Finding Life and Peace

Welcome, welcome to 2026. This preach is it's kind of the

the Christmas leftovers. We went away as a as a family

and on the last day of holiday, we we're a couple dozen people.

And so on the last day, last full day, we go to the fridge

and you take everything that has been cooked and not eaten and

you put it out and then everyone must just eat because we need to

empty the fridge. And so this preach feels a

little bit like that. And so it's going to be a little

bit all over the place because in my holiday, I've been

reflecting on 2025, reflecting on some of what I think some of

the best preaching series I've ever listened to, reflecting on

Ecclesiastes, on Romans 8, on Ruth.

And there's a whole bunch in there.

And, and I guess what happens over this New Year's Christmas

time is that even if you don't do New Year's resolutions, and

disclaimer, I don't have a list of New Year's resolutions,

somehow you reflect on the year that's gone past and you think

about the year that's coming. And I guess let's think about

this. There's probably 3 occasions in

your life or scenarios where you do that, where you actually take

a little time to, to stop and think.

And what 1 is this sort of break?

And it's just an arbitrary change in the date, but somehow

you, you, you, you want closure on the year that's gone and you

want and you want a fresh start on the year that's coming.

The other two would probably be weddings and funerals.

At a wedding, you sit there and you think, you think about your

own marriage, you think about your wife, you think about your

kid, you think about everything. And funerals, you, you do a

similar thing. And I guess it's because there

is this fresh start, there is this newness.

It was 2025 and now it's 2026. There's a symbolic changing.

There's a desire to close out the year that's gone past.

If it's a Goodyear, it's a bad year.

You want to analyze it. So we had this two week holiday

and we drove from here to Durban, from Durban to Ports and

Johns, ports and Johns to the Burg and from the Burg backyard.

And eventually my wife and I, we always see you talk and on the

way back here, she says, you know, actually 2025 was a good

year. And I was like, finally after

all this driving, we've come to the conclusion that it wasn't

such a bad year. There's also a desire for

control and a desire to set our own identity.

If you look at New Year's resolutions, and I'll ask

ChatGPT because that's what we all do these days.

What are the most common New Year's resolutions?

Exercise, the way we eat, sleeping, reducing stress,

removing bad habits, financial saving, improving our finances.

Learn a new skill, learn a new hobby, Take up a new hobby.

Better time management, more productivity, more time with

family and friends, more travel, more experiences in life.

And there's a common theme in here.

It's all comes down to I want to be a healthier person, a more

productive person, a financially more secure.

It all comes down to I want to be a something.

And there's a weird thing here because nothing prevented you

from being those things in 2025. But somehow we are overly

optimistic about future Matt's ability to be self disciplined,

have more time, more energy than I had in the past, be less

resistant to change. And so we can look at Matt in

November 2026 and say, oh, by then Matt's running marathons

and he is working 20 hours a day and sleeping 8 hours a day.

Don't, don't make that not make sense in your mind, but somehow

we get there and then, then, then we look at the other side.

So ChatGPT, what's the probability of success on a New

Year's resolution? And I don't know if these are

true, but chat TBT says they are 8% of New Year's resolutions

have a long term impact. I don't know what that means.

In fact, 80 to 90% of new resolutions will not see

February. And I learnt a whole new day of

the year, it's called Quitters day.

Statistically, the second Friday of the year is the most likely

day that you'll quit your New Year's resolution.

That's January 9th. You're just a couple of days

away. If your New Year's resolution

was to come to church, hopefully we'll see you next week.

You see, we actually don't know ourselves.

We don't know who we are very well.

There's the biblical principle in here.

Jesus tells us we're blind, not physically blind, but

spiritually blind. You see, I've lost my place, my

nuts. Matthew 1313.

Jesus says this to his disciples.

I speak to them in paradors because seeing, they do not see,

hearing that do not hear, nor do they understand.

He's quoting Isaiah that although we see with our eyes,

we cannot see it. We somehow we miss the wood from

the trees. We look at ourselves and we

don't even see ourselves clearly, let alone the scenario

in which we're in. John the Baptist in a moment of

doubt, sends one of his disciples to Jesus and says, are

you really the Messiah or are we waiting for someone else?

And Jesus says to him, tell them what you see.

The blind see, the lepers are healed, the lame walk, the

gospel has preached to the poor. Part of what Jesus does is he

heals the physical blind, but he heals spiritual blindness too.

And as we think about, I was thinking about, I came across

this study a while ago and I don't know if you've ever had

the shower thought. Do you know what a shower

thought is? It's like a deep philosophical

thought that you have in the shower.

Does everyone see the same colours?

I see. Has anyone had that thought?

Some of you are looking at me like you've never had that

thought. I'm so sorry, but like, sure

this is white and this is red, but does everyone see the same

red or have we all just learnt that this is, you know, You know

when you see like the inverted hue of a picture?

Are there people that see that and then have just learnt

different colours? Have you ever had that thought?

Just me, I'm crazy. Turns out I'm not the only

person and they are in fact, you can see the world differently

and science has proven this Where you put that slide up?

So the Himba people in Namibia, if you show them that slide, all

of you go. I can see the different one.

There it is Axiom there is he's blue.

They point to a different dot. It's weird, huh?

So they did the study because they use different words for

different colors. It's not like blue and blue.

It's just like completely different way of seeing the

world with their language and colors.

If you show them the circle on the left, they'll pick the spot

immediately. They can see the different one.

And if you show them the circle on the right, they look for a

while and they do come to the dot.

That's different, but it takes a little bit in the same way that

if you look closely at the one on the left, you can see that

there is one that's slightly different.

I'll put you out of your misery. It's the same as the blue.

It's that sort of nine, 10:00 there.

It's a slightly different green. But for them, they will look at

that and go there it is there it is top, top left there left one,

top one. And they'll take a little bit of

time to spot the blue one. Weird, Hey.

And you see, there is a spiritual principle in here

because we can look at the same thing that everyone else looks

at and it might something we can see it.

It's not like they can't see the the the different colors we see,

but it takes a while to differentiate between two things

that are different. It takes us a bit from Romans 8.

We read Romans 8 verse 5 to put up on the screen for those who

Romans 8:5

live according to their flesh set their minds on the things of

the flesh. And those who live according to

the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit that

set their minds on the things of the Spirit, set their minds on

what the Spirit desires. Or some other translations.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death.

That's quite extreme. It's not like you know, it's

death. But to set the mind on the

Spirit is life and peace for those who've set for, for the

mind that is set on flesh is hostile to God, for it does not

submit to God's law. Indeed it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

When I say the word flesh, you see a dot, but you miss other

dots you see. What does that word flesh mean

to you? Picture a person in your mind,

someone that lives according to the desire of the flesh.

What do you see? What does their life look like?

And there's a picture of flesh that Paul is talking about,

which we miss because we have two competing visions for our

lives and we tend to weigh them against each other.

And we seem to see the one as the flesh and not the other.

Let me explain it like this. There's one side of us that we

understand that, that we, if we approach our life with a degree

of dedication and devotion, we pick up our obligations.

We act like an adult. We, you know, we do those three

exercises a week. We spend more time with family.

We, we pay down the bond. You, you, you wise that actually

that sacrifice leads to fruitfulness.

We understand that there is this obligation on our lives and to

the extent that we can meet that and exceed it, we will do well.

Work leads to a reward. And the opposite of that, of

course, is foolishness. Foolishness has a price.

Typically it results in panic and chaos.

Maybe you're 2025 was a degree of panic and chaos and now we're

going into 2026 and we said we don't want panic and chaos.

We want the word is peace. We want peace.

We want peace in our finances. We want peace in our sexuality,

we want peace in our home. We want peace in our career.

We want peace, we want order. And that's one side.

There's an instinct there. We want that, but there's a

second side of it. We also want freedom and

expression. You see, freedom leads to life.

We were sitting in the Berg and looked up at a mountain and it's

3000 meters, the peak. And then I was like, we're going

to climb the mountain, we're going to do it, let's go.

So we waited for the weather to be OK and we climbed it and it's

freedom. Top of the mountain, 3000

meters. And then for three days I didn't

want to walk anywhere. You see, We understand that also

when we remove restraint, when we express ourselves, we

experience a degree of life, that life is not just about

obligation and devotion. We did Ecclesiastes last year.

It is a painful thing. You go read the words.

It's like you live, you work, you die.

That's Ecclesiastes. It's more than that, but there's

also a part of it. And So what I've explained to

you, I've deliberately not used the biblical language because I

don't want you to immediately click into a way of thinking

where you only see the one dot. But I want to take these two.

There's devotion, dedication, obligation, which leads to

fruitfulness and peace. And the other side is there's

this expression and there's creativity and dreaming big and

going for it, which leads to life.

And we chase these two things and somehow they compete.

Because I can tell you about a 2026 that I can have that is

full of life, full of expression.

The only problem is that in 2027, the bank is coming for me.

We also know that those two compete.

You can't have both. You can't eat all the cake you

want and be fit. And we're going to turn now to

Luke 15, the the prodigal son, because some of you maybe have

been in church for too long and you read this and you

immediately know. But I want you to read it as the

youngest son and the oldest son. The one has a real strong sense

of obligation and devotion, the other one of expression and

freedom. So Luke 15, verse 12 or verse

Luke 15:12

11, there was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them

said to his father, Father, give me the share of of the property

that is coming to me. And he divided his property

between them. Not many days later, the young

son gathered all that he had took a journey into a far

country and there he squandered his property in reckless living.

Once he had spent everything, he ends up living in a pig star

with pigs feeding pigs, hoping that someone would give him the

food that the pigs are eating. Jump to verse 25 now.

Now his oldest son was in the field.

So the youngest son comes home and they they throw a party from

him. He's welcomed home, ring on the

finger robe, sandals on the feet, and they and they

slaughter fattened calf and they and they're throwing a big

party. And the oldest son who's been

working comes in from the field. And he came in and drew near to

the house and he heard music and dancing.

And he called one of the servants and he asked them what

these things meant. And he said to him, your brother

has come home and your father has killed the fattened calf

because he has received them back safe and sound.

But he was angry and he refused to go in.

His father came out to entreat him, but he answered his father.

Look, these many years I have served you and I've never

disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that

I might celebrate with my friends.

But when the son of yours came, who have, who has devoured your

property with prostitutes, you killed the fat and car firm and

you said to him, Son, you are always with me and all that is

mine is yours. In my Bible that's underlined.

Son, you are always with me and all that I have is yours.

It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for the son of yours

was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found.

If you go read the whole of Luke 15, you'll see Jesus is telling

this parable to Pharisees and the first story he tells is the

lost queen. Then he tells of the lost sheep

and then he tells of the lost son.

And he's actually the whole story is aimed at the at the

older brother and the Pharisees. You see, if I put my shoe myself

in the shoes of the older son and I'll look at the younger

brother and I'll say you ran away from all your

responsibilities. You ran away from your

obligations and I'll look at you got nothing to show for it.

You're living in a pig star. Your life is chaos.

It's a mess. And it's due to the actions that

you've taken. You should have been more

responsible. You should have taken up the

obligation. There were things that you

should have done that you never did them.

And now look at you the same way.

If I put myself in the shoes of the younger brother and I look

at the older brother, you go read that, Luke, he says.

The older brother says to his father, you have never given me

a fattened calf to go and celebrate with my friends.

What the older brother is saying is that the party I want to have

is without you. I want to go party with my

friends, not with you. I'm here out of obligation.

I'm serving you. And the father's lying to the

older son is he said to him, son, you are always with me.

So if I put myself in the shoes of the younger son and I look at

the older brother, I say you hate your life, you work, you

live to work, you work from day, from morning to evening, It's

flat out. You don't even like your father,

and yet you're still living in your dad's house.

All this obligation, where's the life?

Where's the expression where the big dreams?

There are none. You see, there is this

contradiction. We cannot have both.

And yet somehow in Romans 8, the desire of the Spirit gives us

peace. What the older brother has, he

has peace, but he has no life. And it gives us life what the

younger brother was after, but he had no peace.

And in Romans Paul says to us the desire of the Spirit, those

who follow the desire of the Spirit have peace and life.

How can you have sacrifice and freedom at the same time?

How can you live a free life full of dreams and big and at

the same time sacrifice? These things contradict each

other. We cannot have them, but Jesus

did. Jesus did.

I want to land on on on John 14, Jesus said I am the way, the

truth and the life. No one comes to the Father

except through me. You'll note that Jesus didn't

say I am. I can show you the way.

I know the truth and let me show you how to have a good time.

He says I am the way, I am the truth.

I am the life. If we know Jesus, we know the

way. It's not that Jesus will tell us

the way. If we know him, we know the way.

Jesus says I am the truth. Not that he will tell us the

truth, but in him he is the truth.

He is the capital T That person of Jesus is the truth and he is

the life. The life we are looking for,

it's found in Jesus. See that phrase in Romans 8, 8,

verse 5. But those who live in accordance

with the Spirit set their mind and what the Spirit desires.

What does the Spirit desire? He sometimes we maybe try to

separate the Spirit, the Father, and the Son a little bit too

much. I'm not wanting to get into a

Trinity discussion, but what the Spirit desires is the same as

what Jesus desires, and it's the same as what the Father desires

and the Father and the prodigal son.

What he desired was not that his Son would serve him, not that

his son would do everything that he needed to do, but actually

that he would have his son with him.

The desire of the Father is not for what the son can do for him.

That's what he says to his son. He says I'm always with you and

all I have is yours. It's not what you can do for me.

It's the fact that you're here is what I want.

It's the fact that I can have you.

The desire of the Spirit is the same.

If you think about what your plans are for 2026, what are the

spirits plans for you? What are the spirits desires for

you? And immediately we might click

into and think, well, I need to do this.

And this is all the things. The spirit's desire for you is

you. He wants you.

You see, we play the oldest son and the youngest son as if

they're the opposites, but they're both expressions of the

flesh. Let's read, read Romans 8 verse

Romans 8:5

5 again. And I want you to see that both

of them are chasing their own desires in a different way.

And when we read this, we can chase our fleshly desires as an

older brother or as a younger brother.

So Romans 8 verse 5, those who live according to the flesh have

Romans 8:5

their minds set on what the flesh desires.

For those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their

mindset and what the Spirit desires.

The mind governed by the flesh is death and the mind governed

by the Spirit is life and peace. I don't want to go through the

rest of Romans 8 this morning as well, but if you read through

it, I always read through it with the lens of the flesh is

that damn younger brother. It's that wild one.

It's the one that's not listening properly.

It's the one that runs off. But if you read it there, they

are verses in Romans 8 that do not make sense unless we also

see the flesh as the older brother.

The one that wants what the father has but does not want the

father himself. You see, we can draw up a list

of whether you do New Year's resolutions or not.

You can draw up a list. And typically it says I want to

be this type of person. I want to be a better husband.

I want to be fitter. I want to be stronger,

healthier, sleep better. And Paul says to us, these

things are all good for physical training has value.

So to be disciplined to do these things that they are, they are

of value. Spiritual training is of eternal

value. And the spiritual training that

I'm asking for us is actually if we train our hearts.

There's a verse in Ephesians where we're Paul in the

Ephesians one, he's talking to the Ephesians and he's talking

about his prayer over them. And he says, my hope is that the

eyes of your heart would be opened to what God is calling

you to, to the eternal riches of what he's calling you to.

I want to end with two other bits out of Romans 8 and we'll

close and I'll hand my back back to Damien.

The sections of Romans 8 verse, verse 17 says now we are

children then. Now if we are children, then we

are heirs, heirs of God and Co heirs with Christ, if indeed we

share in his, if we share in his suffering in order that we may

share in his glory. If we jump then also to the end,

verse 32, He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for

us, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all

things? There's this promise that God

gives us. We can pursue whatever ends we

want, and we might be good at it, we might be bad at it.

We might have had a good 2025, we might have a good 2026 that

we can pursue anything we want. Anything our hearts desire we

can run after. But there's a promise that God

gives us that if we allow the spirits desire to fill us, and

his desire is that we are sons of the Father, we get to know

our heavenly Father. The promise of Romans 8, one of

the promises is that he who did not spare his own son, would he

not give us all things. The promise of Romans 8 is that

those that fill their minds with what the spirit desires, there

is life and peace. We can chase anything on a

bicycle this year. We can, we can become an

athlete. We can, we can shoot the lights

out in our career. But Jesus promises us life and

peace in all circumstances, whether we're suffering or we're

doing well. I want to ask you this year,

would you open the eyes of your heart that actually there's a,

there's this default we have, we see, we see either as the

younger or the older brother. And this year would we see that

actually the one that has the Father had has it all after

Jesus says I'm the way the truth and the life.

Philip Austin makes the statement one of his disciples.

He says to Jesus in that very same section John 14 show us the

father and that will be enough for us.

Whoever has the father has it all.

They have everything life and peace and there's no other way

to have both. I hope you have an excellent

2026.