Advent | Peace | Jason Gore

What's going on home, family. Let me, uh, yeah,

I'm cheer for that. Lemme say, Hey, listen, a heartfelt merry Christmas to you.

We are right in the thick of things. And I wanna tell you,

I I love this time of year, uh, my, my tree is up, my house is decorated.

Uh, there's lights everywhere. Our campuses look fantastic,

which I know is largely done by our volunteers across all of our campus.

So thank you so much for that. And by and large, you,

we just clap and celebrate our volunteers. Absolutely.

And by and large,

it does seem like people are just a little bit nicer right now. You know,

if we're not talking about an election or, or shopping somewhere,

I think everything's fine. Uh, but listen,

if that's not been your experience so far,

I I do pray that things settle down for you a little bit and that you find some

peace.

I think we're gonna talk about some things that are gonna help you kind of move

in that direction throughout the season of Advent. Uh,

really quickly before we really get going, uh,

if you have not yet gotten your tickets for our Christmas Eve services, uh,

here at Hope, if you've not reserved your spot, I wanna encourage you,

please do so quickly. Uh, you go to the website, get hope.net/christmas.

Uh, we've got it on the screens here. Everything that you need is on that site.

Look, we work so hard, uh,

to create a Christmas Eve experience really with the whole family,

really with the whole community in mind. Uh, we've seen Christmas carols,

we've got parts of the service that are engaging to kids. Uh,

we sing Silent Night, we do the whole deal candle lit service.

So you're gonna wanna be here if you've never experienced, uh,

a Christmas Eve at Hope. But I've got a challenge for you. Uh,

and there's really two parts to it. The first is this,

I I wanna challenge you to be in prayer about who is the person that God would

put on your heart that he would have you invite to a Christmas Eve service

at Hope? And look,

not just somebody else that you already know goes to another church, okay?

Let 'em go where they're gonna go. But like somebody who,

that person that maybe wouldn't otherwise ever step foot into a church building

that you know, desperately needs to hear about the hope of Jesus.

That's step one, step two, because I don't want you to just pray about it.

I actually want you to invite them. Go online, get hope.net/uh, Christmas,

get a ticket for yourself, for your family, also for them, and let 'em know,

Hey, I've got an extra ticket.

We talk as a church about being a family who loves God,

follows Jesus and shares hope.

One of the easiest ways that we can share hope with other people is just by

inviting them into the places and spaces where the name of Jesus is being lifted

high. That's what Chris, that's really what hope is all about.

That's what Christmas Eve is gonna be all about.

So I wanna encourage you to do that. We are, throughout the month of December,

we are appropriately in a series on Advent.

And so just by a show of hands across all of our campuses,

how many of you would say that you believe that you are experts on Advent?

Okay. Not a lot. All right. And then how many of you would be honest and say,

you know what, I, I don't really know a whole lot about Advent.

Anybody wanna be honest? Look at that. We got more than that. That's great.

That, that was me growing up. And really not all that long ago. I mean,

growing up we had an advent calendar, right? Like on December 1st,

you start flipping the things over and maybe there's a devotion with it,

but for me it was like, okay,

we're just counting down the days to get closer to the day that we celebrate the

birth of Jesus, or the day that the guy comes and brings all the presents,

and then we get to open those up. But that's what that was for me. Um,

just to get us all on the same page, like what is Advent?

The advent season in recent history is really where the church,

it takes place in the church,

the four Sundays and weekdays leading up to Christmas.

The word advent itself, it comes from a Latin word, Adventist,

and it means the coming or the arrival. And,

and it's the original usage. It actually more pointed, pointed less towards the,

the coming of Jesus as a baby in a manger in Bethlehem,

and more about the second coming of Jesus when he's gonna come back and

establish a new heaven and a new Earth. And so for the fourth and fifth century,

when this tradition, uh, was building,

that's really what Advent was mostly about.

Like there was this hope of looking forward to Christ's return.

And so we had hope and that advent, but then over the centuries,

it's really morphed into what it is today,

celebrating what's made possible for us through the birth of Christ,

for primary themes, hope, peace, joy, and love.

And, uh, you know, we've got this advent wreath at all of our campuses,

and it's, you see this, right? That's what the candles actually represent.

But I think what we find, man,

if we really wanna experience advent for all it's worth,

like we really gotta lean into both of those. Like, yes, we need to look back,

we need to celebrate the birth of Jesus,

but we've also gotta keep like this expectant heart of knowing. Yes,

we're hopeful now, uh, because Jesus has come to earth,

but we actually have this, this,

this hope that has not yet been birthed in that Jesus is gonna come back and

restore, uh, a new heaven and a new earth.

And so I wanna challenge it as we're moving through this advent season.

Keep both of those in front of us series on advent.

Last week we talked about hope. This week we're gonna talk about peace

by show of hands, just a question. One more question for us,

audience participation. Just by show of hands,

how many of us would be honest enough to say I could use a little bit more peace

in my life right now? Okay. Yeah. That's quite a bit more hands. Yeah, I,

i, I gotta tell you,

it's ironic to me that this is a season that's supposed to represent peace,

but it seems like it's like the most 25, the,

the most 25 chaotic days in our entire calendar year. You know,

you've got from parties to Christmas shopping,

to arguing over who's in-law's house you're gonna spend on Christmas morning to

trying to avoid talking to crazy Uncle John at Christmas lunch when he wants to

talk about politics. Uh, and then the decorations. Like, I,

I love decorating for Christmas. I have a son, he's in Enneagram seven.

If you don't know what that means, he's like all party all the time, okay?

And so he wants to decorate,

and I love it as some of our best memories together, decorating for Christmas.

But even that,

it's like two days of getting the Christmas decorations out and then decorating

for what, like a month of enjoying it.

And then you've got two to three days of putting the Christmas decorations away,

which is really like one of the more depressing days of the year.

And the whole time you're doing that,

you've got other things that are screaming for your attention. Um,

are college students or high schoolers you're studying for exams.

Nothing about that screams peace. And then,

you know, if we get real for a minute,

we're heading into a season with the holidays here,

where this is the first Christmas where some of us, um,

are going to spend without a loved one that a year ago we didn't know that it

was gonna be their last Christmas.

And if I could just be transparent with you for a minute,

I'm heading into this Christmas season with probably the least amount of peace,

at least by earthly standards that I've ever had going into a Christmas season.

Uh, many of you know, I lost my dad just over two months ago. Um,

this place hope, uh, whether you know it or not,

it's not always simple and easy, uh, there,

like leadership in any place or in any space in today's world.

Like that's no walk in the park. Uh, my mom's not in the best health right now.

Uh, my marriage is strong, but I would tell you,

we have seen more peaceful days. Uh, I, my kids, I love my kids to death.

I, I tell people regularly if I got 99 problems, which I probably do, uh,

thankfully my wife and kids, uh, aren't one of 'em my kids, they,

they love the Lord. They honor their mom most of the time.

Addie, honor your mother. Uh, but man, they, they keep us busy.

They keep us hopping. And that doesn't even touch.

Like I also coach high school wrestling. I coach high school football.

So that's just me during this season right now. And look,

I have conversations with, with many of you all across our campuses, of course,

with our staff, with our leadership here, with our elders.

And so these are just a few things just from some of those conversations.

Let's talk about us collectively. Um, for some,

this is the first Christmas without a spouse that left

this earth like far too soon a marriage has ended,

jobs have been lost, money's tight. Um,

all the memories that were tied, uh,

to a home are now seemingly gone as the house has been lost.

A diagnosis that no one was expecting. Marriage on the rocks,

kids running prodigal, an addiction that's ruining lives.

And again, like these are real stories, and I know some of you could hear that,

and there might be some of you. I was talking to Aaron Nelson, uh,

earlier today. We were talking about the message and he was like, man,

be careful. Like, you don't wanna make everything worst case scenario, okay?

Some people like actually might be okay right now. And so, um,

if that's you, Merry Christmas. All right? I don't know what else to say, uh,

Aaron. So that's, that's for you. Alright? Cheers to you. No, but look,

if you're in that place, I,

I just have this hunch right now that a lot of us find ourselves thinking, man,

life just doesn't seem as peaceful as it should be right now. And if that's you,

I want to give you permission to own it. Like,

I don't want you to feel like you need to sweep it under the rug. I,

I want to give you this permission to acknowledge right now in my life I'm

experiencing this lack of peace.

Because I believe when Jesus says in John chapter 10, uh, verse 10,

John 10 · chapter mention

that I came so that they may have life and have it abundantly.

And when he says in John chapter 14, verse 27, he says, peace I leave with you.

John 14:27

My peace I give to you not as the world gives.

Do I give you so like I don't give you the peace that the world gives you.

That's like, it's here one second and it's gone the next. He says,

so let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

I believe that Jesus knew that we were gonna struggle with this lack of peace.

And I believe us coming to earth that like had this specific purpose that was

rooted in us experiencing peace. Not instead of the storms,

but actually in the midst of the storms that we find ourselves in and say,

here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna keep it it simple. Uh, we're,

we're gonna look at a text, we're gonna be going to Isaiah chapter nine,

verse six, one verse, uh, I might sneak into verse seven.

We'll see how the time goes. Uh,

but what I wanna do is I wanna keep it as simple as possible.

And I wanna look at three ways that Jesus coming to earth actually

offers peace to us and our lives. And so, um,

while I do agree with Aaron, that, that, that, you know what,

like all of us aren't in that place,

but Aaron also said something else that was incredibly wise. He said, man,

what if people just realize that every single aspect of their life that hasn't

crashed into the gospel is an area that is not experiencing peace the way that

God designed. And so I wanna read this Isaiah chapter nine,

verse six, and I really just wanna read this over you right now,

just in those moments that we just talked about.

And I just want you to take in God's word and then we're gonna spend some time

breaking it apart. So it says this in verse six, in light of the advent season,

it says, 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, and then prince of peace.

So it says, for to us, a a child is born to us, a son is given,

and the government shall be upon his shoulder. Okay? Singular,

like one shoulder.

He's saying there's gonna be a child born and he and he alone will carry the

burden and the responsibility and the salvation of the world. And guess what?

He needs one shoulder to do it. This is like my football guy saying, coach,

that's light work that's easy. Like Jesus is carrying this.

And then he goes on to say His name shall be called wonderful

counselor.

One way Jesus came to bring peace to us in our lives is to bring with

himself as himself a wonderful counselor.

What does it mean to be a wonderful counselor? Um, and its original language,

uh, the Hebrew word here for wonderful, it means well, wonderful, uh,

but it also means marvelous,

like something extraordinary to the point of like moving us towards, uh,

all inspiring to the point of being amazed. And then counselor,

it does mean counselor, um, also the, the word advisor.

And so in ancient Israelite culture, a counselor, uh,

was often a wise leader or a king who provided guidance in matters of state,

uh, of justice in areas of morality.

And so when you put these two words together, uh, it signifies,

it paints a picture of a counselor or a guide whose wisdom and understanding are

extraordinary and divine in nature. Alright? This,

this is not like getting advice from crazy Uncle John at the Christmas dinner

table. And if you're asking me why I'm saying crazy Uncle John, I don't know.

My wife's brother's name is John and he's a little bit crazy. Um, but, but he,

he does give pretty good advice sometimes,

but sometimes I just try to check and see if my in-laws actually listen to the

messages. So we'll just leave that at that. Uh, but he, but this is saying,

this is one who offers, uh,

miraculous and unfailing guidance.

And so I want you to ask yourself a question in the midst of your storm,

where are you looking for counsel?

And the truth is, some of us,

we've been struggling with some of the same storms for a long time. And,

and it's not because we're not smart people. Like I know some of you there,

there, some of you are very, very smart.

It's not because we don't know other smart people, but the truth is like,

we're not divine, we're not marvelous.

And neither is the news and neither is the media,

and certainly neither is the,

the collective pool of intelligence of our society and of our culture.

And it's not to say that the intelligence isn't there, but it's not divine.

It's not the wonderful council of our God.

This is why the you do you movement is so dangerous because at the end of the

day, like the Bible tells us, our hearts will be deceitful to us.

And a lot of us wanna say we want more peace, that we want more Jesus.

But when it comes to matters of morality,

when it comes to matters of what God's word says is best for us in our lives,

we actually wanna chase after what our heart says. And I'm telling you,

if we're looking for peace in our lives, we've gotta be careful. The truth is,

it doesn't work that way with a king. Um,

Jesus may have came to earth the first time as a baby, um,

but understand this advent season, we recognize that he, he not only came,

but he's gonna come again.

And his plan is to rule and to reign and to bring peace to this earth.

But in his kingdom,

peace is brought to life through his counsel and through his guidance.

And so we gotta ask the question like, how, how do we find the council?

How do we find this wonderful council? Well, Jesus has given us his life.

We can read about it in His word. Uh,

the Bible tells us when we are spiritually reborn into the family of God,

the Holy Spirit comes inside of us. We can seek wisdom from the Holy Spirit.

Uh, we have the fellowship of believers. We would call that the family of God,

the church.

Like the church gets together every single week and we lift up the truths of who

God is and what he says and what it is that he calls us into.

We lift up that council and we've gotta get to a place where we ask ourselves a

question,

are we going to seek and to accept and live out the council that God has for us?

And I think sometimes as followers of Jesus, we forget that, um,

kings rarely make suggestions. You know what I mean? They don't say like,

well, if you get time, like that's just not what kings do.

You don't get to experience the peace of the kingdom offered by a king if you

rebel against the Council of the King.

And so we gotta recognize in the midst of our storms,

we have a wonderful counselor, but we have to look to him.

We have to look to his word. We have to seek His Holy Spirit for guidance.

We've gotta be connected to the family of God that's gonna lift up the truths of

God. And then we've gotta act, and then we've gotta respond.

It'll be called wonderful counselor. And then Isaiah goes on to say,

he'll also be called mighty God. This one's interesting because

at Christmas, especially,

like we have a tendency to wanna look to the sentimental version of Jesus,

right? I think the Ricky Bobby version,

the six pound eight ounce tiny baby Jesus. And

I would suggest that part of the reason why we don't have peace in the midst of

our storms is because we don't have an appropriate view of the God who's

actually fighting for us. And, uh, the original language here,

which is not gonna be popular in 2024, uh,

it paints a picture of God as a mighty warrior.

And if we're not careful at Christmas, and really throughout the entire year,

what we'll do is we'll leave tiny baby Jesus in this manger,

in his s swaddling clothing in Bethlehem,

and we'll lose sight that he's not only a wonderful counselor and he is,

not only was he born a baby, but man, he's he's a mighty king.

He's a mighty warrior. Not only is a might, is he a mighty warrior, uh, but,

but he has divine and unmatched strength and he uses that strength to fight our

battles, uh, uh,

on our behalf against spiritual oppression, against sin, against death.

And we gotta let that set in. And, uh,

I I love our Christmas Eve services at Hope. Um,

here's a spoiler alert. Uh, if you've never been, uh,

we end them like every other Christian Church ends their Christmas Eve services

by singing Silent night and lighting candles.

And so what happens is we finish the message and whoever's up here doing the

message lights a candle, we turn the lights out, and then we light candles.

And then one gets passed to one person, goes to another person,

goes to another person, and in the darkness, the light fills the room.

And then if you're up here,

you get to see everybody back there with their phones taking pictures of the

room so they can see how beautiful it is and put it on social media. But,

and then we sing Silent Night, all is calm,

all is bright, and there's some truth to that.

But the reality is, while that was going on that night,

the night that Jesus was born,

there was this cosmic battle that was being fought in the heavenly realms.

And I know some of you might not know what exactly what I'm talking about,

and that's okay. If we had time, we would read Revelation 12 together.

You should go back and do that on your own.

But what you would see is the tenacity in which Satan

and his demons were working to thwart God's plan.

You would see an attempt at Satan to destroy God's attempt at bringing peace to

this world. And see,

our tendency is like just to look at things from an earthly perspective. Like,

yes, it was quiet that night. I mean, I've never personally delivered a baby.

I imagine there were some screams, um,

but overall it was a quiet, beautiful night, at least by standards of 2024,

right? There's no Instagram reels going, none of that's happening.

But there was a cosmic battle going on. There's something else that's going on.

And so we have to realize that when we see oppression and we see brokenness and

we see irresponsible leadership and we see death,

we see that from an earthly perspective.

But the Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter six, verse 12,

that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,

but against the rulers, against the authorities,

against the cosmic powers over this present darkness,

against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly places.

And again, I know in 2024, we're so enlightened, we're like, really?

Are you talking about like demons and angels and the devil and like fighting

each other? Man,

there is stuff going on around us that if we don't recognize that we have a need

for this mighty God to fight our battles, we're not going to experience peace.

Jesus is a mighty warrior who came once to pay the price for the sins of man

on a cross,

but he's coming again one day to establish a new heaven and a new earth.

And next time he comes, he's not gonna come as a baby.

Like the Bible tells us he's gonna come, uh,

on a horse with a tattoo on his leg and a sword in his hand as a grown man,

as a mighty warrior. And not only that,

until then he's fighting our battles for us against the darkness of this

world. Now,

I wanna recognize this is, this kind of gets tricky for some people.

And so if you're like me, uh,

this gets tricky because when trials come our direction,

we kind of take on this attitude like it's us against the world. You know,

like our back gets put up against the wall

and we gotta hunker down and pick ourselves up by our bootstraps.

And we've gotta fight and labor and stress until we've endured the thing that's

in front of us. And I'm not saying enduring is bad,

endurance is a part of the Christian faith, but I'm telling you friends, if we,

if we move into our trials,

if we fight back against our trials as though it depends on us,

that's not a life of peace.

And so there's something that comes from trusting that we have this mighty God

that fights our battles for us,

and instead we have this tendency to take on a battle that we are actually never

made to fight against. And Isaiah is saying,

there's a child is born and he's here to fight those battles for us.

And I know anxiety is a real thing. I know fear is a real thing.

My wife would tell you,

there are nights I wake up sometime between midnight and one o'clock,

certainly not every night, but I can't fall back asleep.

And the only way it happens is if I get up,

walk around the neighborhood in the 32 degree weather and have a 10,

and then I can get my thoughts back in line. I'm like, okay, wait. That's right.

This is not my burden to bear. These are not the things that I have to fix. God,

you're the one who's in control. You're the one who fights our battles.

And through that, you can kinda worship yourself back to a place of peace.

And I'm not saying we don't work hard, you know,

I'm not saying we don't celebrate, uh,

the night that God put on flesh and was born as a baby.

I'm not saying that we don't remember that he came to this earth as a baby,

but at the end of the day, we've gotta recognize that we have a mighty God.

He's a mighty warrior,

and it's him and him alone who fights against spiritual oppression,

who fights against sin and who fights against death.

And if we want to have peace in our lives, we're gonna have to trust that.

And I want you to know, to the extent of which we do trust,

that is the extent of which we will experience peace in the midst of the trials

that we face. The presence of Jesus brings a mighty warrior.

Next Isaiah goes on to say, also he'll be called an everlasting Father.

This one could be confusing, uh, especially if you understand, uh,

that we have a Trinitarian God.

That being that the Bible says that our God is one God with three distinct

persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

So you could read this and you could say, so Jesus is the Father.

No, right? That's not what it's saying.

This is talking more about his character,

like the fact that he is the author and the provider of our eternal life.

And so Jesus said, to experience eternal life, you must be spiritually reborn,

spiritually born again of the Spirit.

And that happens through accepting the gift of grace that's provided to us

through Jesus' death on a cross and resurrection. And so through Jesus,

we are born into the family of God. And so just as we are born into our family,

through a man and through a woman, through our mother and Father,

we are born into this new family of God for all of eternity through

the work of Jesus. But understand, without the, that peace of God on our behalf,

without Jesus, um, taking the punishment that we deserve,

we don't experience that peace, but he did.

And so it's through him that we experience this everlasting father,

this eternal life. But it also paints a picture of his character.

And so, while he is a wonderful counselor and a mighty God who,

who who fights like is this, uh, mighty divine warrior on our behalf,

he's also one that we can go to with our brokenness.

We can sit at his feet, um, we can confess our sins,

our struggles, our pain,

and he may discipline us, but he's gonna show us grace.

He's gonna show us love. He's gonna show us mercy.

Not too long ago, one of my kids, I will, um,

try really hard not to say he or she, I have three.

And so I don't want to make it too obvious,

but I recognize that one of my kids had been dishonest with me.

And, uh,

when they realized that I had realized it, there was this,

uh, I'll just say it. There was this look on his face, . And, um,

he had realized what he had done. He had realized that my heart was broken.

And he said, dad, I, I just, I don't know what I was thinking.

I know I shouldn't have. I don't know why I did it. And I said, son,

listen. And I I don't get this right all the time, okay, . I said, son,

listen, I know what it's like to be human. I want you to come here.

He crawled up in my lap, um, he cried. Um,

he apologized. And I said, I appreciate that. There,

there are gonna be some consequences. But man, in that moment,

like a loving father whose child has done something wrong,

like you show love, you show grace, yes, there's consequences. But that,

that that's what a loving father does.

And you might need to be reminded or even here for the first time,

that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

I mean, that's what this season is about. That's what it means,

that we have Jesus as an everlasting father.

He's not wanting to fight against you. He's not wanting to punish you.

What he's wanting is for you to come to him, to confess your sins,

to tell him about your brokenness,

and to tell him about your hurts so that he can have an opportunity to put his

loving arms around you and love you as an everlasting. Father,

Isaiah tells us that a child is born

and he tells us that he's strong enough to carry the weight of the governments

of the world on his shoulder to establish a new kingdom.

And his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God,

everlasting Father. And that leads to prince of peace.

Like this advent,

we've gotta realize that Jesus came to usher in peace to this

broken world. And, and I know I've, I've taught on this before,

but that Hebrew word for peace, it's the word shalom, like it means wholeness.

And you know, I'll just be honest. I know so many of us do.

And if I don't even say I, I say,

I know for myself I need a bit more wholeness in my life this Christmas.

And my prayer for us is that we would not go through this season only

celebrating a baby being born. I mean, the truth is,

the majority of the Western world does that in some form or fashion.

And that in and of itself is not going to be to bring peace.

And so my hope and my prayer is that,

that we'll remember not only that a baby was born,

but in the midst of our chaos,

Jesus offers to us wonderful counsel,

a mighty God, an everlasting father,

and he offers to us a prince of peace.

And so the bottom line really of this whole thing, um,

peace isn't the absence of trials. It's the presence of Jesus

Like this, this side of eternity. Jesus came to earth one time

and in this moment, he,

he did take the penalty for our sins so that we could have a restored

relationship with God. He did come that we can have this wonderful counsel,

that we can have this mighty God,

that we can experience him as our everlasting father,

so that we can experience peace. One day Jesus is gonna come back,

and when he comes back, he's gonna establish a new heaven and a new earth.

And then that peace will be different.

All of this brokenness will be put back together again. But until then,

Jesus said, in this life, you will face trials.

Peace is not the absence of trials, it's the presence of Jesus in our lives.

I believe as a church family right now, uh, and I I know it. I mean,

I talk to you all like we are in desperate need of peace in our lives.

And so as we close out our service, uh, this weekend,

what I wanna do is I wanna pray for you.

And maybe you're in a situation where you just need some counsel,

like you're in a tough spot. Maybe it's regarding your marriage.

Maybe it's regarding your kids. You need direction. Maybe it's from God's word.

Uh, maybe you need to hear a word of wisdom from the Holy Spirit.

Maybe you just need to experience life more connected to the family of God

that's lifting up the truths of God.

Maybe you're in a battle

and it just seems like it's attack after attack, after attack, after attack.

It just feels like this heavy oppression

and you just need to be able to let go

and give it to a God who wants to fight for you.

And maybe, you know,

there's something in your life that you've been holding onto for years.

Maybe it's sin, maybe it's shame,

maybe it's bitterness. But you know,

it's preventing you from experiencing the peace that you know Jesus

has for you.

And what you really need to do is turn to one who wants to love you like an

everlasting father,

and to lay it down at his feet.

And so if that's you, I wanna pray for you. But I'm,

I'm gonna ask us to do something this weekend across all of our campuses.

And it's, it's kind of bold. Um, when I ask you to do it, you're gonna think,

I don't know. I'm in a room full of people. I I don't know all these people.

That's okay. Listen,

everybody else is in this place that you are for probably a lot of the same

reasons that you are. And the truth is, in today's world,

if we don't have each other as the church, goodness gracious, who in the,

who in the world do we have? And so we talk about ourselves being a family,

and sometimes families do, families do things together.

And so this is what I'm gonna do if you need that counsel,

if you're in a place that you need that peace,

where you need to know that there's a God that's fighting for you.

If you're in that place where you need to turn to Jesus as an everlasting

father, if you're in that place right there,

if you need to experience a little bit more peace this year at Christmas,

this is what I want you to do across all of our campuses.

Would you just stand to your feet?

Yeah. And I want you to know I'm standing with all of you as well.

And if you're in a place right now, you know, or you feel good like, Hey,

listen, I actually think things are feeling pretty good. Um,

I would just encourage you just to extend a hand towards somebody who's

standing. Goodness gracious, extend a hand towards me

and let's just pray together as one church across all of our campuses. Father,

I come to you in prayer right now,

and I thank you for first and foremost for your son Jesus,

coming to this earth as a child, putting on human flesh,

teaching us how to live paying the penalty that we deserve to pay for our sins

and rising from the dead so that we could have this new life.

Lord, I thank you for the truths that that brings with us. That in this life,

in the midst of our storms, that we can have a wonderful counsel.

That we can have a mighty God that fights our battles,

that we can have a God that loves us like an everlasting father,

and that brings peace into our lives. And so right now,

I lift up the man or the woman or the student that is looking for,

for marvelous, for wonderful counsel. Lord,

I pray that you would give them wisdom.

I pray you would allow them to engage your scriptures in a way that they would

come to life in a way that they never have. Holy Spirit,

I pray that you would speak to them, give them words of wisdom.

I pray you would surround them with the body of Christ that would come along and

give encouraging words towards your truths. Father,

for the man or the woman or the student that is in a trial that's facing

oppression, Lord, that feels like they're in. Lord,

I pray in the name of Jesus that those chains would be broken. Lord,

I pray for freedom in the name of Jesus from whatever it is they're

experiencing,

even if it's just a freedom from feeling like it's their fight to fight.

And Lord, I pray for those that

maybe just need to run to the arms of their father for the first time ever,

or maybe the first time in a long time.

And I pray that they would. And God, we know that you'll meet 'em there,

Lord, as we head into this holiday season, as we head into Christmas, Lord,

we experience peace in a way that we desperately need. And that Jesus,

you came to this earth for us to experience and we love you.

And we pray these things in the name of Jesus. And everyone said amen.

Uh, this week when I was going through, um, kinda going through my study time,

for some reason this old Christmas song kept coming to mind. Oh come,

oh come Emmanuel. I think it was written in the 17 hundreds.

Don't quote me on that. It's on video now. So, um,

but I just thought, man, this song is really a cry out from God's people saying,

God, we need you, God, we need you. Come God, we need you. Come. And so,

I just thought it would be appropriate to have our worship leaders come out

across all of our campuses and just lead us in a couple verses of this song.

Listen, I wanna close by saying this.

We are not just here to receive peace as we receive, as the family of God,

as we receive the peace of God. We're not just peace receivers,

we're also peace bringers. So I wanna encourage, as we go out into the world,

let's take the peace with us and share it with others that we have received from

Jesus.