People of Peace (North OC)

good morning, brothers and sisters.

All right.

My name is Marcel Hall and, uh, privilege and honor to be able

to preach God's word here today.

Can we go ahead and thank the AV team real quickly here?

We're so grateful.

They do a whole lot.

Appreciate it.

Uh, so much.

We appreciate those who work behind the scenes.

So grateful.

Uh, we're gonna go ahead and get into God's word here this morning.

We looked last week at how because of Jesus we can become people of hope.

And now we're gonna talk about how because of Jesus we can become.

People of peace.

Let's go ahead and let's pray.

Father, thank you so much already for this chance to worship.

You got it has been encouraging, it's been fulfilling.

And God, right now I know I have been challenged, I have been, uh, strengthened.

I've been encouraged.

I've been hopeful by what you have been teaching me about the

peace that we have in Christ.

And Father, I pray that you will communicate that message here today.

God, I pray that, uh, we will be able to look at you in a different facet.

We'll be able to appreciate you and your word and your ways in a greater way.

And so, father, I pray right now that your will shall be accomplished.

We pray in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

So we're talking about being people of peace, and the first thing that we see

is that we can become people of peace.

Through Jesus.

And so I want us to look here at, uh, a verse here that's gonna

help us out in John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

And so we're gonna take it up in John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

Let me see, am I working here?

I think I am.

Am.

My nut is, you might have to go to the next slide there for me.

Ariana.

Not, not, not working.

Okay.

John, chapter 14 in verse 15.

John 14 · chapter mention

We're gonna take it up in the middle of what scholars call the farewell

discourse or the upper room discourse.

Starting off in the end of John chapter 13, all the way to John chapter 17.

John 13 · chapter mention John 17 · chapter mention

We're gonna take it up in the middle.

And so Jesus had the last Supper right before the crucifixion that

would take place the next day.

And so he is having this discussion with his followers and they're,

they don't know what's going on.

Some fear, some anxiety, some uncertainty.

And so Jesus during this time is gonna give, uh, some encouragement.

He's going to give some guidance.

He's also gonna give some good theology in this discourse.

But we're gonna take it up right in the middle, in John chapter

John 14 · chapter mention

14, starting off in verse 15.

Church, are you with me?

It says, if you love me, keep my commands and I will ask the Father,

and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.

The spirit of truth.

The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows

him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

I will not leave you as orphans.

I will come to you before long.

The world will not see me anymore, but you will see me because I live.

You also will live on that day.

You'll realize that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

Whoever has my command, it keeps them, is the one who loves me.

The one who loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love

them and show myself to them.

Then Judas, not Judas is scary.

It said, but Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?

Jesus replied, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.

My father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them.

Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.

These words you hear are not my own.

They belong to the Father who sent me all this.

I have spoken while still with you, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom

the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind

you of everything I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you.

My peace I give you.

I do not get to you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

We'll stop right there.

There's a lot in this passage here, but I want us to go ahead and take a moment

here, and maybe you need to read it over here real quickly for the next 20 seconds.

You can do that on your phone here, but I want you to go ahead and

twos and threes and fours, and I want you to answer this question.

Go back here.

Go back.

What do you learn about peace and how it applies to our lives?

So, so what Jesus just shared.

What do you learn about peace and how it applies to our lives?

I'll go ahead and give you several minutes.

Again, you need to read it over.

Go ahead.

But have a discussion in your rows and if you're online, go

ahead and put it in the chat.

Uh, your answers to this and we can have some good dialogue online.

All right.

Give you about 30 more seconds.

I d.

All right.

Let's go ahead and let's have a couple people be able to share maybe with

something you shared or insight from, uh, the person you were talking to.

Let's go ahead and, uh, have some people be able to answer

this question out loud for us.

Okay.

Alan, why don't you stand on up please?

Yes, hello.

My name's Alan Andrews and what I learned is that basically if you

don't follow Jesus and you don't or anything, basically, you're not at

peace know before I came to church.

I was a world miss.

I had a lot of problems.

Always an angry person.

That's a lot of people that I know that are not with the

church and they are angry.

But once you start following Jesus, you have peace.

I know I'm a better father for my kids and I treat my ex better.

So yeah.

Okay.

Right.

There you go.

So, uh, no.

Probably a lot of us couldn't hear what he shared there, but he said basically,

if when we follow Jesus, that will lead to peace and when we don't follow Jesus.

And so he shared in his life and how when he wasn't following Jesus, the

anger that was inside, but now the peace that's coming and also being

a better father and a better person.

Okay.

Cool.

Awesome.

Others, what were some of the things that you guys shared in your discussion?

All right, Jasmine.

Um, in verse 27, it talks about how, like Jesus said, peace I

with you by peace I give you.

And he says, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be so in.

Thinking.

Okay, peace is probably the opposite of that.

It's the opposite of being troubled and being afraid.

And so it's this calmness, it's this faith, faith, not fear, but

then also, um, instead of being troubled, it's having this calmness.

So I, when I think about peace, I calmness and faith.

So, okay, so she talked about peace in it.

When he says that also he followed, don't be afraid.

So it's the opposite of being afraid.

So it's, it's peace and faith over fear and uncertainty there.

Okay.

Awesome.

Good.

I saw Brenda.

Go ahead.

S

thinking about peace when we surrender to God, then she says she feels the peace

coming to life when she's not surrendered.

Maybe that peace is vacant.

Yes.

One more.

I think it gives us something to hold onto.

So like, I had a pretty awful week, but there's that light at the end

of the tunnel that God offers us.

And so when we're surrounded by unpleasants, this we can look forward to.

Okay.

I chase out God, my heart, and the we're so, so peace can be

helpful during times of troubling anger, frustration, hard times.

He said he had a hard week, but yet he can hold on to the

peace that is available in God.

Yes.

I wanna share a couple things here, some observations that I had in reading this

that really just, uh, uh, just floored me and really got me excited about the

peace that is available to you and I.

And we see in this passage here that Jesus gives us peace through the holy.

Cause in this whole passage, again, in the context, it's always

important to read the Bible and make sure we have the right context.

The guys are a little bit afraid and that's why he shares about it.

In fact, in the beginning of chapter 14, he says, don't be trouble.

Don't be afraid.

Trust in God, trust also in me.

Then he ends off this part of the discourse by saying, Hey, don't be afraid.

And in between all that is this.

Talk about the advocate and all this talk about peace that we

have through the Holy Spirit.

And what are we talking about here?

Well, many of us in the church know we're talking about the dwelling

of the Holy Spirit, God's spirit, his presence being within us.

And if you think about that, just on that simple fact there, God

being within us, that automatically brings a little bit of peace.

And so here Jesus saying, And he's offering and he's promising that the

Holy Spirit is going to come into their lives and it will lead to the peace that

he has and that he is leaving with them.

Again, this is a piece that is from the spirit of God being inside of his people,

enabling you and me to be people of peace.

Now, this piece isn't a lack of noise or a lack of chaos.

This piss, this piece isn't a lack or maybe free of problems.

Cuz many times a fighter say, Hey, think of something peaceful.

You think maybe quiet, don't you?

Or maybe if you're a parent, the kids are quiet, maybe they're outta

house and you're like, hallelujah.

Or you're thinking, you know what?

There's no chaos or anything like that.

And those are peaceful environments, maybe peaceful situations that

might lead potentially to some peace, but it's not peace itself.

You guys with me here.

And so this peace that Jesus is talking about is peace in the midst

of problems and fear because again, the guys are like, Hey, we're not sure

that he's getting some uncertainty.

Jesus is reading the room and he says, Hey guys, don't be afraid.

I have some peace available for you through the Holy Spirits.

So again, it's not problem free, it's not everything is Rick Peaches

and cream and and it's all simple.

No, he's saying you could be in the midst of uncertainty and be at peace.

I don't know about you, but that sounds like some good peace and this, this

is an internal piece that is available starting from now all the way to eternity.

Wouldn't you like that peace tomorrow morning once You want that type of

peace in this coming up week once.

You want that type of peace in dealing with so and so this week.

And you know who so and so is.

See, this piece is available for you and me.

We need this peace in this coming hour.

Again, it's the Holy Spirit, God's presence in us.

And you can say, well, he, he meant that directly for the apostles.

But here's the great thing.

It applies to everyone afterwards who will make the decision to follow Jesus.

Let's go to Acts chapter two.

Brothers and sisters.

Are you with me here?

Okay.

Alright.

It says in Acts chapter two here, or maybe it doesn't here.

Uh, where did I go?

Did I just jump ahead here?

All right.

Sorry about that.

I'm getting excited.

All right, here we go.

We'll, stay right here.

Okay.

It's peace through the Holy Spirit here.

What does he say?

Check out some of these things that he said in here.

He says, I'm gonna give you this other advocate who will help you

and be with you when forever.

He's not.

He, he lives with you now.

So he say, Hey, look, the spirit of God, because Jesus has been present.

He's always been around.

But once I leave, once I die and raised again, guess what?

Now he's gonna be in you.

Woo.

And he says, me and my father will make our home with you again.

This is peace from the spirit of God being inside of us.

You know, this peace can't be fully articulated.

I can do, at least I can try to do the best job I can, and I fully will

be unable to articulate it in the great fashion in which it deserves.

And in fact, it says here in Philippians chapter four, go back there, Philippians

chapter four says, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.

Did you catch that?

It says it transcends all.

Like we can't fully fathom, we can't truly grasp how the peace

of God really works in our lives.

He says, we'll guard your hearts and your minds in who in Christ Jesus.

Again, this connection between this peace and Christ that we have.

And so we see here because of Jesus again, we become people of peace.

I want us to go back here and see, look, this is applicable to you and me.

When the church started on the day of Pentecost a little over

2000 years ago, people are saying, well, what do we do with this good

news that you are sharing with us?

Peter Toner?

Repent and be baptized.

Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins, you

will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, for

all whom the Lord our God will call.

And so what do we see here?

This applies not only to Jesus's apostles in immediate context, but it

applies to you and me, and it shows us how we actually receive this Holy

Spirit, God's presence within us.

When we repent and get baptized and so cool to see.

Lawrence now is a man who's full of the Holy Spirits.

That's what enabled them to win that soccer tournament the other day, maybe,

maybe not, but now because he repenting and been baptized, now he has this

promise of God's presence being with him forever, enabling the opportunity

to walk in peace no matter what the circumstance, the opportunity to face

it with hope, peace, love, and joy.

Church, are you with me here?

Yeah.

Check this out here.

Go to the next slide here in John chapter, uh, uh, 14.

Here.

We'll look again here it says, but the advocate, it's interesting, this word

that Jesus uses is the advocate and, and really this word here, go back here.

Uh, John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

Okay.

Yeah, there is is on there.

Okay.

All right.

Go again to the next slide there.

All right, go to the next slide.

There you go.

Go to the next slide there.

All right.

There you go.

One more.

There you go.

All right, so this word advocate is per parato, something like that.

That's my, that's my Greek for the day here.

Okay.

Parato.

All right.

There you go.

All right, Kylie, you're really smart.

Maybe I said it correct.

Maybe not.

You could correct me if I'm wrong.

All right.

So this word in Greek, because it was originally written in Greek,

this word has been translated, maybe transla, literate into perle.

That's what the English word for us.

And so as you read it, as the, as we try to translate it from, from Greek

to English, we really don't have a word that can fully articulate this perle.

And so in many translations you'll find the word comforter.

You'll find the word helper, counselor advocate, but no English

word can truly capture what the perle is, because the Perle, the

Holy Spirit, is all those things.

Comforter, counselor, helper, and advocate advocate's probably the best that we

can get to because it's one who speaks up on our behalf, one who helps us.

And so he says, the Holy Spirit is the advocate in our lives

because he comforts, he helps, he counsels, and he advocates for us.

And I love this.

He says, I'll give you another advocate, implying what?

That he is the first advocates.

So he says, when the spirit comes, guess what?

He's gonna remind you of all these things because he's just like me.

Because what?

He's divine.

. And so what the spirit does is continue the mission of Christ.

And so as the apostles were there, they could recall, you know, man,

remember that time we were in a boat.

We were all freaking out and we were nervous.

There were storms there.

And yet Jesus calmed the storm and it said it brought peace to us.

That's what the spirit's gonna do in our lives.

Hey, remember that time when we were all nervous in the world?

What's gonna happen in Jesus?

His presence brought us to peace.

Hey, remember the time when, when he resurrected and we didn't know

what to do, we were hiding down.

And he came and he spoke, and he said, peace be to you.

And he gave us confidence.

It gave us hope.

It gave us this calmness that Jasmine was referring to.

And so the spirit continues the work of Jesus.

And in the same way we can depend upon God, through the spirit

to trust him, to rely upon him.

As he guides us, he counsels us.

He helps us, and he advocates for us.

You know, something that can maybe help us in illustration will be like little kids,

and your little kids a lot of times have a teddy bear or, uh, what do you call it?

A binky or something like that, right?

To help them.

My, my two of my kids, they had, uh, one had a little cow,

we used to call it holy cow.

Like, where's, holy cow?

Go get Holy cow.

You going to sleep?

You need, holy cow.

And then another one has a little, little cat.

I thought it was like a, like a, a tiger or something.

They said, oh, it's a cat.

And they call it kitty.

And so, oh, go get kitty, right?

And so, oh, go get kitty, right?

And so we had holy cow and kitty for two of my kids there, and they needed that

when there was a sense of unsettlement, when they were feeling like, ah, a

little agitate, a little frustrated.

And we say, Hey, go get that, and that will help you in your time of need.

And so here's what the cool thing is.

Is that God's presence brings that comfort in our lives.

God's presence, God being readily available, God being there reassuring

us no matter what the chaos may be, what the discouragement or despair we

may have, his presence now lifts us up so that we can be at a point in which

we are peaceful in the midst of what's going on, we can say, you know, I'm safe.

God, you're with me.

It's going to get better.

It's going to happy you are working.

You will deliver me.

There's hope in this situation no matter what.

I see there's hope in this situation.

Why Cuz God's presence is there.

Church, are you with me here?

But the problem is, if you're like me, we often can forget, relinquish or

forfeit this piece that's available.

In many ways, we can do this.

I know for me, I, I can forget God's presence within me.

But one of the big ways that we'll focus in on is really our disobedience

to God has a forfeit, relinquish and forget his presence within us.

That's what he says here.

He makes this connection.

And John 14, he says, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.

My father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.

It's interesting that he, he used this term, Hey, we'll make our home.

And that's the way they translate English.

It means to stay or to remain, to be there.

So it's a, it's a accurate translation.

But if we think of that, uh, that imagery, right?

If Jesus lives inside of our heart, the Holy Spirit lives inside of our heart.

When we disobey, guess what we do?

We start inviting other people, other tenants, into our hearts.

Those tenets are good.

And if you're like California, it's hard to get those tenets out, , if you

know what I'm talking about, just, you know what I'm talking about later, okay?

And so we can have this disruption in our souls.

And what does it do?

It fractures what our peace see, there's this connection between

our obedience and the Holy Spirit's presence and peace in our lives.

I want us to go ahead and, and get another, uh, visual

aid here that'll help us out.

Kyle, can, can you come up on stage here for me, brother?

All right.

All right, Kyle.

Kyle's our man here, right?

And, uh, here we go.

Here.

All right.

All right.

So here you go.

Right.

So Kyle is gonna go ahead here and, uh, he's going to represent the Holy Spirit.

It's not blast for me, okay?

This is an object lesson here.

Okay?

All those people, like, don't you ever do that?

Jesus did it all the time.

Okay?

All right.

So he's representing the Holy Spirit, okay?

And this umbrella is the umbrella of peace.

And so when we, all right, here we go.

Uh, you know, for the people online, I'll be besides you.

Okay?

Here we go.

All right.

So here we go.

All right.

Scoot on over, man.

The peace gotta cover me.

Okay?

All right, here we go.

All right.

There you go.

All right.

So when I'm walking, this is how God wants us to be.

He wants us to walk with him.

Now.

We're not walking ahead of him.

That's where you get messed up.

Oh, yeah.

Ah, I like that.

Oh, yeah.

Don't walk ahead of him.

Some of us think, oh, let's walk aside.

Can I tell you to go this way?

No, don't do that.

Follow the spirit's lead.

Okay.

All right.

Walk back with me here.

Okay, here we go.

All right.

So when the spirit, so we have peace in our lives when we're

following and obeying him.

That's all good.

Come on, let's walk in.

Roll.

All right, so he's leading this.

Okay, go ahead.

Stop.

But let's say, if you're like me, sometimes what we can do

is we get a little distracted.

Go ahead and take a step.

Oh, this is interesting.

What, what is this?

Oh, oh, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Oh, we're off a little bit, aren't we?

And we say, oh, okay.

But then we get a little distracted.

Wow, that's kinda shiny right there.

Okay, stop right there.

Now I'm still have a little bit of that piece, right?

Little bit of that peace is covering me, but there's some that's not covering me.

What's that doing to that peace?

Really?

It's causing what?

Disturbance.

Man.

Why didn't this relationship with God thing work out?

But I made some choices to look at other things.

Huh?

My career.

Oh, my school.

As I said earlier, Hey, maybe this relationship, oh,

oh, oh, let me come back.

All right, let's go this way.

All right, so then we go ahead.

So then there's other times where we're disobeying the spirit here.

He's leading us, and then we decide, you know what?

Uh, I don't know if I trust here.

Okay, maybe the storms of life are coming and so we have rain coming

down, rice with umbrella's supposed to do, but then we get nervous.

Oh my goodness, I don't know if I can trust you.

I don't know if this thing will really cover me.

And so maybe I'll, I'll, I'll try to find some other way to cover myself.

Maybe this relationship will gimme peace.

What do you do?

Like, what do you do?

Maybe my career, maybe money will give me peace.

Kinda seem to have the same type of covering effect.

Does it?

Or sometimes we can go, go ahead and we just say, you know,

I'm just gonna flat out this.

I'm gonna go ahead and do my thing.

I'm gonna go ahead and make my choices.

It's all about me, what I want and my will.

What happened to the peace that was available, that peace was readily

available, but I chose to disobey.

And now look at me.

He's going that way.

I'm heading the opposite direction for, from the peace that he

wants to provide in my life.

And you know, the sad thing is that this is where some of us are at right now.

This is where some of us are at.

The Holy Spirit's leading.

He's got, and he's calling, he's got this umbrella of peace.

He's waiting for us, but we've either gotten distracted, we've

gotten nervous, we're scared.

I don't know if I can trust him, or we're just flat out making decisions

that are contrary to his will.

And so we forfeited, we relinquished, and we just totally

forgot about the peace of God.

And then when we're in this state, what do we do?

We tend to think I can get peace from other things.

I can get peace from my accomplishments, people serving me, me, uh, uh, uh, gaining

things, materialism, some form of a relationship, whatever the case may be.

We start to think that these things will give us peace, but

spiritually we're looking foolish and we're not experiencing God.

And so therefore we get frustrated.

We get angry.

We even start to think, you know what?

Maybe it's God's fault.

Or we start to look at the church and go, you know, what is their faults?

They didn't do this for me.

God didn't do this for me.

And we start to blame and we, I don't think this Christianity thing works.

I don't think I can really follow the spirits, and we make choices.

And we end up distant from God and the hope that he provides.

But there's hope in Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

That's what we talked about.

There's hope in Jesus.

Kyle, you can go ahead and, and sit down there.

He's, he's hopeful that he can sit down.

All right.

There you go.

I appreciate that.

Yeah.

Come on.

But there's always hope for Jesus.

There's always hope in Jesus.

And so we have to go ahead and say, okay, well man, there's hope for me today.

Maybe that's where I am.

Maybe I'm in one of these situations where the peace of God is not

ruling, it's not leading, it's not covering my soul and my life today.

But there's hope in Jesus cuz hope is alive.

That's what we talked about last week, didn't we?

Right.

So there's hope for us.

There's hope for us to get back to this piece at which he offers.

And so we have to do something though.

And I think it's simple.

It's going back to what we just talked about.

Let's go to the next slide here.

We have to make sure that we obey Jesus' teachings.

Now, there's many ways to get back.

We need to pray.

We need to go ahead and connect with brothers and sisters.

All those things help contribute.

But in the context of what we saw in John 14, we have to get back

to obey the teachings of Jesus.

Because when we obey, then there's a connection between his presence

and our connection with him, and the peace that can cover over us.

And so if you want the power and the presence of God and your soul, then

you need to be aligned with the will of God, and that's through obedience.

Obedience keeps you close to God while disobedience disconnects you from God.

So the question for you and the question for me, are you

obeying the teachings of Jesus?

Some might be saying, well, which teaching should we obey?

Which one do you think you should obey?

We gotta be all of them.

If my kids came up and said, Papa, which one of the rules

of the house should we follow?

Are you out your mind child?

You know which ones you should follow because we gave them for a reason.

They're to guide you and to create peace in our family.

And so we need to obey God.

And we obey because of a relationship, not for a transaction

or for what we can gain, right?

Because you can misinterpret and go, well, if I obey and I get

covered, then cool, I'm good.

And you look at God as this is a transaction.

I wanna follow him because of what he can potentially give me.

My life's hard right now, want it to get better.

So if I obey, I'll get it better.

But you miss the connection that's about a relationship.

Just like with my kids.

How you obey?

No, no, no.

Because just we, we just want you to obey because there's a relationship.

This is your part of our relationship.

And so we obey because of relationship.

We obey because of the love that Jesus exhibited by his sacrifice and his

continual call back into his grace.

Look at the grace that that Anna shared about earlier, how she

was, what she was making decisions to be apart from his grace.

But once she decided to repent and follow, she got connected again to God.

And God gave her what she needed.

You know, Jesus's teachings aren't burdensome.

They're life giving.

That's right.

They're challenging, but it's the best life to live.

Come on.

It transforms us and gives us the good that we ultimately want and desire.

So let's get real practical here.

Alright, action steps.

This week.

I, I, I must say this, you know, you can only, only those who have peace

with God can have the peace of God.

Did you catch that?

Say that again.

Only those who have peace with God can have the peace of God.

So I need to first have a relationship, a saving right relationship with God

in order to enjoy the peace of God.

And so the first actually step if you're visiting here with us or

online, is to pursue peace with God.

Maybe you grew up in the church or you've been, you know around this.

I wanna encourage you to pursue the peace of God through getting peace with God.

Make a decision today.

Study the Bible so that you can experience peace with God, and then experience

the peace of God for many others here.

The next slide here is to call it, to assess your obedience.

Make an assessment.

How am I?

Am I obedience?

Do I obey?

Am I wholehearted?

Am I obedience?

Do I have the obedience?

That idea when I was a young Christian the way Lawrence is or has it started to

fade and I obey when it feels comfortable.

You know, if we can have a real brief second here.

You know, many of us, it's concerning.

We obey when it's convenient.

When we feel it, we make excuses, eh, not really my personality type.

When did Jesus say obey?

If it's your personality, type one time.

When did Jesus say obey?

When it feels right.

No, that's the call to deny yourself, right?

And so this call to obey isn't, Hmm, well I do it.

One more sales, a better preacher.

Well, that day might never come.

I obey when the church is doing what it's supposed to.

Well, you're part of the problem that the church isn't

doing what it's supposed to do.

That's right.

Yep.

We obey Jesus' teachings.

This isn't, Hey, a bunch of suggestions and it's good for

our souls brother than sisters.

There are too many of us in here that are making reasons.

They're not excuses, but we're making up reasons to disobey.

And then you see the fruit of it in your life, and so it hurts to undercut you

and your faith and those around you.

It impacts the church and it limits your ability to be used by God.

I know every single one of us wants to be used by God.

They want to influence people in the right way.

They want a life that's to the full that Jesus promised John 10 10.

They want a right relationship with God.

I know every single one of you do.

So I wanna encourage you today to assess where is your obedience?

The spirit's been convicted me, and I've been inspired.

I'm like, thank you.

And so allow the spirit to encourage you.

If you're walking in full step, then amen.

Be encouraged.

If you're not, don't get discouraging down and oh, whoa is me.

Be grateful for the grace of God.

Say, wow, you're giving me a chance to see this, to turn and to be

faithful the way you want me to be.

Hallelujah.

Thank you for your grace.

And so again, some of us, we can let some stink and think and come in.

No, no, no.

When we assess and we're not where we are, it's not a point to feel bad.

Instead, it's a point to be convicted so that you can be righteous again

and embrace the grace and repent.

You know, we're in the season of Christmas here and, and so there's the, uh,

everybody's talking about the birth of Jesus, which we should, and the Luke two,

when, when Jesus born, and the angels come to this crowd here, one of the things

that says that glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on

whom his favor rest brothers and sisters, that means us, his favorite rest on us.

We are people of hope.

We are people of peace by the grace of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

. And so the most high God is a God of peace, and the Son of God gives us peace

through the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Spirit, God's presence being in us.

So as loved, dearly loved disciples of Jesus, may we obey the commands of Jesus

fully to experience the peace of Christ.

Let's close out in John 1427.

Peace.

I leave with you.

By peace I give you, praise God, that because of Jesus,

we become people of peace.

Amen.