This was the first sentence to take that took place while Cornelius was governor of Syria and everyone went to his own town to register So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem the town of David Because he belonged to the house and the line of David He went there to register with Mary who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child now while they were There the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn a son She wrapped him in claws and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the in and there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby Keeping watch over their flocks at night an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them And they were terrified but the angel said to them do not be afraid I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you is Christ the Lord This will be a sign to you You will find a baby wrapped in claws and lying in a manger suddenly a great company the heavenly host appeared with the angel Praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and an earth peace to men on whom his favor rests Father we pause before you giving you thanks for your precious plan of salvation and the way you Implement to this plan and the way that you introduced this plan to the world We thank you God for the willingness of your son to come and to play out the role of the unique Purpose of being the Savior the world we thank you God for what we know about this But Lord we pray through your spirit that you might impress upon us what we really need to do We thank you for your personal touch We thank you for your specific leading in our lives We pray that by faith this Christmas once again would not only be a fresh reminder of the depth of our commitment and devotion to you But may it do something precious within us that takes us beyond where we've ever been in Jesus name We pray amen Jesus was born when Rome controlled the world The world at this time was rapidly changing with a government of its own kind of law and order a loyalty to the emperor by force and power Governors like Corinius and kings like Herod would reinforce and establish this new world It was a world of connection that was expanding and growing with roads systems and communication open doors to trade both importing and exporting The many cultures of the world spiritually or religiously speaking were blending and interacting and influencing One another what came with the new world of Rome was an added burden of fear and frustration among the Jewish people who Intentionally and deliberately tried to keep themselves separate from the world their idea of freedom was a lot different than Rome was promising and their idea of independence Certainly was contrary to what Rome was attempting to endorse God's people were forced to be part of a much larger world at this particular time than anything they were ever familiar with and The changes that seemed to create were beginning to create a new kind of longing for a kind of freedom of their own ideas and values A spiritual renewal there seemed to be a longing for the answer to come and that was in the promise Savior and King to the world Who would bring them the peace that the scriptures had promised yet the problem with the people of God was at their idea of a Savior And King was different than what Rome wanted them to experience and it was certainly even different than what the Messiah Truly promised to come and do not only had God's plan become take on a rather different form of their expectations But Rome itself was famous for its known proposal of the Pax Romana the Roman peace The world was promising a kind to piece the Jews were looking for another kind to piece and yet Jesus the Savior of the world had a piece of His own They wanted peace peace was the desire in which everyone clearly wanted among those days the world seemed to be in turmoil It seemed to be in confusion about what life really amounted to but yet because Rome wasn't control Everything went the way that the Romans intended Jesus our Messiah was to be known as the Prince of Peace and in Luke chapter 2 verse 14 We can read that again We find the words of the angelic choir saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rest Peace is not only God's promise to all humanity through the birth or the coming of the Messiah the Christ But peace is the desire of all peoples of every nation no doubt We too long for peace and I trust that we might understand the beauty of what this piece is that Christ has come to give Yet the challenge of every generation the challenge to you and I even today is to humbly consider How is this peace to be a promise and a possession of our own as far as the situation in which Jesus was about to be born in We see that the Romans were now beginning to expand their order and their control and the direction in life And this is what chapter 2 verse 1 is a census should be taken of the entire Roman world We know that when the government wants to count you they want to collect from you It's important to know that among the average Jewish people throughout the land of Israel most of them were not very well off They were trying to get by day by day Week by week on what they could grow in an agricultural world or what they could gather through their small businesses their families And so you can imagine Joseph being a carpenter is required to take this trip in this journey But think about the mother Mary the babies born shortly after they get there for their senses Or maybe even before the senses was actually taken to account We all know but I'm sure those of you that have been pregnant and understand the inconveniences alive try going for a three-day journey for a healthy man Let alone a three-day journey when you're about to have a child extremely uncomfortable Inconvenience the peace that the world was promising Wasn't very peaceful at the time and we see that what Jesus ultimately went through even in through his parents was a real Burnin then having gotten down to Bethlehem and traveled this journey. You're treated as a nobody Again because they were obviously evidence that these people did not have money Say what they were treated as if they had no money They were treated as if they were not important And so we get to the very familiar scriptures that there's no room for them in the end And then we learn and Connie reminded us this morning to be born in a stable to be born in a manger Whatever that means and whatever it looked like you can be fully assured there was no heat and there wasn't many resources there So the Savior is born in a world that was not Attempting to meet his needs. He simply came to meet humanity's needs We see that in the person of Christ in the complete surrender or emptying of himself to a world that simply says Oh, we've got to make room for him type of thing But anyway, we think about peace we need to humbly consider that as much as everybody desires peace not everybody experiences the peace that Christ gives There's a lot of temporary things in life that might seem to bring about peace, but the Christmas story is There's only one real way true way that you and I can have lasting peace I simply want to touch upon some scriptures to try to prepare ourselves to think that there are ways that the Bible is constantly warning us About reaching or looking in this direction because they might give a temporary kind of peace They might bring a temporary kind of comfort, but we must be careful looking relations chapter 5 and verse 13 Galatians chapter 5 and verse 13 We think of peace we often think of freedom we think of the liberty We think about a world that is the way we would like it to be or what that we would want and Galatians chapter 5 and verse 13 We are reminded by the Apostle Paul you my brothers were called to be free But do not use your freedom to indulge in the sinful nature I don't believe it so much the intent or the desire of any was here today But you and I are well aware in the world you and I live in freedom means freedom to do whatever you want We as Christians obviously have a commitment to the cause of Jesus Christ and the truth of his word that that freedom will become costly That freedom is not such free after all and yet we live in a world that we are being constantly told the way to have peace is You believe what you want somebody else believes what they want you practice and do what you want somebody else gets to do what they want It's called tolerance and if we can have a perfect world of tolerance where everybody just accepts and loves regardless of what they're at This is what Galatians chapter 5 teaches don't really find peace in the freedom to do whatever we want We actually can forfeit that piece second one the other types that are known in our modern world is pertaining to Mark chapter 4 if we look turn there to the gospel of mark chapter 4 and verse 19 Mark chapter 4 and verse 19 Again, we have a reminder in the parable of the soil or the sower It says in verse 19 But the worries of this life the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires of other things can come in and choke the word making it un Rupal you and I are well aware We think in terms of freedom we think in terms of peace we all want security in life We will all would love to be financially stable We would all love to have the pleasures and the things of life that can bring enjoyment to us and satisfaction But every one of us knows that only lasts a certain time Regardless how much we have we know that that does not really bring peace it might give a feeling a momentary satisfaction It might bring some comfort it might make the hardships of life a little bit less But you and I know that it really doesn't create lasting a effect upon that piece How about a second Timothy chapter 1 second Timothy chapter 1? We realize that when we make commitments to God that sometimes we can find ourselves a little over our head to say Well, how far do you take this commitment to God?
How far do we go with trying to live all out for God? And so sometimes the freedom or the peace we have is to say you know what all I need is Jesus and the rest of the Bible I'm not sure I really need just a sort of a relationship of knowing that when I die go to heaven That brings some kind of peace to our lives But it doesn't last when you and I are well aware that there's more to the faith than simply knowing where I go when I die My faith ought to take me somewhere before I get to the finish line second Timothy chapter 1 He's reminding and the apostle Paul is speaking to his son in the faith Timothy and says for this reason in chapter 1 verse 6 of Second Timothy for this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God Which is in you through the lane on of my hands and even verse 7 indicates for God to not give us a spirit of Tomidity, but a spirit of power of love and self discipline. We all like to relax We all like to enjoy life. We all like to kind of tone down our our spiritual energy and somehow we can have peace knowing that regardless of what I do in life Jesus loves me anyway Well, that doesn't always bring peace when you and I know that we're running on half a steam And we're running on a less of a passion for God We don't have peace with that forever because we ultimately know that there's ought to be something more to life about giving and investing in other People's lives than simply how my spiritual life is benefited personally There's other warnings and scripture about enjoying the grace of God and using it as a license to live however you want There's many ways that that we can find ourselves caught in a temporary kind of peace But it doesn't last and that's really what we we realize the peace that Christ gave is constantly Challenging us the move in a direction that's right and pleasing to him and the way peace comes in our life There's no in your on the right path doing the right thing with the right kind of commitment and the right kind of courage And that's we want to look at because Jesus never kind of indicated that when you come to faith You're gonna have this peace that just kind of rests upon you and you'll be okay regardless of whether you're okay or not We don't really have peace that way But let's recognize that when Jesus came and the promise of his coming that the angels gave to humanity It's interesting that the promise comes through shepherds who when they heard it they went and When Joseph and Mary were told that Rome has commanded you to go They went and when Mary was promised to be the mother of the son of God.
She said here. I am She went there's a kind of faith that responds to whatever God is attempting to do They went and when we went we get blessed we find peace and knowing that we are walking in the steps of God's purpose and plan For our lives the peace that Jesus gave is that in the midst of the troubles of life you and I will have his peace It begins first of all by realizing that peace comes in the person of Jesus Christ himself And that's what we understand about Christmas the greatest gift is that God has given us himself so that himself can live within You and I it's that internal presence of the Christ child living and beginning to manifest his presence deep within our hearts Ephesians chapter 2 speaks about this if we look to Ephesians chapter 2 and We want to recognize that until the Christ begins to dwell inside of us that that peace might be Seemingly sensed or felt but it does not manifest itself in shaping our lives And if he's in chapter 2 we want to begin looking at verses 11 And down through 14 now we notice what the Apostle Paul is talking about is that you and I need to remember a time that We were in essence without God or without the Christ in our lives look at begins in verse 11 Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth We were called the uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision that done in the body by the hands of men Remember once again that it at that time you were separate from Christ Excluded from citizenship in Israel foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and without God in the world But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ for he himself is Our peace the first thing we need to recognize about peace is peace is in a feeling It's a fact and that he says that without the blood of Jesus Christ applied to your heart and mine We are not on good terms with a holy God and because of God's holiness and his righteousness The only way we can have peace or justification legally speaking the only way we can be on right terms with God is you and I as Gentiles recognize the gospel has provided a way through faith in Jesus Christ that I stand on good terms with the holy God because of the blood that was offered in the Christ that was the message of Christmas Jesus came to die for your sins and He came to be the Savior of the whole world It's your faith in its mind of inviting Christ to be at the center or core of our lives that the peace Legally speaking is established before we feel it There is a peace that is chosen that the plan of salvation the gospel of peace I choose to give my life in application to that gospel. It's in the person of Jesus Christ in a Romans chapter 5 It goes on to explain a little bit more that having now this peace But sometimes we may interpret it as a feeling the peace that Jesus gave doesn't always feel peaceful It doesn't always seemingly give great comfort it may come with comfort But the purpose of receiving Christ is so that you and I might be in an established covenant relationship with God that he belongs to us And we belong to him and so we are on peaceful terms as far as our relationship with God But now the part of the the the peace that comes into the mind and into the heart is not only because of what Christ has done on the cross But there's Old Testament concepts that that allow this peace to be of a lasting relationship turn with me to Isaiah chapter 26 and verse 3 Isaiah chapter 26 and verse 3 As we think in terms of Jesus being the one who is the Savior of the world the one who comes to give peace to all humanity That humanity was given a Savior and the peace comes because our connection with God is through the Savior And so we adore the babe who's born not because he's cute not because he is in a lofty position We adore him because the truth is that is the creator of the universe in a feeding trot The high has been brought into a very low position And so our worship is based upon the truth that God's plan has now begun to transform my heart and my life We worship him because he is rightfully due to be honored and praise But now as we look in Isaiah chapter 26 We see a promise of peace that applies not so much to the feelings but appeals to the mind in Isaiah 26 3 you Lord Meaning Lord will keep in perfect peace whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you Our faith not only is in that babe or the person that God has promised to be the source of peace But there's a peace that comes a promise that comes an inner subtleness in my mind Not so much the feeling but it's the fact when my mind is fixed on God. He rewards you He blesses you he promises you that you will experience peace We find peace because our thinking has found a rest place and Typically when you and I allow ourselves to settle down that moments in life And we allow the word of God to be read as the word of God it promises and blesses us with a settledness of the heart Because the mind has fixed itself upon God as you and I think about these things and we hold these things dear We experience the peace that God gives Jesus came to give that peace and he came to give that true his teachings his true His word he appealed to the mind before he appealed to the heart and we Understand the beauty of this truth the promises when our minds are fixed they're steadfast upon him Something similar to that concept of the mind is well What do you and I do how do we respond to allowing our minds to be focused upon him as we go through life with a different kind of way of Looking at life look at Romans chapter 2 because we realize that quite often where people seem to Strouble with a peace about who they are and where they're going in life and the direction of life is because sometimes the conscience has been Shelled sometimes the conscience has been compromised and yet the promise again the peace that Christ gives not only comes because Jesus Himself comes to dwell within us But he also has given us a way that the mind could focus upon truth and begin to bring its own kind of peace now We see in Romans chapter 2 that the conscience now finds rest in knowing the right thing to do Romans chapter 2 We look at verse 9 and we'll read down through 16 a little bit length you have a reading but I actually to bear with me as we think in terms of the The implication of learning to let our consciences begin to give us direction and to give us validation particularly those concepts verse 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil first for the Jew then for the Gentile notice in verse 10 But glory honor and peace for everyone who does good first for the Jew and then for the Gentile some of us are well aware that Our conscience is not at rest.
We don't have peace Some of us are well aware of the seasons in life where we begin to dabble with the conscience We begin to expand it in some way and maybe cross the borders of where we experience peace and subtleness and heart the Bible promises Not only when our minds are state upon God we begin to experience peace but when the conscience is respected We also find peace there. Let's go on in verse 11 for God does not show favoritism all who sin apart from the law We'll also perish apart from the law and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law for it It is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight But it's those who obey the law who will be declared righteous verse 14 indeed when Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature things required by the law They are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law Well that seems to be confusing notice here in 15 since they show that the requirements of the law are rich in on their hearts Their consciences also bearing witness their thoughts now accusing now. We mean defending this will take place on the day When God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ We've often gone through times we say you know the Bible really doesn't forbid what I'm about to do You ever sort of been tempted to go there? But somehow my conscience has not really given me peace And so you and I need to realize your conscience is a gift that comes from God is is to give you clarity its direction It's to give you meaning and richness But again the peace Jesus gave is it so much telling you all the rules that you and I necessarily have to follow as important as they may be He's communicating to us a way that you can have peace in the midst of a world That's looking all over to find peace some other way some other method in some other thing Jesus is communicating that he himself is the secret to this piece and by allowing the words that God has given us to be Come a piece in the mind and the conscience is is certainly part of the mind But I think it's somehow the wiring between the brain and the heart your conscience Some of you might be smarter of me to know how the conscience is or where you'd find it somewhere in the wiring system I know one thing when I break the conscience.
I'm in trouble and I lose peace And when I begin to respond to what my conscience is beginning to point me towards I find so much more peace and even though someone else might seemingly have freedom to do something entirely this contrary to my conscience I don't have peace even if they get away with it I only a piece because I know that because of Jesus Christ he has activated my conscience and he has spiritualized it He has allowed my conscience to be that which helps me and guides me and gives clarity to life It's his conscience. We have peace when our conscience is a wall in and of itself that brings about a rightness Not simply to try to minimize our freedom in life, but it's to magnify the peace And when people ask us how you know this right direction You can I can honestly say as I've allowed Christ to come into my life The Bible gives me pointers and gives me direction to life but my conscience at working at a level that never worked before I often tell people there was a time in my life, and I have to humbly acknowledge my conscience was not something you could trust There's a time in my life a season in my life without God in my life that conscience allowed me to do whatever I wanted and I was perfectly at peace being an idiot in life I can clearly remember the times of doing things that I really ashamed of because the conscience wasn't operating But when you come to faith and Christ begins to manifest himself in your heart in your life Your conscience is gonna operate it gets fresh. It gets colorful. It gets clear.
It gets specific Jesus says I come to give you peace the conscience was intended not to limit life It's to fulfill it so that you and I know the path we're on. It's the right way. It's clear. It's evident It's obvious it begins to work on my behalf.
Let's turn to Romans chapter 8 Fortunately the conscience as sometimes it might be somewhat vague It might not be as clear as we like it to be there's sometimes that you and I need a little bit more help But what we're trying to understand is notice the promise of peace in each and every one of these aspects is you and I journey through life Jesus came and became a man so that he could guide us and lead us and empower us through all the resources He has so that you and I might have peace in a world that has no peace We don't need Rome to promise us peace. We don't need the government to solve our problems as the expectation was We don't necessarily need to have a Savior who works and manifests himself in the way We want he simply is the one who he himself will give us peace and guide us notice him Romans chapter 8 verses 5 and 6 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds said on what the nature desires But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires The mind of the simple man is death, but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace Now when we get to levels of commitment to God particularly when you talk about holiness or sanctification Sometimes we get a little bit uneasy because we're thinking Wow, I'm human. I'll always be human I'll always act like a human and I always will be less than divine And I realize that there's a lot of God's grace has promised to us and provided to us even in the midst of our failures and our Bumbles and everything else but there is a quality of life that the Holy Spirit has come upon us to bring us to another level in life Those of us who begin to choose to say Lord I want your Holy Spirit to guide me because as great as my conscience is sometimes it allows me to do things that are clearly wrong Sometimes the conscience doesn't seemingly empower us. It simply tells us the Holy Spirit has come to not only give clarity to life But it's also promised to give you power that's greater than yourself It's important to know that it enters to the mind It's important to know that as we let the Christ begin to speak into our life and we let his words of life begin to manifest himself We allow the conscience to give us direction the power is promised because Jesus came and gave that to us one of the greatest gifts that he left with us as he Fulfilled his ministry and walked away was the promise of his Holy Spirit His Holy Spirit is intended to allow us to become holy his Holy Spirit is promised to us to give us power and as you and I begin to Entertain these thoughts that we don't have to constantly tell ourselves I'm only human because that's a lie you and I are human beings with a God who lives inside of us And that's important to recognize the beauty of the Holy Spirit to shape and change our lives God gives us peace when you and I walk in consistency With the movement and direction of the Holy Spirit again We might feel like life is gonna get pretty limiting God's gonna take over and I'm gonna be done because now I gotta do everything That God wants me to do that is intended to give us peace that we are free from our past We are free to live in confidence and commitment to Christ We allow his Holy Spirit and Christ allowed this to take place or he accomplished it through shown up as Someone who emptied himself completely and became a baby completely dependent on Mary to take care of him and Joseph to provide for him He allowed the circumstances to bring him to a place where he could fully identify with life and then gave us the blessing of His power in life We experience peace when we begin to walk in sync with the Holy Spirit and allow our minds to be focused upon Him let's look at Hebrews chapter 12 Hebrews chapter 12 And we know that as much as the resources that God has promised for us in the person of Christ He gives us an internal peace He gives us the word of God or or the focus of our minds upon his truth when our mind is stayed upon God and his word that that brings us Peace we have the conscience gives us peace with the Holy Spirit giving us peace We wonder is there any more peace that we really need Hebrews chapter 12 and let's look at verses 7 through 11 Indoor hardship as discipline God is treating you as sons Now if you've never had a dad that ever confronted you this may not make sense But I had a father made very clear that when I did what I wasn't supposed to do He he would not only discipline me, but he every so often would make those comments.
It's because I love you You know we've all been through this and we're thinking yeah dad. I'm not sure I've really understood that as love Well, that's what it says particularly in verse 10 our fathers disciplined us for a little while while as they thought best But God disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness and 11 no discipline seems pleasant at the time I know exactly what that means but painful that too. I understand later on however notice what it promises It produces a heart of righteousness and help me out peace for those who have been trained by One of the deeper more complicated concepts of God's leading and his Holy Spirit at work Is when God himself treats us as a son and he takes us through seasons of training and discipline He takes us through periods of time in which he is doing something deeper than simply giving us what we want or need Jesus came to change us and all change We know it's not pleasant for the season But the fruit of that is a fruit of righteousness where it begins to grow or manifest itself out of our lives and the fruit of peace in our lives We have so many blessings that come and sometimes we might appreciate when Jesus showed up He gave me peace and so at Christmas time every time we look at the little manger scene We have this amazing piece that comes over us and that's the end of the piece But yet the Bible indicates that when you and I begin to walk a life that has some structure and discipline It makes sense to us we accomplish something or we become someone we never thought we could be and it gives us an inner strength and assurance That the path I'm on today is different than the path I was yesterday I think one of the leading causes of Christian struggling and kind of losing interest in in the real blessing of God is when you and I realize Yeah, I sit through past with Terry Sermons for ten years and my life my life never changed And so sooner or later we get discouraged we want to quit when I'm going to church anymore because my life isn't really changed by that Well, the Holy Spirit promises that whether I get it right or say it wrong or I make it in one tone or another The Holy Spirit is more than able to shape and change our lives He is able to fill us with an assurance and peace because I am being changed discipline is something that typically doesn't sound very spiritual doesn't It sounds pretty common It sounds pretty basic and yet the Bible clearly teaches that just as much as a curse and the movements in the Holy Spirit brings specifics and details Into our life the discipline is one of the hardest lessons to learn that I must be responsible Even if I don't feel like it. I don't sense it.
I know the discipline enough of that Let's move on to one that's maybe more exciting Philippians chapter four Philippians chapter four I trust we're taking notes today because not only do we need to allow these things to be reinforced in our mind and Heart but when people don't have peace you have resources to communicate to them and say this Jesus guy has the ability to bring Peace into the midst of your turmoil. He has the ability to speak Comfort into your life when life seemingly is difficult and hard Jesus did not come and literally change the world at the time he was there He gave his apostles the secrets to peace and he sent them in all different directions to teach That this is the way to experience the peace of Jesus Christ the Savior I particularly have run into many people who have had those moments of the joy that comes of starting to get connected to God And then they say but it's not there anymore What can you tell me? You know why my joy is not there and when I try to come back to God it doesn't give me the same goosebumps It did 10 years ago when I first committed to Christ and the idea of trying to teach and say But there's a right way to live whether you feel like it or not And you can be fully assured that the blessing of peace it'll come but you hang in there And they look at me like how long do you want me to wait? I said well where are you going for the rest of your life?
You know the important thing is God has promised to bring his peace and I can't necessarily tell you a time frame I do know one thing there's times when I go out of you know settle down and realize God you have blessed me And today really is not going well, but I'm gonna trust you The peace comes I don't know how to explain it other than by continuing to maintain the journey of faith and commitment I realize the peace that Christ gave takes me deeper as he disciplines me He shapes my life He transformed me I'm gonna be okay, even if Rome is promising peace and it doesn't seem to be bringing a whole lot of peace even these things Jesus did not come to give a faith at Christmas that always feels great Sometimes you you may approach the Christmas season again and say it's not quite as exciting as I thought it was Especially when you get the credit card payments and that kind of stuff flip it Chapter four and verses six and of seven Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving presents your question Bob and verse seven and the help me out Peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. I have begun to realize I Was always keenly aware that my worship times with Bob Were greatly connected to my peace with God What I'm learning over again as I'm studying the beauty of prayer and looking at all of the promises pertaining to it Then unless my prayer life has substance I'm not gonna have peace like I would like it There's something about your times your seasons the lengths the adventures the beauty of it all the dynamics of prayer prayer is extremely Important without a light committed to prayer then the promise of peace may simply elude us We may miss it. We may not understand it I know one thing the scriptures clearly teach that all these areas we talked about peace as they create a beauty tapestry of our face We experience a peace that transcends or rises above all understanding in other words We can't really explain it, but we can experience it We can know what it's like that when the issues of life seemed over Well, must the problems of life the fact that Rome isn't doing what they're supposed to be doing and the Jesus guy as the Jewish people Interpreter that Jesus isn't doing what he's supposed to be doing and somehow all of the voices in life simply say where is your God? We conclude that I got a Savior and he lives right here And we've learned through a relationship with him and a commitment to him and a self-discipline life towards him that you can have peace in the midst of Some of the most challenging times of life Jesus said it this way in John chapter 16 and verse 33 John chapter 16 and verse 33 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace in this world You will have trouble But take heart I will become the world and I trust by his grace and the beauty of his truth that we might reach and receive his peace And not settle for some substitute settle for some idea of what we think peace is supposed to look like let his peace Enter within your life and to fill you and to give you an inner quality of life That you and I can be satisfied content and fulfilled when life seems to be empty and broken and confusing Jesus came to give that kind of peace so deep within us that even as his world would be shattered on the cross Resurrection days coming and it's not only came for him.
It comes for each and every one of us Father we pause before you realizing that as exciting as the Christmas season may be We pray that we would be excited about the promises and truths that we can share with others We live in a broken world There's so many people discouraged overwhelmed disappointed even within your church We pray that we might be able to hold high the beauty of those secrets of true abiding peace and Bring the gospel back as the precious solution to this dilemma We pray God that in your truth and in the words you give and within the promises that we might experience the fruits So that we can have assurance that this is the way that brings peace to our hearts and Jesus name we pray Amen God bless you have a great week