A Thrill of Hope: Peace

This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

Amen.

Let's just kind of stand in this for a minute.

Ask yourself what you saw, what you heard this morning.

Not just with your ears, but with your heart.

More than anything, Jesus said and repeated.

I love this about Jesus.

He had phrases that he repeated.

You have phrases you repeat.

That's okay.

Most of us could use to repent of our driving need to be unique.

And Jesus, the most unique person who ever lived because he was God, had things he repeated.

One of them was, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

It would behoove us this morning to ask ourselves, what do we hear?

Because God tells his story through everybody.

If you're in this room and you hear my voice, God wants to tell his story through you.

You say, Well, you may not be there yet.

You may not be a Christian.

You may not believe.

You may have just been like, hey, I got invited or I stumbled in here today because I'm feeling bad about myself.

Standing behind me are computer programmers, retired dentists, oil executives, graphic artists, worship leaders, coaches, teachers, retired people.

And God tells a story through them.

And he wants to tell a story through you.

So anytime we hear the story, especially when it's set to music, we should just kind of sit down on the inside and ask ourselves, what do we hear?

Johnny Cash went and played at Folsom Prison.

Prisoners said, Merle Haggard heard him, and he said, it was the first ray of sunshine that ever dawned on my life.

And I knew right then what I was created to do.

When you hear the story of the gospel, the good news of Christianity, it ought to remind you that what you were made for.

Let me voice a prayer.

God thanks for that you use people like we just talked about, coaches and teachers, and retired dentists, and oil executives, and graphic artists, and salesmen and all that stuff.

So there's nobody in this room that you don't want to use to tell the story.

And the Bible's full of stories, and they're all true, and you use them to tell a big story.

And so, Lord, give us ears to hear today, we ask in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Let me ask you to be seated for just a moment.

Every once in a while, I'll take a week and I'll take a chapter in the Bible and just read it over and over and over.

And this week, this was the chapter that I read.

This is Luke chapter 19, verse 1.

Luke 19:1

And he entered Jericho and was passing through.

And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.

He was a chief tax collector and was rich.

He was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not, because he was small in stature.

And so he ran on ahead, climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him.

For he was about to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.

So he hurried and he came down and received him joyfully.

And when they saw it, they all grumbled, He's gone to be the guest of a man who's a sinner.

And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I've defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.

And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

Sometimes it's hard for us to picture what the Bible is, but what you see in this whole chapter is people that are looking for peace.

Zacchaeus was a man that was a tax collector and he was rich.

Nothing wrong with being rich.

A lot of days, you know, when things are hard for me, I think, you know what, this would be better if I had more money.

It probably wouldn't, but I would feel better.

So let's don't pile on Zacchaeus because he was rich.

He was an extortionist.

If the tax rate was 4%, he charged six and he kept the extra two.

And his friends hated him because he turned on him, because he was a little weasel that loved money.

And yet when he laid down in bed at night, he heard Bondo and you two singing, I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

This gnawing sense inside of him.

And sometimes it's hard to see the story the Bible's telling.

And so just kind of picture in your mind's eye when you read about Zacchaeus climbing a tree because you wanted to get a glimpse of Jesus.

Ask yourself, have I ever gotten a real clear glimpse of what who God is and what God's all about?

Because sometimes church people and churches do goofy things and it kind of blurs the lens through which we look at God.

And if that's happened for you, I want to say, I'm sorry.

Not responsible, but I'm sorry.

God's much better than that.

But if you want to understand Zacchaeus, picture you're walking down the road and you look up in a tree and there's Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

And you're like, what are you doing?

It's like, yeah, you know, we we live off interest.

We're golden.

We couldn't give away our money.

If we tried, we couldn't give it all away.

And yet we have this gnawing sense that something's missing.

See, what this tells us is that people in the Bible, just like people today, they look to money to find peace and security.

The Bible goes on.

And matter of fact, the next sentence says this, and as they heard these things, because Jesus was on a roll, he tells one story, he tells another.

As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem, because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.

He said, therefore, a noble man went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.

By the way, that one sentence summarizes Advent.

A noble man went to a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.

That's Jesus.

He's gone to receive a kingdom and he's gonna return.

Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minors, and he said to them, Engage in business until I come.

But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, We do not want this man to reign over us.

When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business.

The first came before him, saying, Lord, your minor has made ten minors more.

And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you've been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.

And the second came saying, Lord, your mind I made five minus.

And he said to him, And you're to be over five cities.

Then another came saying, Lord, here is your minor which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you're a severe man.

You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.

And he said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant.

You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit, and reaping what I did not sow.

Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might collect it with interest?

And he said to those who stood by, Take the minor from him and give it to the one who has ten minus.

And they said to him, Lord, he has ten minus.

I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given.

But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

Jesus was not a socialist.

But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.

Yeah.

Let's all say that together.

Mmm.

Yeah.

What?

What?

What is this?

Here's what I want you to hear.

See, it starts off, Jesus tells a story about a guy who has money and he's rich, and yet there's this gnawing sense of I'm not at peace.

And then it's these people that send a delegation to say, hey, he says, hey, I'm a king.

I'm gone off to establish my kingdom to get a kingdom and I'm gonna come back.

And they send a delegation to say, we do not want this man to reign over us.

That's the natural state of the human heart.

And so if money's not gonna bring us peace and being Lord of our lives, being our own God, not submitting to anybody, running our own life is not gonna bring us peace, then you've got to ask yourself today, what's gonna bring you peace?

Because the chapter ends with these two verses, or this is towards the end.

This is verse 41.

Jesus is on a journey to Jerusalem, and he says, and when he drew near and he saw the city, he wept over it, saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.

Translation, it's too late.

Jesus looks over Jerusalem.

To this day, the most religious city in the world.

There's two times in the Bible Jesus Christ.

One of them is in John chapter 11, when his friend Lazarus dies, and he cries, not because his friend's dead, but because his followers don't believe he has the power to resurrect him.

John 11 · chapter mention

And he cries here in Luke 19, when he looks out over a very religious city and says, Would that you, even you, knew the things that make for peace.

And I wonder today, do you, even you, do you know what how you get right with God, what makes for peace?

I want us to just take a moment, just to think about three questions.

And they're simply this number one, are you at peace with God?

Are you at peace with God?

Religion is not how you get at peace with God, it's through a relationship.

It's about giving up control of your life.

It's repenting of that inbred, inborn desire to say, I do not want this man to rule over me.

I want to be my own king of my own kingdom.

Secondly, are you at peace with your fellow man?

You say, I don't know what you mean.

My wife and I raised our two daughters reading to them the Juni B.

Jones books.

And I would read the books, and I love when Juni B.

would get nervous, she would say, My heart got all pumpy.

Here's how you know you're not at peace with somebody.

When you're around them or their name comes up, your heart gets pumpy.

Are you at peace with your fellow man?

And thirdly and finally, are you at peace with yourself?

Or when you lay down, do you hear the voice of self-condemnation and self-criticism and self-evaluation?

Do you ever just turn that off?

And sit down on the inside and say, I accept being accepted.

We're going to close our service today just by taking some time just to think about those three questions.

Am I at peace with God?

Because all that you heard and saw today in the art and in the lyric is the story of how God left heaven to come to earth so you could be at peace.

Am I at peace with my fellow man?

When we practice reconciliation, we are demonstrating the person, the purpose of the incarnation.

That's why the Bible says in Romans 12, and as much as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

Finally, are you at peace with yourself?

Let's think about these things for just a moment.

Father, thank you that all this began when you crashed into the darkness of our night and struck the original match and laid him there in the manger.

Punched a hole in the darkness that plagues us.

The darkness that is a natural state of our being.

And the Bible records it with these words.

It says, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men and women on whom his favor rests.

Peace is now possible because God came into the world, moved into the neighborhood next door, and invited us over for dinner.

And said, Hey, I'll give your kids a ride to school, and sometimes you give my kids a ride to school.

I want to do life with you.

You're not a God that stays up in heaven and keeps score and then gets us when we screw it up.

You're a God that comes down and says, I get it, I understand.

And the little boy, the little baby would grow up to be a man who would lay down his life on a cross as payment for my sins and for the sins of everybody in this room.

So if there's anybody who's never accepted the free offer, the free gift of forgiveness in a relationship with you, I pray that today, God, you'd provoke their head and their heart towards that.

Lord, let your favor rest on these people and on their families.

I pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

If you're our guest, I want to say thanks for being a part of our service.

Know this that you're always welcome here.

If you don't have a church that you're meaningfully connected to, you're welcome here.

If you have a church that you're meaningfully connected to, you support your church, okay?

I'm going to ask in just a minute, I'll speak a blessing over you.

That's why we always close our service.

Uh, but I'm going to ask Clyde and Ryan and Lindsay if they would be available down front because I think some of you were provoked in a good way by what you saw and what you heard.

And you may want one of them to pray with you.

Or you may want to just speak a word to them.

If you see any of the other players out and about, you may want to speak a word to them as well.

Okay?

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Listen to your heart, Juni B.

When it gets pumpy, that's an opportunity to flesh out the incarnation.

The baby came to the manger so you can be reconciled with God, your fellow man, and with yourself.

Depart now and accept being accepted in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.