TLP 77: The Second Promise | Peaceful Parenting, Part 8

8/1/2017

Join AMBrewster as he puts the finishing touches on how to be Peaceful Parent by offering eight applicable and accessible things you can do today to have more peace in your home.

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Next Episode: What’s a Family Anyway?

Spare the Rod | Punishment Versus Correction
Parents Who Think | Peaceful Parenting, Part 6
Parents Who Do | Peaceful Parenting, Part 7
The Second Promise | Peaceful Parenting, Part 8

Episode Notes

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Transcript

Introduction

To those of you who’ve made it all the way through this study, I say thank you joining me and congratulations for seeing it through to the end. You won’t regret it.

And for those of you just joining us, welcome to Truth.Love.Parent. TeamTLP and I are passionate about equipping Christian parents to be intentional, premeditated, disciple-making parents.

And one of the great things about our show is that the episodes never go out of style. Episode 2 has just as much relevance today for all of us as it did the day it was posted. If you’re new to the show, I recommend you start with Episode 1 and cruise on through.

If however, you’re tuning in specifically to learn to be a Peaceful Parent, then I suggest you start with Episode 69 as that was the beginning of our Peaceful Parent series.

And when you’re done with that, you can subscribe and scan around for other topics of interest, or start working your way through from the beginning. So, I’ll see you again when you work your way up to today’s episode.

But for you regular listeners, I’m excited to not only look at Paul’s second Peace Promise, but also to discuss some practical ways to start being a Peaceful Parent today.

Okay, let’s jump right in.

Topic

The second Peace Promise comes at the end of verse nine. Paul’s just instructed us to do everything we learned and received and heard and seen, and then he says, “and the God of peace will be with you.”

This promise has a slightly different flavor than the first Peace Promise we saw in verse 7. The first promise said that our hearts and minds would be protected in Christ. This one promises that the God who creates the peace and Who is the eternal source of the peace will be with us!

The simple beauty is staggering.

“I will be with you.”

Eleven times in the Old Testament God speaks these words to His children, and every time we see a prerequisites/promise pair.

And I believe some of you may still be struggling with why there have to be prerequisites to peace.

It’s been said and sung that love should be unconditional. I agree with that. God loves us even though we haven’t done a single thing to deserve it.

But what is love?

Simply put, love is doing what’s in God’s best interest for the thing loved.

Everyone agrees that sending people to heaven is loving, yet suggest that someone be sent to hell and you’re a hateful monster.

We barely have time to even glimpse at this doctrine, but we must understand why a loving God puts prerequisites on things as important as salvation and peace.

Please remember that the sole end of all things is God. He’s the only One that matters. Our salvation and sanctification are all about Him. Therefore, when an individual rejects God, His preeminence, and His glory, God cannot simply lavish His blessing on them for two reasons.

God cannot support what rejects His truth. If God allowed unregenerate souls into heaven, His perfect, holy glory would no longer be the preeminent goal of the universe. At that moment, men’s happiness would become the greatest mission of God, which would mean men’s happiness would become god. There can be nothing greater that God and His truth, so it stands that no one who rejects God will be able to enjoy Him for all eternity.
God loves us too much to lie to us. Living our own way always ends in destruction, but if God lets us deny Him and yet still sees fit to usher us into heaven, His Word becomes a lie.

Some may ask, isn’t that Earning Grace?

When we work out our faith in God, we’re not earning salvation. We are simply being what we have become in Christ.

Receiving God’s gift of incomprehensible peace only when we submit to His way of living isn’t earning peace. Oil and water do not mix, but once two drops of water have joined, you will never separate them. As long as we keep living like oil, we’ll never be able to appreciate the benefits of being water. God’s perfect peace is waiting like an ocean of water for our tiny drop to disappear into its depths, but until we start living like a drop of water, we’ll never experience it.

We’ll only experience divine peace when we start living like the divinely regenerated people we are. Do you want to have the peace of Christ? Live like a Christian. Do you want God’s soul rest to wash over you? Live the way God lives.

What comes next will be an experience of providential watch-care that you’ll never be able to fully comprehend.

Up until now we’ve experienced a little over a month of expositional study in Philippians 4:4-9, and I pray it’s been as significant for you as it has for me.

So today as we do a quick review of Philippians 4, I want to look at one other verse in order to put a beautiful capstone on our study of biblical peace.

Let’s review The Peace Prerequisites

God-created peace is conditional. You can’t have it if you choose to live a life dominated by anger, doubt, anxiety, and depression. But when we do the following, God is pleased to visit us with a divine peace that defies human comprehension.

Find your sole source of happiness in God. Nothing else should matter. As long as you have God, you’ll have joy.
Be gracious and gentle to all men because it’s God’s grace that empowers you and because He may return at any time and you should desire for Him to find you faithful.
Don’t be anxious. Period. Instead, take all of your burdens to God with a spirit of thankfulness, knowing that He’s brought these circumstances into your life for your greatest good and His greatest glory.
Think only those thoughts that please God.
Do the things God’s commanded us to do in His Word.

The Peace Promises

Two times in six verses we encounter the precious promise of peace.

We saw that as we work through God’s power to make these goals and attitudes our highest priority, God promises to bestow on us peace that comes only from Him – peace so strong it’s compared to a military unit led by none other than the Creator and Savior of the universe, Jesus Christ. Peace so immense it’s incomprehensible. Peace that brings soul rest.

Lastly, let’s look to Isaiah 26:3 to learn The Peace Posture

“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You.“

This verse perfectly sums up the necessary posture of someone who lives peacefully: Trust.

People who believe that God deserves first place, that others should be loved as we love ourselves, that there’s no reason to fear when God is on the throne, that their minds should only be filled with God’s truth, and that they should be living the Truths of Scripture are people who believe (trust) what God has revealed to them through His perfect Word.

If you question God, you won’t have peace.

If you doubt God, you won’t have peace.

If you think He’s wrong, you won’t have peace.

We must wholeheartedly accept everything the Bible says with full assurance and complete surrender in order to experience the peace of God.

Please trust Him today. Take Him at His Word. Make His priorities your driving motivation. Live in the reality He created for you. Don’t fill your mind with the tawdry things of Satan.

Choose to love Him with all of your heart, and . . . “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Conclusion

So, for those of you who not only want God’s peace, but you really want to be the type of person God will give peace to, let’s get practical. What should you start doing today?

First, if you’re not a born again follower of Christ, will you please make that commitment today? If you want to know how to have a relationship with God and there’s no one you know who can explain it to you, please send us an email to counselor@TruthLoveParent.com and I will personally show you from God’s Word how you can be a born-again follower of Christ.
We must be intoxicated with the Bible. You cannot rejoice in who God is, show your gentle spirit to all men, reject anxiety, think right, or do right if you don’t know what God’s Word says. Please commit, or recommit to a daily time of Bible study. I’ll be doing an episode soon of my favorite ways to study God’s Word, and I look forward to sharing that with you.
Every day you need to fall on your face before God and beg Him to help you fulfill the Peace Prerequisites. We can’t do it alone. We need Him. If you’re serious about changing who you are to become a Peaceful Parent, you’re going to need the Holy Spirit’s strength, and you’re going to need to run to Him repeatedly throughout the day.
Number four, as part of your plan for being a premeditated parent, work today to be loving to your family. That means you have to be humble, kind, patient, and forgiving. Check out Episode 38 entitled “The Communication House | God’s plan for your family talk” to get some solid help in this category.
The fifth thing you can do today to have peace in your parenting is to start the habit of thanking God for the strife in your home. No, you’re not thanking Him for the sin, but you can thank Him for how He promises to use this situation in your life if you love Him and submit to His plan for your life. You can also check out Episode 37 to understand better how God wants you to respond to that terrorist you have living in your home.
My sixth admonition for you to start today is set out little reminders throughout your house that draw your mind back to reality. It’s so easy to get pulled back into delusional living when we fill our heads with the garbage the world is throwing at us. Getting rid of that garbage is also a good start, but it’s so helpful to have reminders or Bible verses or images up around the house or at work or on our phones or in our cars to drag our minds back to reality when the inevitably drift.
I know I’m giving you a lot, and maybe you don’t have to tackle them all today, but the seventh thing you can do today is purpose in your heart to obey God’s Word. As you encounter Truth in your daily study, commit to be that person, do that things, speak those words, or feel that way.
And lastly, here’s something many of you won’t be able to do today (however, if you’re listening to this after September of 2017, you can likely do it today): In the very near future, we’re going to roll out a free 25 day curriculum called “25 Days to Becoming a Premeditated Parent.” Go to TruthLoveParent.com and sign up for free. They say it takes about two weeks to break a bad habit, so we’re going to take a month to complete 25 assignments designed to help you become an intentional, premeditated parent. In addition, we’re also creating a parenting course called “25 Days to Becoming a Peaceful Parent” which will build on this series. Like us on Facebook and Twitter, subscribe to this podcast, and check back on TruthLoveParent.com before September so you don’t miss out on our first free parenting course.

As always, today’s episode notes are available on our blog called Taking Back the Family.

Our next episode is in celebration of Family Day, which is the first Sunday in August. I hope you celebrate that day, but I hope you do it the right way, and I hope you listen to our next episode entitled, “What’s a Family Anyway?”

And then I just want to give you a sneak peek at our next short series all about educational choices. I have a number of Special Guests lined up and we’re going to discuss everything from whether Christians should send their kids to the public school, private school, boarding school, or homeschool. I’m also going to sit down with the president of Bob Jones University to discuss the future of Christian higher education and whether or not Christian parents should be parenting their children in that direction.

I’m very excited about our line-up as we cruise into September, roll-out more amazing resources on TruthLoveParent.com and celebrate our one year anniversary.

Thank you for joining us today, and I look forward to serving your family in the future.

Have a great week!

Next Episode: What’s a Family Anyway?