Master of the Multitudes II

This is part two in the series, Master of the Multitudes. This message, How to Have His Peace, was presented on March 27th, 1988, by Dr. Jay Passavant, Senior Pastor of North Way Christian Community. Praise the Lord. Go ahead and be seated. Now you have a yellow sheet, or you should have one, that has scripture on it and a very brief, little outline of the message for today. And if you don't have one of those sheets, you can put your hand up and I'm sure someone will pass one over to you. The ushers have them. There's some we need up front, please. Some back here in the corner. And others of you can be turning to Luke chapter 19 in your Bible if you'd like to follow along in your own Bible. Luke 19. And I'll begin reading in verse 37. And when he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. I tell you, he replied, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. And as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, If you, even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. And the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hand you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. I said earlier this morning that there is an extremely profound paradox here in Palm Sunday. On the one hand, we have this glorious pronouncement that Jesus is King. And in that same moment, Jesus himself rises up on the Mount of Olives. John, I'm sure, could just vividly picture this right now. Looks down over the city and sees Jerusalem. And he begins to weep for what he sees in it. Perspective is everything. And I don't think Jesus was overplaying this. I believe it came out of a heart of deep compassion. Sometimes we tend to overstate things so that the truth won't be quite so bad. I read a letter that said, Dear Mom and Dad, I just thought I'd drop you a note to clue you in on my plans. This is from a college student. I've fallen in love with a guy named Jim. He quit high school after grade 10 to get married. About a year ago, he got a divorce. We've been going steady for two months and plan to get married in the fall. Well, until then, I've decided to move into his apartment. I think I might be pregnant. At any rate, I dropped out of school last week. And although I'd like to finish college sometime in the future, that's what I'm doing. On the next page, she continued, Mom and Dad, I just want you to know that everything I've written so far in this letter is false. None of it's true. But, Mom and Dad, it is true that I got a C in French and flunked math. And it is true that I'm going to need some more money for my tuition payments. All you college students can keep that one in your file. But I don't really think that Jesus was overstating what he saw. I believe his heart broke as he looked down over this city and saw, as I told us two weeks ago, as I shared my heart about Jesus the master of the multitudes, we saw that the Lord knows not what people just show him on the outside, but the Lord today knows what's in your heart. He knows what's going on inside of you. And dear ones, you know, we can have a glorious time here, and we are having a glorious time celebrating our King, worshiping him, and rightly we should. And may God always permit us that liberty. But may it never be that we just do that and not come to terms with what's really happening on the inside of us. You know, I have to tell you, last night I had a strange experience. I had finished preparation of my message. I was just having some prayer before the Lord, about 10 o'clock at night, and I went back into my notes. And you know, if you've been here any length of time, you've never heard the same sermon twice from me. I don't go back and heat up the old ones. Now that may be a shock to some of you who think that pastors only work on Sundays, but no, we have a heart to hear from God around here. But I picked up my notes from last year's Palm Sunday message. I was just leaping through. I was looking, in fact, for a particular quote. And you know what I found? I just was shocked by it. The message I'm going to share with you today is, in essence, the same message that I had last year. I want you to know, I talked to the Lord about that. I said, what did I just spend the last three days working on? Why don't you just tell me? But the Lord impressed me, and He said this, in my spirit, now if you don't understand how God communicates, I don't want you to think I'm weird or hearing mysterious voices. The Lord impressed my heart, and the thoughts came to my mind, that we have still got to come to the place of knowing peace in our church. There's a peace that God wants to bring into your heart today. And beyond that, the Lord also said, there are many new people here today. How many were not here last year? Go ahead, wave your hand. You were at Palm Sunday. You see, that's the majority plus of this congregation that's here in this service. The Lord wants you to have peace. You say, if you're a high school student, big deal. Who cares about that? I want you to know, peace, in God's definition, is a marvelous gift. Peace is so important to people that when it's taken away, they hunger for it. I want you to know that there's people all around the world today that would give anything for peace. And in a few short weeks, I understand the leaders of the Contras and the Sandinistas, who hate each other, are going to sit down at a table and sign documents of peace. My understanding was that as they stood in the same room just to come to that agreement, they didn't even talk to each other. But they signed something. People want peace, and you don't know how important it is until it's taken away. There are some people here today that you don't have peace inside. And you want peace desperately today. You may be a believer in Christ and find that something has robbed your peace today. You know, as Jesus comes and moves among us, I believe he would look upon some people who had their peace built on circumstances. I had breakfast with a man from our church who, a few years ago, had started a new business with somebody, poured eight months of his own expertise and creativity into the business. And one morning, he walked in, and the owner of the business said, Well, just want you to know there's been a little change. He said, We're no longer partners. He said, Now I own the company, and you work for me. Well, this brother from the church, he said, What? I didn't... You didn't... Say that again, because you didn't really mean that, did you? And the man showed him how he had found legal loopholes to pull the rug out from this brother in Christ. How would you have responded? How would your peace have been in that circumstance? You know, it's not easy for me to always walk in that... But dear ones, if our heart peace is built on circumstances, how many of one phone call can forever change that? One phone call from the emergency room. One phone call from a distant relative or a student at school. We can't have our peace built on how well it's going. It's got to be built on something that Jesus gives to us. And today, he looks down on our congregation, and I believe he wants to bring peace, just as he looks down on this city, and I believe he weeps for it. I want you to see that, first of all, would you? That this peace that Jesus wants to bring, he feels so strongly, the Bible says, it's a peace that comes with tears. The word for weeping there in verse 42 of your text, in Luke chapter 19, is the word to sob heavily. Have you ever sobbed for something? Just a few weeks ago, as I sat next to Dolph Marshay, I sobbed about his son Eric, even though his son Eric is with Jesus. I sobbed with him. I remember back some seven or eight years ago, sitting in the living room of Mac and Susan McKay with a whole bunch of people. We were praying about a new church, and someone began to share how they cared about those who didn't know Christ. And I don't know why, and it hasn't happened in seven years since then, but at that moment, I began to sob. Because the Lord from the inside, you see, stirs up something, and you identify, as Jesus did, with the true condition of people. The Bible says that Jesus only wept two times. This was one, one was the other. When he was at Lazarus' tomb, and he saw what death did to people. But when Jesus wept, I want you to know that it was not just a tear of, gee, that's too bad. It was a tear of understanding and identifying with human anguish. Do you know the Lord knows how badly you hurt? People say, well, God couldn't imagine, he wouldn't let me hurt like this. I want you to know, God knows the deepest level of your hurt today. Your pain, he feels. The Bible says that he bore on himself the punishment for our sorrows. Isaiah 53 tells us that he was acquainted with grief, a man of sorrows. You may say, well, that's not a very manly figure. I want you to know there's no one more manly than Jesus. Especially when he bears with us. And that peace comes with tears. It doesn't come easily. And all around us, dear ones, I see reason why we need to lay hold of this peace. Now, young people, I was kind of shocked. I don't know about you, but Andy Gibb was a very popular singer. How many of you ever heard Andy Gibb? About his records. He was one of the Bee Gees, and a brother of them, and all that kind of thing. And I don't know how he got, by age 30, he was known all over the world. But all along the way, he didn't have peace. And we found out just about two weeks ago that he died of inflammation of the heart, which was related to a terrible cocaine problem. I wonder about that. 30 years old. What was he searching for? There was something that he couldn't find with all the acclamation of a world-known rock singer. Money. He had so much money that he felt he was set for life. And you know, he died $500,000 in debt. Because peace doesn't come from the externals. It never will. But the thing that we all think is that, well, I'll look for this way you're talking about, Jay, when I'm done trying the other ways, because the other ways are more fun than your way. Are you hearing me? There are other fun ways to get there. Let me try them first. And I want you to know, if you get on the as soon as wheel, you're going to find yourself spinning out of control. As soon as I get my first car, then I'll get serious about it. As soon as I graduate. As soon as I get married and get settled down, I want to have some fun, sow some oats before I get serious with God. As soon as I get my first business up and running, then I can get a little more. And you know what? How many of you know that as soon as I'll follow you all the way through life? As soon as I'm retired, honey, we can settle down, and I'll deal with God when I'm near my end. Actually, I want you to know something. And that will bring you to the point of despair. Because God alone, God alone can give you peace. It's a gift. Jesus wept for your peace. The Bible says that others wept too, by the way. Paul wept for his friends, the Jews. His countrymen, Romans 9, verse 2 says, he wept for them. I want to ask you today, how many of you here have wept for another? You've wept that they would know God. You've wept that the love of God that you've come to know would be available and received by those around you. Then Jesus said this. He said, this is the time of your peace. Look with me at the end of verse 44. It says, you didn't recognize the time of your peace. It may be a shock to you, but it won't always be the way it is today. Do you know that? We live, we are so blessed in our nation. The paradox of America is we have so much that we don't even realize we have so much. Anyone who travels will tell you, you can't even begin to compare where we are with most other nations of the world. And we have great liberty right now, but I want you to know that in God, there's a time and a season. It's God's time in China right now. God is moving in China. It's God's time in Africa. Missiologists tell us that by the year 2000, that 75% of Africa will be born again Christians. But I want you to know, if I read times and seasons correctly, and I read the signs that are out there, and as I talk to other leaders who travel around this nation, most leaders, including men that I've known for 15 and 20 years in ministry, greatly respect, believe that we are in a very difficult time and season right now. That's why we're seeing all this terrible exposing of our sin corporately. Why? Because the Lord is saying, one last time I'm going to move. One last time. And I want to appeal to you today, see that the Lord's time for your peace is now. You don't need to leave and wait until next week. It's today. Behold, now is the acceptable time. I encountered a person that I'd worked with when I was in youth ministry about, it seemed like 40 years ago, actually it was only about seven or eight, who at that point had said, this was about 10 years ago now, had said, I'm not that interested right now. I've got some things to do. I saw them just a few weeks ago. They'd already been divorced. They'd already bounced around in three different hospitals to try to deal with the problem with alcohol. And they said, you know something, it's hard for me to admit this, but I'm so sorry. I wasted the last 10 years of my life. Now, it's not too late for him today. But boy, what a waste of 10 years of a life. And I pray you see today that it's God's acceptable time. Now is the time. Now is the time for our church, dear ones. The year of new beginnings is underway. And now is the time, and I've said to many of our leaders, it will be once in a lifetime for some of us that we will have the opportunity to go out and make an impact in touching this culture that we have right now. I know some of you who are in your 50s and 60s have gone to church for lots of years and never seen the Lord do what He's doing right here. I feel it's privilege. Now what will we do with that privilege? Now is the time to move ahead in faith together. Number three, I want you to see the terms of peace. Now turn your Bibles to Matthew 21 or look at the bottom or the center section of your yellow sheet there, okay? Matthew 21. How do I get this peace, Jay? By the way, the Bible definition of peace is not just the absence of conflict. It's wholeness. It's fulfillment. Shalom means complete harmony. To be at peace means that things are working well together. How many of you love to have peace in your home? I want you to know, I feel that we come under great attack in our homes. Things that should be normal little deals in our homes end up being giant hassles sometimes. Have you ever had a dinner that you were all set to have? Just be nice. You set it all out there and the kids sit down. I figure there must be something in the ketchup. And you want to have a nice peaceful dinner and talk about the week. Maybe it's a Friday night and the kids are, you know, as soon as that ketchup gets in there, they're like, why are there beans in there? How do I bring peace into my home? What are the terms of peace in my own heart? Well, Jesus came down now from that Mount of Olives. He was weeping for Jerusalem and he went in to the temple right there in Jerusalem. I want to mention this. I didn't say this in the first service. Do you know this was the second time that he did this? Do you remember that? When was the first time he did it? Right after the marriage feast at Cana. Remember that? In John chapter 2, he went in and did the same thing. Once he came in to give the people an opportunity to show them the way, the second time he came in, now he realizes it's too late. He's going to hold them accountable to the Lord. And Jesus is coming in today. And the Bible says that we are his temple. Turn to someone right now and tell them you are the temple. Tell them that. You're the temple. You're the temple. It's not just out there, it's you. And here's what he says in this passage in Matthew chapter 21. I'll just read through it as I'm going down here and you can follow along in your sheet. The first thing he did was to enter the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. Now, dear ones, too often I've read this and said, God wants our temples to be a house of purity. Can we put that up, please, Paula? You may want to write this down. A house of purity. And we thought, well, that means let's get out of sexual immorality. And I think that's right. You believe that? We read that, a house of purity, and we say, well, let's get away with lust and get away with drinking and all those things. But I want you to hear today that maybe the Lord is showing us something different. Could it mean that the house of purity means this? Rather than coming in and seeing all this stuff set up for convenience sake for the people. You see, those sellers and buyers, those who were merchandising the offerings, what were they doing for the people? Well, they were making it easy for someone to show up at the temple, buy something, and go in and offer it before God. Just start thinking about it. It's almost kind of like, you know, get your sacrifices here. Almost like that. Almost like a circus. And God, centuries before, had instituted the sacrificial system for people to bring their own choice offering to God. I want you to hear this now. You see, the land that they raised and took care of and got attached to, that was to become their offering. Spotless and without blemish. And they were showing up at the courtyard and saying, I'll take this one. Who cares? And dear ones, could it be that when God says He wants us to be a house of purity, He's saying this? He's saying, I don't want you to live in the area of convenience in your walk with God. But rather to walk in the arena of commitment, where it costs you something to follow the King. Could purity not just be our moral orientation as much as it is our wholeheartedness? I want you to know, Jesus just wasn't angry and throwing a temper tantrum in the temple. What He was doing was, He was exposing the people who were undermining the purpose of the sacrifice. And I think too easily we come in here, and it's very easy, now listen, even in a church like ours that is open about our praise and worship, to come in and let someone else minister to God for me. Let the praise team do it. Let the pastor pray. God doesn't want you to... You know what He wants? He'll come in and He'll throw those things upside down. Because He wants your praise. He wants your sacrifice. He wants yours to be a house of purity. The second thing I see, Jesus says this. He says, I want my house, these temples, to be a house of prayer. I guess if there's ever a word that I feel we're in danger of hearing to the point where it gets to be like calloused, it's this one. I showed up here on Thursday morning, and I told you, I think last Sunday, that morning prayer has been a battle through the winter months. And I was rejoicing. I was just rejoicing that the light is starting to shine early in the mornings now. In case you haven't been up for 6 a.m. prayer, you know what? Next week is savings time again. I just thought you might want to know that. We forgot to tell 830. It's a good chance that the 830 service won't even be next week. It's three weeks earlier than it's been. And so all this that I'm telling you probably won't matter anymore because we're going to lose that hour of sunlight. But nonetheless, we got up, and I came here to prayer on Thursday morning with Pastor Scott and a lot of the home group leaders coming that morning. And it was a glorious time. And we just had a wonderful turnout. And I want you to know that in my spirit, God reminded me of this. He said, I've called you to be a praying people. And even though it gets tough, don't give up. Don't just go back to convenience. Stick with it. Be a house of prayer, and you'll see the fruit of it. Dear ones, turn in your Bibles. I want you to see Philippians 4, 6, and 7. It's too good for me just to say it to you. I'll read it, but you look there, and if you're seated next to someone with a Bible and you don't have one, tell them you want to read theirs. Here's what it says. The book of Philippians. This is Paul speaking. He says this. Don't worry 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 passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. God will give you the inner peace, and then he'll deal with the circumstances. One of our home group leaders, I think he's here in this service, shared the other morning. A source of anxiety in his life was the fact that his boss was just consistently down on him, criticizing his work. And this brother was doing everything he could to try to please the boss. It was a new job for him. He came in two weeks ago, three weeks ago I guess it was now, and asked for a few of us to pray for him to have the strength to get through this thing. He came in Thursday morning at prayer meeting and he said, well, you know, the Lord gave me peace about this situation, but the boss was always the same. He was still down on my case, really giving me a hard time. He said, I walked into work yesterday and they fired the boss. He fired the boss. That's right. The brother said, it turns out that all along this gentleman was stealing from the company and making it impossible. The exciting thing was the brother from our fellowship had already gotten God's peace before that ever was disclosed. You see, that's what the Lord, he wants to work the peace, then he'll take care of the circumstance. How many of you like it the other way? Let's be a house of prayer. I want to urge you, I want to call you forth. Let's be praying. Let's be together. And if you can't be here, you get along with the Lord. Just give Him a little time every day. You're saying, oh, I've tried that, it doesn't work. Dear ones, lift your hand if it works. You've just got to do it. That's all. Yesterday was an incredible day. Yesterday was one of those days that we rarely see where everything happened. John, I don't know if you were traveling, but it rained with great force, the sun would shine, the winds would blow, then it would be calm. The clouds were everywhere, then it was clear. And I just watched all this happen and said, Lord, that's just like my life. Is that like your life? It all comes in different ways. And we want it to all be sunshine in 78. Right? Well, it's not that way for you. But listen, we can have peace. We can have peace because I know the Master of the clouds and of the weather lives in our heart. Number three, Jesus said, I want to make your house a house of power. Unfortunately, you would think that everybody would want the power of God in their life, but you know something? When the power comes, it also brings responsibilities. And many people resist the Lord because if they hear of the power of God's Spirit, they say, well, I can no longer control that. And you're right. Jesus said that people brought in the sick and the lame and he healed them. It's right there in your scripture. And I want to just ask you today, are you living by your own power or by the power of the Holy Spirit? Well, if you're not sure, I want you to come up right afterwards here and some of our ministry teams will pray with you. Live under God's power. Let your house be a house of His power and not your own strength. And number four, Jesus said, let your house be a house of praise. Now, this is my favorite one. I discovered that praise literally can transform my daily, moment by moment, experience of life. Now, listen to this. Young people, if I'd heard this when I was 20, instead of a little older than that, God has given you an instrument to play to Him and it's right here. It comes out of you. When you feel like things are crushing in on you, when you feel like it's not going your way, the person who chooses to praise in that moment taps into a power source. The person who chooses to let God be exalted, I mean, you may wake up in the morning and the last thing you want to do is get with God. Begin to speak praise. Lord, I choose it today. You may find that someone is oppressing you, calling your names, putting you down. Begin to just lift the name of Jesus over that situation. Praise breaks forth the purposes of God in a person. Much praise, much power. People who learn the rejoicing posture of giving praise to God in their house will find themselves walking from one, just one little encounter of God's life to another. And dear ones, Jesus said here, if you don't do it, the rocks are going to do it. If you don't do it, I'll find someone who will. That's what that's saying. And no matter where God takes the North Way Christian community, we will always be a house of praise. Because this can never become, God will abandon a praiseless people. I want you to know that. He will not be entertained in a praiseless house. Sure, we need the sensitivity to where people are coming from. And if you're new to the things of praise and worship, we understand that. And you just move along in God's providence and His timing. That's fine. But dear ones, I'm going to be a person who purposes to praise the Lord together. I want to grow in His grace and in His love. And so I want to ask you as I conclude today, how do you have the peace of God? Well, you have it by letting your house be a house of purity, a house of prayer, a house of power, and a house of praise. And whatever you need today of His peace will flood into your life and change you. Close up your Bible a second. My question for you is this. Not what has happened to you today on Palm Sunday. My question for you is what's going to happen to you on Palm Monday? Will the peace of God reign in your heart tomorrow as His presence has today? That's my prayer. Let's stand together as we submit to the Lord and call upon Him for peace. He is the God of all peace, the Bible says. And our word tells us that He bore the punishment of our sin that He might give us that peace. Let's exalt Him with our praise together. I believe that's the appropriate response. Let's exalt the Lord together. He is exalted here among us. Hallelujah. We bless His name. We exalt His name. Oh, Lord, let the living songs cry out. He is exalted. The King is exalted. Oh, I will praise Him. He is exalted, forever exalted. And I will praise His name. He is exalted, forever His truth shall reign. Heaven and earth rejoice in His holy name. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. I will praise Him. He is exalted, forever exalted. And I will praise His name. He is the Lord, the Lord, forever His truth shall reign. Heaven and earth rejoice in His holy name. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. I'm just going to continue for the last few moments today to minister to the Lord. I want to give an opportunity right now for an exchange to be made. Anyone that's coming to this place today with turmoil, with confusion, maybe separation, a fracturing, all the things that are the opposite of peace, I want you to come and give that right now. I'm just going to open up the steps of this platform and say to you, if you want to exchange your hurt and confusion, your struggles for His peace, the steps of the King are open. Come and present it to Jesus and receive His peace. So I'm going to say, you just come and present it. Let His peace rule over you right here as we sing. Come right now. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. Come up now. He is exalted, forever exalted, and I will praise His name. He is God. Forever His truth shall reign. Heaven and earth rejoice in His holiness. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. He is exalted. The King is exalted on high. Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna in the highest Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna in the highest With our hearts filled with praise We exalt You O Lord our God. Hosanna in the highest Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Just as these are here in the front, just receiving ministry from the Lord, I want to leave you today with just a question. The most important question of your life is, do you know peace with God? Billy Graham wrote a book about it, and he said in that book what the Bible says, and that is, the only way to know peace is to be born into the King's family. You've got to know Jesus personally. You need to be received of Him by receiving Him. The Bible makes it very easy in that all we need to do is acknowledge our desire to know Him, but it's an exchange of life today. I want to give us an opportunity now for several of you to say, Pastor, I need to know that peace of God. I want to know that Christ has received me, and that I've received Him, and that I'm right with God for eternity. I'd like you to bow your heads, please, throughout the auditorium right now. Every head bowed, please, and every eye closed, and if you want to know God in your heart today, if you want to know peace, assurance that you're His, that no matter what might happen to you, you're His, you belong to Him, you have peace today. I want to agree with you that today you'd receive that perfect peace, the peace of eternal life. The Lord extends that to you now, and if you're here today and you want to receive that peace, pray this with me, this way, Heavenly Father, I receive your forgiveness, I recognize my need for you, I sense your love here today, I invite Jesus into my life, I give you my heart. Now, every head is bowed, please, and every eye closed, and I want to agree with a number of you today that this is your day of beginning in Christ, a day of new life for you. I'm not going to embarrass you, but I do want to come to a point of powerful agreement throughout the room, in just a moment, if you prayed with me, or if that's what's going on inside of you, maybe you didn't use those words, I want you to lift your head and let our eyes meet all around the room, and that'll be our way of agreeing, right where you stand, that Christ would be in your life. Lift your head right now, let our eyes meet if you prayed with me, and I'll agree with you. Anyone around the room, wave your hand at me if I see you, yes sir, is that why you're looking at me? Just nod your head in the blue sweater, I agree with you sir, in the name of Jesus, receive life today. Others of you here on my left, look up at me right now, let me see your eyes, if I prayed with you just a moment ago, I want Christ in my life, and I agree with you dear, and you too, and I agree with you both, in Jesus' name, okay, the love of God reaches out to you, I agree with you, and I agree, in the name of Jesus, that assurance comes, because you've asked, and I agree with you, that today's a marked point in your walk, in Jesus' name. Others of you, let me see, wave at me if I missed your eyes, okay, anyone else, I know you're here. Over here on my left, let me see your hand real quickly, come up and let our eyes meet. The love of God reaching to you today, if I missed you, wave, here in the center, I'm going to move over to my right now, and you ma'am, is that why, yes, I agree with you in the name of Jesus today, did you come with that, is that your daughter, it is, she'll understand, go ahead, tell her I'm receiving the Lord, would you do it, she'll understand, go ahead. Others of you, let's look this way, anyone else, let me see here on my far right now, as I look around, in the name of Jesus Christ, if I missed you, now wave your hand, don't let the Lord miss this opportunity in your life, anyone else today, Father, I agree in Jesus' name, cement that love of God, here in the platform, is there anyone else, if I missed you up front, anyone else.