The Work of the Prince of Peace

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God, we're thankful.

We're so thankful that the peace of heaven is gonna triumph over the chaos of this world.

Born in conflict, surrounded by conflict, but Lord, we have we have a peace that surpasses all understanding.

We're thankful for that.

The Lord speaks, the earth melts.

We're thankful that the peace of heaven is gonna win at the end.

God, as we open up your scriptures, God, would you please still our souls?

Help us to be still and know that you're God.

In a room this size, God, I'm aware that there's a lot of souls that are that are clattering or souls that are rattling and people that are have a lot of unrest.

But God, I pray that in this moment, this can be a slice of heaven in this very room.

Let your peace rule over our hearts as we look towards your scriptures.

It's in your beautiful name I pray.

Amen.

And you can be seated.

Alrighty, good morning.

How are we?

Hey, if you have your Bibles, would you go ahead and grab those and go to Romans chapter 5?

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, you can just relax or uh access your device.

Um, or this the text we'll be reading from is gonna appear here on the screen.

We have some visitors here today, probably this time of year, a lot of visitors.

My name is Leo Almeida, I'm the teaching pastor here at Graham Parkway.

Um, I'll be here down front if you have any questions, you want uh just to meet me, or you want to just uh a prayer um for anything in your life.

So it's always a privilege and an honor to come here and lead in this way and learn with you.

And we're gonna be learning to get today in Romans chapter five.

Now, um last week we looked at the topic of hope.

And I love the Christian um definition of hope.

We're not wishing, but we're waiting.

We are we're we have a confident expectation of what's going to happen.

It already happened once and it's going to happen again, but now we look at the theme of peace.

Now, um, as we start, in and whether it's in and out of this room or um whether it's a long time ago or recently, um, if you've ever heard the word shalom, say amen.

Okay, that should be most of us.

So that's probably the most famous word in the Hebrew language is the word shalom.

And that's actually the Hebrew word for peace.

It's actually a multifaceted word as well.

What that means is um there is sometimes the Bible uses the word shalom, and it's talking about calmness or tranquility.

So the picture in your mind that it could evoke is that lake with no ripples.

And there's other times the Bible uses the word shalom, okay, and it can be referring to completeness or wholeness.

So picture somebody putting that last piece of the puzzle in a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, which I did during Thanksgiving.

Okay, I actually just supervised it.

My wife did it.

I was in the house where that was done.

But that's Shalom.

Okay, you put that last piece.

That's that's good.

That's complete.

That's what you get in Genesis chapter one.

He saw that it was very good.

So God weaved into creation this harmony, this peace.

But then Adam and Eve rebelled.

Okay, our first parents rebelled, and they turned that first lake into a storm, and they turned that puzzle into fragments.

Because this morning you did not wake up in a world where there's perfect shalom.

You woke up in the world of conflict.

A lot of conflict.

So much so that throughout Advent, okay, as me and Neil are up here preaching, a lot of us, uh to you, to a lot of you, we sound like Charlie Brown's teacher.

What it's not because you dislike us or you dislike God, but what's happening is there's things like inner conflict.

Okay, mindfulness and meditation have skyrocketed in popularity for a reason.

Matter of fact, apps like Calm or Headspace or Buddha Fyme are being downloaded by the millions.

Or Spotify, for example, the music platform Spotify is pretty transparent about who's listening to what.

And they actually show that you can actually see on there that hundreds of millions of times this past year, people are getting on Spotify and not listening to music, but they're listening to things like gentle thunderstorm, ocean waves, quiet thunder.

About 40 million Americans right now are have are operating with anxiety disorder.

We have inner conflict.

And furthermore, we have interpersonal conflict.

Right now, in your brain, right now, what's your mental image of perfect peace?

Just in your mind, just what's your mental image of perfect peace?

Okay, I guarantee you, no one said Times Square in New York.

Or Galleria Mall during the holidays.

What you probably thought of a lake or some snow-capped mountains or even a nap, but what they have in common is there weren't many people in it.

That shows there's interpersonal conflict.

So there's people in here right now.

You're daydreaming about, oh man, the conversation you had during Thanksgiving, or the conflict you had during Thanksgiving, or the conversation you're gonna have, or who's coming, or the person who finally got to come here.

There's interpersonal conflict.

And lastly, there's there's international conflict.

Like right in the last nine years, Yemen has been through one of the most crazy humanitarian crises ever, and most people don't even know about it.

And it's not because people are dumb or you hate Yemen, it's because next door to Yemen, there is something just as crazy happening, and then just as it's just all over the place.

The last three years I felt like we're stuck in the climax of an action movie.

International conflict.

Okay, but God right there is um uh but God in his wisdom, he put a baby on the battlefield.

Okay, and 700 years before this baby came, he was named the Prince of Peace.

And this begs the question: what did the Prince of Peace come here to do?

What did the Prince of Peace come here to do?

Let's look at Romans 5.

I mean, just the first five verses as this.

Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have faith with, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him, we also obtain access by faith into his grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

So, in this passage, um, the Prince of Peace is referred to as our Lord Jesus Christ.

This passage right here, passage right here answers the question: what did the peace of Prince of Peace come here to do?

Okay, number one, he came to give us peace with God.

The Prince of Peace came to give us peace with God.

That's verse one right there.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Okay, there is an instance where uh a paralyzed man gets brought to Jesus.

And before he says it, he forgives him of his sin.

Before he even considered his legs, he forgives him of his sin.

Furthermore, um there are several instances where Jesus has something profound or he does something profound, and therefore people around him want to make him king so he can defeat Rome and defeat Caesar.

And Jesus says no.

Why?

Because he knows for this man his biggest problem are not his legs.

And he knows for these first century Jews, their biggest problem, okay, their biggest problem is not Rome or Caesar.

That's probably their most poignant problem.

That's where they can feel the most, that's where they can hear the loudest.

In that same way, you and I are born in conflict, surrounded by conflicts.

But if our biggest problem was politics, God would have sent us a politician.

If our biggest problem was boredom, God would have sent us an entertainer.

Or if our biggest problem was something physical, God would have sent us a doctor.

And he didn't.

He sent us a savior.

Because the biggest problem of the world is sin.

Our biggest problem is our fundamental, okay, our fundamental conflict with God.

And you and I are enemies of God.

We were born enemies of God.

So the good news of the Christmas story, okay, so this Christmas story actually gives us good news.

Okay, that's why we sing peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.

Colossians 1.19 puts it like this, okay?

It says this, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile in himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Simply put, what Romans 5 1 is saying is this.

Listen, um, through faith in Jesus, you can have peace with God.

You can have peace.

That is your most through faith in Jesus, your most fundamental conflict is resolved.

You've been justified.

Okay, so it's through faith in Jesus your most fundamental conflict is resolved.

You can have peace with God.

Listen to me.

The opposite is also true.

On the other hand, okay, outside of faith in Jesus, the best you can do is temporary relief.

Outside of him, the best you can do is temporary relief.

If you've been dragged here today, because it's that time of year, and then you maybe you coming in here, this is your exhausted collapse.

This is your white flag waving.

Like, I can't figure it out anymore.

I want to say, listen, don't settle for temporary relief when there's eternal peace available.

There is eternal peace available.

You won't find it outside of Jesus.

I'll give you uh an example.

So in 2020, um, I was splitting time between my apartment in Richmond and my parents' house.

Okay, my brothers were in town, we're all stuck inside, and I was going back and forth.

I'd spend three days with my parents and all my family, and then I would go back to my apartment.

Okay, it was like I was going back and forth.

It was an introvert's dream.

Okay, when I got peopled out, I would just drive on 59, get back to my apartment, and I would do that back and forth the entire year.

Well, one time I went to my mom's house, my parents' house, and um I spent maybe a little bit too long there.

I got back to my apartment and I was greeted by these new new people that were in my apartment.

They were there were flies.

Okay, flies were everywhere, which was bizarre because I took the trash out before I left, but nevertheless, flies everywhere.

And they were super annoying because not only were they getting in my food, but then they would fly by my ear and brag about it.

Flies everywhere.

There is absolutely everywhere, and this went off for a week and then two weeks and then all these months of flies.

And I would have these afternoons, I would uh pause the TV and I would just slap everything in sight.

I'll go on this rampage, I would kill dozens of flies.

I'll be like, that settles it, I'm good now.

And I go to sleep and I wake up and they're back.

Like they like tripled or double, they were everywhere.

And then one day I got so fed up with these flies, I wanted to find the source.

Opening fridge, I'm ripping stuff out of the fridge, I'm checking the cabinets, and then there's a cabinet right now, right like um lower down.

And as soon as I touched the handle, there was this show I used to watch called That's So Raven.

And she used to have these flash forwards where she would just stop and have these visions of what's gonna happen.

That was me.

As soon as I touched the handle, I had a flashback.

I remembered that as a few months before this, I was leaving a food drive, and maybe, and as I was leaving, I guess I looked extra single because somebody was like, Hey, you're single, take these bags of potatoes and onions with you.

And I was like, Yeah, sure.

And I put him in my car, drove to my house, I stuffed him in there, and I had to meet with kids somewhere else.

Okay, and when I opened up, I don't know if you've ever seen the movie Birds, they almost carried me away, okay?

But I looked in there, they created their own ecosystem, they were they were having a good time in there.

I called my friend Ian, Ian Wharton, and we got to, we came to my, we went to go buy pine saw all these things that I never knew existed, and we got these gloves, and we cleaned that out for hours, and the flies were gone in two days.

What happened?

Until I went to the source, all I got was temporary relief.

Until I went to the source, all I got was temporary relief in that same way.

Listen, you can have the best therapist, you can make your kids behave like robots, you can go on the best vacations, money can go by, you can go apologize to whoever you hurt in high school.

But outside of Jesus, until you're reconciled to God, you won't have the peace that matters most.

Saint St.

Augustine put it this way, right here.

Okay, in one of his prayer prayers, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until it rests in you.

You have peace with God.

Now, look at look at Romans one or Romans 5, 1 again.

So, um, what exactly gives us this peace?

This peace is linked to something.

Okay, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, right here, our peace is linked to something else.

Okay, it's since this then this.

Okay, since we're here, since it's beautiful outside, I'm gonna eat outside.

Okay, it's linked to something else.

We have peace because we have been justified.

Okay, this right here in this passage unlocks our peace.

It's been long asked, how could a loving God send people to hell?

Okay, I think there's an inverse question that's just as interesting, if not more interesting.

How could a holy God invite sinners to heaven?

It doesn't, that's the problem of the Bible, right there.

How does a holy, perfect, unchanging God invite depraved sinners into heaven?

Because, like, if you get your um uh a carpet completely clean, your house, completely spotless, and I knock on your door and I have mud all over my shoes, you're gonna go, hey, come on in here.

Or, ladies, the day that you were married and you were wearing white, and I just happen to be a victim of a mudslide before your wedding, and then I show up to your wedding and I'm like, hey, you're not gonna say, hey, bring it in.

In that same way, how does this holy, perfect God invite depraved, natural sinners into heaven?

Well, he doesn't excuse sin.

What he does is he forgives sins and he justifies sinners.

God graciously gives us a substitute.

So through justification, what that means is God's or Christ's righteousness is mine.

That's how sinners can enter his presence.

The righteousness, the Jesus' perfect report card is drenched over me.

God did not just power wash me from far away and say, Oh, stare back there.

No, he puts on me the robe of his son, the finished work of his son.

That's how I can be in his presence.

So I've showed you these pictures here in late July, but I think they're so pertinent whenever it comes to the topic of peace right here.

So most people relate to God in this right here.

So I had sin, God took away my sin, now I'm as white as snow.

And yes, this theme is in the scriptures.

Okay, you are washed clean, but the next picture here revolves or explains a little bit more of what happens in justification.

You're not just judged not guilty, you're judged to be a you're a son.

You are a son.

You have the righteousness of Christ drenched over you.

My question, as you're looking at this, my question is this What would change in your life if you gave yourself space to sink into this truth?

Like, what would change if you take time every day to relax into this reality?

Whenever Jesus is getting baptized, you there's that voice that comes from heaven.

Um, there is my my my my my son with whom I am well pleased.

You inherit that the moment you come to Christ.

What would happen if you took time to sink into this?

Would you still climb the corporate ladder as fast?

Would you take criticism the same?

Would you be as insecure?

Would you be as defensive as you are now?

What if you took more time to relax into this reality?

That gives us peace.

Hebrews 10 14 puts it like this for by a single offering, Christ dying for us, he has okay, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

So those who are being sanctified, that's you and I.

We're being sanctified.

God is doing surgery on your heart right now, but he has perfected us.

All right, so we positionally stand perfect and holy and blazed before God, and that ought to give us peace.

We are judged more than not guilty, we're judged as sons and daughters.

So upon faith, God declares Jesus' perfect life and obedience yours, and that should give you peace.

So the good news of the Christian story is that he came to give us peace with God.

Now, I could just stop the sermon now, I can pray right now, we can be done.

Okay, half my sermon was stolen by by who you saw read right here.

That was amazing.

Okay.

But this passage has a word that you and I should get used to.

Okay?

We're gonna benefit from this word forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.

Okay, if you're up late, you see a lot of infomercials, and their right-hand punch is wait, there's more.

Right?

This this passage has the word also, as in that's not it.

It's peace with God, but there's something else.

Okay, what did the Prince of Peace come here to do?

He came to give us peace with God, but he also came to give us the peace of God.

So we have the peace with God, our most fundamental need, the peace with God, because God can we can kill you, but God can kill you and send you to hell, but no, we have peace with God.

We also have the peace of God.

Look at verses two through five right here.

It says this.

Through him, through Jesus, we have also obtained access by faith into his grace in which we stand, and we'll rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Not only that, but we'll rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.

Because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Now, this this passage is pregnant with goodness, and I won't ring out every word and every phrase, but there's someone here I want you to see, okay?

So, uh, did you see who's referencing this passage?

Okay, okay, this is this is the Holy Spirit.

It ends right here by talking about the Holy Spirit.

Remember, Jesus did not come here on earth the same way our most famous celebrities go back to their high school or go back to their old neighborhoods.

He didn't come here just to pass out stuff and leave.

Okay, the the the goal of the gospel is we get God at the end.

That's the goal of the gospel.

We get him himself at the end.

He came to give us himself in a way that we could never lose him again.

And we know right now we have his presence through the Holy Spirit.

Now, right before Jesus went to the cross, he promised his disciples peace.

And he said he was talking about the Holy Spirit.

Okay, he was talking to promised peace.

He says, I give you peace, and I give my peace I give to you.

I don't give peace like the world gives peace.

My peace is not natural.

Like what how does the world give peace?

The world gives peace through retirement plans, ring doorbells, secure banks, alarm systems, passwords, airbags, police officers.

Are those things good or bad?

They're good.

Listen, they're natural, they're natural.

The peace that Jesus gives is a supernatural peace through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus says, the peace I give is capable of doing more, it's capable of reaching deeper.

It's supernatural peace through the Holy Spirit.

This passage right here um is answering the question, the timing question.

Does Christianity actually work?

Or are these just ideas we toss around in a room on Sunday morning?

Does Christianity actually work?

Like, how can it help me today?

Is it just for Sunday, or can it be impactful for Tuesday afternoon or Thursday night when I'm about to lose it?

And this answer.

Yes, when you agree with the Spirit.

Listen, you want supernatural peace?

Agree with the Holy Spirit.

Agree with Him.

Walk in step with Him.

Agree with him.

So what do we agree with him about?

Okay, right here.

Um, we agree with the Holy Spirit that our our relationship with God is based on grace.

That's verse two.

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into his grace in which we stand.

Right now, I am standing in grace.

If you are in Christ, you are standing in grace.

This is not based on how many bad days you have versus how many good days you have.

It's not about how much how much time goes by in between your bad habits.

It's not based on karma like almost every other religion is.

It's based on grace.

I don't know about you, I need grace.

I need a lot of grace.

Listen, being a Christian, a lot of being a Christian is coming to terms of the fact you get infinity years, infinity years of enjoying God's goodness that you don't deserve.

That's a lot of Christianity.

You just sit and receive.

Let me show you how this is relevant in the Christian story, the Christian story.

This is Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

It says this, okay?

It says this, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace.

Of the increase of his government and 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 with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

This passage right here is profound, but it's not profound for what's there, but it's also what's not there.

Like, what's our part in this?

Like, where is the part we work for it?

No, it's for uh to us a child is born.

To us, a son is given.

We receive.

Your job is to receive in this.

Okay, your job is we are just receiving recipients.

We don't return the favor or work for it.

No, you you are the zeal of the Lord will of hosts will do this.

It's based on grace.

You want peace?

Agree with the Holy Spirit that you stand, you are standing in grace.

Everything is grace.

You want supernatural peace?

Agree with the Holy Spirit that our sufferings are not being wasted.

Every single one of your pressures is being used to transform you into someone you wouldn't even recognize.

It's not being wasted.

I watch cooking shows here and there.

Just confess that.

Yeah, I watch cooking shows.

What's up?

No shame.

Typical, my thought is you're gonna use that?

Ugh, you're gonna use that?

And at the very end, there's something delicious and beautiful at the end.

In heaven, we're gonna look back at every stub toe, every every tear.

Like, oh, he's gonna use that.

He used all of it.

Every tear.

He used, he's gonna use all of it.

And he's using that right now to transform you to someone you'd be like, oh wow.

I didn't know he was making that.

If you want peace, agree with the Holy Spirit that the pressures of life are not being wasted.

Also, agree with the Holy Spirit that listen, you will be, we will be, I will be richly satisfied by the God I'm waiting for.

Not ashamed.

Hope does not put me to shame.

This hope is no fantasy.

That I will be richly satisfied.

One day we will see face to face what we can only see dimly now.

And we're one Christmas season closer to seeing it.

Oh, might that give us peace.

The curtain of creation will be raised and you will see him.

And this will not put hoping him will not put us in put us to shame.

We will be richly satisfied.

There will be no disappointment.

So you want peace?

Agree with the Holy Spirit on those things.

Agree with him.

So the peace of God, the peace with God is essential, but also the peace of God is available.

My question to you is this What would supernatural peace finally free you up to do?

Or what would superna who would supernatural peace finally free you up to become?

Like who would be impacted by you letting the peace of God reign in your heart?

Who would be impacted first or most?

He came to give us peace with God.

And because of it, we have the peace of God.

In a world where we where we have conflict up to our eyes, we have every reason to panic.

We do.

We have all the reason in the world to panic.

And I I pray for you, like Paul, when he says, Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.

Let it rule in your you're at the mercy of whatever you're filled with.

And I pray that it's the peace of God.

I pray that you develop an imagination to see the most peaceful version of yourself and say, I want that.

Like your mouth needs the water for that.

I want that.

I pray that's that's the case here for us.

Let's pray.

You are you are good.

And you are omniscient, and you are omnipotent.

Give me the courage to agree with you.

Give us the courage to agree with you.

Jesus, you are our peace.

I thank you for being the savior.

We did not need an entertainer or a politician, we needed you.

Thank you for being our peace.

I pray that we can lean in to the peace that we have with God and the peace of God that's available to us right now.

It's in your son's incredible name, I pray, God.

Amen.

As usual, I'd like to teach the Bible and give you some soul space to think about it.

So you have some questions here on the screen for you to just meditate on what you just heard.

You can look at one of them and you can just venture off with the Holy Spirit with one of them, or you can take a picture and just be chewing on these um throughout the day, throughout the week.

But nevertheless, I'm gonna step back here about 90 seconds and just give you some space to process what you just heard through these questions.

God of peace, um, thank you for the truth of your word.

Um, thank you for not leaving us as orphans, but to dwelling with us in a way that we can't lose you ever again.

God, I pray that you can continue to contend with us and give us imaginations that can imagine um things outside of our most poignant um reason to be anxious.

God, develop us into non-anxious presence, a non-anxious presence for the people around us.

We know that the peace that you give is usually on its way to someone else.

Jesus, thank you for your peace.

You've made this possible.

It's in your beautiful name I pray.

Amen.

As always, church, it's so good um to be here with you.

Again, my name is Leo Almeida.

Uh, at the end of this service, we're gonna have some pastors here down front ready to pray with you, ready to process with you, um, or just to meet you, um, just to help with anything that you've might have heard.

Um, so if you're new here, um welcome.

Um, we uh we're so glad that you're here with us in this holiday season.

We have a number here on the screen that you can text if you are um if this is your first time or second time, this right here just gives us a record um of your visit.

So again, thank you so much for being here.

And if this is your church home, if you call uh Grand Parkway your church home and this is your day you worship through giving, there are some boxes around the room where you can do so, and you can also do so um online.

But nevertheless, we're we're so thankful that you are here.

Now, this is typically the time where I would um shoot us into the screen, or not shoot us into the screen, but to point us to the screen as to what's happening in life for our church.

But during Ave, we want you just to linger um with what you've heard and also linger with one another.

You got out a little early right now, just linger with one another and and and see how check on each other and how see how y'all are doing.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna bless us and then we'll we'll be dismissed.

Okay, so would you stand and receive this blessing?

The Lord bless you, and the Lord keep you.

The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

And the Lord lift up lift up his face upon you and give you his peace.

Children of God, remember that the peace of heaven triumphs over the chaos here.

Let it rule over your hearts.

I declare these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.