The Violent Path to Peace

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.

Oh, strong refuge God, we pray to you today because not just because we're safe or we need to be rescued, but because you're the truth.

And God, the reality is that during this time of year, people come to church for different reasons.

It's none of my business.

Uh why they come, I'm just glad they come.

But I pray that they didn't come for a religious beatdown today, for a whipping, or to be scolded, or to be told, hey, this is what you've been doing wrong all year, and if you write a check, we'll all call it even.

That's not your economy, that's not the way you deal in things.

As a matter of fact, it's no accident that we're here on this Sunday of peace.

Because we've come to think about peace, being at peace with you first and foremost, and how do we get that?

So, Holy Spirit, speak to us.

Your name is a strong and mighty tower.

The Bible says, Proverbs says, that the righteous run in and they find strength, shelter, nourishment, sustenance.

We've come for all that and more.

We've come for things we don't have words for, but Holy Spirit, uh, reveal it to us so that we'll have an experience for which we don't have words.

That's our prayer.

Make it real in our lives today.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

If you've got a Bible, I'd invite you to take it and open it up to Romans chapter 15.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Today's the fourth Sunday of Advent, and I want to talk to you about the violent path to peace.

The violent path to peace.

And it sounds like an oxymoron, but hopefully it will make sense as we read together in Romans chapter 15.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row, I'm on page 949.

949.

Romans chapter 15, or it'll come up on the screen and you can just follow along.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Verse 1, the Bible says this we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Let each one of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Because Christ did not please himself.

But as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

We read all seven of those verses, but really I just want to focus mainly on verse four, because I think in verse four, Paul kind of gives us this three-step process.

He talks about hope, but it's on purpose that we are at this passage because we began the first Sunday of Advent was the Sunday of hope, and we talked about being people of the weight.

And then the second Sunday, Lance preached about love and about God's love as it relates to Advent.

And then last Sunday we talked about corn dogs.

Amen?

Yeah, I get emails from people.

I wasn't there.

My sister said you preached on corn dogs.

Your sister doesn't listen.

Talked about joy.

Uh, and so we come full circle to this Sunday to talk about and to slow ourselves down and to think about peace.

And you say, well, the Bible, this passage talks about hope because that's where you eventually end up back at when you kind of focus on the four Sundays of Advent and kind of slow yourself down and kind of acknowledge.

And Paul says, look at verse 4, if you would, uh, one more time.

And I just want to kind of section it out like an orange and let's be nourished by it today.

He says, for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

I want to talk to you about those three things today.

The first thing I want to talk to you about is he said, you know, the things that were written, uh, for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction.

The violent path to peace begins, number one, with instruction.

Now, notice that Paul says the things were written long ago or in the latter times or way back when or whatever.

Let me just uh read that and say this that there's never been a time when the Bible wasn't relevant, and there will there ever be a time when it's not relevant.

There's never been a time when the Bible, you could say, well, that's not true.

Or it was true back then, but it's not true now.

But the Bible, one of the principles of truth is its timelessness and its universality.

There's never a time when you read the Bible and go, you know what, that doesn't apply to us anymore because you say, Why do you hear that?

Because I don't know if you've looked in our culture lately, but things that used to be sin are now just a matter of personal preference.

Uh-oh.

Uh-oh.

Where'd you go, Omy?

Let me talk to these people over here.

Have you noticed that things that used to be sin, we don't have sin anymore.

No one's a sinner, no one does anything wrong.

It's just kind of like, hey, it's my personal preference to do this.

And so it's kind of like I was trying not to think about Penn State, and I'll I'll say this in a way because I know my kids are in the room, and I turn the TV when the Penn State scandal comes on.

But did you hear the lawyer on the TV this week explaining that kids at that age they don't know how to put soap on?

I just, I just, I called the airport and said, You got any flights to Pennsylvania?

I need to go hunt an idiot.

And the lady said, You saw the report too.

But anyway, uh no, that's not why it's a violent path to peace.

Stay with me.

But he says, what was written long ago was written for our instruction.

Now think about this.

Of all the motivations, of all the things that could have motivated God to have the Bible inspired to be recorded, it was written by the Holy Spirit and recorded by men.

You know there's a difference, right?

Okay?

You with me?

And so this is not like a bunch of men's ideas.

You can't say if you're here today, and I by the way, I know some of you are here because your mom said for Christmas.

You said, Mom, what do you want for Christmas?

When you come home from college, I want you to go to church with me.

You're like, for the love, are you kidding me?

That's free.

I can do that.

All right, let's go.

And I know it's kind of like, oh, hey, oh, you know, well, you know, the Bible's written by a bunch of men.

No, no, the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit and it was recorded by men.

There's a difference in the two.

The matter of fact, the Bible says of itself that no prophecy has its origin in the will of man, but men spoke, they wrote, as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So when he says that, hey, this was written for your instruction, one of the things you need to realize is that God's motivation and inspiring the Bible is so you and I would know how this all fits together.

Not that meaning to you, unless in about six days you find yourself in the garage at 10:30 after the kids go to bed, and your wife pulls the blanket off the back of the van and says, here, and you start unloading it.

And ladies, by the way, it's not heavy, it's just awkward.

We're kind of trying to get it in.

And then there's those little words on the box that says, Some assembly required.

That is a lie from the devil's hell, right there, friend.

You're gonna be speaking in tongues, you're gonna be smashing stuff, you're gonna get the direction, you're gonna speak against the people that wrote that those directions, those instructions, you're gonna curse them, their mom, their granny, the whole nine yards.

You're gonna have to call me.

Hey, Pastor, can you come over?

I've kind of fallen off the wagon.

Uh and I help you.

Because here's the thing: there's something in us men that says, I don't need instructions.

I got this.

Don't we men?

Yeah, your wives are like, ha ha ha, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, you don't.

Here, because the Bible, because God knew in the foreknowledge and the wisdom of God a long time ago, he knew that's human nature.

We look at God and say, I got this.

I do my relationships like I want.

I'm 20 now.

And your point is, well, you know, I've been out talking to some friends in the first service, their daughter's home from graduate school or something.

And by the way, hey, when your kids leave to go to college, they leave as kids, dependent little financial parasites.

But when they come back, they're adults.

You can't tell me what to do.

You notice when you're getting ready to go to bed watching CSI at 9 o'clock, they're getting in the shower.

Because they got to go out and get their freak on.

They got to go, well, what do you and when you get up at 5 to go to work, they're coming home with a little stamp on the back of their hand.

And by the way, we're talking about you in the kitchen, by the way.

Your mom comes in and wakes the dad up.

It's like, you know, he's just now getting home, honey.

Go talk to him.

Go talk to who?

What time is it?

Jesus, is that you?

What's going on?

Honey, he he's been out all night.

What's he been doing?

And here's what we do: we take the path of least resistance.

I did the same thing when I was a kid, and I turned out fine, and he's gonna be fine.

And here's what the wife thinks.

I will, I don't think I would use fine to describe the way you turned out.

I'm just saying.

And you're kind of like so tired, you're like, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, okay.

But if the Bible was written for our instruction, what's it saying to us?

Five things he says right here in these first six verses.

Number one, he says, get beyond yourself.

Uh-oh.

Look at verse one.

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

You realize that most of culture, most of the stuff they sell on TV right now is wired up and it appeals to your your innate nature to please yourself.

And the Bible says, in no uncertain terms and without apology, you are not to please yourselves.

Matter of fact, let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up.

You cannot.

Christianity is not just a socially acceptable way to become more and more self-centered.

It's not.

It's not.

And if your consuming mantra in life is, what about me?

Like, for example, yesterday I'm driving, taking, I didn't know it was like a big Saturday yesterday, and so I went to do some Christmas shopping.

Bad idea.

I waited in line so long at William Sonoma.

I just said to the lady, she goes, Well, we got the postamor.

We don't have that one, but we got this one, and it's$399.

And I just blurted out, she ain't worth that, and just walked out.

And some lady I don't know chased me down in town center.

You, you, you pig, your wife's worth that much more.

Now, you're just selling stuff, okay?

I mean, I wouldn't, she's um, by the way, it's called a sense of humor.

Would someone sell some of those?

Because some of you women sent me emails.

I cannot believe you got your wife a vacuum cleaner for Christmas.

What kind of man are you?

One of you who's in the room right now called me this week.

I ain't gonna point you out, but you're in this general vicinity over here, and said, I tell you what, you've crossed the line now.

I'm like, what are you, Davy Crockett?

We had the Alamo?

What are you talking about?

And so I just realized this woman thinks that I really bought my wife a vacuum cleaner for Christmas and told everybody.

I said, Well, she goes, What motivated you to do that?

That is the dumbest man idea I've ever heard of.

I said, Well, the house wasn't getting cleaned, so I figured the old one was broke.

That ain't funny either, Christian.

I th that that woman was just like, what in the world?

Get an interpreter here.

This lady's speaking in tongues.

Finally, I realized she thinks this is serious.

I just let her go.

It's like hooking a big fish in your deep sea fish and cut the line.

All right, I gotta go.

Click by the Bible's written for our instruction.

But yesterday I Sophie said, I said, have one around the store.

It's let's go.

Because see, what does the Bible say?

It says, first of all, get over, get beyond yourself.

Stop thinking just about yourself.

We're driving to the store.

My eight-year-old who just got baptized, who loves Jesus and loves her big sister.

It's back there in mind neutral.

She's like her dad when she's just she starts singing and she sings, it's not about you, Madison, for your glory.

I'm down the other road.

I grabbed the mirror adjustment, and she's just looking out the window as if I should do things your way.

And I'm like, hey, hey, what is that?

That's the song I sing to Madison when she wants to get her way.

Wow.

And I thought, we all need a little sister in us that sings that song to us.

Because your natural bend, and my natural bend, I'm not preaching to you, I'm preaching to me, is to want my way.

That's why Isaiah says, back way back in Isaiah 53, this is a prophecy that came true.

He says, We all like sheep have gone astray.

We've each turned aside to our own way.

Second thing the Bible instructs us, he says, hey, get beyond yourselves.

He says, secondly, hey, Christ is your example.

Look at verse 3.

In case you get all puffed up, he says, For Christ did not please himself.

See, as soon as he says, hey, you're not about pleasing yourself.

Why?

Because Christ did not please himself.

But as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell upon me.

The most other centered person in the world was Jesus.

The Bible says in Mark chapter 10, verse 45, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.

Mark 10:45

And to give his life as a ransom for many.

I know I'm the only man that thinks this, but every once in a while, not every day, because I think I'm a pretty decent husband.

And then I say that around my wife, and that one eyebrow goes up.

Well, I'm like, let's not say anything, just let that speak for itself.

But every once in a while, when I have a really busy day, man, I'm sure you don't think this.

I drive home and I think to myself, my wife's gonna see how tired I am, and she's just gonna serve me.

That thought goes through my head.

That's horrible, isn't it?

You men are like, what's wrong with that?

Because, see, I don't think she might have had a crazy day, too, because I can't get outside of myself.

I think I've been down at the religion factory all day.

Them crazy people I work with.

So I go home, and here's the humbling thing.

Here's the part that just kills me.

She does serve me.

My day begins with her putting a cup of coffee down the nightstand saying, Hey, it's time to get up.

Mama, mama, no, not mama.

Get up.

You say, What do you mean?

You just have here's the thing.

I have in my home an example.

I I am without excuse for not knowing what it's like to serve my wife.

Why?

Because she serves me.

You are without excuse for not knowing, not having an example of what it's like to get over yourself.

Just take the life of Jesus, pick any part of it, just anywhere.

Third thing, Paul's instructing us.

He says we're to live in harmony with one another.

Look at verse 5.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another and in accord with Christ Jesus.

But you're we're to live in harmony.

Now that word in the Greek literally means to be of the same mind, to live with a shared understanding, to be in harmony.

That's what the Greek means.

I give you people that are wanting the Greek, I give you that.

For everybody else, myself included.

If you want to understand harmony, just let me ask you a question.

Do you have an Eagles C D?

Okay.

Go home today and put it on.

Listen to them sing.

Don't listen to L M F A O B R 549, Party Rock is in the house tonight.

I just, you know, Elvis used to shoot his TV, right?

Every once in a while, people come on my TV.

I think, I wish I was rich.

I would shoot the TV right now.

Because here's why.

Nobody can sing anymore.

I don't know if you've noticed that.

I tell my kids, uh, hey, if you notice there's no band on the stage.

These people can't play instruments and they can't sing.

And they wear glasses that have no lenses.

What?

Why don't you get crutches and not have a broken leg?

It's the same thing.

Hey.

Them derelicts I'm racing over there, they know every word of the song.

And they got moose.

I'm like, oh no, no, we ain't getting them skinny jeans.

That's what I told my what do you want for Christmas day?

I want some skinny jeans for middle-aged fat guys.

Hey.

Get the Eagles live and listen to them sing anything.

Just pick a track, any of them.

Some of you old people, remember the band called Crosby, Steels and Nash?

Oh, glory to his name.

Woo! I got all weak in the knees right there.

What's that sweet burning smell in the air?

Anyway.

Just put on a crossby, seals, and gnash, and listen to them.

Shh.

Listen to them sing the Southern Cross.

When you see the Southern Cross and listen to them kick in, and everybody stops playing, and they add, they kind of layer those voices.

They're not in the studio doing that on some computer.

Why?

It's harmony.

And the Bible says you and I are to live in harmony with one another.

You'll never know peace.

You cannot be at peace with God and be at war with your fellow man.

You just can't.

That's why the Bible so practically says, This is for your instruction.

Fourth thing he says is you're to live according to Jesus.

Verse 5.

He says, now may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, you sound like an Eagle's Live album.

Then he says, live in accord with Jesus.

What does that mean?

That means live according to what he says.

Live synced up so that your life reminds people of who he is and what he's like and how generous he is and all that he's capable of and what he came for.

Remember two years ago I was in Louisville at a conference and there's a guy down the street corner just screaming.

I mean, it's like it's 11 o'clock.

Well, about 10 o'clock at night.

We just got out of the last session.

We're all going over to this little pub restaurant thing to get some supper.

And he sees us coming.

There's 7,000 people there.

And I mean, he gets up and I just walked over.

I said, hey man, can I buy you dinner?

Ah, yeah, ah.

Where are you going?

I said, I don't know, but what you're doing, I think you got great intentions, but we don't want to be screamed at.

I love Jesus.

I'm going to heaven when I die.

You don't know that.

Blah, blah.

I know I'm going to bust you in your mouth if you yell at me again.

Well, what are you doing?

What are you doing?

This is this is clownish.

Knock it off.

Now come on, we're going to eat.

I'm buying you dinner.

Come on.

Well, yeah, we're going to be right there.

Yeah.

Well, they serve alcohol there.

I don't fraternize anywhere.

Well, so does chilies, but I go there.

You see, you sound all religious and all uptight, but you're just goofy.

Come and eat.

It's on me.

Actually, it's on my church.

I got their credit card.

Come on.

We're there about 20 minutes, and the hostess comes over and says, There's a man here that says you're buying his dinner?

And I said, Yeah, what's his name?

And I said, Do you I said, I told him, I know it's right guy.

And she said, and I quote, uh, he said that there was a guy with a really southern draw and a big head.

And so our table was full.

And he said, Can I just sit here at the bar and eat and send you my ticket?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Why?

Because I wanted the guy just to taste and see that, hey, you you can't just declare war on the world and think you're at peace with God.

You just can't.

That's the last thing he says.

The fifth thing he instructs us in this, just just just right here is simply there.

And somebody asked me at my table, he said, why did they come?

Because somebody said, hey, can I see why you do that?

I just think that's what Jesus would do.

I said, I don't always get it right.

I said, I see people screaming, I think, man, you you you don't want to argue, do you?

Let's go eat.

He's like, my table's like, so I told him, hey, get dessert.

He walked out and I said, Now go back in there and scream at him.

He said, I'm gonna go to my hotel and watch the sport center.

Alright, see ya.

Last thing the Bible tells us.

For instruction, verse six, he says this.

And by the way, when I say last thing, I don't mean my last point, so don't get your hopes up.

I felt you right there.

Did you feel that?

I said last thing, and some of y'all are like, yes.

Sinners.

Anyway, he says in verse six, he says, hey, to live in such harmony with one another and in accord with Jesus, here's why.

Verse 6 says that.

Here's the reason.

That together, together, not yelling at each other, together, you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The fifth thing he teaches us, just in this little section right here, is that the motivation for unity is oneness in worship.

The motivation for unity is that we come together, that we have one voice.

And it's not about volume, it's about authority.

It's about when the body of Christ comes together, that we're different, that we're black, white, and Hispanic and Asian and Italian, all this other stuff.

Whatever you are, glory to God.

But when we come together, it's with one voice.

Why?

Because we're unified.

We're not like, I mean something about them.

I'm not talking to them.

There's this sense of yes.

And so that with one voice.

See, see how practical the Bible is?

It's not a, you know, Jesus, matter of fact, if you're thinking, well, I come to church, I just feel like I get beat up, and I'm like, hey, I thought I was a loser.

Now it's official, it's in the Bible.

Matter of fact, let me just say this to you if you think that.

Jesus was teaching one day and he's talking to the Pharisees and this group of people called the teachers of the law.

That's not the title you want, by the way.

Speaking of teachers, don't know if you knew this, but Della Bartlett, who's in our church, who sits right over here, who right now is turning eight shades of red, she's like, oh my Lord, do not say my name ever again.

We're going to First Baptist.

Della Bartlett is a teacher of the year at Garcia Middle School.

So she is not the kind of teacher that Jesus was talking about.

He's talking to the teachers of the law, and this is what he said.

He said, You buying up bundles that are too heavy to bear, and you put them on people's backs, and you don't lift a finger to do anything about it, to help them shoulder the load.

Now, why am I telling you that?

Because when the Bible talks about instruction, Jesus is not, here, I got this amp here, put this on your back.

Here's the way when the Bible talks about instruction, it produces lightness in you.

Not this.

Okay.

Can you open the sliding door in the van?

Where have you been?

I've been at church.

It was awesome.

When Jesus talked, people walked away and they were like, oh, that's so good.

I'm gonna go home and put on an Eagles Live album.

I got the hell freezes over to her.

Whoa! That crazy Jew said it off today.

You know that's in the Bible, right?

I also know that this bothers some of y'all.

I don't do this.

I just think when Jesus first spoke, the people read the Bible, it says when he spoke, the people said he doesn't speak as a scribe or a Pharisee, but as one who has authority.

When he, it's kind of like when he plays, when he sings, we we just sing along.

It's not information, it's authority.

See, Paul says this, why is it violent?

Because the hardest thing you'll do is get outside yourself and get over yourself.

Second thing, verse four, Paul says here, the second step in this journey towards being at peace is endurance.

Endurance, verse four.

For whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction that through endurance, there are things that you don't get to unless you go through endurance, okay?

Now you say, well, what do you mean?

Because he goes on, he says, endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures.

I don't want to get real technical, but in the classical, in the Greek, which the Bible is originally written in, in the Greek, it makes a real distinction.

And it's not there in the English.

Basically, in the Greek, it's obvious that this endure, this encouragement you can get from Scripture, this endurance, you've got to get from yourself.

Now you can see examples of endurance in the Bible, but you've got to have the experience of actually enduring, which beloved means this.

Look at me.

Just because something's hard doesn't mean it's wrong.

It's just not.

There are things in your life that are gonna be hard.

Don't quit.

Marriage is hard work.

It just is.

There's a man that'll be on the couch tonight.

He got a little carry to women, he got a little bossy and says, Well, I'm still there with the fingernail fella.

Just go to sleep and I'm gonna ram this in your ear.

It's hard work.

My wife's married to a near-perfect man is still hard work.

It's just hard.

Why am I telling you that?

Because look at me.

You're gonna be tempted to go to work and look around and say, you know what?

It'd be easier to shack up with him or with her than to go home to that.

No, it wouldn't be.

Because you are not gonna be the person Christ called you to be unless you go home to that.

And that is not a that, it's a person.

And that person knows you well enough to call your bluff.

It may be magic to that girl at work.

She's seen all your tricks.

It ain't magic anymore.

She knows how you do it, Creskin.

Just go home.

Just go home.

Endurance.

The Bible says it like this.

Don't turn there.

You can't.

It's Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1.

Hebrews 12:1

He says, I want to give you just a couple of things about endurance.

Why it's coming up.

The word endurance is the Greek word hoopamene.

Hupamine.

And it means this.

It is a characteristic of a person who is not swerved from their deliberate purpose and their loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.

Now, having said that, the Bible says this.

He says, therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight.

A weight is not necessarily sin.

One translation says every encumbrance.

It's a good thing that keeps you from the best thing.

High school students, let me talk to you just for a minute.

Some of you are in relationships that are good, but they're never going to be best.

It's a hard row to hoe when you marry a good man or a good woman, but not the best man or the best woman.

You've got to lay that aside.

Lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely and let us run with hupamane, endurance.

The race that is set before us.

And how do you do that?

He goes on and says, fix your eyes on Jesus.

Look into Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Who for the joy that was set before Him?

Who for the corn dogs that were to come endured the cross, despising its shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

The way you finish a difficult course is that you have a joy that you set before you.

That motivates you.

Now that I've told you, given you a biblical verse about endurance and told you what it means in the New Testament.

Let me paint a picture in your mind.

Last week I try to study and write and stay about two or three weeks ahead.

And last week I knew this week was coming.

And so I read up and everything, and I was in our room.

It's Saturday afternoon, I thought, I want to take a nap.

And so I'm laying there, and just as I'm getting ready to go to sleep, the Iron Man triathlon comes on.

I try to watch it every year, and I'm like, thank you, Jesus.

But I'm really sleepy.

I'm going to DVR this and take a nap.

And I woke up about the last 20 minutes of it.

Whoo! I don't know if you've, when I say the Iron Man triathlon, that sounds all antiseptic and everything.

The Iron Man triathlon is the world's most difficult endurance race.

It begins with a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike ride.

Ain't enough gold bond powder in the world, my friend.

112 miles on a little bike seat.

And then 26.2 mile marathon.

Marathon is not an oil company, it's not a candy bar from when you grew up.

That means you run for 26.2 miles, and it ain't the 26 to get you, it's the point two.

That's where the cameras are, that's where they pick people up as they're coming for the home stretch.

Somebody asked me, have you ever run the marathon?

No, I had a friend around the Houston Marathon.

I said, How was he?

I saw Jesus at mile 20.

I don't want to see Jesus yet, so I'm good.

I woke up with about 30 minutes to go actually and they showed the winners coming in.

I mean, it's like five hours or something.

I'm like, what?

Crazy?

Are you kidding me?

I mean, about 0% body fat.

I'm just like, wow.

Then they went to commercial break and they came back and they said, as the winners finish, the line of participants goes as far as the eye can see.

And then they picked up the individual stories.

I just jotted down some of what they were saying because I felt it kind of swelling up on me, and I thought, oh man, here it comes.

They said, first we'd like to introduce you to 71-year-old Gala Chambers.

And they showed this old woman running, kind of crooked and frail, 71 years old.

And then the guy said, She didn't learn how to swim until she was 58.

Yeah.

I was like, just breathe, just breathe.

She had scabs all over her knees and her shin was bleeding, and she was kind of leaking all.

She dropped the drive shaft about five miles ago, and she, her body's not working anymore.

She comes to the finish line.

By the way, the last five miles are lined by people.

You can do it.

Come on, you can do it.

Get up, you got it.

And the narrator says, in that beautiful honeyed tones, now slightly bloodied, but proving it's never too late.

Her daughter's at the finish line and catches her mom.

The next person they cut to rounds the corner at 76.

Harriet Anderson is the oldest female finisher in the history of the race.

And I'm like, And then the gut punch.

They show a man humped over like a question mark with feet.

And they said, This is Franz Cohen.

He is an 80-year-old doctor from Bellevue, Washington.

I started making noise.

I was like, And he couldn't straighten up, his back had seized up.

And all of a sudden he just starts leaning too far.

And I'm like, oh, and he just fell flat face first on the road.

And he was like, I'm okay, I'm okay.

And both his knees were just all, he's got outside of his head's bleeding because he hit his he hit his head on the pavement, couldn't get his hands up to catch himself.

He rolled over and he had those short, short, silky jogging shorts.

And I'm like, and he got up like a cow, he kind of kind of backwards first.

And then he stared at me and said, Two people, I'm gonna come over, you can do it.

Come on, keep going.

And he just kept running.

And then they come up to Earl.

I don't know, Earl's last name.

Earl's 59.

Earl couldn't go to the rhythm.

The course was veering to the rhymes.

People go, I'm over here.

And he goes, I'm the mum, I'm the mum.

I felt like it was an episode of stomach track.

I come a common palm.

I come do it.

He runs into a gun and knocks him over in the gun.

You know, you look at it, you know, can I?

And he says, yeah, yeah, and then the cameraman comes up beside him and says, Urball, wah, why do you why do you like the fin?

And he goes, I got and he said, Why don't you start?

I got a finish.

And he looked up at him and he's like, I'm not gonna quit.

Finish what you start.

And then it's like, it's the cameraman.

And then by the time I had kind of recovered and got it together, I cut back to my buddy Franz.

And Franz has got a mile to go.

And Franz is just, and he falls into this barricade and breaks it.

And he's just there against the ropes.

And I'm just somebody's like, stay down.

He's like, No, I'm gonna finish.

I'm gonna finish.

And all of a sudden I was like, why do I feel like I'm fixing to make noise?

Because Franz gets up and he's running about like this.

And now his elbows are bleeding, his knees are bleeding, his head is bleeding, and the finish line is inside, and people are going berserk.

And he gets to the finish line, and I was just kind of like, okay, I made it.

No, I didn't.

Because about that time, that narrator who I hate, that narrator said, as is the custom, the winner who finished long ago is waiting to congratulate those who finish.

And he takes a lay and he puts it on Franz and he puts one on Earl, and Earl can't straighten up.

And so he bends over it and gets down there where he can hang it over his head.

And I'm just like, and I just snotted right into my wife's pillow right there.

Just whoopsie, we'll put that back.

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

What's this got to do with endurance?

Because I thought I knew I'd be here, and I'd be looking at some of you who took out a second mortgage on your house to send your kids to rehab.

I'm looking at some of you who sent your adult kid, your kids off, and they came back as adults with a kid or two.

You said, I need to move in.

And you said, Absolutely.

Absolutely.

You were my kid.

Absolutely.

We don't condone everything you've done, but we love you.

And some of you got a phone call, and he said, Can I come by and need some money?

And he was bleeding from his head and his knees were skinned.

And you said, get up.

You can do this.

Get up.

And I just want to just tell you, you know this, but you might have forgotten the winner who finished a long time ago.

He's gonna be waiting at the finish line.

He knows every sacrifice you've ever made.

And on that day when you cross the finish line into eternity, he's got nothing better to do than to just say to you, Well done, my good and faithful servant.

You ain't gotta get in there looking like a gazelle.

I love running.

I don't.

I hate every bit of it.

And I run.

And I hate it.

When my friend said the other day, you're still running?

Yeah, how's it going?

Oh, I hate it.

I mean, I'm watching Franz.

He's sitting there and he gets to the finish line, and his wife just catches him.

And the narrator says, and Franz, the doctor's prescription for tomorrow is rest.

And he just looks up.

There was a lady weighed 355 pounds, lost 160 of that.

Finished the Iron Man.

I was like, Where are my shoes?

I'm gonna go run as soon as this is over.

Why?

Because endurance one more time.

Who pomine is a characteristic of a person who has not swerved from their deliberate purpose and their loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.

Are you gonna suffer in this world?

Absolutely.

Why is it a violent path to peace?

Because you're gonna fall down and you're gonna skin your knees and you're gonna go, that's enough of that.

And God's gonna disappoint.

Things are gonna happen that you didn't have control over, that you think, I think you should have had control over that, and I'll take it personally.

And you're gonna have to get up and get back in the race.

That's why he says it's instruction.

Secondly, it's endurance.

Thirdly and finally, it's the encouragement of scriptures.

You say, What do you mean?

Look at verse 4, and we'll be done.

Whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction.

That through endurance, through endurance, you've got to find in yourself a reason to get up and get back in the race.

You've got to find in yourself a reason to stay in the marriage.

You've got to find in yourself a reason to keep forgiving people who hurt you and sin against you.

And oh, by the way, you also have the encouragement of scriptures.

That's where it comes from.

You come full circle on this fourth Sunday of Advent.

That's what brings you to peace and fills you with hope is the encouragement of scriptures.

There are times in your life that you don't want advice, you don't want to get on Facebook, you don't want to listen to Dr.

Phil or whoever.

You need somebody to say something that's got the weight and the authority of God on it.

I was at a funeral, and the guy that I didn't do the funeral, I was just there, my friend, and the guy that did the funeral was just, it was just like, are you kidding me?

That's all you've got to offer these people is nothing.

I looked up in the man, he's a construction worker, he's rugged hands, he's on the casket, and and and he's just standing there saying goodbye to his dad.

And I just walked up to him and I said, What do you need right now?

He said, I need I need you to just read the scripture.

You got your Bible with you?

I'm like, does Luke Skywalker have a lightsaber?

Whoom! Because that day I was getting ready, I was like, I'm not doing this, I'm just gonna go support my friend.

And something said, take your Bible.

And then two minutes into that, that guy opened his mouth.

I was like, Well, somebody's gotta read the Bible here.

But I was just sitting there, like, oh, no wonder people think preachers are phony and lazy.

And my friend said, just just read me something.

And I opened up and read, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

Because he said, I need the 23rd Psalm.

And the more I read it, the more his casket began to shake.

Because he was just sobbing.

And I was just reading along there.

Makes me lie down in green pastures, he leaves me beside still waters, he restores my soul.

My cup runneth over.

And I got to that part, and I and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

And I heard a grown man say to his dead father, to his body, he wasn't there, just the house he lived in.

He said, You're in the house now, Dad.

You're in the house.

And I was like, I gotta go behind a tree over here.

I'll be back.

And I walked over from the grayside service and found a tree and just bawled.

Because I was reminded there are times in all of our lives where you need the comfort, the encouragement that only comes from God's word.

You need something outside of yourself and your circumstance to go, hey, you got this.

You got this, you're good, you're gonna make it.

Get back up.

I know it's hard.

I know that you're just bloodied and bleedy, but just keep on.

It's the Greek word paraclesis.

It's the same word that we derive in John 14 when Jesus says, I gotta go so that the comforter, the paraclete, it means to summon or to call alongside.

And let me just say this to you and I'm done, okay?

At the lowest points of your life, the Bible will come alongside of you.

It won't overwhelm you, it won't beat you on the head.

You need to stop doing it and just come alongside you and comfort you.

The way nothing else in this world will all the advice in the world pells in comparison to the authority and the encouragement that comes from the scripture.

I want you just to ask yourself the simple question: what did what did God say to you today?

What does his word communicate to you?

And ask yourself, are you at peace?

Just think about that for a moment.

Just ask yourself some practical questions like number one, are you at peace with God?

I'm not asking you, are you religious?

Do you go to church?

I'm asking you, are you at peace?

Are you at place of a priority relationship with your Creator?

Jesus said to his disciples in John 16, These things have I spoken unto you, so that in me you may have peace, because in the world you will have tribulation.

Hard things will happen to you, difficult people will work in the cubicle next to you.

But in me you have peace, Jesus says.

That's why he instructs us as he does.

Secondly, ask yourself, are you in harmony with your fellow man?

Is there anybody during this Advent season that you're out of sorts with?

That you need to be reconciled to.

Anyone whose forgiveness you need to seek out and solicit?

And finally, I would just ask you: are you at peace with yourself?

When you think back on this year and all the decisions you've made and the things you've done, do you have a measure of peace in your spirit, in your guts?

Are you just like, let's hurry up and turn the page?

That sense of unrest is really a gift from God, and him it might be him saying, We might want to visit about this son.

In just a minute, our service will conclude, and myself and Wade, one of our other pastors and one of our elders will be available here at the front.

If we can help you, talk with you, pray with you.

You might just say, you know what, I'm good, I'm done.

Well then great, go home or go to lunch today.

But whatever you do, recognize that there's a reason the Bible refers to Jesus as the Prince of Peace.

And it says that the peace of Christ will guard your heart and your mind.

It's possible for your heart and your mind to both be at peace.

For the freedom, for the wonder and the wildness of the biblical text.

We never want to lose sight of that and then fall in love with our own ideas.

The Bible is not a diving board, it's not a jumping off point for what we want to say.

It's a sharp plow we stick in the ground.

Because it's fertile, alluvial, rich soil, and it produces fruit in our lives.

I pray for these beautiful men and women, students here today, that the peace of Christ will be manifest in their life and in their relationships.

If there's anybody, God, we're not in harmony with, that we're off pitch.

It's like standing next to someone in the choir that's a little flat and doesn't know it.

Maybe we need to take them to coffee and initiate that conversation.

Maybe then you take us to coffee.

But either way, if we're giving or receiving, peace is gonna be the end result.

So that's a good thing.

Now may the peace of Christ rule in the hearts of these beautiful people.

We pray and we believe in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Hold your hands out.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

May the God of hope grant you all joy and peace in believing.

And by the power of the Holy Spirit, may you overflow with hope and love and joy and peace.

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

Amen.