The real meaning of peace

Saturday night I visited a church in Hillsboro. My friend lives out that way, but works on Sunday mornings, so we've been looking for a church that she can go to. It was a pretty big church and their website had pretty legit doctrine, so I was optimistic. Everything was great about the church expect for the sermon. It wasn't heretical, it was just fluff.

My problem with his sermon was not with what he said, it is with what he did not say. He spent a lot of time talking about the peace that Christ provides. Stories were shared of people receiving peace when their houses sold right after being put on the market, and other similar ways God can provide emotional and financial peace. That was the only application of peace that he gave. He never mentioned sin, or the fact that prior to Christs atonement we were at enmity with God. Because of the cross I am no longer an enemy of God, but rather i am His child. That is the peace Christ provides. That is what Jesus died for. He didn't suffer on a cross and die just to help sell a house. He suffered God's wrath and penalty for my sins so that i didn't have to. That is the source of my peace.

I certainly believe that God can and does provide peace through monetary things, but those things pale in comparison to the spiritual peace he provides. To take something as awesome and life changing as peace with God and reduce it to merely an emotional or financial peace is a travesty!

He invited people to believe in Jesus and follow him, but he never mentioned anything close to repentance or sin. When you remove these factors from the explanation of how to follow Jesus then you are giving misleading directions. It saddens me that a church with such a large audience has such little to say.