The Prince of Peace | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Before we go any further in the service, I just want to take a quick moment to put a to kind of frame up the significance of the moment that we just shared together before I pray for us.

You know, we've talked about the importance of exalting God and let us come and adore Him.

And this is obviously great branding and on theme for what this season represents.

But I want to share something with us that I found to be really fascinating.

Many of us probably know what it feels like when maybe you get a new car or you get something that seems really special and unique to you, but the moment that you get it, you begin to recognize it everywhere.

Maybe you went and got a new car, but now you begin to see that car, you begin to see that color everywhere.

Well, I assure you that when you purchased a car, they didn't put it into mass production, but it's because you took ownership of it, you're noticing it everywhere.

The same is true in our lives that whenever we're going through disappointment and pain, we begin to focus on it so much that's all we can see.

So what moments like this are meant to be for us is for moments for us to put those things to the side, for us to focus on God and exalt him.

And then what happens is we begin to see God in everything.

We begin to see him in our everyday lives, we see him in our suffering, we see him in our triumphs, we see him in our disappointments.

So when we decide to lift up the name of Jesus, what we're saying is, I'm aware of all the things around me, but I'm lifting up Jesus more because I want to see him in every area of my life.

I want to pray for us, but I want us to recenter our focus so that we can check all of the pain and the disappointment at the door.

It's going to be there.

But I believe when we exalt Jesus, we can also begin to be witnesses of his grace.

Lord, we thank you so much for your presence.

We thank you for allowing us to come into spaces like this where we can declare the name of Jesus.

We can exalt you.

You can't get any bigger than you are, but we can make you bigger in our lives by choosing to focus on you.

As a family and as a community, Lord, we are aware that there's so many things that are vying for our attention.

But God, in this moment, we choose to make you bigger by focusing on you.

So, Lord, we quiet our minds, we still our hearts in preparation for what you've already done as well as what you're currently doing.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

I want you guys to remain on your feet because I want to read a passage of scripture and I think it'll be very applicable for us to remain standing in awe in this moment.

But before I do that, I want to go ahead and dismiss our middle and high school students.

We have a great service that is geared specifically for them.

So they have great leaders that would love to connect with them in the back.

Um, so as they're going to do that, yes, go ahead, Nicole.

Shout them out.

If you have your Bibles, I want to ask you to um go ahead and grab them.

If you have your digital Bible, it'll be up on the screen if you didn't bring one.

Um, but if you do have your Bibles, I want you to join me in Isaiah chapter number nine.

Isaiah chapter number nine is where we're going to be spending our time today.

And I want to give you some context because I feel like context determines meaning.

And so we're familiar, many of us, with the passage that I'm about to read, but but I want to frame up what's going on for the people of God when Isaiah shares these words with them.

Right now, the the the people of Israel they were going through incredible turmoil.

There was a threat of invasion, and the people stood on the bridge on the edge of extinction.

And it's under this grim moment where they felt like they were going to be disbanded forever in this turbulent era that Isaiah emerges as a pivotal figure to speak words of hope, but also words that were meant to challenge.

He was what they call a dual prophet, one that was meant to inspire, but also meant to correct.

His voice served as a beacon of hope even in the midst of the chaos and all of the uncertainty.

And it's with this backdrop, with this context of the threat of invasion being annihilated as a people, that Isaiah comes and he utters these words to people that don't know what tomorrow is going to look like.

Starting in verse number six, he says this for a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be named wonderful counselor, mighty God, eternal father, prince of peace.

This verse was meant to be a foreshadowing of the Messiah that was going to come and bring order out of the chaos, order out of moments of uncertainty, and to give them a little bit of hope.

And as I look at the landscape of the world that we currently live in, the challenges that we're all facing, I suspect that there's some among us that would really benefit from understanding that hope is still available even in the midst of our chaos and disappointment.

So today I want to talk to us briefly on the subject of peace.

And I've entitled today's message, The Prince of Peace.

Let me pray, and we're going to get into the word.

Lord, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you for the promise of the Messiah that was born over 2,000 years ago, and now we have access to all of these things that are founded in the person of Jesus.

Lord, I ask for the next few moments that you give us open eyes to see you.

I pray that you give us open ears to hear you and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

You can go ahead and take your seat.

Say what's up to somebody as you're doing so.

It is so good to see you.

If you're joining us online, we're glad you're here.

If you're over in our family lounge, thank you for being with us today.

I I want to I want to start my time off today with a with a hypothetical question that based off of my life experience, I suspect I know how this is going to go, but I want to make sure I'm talking to the right group of people.

Have you ever been at a place where you've meticulously planned something, but you've gotten to a point where you just had to embrace the reality that there's certain aspects of that plan that are completely out of your control?

Anyone can relate to that?

Anybody, anybody?

When Megan and I are meeting with couples for premarital and we're we're asking them about the wedding, there's an aspect of it where there's so much hope and so much anticipation, but you get to a point, particularly for weddings that are outside, that you just genuinely have no control of what the weather is going to do, and you have to like accept it, embrace it, and almost have a plan to work around it because it's just beyond your control.

Like, here's a real case scenario.

We had so many incredible things planned for us as a church, even at the end of service.

A lot of fun stuff outside, and then a monsoon and all kind of other crazy decides to happen on this service, and so we have to accept it and embrace it.

We all know what it feels like when we have a plan.

We we've done all the things, but we can't we can't do anything about it.

I'll give you a real practical example that some of us probably can identify with.

I remember a couple of years ago, Megan and I we went on uh a vacation.

And and while we're on this vacation, we went to Anna Marie Island, one of our favorite places to go, and we had a couple of days there, and we're trying to do our best to engage in as many things as humanly possible.

So while we were there, each day we kind of had a checklist of things we wanted to accomplish, places that we wanted to go.

And one of the things that we were told by our friends is like, man, you gotta go and see the sunset on this pier.

It's absolutely beautiful.

It's like it's like picturesque.

So I'm like, okay, cool.

Like that's what we're gonna do.

So on that last night, we decide that, hey, we're gonna go and have this moment, this powerful romantic moment.

So we pull up, we're walking up, and so we get to our spot, we're sitting there, and like, you know, the sunset's gonna happen probably in about 45 minutes, but we're there, and and this is where your boy starts laying down my game strong.

I laid down my game flat.

That's our last night.

So I'm like just saying all kinds of stuff.

Like, I begin to kind of tell the story of when we first got together, of when she fell in love with me and convinced me to love her.

Um, I'm looking at her and I'm sharing all these things with her, and there's a moment when I was expecting her to give me some feedback.

Like there's a moment when you know you say something, you're expecting a little bit of crowd participation.

So I'm leading up to this moment, this incredible speech, and I finally say, you know what?

Because I will always love you.

I had the dramatic pause and everything.

And as I say these words, she's sitting next to me, nothing.

So I kind of like slowly look over at her, and I see that she's just looking straight ahead, blank face, no expression.

And I look at her and I'm like, hey, man, you gotta give me some feedback here.

I need some crowd, I need some crowd participation.

Like I said that I love you, and in this moment, as I was going through these words again, I said, Well, maybe she didn't hear it.

She's so enamored by the beauty, she's so captivated by her love for me.

She just she's literally speechless.

I get it.

So let let me let me run it back.

So I go and say a portion of the speech again together, and I say it to her, and when I'm waiting for her response, she says to me, I think it's about the rain.

You don't understand the effort that I put into this speech.

You don't understand how much I worked this speech up.

You don't understand the way that I threaded our story together that was inclusive of our family.

And as I'm sitting here to have this powerful moment, her response to it is, I think, I think we need to get up and go.

And I'm like, No, you're gonna have this romantic moment with me, whether you like it or not.

So we're beginning to talk and get on the verge of arguing before I begin to notice that the storm clouds are moving really quickly towards us.

So I'm like, okay, well, maybe maybe we can go.

We'll we'll take this up when we when we get home.

So we get up, we start walking away, and as we're walking away, I can literally feel like the storm clouds coming.

So as we're leaving, I see other people that are still coming in, they're holding hands.

I'm looking at guys, I'm like, bro, you're not gonna get that moment.

I just tried and it wasn't working.

But but nonetheless, they're filled with hope as they're still walking down the pier.

And then like you can feel like that the weather shifted, the atmosphere shifted, it got cold all of a sudden.

And so Megan and I we start picking up the pace.

We start running.

Well, it was more like a quick trot, like we're just walking, like we're moving a little bit quicker to try to get to our car.

And and as we're moving forward, I see more and more people coming in.

And so then we start running because we're like, okay, this is imminent.

And as we start running, we see a beautiful, precious, like African-American couple.

They look at us and they're like, You're running, we're running, we don't know why we're running, but we're gonna try to run and run with you.

All of my white brothers just like, what are they running for?

Let's go check it out.

Um Yeah.

So so we we we as we're getting to the car, it just like literally the sky opens up.

It like, it just it's like a deluge.

I'm talking like Noah's Ark type stuff.

So I'm trying to get my I'm trying to get my keys out.

I get my keys out, we get into the car, and now people are running like crazy.

We're sitting in the car and it is pure chaos.

Somebody comes and knocks on the window, like, can we get in?

I'm like, no, I don't know you.

Like, okay, side note, side note, this is just me and and my family talking.

One of my greatest fears, real talk, is being on one of those hidden camera shows, like the what would you do type things.

Because I I'm afraid that there's gonna be a scenario that happens right in front of me, and they're gonna be like, Man, what would you do?

And I'm gonna keep it moving.

And they're like, but you're supposed to be a pastor of a church.

I'm like, yo, that ain't nothing to do with me.

Like, I'm I I am genuinely concerned that I'm gonna cause our church to close.

They're gonna be like, he has no compassion.

Like I did, I'm like, Megan, that got nothing to do with us.

We're gonna keep on pushing.

The Lord is gonna handle this.

Anyway, I digress.

So so as as people are running and trying to get inside and all of the chaos, as I finally calm down, I look over at her and she says, Told you.

I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, calm down a little bit.

But but if I can be completely honest with you, even though it was raining like crazy, even though we had still gotten wet, it took me a lot longer to get my keys out, it was a lot of chaos, we couldn't even move from the place that we were in.

It felt good that even while the storm was going on, that we were safe.

That even in the midst of the chaos, the uncertainty, we couldn't move from one spot, but there was still this sense of peace and safety that existed on the inside of us.

See, when I begin to think about the idea of this peace that God says He makes available to us, the truth of the matter is peace is not the absence of problems.

Peace is not the absence of storms, peace is not the absence of chaos.

That is not peace because if we're trying to use that as a metric that determines what peace is, then we were all doomed from the beginning beginning.

But what I've learned in my life is that peace is not the absence of problems, it's the presence of Jesus.

We see over and over again in scripture where whenever there's chaotic moments that are coming upon the people of God, that he will come into their world and he will say to them, Hey, listen, I know that there's a lot of chaos going on, I know that there's a lot of craziness going on, but I want you to take heart, be of good courage.

In other words, I want you to still have peace.

When Joshua was stepping into leadership, taking over the leadership role that Moses had carried, God speaks to him and says, Be of good fear, be of good heart, don't be afraid, have peace.

And why he says have peace?

Because I am with you.

Over and over again in Scripture, we see this reassurance that God is saying that even though you're about to go into some very difficult things, you can still have peace.

Why?

Because I am with you.

That is what this season of Advent is all about.

That is what Emmanuel means, God with us.

It's meaning that even when there's chaos and storms and plans don't go according to the way that I lay them out, that there's still a place that I can be where I can experience safety and peace, even in spite of it.

See, chaos is defined as confusion.

Chaos is defined as when there's things that are not in order.

Chaos is defined as when there's a lack of harmony.

These are just a couple of the adjectives that I'm making available to us.

But as I say those words, there's aspects of it that I know is gripping the hearts of some of us, because we all know there's areas of our lives where we're dealing with confusion.

That there's areas of our lives where we have disorder, where things don't seem as if they're lining up.

There's areas of our lives where we don't feel like we have harmony, we're not in sync.

But nonetheless, God still says that I'm giving you peace.

The definition of peace is meant to be the balance to that.

And what the definition of peace is, is that peace is meant to be a word that says shalom, that says success.

Healthy, to be secure.

But one of the most prevailing definitions that kind of covers all of those things, it means to be complete or whole.

That means that nothing is lost, nothing is stolen, that nothing is missing.

Imagine that, that we can be in a place where I can be dealing with disappointment, but I can still be whole.

Imagine that, that I could be in a place where I I've lost my job, but somehow I can still not feel fragmented and disconnected.

What the arrival of Jesus was meant to be was the moment that chaos was confronted by Jesus, confronted by peace, and he prevailed and he makes that available to every single one of us.

I think about whenever we get a Christmas gift, there's those moments where we get the gift into our hands and we have to receive it, we open it and then we begin to engage it.

Because a gift that's sitting under a tree that we don't engage is really not doing anything for us.

And what I suspect is that as followers of Christ, there's so many things that God makes available to us.

We've seen a list of it.

He's our wonderful counselor, that means that he's there for us.

He's the mighty God, he has authority, he's the eternal father, that means he's forever in this place of authority and dominion.

But then it says that he is the prince of peace.

And it's much like if we don't engage it, we're not activating those things in our lives.

One of my favorite things that I like to do whenever I go onto to TikTok is there's a guy that I follow, and he says, I bet you didn't know your iPhone could do this.

And I and I love those things because I've been an iPhone user for years, and I've tried to make sure that I'm utilizing it to its fullest potential.

But every time I see a new video, there's some aspect of it that I didn't even know it was capable of.

So it becomes, oh, I didn't know I had access to that.

What I suspect happens to many of us as followers of Christ, we have this conceptual Jesus that enters into our world and we hear these thoughts about He gives us healing, He gives us freedom, He gives us peace, and that's a great idea.

But if we don't engage it and activate it in our lives, we could have the power of heaven right in front of us, but we're still walking through hell.

What I believe God wants to do in these moments is to allow us to know that peace is available.

But Isaiah does something very interesting when he describes Jesus in this idea of peace.

He calls him the prince of peace.

Now, we understand that the Messiah was always described as being king.

And the king is one who has authority and dominion and influence.

Every instance of the Messiah is connected to his kingship.

But when it talks about him being this person of peace, it says that he's the prince of peace.

I'm not sure how you read that, but I look at that as a little bit of a demotion that if Jesus is a king, why are we referring to him as a prince?

But but I had to do a little bit of research to understand what it was the author was trying to convey to us.

What we understand about the way that that kingdoms run is that a king, they function from their throne and they have ultimate authority and power, but they rule from a distance.

But princes, on the other hand, they're more engaged in the day-to-day lives of the people that are under their rule.

So what the biblical author is trying to say is that yes, Jesus has the power and dominion of a king, but he's in our day-to-day lives, making sure that we can experience the peace that he makes available for us every day.

This is not some concept of peace that is often distant and abstract.

But what the biblical writer is saying when he says that he's the prince of peace, that means I want you to experience peace in your everyday life, and that is what he makes available to us.

But we have to engage it.

So I want to share three things that are available to us in Jesus that I think that if we can engage it and unpack it and unlock it, it will change the way that we function even when there's chaos.

Here's the first thing: inner peace.

Inner peace.

Somebody say inner peace.

That's right.

Say what you chess.

Say inner peace.

God makes inner peace available to us.

That when it says that the reign of the Prince of Peace begins within us, it's a transformation that transcends circumstances and storms and situations.

There's no way that we're going to be able to walk in peace if we're not first at peace within ourselves.

The Gospel of John chapter 14, verse 27 says this.

John 14:27

These are the words of Jesus speaking to his disciples as he's preparing for the cross.

He says, Peace I leave with you.

My peace I give you, not giving it to you the way that the world gives it to you.

So don't let your heart be troubled and don't be fearful.

Here's a translation.

Jesus is saying, I'm leaving you my peace, not the peace that the world gives, because we know that the world's peace is circumstantial.

We have peace if everything lines up.

We have peace if we get the job.

We have peace if all of these things are there.

But Jesus is saying that, no, what you've seen in my life is even when there's chaos, even when I'm being lied on, that even when people misunderstand me and are twisting my words, you've seen that I've walked in peace.

That's the peace that I want to leave with you.

That even when there's uncertainty, you have this ability to still be whole.

Now, when I say these words to us, I understand you're like Keith, I got it.

I know that passage of scripture.

I highlighted it, I've heard pastors preach it better than you.

Here's the reality though.

I don't feel it.

I hear what you're saying, but I don't feel it.

Do you realize that the anxiety disorders are the number one most diagnosed thing in the world?

Anxiety.

Let me give you some descriptions of some of the symptoms of anxiety.

Excessive worrying, restlessness.

It increases our heart rate.

I like to say that anxiety is this, it's when we're trapped in the future.

It's where we just we get into the future, we're thinking about things, we can't get out of it, and we're just trapped there.

And you know what often happens is our heart rate increases.

And let me give you a little bit of science.

When our heart rate increases past a certain point, what happens is our prefrontal cortex shuts down and we begin to get into fight or flight mode.

We're unable to look at things rationally, we're unable, we're unable to process things, we're unable to delegate things in their proper way.

Have you ever seen someone have a massive reaction to something that you're like, man, this this really doesn't seem like it's that big of a deal?

Like, okay, what why are you responding that way?

It's because their heart rate is up, they view this in such a chaotic way and they can't get trapped out of it.

And so now they're just in this excessive place where they're processing, they're processing, it's it's fear, it's anxiety, it's stress.

And the truth of the matter is we have a lot of things to be worried about.

Data shows that we're worried about our finances, we're we're worried about our jobs, we're we're worried about our careers, we're we're worried about our health.

And and I get it.

I I turned 48 in September, and I'm telling you, at 46, the check engine light came on on my body.

Like, I'm like, how do I hurt myself sleeping?

Like I get up and I'm like, I'm just sore for no for no apparent reason.

So I get it.

And and every time I wake up and I'm a little bit achy or sore, I'm like, man, like, is that the is that connected to that article that I read that one time?

I saw somebody on TikTok talk about this, and now I feel like I got leg cancer.

Like, it's just it's so quickly we can escalate things with every little thing, and we have the symptoms that meet every little thing, and we get trapped in this place and we can't get out of it.

But but if that's not what God has for us, that's not what he describes for us.

We have we have worry and stress when it comes to our relationships.

I don't get along with this person, I I like this person, I don't want to be around this person and so we're constantly stuck in this place of anxiety and stress.

We're worried about our kids.

If I don't get them in this school, am I doing the right thing?

What if I say the wrong thing to them?

Are they gonna be marked forever and in 30 years forever later to talk to a counselor about me?

How like we're we're in this place where we're worried about everything constantly.

But Jesus describes something completely different.

He doesn't say that we're not supposed to care about those things, but what he says is don't carry those things.

He says don't think about those things, he says don't be obsessed with those things.

And Matthew chapter 6, he lays out all of the things I just described to you, but he provides the answer to it in verse 33.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of those things, those chaotic.

Things that are out of order, they will fall into their proper place.

Now, when I say seek first the kingdom of God, I'm not talking about going to church more often.

I'm not talking about giving more.

What I'm talking about is looking at the ways of Jesus and beginning to model our lives the way that He did.

When we're talking about being in fellowship with Jesus, this is not raising our hand and that's it.

But it's aligning and living a lifestyle that will produce peace.

When we get to a place where we recognize that Jesus is Lord and I realize that the world is in his hand and I trust him with it, I don't have to carry the burden for it because I know that he's going to take care of it.

So how do we practically do this?

Here's a couple of things I want to share with us.

So we're going to move quick because I got a couple of other things I want to share with us.

So just write these down really quick.

How do we begin to encamp to embody peace even in seasons of chaos?

First thing, practice mindfulness.

Practice mindfulness.

Philippians 4, 6 and 7 says, Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests, present your stressors, present the things you're anxious about to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

Put it simply, engage in mindfulness.

In other words, when you feel like your mind is beginning to drift to that place where you're worrying excessively, begin to incorporate what God's word says about it.

Sometimes we literally just have to begin to slow down and breathe.

Because when our heart rate begins to increase, we lose all of the ability to look at things logically.

But when we're able to engage and remind ourselves, like, but wait a minute, I know that God is for me.

Wait a minute.

I know that these are current realities and I'm concerned about what the next steps are going to be, but the Bible tells me that God is my provider.

What it means is that I'm replacing these fears with truths from God's word.

The second thing we need to do is we need to guard our thoughts.

There's a battlefield that's going on in our mind constantly.

There's something constantly invading our thoughts, but Isaiah 26, 3 says that he will give us perfect peace if our mind is stayed on him.

How do we do that?

I am a father of three incredible children.

All of them are adults, all of them kind of go to and fro on their own.

And even now, I still find moments where I'm thinking about their safety.

I'm thinking about their future.

I'm concerned for them.

And if I'm not careful, I could begin to overprocess, I could begin to overthink.

When my youngest son Caleb is out and he's not home, I'm like, is he okay?

Because I see the news, I see the world, and I'm wondering if he's okay.

And if I'm not careful, I will lose sleep over it.

So in those moments when I feel like it's getting away from like, but wait a minute, you love Caleb more than I do.

Wait a minute.

I know that he is covered, and I know that your hand is on his life, and there's nothing I can do about it.

So I'm trusting you, Lord.

It's making a choice that before it begins to consume us, we put it into the hands of God.

Here's the third thing.

Sometimes we just need to establish boundaries.

And here's what I mean by that.

We all know there is that person that calls us or texts us that we're like, don't y'all leave me up here by myself, celebration, Orlando.

We we all know that person that calls or texts us, and watch this.

We know it's gonna require something from us in order to engage them.

Man, is this is this gonna be a good conversation or a bad conversation?

Are they gonna be complaining?

Are they gonna be staring at all their drama?

Are they like what is this gonna require from me?

I I want to say something to you, and and it's gonna be a very provocative word, and and I want you to lean in and listen to it because I'm saying it from the depths of my soul, but I think it's gonna minister to your spirit.

It's okay, watch this, to say no.

Let's practice it together.

Say when we want to count on three.

One, two, three.

No.

Oh, that was good.

That was good.

One more time.

One, two, three.

Watch this.

It's so free, and we're gonna try it over here with these people over here.

One, two, three.

Look at that.

Don't you feel free right now?

Somebody's gonna call you by like, no.

Like, it's okay.

It's it's okay for us to understand the environments that rob us of peace.

It's okay for us to recognize that some relationships that they they take something from us and it robs us of peace.

So every now and then we have to do in its self-examination and say, do I have it in me to engage this?

And if I don't, I'm gonna say we're gonna say no.

Sometimes we just need to learn to establish boundaries so that we can protect our peace.

Here's the other peace that God makes available to us relational peace.

He wants us to have peace in our relationships.

What that means is he wants to foster harmony and reconciliation amongst all of us.

One of the characteristics of the kingdom of God, the characteristic of the early church, the characteristic of the ministry of Jesus was his ability to engage with people that had completely different backgrounds and philosophies.

It was fascinating that when you see he's talking to a woman and she's sitting at his feet, for us, we may not understand the nuances of that, but what that was, is she was breaking down a social barrier and he was allowing it.

It was controversial for him to go through Samaria and sit with the Samaritan.

He was breaking down all of these things that were meant to be hotly contested and contentious, and he was showing, I'm trying to show you the way of peace by extending dignity to other people, even if you don't have complete agreement.

I I've come to believe that we live in a world now where we think unity means uniformity.

That's not true.

It's possible that I can be in unity with someone, but not uniform with their beliefs.

In other words, I may not believe with what you say 100%.

But but what if Kingdom Citizens, we began to be people that understood what it looked like to agree, to disagree, but watch this, and extill stin respect.

To remove the labels off of you so I don't have to dehumanize you in such a way that when I talk about you, I don't feel any conviction about it.

That's how oppression starts when I minimize who you are as a human being.

But what Jesus demonstrates to us is that even with his most diametrically opposed opponents, he still showed them dignity and respect.

How did we get to a place that we justify dehumanizing people in the name of God?

Here's what I believe.

If you're standing up for Jesus, doesn't look like Jesus, then you're doing it wrong.

What the Bible shows us is that he wants us to have relational peace.

Do you know that all of the disciples that were sitting around Jesus during the Last Supper, when you look at their backgrounds, they had different political beliefs, they had different religious beliefs, they had different things, ways that they saw the world, and yet they agreed that Jesus was Lord.

What if we, in the in this current context, were able to start to demonstrate that in a way that quite honestly we don't see anywhere?

Because we argue about everything, we fight about everything.

That if I say I like one restaurant, then that means that you're interpreting that I hate every other restaurant.

How do we get to a place where me saying something that I enjoy means I hate something else and now we're fighting about it?

God's desire for us is for us to be in relational peace, extend forgiveness, have effective communication and learning how to serve others.

One of the beautiful things I love about the church is that when we serve one another, at no point do I ask who you voted for.

That when we serve one another, at no point do I ask you what your position is on the varying political things that are happening in the world.

I see you as a child of God and I'm able to say, Hey, I'm so glad that you're here.

What if we were actually able to do that on a much larger scale?

The Prince of Peace is the catalyst for reconciliation, bringing unity and understanding.

Here's the third and final thing: global peace.

God absolutely wants us to be able to experience and walk with this idea of global peace, even in a world that we see that's filled with suffering and violence and injustice and brokenness, that the Prince of Peace is meant to influence those areas of our world as well.

In fact, I like to say it this way: the reason that people are experiencing this chaos in the world is because they haven't come to peace with God inside first.

What's happening in our world is the overflow was happening inside of broken men and women.

But God said there's another way.

And the way that we can practically walk this out as followers of Christ is that we can promote understanding.

We can seek to understand where other people are coming from, understanding different cultures.

When Megan and I went to Greece and we spent three weeks there, we had an opportunity to immerse ourselves in a culture that wasn't our context.

And it and it broadened our empathy tank because we know now what it feels like when you're in a space and you don't feel understood.

We know what it feels like now when you're engaging in people and your culture is different from theirs.

How much more should we as followers of Christ understand that people's experiences, their journey, their trauma, it allows them to shape their worldview.

And if we're coming at them, just tearing them down because our experiences aren't their experiences, where is God in that?

We need to learn to promote understanding.

We need to be advocates for justice.

Micah 6.8 says that this is the requirement of God's people to act with justice, to love with faithfulness, and to be humble before God.

And we need to pray for peace.

We need to pray for God's peace to come.

The Bible says in 2 Chronicles that if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their worldly and wicked ways, then we will hear from heaven and he will heal the land.

He's not talking about people internally, he's talking about the world itself, but the people of God have got to humble themselves, we've got to pray, and we've got to repent.

When we see that there's times that we've extended judgment, those times when we put labels on people, those times when we refer to those people, anytime we've done that, it's perpetuated the divide that Jesus died on the cross to try to bridge.

See, peace is not a person only, but it's also a practice.

Jesus wants us to have inner peace, he wants us to have relational peace, and he wants to see global peace, but it will only happen through us.

So now we have a choice to make.

I want to close with this.

Most of you guys know that I'm a I'm a little bit of a of a of a gamer.

I'm a little bit of a nerd.

I have areas where I nerd out just a little bit.

And one of the things that I love about games is the the escape that it gives me.

I can't dunk on anybody in real life.

I'm 5'8, even with these heels on.

So, but in NBA 2K, y'all can't see me.

My son Caleb knows.

Um so so I I love I love to game.

I love it.

It's a great escape for me.

But one of the things that have kind of come up on the radar, a type of gameplay that I'm not overly familiar with, and it's called roguelike games.

Somebody knows what I'm talking about.

Corey's back there, he gets it.

And so let me let me give you the way that it works.

Basically, whenever you're playing through a video game, ultimately, as you're playing through it, you are able to save your progress until you get to the end of the game and it's over.

And you feel the triumph of saving the world one more time.

Like it's amazing.

You can put it on easy settings, get through it, and it's like, man, I get a chance to make this the way that I want to make it.

However, in these roguelike games, the way that they function is this you play through the game, but if you fail, you have to start all over again.

That don't sound fun.

You should hear the yelling that takes place in my house whenever my son Caleb is upstairs playing the game.

You would think someone is breaking into our homes because it's so overwhelming.

You almost get to the end, you're almost successful, and then you fail, and then you gotta start all over again.

That's frustrating.

But the reason why they do that is they're hoping that through that failure, you will learn from it, you will make different decisions, you will get better because of it, and you will get further as a result of it.

This idea that I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying, I made a mistake, I start all over again, but I've learned from that mistake, and I'm gonna go left instead of right, and I'm gonna get further, I'm gonna get further, I'm gonna get better, I make a mistake, I start over, I get better.

The idea of it is actually for you to get better.

So by the system's beauty, it allows you to start all over again.

So let's go back to the beginning.

In the beginning, God gave Adam and Eve a choice.

You you can live life on your own terms, define what's right and wrong, live by your feelings, live by what makes sense to you, and that's gonna produce some chaos and suffering and pain.

Or, or you can choose to go my way, where you allow me to define what's right and wrong.

You bring your feelings under the the word of that spoke over you.

You allow my word to be the thing that you govern your life by.

You have a choice to make.

And Adam and Eve, they chose to do things on our own terms, and and it and it brought chaos into the world that we're still feeling the effects of.

But now we are participants of the story, and I believe that every day we wake up and we're given an opportunity.

You can choose life, you can do things my way, or or you can choose to do it your way.

But I assure you, you're gonna get to a point where you're gonna hit a roadblock, you're gonna make a mistake, and it's gonna bring you right back here again to make that choice again.

And I'm hopeful that you will learn from that mistake.

I'm hopeful you'll get better from that and you will choose differently the next time.

I suspect that every one of us may have areas of our lives that it feels like it's on repeat.

Why am I going through this again?

Why are we talking about this again?

Why am I struggling with this again?

Could it be it's the grace of God recognizing the area where you've made a mistake?

He's bringing you back to the beginning, and he's virtually begging you, you've done it the wrong way.

That's why we keep doing this over and over again.

Would you choose?

Would you just choose to do it my way so that way you don't have to keep dealing with the chaos?

Because when you do it my way, you're choosing the path of peace.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, I just want to pray for us before we go back into worship.

In a room of this size, and I suspect for even those who are joining us online, there's areas of our lives that feel a bit chaotic.

There's areas of our lives where there's disorder, there's the lack of harmony, the absence of peace.

And I believe it's in this moment right now that we have an opportunity to receive the gift of Jesus.

Open up what it means, engage it, and we can experience peace internally, relationally, and even beyond us.

But it starts with us making a choice.

So if you're in here with us today and you have areas of your life that are just chaotic.

Areas of your life where there's some confusion, some areas of your life where there's some discomfort.

Would you be bold enough to lift your hand on the counter three so I can pray for us that God can bring order to that chaos?

One, two, three.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Hands up everywhere, inclusive of my own.

Because there's areas that I need to experience God's peace in.

We're gonna go into a song of worship that allows us to exalt God.

And it's simply Jesus, we love you.

I want to ask you to stand on your feet right now.

And as we prepare to go into a time of worship, I simply want to pray for us, just from my spirit, to meet you where you are.

And what I want us to do is receive it, engage it, and then when we worship, release it unto God.

And I believe that there's something in here that can break those chains, that can begin to allow us to bring order out of the chaos.

I want us to lift our hands up and I want us to receive these words.

Lord, we thank you.

We thank you, God, that you are so, so good, that you gave us the gift of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, this one that is meant to rule and reign even in the most intimate areas of our lives.

So, Father, I pray right now that we begin to take inventory of every area of our lives where there's chaos, where there's confusion, where there's disharmony, where there's brokenness, where there's fear, where there's anxiety, where there's stress.

And Lord, we invite you into that place, that secret space, God, where we're leaning heavily on our own understanding instead of trusting you.

Father, I pray for our inner peace.

I pray for our minds.

God, I pray for every area that the enemy is trying to sabotage to allow us to be filled with fear and anger and rejection.

God, we rebuke that now in the name of Jesus and we ask for your peace to come, wholeness to come.

Lord, I pray over our relationships, whether it's a spouse, whether it's children, whether it's dynamics at work, God, you came so that we can experience peace.

So, Father, I pray that we can unpack that in our lives, Father.

If we need to forgive someone, give us the strength to forgive.

If we need to seek to understand, give us the grace to seek to understand, even allowing us to have boundaries and maybe not being connected to people, but it also means not being broken and disconnected.

Father, I pray for reconciliation.

I pray for unity.

I pray for healing.

I pray for restoration in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

And Lord, I pray for our world that we live in.

I know that many of us are looking at this world and we're wondering what the world is going to look like for our children, for our children's children.

And God, these are genuine concerns, but we cannot carry it.

So we cast our cares on you.

Father, we pray for the suffering that we see all abroad, God.

We pray for poverty, God.

We pray for those who are oppressed, we pray for those who don't have a voice, God, that we as a church rise up and we intercede and we're asking, Lord, let your will be done.

Bring healing, bring justice in the name of Jesus.

And Father, I pray that you allow us to have the capacity to engage, just volunteer, to serve, to give to things that are going to help the kingdom to expand.

So, Father, I'm asking for you to just move and provide peace.

Peace for ourselves, peace for our families, peace in our worlds, and we'll forever give you the praise.

Let us go into a time of worship, hearkening to these words and declaring the goodness of God.

Thanks again for listening.

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