In most cases, I'd set up a series of laws that I had to obey. I wouldn't get drunk, I wouldn't chase women, I wouldn't cuss, I'd read my Bible every morning. I'd spend 15 minutes in prayer every day, and so on. By setting up these laws I thought I was being totally dependent on God. But in setting up these laws, I was flying in the face of my human nature. You see, by nature, human beings are law breakers. In fact, Paul calls us slaves to the law of sin. Romans 7:25 That basically means, that if we set something up as a law to help us follow God, we are almost guaranteed to break it. Not because the law is bad, but because human beings, by nature, break laws. B. Change our natures So, if making resolutions or laws is not the way to change our lives to become "entirely dependent on God," how do we do it? Are you ready for the answer? Here it is... We have to change our natures. Let me explain... Illustration: A long time ago, a king had some monkeys that were trained to perform a dance routine. Now, you know, if you've ever gone to the zoo, that monkeys are great mimics of human actions. And these monkeys were very good at imitating human actions. They were dressed in elaborate costumes, put on masks and danced as well as any of the men and women of the court. At parties, these monkeys would dance so well, and look like humans so much, that at the end of their act, they often received a standing ovation. But on one occasion one of the young princes, who was rather mischievous, took a handful of nuts from his pocket, and threw them on the stage while the monkeys were dancing. When the monkeys saw the nuts, they forgot their dancing and became (as they really were) Monkeys–instead of actors. They pulled off their masks and tore their costumes, and fought with each other for the nuts. The dancing act came to an end, and people were laughing, because the monkeys showed what they really were–no change had taken place--they were still monkeys. You see, friends, you can be a good "actor". You can fool a lot of people with the way you talk and the way you're involved in "church" things. You can impress people with the lists that you keep of the things you do and the things you don't do. But if your nature doesn't change, sooner or later–usually when those things happen that we call, the defining moments of your life, you'll revert back to what you really are–a man or woman controlled by a sin nature, rather than a NEW NATURE. So the big question of the day is... how do we change natures, so we are entirely dependent on God, and receive peace, that allows us to make sense out of the fragments of our lives? God gives us FIVE nature-changers in Psalm 37, that will contribute to creating NEW natures in us that are meek, and able to experience peace. And that's what I want to spend the rest of our time this morning discovering and understanding. IV. 5 Nature Changers A. TRUST The first nature-changer is found in verse 3... Ps 37:3 The first process to becoming dependent on God is TRUST. In his book The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning tells about an incident
which took place one day when a two-story house caught on fire. The family was
making its way out of the house when the smallest boy became terrified, tore
away from his mother, and ran back upstairs. Suddenly, he appeared at a
smoke-filled window crying hysterically. Standing outside, his father shouted,
Jump, son, jump! I will catch you." Then Manning goes on to say..."That's really all that matters in threatening situations, isn't it? To know that our heavenly Father can see us." Folks, the bottom line is (front of bulletin) Trust is the actions of our life hitched to the knowledge that God sees us, even when we can't see Him. B. DELIGHT The second nature-changer is found in verse 4... Ps 37:4 The word delight literally means to become like wax. The idea here is to be soft or pliable. A word in English that is very similar to this idea is the word, "Teachable." This is a concept that too often is missing in Christian's lives. Illustration: When I was a Christian Education pastor in a church in the Midwest, I worked with two teachers who had each been teaching 3 year old children in that church for over 25 years. They were best friends, they loved working with children, yet they were very different. One was an adequate teacher, and never in the four years I served as pastor, did I have a parent request that I put their child in her class. The other was an outstanding teacher and every year, I would have at least a half dozen parents request that I place their child in her class. What was the difference? The adequate teacher told me that when she first started teaching at the church she had attended a training workshop on teaching Sunday School. It was very good, and she learned a lot. But she never attended a training workshop again. She felt she had received all that she needed to receive in that one teacher training course she took at the beginning of her teaching. In essence, she used that same information year after year after year, for 25 years. She had one year of training that she used 25 times over. Even though she taught with dedication, she never became an outstanding teacher. But the other teacher, the one who was always requested by parents, attended Sunday school training seminars and workshops, whenever they were offered. She was hungry to learn, and was always finding new ways to be creative and exciting in her teaching. She couldn't learn enough about teaching three year olds. She had literally received twenty-five years of training, that she constantly added to her understanding. She remained teachable over the long haul, and her classes were not just good–they were outstanding. And when God says, DELIGHT yourself in the Lord, He is saying, be teachable over the long haul. Look for new things to learn about me every day of your life. Be TEACHABLE when you're 23 and when you're 93, and everywhere in between. Don't stop learning about Me! C. COMMIT The third nature-changer is found in verse 5... Ps 37:5 The word COMMIT literally means to "roll". Illustration: Think about it like this, when you roll a bowling ball down a bowling alley, the ball has no control where it will go. The forces that sent it down the alley have all the control. The spin, the speed, the aim, gravity, inertia, and many other laws of physics have control over where that ball will go. The ball has just one job to do. It simply has to roll. Literally, when we COMMIT ourselves to God, we are saying, "I'm not
going to live my life by my controls, That's COMMITMENT. D. BE STILL The fourth nature-changer is found in verse 7... Ps 37:7 BE STILL. It literally means, shut your mouth, stop your activity, and listen. Illustration: I'm reminded of the example of the young boy, Samuel in the Old Testament. God wanted to get a personal message to him. So in the middle of the night God spoke, "Samuel, Samuel." The boy quickly got up and ran to his teacher Ely, and said, "What do you want." Ely told him that he had not called him, and go back to bed. This happened again, and Samuel did the same thing. Again Ely told him to go back to sleep, he hadn't called him. When it happened a third time, Samuel was told by Ely to say, "Speak Lord, your servant is listening." At that time, God spoke his special message to Samuel. Friends, I'm convinced one of the reasons so many Christians are not experiencing peace in their lives, is because they are not taking the time to BE STILL before the Lord. How many of you have purposely turned off the TV, turned off the phone, gotten rid of all other distractions, and sat down and thought about God for more than a minute this past week? What I'm talking about here is strategic to being entirely dependent on God and experiencing peace in your life. Yet, modern culture with it's emphasis on TV, radio, home work, hobbies, jobs, activities and sports have all worked against us, and keep us from doing what God says is necessary for peace. No wonder so few people experience peace in their lives. The prince of the kingdom of this world--Satan--has conned us into filling up our lives with activity to the detriment of BEING STILL before God. I want to give you a challenge for the coming week–set aside 5 minutes on one day this week and be still–do nothing but think about God or a verse you read in your Bible. Let God fill your thoughts with His PEACE as you meditate on Him and His Word E. REFRAIN FROM ANGER Now this last nature-changer might cause you to scratch your head... Ps 37:8 How does Refraining from anger get us to depend on God? Well, understand what anger is. Anger is nothing more than your reaction to having your GOALS BLOCKED. You see, if we are indeed trusting, delighting, committing and listening to God, whose goals will be in our lives? God's, of course! And if God's goals get blocked, whose problem is it? Its not your problem–it's His. And I'll guarantee you that any goal that God has, will get accomplished, regardless of the opposition that anyone or anything wants to put up against it. So when God's goals get blocked, its not your problem, and therefore you don't need to get angry. But if the goals you are setting up in your life are strictly your own goals for your life, and they get blocked, the old sinful nature will get angry. If that happens, then that's a pretty good indication that you need to do a spiritual reality check and ask yourself... Am I trusting, am I delighting, am I committing and am I listening? This last nature-changer is really a system check. How you react when goals are blocked will tell whose goals you are following. If you find yourself getting angry time after time, do what you do when you install a new computer program. Illustration: I can remember installing an updated form of a program on my computer not too long ago. On one of the final steps in the process, I received an error message. Something hadn't loaded right. So, I had to go back to the beginning of the installation procedure and check out each step I had made, and make sure I had done everything correctly. And sure enough, I found that early in the process, I had chosen an option that was wrong for the way my computer was configured. And the writers of the software were not going to let me build my program on a faulty foundation of information. This last point is very similar to my computer experience. If you find that you are getting angry because your goals are being blocked, realize that this isn't consistent with the NEW NATURE of a follower of God. So, what do you do? You go back to the beginning of what we've learned here
this morning– V. Conclusion I promised you, earlier, that I'd tell you which of the two paintings about peace, the king chose. The story goes that the king rejected the painting of the mountain lake, but accepted the painting of the thunderous waterfall. When asked, "why?", he said, "the first was only stagnation, but the second was real peace." Friends, the Prince of Peace didn't come to give you stagnation. He came to give ultimate meaning and understanding to the fragments of your life. And we've seen from Psalm 37 that we are given that peace, by the Prince of Peace, when we change our nature by trusting; delighting; committing; being still; and refraining from anger. Do you have peace that comes from the Prince of Peace? Or have you settled for stagnation that comes from other sources? Amen. |
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This page was last updated on Sunday, October 31, 2004 03:35 PM
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