ADVENT: The Path to Peace

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Lord, we plead with you today.

Be the light, God, in the darkness.

We're reminded of your words that you are light, and in you there is no darkness at all.

When you came to the earth, you came to give light.

And the darkness could not overcome you, no matter how hard it tried.

And so today, God, we just, although we may be in the dark on some things, we are people of the light.

We are the light of the world because you were the light of the world and you've put that in us.

And so, God, we just cling to you.

We understand, God, that we agree with the saints of old, the saints anew, that basically just say, our hearts are restless, Lord, until we find rest in you.

There will be no peace in this life until you have made peace with us.

And so, God, for all who claim Christ, there is peace.

Amidst the chaos, amidst circumstances.

We cling to the God of peace, God.

And so, in your oh so subtle ways that are life-changing, would you just speak to us today?

We agree with the psalmist that just says, We pray to you, O Lord, our rock, do please, oh Jesus, please, Holy Spirit, please, Father, don't turn a deaf ear to us.

For if you are silent, we may as well give up and die.

And so today, God, we plead to you, agree with that prayer.

Ask God that you just prick our hearts and reshape our minds, God, to be the people that you call us to be through your word.

By the power of your spirit and by the victory that was won in your Son Jesus, we pray.

Amen.

You can be seated.

Well, my name is Lance Williams.

I'm the spiritual formation pastor here at Grand Parkway.

Um, and we are continuing on in our season and in our series on Advent.

If you have not been with us before during Advent, or maybe you're new here, maybe you're in town visiting.

Uh, Advent is the season basically where we just kind of re-enter history with Israel after the prophets, after the prophets and before Jesus came, there were 400 years of silence, 400 years of spiritual darkness.

And so we kind of re-enter that time on the Christian calendar for four weeks leading up to Christmas, where we just kind of just ask God to just break in on us.

Ask and plead with the God of presence, plead with the God of peace, to just push out everything else that culture and the world and perhaps ourselves are starting to claim and believe is life.

And we were asking God to lead us into a life that is truly life.

And so that's really where we're at in Advent.

Advent just means coming or arriving, and so we are in our second week, which is the peace week.

Started off with hope.

Now we're in peace.

We'll go to joy and love as we continue to journey on to Christmas and Christmas Eve.

And I don't know about you all, but uh but I'm surrounded by people and surrounded by a world that just keeps on trying to impose things on me during this Advent season, uh, whether it be uh more things to do or more things to go by or whatever it is.

Uh and so we're we're in this world where it's just kind of just pressing in on us uh what their ideas are of peace, what their ideas are uh of what this season should look like.

Like, have you seen the KFC commercials about peace?

Yes, we have one watcher of TV.

Everyone else apparently doesn't have cable.

You are also holy, my goodness.

Uh uh Yes, absolutely.

But but but KFC, apparently their motto this week this this season is uh Grab some peace this Christmas season, and it's their piece of chicken.

Uh what is that?

What is that about?

Uh I wish that worked, right?

And so they're they're they're grabbing their pieces of chicken and and and then the end of the commercial is there this guy's two kids and they're just yapping at him and he's like, No, you didn't, yes I did, no, you didn't, yes I did, no you didn't, yes I didn't, and then he gives them both uh a chocolate chip cookie and it's just silence, right?

I wish that worked in my house.

I give my kids cookies and they're like, it has nuts in it.

What is in here?

Can you go get me something else?

Dance, monkey.

I want you to jump, dance, do something different.

Uh and I have to constantly remind myself, I am I'm I'm the parent, right?

Like, I'm in control.

I'm the boss.

Yeah, okay, I'm the boss.

Here we go.

Uh but that's just the reality, right?

So that's just a silly example that that that the culture is kind of trying to redefine, number one, what what this season is.

Number one, number two, what peace is.

Uh have you seen the other commercial, the craftsman commercial, where there's a grown man uh all like uh spooning a drill?

Have you seen this awkward thing?

There's a man sleeping underneath the tree and he's spooning a drill as if as if the right tool is going to grant him the peace to just sleep through all the chaos.

I can tell you, I'm an owner of Craftsman drills.

They don't give you any peace.

They don't do that.

Uh but we are in a culture that is constantly and consistently trying to drive into our minds through what we see, what we read, what we watch, what it is, that how they define peace and success and prosperity.

But we have uh a God who whose voice is much more subtle than probably theirs in some days, but much, much more consistent.

And so we today we're continuing on in our journey in Advent, and we are going to be talking about the path to peace.

And as we do, we're gonna be in Judges chapter six.

Not a place that I plan to be today, but that's what we are, uh in God's timing and in God's sovereign will.

We are in Judges chapter six, verses eleven to twenty four.

And as you guys turn there, we are on page 205 of the Bible at the end of your row, if you don't have your Bible.

Uh, and as you're turning there, uh let me just define this word peace.

Because everybody else has their claim on it.

Let's try and get a biblical understanding of what this word really is, because we're gonna end this passage in verse 23 and 24.

And Gideon is gonna make this great declaration of God's character that the Lord is peace.

He doesn't just bring peace, he is peace.

And that's a huge difference for how we're gonna live our lives.

Let me just define that word.

It's the Hebrew word shalom, right?

We've heard this word before.

Uh if you have any any any Jewish relatives or friends or want to be friends, want to be, want to want to be Jewish relatives or friends, they'll say shalom to you.

It's just basically a greeting in the culture today, and it is rooted back in what the Old Testament says about peace.

Some things that some dictionaries uh define shalom, completeness, fulfillment, tranquility, contentment.

Man, wouldn't we like to be content during the holiday season?

I was so discontent this last week that I went and bought a new TV.

Just cuz.

Just because it was oh Cyber Monday, there's never gonna be another say I like this again.

Don't worry, I'm just like you.

I buy into all the lies on occasion.

I try not to, but do.

Shalom.

Definitely not content, but there's this shalom, there's this peace that God has come to bring.

It's echoed in the book of Numbers when there's this great, unbelievable blessing that God gives to his people.

He says, The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

There's this understanding all throughout the Bible that God's countenance, his face being towards his people, his pursuit of sinners, is what grants us peace.

And so for our purposes today, let's just define peace like this.

Peace is not the absence of trouble.

Peace is not the absence of chaos, it is not the absence of uh of giving our our our kids cookies so they'll just be quiet.

That's not what peace is all about.

It's not the absence of trouble or chaos or turbulence, but the confidence that through all those things, through trouble, through circumstances that just don't make sense, through all these things, God is with us.

That's what peace is.

That through all those things, not the absence of those things, it's through those things, God is with us.

And so it's with that understanding of peace that we now pick up our Bible and read Judges 6, 11 to 24, which says this.

Now the angel of the Lord came and sat underneath the terabinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abbezrite.

Can y'all pronounce Abbezrite?

Would that be all right?

No, I'm just kidding.

Uh uh Let me start over.

Now the angel of the Lord came and sat underneath the terabinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abbezrite, with while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites.

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.

And Gideon said to him, Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?

And were all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?

But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.

And the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the land of Midian.

Do not I send you?

And he said to him, Please, Lord, how can I save Israel?

Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

And the Lord said to him, But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.

And he said to him, If now I have found favour in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.

Please do not part from me here until I come to you, and bring out my present, and set it before you.

And he said, I will stay until you return.

So Gideon went to his house and prepared a young goat, unleavened cakes from the epha flour, the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought with brought them to him under the terabinth, and presented them.

And the angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth all over them.

And he said to them, Then the and he did so.

Then the angel o of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes, and fire sprang up from the rock, and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes, and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.

Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord, and Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.

But the Lord said to him, Peace be to you, do not fear, you shall not die.

Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it the Lord is Peace.

To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to Abbey to the Abbey Ezrites.

If if you hear nothing from me today, maybe that's the only thing you need to hear today in the midst of chaos that's kind of breaking out around us in our culture.

Uh, and I'm not, I'm just talking about the holidays and the season that we're in.

If you hear nothing else, maybe it's those three phrases that you need to just repeat in your mind over and over again that the God of peace came and said this to his people that peace be to you, do not fear, you shall not die.

Peace be to you, do not fear, you shall not die.

What an un what an unbelievable statement that God says to Gideon and will relay to all of us.

And this is why during the Advent season, when we're talking about the coming of our King in the form of a little baby in just a few weeks, we plead to Him, we ask Him to just settle the waters in our hearts and in our minds in the midst of whatever else is going on.

And the way that He does that is through texts like this.

There's three points that kind of rise up to the top for all of us.

This path to peace as we look at the Advent season, the first thing is this the path to peace starts in chaos.

Path to peace always starts in chaos.

And we'll just go to the story of Gideon.

If you look at the book of Judges, the last verse in the book of Judges is really the theme for everything that came before it.

And that last verse is this in those days there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Now, if y'all don't live in that world, or if you don't know that you live in that world today, open, listen, look, see.

We are redefining everything these days.

Everything.

And we're doing so because there's no king in Israel.

And everybody's doing whatever is right in our own eyes.

It's that context that we read about a God of peace.

Now, if you look out at that and you start getting really involved in the whole political jargon and political conversations that are going on in this country alone, man, you can have a lot of unrest in your soul.

You can have a lot of unrest in what's going on.

And you can get real discontent real quickly with not a whole lot of what can I do about this?

And so the God of peace comes and reminds us of who he is.

The path to peace starts in chaos.

For Gideon, it was he felt abandoned by God.

Why?

If we were to read in verses one through ten, basically we'd see this in verses one.

I'll just read that verse.

It says, uh the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian for seven years.

Now Midian was a neighboring country to Israel, uh, and they did not worship God of the God of the Bible.

And instead, this is what they did to Israel for seven years, year after year after year.

Israel would would plant their seed, they would work the fields for a long full year until harvest would come.

And then the Midianites and the Amalekites would come through the land and basically take all the harvest that was waiting for Israel.

It would take their donkeys, they would take their sheep, everything they needed to sustain life, they would take from them and haul it back to their homeland.

Well, it's no wonder that this God who brought us up out of Egypt and into this land, and all of a sudden our enemies just keep ravaging us and keep ravaging us and keep ravaging us.

It's no wonder that Gideon felt the way he did in verse 13, which we'll pick up.

But the path to peace starts in chaos.

It's the same in Gideon.

All of a sudden, his world is falling apart.

It'd be kind of like for you and me if we worked hard every day.

And you know what?

Every two weeks you're supposed to get a paycheck.

This is what it'd be like for you.

Is that you go to your you go to your bank account every two weeks, and all of a sudden you go to start paying your bills and provide for your family.

I mean, just basic everyday needs.

And you go there and you go to your bank account and it's empty.

Week after week, month after month, year after year for seven years.

Now, I may not be as patient as Gideon was at that after seven years.

Gideon's a pretty patient guy when it comes to, okay, we've been ravaged.

What are you up to, God?

I mean, I kind of feel alone out here.

What are you doing?

The path to peace starts in chaos.

It starts, well, it's shown in the story of Gideon.

It's echoed in the story of the shepherds when when I mean it's the Advent season.

Let's talk about a little bit about the birth announcement.

You send out birth announcements.

God's birth announcement of his son was unforgettable.

The hosts of heaven came down, showed themselves to the shepherds who were in their field, just minding their own business.

They show up, and the first thing that they say is, in the midst of the chaos, hey, don't be afraid.

Do not be afraid, fear not, for behold, here's the great news.

I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.

What was that great news?

In verse 14, the angel says this glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.

They're out, mind their own business, living their life.

Literally, the armies of heaven show up and freak them out.

Can you imagine that scene?

Imagine being a shepherd that night.

Okay, something crazy about to happen.

Don't be afraid.

Peace is coming.

And not that he just stop with the baby Jesus, but he grew up.

He lived a sinless life, and then he recruited 12 of his friends or his believers, his disciples, and they would follow him.

And as they followed him, they believed and they didn't believe, and then they had faith, and then they had a whole lot of doubt.

And we pick up on a scene where they're on the Sea of Galilee and the waves are raging.

And they're freaked out.

I mean, seasoned fishermen, knowing exactly this is their backyard.

They know exactly how to handle the sea.

They know exactly what's going on.

And Jesus, where do we find Jesus, this God of peace?

He's sleeping, taking a little nap, a little tired.

But he's sleeping, right?

He's on the cushion, on the stern, and they're in the fetal position on the hole of the deck.

I mean, they're trying to figure out what's going on, and they get up and they go, hey, I got a little something in me here.

I mean, I know you're sleeping here, but I have you figured out what's going on around us.

And they say this to him, Teacher, do you not care?

Do you not care that we're perishing?

And he awoke and thank God.

And he awoke and he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still.

And although he said it to the waves in the sea, I wonder if he said it loud enough so that his twelve compadres could hear him.

Peace be still.

Okay.

Maybe that was for me.

Maybe the God of Shalom.

Maybe the God of peace is speaking that over us today.

The story of Gideon reminds us that God is not only a God who shows up in the midst of chaos, that the path of peace for us, we can look around us in the darkness in the desert, and nothing makes sense, and we can look around and go, I don't know what you're doing here.

I mean, do you not care?

Are you not going to show up?

What is up with this?

It reminds us that number one, the path of peace and the God of peace is coming.

But also, in the midst of all that, he might just see something in us that we don't see in ourselves.

He might just be speaking and using the experience to form our identity for his own.

And I tell you that because what we see in verse 12, in the midst of the chaos that Gideon lived in, of being robbed day after day, year after year.

I mean, he's hiding out, beating out the wheat in a wine press, which doesn't make any sense because you normally you would press wine in a wine press.

He's hiding out, trying to get away from the Midianites because they're going to come and steal all his food.

He's hiding out, afraid.

Chaos is breaking out around him.

In those days, the roles of men and women were very defined.

He was doing what would be the role of a woman, beating out the wheat, and so making sure that there's grain so that she would be able to go home and cook for her family.

I mean, he he's at a he's had a major identity crisis going on.

He's afraid, he's doing things that he doesn't normally have to do.

Why?

Because he has to.

And God shows up and says this.

The angel of the Lord, verse 12, appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you.

And what does he say?

O mighty man of valor.

O mighty warrior.

I mean, this is just go a little bit high level here.

What is going on right here?

Almighty warrior.

Gideon hadn't done anything.

He's not a warrior yet.

He's sifting wheat in a wine press, hiding out from all the people that are trying to get his stuff.

And God says to him, You're a mighty man of valor.

Isn't that the gospel?

That he sees stuff in us that we don't see?

And he calls those things forth so that they would be resurrected from the dead, so that we can live out of that new person?

Absolutely, that's the gospel.

I mean, that's what he came to give us.

It's no wonder that he says, Hey, by the way, I'm with you.

I'm with you.

It may start in this chaos that might be circumstantial, but it also might lead to a crisis of identity, and God will just hush our hearts and He'll just say, Hey, number one, I'm with you.

Number two, I see something in you that you don't see in yourself.

Sifting wheat, hiding out, and God says, I'm a mighty man of valor.

Almost comical how amazing God God is and how He sees us.

And I'll just say this because I'm a spiritual formation pastor.

That means that I oversee all the small groups and all the groups that we do.

That's one of the main purposes why we have those and why we believe in those.

One of our core values is a community, and so we want you to get involved in those things, not because I mean we we're a lot of different reasons, but here's one of the main reasons.

Because those you're gonna be surrounded by a bunch of people that just might see something in you that you don't see in yourself.

That the voices of your past have started to kind of lie to you and tell you some things that you you shouldn't believe anymore.

And if you're in a community like that, in a community group or a growth group or whatever group you want to be in, if you're in a consist and you and you show up consistently and you start to trust these people and you start to tell them your story and they'll start to tell you yours, eventually there will come a point where someone will just speak life into you and you just didn't even expect it.

And he'll say, Man, I just see God doing great and mighty things in you.

Oh, mighty woman of valor.

Oh, really?

I've just been changing diapers for like three years.

What are you talking about?

Oh no.

Something's coming.

I can feel it.

That doesn't happen in here.

Can't happen in here.

So we've got to move into, yes, a little bit more intimidating space.

But where the reward is far, far greater.

So we get to this whole idea that yes, peace is coming and peace starts in chaos, but guess what?

The path to peace, it continues on, and as it continues on, it continues in prayer.

The path to peace continues in prayer.

And in my notes, I have a little parentheses that says dialogue.

Dialogue.

I mean, when we pray, it's, I mean, I've led enough groups, then when I say, all right, what are we praying for today?

Well, my aunt's cousin's girlfriend has a pinky toe, and you know, it's just not right.

We need to pray for that.

And I I'll pray for that, and I love that, and I'm happy to do that.

But and that's a place to start.

So I'm not making light of those.

But what if God intended for us to connect with one another and Him to where we could show up and say, you know what?

I got something going on in my life.

I mean, somebody came up to me at the end of the first server and said, Hey, how can I pray for you personally while you're on India?

It's on the card, man.

He goes, No, I don't want the card answer.

I want your answer right now.

Okay.

And it's not who you think it is.

And I said, Well, I'll tell you what, man, I'm preaching today on peace.

I got no peace.

The world around me is spinning.

I'm believing for India.

I'm preaching.

I'm doing this.

We're doing this.

We're going to peace.

So I would love to get some peace when I go to India.

You pray for that?

How about that?

Let's go for that.

So that's not on the card, by the way.

But let's just go there.

And oh, by the way, can you just pray for me?

Because my heart is messed up.

So somewhere between I don't know when and now, whatever got all turned upside down, just the kingdom needs to come in here and just put it all right.

And we'll get there.

And we'll be fine.

But that's what needs to happen.

So there you go.

But that is only going to happen in a dialogue with God.

I'm asking that person to have a dialogue with God.

Not to just go, hey, he's whatever.

It's, you know what?

That dude right there needs this, this, and this.

And oh, by the way, God, what are you saying to me?

I love that he can be able to say that and identify those things.

I can't identify those things.

What are you saying to me?

What do I need to work on?

What do I need to deal with during this time of the holidays or whatever?

It's a dialogue.

What I love about Gideon is that he is not afraid to ask hard questions of God.

It starts in chaos, it continues in prayer.

Let's read that conversation, that dialogue with the angel of the Lord.

And he says in verse 13, well, excuse me, in verse 12, he says, the angel of the Lord, hey, the Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor, 13.

And Gideon said to him, Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?

And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?

But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.

I mean, Gideon asks the million-dollar question.

Right?

If you're going through anything during this time, if you're going through anything, period.

I don't care if it's your car broke down on the way here.

Whatever it is that you are going through, the question that ultimately comes up is why?

Why?

What are you doing, Lord?

Because that's what Gideon says.

Hey, the Lord's with you.

All right, cool.

You think the Lord's with me?

Well, guess what?

If the Lord's with us, then why has all this happened to me?

Why is all this happening to us, to Israel?

I mean, where are all the mighty deeds of God?

That's the million-dollar question to everyone who has ever suffered on this earth except for Jesus.

He knew exactly what was going on.

He was synced up with the Father's will completely.

But we're not.

What are you doing, God?

I mean, why are you doing this?

Why are you allowing this?

Why, why, why, why, why?

And God's not put off by that at all.

I would say, in fact, he invites it.

He invites us to be honest, to have an authentic dialogue with him.

And let me just say this that if you are in the desert, if you're in the darkness, you have great company.

The saints that we look towards and we go, man, these guys lived the life.

These ladies lived the life that I want to live.

They went through unbelievable, dark, dark periods.

I mean, Gideon's in one that we're reading about right now.

The land has been ravaged for seven years.

Where are you, God?

Don't hide it.

Just lean into that and just press into God in the meantime through a prayerful dialogue.

Because this is the promise of God from Moses all the way to us today.

From Moses, Moses was sitting there, all right, I don't know what you're doing.

I don't know how I'm supposed to know where we're going.

I mean, you haven't told me anything.

Hello, can you help a brother out?

And God says to him, My presence will go with you.

That's it.

I'm not going to give you direction.

I'm not going to write it out for you.

It's just my presence.

That's how you know where everything's going to be right is I am with you.

Fast forward from Moses to Jesus, his last day, before he flies up to heaven and reigns forever, before coming back.

And he says this to his disciples, yeah, go make disciples of all nations, want you to teach them, want you to baptize.

Oh, by the way, here's the greatest news over all that.

I will be with you always.

Even to the end of the age.

We don't know the answer why.

We don't.

You may not ever find the answer.

I might not ever be able to tell you the answer.

But I do know this that there's a lot of people in this church throughout this year that they've they've gone through the ringer.

Whether it be job losses, whether it be their spouse dying, whether it be a kid being lost.

I mean, you name it, and this church has seen it uh this year.

And a constant question that will come up when we talk with them is why?

What is God doing?

What is he up to?

I mean, what am I not learning?

Is he punishing me?

I mean, you just start going through everything.

Let me just encourage all of us in here.

The thing that God is calling us towards in suffering, or just, you know what, I'm just living life and everything's fine.

The last thing I did or last suffering I had was a ticket because I was dumb.

It's that God wants us to press into his presence.

He just wants to continue to make himself known in our lives and in new and in creative ways.

And he'll continue to do that in the midst of chaos, in the midst of tribulation, in the midst of trouble, and he continue to press upon our hearts that nothing will satisfy except him and him alone.

That's the answer to Gideon, basically.

I mean, Gideon goes off and he says, Hey, hey, hey, if you're with us, this is great and everything, but all our circumstances could be a whole lot better to show us that you are with us.

Verse 14, he continues and he says, And the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian.

Do not I send you.

And he said to him, Please, Lord, how can I save Israel?

Behold, uh my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I'm the least of my father's house.

And the Lord said to him, But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midian, the Midianites as one man.

God's answer to Gideon is basically this You want to rely upon the stories of your fathers and their father and their father, your mother and your grandmother and your great grandmother?

Do you want to keep relying on these stories, or do you want new ones?

Do you want yours?

Do you want your own personal story of how you were in a pickle and God came and showed up?

And how you were, you didn't think you could live another day until God showed up.

Do you want that story?

Do you want to rely on everybody else's story that they've told you all throughout the ages?

The mighty deeds of God that you brought us up out of Egypt, that you did this, that you did that.

Hey, Gideon, I want to create new stories in you.

And I want you to tell those stories of my goodness and my bigness and my faithfulness and the peace that you had throughout all the circumstances that you're about to face, including taking 300 men against armies.

I want you to tell those stories, Gideon.

So maybe today the story, the why is God wants your story to be really, really big.

And He wants it to be yours.

Maybe that's what God is doing.

I'm not saying that's why.

I'm just saying maybe, perhaps, this could be what God's inviting us all towards, whatever suffering that we go through, whatever darkness we go through, whatever desert we go through, maybe there's something to be learned.

Maybe there's something that we definitely need to grasp onto, and that's God's presence and his purpose of peace.

And oh, by the way, I mean, God does his most powerful and peaceful work in the dark.

God does his most powerful and peaceful work in the dark.

You might ask yourself, okay, but he's the God of light.

Yes.

Which means there's darkness, and he's going to come in and pierce it.

You might ask yourself, what are you talking about?

Well, Genesis 15, we see God making a covenant with Abraham.

And when he does so, it is dark.

He makes a covenant with Abraham and he promises him that his descendants will be more numerous than the stars and the sky.

And when he does so, God passes through the covenant and makes the covenant when it is dark and Abraham is sleeping.

God's powerful and most peaceful work, peaceful work is done in the dark.

Remember Jesus, this guy Jesus that we worship?

Remember when he was dying on the cross, waging war against sin?

Ephesians 2 says that he himself is our peace.

How?

He waged war against sin.

When he did that on the cross from noon to three, should have been daylight.

It was dark.

God does his most powerful and peaceful work while it is dark.

So if you and I are in the darkness, if we're experiencing darkness or chaos or tribulation or whatever, hang tight.

The God of peace is coming.

He's with us.

That's what we're celebrating, that's what we're longing for throughout this entire Advent season, is for that God to show up.

Whatever it is, it's no matter if presence is gonna happen, no matter if TV is gonna fix it, no matter whatever.

Decoration ain't gonna fix it, whatever we're leaning on, not gonna do it.

He's coming, though.

The God of peace is coming.

And it leads us to our last uh point for today.

And that is this the path of peace is a person.

The path of peace is a person.

Remember, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

He is the personification of peace.

Let me read what I mean here in 19 to 24.

And really, I just want to say this that we pick up on the story when he's kind of asking for a sign, right?

Gideon's asking for the sign of the angel of the Lord.

Hey, would you be here?

I mean, would you stay here?

And most people think that this sign is what we were about to read, which is the sacrifice, that he goes and he prepares the sacrifice to the angel of the Lord, and the angel of the Lord shows up and touches it with this little staff, boop, and every single all of a sudden fire comes up out of the rock, and when they think that's the sign.

Maybe that's not the sign.

Maybe the sign is that the angel of the Lord stays there.

Because he says in verse 17, and he said to him, If now I found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.

Here's the sign please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.

Angel of the Lord, I will stay until you return.

It's all of a sudden these mighty acts of God start to really overshadow the greater blessing, and that is He's here.

His presence is enough.

And this path to peace is a person.

And so we read that part in this sacrifice that comes, and all of a sudden the angel of the Lord taps the rock, fire breaks out.

In verse 22, we pick up on that story, and Gideon says this.

Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord, and Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.

But the Lord said to him, Peace be to you, do not fear, you shall not die.

Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it the Lord is peace.

Doesn't just bring peace, he is peace.

And to this day it stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abe Ezrites.

The Lord is peace.

It's one of his names, Yahweh Shalom.

What great understanding and what great news that our God is the personification of peace.

So when we're asking, God, I just need some peace.

I just need you to bring some peace.

What we're really asking is, would you just make your presence felt and known in the midst of whatever else is going on?

In the midst of whatever holiday drama that you got going on, whatever it is, whether it be illness or sickness or death or I got no job and I just paid for like a whole lot of Christmas gifts and now I'm just sunk.

Whatever it is, oh Lord Jesus, please give me peace.

What we're really saying is, can you just make your presence felt and known?

Can I just feel that for a little bit?

Can you just speak to me and remind me that you're here?

The path of peace is a person.

That's why in Isaiah 9 it was prophesied about Jesus 700 years before he got here.

For to us a child is born, to us is given, to us a son is given.

The government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

In Micah, it's echoed in verses four and five where it says, And he, Jesus, shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they shall dwell secure.

Don't miss that.

Don't miss that before we move on.

And they shall dwell secure.

You will be secure, no matter what you feel.

Because God's got his grip on you.

And they shall dwell secure.

For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.

And what is he going to do?

And he shall be their peace.

When Jesus came, you remember his words?

I didn't come to bring peace, but a sword.

He didn't come to bring peace.

He came to be it on our behalf.

He waged war with sin and won us.

And in so doing, created peace with the Father so that we could be ministers of that peace to each other and to the world.

We come to that person of Jesus that we're longing for, that we're celebrating this Advent season.

And he will show his character when he rescues us.

For all of us who are waiting in the darkness, for all of us who ended last week's service, just calling out to God, I'm waiting for this to happen.

I'm waiting for my husband to repent.

I'm waiting for my son to come back.

I'm waiting for a new job.

I'm waiting, I'm waiting, and I'm hopeful, God, that you're going to deliver us.

When we do that, we have this unbelievable promise over and over and over again.

Do we find the promises of God, finding their yes and amen in Jesus?

The last night before he lived, before he died, Jesus said several things to his disciples.

I want to just read these and just kind of let them wash over us because they're promises that no matter what you feel, no matter what you think, if you believe in Christ, this is the truth about who you are, more importantly, about who God is and what he said.

John 14, 26 and 27, Jesus says this about the Holy Spirit.

He says, 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.

What is he talking about?

This peace that he's given to us.

He's talking about the Holy Spirit.

This Holy Spirit is going to come and he's going to be with you, and he's going to remind you of everything I've ever told to you.

Peace I leave with you.

My peace I give to you.

I'm about to leave, guys.

This is the last night.

I mean, it's about to get real bad.

Oh, by the way, peace.

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

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

God is constantly proclaiming peace in the midst of our troubles and circumstances.

He would continue on in that same monologue with his disciples in John 16, 33.

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

Because guess what?

In the world, you're going to have trouble.

You're going to have tribulation.

But take heart.

I have overcome the world.

And he says all that just hours before being betrayed, before being shunned by his friends, by before, right when he goes, right when he's about to go into the garden and pray and sweat drops of blood, and then he's going to get flogged and be just dragged through court after court after phony court, being accused, being hit, being punched, with his beard being plucked out, all the things that he endured on our behalf.

And he says this you can have peace with me.

My peace I leave with you.

It's no wonder that peace is not the absence of trouble or chaos.

It is peace is the reminder and the reality that God is with us in the midst of all that.

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews.

Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you.

I'm here.

The promises that He will be our peace, I'm here, guys.

It's all going to be okay.

Yes, you're going to have trouble, but guess what?

Everything that I've ever said about you, everything that I've ever said about myself, it's all true.

Peace.

Shalom.

Wellness.

Not in the absence of all that, but through all the things that we never want to go through.

I'm here.

So we end today basically longing, basically with an understanding now of this path of peace, this understanding that God is coming.

And when he comes, he brings peace.

Because that's who he is.

So we've got to ask ourselves at the end of all this, what are we relying on for peace?

And is that biblical?

Is that something that God says yes and amen to when we rely upon it?

And furthermore, if we're relying on this peace that God calls us to rely on to bring us peace, what are we doing to bring that to the chaos of our family this Christmas season?

That's the call for me.

I don't know what it looks like.

I don't know what the circumstances are going to be, but it's almost guaranteed there's going to be drama.

Am I the only one in the room that there's going to be drama?

Just got out of drama a couple weeks ago, and we had somebody literally text us, hey, I'd rather die than come be with Thanksgiving with y'all.

Woohoo! Who wants to go over to their house?

Yeah.

Maybe that's what I'm supposed to do.

Maybe that person doesn't need another snarky little smart elic response from me.

Telling them that they're a terrible person.

Maybe I need to respond like the angel of the Lord.

Hey, I see things in you that you don't even see in yourself because God will do it for you.

All you gotta do is trust and believe.

What is it that God is calling you to do?

How are you gonna be a minister of peace amidst the chaos?

With that, would you all stand to your feet?

Let me speak a word of blessing over you.

And actually, I'm gonna read it.

It's from uh 2 Thessalonians 3.

It's a blessing that God has spoken over to his people for centuries.

Hold your hands out like this if you would.

May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.

The Lord be with you all.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.