Welcome to the Quality Christian Living Podcast.
Once again, I am your host, David Friend. We're
continuing our series on the Holy Spirit and
today's topic is, The Holy Spirit Brings Peace.
You know, we just completed one called, The Holy
Spirit Brings Joy. And, you know, I don't know
if I want to go down all the fruit of the Spirit,
but for sure, I want to cover this one today.
We're going to talk about, how can we live in
peace during trials? And why do so many live
without peace? And why is my favorite, now that's
me personally, why is my favorite scripture on
peace, Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 and 7?
Now, also we're going to discuss, have you struggled
with finding peace? And why Why is peace so difficult
for non -believers? And finally, how do you find
peace and what is it? What is peace? Well, let's
pray first before we get into this. Heavenly
Father, we're taking on a topic, Father, that
many people struggle with. And I pray, Lord,
that you would bless this podcast. I ask the
Holy Spirit to come in now, take control, take
charge, and lead me in the direction that I should
go. Open up the scriptures and reveal what you
want me to share with those who are listening
in today. And for those, Lord, who need peace,
I pray, Father, you would bring a special touch
upon them. May the Holy Spirit speak to them
and help them. And may they receive something
in this podcast that would just change their
mind said and our thoughts about living in peace.
Bless I ask everything that's said done and I'll
be so careful to give you praise and glory for
all the results. We ask these things once again
in Jesus name we pray. Well, to get into this
particular podcast on how the Holy Spirit brings
peace, I'm going to basically try and discuss
each and every topic that I outlined in my introduction
and see how that goes. Let's just see how the
Lord leads us. I kind of want to start off with
talking about the difference between what God
intends for us and what we sometimes do in our
flesh. Matter of fact, what we do all the time
in our flesh is to get what we want when we want
it. And so let's look at a scripture I think
that helps us out to get started on this topic.
the Holy Spirit brings peace. It's found in Romans
chapter 14 verse 17 in the New Living Translation.
For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what
we can eat or drink, but of living a life of
goodness and peace and joy in the spirit. So
now this kind of combines last podcast and this
podcast because it talks about both peace and
joy, but it's so important we get the premise
of this down and that is what the scripture is
telling us is that God plans something better
for us than just simply what we can eat or drink
or the car we drive or the house we live in or
the vacations we go on or the clothes that we
wear. All those things can be fine as long as
they don't get in the way of serving God. So
those things can be fine but that's what life
is not about. Life is not about how big a house
you've got. Life is not about who is making the
most money and all your friends from high school
or college. It's about far more than that. It's
about living a life it says of goodness and peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit. So what this scripture
is telling me is that I can't find peace and
joy without the Holy Spirit because my flesh,
my self -centeredness doesn't desire those things
of God. It desires the things that I want to
be pleased with. It's going to be those things
that I think I need, my wants, my needs, and
my desires. The things that control many of our
lives are the things that get in the way of what
God wants to give us. Many times I talk to people
who are very successful financially but they
have no peace. They don't have any joy in their
life and they sit back and wonder they've got
all the money they've got all the success and
all those things and yet they're so unhappy it's
because they don't understand this scripture
and they're violating it once again the scripture
is for the kingdom of God is not a matter of
what we can eat or drink but of living a life
of goodness and peace and joy. And the key is
in the Holy Spirit. And that's what this podcast
is all about. This series is what we can do in
the Holy Spirit. We're gonna look at some of
these introduction comments that I made earlier
in this podcast when I first started it off.
And I always do that. I always give kind of an
outline of what we're gonna cover and the topics
we're gonna cover. And this particular one, I
really felt led to go a little more specifically
into those, very specifically. and take them
one at a time. So the first one is how can we
live in peace during trials? Well, Galatians
5 22, I used it in the last podcast where we
read about the Holy Spirit gives the gift of
peace because Galatians 5 22 talks about the
fruit of the Spirit which is love and joy and
peace and patience and goodness and kindness
and gentleness and thankfulness and you know
those wonderful qualities and self -control those
are the things that we need to have in our life
and only the Holy Spirit can bring those into
our lives. So the question is, how can we live
in peace during trials while we yield ourselves
to the Holy Spirit and we yield ourselves to
receive that peace and that joy? See, peace is
not a feeling. It's not, oh, I feel good today
or I feel good about this or feel good about
that. The feel good thing can come or go. I mean,
we can feel good one day and feel terrible the
next day, but we can live a life walking in joy
and walking in peace. And that's what this whole
series is about, to be led by the Holy Spirit
and allow the Holy Spirit to do the things in
our life that He wants to do. Some people say,
well, I feel this and I feel that. I don't like
to talk about how I feel. I like to talk about
how my faith is and my trust in God is and where
my confidence is and who I put my trust and strength
in, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
I talk about those feelings. It's so easy to
say the word feeling in reality. They come and
go. Feelings will hurt us. They will desert us.
See, the devil himself can come after my feelings
but he can't rob me of my peace. When God gives
me peace and trials get into my life, peace wins.
Peace wins out when we have a right relationship
with the Lord and we're following the Holy Spirit
and being led by him. So let's go to the next
question now and see what it has to say. Why
do so many live Without peace. Well, there's
there's a lot of reasons I could probably just
stop here and spend the next 30 minutes Talking
just about this particular one because because
there's so many people that don't have peace
I can remember many many times being the pastor
of our church and you know, and I would ask people
honestly I'm gonna ask a question. I want everybody
to close your eyes and bow your heads. I don't
want anybody looking around I'm gonna ask you
a question How many people need peace in your
life and I'm telling you 75 80 percent of the
church would raise their hand and I would say,
okay, put your hands down, how many people lack
joy? You want to have more joy? And 50 or 60
% of the church would raise its hand because
people live without peace and without joy and
it's not necessary that we do that. There is
an old saying that says, some things are taught
and some things are caught. I use that from time
to time in podcasts because that's the truth
of the matter is I can teach you about a premise,
but you've got to catch it, which means you have
to receive it and take it in and receive that
as God's Word for your life. So I'm going to
read a scripture here that I used to read all
the time before I became a Christian. I read
it in Sunday School and all that before I gave
my life to Christ. And I just read it and I thought,
well that's nice, but I didn't understand really
what it meant. And so... I had it been taught
to me, but I had never caught it. I never received
it into my life. And the scripture that answers,
I believe the question the best as to why some
people live without peace is they don't understand,
they have not caught Philippians chapter four,
verses six and seven. This is the apostle Paul.
This is one of my absolute favorite scriptures
in the entire word of God, but it's absolutely
my favorite scripture dealing with peace. It's
so important that we take this in and receive
it now. Since it's my favorite, I hope I got
your attention. The Apostle Paul is talking.
He's being led by the Holy Spirit when he wrote
these words in Philippians chapter 4 verses 6
and 7. I'm reading it out of the New International
Version. Peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Now, there's so much to be said here. I'll make
it quick, but there's so many important things.
Number one, the first premise is, do not be anxious
about anything. I also used to tell my congregation
at the end of a service, I'd say, I might read
this scripture and say, if we can just get one
thing out of the service today, get absolutely
nothing else but just this one thing, Philippians
chapter four, verse six, do not be anxious about
anything. Many people here would love to walk
out of here and not have to be anxious about
anything, and everybody would agree to that.
That's something that we all want to have in
our life. But it says, but in every situation,
good or bad, not just bad, but good or bad, by
prayer, alright, that's the foundation of our
having peace, and by prayer and petition with
thanksgiving, what we bring to God with thanksgiving,
we've got to be thankful when we bring prayers
to God, present your request to God, and the
peace of God. Now, the peace of God, it doesn't
say the peace of man, it doesn't say the peace
of your pastor, it doesn't say the peace of your
husband or your wife. The peace of God, that's
why it's so amazing to catch this. It's the peace
of God which transcends, which means it's way
beyond. All understanding will guard your hearts
and your mind in Christ Jesus. So if we want
to have Holy Spirit -led peace, that scripture,
I would make it one that you would pray every
day. Matter of fact, I do not go to bed at night
before I have quoted this scripture and read
it, and I thank God for it. I like to read it
this way, just so I go to bed. Heavenly Father,
I thank you that my wife and I don't have to
be anxious about anything. but we can bring everything
to you in every situation and we can pray to
you and bring our petitions to you and be thankful
for who you are and what you've done that we
can present Lord to you our request to you Lord
and you God will give us your peace which transcends
all understanding and it will guard my heart
and my wife's heart and it will guard my mind
and my wife's mind in Christ Jesus. That's the
way I like to pray because see I like the scriptures
to be read to where they apply to me so that
I know art applied to someone else. Just apply
it to that situation, that person. It becomes
living that way. The scriptures become alive
and we catch what it's saying rather than just
being taught what it's saying. You see, this
scripture can be taught. constantly, but it will
not help us until we catch it, we receive it,
we accept it. It's the same thing about becoming
a Christian. You can be taught about being a
Christian. I was for many, many years. I was
25 years old before I became a Christian, and
for probably 20 of those years, I remember going
to Sunday school and Bible classes and vacation
Bible school, all those things. I was in two
or three different types of churches, and my
mom and dad always made sure we went to church,
but none of us, including my mom and dad, were
Christians. We had never committed our life to
Christ. We were being taught about these things.
I knew all the little stories, all those things
that I'd heard, but I didn't catch it that it
has an impact on my life. So when I caught it,
I was 25 years old, is when I finally caught
the idea that John 3 .16 says, God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever believeth in him. would not perish
but have everlasting life. I had heard it for
years and years and years. I was being taught
that, but I didn't catch it until one day I realized
there's more to this Bible than what I'm seeing
and I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior
and everything started to change. Our marriage
changed, our lives changed, my career changed,
God was in control and my life has never been
the same ever since. Thank the Lord for that.
Now here's another question I had at the beginning
of this podcast. so difficult for non -believers?
Well, see, they place their trust in something
other than God, everything else but not God.
In Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 through 21, the
New Living Translation, it says, don't store
up treasures here on earth where moss and eat
them and rust destroys them and where thieves
or when thieves break in and steal. So what that
means is that it's saying basically, the treasures
that we have here on Earth, we're not going to
take them with us. They're all going to perish.
Not too long ago I was at a funeral, a man was
worth millions and millions of dollars, incredibly
wealthy man, very, very successful in so many
different ways, and yet he was gone. And they
took his body, they put it in a coffin, and they
buried him. And that's over. That body is now
here on earth. But his soul went to heaven. He
was a follower of Jesus Christ. But he left all
of his possessions behind. And I think the family
is going to take care of things and settle things
easily. I hope so. But bottom line, we spend
so much time, if we're not careful, we'll spend
so much time trying to acquire stuff here and
help ourselves financially. But we don't do anything
to help ourselves spiritually. This man did take
the time to produce a spiritual life. And he
became a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ.
and became a very generous man in a lot of ways,
but he was still gone. And the things that he
had, the moss would eat them up, and the rust
will destroy them, and the thieves will come
in and steal them. I mean, that's the things
that we have here on earth, but that's why non
-believers have a difficult time getting peace
in things is because they're wrapped up in their
treasures on earth. And when they do that, they
rob themselves of the bigger blessings, the greater
blessings of being a follower of Jesus Christ.
You see, a non -believer in Jesus Christ. They
just don't believe. They put every bit of effort
they have in doing things their way. That they
put Jesus away. Let me repeat that. Non -believers
in Jesus Christ, they don't believe in Him, they
put more effort in doing things their way and
that way they put Jesus away. There's an old
song, and you know which one I'm going to say,
there's a song that I dislike a lot. I just don't
care for this song at one bit, not as a follower
of Jesus Christ. And it's a song that was sang
by a lot of different people, and it's basically,
I did it my way. I have a real problem with that,
and I hope that that doesn't bother you or offend
you, but that song, I think, is all about self.
It's I did it my way. I did it my way. Well,
that's not what God wants. I prefer God's way.
We find God's way in Isaiah chapter 55. In the
New Living Translation, my thoughts are nothing
like your thoughts, says the Lord, and my ways,
listen to that, and my ways are far beyond anything
you could imagine. So therefore, people who are
wrapped up in their possessions and treasures
here on earth, for non -believers, they can't
be at peace because they're trying to do things
their way. When God is saying, I can do so much
better than you can do, his ways are greater,
his thoughts are higher, than ours and so we
should then get rid of our way and do things
God's way. Wow, I could probably go on there,
but I need to move on. We're about halfway through
this podcast already. Have we struggled, another
question, have we struggled with keeping peace?
You see, we may experience peace, but it seems
to go away. Peace requires our source of peace.
It requires understanding our source for peace,
and our source is the Holy Spirit. We struggle
with peace because we go in and out of doing
it our way versus God's way. Here's some scriptures
I think that might help explain this a little
bit better. In John chapter 14 verse 27, Jesus
said, peace I leave you, my peace I give you,
not as the world gives. Do I give to you? Do
not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You
see, Jesus is saying, the peace that I'm giving
you is peace that the world doesn't have. The
peace I leave with you, it's my peace, he says.
It's God's peace. I give it to you. It's not
the world's peace. The world doesn't have peace.
The world has other things. They might look like
they're having peace. They might act like they're
doing okay because maybe their finances are big
and they do a lot of things and travel and stuff
like that. But deep inside, God has created man
with a desire to follow Him. There's no doubt
in my mind that the Holy Spirit is out there
hovering around the earth, going around, you
know, and trying to draw people into a relationship
with Jesus Christ. And I believe that God created
in us a desire to serve something greater than
us. And when we do that, we will find Jesus Christ.
Isaiah chapter 26 and verse 3 says, you will
keep in perfect peace, listen to that, whose
mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.
Okay, so another way that we can keep peace and
not lose peace is keep our mind stayed or focused
on God. focused on prayer, focused on his word,
listen to Christian music, be around other Christians,
attend church faithfully, not once a month, not
once a year, but faithfully. Every time on Sunday,
get up and go to church. I mean, if you're sick,
fine, stay home, watch it online or something.
But bottom line, we've got to keep our mind and
our focus stayed on God. And when we do that,
we can get peace and we can keep peace. But if
we go in and out of church, one foot in church
and one foot in the devil's side of the world,
and we're causing ourselves great strife and
great challenges, and we don't have to. We need
to jump both feet head first into a walk with
God and let our steps be led of God. If we trust
God with all of our heart, we lean not on our
own understanding and always acknowledge Him,
then He will direct our steps. And when He does
that, we will have peace. everything that we
put our hand to. Okay, let's move on. What is
peace to you? Now that's an interesting question,
isn't it? What is peace to you? Some may define
peace as financial security. Matter of fact,
when I was a banker I met a lot of people. That's
how they would define peace. It's well -being
financially well -off. Yet those people, many
of them who were financially well -off, were
not at peace unless they were followers of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot have peace that
Jesus has until you give your life to Jesus Christ.
Christ. You surrender your will and your desires
and everything that you want to do to the Lord
Jesus Christ. You surrender to Him, ask for forgiveness
of your sins, receive Him as your Lord and Savior,
and then the peace of God comes into our life.
It's so important we understand that. And finances
and financial security is a good thing. There's
nothing wrong with financial security, but I
don't like the statement financial independence
because as a Christian financial independence
is basically saying I don't need anything other
than finances. Financial independence, I I know
what it means. I remember I've taught finances
for years. I was a banker for 15 years, real
estate developer for 20 years, and I've taught
and written on the topics of finances and all
those things and success and generosity. I understand
all that, but the thing we've got to remember
is that financial independence, those aren't
words that a Christian should have. We should
be dependent. Our finances should be dependent
upon God, upon who He is and what He does. And
we must give of what we have first to Him. And
I believe in tithing. I believe in giving 10
% of everything that we make back to the work
of the Lord through my local church. I believe
that, and God has never made me feel that I regretted
it. I've never in my life ever regretted giving
finances to the Lord. It seems like when I work
with the 90 % I have left over, I accomplish
more with that 90 than I could with the 100 %
of my finances I had before I decided to give
of God the first fruits of what I receive. So
people in the world who have a problem with peace,
they define it as maybe it's financial security
or it's having a lovely home or something. And
those are good things. And finances are fine.
Finances are not evil. It's the love of finances,
the love of money that's evil. But there's nothing
about finances that can bring true peace. I mean,
absolute true peace, the peace that Jesus talked
about. The apostle Paul wrote about peace and
money. to Timothy about it. Timothy was a young
man that was getting involved in a church and
Paul was trying to teach him and train him. And
in 1st Timothy chapter 6 and verse 10, New Living
Translation, listen to this, this is absolutely
powerful. For the love of money is the root,
right, of all kinds of evil. And some people,
craving money, have wondered from true faith
and pierced themselves with many sorrows. That's
it. That's a podcast all on its own and I'll
be doing a series of podcasts on finances again
at the end of this I'll tell you how to look
up the podcast that I've done on finances and
living debt -free and all those types of things
but bottom line It's so important to understand
that Timothy had these words and Paul wrote them
and gave these to Timothy You've got to understand
it's the love of money is the root of all evil
and by if you love that then you'll turn away
from the things of God and you'll never have
peace that God wants us to have now peace of
mind is more important than money. Money does
not give peace. for a lifetime. It might give
a little bit of what the world calls peace temporarily,
but not true peace. There's nothing wrong with
money. Nothing wrong. We need it. We got to use
it. We have to spend it. We have to build churches
with it. We have to help other people with it.
We need to provide for our needs with it. So
that's important. So there's nothing wrong with
money. There is everything wrong with placing
money first in our life and loving and money.
I know people that's all they do is talk about
money and bless their hearts. They struggle a
lot of times with of having peace in their life.
1 Timothy 6 and verse 17 says this, teach those
who are rich in this world not to be proud and
not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable.
Man, all you gotta do is watch the stock market
go up and down. I know over time stock market
keeps going consistently up, but it's not a whole
lot of fun when it drops down 20 or 30 or 40%.
And I'm not talking of whether stock is good
or stock is bad, that's not the point. But the
point is it's important to understand God's Word
says about money and that we cannot find peace
because peace cannot be defined by how much,
how many possessions that we have, how many cars
that we drive, how many houses that we own. Peace
comes totally different. Peace is one of the
fruit. of the Spirit of Almighty God. The Holy
Spirit gives that gift to the Christian who desires
to be led by Him. If you want to have peace,
you want to have it in your life, then you've
got to draw close to God. When we draw close
to Him, He draws close to us. He'll give us peace.
Now, as a pastor, the most frequently asked question
I receive is, how can I get peace with what I'm
going through? I think I've given you a pretty
good outline on how to do that. I would encourage
you to listen to this podcast again, go back
and listen to it, preview it a little bit, go
through it, and listen to these scriptures. The
peace of God that's in here, it flows through
his scriptures. Let me give you a couple of them
real quick. The question was, how can I get peace
with what I'm going through? John 14, 27, Jesus
said, peace I leave with you, my peace I give
you, not as the world gives, do I give to you.
Do not let... your hearts be troubled or afraid."
Isaiah 5, 26, 3. You will keep in perfect peace,
perfect peace, just to say peace, perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts
in you. Wow. I tell you, a lot of people talk
about, I trust God, I trust God, I trust God
for this and for that, and that's wonderful.
Sometimes I wonder, can God trust us? And I believe
sometimes in the area of finances, we don't get
the finances that we'd like to have because God
can't trust us with the finances. And He knows
that too much finances or too many finances could
rob us from the life that He wants us to live.
This is not a podcast on finances, but there's
been a pretty good section of it that we talk
about it because a lot of people think that's
where they get is to have more money. If I just
made more money and that's just not the answer
to receiving peace in your life. Peace comes
through relationship with God and being led by
the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit led peace protects
our heart and protects our mind. Holy Spirit
led peace brings forth the group of the spirit,
love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness,
et cetera. Holy Spirit led peace gives us a satisfying
life. Holy Spirit led peace tells us that it's
God's way, not my way. These are the things that
we've got to remember and draw into our life
in order to truly understand how the Holy Spirit
brings peace. With that, I hope this has been
a blessing. Let me... pray for you right now.
Heavenly Father, I pray you would bless those
who are listening in, many of which may be struggling
with having peace as they flow in and out of
it, but I pray they'd take these scriptures to
heart, Lord, they're your word, and apply them
to their life, to apply them to their circumstances,
and receive the peace of God that passes all
understanding, and it will guard their hearts
and guard their minds in Christ Jesus. Father,
I thank you, Lord, that you've taught peace through
the Holy Spirit to all of us. I pray now that
we'll catch it. It's been taught to us, now let
us receive it. and every one of us I'll thank
you for it and give you praise for it now in
Jesus name I pray amen well like I say I hope
that you receive this and enjoyed it I've thoroughly
enjoyed doing this our next podcast that's gonna
have to do with what the Holy Spirit teaches
us that's an interesting topic because there's
so much for us to learn right I'm gonna look
at these questions what does the Holy Spirit
teach us and why does he want to teach us and
what do we need to be taught now those are interesting
questions and we'll we'll get into that in our
next podcast so I hope that you'll tune in for
that when I listen for it. You might want to
let your friends and family members know about
that. So I just thank you once again for listening
to our podcast. If you'd like to know more about
Quality Christian Living, you can find out more
about it by going to my webpage at davidcfriendauthor
.com and when you get there, the very front page
of it will show a link to my podcast. Now this
is podcast number, I believe it's number 338,
yes, and therefore that tells you there's a lot
of podcasts. It's been right at four years now
that we've been doing these podcasts, and God
has blessed us to be downloaded into over 140
countries in the world, which just absolutely
is amazing to me. I'm not boasting or bragging.
That's just the Holy Spirit doing what He does.
And to look up and see that people are downloading
podcasts in Asia, in Africa, in North America,
South America, just all over the place. It's
such a blessing to know that the words that are
here, that God is using this tool. through Charisma
Media, which is who I use for my podcast, and
to be able to get these podcasts out. If you'd
like to subscribe to my podcast, you can do that
by going to cpnshows .com or wherever you listen
to your podcast. And while you're on my webpage,
you might want to scroll down and look at some
of the books that I've written that are on Amazon,
books on finances, books on how to find a miracle,
I have books on faith, books on generosity. There's
some help books for veterans. because I was a
Vietnam veteran and very blessed to and honored
to be serving my country. So I hope that those
would be a blessing to you. And if you'd like
to know more about quality Christian living in
general, just simply spend a little time and
look over all the podcasts we've done, so many
different topics on things that have been taking
place in the last four years. I hope they'll
be a blessing to you. I want to thank you so
very much for listening. And if you've enjoyed
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So I'd like to close with a little blessing for
you guys. May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May his face shine upon you. May he be gracious
to you and give you peace. May you prosper and
be in good health even as your soul prospers.
So until next time, may God richly bless you.
I look forward to our next podcast talking about
how the Holy Spirit teaches. You might want to
let your friends and family members know we're
doing that. Thank you once again for listening
to Quality Christian Living. I am your host David
Friend. Thank you for being a part of this series
on the Holy Spirit. God bless you.