Advent 2020: Peace

Hi family. How are you? It's good to see you all. Thanks for joining us online. Before we get rolling, just want to spend a few seconds talking about Christmas Eve. Some of you guys, as she was making that announcement today, were like, Hey, don't talk about Christmas Eve. I tried to sign up for Christmas Eve. It's all full, right? Our three services are 100% full in here already. And I know, I don't know that that's something to clap about or not. I'm excited that you want to be here. Like thank you for that. That's awesome. But here's it. Here's what I want to say. Just so that, you know, we are praying about what to do. Whether or not to add more services. And I know that for you guys, it's like, yeah, just add more services. Well, there's a couple of logistical details that go into that. And that dramatically affects our people. What I'm really hoping this year is that you choose to join us online. I'm really hoping that you would choose to join us online this year. I don't know if you know this, but 2020 is not been normal. Couple of twists and turns this year that we didn't see coming. And I get that that's not how we do Christmas Eve, especially not at Southeast. We tear the roof off this place at Christmas Eve. Right? And I promise you that in 2021, barring anything crazy, like a world pandemic…we are gonna, we're gonna, this year's different. I think this year is different because the world's different. I think this year's different because the world needs different things. And so I really want to encourage you to join us online. That being said, if you're going to show up, you need to, and you've got seats reserved. I've a couple of things to say about that, okay? Number one, don't reserve more seats than you're going to use. The program will automatically socially distance you. You don't have to worry about reserving five seats for two people so that you can be socially distanced. You don't have to worry about that. We'll take care of that for you. Number two, don't reserve seats on the outside chance that you might decide to show up. When a lot of people do is, ‘Hey, you know, I mean, I might, we might go if it's right. You know, if it feels right, um, we need the seats.’ So if you reserve a seat, show up, if you reserve seats, don't take more than you need. But I really want to ask you to consider watching online this year. And what I would also say is, we're praying about whether or not to add more services. We're praying about that. So pray with us this week. And I know that we're immediately going to get 10 Facebook messages you should… Um, there's just a lot involved in that. Okay. There's just a lot involved in that. What I can tell you is, at this point, I'm not leaning towards adding more on Christmas Eve day, but we might add some like on the 23rd or something like that. So, pray with us this week that the Lord would give us wisdom. And I, I really love what Kelly asked for directed prayer, like pray with us for the church. It’s not even about picking a side on some of those issues. It's just that the next three or four months are going to be really tenuous for the church on a lot of levels. And I just, here's what I'll tell you. I told this to the elders this morning during prayer time, I'll, I'll take any bullet I need to take. As long as I know, it's the ones that the Lord wants me to take. And so, we need God's wisdom. We need God's direction and his voice, in this whole process of how we make all these decisions. And so I'm going to ask you to pray with us for that.

We're going to jump into our week two of advent last week, we talked about hope and the advent. I had somebody mention to me that in some of the life groups they were talking about like, I wish you'd just explain what advent is because we never grew up doing it. And I felt like I kind of did, but let me, let me review this. Advent means arrival. It means, it's the story of the arrival of the King. Okay. And advent has these five weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve where we take the opportunity to retell pieces of the story with a general theme. And that theme helps us reflect on the real meaning of the holiday season and the world competes with that, like advent in the church calendar is designed t bring us low. It mirrors the year  -- we're in winter. Things are dying. It's dark much longer, you know, it's, it's this, this low, low, low, low, low, and, and we try to make Christmas this big hoop dee do? You know? And that's, there's nothing wrong with the celebration of Christmas. There's nothing wrong with that. But, but the thing is, the idea of the holiday season is, that it shouldn't be like the birth of Christ is not the high point of the calendar year. The empty tomb is okay. And that everybody in this room was born. I don't know if you know that. I don't know anybody that's conquered death besides Jesus. That's the high point. This is designed to bring us low. Not so that we feel bad about baby Jesus being born in a manger. But so that we understand where Jesus, as God becoming man and walking among us, wants to meet us. God wants to meet us in our brokenness. And so that's the story of the advent is about taking these different attributes of the story and what it meant to different people in the story. And it starts to help us have a conversation in the week between Sundays with our families we can have, or with our life groups or wherever we have our spiritual conversations. We can have those conversations about these different pieces. 

And so, last week we focused on hope -- that a light has come and that Jesus is the light. And we use these little tealight candle as, as a reflection of that. This is Jesus is the light. And as the light, he brings hope, okay? This week, we're going to talk about another piece of the advent story – peace. And we have another little icon for us. It's a dove. Allegedly. I've never seen a dove that looked like this, actually, but that's what they tell me it is. This is this picture of peace that, that the advent, the arrival of the King, is supposed to bring us peace in this world. You and I, as followers of Jesus. And especially now, this is an important message. You and I, as followers of Jesus, should be able to live our lives in peace. Peace. Like we don't get ratcheted up. We don't get freaked out. We don't have to panic. Now that doesn't mean that we don't have those feelings, but they don't get to control our life because what controls our life is the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace. Like, it's the evidence that the spirit’s at work in our life. And so, when we find ourselves in a place where we don't have peace, it's evident that that space in our life is not under the control of the Holy Spirit. And that's not something we should feel horrible about. That's something we should dance about because now we have an opportunity to turn that over to the Lord and experience him more. 

So, I want to talk about peace this morning, as a real reality, not as a concept or a theory, but as a real reality -- peace, hope and peace. And we're going to start in Luke 2. We're going to read a lot of text again today. And I hope through this whole series, we're just going to spend a lot of time in the word of God. I hope that's okay. It's kind of a, sorry, not sorry, because his words are actually way better than mine. His words make me sound way more gooder than I am. And so, I love, you know, God's word has the promise to not return void. My words don't have that promise. They don't ever have that promise. Here's what it says, Luke 2: “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.” Okay. That's just a sentence that we go, ‘Oh, that's great. They're taking the census.’ Here's the deal. That one sentence is loaded with intrigue and fear. A census in the Roman world was a bloodbath. So, the fact that the entire world is being registered -- why, first of all, why does Caesar want to register all the people? Taxes! I want to know how many people there are so I should know how much money I'm going to get. Okay? If you're living in Israel and you believe that anybody who works for Satan the dragon, is a beast. Maybe that metaphor shows up in a book -- oh, Revelation. And you think that the emperor works for Satan and he's the beast. How do you feel about turning your money over to him? Oh, and remember this, they believed that they went to Babylon because they sinned. So, they were in captivity because they sinned. When they came out, they came out determined to live righteously. Now they didn't get that all right. But they were determined to live righteously. So it's sin to give taxes to Caesar and sin led us into captivity. How do we feel about giving taxes to Caesar? So, in Israel, this registration is particularly bloody. It's, particularly graphic. It's particularly horrible for them. They're trying to get out of even going to register. And the Roman soldiers are having a field day with it. If there was ever a moment of time where the world could use a little peace, man, this was it. “This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, to the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem,” which means the house of bread  -- Bethlehem -- and the bread of life was born in the house of bread. I think that's cool. “Because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger.” Now, let me say this about the manger. Last year I showed you a picture of a manger, what it looks like. A manger's not the beautiful thing that we have in our mind, this wooden cross buck thing with the nice, beautiful straw and all that stuff. That's not what a manger is in Israel. That's Alexander the Great's influence on the Christmas story, unfortunately. In Israel, they don't build anything out of wood. You know why? Because there's not really very many trees there. However, there ain't no shortage of rock. That was maybe the most inappropriate grammatic statement that I've ever made. There is no shortage of rocks there. They build everything out of stone because that's what they have as a building material. A manger is this what allowed out, chiseled out depression in a stone that they use to water, sheep and donkeys and cattle and all those kinds of things when they come into the stable, it's not a holding place for hay. Hay goes on the ground. It's, it's a place for holding water so that they can it's it's stone, it's cold. It's, it's uncomfortable. It's jagged. “She laid him in a manger.” Just that statement alone, understanding it. Culturally is a huge, huge deal. “Because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, ‘fear, not for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people,’” By the way, who's the gospel for? All the people. Even those people. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’ The Greek there actually says “and peace with men on whom his favor rests”, which by the way, were in Luke, remember four weeks ago, when Brad preached about the favor, the year of the Lord's favor, it's the same word. And by the way, from the same gospel, this moment of being called out as the Lord's favor on all of mankind, Jesus goes in and reaffirms it when he starts his ministry in Nazareth. “When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.’ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had seen, as it had been told them.”

Okay, there's this weird prophecy made about Jesus in the book of Isaiah. And I told you guys, we were going to spend a lot of time in Isaiah during this series -- that I really want to explore the context of it. This child is born and he shall be called wonderful counselor, almighty God, Prince of peace. Like where does this come from? This idea that Jesus is peace. What context is it speaking into? And I would suggest that for us to understand Jesus is the Prince of peace, we have to be given reason to not be peaceful. It's kind of like this, you know how -- those of you that have been married awhile, remember dating? Remember. You, you just like when you were together, you couldn't be close enough. And, and when you were apart, all you could think about was being together. And then you would get on the phone, the ones that were still plugged into the wall, and just breathe into the phone like, you didn't have anything to say. Cause cause it was like, somehow we're not together, but we're together. There was some like, they're just whew. And, and we, and remember remember, when you said, I love you…No, you don't.
You don't even know what love is at that point. In fact, I would suggest that I'm not sure -- and this is another sermon for another day. So don't run it too far, but I'm not sure people really fall in love until after they're married. Because the thing is love. Isn't a feeling, it's a commitment that lasts after the feelings wear off, right? That that's infatuation that feeling. And it's nice in the butterflies and all that stuff. That's cool. But like the relationship that's built on something substantive, isn't built on butterflies and I'm not sure we have the opportunity to really experience that until after we're actually married because after we're married, what we understand is that that person actually goes to the bathroom and that's disgusting. And they, they don't close the cabinets and they don't put the toilet paper back on the toilet paper holder. They'll set it right on top of the toilet paper holder, but they will not take the two seconds that it takes to just switch the roll over. Not, not that I'm bitter about it, the squeeze, the toothpaste tube from the middle. And then, we figured out that when we are to make decisions together that we don't think the same. You like what we were so synched up before we lived together. Right?  I'm not sure that we understand what it really is all about. I want to look at this context, what does it mean -- Jesus, as the Prince of Peace in Isaiah 8, we're going to read the end of chapter eight and the first part of it into chapter nine. Uh, cause I think that verses are built in a vacuum. They're built in a context and we need to understand the context of what's going on. Here's what it says, “Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching upon my disciples.” Okay. Testimony of what? And the teaching of what? The teaching is of God's word. And the testimony is of what happens when we live by God's word. And what Isaiah is saying, the Lord is saying through the prophet Isaiah, is put this stuff, put that kind of information into the disciples of God. “I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face in the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. And when they say to you, ‘inquire of the mediums and necromancers who chirp and mutter,’ should not a people inquire of their God?’” Here's what he's saying. There's going to be all these moments in your life where you're going to look for answers. And when you try to look for answers anywhere, other than God, you're making a huge mistake, no matter how logical it seems at the time. When it steps outside of God's information, it doesn't work. “Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.” Here's what he says. You look at all different kinds of spaces for where you're going to draw information from. But the word of God says what it says and the testimony of people who will follow that, says what it says. We don't get to negotiate it. We don't get to find an and also. Well, I know the word says this, but also this, no!
God's people must stand on God's therefore they can receive God's blessing. And the problem for many of us is that we don't know what God's word says. I think the call for us in this next phase of the church in America is to get back to what the Bible says. I've said this for over a year and a half, now I've been here almost a year and a half, now. I don’t know how many sermons that is, but it's been a couple. What I've said since day one is my firm conviction about followers of Jesus is this: We should read the Bible and then do what it says. I know it's a revolution. Unfortunately, it is a revolution. We should read the Bible and do what it says because it's in that way that we're allowed to experience the peace of God. The peace of God doesn't come through following the world's wisdom. We can't go to the world for what only God can provide. Isaiah goes on to say this. “They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they're hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their King and their God.” Here's what that means. When you don't follow God, you get to have the consequences of not following God. And when some people are finding the consequences of not following God, they get mad at God over it. Like, it's God's fault. When God in his word already said what was going to happen. And then surprise -- it happened just like he said, and we're like so angry at him. “And they will look to earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.” By the way, there's another place in the Bible where it says that people rejected the truth and so God gave them over to believe a delusion. I don't know, look around you. Do we see that anywhere in our world? Continuing on in Isaiah 9, here's what it says, “But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. Like, God's redemptive plan is always going to give people back to this place if they're willing to live out the story that he's trying to tell in the world. The problem is, too many times along the way, God's people lose the plot. And so, God has to bring them back into this space where they re-engage his story. God has no unction, no reason. No, no demand to bless your life. Okay? Your story. The one that you want to tell. If you want God's blessing in your life, live out his story. If you want peace, live out his story, don't negotiate and don't go, I know God says this, but I'm going to do this. I mean, you're free to do that. God's not going to demand it of you, but then don't get mad when it doesn't work. It's like people want to -- well use drugs and then have it work out. You know, a story you'll never heard. You've never heard and you never will hear this? Man, I started using heroin and then everything went great. You will never hear that story because here's what Romans says --  the book of Romans says, acts that lead to life always lead to life and acts that lead to death, always lead to death. And God's word defines what those are. And what we keep trying to do is to take acts that lead to death and convince ourselves that it's actually going to lead to life this time. No, it won't. No, it won't.  

So God keeps inviting us back to the story that he's trying to tell, “But there'll be no gloom for her who was an anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, the Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;” and we talked about light last week – hope. “Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shown. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.” There's a whole story to that statement. “For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder.” Ooh, let me just say that one more time. “And the government will be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,”  Where do we find peace of which there is no end? Cause I think the world needs a massive injection of that right now – “on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness,” Doggone it, there's those two words, again. I dunno if you've been with us the last few weeks, but those are a thing.  “From this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” God wanted to bring about a revolution that would lead you and I to an endless supply of peace. You know, where it came from? Jesus. 

The problem for you and I is we don't really trust that the life that God is inviting us to through Jesus Christ is in fact, the life of peace. We want it to be something else. We want to believe that we have a strategy to know how to bring about peace in our life. We don't even know what the Word says about our strategy. We just know that we believe that that's going to be -- you can't go to the world for something that only God can give you. If Jesus is the source of peace, and he's the only one that has it in limitless supply, then isn’t it important for us to tie into that? But we have our dreams. Last week, I mentioned the book, The Jesus Disruption, and I was talking about how he talks about holding so tightly to things that God wants to take out of our hands. Because if we'll just let it go, it'll be, he'll put more in, but we don't trust him to do that. So, I have a quote from that book that I want to read. I just love this quote. It ties into what we're saying here. It says this. “And even though the life we're prospecting for never shows up, rather than stop and climb out, we tend to keep digging. The reason we keep digging is because the hole has become something more than a hole. It has become our purpose. The story we've created to try to fill the blanks and make sense of the world. To give up on it would be like giving up on any hope that we think we have defined happiness. This gives our story, the whole, incredible power convinced it is our hope for setting things, right? We try to force circumstances and the people around us to fit neatly inside and then demand that they cooperate by staying there.” Listen to me, God is under no obligation to honor your story. And if we want peace, there's a guaranteed locked way to find it. But it only happens in the story that God wants to tell in the world through a relationship with Jesus Christ. There's no other way. And I can't tell you how many times I hear people say, I know the Bible says this, but I'm going to … I had a guy tell me one time, we were talking about tithing ,and this is just one small example -- and he was like, you can't tell me that the, that God actually expects me to tithe. And by the way, he wasn't all that bad off. He just had a truck payment and he had, you know, cable and internet and all these things that we just have to have. And uh, and he was like, because of that, I can't tithe. So he said, you can't tell me how to actually expect me to tithe. I said, you're right. Your story is no one that God didn't think about. When he said do it, it's a command. Like really? Just do what God says and see what happens. Church, if we're going to move forward with peace, we have to understand that life. Isn't about negotiating with God, a plan that is kind of his and married with ours and others, other good ideas. And then there's these other people that I really respect. And they get to input in it too, because I like what they say. That's not how life works. The Bible says what it says. If you do it, you'll have peace. By the way, not because there's an absence of conflict. There'll be plenty of conflict, but you'll have peace because the one who set that plan in motion is the one who is the giver of peace from the beginning. And it will be a peace. Like the Bible says that passes understanding. It won't make sense why you have peace. People will say where does your peace come from? Let me tell you, there's this guy. I know he's the Prince of peace. He doesn't have a podcast or anything, but he's pretty cool. And he knows, like, everything. You should totally follow him. Only not on Facebook. Should follow him with your life. Jesus is the only source of peace. Hope comes because we believe that the light has shown up. But peace comes because we trust that what the light is revealing in our life is good and right.

I have some implications for us this morning. Number one, Jesus is our only source of peace. Jesus is our only source of peace. You will not find peace anywhere else. John 14:27, Jesus says this to his disciples right before he's getting ready to leave. He says, “peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Don't let your hearts be troubled. Don't be afraid. Jesus is the  giver of peace and he's not holding out on us. Just trust the story God's telling in your life and in the world, partner with him in it and peace abounds.

Implication number two, God's peace is for everybody. He is not elitist in how he divvies out peace. The only requirement is that you join him in his story. Anybody can do that. All are welcome to join him in his story. If you haven't done that yet, or if you've kind of gotten off – like, you started out well, but you kind of gotten off of trust in him in the story, right at the end of the service, there'll be people up here to pray with you. You can come up and pray with them about that.

Implication number three, if we desire God's peace, we must follow the teachings of scripture. We don't get to negotiate it. We don't get to claim ignorance. There you have more access to what the Bible says in different ways than any other point in history. We don't get to claim. Oh, I didn't know. I didn't know what the Bible said about that. I didn't know. Get on, get on the internet, Google it, or actually read the Bible. I don't know they have, if you're like, I don't have, I don't read good. I don't speak good either. They have audio versions of it. You’re like, I don't know where to find that. Right now, go to the app store on your smartphone. You can do this while I'm preaching, go to the app store on your smartphone and download a Bible app. Any one will do because they all have audio versions of it. Problem solved. Well, I don't have a data plan that allows me to listen to that much data. We have public wifi in this building. You can listen to it or here's a crazy thing, download it onto your phone. You can actually do that or buy the CDs, the audio CDs. Those still exist. Put them in your car, listen to them in your car. Like there's options if we won't make excuses, if we'll just do what we're supposed to do, there's options. There is no excuse for us to not know God's word other than we just don't read it. And again, you're free to choose that life. Just know that when push comes to shove, it will never bring you peace. 

Which leads me into my fourth implication, many people face roadblocks in their faith because they try to find God's peace their own way. And, and we just can't, we can't. And, and I would, I would just offer this, like, haven't you tried long enough? Haven't you proven to yourself that it's not working? Jesus brings peace for everybody. So if I'm in a space where I'm not experiencing peace, it's because I have some part of my life that isn't submitted to the story that God's trying to tell in the world. And maybe this Christmas is the Christmas where we come to terms with that and get right with the Lord. Maybe it's time for us to stop playing games with our faith. Maybe it's time for us to take this walk with Jesus a lot more serious than we have been. Maybe it's time for us to stop making excuses. I heard somebody say this the other day. I thought it was hilarious. Excuses are like noses. Everybody's got one and they all smell. How about if we stop making excuses and we start inviting Jesus to be the boss of our life. That's what we said when we were baptized, right? We're gonna make him the Lord and the savior of our life. Maybe we've been trying to live under the savior umbrella because we didn't want to go to hell, but we didn't like the whole Lordship piece. And so we've been trying to avoid that one. And I would say that the invitation of the advent is that Jesus is waiting to meet us in those places that we haven't offered to him yet so that we can peace.

Which is a great space to lead into communion from because of the communion time that we do together, where we eat the bread and we take the juice. We do it every week is this reminder that the source of peace, the source of hope, the source of life comes at the beginning of us laying, laying down our life. As we see it and control it and allowing Jesus to pick it up and carry it and make it something that was more than we ever could have imagined. So let's just take a minute, ask ourselves just between you and the Lord. Where's the space that I have no peace? And how can I begin to offer that back to the story that God's trying to tell in my life? Let's take a minute and talk with the Lord. 

On the night Jesus was betrayed. He took bread and he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is given for you. So whenever you eat this bread, do it in remembrance of me. Let's remember him this morning. Then, in the same way, after the dinner, he took a cup and he said, this cup is the new covenant, my blood, which is shed for you. So whenever you drink this cup, do it in remembrance. 

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the promise of peace. Thank you for the gateway of how we access it. It's super simple. It's just not always easy for us, and Lord, we want to collude what you say with so many different things. Lord, may we be people who just take you at your word. May we be people who are diligent about pursuing your agenda for this world so that we can have the peace that your arrival promises us in Jesus' name? Amen.

Let's stand and sing one more song.

Like I said before, there's going to be some people up here to pray with you. I don't know about you guys. I just feel like we're in this world right now that could really use peace. Like I think all of us, especially as we enter into the holidays and we're trying to figure out what we're going to do with our families and all those questions, and those are big, important, significant questions for all of us, we could all use a little bit of peace. I have such good news for you. I know the guy, who's the boss of it. His name is Jesus.