Christmas Advent…Lasting Peace

f if you are here and you know somebody that fits that description their life is in turmoil and tension and grief and trouble and pain and struggle will you stand on their behalf at this time as well and join these who are standing there will be a few still seated some can’t stand will you will you who are standing near them put an arm on their shoulder cuz we’re making a faith statement here today will you close your eyes now and just hold on to person

next to you the chair back and just imagine doing what Kelly read about pouring out pure perfume of anointing on Jesus Christ who did come mostly unnoticed in into a world that was crazy and in deep trouble but that same Jesus grew to be a compassionate man a God man who said I came to show you because it’s hard to just get there in your imagination what God is all about do you see his face right now remember you stood because you were in some kind

of stir or you you’re standing because you represent that family member or friend like that right now now look at Jesus thank you Jesus that all kinds of us are looking at you right now some in this room we would cry out if we could we beg you God to bring peace into our hearts our homes we even pray for a world I’m not sure how that can possibly happen but I know that one by one nation by Nation we can turn to you but it

starts with one heart and we stand asking you to bring that peace into our hearts and make it last we love you Jesus amen amen go ahead and take a seat as kids are kind of making their way around and going to join together for some good times as well some really really important times some of you know what goes on in kidland but if you don’t have one of the children that’s there find out ask about it ask Miss Becky and she’ll tell you the

things they do and maybe ask one of the children themselves today in cafe or something it’s it’s good things they they’re learning at a maybe a little people level about things that you and I feel deeply and and I’m glad for that it’s it’s a really good thing I am so let me just unscripted tell you that you absolutely must come tonight we have a great holiday tradition really I’m going to give you the right label for it because it’s not really holiday it’s an advent

Carol sing and it starts at 5 o’clock and it will it will will end probably within the hour it’s not a long long thing but it’s it’s we used to have a whole list of things that we would do and Debbie and I did one of those this last week we went and watched the Christmas boats go down the wamit river and they’re holling from the boats have Merry Christmas and we’re holling back trying not to make a scene and there a whole bunch of us

out there that’s just one of our fun traditions we love singing We Love hearing the story of Jesus Jesus coming but tonight will be very special as it is each year if you’re elderly and driving at night is not easy for you don’t leave today without asking somebody can you pick me up can you give me a ride because I want to I want to be there I want to be part of this thing five o’clock tonight right here and it’ll be special and you’ll be

glad I have it on good goodward that I will not be asked to sing Oh Holy Night your ner your laugh was nervous I’m just going to say you what does he mean by that but kit Whitman’s disappointed because she’s the one that many years ago asked me to do that and I started way out of my I think it’s called your range yeah I was in Soprano land before the sucker started and so I think everybody was winded including me at the end of that

song but anyway we’ll have a lot of fun a lot of good things and I really want to encourage you to do that and then a program not note next Sunday is Christmas Eve and we have our normal 10:00 time for our celebration but we are going to have a special morning together so 10 o’clock be sure and be here and I’m not an ugly sweater guy just dressed like you feel like it okay so some of you are already in lovely things and I’m speaking

to you who are not in this room right now but you’re really part of us if you’re another place tuning in today or in the days to come come join us Christmas Eve 10:00 here at Grace Point and we’re a real place and real people and we have room for you so it’d be fun to have you join us so music I I love how we do that it’s it’s not just song it’s not just instrumentation it’s a it’s a mix of things that brings us

really impact ever since I discovered that years ago as a pastor I realized that it takes the word of God and often times in song in fact for me personally some of the scripture that I’ve put to memory came as a song you know create in me a clean heart oh God you probably knew some of you that’s from Psalm 51 it’s David’s song after he had confessed his sin and and I learned it as a song and then put it to memory so there’s a

lot of stuff like that but I like to quote lyrics from songs as well because they often dial in think of it as a frequency like you’ve got a radio and it tunes into different frequencies I think lyrics tune into frequencies that relate to the lives of a lot of people and and it’s probably true in just a about any genre of music you and I could come up with like we could we could take from classical to rock we could go from country y’all and

we could go to Christian I mean the the call the the categories are wide and they reveal sentiments songs do that are shared by many a long time ago 1980 to be exact just as dinosaurs were extinct there was a country singer his name was Johnny Lee and he struck a nerve a humongous nerve with his hit song you know what it is you’re not GNA say it out loud because we’re going to know you’re a Johnny Lee fan but looking for love remember that song

song some of you have a painful sound coming from you right now not that song in it he tells turns out it’s his story I did some research and discovered some things about that song long ago his story that actually turned out to be the story of many people or you wouldn’t sell millions of Records something in it about a frustrating search for love that was as the the song Story Goes it was a frustrating search for love and and he actually in his search he

says so in his song it spanned a lifetime it wasn’t a teenage search in other words this thing went on and on and on and he made a song out of it and of course made Millions I’m sure but as the song continues he describes some of the column feudal places that he searched looking for love and a frequent repeating line in the song became a really famous admission not only by him but people that kind of embrac the song and it goes like this I

was looking I’m tempted to sing looking for love in all the wrong places right okay enough of that so this is Christmas and it is church but looking looking for love in all the wrong places looking for love in too many faces okay he’s not done and I was alone then no love in sight and I did everything I could to get me through the night what a life what a desperate life what a difficult may I use the word feudal search for some see why

I like lyrics I mean they they we say it as pastors as teachers and preachers they preach they get people’s attention they communicate a message even if it’s contrary to what we’re here about they grab us and they make us sit forward in our seat and it becomes something we’re going to listen to who hasn’t felt that way may I say about those lyrics or as you just prayed knows someone who actually right now feels like that now time for a surprise my talk today is

actually not about looking for love in all the wrong places it’s not that at all because you know God so loved the world I mean we know the right place to look but given our fourth Sunday in Advent what the Jers just read to us and man that feels good on cold hands just going to stay here a while I want to change it up I use it as an introduction this morning and because I think it’s something that we long for and often look for

also in all the wrong places I’m talking about peace so where are some of the wrong places that we look for peace let’s start there okay because I am convinced you and I live in the midst of a chaotic world I’m convinced of that that’s not a dig on Portland Oregon we don’t have a corner on chaos you can find this across our country or in any other country of the world you can find it across the street if you’re looking I could give you examples

in our peaceful little neighborhood so let’s let’s just agree we’ve got a problem because there’s not much peace and there’s a whole lot more chaos it seems and we tend to look in the wrong places for that piece you with me so far in my premise okay so here’s the deal let’s start let’s just zoom out as far as we can Let’s Go Global okay just two places I want to look the first one Global I took a little check and pretty much there’s two ongoing

Wars in our world today probably a lot more skirmishes conflicts whatever word you want to use but Wars for sure the one that we all think about for a while now is the Russian Ukraine war how many would how how long’s that been going anybody want to guess without checking well I got a little shock coming for you it’s not two years it’s 10 years 10 years since they Russia invaded and took over by force Crimea and you ask the historians that are local to the

scene and they will tell you this is not an almost two years ago War this has been with us for 10 years so however we want to define the timing of that it’s much bigger and much uglier than we tend to get in our filtered Western World okay so and I’m not I’m not an in I’m not a guy that knows it all I’m just simply telling you I was forward I was prepared to tell you how long has that been going well this February will’ll

be two years no a lot longer and then of course you you can’t miss the Israel Israeli Hamas War how long’s that been going you knew it’s a trick right yeah Millennia somebody said actually 18 years and if you ask them how do you get 18 out of two months most of us know this thing blew up in October that’s the latest iteration of a five they they have five distinct Wars they would call the Israeli Hamas War wow again I’m on the floor when I’m

learning this stuff because I I a month of war is a is an eternity in my mind I’ve never been to war but I have great friends that have and they don’t have any fun talking about it so where do we go to get peace in Russia Ukraine Israel Hamas where where do we go who do we go to to broker peace well let’s just say it most people would say well the best place to go would be the United States because they they’ve got might

and money and hopefully a will to do something about it others would say no we lost our moral High ground somewhere along the way whatever but they would they would point to the UN those are kind of the two that come to mind for me those are the two right is that a did I go positive or negative on that second right so what do you do my point is we look for peace that’s not going to work that’s not going to work holy smokes we’re

out of places to go also of course the second place we go let’s go from zoomed way out to zoomed way in and talk for a moment about peace on a personal scale you know the kind that you look for when you face loneliness and depression and Brokenness broken relationships Broken Dreams broken hope it goes on and on where do people like that frequently turn for help in their search for peace well let’s just think through our lives for a second most of us would say

a friend I call a friend I got I got that go-to person in my life I call them we have coffee and that works for some maybe only temporary for others then we if it’s a big enough problem it it seems to escalate to counselors we call a counselor a shrink a a PhD an mfcc on and on the labels go we find you know we we kind of think well you know I’m paying 150 bucks an hour maybe that’ll take it to a true peace

that I desperately need and people do that some go to pastors and and they’re free but they they go to pastors and they say you got something but more than a few I it’s just you know me I’m going to be honest about it more than a few turned to things like alcohol and drugs and in our new enlightened Northwest magic mushrooms seem to be the thing seriously think of the Folly of that or pot or anything like that here’s the problem never mind your polit

none of this is political to me at all you need to know that that but every one of those places we turn for peace don’t last that’s my problem with that they have they actually wear off or they run out need more fentol God help us that’s that’s crazy it’s it’s knowing we got chaos and turning to the wrong relief and being surprised that chaos didn’t go away people keep searching because it’s a problem that won’t go away without a much better response so you want

the reason why it’s just this pattern problem search for seek for reach for Relief pattern doesn’t go you know we have temporary relief we have a moment but it runs out and then the problem again you want to know why my estimation if you’re going to write anything down this is worth writing down this is the keeper the whole rest of my talks about this the peace we seek isn’t to be found apart from a personal relationship with the Prince of Peace take that with you

today talk to people you love who are in knots tell them admit to them I can’t fix you I’m your friend I love you I take a bullet for you I can that will not fix your lack of peace problem because peace we seek peace that will last will not be found outside of a personal relationship with the Prince of Peace the Jers read some great words from a a prophet that’s great in so many ways God used Isaiah mightily chapter nine is a wonderful chapter

I’m just going to point to it most of these scriptures you’ve heard before we when describing an event eight centuries before it happened Isaiah used four descriptive names to describe a promised deliverer okay you can’t spend enough time trying to go back 800 years and imagine this is just a real guy he’s just a another guy like me or you know Jim or Bill or John or Bob just just real guy and he’s told by the Holy Spirit write something down and it’s not for now

it’ll come true someday long after he was gone and he wrote those wonderful words we repeat them often at Christmas time for good reason they have labels that provide really highdef pictures a snapshot of of one we know as Jesus Emmanuel the baby king is how I like to think of him born a king in Bethlehem his words are the words we heard but to say them again for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government will rest upon

his shoulders oh and his name is wonderful counselor Mighty God Eternal Father wait for it Prince of Peace you don’t want to yell that the word peace says you’ll be okay just last week we read about a vast company of angels that joined the single Angel speaking appearing to a few Shepherds and they were singing lifechanging lyrics I don’t think I’ve ever thought of what they did that night and recorded in Luke 2 as as a choir of angels but they were the text is clear

one angel came and announced amazing news and a short time later in the same scene in the same moment he was joined by a vast company of angels and this is what they sang chapter 2 verse4 you remember last week it was beautiful glory to God in the highest Heavens they sang and on Earth peace to those on whom his favor rests Jesus was the son born to us Jesus was that child that the choir sang about that night and Jesus was the one who came

to live among us I think Luke said Pitch his tent in the neighborhood I know of a lot of tents that have been pitched in places they don’t belong in Portland and surrounding areas this was couldn’t have been a bigger more stark contrast I would I would have taken his tent any day in my front or backyard how about my home how about my heart so what does peace look like I mean he said the Angels said today to together they they sang glory to God

in the highest and on Earth peace what is peace what is what’s the thing we hunger for and tend to look for in the wrong place there’s an actual Hebrew in the Hebrew language it’s a word that’s translated 200 times Shalom like on a Sabbath day for Jewish people it’d be sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday night it’s somebody that want to care of the language Doug and and Daniel shabbat shalom right it’s a greeting that’s done not only on Sabbath it’s a greeting that’s done

any time it’s I I’m gonna it has for different reasons but it’s used as frequently as the islands the Hawaiian Islands we say as a hello and a goodbye Al Aloha it’s a very normal greeting but there’s meaning behind it in Hebrew there is in in Hawaiian language but the the meaning behind it in Hebrew is more than peace it’s not a an equivalent it’s much bigger it involves things like wholeness completeness it’s it’s a it’s a better word it is it’s a word that can

have reference to lots of areas of life our our relational our physical and for sure our spiritual domains if you will so if I say to you Shalom I’m wishing you well in your marriage if you’re married I’m wishing you well in your friendship Shalom I’m wishing you I’m praying for you for the same physically you’re afflicted by something there’s there’s there’s physical problems well shalom’s a good word for that it’s a it’s a greeting that wishes you health and wholeness when you’re frazzled and and

non peaceful in your soul it’s wishing you it’s okay I wish you well from that root word Shalom I mentioned it occurs over 200 times in the Old Testament Billy Graham Drew attention to three types of peace that I thought were just worth mentioning in this kind of moving dialogue here three types of peace that the Prince of Peace let’s never separate it from him because this is not sold in stores you hearing me this is not a a stuff this is a savior this is

a hym this is Jesus the first is psychological it’s it’s probably I don’t think Isaiah thought this when he wrote chapter 26 verse 3 and 4 he said the steadfast of mind there’s something going on inside the steadfast of Mind thou will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in thee trust in the Lord forever therefore for in God the Lord we have an everlasting Rock are you hearing permanent okay so Graham was right I think he’s calling attention to something that’s internal it’s not even

something you necessarily have to talk about it’s just like I live in a world that that hits me hard so do you and sometimes I’m up sometimes I’m leaning sometimes I’m down sometimes I Fake it Well I’m glad I don’t have to fake it this morning I had a most horrendous toothache Friday and Saturday and I called the doctor and said you know I’m scotch and I hate spending money on teeth but I need a canal a root canal I need one of those babies and

I need it I didn’t say all this to them I I planned my speech for tomorrow when I have a scheduled emergency whatever and I planned my speech to say bro how you know throw me a bound man give me some Grace here something like that guess what happened last night in my sleep my teeth came out I’m all there now no I couldn’t I couldn’t mean ask Debbie I was not fun to be around but I’m fun again and I’m not on drugs either you

guys trust me I’m not I’m not I was Friday and Saturday on Advil but that’s too personal but I just want you to know something I think Jesus healed me I do I yeah I mean look at that anyway I’m done with oatmeal so anyway so psychological piece let’s go a step further okay by the way Debbie made killer soup last night so she is my hero once again let’s go from Psych that thou will keep in perfect peace who him whose heart is steadfast in

thee steadfast of Mind thou will keep in perfect peace said Isaiah a second area would have to be relational peace with others I’m just going to read you a couple of words I was shocked when I read them in this context Ephesians chapter 2 verses 14 and to 17 four times the word peace is mentioned here Jesus himself is our peace who has brought the two groups made the two groups one he’s talking about Jews and Gentiles they don’t play well in the sandbox for Jesus

himself is our peace who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations his purpose was to create in himself One new Humanity out of the two thus Making Peace not done and in one body he reconciled both of them to God Through The Cross by which he put to death their hostility last verse he came and preached peace to you who were far away that would

have to be the Gentiles and peace to those who were near wow all in Jesus relational peace relational peace lasting relational peace is possible you’re with me aren’t you psychological relational here’s one more spiritual of course most of us have put Romans 51 to memory therefore having been justified by faith we can have peace with God through Jesus Christ Our Lord that tells you something about your condition if you’re here or listening someplace else and you haven’t bowed your knee to Jesus you’re at war with

a holy God it’s not little the chasm between you and God is great it canot not be circumnavigated you can’t overcome the hostility that God has for sinful humankind except through the Prince of Peace that’s why Jesus would say in John I not know the way I am the way that’s the cross I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father no one finds lasting peace except Jesus speaking through me will you tell somebody that this week don’t Don’t lecture

them I’m just giving it to you so that you have a tool to say you’re at war with God there is nothing that will fix that conflict except Jesus and boy when he fixes it it’s a permanent fix amen I just I just love that so Jesus said on his last and arguably worst night of his life with his disciples this comes at us late in John early that evening though he said the words that were read to us he said describing Shalom as being only

sourced in him he said Chapter 14 verse 27 peace I leave with you listen to this my peace I give to you I do not give as the world gives he’s in his own words saying this is not the piece you can buy someplace there’s no substitute for it’s me so he adds do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid a little bit later that same night they were just about to go to prayer and leave for the a short trip through

the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives and the arrest and the rest you know to be the cross but near the end of that conversation and dinner and all that went on that night it’s covered by the way in John 13-17 all of that at the end of chapter 16 these words are recorded by Jesus by John about Jesus I have told you these things so that in me I imagine his look by this time they know something’s heavy in me you may have peace

in this world you will have trouble but take courage I have overcome the world John 16 verse 33 Jesus was extending peace in those words to you and me to his followers that night and every Ever every night since Jesus peace wasn’t temporary either it was lasting that was the Clear Tone of those words and Jesus peace is not a way to avoid hear me now storms it’s a way to persevere through storms when they come I you you ask anybody that’s walked with Jesus a

while and they know personally the prince of peace and you see a hurricane hit their lives and and you hear you hear weird sounds of peace be assured they have a source for that be assured he has a name so if we were to go deep further than we have already in the Bible you would find something to be kind of interesting and I’ll just leave it with you as we wrap up my thoughts this morning in in searching the Bible for peace Shalom as I’ve

mentioned several compelling features and the first one took me right to the beginning of people on this planet and they’re recorded in the first book of the Bible and there’s this really great scene and it’s all chapter two of Genesis and there’s two people of course you know Adam and Eve and they’re there in the garden and they’re at they’re they’re actually living the dream this is their first home right great neighborhood by the way I mean great neighborhood CAC I mean the street doesn’t go

through stuff like that it’s it’s a really nice place to live oh and by the way they get to have Blissful times together and hang out with Dad you with me I’m bringing it down to the bottom shelf here when it says God came walking in the garden as it was his practice daily what does that sound like that sounds like Dad’s here let’s play let’s talk it was wasn’t always that way when I grew up when I heard dad’s home I went oh whoa I

wonder if my Crim spree today will find its way to him but anyway but you get what I mean that’s all chapter two my how quickly peace Fades chapter four by chapter four actually chapter three it happened and by chapter 4 the first murder on planet Earth I’m going to call Cain and Abel it wasn’t just a you know misfired gun this was I am going to kill you and there will be one of us standing when this is over said Cain and that’s how it

turned out read it yourself that’s just chapter four of the whole Bible heartache depression death everything float out of chapter 3 which was look God I know you told us not to but we’re going to do it our way anyway Dr Phil asks a good question how’s that working for you you know so then of course we mentioned already Isaiah many centuries later comes along and Promises a future peace so much so that he talks about it in terms of a person of Peace Jesus the

prince of peace but a little bit later in Isaiah’s words it’s hard to have these two juxtaposed this Prince of Peace and what it took for him to make peace possible for you and me he says so in in chapter 53 Isaiah does verse three he says verse five rather he was pierced for our transgressions referring to the Prince of Peace he was crushed for our iniquities and the punishment that brought us say it with me peace he says in those words it’s salvation and all

that comes with it the punishment that brought us peace the punishment fell on him that’s the gospel he didn’t do anything to deserve that cross the ultimate Shalom and peace brought brought about by Jesus made possible by Jesus came through his death and his resurrection that’s what Peter meant when he said for Christ has suffered once for our sins the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God Prince of Peace Emanuel he’s the one that provides lasting peace which means that if someone offers you

peace that isn’t sourced in Jesus you can know for sure that that what they have offered well-intentioned will not last it won’t it’s like a hit it’s like a hit of a Dobie it’s a it’s like a you pick your poison the drinks empty they may mean well but they’re not delivering real peace unless they deliver Jesus even worse to seek peace apart from Jesus is like trying to quench your thirst in the toatin will it will it satisfy your thirst maybe for a moment will

it likely cause other problems almost certainly it’s it’s not clean it’s polluted say whatever word you want but you had thirst that’s good somebody offered you water or you drank it and it momentarily took care of your thirst but your thirst is back and a whole bunch more you remember the words that Jesus used when he was talking about a woman that went to a well and John chapter 4 talks about this he’s she’s thirsty she’s there daily because your thirst is back and you need

more water and he said this anyone who drinks this water pointing to the woman pulling water from a well will soon become thirsty again no insight there that’s just plain speak but those who drink the water that comes from me that I give never to thirst again their thirst will be permanently satisfied and he he adds it becomes this this thirst becomes a a fresh bubbling spring from within giving them eternal life because that’s where Jesus will live when we ask him I I would like

you to close your eyes and tuck away your notes and take a moment with me the the lights are going to come down for you to just not be distracted by other things for a moment because I think there’s an important fact here to to consider the Isaiah which we talk about so often we point to him sometimes I think with Envy what it would have been like to be the guy given this great news to tell about there’s this baby soon to be born 800

years later imagine being the one that was told to write this down or speak these words and I I’ve looked at him with Envy until I realized wait a minute there’s another coming it’s a second coming and it’s ours to tell about Steve’s yours not just pastors and preachers and other it’s it’s all of us that have met the source of lasting peace and I think that’s really amazing the first coming of Jesus which we celebrate at Christmas was truly good news in every sense good

news that brings great joy but the future coming of Jesus the second time still in our future is no less joyful but it’s now our news to share so if you’ve met Jesus will you make it a point this week say holy spirit guide me when I drive and shop and do whatever I do and help me to notice people in a way that I get to tell them I’ve I found something that is in short supply in our world today I found peace you can

too in a baby king who gave his life for us which at least personally speaking calls me to want to adore him in worship if

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 5,876 words.