Cultivating A Culture of Peace
Posted on November 11, 2005
Philippians 4:1-7
It has been estimated that in the last 3,530 years, the world has enjoyed peace for a total of just 286 years. In those years, more than 8,000 peace treaties have been broken! –The Personal Journal
“Peace is the brief, glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading.” –Lloyd Cory
Sometimes the world has the right idea but the wrong way of going about it. We form all kinds of treaty and peace-keeping organizations, yet we fail to achieve the kind of peace the world longs for. We know the answer to real peace, don’t we? God is the author of it and He must be the sovereign over any peace process.
As Winston Churchill said after the bombing of London in World War II, “It is Christ or chaos!”
I want to introduce a plan for cultivating a culture of peace in our lives. This is a “thanksgiving” message but I want us to look at the bigger picture this morning. It isn’t simply that God has commanded us to be thankful (for He has) but rather that thankfulness is a part of the bigger picture of living a life of peace.
Paul was writing to a good church. The church at Philippi had a lot of things going for them, but they also had their problems (as every church does). There were some relationship issues and Paul briefly addresses them in chapter four. He gives to the church a formula for creating a culture of genuine peacefulness.
GOD’S PEACE PLAN…
1. Realize that rejoicing is a command. (v. 4)
Have you ever heard the old expression “happiness is a choice?” Sounds simple enough. The only problem is that happiness is really based on circumstances. When things are going well, it’s easy to be happy. But rejoicing is deeper. Joy is found in the deep well of a solid relationship with Jesus Christ. Rejoicing is something we do through tears of pain. Happiness may be a choice, but joy is not optional. We are commanded to be full of joy.
There are really two approaches to the Christian life. One is to approach the Christian life with a sense of duty. We get our list of things to do for God and go about them with tenacity. That’s okay but it’s also mediocre. Instead, we should approach life with delight. That is, we should serve the Lord, at least in part, for the joy we will gain from serving Him.
Where would you rank yourself on the scale?
I serve God out of Duty I serve God out of Delight
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2. Decide to get along with others. (v. 5)
H. B. London describes some people as “joysuckers.” They are in our workplaces, our homes, and even our churches. They are people who always think negatively. They are the proverbial Eyeore’s of the real world. Everything to them is “pathetic.”
Refuse to let joysuckers get you down. Just decide today that you’re going to walk closely in step with Jesus and you’re going to enjoy the journey with Him no matter what. And also refuse to be a joysucker. If you can’t think of any joysuckers in your life, you might be one! In fact, someone may be thinking of you right now.
“Moderation” means gentleness. It’s a word that describes one who is mild-mannered and easy to get along with. It’s too much to expect for someone to change their God-given personality and God made different people with different personalities for a reason. But no matter what our personality is, we can avoid the boiling point, refuse to be grumpy and just decide to be easy to get along with instead.
3. Handle life with prayer. (v. 6a)
Paul says to be “careful” for nothing. He literally says to be anxious about nothing. Anxiety is a part of life for all of us, but some of us have a harder time with it than others. Some even deal with irrational anxiety attacks. For some of these problems there may be a physical cause that should be spoken about with a physician, but much of our anxiety is self-induced. We bring about anxiety in our lives by handling life in the wrong way.
We have two ways for handling life that are just kind of built into our nature. One is to PANIC and the other is to PLAN. But God’s plan is for us to PRAY.
God’s plan is that we ask God, make requests, even beg Him for peace in our lives. We should earnestly and fervently pray, with passion and perseverance. Prayer is part of the pathway to peace.
4. Have an attitude of gratitude. (v. 6b)
The pathway to peace also includes an attitude of gratitude! Living in America sometimes makes it hard to have an attitude of gratitude because we are really conditioned to want more. And when we want more, we end up being a little ungrateful for what we have.
Last week Greg, in Sunday School, gave us a sheet of paper to record advertisements we saw during the week. I’m sorry to say that during our moving, I lost the sheet, but I did pay attention to the marketing techniques of the world and it is truly amazing how many companies want us to remain miserable discontent with life so that we keep wanting their products.
What if we reversed course instead? What if we stopped wanting and started thanking? What if we “counted our blessings” or made a list of all the great things God has done for us? Better yet, what if we made a list of all the things to be thankful for that have nothing to do with us, such as the wonderful nature of God? Gratitude is essential to a life of peace.
While moving in this week, I kept praying silently, “God, keep my feet on the ground. Help me to realize that You’re the source of all of this!”
5. Saturate your thinking with great thoughts. (v. 8)
I’m not an advocate of the modern positive-thinking (sometimes called possibility-thinking) movement that emphasizes self-esteem to the neglect of humble repentance. But I am advocate of thinking positively. Just consider the alternative! One problem I see with churches across America is that we have a lot of issues-driven churches that are conditioned to be negative toward everything. I watch Pastors beat up their congregations and preach negative sermons all the time, and then wonder why things go wrong in business meetings!
Paul said to think on things that are… true… honest… just…. pure… lovely… of good report… virtuous… and praiseworthy. That’s a good start! We get up first thing in the morning and turn on “Bad-Morning America” and wonder why we have a bad day!? Let’s start the day thinking in step with God.
You might be wondering if real peace is possible in your life. I can promise that it is, but you must understand that all of us have been robbed of real peace by sin in our lives. Sin has broken our relationship with God and we cannot have peace in life until we have peace in our relationship with God. How do we have peace with God? We have to deal with the problem of our sin. Thankfully, Jesus Christ dealt with it already on the cross. He paid the price for it and we can have peace with God by receiving what Jesus did on the cross as the payment for our sins.
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