Sermon Prep (I Need Your Prayers & Help)

I’m filling in for Jeff on Sunday.  It’s always an exciting thing for me to preach, but it’s always a humbling thing to fill the pulpit for someone I respect so much.  I don’t ever want to go about preaching God’s Word in a careless way.

I will be preaching the 2nd week in the “30 Days to Live” series entitled “Be at Peace with God.”

I know the biblical passage from which I will preach.  I know the direction, but I want your input and prayers for the application points.

If you think about it, North Side will be full on Sunday of 3 types of people: 1) at peace with God, 2) not at peace with God, or 3) thinks they are at peace with God.

Your time to help with sermon prep: what keeps people from having true peace with God?

5 thoughts on “Sermon Prep (I Need Your Prayers & Help)”

  1. You know, Travis, I have found peace with God to take on different forms. From the Billy Graham perspective (his evangelistic tracts are named “Peace with God”) I have peace with God. My salvation is secure. I am washed in the blood of Christ. But when it comes to “peace that passeth all understanding” it can be a little different. Even now, the 18 inches which separate my brain from my heart seem like the Pacific Ocean. Those 18 inches block that peace from getting into my heart. I know in my head God’s promises and God’s Word. But David said he hid it in his heart – not his head. Between the wiles of the enemy and thoughts he injects and my own self-centered sin nature sometimes I don’t et that peace with God. You know, that peace where you know the two of you are good and you’re not making a complete and total mess of every blessing He pours out. There are times when there is no peace with Him because of sin that is not confessed. There are times when there is no peace because I can’t see what He is doing. To me, this is where faith comes in. I have believe when it isn’t all warm and fuzzy. But sometimes those 18 inches still cause peace to elude me. The one thing that has built a bridge over that 18′ gap is Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane just prior to His crucifixion. He wasn’t afraid to tell God what He would do, but He also told God that it was God’s will that would prevail. Sometimes I cry out and say, “God, you know, if it were me, I would_______.” So if you’re referring to salvation there are a plethora of reasons we don’t find peace with God, but ultimately they all boil down to pride. As a believer, not finding peace can have a vast amount of reasons as well. But what I have discovered in my journey over the last year is that, as a believer, it boils down to trust. Do I REALLY trust Him enough to feel peace when I turn things over to Him? Or am I a ball of anxiety because I have relinquished control and, in my head, I can handle it? I can “Pray always,” and sweat blood and know that I know that I know that I am going to Heaven. Ultimately I have to trust Him and be able to leave it with Him. Otherwise, I remain trapped on the wrong side of an 18″ gap.

    Excited to hear you Sunday. You are a fantastically engaging speaker and I never doubt that Holy Spirit speaks through you!

  2. Travis,I never worry about what you’re going to say “because I have been with you enough to know your heart”, your heart is to please God. That in itself gives you peace. If our true goal is to please God, our focus is love, truth, goodness, mercy, kindness, gentleness, forgiveness … and when there is fullness of God, there is peace, peace within.
    The verses in Romans 12:18-21 have always been helpful and in a sense, a surrendering for me. When things just aren’t right, I KNOW and trust God’s Word, “As much as possible, live at peace with all men … give NO place to wrath, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay’, says the Lord.” … and “Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.” To live in that mindset is really a renewing of the mind because it is so opposite of what we see all around us.
    One of my favorite verses about peace is in Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You because he trusts in You.” I trust my Lord.
    Travis, I believe the thing that keeps people from having true peace with God is that they just don’t KNOW Him.
    The Lord is the Great I AM and He will be with you as you speak His truth. The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. Looking forward.

  3. FACEBOOK IMPORT:

    Sara Craft Thompson not having forgiven someone maybe?
    Yesterday at 8:30am ·

    Joseph Johnson or you could use the lectionary and you would have a text for the second Sunday of Easter 😉
    Yesterday at 8:36am ·

    Travis Agnew Already have the text. Illustrations needed.
    Yesterday at 8:37am via Email Reply ·

    Hans Wunch One thing I see is sins that they love more than God.
    On the topic of peace that isn’t genuine, I think about the eye of the hurricane. Very peaceful, but short lived and what comes after is usually very destructive.
    Yesterday at 9:11am ·

    Jamie Ridgeway Woodard For me, when I am not at peace it is because I am distant from God….lack of prayer, avoidance of reading the Bible, and poor participation in worship.
    Yesterday at 9:13am ·

    Catherine Eddleman This is what Kay Arthur posted today on FB: “Precious faces…you may lose peace by what your eyes see or your ears hear when it goes against what your spirit knows. Doubt comes in like a flood seeking to drown that which the Spirit of God has spoken to your spirit. Can you relate?”
    Yesterday at 9:47am ·

    Drenda Sheek So many things bring us to a point that prevent us from feeling or experiencing God’s peace. One is our thought that we can take care of something without Him and finding out we can’t. Another is lack of faith.
    The most trying time in my life was finding out my brother committed suicide….how could I ever have peace again???? There was no … See More
    Yesterday at 9:59pm ·

  4. trav, i know that for me many times, ( if not most) when i don’t have peace in my relationship with God its because He has allowed or caused some type of adversity to come into my life to teach me something i haven’t learned yet. although i’m never crazy about the pain or dissatisfaction this adversity brings into my life i am always grateful that i serve a god that loves me enough to not leave me where i am but to continue to teach me how to live like and be more like Christ. in a weird way i’m grateful for those unpeaceful feelings and struggles that i go through be cause the Lord is trying to teach me something if i will just be still and listen.

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