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00:00 about for me. They remove all pride or ego. We ask for those seated here that
00:06 they will expect and yearn for an experience with you, oh Lord, and an
00:12 encounter with you, to grow deep in you. We ask, oh Lord, for a fresh revelation
00:18 that every Sunday we come, it's exciting to encounter you with brothers and sisters.
00:25 We ask our headphones to be switched off. We ask minds to be attentive. We ask that we don't go through just a
00:32 ritual of just listening to a sermon, but we come eagerly expecting to
00:39 encounter you. And we say this in Jesus' name. Amen.
00:45 And what we just shared just now is
00:50 probably the topic we're going to discuss today. Incidentally, if you read
00:55 the entire verse verses, this is what is known as the most famous prophecy on
01:02 Christ in the book of Isaiah. But you can find a general theme running through the
01:09 whole thing. And what is it? It is this word called peace. So let me just explain a little bit
01:15 about peace. I don't know whether you read this book or seen the movie. It was called wow.
01:22 Anyone saw this? was Ree Witherspoon. Any movie buffs here? No one anyone read books. Wow. This church doesn't read
01:28 books. It's interesting book. If you go to website, I happen to catch it on um on
01:34 HBO is on a woman called Sher Strait. Um
01:39 and what happened was she came from a single family.
01:45 Life was normal. Got married. Things going well. Bam. Mom gets cancer.
01:54 Seven weeks later, mom dies. Her whole world unravels.
02:00 Unravels. Her marriage unravels. She goes on drugs.
02:06 Life just completely goes haywire. To help recover, she goes on a hike.
02:16 And she journals the hike. and not just a hike to, you know, Jandanda Bay.
02:22 She goes on a 1,000mi hike and writes a book on it through some of
02:28 the most perilous lands uh in in in in outdoor
02:34 and she journals it and she writes a book and the book became so famous a
02:40 very highly critical acclaim movie. I think Rhys Witherspoon was awarded or she got best supporting actress for that
02:47 and he's come to be seen as in especially in feminist circles a way of
02:52 dealing with stress and anxiety and trouble. And I went to a website I
02:59 Googled it and she talked about how going through this journey helped her come to terms with the death of her
03:06 mother. Now this morning I want to ask a question and it is an honest question to
03:12 you and to me. My question is simple. How do you deal with
03:19 anxiety, stress, the the the knowing thing that you know
03:25 every time you just don't know when this they call this an albatross in your back can be removed. How do you deal with it?
03:31 Can you take a 1,000mi track? I know like a lot of us when we have trouble we need to retreat away. Some people do a
03:39 lot of things. Some some people some people go and do bad things. But how do
03:44 you deal with it? So today as we go through the first in a series of advent
03:49 we talk about topic which is really very central to the Bible is about peace.
03:55 And I'll ask you, do you have that peace? Or do you have a semblance of peace? But
04:01 you come to church, you're really troubled. And in our midst, we have all sorts of of of issues. Some of you have
04:07 no have none of this trouble. Life's great. Some of you have a lot of trouble. And let's see how this prophecy
04:14 really helps us be able to understand how scripture talks about peace. Now, let me just first give you the theology
04:20 of it. The theology is so simple. One of the best things about the Bible, we need to return to this is is to find a
04:26 simplicity in our theology. We have too much intellectualize it. I'll give you the theology straight off. It's very
04:33 simple. Number one, peace starts off with God.
04:40 The moment you have peace with God, scripture says you have peace with
04:46 yourself. And the moment you have peace with yourself, you have peace with others.
04:53 You get it? So simple and so profound.
04:58 And that's really the message today. You can all go home now. But that's really what scripture teaches.
05:05 And I want us to break into this a little bit. Okay? And let's take the first verses. And and the way to read
05:12 this is not to jump straight into the prophecy. For to us a child is born, a
05:17 son is given. We all know. Yes, that's Jesus. Let's look at it in context how Isaiah saw it. And the way to look at
05:24 it, I gave you the verse there. You can read it. And imagine Isaiah. Isaiah stands and he
05:31 sees Israel, especially a few towns. And some of these towns here are towns where
05:37 warriors came from. They used to fight the Medidionites. People at the Napalians and those on Zebalum are
05:42 warriors. And he sees ruin. Imagine you are at
05:48 Aleppo. Unseasing war only yesterday the women's
05:54 hospital was bombed. No running water. Imagine Mosul 1 million people trapped
06:01 unable to get out. They hang you if they think you even try to betray them. And
06:07 Isaiah sees hopelessness. And why? Because an Assyrian king has just
06:13 ravaged Israel. And against this he pulls out a prophecy. If you read the whole verse,
06:20 all the whole thing they is all about war and peace. And we really want to get into that a bit
06:27 and I don't have time to go too much but we're concentrating on peace. Now the way to appreciate Isaiah 9 is to take it
06:34 back two chapters and let me give you a bit of context where we are.
06:40 This is a time where Israel is divided. The northern kingdom is called Israel.
06:45 It comprises 10 tribes. The southern kingdom is Judah. It comprises two
06:51 tribes, Judah and Benjamine. And a lot of the Levites had gone there and they are hostile to one another. Brother
06:58 against brother. There's hostility. And we are told first in chapter 7 what
07:04 happens. And the story is here when Aas the son of Jotam the son of Uzziah the
07:10 king of Judah was king of Judah. King Resin of Aram and Pekka son of Ramalia,
07:16 king of Israel march up to fight against Jerusalem but could not overpower it. So
07:23 what happens? The northern kingdom joins forces with Aram. Aram ironically is
07:29 modernday Syria and they come and they lay siege to
07:36 southern Israel called Judah. Now the house of David was told Aram has aligned
07:43 itself with Ephraim. Ephraim is the name for Israel. And here's the key verse. So
07:48 the hearts of Aas and his people were shaken
07:54 as the trees of the forest were are shaken by the wind.
08:01 Now it's a very powerful verse. It talks about fear. And here's a very famous painting. It's called the scream.
08:08 It's probably the most famous painting to talk about anxiety and stress because you have these two shadowy characters
08:14 coming down and this fellow Lord he's going to scream. Now one thing I love about the Bible is
08:21 that it's so real. You know what he's trying to tell you and here the platform that the backdrop
08:27 to chapter nine. He's trying to tell you that when you are under stress, under anxiety, under all these canton,
08:36 you get so worked up, you cannot think straight. Maybe the doctors will tell us, I heard some some chemicals are
08:42 extruded and your your frontal contacts can't think properly. I'm not a doctor. I'm just an architect. But apparently,
08:49 you don't think straight. You get jittery. You just want the problem to go away. I think we all had
08:56 times in our life where we had it right where suddenly a medical result comes out and you suddenly butterflies come
09:03 out of your stomach or you get a fax or email or a letter says something a legal
09:08 case and you just go cold and suddenly the rest of the day you can't think.
09:14 This thing just not just envelopes you, it tears you down. Your throat goes dry.
09:20 You can't think of anything else. you just want it to go away. Now is this
09:25 context and what happens is that God sends Isaiah and tells it to the king,
09:30 say to him, be careful. Keep calm. Don't be afraid. We just stick this on our
09:37 tables, man. Be careful because he knows his mind is not thinking straight. Keep calm so you
09:44 can think better and don't be afraid. And God then tells King Aaz, I got a plan for you. Don't worry. going to
09:51 rescue you. And the grace of God goes so far that he says, you know what? I'm going to give you a sign. And we call it
09:57 the sign of Emmanuel. Aas replies, I will not ask. I will not
10:03 put the Lord to the test. Wow, what a righteous man. What a godly man.
10:09 I'm not going to test God. I'm not like Gideon. I don't need to fleas out. But is he so righteous? And if you read
10:16 Isaiah doesn't tell you this, but kings second king tells you aa sent messages
10:22 to say to Tigla Piliser, king of Assyria, I am your servant and vessel.
10:29 Come out and save me out of the hand of king of Aram and the king of Israel who
10:35 are attacking me. That's Isaiah 7. And Aas took the silver and gold found
10:42 where? in the temple of the Lord. Wow. He took God's gold and gave it to a
10:49 pagan king and in the treasures of the royal palace and send it to king of Assyria.
10:56 Now, this is really interesting and it has much more connection than you
11:01 realize. Basically, the guy is saying this, you know what? I got this huge problem.
11:08 I'm going to be very smart about it and I'm going to solve my problem.
11:14 And what does he do? He goes into an alliance with somebody which he really shouldn't have. And true enough, Assyria
11:23 makes good its promise and delivers
11:28 Judah from Israel. Now, here's a simple point. You're never going to get peace without
11:35 God. You're never going to get it. You see the way the text says this no in
11:40 verse uh five every warrior's boot used in battle every garment rode in blood
11:46 will be destined for burning will be fuel for the fire that is the end to all hostilities because in war whenever
11:53 someone dies you take his boots because you want to reuse it when you burn it this expensive stuff is like saying no
11:60 more WMDs no more weapons of mass destruction no more complete but what we
12:06 do nowadays we like to go into alliances. No, one day the guy is Pakatan Rayad.
12:15 Now we won't go very far into that. Ah, next day your own partner will betray
12:20 you. Your enemy, I mean we live in days where you never imagine some people who
12:26 will be sitting at candle light vigils. We won't go too far into that either. But we live in very interesting times
12:32 where enemies become your friends, friends become your enemies. Why? Because alliances don't bring lasting
12:39 peace. And what happens with Assyria is Assyria makes good promise. King AS
12:46 thinks he's very smart. I got peace. I got very clever. But Assyria will milk
12:52 Judah and Judah will be so broken. And by the time the Babylonians come,
12:58 they'll be wiped out. Now, there's some very important lessons for me and you. I want you to pause and
13:05 take a step back. You see what a house is doing is trying to juggle two kinds of peace.
13:10 I give you a simple example. You're in business. Wow. Business Batman US $4.5 while
13:21 I need to get business. God says trust him right through the
13:27 storm. Someone can tell you you want business can money.
13:34 You go to that person, you add 30%, he get commission may
13:40 business for the next two years. Wow.
13:45 What do you do? You do that road. Why you complaining about Malaysian
13:51 officer number one anyway? 1 billion $100 bribe. It's the same thing, right?
13:56 It starts from somewhere. Actually we are in this state because Chinese people made it a culture to give
14:04 corruption. Yes. You bring peace to yourself. You bring prosperity to yourself at a great price because this
14:11 kind of peace basically will weigh out in that way. And it goes in any
14:17 circumstances. Now I know right now when I'm talking I'm making a lot of people uncomfortable. And I will tell you it's
14:23 not so simple. I'm an architect. We swim in corruption. But I want to just say something to you
14:29 as the Lord speaks. If your conscience isn't pricricked, then you have to ask yourself, have you compartmentalized
14:36 your faith? That's what Aas did. He never rejected God's faith. You know, help. Oh, yeah. Please come. Oh, thank
14:42 you, Isaiah. I'm not going to test God. He's just got a backup plan.
14:48 He just got a backup plan. Now, we can repeat this in so many other areas. Let's not talk about corruption. And we
14:54 can talk. I have people know who trust in funo.
14:59 Better have some backup. Better don't tell my architect he's very religious. They come how come the door 30°. Oh to
15:07 tell you. Hey. Oh yes. So go too much religious and he's a church goer. So he
15:13 asked me to shift the door. You know backup plan. I have Christians who won't take a
15:19 certain road because there's a graveyard there. They take another road. backup plan.
15:26 You see, the first thing you got to pick up is peace begins with God.
15:32 And I know it's not so simple. And here's what the text is telling you. You're going to get your peace. Aas got
15:39 his peace really bad price because long-term his children and grandchildren really
15:45 suffered for it. It will work. All these funoy things, all these joy
15:52 they will work. I've I had people sit down, look me in the eye and tell me how, you know, uh, flying star works. It
15:59 work short term. You you wait long term. So God tells us to take the high road. I
16:04 want to really break us into that. So what we are trying to start off is, you know what, you want to get peace,
16:11 you don't need God. You can go on a 1,000mi hike. You can do yoga.
16:16 You can do mindfulness breathing. You can read 101 books out there to handle
16:23 your stress. You can do it and I'll tell you it will work to a degree
16:30 with Sherru Strait. How did she end her journey? It was really interesting. And because I saw this in a movie, she ended
16:36 it on a bridge. Ironically, it's called Bridge of the Gods. And the book describes how she saw this.
16:43 She's not a Christian. It was her marker for the end of her healing session. And
16:49 after that, she writes a lot about how the journey healed her. It's really a fantastic bridge. You know, that's why
16:55 they call it bridge of the gods. Small G. Now, here's the other thing I want to tell you.
17:02 There is a bridge not to the gods, but there's a bridge to God, capital G. And
17:09 the question you and I have to ask ourselves, are you on that bridge?
17:15 Because the first thing of peace, the first thing of peace is that we are
17:22 at war with God. You just don't realize it. We are at war because of sin.
17:30 And none of your good deeds, none of what you can do is going to stop that.
17:37 There is hostility. The only way to cross that bridge is by
17:43 the cross. And this morning I want to challenge all of us on this that we are
17:49 justified by the prince of peace. There
17:54 are four names here. We're going to look through it. The counselor, mighty God, everlasting father. The prince of peace
18:02 brings us that bridge. And Romans says, "Therefore, since we have been justified
18:08 through faith, we have peace with God
18:13 through our Lord Jesus Christ." So, let's start off with that peace with
18:20 God. Now, here's the other problem. We in we're in an audience here where
18:25 everybody says, "Yeah, been there, done that." Sinner sinners prayer. I got no peace on her.
18:34 I never did corruption. I'm not I'm troubled. I just don't tell you. I come to church. I have to put on
18:41 a friendly face, but I'm troubled inside. So, where's all this peace BS you're telling me? Let's get down to the
18:48 real bits of it. Now, I want to tell you a very interesting story because in this whole story of peace, he points to an
18:55 incident or an event on Median. He says, "Just as the day of minions defeat, you
19:01 have shattered the yoke that burns them, the bar across their shoulder, the rod
19:07 of the oppressor." Now, this is a really interesting story because of all stories
19:12 to pull out, he pulls this one out. Now, those of you who know your Bibles, this is the story of Gideon.
19:20 Now, we all like to associate Gideon with the fleas, but let me just try to run the story through you and you get a you you get a picture of it. The story
19:27 is this. The Israelites have crossed. They're now still one nation. Cross into the promised land. And because of
19:35 disobedience, they are worshiping Bal and their Ashira Poles everywhere. The
19:40 Amalachites and the Medidionites come and they attack and take away their livestock. Life is terrible. And they're
19:47 very depressed. They're very anxious. And one day there's this small little geeky boy from a small little town, this
19:55 Kong called Manace. And the angel comes to him and says, "Behold, mighty
20:01 warrior, God is with you." Read in Judges 6. And his first thing Ginas says is, "Why do you bring this to me? Our
20:08 life is so bad." And then the story goes on. The angel tries to persuade him. He says, "Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
20:14 whoa. I'm I'm just a geek, man. I'm from Mana. You see the kung down there? That's called Benjamin. Those guys are
20:21 on steroids. Turn there, get them to fight for you. God says, "No, no, no. I'm going to use you." And the story
20:27 unfolds and then unfolds and you know how the story ends, right? He basically God walks with this geeky little fellow
20:35 transform him. He doesn't trust God. At one point, he doesn't even believe the angel talking to him. When he finally
20:42 says it, he actually has an oh my god situation. He says, "I'm going to die." God says, "No, no, you're not going to
20:48 die." Then he tells God, "Don't get angry with me. I really need some miracles." He needs three.
20:53 And God walks with him, talks with him. God sends him a small little mission. Go and cut down this Asher pool. I'll do it
20:59 at night, God, so no one can see me. All the little little things. And what God does is that he grooms this boy, this
21:06 kid. And finally, when he's ready, God says, "You know what? Your people are so
21:12 arrogant. If I bring peace to them, they're just going to put it on themselves. you're going to go to war
21:17 with 300 soldiers. Now, why does God do that? I want you to really take this home because God is
21:25 saying a very important truth. God is saying this.
21:31 Glorify me and I'll bring you peace.
21:36 Going to let that soak in a bit. And that's what Gideon does. And God is
21:41 glorified and peace comes to Israel. Here's another war. In Psalm 27, David
21:50 says this, "Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear. Though war break
21:58 out against me, even then will I be confident." Wow, cool as a cucumber, man. Of all things, you know who's
22:06 leading the war against him? His own son, Abselum. This psalm is written on the eve of that war. How is he so at
22:14 peace? He went out there and got a shot of brandy. He went and did yoga.
22:21 He did some positive thinking. Look what the verse says. The next verse. One thing I ask of the Lord. This
22:30 is what I seek. This is the next verseh. that I may dwell in the house of the
22:36 Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord to seek him
22:43 in his temple. What is that? That's glorifying God.
22:49 You see where we're going with this? In the event with the book of Judges is
22:55 in action. Here is contemplation. But let me give you the best example, the one that
23:02 really nails it to the head and it's found in the song of the angels. That most perfect day which
23:10 we're going to celebrate in December when the baby was born. Angels come
23:16 huge. What do they sing? Hear this verse. Glory to God in the highest.
23:23 And what word? Come on. Peace. You get
23:29 where we're going with this? Glory to God in the highest. Peace on earth on where his favor rests.
23:38 Something like that. So, let me put it to you in simple, very simple English.
23:44 And again, scripture is so simple in his theology yet so profound. It's simple as
23:50 this. Glorify God. And we don't mean empty singing.
23:56 We're saying doing like Gideon. Walk with God. Talk with God. Do small things
24:01 with God. Be like David. You know what David is doing? He's enjoying the
24:07 presence of God. I mean, he's going to go to for war. He says, "You know what? I got to go and pray. I don't you think
24:13 you should be doing your battle plan and working out strate?" No, no. I'm going to go pray. How long going to pray? Maybe the whole day. That's what David
24:21 is doing. Glorify God. Peace.
24:27 That's really the message of today. It's such a simple truth
24:33 and yet it's so difficult for us to do.
24:38 And what the text is telling us a few things about peace. Number one, it is a peace that takes you through suffering.
24:47 It is not a peace that you try to avoid. It takes you through. It is like David.
24:54 You know what? I don't know what's happening, but I'm going to trust in you. How do I do that? I discipline
25:00 myself by coming in your presence. A lot of us don't have that.
25:06 I'm going to break this down again a bit more and I want this to really wrap in. What's the most famous verse in the New
25:13 Testament of peace? We all know it, right? I I'll quote it for you. All right. Do not be anxious about anything,
25:21 but in every situation by prayer and supplication with
25:26 thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard
25:34 your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. We all know that, right? Very famous verse. But what we don't
25:41 pick up is the verse before that. You know what's the verse before that? is this verse.
25:48 What's that? Glorifying God. You don't rejoice.
25:55 You don't know the Lord is near. You know Thanksgiving. Forget about the peace.
26:01 The context is important. And if you take rejoice, Paul isn't talking about rejoicing like, "Oh man, Christmas is
26:07 coming. Let's have some turkey." He's talking to a church who is being oppressed. Later on he talks about he
26:13 learns to be content even though he's abased. The King James version says abase.
26:19 So he's talking about a glorify of God which is done via discipline.
26:27 Is about Christians who make it a habit to spend time with God in quiet solitude
26:34 like David and they go inside. very quiet and they pray
26:41 and they walk like what Gideon does and as they do it God brings you through brings you through and even though you
26:48 don't have a job or this illness is hanging around you or you have a legal
26:54 case or your family is just broken up the marriage is screwed there is peace and that's a promise
27:04 I can tell you a lot of people not convinced and I tell I tell you why you're not convinced because you're sitting there
27:10 say I've tried it doesn't work. Now I tell you this verse has one word which
27:16 is really interesting and the King James version not King James the the NIV ESV
27:21 and the New Living Translation all pick it up is this word says guard your heart
27:28 and mind. Notice he doesn't say I'm going to give you he says God. You know
27:34 why God? Because what's the worst thing that happens when you have trouble? Your mind
27:42 gets frozen. Your heart gets flustered. And so Paul knows, you know, the mind
27:50 and the heart has to be guarded. Guarded by what?
27:57 Go and do yoga and do deep meditation. Do positive reinforcement. The job's
28:02 going to come. The job's going to come. Job's not going to come. Oh my disease is going to go away. This is going away.
28:07 Disease didn't go away. You know, he what does he say? He says, "Guard your heart and mind in what?" In who?
28:18 In Christ Jesus. Why?
28:24 Because when it comes like this, God sends you a wonderful counselor.
28:32 And the Hebrew rendering of the word wonderful is amazing.
28:40 That's what David discovered. I think you're not convinced. I'm going
28:46 to do a test. Let's do a test. Hh. This simple test. We did it in alpha. We did it for 15 minutes. I'll make it easy for
28:53 you guys. 30 second. 30 second test. You try this. See, I don't got my
28:59 headphone here. I can watch a table. Okay. 30 second. 30 seconds only. Now
29:05 you heard enough, right? I just told you about peace of God. The
29:10 peace of God comes from what? Glorifying God. Let me ask you one question. How much is your life glorifying God? I give
29:17 you 30 seconds. Now pause the whole church. We hit the auto pause. 30
29:22 seconds. No one says the word. You just meditate on that. Let's try that. 30
29:28 seconds. Not very long. Okay, let's try that. Huh? Okay. One, two, go.
30:10 It's more or less 30 seconds. Now, if you honest yourself, you will notice one thing. You know,
30:17 halfway through it, you wonder what type is lunge.
30:23 You don't know this. This is very weird. Is this guy doing it also? This guy doing it. You notice our mind can't keep
30:29 still. Have you noticed that? But if you can't 30 seconds, 30 seconds
30:36 focus on God, how do you expect peace?
30:42 David before war, he doesn't go for a drink, you know, hey, pour me a 15 year cabalan whiskey, please single malt.
30:51 He goes into the temple where silence
30:57 and he prays. Now, what's the interesting thing about David is that when he prays, he's enjoying it.
31:06 Nothing else he wants but the presence of God. You You see where we go with this? I
31:12 think this is something completely not completely very lost in the church today
31:17 because what has happened with Christianity is especially in our kind of churches, there are two extremes. The
31:23 first is we have turned it into a rationalistic faith. It's a faith of the mind. It hasn't gotten here.
31:29 And a fifth of the mind translates itself very heavily into activities. Let's do this. Let's do that. Let's do
31:35 that. Have more Bible study. Have you noticed we spend more time talking to one another or listen to a person like
31:42 me talk than talking with God? And if you cannot spend 30 seconds of
31:50 silence, you know, just soaking in God's presence, you're not going to get peace.
31:56 This is the truth of the centuries. The other extreme is where we say, you
32:01 know what, I need to have a deeper experience of God. I need to go deep into God. I need Holy Spirit. Come,
32:07 come. But I only can do that when the speakers and music amping me up. And on
32:13 Sunday, wow, God. Hallelujah. I go home, I shut the door.
32:19 Why my life is so bad? You know why a wonderful counselor, a
32:24 very famous pastor called Paul Trip in Gospel Coalition says this? Because we
32:29 are our worst accuser. I can give you 15 reasons why I'm anxious.
32:34 30 reasons why I should be guilty and 100 reasons why I should hate, be
32:39 bitter, be what? Correct. Because when you're alone, you're your worst enemy. Why is my life like this?
32:47 Why did God allow it to happen to my family? And it eats you. It eats you.
32:52 You become like aas. You shake. And what God is trying to tell us today
32:57 is very simple truth. Glory to God. Peace on earth. And that is really the
33:03 truth of it. You can all go home now. But it's a very simple truth. And I I want us to really practice that and do
33:09 that with discipline and do that daily. And and and you do that, the Holy Spirit
33:15 will give you his fruit. The fruit is peace.
33:22 Let me just end with a very quick one. I want to give this simple message. You see, when you have peace, you know
33:28 what else happens? It goes out.
33:34 That's where we say peace with God leads to peace with yourself. The evidence of
33:41 it is it comes out with others. We do another test, but no silence.
33:49 Here's a simple test. You You go back and you think the last time you had a fight with somebody, anyone, your wife,
33:56 your children, the guy who blocked your car, not referring to anyone,
34:02 someone who gave you bad food, squabble at Globe Cafe, your colleague, any fight, any fight. Here's the evidence of
34:09 it. And John Piper is quite right. The evidence of it is what goes through your mind. Remember again, it's guarding your
34:14 heart and your mind. The mind is the key one because the mind processes the heart you know and John Piper say the evidence
34:20 of it is what goes through your mind. Now if you like me I tell you what goes through my mind
34:27 first I'm right ma people who talk in church always think they're right. So my wife always say the
34:33 old now why I think I'm right you know what happens
34:39 I get angry because the other guy is wrong. It's always the other guy's fault. It
34:44 was never my fault. But when I'm very quiet, I say, "Why did it happen to me?" I feel like a victim.
34:50 You know what it leads to? No peace.
34:56 So again, here's simple truth. Glory to God. Peace on earth. Folk very simple
35:02 message today. You don't justify yourself. You remind yourself you are
35:08 justified by God, by grace. When you do that, you remember you're
35:13 forgiven. You remember Ephesians 4 and I'm I forgive as Christ forgave. What happens?
35:21 You feel less hurt. Doesn't mean the hurt goes away. You feel less of it. You
35:27 feel more grace. What happens then? You have a peace that surpasses
35:33 understanding. And brother, sister, that is the truth. And I wish that on all of
35:39 you. I want to close with a very simple example and it was found with uh Vice
35:46 President Mike Pence as you all know those of you know he's a very committed Christian
35:53 and I want to give you a very simple example so simple that you know and we will give everyday examples what
35:59 happened with Mike Pence he went to see a show called the Hamilton it's a play and a lot of the liberals are there as
36:04 you know one thing about Mike Pence he's very strong stand of the sanctity of marriage America is now coming to a
36:10 point where you cannot even say marriage is between a man and a woman. That's seen as being discriminatory. Now, if
36:16 you watch the video, he got booed throughout the entire play. At the end of the play, when he got up to to leave,
36:23 the cars led by this man actually lectured him on it.
36:29 Now, if he was Malaysia and our politicians, you know what they do, right? Uh they
36:34 will send his son to go and whack the guy. Not mentioning anybody. Say you got dirty mind. I sue you.
36:43 Here is vice president to the most powerful man to be elected yet in the in
36:48 in on this planet. Who went to see a play with his family. So the whole
36:53 family was embarrassed. And you watch the video in between song. They booed him continuously.
37:01 At the end of it he got out to leave. They lectured him. If he did it to me, I'll take a chat or throw it at you, man.
37:07 But do you know how he responded? You go Google it. He responded with so
37:14 much grace, so much love that his worst critics had nothing to
37:21 say. And Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son, said that his behavior was
37:27 exemplary. Now, if that's how he is as vice president, America has a chance.
37:35 But here's the thing I want us to take home and that's the evidence of the peace. You see, the evidence of peace
37:41 isn't seen as whether you're very calm outside or whether it's is you you talk a lot is when you see if somebody blocks
37:48 your car later. Correct. It's the little things is whether how you get agitated with your
37:53 staff on Monday. Whether you go home and you snap at your wife or your daughter is in this little things that comes out
37:59 and your true character shows and you then only really know whether you have
38:05 the peace of Christ and you're like me. You realize you got a long I got a long way to go.
38:11 And that's really what I want to share you today. Peace from God brings us peace on
38:17 ourselves. kind of get the worship team up. And peace from ourselves
38:24 brings out peace to others. Let me just reinforce this with just a few images.
38:30 When was the last time you ever really felt peace?
38:36 Wasn't it when you were with somebody you loved? You don't need to explain that, right?
38:42 When you're with someone you love, your child, your mother, your daughter, your your your your wife, you're at peace.
38:50 Now, here's one thing you got to realize. God loves you.
38:55 He loved you so much. He sent his son to die for you. And that's why we call him everlasting
39:02 father. 2,000 years ago, God sent his son on a very silent night
39:13 and he brought peace to us. We're going to sing this song. You all know it. It's
39:18 called Silent Night. And as we sing it again, I want to ask that you meditate and let the Holy
39:25 Spirit just really walk all over you.
39:30 Why don't we stand? I want to do an action. If I say glory
39:37 to God, how about you raise your hands with me? Come on. You guys are all too stiff. Glory to God. Glory to God.
39:44 And peace on earth. Peace on earth. That's God's promise for you. You know, that's God promise for
39:50 you. Can we have the song up? And as we sing this,
39:56 we're going to sing this very meditatively. We're going to sing the first verse with
40:02 instruments. The next verse, they're going to cut off all the instruments. You are going to
40:07 sing and you're going to sing like the way the angels have sung. Amen.
40:14 And you're going to sing like you're going to glorify God. Amen. Amen. Amen. And when you do that,
40:21 when you do that and you glorify God, it
40:26 will come back to you 100fold. That's God's promise.
40:33 That's the anointing. And we're going to ask for the God's spirit to just move in our midst. And you sing. This is not a
40:40 car session. It's a worship session. You sing with your hearts and God's peace
40:48 will come to you. You glory to God when you sing. Raise your hands if you want to and his peace will come to you. Let
40:56 us just sing this with the bottom of our hearts.
41:10 Glory.
41:17 All is all
41:24 is right. All
41:29 your resender
41:38 [Music]
41:44 and Sing
41:50 [Music]
42:09 night. Holy night,
42:16 son of God. [Music] Love
42:23 your light. Great
42:29 be from thy holy place
42:36 with the dawn of redeeing
42:44 grace. Jesus Lord
42:50 and thy birth.
42:56 Jesus Lord I
43:02 Lord as we come to you in silence we realize the hardest thing for us to do
43:07 is sit at your feet. Our minds are just everywhere. We are just driven by
43:14 activities and very often our faith is a rational faith. For us to experience a
43:21 peace that surpasses understanding. Lord, we have to guard our hearts and
43:27 minds in Christ in the wonderful counselor, the prince of peace,
43:34 everlasting father, mighty God. And Lord, right now as we end, we're
43:39 going to sing one more stanza to you, oh Lord, and we are going to glorify you.
43:45 And we pray, oh Lord, that this is a song which is acceptable to you.
43:53 And we ask, oh Lord, that the church will sing and sing with every breath from the bottom of their hearts. And we
44:00 pray, oh Lord, for many in our midst who are not at peace. They have not at peace because they have trouble. They have no
44:07 jobs. They have illnesses. Marriages are broken down,
44:13 sickness. And they go back, oh Lord. And when they're quiet, and when no one
44:19 sees, they are depressed, unhappy, and they say, "God, where are you?"
44:27 And you are saying Lord in the quietness
44:33 when we are still you are there.
44:40 In fact you have been there all along. We have just not heard your voice
44:47 to teach us this morning on a very simple truth. Peace with you brings
44:54 peace with ourselves and peace with ourselves brings peace with others.
45:00 Teach us oh Lord to glorify you and let that peace reside in us. And we say this
45:07 in Jesus name. Amen. Let us sing the last stanza. Shall we do it music? Let's do it music. All right. Come on guys.
45:13 Last stanza. Raise your voices. Glorify God. Take it away. country singers.
45:22 [Music] Come on, Christmas is coming.
45:28 Sing with your hearts. [Applause] Hallelujah.
45:34 [Music] Glory
45:40 [Music] from heaven above.
45:46 [Music] Heavenly host single.
45:53 [Applause] Christ the Savior
45:60 is born. Christ the Savior
46:09 is born. Hallelujah. Give Lord a big clap offering. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
46:16 Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. We end this service right now. We ask for anyone who
46:21 requires prayer that they will just stay back. They're not a thing to be embarrassed about. We ask for the spirit
46:27 to just anoint this place. We ask for anyone here, anyone of you who wants to talk to us privately. We are here to
46:35 counsel you with the wonderful counselor Jesus Christ. Would you stay back? We ask oh Lord that you just uh make
46:42 everybody more humbled to be willing to receive prayer and now depart us in your
46:47 peace and prepare our hearts for this season of advent at Christmas approaches
46:53 and we say it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you God's peace be with you. Please leave quietly. Anyone of you want
46:59 you can sit down. You can sit down. Anyone need prayer. The
