I was watching a TV show the other day, and one thing about me, is that I don’t really watch a lot of television. My TV is honestly used more for playing games than watching shows, but this time I was watching a show, and I noticed something that seemed unusual. All of the commercials seemed to have something in common; while they were all for different products they did have the same theme… they were all designed to unsettle the viewer.

This got me wondering about all of the people who were watching these advertisements, or even the news broadcasts. I knew that these advertising companies that produced these ads would not have done so if they were not effective and I began to see all of the people who actually believe that their world and even their life is -or is becoming- unsettled or even hopeless.

So today we will be looking at the security of the believer in Christ Jesus. What we have in Him to provide us with peace and protection. How we can never be shaken when our trust is in Him.

Those of you who heard or read last week’s message know that above all other things, Jesus chose to tell us of His peace that He left with us. The wealthiest and most powerful being in all of existence, chose to draw our attention to the Peace of God. He values peace far above every other blessing; and indeed it is His peace which keeps every other gift which He gives.

Why is this so? Simply put, while God gives us all things freely by His grace, we will only prosper in our lives to the degree of our own soul. Your soul by-the-way, is your mind and emotions. Your soul only prospers when it is at rest, when it is at peace.

Look at 3rd John 1:2:

“Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.”

The words “even as” there, means “to the same degree”. So he is basically saying that we will prosper and be in health to the some degree as our soul prospers… To the same degree as our mind and emotions prosper.

You see, when you accept Christ, one of the first areas that He wants to redeem you from is the area of your mind and your emotions… Your negative thoughts and feelings. Nothing can happen on the outside of you until the inside is cleaned-up first. Unfortunately most of us pay more attention to the outside than we do the inside and we get upset when we don’t see outside results first. Not realizing that God is more interested with the inside because that is where the root of the problem is. You know, a plant may look fine on the outside, but if its roots are sick underground where no-one can see, that plant will soon be completely dead. Likewise, God knows that when He cleans the inside of us, the outside will also be clean and healthy as well. Jesus stated this quite plainly in Matthew 23:26:

“You blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.”

So how exactly do we make use of this God-given peace which Jesus left for us? The world has all manner of relaxation and meditation techniques, because even the world recognizes some of the benefits of being at peace, but none of these things can help us attain Godly peace. Note that there is a very big difference between worldly peace and Godly peace. Worldly peace is based on man-made things and ideas, and as such, worldly peace can be shaken and taken away. Many people have had their worldly peace shaken by the stock market, for example.

Godly peace is different, it is based in the finished work of Jesus Christ, and it can never be shaken nor can it be taken away.

See, everything that is not a part of God, everything that is without Jesus Christ is subject to shaking and instability because of the sin nature in the world. But the things of God and the believers in Jesus Christ are unshakable and unmovable because we are planted on the solid rock of His finished work.

Let’s read Hebrews 12:25-29:

“See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more will not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
For our God is a consuming fire.”

We can see here that the things that are man-made and not redeemed by Christ are the things being shaken, and that we as believers in Christ are “the things which cannot be shaken”, and also that we receive a kingdom which can not be moved.

Now the answer of how we keep this unshakable God-given peace of Christ? Right at the very start of verse 25: Do not refuse him who speaks. That is referring to Jesus Christ. And what does He speak about you? The truth of His Word…

How you are redeemed from every curse.
You are righteous and clean now because of His blood, spilled for you.
You are healed because of His body, broken for you.
You are rich, because He was made poor for you.
You are totally secure in Him.

See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. Only Jesus can redeem and save a soul. And as you focus on His words, and not the words of men or the experts of the world, your soul will prosper as your mind and emotions receive new life. The very life of Christ.