The Relational Nature of Peace | Advent 2

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Father, whenever in the Bible you saw longing and darkness, you did something about it.

You didn't ever look at the disciples and kind of go, look at those people, look how screwed up they are.

Let's not be like them.

That's not the gospel, and that's not God.

And so uh thank you for the privilege to see darkness and take the light to it.

Uh I pray for little girls that have grown up to be hard women, who've who've had to harden their head and their heart uh to make what they do seem okay.

And I pray you'd give them some soft moments where they would just let their guard down and let their defenses down and be reminded that there's a God in this world and He He's crazy about you.

He's never stopped loving you.

I pray that you'd use Sally and the team that go with her into the club just to be just a voice of truth and and the remembrance.

I pray for those women that they would you would remember things that they heard at vacation Bible school, but they've since forgotten.

And so, Lord, uh, we just are thankful that we get to be a church of mission.

That doesn't mean you get on a plane and go to a foreign country.

Sometimes it means you get in your car and you drive down and you look women in the eye and you say, Hey, just want you, just brought you a little gift to remind you that God's crazy about you.

And so, Holy Spirit, use little things like stockings full of stuff to send a big message like the gospel.

We pray all this in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat if you've got a Bible, uh open it, and I'll try to get it together here.

No stinking kids.

Uh I want to talk to you this morning.

If you're our guest today, uh each one of our Advent services has a theme.

Last week was hope.

This week is peace.

And so I want to talk to you about the relational nature of peace.

Uh, and I want to just read uh from Jesus' words in John 14.

I'll start reading in verse 25.

Uh but before I get there, before I start reading, I want to just remind you if you open to John chapter 14, if you got, especially if you've got a red letter version of the Bible, you'll see that there's a lot of red there in John chapter 14, 15, and 16.

John 14 · chapter mention John 14 · chapter mention

It's a long teaching narrative.

It's like Jesus gets on a roll and doesn't stop.

And he gets to the very end of it, and he says in chapter 16, verse 33, the last verse in the chapter, before he gets to the garden and he's getting to the garden of Gethsemane, he begins to pray, and then he goes to the cross.

And so he knows what's coming.

And so this is kind of one of his last dialogues with his disciples.

And the nature of last conversations is you say what you want people to remember.

And and so Jesus, he gets to John 16, 33, and he says, These things have I spoken unto you, so that in me you may have peace.

Because in the world you will have tribulation.

In the world, people will go to a workplace Christmas party and open fire and kill 14 of their friends.

In the world, you will have tribulation.

And then Jesus says, But be of good cheer.

I have overcome the world.

Now when he says, be of good cheer, he's not saying paste some kind of goofy grin on your face and just and just fake it.

No, he's saying, let this understanding, when he says, These things have I spoken unto you, understand what these things are.

Like he's told them already in chapter 14, hey, that I'm going to prepare a place for you so that where I am you may be also.

And it and it keeps unpacking these things.

And I want to start reading verse 25 of John 14.

He says, These things I've spoken to you while I'm still with you.

But the Holy, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives, do I give to you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

You heard me say to you, I am going away, and I will come to you.

If you loved me, you would have you would have rejoiced because I am going to the Father.

For the Father is greater than I.

And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe.

Like, for example, the Bible says, in as much as possible, uh, in as much as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

And so if you want to understand what the Bible says about peace, let's just start there.

In as much as possible, before you go to bed tonight, ask the Holy Spirit, is there anybody that I'm not at peace with?

When their name comes up, I have a little bit of emotional energy that stirs up in me.

The Bible also says in Colossians, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

That word rule in the Greek is where we get our English word umpire.

And so what he's saying is, is let the peace of Christ be the thing that determines the balls and strikes in your life.

And so Jesus comes to this here in John 14, 25, and he says, Hey, these things I've spoken unto you while I'm still with you.

And then he goes on to unpack it.

He gets to the verse 27.

He says, Peace I leave with you.

My peace I give to you, not as the world gives to I give to you.

He's telling us something there.

And so I want us to kind of understand the relational nature of peace, and I want to use five words to do it.

The first word is simply relationship.

Relationship.

And let me say it like this: you cannot know the peace of God until you make peace with God.

You cannot know the peace of God until you make peace with God.

The peace of God is for those who are in relationship with God.

If you go to the very beginning, the angels announced the birth of Jesus and they said, glory to God in the highest.

And on earth, peace to men on whom his favor rests.

It doesn't say peace to everybody.

Oh, Jesus was born.

Now everyone gets them peace.

He says, No, peace to those upon whom his favor rests.

Translation, peace to those that are rightly related to Jesus.

And so the the the fundamental question of human existence and for all of us in this room this morning is not, do you want peace?

Who doesn't want peace?

I mean, are you kidding me?

Who doesn't want peace?

I got this morning early and the TV was on.

I'm like, somebody leave the TV on in my house, but but but Liberty University is telling their cop their faculty and their students to go out and get concealed handgun license and start carrying firearms to college.

Do you remember when you were in college?

Do you want you and your friends carrying firearms?

Now, by the way, whenever something like this happens, people run out and they do two things.

I mean, I mean, the thing happened on Wednesday in San Bernardino, and people are out huddled up praying, and I think that's great, and then the president uses it to advance his gun control agenda.

Let me just say this, okay?

I'm not a political person, but if you think that guns in and of themselves kill people, then you have to believe that your spoons make you fat.

Yeah.

Huh?

We just you don't be that naive, beloved.

When I say relationship, though, you cannot know the peace of God until you make peace with God.

Peace is not this disconnected experience that anybody can have whenever they want, on whatever terms they're willing to agree with.

You gotta be careful about because the Bible's very clear.

Peace with God, beloved, is always on his terms.

Let me say that again.

Peace with God is always on his terms.

I see people in council, they'll come to me and they'll say, you know, I just I just need peace my life, got so much conflict, got so much strife, my marriage is this, and da-da-da-da-da.

And I'll ask this question tell me where you are in relation to God.

Do you consider yourself a Christian?

And if so, on what basis?

And what'll come out eventually is that, well, I'm I've really never been converted.

I've never you know given my life to Christ.

Uh but but but I think I got this.

And I'm like, you can never know the peace of God until you get into a relationship with God.

And that relationship is on his terms.

You say, What do you mean?

If you're in John, just flip back to the book of Luke, just one book to the left, uh, chapter 14, same chapter, different gospel.

And I want you to hear what Jesus says about this.

Uh, this is Luke chapter 14, verse 25.

Luke 14:25

Now, great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Now, those two statements right there are so jarring that Jesus looks in people's eyes and he realizes, I've got to explain what I just said.

Men, does your wife ever say something to you?

And your first thought is, where did that come from?

Y'all are like, No, that never happened.

Sure it does.

Sure it does.

And so that's what happens.

That Jesus says this, and the people are like, What?

You want us to hate our mother and father and brother and sister and our wife and children?

What kind of no Jesus is saying, and he does say he does say that.

It's right there in the Bible.

What he's saying is, hey, this is what it's like to have a relationship with me.

I have to be the biggest priority in your life.

Remember, I said that you don't you don't get into a relationship with God except on his terms?

Jesus sees these people are taken back, and so he tells two, he tells two stories to kind of two illustrations to help them understand what he's getting at.

He continues and he says, Hey, for which of you desiring to build the tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it.

Otherwise, when he's laid the foundation and he's not able to finish, all those who see it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.

Or what king going out to encounter another king in war will not first sit down and deliberate whether he's able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000.

And if not, while the other is a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

So, therefore, anyone who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

What Jesus is saying very plainly in Luke 14 is hey, here's the terms by which you get peace.

If you think you can oppose me who's coming against you, then come on.

But if you can't, then send a delegation and ask for terms of peace, and Jesus says, Hey, don't send a delegation.

I'll just tell you, renounce everything.

Stop putting your faith and your trust in work and in your savings account or in your 401k and that glass of wine at the end of the day or that sleeping pill.

Renounce all that stuff and put it all in on me.

That's the terms by which you come to peace.

So peace is first of all, it's relational by nature.

It's about a relationship.

Second word I want to give you is just the word presence.

Jesus says in verse 25, these things have I spoken to you while I'm still with you.

But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I've said to you.

Now there's never gonna be a time.

When Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as a helper, he's basically saying, There's never gonna be a time that I'm not with you.

He says earlier in the chapter, I will not leave you with orphans, but I will come to you.

I gotta go so that the Holy Spirit will come.

Now that's a two-edged sword in itself, but there's never a time when God will not be with you.

You can hear that and kind of go, Oh, that's comforting.

It's also convicting.

There's never a time that God is not with you, is not aware of everything you say and everything you do.

Just breathe that in for a moment.

When I was little, my brother and I used to go in the closet and we'd close the door and turn off the light and we'd tell each other jokes in the dark because we didn't think anybody could see or hear us.

And my brother used to even say, he was such a moron, okay?

He would even say, Let's go in the closet where even God can't hear.

I was six, I thought, oh yeah, keep your voice down.

God may know.

And one day I read in the Bible, that's not the way it happens.

And I remember thinking, Rutro.

And so what Jesus says, he says, Hey, there's never gonna be a time I'm not with you.

That's great and everything, but it's also a two-edged sword.

I want you to notice a couple things.

First of all, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the helper, he refers to the Holy Spirit as the helper.

So think about this question in relation to your community group tonight.

If the Holy Spirit was gonna help you this week, what would he do?

If the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, because the helper, the Holy Spirit will come, whom the Father will send in my name, and he will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you.

So first thing he tells us is that he's the helper.

Okay.

I love uh what my little friend here prayed a few minutes ago.

God forgive us for not asking for help when we need help.

That's why the Bible says, hey, the Holy Spirit is the helper.

Now then the second thing he says about the Holy Spirit is simply this that, hey, he will teach you all things.

That means he's gonna teach you things you don't know.

And then he says, He's gonna bring to remembrance things.

Sometimes this is free.

So you'll get a point in your in your Christian life where you read the Bible and your consistent thought will be, I've read that before.

I've read that before.

I'm not getting anything out of that.

I ask people all the time, now I'm kind of stuck, preacher.

What do I do?

How's your time in the work?

Oh man, I read the Bible, but it's all kind of, you know, it's it's it's what I've read before.

And what's happening is they're failing to realize the Holy Spirit doesn't want to teach you something new.

The Holy Spirit wants to bring the remembrance.

He wants to remind you of something that you've kind of forgotten about.

Happened for me this week, and I'll get to that in just a little bit.

That I kind of forgotten about, and I was like, oh, because one of my kids asked me a question.

And I started answering the question, and I was like, yes, yes, thank you.

That's absinking lutely that's the truth.

And so Jesus says, hey, there's kind of this dimensional nature.

He's gonna teach you all things, but he's also gonna bring to he will bring to your remembrance.

And all of a sudden it's like, oh.

So with where you are spiritually, let me give you another question to think about.

What do you need more?

Do you need the Holy Spirit to teach you something new or to remind you of something old?

Because we fall in love with the new.

And be careful about that, beloved.

Third word I want to give you, to think about the peace, is just simply this is manner.

Not manners, but manner as in the way.

Because Jesus says, right there in verse 26, or excuse me, verse 27, he says, uh, my peace, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.

And then immediately he says, Not as the world gives, do I give to you.

Now ask yourself, why does Jesus have to say that?

Why does it when he says, hey, I'm gonna give you something, and then the first thing he has to do is qualify the manner in which he's going to give it.

Because we've all been given stuff before, like this time of year, someone will call you and say, Hey, are you guys home?

And you're like, Yeah, why?

Because I got something I want to bring by.

And based on who that person is, you will kind of get let your mind go to a certain place that it wouldn't normally go if it was somebody else.

Does that make sense?

Like if you have a friend who's very wealthy and they said, Hey, I want to come by, I got something for you, you're you're gonna run in the bathroom and shave and put on a cologne and get all ready.

But if I call you and say, hey, I'm gonna stop by, you're like, hey, send our kids to the door.

Ain't that important?

That's what Jesus says, hey, hey, I don't give it to you as the world gives to you.

Uh and let me give you three distinctions or three differences in the way the world gives and the way God gives.

Number one, the world gives according to what they think you deserve.

The world gives according to what they think you deserve.

Christ gives according to what he knows you need.

Second difference, the world gives at little cost to themselves.

Christ gives at great cost to himself.

The world gives at little cost to himself.

Some of you, you work at your company seven years, you're gonna get a box of candy this year for Christmas, and your first thought is gonna be really awesome.

Clearly, you need this nine dollars more than I do.

The Bible says that God gives at great cost to himself.

Third difference is the world gives out of obligation.

Christ gives out a desire.

The world gives out an obligation.

That's why when somebody gives you something, without even thinking about it, you say these words.

Oh, you didn't have to do that.

Of course they didn't.

They gave it because they want there's this place of desire in them.

I guess here's a fourth one that's not on the list, not on the slide.

Uh, the world gives with strings attached.

You ever gotten a gift from somebody?

And they give you a gift card and they go, Oh, it's enough to take two couples out to dinner.

And you're like, Thanks, my wife and I'll go twice.

Thanks for thinking of us.

Uh I I I learned this even this weekend.

I was talking to a friend of mine about a month ago.

He just sent me a text out of the blue and he said, Hey, pray for me.

I'm no longer at my church.

And I was like, uh-oh.

So I texted back, what's going on?

And I said, Hey, look, like what's your number?

I'll call you when I get done here.

So I called him, and he's been at a church as a pastor for only 18 months.

And he just said, You know, I realized these people weren't honest with me.

They didn't tell me what this was really like.

And so he just quit.

He just stepped down.

He just said, You know what?

I don't think this is a fit.

I don't want to make a big scene.

He resigns after only 18 months at his church.

And we got to talking on the phone, and I said, Well, how's it been?

And he begins to just unroll this.

I mean, my mom died this year.

I had a couple major surgeries.

This went on, that went on.

And just, I mean, I was like, when he got done, I was like, dude, I feel like I weigh a thousand pounds.

And so in the midst of this heaviness, I just said into the phone, hey, what would bless you?

And he's like, what?

And I said, What would bless you?

They've got a 15-month-old little girl.

And I said, When's the last time?

And he said, I don't I don't know what to say in response to that question.

No one's ever asked me that question.

How do you live in a country where most people profess to be Christians and no one's ever looked at this person and said, hey man, what would bless you?

And I said, Hey, when's the last time you and your wife got away from your little girl and just had a weekend all by yourself?

And he went, Oh man, not since our kid was born.

Remember before you had kids?

You could go to movies and it wasn't a$120 night?

Because that punk teenage babysitter, it's kind of like I charge$12 an hour.

And I punched little girls in the throat who try to extort me.

So I said back into the phone, look at me, not because I'm generous, but because I've tasted of God's generosity.

I said back into the phone, why don't you and your wife come down to Sugar Land and let me just put you up in a hotel and give you some money and you guys can go out to eat?

I don't want to cost you a dime.

And he said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, well, yeah, I mean, that'd be great.

I mean, why, why, why, why would you want to do that?

Can't help myself.

And so they came down, this is a month ago.

I said, pick a weekend.

He picked a weekend.

It was this weekend.

They came down, put them up in a hotel.

They went out to eat.

I said, I got to see you all weekend.

He said, We'd like to see you.

I said, Well, I'd like to see you because I want to give you some money to pay for all this.

And so I met him yesterday for lunch, and they were like, I said, Hey, did you get to sleep in?

And the mom said, I tried to, but my mom alarm went off.

I woke up like I normally do.

And I said, I bet he slept in.

Yes, he slept in.

I was laying there staring at him, trying to make myself go to sleep.

And I said, That's where you nudge your husband and say, Can we talk?

And he's like, No, don't nudge me and say that.

He said it was glorious.

I can't remember the last time I slept in.

And so we're at lunch and I says, Hey, tell me what this has been like for you.

And we were just talking.

He's like, man, I just, I don't, she's like, first of all, let me say thank you.

I do not have the words for this.

And we want to come to your church tomorrow.

And if you're ever talking to somebody and they say something and it doesn't sound as sincere as it should, we want to come to your church tomorrow.

You know why they said that?

Because they think, hey, you've blessed us.

We should at least come to church.

And because I'm such a pathetic liberal, I said back to them, You don't have to come to church.

You're off this weekend.

I said, Maybe you should go out and commit heinous gluttony tonight and try to sleep in tomorrow, mom, because you got a 15-month old.

You're not gonna be able to sleep in when you get home.

And because her husband doesn't have a job anymore, she had to go to work full time.

So I pulled out of my pocket some money, slammed it on the table, and said, Take your husband out.

I recommend a little place right over called Perry's, okay?

They have a get the pork chop.

And she goes, Well, you know, I'm not really much into pork chop.

Shut your mouth, okay?

You do not know what you're sitting against when you say that.

This is not a pork chop like you're thinking about.

This is like a block of pork of goodness that has a lash and an eye.

And she's like, What is that?

Yeah, I didn't think you knew.

And she said, Well, thank you.

I don't know what to do.

Put it in your pocket.

That's what you do.

And so we talked and they said, Well, we were thinking about getting up and uh, you know, coming.

I said, Come to the 10 o'clock service.

I said, You can sleep in some.

They said, Well, we're thinking about coming to the 8:30.

And I said, Well, here's the deal.

If you get out tonight and you commit heinous gluttony and you're just sleepy, don't come tomorrow.

I I left lunch.

It went an hour later, I got a text.

Hey, I think we're gonna sleep in in the morning and get up and just head back home.

Why?

Because people are conditioned to think when you give them something that, hey, this is free, wink wink.

But here's the truth.

No, no, I texted back, you ungrateful weasels, how dare you not come to church?

God's gonna give you a flat tire on the way home.

No, they say, Hey, you know what?

We're gonna take you up on your offer, we're gonna sleep in, get up, and drive back to Fort Worth.

I texted back, enjoy.

Exclamation point.

Why do I tell you that?

Because when Jesus says, Hey, this Peter.

That I leave with you, my peace I give to you.

This is a gift with no strings attached, and I don't give it the way the world gives.

Not as the world gives, do I give to you.

See, that's the manner in which he gives this peace.

And then the fourth word I want to give is the context.

Look at verse 27.

The context he says, Hey, uh not as the world gives, do I give to you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

You have heard me say, I'm going away, and I will come to you.

If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I'm going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

Now, the context in which Jesus said this, you know, I think sometimes in church we act like, oh, well, uh, this is great.

We allow ourselves to think that what the Bible teaches is good and great and applicable when things are going good.

When things are going good, I should throw an extra 20 in the box and kind of go, thank you, Lord, big man upstairs.

But when things are going bad, I gotta get my hands on the wheel and I gotta take control.

So the context within which Jesus says this, things are not going good.

This is twice already in John 14, Jesus has had to say to them, let not your hearts be troubled.

Why?

Because their hearts were troubled.

And by the way, John 14, Jesus is getting ready to go to the cross.

The thought of the cross was so excruciating that in the garden, a couple chapters after this chapter, Jesus sweats drops of blood.

He is that vexed by what is fixing to happen.

And so it's in that context that Jesus says, let not your heart be troubled.

Now, here's what I know because I'm your pastor.

Some of you are in situations right now that has your heart troubled.

You lay in bed at night and you just say, at the end of the day, when your mind can't obsess about anything else, when you finally disconnect from Facebook and you've got to think about your life, not your social media life.

Hey, look at my kids.

They're like Ken and Barvey.

We do this every Sunday.

But your real life, your mind just begins too, woo-woo.

And peace is nowhere to be found.

That's the context within which Jesus says, Oh, by the way.

Now, let me give you another expression of context.

Look down the latter part of verse 28.

Jesus says, If you love me, you would have rejoiced because I'm going to the Father.

Then he says, For the Father is greater than I.

For the Father is greater than I.

Just mark this in your notes.

Can we just have just a little doctrinal, just kind of, hey, a little bit of orthodoxy here?

I read this past week of some pastor that he resigned his church because he said to his church, and I quote, basically, I want to explore the fringes of Christianity.

I'm not really interested in Orthodox Christianity.

I've always been a guy that likes to go to the fringes and ask what's out there.

And I wish his congregation would have bum rushed the stage, picked him up, took him to the edge of the city, and thrown him off the cliff.

Because this is free, beloved.

Look at me.

We've got a younger generation of preacher that's really not a preacher.

It's some guy that wears a members-only jacket, despite the fact that it's 74 degrees inside.

They all got to wear a jacket when they preach.

They wear the members-only jacket and they get up and they don't preach biblical orthodox Christianity or doctrine.

They preach questions.

Or they focus on some obscure thing.

And so let me just say uh just a little doctrinal exercise here, if you'll undudge me for a moment.

When he says, For the Father is greater than I, mark that in your in your Bibles.

Here's why.

Because it happened yesterday in my neighborhood.

I was backing out to go do something, and I saw him coming down the street, the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Unitarians do this as well.

But they point to this verse where Jesus says, For the Father is greater than I.

They got to mark through the Bible and they'll show you and go, see, Jesus says right here, He's not God.

Because Jesus, if God is God, right?

God the Father is God, then Jesus says the Father is greater than I.

What Jesus is saying, he's really not God.

So I backed up and pulled back in my driveway and got out, and I said, Hey brothers, would you like to have some coffee?

And one of them looked at the other one and said, No, don't go to his house.

And why did I pull back in?

Because they were talking to my neighbor, who's not a Christian, who's a good guy, loves me and my family.

He's kind of like, I'm gonna come to church sometime.

Hey man, I've lived in this house since 1999.

You ain't been since.

Stop saying that to me.

But see, here's what I mean.

Here's why you gotta know doctrine.

Here's why you gotta understand biblical orthodoxy, okay?

That's a big word.

You just gotta know what the Bible says because people are gonna come along and pervert it.

And they take this out of context and say, Well, Jesus says, for the Father is greater than I.

What Jesus is referring to, if you're in John 14, just turn to the right to John 17.

I want to show you something.

You still with me?

John 17, verse 1.

John 17:1

Let's read the first five verses.

Jesus is in the garden, he's praying to his father.

It says, When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and he said, Father, the hour has come.

Glify your son, that the son may glorify you.

Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all, whom you have given to him.

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work you gave me to do.

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Mark verse 5 in your Bible, beloved.

Jesus says, And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Look at me.

Before Jesus came, he was one with the Father.

He was equal with the Father.

That's why Philippians said that he didn't consider equality with God as something to be grasped, but he emptied himself.

For Jesus to come to this earth, he gave up some of his glory.

And so he comes as fully God and fully man.

And now what he's saying, he's finished his mission here on earth, and he's saying to his father, give me back the glory I had with you before the world began.

I'm full of glory now.

I finished what you sent me here to do.

So when the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Unitarians say, Oh, well, Jesus says right here that the Father is greater than I, you could just turn over a few more chapters to John 17 and say, Yeah, that was Jesus while he's here on earth.

He came to be our redeeming Savior.

But now when he comes again, he's gonna come full of glory.

And it's not gonna be good for people like you who pervert the gospel.

All of a sudden they fold up their books and they want to go.

I told them, my wife will cook you breakfast.

No, no, no, we're good, we're good.

We're good.

See, context.

Context.

Fifth word I want to give you is just the word believe.

Just the word believe.

Look at verse 29.

Jesus said, and now I've told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe.

Hear that again.

And now I've told you before it takes place.

So when it does take place, you may believe.

Beloved, look at me.

God is gonna tell you things, he's gonna put you in situations and circumstances that are not always easy.

And having gone through that, it's gonna increase your capacity to believe God.

Does what I just said make sense?

God is gonna put you in situations, he says to him, hey, I've told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you you may believe.

He's gonna put you in your marriage in circumstances in situations where you're gonna have to go through something, and after you go through it, you're gonna go, you know what?

That's exactly what God said would happen.

I love what someone said that I read in preparation for today.

He said, faith in the promises of God is the key that unlocks the peace of God.

Faith in the promises of God.

Believing that God's gonna do what God said God's gonna do, that's what unlocks this treasure that is the peace of God.

That's when the peace of God rules in your heart.

That's when the peace of God rules in your head.

You're gonna go through circumstances.

It happened for me.

I told you earlier something happened this week.

I was uh running errands with my 12-year-old and her sister got accepted into a college uh baler.

Uh, they don't give that away, just in case you're wondering.

And so my 12-year-old said to me, out of the blue, going down the road, hey dad, how are you gonna pay for that?

And my first thought was, I ask myself that question every night.

I'm gonna sell one of your mom's kidneys on eBay.

That'll pay for a semester.

We'll go from there.

And now I looked at my daughter and I said, you know what?

I used to ask the same question about my going to college.

And she goes, Well, how did you pay for yours?

And I said, I didn't.

I I worked, I became a Christian at a summer camp, and clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit said, I want you to go back and work here as a counselor.

This was 1983.

Uh I worked there in 1983, and you made$64 every two weeks.

So you get to the end of the summer semester on the summer term, and we got paid, and I just got my$64 paycheck a week earlier, went out to eat, and was broke.

Uh no, I had$6 and some change in my name, and I went to a friend of mine's concert and they said, We're gonna take up a love offering.

So I just kind of reached in my pocket and said, Lord, if I grab the five of the one, it doesn't matter.

I'm just gonna pour it in there.

So I just dropped something in the plate, and there goes Abe Lincoln.

Just down the aisle.

I got so mad.

Here's why.

Because I grew up really poor.

Don't don't feel so I don't say feel sorry for me.

I mean, and I was just like, when you grow up poor, you think I'm gonna be that way again.

This is this is all gonna end up that way.

And so I just got angry and I was just like, see, I might as well just go back and just because people I worked with are like, hey, I'm going to UT, I'm going to AM, I'm going here, I'm going there.

And I'm like, I'm gonna go back and work in the steel mill.

Awesome.

About maybe two weeks left, about 10 days left in the summer.

I'm I'm in the kitchen washing dishes at the back sink, and they come to me and they say, Hey you got a phone call in the office?

And I'm like, and I'm telling my 12-year-old that's driving down the road, and she's like, at one point she went, What's this got to do with paying for college?

Stay with me, you impatient little kid.

And I said, Sophie, I'm washing dishes and I'm mad, and I'm mad at God, and I'm mad at, I'm mad at everybody.

I'm just mad.

Uh and they said, Hey, you got a phone call in the office?

And and I said, Nah, it's not me.

And they go, No.

I said, Hey, we don't even we don't have a phone.

It can't be my family.

And they said, No, they asked for you by name.

So I go in the office, pick up the phone.

Hello, says Neil.

Neil, you don't know me, but my son has worked out there with you all summer and he's been watching you.

To which I said, I'm sorry, I've been a Christian a year.

I'm trying.

Because back then people would do something stupid, and I would just say, Don't be an idiot.

Now I say, Hey, please don't be an idiot.

I'm getting better.

Uh and the man started crying.

I mean, he broke down sobbing, and I was like, hello.

He composed himself and he said, No, you don't understand.

My wife and I have been asking the Lord all summer how what we could do to just show our appreciation.

And finally the Lord told us, and so what we want to do is we want to pay for your college education anywhere in the country you want to go to for four years.

And I was like, Whoa.

And when you grow up kind of hard, you get this orphan spirit in you that's kind of like, I ain't gonna depend on anybody.

So I said back into the phone, ah, sorry, I appreciate that, but I'm gonna be okay.

And he said back into the phone, don't let your pride rob you from receiving a blessing, son.

Oh, okay, well, uh.

And he said, I'll come out to meet you at the end of the end of the summer term and we'll get this taken care of.

God's been so, I remember this clear as a bell.

God's been so good to me, this ain't no step for a stepper.

I remember thinking, does this dude clog or what?

What's going on here?

Hung the phone up, went back to work.

I was like, oh, whatever.

Called back on Friday.

And they said, hey, you got a phone call?

And I was like, they said, it's the same guy, he's changed his mind.

That's what the world, that's how the world gives, you know.

They promise you, and then they go, oh wait, man, this is more than I this is more than I bargain for.

So I walk in there like, okay, here you go.

Pick up the phone, hello, says Neil.

You didn't tell me you don't have a car.

Well, if I can't afford a phone, how can I afford a car?

The first three cars I drove, that man gave me.

They were just nice used cars.

He owned the Fort Worth Auto Auction.

He used to say things to me like, God's not called you to be a reservoir, son, everything flows into.

He's called you to be a river that stuff flows through.

How much can flow through you, son?

And God keeps sending it before you start damming it up with your greed.

I remember thinking, I'm in college.

I ain't got nothing flowing through me.

I called him on Thursday.

It was his 87th birthday.

Buried his wife about six years ago.

Every time I call him, his legs are going out on him.

He's on a walker.

He's like, I ain't gonna be able to walk much anymore.

Every time I call him, Mr.

Shabber, how you doing?

I'm blessed and highly favored, young man.

And he sits in his house outside of Fort Worth all by himself.

Now, why do I tell you that?

Because when I applied to camp, I had this thought in my mind, God, I can't I can't go to college on$64 every two weeks.

And clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit said, I'll take care of it.

And I looked at Sophie and I said, I forgot that, sweetie.

And so I was getting all nervous at the end of the semester.

And I'm telling you this because you don't need to worry about Madison going to college.

God's gonna take care of that, and God's gonna take care of you going to college.

And she looked at me and said, Okay, can we go to Starbucks?

And you know what?

She believes it's gonna be taken care of.

Because Jesus says to His His His disciples right here in verse 29, I've told you before it takes place, so when it does take place, you may believe.

You need to cultivate.

See, this is where peace comes from.

You need to cultivate the habit of being able to listen to God and believe what he says.

And I'm gonna tell you this before it happens, so when it happens, you can believe.

How many of those experiences do you have to have?

So I was able to say to the couple yesterday at lunch, I said, I'm not a generous person.

I don't want you to walk away and think, oh, you're so generous.

I'm not.

God's been so good to me.

For me not to be this way to you would be a great sin.

So when Jesus says in John 14, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives, do I give it to you?

I want you to understand the manner in which he gives it, the context in which he gives it, and that it all is because of a relationship.

So the most important question that you could ask yourself today is not just do I want peace, the peace of God, but are you at peace with God?

Because he says, hey, here's the terms of peace.

Let's pray together.

Take just a moment.

Think about what the Bible has said.

Think about what you sense God saying to you.

Peace is relational by nature.

You can feel better about your circumstance, but you cannot know the peace of God apart from a relationship with God.

And so that's the first question you gotta ask yourself this morning is do you have that?

When did that begin?

You were not born in relationship.

We were born God's enemies.

We were born at odds with God.

We were born spiritual orphans.

And if you are a believer, you have that relationship.

Ask yourself this question this morning: How long has God been good to you?

Maybe you should go around the room tonight, your community group, and just ask, hey, how long has God been good to you?

And let the Holy Spirit bring to remembrance the faithfulness of God.

So that whatever you're facing right now that robs you of peace, you can just bring that perspective to bear on that.

Father, our prayers that you would carve your words upon our soul.

The Bible tells us that you've written us upon your palms, and you can't forget us.

So we are a remembered people, and I pray that would bring us perspective and peace.

Let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Stand to your feet, and we speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.