Hope of the Earth: Peace - December 7, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's

plan for your life. How's your week this week?

Some good, some not so good. I wasn't feeling too good, so I had a rough week.

I kind of felt like the guy in those movies where the plane's going down,

and they're trying to lighten the load because it's too heavy,

and they're throwing out everything they need, and then the guy takes,

somehow, the column for the steer of the airplane, and he throws it out,

and then he's left wondering, what does he do, right?

And as I was trying to figure out, how do I shorten this sermon,

because I know this is going to go long today, I kind of felt like that guy.

Nevertheless, the Lord is going to be glorified today. He already has been, hasn't he?

But I do want to share some with you from the word in the time that we have left.

You know, today is December 7th, 2025.

It's been 83 years since what President FDR called the day which will live in infamy.

It was a quiet morning in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

But that silence was broken when bombs began to rain out of the sky at the Pearl

Harbor Naval Base there.

Shots were fired off and the quiet still Sunday morning just became a warscape just like that.

America had been trying not to enter into World War II, but this was kind of

the shove for that. America wanted to be a peaceful nation.

They'd seen what happened in World War I, participated in that,

and they didn't want to get into another one. But here they were.

Their hand has been forced, attacked by Japan. And so the next day,

war was declared on Japan, and we entered into that.

There's something to be said about loving peace and wanting to be peaceful.

I know there's times when we have to stand up, when we have to fight, when we have to defend.

I mean, when you think about over 2,400 people that were killed in that sneak

attack, almost 1,200 that were wounded, it's a solemn day in our history.

And when we really think about the entire scope of human history as well,

all the way back from the first book in Genesis, we see God did not intend for the world to be this way.

As a matter of fact, God created it perfect.

He put a man and a woman in the garden to care for everything.

Everything was working in perfect order until a little tempter came and threw

a monkey wrench in the gears of how God had wanted everything to work smoothly.

And we see all through the Old Testament how that's played out,

how sin has corrupted, how sin has broken things.

And you can testify today even from your own life that there's been times sin's

entered in, And man, it's just made a mess of stuff.

And you're left there trying to pick up the pieces, especially if it wasn't

something that you caused, but yet you're involved with it.

So I just want to ask you, is peace important to you?

I think we have to love peace. Now, we lit the candle of hope last week,

and today we lit the candle of peace.

And I think as we look to the Scripture today, we do want hope,

but what do we hope for if we don't have peace?

And really, what is peace all about? And I hope that we can have the time in

my short-form sermon to answer that today.

Because, you see, that's what Advent is about. not just the hope,

the expectation that this isn't the way God made it to be, but that God wanted

peace to be brought about.

That's why he sent Jesus in the first place, to bring that peace to human beings

everywhere throughout time and into eternity that we couldn't do on our own.

That's the beauty of Advent, the buildup to that.

We celebrated hope, and we know we're going to hope in the Lord because the

end of the story is not done yet, but that there's peace coming.

Now, I know you probably want some peace. Maybe after this week,

I looked at the church schedule, and we've got a church board and staff dinner

Tuesday night. We've got the candy sacking Wednesday.

We've got a calendar meeting Thursday night. Maybe take a breather Friday and

just get ready for next Sunday.

I mean, it's that time of the year. And that's just the church business.

Let's talk about what you have to do in your own life. No, I don't want to stress you out too much.

There's shopping to be done. There's grocery lists to fulfill.

I mean, the list goes on and on, not to mention your own holiday parties and family get-togethers.

And it just seems like it's a nonstop ruckus of go, go, go. I can't get my foot off the accelerator.

Maybe you feel like the guy in the plane who just threw out the yoke and you

can't steer the plane anymore.

I'm not sure what I'm doing here, guys. So I apologize.

I think it's doing that because I'm supposed to stand behind the pulpit today.

Maybe not. All right, who's got the button?

Who's doing this? Hey, I don't want you to give up hope.

Don't jump out of the airplane without a parachute because there's always hope

in Jesus, and Jesus will bring you peace as well, especially during this time of the year.

And, you know, we celebrate the peace that God brought to the world through Jesus Christ.

And we look with great anticipation, the hope that we talked about last week,

But we look for hope and peace because we want God to bring order to everything

that's just gone out of order, that's gone out of whack.

And so here we are today as we look to the book of Luke.

Take it off. Yes, ma'am, I will.

It's done, honey. Yes, dear.

Now we're back to the long form of the sermon. No, I'm just kidding.

Hey, and the book of Luke chapter 2 We started the first part last week We're

Luke 2 · chapter mention

going to finish at least to verse 7 today

As we're looking back At what God has done With great anticipation,

like I said, great hope But also looking for the peace that God wants to bring

And one of the things I just wanted to tell you And it's written in your bulletin

By the way, you have all the blanks filled in this week Because I knew it was

going to be a short I didn't want anyone getting mad because they didn't get a blank

Filled in, and so you have it already done for you Easy A right there.

In your bulletin, it says, the

peace of God is not dependent upon the busyness and chaos of our lives.

And I want you to take that to heart because it's not up to you or up to your

circumstances of situation to bring you peace.

It really isn't. Because you can be in the most chaotic situation.

You can be in the most chaotic circumstances. Maybe you caused them.

Maybe you didn't. But even in the midst of that, you can still have peace.

And a peace that's lasting and a peace that goes the distance with you.

Because, you see, it's not your circumstances. It's not circumstantial.

It's not based on how much chaos you have in your life or how much chaos you don't have in your life.

But it's about the radiating power that comes from the Holy Spirit,

the peace that He brings you.

Spirit of Christ, work it in your life, even in the midst of crazy, crazy things.

And so we see that today as we look to the Scripture and think about the chaos

of the Roman census that has just been decreed,

that everyone should go to the place of their birth, to the place of their family's

birth and register so they can tax you.

Here's what the scripture says. If you're able and willing, you can stand for

the reading of the scripture this morning. Luke 2, verses 4-7.

Luke 2:4–7

Hear the word of the Lord. It says, So Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth

to Galilee, to Bethlehem, to

the town of David, because he belonged to the house and the line of David.

He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him,

and was expecting a child.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,

and she gave birth to her firstborn son.

She wrapped him in cloths and lied him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Father, thank you for your word. And as we look back at what you did in the

first Advent, God, it's with great expectation and hope that we look for what

you're going to do in your second Advent to bring that peace,

that peace that passes all understanding,

that peace that is eternal, Lord, that peace that will never be broken.

Lord, give us that hope today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thank you. You can be seated. The world we know is marked by busyness. It's marked by chaos.

You can't help but get into anything. even college football and see that there's

some chaos because one team beat another that wasn't supposed to be in there.

We see a team come back from...

Being counted out and to win the Mountain West Championship title.

I mean, we see all this chaos around us and all this busyness.

And not just the football, the sports world, but anything in general.

Even here, as we look to the scripture, we see what Mary and Joseph were going through.

Now, imagine the one you're engaged to is pregnant.

We know, looking back, that that is because of supernatural means.

The child is Jesus implanted by the Holy Spirit of God. and that the miraculous

story, that's part of the Christmas narrative here.

But now they've got to travel all the way from up where they're at in Galilee,

all the way down to Bethlehem.

A journey, okay, it's like 70, maybe 80 miles, but you're not jumping in your

car and taking that road.

And not just that, the roads weren't like the roads we have today.

Some of you backcountry people, you know perhaps what kind of roads they encountered.

Not good roads. Not only that, not just the danger of the way the road's made,

but also just the danger of those that are out there.

The danger of those that want to rob, that want to cause mischief and maliciousness.

And so when we think about this, what kind of pressure were they under?

They had to get there. They had to do it by law. It was something legal.

But their life was now filled with disruption.

The plan they had, even the plan that they had to get married eventually was

kind of sped up. And now we see that the travel that they had to take,

the pressure that was on, misunderstandings that they were faced with.

I mean, we just consider the whole list.

And it kind of sounds like today for some of us.

That life throws us a curveball and we swing at it. We totally miss.

And we miss a lot of things.

Mary and Joseph, their journey to the census, the strain of their pregnancy and their family.

I mean, having a kid is stressful in the family. It's a stress to the family.

But here, there was a social tension even around the birth.

And guys, to live as believers in Christ, to live as believers in Christ today,

we realize that it's not popular.

We realize that our attitudes, our values from the Scripture,

that they are countercultural.

And that to follow Jesus means that we're going to go against the grain and

that we're going to go against it and take a stand for Jesus,

even on some issues where it might not be popular.

You know, we think about what you're going through. Think about the things you're dealing with.

I may not have even touched the surface on some of the things that you're thinking

about, but I just want you to know it's nothing new.

It's nothing new. There's always been busyness. And since the fall of Adam and

Eve, there has been chaos.

Unleashed into the world. I love the beautiful picture, though,

as Genesis starts out, that there was this formless void, and who came in to

take that void and to create something out of it was God.

God came in to bring order to the chaos, and that same God that did that in

Genesis, he'll do that for you today.

He'll bring order to your chaos.

He'll bring new creation, new life into your life if you'll let him.

One of our general superintendents, a guy who I admired before he became a general

superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene, before I was even a Nazarene, his name was Stan Toler.

Anyone ever heard his name before? Maybe not, maybe one at least, Pastor Brent.

All right, we're in good company then, brother. He wrote a book once.

The book was titled, God is Never Late, He is Seldom Early, but He's Always Right on Time.

And I love the sentiment of that book. It's a good book. You should get it if

you can find it. But just that statement...

To think, hey, God's not going to be late. You might be at the 1159 and you're

needing some rescue, but guess who's going to be there?

God is going to show up right on time.

He's not going to be too early. He's working some things out for you,

but he will show up. And the same thing is true for Mary and for Joseph here.

The same thing is true for all humankind at this particular moment.

God's timing and purpose are perfect.

Right in the middle of history's turmoil, He decided that this is the time.

This is the time when I'm going to send Jesus. This is the perfect moment.

Everything has been set up just right. Even within the Roman Empire,

their road system was incredible.

The trade that was perpetrated and carried out on those roads was amazing.

There's a whole other sermon in there that I could preach on how the world was

prepared at just the right moment for Jesus to come. It's fascinating to think

about that God and his timing was right for them.

And I want you to be encouraged that if God's time was right for Mary and Joseph,

it's going to be perfect for you too. So don't give up this morning.

Don't say, that's it. I'm tapping out. No more of this Christmas stuff.

Bah humbug, I'm burning the Christmas tree.

Don't do any of that stuff, especially if it's an artificial tree. Don't do that.

But listen to Scripture, Galatians 4, 4 and 5.

But when the time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman,

born under the law, to redeem those under the law that we might receive the

full rights of sons or sonship, that we might be adopted into God's family at just the right time.

God showed up when things seemed hopeless, when there had been messiahs,

false messiahs that came before, claiming that they were going to liberate and

get rid of the Romans and the oppression and restore Israel to its rightful place.

At just the right time, even in the midst of all that, here came Jesus.

See, God will give us peace amongst the chaos. God will give you peace amongst

whatever chaos is trying to control or trying to enter your life,

whatever brokenness you find yourself in.

You see, God's peace meets people in the middle of that chaos,

not waiting until it's resolved.

God doesn't wait until it's all solved, and then he shows up.

Okay, I'm here to help. Some of you had employees like that, right?

You had a big job be done, and they were nowhere to be found until the job was over.

I may have a son or two that have done that before when it's a big lawn day,

and you're ready to do the lawn or rake the leaves, and I've got to go find a rake, Dad.

Okay, and they don't show back up until you've already got the leaves raked.

God's not like that. Praise the Lord. that God, he will show up right in the

middle of the yuckiest part of the work to help get it done.

Jesus did that for us. He brings peace amidst all of the chaos.

Mary and Joseph, they found peace because they trusted in God's promises.

They trusted in God's plan. Even if they had to go down and register because

they knew they're going to be taxed because that was the law,

they went down and did all that, all the highly inconvenient things because

they trusted God had a plan,

even as they made that 70-mile trip down to where they had to go in Bethlehem.

You know, today I want you to know you're invited to rest. When am I going to do that, Pastor?

Have you seen my date planner? Have you seen my calendar?

When am I supposed to do that? Well, it's a commitment you have to make to take time out.

You're invited just to breathe. Just stop. Breathe in.

Breathe out. Just take that time out moment to say, okay, God,

in the few seconds I have, would you speak to me?

In the few seconds I had, God, I just want to listen to you.

Got to make space for God's presence because I can tell you in the midst of

your chaos, God is there.

You might not see how he's working. You might not exactly know what he's putting

together, but he's there.

He's in the midst of everything. He's walking with you through that,

through the yucky stuff.

That's the kind of God that we serve. He shows up in the middle of that brokenness.

He wants to bring wholeness. He wants to bring this peace.

Isaiah, the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 26,

3 and 4, you will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in you,

whose thoughts are fixed on you.

Trust in the Lord always for the Lord God is the eternal rock. Amen.

Who do you cling to? What foundation do you build on when it just doesn't seem

like there's a foundation for anything? You go back to the Lord. You anchor in him.

You take a time out to say, I don't know what to do, God. In the midst of all

this crazy, I've got to make these decisions. I've got to make them yesterday.

So Lord, I just need a moment to hear from you and just take a time out to breathe

in, to breathe out, to experience God's presence in that moment,

to know that he is with you.

Mary and Joseph, I'm sure in the midst of all this, they remembered the promises.

They probably talked about it on the way. Hey, remember that angel came to you,

Mary? Tell me about that again.

Well, hey, Joseph, what was it that the angel said to you?

Why'd you carry on with this? A great shame to yourself, great shame to your

family, but yet why was that?

I'm sure they talked about the faithfulness of God as they walked on that journey,

maybe rode on a donkey or a camel or whatever.

I just know that they had faith in God. Like Isaiah said, they put their trust in the Lord.

Are you trusting God today in the midst of your chaos? Are you trusting him?

He's going to bring peace to your situation, peace to your circumstances.

You see, what true peace is, it's what we call shalom. It's the Hebrew word.

Shalom is not just the absence of noise.

Shalom is not just.

No problems at all. No conflict. Shalom is deeper than that.

It's a deep, all-encompassing or holistic peace.

It's how God intended the Garden of Eden to work. Everything working together

like it should in just the right way.

It means the flourishing of life, the flourishing of right relationships with God and with others.

And ultimately, we know that the healing of all creation, I believe.

The renewed, the new heaven, the new earth.

Isaiah 9, chapter 9, verse 6 and 7 says, For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase 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.

Do you hear the title of Jesus here? Prince of Peace, Prince of Shalom,

the one who will bring things, restore order, make everything go back the way it was intended to be.

Put everything working and rotating right in your life. That's the hope that

we have in this true peace.

Hey, we started out saying the world's busy. It's chaotic.

There's brokenness that's flourishing. It tries to enter into the believer's

life and tries to throw that gear in the wrench of the gears and mess things up.

And God brings peace to that, to restore, to bring the redemption.

True peace is shalom. And so what I want you guys to do today,

as you leave here in just a little bit, I want you to live out the hope of peace.

I want you to live it out. The song that Dallas sang today, More Like Him,

that's how we want to be. More like Jesus.

More like the Prince of Peace. How did Jesus respond to conflict,

to times of unrest and chaos?

How did Jesus react? What did Jesus tell his disciples to do?

You see, we're called to live as a community shaped by this hope-filled peace

that is evident in the life of Jesus Christ.

Two things I want you to think about this week. First of all,

set aside time to dwell in God's peace.

Hey, you got a favorite Christmas carol that just makes you relax?

Put that thing on your phone and play it. Put it on the loudspeaker that's hooked

up to your TV on Bluetooth and just crank that thing and just let God's peace wash over you.

I don't care if it's joy to the world or some fancy song rocking around the

Christmas tree. I don't know. Whatever brings you peace.

Play that thing and just remember that Jesus came as the Prince of Peace to

bring that order to your chaos, to put things back the way it's supposed to be.

Dwell in God's peace. This morning you have dwelt in the peace of God,

seeing how God has worked in the life of people that wanted to join a fellowship

of believers, make a commitment,

to see young people that wanted to follow Christ in baptism and to follow him

and to make a public statement, I'm with Jesus now.

We've experienced the peace of God together in the songs that we've sung,

that we've listened to, in the fellowship that you have had before church started,

the worship time, and afterward, you've experienced peace.

So if you've experienced peace, first and foremost, take that time to dwell

in his peace, but secondly, actively work for peace.

Work at it in your homes. Oh, man. With your spouse.

You're the only one that amen, so we got to talk, baby. With your children.

Coming up on Christmas, maybe with some topics at the dinner table you won't like.

Hey, be an agent of peace in your church. Be an agent of peace.

Refuse to gossip. Love one another enough to go to them and say,

hey, I got a problem with you.

Work for peace in the church to say, hey, we're going to follow God no matter

what, and we're going to submit to him.

We're going to follow what God wants us to do from his word.

Be an agent of peace in your community, in the world.

Become that agent of peace that leads to restoration, reconciliation.

And that's what God calls us to.

Listen to what it says in Romans chapter 12. Paul writing to church at Rome

Romans 12 · chapter mention

says this in Romans 12, 17 through 21.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.

If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath.

For it is written, it is mine to avenge. I will repay, says the Lord.

On the contrary, now get this, on the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this,

you will heap burning coals on his head. But here's the key, verse 21.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Be that agent of peace, of reconciliation.

So this morning, do you have peace with God? Are you and God okay?

In the midst of all the holiday rush and bustle, when you have those moments, you're okay.

Are you and God fine? Is there any sin in your life that you need to take care of with him?

Is there any command you haven't followed that he's made clear to you,

he wants you to do this, but you've been putting it off?

Maybe you've even said to the pastor or some others that have asked you to help

with some stuff, I'm praying about it. Well, it's time to make an answer.

What's your answer going to be? Do you have peace with God first and foremost?

I'll tell you, you can find that peace today. In just a few minutes,

we're going to gather together against Dan and we're going to sing our final

song, but I've got these little tracks I'd love to share with you. Steps to peace with God.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, like Jesus, you know,

it's about Christmas and stuff.

He has something to do with that, but you don't know about our personal relationship

with him. I'd love to share Jesus with you.

I'm going to set some of these down here. And during that song,

I just invite you to come up and grab one.

If you need that peace with God today, I could talk to you even afterwards.

I know there's several others that will be glad to talk with you on how you

can have that peace with God.

There's nothing like it. This booklet talks about scriptures,

share scriptures from the word, say how you can have that peace.

No greater time than right now to do that.

Set aside a time, don't forget, to dwell in the presence of God.

And last this morning, like I've already said, actively work for peace in this world.

Remember, you're Christ's ambassador. 2 Corinthians 5.20, we are therefore Christ's ambassadors.

Believers in Jesus Christ are Christ's ambassadors.

As though God were making his appeal to the lost through us.

We implore you, Paul says to the church at Corinth, on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

That's our message. It's why we're joining Jesus here, who came to seek and

save that which was lost.

That's why there's a waiting for Christ to return.

Because God doesn't want anyone to perish, but everyone to be reconciled to

him. And we are his agents.

We're his ambassadors to do that. So during this Christmas season, hey, we have hope.

If we have peace, we need to be sharing that peace with others as well.

So would you do that this week?

Share that peace that God has brought you with someone and if you need to know

Jesus today we're glad glad to show you how you can have that peace,

would you stand with me as the praise team comes let's pray together and after

that Pastor Jevin and Nina are going to lead us in our benediction as our closing prayer.

Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, I know you're speaking to people.

You've been speaking to them in this congregation.

Lord, outside this building, inside, God, you've got a plan and a purpose for each one of us.

And Lord, you want to bring peace to our life that's so hectic and chaotic and just so busy.

We feel like we're drowning or going down in that airplane that's crashing.

But God, help us to trust in you.

Help us to see what we can't see, but God, to know that you're willing to bring

to our life, and that is that order and that structure that brings about the

peace or the proper working of our relationships, God,

in our job, in our homes, in our church, in our communities.

God, bring that peace, we pray.

Lord, help us to trust you. Help us to trust you, even if right now we're in

a time that's just not good.

Lord, help us to trust you that you are there and that you are working.

And Lord, help us to have enough sense to see and to hear when you call to us

and say, okay, here's what I need you to do.

Lord, help us to see that we pray in the mighty and the powerful name of Jesus. Amen.

If you need prayer, I invite you to come again. If you want to know how to have

peace with God, come forward as we sing.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon as well as other sermons and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.