Episode 306: Expecting Peace

All right, so many of you know that we are one of four harbor churches on island.

There are four harbor churches here on Oahu, but we are all one church, one harbor church,

and we exist in four locations.

And we're that way because we love church planting.

We're all about seeing more churches, healthy churches planted and established.

And the original harbor church that was planted 23 years ago was a church plant out of Faith

Baptist in Kailua, they planted four families, started a church in Hawaii Kai that they named

Harbor Church. And in their 10th or 11th year, they sent out their first church plant, Harbor Church

North Shore in Wailua. And so Harbor Church North Shore is about 13, 14 years old, somewhere in there.

And we sent out, back then we sent out Pastor John and Jansen, his wife, and a community group that

was meeting up on the North Shore that started Harbor North. And they're in Wailua, they've grown,

They're doing amazing things, reaching their community for Jesus, allowing their space that they've built to be used all throughout the week to bless so many people.

But we've never had Pastor John come speak at Harbor West.

They're one service.

They're just kind of quick and easy up there.

And I'm like, come speak at our three services.

And he's just said no for 10 years.

And so finally wrangled him over here.

And so Pastor John's going to come up and open God's word with us.

So let's welcome Pastor John Beam from Harbor North.

correction justin i'm not here to speak i'm here to preach bro there's a difference

thank you um good morning and uh i am grateful to be here and feeling good after three uh thank

you for that coffee and uh the tylenol it's kicking in i feel great uh but mostly because

the Holy Spirit. But so yeah, good morning. And whether you are ready or not, I got to say this

for myself, but I just am happy to finally be able to greet you guys and say Merry Christmas.

It's good for me to hear myself say that. We're well into December. All the Thanksgiving leftovers

are finally, they're completely gone out of the fridge as they should be at this point.

The waves have been pumping on the North Shore for like the last month. It's just everything. It

the holidays are upon us. And so I'm finally excited to say Merry Christmas. I'm accepting it.

I've seen the Christmas decorations at Home Depot since before October, but I'm right now just like

ready to go. Merry Christmas. But you know, like many of you, my heart is also heavier during the

month of Christmas. I too just, like many, you experience it and you know the holiday season,

it brings a weight of grief because you think about, you mourn the loss of loved ones, people

you wish were here. And just the mourning is a little bit more intense. If you grew up in a broken

family like I did, also just the drama and the tension within the family, it just suddenly

ticks up a couple notches for whatever, just because it's the holiday seasons.

So I understand also just how the holiday season can reopen past wounds.

It's real. It's complicated. It hurts.

For some, Christmas time gives more of a reason to mourn than to be merry.

But maybe, maybe by God's grace in your life,

you don't come from a broken family or there's,

you haven't really lost any significant loved one in your life

and your family's together. You're unified. You're happy together.

And so you're constantly celebrating and feasting.

But for you, the holiday season is exhausting.

You're just, you're tired.

It's more frustrating than it is restful for you.

Everything is happening at the same time.

You have more plates spinning than you have fingers on your hands to spin all of these plates.

And so rather than soaking it all in, just waiting, counting the days until Christmas comes,

You're counting the day till New Year gets here because you know that on the night of New Year's

Day, you're finally going to get to bed at a decent hour. You're finally going to get a good decent

night's sleep and you're going to wake up and go about your normal routine day. Like some of you

are, you're just tired of all the excitement and you just want some boredom, right? Is that any of

you, like any of you tired of all of the merriment and the festivities and you just want a boring day?

Is that like, I'm totally there as well.

If any of this describes you, describes where you're at,

I can't promise that God's just going to fix all of your problems right now,

but he can get really close if you're open to it, if you're open to him.

So this morning, we're going to be considering God's peace.

How many of you right now could use some of God's peace in your life?

You need some peace?

That's what we're going to be talking about this morning.

And I'm not talking about a moment of temporary peace and quiet

or a break just to catch your breath and then take that gulp of air

and then go back out into the world of problems and chaos,

the life that you're living, wherever you're going through.

I'm talking about a peace that provides long-term stability.

That's the peace of God.

A peace that can begin to heal past wounds.

A peace that gives resolve to the soul

that when storms of life come,

when hardships, when they meet you,

when you're faced with it,

you're able to stand steadfast.

Now, if that sounds too good to be true,

well, I'm glad it sounds too good to be true for you

because that probably means you're paying attention,

you're hearing from the Lord right now.

It's usually a sign when things sound too good to be true,

it's usually a sign that you're hearing from the Lord.

The Lord who makes all things new.

The Lord who created the world,

who created everything that is here that exists out of nothing.

The God who turns graves into gardens.

So if you're hearing from the Lord, if he has your attention,

I want to invite you now to turn in your Bible to God's word,

to the book of Zechariah.

Zechariah is one of the easiest minor prophets to find.

If you go to the New Testament, if you find Matthew,

just flip backwards a couple pages and you'll come to Zechariah.

We're gonna be in Zechariah chapter nine.

So I wanna pray and we'll get into God's word here.

So Lord, I just ask now that you would do more

than we can ask or imagine.

That you would give us this peace

that surpasses understanding.

That we would have our hearts just reinvigorated

and resting secure and sure in your peace,

the peace that you are giving us right now,

the peace that you have given to us through Jesus

thousands of years ago when he came.

So Lord, help us to be open and discerning,

to be humble and to experience more of Jesus right now.

We pray this in his name, amen.

So Zechariah chapter nine, starting in verse nine,

Zechariah says this,

he's talking to a bunch of returning exiles.

So the Jewish people,

God fulfilled his promise to Abraham.

He brought them into the promised land.

He gave them this land

and he dwelt there himself through the temple.

And he said, if you could be here with me

and experience my peace,

but they did not follow God's laws, his commands.

They were proud.

They were taking advantage of one another.

Israel became not a place of a sanctuary.

It became more of like a little living hell on earth.

And so God brought them back into exile.

He exiled them from the land

because of their constant sin and rebellion against him.

And then 70 years later, after he exiled them,

he brought them back.

He made a way for them to return to the land.

And so he says this to the returning exiles,

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.

Behold, your king is coming to you.

Righteous and having salvation is he.

Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem

and the battle bow shall be cut off

and he shall be speak peace to the nations.

His rule shall be from sea to sea

and from river to the ends of the earth.

As for you also,

because of the blood of my covenant with you,

I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

Return to your stronghold,

oh prisoners of hope.

Today, I declare that I will restore to you double.

So the first point I wanna make,

and we're going to unpack this, be here for a bit,

is rejoice.

That if we're going to experience God's peace,

we need to rejoice in our peace with the Lord.

Rejoice in your peace with God.

Christians are commanded to rejoice.

You're commanded.

God commands you right now to be happy.

Be happy.

That's the command here.

But how do you do this?

When your marriage might feel like hell on earth.

How can you be happy?

How can you obey this command?

When you're constantly,

you constantly feel like you're just working your okoli off

just to stay above water,

just to keep a roof over your head.

And now it's Christmas time.

How are you going to pull that off?

Give gifts and have a Merry Christmas with your loved ones.

What do you do with a verse like this

when it's a Thursday afternoon,

You're already just tired from the week and you're again sitting in the worst traffic in the world.

You just want to be home.

Does God really expect you to rejoice, to obey this command, to rejoice greatly,

even when your circumstances aren't that great?

In fact, they're bad.

You would say they're terrible, miserable.

Does God really expect you to rejoice when your circumstances don't give much reason to rejoice?

Amen.

That's true.

The answer is, again, verse 9, rejoice.

That's the answer.

Yes.

God calls us, he commands us, even when our circumstances are not favorable, to rejoice in him.

When Zechariah originally gave this command to the Jews,

there was some level of excitement

because they were returning back home,

back to the promised land.

But they were still in the beginning stages of building,

of rebuilding their decimated cities and communities,

rebuilding the temple that had been destroyed

70 years prior.

And so they were finally free to go back home,

but they weren't exactly free at that time.

They were still ruled over by a foreign power.

They were at that time being threatened

by neighboring communities, neighboring bullies.

They were poor, they were powerless,

struggling to see the hand of God at work in their lives.

Can you relate?

Does this story sound a little too familiar to you?

Maybe you feel like you're on top of the world right now

and that is great.

Praise God for that.

But no matter where you're at,

the way to experience true peace,

true and lasting divine peace

is to rejoice in the righteous king and Lord

of our salvation.

The Lord is calling you to rejoice greatly in him.

But why?

What is it that we're called to rejoice in exactly?

Well, we see it again here in verse nine.

Behold, your king is coming to you.

So the king comes to you, righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey.

You see the posture of the king,

the posture of the king of kings is what makes all the difference for you and I.

That's what makes this command possible to observe, to rejoice.

So if he were the conquering king riding in on a war horse looking for vengeance and justice,

then the call would be, take cover.

Brace yourself.

He's coming.

But instead we're told this righteous king comes to make peace.

It's because of his humble, gracious, gentle posture towards us

that we can feel excited to be in his presence

rather than terrified.

The king was not coming to execute judgment

on his unfaithful and broken people.

He was coming with salvation.

Coming to bring peace.

Peace between us and himself.

Okay, but what exactly does the peace of God look like?

How do we experience this?

peace. How do we recognize God's peace? Like we all have different understandings, different

definitions of peace, right? I mean, if you're a single mother or not single mother, you're just a

mother with tons of kids, like your idea of peace is an empty house. No, nobody else around, not your

husband, not your kids, just you and a blank wall to stare at. That's your idea of peace.

Maybe your idea of peace is kicking off your boots after work and just kicking back.

My kids are homeschooled.

And so whenever it is that that school starts for homeschool kids,

my peace is getting to leave and go to work.

Work is my sanctuary.

Maybe for you, it's going on a run, reading a book,

listening to a podcast while you're sitting there in traffic.

The best way for us to understand and discern, recognize God's peace

is to look at the beginning of the Bible and then towards the end of the Bible.

When we look at Genesis and then we look at Revelation,

we get a clear picture of what God's peace is, what God's peace is like.

So if we visit the Garden of Eden in Genesis 1, we read this,

And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good.

Like I love this imagery here.

Like this is on the sixth day, God created everything.

Like the stars, the planets, the sea and the land, the plants and the animals.

And he's sitting out there and he's looking at everything.

And he's just admiring what he did.

Like I know this feeling.

So I'm a tradesman.

I have a construction company and we're in the middle of a brand new build.

So for tradesmen, like new construction, especially with carpentry, it's just so enjoyable.

It goes really fast, feels very productive.

And we got the whole house framed up.

And we're out in the back with me and the crew.

And we're just marveling at how good we are.

Like we just, like everything looks so tight.

It's plumb.

It's square.

The roof is just, it's planing right.

We're just like, we did, we do good work.

We do good work.

That's God.

Like he's marveling at his creation.

He really likes what he saw.

Everything that God had made, he enjoyed it.

Almost 20 years ago now, my wife and I got hired to be caretakers

to take care of this like filthy rich family's estate over in Laie.

It was like two, three acres, waterfront, and it came with a caretaker house.

So we lived on this beachfront property and we were tasked to just take care of their property and make sure it stayed clean and neat and that it was opened up for whenever they would come.

They would come like once a year, sometimes twice a year for like six days out of the year.

And the rest of the time it was like, it felt like it was ours.

And it was panoramic, like it was just a beautiful property right on the water.

But the best view that you got on this property was up this small hill.

that's where the owner's master bedroom suite was.

It was this huge bedroom with a wet bar,

walk-in closet, bigger than like my bedroom now

where we're at my house,

and a bathroom that was about the size of my bedroom

in my house now.

And there were sliding glass doors on all three walls

that gave them this epic, just panoramic view everywhere.

You could see the whole North Shore, the East Side.

Story is, that place though,

was originally meant to be the caretaker cottage.

They were originally intended to just give like the caretakers a small little kind of like studio place

for where they can live and take care of the property.

But when the wife went up there to just see the progress of how it was going,

she just stood and realized, this is beautiful up here.

I want this place.

And so what they did is they, instead of making it the caretaker home,

they turned it into their own master suite.

That's kind of how it was when God created the world and built the Garden of Eden.

But the only difference is God didn't just reserve the best part for himself.

God decided that he was going to share the best with Adam and Eve

and the rest of their offspring, all of humanity.

That's what God was originally intending to do.

God created a world in which he wanted to reside.

He planted a garden, a unique place that he could appreciate.

That was up to his glorious standards.

And he created a people with which he desired to live among and enjoy perfect shalom.

His peace.

But we all know what happened.

Eventually, Adam and Eve rebelled against God.

And not only broke peace between themselves and God,

they destroyed it with each other.

Like you remember when God, after they rebelled,

they ate the forbidden fruit, God confronts Adam.

What does Adam do?

He immediately throws not only God,

but his own wife under the bus.

He says, when God asked him, what have you done?

Quote, this is Adam, the woman whom you gave to me,

She gave me of the fruit of the tree and I ate it.

So because of their sin against God,

he drove them out of that posh garden that he built

away from his presence because peace had been disrupted.

It had been broken.

And this has been our experience, our reality ever since.

You ever lose a friend over some beef

or that maybe they just moved away.

And as a result, you also lost some of the privileges that came with being this person's friend.

Like I had a friend back when I was a teenager.

He was, his dad was military.

And that means we had access to go surf the military Marine Corps base, North Beach and Pyramid Rock.

And like, it's epic.

Surf over there.

We would surf it almost every day.

But eventually like he got married and I got married at the same time.

We were like a week apart getting married.

and he ended up moving away, like moved off island.

And I haven't surfed North Beach Pyramid Rock ever since.

I miss that place.

I miss him too.

But I really miss access to the Marine Corps base.

So many comforts, so many privileges and entitlements were lost.

Lost from humanity when we were separated from God in the garden.

And ever since, we just have gone on trying to survive God's prerogative

to restore us back into right fellowship with him,

to restore the peace that we broke

so that we can again experience the peace of God

that Adam and Eve once knew in the garden

before sin ever entered the earth.

The Lord Almighty, creator of heaven and earth,

was not going to let the devil, sin and death, have the last word.

He pledged to defeat Satan, sin and death and to make all things new.

And that's what we see at the end of the Bible.

Revelation 21, it says this.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.

Don't, it's not like the literally,

there's still gonna be an ocean when Jesus comes back.

The sea's like symbolic of like chaos and sin.

Like that sea's gone.

We're still gonna have an ocean.

That gives me comfort.

Anyways, I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,

coming down out of heaven from God,

prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them.

Them, those people.

Yes, he will dwell with them.

And they will be his people.

And God himself will be with them as their God.

And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

And death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.

For the former things have passed away.

that's the end of the story of redemption

the end of our story of redemption

is the beginning of eternal joy

and peace with God

but if we skip down

we read this

starting in verse 7 of chapter 21

the one who conquers

will have this heritage

and I will be his God

and he will be my son

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable,

as for murderers, the sexually immoral,

sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars,

their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur,

which is the second death.

So this is horrible news

for those who do not humble themselves before the Lord,

for those who refuse to repent of their sin

and receive his gracious gift of forgiveness

through his sacrifice for their sin on the cross.

Their portion will be in the lake

that burns with fire and sulfur.

Jesus came to save the cowardly.

Jesus came to save the faithless.

Jesus came to save the detestable,

murderers, sexually immoral,

sorcerers, and all liars.

He came to save us, that's descriptive of all of us, from hell, from eternal exile from him.

But the fact that there is a place called hell, where all evildoers, where Satan and demons and

those who continue to live proud and rebellious against God, the fact that there's a place called

hell brings comfort for the people of God because it also means there will never ever be any hint

of evil, sin, or rebellion when Jesus returns and makes all things new. It will be just like the

Garden of Eden again. God's righteous rule will reign from sea to sea. It will stretch to every

corner of the earth. All men and women will be in glad submission to King Jesus, which means,

here's what this means. Everybody, every single person in the new heavens who's living on the

new earth, they will all, all of us will be very, very nice. Everybody will be kind.

There won't be any bullies.

Nobody's gonna lie or cheat or steal.

There won't be any gossip or slandering.

There'll be no oppression or taking advantage of anybody.

There won't be any loan sharks

or Uncle Sam's going around and taxing you.

There won't be any pain, no suffering or tears anymore.

God's peace will be restored to all of the earth

as it was back when God originally created it

and said, it's very good.

That's the vision of peace that God gave Zechariah.

That's what we see in Genesis 1.

That's also what we see in Revelation 21.

But this is only part of the description

of God's peace, what it's like.

It's kind of half the coin, so to speak.

And what's beautiful about this piece of God, this piece that is from God,

is how circumstantial this piece is.

Like it's very descriptive.

It's circumstantial.

No pain, no suffering, no mean people, liars, murderers, sorcerers.

Like it's very descriptive.

It's very circumstantial.

God will change our circumstances.

He will restore the earth and lift the curse of sin

so that nothing would ever disrupt our peace.

That's our future peace.

In this life though, we only get tastes.

We get little samples of what it will be like

when God's peace is here and reigning unrestricted.

But there's another form of peace

that we're to take hold of and hang on to for dear life.

It's the peace that Paul described in Philippians 4

as the peace of God that surpasses understanding.

Zachariah also has this piece, this piece in mind, because again, as I already mentioned,

the Jews that he was preaching to at the time were not living under favorable circumstances.

In fact, as a nation then, and even up to the time when Jesus would come hundreds of years later

to fulfill this prophecy, Israel would never declare independence as a nation, as a geopolitical

nation. They would always be ruled over by whatever foreign power was in control at the time.

They would always remain under occupied force. When Jesus came, who was ruling over Israel?

The Roman Empire. Circumstances would never align with the stars for Israel. And yet,

they were commanded to rejoice greatly

because the king was coming.

To make loud shouts of joy

of the coming of the king of righteousness and salvation.

So if Genesis 1 and Revelation 1

describe the tangible circumstances of God's peace,

the peace that's coming,

Zechariah 9 and Philippians 4

describe the spiritual circumstances

of God's peace.

Maybe to make it more clearly,

our salvation through Jesus,

our peace,

this peace that we're talking about right now

through Jesus is judicial.

It's a judicial peace.

So I got a ticket last month.

It was the end of the month.

I was one of those, you know,

many that got pulled over

because it was the end of the month

and they got to meet the quota, you know?

I was one of them, not wearing a seatbelt.

And looking at my phone.

But here's the story.

Here's what happened.

I literally, so I left my friend's house.

There's three houses in from the stop sign

from where the cop flashed their lights on me.

I haven't even driven 10 seconds.

My seatbelt alarm, it wasn't dinging at that time.

and I was at a stop sign and I'm plugging in my phone,

like just trying to get it charged at a stop sign.

I'm not operating the vehicle.

I'm operating my phone at a stop sign.

I explained this to the cop.

I also wrote in to the judge to explain to the judge,

hoping for grace,

hoping that the judge will at least put,

you know, waive part of the fine

because it's like 400 something dollars, you know?

And that's like almost a new surfboard.

I don't want to waste that money.

And so I wrote to the judge.

And every day, this is two weeks ago,

every day I'm eagerly going out to the mailbox

like it's my birthday.

I'm waiting for a birthday card when you're a kid.

I'm like that every day.

Still heard nothing from the judge.

I just want to know.

Am I going to get acquitted?

Or am I guilty?

But whether or not, whatever the sentence is,

I'll be able to write the check and pay the fine

and I'll go off and I'll be free.

When it comes to my offense towards the holy God

and creator of the universe,

and this is true of you and all men,

all men and women,

you know, there is no hope.

There is no hope for us to pay God back,

to make up for our sin, our offense against him.

in and of myself in and of our ourselves we are doomed condemned hopeless have no chance

for us to do anything to restore peace between us and god because of how we've sinned against him

But that is exactly why the prophet says, that is why he commands us to rejoice, to rejoice greatly.

Because your king is coming.

The king of kings is coming to you.

How?

Righteous and having salvation.

The gospel of Jesus Christ, that is that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us.

The righteous for the unrighteous, the godly for the ungodly.

And made peace through the blood of his cross.

He took your guilt and shame upon himself.

He took my guilt and shame upon himself and gave me all of his perfect righteousness

so that I could have peace with God.

The righteous king came in humility

rather than all of his glory.

He came with salvation rather than condemnation.

That's the good news.

That's the good news that lifts every ounce of burden

from your soul and gives absolute security to you.

Absolute assurance, absolute peace,

if you will receive it.

A peace that no circumstance could affect.

See, your biggest problem, yours and mine,

is not, it's not a temporary problem,

it's our eternal problem.

That we're condemned, we're guilty before a holy God.

And the good news is that from a legal point of view,

our sin has officially been resolved.

Our guilt is gone.

Jesus has wiped it out and give us a clean slate.

He has given us all of his righteousness.

We're freed, we're justified, we're vindicated, we're saved.

We're saved.

You've been made right with God.

And we have now all the privileges,

the access to be in the presence of God.

In fact, he's given, he sent his Holy Spirit to indwell all of us so that we can continue to be reminded and reassured of the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

Sure, it would be nice if those other circumstances could change.

It would be great if appliances didn't break down like right after the warranty's up or your truck or whatever.

Like it would be great to have more money in the bank or if policemen didn't have quotas to meet at the end of the month.

Like all of that would be great.

But here's the thing.

Even if we did have all of that,

even if we could have our cake,

those things are not able to bring peace to the soul.

As long as we are not right with God,

nothing in this life can bring peace to our souls.

And so Jesus asked,

what does it profit a man to gain the whole world

and forfeit his soul.

But if you've been reconciled to the Lord

through the blood of Jesus,

your soul can rest

because of the peace you have with him.

This peace is yours through Jesus

who did come

just as Zechariah prophesied he would.

But check it out.

When Jesus fulfilled this prophecy,

exactly how Zechariah described,

he went on to weep for the Jews.

because they were so overly concerned

with the circumstantial kinds of peace

that they were longing for

that they ended up being blinded

to the divine peace

that he was offering them.

So if you go to Luke 19,

you can go there,

I could just read it.

Luke 19, it says this.

When Jesus drew near the Bethpage and Bethany

at the mount that is called Olivet,

he sent two of his disciples saying,

go into the village in front of you, where on entering you'll find a colt tied, and on which

no one has ever, has yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it?

You shall say this, the Lord has need of it. So those who were sent away and found it just as he

had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owner said to them, why are you untying the

colt. And they said, the Lord has need of it. And they brought it to Jesus and throwing their cloaks

on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road.

As he was drawing near, already on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his

disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they'd

seen saying, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the

highest. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, teacher, rebuke your disciples,

calling you king. He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it saying, would that you, even you had known

on this day, the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes for the days

will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem

you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you.

And they will not leave one stone upon another in you

because you did not know the time of your visitation.

You see, if your ultimate idea of peace is in worldly things

like politics or financial portfolios

or a career or personal achievement,

you might feel proud at the moment.

Here's the thing, Jesus is weeping for you.

Jesus is weeping because you do not know the things

actually make for peace. Again, nothing wrong or sinful about enjoying the good things of life.

Like I also have a hot tub at home, you know, Facebook marketplace special that I fire, like,

and I am just so grateful for this tub of 103 degree water of just this tub of peace that I

get to enjoy, love it.

But the issue is when we seek to build our lives

on these temporary pleasures,

to rest our souls in these earthly circumstances,

thinking those can bring me peace,

even though the reality is they could just change

at any moment.

Jesus' heart was broken for these people

who were foolishly hoping they could enjoy

world peace without first coming to know the divine peace that Jesus came to bring

between themselves and God. You see the difference? We cannot think that the forms,

the circumstances of world peace could actually bring us peace without first having this divine

peace, us being reconciled with God. So this year, my wife and I decided instead of a bunch of

presents for the kids, we're going to do something different with our kids. We're going to take them

on an experience, a family experience. We're going to take them to Kauai. They've never been to any

of the neighbor islands. And so we're going to surprise them and take them, use our credit card

points and miles and all that stuff. And we're going to go take them to Kauai and just enjoy

family and build memories that they're going to love and look back on forever.

That's the hope. That's our hope. That's the kind of peace Jesus offers.

It's relational. It's his presence, his acceptance of you, his commitment to you,

that he will always have your back. He's always there to protect, to provide, to care for you

Because your king comes to you.

He's coming to you.

And he came to you.

The king of kings is for you.

He's not against you.

Therefore, rejoice in this peace.

Rejoice in the peace.

And finally, last point I want to make.

Pursue peace for others.

This is the other part of Zechariah's message

and his command for the returning exiles.

For thus says the Lord of hosts,

as I purposed to bring disaster to you

when your fathers provoked me to wrath

and I did not relent, says the Lord of hosts,

so again have I purposed in these days

to bring good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

Fear not.

These are the things that you shall do.

Speak the truth to one another.

Render in your gates judgments that are true

and make for peace.

Do not devise evil in your hearts against one another

and love no false oath.

For all these things I hate, declares the Lord.

Zechariah was reminding them

that the whole reason they were exiled to begin with

is because they were not speaking the truth to one another.

They were not seeking peace

through being generous and helpful.

They were bringing chaos and oppression to one another

because they were disobeying God and his commands,

which is basically love the Lord your God

with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength

and love your neighbor as yourself.

What a peaceful place it would be

if we loved the Lord and loved our neighbors as ourself.

Do you know that one of the main reasons

God made a nation from Abraham

was so that they would experience

that a nation would grow,

would be raised up to experience

what it's like to know God and his peace,

for them to be his people and he their God.

And when the world would see a loving, caring,

forgiving and holy people thriving and enjoying

peace with God, blessings of God,

they would see and they would understand

what it's like to know and live with God's peace.

Like, wow, look how well everyone's doing.

Look how humble they all are.

Look how respectable they all are towards each other.

Look how safe and secure it is there in Israel.

Look how kind, forgiving, and generous God is to them

and they are to one another.

Everyone is so nice there and helpful.

At least that was the intention.

the sad truth is that Israel never got to a point where life was marked by a peaceful relationship

with God and their neighbor rather than being a place of God's refuge and redemption

became a place that was dangerous and scary people couldn't be trusted there was no mercy

no grace, no forgiveness. God was forgiving them and showing tons of kindness and mercy

and steadfast love to them, but it wasn't being passed on. The vulnerable were being oppressed

rather than helped. People were self-seeking, would bear false witness in order to get ahead.

And over and over and over, God sent his prophets to call them to repent,

To stop rendering hypocritical worship to God

and being hateful and unloving to their neighbors.

But they wouldn't listen.

And that's why God sent them into exile.

And now that God was bringing them back

and restoring peace with them,

restoring peace with these prisoners of hope,

he calls these prisoners of hope to go and be peacemakers.

They were to spread his shalom, his peace,

wherever they went.

And you know that's what Jesus calls us to do?

Same thing.

That's what the local church is to be marked as,

this place of refuge, this place of God's peace.

Jesus calls us to be peacemakers.

And he gives a promise, blessed are the peacemakers

for they shall be called sons of God.

Look, he's just like his dad, his heavenly father.

She's just like her dad, her heavenly father, the peacemaker, the prince of peace.

For some, the first thing you need to do, the first area that you need to be focused,

laser focused on right now when it comes to being a peacemaker is in your marriage.

To do whatever it takes to be at peace with your spouse.

For others, you need to seek peace with your family.

For others, you're called to seek peace in your workplace, your community, wherever you go.

Paul says it like this, another command in Romans 12.

He says, if possible, as far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Paul is simply calling us to be like Jesus here.

In the same way, Jesus went as far as he could

to bring peace to you and I

through humbling himself by becoming a man

and continuing to humble himself

by becoming a servant of man

and then continuing to humble himself

to go the distance, to die on a cross

for our sins, for your sin and mine.

that's how far Jesus went to make peace

and Paul calls us to do the same thing Jesus calls us to do the same thing

as far as it depends on us

to be at peace to seek peace for others see the world isn't right it's not right

circumstances are not prime for peace but as far as it depends on you

you can do something about it you're called to do something about it seek peace with others so that

by god's grace we can all enjoy and experience more of what it looks like to be a people

who know god's peace and are experiencing god's there's all of you all of you to do whatever it

takes to go as far as it depends on you to make this a place of refuge, a place of peace, your

home, a place of refuge, a place of peace, your workplace, this community, it depends on you.

You're called to this, to be peacemakers. And even if the circumstances aren't great,

they're not favorable, even if your hard work, your sacrifice isn't paying off and things aren't

becoming that peaceful, rejoice in God. Rejoice in God's peace. Rejoice in him. Rejoice in the hope

of his glory to come, our eternal peace with him, and continue to fight for, to work hard,

to be peacemakers, to seek peace in others. Church, let's pray and let's respond. Let's rejoice

greatly in the peace

of our Lord and our Savior,

our King, who has come to us.

Let me pray.