Finding Peace in a Chaotic World | December 7, 2025

Last week we lit the candle for hope.

And the cool thing about hope being

the first week of Advent is that

hope really kind of paves the way

for the rest of the season, right?

Hope for what's to come.

And so this week, this week,

we light the candle for peace.

Hey, Annie makes it look easy.

Okay?

He struggled to.

Peace is a word that when we hear,

we think of no longer being at war,

conflicts coming to an end or, or

maybe even we think of silent night.

We think of things being still and quiet.

And while those are great ways

for us to visualize peace, and

those are great aspects of peace,

and the Christmas season

is much more than that.

The Jewish word for peace is the word,

shalom, that word the association.

The association with that word is

that of things being made complete,

things being fulfilled and restored.

So when people greet one another with

the word shalom, it's a blessing that

they're asking upon other people.

May your life be complete.

And so in the grand scheme of us

as Christians, like we read through

the Old Testament, and I mean,

we know about how it all started

with that first Adam's first sin

and scattered throughout the Old

Testament is kings and people continuing

to try to do good and then fail.

And even with things like the law and

prophets that tried to help make things

better, we still never quite hit the mark.

And so also scattered out in the Old

Testament, we read about promises that

God made to his people, to restore his

relationship with them, to what it should

be and to what it's supposed to be.

And that promise is Jesus.

Jesus came to fulfill our

relationship with God.

And so in this Christmas season.

It's important that we take time

to honor and to remember that Jesus

came to restore our relationship with

him, much like some cornerstone, some

foundation that was broken, cracked.

And when that cracks,

everything else falls apart.

And the same way, Shalom is that wall

being restored, that foundation being

put back together so the house can stand.

We now have a fulfilled relationship

with God because of Jesus.

So Christmas is about us remembering that.

And in the same sense, while we're

remembering that it's important that we

are reminded for that peace to be bestowed

upon other people, for us to reach out

to other people in a very broken world

and wish, wish for restoration for them,

for them to bring their relationship with

God back to what it was supposed to be.

So.

As we continue on this week, I just

wanna say one thing to all of you.

Shalom,

have a tape.

All right.

Thanks, Robin.

Finger cramps, right?

Peaceful.

Hey, it is way too peaceful in

here for me to talk to you guys.

Let's get those house lights cranking

back up if you would please, man, because,

uh, thank you Jewel, and thank you.

Now, now listen, Lily, I was, I was sold.

I feel like I got sold a little

bit of a line by your mom.

She had this cool idea for your

whole family to come up and sing.

So I was so excited for Joel to

break into Silent Night, man.

I don't know what happened, man.

So bummed.

Okay.

There's always next year, Joel, right?

Nope.

Nope.

There's not next year.

Uh, you know what I whoop.

I hope you're wrong.

Okay, so we talked about hope last week

and the God of all, hope not, not the God

who knows about hope, but the God whose

substance is hope, who gives us hope.

Real opportunity to believe and to

trust and to long knowing that through

Jesus there's substance to our faith.

Right?

And we talked about our faith

finds a way motto, right?

That where hope really finds a way

and walk back through some of our,

it was, it was a holiday weekend and

I, my dad and I walk back through

our family church slide shows, right?

I mean if you missed it, I would

really encourage you to check it out.

'cause it'll let you be like, oh,

that's what's wrong with this church.

Okay?

I could follow the trajectory.

We share just a little bit of this vision

for totally knocking out the rest of our

debt that we hold as a church so that

all that we have could go into ministry.

The red bucket in the back, we won't

talk about it probably a lot, but over

the course of the next year, kind here

at the end of this year and calendar

year, and then through the next year.

We're gonna try to see if God won't just

show up outside of our normal tithes and

offerings that help us just do ministry

and continue to do the things that we do,

but that God would bring in extra to be

able to knock out this crazy debt so that

everything we have could go into ministry.

So we're excited about that.

Thanks for all the people

we've been talking about that.

And I don't talk about money hardly ever.

So I'm gonna stop now and talk about

this word peace, because I gotta be

honest, I have a real sense of peace

about what God's at work doing, right?

Because he is in the business of, as

Dax said, completing and fulfilling.

What a cool picture of peace that

Jesus came to literally complete

that, which was a mess, right?

Um, I don't know if you're like me or not.

I have a very intense, uh, connection

with like the five-year-old brain.

You know, I love to ask this, why.

Why, why, why, Jamie?

Why, why Jamie?

Right?

Not, not quite that bad, but I love

asking questions and I've been thinking

about this word peace a little bit.

Like why is peace so appealing to us?

Why is peace something

that we really long for?

Why is it that every beauty pageant

ends with end world peace, right?

Like that's all we got.

Like everybody is longing for peace.

Well, that's because we're

incomplete and because this life

around us is unfulfilling, right?

We're unfulfilled chasing the things

of this world and trying to make

selfish gratification and personal,

uh, pleasure, some kind of end

result and some arrival, right?

It's just not apart from a relationship

with God, apart from a relationship

with our amazing creator, like this

creation man, we're just sort of

winging it into disaster all the

time, and God wants to complete us.

You complete me, says God.

Right?

They stole it right from Hollywood.

I don't know who that was.

Complete.

Well, when I think of this word, peace.

I don't know if you're like

me, but I tend to think of

holiday travel at the air.

Come fly with me.

Let's fly.

Let's fly away.

Raise your hand if that

was a peaceful look.

Real quick.

Hey, I was just thinking to myself, if

per chance you're traveling this weekend,

this may be a very well unpeaceful.

Is that a word?

Unpeaceful word?

Let's go with it.

Peace.

Un unpeaceful.

Lessness.

That's what we're gonna go with.

Uh, check out this guy right here.

This guy right here.

He is feeling it.

Can you tell like that right there?

That right there is Christmas peace.

How many guys have been in an

airport during the holidays?

Have you guys been.

Not a lot of wise.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Very reluctant with those hands.

Why?

Because it's crazy, right?

I dunno if you're flying to Newark

or not, but congratulations.

Newark, nation's most stressful airport.

Big round applause for the Newark Air.

No, not really.

That's terrible, right?

If you, I don't know, you probably

caught this, but Thanksgiving travel

at Dallas Fort Worth here is the

drop off at the terminal this year.

What do you have to be thankful for?

Hmm.

That's not real that he said.

No, no.

I'd be like, you know what guys?

We're getting hamburgers and

McDonald's for Thanksgiving.

We're not gonna see grandma.

Right?

This is nowhere near peace, right?

This does not embody anything

but violence and hostility.

Like I've never gone through

an airport and not been angry

at the people around me.

Right?

And I'm just talking about my family.

No, I'm just kidding.

Like it's all of us, right?

We're just herded like cattle, and there's

stress and there's pressure and it does

not evoke peaceful thoughts or imagery.

A peaceful sense of serenity

in any capacity, right?

And yet, Dax alluded to it.

God calls us to be peace makers

like he calls his people to be.

People who create, who produce,

who infuse, not infuse, but infuse

peace into the relationships and the

environments and the situations and the

circumstances that we're walking in.

We're supposed to be makers of peace.

Jesus said in Matthew five, nine,

blessed are the peace makers,

literally the makers of peace.

And here's a pretty cool title

that follows, they'll be called

Sons of God, daughters of God.

Why?

Well, because they're gonna show a

little family resemblance because

Jesus wears the title, prince of Peace.

Right.

Substance peace is what he's

about, and he calls us to be

people who are makers of peace.

Now, I was reflecting on this while I

was driving and I was thinking my driving

style would not probably be categorized

as a maker of peace driving style.

I don't know if you guys fall

into that category at all.

I kind of am like, get

outta the way, peacemaker.

I'm trying to get somewhere, right?

That's my, I gotta work on that.

But we're not naturally

given to be peace makers.

We tend to be peace takers, right?

We're really good at doing our own

agenda, chasing our own stuff, wor

working for our own way, right?

Constantly rebelling, pushing, shoving,

grabbing, like we're great at egocentrism.

What we are not great at

is being a maker of peace.

And so another question that popped

into my mind, like how Jesus, great

that you say we are to be makers of

peace, and I want to be called a son of

yours and a daughter of yours, right?

Like, I want that, but how?

How do we make peace?

I mean, have you seen our airports?

Have you seen our driving?

Have you seen all of the trappings

of this life that we live?

How are we supposed to be people

who are working towards this shalom,

completeness, fulfillment, purpose?

How are we supposed to bring that

into relationships when we're

competitive and combative and

we're at each other like crazy?

Like how do we become peacemakers?

Well, if you'll allow me this

morning, I'm gonna steal the airport

idea just a little bit to try to

maybe illustrate some thoughts.

Let me just say I'm standing

before you as a peacemaker in.

Progress.

And by progress I mean I know I'm

supposed to, I'm not trying to act like

I've arrived at some peacemaking status.

I'm really good at bringing

conflict and then sorting it out.

So I don't know if that counts.

If you create the conflict

and then you sort it out.

Is that like a No?

Okay.

I didn't think so, Jackie.

But thank you.

That's helpful.

Um, so I was trying to find anywhere

in the Bible where Jesus did a

parable about airports and flying and

I couldn't find anything anywhere.

Right.

Nowhere.

I did find this scripture, Romans

one, since what may be known to

them about God is plain to them.

And I don't know if it's supposed

to be this word or not, but, okay.

Sorry.

I had to use that joke just, but I

did see this plane right here and one

of the definitions Dax sent me with

his shalom thing that he wanted to

share this morning was the word unite.

And I was like, well, there you go.

There's my segue.

So I'm gonna steal the airport imagery

because united literally means peace.

I dunno what airline you're flying,

but I hope you're flying united.

I get a 10% discount for

preaching this, just so you know.

I'm just kidding.

Not really.

Alright, so let's use the airport

imagery a little bit and think about

this idea that we're to be peacemakers.

Because here's the deal.

Uh, as Dax and I talked about peace

over this week a little bit, uh,

the concept of peace is awesome.

The abstract, the, the, the big

picture principle piece, it's

awesome, but it gets really hard

in the how to and the application.

And, and okay, we should be

peacemakers, but, but what do we do?

What can we do?

How can we do much of anything?

And I was reading over as I was reflecting

on this in my personal devotion time over

in James chapter three verses 17 to 18.

I invite you to flip over there

if you want to, 'cause I'm gonna

camp out there for half a second.

Um, 'cause I think inside of this

passage there's some powerful

stuff for us to think about as it

relates to being makers of peace.

It says this.

The wisdom from above is

first, pure, then peaceable.

Gentle opened a reason full of mercy,

good fruits, impartial, sincere, and

a harvest of righteousness is sewn

in peace by those who make peace.

Ah, peace makers.

Maybe that's why I caught my eye.

I don't know.

But as I begin to pray and reflect

on this passage I began to see, what

I'm gonna share with you is I think a

little bit of maybe a formula for the

how to for us as we think about what

does it mean to practically be somebody

who produces peace in a situation

who's bringing peace in a situation

who is literally a peacemaker, right?

And not a peace taker.

The wisdom from above is first.

I'm gonna take that totally out of

the context of that sentence, but

it's a great statement by itself.

The wisdom from above is first.

Like, here's the reality.

If we're gonna be people who are

gonna make peace, we first and

foremost have to recognize that

God's wisdom trumps anything that

we know, anything that we've heard.

The fear of the Lord is

the beginning of wisdom.

And wisdom from the

Lord needs to be first.

Not the, uh, world's idea for conflict

resolution, not my own agenda and

my own plan to achieve what I want

to try to get out of this situation,

but to recognize that in every single

situation, that first and foremost,

I overlay the wisdom of the Lord over

everything that I'm dealing with.

And I seek his counsel over my own

counsel, and even the counsel of

my friends who are in my corner,

so that what I'm doing connects

to his wisdom, not my own.

And as I walk in his wisdom, it

rep reprioritizes how I'm gonna

operate, what I'm gonna do right?

As we think about the airplane.

Airport whole interaction deal here.

I was thinking about pilots and they're

flying, and I don't know if it's because

all of the issues that we've had with

the government shutdown and all the

air traffic controller issues and all

those things, but I'm just really drawn

to this reality about the interaction

between a pilot and the tower, right?

It really matters.

Really matters.

If the pilot is not listening

to or connected to the tower,

there's destruction, right?

There's destruction,

midair, there's wrong lanes.

The dude's trying to park his

airplane in airplanes don't park well

on top of other airplanes, right?

There's a lot of problematic

stuff that plays out.

So as we think about getting this wisdom

from above, being connected to and

communicating with the tower needs to

be first and foremost in what we do.

If you're not connected to Jesus and.

Communicating with Jesus, then

you are operating solo on your

own, trying to navigate a super

dangerous environment, right?

All over the place.

Jesus man, he knows our

heavenly father knows he is.

He's air traffic controller

numero uno, right?

Like he knows everything that's going on.

Every flight pattern, every

situation, every plane in the sky.

We're plane that's

trying to get in the sky.

Let's trying to get outta the sky.

Everything.

He's got it all and we're

just doing our thing, right?

And we just do our thing.

Oblivious to what he wants us

to do or how he's directing.

And if we could get the mindset that

the first thing I gotta do in, in

every aspect of my life is make sure

I'm connected to him and following his

direction and his instruction, right?

He's like, Hey, why don't you

take, uh, flight Path B and land

over here on this other runway?

Nah, Jesus, I think it'd be

better if I do this right.

Then I got Captain Andy driving through

everybody's zigzag and destroying

things, making a mess, and maybe

bringing total destruction to my own

life and the people around me, right?

We gotta be connected to and

communicating with our heavenly

Father to be able to navigate.

And this communication needs to

be something that's pure this

connection we have with God.

It's gotta be pure, the word pure

ties to this idea of undefiled.

Jesus says, man, hey listen.

If you wanna be friends with

the world, you have a real hard

time being friends with God.

It's hostility towards me, right?

And we live in this very defiled

version of Christianity where we follow

Jesus and we follow the world and we

pretty much just do what we want to

do and bring Jesus along for the ride.

And there's a lot of people who

are gonna find out one day that's

not actually anything that Jesus

taught or what Christianity is.

And there'll be a, a depart

from me flight pattern, right?

Where i's had another direction?

'cause I don't know you.

We need to have pure undefiled

connection with our Heavenly Father.

I was thinking about that with

this air traffic concept, right?

Like if you're a pilot and you

got your headset on and the, the

air, the tower's like, hey, take

Flight Path 17 a and you're like

cranking some oldies tunes, right?

And the other ear and you're

not really paying attention

and you're not really focused.

When I say oldies, I was

thinking to myself, somebody

probably knows what that means.

And Jed's like, you mean your music dad?

I was sorry.

That hit me hard for a minute.

Sorry about that.

Um, listening to music, right?

And not paying attention or doing

your own thing leads to destruction.

There has to be purity in

our connection with the Lord.

Not some defiled, not some mixed

version of faithfulness to him, but

we need to be pursuing him eyes fixed

on him, heart locked into him and what

he's doing, not our own stuff, pure.

And then we can get to this

peaceable concept, right?

I was thinking about this

in, uh, the airport world.

I dunno if you guys have seen these,

these are called, uh, escalators, right?

And it poses a very interesting question

to me as I think about being a peacemaker.

Are you a escalator or

are you a deescalation?

Here's what I mean.

Are you somebody who in your interpersonal

reactions with people, I don't wanna

say like, let's say your spouse, um,

'cause in my house I'm just a good

husband all the way around all the time.

And I wouldn't even know how

to apply this to you guys or

even help you understand it.

But you could imagine if a bad

husband, let's say, just kidding.

Alright?

Just, just imagine me on

a day that ends in why.

So what we're doing in escalating

is this, we're taking issues

up to the next level, right?

We are escalating and amplifying

conflict, or are we somebody who

is deescalating, bringing down the

temperature, bringing down the intensity?

In a situation, this is

one of my favorite verses.

It's not, it's not totally true.

I actually hate it, but

it's, it's my favorite verse.

Uh, Romans chapter 12, verse 18

Romans 12:18

says this, if it's possible, hey,

with God, all things are possible.

Right?

Right, right.

But if it's possible,

which is debatable, right?

'cause it's, is it possible?

I don't know if it's possible

as far as it depends on you.

You know what that means?

If it's possible, as far as it

depends on you, it means this.

If there's any possibility, any possible

way that the amount of control or

influence you have on a situation, even

like 1e-05% any possible way at all,

live at peace with everyone.

That's not fun to think about.

'cause you know what that means.

This is not like a 50 50 vibe, right?

This is not like, Hey, uh, as

long as the person I'm in conflict

with, conflict with owns their

50%, I will, I will come up 50%.

We'll work this out.

I'll escalate you deescalate.

We'll be right there.

Perfect.

Right?

That's not how it works.

Jesus tells us to be the one that takes

it on the chin to give preference to

one another in love, to honor others

above our selves, to say no to our self.

Now going like to some crazy extreme of

abuse and and terrible sin, negligence,

don't, don't do the dumb thing.

Where're like, well, yeah,

what about this situation?

That's not the point.

'cause then you miss all

the application for you.

'cause here's the truth.

Every single one of us have control

over situations, have influence in

situations, every single one of us.

And we can deescalate things

or we can escalate things.

Some of us didn't even know

there was a deescalation, right?

So it was just like, all I

know is get on this bad boy.

We're cranking this thing up, right?

That's how it works, and

the louder person wins.

That's just how life works, except

that we do more and more and

more damage the more we escalate

situations and above all of it.

Above all of it.

Even if you're right.

How about this?

Jesus said, be peacemakers.

So it kind of feels like this is the

world's most clear deescalation verse.

If it's at all possible, you're

like, nah, it's not possible.

Right?

God's like, Hey, Andy, if it's at all

possible, stop being a knucklehead.

That's just not possible.

God.

Okay, well, pretty sure.

Pretty sure it's possible.

Very few situations where

you cannot deescalate.

Okay.

Wisdom above first man.

Keep it pure connected.

And then we can become people

who start deescalating.

And then we get into these words

like gentle, open to reason, full

of mercy, all this stuff, good

fruits, impartial, all these things.

I want to kind of put in this bucket.

I'm gonna call the approach

angle, the angle of approach.

Now I do not know anything

about flying a plane.

I have friends who are pilots.

I have some family members who are pilots.

I've been in some little cessnas

and I've been in some big planes.

I don't particularly enjoy them at all.

Um, I've been in a plane when Scott

Phillips grabbed the handle and did

something and I wanted to throw up.

Thank you, Scott.

I just remembered that

this is traumatizing.

Scott's approach angle is terrible.

I just wanted to, lemme put that on record

right last first, first time, last time.

Um, but how an airplane approaches

landing, the angle, the acceleration,

deceleration, the blah blah, blah.

Insert sciencey words here, right?

That whole stuff really affects whether

or not that plane lands comfortably.

Or whether it lands on

fire right in, in a pile.

And if we don't have the right

approach angle in our relationships

with people and how we engage in

situations and circumstances, dude, we

can be a ball of fire that destroys,

or we can have a safe landing.

It could be a little bumpy, admittedly,

especially as we're learning.

But ultimately, man, these

things are critical, right?

Being gentle, open to reason,

full of mercy, full of good

fruit, impartial, sincere.

So lemme just take just a second and

touch on a couple of these here as we go.

Gentle.

So this word, gentle.

I am married to a very gentle lady,

like Jamie is a gentle person, and

the Bible definitely tells me that

I need to work on being gentle.

This feels like a therapy

session today for us.

Thanks guys for listening.

I don't know why everything I look

at, I'm like, Jamie does this right?

I could improve.

I don't know what that is, babe.

But, uh, at the end of the day,

I'm married to a very gentle

person, and opposites attract.

Gentleness is not my jam.

I am a rammy dude who pushes,

who shoves, who gets things

through and accomplishes stuff.

I watched my son play basketball

the last couple of days.

He is not a gentle

basketball player, right?

That's not what he does.

Uh, I won't talk about any technicals

and elbows of the head that were

accidental, like totally circumstantial.

But the point is this gentleness does not

run in my masculine genetic family line.

Um, it's just not, nobody's ever

like, Andy, you're too gentle.

Stop it.

Right?

No one's ever said that to me at all.

So, I am haunted by this reality that one

of the fruits of the spirit that ought

to be displayed in the life of a follow

of Jesus Christ is gentleness, love, joy,

peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness.

Gentleness, right?

It's an area I gotta work on because I

am not given naturally to being gentle.

I don't know a lot of my guy

friends that I would be like,

you're such a gentle man, right?

Like, that's just not how it works.

We try with the gentleman term, right?

It just doesn't help us, right?

We're not gentle and we're supposed

to be gentle, and we gotta be careful

with people's feelings with the

hearts and the souls of eternity

that stand before us in human form.

And sometimes, man, we are flippant and

we're abusive, and we're stern, and we're

angry and bitter, and we are not gentle.

Let me say this for me and anybody

who wants to join me in this, but

not being gentle, I'm gonna put in a

category of sin as a follower of Jesus.

If I'm averse and I'm opposed

to being gentle, that needs to

be a category of sin in my life.

Not a category of like a little

personal improvement status,

but no, that's sinful behavior.

'cause the fruit of the spirit that

ought to be on displayed in the life

of somebody who has the Holy Spirit

living them and they're following

Jesus gentleness ought to be, I

think scripture says, evident to all.

I don't know if you know this or

not, but this is kind of cool.

Jesus said in Matthew 1128,

take my yoke upon you.

Learn from me.

For I am gentle Jesus, king of kings,

Lord of Lords, lion of Judah, the one

who shows up with his name tattooed on

his thigh and a sword coming out his

mouth is going to destroy the nations.

Right?

This warrior king in his epic prime

for all eternity's, who he is.

In his heart, he's gentle.

So as a guy, I can't find a

clause or an asterisk that gives

me an excuse not to be gentle.

And Jamie, please forgive me

for, for not being a more gentle

husband to you because I'm not.

I'm not.

And I'm sorry for that.

And you deserve way better than that.

Now we got our other stuff we can

work on, on both sides, that's okay.

But hey, listen, listen, I

don't, I don't really care.

I don't need to look good.

'cause to the woman I love the most,

who knows me the best knows that I'm not

standing here preaching about something.

I got mastered.

I struggle with being gentle.

And it's not 'cause I don't want to, but

I struggle and I gotta work hard on that.

So this is good for me.

And now it's out in the open.

Not a gentleman, can I say just a dork?

But anyways.

I love you.

Thanks for bearing with me the

least gentle husband in the world.

It seems I wanna be more like Jesus and I

wanna have more gentleness in how I live,

and I recognize that if I can get more in

touch with gentleness, that's gonna really

bring that escalator down a lot, right?

I can begin to deescalate things

more if I'm not intense, but I bring

some gentleness to an equation.

So something I'm working on for sure,

and I love that it's with this open to

reason thing because, uh, my favorite

apologetic scripture says this, always

be prepared to give an answer to

everyone who asks you for the reason

that the hope the lies within you, right?

But do it with gentleness and respect.

We love to fight and argue.

It's not really gentle, and we were

like, I'm right and you're wrong.

But see, even if that's the

case, if we don't approach with

gentleness and respect, we push

people away, we end up destroying

people in an effort to be right.

And man, some of the most effective

apologists, people who are

defending the faith of Jesus Christ.

People who are trying to help people

understand God's love for them.

I mean, like, just think about it

like if you just like God loves

you, so I'm gonna beat you with a

stick to tell you about it, that

just it, it misses something, right?

Instead to be able to let people know that

they're loved with gentleness and respect,

that they have value and that God wants to

bring fulfillment into their life, right?

Like, dude, that's an awesome picture.

So if we're gonna be people who are

peacemakers, we have to be gentle

and we have to be open to reason.

We can't be unreasonable, right?

That's just dumb.

We can't be unreasonable and ridiculous

my way or the highway or just defiant.

And I'm not saying we compromise on

very clear biblical truth, but even

in that conversation, we can be gentle

and respectful with people and kind

and loving and not just harsh, right?

A lot of times we are

people without reason.

We just.

'cause I said so, or stop talking

to me or stop arguing with me,

or I just want to get defiant.

And like that does not breed peace.

It doesn't bring unity in relationship.

It drives further and further apart

people and creates all kinds of messes.

This is a cool word, full of mercy.

This pray full of mercy.

Remember, mercy and grace

are different, right?

Mercy is this idea of not

getting what's deserved, right?

This concept of mercy that God gives us is

that he does not give us what we deserve.

We deserve eternal death

and destruction forever.

That's what you and I deserve

because of our sin and his mercy.

He's merciful.

Doesn't give it to that,

doesn't give us that.

But he's also gracious, right?

He gives us grace.

He gives us what we never could

have deserved, ever, right?

So mercy, not getting

what we deserve, grace.

Getting what we don't deserve, right?

So I should be in trouble and instead

of getting a punishment, Jesus

gives me an ice cream cone, right?

Like, can you see the difference?

Right?

And I love that this verse as we think

about peacemaking, doesn't say, go

give people ice cream cones, right?

It says, not getting what's deserved

be full of mercy in your heart.

What does that mean?

It means be full of not giving

people what they deserve.

I think if we could latch on

simply to this concept, it would

revolutionize how we make peace in

the world and in our relationships

and in our homes, in our families,

not giving people what they deserve.

'cause here's the truth, sometimes

not very often, sometimes you're

right and they're wrong, and you are

getting treated unjustly sometimes.

That's true.

Now, I dunno what the percentages

and husband and wife status, I

think it's pretty low on the guy

side, but sometimes you're right and

sometimes you're getting wronged.

But here's what peacemakers do.

They are full of not giving

people what they deserve.

Instead of saying, you wronged me, I

am justified in lashing out at you or

mistreating you, or not being gentle

with you, kind loving any of that stuff.

Instead of that peacemakers,

choose gentleness and kindness

and love in the face of injustice.

Jesus did.

It doesn't ask us to do stuff.

He didn't.

And if we could get, if we could get

through to the idea that Jesus calls

me to be a peacemaker, not when it's

convenient and not when I should be like,

I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that.

But when I've been wronged.

I deserve to get some

acknowledgement of that.

I deserve to win this and I

deserve to be right, and I

deserve to put you in your place.

The real peacemakers show up then

because they take action that says,

even though I could and I'm justified,

I won't because I'm gonna be gentle

and I'm gonna be loving and I'm gonna

try to create space here where there's

peace and unity, not destruction full

of mercy and full of good fruits.

The fruit of our life, right?

It's evidence.

The gods at work in us,

evidence full of mercy.

We plant things with our actions.

We sow things with our actions, and then

we look at this harvest of our life and

we're like, man, why is that so bad?

It starts in the sewing process

and the cultivating and the il.

You may put a lot of crap

in that situation, and it

turns into a mess, right?

That's the truth.

We end up being frustrated with

what we see, but it starts with

what we plant, and a peacemaker has

good fruit evident in their life.

This is a key concept as it relates

to making peace, being impartial.

You know what James says to us?

If you show partiality,

you're committing sin.

Why?

Well, because every single person was

created the image of God and has eternal

value, and there's no person worth less.

AKA worthless.

Everyone matters.

Everyone has value and a follower,

Jesus Christ, distinguishing that

person looks better, smells better,

has more money than this person, and so

this is the person I'm gonna gravitate

to, to show kindness and love to, and

this person I'm gonna marginalize.

Well, it's just, it's kind of simple.

It's sin.

So just keep it in the sin bucket, right?

We are not to show

partiality to people bias.

We're supposed to equally

offer love, relationship,

and opportunity to everybody.

Favoritism is no favor to anybody.

It's destructive in your

life if you live by it.

And I love this word sincere.

One of my big core values as a human

being, I think is authenticity.

I just, it's why you can stand and

apologize to your wife for being a

butthead right in the middle of your

church because it matters more to

you than looking good to your church.

I don't really care.

I wanna be authentic

and sincere and genuine.

Because here's the deal, if we ever get to

a place where we're not genuinely trying

to follow Jesus, and we're just trying to

pretend like we're following Jesus, then

just we should go home and just cancel it.

'cause it's just dumb.

That's phony and it's nonsense and it

doesn't lead anybody anywhere, but to a

false sense of security for eternity and

eternity matters so much more than that.

Like it's important that we're

trying to follow Jesus, right?

This idea of honesty,

sincerity, authenticity.

We gotta be genuine in following

Jesus, and we gotta be genuine people.

And then when we do that, like it gives

us a chance to be real peacemakers,

because peace makers aren't pretending

to be something they're not.

They're honest, they're sincere, and

they're genuine about their shortcomings,

their faults, areas they need to work on.

And even just recognizing that, Hey,

listen, man, even if I am, could be

justified to be a jerk in the situation.

The truth is, if I'm honest and

sincere, I make mistakes too.

I screw stuff up.

I'm not perfect.

Where do I get off acting

like I have some superiority?

Superiority is that man.

Alright, what my words are doing today.

This is weird.

Thanks Jack.

Yeah, I appreciate the thumbs up.

Thanks for not, uh, yeah, thanks

for not sincerely a bad speller.

How about that?

Let's bring that to the word rep.

Sincerity.

Alright.

Approach, angle.

All of these things, man.

When you begin to use those in how

you engage and how you connect, man,

it changes and it impacts our ability

to be people who make peace, right?

Why?

Because we're sowing in peace,

and as we sow in peace, we're

reaping a harvest of righteousness.

That's wonderful in how we get to live,

how we get to engage, what we get to

do and experience in this crazy life.

It's good stuff.

It's not easy stuff trying

to be a maker of peace.

But Jesus calls us to be people

who are sons and daughters of his

who bear his family resemblance

because of the authenticity and the

sincerity of our walk with him trying.

To just be a son or a daughter

who follows our father's

instructions and lives him out.

And the cool part is Dad knows what

he's doing, and these designs aren't

so that you lose all the arguments and

you never get ahead and you never win.

It's kind of the opposite.

It's so you find joy and await, shalom,

fulfillment, completeness, because when

we live in division, a lack of peace,

man, we're miserable in our relationships

with him and with each other.

But when we get to walk in

peace, man, that's some joy.

The Prince of Peace came to give us

peace with him so that then we could

be peacemakers to the people around us.

And we give it out like Christmas

presents and candy canes, man,

and of all the times to do it.

The world needs it today.

And maybe the relationship that

you're in can benefit from some

cheesy illustrations from a airport.

To help you think about

how you approach, right?

How you engage, being a deescalation

and staying connected to the tower.

The name of the Lord is a strong

tower and if the righteous

run into it, they're safe.

That's where we gotta go.

Alright, father, thank

you for your love for us.

Thanks for bearing with me and letting,

letting us together this morning explore,

kind of explore this concept of making

peace can be kind of foreign to us

because of our sinfulness, for sure, our

rebellion, desires of our own hearts.

But God, you want to do amazing

things that restore and transform,

that complete and fulfill us.

So God help us to embrace your

principles and your practices and

to experience real peace with you.

And with those around us,

in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.