Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

2 Corinthians 14:33, “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in the congregations of the Lord’s people.”

John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Proverbs 3:16-18, “Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.”

John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

One of the topics that I have been thinking about as I get older is that of having to give an account of my life to Jesus one day. All of us, the saved, will stand before Jesus and answer for the life we lived after we were saved. We are not saved by WORKS, but we are saved to GOOD WORKS, according to Ephesians 2:8-10.

You may think that the title of the lesson is odd, as my topic has nothing to do with happiness. But in truth, this pursuit has and is taking over our churches. We are never instructed in the Bible to pursue happiness; we are warned to be wary of our hearts as they are deceitful and full of sin. There is a generation of saved people who are looking for the next ‘high.’ They skip from church to church, never settling down, never actually growing; many are immature children of God who are always seeking the next thing but never investing in a local church for life. They go where they can get, and rarely invest where they are.

We have a generation of saved people who are not working through issues; they do not want to have to sacrifice or lose anything for the Lord, and as such, they are a hindrance to the Kingdom. Others are ‘happy’ where they are. Their mentality is ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ They don’t want any change at all. They have done it this way for 100 years, and there is no need to change, even if the change is not sinful or forbidden by God. Both of these extremes are bad. The pursuit of happiness can be dangerous and frankly scary if you want to grow in the Lord.

Jesus came to bring us peace, not happiness. Especially in this life, you should not expect happiness as a child of God in a fallen world, as living in a sinful body. We are called to pursue peace, God’s peace, and that is what Jesus came to do.

• Peace With God

Jesus died on the cross to bridge the gap between a perfect Holy God and a fallen, sinful people. You and I are no longer under the wrath of God. If Jesus has redeemed you and the Holy Spirit lives in you, then you have peace with God. You are no longer under condemnation (Romans 8:1), and you have been justified (Romans 5:1). Do you have peace with God? Or, are you under His wrath since you have rejected the free gift of salvation that was paid for in Jesus’ blood?

• Peace of God

In some of our texts above, you can see that God desires for us to have His peace in our daily lives. This is the kind of peace that gives Paul and Silas the power to sing while chained to guards in a prison in Acts 16. This is the kind of peace that helped Paul get through the trials of life and to be content in all circumstances (Phil 4:13). This is the kind of peace that we can have every day to face our trials and temptations (John 16:33). This is the peace that is inside, that still, small voice of God calling us in the middle of the worst storms. The kind of peace that transcends death, betrayal, and treachery. The kind of peace that helps us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us (Matthew 5:43-48).

These things do not often make us happy, rather, they challenge us and cause us pain, but inside, the Holy Spirit brings us God’s peace. A peace that is better than happiness which by its nature is fleeting and soon gone.

• Peace with God’s people

We are called to live in peace with all people if it is at all within our power. Seeking peace often means putting yourself last. But God can and will give us the wisdom (Prov 3:16-18) to live a life of peace. Jesus left us His peace, according to John 14:27. How many of us truly live in peace? How many of us live in peace with our spouses? Our children? Our neighbors? Our fellow church members? Our coworkers? I can go on, but you get the point.

If your sole pursuit is happiness, then everyone who gets in your way becomes an enemy. Thus, we have division in our marriages, our homes, our churches are splitting, or many are simply closing their doors. But if we seek God’s peace no matter what, we will see that this takes personal sacrifices; we will begin to live and love more like Jesus, and the prospect of facing Him in the judgment will itself become more filled with peace rather than anxiety.

We believe that we will be called soon to meet the Lord. Some of us will go the way of the grave, others will be raptured out of here, but all will meet Jesus. Will that meeting be one of peace? Or, will it be a difficult accounting of our lives? Did you pursue your happiness, or did you pursue God’s peace? The fruit of our pursuits will be judged.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How To Connect with Us

On Facebook (live broadcast of Sunday’s Message at 11 am): https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Join us on Zoom every Sunday (10:30 am) for Sunday Service AND every Tuesday at 8:00 pm for Bible Study: Meeting ID: 700 794 460 Passcode: 032661 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/700794460?pwd=M3NFRG91ZW5Sa2Z3amVyWkFnYXd6QT09

Online: https://www.mmbchurch.ca

Email: support@mmbchurch.ca

Sign Up To Be A Part of Our Bible Study Community: https://bit.ly/draw-closer-to-God

 

 

John 14:10-11

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works. ¹¹ Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me— or at least believe on account of the works themselves.”

Psalm 19: 1-3, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.”

Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”

I saw an interview with a prominent brother in the Lord the other day, and he expressed how he has questions at times about his faith. Did I ask all the right questions? Did I check under every rock? Did I really think this through? Some of us, me included, at times have the same questions. We are never called to have ‘blind faith’ in the Lord. Our faith is evidence-based. The very word believe is an action word, and in particular, it is the idea of taking action. So, I believe the chair can hold me up; therefore, I sit in it; this is the idea of Biblical faith. It is more practical than hypothetical.

I see so many challenges to the Bible and its authenticity; the mere fact that they constantly challenge it like no other ‘religious’ book is, to me, the best evidence of its truth and longevity.

If one were to take the time to look through all the archeological finds that support the scriptures, like the many copies of the Old and New Testament, either in part or whole, artifacts prove the existence of King David. The fragments show Pontius Pilate and other officials of the time.

There are many evidences of the Bible’s authenticity. However, I was watching a short video yesterday, and it mentioned two things that have been well-known for some time. It just so happens that I am reading in Deuteronomy, as I am at the end of the Torah. And so, I wanted to share these two things; maybe some of you have a few doubts or questions, and this may help. As the text shows, Jesus and God the Father called us to faith based on evidence and believe because of what we do or because of what we see. When John the Baptist’s followers came to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah, He told them to report what they had seen. When we get up in church or to share the Gospel with someone, we are speaking about what Jesus has done for us. There is a relationship that is tangible.

As mentioned, I was watching a short video with Dr. John Bergsma, and he was laying out two things from the exodus that we know for sure and how they authenticate the timing of the events in the exodus from Egypt.

The first was the construction of the Tabernacle; the Egyptian kings lived in Tabernacle-like compounds when they went to war. Their dwellings would have an outer and inner court, and they would have a box like the Ark of the Covenant with the cherubim on either side. In-between was their god, Pharoah. There are actual pictures of this in the engraving, and even some of the dimensions are very similar. In fact, there is a box like the Ark of the Covenant in the tomb of King Tut. The box has two cherubim on it, and in between, there is the god Anubis on it.

So, the God of Israel set up a similar Tabernacle, and in this, He dwells between the cherubim as a Spirit. The 2nd Commandment forbids any kind of image being used to represent God. He is the Unseen God; there is nothing that can describe Him, and no image can portray Him. So here we have a setup like we know for sure that Egyptian kings used when they went to war. We know that these things are true and that they are real, but many of us, myself included, have not heard this, nor do enough of us research to find out the truth that the world system tries to hide from us.

He goes on to add one further bit of evidence for us: from the Egyptian 2nd Kingdom period, we have a set of Treaty documents between Egyptian kings and the kings of the Hittite Empire; there are several copies in Egyptian, Hittite, and other languages. The structure of the treaties looks like the book of Deuteronomy. So, we have a kind of prologue about the parties involved, then some major constitutional principles, then we lay out specific laws, and then we end with instructions on how to store the treaty document, how often it should be read publicly, a list of blessing for following the covenant, and then a list of curses for breaking the covenant.

This has been known since the 1950s, but I bet a lot of us have never heard of this; I surely had not. But we are to recall that Moses was brought up in the royal court where he would have seen these documents being written, and his story tells us that these formats date back to the time of the exodus.

These kinds of incidental and cultural confirmations are truly authentic; this is not name-dropping but rather shows the influence of the time on the people. Moses was a Jew, but he was raised as an Egyptian; he learned their ways, and it was a part of who he was. God used that because it was also familiar to the people, the Jews who had been raised in Egypt. They saw the Pharoah’s war tabernacles, and then surely Moses saw the treaties. Thus, God used the familiar to teach the unfamiliar.

We are not called to ‘blind faith.’ Not once does God call us to faith that is not based on evidence. Jesus called the disciples out of the boat even as He was walking on the water past them. Jesus calls us to love others sacrificially because He loves us that way and showed it to us.

As we get closer and closer to the call home, the Bible tells us that many will turn away from the faith (Matthew 24:10). Now, no one is saved because of evidence; they are saved by hearing the word of God. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

But once we are saved and begin to explore the scriptures and hear the criticisms, the Holy Spirit has a plethora of evidence out there and a host of Godly men who are both saved and scientists, highly educated, who can help us see the firm foundation that we stand on in Jesus more clearly.

Keep reading, keep searching, and keep finding the little pieces of evidence that God has graciously given us to bolster our faith.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How To Connect with Us

On Facebook (live broadcast of Sunday’s Message at 11 am): https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Join us on Zoom every Sunday (10:30 am) for Sunday Service AND every Tuesday at 8:00 pm for Bible Study: Meeting ID: 700 794 460 Passcode: 032661; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/700794460?pwd=M3NFRG91ZW5Sa2Z3amVyWkFnYXd6QT09

Online: https://www.mmbchurch.ca

Email: support@mmbchurch.ca

Sign Up to Be a Part of Our Bible Study Community: https://bit.ly/draw-closer-to-God