Peace With Yourself – Dr. Charles Stanley

when we think of Christmas one of the words that pops in their mind often times this piece we sing about it we talk about it we write about it we hear about it but how much of it do we really experience especially peace within ourselves we talk about peace between nations peace in groups that are voting on issues but what about peace within ourselves how many of us have genuine peace within ourselves you remember Jesus said my peace I leave with you my peace are given to you not as the world gives give on to you but let not your heart be troubled God is a God of peace and God is interested in peace within all of us and one of the issues that we have to deal with the peace is this whole idea of peace within ourselves so I want to think about peace for just a moment it's mentioned 353 times in the Bible so it says something about how important it is Jesus talked about it let's think about this whole daughter idea peace within ourselves if I should ask you today do you have peace within yourself are you happy about yourself are you at ease with yourself can you sleep with yourself and be happy can you go about your work and be happy or is there something missing in your life there are three areas of life in which you and I suddenly want to have peace and the first one is peace with God which is his gift to us when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior for the forgiveness of our sins we have peace with him the war is or no country then there's peace with one another which is the result of our learning to live in a harmonious relationship with others and this is a very difficult situation with many people they have a very difficult time really being at peace with many people in their life sometimes it's for their own home with their children with their friends the people they work with but there seems to be conflict when there's no peace there's conflict there's something wrong but you know the burning greek word RNA which is the greek word for peace means to bind the yellow and when you don't have that you have conflict then of course this one that's what we want to talk about peace with ourselves when you think about it would you think that you have peace with yourself you had to yourself you're delighted with what God's doing in your life what you're accomplishing what you're achieving so pleased with ourselves which is the inner quietness and serenity that comes when we learn to live in a harmonious relationship with our inner self how do we live with ourselves many people cannot this is why they get entangled in all kind of situations and circumstances that are very damaging to their life they don't have any peace in themselves there is only one place that you'll find peace that makes it possible for you to have peace with yourself to accept yourself to be at ease with yourself to be happy with yourself and that is in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ no other way I know that many of you who are trying all other things say well some of these some want to somehow I'm gonna make peace with myself no you're not not apart from Jesus Christ and so when I think about that and I think about the struggle that people go through to find peace for themselves the things that they do the places they go the money they spend how do you find peace with yourself and that's what I want us to talk about primarily in this message and I want to think about how piece really eludes us we think well everything is just fine then all of a sudden we don't have any peace because we forget what the base several pieces it's the basis of our peace with ourselves is the relationship its relationship to God but its relationship to ourself if I should ask you do you love yourself oh you shouldn't talk about loving self yes you should you should love yourself because watch this only those you love will you really treat adequately you do not love somebody you're not gonna you said what about all the people I don't know there is a capacity God has given us to feel and to express love for people we don't know otherwise why would God give us a great Commission go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature if we do not have the capacity to love people we don't know people will never see then there's something wrong with the Great Commission given to us by Jesus because there's a capacity to love even those you don't know our problem is loving the people who we do know and loving ourselves but it's loving ourselves that I want us to know primarily here and Psalm 34 verse 14 if you'll turn there for a second it's just a very very short passage of Scripture and the reason I want you to turn this because of what it says it's a very short verse and here's what it says seek peace and pursue it it isn't just enough to seek it but go after it there was when you find it pursue it that is work at it because peace does not come cheaply and it does not come oftentimes easy so honest I think for just a moment if you think about your peace with other people if you have it it's going to be expressive in a certain way if you don't have it it's going to be expressed in a certain way so let's think about it for just a moment now listen you have to be honest with yourself you can sit in think a lot more Christian and I've got peace with everybody know you not really if you asked me if I had peace with everybody I couldn't tell you that I have peace with every single person because some people create conflict and you have to work at having that kind of relationship with people who are just conflicting by their very nature so let's think about it in this light and that is a person that we have problems being at peace with people for example who don't like the way they look you said well no what's this got to do with just stay with me they don't like the way they look they get up in the morning and they look at themselves and this is not right that's not right this is not right and this is too tight and these shoes are the wrong color and my stocking has a whole run in it and on and on you go and so after all you think what in the world is going on that you don't like that you don't have peace with yourself until you can accept yourself and all of us have expectations of ourselves so naturally we're going to judge ourselves on the basis of what we expect and so sometimes people do well till they look in the mirror and they think oh my what's happened to me I'm getting old I'm getting too thin I'm getting there otherwise and so they have a problem with it then people feel inadequate they don't feel like they're up to doing what they need to do and ought to be able to do and so they feel inadequate they don't have any teas you have a job for example you go to your job on Monday morning you don't feel I think that you can do it it's over your head you don't having the peace and so listen to this when there's no peace that's what conflict and when there's conflict that's not happiness there's no joy there's no real sense of satisfaction and acceptance of ourselves and so the conflict is an indication something's not right then there's feeling unworthy and I don't deserve that and you have seen people like this and met people and maybe you have congratulated them for something you've given them something and you've told them how grateful you are and what do they say all you know they say I don't deserve it you should and so they don't know how to accept congratulations that my how to accept a gift that oh my how to accept the fact that you think they're special that you think there were they can't accept that Samara why not because of something you've done but because of something they feel on the inside they don't feel worthy of a gift they don't feel worthy of your desire and many people for example get into marriages and they get into measures that don't last because they never settle this they never get this issue of a personal acceptance right and so sometimes because they don't accept themselves they don't allow someone else to accept them because they don't even know how they can't even interpret it and so before long they have a problem there's conflict not what the other person would but within themselves that is at the acceptance of one's self on the basis of spiritual things that's very very very important then of course there's the feeling of being not only unworthy but insecure about themselves if you're insecure about yourself you're never quite happy I'll tell you what it's like it's right walking like this I'm not too sure I'm gonna put my foot the right place you don't feel secure you don't feel that is these are not feelings that God intends for his children to have because if you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior he's gonna make you very good he's gonna he's gonna enable you to be at peace with your surroundings but many people are not and of course there's the feeling that they don't fit any group they don't they don't fit a son in class at church they don't that any group where they work in their community that they just don't fit if you ask him why they can't tell you why then watch this they have this feeling I don't fit if you say will describe that foam but they can't tell you why they just feel inadequate they feel unloved they feel unacceptable and you ask them why they can't tell you they've never experienced the awesome indescribable unconditional love of Jesus Christ he's the foundation of true genuine love and then of course many people don't feel loved by anybody and this is one of the biggest problems that they in our society children grow up they have their college education paid for they have an automobile all the clothes they want all the rest but they never got accepted at home as a part of the family listen voices carefully you can't give in as substitutes for love you can't give any substitutes or accepting somebody you can't give into substances but just acknowledging who they are and accepting them as they are they're no substitutes for that and one of the major problems in our society is we don't accept each other we can always come up with some reason to criticize and to blame and rather than accept the fact that we're all different we're not you know and that no to people this is hard to believe in it all the billions of people in the world no two of us are like you think well surely there must be somebody out there like me but usually the people who are arguing with that don't want to divide like them they can't accept themselves so I'd ask you this simple question do you accept yourself just like you are this is who you are God wants us to accept ourselves listen in his love in his predetermined will he wants us to accept ourselves and when you trusted him as your Savior he didn't say well look there's a wholeness though he I want to deal with now No he began to work in your heart watch this when you trusted him as your Savior the Holy Spirit came into your life he sent him to sealed you under the day of redemption which means once you're a child of God you're always a child of God you may not act like it you may not look like it you may not dress like it you may not do anything but you still are and when you don't do the right things his chastising hand comes upon you and you wonder well where is this level of God that's what he's doing loving you by chasing you to get you back in line so God wants us to live in peace and he wants us to have his peace and to be at peace with one another here's what I want you remember are you listening say Amen when you and I carry with us negative attitudes about ourselves we may think that that's just between us and nobody else it's also between us and God but now here's that here's the bad thing all those negative thoughts weigh on us they're in your mind all that negativism is in your brain in your mind and you're thinking about that you say well what's that got to do with you so it's got to do with negative thinking about yourself unloving thoughts about yourself way something they weigh against you and so you carry that with you all of that trashy stuff weighs within a person's life and this is why they are emotionally been over you may stand tall but if you're not emotionally right on the inside this is what happens the real picture is this because all of its negative thinking - God - his love - what he thinks about you is weighing you down so when I think about that the fact that we battled these things all the time and I think about children who grew up in a home or the mom and dad fussing at each other no acceptance of each other what does that y'all have chale has a mind full of chaos conflict consternation unloving bad words bad deeds bad sites that they say and they grow up with it and we don't realize what this thinking does - listen this is right with and love God we're to be at peace with him we're to be at peace with each other unless we're at peace with him we'll never be at peace with each other and so people struggle to overcome these things and they can dress up job the best live the best talk the best but unless God has dealt with you're thinking about yourself watch this carefully if somebody criticizes you listening carefully say Amen if somebody criticizes you that doesn't mean it's the truth doesn't mean it's a truth God is healing the true judge that sometimes all of us need to be corrected but that's not listening correcting my attitude or my particular action or what I say that that's not who I am sometimes I may need correction but I think about people who grow up in conflict it's constant conflict and the reason I make an issue of that it's because I grew up in that and I look back and realize how long it took me to get that all of that out of my system and we will act what we think what we feel and the only God can deliver us and when I went to see my stepfather and deal with my attitude toward him set me free I'd already been a pastor but I knew something was wrong and wasn't right I had to deal with it and I had to go to see him and express what I felt in my heart and not blame him but accept the fact that that my feelings told him we're not right and get that straight as long as you carry watch this you can't get rid of it unless you ain't God yet relevant you can go to psychologist psychiatrist and everything else you and God must deal with negative attitudes that are nothing other than conflict no peace my peace are given to you not as the world giveth give unto you let not your heart be troubled Jesus made it very clear that the peace that he gives is peace that makes it possible for me to live among people different people who from other nations of the world and yet we get along why because we have one central figure and that is Jesus Christ he's the one who is a central figure and that's the way God intends for us to live we at watch this we accept each other because of who you are not because of what you do all of us make mistakes we don't always look at best we don't always we don't always do it best we accept each other because we belong to God and because Christ living within us listen God intends for us to live submissive to his will so that he can express himself there was two other people and the fact that we don't is because we do not realize we're in a war with ourselves as long as you're at war with yourself watch this you cannot be at peace with others he can't you won't happen and the reason we have such conflicts and I think about all the political conflicts and all the racial conflicts and all the religious conflicts and all national can't say conflict conflict conflict everywhere is that necessary I don't think so you say well you don't know what you're talking about I know this wherever Jesus is he can eliminate conflict he can give us peace in our heart acceptance of ourselves and acceptance of each other and one of the reasons we have problems accepting other people as we don't accept ourselves when you're living with a mind full of conflict it may have started in your home as a kid small child it may have started later on in life at this conflict there's no peace and if I should say today to you can you name somebody in your life that when you see them you feel conflict you may not do that but your system does when you deal with people with whom you have conflict your whole system is affected Jesus said my piece are given to you that is the world gives I give on you you can't buy it you can't trade it you can't swap it my piece are given to you not as the world gives give unto you let not your heart be troubled what about it do you have real peace who is there in your life with whom you feel conflict even today is it somebody who's already died and buried but is in the grave still have conflict somebody that you married first still have conflict your kids who went over to college and haven't written you a note I'll called you since they left your boss who fired you and you thought felt it was absolutely unnecessary and unfair who is there in your life that still is there no matter what because you've not dealt with it my peace are given to you listen when Jesus said that Rome and the Jews were in terrible odds with each other and yet Jesus said my peace are given to you not as the world gives give honor you let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid he told us to love each other not carry a load of guilt and here's the thing that's so such a burden to my own heart when I see people who've grown up in families full of hatred animosity and conflict with each other and coming along in life in facing life and carrying all that with them when I think about it it's it's really it's really harmless to believe that any two people could marry and be happy if you think about where people have come from the kind of homes they grew up in and then they marry someone and then what happens if they haven't dealt with it all the past and all the past and when all of us past meets it's like an explosion and we judge each other accuse each other want to leave each other want to weep want to hurt each other and what we don't realize this all that started way back yonder we didn't deal with it then because nobody talked to us about it kind of education never mentioned it now I have all of this stuff where we live where we drove what we drive I have all this reputation all this big job big this big that the conflict is still there listen carefully whatever has happened no matter how you've been treated you don't want to carry the weight listen it didn't innocent come in pounds he comes in tons tons of weight of negative feelings thoughts ungodly feelings and thoughts unforgiving feelings and thoughts it's there right here right here and if you ever have any peace in your life you can't make enough money to buy driving the big cars divided I live in the big enough home they live one thing they can set you free it's Jesus Christ and when you surrender your life to Him yes what happens when you surrender your life to him he takes away all the guilt he taking take away all the hurt would you have to deal with it yes you will but he wants to clean you up whatever's in your heart that shouldn't be there lay it down lay it down you say how do I do that you confess it to God and you surrender it and Lord I lay that down I choose to ask you to take that out of my mind I forgive whatever it takes don't keep care the tonnage of unforgiveness hurt pain grief in your life when it doesn't belong there my piece are given the you Jesus said not as the world gives because it doesn't work nothing's the world give I give you my love my peace and my joy and that's the promise of Almighty God to those of us who will surrender our life to Him yield ourselves to him and let him begin the healing process in our life if you've never trusted Jesus as your Savior remember this you don't have the capacity to forgive you may have like a passage to give a little bit but it won't last you need Jesus you need to ask God to forgive you of your sin and I trust that you'll be willing to ask the Lord to forgive you cleanse you set you free and watch him work amen thank you dear Lord for the awesome power of your word when you said if we can test our sins you are faithful and just that means you always will forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness all of these thoughts their way as done in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: In Touch Ministries

Views: 522,251

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Keywords: Charles F. Stanley, Charles Stanley, In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley, In Touch Ministries, Preaching, Bible teaching, Dr. Stanley, Intouch ministries, intouch

Id: hnefWDyfFtw

Length: 25min 39sec (1539 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 13 2019