Advent wk 2: Peace

Well, we are in our second week of / / Advent where we are talking about the incarnation of Christ. If you remember last week, incarnation is simply the belief that Jesus Christ has always been God, there was never a time in all of eternity that he was NOT God, but that 2000 years ago he stepped into this physical world and put on human flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in a virgin named Mary.

Hebrews 10:5 says, / / That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer.”

The writer of Hebrews is showing that the law, the system that the Old Testament relied on was dependent on animal sacrifice over and over and over again. It says, / / “The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.”

This is why the incarnation of Jesus Christ is such a huge deal. Because it’s not just his birth 2000 years ago, but 33 years later it’s his death, and resurrection proving that He is God.

The more I think about it the more I am amazed at the whole thing.

Jesus, who has always been God, for all of eternity, which is hard for us to understand because we are ruled by time, but he never has not existed. He is from outside of time and space. And he is the very word that created us. That’s what John says, / / In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word WAS God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 14)

This is what amazes me.

Jesus is God, for all of eternity, outside of time and space, and knows all things. He chose to come to earth and subject himself to human flesh.

He came as a baby. Helpless. Defenseless. With a human mind, a human body, subject to growing in knowledge, puberty, physical, emotional, mental pain. Think of that. God can’t feel physical pain because he’s not a physical being, until he decides to become flesh himself and go through the worst possible torture and death. The Romans were masters of torture.

But he knows on the other side of torture is the eternal existence he comes from, and the reason he’s doing it is so that we can become partakers of that very eternal existence.

That doesn’t mean we become a god, but it does mean in that way we become like him. John 3:16, / / …whoever believes in [Jesus] should not perish but have eternal life.

John 11:25-26, / / I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

So he endures the most brutal of torture and shame for what? For us.

Hebrews 12:2 says, / / …for the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

For the joy set before him.

I’m pretty convinced part of that joy was your face. Yes, it was the joy of being received by the Father. Yes, it was the joy of being raised and seeing the fulfilment of his work through the power of the Holy Spirit. But I also believe it was you and me, those who would believe in Him and receive this eternal life. Hebrews 12:3 says, / / Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, SO THAT YOU may not grow weary or fainthearted.

He did it for you.

So, this is the incarnation. The divine become human so that humanity could become eternal with the divine.

And so we’re looking at what that means in light of this season of Advent we celebrate.

If you’re like I was just a few short years ago and you didn’t know or don’t know what Advent is, that’s ok, don’t ever let what you don’t know bring shame to you. What you don’t know is simply what you don’t know until you know it. It’s an easy fix. And if you are always open to being taught, to learning, to being corrected and led, then there’s nothing you don’t currently know that can shame you, it’s simply something you don’t know yet.

Well that was me, wasn’t it? Oh the shame… 32 year old pastor who doesn’t know what Advent is.

So, brief review, by definition / / Advent is the arrival of a notable person, thing or event. And from a Christian perspective the season of / / Advent is the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas where we celebrate the incarnation of Christ, the coming of Jesus in his birth, but also, the Second Coming of Christ when he will come again for his church.

Again, like I said last week, the second coming isn’t really a focus of Advent in too many churches these days. I understand that to an extent, Christmas has become so much about the birth of Jesus, it’s a bit odd feeling to also focus on his second coming. But, that hope that He brings in his birth, is the hope that we will fully realize in his second coming.

Over the four weeks of Advent we focus on 4 things, / / Hope, Peace, Joy and Love, and then some choose to also focus on the light of Christ on Christmas day.

If you come from a traditional church and you’re wondering where the candles are, because Advent is often represented in 4 candles, you light one each week. I heard a story this past week as Kelley’s family was in town that one of the daughters, and I won’t mention names, lit one of the advent candles, that was beautifully nestled in a wreath made of real tree branches, also caught those tree branches on fire… So, no candles for now until I can find a nice flickering LEDF set or something.

I said this last week. Tradition is good, as long as tradition isn’t adhered to simply for the sake of tradition. We don’t break anything by not having candles. In fact, Christian tradition is not necessary for our salvation or our worship. We don’t even have to focus on the season of Advent. This is how I was 32 and didn’t know what it was, because the churches I had been in did NOT. Or at least not that I remember.

But, I personally like Advent because the early church was on to something. Tradition breeds remembrance. And if we allow tradition to remind us of the why, the who, the what, it can actually empower and encourage our worship of God.

So we don’t focus on Advent because it’s tradition, and we may not make a note of it every year specifically, but it can be incredibly useful for leading us to the God we worship.

So, last week we focused on hope, that in the coming of Christ we receive a great hope, but also we are in a season of hope now, as we patiently await the arrival of Jesus, both in what we celebrate on Christmas morning, but also as we await his second coming.

I made the point, and I think it’s worth making again that as Christians we need to become resilient in our waiting. That the bible is full of encouragement to wait on the Lord, to wait for the Lord, to wait patiently, to wait quietly. Are we good at waiting? Or are we weak in our waiting?

I want my waiting muscles to be strengthened so that I’m not complaining and waiting in anxiety and worry for God to do something. I want to wait in confidence. Remember hope, by definition, is a confident expectation in a positive outcome. A confident expectation. Waiting patiently knowing God is faithful. Waiting with the knowledge that God is good no matter what my circumstances may try to tell me. And that “positive outcome” isn’t always best defined by me, but that I should allow God to define positive outcome.

Paul said he found a place of contentment whether he had or did not have, whether he had eaten or was hungry, whether he had money or not. I want to live in that place, where I patiently wait for the positive outcome of the Lord as defined by the Lord without my defining it because he may not want to do it that way.

Can we trust that God is good enough to know what is best for us without trying to define for him what we want him to do that we think is going to make us happy in our human understanding? Those can be very different things.

So, We want to learn to wait patiently and confidently because we have a great hope who IS Jesus Christ.

And this week, being the second week, we are looking at Peace.

We area also going to continue reading the Christmas story. We read some of it last week and we’ll continue in the book of Luke this morning. To catch you up, remember last week we read about the promise from the angel Gabriel to Zechariah, that his old barren wife Elizabeth would give him a child, and then Gabriel was also sent to the young virgin Mary and she was also going to have a child, but this one would be divine, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And we left the story last week with Mary hurrying to her relative Elizabeth to take comfort and encouragement in her time of pregnancy with Elizabeth who was going through the same thing. I can’t stress enough the importance of being with people of Promise.

We also left poor Zechariah mute… so, I encourage you during this season, make sure, especially if you have kids, read the Christmas story, and read it as a family. We won’t read all of the in between here, but while Mary is with Elizabeth she writes a beautiful poem, it’s called the Magnificat, it’s Luke 1:46-56. Scripture tells us that Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months, which would have been until she gave birth to John, and then she went home.

Luke also describes the birth of John, Zechariah gets his voice back and then immediately worships God and he prophecies in Luke 1:67-79 about John and the coming of Jesus. It’s beautiful.

Then we get to Luke 2 and the birth of Jesus and that is where we are going to read this morning. We will read 20 verses and then talk about the Peace of Jesus.

Starting in Luke 2:1, / / At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem of Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child.

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first born son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angels reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all the people. The Savior - yes, the Messiah, the Lord - has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snuggly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

Suddenly the angel was joined by a vast host of others - the armies of heaven - praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.

Now, I know, it’s only December 9th and we’re already at the birth of Jesus, don’t worry, we’ll circle back over the next couple weeks as we continued this season. But it’s important we read through this passage today because of our focus.

But before we look at three things about Jesus our Peace I want you to note something really important.

One of the reasons we know Jesus is the Messiah is the fulfilment of prophecy from the Old Testament. And one of the things that the Jewish people were looking for was that the Messiah would be from Bethlehem.

Now, remember last week we read Galatians 4:4, which says, / / …when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman...

The fullness of time. And he’s gotta be born in Bethlehem, but his family isn’t in Bethlehem. Joseph and Mary live in Nazareth at this moment. So, how is this going to work?

Well, by divine providence, or the sovereignty of God, by whatever you want to point to, the Roman emperor decides now is a good time to call a census, and for that census everyone has to go back to their home town and it just so happens that Joseph’s family is from Bethlehem so he has to go there, and because him and Mary are engaged to be married she has to go with him and she’s pregnant and it just so happens that while they are there for this census Mary goes into labor.

What are the chances of that? Well, it was the fullness of time, so the chances are pretty good, because God decided to send His son, by the power of the Holy Spirit to be born of a human woman, into a body of flesh at exactly this time.

Remember what I said last week that my friend Shawn Gabie said, God is not in control, he is in charge.

God is not controlling the Roman emperor. He didn’t force him to call a census. The Roman emperor isn’t just some puppet. Nor are Joseph and Mary and everyone else involved. But what is God to do? Well, as per his own decision making process, this is the fullness of time. Why? Again, I said last week, I don’t know. But it seems there’s reason. And maybe one of those reasons is because it’s census time and the perfect opportunity to set in motion the birth of Jesus so that it lines up perfectly with them being in Bethlehem so that prophecy is fulfilled.

Now, in regards to peace, we are looking at what the incarnation of Christ, the coming, the Advent of Jesus into this world means for these things, Hope, peace, love & joy.

So, I want to look at three things this morning in regard to the Peace of God in light of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. The question this morning then is: / / When Jesus comes, what happens?

/ / 1. His Coming Brings Peace

First thing we need to look at is the proclamation of peace that the angels deliver to the shepherds in the field. Let’s go back and look, what do they say? Luke 2:10, / / “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior - yes, the Messiah, the Lord - has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!”

First of all, I love that Jesus spends a good portion of his ministry telling people NOT to tell anyone he’s the Messiah, and yet the angels, probably super excited that the fullness of time has come, can’t help but tell the very first people they run into that He’s the Messiah.

Do you know anyone like that? Can’t keep a secret for the life of them?

So, my parents told us they’d be with us this weekend about 2 and a half weeks ago or something like that. And it’s been the perfect time to have loving, emotional reinforcements. But it was funny. First, they flew to Ft. Myers and were with my brother and his family for a few days, and it was a surprise for my two nephews. So we did not tell Kaylee, just in case she was talking to her cousins online and let it slip. And I was talking to my brother the day before they arrived to Ft. Myers and he was convinced the boys had figured it out somehow. But sure enough, they were thoroughly surprised.

So, there’s some good secrets to keep, aren’t there? The angels didn’t get the memo.

Well we decided we would just keep it a secret for Kaylee too. And we were doing great. She had no clue. We almost had one little slip while we were on Skype, but we lied, I mean, we covered it up cleverly. Until Thursday night. The night before they arrive. We had an event here - someone rented the building for a music recital - so I had been here from 8am to 9pm and it was a long day. I was tired. I was worn out. I’m emotionally exhausted already. I get home and say to Kelley, “My parents are going to get in about 1pm tomorrow.”

Right in front of Kaylee.

Kelley, the awesomeness that she is, does her best to cover it up, “You mean Trudi and Lisa?” Friends of ours also arriving today to visit… but I’m so done in I go for the argument, “No, my MOM and DAD are going to arrive at 1pm tomorrow.”

“You mean Trudi and Lisa, riiiiiiight?”

“No….Mom and dad!” *click*….. ohhh..i’m like the angels in the field.

Now, I’m not normally like that. I’m usually pretty good at keeping a good secret, my defenses were just worn down.

But these angels, they’re not even trying! They’re just like, “Guess what guys, the Messiah is here…”

But notice the proclamation doesn’t have anything about peace in it. We’ll revisit that passage next week when we talk about Joy. But listen to what happens next.

This is beautiful. / / Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others - the armies of heaven - praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

/ / At the proclamation of the coming of the Messiah, there is a declaration of peace.

The coming of Jesus brings peace. And we will look at this in a moment as to why that is. But I want you to specifically realize that when you invite Jesus to anything, you are inviting peace. And that is very important, because I think a lot of us, especially now because of personal circumstances, but also just the busyness of life, the busyness of the holidays, we need peace. And part of Advent is exactly that, taking time to remind ourselves of what we are celebrating.

We have these sayings, “Jesus is the reason for the season.” And “Keep Christ in Christmas”. And however wonderful or corny you think those are, they’re true. Another reason why we don’t just celebrate Christmas on Christmas morning, and we don’t just let our Christmas celebration be trees and lights and presents, but Advent reminds us for a season that this is all about Him and there is purpose for His coming.

So, he brings peace. But it’s interesting that the angels sing, “peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

I’m reading this the other day and think, “Huh, who is God pleased with?”

And you can do a google search, “Who is God pleased with?” And you might get results like, “It is impossible to please God without faith.” Ok, so I have to believe, but also follow…

I read one response that said, “The only way we can please God is to submit to His authority in our lives.” Ok, I get where you’re coming from.

I even read one that said, “For a perfect God to be pleased with you, you need to perfectly carry out his will.”

Well, there goes my chances of ever pleasing God, and so does that mean there is no hope for His peace either?

Now, thankfully that last one continued and they based our perfection on the perfection of Jesus Christ, not our own works, and it was ultimately right on. And as much as the idea of having to work for peace, or be perfect for peace, or submit to God and do something right for that peace might seem a bit out there, it’s often times what people think.

I would suggest that the majority of people live under a constant pressure that they receive what they deserve.

Our whole world is really structured around that concept.

You work, you get paid.

You say hi, someone says hi back.

You give gifts, you receive gifts. Or you receive a gift and feel obligated to give a gift.

We teach it to our kids. Do your chores you get a prize. Do your homework, then you can play.

My mom asked Kaylee yesterday what kind of things she had to do to get her allowance every week. And that’s one thing that Kelley and I decided, no matter whether she is good or bad or does great in school or does all her chores, we won’t tie allowance to performance. There’s no right or wrong on that one, you can easily have great reasons to give allowance based on performance, we just chose this way because everything else in life seems so transactional, doesn’t it?

There’s a system of doing for receiving.

Now, don’t get me wrong, most of those things are not bad, in of themselves. I do not expect to get paid for a job I don’t do. Would be nice, but I’ll be seriously let down if that’s my expectation, right?

So, who is God pleased with, and who gets to partake of this peace? And is it transactional?

Well, the key is in the word pleased and how we understand it.

First, / / pleased there means satisfaction, delight, or kindness, good pleasure, good will.

So the King James Version of this scripture says, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men.

No qualification for being “God pleasing” to receive peace. So we’ve taken that scripture, and tried to make it easier to understand and I think in so doing could have created some confusion in adding a question, who is God pleased with?

But clearly, the word pleased is simply those in whom God takes delight in…

Who is that? Well, that becomes a bit easier to answer if we look at John 3:16, you know that one, / / For God so loved the world…

Two words of importance there.

world - is the greek word kosmos, where we get our word Cosmos, like, the entirety of everything ever created and existed by the power of God through the Word who is Jesus Christ.

and / / loved, and this is where it gets just so wonderful… the greek word is agapao and it means of course love, but listen to this, “to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly”

So, God so welcomed all of everything that ever existed by the incarnation of Jesus Christ, who is God, who took on flesh and carried all of humanities shortcomings, sin and wrongdoing on that flesh to the cross to destroy any and all power that sin had.

God is pleased with all of humanity, and the coming of Christ, the incarnation, ushers in a peace that is for everyone.

All we need to do is invite Him.

Invite him who is peace, who brings peace, who ushers in peace, to whatever situation you are in.

/ / 2. His Authority Commands Peace

Ok, so his birth ushers in an era of peace, but how long does that peace last?

Well, one of the things we’ve been talking about is prophecy from the Old Testament that pointed to Jesus. It’s one of the key ways we know that he truly is the Messiah, that he fulfills prophecy.

Isaiah 9:6-7, which is considered a Messianic prophecy, meaning 700 years before Jesus is born the prophet Isaiah writes this about the one who is to come and redeem Isreal, says this:

/ / For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, 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, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

I’ve talked through this before, the idea of a epithet. An epithet is when someone is given a title that explains, or defines the way that person ruled or governed, it shows a quality of something or some way they do something.

Think of:

Catherine the Great, epithet, because she indeed, was great

Richard the Lion-heart, epithet, because he had a heart of courage and led his people that way

Abraham Lincoln as the Great Emancipator, epithet - you get the idea. We give name to the action and leadership of someone.

Prince of Peace, no different. Jesus is the prince of peace, his leadership and rule bring something with it. Peace.

So, look at what Isaiah says, / / Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.

The increase of his government.

The increase of peace.

Why? Because He has been given the throne of David.

How is he given the throne of David? Because he’s being born to an ancestor of David in the town of Bethlehem, fulfilling the prophecy that the coming king, the ancestor of David, would come to the throne of Israel again.

But at this time, there is no throne of Israel, in fact, and he’s not coming for a physical throne of Israel as they were thinking, but he is coming as the Messiah, the savior of the whole world because you cannot contain this king’s kingdom. Of the increase of his government there will be no end.

And God has established this, “from this time forth and forevermore.”

You cannot contain the kingdom of God within physical, national boundaries, and any nation that tries to do so, calling themselves the savior of the world by national or foreign policy is missing the point. For God so loved the kosmos…

Now, we’ve talked about this, and you know my stance on it, God does not take control of our lives, nor is he going to force his peace on you.

When we read Psalm 23 it says, / / The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.

He lets me, He leads me, He guides me…

I like playing this game with our cats. But they really don’t like it. Mostly I’m very sweet and gentle with them. And our cats are pretty nice, but for some reason they don’t want to be held. They love sitting with you, love sitting next to you, they’ll sit at your feet. One of them sleeps at kelley’s feet every night. But do not pick them up. And so I have this game I like to play where if they’re sitting on the back of the couch I’ll just swoop in and pick them up and hold them tight. I want them to get used to being held.

And I’ll say silly things like, “I’m loving you right now, don’t you see? Don’t you get it. This is love…”

It hasn’t worked yet.

They don’t like it.

And neither do you.

God does not force you to lie down by waters that restore you.

God does not demand you take times of rest in green fields.

He invites you.

Now this is where the war wages within our own selves.

/ / To enjoy the rule and reign of the Prince of Peace he must become your king. This is the beauty and challenge of how kingdoms work. We don’t choose our king, we don’t vote for the king, we can’t request a new one, or vote them out, or impeach them. Jesus is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, he is the Prince of Peace, and if we want to live under that peace we must come under his authority.

This is the story of the bible. Humanity has it’s way of doing things. God has his way that he says we should do things. One of them leads to life, one of them leads to death. Humanity is famously good at picking the wrong way.

Deuteronomy 30:15-18, which is in the Old Testament, right before Israel is about to go into the promise land and take possession of it, says, / / “Now Listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy. But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.”

Ok, so some context. This is God speaking specifically to Israel through Moses and he’s outlined the way they ought to live in the promised land so that they live a good life. And he’s given them the exact blueprint on how to do that.

But it’s the exact same for us when it comes to following Jesus Christ. He said in Matthew 16:24-26, / / If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

Moses sums it up perfectly in Deuteronomy 30:19, / / Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessing and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

Some people get a bit messed up because they see the word curses and think God is somehow out there cursing and punishing everyone when they mess up, rather than the reality that he clearly said, “If you do this, it will hurt you.”

I’ve used this illustration before, but I find it to be one of the most perfect examples. If I’m making Kaylee a pot of mac’n’cheese, which is her favorite, and I’m really good at it, and I’m doing it for her benefit, and I give her some instructions to receive my blessing, “Please, stay out of the kitchen and do not touch the pot on the stove, if you do, it will burn you.”

What happens if she disobeys me and goes into the kitchen and touches the pot with boiling water in it and burns herself?

Did I punish her? No

Does it change the fact that I love her? No

Does it change the blessing I am making for her? No, I doubt I am going to take the mac’n’cheese away…but the consequences for her actions might delay the blessing I had intended for her, right?

But, is she going to sit with pain for a while? Yes.

There is a way that leads to life, there is a way that leads to death. Oh that you would choose life.

What’s that got to do with peace?

I would suggest, if you are experiencing no peace, or less peace, the first question you should ask yourself is, / / “Am I living under the authority of the Prince of Peace?”

Am I trying to live life my way?

Am I trying to make it all happen myself?

Am I trying to fix my own problems that I created for myself but I just don’t know how and I am living in the byproduct of my decisions?

Am I simply living without the presence of Jesus and without his peace because I’m not allowing myself to hear the sweet and gentle invitation of the good shepherd to lead me beside still waters and green pastures to restore my soul and bring me peace?

It’s not always about doing wrong, sometimes it’s simply about doing without. If you want to be his disciple, if you want to live under his authority, it’s not just saying, “yes” but it’s denying our own way and actively following him. Submitting to His authority. Allowing the Prince of Peace to rule and reign in our lives by giving him the permission to lead us.

/ / 3. His Provision Brings Peace

We talked a little bit about this last week in the contest of hope, but it is the same with peace. God wants us to have peace whether we have what we need or not. A lot of people look to their stuff for peace. They have peace when all the bills are finally paid. Or they look to a time when they might have peace when all the bills finally, someday, maybe get paid, but in the meantime they live without that peace.

It’s one of the more challenging things I find, and I suppose we are all different, so we may find different things challenging. But Jesus says in Matthew 6:24-27, 33, / / “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life - whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? …These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows your needs. Seek first the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

He doesn’t say everything you want. He doesn’t say everything you are asking for. But everything you need. And he doesn’t even say based on what you define as what you need, but your Father already knows what you need, or what is best for you!

I’ll point again to Paul’s encouragement in Philippians 4, he says he’s found a place of contentment whether he has or has not, whether he is full or has an empty stomach. He can do all things through Christ who gives him strength.

And so I’m not making a mistake by titling this last point “His provision brings peace” because the provision is what is important here. The provision is him. He IS the Prince of Peace. And the provision is what we are in this season of advent waiting for… the coming of Messiah…

This is Advent. This is the confident waiting we are in. For the Prince of Peace. This is the promise. Jesus would say near the end of his life, in John 16:33, / / “I have told you these things so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

I HAVE overcome. Past Tense.

But you WILL experience some troubles…

And I’m letting you know these things because just as I came in my birth to bring peace, there will be times where you need to seek me to find peace.

Yes, he has already come, but like I said last week, we need to become better at waiting. Not to give up if it doesn’t happen right away, but to continue to believe in faith and with hope, a confident expectation in a positive outcome. Jesus said it, he will do it. And He is the Provision we need. So even if we don’t understand why he didn’t answer the question we asked, maybe we need to ask him how he intends to bring us peace in the midst of our unanswered questions.

It’s ok to ask questions, but we also need to be ok with the answer.

I say that to Kaylee sometimes. You are allowed to ask questions, and you are allowed to ask for things, always, but when I give my answer, that’s my answer.

If I say no, the answer is no. If I say you don’t need something, I’m telling you, even if you are absolutely convinced you need it…you don’t need it…

I said it last week, but I will say it again, Do we trust God to define “positive outcome” rather than trying to tell God what the positive outcome needs to be so we are happy?

Or bring it into this week. DO we trust God to bring us peace as he defines it, rather than trying to tell Him what we need Him to do, or provide or say so that we can have peace on our terms?

What if we let Him define what peace is.

What if we let him lead us beside the right streams to bring life.

What if we allow him to show us the green pasture that he wants to use to bring rest to our souls.

Now, this is a two part thing, and I’ll close with this thought.

There is what brings us peace, and then there is supernatural peace. There is a life or a way that leads to peace, doing what God says we should do will bring us peace. Let’s call that the absence of conflict. That’s the Deuteronomy 30 and Matthew 16 way, choose life by following Him.

But there is also supernatural, God gifted, Holy Spirit brought peace that Paul talks about in Philippians 4:6-7, / / Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Talk about a beautiful little encouragement from Paul:

/ / Talk to God

Follow Jesus

Experience Peace

That is my prayer for you today. (for people who need peace…)