Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

When is the reality show craze in our country going to end? I don’t know, but I hope it’s soon. Honestly, I can’t stand “reality” shows, but I know a lot of people like them.

One of these shows that’s been around for a long time is ABC’s show Extreme Makeover. In fact, ABC will air the 402nd episode of Extreme Makeover this Friday night. If you haven’t seen it, let me catch you up on what’s going on. Extreme Makeover is a popular term that relates to the total transformation of one’s outer world. A huge viewing audience tunes in every week to watch these ordinary looking people turn into extraordinary looking people because of all the outer work that’s done.

Here are a few examples of the before & after pictures from the show.

Thousands of people are getting in line, trying to get on this show to be injected or trimmed or enhanced or augmented or chiseled or nipped and tucked or lipo-sucked for the purpose of trying to change their appearance. Millions more tune in to watch the makeovers unfold.

There’s no denying the popularity of extreme makeovers. But I think this extreme makeover concept just scratches the surface of something that’s buried deep within us. That is that we want to be different people.

I have a mirror here. If I were to pass this mirror around, every one of us could find something about ourselves that we don’t like. I’m too short, I’m overweight, I have zits, my teeth are crooked, I hate my hair, I don’t have any hair… The list could go on and on. Most all of us want to be different people. As a matter of fact, I’d probably take that to another extreme and say, we don’t just want to be different. We want to be better people. But in our culture, what do we do when we want to be better? We change the outside as opposed to the inside. That’s just what comes naturally. We want to be better . . . let’s take care of the outside stuff. But even if we could fix every single flaw we see in our outer appearance, it wouldn’t change how we feel. We may think that it would change everything, but in the end, it wouldn’t.

The bottom line is this. We may do all kinds of things to look better. Some people take extreme measures to look better. But what we actually want is to feel better. The outer makeovers are an attempt to make us feel better. But they never fully satisfy. They may gratify for a little bit. The outer makeover, the new clothes, the new house, the new car. Whatever it is that we’re trying to change about our outer world, these things feel good for a little bit but they don’t satisfy long term.

That’s why I want to lead us on a journey over the coming weeks through God’s Extreme Makeover. It’s more radical, it’s more life changing and has the potential to make you a more attractive person without even dealing with the outer stuff.

Just to keep my integrity intact, this series idea and outline comes from Doug Fields who ministers in southern California.

There are a couple of verses in Galatians 5 that give us a picture of God’s Extreme Makeover. We refer to these verses as the Fruit of the Spirit. They give us the picture of what God wants to change us into. His extreme makeover is all about changing us to reflect the fruit of his Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” (Galatians 5:22-23, NIV) This is God’s picture of an extreme makeover that He wants to do in our inner world.

We’re not going to spend time talking about all nine aspects of the fruit of the Spirit. We’re just going to discuss three, and I think these are three that we all struggle with.

Today we’re talking about peace. Because if you don’t have peace you can’t get the other stuff we’re going to be talking about the next two weeks.

Our church family gave Brian’s family and my family gift certificates to some great restaurants for Pastor Appreciation Month. The gifts were quite generous and we’re really thankful for them. Our gift certificate is for Joe’s Crab Shack, one of our very favorite places to eat. The slogan for Joe’s Crab Shack is “Peace, Love, and Crabs.” I bet some of you even have this T-shirt. Man, I wish it were that simple. Coming from someone who loves crab legs, this sounds like a great life to me. Peace, Love, Crabs.

But we all know it’s not that simple. Right now, peace is hard to come by in our world. September 11, 2001 changed everything in America. On September 10, we felt at peace. But on September 11, we knew that we were at war. We’ve been at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and our soldiers are dying every day in conflict. Terrorists have struck in Spain, Russia, and many other places recently. North Korea and Iran are going nuts with their nuclear programs. Our world is not at peace.

There is violence, killing and war. Let’s come closer to home. Not only is our outer world not at peace, with all the war and terrorism that is taking place. For many of us, our inner world is not at peace. Many of you, in your personal lives, do not have peace. There’s a war going on in our personal lives. Peace is something that we desperately want whether we know it or not. It’s kind of hard to define, but you & I want it. Even if we can’t exactly define it, we want it. Let’s see if we can’t clear this up a little bit and come to a clearer understanding of God’s peace. I want to take a look at the picture of peace, the problem we have in getting peace, then God’s plan for peace.

First of all, let’s look at the PICTURE of God’s peace.

The biblical word “peace” means “the absence of war.” Biblical peace centers around this idea. That there would be absence of war between me and God. Absence of war between you and me. And that there would be absence of war in my inner world, in my life – with me.

Colossians 1:20 says, “…through him [Jesus] God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross.” (Colossians 1:20, NLT) Because of what Jesus did on the cross, I don’t have to be at war with God. I can have peace with God because of what Jesus did on the cross.

I can also have peace with others. This is a more difficult challenge. A lot of us are probably thinking , “Yeah, me and God, we’re tight. But it’s the other people...”

But these scriptures challenge us to live in peace. Romans 12:18: “Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.” (NLT) 2 Corinthians 13:11: “Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.” (NLT)

So now we see the picture that’s starting to develop. God wants us to have peace with him. We’re challenged to have peace with others. Then because of what God has already done, we can have peace with ourselves.

Jesus said in John 14, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27, NIV) Jesus promises us peace, and his gift of peace isn’t like the peace that our world gives. The peace the world gives is made up of empty promises.

We all see thousands of commercials every year. These commercials always make some promises. The promises they make over-market and then they under-deliver. It always seems like the ad campaigns for Mt. Dew are some of the worst for over-marketing and under-delivering. In most Mt. Dew commercials, you’ve got people bungee jumping, mountain biking, sky diving, all the while they’re drinking Mt. Dew. The message was that, if you drink Mt. Dew, this is the adrenaline rush that will happen in your life as a result.

First of all, I don’t know anyone who is drinking a can of pop while they’re skydiving. And secondly, I’ve had Mt. Dew. And it has never made me feel like I was bungee jumping or skydiving. Over-market, but under-deliver.

However, God’s promises don’t work that way. His promises deliver. Check out this promise in Romans 8: “But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.” (Romans 8:6, NLT)

As we get this picture let me be very, very clear. We’re talking about absence of war with God, absence of war with one another, and the absence of war within ourselves. This peace does not mean that there’s no longer going to be difficulties or hardships in your life. Actually just the opposite. Peace is the sense of contentment and confidence in the midst of the difficulties. When some storms are going on in my outer world, in my inner world I can have peace. Does that make sense? That’s God’s picture of peace. It’s what we want. But with all things that we so desperately want, peace is not easy to own.

That’s why we’ve got to look at the problems of peace.

I’ve got a little list little list of enemies to my peace – just little things that wreck the peace in my life. Things like…traffic, bills, long lines, hostile people, telephones, computer problems, people who are constantly late, email forwards, email stories that I must pass on to everyone I know or else my family will die in a fire. That’s my little list. I have my little peace wreckers, you have yours.

But there is a big list is more universal. These get nearly everyone.

Stress. Life is stressful, and that stress can destroy any peace that you may otherwise have in your life. Work, school, and family pressures can make the stress boil over in our lives.

Another one to write down is noise. Noise is an enemy of peace. But we love noise. As a matter of fact, when it’s silent we get bothered. (Be silent for a few seconds.) Silence bothers us. Some of you who weren’t listening are now paying attention because it was quiet. When it’s quiet we say things like, “What’s wrong?” We wake up to noise – alarms. We turn on our TVs. When we leave our house we get in our car and we have flip on our radio. Then, after you leave the car, you can have more noise because you can put on your headphones and listen to your MP3 player, or your walkman if you’re old school. You come home and there’s all kinds of noise there. And you can go to bed watching TV, and David Letterman can tell you the top ten reasons you have no silence in my life. We can go all day long with noise. And that is an enemy of peace.

Here’s another one to write down: conflict. This is a big enemy of peace. If we could just get rid of people… life would be a lot more peaceful, wouldn’t it? There are those people who seem to have the ability to wreck our peace.

Here’s the last one to write down: Me. I’m an enemy of peace. Not me, Mike Edmisten. You write your own name there. You are an enemy of peace. It’s not just the other people around us that create this confusion. It's me. I’m unsettled. I’m unsettled about my past and I’m uneasy about my present situation. I’m unsure of my future.

With all these enemies of peace, we try to find a way to cope with them. There are several things that we try.

We try worry. Worry is a coping strategy. A lot of you have a master’s degree in worry. Some of you have a Ph.D. We worry to help cope with the enemies of peace.

Here’s another thing that we do. We control. When our life lacks peace, we try to take control. We try to control people or environment or our schedule. Because if I can control these things, then everything in my life feels a little more in control.

Let me give you another way of coping with enemies. It’s consuming. In other words, we try to buy peace in our lives. We always have our eyes on something that we want, that we could get, that would bring some peace. New clothes, a new video game, a new car, whatever it is. If I could just get (fill in the blank), that would make everything better. We consume to cope with the enemies of peace.

Let me get the rest of you if you haven’t been gotten yet. Another thing we do to cope is we procrastinate. This is actually the one that I try most often. Most of the time, I don’t worry about things. I don’t try to control everything. I’m not always looking to buy something, to consume to give me more peace. What do I do? I just don’t do anything! When the enemies of peace come in I just don’t do anything. I pretend that they’re going to go away, which doesn’t work.

These things – worry, control, consume, procrastinate – they’re just coping strategies. We use them to try to cope with our lack of peace, but they don’t fix anything.

Let’s talk about a fix. I’m calling this the spiritual FIX. We’ve seen the picture of God’s peace, and we’ve some the problems in our lives that prevent God’s peace. Now let’s talk about the plan to embrace God’s peace. Our plan comes from Philippians 4:6ff.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:6-9, NIV)

You want to take some steps toward peace in your life? The FIX lies in this text. The F in this word “Spiritual FIX” is…

Filter the noise.

Notice I didn’t use the word “delete” because you can’t delete all the noise in life. But you can filter it. If you want to delete it you have to go live a monastic lifestyle somewhere. Find a cave and maybe you’ve got some possibilities there. But in the reality that you and I live in, we can only filter it.

I can’t focus on God when I’m always surrounded by noise. I can’t focus on God when I’m always on the run. The text in Philippians tell us to think about what is true, admirable, and praiseworthy. I can’t do that when I’m busy. I can’t do that when I’m always surrounded by noise.

Let’s be honest. Most of the noise that fills our lives is not noble and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Most of the noise in our lives from our media and our schedules is exactly opposite of these ideals. You filter so you can focus. The more your life is focused on God instead of noise, the more peace you’re going to have.

How can you do this? Let me give you a couple of tips.

First of all, Unplug. Unplug some of the noise. You’ve heard of “Must See TV.” That’s what our culture says. I’ve seen it and I’ve not seen it. And I’m still alive having not seen it. So I’m doing ok having not seen it. What we need is not must see. What we need is must be. We need some must be time.

It says in Psalms, “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10, NIV) We need some time where we unplug. You’ve maybe heard of fasting. The Bible talks about fasting. To fast is to give up some food so you can take that time and spend it with God and focus on God. Maybe you take a media fast, where you unplug sound from your life. I’m not saying a month, I’m not saying a week. For some of you I’m not saying a day. Try a half-hour. See if you could go with silence for a half-hour. Unplug.

Another thing you can do is “lighten up.” I’m not referring to your personality here. I’m referring to your schedule. Some of us in here, we need to lighten up because our schedules are insane. A lot of you are so, so busy that you can’t focus on God. Take a good, hard look at your schedule, and if it is keeping you from experiencing peace, cut something. You can’t focus on God when you’re surrounded with noise and busyness.

Filter the noise. The I in the word “FIX” is

Investigate for truth.

In our text, Paul encourages us to investigate God’s ways. He tells us to focus our minds on the things of God instead of the things of our world. And the result is that, “The God of peace will be with you.”

The challenge to investigate for truth is this: If Jesus is the Prince of Peace, don’t you think it’s worthy of investigation? If Jesus said, “I’m going to leave you but my peace I give you.” Don’t you think that’s worthy of investigation? If the fruit of the Spirit says, that when the Holy Spirit controls your life you will produce peace, that’s worthy of investigation. So seek after that.

Filter out the noise. Investigate the truth.

The “X” is X-out the enemies of peace.

X is not just to fit my cute little acronym although that sure does help. But the reason why I like X is because X was the symbol or the initial of Jesus, the Christos. X was the symbol of that. And only Jesus can X out your fear and your anger and your guilt. Only he can do it. No counselor can. No pastor can. No self-help book can. No 1-800-number product can. No six figure salary. No straight As. But only Jesus. Only the supernatural power of God can X out the deeper issues that are keeping peace from your life.

That’s what it means in verse 7 when it says to live in Christ Jesus that we would experience God’s peace which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.

Most of you do not have peace in some area of your life. There is something that worries you. There is something that is holding you down. You don’t like who you are, or who you are becoming. You’re stressed, you’re tired, you’re just not at peace. Peace is a gift that God would love to give you. He can start to give you peace in your life if you’ll follow his FIX.

Mike Edmisten

tags: peace fruit_of_the_Spirit Galatians_5