Oak Hill Church of Christ 8-3-25 Message: "A Contagious Calm"

Oak Hill Church of Christ Preaching Minister, Randy Sterling, delivers a message on the importance of trusting God and cultivating a sense of calm, so that rash action does not make a situation worse.

We've all had situations where we felt that we were under so much stress that just one more thing might cause us to erupt. Lash out. Say hurtful things. Declare by oath a dangerous promise. Even if we are justified in our anger, and righteous in our indignation, the people who observe our reaction may not agree. They may come to think that we are hot-headed, impulsive, prone to rash action in a manner not unlike Peter.

Jesus advises tempering our emotions and making reasonable choices after thoughtful, prayerful deliberation, rather than rushing into a moment headlong, full of rage and fury.

Peter was ready for battle against the Roman cohort coming to arrest Jesus. Swinging his sword like the proper hero of a Greek tragedy, he would go down fighting, protecting his beloved Lord. Jesus, by contrast, had spent the previous hours not building up rage, but, in prayer and thoughtful consideration for his future, ultimately trusting in God to provide the correct outcome, and submitting to God's will.

The story presents one Soviet military man who avoided a potential World War III incident, but there is another such Soviet as well. To preserve your suspense about the first gentleman, here is the second. Colonel Stanislav Petrov was assigned to the Soviet nuclear detection system. His job was to report and make determinations about incoming American missiles, so that the Soviet fail-deadly nuclear system could fire its missiles before the American ones detonated and rendered the Soviet ones inoperable.

Petrov's computer system observed a missile launch from the Americans. And then another. And then another. A total of five separate launches were now over the horizon, heading toward Soviet soil. The Americans had launched a first strike, and only he could issue the alert so the Soviet counter-strike could deploy in time. At least, that's what his computers told him.

Petrov's gut told him this was a false alarm. The Americans hadn't launched. He deliberated. If he informed his superiors of the detections, orders to launch would surely be given. If he did nothing, he may save the world.

Petrov kept a cool head. He wrote off the detections as erroneous, and a later analysis of the system found it to be faulty.

You may not have your finger on a big red button, but you still have the power to do great good or damage within your own life. Listen to Jesus, cultivate your peace in Him. Remember how He loves you, and how He's helped you before. Invite Him in to your troubles, and let Him help resolve the situation before you press the button.