Peace At Christmas

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Summary

Pastor Safrit walks through Luke 2:1-14, focusing on the theme of peace during Christmas. He emphasizes that true peace comes from Jesus, who brings comfort to those overwhelmed by life's pressures. The sermon highlights the importance of accepting reality, focusing on God's promises, and cultivating gratitude to experience peace in our lives. Ultimately, Pastor Safrit encourages the congregation to seek a deeper relationship with Christ to find lasting peace amidst life's challenges.

Welcome and Housekeeping
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Thank you, men, for leading us this morning. If you have your Bibles, we're going to be in Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2 is where we'll be at this morning. Notes provided for you in your bulletin for you to follow along.
And I was telling someone just the other day, this is the first time I've had the ability to preach a full series of messages at Christmastime. And so taking advantage of it this year. And last week we talked about joy.
And tonight, today, we'll be talking about peace and what that looks like and how to have peace at Christmas. And again, last week we talked about joy and understanding that the presence of God is revealed in our life.
The comfort of God is experienced in our life. The provisions are detailed and the grace is embraced.
And we're sort of going to piggyback on that at the end of the message. And I want you to remember about Zachariah and how Zachariah responded to the angel versus how Mary responds to the angel this morning.
And that's what we're going to look at at the very end. Just want to set the stage for it.
But as we think of peace, and I'm going to do a little different. I'm just going to read one passage of scripture. We're going to talk through the entire passage of Luke 2, 1 through 14.
But we're just going to specifically open up by looking at verse 14 this morning. And before we do that, I want us to think back. I've enjoyed, again, as Stephen's been talking through the hymns on Wednesday night.
And I've enjoyed looking at the history of different songs and just understanding some of the history of why we sing what we sing. And the context of when it was written. And I think you can understand a lot about the person's mindset as they go through things. You read a biography.
You read an autobiography of someone that they've experienced heartache.
They've experienced things. And they put that into words. And this is some things that we can think of. And I came across this song.
It's actually one of my favorite Christmas songs of all time. We haven't sang it. It's not a traditional Christmas song that we would sing. But it was penned in 1863. In 1863, America was divided.
Disparity between the rich and the poor. There was civil discontentment. There was racial injustice. There was political strife and hatred. And there was mistrust on all areas of society.
Longfellow's Context and Loss
It was in a mess. And a guy by the name of Longfellow, context was the same way as it is today. He was in the Civil War and he had experienced personal loss. His wife, Fanny,
had died when her dress had caught fire. Henry began to try to put that fire out by smothering the flame with his own body. But it was too late. And that was in 1861. And two years later, his 18-year-old son, Charlie,
left home and signed up to serve in Lincoln's Union Army during the Civil War time. On December 1st of 1863, Longfellow was having dinner with his family. He had five other kids. And he received a war telegraph stating that his son, Charlie, had been severely wounded in battle.
One biography said it like this. On Christmas Day, 1863, Longfellow, a 53-year-old widowed father of six children, the oldest of which have nearly been paralyzed,
as his country fought a war against itself, wrote a poem seeking to capture the dynamics and the dissonances of his own heart. The world that he observed around him was falling apart, and he heard the bells on Christmas Day singing of peace on earth.
But he observed the world of injustice and violence that seemed to mock the truthfulness of this optimistic outlook.
The theme of listening reoccurred throughout the poem, eventually leading to a confident hope in bleak despair. As we look at this song this morning, the song is, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.
And I'm going to read it as it was written. A lot of times we sing songs and we add the chorus and we add other things in, but they're all literally just poems. And they were written in one continual thought with the chorus at the end.
And this is how Longfellow wrote it out.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play.
And mild and sweet their songs repeat of peace on earth and good will toward men.
And in despair, remember where he's at? He lost his wife two years prior. His son possibly facing paralyzation.
I bowed my head. The country is in war against itself. Brothers are fighting against brothers. There is no peace on earth, I said. For hate is strong. And it mocks the song. Of peace on earth.
Good will toward men. The song continues on. Then rang the bells more loud and deep. God is not dead, nor does he sleep. The right shall fail. I'm sorry. The wrong shall fail. The right prevail. With peace on earth. Good will toward men. And then my favorite verse of the ball. Then ringing.
Singing on its way. The world revolving from night to day.
A voice. A chime. A chant sublime. Of peace on earth and good will toward men. And the bells they're ringing. Like choirs they're singing. With in our hearts we hear them. Peace on earth. Good will toward men. This morning church. As it is in every generation before us. We're seeking for peace on earth.
We're seeking for peace to be brought into this world.
Just as it was 200 years ago. When this song was written. We are looking for peace as well.
When I was in Israel just a couple of months ago. And can't wait to go back in a couple of. About a year from now. And as I was there.
One of the things that our God told us was. One of the things that Israel prays for every single day. Is for peace to be brought for the land. This was prior to what had happened just a couple of months ago.
The Birth of Jesus
Is peace to be brought to our land. And one day there will be peace he said. And in Luke chapter 2. Verses 1 through 14. We have the account of the angel coming to Mary. And this is the verse here. That this song was written from 2.14.
You ready? Glory to God in the highest. And on earth peace. Good will toward men.
The angels here are telling. Of the outcome. Of what is about to happen. Right? Jesus is coming into the world. And because of his birth. The outcome will be peace. Peace. But yet so often.
It's not the peace that we think. You study in the times of Jesus. They were wanting someone to come and bring peace. Out of the Roman oppression. They were wanting someone to come and bring peace. Out of the fear that they were in. And Jesus said. I'm coming to bring peace.
Into the hearts. Of those that believe. I'm coming to bring peace. Into our hearts. Jesus came to regular people. That's our thought for the day. Jesus came to regular people. Who were overwhelmed. By the challenging. And difficult circumstances. And he brought peace. To overcome. The pressure.
He brought peace. To overcome the pressure. Peace is the cure. For pressure. Peace is the antidote. Or the. The vaccine.
You could say. That brings. These little pressures to life. That build up. And cause us to stress out. Because we all go through stress. And pressures of life.
And so often times. When we go to the doctor. Unfortunately. The doctor has to give us the bad news. Right. Have you ever experienced the bad news from a doctor? And they have to give you the bad news. In order for you to get the good news. If they just came in.
And gave you the good news. The bad news. It wouldn't sit like when there's good news. Right. My dad.
He was diagnosed with cancer. When I was five years old. Six years old. And they came in. And they gave him bad news. And they said that. This will be your last Christmas. It was stunning for my family. We could not experience.
We didn't think about. I mean. I was six years old. My brother was four. My mom had five kids.
Under the age of 12. The bad news was hard. And the doctor said. We're not giving you much hope. But there is a little bit of hope. You can do this extreme chemotherapy.
And he was drinking medicine. And he was having the shots at the home. And they said. We're going to do the best we can. And there's little hope. But the good news was because there was bad news.
Facing Bad News in Life
And so. Today we're going to start by looking at the bad news. Right. The bad news of life. And we're going to look at. When we feel pressure.
When we feel the pressure of life. The peace isn't there. And this is how we feel pressure. The first is this. And we're going to walk through. This chapter.
Chapter two. And if you want to follow along. You can. I'm going to read it. But here it is. Chapter two. Verses one and two. When things happen suddenly.
And we're going through life. And all of a sudden. Unexpected things in life. Bring up pressure. You're riding down the road. And.
You get a flat tire. It's unexpected. No one was like. You know what. I'm going to leave today. And I think it'll be a good day for a flat tire. No one says that. No one says.
You know what. When I leave today. I think it would be a great day. For my son to fall off the monkey bars. And break his arm. Sounds like a great day for that. No one. You don't expect these things. They're sudden.
Luckily we haven't had a broken bone in our family. But as wild and crazy as my kids are. I'm sure it's going to happen one day. But. When things happen suddenly.
Perfect days can begin to crash and burn. And this is where Mary is at this morning. Luke chapter two. Verses one and two. And in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus. That all of the world should be taxed.
This taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. So we see here all of a sudden sudden things happen. A decree went out. A registration went out into all the land.
It was inconvenient. It was a time when no one was wanting this to happen. It was a time where they were just sort of struck in this situation. And as you can think with Mary. She's pregnant.
Now we understand that all the men had to be taxed. All the men had to be registered. So Joseph was the only one that had to go. But his wife was eight months pregnant. Was he going to leave his wife in Galilee? No.
So now sudden things happen. The pressures of life begin to happen. And Mary now has to travel while pregnant to this town of Bethlehem.
Sudden things happen. Pressure builds up. The story continues on. Three through five. When things happen frequently. Things just don't seem to add up in life. Look at verses three through five. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea.
The city of David which is called Bethlehem. Because he was of the house and lineage of David. To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife being great with child. And so it was that while they were there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. Women imagine this.
You go to a foreign land. You had everything prepared at your house. The nursery was ready. The walls were painted.
The crib was ready. You had the bottle warmers out. You had the wipes ready. You had the diapers ready. Everything was prepared for that new baby to come. And then everything gets shooken up.
You got to go to a new land. You got to go to a new place. A place that probably Mary had not been before. If she had been it would have been very very. It would have been just a couple of times.
She was not familiar with this land. She was not married to Joseph yet. She would not have known his family intimately yet. She would not have known who they are. What they expect.
And all of a sudden they get there. And it's her time for the baby to come. And all of a sudden the registration is happening.
They're in a different town. But the pressures are beginning to build up. Because frequent things are changing.
I'm sure that the donkey or the mode of transportation was not as smooth as they wanted. Okay. Some things began to happen as they were going through that. And it just felt like this pressure of bringing into this child. Into this world that was God's son.
Was more and more of a stress. And not only do they happen suddenly. Not only happen frequently. But verses 6 through 9 tell us.
And ultimately verses 10 through 14 as well. That when things happen continually. Look at it.
And while they were there. The time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to her firstborn son. And she wrapped him in swaddling clothes.
And laid him in a manger. Because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds in the field. Keeping watch of their flock by night. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto them. And the glory shone around them.
And they were filled with great fear. You see these things that begin to happen. They begin to happen daily. Or even hourly.
Where we begin to deal with things day after day. Moment by moment. And it begins to continually happen. She gets pregnant.
And the world seems to fall apart. She's not married. And what are people going to think of me?
And now I've got to uproot my family to go give birth. And while I'm there all of a sudden the things happen. And I go to check into the inn that we had our reservation for. And they lost our reservation. Could you imagine that? Has that happened to you? Okay.
It's happened to me before. It's not a fun thing. When you go on a trip. And you have your registration. And well I'm sorry sir. We misplaced your reservation.
Where am I going to stay at? Well I'm sorry. All the hotels are booked up. And all of a sudden now you're pregnant. And you've got things going on. And life begins to be pressure upon pressure upon pressure.
And they just don't know what to do. You see regular people who are overwhelmed by challenging difficult circumstances. The peace of Christ is what overcomes the pressures of life.
In a full town. They couldn't find a place to sleep. They couldn't even find a place for the baby to be laid. They had to put him in a feeding trough. And then there's this transition.
You see we can all relate to this. We can all relate to the things that happened suddenly. The bill that you wasn't expecting.
Maybe it was the hot water heater that blew up. Maybe it was the washing machine for me and my wife the other day. That just decided to stop working and leak everywhere.
And I had to go and buy a new one. Because she did laundry for the first time. And she broke my washing machine. And so. Oh. That slipped out. I'm sorry.
Things happen suddenly. Things happen continually. And we begin to figure out what's going on in life. And this is the transition. You ready?
Verses 10 through 14. And the angel said unto them. Fear not. For behold I bring good news. And great joy for all the people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior. Who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign unto you. That your baby will be fine wrapped and swathed in the clothes. Lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts. Praising God and saying glory to God in the highest. And on earth peace. Goodwill toward men. See pressures happen in life. And we don't understand why.
We don't understand what they're going through. I'll try to put myself into Mary's shoes every year as we go through Christmas. I try to think okay. How would I have responded if we were pregnant during this season. And all of a sudden life happened crazy.
You know this happened a little bit. We'll tell a little of my story here. When Brody was born 10 years ago. Okay. I was in India. I was on the other side of the world. 14 hours away.
And I was on a missions trip. And he wasn't due until five weeks. Okay. He came five weeks early. And so I'm laying there in bed. It was monsoon season. And we had the doors open. There's no AC in the houses. Okay. So it was the middle of the. In August.
And the windows were slamming shut. The doors were slamming shut. And I couldn't handle it no more. So I got up. I'm frustrated. I couldn't sleep. I'm away from my own bed. And so I shut all the windows and all the doors. And I fell asleep for the first time that night. And it was a glorious sleep.
And little did I know. At that moment. On the other side of the world. My wife was literally dying. Giving birth to my son. Liver was shutting down. Kidneys were shutting down. Blood pressure was through the roof. And our missionary.
Justice is his name. Came over to the house. And began knocking on the door. Because I locked everything up. He couldn't get in. That was at 4 a.m. 3 a.m. in the morning.
And at that moment. He waited and waited. And at 7 o'clock. My pastor got up. And he went out to the door. And he saw Justice sitting on the porch. He said, Justice, what are you doing here? He said, I've got some news. Your associate pastor is a father.
And my pastor came in. And he said, James, you need to wake up. So I sat up. And he said, no, no.
You actually need to wake up. Like, I got some things to tell you. And so I sit up. And he goes, you're a dad. Whoa. What? Like, this is five weeks early. What's going on? There's been some complications. Your wife's fine. But sudden things happen.
I'm trying to figure out. Do I try to go home? Do I try to get on the airplane? Do I try to get back to Idaho during this time? Like, my mind starts swirling in a thousand different directions. Because I'm trying to figure it out.
And I'm trying to figure out. How does Mary go through this?
As there's peace here. And we can understand that there's three ways we can have peace.
You see, I began to study this word out, peace. And it's used specifically three times in Scripture. And we're going to look at these three ways through Scripture.
Finding Peace Through Conversion
I've labeled them there. I'll read them. But you've got them there for you to look at for sake of time. But we can experience peace when we experience these three things. The first one is this. When we experience conversion.
We experience peace when we experience conversion. This is the peace with God. The peace with God.
Look at, you don't have to turn there, but Romans 5.11. Listen to the verbiage here. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is through the making of Jesus our personal Lord and Savior. If you want to write this out beside of it, salvation. This is the salvation experience. The conversion experience that we have. When we experience this moment of transformation in our life.
Where we turn our lives over to Christ. And we say, Christ, I am no more going to live for self.
But I'm going to live for you. This is the conversion experience. This is the peace with God. As I said at the beginning, bad news happens.
And it is there for us to appreciate the good news. That's what makes it good news. When we experience the bad news of sin.
The bad news of the penalty of what's going to happen to us if we don't accept Jesus. Then the good news of Jesus comes and says, I'm here to bring salvation. So that you can have peace with Christ.
Jesus died as an atoning sacrifice. For our sins to pay our sin debt that we could not pay ourselves. Listen to a couple of verses. Galatians 2.21.
Do not. I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteous were through the law. Then Christ died for no purpose. Romans 5.1. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith.
We have peace with God. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2.8.9. For by grace you have been saved through faith. Faith. It's not of your own doing. It is the gift of God. That is a result of work. So that anyone can boast.
I look back on my life. And I began to see the different situations in my life. The different moves that God has done. The different.
The three children that my Lord has given me. And my wife. And all the decisions. And I have yet to find a greater decision in my life than the moment. I bent down on a Sunday night.
I put my faith and trust in Jesus. It is the greatest decision that has ever been done in my life.
And it has made the greatest impact in my life than any other decision that I've ever made. Because putting my faith in Jesus is a moment where we get to fully trust in who he is.
And his grace comes into our life. And his protection comes into our life. And his purpose comes into our life. And we get to live for him forever. Forever. This is the conversion experience. The peace with God. Mary experienced this.
Ladies, put yourself in the situation where things are going crazy in her life. Things are out of control. They're spiraling.
But yet because she trusted in God. And she said, Lord, I'm going to put my faith in you. I'm going to have that peace that only you can give. But not only do we see the conversion experience. But we see the experience of covenants.
The second peace I found in scripture is this. The peace from God. The peace from God. This is, if you want to write this one out. Of course, I'm a literator. The first one is salvation. This one is situational.
Peace from God
The peace from God. Look at how Paul starts most of his letters. Romans 1.7.
To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God, our Father,
and of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1.3 and Galatians 1.3 start the exact same. So I'm going to read both of them. Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians 1.3.
Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. This is how Paul starts out because Paul understood a covenant with God.
If we are a child of God, we have the peace from God. The Jewish nation, they say it like this. They have one little small word that represents peace from God. You ready? Shalom.
They say shalom. Shalom. Every email I get from my lady in Israel, her name is Pari, every email she ends with the word shalom.
Peace from God to you. One word that summarizes this up. Because they understand they're asking for this peace from God. They need this peace from God. And when they go into Shabbat, when they go into their worship service, they say Shabbat shalom. Which means perfect peace from God.
And don't we need that this morning, church? Don't we need the peace from God? Not only this experience from God, as Proverbs says, but it's a relational peace.
Proverbs 6, 7. Let me read this for you if I can find it real quick. Proverbs 16, 7.
Normally I have my verses written out, but I didn't this time. It came to me this as I will study. Proverbs 6, 7. When man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him from God.
You see, this is the relational peace that we have from our enemies, from our friends, from our families.
And I want us to walk away this morning, church, understanding that we can have peace from God. See, we all know what a contract is, right?
Anybody ever signed a contract? Raise your hand if you have. Okay? If you own a house, you probably signed a contract. That's what that is. That's a mortgage contract. Okay? And so a contract,
you go to the bank and you say, bank, I need X amount of money for my home. And this is what the bank says. As long as you make this payment, we'll let you live in your house. That's a contract. The moment you stop making your payment, guess what?
You don't get to live in that house anymore. The moment you stop making that car payment, you don't get to drive that car. Because that's a contract. But God says this. You ready? I'm not making a contract with you.
I'm making a covenant with you. This is what a covenant says. A covenant says, I'll do this no matter what you do.
You experience the peace of God no matter what you do. Now, this is not a license to sin. This is not a license to go out and do whatever you want. But this is God saying, I understand that you're a sinner. And I'm going to give you the peace from God.
But it's not contingent on anything that we do. Now, we should want to serve God. We should want to live holy. We should want to live righteous. But God says this is a desire that comes within us.
But it is not part of the covenant in order to receive God's peace. And God says, I'm going to give this peace to you no matter what we do. That's the covenant we'll experience with God.
The peace from God in our situations. To where when you begin to experience these things, you begin to go through life. And you've seen this time and time again.
And as a pastor, I've seen this time and time again where someone will receive bad news. And it's the peace of God comes in their life. The peace from God comes in and brings them that peace that only God can bring.
But not only do we have the peace with God, the peace from God. There's one other peace and it's this. The peace of God.
With, from, and of. Listen to it in scripture. The peace of God that doesn't quite make sense. If you want to write this out. Sanctification. That's the word I put beside it. Sanctification.
Philippians 4, 7. And the peace of God, which surpasses all of our understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
We were, last night we were playing Skippo with our family. My father-in-law, of course, most of you know my father and mother-in-law have moved in with us. And he said, he's working on his own version of scripture called the Glen, because that's his name. Glen James Version.
Okay, because King James. Play on words there. It's fun. You can laugh a little bit. But, and, and, and he said, this is how I would say it.
And as I was thinking through that, as I was thinking through this verse, if I were to rewrite this verse, not saying I'm ever going to write a passage of scripture or a version that you, I mean, there's already a King James.
I don't know how much, what would I name it? I mean, I don't know. King James the second. I don't know. This is how I would write Philippians 4, 7.
You ready? And the peace of God, which blows your mind, will guard your hearts and minds with Christ Jesus. You can't understand it.
Words can't put into place how we can understand this. There's not enough books that can write it down. But it's the peace of God that doesn't make sense. It's the calm assurance that what God is doing is always best.
If you would have asked Mary 10 years before she had gotten pregnant with Jesus, what would have been your dream life set up? I almost 1,000% guarantee you she would not have said, you know what, I would like to get pregnant out of wedlock. I would like to,
when I'm eight months pregnant, nine months pregnant, have to go to a foreign land. I would like to give birth to my son in a barn. That's what I want. You know, I don't even want a crib.
I want a manger where the animals eat and drink out of. That's where I want to put my kid at. Mary wouldn't have said those things. Neither would we.
But yet, when we're in those moments and we understand what God is doing in our life, we understand that his ways are higher than our ways. And his peace is better than any peace that anyone can bring. You see, the peace of God is an awesome protection.
And it says here in Philippians 4, 7, that does two things. It guards our heart and our minds in Christ Jesus.
See, the true understanding, the true nature of the peace of God is understanding that it's guarding our hearts and it's guarding our minds from the wickedness of the world. And it's leading and guiding our life in a way that is going to understand in God's timing, not ours.
You see, the real and the true thing that we talked about was just a few weeks ago. Colossians 3, 15.
Remember just a couple weeks ago we went through the book of Colossians. Colossians 3, 15. We read this verse. We talked about it. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. Not the peace of James. Not the peace of some person in your family. Not the peace of a president or the peace of the stock market. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
We have to ask our question real and truly is this. Who is the ruler of our hearts? Who is the ruler that is guiding our decisions and our hearts and our minds?
See, I like to end with some practical ways, some practical ways to find peace in this season and as our seasons of life.
Acceptance and Focus
And the first one is this, acceptance. Acceptance in life. When we understand God's word, we discover more peace. The closer we get to God,
the more we understand the peace of God, the more we understand what he has for us. And accepting these things in life that are out of our control but are ultimately in God's plan.
Look at, you don't have to turn that. I'm going to read it. Philippians 4, 11 and 12. I do not speak because I have need of. For I have learned that whatever state I am in to be content.
Listen to what Paul says in verse 12. I know both how to face humble circumstances and how to have abundance. Peace accelerates when we honestly accept the things that really are in life.
You see, we forfeit peace when we don't accept reality. When we decide that we are no longer going to accept reality, we forfeit the peace that Christ can offer because we begin to live outside of the reality of where we're at.
I often have this image in my mind, right? Of the emu, right?
It's the emu bird that digs their head into the ground. And they think, you know, a wolf's coming.
I don't want to get eaten by a wolf. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to bury my head in the sand. And when I bury my head in the sand, it can't find me because I can't see it. This is the private eye.
If I'm lying, I'm dying this morning, church. When I was in Peru, my very first mission trip, I was 18 years old. And we're sitting there.
And if you've ever been out of the country, if you've ever been to a third world country, you will experience the chaoticness of traffic. Okay, the horns and the not stopping at stop signs and the pulling out in front of people.
And I began to see these people. And we're in Lima. And we're there in the downtown. And the traffic's the same way. And this is what I saw. I saw people that were normal, regular people.
Traffic's coming by. And they would just step out in the middle of traffic. And they'd walk across the street. And I asked my missionary, I said, what's going on here? These people, is there no brain in between their ears? Like, there's cars coming.
And he said, if you watch them, if the traffic's coming this way, they'll turn their head and look this way and walk out into traffic. I said, what? He said, yeah, this is what they do. He said, they believe. If they don't see the cars, the cars won't hit them.
I stepped back for a second. I said, oh, you're joking, right? He said, no, no, no.
If you don't see the cars, they won't hit you. So they look the opposite way. And they just walk. I don't understand it. They don't accept reality. But so oftentimes, church, that's what we think. We don't accept reality in a situation.
And therefore, we don't accept what God has for us. When we just simply look and we trust and we accept what God's fate is in our life. And we say, God, I'm going to accept what is going on. I'm going to accept the reality. May not be what I want.
May not be what I expect. But I understand that your ways are a whole lot higher than my ways. We begin to look back on those decisions.
We begin to look back on the things that we thought were just, how, Lord, are you going to do this? We begin to see time and time and time again when God provides because we simply accepted his will.
What does Romans 12 say? Romans says this, it is your reasonable sacrifice that we serve the Lord.
That is the will of God when we begin to accept what he has for us. The second way is this, focus. Focus is an important word with peace. Again, going back to Colossians. We preached on this for seven weeks. Colossians 3.1.
Seek the things that are above. Where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Where is our focus? What are we seeking after? And what are we seeking as importance in our life?
The things that we worry about in life are often the things that we focus on. How many of you are like me and you focus on the what ifs instead of the what ifs, what ises? Right?
You focus on the what ifs are going to happen. If I do this, what's going to happen then?
Instead of this is what's going on and so I'm just going to trust in what God has for me. And often times we worry about the what ifs. What if my children do this? What if God does this?
And all of a sudden we just need to step back and we say, God, I want to focus on what you're doing right now. I want to focus on what you're leading in my life right now and how I can jump on board with what you're doing.
And what my focus is on every day of our life. Because ultimately what you look at is where you're going. What you look at is where you're going.
Last thing here, number three, how we can have peace practically in this season is gratitude. As Terry comes and begins to play gratitude. Philippians 4, 7. We've read this verse a while back and I want to go back one verse.
Ready? Philippians 4, 6. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God. This is the thought of gratitude, not only by prayer and supplication, but not forgetting the element of gratitude. Not forgetting the element of thankfulness. See, oftentimes I'm having to tell my kids, kids, be thankful and respond to people.
Kids, sometimes they just get this, you know, they don't like to talk to people at times and they'll talk to their brother or their best friend forever. But I tell them all the time, we've got to be thankful. We've got to respond to people.
And as I say that to my kids, how oftentimes is the Lord telling me when you're not grateful and when we're not responding back to him. You see, gratitude is one of the greatest things that brings peace into our life.
And ultimately we have to ask ourselves, are we showing gratitude in all things? Are we saying, God, I'm thankful for the little things. I'm thankful for the hard things. See, no one that was ever used in the Old Testament, they had it easy.
David, his best friend's dad tried to kill him multiple times. Moses tried to do what was right. And yet he got abandoned by his family.
Joseph came to bring the greatest gift that could ever have been brought to the children of Israel. And his own brothers sold him into slavery.
You go time and time again, difficult things are going to happen. But it's how we respond in those situations. You look through the book of Psalms. You look at how David responded. And he said, blessed be the name of the Lord, as we read this morning in Sunday school. Blessed be your name.
Gratitude and Peace
Even in the hard times. Even in the difficult times. The Bible says that peace comes to us. Two thoughts I'll close with. Peace floods into our hearts of gratitude that is thankful for what God has already done.
Peace floods into our hearts of gratitude that is thankful for what God has already done.
Began to examine our life in this time where it's such an easy season to be thankful. We leave Thanksgiving. We go into Christmas. We spend time with family. We get gifts. It's easy to be thankful. But how often are we not thankful for what's already been done?
And then this. All of this leads to the peace that is within us. You see, we have the peace with God and the peace from God and the peace of God. But this is when we begin to experience the peace in ourselves through God.
But it takes this moment of accepting and focusing and gratitude of saying, God, what have I had my mind distracted on? What have I had my mind distracted on? Maybe the situations of life. Maybe the pressures of life that are going on.
And I just need to come and I just need to refocus my life.
Maybe I just need to come and I need to say, God, I'm worried on the what ifs. But I need to stop and take a step back and say, God, I'm just going to worry on what is going on. Not what if could happen.
Again, church, we'll have a time of invitation. Maybe you need to praise the family as we begin to have a time of gratitude. Maybe we need to have a time of focus where we say, God, I just need you in my life again to take away the pressures.
Or allow me to focus in the pressures on what you're doing to make me a better person for your glory. Whatever it may be for you this morning, respond appropriately. Let's stand. Father, we love you. Lord, we thank you for your blessings.
I'm humbled that I could be here this morning, that I have the health and the safety to be here, to be able to minister your word.
Lord, I pray that you would help us this morning as a church to focus on who you are, to be grateful, to have a situation where maybe we are sitting here today and we've been in church our whole life and we've never accepted Jesus.
That today would be that day where we go into that experience of conversion.
Lord, I don't know what it is. I pray, Lord, that you would have your will and way be done. In your name we pray. Amen.
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