Advent - Peace w/Dave Hodge

I'm really excited about hearing the message

today. We're in our second week of Advent. We

missed out on that first week due to the weather

last week, but we would have heard about hope

last week. And as we move into Advent, we remember

that Advent is about arrival. Advent is remembering

that in a moment in time that Jesus, the Son

of God, decided to arrive. And part of that story

is that he was then crucified to bear the sins

of the world, resurrected to prove that sin had

been forgiven and death had been defeated. And

he ascended to the right hand of God the Father.

We believe that one day he will come again. And

we wait again. We live in Advent every year,

waiting for the arrival of Jesus to come and

make all things new. So we need to be reminded

on a regular basis of things like hope, of peace,

of joy, and of love. And today, I'm really looking

forward to hearing the message because it's from

Dave Hodge. If you'll please welcome him up,

and he's got some really good things to share

with you today. Well, I am... I always want to

apologize because when I went to Indiana Wesleyan

University to study ministry, I told God I never

want to speak in front of anybody. I have one

of those Moses conversations, you know, like

Moses, hey, I stutter, you know, I can't talk

well in front of people. But my thing was I sweat

in front of people. And so I have asked God to

make it cold in this room just for me and my

comfort, not yours. I'm sorry. So that's just

what we have to deal with today. The Lord of

Peace is here with me today. Just before I get

started, there's a little bit of an intro. Look

if you had one shot or one opportunity, would

you seize everything you ever wanted in one moment?

Would you capture it or just let it slip away?

Yo. Eminem. Not the two chocolate guys. You know,

the rapper. I just say that because... This might

be my one shot in front of you at this church.

I attend here, have been a part of the house

since it started way back in the day, and then

I disappeared because I was the chaplain at Arrowhead

Ranch for 15 years and was out there on Sundays

and would try to pop in the very end, but then

I just kind of did stuff, tried to pop in different

churches. And then also with my position at Youth

Hope, I was in and out of churches all the time,

speaking and just visiting. And now I'm at World

Relief, which is not a new position for me in

a weird way because even though I've only worked

there for six months, I've been a part of World

Relief for over 20 years when I was working at

Youth Hope because of all the refugee families

that we worked with in youth centers. I was kind

of shocked my first week. I was like, why is

there three kids from Bosnia and two from Kenya

walking into my youth center in the Quad Cities?

I didn't think that's where I would be ministering

to, you know, that kind of population. But it

happened. And it was awesome because I thought

God was going to call me to go minister overseas

after college. And I came back to the Quad Cities.

So it's a big difference. You just get to cross

rivers instead of oceans over and over again.

Every single day you cross a river. or another

river, back and forth, if you're that kind of

person. Some of you stay on your side of the

rivers, and that's okay. But that's what we get

to do here. And so I just want to get a little

business out of the way. I came to support World

Relief today in kind of a weird way. And my job...

What I do as the church mobilizer is I get to

pair churches with families of refugees and immigrants

in our community. And we created this system

a lot of many, many years ago. This has been

a part of where we leave. But we've reinstituted

this in a kind of sense of urgency because of

what's going on in our country with immigrants

and refugees and organizations that work with

those. Obviously, all of the funding was rescinded

at the beginning of the year for World Relief.

That was promised not just to our organization,

but to help resettle families. And so we lost

a lot of our staff, a lot of our caseworkers.

We kind of had to pull back a little bit. And

we had just resettled about 200 or 270 individuals

from October to January. And we were trying to

figure out how in the world do we serve them

well in their community and help them get established

well. And so we started looking to churches.

There's no better place than a place that says,

hey, we are hope, we are love, we are kindness,

we are goodness, we are grace. And we want to

come around people and be the hope of the world.

We want to be the comfort, be the peace to those

people. And so churches have been rising up and

taking on some of those roles. Right now we have.

18 churches or 18 groups, families that are matched

with 13 churches. Some churches have done more.

We just got to celebrate them last Friday. And

that was just awesome to be in a room full of

churches who have experienced being peace and

being hope and being love, but also receiving

that from the families and to hear their stories

of life change in their own hearts through serving

other people has been amazing. And so Greg and

I have been talking. about the opportunity for

our church to see if that might be something

we might want to be interested in. And there

is no pressure because I know many of you are

serving all throughout the Quad Cities and organizations.

Many of you are at home serving your families.

Many of you and your jobs have amazing roles

serving our communities. And so I know it can

be a busy season and it can be hard. But if you

have interest in being part of a House Good Neighbor

team, there are a couple of families that we've

looked at and identified that do live. in the

Greenbush area or at least close to it if not

on the very outskirts that we would love to look

at maybe partnering with and coming around them

as a good neighbor team and so if you have interest

in that I will be around afterwards because there's

lots of food out here for us to eat after church

today so I of course will be sticking around

and you can find me and I'd love to get your

name and information and then we'll kind of have

a formal meeting about meeting as a team forming

a team, voting on some team leaders that would

help kind of orchestrate those things and keep

things organized for everybody. And then we would

kind of talk about reaching out to families and

meeting them in the community and seeing if they're

interested in partnering with us. And then we'd

get you partnered with a family, and then we

would get you rolling and have plenty of training

and plenty of fun along the way. And so if you're

interested in that... Please see me afterwards.

I simply just need a phone number or email from

you so I can reach out and we can set up a time

to get together. So with all that said, I want

to get that out of the way first because that's

the business part. And now I just wanted to take

a few moments just to talk about Advent and peace

this morning as Greg generously offered for me

to share with you just from my heart this morning

about this. So what is peace? It's one of those

things that we think about as an end result to

conflict ending. We hope peace comes. We have

that probably in our hearts and minds every single

day that we watch the news. We see that's all

going on all over the world. We want Christ to

return. We think about the return of Christ in

Advent. We want peace. But like many of the things

of Advent, hope, love, peace, joy. We have this

idea that they're outcomes through something

that we've been through. So therefore, we found

hope in hard circumstances. We found peace after

a conflict's been ended. We found joy because

something good's happened. We found love because

we met our prince or princess. And we think this

is what it's all about, the happily ever after.

We finally have it. And then the movie ends.

And they fool us because they don't show us after

the ending of what really happens and what life

is really like as you have to love someone. And

it's one of those things that there's all of

these things that we look at, especially when

it comes to the essence of who Jesus is. And

we think about it's when Christ returns, we will

have this ultimately. But that is not necessarily

it. It's part of it, but it's not all of it.

Because peace comes in the midst of conflict.

Hope comes in the midst of hard times. Joy comes

in the midst of sadness. And love comes in the

midst of struggles. And that is the beauty of

who Jesus is. Because Jesus is present in all

of it. I'm going to fast forward and tell you

a funny story that I came across on Facebook.

Maybe it's not funny to you. Maybe it's just

funny to me. But in 2017, 11 -year -old boy in

Arizona named Andrew survived being stung by

over 400 times by African bees. Andrew was airlifted

to Phoenix Children's Hospital, treated, and

made a full recovery. It's surprising because

he also had an allergic reaction to stinging

insects, which added to the danger. Andrew said

he coped with the pain by focusing on his favorite

Dragon Ball Z character, Vegeta, and calling

in his full force power, humorously telling reporters,

I am Andrew, but you can call me Vegeta. That's

amazing to me. 11 -year -old child in the midst

of being stung by 400 bees. calls and brings

in his favorite Dragon Ball Z character to get

him through that turmoil, that experience. And

maybe Andrew doesn't know about Jesus. But I

hope for some of us who do, when we're going

through the midst of our hardest things, are

we calling on Jesus to get us through? We're

just going to look at a quick passage in Luke.

It's Luke 1, 26 -38. It is tradition here for

you to stand as we read this passage. I would

invite you to do that if you would like, or at

least turn your hearts to God as we just kind

of listen. It says, In the sixth month of Elizabeth's

pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth,

to a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to

be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant

of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel

went to her and said, Greetings, you who are

highly favored. The Lord is with you. Mary was

greatly troubled at his words and wondered what

kind of greeting this might be. But the angel

said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary. You have

found favor with God. You will conceive and give

birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the Son of

the Most High. The Lord God will give him the

throne of his father David, and he will reign

over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom

will never end. How will this be, Mary asked

the angel, since I am a virgin? The angel answered,

the Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power

of the Most High will overshadow you. So the

Holy One to be born will be called the Son of

God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going

to have a child in her old age, and she who has

said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth

month. For no word from God will ever fail. I

am the Lord's servant, Mary answered. May your

word to me be fulfilled. And then the angel left

her. Have a seat. Let me just open up in a word

of prayer real quick. God, I just thank you for

this word. I thank you for this story, this passage

of scripture that you've left for us to be reminded,

Lord, that you have a plan. You've always had

a plan since the fall. You've always had it in

place that you knew that your son, Jesus, would

come in physical form. To be present with us

on this earth, to walk in the shoes that we would

one day walk ourselves, to live a life of struggle

and hardships and things, Lord, that we would

question of wondering why is this happening?

And that you would come to die on a cross so

that we could have salvation. And then in our

hardest moments, we could find peace in you because

your Holy Spirit and your presence is with us.

And so, Lord, as we just kind of pull a couple

of things out, I just pray that we would look

to you in all things, in all ways. And trust

in a Savior who loves us and brings peace in

the midst of trials. In your name, amen. So just

a couple of things here I just want to pull out.

It's probably obvious stuff, but to me when I

just read scripture, I play it over in my mind

over and over again of what does this really

look like? What is really happening? I try to

picture it. I try to visualize it. And in my

mind, it's probably very strange. situation than

most of us would look at scripture and read and

just say, oh yeah, we know the story. But Mary's

just a young girl. She's a teenager. I have two

teenagers in my house, both girls. And I wonder

sometimes as a father what in the world is going

on. But that's okay because God has used it in

my life to change me and grow me in my relationship

closer with him. of understanding what it means

to be a father and to call him father. But when

I look at this, I laugh a little bit because

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered

what kind of greeting this might be. And then

the angel says, don't be afraid, Mary, for you

have found favor with God. And I go, but was

Mary afraid? Because she just sounds troubled.

She sounds like a 16 -year -old girl who's like,

huh? I don't get it. I didn't catch it. Can you

repeat that for me? I wasn't paying attention.

I was just scrolling on my phone. Were you calling

me? I'm sorry. I didn't hear you. You know, that's

what I think of. But Mary is like perplexed by

this. She is troubled by this. She's wondering

why an angel has appeared to her. And even though

she doesn't seem frightened, the Lord, the angel

says, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found

favor with God's eyes. And there's all kinds

of things that wrap up in that, right? It's that

anxiety. It's that pressure of what is happening?

What is going on? What is this angel saying to

me? Why is there an angel in my room? This is

strange. I don't know what's going on. All kinds

of things. But the angel brings words of peace.

Brings words of peace. Says it's okay. Just still

your mind right now. Pay attention. Just open

up your heart and listen. In the midst of this

moment, Let me just give you permission to stop,

not be afraid, and just listen. And I think that's

for all of us, it's a huge reminder. Because

we live in a world that produces thoughts in

our mind over and over and over again. We can

be listening to stuff, we can be taking in all

that people are telling us, we can be taking

everything in from the news and social media,

and we can live in a state of anxiety where our

mind is constantly rushing all the time. And

sometimes we just need a reminder from God that

says, it's okay, just stop. Stop listening to

those things. Just pause for a minute, don't

get anxious, don't worry, don't be afraid. Let

me be peace to you in this moment. And I think

that's something that we often forget, that we

have the ability, like Andrew, to lock into and

say, God, in the midst of this turmoil, in the

midst of this anxiety, in the midst of these

things, I need peace. I went through a huge period

of my time where I had huge anxiety. I think

it was triggered from a moment where I had an

allergic reaction to a flu shot one year, and

I was out at our camp at a retreat. And I woke

up in the morning and my arm had swollen to the

size of a softball. And I called Tricia, I think,

or somebody that was a nurse. If you have a friend

that's a nurse, I apologize. You know how it

is. You get called about everything. And Tricia

delivers babies. But I still call her about everything.

I'm sure she loves that. But it's great to have

a friend who's a nurse. And they're like, hey,

you should probably get to the hospital. It sounds

like you're having an allergic reaction. And

so I'm like 45 minutes outside of town at our

camp. And I get in the car and start driving

myself in town. And I got right next to Arrowhead

Ranch, probably 20 minutes within. And literally,

I felt like I couldn't breathe. I felt like I

was going to pass out. I felt like I was going

to just die on the side of the road somewhere.

And so I just passed Arrowhead, and I turn in,

and I go in, and I see their nurse. And I'm like,

hey, I don't know what's going on. I feel like

I'm going to pass out. They called my father

at the time. He came up, picked me up, took me

to the hospital. But from that experience, whenever

I'd get in the car to go drive after that, I

would start feeling like I couldn't breathe.

And so I had this anxiety that was building into

me of, hey, you had this experience, and now

you feel like you're going to have it again.

And so I was on medication for a while, trying

to control it, and I finally got off of that.

But I just used scripture over and over and over

again. That God does not give you a spirit of

fear, but a joy and a sound mind, right? And

I use that stuff over and over again, just reminding

myself that Jesus, in this moment while I'm driving,

you are present, you are with me, you have a

plan, everything is going to be okay. And so

just using those things to call on Jesus in those

moments, through that practice, through that

experience, I have found that is something that

I do all the time now. When I feel anxious, when

I feel stressed out, when I start getting worried,

I just have to stop myself and say, Jesus, in

this moment, I need you to be peace. And we're

reminded that we're given that. This angel reminds

Mary, hey, don't be afraid, Mary. God's found

favor with you. God has a plan for you. God is

with you in this moment. Secondly, Jesus is bringing

peace to all of us. You will conceive and give

birth to a son. You're to call him Jesus. He

will be great, and he will be called the Son

of the Most High. The Lord God will give him

the throne of his father David, and he will reign

over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom

will never end. This is a huge piece for all

of us in the scripture. Now we're not just talking

about Mary. Now we're talking about who Mary

will bring into the world, whose God is going

to use to bring Jesus into the world, and Jesus

is... kingdom will reign and never end. This

is where, not just the anxiousness, but this

is where we get to walk and live every single

day. Because we live after this story, guys.

Jesus has already died on the cross for us. Jesus

has already risen from the dead for us. Jesus

has already spent his Holy Spirit to live and

dwell in us. And if we call him our savior, if

we call him our friend, then Jesus is with us

and present in his kingdom now. Not just in the

end. And that is the beauty that we get to walk

in as believers every single day that we are

walking in the kingdom of God, not just waiting

to get to it. And if we're walking in the kingdom

of God, then Jesus is present with us and his

peace is with us in all circumstances. And that

is an amazing key to unlock. If you're going

to level up. with anything. Level up with understanding

that every single day. And if I talk in video

game terms, I'm sorry. It's the world I live

in. You know, I play board games all the time.

And this is how my mind thinks. If we're on an

adventure and I am a person who's just being

called on this adventure, if you know anything

about the hero's journey, he starts as some little

kid in his bedroom and it's dark and it's quiet

and he's scared and he's alone. And then something

happens and he's called into adventure. And guess

what that hero has to face to become the hero

he's supposed to be? Conflict. Trials. Tribulations.

He's got to face them. Because on the other side

of those things is greatness. It's perseverance.

It's overcoming. It builds into who we are. And

there's no surprise to me that when Jesus says

that you will face trials of many kind, but you

will find joy in it, not after it, that there

is peace in it as we go through it. Because on

the other side, on the other side, what God is

doing for us is something we can't even fathom.

But it will be beautiful, and it will be good.

Because many of us that are experiencing hard

times right now, are wondering what's on the

other side. But there's many of us that have

experienced hard times over and over and over

again, which seems to be the point of what we

experience in life sometimes. We have these hardships

that we go through, but as we overcome them,

we learn from them and we grow, and then we have

more, and then we overcome them and we grow.

I stand before you as a person who, like, I'm

kind of the last standing member of my family.

I experienced loss of my brother at a very young

age. Both my parents have passed away. All my

grandparents have passed away. My uncles, my

aunts, they've all passed away. I've experienced

death at a very young age. At seven years old,

my best friend died from a random fever. And

remember, I can still smell the pew, you know,

just sticking your face in and burying it at

the funeral. And I asked God why that had to

happen as a young kid going, why is this happening?

But that would be the pattern of my life over

and over again. In the midst of it, finally,

I was like, okay, there's a reason for this.

There's still beauty in this because the more

and more that I experienced grief and loss, the

more and more I met people who has experienced

grief and loss. And we realize it's a part of

life. And instead of running away from it, we

get to run into it and come alongside each other

and say, hey, let me just be with you in this

moment because there's peace here. And I understand

it and I feel it. And I want to bring that to

you also. After my brother passed away that first

summer, I was at church camp and I just young

dumb kid just stood up. after a message and just

raised my hand and said, hey, can I say something?

They're like, sure. And I was like, hey, listen,

my brother just passed away this past year and

it's been really hard, but I know there's other

people here that have probably experienced the

same thing. And in that dumb moment, God used

that to show me something real because I was

like, hey, if you want to meet after this, I'll

be over on this park bench. Just kind of want

to meet other people and pray with you if you've

been through that. And out of my surprise, I

didn't know if anything would really happen.

I just felt like it's something I needed to do.

But in that moment, like, people started trickling

over. And then there's probably, like, 20 of

us just standing around, not just kids and teens

my age, adults. And I was like, hey, guys, my

name's Dave, and this is what I've been through,

and if you just want to share your story, I'd

love to hear it. And people just started sharing

their stories of loss. And out of that, we just

started praying for each other. And that was

the moment that God said, hey, Dave, this is

what God can do with what you've experienced.

This is what you can do with what you've been

through. That you can be a person who's experienced

something horrible that I can restore and make

beautiful. Because I'm a God who brings peace

and offers that to us who follow him to be able

to bring peace to others. One of those weird

parts of this passage, if you realize this, is

when this whole passage starts, it tells us that

this is the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy

before we're told the story. And that's important

because previously in this passage, an angel

shows up to Elizabeth and tells her that she's

going to be with child and she's very old. And

she doesn't have the same response that Mary

does. She laughs. And then the angel gets very

angry. It's interesting. There's exclamation

points after every word the angel says to Elizabeth

after that. And he's like, okay, you laughed.

I know this is going to happen. You just need

to believe and trust because this is going to

happen. I found that kind of just interesting

to me. But part of this Mary story is it's just

not Mary who's experiencing something. It's also

Elizabeth. And so as soon as this happens, after

this passage, Mary leaves and goes visits her.

Mary leaves and goes and visits Elizabeth, who's

already experiencing what she's about to experience.

Elizabeth is six months into her pregnancy. Mary

has no clue what this is going to entail for

her. But yet she goes to someone who's already

experiencing it. Another miraculous birth. And

as soon as she arrives, her and Elizabeth are

immediately connected. It says that John the

Baptist notices Jesus in Mary's belly and leaps.

And there's this beautiful thing that happens

where Elizabeth actually blesses Mary. And then

through Elizabeth blessing Mary, Mary produces

this beautiful song that we have recorded in

Luke about her experience of being a mother and

carrying the child, the Savior of the world.

And so this reminds me over and over again that

God uses Mary or Elizabeth to bring peace to

Mary. And I think vice versa for both of them.

And Mary stays three months with Elizabeth. Together,

they just live in fellowship and caring for each

other through their pregnancies. And I think

that's beautiful. Because Mary could have done

anything. Mary could have ran and hid. She could

have isolated herself. She could have just sat

with this, this puzzling, how is this going to

happen? What are Joseph and I going to do? How

are we going to explain this to the world? What

are people going to think? She could have isolated

herself and tried to live in this fear of what

does this mean that God is calling her to? But

instead, she goes because she's heard that Elizabeth

is experiencing something similar. And so here's

a hard reminder. If we are sitting in something

that we feel like we're carrying and nobody understands,

there's people who do. And please go to them.

Please go find them. Please run to them. Because

we're not meant to do this alone. We're not meant

to do it alone. We're not meant to carry the

weight of the world on our own shoulders. That

is not peace. We're meant to call on Jesus and

we're meant to call on each other. Because we

as believers and followers of God get to be peace

to other people. What a cool opportunity that

we've been blessed with. If we follow Jesus,

we get to bring peace givers. We get to be peacemakers.

And some of the hardest wars you will ever fight

in will be on a couch sitting next to someone

who needs you. But we get that opportunity. To

love God and to love others. When Jesus says,

I've come to give you life and life to the full,

I think that's just simply the key. When God

calls us to love him with everything and to really

love other people as he loves us, to me, that

sends me on a mission every single day. When

I wake up, what can I do today, God? What can

we do together? How can we go bring love? How

can we go bring peace today? What's that going

to look like? And there's days, man, where I'm

just blown away. In my adventure mind, in my

adventure life, this is how I get through every

single day. I wake up and say, God, what are

we doing today? How can we bring peace? How can

we be joy? How can we bring love and hope into

the world? What does that get to look like? And

if you start to experience that and start to

practice that, oh my gosh, I can't tell you the

adventure that you will begin to live. Because

there's so many people who are just struggling

around and going, where do I find this? What

does it look like for me? And sometimes it can

look like us just walking up to them and just

saying, hey, how are you doing today? Really?

Can I sit with you for a little bit and just

hear about what's going on in your life? Can

I pray with you? Can we bring peace to who you

are? How are we doing? Good? How are we doing

on time? I don't know what that means. Tell me.

Five minutes? Okay, let's... Give me the freedom

to do something, okay? This is going to be weird,

but this is just how I live. Because I can't

just take words in and process them and walk

out of here and remember anything. But if I can

experience something, I often don't forget those

moments. So I've been a part of a program practicing

spiritual direction for the last two years. Spiritual

direction is literally just sitting. with someone

in the presence of God and asking God to speak

to that person and I get to be the person to

ask them the questions they don't want to be

asked sometimes I get to be the person that gets

to help them look for God and seek God in some

moments that are hard for them to even want to

process but they know they need to and when they

do something beautiful happens and so we're just

going to do a group experiment I'm going to practice

spiritual direction right now with all of you

And so it's going to be one of those awkward

moments for some of us because it's just weird

that people are around us. And we may have kids

with you or you may have a sweetie with you who's

pulling on you and laughing at you and chomping

you. But I'm just going to ask you to do something

real quick just to close your eyes. And if you

would just take a moment to take some deep breaths

and breathe in and breathe out and just allow

yourself to just to calm. And to seek peace.

To seek Jesus' face. This is one of the beautiful

things that I try to do every day. It's just

to find a moment to sit quietly and to picture

myself in an empty room. And if you can just

see yourself sitting in a chair in a room in

the quiet, maybe for Cindy there's snow falling

down in the window behind you. Maybe you need

that. Maybe you just need a moment just to sit

quietly. in a room, by yourself, in the calmness,

in the peace. And then I just want to invite

you to invite Jesus into that room. If you can

see yourself sitting in a chair and you can see

Jesus standing before you, just look into his

face and allow him to be peace. Allow his warmth.

that radiates off his body, bring you warmth

to your heart, your mind, your soul, your lungs.

Just allow him to be in that space and breathe

him in. And if you can sit with that in a minute,

and you can feel something stirring inside of

you that's been stirring, if there's something

that's bringing you anxiousness, or bringing

you hardship, or bringing you discomfort, if

there's something that is at war inside of you

in this moment with him, will you simply just

give it to him? Will you just simply just reach

out your hands and your mind and say, God, here

it is. Jesus, can you take this? I'm struggling

to carry it. And just allow him to speak peace

over you. Allow him to lay his hands on you.

And to say, you are my child. And you are loved.

Do not be afraid. I'm with you. And just take

a deep breath. Take a couple deep breaths. And

just be in that space. And some of us need this

moment, and some of us are struggling with it,

and that's okay. And if you need this moment

to say, you know what, God, I don't really know

if I'm carrying much right now, but I know there's

a world around me that is. Would you bring somebody

into my mind that needs peace? Would you bring

somebody to my heart that I know is going through

something maybe I haven't reached out to or haven't

talked to or I know I need to. Could you bring

somebody to mind, Jesus? Could we invite them

into the room right now with me? Could I pull

up a chair for them to sit with you for a minute

and just ask that you be peace in their life?

Can you put it on my heart to say, God, can you

just be with them and I'll be with them? God,

when I leave this room, when I leave this church,

when I go about my day, Lord, I will go visit

them. I will call them. I will text them. I will

let them know that you are with them, that you

can be peace for them, Lord, in the midst of

what they're going through as you are peace for

me and what I'm going through. And if you can

visualize yourself just asking God for peace,

if you can visualize yourself sitting next to

someone you know needs peace, Lord, we just thank

you for that. We thank you for allowing us this

moment and this space just to seek you and to

seek your face and to be present with you. We

thank you for who you are and how you love us

so deeply and how you care for us so deeply and

how in the midst of our hardest circumstances

you are present with us to be peace. And may

we have moments like this over and over and over

again where we just stop and we just picture

ourselves with you in the room. Standing before

us with love and warmth and goodness and grace.

God, we thank you for this day. We thank you

for this season. To use to remind us that you

are coming. And though your kingdom will come

again, that you have already come. And you have

died on the cross and rose again. And you have

sent your sweet Holy Spirit to live and walk

with us daily. And Jesus, the beauty of it is

there's no more temples. There's no more curtains.

There's a God who desperately loves us and wants

to be with us every moment. To be the peace,

love, joy, and hope that we can live life to

the full with every single day. We thank you

for this morning in your name. Amen.