THIS Is Stealing Your Peace

And for so many years I have thought that the

thief of my peace was other people or certain places

or the schedule of my life, which is kind of

funny because I'm the one who said yes to all

that stuff that I'm stressed about.

And so now I'm asking God to take away the

things that I committed to.

And I've tried so long, you know, to arrange my

life in such a way that I would no longer

experience those stressful events and stressful people. And if God

would just change them and if everybody would just act

the way they should act for a little while. But

the Lord has been speaking to me in these last

few days about the path of peace. And what I realized,

the more I reflected on this promise of peace that

God gives us. Isaiah 9, 6, his name will be

called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God. everlasting father and the prince

of peace. But notice the prophet didn't call him the

prince of convenience or the prince of ease or the

prince of comfort or the prince of my preferences.

Because a lot of times when.

God promises me peace, what I hear in translation is

that God is promising me convenience. or God is promising

me ease, or God is promising me my preference being met.

But the Lord has been speaking to me, and maybe

you don't need to hear this, but just in case

you do, it is impossible to experience peace when you

are expecting perfection. See, my problem, I'm coming to realize this,

it's not other people, it's not the place, it's not

the pace, And it's not the problem. The problem is

not the problem. I can tell you the problem is

not the problem because Jesus was born in a manger.

The angel appeared to shepherds. So the shepherds were the

people that you would least expect the herald to make

the announcement of the birth of the son of God.

And yet he showed up to the.

Least likely people in an unlikely place.

So it's not the people. It's not the place. It's

not the pace.

The shepherds were always on the move from place to

place to place to place. It's not the place. It's

not the pace. It's not the people. It's not the problem.

Here's my problem. My problem is that I can't receive

peace because I'm expecting perfection. And the angel said, are

y'all going to help me preach or it's just me today?

I'll make it quick. Here's the whole message.

If you need to go, if you got things to do,

I'll give it to you right now and you can

go on and get the target and hopefully everything will

turn out all right.

The enemy of your.

Peace is not other people. It is not other places.

It is not how fast life is or the way

the world is. The enemy of your peace is your

insistence on perfection. And when heaven came down and appeared

to humanity, it was not in the form of perfection.

In fact, God did not come down looking like a deliverer.

He came down looking like a dependent.

He came down as a baby.

And so when the prince of peace came, he didn't

come dressed in power. He came in pampers. Why? Because

God wanted you to know that he's going to bring

you peace, but not like you expected him to bring it.

It's not going to like you pictured it. It's not

always going to fit your preferences.

It's not always going to live up to your.

Exact specifications of the performance of people.

So if I'm going to live.

At peace, I've got to surrender my expectation of perfection.

I feel like I can leave. Every place you set

your foot over the next three days is going to

be so much more peaceful because you just realized that

peace isn't found in a place.

Peace is not found.

In a set of circumstances that is problem free. It

is not that he delivers me from it. It's that

he meets me.

Can I show you something real quick?

He said that he will guide us with the light

in the valley. He didn't take us out of the valley. Yea,

though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil.

I'm at peace on the path. Why?

Not because I'm not going through it, but because I'm

not going through it alone. See, there's somebody with me

that is greater than what's against me. The path to peace.

It's a strange path that God would send his son

as a child. That God would burst the eternal cosmos

and enter into creation in the form of the most

imperfect being. I know some of you disagree because I

hear you saying things about babies that I just.

Don't personally Agree with. He's so perfect.

If you say that, you've never taken one home. That's

what I know. And so it's a strange path to peace.

You know, if God wants to come and set things right,

he should come down.

As a warrior, not as a weakling. Why not skip

that stage?

Jesus should have come 24 years old, full of testosterone.

And yet he comes tiny, infant, into a desperate place.

You know the story about Joseph.

Waited till the.

Last minute to Airbnb for the census. Ended up in

a cold place. The presence of God was born there.

The path to peace is a strange one. That the

path to peace for Jesus would lead through Gethsemane where

he would pray God if there's any other way than

me going and experiencing their wrath from your hand for them.

Let this cup pass from me.

The path to peace for us would lead Jesus through

the Kidron Valley where He would ultimately, as we come

to understand more than Zechariah understood in Luke chapter one,

who was prophesying about his own son, John the Baptist,

who would prepare the way for Jesus, who would guide

us in the path to peace. But the path to

peace with God for us led Jesus to a hill.

Where he died at the hands of sinful men. It's

a strange path to peace.

We have to admit that he would come in weakness

and die in weakness.

To become our strength. It's a path to peace.

It's a strange thing about peace because whatever you identify

as the source of your stress determines what you consider

the source of your peace. And that's why I don't

like to blame people for my stress because if people

brought me the stress, then I need people to change

For me to have peace.

But I'm past the point in my life.

Of wanting for people to have to act a certain way.

For me to have peace in my own heart. And

I love what the angel said. Fear not for behold

I bring you good news of great joy. Because the

first thing that the shepherds felt in the field. When

the announcement of Jesus Christ came forth from the angel.

Was not faith.

It was fear.

See, we think that the presence of God is always

going to make us feel better and comfortable. But the

first thing the shepherds felt was fear. See, they found peace,

but they found it through fear. Fear. Peace did not

come to them directly. It had to pass through their fear.

And they found God in the place of their greatest fear.

In the fields where they were keeping the sheep from predators.

At night they were lowly people in a lonely place.

And here comes the angel and says glory to God

in the highest.

And on earth peace. Now notice this. The peace is

on earth. But it's not from earth. The peace is

on earth. But it's not of earth.

See, I don't want this plastic piece that comes from people.

I've learned that if the peace comes from people, people

can take it away. If it comes from situations, situations can.

Change and take it away.

So I don't want a peace that comes from a

promotion at work. I don't want a peace that comes

from a convenient circumstance. I don't even want a peace

that comes from a feeling. I don't want a peace

that comes from a situation. I want a peace that

the world didn't give and the world can't take it away.

Come on. give him praise if you've got an unshakable

peace and unspeakable joy.

I read that scripture all week, the path to peace.

The path to peace.

What is it that I need to get out of

the way in my life to experience peace? So I'm

not running around all the time just concentrating on all

the missing pieces. And now I'm missing peace. Because all

I can see is the pieces I'm missing. Because when

you're a perfectionist like I am, Enneagram type one. The

thing that God will give you as a prescription for

your perfectionism is children.

And I am on a dosage of three children.

Three children per day guarantees that there will never be

a moment in your house that is completely peaceful. I'm

telling you right now, I can count on zero toes

how many times.

In the last seven.

Years, I've had three peaceful children all at the same

time in one house. So you know what I'm having

to learn to do? I'm having to learn to take

my peace in pieces. Because if I wait until everything

is peaceful. If I wait until every child is happy,

if I wait until everyone is getting along, if I'm

waiting for peace, if I'm.

Waiting for every child to bow their.

Head and say the blessing and clear their dishes and

thank their mom, I've learned to celebrate God.

If just one kid puts the bowl in.

The sink, forget about the dishwasher. That's a Red Sea

Old Testament miracle. Just in the sink, even in the

sink is a blessing. I'll celebrate one bowl in the sink. See,

if you can't wait for everybody to get along, if

there's even a piece of peace, you gotta thank God

for it and snatch it and take it and celebrate it. Because,

watch this, Zechariah didn't say he'll show us the path

to peace. 79 he will guide our feet in.

The path it's not the path.

To peace because that means that peace is out there

somewhere but it's not the path to peace that's how

I've been living my life God forgive me when I

get through this season when I get through 2018 what

Calendar isn't going to fix any chaos in your life.

The same dude you let steal your peace all last

year is going to be standing right there at your

window with a crowbar in 2019.

So I'm going to have peace. You know, my kids

get older. They won't need so much.

Uh-huh.

Now they're going to be driving.

You're going to have a lot of peace there when

they're out on the road on your insurance.

That's why I can't project my peace out here.

Or I can't project my peace on a certain place.

It's not the path to peace.

When God came down to be born of a virgin

and was wrapped in claws and lying in a manger,

he didn't promise a path to peace as in a

future event that will happen when. It's not a when-then peace.

It's not a one-day peace. It's not a someday fairy tale,

beauty and the beast peace. It's not a when I

get married peace. It's not a when I send the

kids off peace. It's not when I pay my student

loans off peace.

It's not the.

Path to peace.

It's the path of peace. What does that mean? Every

step I take, he's with me. Every move I make,

he's with me. Every season of.

My life, he's present.

So watch this. I'm not waiting for it.

I'm walking in it.

Somebody say walk in it. Hey, thank you for watching.

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