Peace

Men, just know if a woman says she will be ready in fifteen minutes, she will… there is no need to remind her every half hour.

We’ve been working on teaching Joy Spanish all year, and she still can’t say the word for please, which i think is poor for four

Luke 2:14 ESV

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

THe final theme tonight, is Peace, the angels candle… it represents the peace that Christ brings into the world.

Mama bearish

Peace and justice are talked about by these angels and how peace connects to Christmas is beautiful… the qiuestion isnt just is christianity true but does it do anything in our lives… There is a thousand ways it does things in our lives but also the world around us

Like opening a great gift we want others to experience it…

Gifts… Christmas… crazy… when we get a great gift we celebrate it…

The angels say tehre is a special gift that will come upon the world as Jesus enters it.. and that special gift is peace to all men and we hear that all throughout the Christmas season. THey proclaim Peace

Pascal says we shouldn’t just focus on Christianity being true, but only after we first convince them that it is good.

They should want it in their live and want it to be true… we should want people to want God and show them how great he is and make them want it… all those arguments are true, but they are also wonderful… God has put it everywhere that he is great… even if you havent believed in Jesus yet it may be just because you havent been able to see it yet....

Read any story.... evil rulers and sorcerer and we need saving and there is an amazing prince or somethign that sets the world free… and God did exactly that in Jesus. There really is an evil sorcerer in this world… and we are under an enchantment so much so, one day the trees will dance and sing in his goodness...

and we want this to be true, thats why we tell these stories… we want to be able to escape and sit by the fire and read these stories but becasue there really is a truth behind these stories we need to know what that truth is.... thats why when we are three years old we want to hear these stories brecasue God is trying to break through and give us peace...

So what does that do for the world in the here and now if hte King has destroyed evil and pain in principal, no the angels say something God is going to happen… the angels don’t say he will bring forgiveness of sins that we will focus on which he does… no no no the angels say that he will bring peace which our world so desperately needs.

Two ways

Peace on Earth Peace in self

What about Peace on earth… skeptics say that Christianity is a disease for the world because it says it is the only way and there is no other acceptible way… ive seen christians try to set kids free from trafficing… all driven by a vision given by a child that is Jesus… there has never been a group of people that have created more hospitals, more counseling, done more Good that Christians.

Canadians… charitable status…

Christianity creates a new world in the here and now… Changed lives change lives… saved people save people… how do you bring peace on earth… because you know the one that has died for your salvation… your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven… there has always been a place for that and the natural inclination is to not do that… but because of what we do we could bring peace on earth like he is talking about and all that is good but it is not our greatest need

If he thought our biggest need was politics he would have sent a politician…entertainment an entertainer.... but as D.A Carson says, he knew our biggest need was salvation, so he sent a savior. And once he saves us he saves us unto something else

To be able to create a new world right here, love and truth and grace like the world that doesnt know… when your friends arent loving you you look to the one who knows hwo to love you better than anyone else… thats here CHristianity goes peace on Earth...

And there is so many unknowns for the new year, and the world is going someone save us from this… and atheism doesnt give us the answer… and history has shown us that the church is the answer to help us… the church stepping up when we need it its not atheism… there is hope for the world and you are it....

It is not enough for us to pray for the kingdom to come… we have to stand up and give it to the world so they can have peace in teh world

Not only peace on earth, but peace in ourselves… we are unsettled in the world we are living in… and we need peace… and the only way we can get it is to see what is wrong with us… and peace literally means the end of warfare… and you thiunk Im not… but you are… ytou are at war with God and yourself...

Bertrand Russell many books about why God isn’t real.... and on his death bed he said, “MY love, I have been searching for peace all my life, but I have never found it except in your arms...” and that surprises a lot people… you never found peace but in the arms of your wife… your fourth one… from the day we are born we are looking for peace because need it… and there is no peace in your life becasue there is no peace between you and God...

The song is, God and sinners reconciled… that is what peace is all about

So one writer said… There is no happiness… there is no peace… there is no joy except that we be made right with God.

“The Child of God has two great marks about him… he may be known by his inward warfare as well as his inward peace.”

-JC Ryle

See it is only Peace, the only way to get it is to hold onto God himself

Philippians 4:7 ESV

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

It doesnt make sense, the world looks in and sees believers and says how with everything going on can you be calm.... and we say look Jesus is still on the throne and that equals peace in my life… and I am not ignoring… I just have something better

Charles Spurgeon said this,

“O man, you cannot get your heart right, you cannot get your conscience right, you cannot get your understanding right, you cannot bring your various powers to bear till first you are right with God. The King must occupy the throne, and then the estate of man’s soul will be duly settled, but till the chief authority has due eminence rebellion and riot will continue. When the Lord breathes peace into man, and the Holy Spirit descends like a dove to dwell within the soul, then there is quiet: where all was chaos order appears, the man is created anew, and becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus; and though rebellious lusts try to get the mastery, yet there is now a ruling power which keeps the man in order so that within him there is ‘the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.’”

That is what Christmas offers… the chaos of your soul to be settled calm… what did Jesus tell the waves… Peace be still… and that is hwat happens the closer we grow to him… peace be still… and that is hwat happens to the warfare inside oif us.

THe people far from Jesus says I want to live how I want to live I dont want God… and the religious person says I want to use god… obey him and he must bless me… adn these two reasons are why the wrold is defined by the opposite of peace… that is why we are so unsettled… the thing God offers us is that with him peace end that unsettling…

Every day is borrowed time now a peace about life that we didnt have before until I saw the larger story… when see somethign intense it changes us

When you experience God it changes it all… and you see that his life is really all about his death that brings the ultimate peace… and you guys are dealing with some stuff.. and its all real… IM not sayung that… but if you really know him. you don[t have to fear becasue he will bring peace in the middle of it all...

And the angels say Glory to God in the highest… and we think that and just think blah…no big deal.... and we miss something about all of this...

Johnathan Edwards 1740… asked to preach a sermon to children of his church… you know what he preached about… not doctrine… he preached a sermon called the six reasons children should love Jesus more than anything.... it wasnt about God’s grandness or bigness.. but his goodness… how awesome and loving and wonderful he is… and thise are different things… and I dont think we think about it that often… 89 chapters of the gosopels and we only see Jesus talking about his own heart in one place...

Matthew 11:29 ESV

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

meaning Jesus is not just one who loves, but one who IS love… he leans in he understands… he loves like a parent does… he isnt out to get you… and you are misunderstanding God if thats what you think… Christmas says NOOOO I am lowly in heart… everythign that is or can be lovely in any man is in him,,, and that is what should pull you toward him… and when your kids leave the house whenever that is… you want to know what your parents want you to grasp more than anything… not just his greatness and perfection but his goodness and his heart for you and his love for you and your love for him… not that you would just obey him but you would like him and that heart for you is proven in Jesus for sinners or sufferers… not only true, but he is also attactive…

We do a good job pictuuring santa that way.. hes good and jolly and fun… if he was just great no one would desire him… and Jesus is great but he is good and worth loving.

Lets never read this verse the same… Glory to God in the highest… the peace comes from knowing his glory… even if you are sinners and not perfect…we cant sin our way out of his love for us… so the last candle to light is the christ candle that we normally light on Christmas Eve… the fifth candle itself is Christ representation himself… So sometimes when it comes to Jesus we think abotu Jesus the baby but forget that Jesus is God

All the stories about Jesus in the Gospel… a few of them he is working on his own thing.. in Lulke he is missing for three days and they find him in the temple and they are like where are you ddue… and he is like I have to be about my fathers business… and his dad is the one who got him in trouble… and hes like my dad is bigger than you… in fact I am God..

“Jesus Christ by simply saying this is claiming authority such that even the most basic human relationships like the parent/child relationship are now transcended. By this act and statement, Jesus transcends all normal categories of evaluation, and he says, ‘You cant evaluate me; I evaluate everyone else.”

-Darrell Bock

Its time to sit up and take notice, yes baby, but he is power, all know our master, our Lord, so much more than just Christmas…dont let Christmas hide the true power iof God and what he should be in our life, EVERYTHING. HE doesnt come in glory he comes as a babe to two teenagers… if he had come today we would have gotten rid of him…

“Thus our generation, needing a savior more, perhaps, than any that has ever existed, would be too humane to allow one to be born.”

Malcolm Muggeridge

What was that like for him… eternal, all powerful alll knowing and he becomes one of us… CS. Lewis gives us a great image.

“One may think of a diver, first reducing himself to nakedness, then glancing in mid-air, then gone with a splash, vanishing rushing down through green and warm water into black and cold water,

down through increasing pressure into the deathlike region of ooze and slime and old decay;

then up again, back to colour and light, his lungs almost bursting, till suddenly he breaks the surface again, holding in his hand the dripping, precious thing he went down to recover.

He and it are both coloured now that they have come up into the light; down below, where it lay colorless in the dark, he lost his color too.”

CS. Lewis

Thats what Jesus did for you.... Most religions dont allow you to have connection with God…and CHristianity says you need a savior and I am that

Most of us get to Christmas and say oh great, Christmas, whats next.

And thats what we cant do

N.T.Wright says

“How can you live with the terrifying though that the hurricane has become human, that fire has become flesh, that life itself… walked in our midst? Christianity means either that, or it means nothing.

It is either the most devastating disclosure of the deepest reality in the world, or it is a sham, a nonsense… Most of us, unable to cope with saying either of those things, condemn ourselves to live in the shallow world in between.”

Dont question any longer… Christmas is the invitation to see what God has done with you is so beautiful you must accept it