Advent - A Peace That Overcomes

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

For more information about Grant Parkway, visit GrantProquay.org.

Heavenly Father, that's what we proclaim together.

We sing it out.

Clyde is right.

We sing this prayer because that is what we acknowledge corporately.

We come together.

This is why we worship.

This is why we open your word.

This is why we trust and long for your voice.

Because you came.

In a season where we talk about waiting, in a season where we talk about listening, we celebrate that as we wait and we listen, we wait and listen for the one who comes.

And the one who is enough.

Take a moment before you sit and acknowledge and imagine what it is right now for God to be enough.

And in the midst of whatever is going on, in the midst of the crazy pace that the holidays have become, in the midst of whatever makes up your life right now, what does it look like for God to be enough?

You can imagine it because it's true.

So, God, we say together that is true, that you are enough, and because you are enough, you are worthy of our worship.

We have worship through song, and so now we worship through the studying and the gathering around your word.

We're listening.

We pray things your name.

Amen.

Please have a seat.

As you are uh settling in, um, if you have your Bible, turn to John chapter 16.

John 16 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, um, actually, can you do this for me before you get too settled?

I'm getting the uh the squunch sign.

So do me a favor, if you're uh you see a seat in between you and the next person, we're all family here.

Move into the middle.

Leave the outside edges so our uh our greeters and our ushers can seat people.

If you're not moving, don't make me call you out by name.

I'll come over there.

Yeah, and amen.

Let me say a few things by way of introduction.

Uh first, my name is Wade Collier.

I'm the missions and outreach pastor here at Grant Parkway.

Um, it is my joy from time to time, it is my joy this morning uh to be before you and and studying God's word on this second Sunday of Advent.

That being the second part of the announcement this morning, today is the second Sunday of Advent.

Um we heard about lighting the candle of peace.

That's what we will gather around God's Word this morning.

If you've never been a part of an Advent service, especially an Advent service here at Grant Parkway, I want to draw your attention to just a couple things that all revolve around intentionality.

Um we intentionally um have a slower pace here in the service, and that is because um, as we were praying earlier, uh the the the upside down nature of Christmas, the upside down nature of the culture in which we live in is a time where we should slow, a time where we should pace ourselves, um, a time where there needs to be a little bit more measured intentionality.

That is oftentimes nowhere to be found in our lives when it comes to Christmas, when it comes time to family.

We are trying to figure out how to stretch the money.

What do we need to pawn to make sure um that we can go on this trip?

No, nobody.

Um what do we uh what do we need to do?

And so that pace of life begins to catch up.

So we want to, in this place, if this is it, um we want this to be a place, um, a sanctuary of intentionality and of slowness, and in that um a shorter service, amen?

And especially a shorter sermon.

Um and so this morning um we're gonna read, and here's what we're gonna do.

We're we're really gonna focus in on one verse and two points.

Sound good?

Um, let's do that this morning.

If, like I said, if you don't have a Bible, that was what I was saying before I got the sign to move it.

Look, if you don't have a Bible, look to your left and your right.

Maybe on the floor, there's some hardcover Bibles.

Um, those are hardcover ESVs.

That's the that's the um translation we use here.

If you don't have a Bible, we say this every week because we mean it.

If you don't have a Bible, take that.

Write your name in it and make it your Bible.

We want you to have one.

We believe and it's authority.

We teach it every week.

Um, and so we want you to have one.

So take that, we'll get more.

Right, Church?

Amen.

John chapter 16, beginning in verse 29.

John 16 · chapter mention

His disciples said, Ah, now you are speaking plainly, and do not use figurative speech.

Now we know that you know all things, and do not need anyone to question you.

This is why we believe you came from God.

Jesus answered them, Do you believe?

Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each from his own home, and you will leave me alone.

And will leave me alone.

Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

There is a peace that overcomes.

We read that this peace has overcome the world, because Christ has overcome the world, we can take heart.

Your peace comes from the assurance that Christ has overcome all things that could attempt to rob peace.

And that's what we're going to talk about this morning.

If you were here last week as we began Advent, Neil, our lead pastor who was up here earlier, uh, he did something pretty amazing, and he took all of the Old Testament from Genesis all the way until we have this moment of silence where God kind of grows silent with his people.

And Neil broke that all down in about four minutes.

Impressive.

But I want to one up him today.

And I want to answer the question, I want to do a full biblical overview that answers the question, why peace?

Why peace?

This is gonna come up on the screen behind you.

Don't feel like you gotta turn real quick.

I had some people holler at me that got a little aggressive after the first service that I didn't have these scriptures listed out, so bear with me.

I will email them.

We can all can we all be friends?

Can we just agree now that no one will yell at me after the service?

Amen.

One person.

All right.

So here is the answer of why peace.

Harvest Media lays it out perfectly, and so I want to steal a little bit from them.

Genesis 4, 8.

Cain spoke to Abel, his brother.

And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

Is it not this?

That your passions are at war within you.

Your desire you desire and do not have, so you murder.

You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

You do not have, because you do not ask.

But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy.

Everyone is greedy for unjust gain.

And from the prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.

They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

We looked for peace, but no good came.

For a time of healing, but behold, terror.

The way of peace they have not known.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile towards God.

It does not submit to God's law, indeed, it cannot.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the chastisement that it brought to us peace.

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

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and is broken down in the flesh, the dividing wall of hostility.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

This is why we remember church and embrace peace.

The world chasing after things not of God leads to everything but peace.

This is why we read in Luke 16, 33, when when Jesus says, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace.

In the world, John 16, not Luke 16, in the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

Neil said, if you were here at the very beginning, we come and we remember and we embrace peace because of the work that was done on the cross by Jesus Christ.

When we read this verse, I told you it's all gonna boil down to this one verse.

We read these things, and we'll even read a little bit higher up.

We'll go all the way up into verse 25 in just a moment, and we will do that to come then land back down on verse 33, so we can understand two things for sure.

In our world, we will have tribulation.

You will face tribulation, but we can have peace amidst tribulation because God has overcome the world.

Look at me.

There is a peace that overcomes.

And that's what we're going to talk about this morning.

I told you, one verse, two points.

And so today, as we do that, we came, and one of our friends came and lit the peace candle, the second candle.

And we know that lighting it, we know full well that peace can be elusive.

We know that in some parts of the world, as we turn on TV, as we read in the newspaper, that peace is scarce to be found.

It's almost completely absent.

Yet in this season of Advent, in this season of Advent, we trust that God is never absent from us.

When we feel like there is no peace in the world, when we feel like there is no peace in our lives, when we feel like there is no peace in our families, that God is never absent.

He is always preparing something new.

Even when there is war and discord, whether between countries or whether between our families.

And for some of us, that's fresh coming out of Thanksgiving.

There is war and discord in our families.

But God says, I am working new and I am bringing peace.

And even where there is war, even within our own hearts, God is present, inviting us to his peace.

This is going to come on the screen.

John Piper says it beautifully.

He says, peace is not a gift that passes from Christ the giver to us the receivers.

His peace is ours because he is ours.

And the peace he is experiencing, we are experiencing.

Our experience of peace is his peace.

It's in us because he is in us.

So when he says that peace is only truly available in me, the reason that God says that is because the peace is in him.

So this morning we are going to explore what it means to clothe ourselves in a peace that overcomes, to embrace this.

And that brings us, I told you, two points.

The first one is this peace comes from God.

If you're taking notes, peace comes from God.

Like, I don't know if I need to write that down.

That's pretty simple.

I came all the way to church for you to tell me that.

Great.

Thanks.

And here's the deal.

I know most of you aren't here to see me.

I saw the kids that were up here earlier.

All right.

I'm not fooling myself, so I'm not, we're not going to dance, and I'm not, uh, like I said, we we have an intentionally shorter service, but here is what I do want.

And here's what I know and believe that God wants us to walk away with is this understanding that peace comes from Him.

And it's not oversimplified.

If it was oversimplified, then there wouldn't be this continual reminder from God over and over and over again that peace comes from him.

I don't have time, I told the first service, I don't have time to preach it.

I wish I did.

Um, but at the very beginning of this, when the disciples say, Oh, now you're finally making sense.

How did Jesus not just pull the whole world over and just end everything?

Because this is at the end of Jesus' time with the disciples, is the time of the end of ministry.

He is rounding third, he is going towards home, he's about to be turned over to rested.

He's uh healed people, brought people back from the dead, spoke amazing things, and they say, Oh, now it makes sense.

And as the light is turning on, Jesus has to remind them once again that peace is only found in him.

And so peace comes from God.

Look at verse 33.

I have said these things to you that in me you have peace.

The reason that we have to be reminded, the reason the disciples have to be reminded is sometimes we take this desire that's in us because we all have a desire in us for peace.

I don't care if you are consider yourself a peaceful person, a confrontational person, a person who doesn't mind the back and forth that confrontation brings, whatever it is, you are created with a desire and a yearning for peace.

You know that, right?

You have a desire within you for peace.

And so God is saying, Hey, in me you find peace.

And he keeps saying it over and over and over again, and I keep saying it over and over and over again because of this.

What we do is we take peace and we try to replace it with security.

I'm gonna say that again.

Over here.

Maybe they didn't give me the response I wanted.

We take peace and then we try to replace it with security.

We try to re- It's too late now, you missed it.

And and and things of comfort.

What do I mean is is what we do is we take instead of the piece being the foundation and the studs and the sheetrock and the paint and the spackle and the flooring and the roof of our lives, instead of our hope being in the structure that cannot be shaken on this rock and on this foundation, we settle for the furnishings inside the house.

And it becomes this fabricated piece.

We're listening, Lord.

God builds this house, He builds us, He creates us.

We're gonna get to this in a little bit, so I don't want to go too far down this road.

But God creates us, and it's by His hands that He makes us, and as He makes us, He makes us with this desire for peace.

He builds this house, and instead of saying, Hey God, you made this, and so I want to fill it with things of you, we begin to fill it with things of ourselves.

What does that mean?

So we just a few weeks ago got our first um really new, really nice piece of furniture in our house.

Um when Sal and I we celebrated 10 years this past week when we first got married, about 90% of all the furniture, most of the married couples in here will remember this.

It was all hand-me-down.

Now, I was a youth pastor making about$1.36 an hour, and so I would tell I was so blessed to have everything.

Um, and now I make$1.78.

Um and so at the time we were so blessed and so lucky, and so many people gave us great things.

And the 10% that wasn't hand-me-down, um, it was whatever the store was in the mall that we could afford and bring cash, and it was made out of press, cheap, like wallboard plywood stuff, and a stiff wind would blow it over.

How many people remember the newlywed years?

Yes, I see you.

Amen.

Um and so that's what we had, and so but a few weeks ago, like I said, we were blessed and we were able to get um this really legitimate table.

I mean, this thing was a behemoth mastodon of a table.

It took four grown men.

I went to pick it up in the heights, it took four of us to load it into the back of my truck.

Um, and I'm gonna go see a hernia doctor tomorrow.

And so we got this thing loaded and we bring it into the house and we start to assemble this thing, and this is the kind of table it is.

This is how solid this thing is.

It's five pieces.

It's the top of the table and the legs.

And then these screws that are made out of something that NASA makes.

I'm not sure what they are, but that table is never gonna come apart.

It is what I want to hide under when the bomb comes.

I was talking to my daughter the other day.

I went and had lunch with her at school at 10.30.

Hello?

Lunch at 10.30.

No wonder she eats everything in the house when she gets home.

Well, we're having lunch.

How was your day?

Oh, we had a fire drill today.

And I said, Oh, I said, You guys have fire drills?

Oh, we have fire drills and we have the duck and covers.

And I was like, I didn't know they still did the duck and cover.

The Cold War's over, but they still do the duck and cover.

And I'm like, when it comes to duck and cover, I'm getting out of this table.

This thing is legitimate.

Why the long spiel about the table?

Because this is legitimate.

It's a furnishing worthy of the structure.

And what God is saying is, hey, quit trying to fabricate things.

Look at the the the real, the real and the solid peace that comes from me.

When God tells us that peace is found in him, he's telling us to fill our house with solid furniture that withstands and perseveres.

And now it'd be easy for me to do what many of you think I'm gonna do and then stand up here and grab the low-hanging fruit and talk about all the things that you shouldn't put hope in.

But we're all we're all grown-ups here, and we all uh we all know our proclivity, we all know the temptation in our life to pick things and use them as band-aids in our life.

And we don't even try to label them as peace.

We're just, you know what, I need this to get through.

I need this to help me push through.

And it's not those things that we that we begin to fill our house with because those things that aren't real, you're not gonna, in college, it was okay to have a cup of milk crates and a two by twelve and throw a cushion on it and call it a couch.

But you're not gonna do that in your house now.

You're gonna have things that look good and you can clean up and you can dust and they they appear like legitimate furniture when company comes over.

But it's those things we know that cannot withstand the test of time.

It's those things that we baptize and try to sanctify and we try to act like those are peace.

And they're good things.

It's our spouses.

When we have anxiety and worry, and we just think, I need peace, we run to our spouse instead of what God says the peace is found in me.

Or maybe it's our financial security.

Our kids.

Our job.

Our friends.

An agreeable political landscape.

Good food and a better beverage.

Physical intimacy?

Our hobbies?

Our feelings?

Not these are bad.

These are all legitimate.

God doesn't say, hey, find peace in me except when you really need to get to the dear leaf.

Okay, and keep going to the dear leaf because I like the meat.

That's what keep doing it.

He's not saying they're bad.

He's just saying they're the peace isn't found there.

The peace is found in me.

We attempt to derive peace from a byproduct of peace.

We're missing out on so much.

We become is remember the story of uh the prodigal son who spends all of his money and runs off and finds himself slopping pigs for a farmer.

And he's so hungry and he's so destitute, he sees the pea pods and he's like, I'm so hungry, I will eat those.

And he tries to find a nourishment from something that was never meant to sustain.

In the same way, if we try to generate and fabricate peace in our lives, we're trying to find peace in something that was never meant to bring us peace.

That's why God says it's only found in me.

If our peace is only found in the byproducts, then it's just sterile.

It's like the great theologian Neil McClendon says, it's like trying to kiss somebody through cellophane.

I can't say that when all the students are in here and they'd go home and try that.

It's not sterile.

Peace is not sterile, peace is messy.

Peace is found.

I mean, look at how peace is found.

It's found through a work and not our work.

Let me ruin the end for you.

Peace is not found through your work and your effort and your chiseling together a safe and secure and comfortable life.

It's found through work.

It's messy.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who decided to make a career change at 35.

And that's that's it's it's a little late to start all over, but he did.

And some of you can relate, and I'm making eye contact with some of you who had the same conversation.

Have you done the same thing?

And so you know.

And so he's decided to make a career change at 35, and this cat hates his job.

I'm not talking about if he could just have a different boss, it would all be better.

If he could realign and be in a different work group, it would be better.

This is the alarm goes off, and I am literally hitting myself in the face, grabbing myself by the shirt, and pulling myself out of bed so I can go work with people that I'm smarter than, people that are younger than me but are my boss, people that I look on Facebook after I've worked my seventh Saturday in a row, and I look at their Facebook and I see pictures from the lake.

I'm not talking about me, by the way, I'm talking about my friend.

Um This guy hates his job.

So we're just talking and kind of processing through it.

Hey, will you pray for me?

Yeah, I'll pray with you.

I got some questions for you.

I said, Man, you got two little kids at home.

I know what it is to have two little kids at home.

I know what it is to work a long day and come home and they have questions and they want to play, and they don't care that you work 12 or 14 hours out in the sun.

They want to play and they have more questions, and then they need their juice cup filled for the 14th time, and they need all these things.

How how how are you giving that to them?

Are you are you reconciling the fact that you were really unhappy?

And he's like, Oh, what I started to do is it's a diamond shamrock right at the front of my neighborhood, right off the corner of my street.

I go there and I get two of the biggest Red Bulls you've seen.

I sit in my truck, I chug them both, and then I just go inside.

I'm like, dude, that's not peace.

You have fabricated a way to get through one more time.

I said, Well man, you got this amazing wife.

Have you talked to her?

I mean, you guys, you can process and you guys, she she is, she is with you and she is your partner, she believes in you.

Have you told her, hey, you know what?

I know that we believe that God called me to start this new career, and and we're in this, but I think that maybe I jumped the gun and I was freaked out about not having a paycheck, and so I took the first paycheck that came along instead of waiting on God, and maybe I need to look for something else.

And he's like, I don't think she can handle that.

You've missed out on this messy, beautiful opportunity for peace.

To say, God, hey, I didn't trust you, and I tried to create and fabricate my own peace, and so I want to wait on your peace, and so that's a little bit messy.

And so, what does that look like for us to move from sterile to messy?

Peace is messy because it comes from a death to self.

It comes from a death to self.

If you want true peace, it means dying to yourself.

Yesterday, we took family photos.

We got in my truck and we're driving back to the house, and and my wife says, Hey, do you realize that every time in between, when she got the camera pointing, you look like you're having a root canal?

And I was strangely warmed by that because here's the deal.

I hate having my picture taken.

I loathe the whole process, right?

And so she was right.

Every time I'm just sitting there like, when is this gonna be over?

And I'm trying to keep these kids clean and they're rolling around in the ants and picking up duck droppings, and I don't know what's happening, and this is miserable.

Oh, pose.

And I share that because one, that's a lot of that's fabricated.

Because here's the deal.

I don't want to ruin it for you.

When you see our Christmas pictures, we don't walk around as a fam with matching clothes on.

I don't go, oh no, Sophie, come back, your bow doesn't match the shirt underneath my sweater.

Really, we should be hanging out with my kid hanging off the ceiling fan, and the other one's screaming their head off because they didn't get their way, and I'm choking the dog, and Merry Christmas from the Colliers.

But here's how jacked up I am.

I'm the one who sent the appointment for the pictures.

I knew I was preaching today, and I was like, let's go outside with our kids in nice clothes.

Let's do that.

And it's it's it's not because happy wife, happy life.

Although true.

Don't have the the reason I share the story is not because of this fabric.

The picture, the the the reason I shared it was just this strange warm feeling that came over my wife's like, hey, you just look miserable in between each picture.

And I'm like, yeah, that's legitimate.

I don't find peace in cur in presenting my family to be something they're not.

I love my family.

I got a wife who many of you, can I just leave the rails for a little bit?

How many of you guys are on Facebook?

Raise your hand.

Okay, so it was my wife and I's 10-year anniversary.

I posted a picture of our wedding day, and not one, not 20, but 47 people felt the need to tell me, man, how did you end up with her?

I get it.

But it's her fault.

She made the choice.

I'm not gonna fabricate something for for other people.

Uh uh, my peace is not found in what other people think, and look at me.

Your peace is not fine and found in what other people think.

And hey, look at me for this, too.

Your peace probably isn't found in what you think peace looks like a lot of the times, too.

Because that's why there's so much security relacing relating I can't talk, replacing peace, and I need to get back on my notes because I promised you a short sermon.

Don't turn there, it's gonna be on the screens.

Um I want I want you to know how this peace is possible through death to self.

Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Philippians chapter 4, beginning verse 6, it says this do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

What does it say?

And the peace of God surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart.

Let your requests be known to God.

Tell God you need peace.

You don't have peace, you don't have a frame of reference for peace.

What does peace look like apart from my own fabrication?

Ask God.

Because what does he say?

He says, Let your requests be made known to God.

Don't be anxious about anything, and in everything, be in prayer and thanksgiving.

Tell God you need peace.

And look what happens.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

How does this work?

I just want to break this down for just hang with.

I just want to break this down so we understand what this looks like.

It says, trust him for everything.

Do not be anxious about anything.

It doesn't say, find peace in everything but your finances.

Trust in my peace, find it in me for everything but your kids, but your future, but whatever is keeping you in this world of fabricated peace.

Trust them in everything.

Pray to him for anything.

Pray to God for anything.

Tonight is a community group night.

If you're a guest with us and you don't know what that means, um, two Sundays a month in the evenings, we had about 20, 25 groups that meet all over our city.

Um, and we talk a lot about some questions that were posed over the last two weeks' sermons.

And so this is one of the questions for the community group, is a question for you in light of pray to him for anything.

If you could ask God for anything, what would it be?

If you could ask God for anything, what would it be?

And if you're a community group leader in here, here's the rule.

When you talk about this in your community group, no Sunday school answers, no world peace.

If you could ask God for anything, what would it be?

And here's the second part of that question: why has that become so ridiculous that you won't ask God?

There's a reason you haven't asked him.

The reason you stopped asking him.

Let's talk about that.

And lastly, meditate on what is holy.

If you keep reading in Philippians 4, it says, Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is in any if there is any excellence, if there is any worthy of praise, think about these things.

When you can't find peace, seek God.

Think about God.

Reflect on God.

Think about what man, when I felt peace, what was God doing in the midst of that?

God hasn't moved.

What have I done?

And this act of trusting, praying, and meditating that allow us to face tribulation well.

It said at the very beginning that we will face tribulation.

Go back into John 16.

In the second part of verse 33, I told you one verse, right?

In the world you will have tribulation.

In the world you will have tribulation.

Church, hear this.

I'm not saying that the end-all be-all of our tribulation is this, but I do believe that much of the tribulation that we face is there, it exists, it's been created by the fact that we try to fabricate our own peace.

The fact that we are always anxious about the same thing over and over and over again.

The fact that we are angry about the same thing over and over and over again, that we worry about the same thing, that we stress about the same thing, that we lose sleep about the same thing, that we compensate with bad addictions because of the same thing over and over and over again, that tribulation exists because we have been trusting in a fabricated peace over true peace.

Why do I say this?

Because we're in good company.

We're in good company in this.

Again, don't turn, it's going to be on the screen.

Romans 1, 21 through 25.

Listen to see what Paul says about this.

For although they knew God, this is us.

Although we know God, we know where peace comes from.

They did not honor God or give thanks to him.

But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Sounds like fabricated peace.

Therefore, God gave them up to their lusts, their hearts of impurity, the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.

And they worshiped and served the Creator rather than the Creator who is blessed forever.

Amen.

Why do we have peace?

For a lot of us, the answer is going to become because of me, because of what I've done, because of what I've accomplished, because what I've done here, here, and here, and we point to that and we say that's peace.

We read right here that that is an idol.

And it is fabricated and it's a lie.

On that happy note, still with me?

If you keep reading in verse 33, it says, I have said these things to you back in John 16.

I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace.

He says, I've said these things to you.

What did he say?

If you have your Bible, look up into verse 25.

What did he say?

Where did this come from?

Where did this where the where the disciples said, Oh, now we get it.

We we understand now.

And he goes, Do you?

Do you understand?

Because only in me you have peace.

What were those things?

But because of this, he says, I have said these things to you in figures of speech.

The hour is coming while I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father.

In that day you will ask in my name.

And I did not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf.

Hear this.

Hear this, church, verse 27.

For the Father Himself loves you.

Hey, look at me.

Father in heaven loves you.

The Father in heaven loves you.

That's why peace.

For the Father Himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

I came from the Father who's come into the world, and I am now leaving this world and going to the Father.

Jesus is telling his disciples as plainly as he can, your Father loves you.

He loves you so much that he sent me.

He sent me that you can know him.

He sent me that you can have a relationship with him.

He sent me so that you can know true salvation.

He sent me that you can know true peace in me.

He sent me that in times of advent, in times of waiting for me, you can know peace.

This is what this is about.

In this advent, in this waiting, in this waiting for the coming and promised Christ, that we can finally find true peace, that it's no more fabricating and moving and smoke and mirrors and yeah, I sure am happy, but we're dying on the inside that God came to redeem us and save us from that.

And so that's why we can come forward and light this candle of peace.

Man, if we had time, what would be great is this if we understand it, just like the disciples saying, I finally get it, that you can come up and grab the match and you say, I get this, I understand peace, I'm gonna light this, and then we blow it out, and the next person comes and they light it as we understand peace.

Charles Stanley puts it perfectly.

He says, What is this peace?

It's an inner sense of contentment and quietness, regardless of life circumstances.

It is steadfast confidence in our ever-faithful, immutable heavenly Father.

It is the presence of joy in the midst of unhappiness.

True peace does not merely dull our pain.

Peace doesn't merely dull your pain.

Jesus didn't come to make you feel better.

A person who has genuine godly peace can endure an avalanche of hardship and difficulty and still enjoy an inner peace that surpasses all human understanding.

Why?

Because it does not come from pleasant circumstances, nice events, or good things others may do for us.

Instead, it is based on the fact that the spirit of our holy, omnipotent, and never-changing God lives within us.

We're not created for fabricated peace.

Which brings us to our second point and last point.

True peace delivers us.

True peace delivers us.

Look back in John 16, verse 33.

John 16:33

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.

In the world, you'll have tribulation.

But take heart.

I have overcome the world.

When Jesus says that he's overcome the world, when you look at that in the Greek, it's a completed action.

Why is that important?

Because when you read, I have overcome the world, Jesus says, He's not saying, I'm going to overcome the world.

I'm thinking about overcoming the world.

I might overcome, it's on my holy to-do list on the fridge up in heaven.

I might overcome the world.

He says, No, I have overcome the world.

I have said these things that you might have peace.

Why is that important?

He's telling us that his completed work is what brings the peace.

It's a work that was done by Christ, not by us.

I have overcome the world.

And since I'm the one who overcame the world, I'm the one who can bring peace.

It's his perfection, his holiness, his peace, his overcoming.

That word overcoming in the Greek is cecnia.

And it literally means to overpower, to conquer, to triumph.

That's good news.

That means that the ability to have peace has already been conquered.

It's already been triumphed.

We don't need to keep trying to fabricate like the pinewood derby car.

That we try to act like we made, but our dad really made because he's reliving his dreams through his son.

No, it's already been done.

It's already been conquered.

The work that has been done is a work that we are uncapable or incapable of accomplishing.

Here's a question for your community group.

What do you need to acknowledge that God has already accomplished?

What do you need to acknowledge that God has already accomplished?

What are you trying to fix that God's already done?

What are you trying to recreate that God already created?

In his perfectness.

This is what it means by the peace of God delivers us.

Peace in this Advent season, peace in our life is found in resting in the hands of God.

The hands that deliver us.

What do I mean by the hands that deliver us?

I was thinking about the story strangely for weeks before I even knew that this is the scripture that God wanted me to be on.

And I was thinking about, we lived in Midland for a year when I was a kid.

I was in first grade, so I was six, seven years old.

And we lived on a dead end.

And instead of it being a cul-de-sac, there was a big iron and concrete fence that separated us from a junior college.

It was in town.

And we used to sneak through that fence all the time and go over to school.

And it was six-inch piping, steel and concrete.

And it's about four and a half feet tall.

And I was out playing with my brother one day who's seven years older than me, and so I'm sure he was threatening my life, and I was fleeing.

I just like to call it playing.

And I was riding away from him on my bike, and the last thing I remember as I was turning around saying something to him, the last thing I remember was the feel of the stole of the cold steel and concrete on my forehead as I whipped around.

I say the last thing I remember because I went completely out, completely unconscious.

And I kind of came to, if you ever been carried as a grown person, not like as a little kid, but you've that feeling of being carried, I woke up to that feeling and I'm like, oh, I'm in heaven.

This is disappointing.

It looks like Midland and smells like oil.

I thought there'd be more hills here.

And I look up and there's there's my 14-year-old brother carrying me down the street back to the house.

Blacked out again and woke up in the bathtub.

Can we talk about why parents, anybody, that you get hurt and your parents put you in the bathtub?

I never understood that.

It's weird.

Anybody?

No, I'm just all the weird family.

I'll seek counseling tomorrow.

Alright, so I wake up.

I share this because I was not able to bring myself home.

I was incapable, unfit, and yet carried home.

And in the hands of someone that could take care of me.

My son, three years old, Jackson, has taken up lately.

He's he started grabbing my hands and we're hanging out in his room or playing Legos or something.

He starts taking my hands, and he takes one of my hands and his two little hands, and he starts tracing all the lines, and he's real uh he's always feeling the calluses and trying to figure out what that's all about.

Um and then he looks at my big swollen knuckles that have been broken too many times, and uh, and then he asks about the scars, and he wants to know the story on all the scars.

And I'm like, Well, some of those you can't hear until you're 21, but um, some of those I can tell you about.

And um, but yesterday we were um watching the Teletubby episode for the 119th time, and he he took my hand and he held it up, and he said, Daddy, your hands are big, and then he held his hand up and he said, My hands aren't that big.

And I said, Well, you know, one day they will, and we were just talking about hands.

And you ever have those aha moments?

I have those two, and I kind of had that aha moment.

I said, This is this is these are the God, God is saying, My hands deliver you.

My hands are bigger than your hands will ever be.

I'm the creator of peace, therefore I'm the only one and the only destination where you can find peace.

And so here is how I want us to close this evening or this evening, this morning.

Is um these are gonna come up on the screen, and I want us to understand what these hands that deliver, create, and perfect faith look like.

And so all these things came to be, declares the Lord.

Psalm 8.3, when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place.

Psalm 19:1, the heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands.

Psalms 19:1

Isaiah 64, 8.

But now, O Lord, you are our Father.

We are the clay, you are the potter, and all of us is a work of your hand.

Job 36, 2, he covers his hands with lightning and commands it to strike the mark.

Psalm 145, you open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Habakkuk 3:4.

Habakkuk 3:4

His radiance is like the sunlight.

He has rays flashing from his hand, and there is the hiding of his power.

Psalm 138 7, though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me.

You will stretch forth your hand against the wrath of my enemies.

Your right hand will save me.

And John 10, 29, my Father, who has given, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

These are the hands that deliver peace.

This is where peace is found.

Do me a favor and put your hands out like this, and let us speak a blessing over you.

God is a source of perfect peace.

It's in him, it's by him, and it is hand delivered by him.

Live in that in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.