Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM- The Gifts of Christmas pt 3 ~ Pastor Ryan Nichols

Good morning. I want to welcome everybody to Calvary Chapel this morning. Come on and join us as we worship the Lord. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity, this Sunday morning, this second service, to worship you in song, Lord, to look to you, to trust you, Lord. You are worthy of our praise, our worship, Lord. You who created us, Lord.

Thank you, Father God, for sending your Son to die in our stead on that cross,

shedding his blood for our sin. We know your word says without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sin. And you took care of that for us, Jesus, and we thank you. And then you promised that you wouldn't leave us as orphans when you returned to glory, but you had sent the Holy Spirit. So right now we ask that, Lord, right now, Lord, that you would fill us afresh this morning,

overflow us. And anoint this service that you would be glorified in Jesus' name. We praise you. Thank you. Would you all stand if you're able to? It's a little easier to stand for some of us than others, depending on where we are and how we kind of experience that at men's studies sometimes. Some of we fellows, we finish all that time together and all of a sudden we're getting

ready to leave and we're going, oh, you know, standing up, stretching out, you know. Oh, boy.

Of course, we, in the fall of man, changed all that. Yeah. Came spiritually.

And in Genesis 3, and we thank you, Lord, for sending your son, Jesus, to die in our stead, Lord, to raise from the dead, to ascend.

We thank you that at one point, those of us who know you as our Savior, we heard a message, Lord. Faith comes by hearing and hearing responded to you.

And Lord, to live out this Christian walk, we must abide in you, we must trust you, look to you.

Amazing grace. We follow that. We're content.

But then we think of you. Holy presence living in us and your very word. And we know that we have, we trust you. As we cast our care upon you, for you care for us. As we remember that your divine power has given us all that we need, living a godly life in you, Lord. And that abiding is a challenge. We have to be obedient. We have to trust. We have to let go and say, Lord, you can do it.

We can. All leads to, Lord, as I think about it, worship real before us. No, no messing around. And when we do, Lord, strengthen us with your hearts, Lord.

See if there'll be, so that we might confess it, right?

We worship in it.

Father, now as we continue our service, have some fellowship time.

Holy Spirit, anoint him afresh to bring forth your word, Lord. And that you'd just fill us afresh this morning as we're studying, that our hearts would be open. That that what you want to speak to us about, that we would see clearly, Lord, that our ears would listen clearly.

Greater are you who is in us than he who is in the world. And we give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen? Amen. Let's have some fellowship.

Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seat, grab a bulletin, get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. Not much to discuss in the way of announcements other than make sure that, uh, you're finding spots to get plugged into. Um, and then fellas, no men's breakfast this month because there's just way too many holiday festivities going on. So, uh, no men's breakfast and, uh, a reminder to join us on Christmas Eve at 630, uh, for

the, uh, candlelight service. Ought to be a great time together. And then we are very, getting very close to finishing the Bible. Did you guys notice that? We're getting really close there. So hopefully, uh, you've been following that with us and we'll probably continue to do that again next year. So those are the things that are going on. Uh, so we're going to be doing a lot of things.

Uh, so we're going to be doing a lot of things. Uh, so we're going to be doing a lot of things. Uh, if you would make sure that your mobile devices are silenced. And before we do anything else, we are blessed to have the kids come in and join us. Sandra's going to share a little announcement with us. And then the kids are going to be flooding in these aisles and they're going to do a

song for us.

Okay. Good morning, guys. Um, God has been doing like really incredible things in children's ministry. You guys, God has blessed us with some wonderful, wonderful teachers that just love the Lord. They love your kids. They're teaching them how to love him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, how to give, how to serve each other. It's just been, I mean, God's just cool.

And so, um, at one of our Sunday school meetings, the teachers talked about, well, gosh, let's, um, let's start it early with the kids giving to missions, et cetera, et cetera. Cause I think that was about the time, uh, the missions group was, uh, going to Honduras. But anyway, um, so we start talking about giving. Missions, uh, uh, that kind of thing. And so we started out with a little teeny thermometer, this very bottom part.

And, um, so the kids started, uh, giving and we said, Hey, there are some things that we can give, uh, Bibles, um, whatever. Cause we were thinking, oh, you know, maybe we'll get 50 bucks, maybe a hundred, you know, who knows? And the kids kept giving and giving and giving. So we added a second little. And, um, they up to $662 is what the kids gave. I know.

Isn't that cool? Last week we had kind of a fun, um, a fun Sunday and we had special snacks and we talked about missions and these were all the things that the kids, uh, cause we told them to go home, pray about what, what you think God wants these kids to have and their families. And so the very first thing, cause we said, okay, what would you? Uh, like these kids to have and every single one of them, the first thing they said was a Bible.

Isn't that cool? So, so of course we put that on the list. So we had enough money, um, to get a livestock. So they all voted that we do one big livestock and that would be a cow or a goat or I don't know if there's, they were, there was a whole, whole list of things. And so Shauna Smith has been the ringleader on that and she's been wonderful. She's just been wonderful.

So she ended up ordering. But then the kids just continued to vote and we ended up just doing two of everything else. And that was Bibles, bees, um, chickens, trees, and, um, oh, and goat, goat. So, um, so we just wanted to share this with you guys cause God is just doing really, really cool things back there on the, on the other half of the church. And, um, we wanted to be able to share that with you.

So they've got a little song. Um, it was one that they did in VBS. But it's a Christmas song. So we thought, Hey, that'll be great to do. So, um, so we'll share that with you. And, um, again, we thank you parents cause we're, we're partnering with you guys. Um, cause the kids are all gods anyway, and we want to do what we can along with you guys to partner with you, to raise them up, to be, uh, the next leaders, right?

They're, uh, that's what God has. So that's what we're trying to do. If you have any questions, see me or any of the teachers. Um, we'd love. We'd love to talk to you. So thank you. Good job guys. Man. I love listening to tiny people saying, all right, so for, uh, for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm four, Psalm four, looking at the new American

standard for this part. If you need one should be a copy around you. And as you're turning to Psalm four, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word. You made it through traffic. It was, it was a lot of kids. Right? Yeah. It was a lot of kids. There's a lot of kids. I will read the odd versus if you will follow along with Pastor Allen in the even

verses. Psalm four for the choir director on stringed instruments, the Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, Oh God of my righteousness, you have relieved me in my distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. Oh, sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? Selah. But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for himself.

The Lord hears when I call to him. Tremble and do not sin. Meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust the Lord. And you're saying who will show us any good. Lift up the light of your countenance upon us. Oh, Lord. You have put gladness in my heart more than when they're grained. And you're saying who will show us any good.

Lift up the light of your countenance upon us. and new wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety. And Father, we come before you, and I praise you that you are the God who hears our prayer. You're the God who hears us when we call, and you are the God who ultimately brings us peace, security, and safety. And so, Lord, we find our rest in you. So, Father, as we

spend time talking about that subject of peace this morning, I pray that you would work in our hearts exactly what you want us to learn this morning, that you would give us ears to hear, hearts to perceive, and minds to take in everything that your Holy Spirit has to say. We just pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, to start with, open up in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah chapter 9.

Isaiah chapter 9. Today we come to part three of our Christmas series, and the subject that we're discussing today is peace. Peace. We've looked at joy and how the coming of the Lord brought joy to all of us as people, brought joy to the world. We've looked at hope and how God restored hope through the coming of Jesus Christ. And today, we will talk about peace. And as we've been doing, we will first of all

define peace. We will talk about conflict, and then we will talk about Jesus. So, everyone seems to talk about peace all the time. We just finished up a political season, although as I often comment, I don't know that it's ever. Not political season anymore, but in political seasons, it seems like peace gets brought up a lot because everybody seems to have a plan, right? Or at least they think they have a plan, or they want

to have a plan that we should follow for peace. We would like to see peace in the Middle East. We would like to see peace throughout the world. We want to see peace within our nation. Sometimes we want to feel peace within our hearts. Maybe you want to have peace within your own family, but everybody somehow is seeking some kind of peace because we kind of get tired of the

conflict of the world, and we're looking for that place of rest. Well, as we define the word peace, it's defined this way. It is a state of tranquility or quiet. It literally means freedom from civil disturbance. And ultimately, that tranquility, that quiet, that freedom from disturbance is what we're all looking for. But unfortunately, what is missing in the world today. As a matter of fact, what we more often come across in the world today,

and for us to truly understand peace, we'll have to spend some time talking about it, is conflict. Conflict. It seems to be everywhere around us. Again, as defined, the word conflict means a struggle or a clash between opposing forces. And if you have kids, you know exactly what I'm talking about, right? You experienced conflict before you left the house this morning, didn't

you? Don't tell me you didn't. I've gotten kids ready first thing in the morning. You have a clash of two opposing forces, a parent that wants to get there on time and a kid that does not care, right? And so that's what conflict is. It can also be described as strife or as, like, turmoil. And those words, I think, are also very good to describe what goes on in the world

today, what happens in our lives today. Well, it's interesting. If you spend some time on the Google machine and you start looking up different things, I looked up, so what are the main types of conflict? And do you know, I was given at least three different answers on not only what the main types of conflict are, but how many there are. I was told that there are four main types of

conflict. I was told that there are five main types of conflict. And if you're a writer, it's up to seven types of conflict that you have to deal with. And I thought, wow, that's kind of growing every time I re-Google this whole thing. And so I thought about it, not necessarily from the worldly perspective. I thought about it more from the godly perspective, because after all,

it's church. That's what we should probably do. And so I thought, let's take some of those ideas and put together in a simplified form what I think are the three main types of conflict that all of humanity experiences. All of humanity, I feel like, is in a constant state of experiencing these three types of conflict. And so I thought, well, let's take some of those ideas and put

three types of conflict, and they all sort of build on each other. The first main type of conflict that we go through is the conflict of man versus God. Man versus God. You see, God has created the world, and he has established rule. He's established order. He's established morality. He's established his law and what that's supposed to look like. And we, as humanity,

fight against that. We fight against God and his laws. We fight against God and his statutes. We fight against God and his laws. And so we have to establish not only our own ideas of what that looks like, but also our own ideas of what we think other people should think that it looks like as well. And we're constantly in this struggle with God for who is going to be in

charge of our lives. And we keep telling ourselves, I can be my own God. And so we're always in this struggle between man and God. The second type of conflict is man versus himself. We'll call that internal conflict. Man versus himself. And forever, we have this conflict on the inside of us. We have it before we're saved and that we're constantly fighting against the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

And even after we're saved, sometimes we can have this conflict within ourselves, either against the flesh or with worry, but we have this conflict, this internal struggle within ourselves. And as we have a struggle with God and as we have conflict within ourselves, that always spills out into conflict of man versus man. And that's what we see. We see man in conflict with each other throughout the world.

That's usually what we think of when we think of a lack of peace, right? Is we see in the Middle East that there's a major struggle, a major conflict, turmoil between two warring groups of people. Russia and Ukraine, two warring groups of people. You name the place and that's exactly what's taking place. There's man against himself or man versus man and we're constantly fighting with each other

and constantly looking for peace. Well, I also started to ask, I ask myself the question, if these are common, and I feel like they're pretty common conflicts in the world, where do they come from? Where did all of this conflict in the world come from? Well, I'll take you back to the same place that we've gone back to almost every single time with the issues that we deal with in our world because it's where they all started.

It all started within the Garden of Eden. And it started the day that man said, I can be my own God. When presented with the temptation, when presented with the opportunity, not only did it look good, not only was the, the thought there that it would taste good, but what really got them is that they could be like God, knowing good from evil. And when sin came into the garden, it created a conflict, first of all, between God and man.

Because man started asking themselves, did God really say? Is God withholding something from me? Maybe God's not really that good. Maybe God's not really that loving. Maybe God's withholding something that's actually going to be good for me. And there started to be a struggle between man and God. And then after Adam's sin, there was a struggle between man and himself.

Because you remember the first thing that they did, they hid themselves from God. You know why? Because there was an internal turmoil that was created because of sin. That internal turmoil was called guilt. And that guilt was created because of sin. And that guilt came in and it caused him to not only hide himself physically from God, but to separate himself spiritually from God.

And that conflict between man and himself and God and man was ushered in. And that immediately led to a conflict between man versus man. Because what was the very first thing that happened when God confronted man with their sin? Do you remember? It's her fault. It's her fault. It's his fault. They did it. And this conflict of man versus man began to take place.

Or in this particular instance, man versus woman. Began to take place. And it spilled over in Genesis chapter 4 into the very first murder. Because I'm here to tell you right now, conflict that's not dealt with in Christ eventually leads to death. Because that's just the problem that it leads to. And so it led to that in Genesis chapter 4. And so we see this

conflict now spread throughout the entire world. And it took such a short amount of time that once sin entered the world and we were at conflict with God and we were at conflict with ourselves that it spread to all of the other people around us. Well, now that I've kind of created for you a little bit of a bleak picture of the conflicts that we all deal with, let's talk about Jesus. Because there's two things I want to talk to you about when it comes to Jesus.

I want to talk about the promise and then I want to talk about the Word. And the promise actually begins before this scripture that I have right here. Because the promise actually began in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. A familiar place. I've taken this back to several different times. You don't need to turn there, but you might reference it. You might write it in the margin of a Bible

or on your notes page. Because that was the very first promise that was given. When those consequences were handed out, God said, I will put enmity, strife, turmoil between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Or between the seed of the woman and the serpent. And one day the serpent will bruise his heel. But one day the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.

There's this beautiful scene at the very beginning of Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ. And it's the scene where Jesus is in the garden praying. And it's that time when he's praying so intensely that he's sweating great drops of blood. And as he's praying, artistically, because this isn't scripture, it's just an artistic interpretation. But artistically they have

this snake crawling through the scene. And of course you all know how much I love snakes. Always kind of shocked me when I'd see it. And the snake is crawling through and it's just about to strike Jesus on the heel. And immediately Jesus lifts up his heel and he crushes the head of the snake. Showing that the promise from Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 is about to be fulfilled through the work

of Jesus Christ on the cross. Because it was the promise of a Messiah who would come and who would ultimately end strife and bring peace. Well, the next place that I want you to look at the promise is here in Isaiah chapter 9. I want you to look at verses 6 and 7. Isaiah chapter 9, if you haven't turned there yet, verses 6 and 7. It's a familiar passage because we've read it one or two other

times, but I'd like to read it to us again in the context of Jesus bringing peace. It says, For a child will be born to us, and a son will be given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. And there will be no end to the increase of the government of his peace.

And so it tells us something about Jesus at this point in time. It tells us something about this coming Messiah. The coming Messiah who would be the seed of the woman. The coming Messiah who would ultimately crush the head of the serpent. This coming Messiah will be a Prince of Peace. That word Prince speaks of a ruler. Someone who is a ruler of peace. Or someone who institutes

peace. Because that's what Jesus would do. He would be the one who would ultimately bring this peace into the world. A world that was struck with the turmoil and the strife and the conflict of sin. Well that brings us to the next promise, which is really more of an announcement. It comes in Luke chapter 2. So turn over to Luke chapter 2. Again, another familiar passage, but I want to

look at it in this context. As we look at Luke chapter 2, I want to look at Luke chapter 2, verse 8. Luke chapter 2, verse 8. Of course, this is the announcement of the birth of Christ. And it says, In the same region, meaning the region around Bethlehem, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord

suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, for all people. For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby

wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angels a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased. So here we have the announcement of the coming of the Lord, the one who will bring peace. Because he says, you're going to find this baby.

He is the Christ. He is the one who will save the world from sin. And you'll find him in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes, just chilling there in a place where babies aren't supposed to be, but that's where you're going to find him. And don't worry, because this is a beautiful thing. And they start to praise him, and he says, Peace on earth among men with whom he is pleased.

And he's been speaking about this for a long time. In fact, in the book of Isaiah, this is what Luke said in Luke chapter 2, in chapter 9, verse 6 and 7. He said, Peace on earth among men with whom he is pleased. He said, Peace on earth among men with whom he is pleased. And so we have this promise of the coming of peace. And so we have this promise of the coming of peace.

But the last thing that we'll look at, our main points that we're going to look at today, is we're going to look at the work of peace that jesus did with us and so following those three same main conflicts that we discussed earlier there's three things that we're going to look at with the work of peace in our lives number one jesus brings peace with god jesus brings peace with god turn over to romans chapter 5. go to your right go past the gospels past the book of acts and arrive at romans if you hit first corinthians you went too far if you hit revelation you went really too far romans chapter 5 and i want you to look at verse 1. quick synopsis of romans romans is the uh

it's the treatise of the gospel right paul gives us the theme in the very beginning he says for i'm not ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ for it is the power of god unto salvation to all who believe to the jew first and also to the greek and so that's what he does is he lays out the gospel the first word of the gospel is that man is a sinner in desperate need of a savior the second word of the gospel is that jesus provided a new way to be saved that had nothing to do with keeping the law because we don't want to be saved we want to be saved we want to be saved we want to be saved we can never keep the law but by faith in jesus christ and after he explained the importance of

faith in jesus christ and that's how we're saved in romans chapter 5 he begins to tell us what it looks like for us now that we are saved and so romans chapter 5 verse 1 says this therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ we're introduced to a theological word there and that word is justified that word is a is a judicial term and it means to be declared not guilty or to be declared righteous that's the idea if you stretched out the word it gives a really simple definition for it to be justified means just as if i'd never sinned because it's a judicial announcement that because you have put your faith in jesus christ because you have believed that the sacrifice of jesus

was enough for you you have now been declared righteous in the eyes of god because up to that point in time we were only covered in sin we were covered in the filth of this world we were only covered in the filth of this world we were covered in the garbage of this world and we were stained with the sin that we had received from adam and we were separated from god we were at war with god and quite frankly god was at war with us because he cannot be in the side of sin he can't be around it that's why you and i could never be allowed into the presence of god up until the coming of jesus because he ultimately dealt with our sin and now that we have been justified declared righteous

we have peace with god you see it would be like this it's like it's like if we were at war with god because we were and he comes to us with a peace treaty he's like listen here's the only terms of the peace treaty number one you have to admit that you're a sinner number two you have to believe that i've already paid for your sins you just have to believe now sign here that's the easiest peace treaty in the world to sign right wait i did something wrong you've already taken care of it i just have to say yes yes done sign it as soon as you sign the peace treaty we call it peace treaty number one we've worked hard to build peace treaty number one we're doing it right

this is really important we're doing it right we're doing it right we've done it right so we've done it right we've done it right i mean look at the blessings of god and in the holy book look at the blessings of god in the holy book this is not a great thing to do or to feel without it i mean in the holy book is there no form of grace that can be given to you by god not just like the holy book a dream or a reality but god has the power of living according to his word the power of his word his word is the power of Verses 19 and 20 of Colossians.

Chapter 1 of Colossians is all about Jesus. Who He is, His great power, and what He's done for us. It says in verse 19 of Colossians chapter 1, For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross. Through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

We're introduced to a second theological term. The first was justified, just as if I'd never sinned, declared righteous in the eyes of God. The second word that we're introduced to is the word reconciled. Now, reconciled is a really cool word. Reconciled means to restore to former harmony. To restore to former harmony. Now, I want you to think about something.

Adam and Eve lived. They lived with perfect harmony with God in the garden. Everything was perfect. We know that because they were clothed in the righteousness of God. They had no idea about sin. They had no idea about uncleanness. They had no idea about evil. And every day, God showed up and walked with them. And it was perfect harmony. Sidebar, I absolutely want to know what that looks like.

I want to know what it looks like to just walk with God every single day. I have a glimpse of it now. We'll talk about that in just a moment. We have a glimpse of it now. But I wonder what it was like for God. Just to chill with you in the garden every single day, right? And that's the harmony that they lived in until sin came. Because the time of the day when Adam and Eve were supposed to walk with God

in perfect harmony in the garden showed up. And God showed up. And Adam and Eve had hidden themselves. Why? Because their harmony was disrupted by sin. And now there was conflict. Now they had a conflict with God. They had a conflict with each other. And they had a conflict within themselves. Because of sin. And so when Jesus came, it says, That's why when Jesus died and the veil of the temple was torn in two,

we could have access to God. Because the former harmony that we had in the garden was now restored in a spiritual sense. And that's what took place. How did that happen? Well, he goes on to say, Through him, verse 20, to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Whether they were things on earth or things in heaven. How did he restore the former harmony?

He restored the former harmony through the blood of the cross. How did the blood of the cross take place? Well, because 2,000 years ago, God took on the form of a man. And he became a baby. And he was born among us. And he lived among us. And he died for us to establish peace with him. And now because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, it all came about because he chose to be born as a baby to live among us.

We now have peace with God. And I have a question for you this morning. Are you at peace with God? Are you at peace with God this morning? Or are you still at war with God? I'm here to tell you right now, if you have never accepted the Lord as your Savior, you're at war with God. And there's no other way to put it. And God's wrath is abiding upon you. And the moment that you take your last breath on this earth,

you will experience the wrath of God in full. And there's only one way that you can be at peace with God. That's by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. By accepting the sacrifice, of his blood shed for you on the cross. And then you can be at peace with God. But I'm here to tell you right now, if you're here this morning and you're not at peace with God,

you will never be at peace with yourself, and you will never be at peace with anyone else. Ever. Because that has to be where it starts. So number one, Jesus has brought us peace with God. Number two, Jesus gives us the peace of God. He gives us the peace, of God. I want you to go over to Isaiah chapter 26,

all the way back to the Old Testament. If I was a thinking man, I would have said, hold your finger on Isaiah and go these other places. But I'm not. I do appreciate you guys bearing with all the Bible Olympics the past three weeks. It's fun for me, but I know sometimes it's a little bit challenging when you're the person out there flipping pages in the Bible,

because I know where I'm going and you didn't see my notes ahead of time. So now we have this peace with God. And once you have this peace with God, nothing can ever take that away. You're always at peace with God. You've signed the treaty and God's wrath no longer abides on you. And you're a child of God. That's something no one can take from you is the peace with God.

But there's a difference between being at peace with God and experiencing the peace of God. You see, the peace of God is something that can kind of come and go, depending on whether or not you're really resting in who God is in your life, depending on whether or not you're really trusting God. And so Jesus, though, wants to give us the peace of God. And so Jesus, though, wants to give us the peace of God.

So that we no longer have this internal struggle inside of us. And so I want you to notice what it says in Isaiah chapter 26, verse 3. It says, If you want perfect peace in your life, it starts with you learning to trust God. It starts with you learning to trust Him with every aspect of who you are. And this is where your internal struggle, will really begin.

And this will be the place that if you can come to the place of trusting God, your internal struggle will end. Because once we really learn to trust God, once we really learn to rest in who God is, then it takes away all of the struggle. It takes away the struggle that I have with my flesh. It takes away the struggle that I have with my worry. It takes away all that turmoil that I have on the inside of me.

But it's a hard thing to do. And there's a process that we go through. We walk through this process. Go over to John chapter 14. John chapter 14. You're like, man, I just got to Isaiah.

John 14. And I want you to look at verse 27. Again, John 14 is one of Jesus' last teachings to His disciples before He's going to be crucified and then ultimately resurrected and ascended into heaven. So He's giving Him final instructions. And as He's giving them final instructions, especially when it comes to the Holy Spirit, He tells them something. He tells them something really beautiful about a gift that He wants to give to them.

Notice what it says in John chapter 14, verse 27. He says, So we know that there is a peace for those who trust God. So where does that trust come in? Well, that trust, that trust comes when we begin to realize that Jesus has given us this peace. So if I want to know peace, I trust God. And ultimately, that means I need to listen to and trust everything that Jesus has to say.

Go with me another place in Scripture. Colossians. Go to your right. Colossians chapter 3. And I want you to look at verse 15.

Fun fact, I almost read to you Galatians 3.15, which would have done nothing for us. I mean, it would have been good, but it wouldn't have had anything to do with what I wanted to say. Colossians chapter 3, verse 15. I'll give it a second while the pages turn. I like hearing that.

Colossians chapter 3, verse 15 says this. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. To which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. That word rule means to umpire or to govern. In other words, the peace of God is what should happen. We have the ultimate authority in our hearts. We have this hope of being able to find peace by trusting in God.

It's a gift that Jesus has given to us. And if we want the peace of Christ in our lives, we need to let it rule our hearts. That indicates that there's a decision that we have to make every day. A decision that we make with this internal struggle with who am I going to trust? Am I going to trust what my flesh says? Or am I going to trust what God says? Am I going to believe what the world says?

Or am I going to believe and trust in what God says? Because I am called to make a decision to allow the peace of Christ to rule in my hearts. I promise I'm about to come to a culmination because you're probably thinking, what does this have to do with anything? Well, how do you allow the peace of Christ that he has gifted to us to rule in our hearts? Great question, right?

Go to Philippians. Back to your left, about two pages. Philippians chapter 4. I want you to look at verses 6 and 7.

Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. It says this. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. We've just received. We've just reached the culmination. How do we allow the peace of God to rule in our hearts?

Well, first of all, we have to stop being anxious, as it literally says, about even one thing. You know what that indicates to me? The fact that we have to be told to stop being anxious tells me that we probably struggle with being anxious. Can we all agree with that? You know, it's interesting this time of year to see the anxiousness that people have. It's supposed to be a time of hope.

It's supposed to be a time of joy. It's supposed to be a time of peace. And yet, if you go Christmas shopping, all of those are missing, right? The other day, we were Christmas shopping. Friday is usually my day off. And so we were getting some Christmas shopping finished up. And we were at the mall. And this is a Friday afternoon, right? It's not even a Saturday.

And there was still great turmoil taking place in the mall. It's a great conflict. I enjoy watching people shop because I just like to watch people. And I have to be careful because they get the creeps. They stare, right? But I love watching people shop. And I love listening to husbands and wives shop together. Because I don't know if you know this or not. We don't do anything the same, especially shop, right?

Like men are a see the hill, take the hill sort of a people, right? We want to know what's on the list. We want to get what's on the list. And we want to get done because the game is probably on, right? Like that is the way we view shopping. It's just like how can we get it done as fast as we possibly can? And women say, but let's make sure there's not another deal, right?

And so we need to see every aisle in the store. We need to see every department perhaps multiple times in order to really make sure that we shop the way that we're supposed to. And so listening to men and women do that two different ways, super fun for guys like me, right? I just want to follow those couples around and just every now and then just be like go on, tell me more, right?

Because it's just fun. Right? I love listening to the struggle. I know that's terrible of me. It gives me good sermon illustrations, sometimes good counseling information. But it's just, it's kind of fun, right, to listen to because it's two different things. The struggle, right? And it's interesting to hear the internal struggle that goes on because men are like,

why are we still looking here? I thought we had everything that we needed. Aren't we done yet? Right? And then there's this struggle going on. But anyway, I don't know what that had to do with anything, but it's being anxious. Because you can see the anxiousness on people when they're Christmas shopping because they're like, oh, I don't know if I can really afford that.

Right? We checked out somewhere and some guy behind us goes, I'm angry for you. Right? Because sometimes you get done checking out and you're like, wow, that was okay. So there's that. Inflation, you know, building back better. You know, all those kinds of things take place and you're like, what the heck? And you can just hear the anxiousness in people's voices.

And that's what we deal with as people is to stop being anxious. Sometimes we get anxious because we can't overcome that aspect of the flesh and we have this turmoil in us and we're battling with sin and we want to overcome it. We can't. We get anxious about it. Sometimes we get anxious. We get anxious because we're worried about finances or we're worried about our health

or we're worried about, you name the thing. He says, stop being anxious. And if we're going to do the next thing, you have to begin to identify what it is that's stressing you out. You have to identify what it is that's creating the worry. You have to figure out what it is that's creating that anxiousness inside of you. Because then comes step two. He says, pray about everything.

He says, pray about everything. It was interesting. It was interesting. I was listening to, sidebar, this has nothing to do with my message, but I'm going to tell you anyway. I've visited with several people recently, recently, couldn't mean the last two years in my mind, but recently, that are dealing with loved ones or friends or people that have gotten caught up in same-sex lifestyles.

It's just, it's what they're doing and they're dealing with it. And so I've been telling them about this lady whose testimony I heard, her name's Patty Height, and I couldn't find her website. I did, something's wrong with her website right now. And so, so I found a YouTube video and I sent it to a friend of mine who said she was trying to walk somebody through that.

And so I just listened to it on my way out to a basketball game in Nowhere, Oklahoma yesterday. And, and it was fascinating because she talked about what God did to deliver her from that, what, what God did to work her through that. And man, this has nothing to do with anything in the world other than if you're a parent here this morning. That's struggling with a wayward child.

If, if you, whether it's because of that issue or something else, this woman got saved because the Holy Spirit ministered to her. That was it. All she knew about the church is that the church hated her because of her lifestyle. And she said, one morning I woke up and I rolled over and looked at my girlfriend, my lesbian girlfriend that I'm laying in bed with.

And I said, I don't think we're supposed to be doing this. And she said, I don't think we're supposed to be doing this either. And they found a church where they heard the gospel and through the Old Testament and the New Testament, they were, it was revealed to them that they were living in sin, that they needed to find Jesus. She said, you can't tell me that that wasn't the Holy Spirit living rent free in that lesbian bedroom, preaching the gospel to us.

And so if you're here this morning and you've got a wayward child or you've got somebody that, that, that just needs to come back to Jesus and you're going, I don't even know who's going to minister to him. Please just don't forget about the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit can do it. He can do all kinds of amazing things that has nothing to do with anything that I was going to share.

Although if that's what you're anxious about, just know that that's what God's in the business of doing is changing lives. Well, anyway, she talked about coming out of this lifestyle and she said, I had to real, I realized that there was so many things in my life that brought me to this point. And as these past hurts and past pains would come up, all I knew to do was just take them to God in prayer. I just had to keep taking everything to God in prayer just over and over and over again.

And she said, I would tell my problems to other people and they're like, we have no idea how to solve your problem, but we'll pray with you. And she said, I just had to learn to take everything to the Lord in prayer. And it's like something just happened in me personally. I'm not talking about her. I'm talking about me. And I'm like, why do I sometimes discount the importance of prayer?

I teach on it all the time. I know it's important, but it descended on me in a completely different way as I heard her testimony. And friends, you learn to have the peace of God. As you learn to take all of your issues to God, as you learn to give all of those things to the Lord, your peace continues to grow and increase. You know how I know that? Well, I know it for two reasons.

One, because it says it right here. It says, don't be anxious about anything. It said, pray about everything. And then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds. That word guard is a military term. It means to garrison. It means to set a guard around. He will guard your heart. That's what the peace of God does as you learn to take all of your issues to him.

And listen, praying and giving our things to God is not a once done thing. Well, I did that today and it didn't work. No, it's what you have to do over and over and over and over again. It has to become the theme of your life that when it comes up, you take it to God. When it comes up, you give it to God. Because that's an internal struggle. It's you learning to trust God with it and not you with it.

And so we realize that peace in our hearts, the peace of God was promised to us. It was a gift that Jesus gave to us. It's something that should rule us, but it comes as we stop being anxious and start trusting God through prayer with all the things that we have going on in our lives. So number one is we have peace with God. Number two, we have the peace. Number three, we have peace with others.

Go to the book of Ephesians. It's right before Philippians. I want you to look at chapter two. And we're going to read verses 14 through 17.

Ephesians chapter two is all about how God has brought Gentiles who used to be very far from God because not only did sin separate them from God, but they were not God's chosen people. They did not have the law. They didn't have any of those kinds of things. And so they were alienated. But God has now brought them to the book of Ephesians. God has now brought them near.

And I want you to notice what it says in verse 14. For he himself is our peace who made both groups into one. And he broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is in the law of commandments and ordinances so that in himself he might make two into one new man, thus establishing peace. And he might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross.

By it, having put to death the enmity, and he came and prayed, preached peace to you who are far away. That's the Gentiles and peace to those who were near. That's the Jews. For through him, we both have our access in one spirit to the father. Now, what I want to tell you is that there was at the time Paul wrote this very few conflicts as great as there was between Jews and Gentiles.

Jews and Gentiles hated each other, especially at this point in time. Not much has changed based on what we see today. But Jews and Gentiles hated each other at this point in time. Jews looked at the Gentiles as unholy, unclean people who God would use to stoke the fires of hell. As a matter of fact, if a Jew was walking down the street and a Gentile was walking towards them,

they would not only walk across the street, but they would hold their coat just a little bit tighter so that none of the uncleanness of that Gentile pig would come across on them, right? That was how they felt about them. Vice versa, the Gentiles hated the Jews because they thought that their laws were weird. They thought they were cussing. They thought their customs were weird.

They thought their sacrifices were weird. And quite frankly, if somebody thinks that God's going to use you to stoke the fires of hell, kind of hard to be friendly, right? That's how they felt about them. And there was this huge barrier that took place between those two groups of people. And then comes the gospel. Jews start getting saved because they realize that all of the law told them about Jesus.

And now they're coming to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But all of a sudden, now the gospel's going out to Gentiles. And Gentiles are like, I don't know anything about the law, but I'm a sinner and I need Jesus. And so they start getting saved. And now you have the two most hated groups in the world coming together in one church. And so Paul said, isn't that just like God?

Because he broke down the middle wall of separation. Now, to understand that phraseology, to understand the picture he uses there, we have to understand the temple. See, the way that the temple was set up at the time of Paul is that you had three different courts. You had the court of the Gentiles, the court of the women, the court of the men, and then all of the inner things of the tabernacle that we've talked about before.

Well, in between the court of the Gentiles where anybody could go and the court of the women where only Jews could go past, there was a big wall there. And on that wall or in that wall was a door that you could walk through. But above that door was a sign. And the sign was a warning to all of the Gentiles that if they passed through that door, they could be subject to death.

There was a dividing wall that they could not get past. That's what any... Anybody who had ever gone to Jerusalem and seen the temple knew. That's why when Paul wrote, he is our peace who has broken down the middle wall of separation, all of the Jews knew exactly what he was talking about. There's no more separation between people. And brothers and sisters, everybody wants to figure out how to bring peace with people, right?

We want to figure out how to bring racial peace and all these different kinds of things. And everybody has all these plans. We need diversity. We need equity. We need all these different kinds of things. No, we don't. We need Jesus. Because Jesus is our peace who breaks down the middle wall of separation. Because you see, in Christ, we're told... As a matter of fact, Galatians.

You don't need to turn there. Just write it down. Galatians 3, verse 28. In Galatians 3, verse 28, we are told, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. We are all one in Christ. Because in Christ, there are only two groups. There are two groups of people. Those who are in Christ and those who are not in Christ.

And if you are in Christ, you're my brother or sister in Christ. I don't care what you look like. If you're not in Christ, I just want to see you saved. And it breaks down all of the socioeconomic barriers. It breaks down the racial barriers. It breaks down the ethnic barriers, the national barriers. It breaks all of it down. Because all of us are now one in Christ.

When I was in Bible college, we took a little short-term mission trip, one-day deal down to Tijuana. And we helped the church do some work down in Tijuana. And at the end of it, there was one guy who was kind of the guy that was our translator or whatever. And then there was the pastor of the church. And the pastor of the church did not speak English. He only spoke Spanish.

And he said, hey, he would like to pray for you guys. He doesn't know English, but he really wants to pray for you guys. Are you guys okay with that? We're like, absolutely. And so he starts praying. And I couldn't understand anything that he said until he said two things. Padre, I knew he meant Father. I knew he was talking to the Father. And then Jesucristo, I knew he was talking about Jesus.

And I was like, isn't it amazing that I have no idea anything that this guy says, but there's one thing that breaks down every barrier that we've got, and that's that we both believe in Jesus. And if we want there to be peace with each other, we have to realize that there is no barrier between us anymore. Because Jesus died to give us peace. He doesn't just give us peace with God.

He gives us peace with each other. He doesn't just restore our relationship with God. He restores our relationships with Jesus. He gives us peace with each other. But you say, Ryan, what about when people hurt me? I mean, I understand there's no racial barriers and all those kinds of things, but you don't understand. I'm in conflict with people because they've hurt me.

I'm bitter against people because they've hurt me. Look down at verse 32 of chapter 4. Verse 32 of Ephesians 4. It says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God and Christ has forgiven you. He tells us to do three things in there. Did you notice it? Remember when he tells us to be kind? We should be kind to each other. And I think sometimes that's just a little bit missing in the church today, especially

the conservative church today, especially the right-wing church today. Sometimes we miss kindness. I stand on truth and I don't care who I offend. Well, that's great. But maybe be kind about it. Because we're still to be kind to one another, right? You don't understand. I mean, stop it. Be nice. That's what God calls us to do. To be kind to one another. You don't understand.

I mean, stop it. Be nice. That's what God calls us to do. To be kind to one another. You don't understand. I mean, stop it. Be nice. That's what God calls us to do. To be kind to one another. The second thing we have to do is learn to be tenderhearted towards each other. Be tenderhearted towards each other. Anybody ever hurt you really deep? Anybody ever hurt you really bad?

You ever thought to yourself, maybe the reason why they hurt me is because they're in a conflict with God, or they're in a conflict with themselves, therefore they're in a conflict with me. Right? Have you ever thought of it that way? We don't want to think about it that way, right? Because if I think about it that way, then I have to be understanding of them.

And they've hurt me. I don't want to be understanding of them. They've hurt me. I don't want to be understanding of where they're coming from. But have you ever been in one of those places where nothing's going right, and everything in the world is irritating you, and then one person just happens to be in the way of the irritation of all of the other things that happen, and they say good morning, and you

bite their head off and spit it out and throw it on the floor? And they're like, what'd I do? Nothing. I'm just really angry about everything else that's happened, and I didn't like the tone with which you said good morning. But maybe if you're a little bit tenderhearted, you go, I bet things went bad. I bet things went bad before they got here. In a premarital counseling book that I use with couples, one of my favorite stories tells

the story of a guy that gets on a train with three kids. And his three kids are just going crazy, and he's not doing anything about it. And one of the people leans over to him and says, Sir, you should really try to control your kids. And he says, I'm sorry. Their mother just died. But you're probably right. I should probably control them a little better. You see, sometimes we need to be a little bit tenderhearted and realize that maybe if

somebody's got something bad going on, maybe if they're biting your head off, maybe if they're treating you like garbage, it's because they've got some garbage going on in their lives. But if we're kind and we're tenderhearted, then it's easier for us to handle that. Then it's easier for us to do what he says next. He says, forgiving one another. Ryan, I can't forgive them.

You don't know what they've done. I don't care what they've done. You hurt Jesus more than they've ever hurt you. And he forgave you. And if you want to live at peace with others, and if you want to live at peace with God, and if you want to live at peace with yourself, then the forgiveness that he has extended to you, you have to extend to them. Because Jesus says so.

And listen, this message isn't for everybody else. This message is for you. Because it's easy to take this and go, you're right, I should share this with somebody else. But maybe this one's for you. And you need to hear this for yourself. Jesus didn't come to the earth just so that we could write some Christmas songs that are really fun and so that we could give gifts to each other.

Jesus came to the earth to bring peace. He came to bring, first of all, peace with him. To restore our relationship with him. He came to give you peace of mind. So that you could have the peace of God ruling and reigning in your heart. And he came to restore your peace with each other. We only do that as we understand what he's done for us. And we extend that same grace to the people around us.

Amen? Let's all stand.

And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you for the day that you've given to us. I thank you for the time that we've had in your word. Lord, I thank you for kids singing songs about Jesus. I thank you for kids who have a heart, a heart to minister to people they've never met before. Lord, I thank you for what the Holy Spirit's doing in the Sunday school class.

Lord, I thank you for what the Holy Spirit's doing in this church. I thank you for what the Holy Spirit's doing in this room this morning. And Lord, I want to lift up whoever it is that's bitter in this room this morning. Because I feel like your Spirit's told me that that's a problem here this morning. That there is bitterness and unforgiveness that's being harbored.

And they're not experiencing the peace of God because they're not experiencing peace with man. Lord, your word tells us that those things all work together. And Lord, it's hard because they've been hurt. But Lord, your Holy Spirit wants to do a work in their heart. So Lord, whoever that is this morning. I just want to pray for them. And I want to pray, God, that you would heal their hurt.

I want to pray, God, that they would know that they're not alone. I want to pray, God, that they would surrender the anger. And Lord, I want to pray that you would fill them with your peace. Lord, that you would fill them with that heart of forgiveness. Lord, that they would take all of that to you. And Father, for each of us that's here this morning. May we certainly know and understand.

The peace that we have with you. May we experience the peace that we can have that comes from you. And Lord, if there are things that need dealt with. Would you deal with them? And Father, may we experience true peace this Christmas. As we take time to meet with our families. And share in the joy of the Savior, Jesus Christ. So Father, we thank and we praise you.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. I look forward to your joining you as you come back. Bless now. Give us a blessed week. And strengthen us. And may we trust you. Lord bless you all.