How to Experience True Peace Every Day

In this episode of Everyday Radical, David Platt and Austin Huang talk about peace as a fruit of the Spirit and how Jesus brings true rest.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Everyday Radical, a podcast where we help the everyday Christian follow Jesus and make him known everywhere. We pray that today's episode encourages you to do just that. So let's dive right in. David, is it all right if we start with scripture to kick off this episode?

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Uh that's always all right. Austin, a great place to start.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

All right. Well, let's turn to Philippians 4, starting verse 6. It says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. For me, I think that's the key verse in scripture when I think about peace. And I know these these episodes that we're talking about, the fruit of the spirit, are designed to help Christians walk out the fruit. What do you say to the person to just start this off who does not feel the peace of God right now? Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Uh so much, and so much uh I I've been uh just like meditating on this recently in my own life. So I just read a great book uh by a Puritan named Jeremiah Burroughs, and it's it's the title is The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. And uh um so let me talk about that for just a second because this is where my mind immediately goes when you ask that. Uh he defines contentment, which I I I think is really very closely related to uh this the concept biblically of peace. He just defines it as the sweet, inward, gracious, quiet frame of spirit. So even just that in and of itself, like I think we all long for that, like a sweet, inward quietness that no matter what turmoil is racing around us, uh that's why peace comes to my mind there, that there's a way to have just a sweet inward gracious, and it's a gift of God, like it doesn't happen naturally. That goes back to all this fruit we're fruits we're talking about of the spirit, gracious, given by God, quiet frame of spirit that uh freely, if I can get remember the definition right, freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition. That's like a loaded definition of path. And yeah, well, but just so it's this frame of spirit that submits to okay, God is all-wise, all-sovereign, all loving, all good. The only way I can have peace of mind and spirit is, I mean, this is Isaiah 26, 3. You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you. So if you struggle with peace, then okay, how do you overcome that with a really high view of God and your mind stayed on God? So you keep him in perfect peace. I mean, perfect peace, that's quite a phrase, whose mind is stayed on you because he or she trusts in you. Yeah, the Lord is an everlasting rock. So, so this isn't like an escapism from the world. This is uh, I'm in the middle of the turmoil of this world. And obviously, you the Philippians 4, don't be anxious about anything, certainly implies there's a lot of things that you could be anxious about, or you could be worried about. Uh that uh, yeah, I think about Matthew 6, just saying, don't worry. But why? Because you have a father in heaven. So that's where it comes back to that definition: a wise and fatherly disposal. So the fact that in every condition, no matter what circumstance we're walking through, no matter how hard, no matter how painful, no matter how heavy, uh hurtful, whatever it might be, chaotic, that there's a way to have peace. How is that possible? The Lord is an everlasting rod. Stay your mind on him, trust in his wisdom. I always think about this when I'm yeah, his wisdom, his power, and his love all together. There's that that's that's like a foundation for peace. He's all powerful, he's in control. Nothing's so it's not chaotic ultimately. He's in control, he's all powerful, he's all-wise, he knows what's best, he knows what's good, and he's loving, he's working for our good. That's the only foundation I can find in this world. Oh, that's so good. It's not in the world, it's in God's word, it's in who he is for peace. Yeah, and uh, and then but and then practically, uh Ephesians uh Philippians 4, what you were talking about. So don't be anxious about everything, anything, but in everything by prayer and petition. So lift all these things. Like how do you practically uh fight for peace by just laying down those things that are don't feel peaceful to you before the Lord in everything with prayer and supplication, present your quest to God, and that's when the peace of God that transcends all understanding guards your hearts. Oh, that's so good.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

That's so good. And I think on top of everything that you just said, we have to kind of return as Christians to like what does peace with God even mean? Like, I I think of uh 2 Corinthians 5, 21, it's just this great exchange of Jesus becoming sin on the cross so that we could be free in Him. That is peace with God. Like, I think we have to also have this view of our own sinfulness, like you talk about all the time. We have to have our own view of this sinfulness that without God, we don't have peace. Peace is not available to us. Like this world can fight for peace all at once and say, like, I'm just trying to find my peace. But that peace does not surpass all understanding, and it will not guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. We only have one way to be reconciled to the Father, and it's through Christ.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

And so uh Romans 5, 1. Therefore, since we've been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Like that's where and and that's key. Like, I I some people I think maybe sometimes think, okay, is the gospel really the answer for everything? Well, okay, fundamentally, why do we have why do we lack peace in this world? It all goes back to Genesis 3. Like there was total peace before that, no chaos. And then sin enters the world, and there's uh lack of peace between man and God, and woman and God. Then there's lack of peace between man and woman. There's lack of peace with the creation around us, like it all flows from sin. And so Jesus, this is uh He is the Prince of Peace uh who came to give peace, who made possible peace with God, who then makes possible peace with others. And yeah, as long as we live in this fallen world, there's still gonna be uh yeah, chaos, there's still gonna be fallenness and hardship and suffering and pain and sorrow and death. So uh, but we know that's that's not gonna last uh ultimately that we have this picture of God with us, us with God, Revelation 21, and peace. All the old passed away, new has come. Uh so we're looking for like we have hope of peace, which I think is a ground for present peace. Like, how can I have peace amidst the chaos in my life, my family, or whatever's going on in the world around me? I can know one, I'm secure, Romans 5, 1, in relationship with God. Two, I have a a reservoir of peace to work for peace with others. I live peaceably with all. So far as it depends on you, work for peace. And then third, I have total confidence that one day there's going to be total peace. Uh, his peace, his justice, his righteousness will reign on the earth. So that's just uh confidence to live in today.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

That's so good. I also think of uh the Beatitudes, um, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. I don't know if you know the the definition of that peacemaker, but the way that I thought about it, feel free to correct me, uh, is just thinking of yes, like the peace that we experience, you know, tangibly, but also blessed are the peacemakers. Like, what is a peacemaker? It's someone who brings others to peace. Um, and so when I think of that, I'm like, okay, so that means that as I go and share the gospel with people, lead others to Christ, counsel others, I'm making peace between them and God. And uh is that a right way to kind of think about blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of Him.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

It's certainly one dimension of it for sure. I mean, I I just think about uh Ephesians 6. It's it's uh not a coincidence that this armor uh that God gives us uh for spiritual battle as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. Yeah, that's good. So this is yes, we're bringing peace. What amazing news we have in a world of war, in a world of conflict, in a world of chaos, and and just people right around us who are going through all kinds of struggles. Like we bring a gospel of peace, a good news, peace with God. I mean, this is uh the song the angels chose when they decided to announce Jesus' birth, like glory to God in the highest sun on earth, peace among those whom his favorite rests. So, yes, we've got great news of peace, and and the beauty is that peace, yes, it is with God. And so now peacemaking uh also extends to like yeah, uh Ephesians 2, God Jesus has broken down this dividing wall of hostility. And and what does it say in Ephesians 2? It says He Himself is our peace. And so this creates the way for us to have certainly in the body of Christ a supernatural unity and peace with one another, which we need to live in, like in a world of canceling and criticizing and dividing and uh no, Jesus made possible supernatural peace, like the church should be a place, a community of peace, and so yes, peacemaking, and then obviously uh to extend that uh to what we do in the world and doing justice and and uh yeah, working for to lead people to peace with God and peace with one another, that's all obviously and ultimately only found in Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Yeah, that's so good. And I mean you spoke on this, but why do you think that it is that the church as we see it today is not achieving that peace? I also think of unity as another way to think about it. And John 17 is like the prayer that Jesus prays that they may be one as you and I, the Father, are one. Like, why is it that we don't experience that peace amongst brothers and sisters in Christ and in the body? Oh, tell you remind my this is so good.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Like Ephesians, I didn't even plan I was talking about Ephesians. I really hadn't yeah, so but uh when he says at the very beginning of Ephesians chapter four, to be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Come on. So, like this is but so I okay, so what's the answer? How do how do we do that? Like, what well we need to not be conformed to the pattern of this world, be transformed by the renewing of our minds, but he says, with all humility, with gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, as we're eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. So uh all of that to uh live and love one another, serve one another with humility, with gentleness, with patience. I mean, these are all fruits of the spirit we're gonna talk about through the spirit, uh bearing with one another in love, as we're eager to, and I love how it's maintaining the unity of the spirit. Like it's not creating a unity, it's not manufacturing unity, yeah. It's not, yeah, it's it's if we have unity, like you and I, brothers in Christ, united in relationship, reconciled in relationship to God, reconciled in relationship with each other, let's just maintain what Jesus has bought for us, like which should make it all so much more precious for us to experience as the body of Christ, like with any and every other brother or sister in Christ. Like we're eager, like zealous to maintain the unity Jesus made possible for us with his blood. Man, that that changes the way we talk to each other, it changes the way we look at each other, that changes the way we uh serve each other, that changes the way we uh bear with each other, which I mean that's all another thing. Like that obviously implies some people are hard to bear with. Like I'm hard to bear with you arguing. Like we're this is part of what it means to be in the body of Christ. If we're not having to bear with somebody else, then uh we're probably missing out on what actually God has designed for us, but to bear with one another in love. So all that you maintaining the unit of the spirit in the bond of peace. What a phrase.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Man, so good. Come on. And I mean, going back to how we started this episode, uh, for somebody who's listening to this, watching this, if you don't feel that peace, like just take everything that David said, that I said, because it's all rooted in the scripture of God that brings peace to man. And I just, yeah, I just that's my encouragement to anybody who's listening to this, watching this, is that peace is available for you today. If you haven't given your life to Christ, that is the first and foremost peace that you should be seeking after. And then, like we've been talking about, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, is available to guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus today.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Yeah. And I just, man, even that as you're saying it again, that word guard is so it's like a protect. God wants to protect you from the chaos and the anxiety and the worry. Yeah. Uh and and he does that. He promises to do that. It's like like that's a promise. I mean, let me pray that over just us and every single person. Oh God, we we talk about this often on this podcast. Uh, we we never know. Only you know where somebody's gonna be when they're listening to a particular episode. And I just I just I'm trusting, assuming God, that somebody well, a lot of people and just individuals who are hearing this right now are walking through and uh w all kinds of things in life and are anxious or worried, and and you've ordained this word on this day in this moment. Uh God, we just we pray for your peace over them. We pray all these scriptures we've just walked through that you've promised. God, you keep him or her in perfect peace, his mind is stayed on you. We pray that you help their mind to stay on you, not to fix their mind on what they're walking through in this world, but ultimately on you and uh and to see what they're walking through in this world through the lens of you who are infinitely trustworthy. The the rock for them, you're their father for all who are in Jesus, and that in every condition you have wise and fatherly good for them. I pray for the inward, gracious, quiet frame of spirit that trusts in you and delights in the peace that you give that passes all understanding, that is supernatural, that transcends this world. We pray that over them. Jesus, we praise you for making this possible for us. Help us to live in it in each of our lives, and and then yes, God, and our relationships with each other, help us to live in this peace and help us to live with with the with confident hope of uh well, of the the peace to come and to lead other people today. Uh help our our feet to just be uh fitted with the good news, the gospel of peace as we go today to share that with others. In Jesus' name we pray all these things according to your word. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Everyday Radical. We pray that it encouraged you in many ways. We do this every single week, so be sure to subscribe or follow to not miss the next episode. We'll see you then.