Sermon Tone Analysis

There is a peace that comes from ignorance, and there is a peace that comes from a knowing.

Peace has been called a pearl and rightly, for it is precious and smiles with soft, mild radiance bedecking the heart that wears it.

It is, indeed, a pearl of great price—he that has it has more than riches.

If his peace is, in very deed, the true pearl, he who wears it in his breast is one of the favored sons of God.

(spurgeon)

A poor woman was the loving mother of an only son.

He was very dear to her.

He fell sick, indeed, he was sick unto death but the mother could not bear to think so.

She scraped together the necessary fee for a physician and, oh, the peace of heart she had when the trusted man came downstairs and said to her, “Your son will recover.

There is no grave cause to fear.

Nurse him carefully and very soon he will be at his post again.”

The mother was restful of heart, for she believed the doctor.

Within a single day her son died and those hours of false peace were the wormwood and the gall of her affliction.

It was a sad, sad pity to have raised her hopes for she cried, “Oh, if I had known that he was going to die, I should not then so bitterly have felt his loss!

But I am grievously disappointed.

How could the doctor tell me he would live?”

The physician was either greatly mistaken, or else wished to soothe the mother’s manifest anguish.

If the latter was the case, his untruthfulness was not wise.

I cannot follow the same course.

It is a pity to create a peace which is baseless.

It is lamentable to me that anyone of you should be slumbering in peace when a great danger is near which will cause that peace to vanish as a dream when one awakes.

Avoid that peace which will prove deceptive in the present and ruinous in the future—

Describing the peace that God gives:

Col 3:15 Let the peace of God rule in your hearts

Phil 4:7 Peace that surpasses understanding

Ps. 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them"

Rom.

5:1, 2 Peace with God

Ps 29:11 The Lord will give strength unto His people, the Lord will bless His people with peace

John 14: 27 Peace I leav e with you, My peace I give to you: not as the world gives do I give you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

The photo to the right shows the monstrous eye of hurricane Isabel.

If you've ever been inside the eye of a hurricane (or typhoon), then you know that the center of the storm is very calm.

It is so calm, that people not familiar with such tropical storms often assume that the storm has passed.

Many people have died because of this FALSE PEACE, or false serenity.

Sources of false peace:

1) lies - The man who finds fault with himself accepts all things cheerfully—misfortune, loss, disgrace, dishonor and any other kind of adversity.

He believes that he is deserving of all these things and nothing can disturb him.

No one could be more at peace than this man.

There is also a false peace that deceives some (1 Thes.

5: 3)

Call what is sin good - Isa 5:20

2) ignorance - thoughtlessness

3) denial -AVOIDING CONFLICT AND CONTROVERSY TO HAVE FALSE PEACE WITHOUT TRUTH?? Jesus came to bring division Matthew 10:34-37 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?

Galatians 4:16

4) sin - Our own sensuality and the world can give us peace.

Eph 4:22 The riches we have can be a source of great peace, and our downfall.

For to be carnally minded is death," Paul wrote, "but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom.

8: 6)

5) n psychology, cognitive dissonance is the excessive mental stress and discomfort[1] experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time.

This stress and discomfort may also arise within an individual who holds a belief and performs a contradictory action or reaction.[2]A

classic illustration of cognitive dissonance is expressed in the fable "The Fox and the Grapes" by Aesop (ca.

620–564 BCE).

In the story, a fox sees some high-hanging grapes and wishes to eat them.

When the fox is unable to think of a way to reach them, he decides that the grapes are probably not worth eating, with the justification the grapes probably are not ripe or that they are sour (hence the common phrase "sour grapes").

The Moral that accompanies the story is "Any fool can despise what he can not get".

This example follows a pattern: one desires something, finds it unattainable, and reduces one's dissonance by criticizing it.

Jon Elster calls this pattern "adaptive preference formation".[16]

6) Cultural uniformity - In the time of John Newton and William Wilberforce, no one through there was any thing wrong with slavery, for everyone did it.

Judg 21:25

7) Religions Security - 2 Tim 2:5 turned to fables and lies 2 Tim 4:3-4

8) False Prophets - Jer 6:14 False prophets proclaim peace while God is actually proclaiming judgment (Ezekiel 13:10-16).

9) False sense security in material riches - Ps 73 Carnal security The farmer was at peace because of his full barnes and storehouses Luke 12:16-20.

Not knowing that he had no peace with God, his soul is lost

10) Companionship - friends who are soothsayers, only saying good things.

Another false peace that St. Teresa says the world gives is through honors.

She begins by mentioning that “the poor are never honored very much.”

Praise can do great harm because “once it starts it never ends – if you are not careful” and humble yourself afterward.

So she cautions that we are never to seek peace for ourselves through words of praise because “little by little they could do you harm and make you believe that the truth was spoken”.

Her counsel is then to never let words of praise pass without waging war interiorly.

Deceitful men offer peace with an agenda of evil (Obadiah 1:7).

11) Another false peace comes from seeking one’s peace in comforts.

This, too, is very dangerous.

St. Teresa brings to mind Our Lord and His life which was far from a life of comfort.

He suffered many trials.

“Who has told us that comfortable living is good?”, she asks.

“The body grows fat and the soul weakens.”

Herein lies the danger, that the peace in comforts keeps us from thinking of the care of our soul.

She gives examples of the harm that comes, without being aware of it that the craving of comforts give.

Our bodies are fickle.

One day “it will hurt you to take the discipline and eight days later perhaps not.

Another day or number of days you will be unable to bear the coarse tunics, but this won’t be permanent.

Some days eating fish may hurt you, but once your stomach gets used to it, it will not harm you.”

What she is trying to tell us is to not grow lax and to keep in mind that the flesh is “deceptive and that we need to understand it”.

To sum up her thoughts on “false peace” we must remember that peace does not come without war.

So let’s take up the battle, armed with God’s grace, and manfully attack the enemies or our souls: the world, the devil and the flesh.

How to test your peace?

- “To do the will of God, live Jesus Christ is peace - that in all things he might have the preeminence" (Col.

1:18; (2 Pet.1:2-3).

The secret to continuing peace is keep our eyes on the Lord, obey His teachings, and walk in His will for our lives.

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trust in Thee,” Isaiah 26:3.

am I at peace but the body of believers are not?

Col 3:15; Ps 29:11