Apr 15, 2020
| by Matt Kinnick
Not experiencing a lot of peace lately in your mind, heart, emotions, life? Anxious about all the “what if’s?” We can relate. Today Pastor Matt shares from Colossians 3:15 about the peace of Christ and how we can be engaging with and experiencing His peace, especially in the midst of this pandemic.
Tags: DevotionalTranscript
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hey Antioch Matt Kinnick here sharing
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another daily devotional I’m the
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associate pastor here at Antioch
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Community Church and wanted to take a
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look at Colossians chapter 3 in the New
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Testament it’s from the Apostle Paul he
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was writing to the church in modern-day
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Turkey in the city of Colossae and to
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the believers there and in chapter 3
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he’s unpacking some implications of the
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gospel about you know who we no longer
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are and who we are now because of our
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belief in Jesus and are his death is our
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death and his life is our life and then
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in verses 12 to 17 of Colossians chapter
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3 he’s talking about so how does this
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work out in our life as the family of
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God as God’s people as the church and
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there’s various things he talks about
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but I wanted to pay particular attention
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to verse 15 Colossians chapter 3 verse
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15 and I’ll read it here it says and let
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the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts
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to which indeed you were called in one
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body and be thankful there’s a couple
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things I wanted to take a look at in
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here but first of all it’s interesting
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when I was in The Navigators I was being
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trained to how to study the Bible and I
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learn about the scripture and it was
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really helpful and one of the things
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that they taught me was to say the
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phrase of the verse but emphasize
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different words one at a time as you
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read it so for instance you would say
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let the Peace of Christ rule in your
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hearts verses you could say let the
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Peace of Christ rule in your hearts and
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just do that all the way through the
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sentence which each of each of the words
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and emphasize them one at a time and it
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helps you meditate on the truth and gain
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more insights into it as you go and I
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found it really helpful so thinking
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about what does it look like to let the
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Peace of Christ rule in our hearts
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emphasizing that maybe there’s things
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that we can do that sort of impede the
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Peace of Christ to be experienced in our
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lives what are the things we’re doing or
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roadblocks or obstacles that we’re
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putting in the way not enabling us to
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experience the Peace of Christ for you
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perhaps in this challenging pandemic
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like me giving in to anxious worry of
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all of the what-ifs is an easy way to
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not allow the Peace of Christ to rule in
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my heart what does it look like for the
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Peace of Christ to rule in my heart
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that’s another great question
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terrain to have sovereignty over to have
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dominion and control does the Peace of
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Christ have control over my mind and my
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heart in this China in this time in this
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pandemic maybe not I think there’s
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definite times when it hasn’t been
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ruling in my heart because I’ve been
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giving in to anxieties and fears of like
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oh we’ve got to do all these things
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we’ve got a panic and and try to manage
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and jump into all these new ideas and
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change our whole schedule and all these
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different things or certainly fears
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around the economic impacts of this
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pandemic globally locally the the
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markets are going wild and crazy and the
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uncertainty of you know retirement or
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investments for some people or even just
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their own jobs being on furlough or
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losing work or not having income it can
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be easy to give in to these what ifs in
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these fears and make that a roadblock to
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not experience the peace of Christ so
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and having it rule in our lives to have
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control and reign over our thinking
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primarily rather than what do I need to
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do what do I need to do to fix my
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situation verses Lord I can trust you to
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take care of me now I’ll just do what I
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can in the present and trust you for
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what I don’t have control over so let
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the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts
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to which indeed you were called in one
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body and be thankful so I think that’s
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those are some examples of what it could
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look like but how do we really engage
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with the peace of Christ so that it can
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rule and reign in our hearts well
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there’s two things I think that we see
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first is from a couple verses Isaiah
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26:3 says you will keep in perfect peace
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him whose mind is steadfast because he
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trusts in you
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so God God is saying if we trust in him
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we will experience his peace and
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steadfastness of mind because we’re
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trusting in him and then Romans 15:13
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I’ll read that here quick I should have
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pulled that up
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sooner it’s a it’s a beautiful short
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little verse Romans 15:13 says may the
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god of Hope fill you with all joy and
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peace in believing so that by the power
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of the Holy Spirit you may abound in
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hope may the god of Hope fill you with
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all joy and peace in believing so that
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by the power of the Holy Spirit you may
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abound in hope so again it’s in
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believing that we experience the joy and
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peace of God so how do we engage with
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experiencing the peace of Christ ruling
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our hearts we have to trust God and
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believe in him that’s one of the ways
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that we engage the peace of Christ in
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our minds and hearts is by trusting that
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he is good and he is sovereign he is our
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God and he’s in control ultimately and
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not us and the second is from
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Philippians 4:6 and 7 it says do not be
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anxious about anything but in everything
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by prayer and petition or just asking
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God present your requests to God and the
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peace of God which transcends all
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understanding will guard your hearts and
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minds in Christ Jesus
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so praying and being thankful help us to
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experience the peace of God especially
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in the midst of anxiousness and anxiety
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and fears and doubts of all the what-ifs
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so Philippians 4:6 and 7 being prayerful
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in the midst of anxiety and thankful for
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what we do see God doing helps us to
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experience and appropriate the peace of
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Christ in our minds and hearts and then
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finally we see that here in verse 15 as
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well it says indeed to which indeed you
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were called in one body and be thankful
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being thankful to what God has done in
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His goodness that we can see helps us to
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experience his peace so let’s let let
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let’s allow the peace of Christ to rule
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and have control in our minds and hearts
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by trusting and believing him and by
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taking our anxieties to him in prayer
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and by being thankful with for what we
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do see God caring for us and how he’s at
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work that’s my encouragement for you
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today let’s trust him today and
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experience his peace together we love
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you we’ll see you later Antioch