Advent Peace

Okay. Praise God. You can be seated this morning. I'm wowerful.

Has anybody been that before? I don't know. It's my whole new way of living. Thank you, Sister Sue.

Welcome this morning. We're so glad that you could be with us as we are celebrating

Christmas season, the Advent, the waiting arrival of Jesus coming to earth.

And this is my favorite time of the year. It's Pastor Josh's favorite time of

the year. We both are Christmas fanatics. Before we got married,

he was in India for a year.

Oh my gosh, you're so sweet. I won't be able to open it though,

if you can do that, sorry.

Like, don't wanna be extra. Here, put the lid back on though,

cause I might spill it. And now it's like the seal's cracked. There we go.

But Pastor Josh asked me to marry him on my 18th birthday, and then he left

two weeks later or thereabouts for India for a year.

And while he was gone, obviously that was hard. It was before internet.

If you can imagine that, kids, there was no interwebs.

There was no Wi-Fi, no cell phones, no dial-up talking on FaceTime or Skype or anything like that.

It was all like an old landline. with a really long phone number that sometimes

worked, sometimes didn't, and it would cost me a couple hundred dollars at best

to make an hour phone call over there back then.

But while he was gone, I would go, like after Christmas sale that year,

I bought like bins of Christmas stuff because I just love Christmas.

I love this season of the year and what it means to us, not just the celebrations,

but all of us gathering together as family, as friends, whether it's Sunday

morning or at your workplace, maybe you have special people there in your heart or at your home.

It's just so impactful and meaningful as we are quieted, whether we want to be or not,

just by the weather outside of us that kind of causes us to get close and take

moments to just reflect on who God is and what He is to us, what He is to our

families, all that He's done.

So I just love this time of year for that reason. It's just a quieter reflecting period in our lives.

I just want to start, this week we're talking about peace in the Advent calendar.

I think last week was joy, the first week was hope, and now we're peace,

and then next week would be love, correct?

All right, so we're going to start in Isaiah 9, verse 6.

Isaiah 9:6

We're just going to read a couple of verses there this morning.

It says this, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,

and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.

On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it,

and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

And Jesus comes into our world, into our dog-eat-dog world, where we fight to be the best.

And in this time period, when this prophecy was given through Isaiah, there was war.

There was rumors of war. There was constant peril and worry.

And it wasn't like us, where we even hear about things now, and it's in a distant

country, or it seems far away.

This would be coming to your town or your village.

And not just to change the name of your country, but to annihilate you,

to subjugate you, to turn you into a slave, to take away all sense of freedom.

This is the prophecy, the time period that this is given in Isaiah.

It's a time of just constant, constant upheaval.

And Jesus comes into that time period.

And when Jesus is born, Herod is the king over Judea.

He's appointed by the Romans. He's given that authority and a little history

on Herod, even just so you understand and can reflect on this and understand

it, not just through Jesus gives me peace today, but what it was like then.

Herod was king and he had three sons. And do you know what he did to each of those three sons?

He didn't raise them and teach them to be princes of the kingdom and be proud

of them for, wow, you're just a great horseman or wow, Bob, you're great with

the sword. He wasn't that kind of father.

He was in such fear of even one of his own sons taking what was his from him

that he killed every single one of them.

All three of his sons, gone.

Can you even imagine that? That that's the kind of kingdom that Jesus is born to.

One of grasping, one of fear, one of subjugation.

Not now where like we get mad at our neighbor because his dog poops on our lawn

and that's the worst day we can imagine.

This is complete terror where every man is working for himself.

And Herod hears the prophecies. He hears about it from Isaiah because he's looking,

constantly searching for the next threat to his throne. and he hears about the

prophecy of this baby, this Jesus that is coming to Bethlehem.

So the next thing that he does is, not only is it not enough to kill his own

son or not enough to do that, he decides he's gonna kill every baby under the

age of two, every male in the city of Bethlehem.

Can you even imagine it? The cruelty, the insanity of the world that Jesus comes to.

That it's okay that these babies are just killed like this.

No one says a word. They're too in fear of what could happen to them even.

This is the world that Jesus is born in. This is the ruler of that time.

Not a gracious good king out for the welfare of his kingdom.

One who takes and takes and takes again.

Rome claimed peace. It was called Pax Romana, their great rule over the world

as they extended their kingdom to the largest at that time.

But they did so not through taking good care of their citizens.

They used violence, crucifixion, the way Jesus ultimately dies, fear, and oppression.

Peace, peace, Pax Romana, but it was a relative peace enforced by Roman legions

with brutal suppression of revolts in provinces like Judea and Britain.

Leading to criticisms like this, they make a desert and call it peace.

This is where Jesus was born into. Not just blue skies and happy days and a

dad named Joseph. There's a carpenter and a sweet little Mary that we see in

the pictures. There's violence here.

It's awful. Can you even imagine raising your child in that environment where

you fear for their life that the king could decide tomorrow that your child

is a threat to their throne?

This is where Jesus is born, a cruel, cruel world.

And Isaiah speaks these words, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of

Peace, of the increase of his government of peace, there will be no end.

And if you translate the Prince of Peace into Hebrew, the original text,

it would have been Sar Shalom.

And I talked about it not that long ago, but the word Shalom,

it's not just peace like absence of hard times.

The definition of it is wholeness, completeness, well-being,

rooted in the Hebrew, which means to be complete.

Shalom signifies a state of perfection, soundness in welfare,

right relationship with God.

So Sar Shalom, our prince of peace, is a ruler whose kingdom is structuring

around restoring all things to holdness, to righteousness, to goodness.

Imagine if you're the king and you hear that there's a king coming that's going

to bring peace without end.

And like I said earlier, peace in this time period wasn't like,

oh, like you give me a cow, I give you a cow.

We're good, dude. You live there, I live here. It's all happy times.

Maybe your daughter will marry my daughter. It's going to be,

we're just friends. You live on that side of the river. I love you, man.

How's your happiness? How's your life? No, this is like all out war all the time.

Taking, taking, taking. There's a scripture that precedes this.

Verse five in chapter nine, it says this, every warrior's boot used in battle

and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning,

will be fuel for the fire.

And Isaiah is alluding to the Midianites, the Assyrians. Do you know what they

would do? The armies back then that he's talking about.

They would go into battle and they would put these huge boots over their sandals, ginormous.

They would clothe themselves, cover their clothing everywhere in blood.

And then they would line up and there would be at least 3,000 men and on each

side of each line would be a huge drum.

And they would beat the drums and stomp their feet together.

That's the intimidation, the violence of the world that is at this time.

It's unfathomable to me.

I can't even comprehend it.

But I want us to get a picture this morning of when Prince of Peace is spoken

in about that there's gonna be a peace without end,

that peace wasn't just good times, it meant a king in his ability to bring and

enforce peace through war,

that he would be a terror beyond terrors.

That's what Herod and everyone else is perceiving in this world when it's talked

about this Jesus, a Prince of Peace that will bring peace without end,

a terror, something that's going to take every chance for them to have any sort

of authority or dominion.

But Jesus, he flips it all upside down.

Peace wouldn't come through a political giant, but through a child.

And we know that Jesus, through his life, he teaches and he exemplifies and

shows us weakness over strength, death and sacrifice over choosing our own well-being or life,

and then that the least is greatest among us.

It's literally everything that has ever been taught or understood in the world completely changed.

It's like night and day differences.

Think about the stories of even the good kings in the Bible,

David, Solomon, whoever, Hezekiah, all of the ones before this,

how did they maintain their peace?

Their armies, their men, God going to war for them and through them.

Not goodness, not hope, not sacrifice.

Jesus, everything changes. The least among us, the child is told to come to Jesus.

The woman caught in adultery, not turned away or stoned, but allowed to become whole in his presence.

Story after story, blind Bartimaeus, a beggar looked down upon,

thought even that beggars and blind people, maybe it was a price of the sin

that they had in their life, not told to stay far away, but come close.

This is the Jesus that we know, that in all of our trials, in all of our wickedness,

in all of our selfishness, that he comes close, that he chooses weakness.

A lamb laid on the altar, not a king with strength, fighting for dominion,

for change, to win us all glorious peace, that we would always be the victorious conquerors in life,

but a suffering savior.

Whose very life was born to die imagine this as we go through this christmas

season i love the white lights i love the trees i love the presents i love every

single christmas song my favorite is felice navidad it's not even christian

it just makes me happy i love it all just like you,

But in the end, we sang it this morning, his praise will reign forever.

Not because he's a powerful king, and even though he is that,

but he's a powerful king that works and chooses the benevolence of his people.

Self-sacrificing, beautiful, completely different than every one of us, if we're honest.

Philippians 2.5 says this, and this is how Jesus flips it all upside down.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus,

who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to

be used to his own advantage.

Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness, being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Jesus reorients us. His whole life is spent reorienting to us,

showing us true north and south in his kingdom, what it actually looks like.

I love this. Did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.

How many of us use the strengths even that God has given us,

gifts, natural talents and abilities to our own advantage, to look good,

to work jobs that we like, to provide for ourselves.

And I'm not saying it's bad to provide for yourself. It's godly to work and

take care of yourself and give and take care of those around you.

But it's important that we examine the motivations of our hearts as we go through life.

Do we have and do we take?

Do we use to our own advantage or do we serve like Jesus?

Jesus offers us an invitation to peace, wholeness, completeness,

not success, fame, or fortune, no great power to serve ourselves.

We want to be free of weakness, of vulnerability as humans.

We don't want to be affected by the storms of life, by the loss of a job,

income, by the loss of health, loss of home, loss of country,

family, whatever it would be.

We do everything we can to avoid those things, vulnerability and weakness.

We fear them if we're honest.

The end of our life, that we would suffer, that our children would suffer.

These are our real fears.

But Jesus, knowing all of that, being God in heaven, impenetrable,

where none of us, no human hand could reach him and harm him, chose to become a baby,

the weakest among us, so that he could show us how to truly live the kingdom

life, the kingdom of peace without end,

not one of self-service, but one of sacrifice, one of love, one of care,

one of preferring our neighbor or the person sitting next to us in our seat

over ourself, one that seeks to make sure others are fed before we are.

I love that our church, I see out of the corner of my eye that we're doing the

gifts for the families this year over in Harpersville.

It's an act, a physical act, a demonstration of us being like Jesus.

These gifts, we most likely will never meet the children and the families that are touched by them.

It offers us no benefit. In fact, if you look in your bank account,

it will be in the minus category.

But in spiritual principles, in the new kingdom of peace that reigns forever, God adds to us.

Virtue, kindness, generosity, goodness.

And it's beautiful if you've been a part of it. And if you haven't been able

to be a part of it financially, if you've just added your prayers,

your thoughts towards these people, God does something wonderful.

It's like the Grinch when his heart expands, like, what is it, three or five times?

Three times. If you've never seen it, it's amazing. It's my favorite.

And the original cartoon, none of the new things. I like none of them.

The only, the 30-minute fits my time span of sitting on the sofa.

Original Grinch movie is the best. the who's, like, it's the only one you should

watch at Christmas, honestly.

And that's through the microphone that God is speaking through.

So I take that serious. But when we give, our hearts expand somehow. It's a miracle.

How does it happen that I give to these kids, my bank account is minus,

but somehow I'm now more than I was before.

When I choose self sacrifice, when I choose love, when I choose to turn the

other cheek when somebody offends me or bothers me.

It's one of the best feelings of the world to offer true forgiveness and say,

God, you know, I really am. I'm real mad.

I actually am very disgusted with this person, this situation.

But thank you. I remember how much you did for me, how much you do for me,

that I looked on you and I despised you.

Your offering of coming into this world to just be a sacrifice,

that you could forgive me when I did that, I can forgive anything.

And I'm enlarged, just like the Grinch, and my heart grows.

That's the kingdom that Jesus has come to build and build through us,

through each and every one of us, every act of sacrifice, of giving, of love,

of making ourselves vulnerable, even in this place and relationship,

of taking the time to talk to somebody new.

All of these things, we become like Jesus, which is more than we could ever hope to be on our own.

It's beautiful, and it's a miracle.

He is our Sar Shalom, Prince of Peace, our wholeness, his wholeness,

and our wholeness and completion, his wholeness and completion.

It's just this never-ending circle in relationship with Jesus, renewing constantly.

It doesn't die out or fizzle or fade, the sacrifice.

It only grows inside of us the more we acknowledge it, the more we lean into it.

It doesn't diminish. It doesn't weaken through the years.

You can ask any of the older members of this church, is their love for Jesus

or his power in their lives less than it was at the beginning?

And I can tell you that every single one of them would say, no,

it's more tender, more precious, more beautiful as life is lived, and we see it spent.

John 14, 27 says this, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you,

not as the world gives do I give to you,

not let, not, sorry, let not your hearts be troubled, Neither let them be afraid.

And then in John 13, 33, it says this, in this world, you will have tribulation,

but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.

This is the Jesus peace inside of us. We aren't rocked by things that happen

to us or around us, but we are just constantly being shaped and formed into his likeness.

So that means when the pressures of life, because there will be them,

we see this in the scripture, Jesus coming and bringing peace,

even in his own life did not mean an absence of suffering or persecution.

We can see it in the disciples' lives, shipwrecked, imprisoned,

no place to lay his head, Jesus says about himself, betrayed by Judas,

one of his closest friends, Stephen is stoned.

Jesus and some of the disciples crucified, persecuted, called all sorts of untrue things.

We can see that Jesus' peace and kingdom of peace, it's not an absence of hard things.

It's these hard things, though the miracle now is that hard things make us tender, sweeter,

stronger, more like Jesus, that the crushing of hard times releases the fragrance

of his peace into the world around us. We run from it.

We don't want to be crushed. We don't want to be hurt. We don't want to be shaken.

But it's those very things, just like Jesus, that release the power of God into

our lives, that we become more like him from glory to glory, ever-changing,

more into his likeness, more into his story that he has for our lives.

Jesus' life, our lives, echo this kingdom,

this Prince of Peace, pointing us to both our Savior, the work here for us to

do now, and the not yet fulfillment of all things being brought back to Shalom Peace.

We're in the beginning of things. We're saved. We're being saved. We will be saved.

We're in the middle of the story. And do you know in the middle of the story, nothing makes sense?

But those are what make the best stories. When you get to the end,

the authors that write the best ones, everything seems clear at the beginning.

All the players and their roles make sense.

You can see the hero, the villain, how they're all going to work together and triumph.

And then somewhere in the middle, everything gets thrown sideways and it doesn't make sense.

The pieces are scattered on the board and you in your head are like,

why is the author doing this?

It makes no sense in the middle, but at the end, at the revealing of it all,

in God's perfect hands, his plan realized in our lives, everything folded into

Sar Shalom, Prince of Peace, a kingdom of peace that never ends.

If you're in the middle this morning, and you are, you know why? Because you're here.

If you were at the end, you would be dead or in heaven already.

Maybe you're at the beginning and life is new and fresh and exciting.

And that's great too, because we need you and your zest for life and your belief

in the impossible things.

But if you're in the middle this morning, don't lose hope. This kingdom never

ends. There is a conclusion.

And just because there isn't an absence of problems or storms in our lives doesn't

mean there's an absence of peace, of God's hand, of his comfort,

of his protection, of his provision,

of his love and care.

The Bible teaches us that God knows the number of hairs on our head.

He holds the tears that we cry in a bottle, the sands on the seashore.

He knows them all, the stars in the sky.

God is close. It says he draws near to us in our sorrows and our times of trouble.

This is the Prince of Peace, not a far off king in a distant land that's just

looking for your taxes and your kids to become his soldiers and his army.

That's not the king that we have.

This is a benevolent, good king that seeks our welfare and.

Isaiah 53, verses 1 through 6. Who has believed our message,

Isaiah 53:1–6

and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him.

This is speaking of Jesus. Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised,

and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished

by God, stricken by him, afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, for our failings, for mine, for yours.

He was crushed for our iniquities, mine and yours.

The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way,

seeking our own welfare and our own goodness at any given moment of any given day.

And the Lord has laid all of that, every single iniquity of all of us on him.

My heart overflows with gratitude when I read the line, the punishment that

brought us peace was on him.

And I know that even this morning, as I got ready to come to church,

that I'm trying to run around and do all the things I have to do.

Get breakfast pizza for the praise and worship team. I mean,

that's actually like fifth or sixth in the list of things we were doing today,

but that was on the way here.

Then get here, look through the songs again, figure out the songs again,

help the songs again, try to hear over people playing music again,

people that I love, but still sometimes they play loud for me.

All those things, I'm being honest. It's hard sometimes.

We all get frustrated.

All have a lack of understanding and love for one another at times, even me this morning.

But when I read that line, the punishment that brought us, that brought me peace,

that he was pierced for my transgressions and my iniquities,

my heart can't help but overflow with gratitude.

That God, even knowing I was going to preach this message this morning,

could see me being frustrated and still spent his blood for me.

Every last drop spent, every tear, everything that Jesus could give was given,

nothing held back for any of us.

My heart can't help but sing with gratitude that we'll praise your name forever, we'll magnify you.

Oh, come let us adore him. We sang it this morning over and over that refrain.

Gratitude, it changes everything. It's like a secret ingredient,

this thankfulness piece.

It says in Philippians 4, 6, do not be anxious about anything,

but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving,

present your request to God and the peace of God, the peace of God which transcends all understanding.

Our ability to think or conceive or work it out, the peace of God will transcend

all of that and will guard our hearts and our minds as they rest in Christ Jesus.

Not be anxious about anything, but every situation, no matter what it is,

whether it's your kids, your job, the country, the world, your neighbor,

your housing situation, your body, physical symptoms, whatever it is,

every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

And as we do this, the peace of God, which transcends all understanding guards

our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

What a beautiful thing that even in the middle of the story,

when there's things happening around us, to us, in us, that we don't understand,

that we don't like, that hurt even, that are scary, that bring fear,

that we actually have to just like almost get the shivers from.

Even in those times, as we present our requests, our needs to our Prince of Peace, our Sar Shalom,

our King that brings peace to

a kingdom without Thou end, that his peace guards our hearts and our minds,

as we do so with thanksgiving, that our heart posture to God during this season

and all seasons of life, when it's with thanksgiving, even the whys of life,

God, I love you and I thank you. I thank you for all you've done for me.

Help me to understand why. I don't see it.

I don't see your hand. I don't understand it. You seem absent,

but I can see in your word, even if you're absent in this moment,

I know you're not, that you died on the cross. You were wounded for my transgressions and iniquities.

We can even present our questions, our doubts with thanksgiving.

And somehow God in the act brings wholeness to us.

Think of this last week, Pastor Josh talked about it.

Our favorite animal died, Coda. We loved him. And as we had his little graveside

service, because yes, we're those kind of people.

As we had his graveside, committal to the ground. I love you, Joel.

Give Joel a hand. He's my favorite.

He is so faithful. And you know, this guy, he brings his acoustic guitar for somebody else to play.

He doesn't even play it every Sunday just because he's that kind of guy.

I love you. Joel, Lord, let's just pray for Joel.

Lord, I just thank you for, he's like so embarrassed.

This is what happens when you give me the microphone, Joel. Joel,

everybody reach your hand around Joel if he's right there. Lord, I thank you for Joel.

I thank you for his heart to serve, God, that whatever he has going on in his

life, wherever he's going right now at this moment, that you encompass him with peace, God,

that your peace would encompass all areas of his life, that it would transcend

and bring understanding to all things, Lord.

I just thank you, God, that you're providing for him, for his family,

for Katie, for Addie, for Cam, God, that you are working in and through their lives.

I thank you for a tangible sense of your presence this week in this family.

I thank you for your goodness, God, in every area. In Jesus' name, amen.

So God, as we bring our request to him with thanksgiving and we somehow offer

thankfulness as we're beside our dead dog's graveside, I ask Pastor Josh, would you say a prayer?

Pastor Josh, you guys don't realize he is just a great fella.

He's awesome because it's kind of hard to pray in moments like that when you're

grieving in your own heart sickness.

And I ask him to pray a lot. Like I'm like the nine to five prayer request line,

the 1-800 call a prayer. That's me with Pastor Josh.

Can you just pray for that real quick? Just real quick. Just real quick.

Let's just take a minute. Let's just pray for that. Hold on.

And my real quick turns into like our kids hated it at bedtime.

I would pray for every single person I know.

And they'd be like, my gosh, we just want good dreams and a good night's sleep already.

But Pastor Josh, he is so kind to me and to all of us. He lifts us up in prayer.

And I ask him to pray. And you know what the first words he said beside Coda's grave?

Lord, we thank you for Coda, for the gift that he was to our lives.

And as soon as he said those words, thank you for Coda.

And maybe to you, you're like, God, our pastors are crazy. They love their animals

way too much. I'm sorry. I can't help. It is what it is.

As soon as he said it, something in my heart just turned. There was still grief.

There was still sadness.

I still miss him every day. My routine was centered around get up,

feed the dog, let the dog out, walk the dog, like all these things. My life has changed.

There's an absence, but there's something more now that has been added by gratitude and thankfulness.

Honoring of what was, the beauty of a life well spent.

And I can't help but think of the Todex in the back. When we talk about things

like this, do you know the first person that texted Pastor Josh and I after

the service last week who it was? It was Kyle Todex.

And do you know what he texted me? And Pastor Josh, not like,

you know, it's a little embarrassing you guys talking about your dog like that

when we've lost a child. I wish you wouldn't do that.

He didn't say anything like that. He never has. They never have.

I've sat in small group with them week after week, and they've never made light

of anybody else's losses or sadnesses.

Their lives, you guys, I love you, their lives are so beautiful,

so well spent, that Adam in his brief life here on earth is still honored,

still cherished and talked about, still changing my life because of the way

they've allowed him to change theirs, that his loss didn't make them bitter and spiteful,

that it would shame me for my grief over my dog, but he sent the kindest text,

one of compassion and love. That's Jesus' people.

Kyle and Danielle are Jesus' people. Their lives, their heartaches changed them

in the best ways, changed me in the best ways because of my relationship with them.

Their willingness to be vulnerable and not hide the grief, the pain,

the sorrow in times that we sat together has made every single person in our small group.

And if you've known them in our church, you've better for it.

That's Jesus in action. That's peace in a kingdom, even in heartache that doesn't end.

That doesn't mean that they're not sad. That doesn't mean that the grief isn't

desperate and beyond what they can bear sometimes.

Mean that God takes it and makes it beautiful.

It does mean that their son's life isn't wasted or lost, but still precious as we thank God for it.

That's the beauty of Jesus, not a dominating force, a king that takes kingdoms

and subjugates them, but a king that serves and loves and values every life.

Every grain of sand, every star in the sky, every hair on your head,

every tear you've cried, that's our King, our Prince of Peace.

How can we allow this peace to pervade our lives? How do we spread as image

bearers of Prince of Peace Jesus, this message of peace to those around us?

How do we do that? We do it like Kyle and Danielle.

We let every area of our life, whether it's for good or for bad,

be touched by his presence and then shared out in a beautiful offering to those around us.

We maybe give a big tip.

This is one of my favorite things to do with the holidays. Pastor Josh is not as big a fan as it.

If you give me money, cash in the holidays, I just give it to somebody else

just to, you know, I love it.

I'm so excited when I have cash in my pocket because, you know,

the people like they bring groceries to your car or the people that oversee

self-checkout and price chopper.

And I take so long. I never can ring it right. I'm like aggravating these poor

people. They have to come over, do their little key thing 50 times.

I'm so excited if I have a 50 or a 100 or a 20. I slap that on them when I leave

and I'm like, Merry Christmas.

That's the kingdom of priests. That our joy, it becomes somebody else's joy.

My provision isn't held up, squirreled away for somebody else or for myself. I give it away.

That's giving. That's giving like Jesus.

That's How about if you don't have money, you give a kind word?

It's the least you could do, honestly.

We have a thing in our family when we say that. It's the least you could do.

It's like, why is that a phrase? That's such a horrible thing to say.

It's the least I could do. Well, give the best you could do.

Don't do the least you could do.

Do the best you can do. You could pray for somebody.

You could say, thank you for coming over here to register number whatever 50

times because I'm dumb and helping me every time I'm in Praise Chopper.

And also get scanners like all these because all these scanners don't do that.

They work great, just if anybody needs to know that.

But we could at the very least be kind. We could at the very least on a Sunday

morning, be kind to the people in this building.

Then beyond the very least, we could give of our earthly goods,

of our time, whether it be giving to the poor, wrapping presents next Sunday together.

If you couldn't give, come and wrap, crayon every single package given,

that God would touch these children's and family's lives?

Are we like Jesus, that he comes not to be a king on high, but he comes for

the broken, for those that don't have any recourse for justice?

Are we mindful of them at this time of year, that there are people that do not

have money or food or heat.

Ebenezer's screws. Let them die and decrease the population,

he says, something like that in the movie Christmas Carol. That's horrible.

Our job is to be mindful of those among us that are weak, mindful of those that are needy or weary.

When you shop, when you walk your neighborhood, look around.

Maybe you could even just see the house that's decorated nice and leave a note in their mailbox.

Maybe you could send a card with a real personal note in it,

or you could just look somebody in the eye and say, man, you look good today.

Like there's so many little things, let alone maybe fast and pray for those

that are without when we have most of us enough.

You could come to the candlelight service Friday. Come ready to worship as we

gather and remember the coming of Jesus.

You could bring a friend. You could invite everybody you know,

even if they don't come, just so they know they're wanted somewhere.

Do you know that is meaningful?

Sometimes we look at inviting people to church or our homes as like a burden

on somebody, but just knowing you're wanted in a world where so many people

feel forgotten is a gift, that you're seen, that you're heard, that you have value.

That's what this place is. This is Jesus, people, a kingdom of peace where every person matters.

The least is greatest here.

In Isaiah 9-7, as we close, of the greatness of his government and peace.

There will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish it.

You can stand this morning, and we're going to pray together.

And I hope that as we pray this morning, that you are willing to ask God if

there's somebody, someone, someplace, and I don't mean in Africa where you can't touch and see them.

I mean this week where your life could bring some peace,

a balm, a soothing to somebody whose heart maybe is fragile or broken or bitter and cold.

Just because somebody looks grouchy doesn't mean they don't need kindness.

I take it as a challenge to make somebody smile when they're like that.

Maybe we could be more like that, like Jesus.

Our mission to bring things and people together under his banner of peace,

not through cruelty or unkindness or self-service,

but through sacrifice and love through gentleness that's who we are this Christmas

season all year round really but this season we can be mindful of it.

Pray together. Lord, I just thank you this morning for your gift of peace,

that you are our Prince of Peace, that when the world around us seems like it's shaking,

when our world seems like it's crumbling, and we don't know what to do, God,

our eyes are on you.

We thank you, God, for your goodness, that the weight of all of our sin,

of all of our sickness, our shame, that you bore it, God,

for us.

We are so grateful for your sacrifice, Jesus.

Help us to remember as we go throughout this week that you came for us.

You died for us.

And help us remember your message, God,

a kingdom of peace, that we're your ambassadors here on earth,

that we would live for others, that we would seek the good and well-being of those around us.

Put people on our hearts, on our minds, God.

We ask you this morning, every single one of us, God, we ask you,

put somebody in our path,

somebody in our heart that we could extend and show love and peace to,

that we could invite either into our home or our service or just share some

goodness and kindness with them, a moment of it.

Lord, I lift up the families that will be touched with our giving over in Harpersville this year, God.

Each child, each family, each gift, each present, God.

I just thank you that you are touching every life.

That your sacrifice was for them. Lord, let our giving, our sacrificial giving,

show your love, your kindness, your peace, your goodness, your faithfulness to every family.

I thank you, God, for the work that you are doing in and through every single

person in this church, God, that we exist, Lord,

to make you known, to bring others into relationship with you,

we exist God as ambassadors to tell of the good kingdom of our new prince of peace,

of who you are and how you reign and how you love us,

let your goodness and faithfulness not depart our lips or our thoughts these weeks God,

let your sacrifice be more real to us this Christmas season than it has been before,

let us be willing Jesus help us to be willing to be vulnerable to be weak to

put ourselves in uncomfortable positions to make you known even.

The fragrance of our reliance and our dependence on you would just echo off of us everywhere we go.

Jesus, you are so good. I pray for every person in this room, God.

If there's anybody here this morning that either doesn't know you or is suffering

in some sort of lack financially in their health, in their mind,

Lord, and anxiety, I just thank you for touching them right now in Jesus' name.

I thank you for revealing yourself as the Prince of Peace right now in Jesus' name.

That you came for us, for our salvation, for our wholeness, for our completion, to bring us peace.

I speak peace in Jesus' name to every troubled heart in the name of Jesus.

I thank you for it God in Jesus name Amen.