Mark

All right. Well, good morning, everybody. Thanks for being here and making grace a part of your Sunday. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here. If I haven't gotten the chance to meet you, I'd love to do that in the lobby after the service if you'd like to do that as well. This is the fourth part of our series that we're kicking the year off with called Prayers for You. So it's different aspects of life and kind of prayers over those things for 2025. And so we've looked at marriage, and we've looked at kids and legacy. We've looked at life in general. And this morning, we're going to talk about finances. We have a prayer for you with your finances in 2025. And now as I say that, that this morning, I'm going to do the sermon about money, the whole room tightens up, right? Some of you brought guests and you just thought, are you serious right now? This is their first time and this is what you're going to preach. Some of you are probably here for the first time. You wandered in, maybe you've watched a few online and now you're like, okay, I'm going to go kick the tires. And on your very first Sunday, you're like, I'd like a pass, please. Can I come back next Sunday when we're not talking about money? And so I know that the room gets tight when this topic comes up. I'll be honest with you. I don't love talking about this either. And I'm going to tell you why in a minute. But just because I know that that's in the room, I want to say the quiet part out loud to diffuse maybe some of the discomfort around this topic, particularly in a church setting. This is the first thing on your notes. If you have a bulletin on the top of your notes, there's no fill in the blanks. This is just a statement that I'm writing for you that I'm going to say out loud and we are going to acknowledge. This morning is not a thinly veiled attempt to use the Bible to guilt you into giving us your money. Okay? That is not what we are doing. I've been in those. I've sat in those sermons. And they strike me as incredibly disingenuous. And if you have been a part of Grace for any length of time now, I've been here since 2017, April of 2017. I'm finishing up, believe it or not, my eighth year here. You know that I don't preach like that about money. You know that it is really important to me that this not be self-serving. And that's why I don't love to talk about it all the time, because it's really, really hard to thread the needle of appropriate biblical teaching on the topic that doesn't come across as self-serving for me. Because, let's say this part out loud too, I have a vested personal interest in you getting good at this. Right? I do. But that's not the place that I'm coming from. I just have to acknowledge that as true. I actually, and so I know that this is going on. This is kind of the reason why I don't, I'm not, I don't just jump at the chance to preach about money all the time. I was talking to a buddy yesterday and he said, what are you preaching about tomorrow? He doesn't go to church here. He lives, he lives down in Fuqua. He said, what are you preaching about tomorrow? And I said, I'm preaching about money. And he goes, ah, the obligatory money sermon so you can get that building built, huh? And I went, sure. But we know that that's in the mix, right? We know that those thoughts exist. And I can acknowledge that too. And I've been on both sides of it. So the absolute last thing I want to do is be disingenuous in what I'm sharing with you this morning. But here's the reality. The Bible talks about giving and finances a lot. If you do a quick Google, you'll find people out there who say that money is the topic that Jesus spoke about the most in his ministry. Now that is misleading because I'm not going to get into why because I have a lot to cover and I don't have time to get into why. That's misleading. I don't think it's fair to say that the most important topic to Christ in his lifetime was money. He gave a lot of examples that involved money, but he wasn't talking specifically about giving or about finances. But the reality is that this topic comes up a lot in the Bible. And if you were to make a grid of all the topics in the Bible, all the things that show up throughout Scripture, and then look at how often in my nearly eight years I've addressed those things, one of the things that the grid would reveal is that I have fallen woefully short of my responsibility to teach us about this topic because it is one that shows up with great frequency in Scripture and does not show up with great frequency in my preaching calendar. So let's talk about money this morning because the Bible talks about it way more than we do. To illustrate this point and to give us just a good swath of the philosophy of giving from Scripture, and then to draw out a singular point that I believe jumps out of the text of all of these verses, I want to read to you six different passages on money. It sounds like a lot. It is a lot. They're going to be on the screen. You read with me. This is an overview beginning all the way back in Deuteronomy, moving all the way to the book of James, kind of a sweeping view of how God thinks about giving in his children. We're going to start in Deuteronomy chapter 15. He writes, there will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be open-handed toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. There's always going to be poor people, and you should always give to them. This is an instruction from very, very early on. Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Bible, and it means the law repeated. So it's really just a summary of the first four books, more specifically Leviticus and Numbers. So this is the very beginning, the foundation of faith. He is saying from the get-go, you will always have needy people around you. Be the people who give to them. And then we jump to the end of the Bible, James chapter 2, suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? What good are you? You're just a well-wisher. I remember years ago, and I told, sorry, Andrea, I told Andrea, who's running our slides very faithfully this morning, that I wasn't going to talk in between these verses so she could leave them up there. So now there should be a blank slide, but there's not because I'm going to tell you something real quick. I remember a few years ago when Jen and I first moved here, we lived off of Tealbrier, right there off of Spring Forest. And so we would go to the Harris Teeter and there's a St. Jacques used to be in there. And next to it, some store went out of business. And then another store called Pet Wants was going up in there. And because I frequented the Harris Teeter, I noticed that they were there. And I noticed it was kind of a mom and pop operation. It looked like family was doing it. They were working really hard in the store for several weeks to revamp it. And one night I was at the grocery store late. Probably when you live 35 seconds away from the grocery store, your nine o'clock purchase of Ben and Jerry's statistic goes through the roof. Okay. So I was heading over there probably to get a pint of Ben and Jerry's Americone Dream. Thank you very much. And I noticed that they were working in there. And I was just touched by how hard they're working on this place and the hopes that they must have for this place. And so I went and I knocked on the door and some guy looks at me like, what, we're closed, you know? And I go, and so he opened the door and I said, hey, I just want to say, I've seen you working really hard. I've seen what you guys are doing here. I think it's great. I hope it goes really well for you. I hope this is a fantastic store. And he goes, thanks so much. We're actually having a friends and family sale tomorrow if you'd like to stop by and get anything. And I went, okay, yeah, great, thank you. And the door shut, and I was like, no way. I'm not buying anything from there. I don't like my dog. I'm not going to go spend money on a thing I don't want. I don't even want to spend the money we do spend on her. I'm not going in your store ever. I just hope it goes well. And what I realized is it's one thing to be a well-wisher. It's another thing to be bought in. James says, don't be a well-wisher. Oh, you're cold and you're hungry and you need? Be warm and well-fed. I'm going to keep my wallet in my pocket. Don't be a well-wisher. Malachi 3, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. Then Jesus in Mark chapter 12 tells us this, but a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes about giving. Remember this, whoever then last, Jesus in Matthew chapter 6. This is a big verse about giving that is really indicative of the culture of giving a grace. And so while we're here, I just wanted to share this little bit about the way that money is handled here, because if you haven't been going here for a long time, you may actually not know this. But at Grace, this predates me. This was the culture when I got here. They've always taken very seriously, we've always taken very seriously, this direction from Christ to not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing, to give in secret and to give in private and not ostentatiously. And because of that, when you give, there are only two people on the planet who see what you give. One is our office manager, Julie, our children's assistant office manager, Julie Sauls, but that's because someone has to manually process the check. So if you write a check, someone has to fill out a deposit slip and put that in. Someone has to see it, and so that's her job. That falls to her to do it. The only other person who sees what is given, this includes elders and this includes our finance committee, is our finance manager, a guy named Tom Ledoux. Tom lives in Michigan, and you never have to look him in the eye, so it's a really great setup for you, right? You won't find yourself in Bible study with Tom feeling uncomfortable because he knows some things. Those are the only two people. No one else knows, no one else has access, no one else sees, and so this is something we take very seriously. But as I looked at all of these verses, I don't know as I read through those what kinds of themes leapt out to you. I don't know what you perceived. I don't know what kind of impression they made. And we could probably look through those six verses and do 12 sermons out of them. There's enough things in there that are worth talking about and unpacking. But the thing that I saw the most as I went through those verses, because it wasn't just those verses that I read. When I sat down to do this and to start preparing for the sermon, I just read all the verses I could find on giving in Scripture. And one of the things that was incredibly apparent as I read through those, and I think is's highlighted specifically in these verses is this. Giving has never been optional. Giving for God's children. If you call God your father and Jesus your savior. Giving has never ever been optional. If you look back through the verses. Especially that last one. Jesus' words about giving to the needy and not letting your right hand know what your left hand is doing, how does it start out? So when you give to the needy, not if, when you do it. Deuteronomy, very beginning, there will always be poor people. Be people who give to the poor people. James, when you encounter someone who is needy, and you will, be the person that gives to them. Malachi, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. The tithe that you're giving, that you're expected to give, that's going to be given, bring it into my temple. When Jesus looks at the poor widow and she gives two cents, I think sometimes we would think that he would go to her and he would say, hey, you take that back. You need that more than the church does. You take it. That's not what he does. Instead, he honors it because of the assumption that this is something that she is going to do. In Corinthians, whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly and vice versa. But he says, when you give, not if you decide to give, but when you give, determine what you want to do, not out of a sense of ought, but out of a sense of want to, because God loves a cheerful giver. But what I see as I read through these scriptures and I read through the rest of the Bible about these scriptures or about this topic is that giving is not optional at all. In fact, giving is essential to becoming a mature, healthy believer. It is part of the essential nature of sanctification and growing in our spiritual maturity and in the depth of our spiritual lives. As a matter of fact, I would say it like this. Thinking that you can become a healthy Christian without the discipline of giving is like thinking you can become a healthy person without the discipline of exercise. If you want to be healthy, if you want a good heart rate, if you want your blood work to come in right, and I'm about to be 44 next month, so I'm getting to an age where I have to start caring about those things, and I'll probably know what my cholesterol is here in the next few months. If you want to be a healthy person, you can eat right. You can eat like a rabbit. You can monitor what goes into your system. You can be careful about not consuming alcohol or not consuming other chemicals or whatever it is. You can be careful about what goes into your body. You can be careful about what you eat. You can be diligent about your sleep time. You can do a lot of healthy things. But until you're exercising, until you're getting your heart rate up for 30 minutes a day, you will not be a healthy person. And I believe that trying to be a healthy Christian, trying to grow in our faith and in our spiritual maturity without the discipline of giving is just as silly and as much of a pipe dream as it is to try to be a healthy person who does not exercise. Which is why it's important for us as we look through scripture to acknowledge giving, in God's view, has never been optional. And I don't think that that's how we think about it. I think for a lot of us, we do think of it as optional. Maybe not intentionally, but by default and behaviorally, we approach it as something that maybe I need to do one day sometimes. I used to joke, I used to be, when I would drive, I was a bit of a speeder. Our state patrol person is not here today. So yeah, I speed all the time. And the older I get, the less I do it. This morning I was driving in, it's 0 dark 30 on 540 to get here. And I looked down, I went, because I was driving and I literally thought, am I going too fast? And I looked down and I was doing 58 miles an hour. So I was, it was under control. So I don't speed very much anymore, but I'll still do it sometimes. And I'm always going to go a little bit over the speed limit because, come on, no one wants to be. Don't be the jerk that goes to speed limit. Nobody likes you on the road if that's what you do. Get out of the way. And so I used to joke because sometimes it would come up in different circles, especially like pastor circles where you're trying to out-compete each other in righteousness, and someone would be like, yeah, I don't speed because I believe it's a sin and it's wrong. And I would just say like, you may be right, but God hasn't gotten that far down the conviction tree on me yet. All right? There's some bigger fish to fry in my life than going eight over. All right? So I haven't gotten to that portion of conviction. I think some of us think about giving that way. Yeah, that's a thing I need to do one day. I know that's an essential part of the Christian life, but, but not yet. There's some bigger fish to fry. And I think what these, what these scriptures show us is no, no, that's a pretty important one. That's what, that's essential to the nature of being a Christian. It's an expected thing of believers. But I think that even in light of that, maybe we don't put it off and go, gosh, one day I'm just not there yet. Later on in my spiritual maturity, I will get there. Maybe we think of it like this. Maybe it's just hard for us to do it. Maybe we don't have a lot of extra right now. I mean, inflation's up. Things are tough. That's a bit, I mean, everybody, a lot of people that I know have had to tighten the purse strings a little bit in the last two years. And so maybe for us, the idea of giving is something that we want to do, but we just don't feel like we can afford it. Or we just don't feel like it's wise. And so we put it off. But whenever I think about that, first of all, if you look at the way that Jesus applauds the old lady who gives out of little, that's a good indicator that that may not be a good way to think about giving. I can't afford it, so I'm not going to do it. Another thing that informs my thinking on this is a conversation I had with Jen years ago. Early on in our marriage, I was a poor student pastor and she was a poor private school teacher. And we bought our house. We got married in 2006. We bought our first house in 2007. Excuse me. We bought our first house in 2007, which is wonderful because we bought it, I think, for like $180,000, our very first house. It took 10 years for that house to be worth $180,000 again. It was just right at the brink of the recession. By the next year, that thing was worth $125,000. Great. So we're not living in plenty. We are living in very close to want. We don't have a lot. And Jen's dad has always been a remarkably generous man. And I remember making the comment to her, I hope one day we make more money and live more comfortably so that we can be generous like your dad is. I want to have that experience and be that kind of, now the word I would use is be that conduit of grace to other people. And Jen said, yes, I hope so too, but my daddy always taught me that the way you give when you don't have a lot is the way that you will give when you do have a lot. So the generosity trait starts early. And his larger point was, if we are people who think one day when I have more margin, I'll be more generous. There's no magical generosity button that gets hit when you have plenty. However generous you are with little is how generous you will be with a lot. So if you want to be generous one day, then you need to start being generous today. It's never been optional. And because of that, the encouragement today, what I want to press upon you is just the idea of being faithful in your giving. My prayer for you, these are prayers for you. My prayer for you for your finances this year is very, very simple. My prayer is that you would be faithful in your giving, whether you're giving out of little or you're giving out of much. Each one has different kinds of pains associated with it. But my prayer is that you would be faithful to what God expects of his children, understanding that giving is what's best for you. Being a generous person is what's best for you. Understanding that you will not mature as a Christian into full maturity if this is not a part of your regular discipline. So my prayer for you is that whether you give out of little or you give out of a lot, that you would simply be faithful in that giving. And like everything else, when God tells us we have to do something, when God says do this or don't do that, it is always because he has our best interest in mind. So giving and being a generous person is actually what's best for us, which is why I'm preaching the sermon today. Because if you study scripture, it's very clear that this is what God wants for us. And if I don't tell you that, then I'm derelict in my duty. So we can be adults and have an honest conversation about it. Giving is something that God wants you to do. It has never, ever been optional. Now, the question then becomes, okay, if it's what's best for me, why is it what's best for me to give away the money that I feel like I've earned? Here's why. Three reasons. There's more than this, but three reasons. Giving reminds us, invites us, and fuels us. The act of giving reminds us, invites us, and fuels us. Here's what I mean. The act of giving reminds us, first and foremost, that what we're giving is not ours to give. We are simply giving back to God what he has entrusted us with. It is the idea of stewardship. The act of giving, whether it's to the church or to a nonprofit that you believe in or to anything else that's going on in God's kingdom, the act of giving to God's kingdom is a reminder every time I am giving out of my allotment that God has assigned to me, I am not giving out of my possessions. Do you see the difference? God has allocated his resources out amongst us, and he's trusted us to be good stewards of those resources and to direct those in ways that build his kingdom, not our own. This is the idea of kingdom builders. This is also the idea of being a conduit of grace. A conduit connects to one source and funnels those resources to another source. So when I say at grace, we are conduits of grace. Yes, we offer grace to one another, but we're also, we also understand and see our lives as a conduit from God to the people and to building his kingdom. And so when we give, we are reminded of that conduit status. We are reminded of who we are and what we have. And we're even reminded if we're willing to take it a step further. Okay, I have these resources and I'm reminded that they're God's, they're not mine. I would take it a step further and I would say, yes, and the talents and abilities that you applied to garner those resources were also given to you by God to be a steward of and to use. So the fact that he allowed us to have resources is his gift and grace anyway, so we continue to be a funnel and let those resources flow out of us in generosity. It reminds us of how we should think about our finances and our resources. It puts us in the proper perspective. A wonderful thing about giving, maybe the best part, is that it invites us. You could say it invests us here too, but giving invites us into ministries that we might not be capable of doing ourselves. It's one thing to go to a charity dinner, to a charity gala where they're going to give you a cold chicken or a cold barbecue or something and a salad that's really terrible. Like we've all been. It's like $150 a plate and I'd rather go to McDonald's. But you go and you sit and you hear about the ministry and you hear about the thing and maybe you write a check for $200 or whatever it is you do. It's one thing to go to a charity gala or a charity dinner. It's another thing to be a giver to that ministry and go participate in the blessing of what God is doing and where he is doing it, to be invested in this ministry so that when you hear the stories of the families that are reached, when you hear the stories of the children that are no longer orphaned, when you hear the stories of the women in third world countries who have been equipped with skills and have been running a successful small business on their own that is sustaining their family in ways that they were never capable of, you get to feel like a participant in that. You realize that your participation in that nonprofit, in that entity, in that institution is something that can be celebrated by you because I'm a part of this. It invites you into areas of God's kingdom that you might not otherwise go, and it invests you in what those people are doing. And I say this with all candor. God may not have put you in a situation in your life where you have the time, the skill set, the life circumstances that allow you to go to an African country and start a ministry that prohibits children from becoming orphans and trains up their moms so that they can sustain their family. You might not have the bandwidth to go to another country and start that ministry. But somebody else has had that bandwidth. And somebody else has done that. And you've got the bandwidth to go make money. God's given you those gifts to do that and you're good at it. Maybe you're good at it so that you can funnel those gifts into other areas of God's kingdom where his work is being done and where God is showing up. And now I might not have the skill set to go down the street and start the nonprofit and do English as a second language for Spanish-speaking parents who are just trying to navigate their kids through middle school. But I have the resources to help and to fund those who do have those gifts and talents. And so the opportunity to give invites us into ministries and into opportunities and into blessings that we might not otherwise have based on our gifting and our life circumstances and where we are. It invests us in what's happening there. And it's a tremendous privilege to do that. I think one of the great benefits of investing our lives in things that build God's kingdom is that he gives us front row seats into places where we would not otherwise get to go. One of my great joys of being a pastor is the sacred spaces that I get invited into because of my position. Sitting in the hospital room in the middle of fear and praying with people. I realize that's not a normal place for people to get invited. Being entrusted with people who come and sit down in my office and ask for help in certain areas of their life or ask for prayer about this or advice about this, I realize that that's not a typical life experience for everyone. Having the opportunity when there's something on my heart that I really feel like I need to say, I have a platform where I can do that. There's different things about my position that give me access to front row seats to what God is doing in different places that I might not otherwise get. And by being a person who is a generous giver, we now have front row seats into different places where God is doing work and we're showing up to build his kingdom and we get a unique perspective there. It's an invitation into the blessing of what God is doing. And then finally, candidly, giving fuels us. It fuels our desire to give more, to be more, to be involved more, but it also fuels the ministries of God. This is an undeniable fact. The very first time God instructs his people to give is in the book of Numbers. And do you know why he does it? He says, bring your tithe to the temple because the Levites are not allowed to have jobs. They do this all the time and we need to be able to sustain them as a society. So the other 11 tribes, you give 10% of what you have to the Levites so that they can serve us as our priests. It's God said to begin to give, to fuel the ministries that he is doing. And so giving, quite literally, fuels the ministries going on around us. To this end, grace is fueled by our partners. And this is where I just want to speak to you directly because you're grownups. This church is fueled by the generous giving of our partners. If you guys don't give generously, this all goes away. We have four full-time staff people. We have three part-time staff people. We pay them. If we don't give, Miss Erin is the first one on the chopping block. Out of here. Right away. No kids ministry. We have to pay rent. We pay $13,000 a month for this dump. All right? We do. We can't even get the pole removed. And every year they charge us more for common area maintenance so that our grass can look cruddy out there and we don't have any. We have to keep the lights on. We fund different ministries through the church. The reality of this place is that it is fueled by the partners. And if that's not happening, then this place doesn't happen. So one of the things that I've started doing in our Discover Grace class, if you want to be a partner of grace and you come to the class, I think we're going to have one in February or later this month, I guess. At some point we go, okay, what is required to be a partner here? And it's not in the writing yet, but I've started to say, if you want to be a partner with us, nothing's compelling you to do that. If you're here this morning and you're not a partner of grace, which we have partners, we don't have members because members tend to consume and partners tend to contribute. That's how we do it here. If you're here and you're just like, man, I'm kicking the tires, then what I would tell you is this part's not for you. It's for you one day, wherever you go, what I'm about to say is for you. But if you don't call yourself a partner at grace, then this part's not for you. But for the folks who come to Discover Grace, we say there's nothing compelling you to be a partner. You can come, and you can volunteer, and you can be in small group, and you can be an active participant in our church to whatever degree you want to be besides sitting on a committee or becoming an elder. But if you want to partner with us, then partner with us and support us financially. So here's what I would say about that. Scripture, and this is important, does not explicitly say anywhere that you should give to your local church. It does not come out and say that anywhere. But I think that's because the concept of a local church hadn't yet been, it was just the church, the church in Ephesus, the church in Rome, the church in Thessalonica. It was just the church. And in those churches, the expectation is you are giving because that's always been the expectation because the entire scope of scripture assumes that we know that. So what I would say is, even though it doesn't explicitly say it in the Bible, that I believe that you should give to your local church. I really do think that, and it took me some years to be able to say that, but the more I think about it, the more I study, the more I talk about it, the more I'm convinced that if you are a Christian, you should A, be a part of a local church, and B, you should give to that church. So I know the implications of that. We can all connect the dots. If you're a part of grace, you should give to grace. That's what Nate's saying. Sure. But here's what else I'll say. If you are a part of grace, and I don't think a lot of pastors would say this, and maybe the finance committee will get mad at me for saying this, but if you are a part of grace, but you don't give to grace, you need to find a church that compels you to give and go there. You need to go to a church that does inspire you to give. Because what I believe is, if you're here and you're thriving and your spiritual life is becoming healthy and your kids are thriving and they're being taught about Christ and you're experiencing community community. And you would call grace a blessing in your life. And you feel like you or your family or you and your spouse have benefited from grace. Then you ought to support grace so that other people can benefit in the same way. Because we are fueled by that giving. And if the ministry that you are experiencing from us is not compelling enough to make you want to partner with us in giving, then because I believe you should give to a local church, I have to believe that you should find one that compels you. But that's the encouragement this morning. Plain and simple. Adult to adult. This is what scripture teaches. We should be givers. We should be compelled to give to God's kingdom, particularly the parts of it where we are personally benefiting from that. So if we are a part of grace, we should give. Which brings me back to my prayer for you this year, that you would simply be faithful in your giving. I always say this, and I know a little bit contradictory to what I just said, but I can also be honest with you enough to say this. If you are someone, or if you are a couple, who is not in the habit of giving, and this is going to be a new exercise for you, and it feels remotely manipulative or self-serving that I'm trying to get you to give to grace, I would encourage you, as your brother in Christ, begin to give to things that aren't grace but that God is still doing. Begin to give to God's kingdom. Become a giver. And then in time, as it feels right, because God loves a cheerful giver, direct some of that towards your local church. But if you think that what I'm saying is self-serving, then don't give to grace. Don't do it under compulsion. But I would encourage you to begin that discipline and watch what God does as you become generous with your resources. So that's my prayer for you this year. And every year as we move forward. That as God's children, as believers, you would take seriously the teaching about giving in Scripture. And that you would be a person who is a giver. My prayer is that whether you have a little or a lot, that you would simply be faithful. Because that's what God calls us to. Let me pray that over us. Father, thank you for what we have. Thank you for what you've entrusted to us. I pray, God, that we would be good stewards of the resources that you've allocated to us, whether that's time or talent or treasure. Father, I pray that for those of us who are not yet people who give, for whatever reason, that we would be convicted and compelled to take steps towards becoming those people. That we would quit viewing this as something that's optional for your children, but view it as something that's necessary and good. Let us step into that generosity. Father, for those of us who were convicted by this long ago and are regular givers, I pray that we would be inspired. That we would be encouraged. That we would be grateful for all the opportunities we've had to give and all the times we got to sit on the front lines of what you were doing because you invited us in there through giving. But God, more than anything, I just ask that grace would be a church filled with faithful people, faithful to your word, faithful to obedience in you, and faithful to entrust you with their finances. God, we ask these things in your son's name. Amen.

There is something so peaceful about lighting a candle, watching the flame flicker, move ever so slightly that seems to lull us into an almost meditative state. So different from the lack of peace we've experienced in our world, we come here caught up in the flow of traffic and Christmas shopping, our feet moving in the way of the world. It is exhausting. Add to that the barrage of chaos in the news or on social media that has us scared or worried, that has angered and outraged us. At times like this, we welcome Jesus into our fearful, anxious hearts. This is one of the reasons why we celebrate Advent. It is a season of expectant waiting, and we light a new candle each week. The earlier candles have burned down, now misshapen, showing our patience wearing thin, our longing growing more fierce. And so we prepare ourselves in a fresh way for the coming of our Lord Jesus in our Christmas celebrations because hope, love, joy, and peace aren't just words we find on Christmas cards. No, we find them in Christ, who is our light, the most peaceful light we could ever experience. Like we read in the book of John, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. Jesus is that light. The prophet Isaiah calls him the one who would come, that he would be the prince of peace for hearts that grieve in a world in turmoil. We are a people whose whole lives have been go with the flow, but it is Jesus who shows us how to march to the beat of God's heart, who shows us what it means to really live. So let's welcome him. We welcome you with all of your peace, Jesus. Give us your peace so that we can be peace bringers. Stop us in our tracks so that the flicker of the flame captures our attention, so that we look past the flow of the world to Jesus who says to some meaningful plans with your family. I can't wait to experience the Christmas Eve service with you guys. I can't wait for y'all to experience the Christmas Eve service. I think it's going to be a really special time for Grace. This week, we want to wrap up the four different topics that we cover in Advent as we talk about peace. Aaron opened talking about hope. I got to talk about love. Kyle taught us about joy. And now we get to focus on the peace that Jesus brings us. As I reflected on peace this week, I was reminded of a story, something that happened to me on an airplane a few years ago. And now I'll warn you, I'm going to tell this story and it's going to make me look kind of good because I do nice things. I try not to share stories about myself that shed me in a positive light because I think that's gross and self-aggrandizing. But this one just kind of makes the point pretty well. So if you'll indulge me, I'll admit some kindness to you. I was getting on a plane a couple of years ago, and I sat down, and I sat down next to this older woman. It was just two on each side and two seats on each side. And as I sat down, it will not surprise you to learn that I'm not one that introduces myself to my seatmate on my plane. I'm one who just sits down and silently stares straight ahead until the plane lands, and then I get off and go about my business. But this particular woman decided that she wanted to introduce herself to me, and so we started talking. And it didn't take very long for her to say that this was her first flight ever. And I said, oh, really? Are you nervous? And she said, yeah, I actually am pretty nervous. I struggle with anxieties. It was hard for me to even get on the plane. Have you flown before? And I said, you're in luck. Don't worry. I've flown probably hundreds of times. I will guide you through the process. I'm not going to be worried at all. As a matter of fact, this is what I told her. I said, listen, when we're flying, if something feels weird, if it feels like it shouldn't happen, if you start to get nervous, you just look at my face. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't have to be worried. If it feels amiss to you, because if you've never flown before, there's all kinds of things that can happen that can make you go, wait a second, is this safe? Is this okay? And so I told her, if you are experiencing that, just look at me. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. I said, as a matter of fact, I'm going to leave my hand right here on this armrest. And if you feel the need to reach over and grab my hand, you feel free to do that. And we'll get through this together. And she said, okay, thank you. Good. So we're sitting there, we're minding our business. The plane taxis and it goes to take off. And as it takes off, I'm already kind of have my eyes closed, dozing a little bit. It's a short flight. I was just trying to get in a quick nap. And as the plane is picking up off the ground, which if you've never experienced that before, it can feel a little turbulent, I feel her hand reach over and grab mine. And so I just give her a little squeeze and let her know everything's going to be okay. We get up into the air and we're cruising. She's good. I'm good. I'm reading a little bit. And then I close my eyes to doze again. And as I close my eyes, the plane hits a little bit of turbulence. And if you've never experienced turbulence before, it can be scary. You bounce a lot. It can make you feel sick to your stomach. And if you've never experienced it before and you're already worried about flying, that can be a really terrifying thing. And so we begin to experience a little bit of turbulence. We're bouncing around and I'm aware that she's probably freaking out a little bit. So I keep my eyes closed. I'm not dozing anymore, but I keep my eyes closed because I just kind of have a feeling she's looking at me to see if I'm calm, to see if I'm worried. And I wanted to project some peace for her. I wanted her to know this is no big deal. It's just normal turbulence. And so while I'm sitting there kind of fake snoozing, trying to offer peace to her, I just kind of do a thumbs up with my hand like this, like it's going to be, it's all right. You got nothing to worry about. And I feel her hand kind of tap mine, like, thank you. I see that. I appreciate that. And we got through the flight. We landed. She said, thank you. She went about her business. I went about mine. And it just, that principle that I took away from that as I was thinking about peace and that story this week is just this idea of, hey, listen, you just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. I was thinking about that idea and how often Jesus does this for us in the Bible. It's something that we don't think about a lot. I never thought about it before this week. But then as I looked at the Bible and I went through the stories of Jesus in my mind and kind of asked that question, what are the times that Jesus looks at us? And he says, listen, look at me. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. And I saw over and over again in Scripture where Jesus offers us his peace. Maybe the most glaring example, the easiest place to go to is when Jesus calms the storm. A lot of us know this story. This is a story that shows up in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, three of the four Gospels. But we're going to look at the story in Mark, chapter 4, verses 35-41, just to make sure we're all on the same page. If you have a Bible, turn there with me as I read. It says down in verse 35, This is Jesus speaking. I love the story of Jesus calming the storm. The disciples are out on a boat. They're in the Sea of Galilee. They have been there thousands of times before. They are a crew of mostly fishermen. And the wind picks up and the waves start to buffet the boat and the water starts to come into the boat in such a way that they are freaked out. And it's a big deal that they're freaked out because, again, these are seasoned fishermen. They had weathered some storms. This isn't the lady on the plane experiencing light turbulence for the first time. This is the seasoned businessman or businesswoman who flies cross country twice a week going, holy smokes, what is gonna happen? This has to be the end. They're freaking out. They're so scared that they go and they wake up Jesus who's managing to sleep through this. And they say, are you not worried? Are you not worried? Can you not see that we are perishing? And Jesus is almost annoyed with them. And I see him stretching out a hand and saying, peace, be still. And everything calms. And they marvel at who this man is and what he can do. His legend with them grows. But the part of it that I see now as I think about this idea of peace is this invitation from Jesus. They're up there on the deck freaking out. They look at Jesus. He's sleeping. And what they should have done is said, he's clearly not worried. We don't have to be. And that's Jesus' first question to them. When they wake him, he says, why do you have no faith? Don't you see me? I'm at peace. You can be at peace. I'm not worried about this storm. You don't need to be worried about the storm. I'm not anxious. You don't have to be anxious. Look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. The disciples forgot in that moment who Jesus was. Or they didn't yet realize who he was. But it's so interesting to me that Jesus challenges their faith. Just look at me. Just remember who I am. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. And I realize that Jesus has this habit of calming storms in our life. He has this habit of remaining stoic, of remaining calm, of remaining unmoved in the face of turmoil. And he reminds us from the scripture, if I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. I was reminded of the story of the adulterous woman and thought about the peace that Jesus must have given her in that moment. In the book of John, there's this famous story where Jesus is teaching in, I believe, Jerusalem, and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, go and they catch a woman in the act of adultery. They drag her through the streets, and they put her down at the feet of Jesus. And they say to Jesus, the law of Moses says that she should be stoned. What do you think we should do with her? You see, they think that they have Jesus between a rock and a hard place. Because here's Jesus, this new radical teacher, who's teaching and proclaiming grace. And yet, they bring this adulterous woman in front of him. And if he says we should stone her, then he has no mercy, and the people that he's teaching will lose interest in what he's saying. If he says that we should forgive if we'll stop for just a second and think about it from her perspective. Being in the act of adultery, having men storm into the house or the room, grab her and drag her into the street. Maybe she was able to grab a sheet on the way. Maybe she wasn't. We don't know. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. She knows who these men are. They are Pharisees. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. It is to have big rocks dropped on her head until she dies. She knows that. She has to be at the height of fear and anxiety in her life. There is no possible way she was ever more worried or anxious than she was in this moment. And there she lands at the feet of this new radical teacher named Jesus. And for some reason, somehow, she realizes that her fate now rests in his hands. And these angry men are accusing her, and they're asking Jesus, what should we do with her? I would love to be able to go back in time and see whatever look it was that Jesus gave her. I would love to see her eyes connect with his. I would love to see his calm and tranquility transposed onto her. I would love to see the recognition on her face when she realized that she was in good hands. And Jesus responds in the midst of all this turmoil and chaos. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. And one by one, the Pharisees begin to go away. And then he looks down at her and he says, is there anyone left to condemn you? And she says, no, Lord. And he says, neither do I condemn you. And it's one of my favorite stories. Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. It's one of my favorite stories about Jesus to see this perfect balance of grace and truth in that moment. But what I've never thought about is the peace that he gave her, is the peace that he imparted onto her. When she is worried, she is anxious, she is fearful, she doesn't know if this is going to work out. And Jesus almost, you can just see him. Just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't need to be worried. Look at me. I've got this. These men will not harm you today. I'm going to protect you. Think about the peace and the certainty that he gave her in that moment. I think about the night that Jesus was arrested. He gets done praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. They've just finished their Passover meal. The disciples are outside with him, and the guards of Caiaphas, the high priest, come to arrest Christ. And in the scuffle, Peter takes a sword and lops off the ear of one of the guards. And Jesus stops everything and he reaches down and he picks up the ear and he places it back on the soldier. And it's almost as if he's saying, Peter, calm down. I'm not worried. This has to happen. And if I'm not anxious, then you don't have to be anxious. If I can be calm about this, you can be calm about this. Scripture tells us that Jesus was crucified, that he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, that he was quiet and that he was passive and that he was calm, that he was in perfect peace. And he's telling the disciples, if I can be at peace with this, that this is supposed to happen, then you can be too. Don't worry. It's going to be okay. What Jesus knows is that in three days he's going to conquer this death that he's about to face. He offers them perfect peace. You look at me. While everyone else in the Garden of Gethsemane, the troops are likely terrified because this Jesus figure just spoke words that knocked them all down. Now they have to get up, dust themselves off, and try to arrest this guy. The disciples are seeing their Messiah being taken, their leader being taken. Everyone around him is freaking out, and Jesus is in perfect peace. Look at me. I'm fine. You can be fine too. The last moment I would take you to is in the book of Revelation. John, at the end of his life, lifelong disciple of Christ, is whisked up to heaven for a vision and told to write down what he sees and share it with the people. And when he gets there, he's terrified. He sees God and he sees angels and he sees the span of heaven and he feels his feebleness. He feels how small he is and he's not exactly sure where he is and he's seeing angels for the first time, which are terrifying creatures, and he's kind of hunkered down in a corner, not sure what's going on. And in that moment, we see in Revelation that he feels a hand on his shoulder. And he hears a voice. And it's the voice of Jesus. And he says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And I have the keys to death and Hades. One of the great lines in the Bible. In this moment where John is anxious and terrified, Jesus gives him peace, puts his hand on his shoulder, lets him hear his voice, and he says, I'm here. I've got this. I'm the one that's in control of this space. You're going to be okay. He offers John his peace. And so as I thought about all these different stories, and there's more. I could do this for a lot longer. It occurred to me, this idea of look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. What's happening in that moment is that Jesus is imparting peace onto us. So what we need to realize is our peace is imparted by Jesus. The peace that we're offered in Scripture, the peace that God offers to us is imparted to us by Jesus. When we look at His face and see that He is calm, we can be calm. When we look to Him and see that He is at peace, then we can feel peace. When everything around us is chaos, and everyone around us is worried and losing their mind, we can look at Jesus who is not worried, who is calm, who is a picture of perfect peace, and we can experience his peace. And in that way, our peace is imparted to us by Jesus himself. And so it made me wonder, how is Jesus able to maintain perfect peace in all these situations? How is he at so much peace in a storm where seasoned fishermen are freaking out that he is taking a nap? When he is at the epicenter of an entire body of really smart men trying to entangle him, how can he be so calm and answer so eloquently and succinctly while protecting this woman? When he is being marched to his death, how can he maintain perfect peace knowing what lies ahead of him? It's because of this. Because Jesus has true peace. And true peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. Peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. It's like Jesus knows a secret. He's unmoved by everything around him because he knows it's all going to be okay. He's not worried about the storm sinking his boat because he's the creator of the storm. He made the heavens and the earth. Without him, there is nothing is made, says the book of John. So he's not worried about the storm because he made the storm. He's not worried about getting tripped up and entangled in the law because he wrote the law. He's not worried about getting marched off to his death because he came to do just that and he knows where that ends. That ends in him conquering the death that he is about to suffer for you and for me. He came to conquer death and sin and that's how he did it. So he's at perfect peace in going through the process. He's at perfect peace in heaven when everything feels like it's at chaos at the end of times because this is what he came to do and he offers that peace to John. Jesus has a peace that is untouched by circumstance because nothing in this world can change that God is sovereign. Nothing in this world can change that God's will will be done. Nothing in this world can change that God loves you. Nothing in this world can change that God has a perfect plan and in the fullness of time he will execute it. Nothing in this world can change that for those who believe in him we can look forward to an eternity where God is with his people and where we will be with our God and where there is no more weeping and no more crying and no more pain anymore. Because God is in control, because God has orchestrated all of time to bring about that moment, we know that there are no circumstances that can change the certainty that we have in Christ. And so we have perfect peace. Maybe this is why Paul writes about peace in the book of Philippians and points us to God in prayer so that we might have perfect peace. In Philippians, Paul writes this in chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. He says, Do not be anxious about anything, 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 understandings, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. You understand that our peace isn't just imparted by Christ, but our peace is guarded by God? As believers, we have this Christ-imparted, God-guarded peace that circumstances cannot touch. You understand that God advocates for your peace, that He wants you to feel at ease? He does not want you to be anxious. He does not want you to move through life with anxiety. He does not want you to be crippled by worry. He does not want you to be one of the ones freaking out and wondering how everything is going to be okay. And because of that, he offers you Christ-imparted and God-guarded peace so that your soul can be at rest. So we don't have to worry so much. And guys, has there ever been a year in our memories where we needed this peace more? where it feels like everyone around us is losing their mind, where we're in a culture that is rife with racial and political tension, where we're seeing riots and demonstrations and we're wondering what is going on here, where we are in a country that is more divided than ever, When will I ever get to see my loved ones? Is the vaccine really going to work? Will the economy recover? Will I be able to find a new job? Will my position still be there? We have all sorts of anxieties and worries this year. Has there ever been a time when we needed God's peace more? I know that for me, I've needed that peace this year. For me, I've worried a lot about grace. When we went into quarantine in March, we had come off of what was, while I've been here, a high point while I've been at grace. More people than we've ever seen were coming every week. We did a campaign. We were hoping to get a $1.5 million pledge. We had $1.6 million pledge. I would have never expected that. God was moving and shaking, and there was so much contagious enthusiasm here, and then we just had to stop meeting. And for a while, into doing online services like this, I would look for those numbers every week. How many people are watching online? How many screens we're on? How many downloads do we have? What's our engagement look like? Are we losing our momentum? Oh no, God, the church is gonna crumble. Everything's gonna fall apart. I think we're starting to lose people. I'm really worried and I lost sleep over what was happening at at Grace until I was gently reminded to just look at God. And over the course of the year, I saw his hand on Grace. I was so worried about giving because we're not meeting in person, and we're not telling anybody to give online, and I wouldn't dare, especially if you remember the beginning of quarantine when the economy was tanking and everything was going bad, I wouldn't dare ask for money then. So I just buttoned it up and just hoped. And God just continued to provide everything that the church needed, even so that we were able to continue to give away to other ministries who were in need. And God just reminded me over and over and over again over the course of the year, I care about grace. I've got this place. Look at me. Do I look worried? And so now, I don't even look at the numbers. Steve emails them to me every week as is our habit. I never even open it. Sorry, Steve. Because I don't care. They don't matter to me. God's got this church. We're not going anywhere. He's got big plans for us. He's chosen to sustain us. I have a certainty about grace that is untouched by circumstances because I see that God's not worried, so I'm not. He offers us this peace in our lives too. He's not worried about your kids. He's got a plan for them. He's not worried about how your family is going to make it. He's got a plan for that. He's not worried about if everything's going to be okay. He's not worried about what's it going to look like as we try to return back to normal. God isn't concerned with pandemics. He's unfazed with 2020. I promise you he's seen harder years from heaven. But I think sometimes we get so caught up in our worry and in our anxiety and in the circumstances of the day that we keep our focus down. And maybe what we need to do is slow down and let him impart his peace. Maybe this morning or wherever we are as we listen to this or watch this, what we really need to do is just slow down, look at the face of Christ, and let him impart his peace. Let him guard our hearts with perfect peace. When we will be people who will do that, who will constantly put our focus on Christ and not on circumstances, who will allow him to impart his God-guarded peace on us, we can have conversations like I got to have this week. Many of you are aware of what Jen's family is walking through, and just this last week I sat next to my father-in-law in his bed as he moves towards passing away. And I knelt next to him and I told him that it was time for me to say goodbye. And he said, oh, are you going somewhere? I said, no, John, I'm not, but you are. And he said, yeah, I am. And we shared a really sweet moment that caused me to go ugly cry for about 15 minutes on my own in the bathroom somewhere. But at the end of the conversation, I said, John, you're going to go to heaven soon. And you're going to see his parents are Porter and Bernice. You're going to see Porter and Bernice. You're going to hug them. They're going to be glad to see you. Jesus is going to be there. He's going to be glad to see you too. And John whispered in his soft and weak voice, yeah, and when I get there, there's going to be a lot of rejoicing. He's not afraid to die. He's anxious for it. He welcomes it. Because he has a peace that is untouched by circumstance. Because he knows where he's going. He's focused on the face of Christ and Christ is waiting to welcome him into perfect peace. And if there is a peace that is so strong that when someone is hours away from transitioning into the next life, they can lay in their bed at perfect peace and be certain that they are not about to be sad, but that they are about to rejoice. That's the kind of peace that we should want. And Christmas is our yearly reminder that God offers us a peace that no circumstance can touch. This year, as we celebrate Jesus, let's remember that Jesus imparts a peace on us. He imparts a certainty that circumstance can't touch, that God guards this peace. And maybe instead of being worried about all the things that we can't control anyways, what we should do is slow down and focus on the face of Christ and hear him say to us, I'm not worried. You don't have to be either. And let's all of us experience perfect peace as we finish up this year. Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful for your peace. We are so grateful for the way that you guard our hearts, that you don't want us to be anxious, that you don't want us to be worried. Lord, I pray that if there are people hearing this who are anxious, who are riddled with anxiety, who are riddled with worry, who haven't felt peace and rest in a long time, God, would you give their soul rest in you? Would they hear you today saying, look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. Would they today accept your peace? Would they rest easy in that? God, I pray for every person who can hear my voice, that they would experience the same peace that Jesus had, a peace that is untouched by any circumstance. Father, thank you for that gift. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.

There is something so peaceful about lighting a candle, watching the flame flicker, move ever so slightly that seems to lull us into an almost meditative state. So different from the lack of peace we've experienced in our world, we come here caught up in the flow of traffic and Christmas shopping, our feet moving in the way of the world. It is exhausting. Add to that the barrage of chaos in the news or on social media that has us scared or worried, that has angered and outraged us. At times like this, we welcome Jesus into our fearful, anxious hearts. This is one of the reasons why we celebrate Advent. It is a season of expectant waiting, and we light a new candle each week. The earlier candles have burned down, now misshapen, showing our patience wearing thin, our longing growing more fierce. And so we prepare ourselves in a fresh way for the coming of our Lord Jesus in our Christmas celebrations because hope, love, joy, and peace aren't just words we find on Christmas cards. No, we find them in Christ, who is our light, the most peaceful light we could ever experience. Like we read in the book of John, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. Jesus is that light. The prophet Isaiah calls him the one who would come, that he would be the prince of peace for hearts that grieve in a world in turmoil. We are a people whose whole lives have been go with the flow, but it is Jesus who shows us how to march to the beat of God's heart, who shows us what it means to really live. So let's welcome him. We welcome you with all of your peace, Jesus. Give us your peace so that we can be peace bringers. Stop us in our tracks so that the flicker of the flame captures our attention, so that we look past the flow of the world to Jesus who says to some meaningful plans with your family. I can't wait to experience the Christmas Eve service with you guys. I can't wait for y'all to experience the Christmas Eve service. I think it's going to be a really special time for Grace. This week, we want to wrap up the four different topics that we cover in Advent as we talk about peace. Aaron opened talking about hope. I got to talk about love. Kyle taught us about joy. And now we get to focus on the peace that Jesus brings us. As I reflected on peace this week, I was reminded of a story, something that happened to me on an airplane a few years ago. And now I'll warn you, I'm going to tell this story and it's going to make me look kind of good because I do nice things. I try not to share stories about myself that shed me in a positive light because I think that's gross and self-aggrandizing. But this one just kind of makes the point pretty well. So if you'll indulge me, I'll admit some kindness to you. I was getting on a plane a couple of years ago, and I sat down, and I sat down next to this older woman. It was just two on each side and two seats on each side. And as I sat down, it will not surprise you to learn that I'm not one that introduces myself to my seatmate on my plane. I'm one who just sits down and silently stares straight ahead until the plane lands, and then I get off and go about my business. But this particular woman decided that she wanted to introduce herself to me, and so we started talking. And it didn't take very long for her to say that this was her first flight ever. And I said, oh, really? Are you nervous? And she said, yeah, I actually am pretty nervous. I struggle with anxieties. It was hard for me to even get on the plane. Have you flown before? And I said, you're in luck. Don't worry. I've flown probably hundreds of times. I will guide you through the process. I'm not going to be worried at all. As a matter of fact, this is what I told her. I said, listen, when we're flying, if something feels weird, if it feels like it shouldn't happen, if you start to get nervous, you just look at my face. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't have to be worried. If it feels amiss to you, because if you've never flown before, there's all kinds of things that can happen that can make you go, wait a second, is this safe? Is this okay? And so I told her, if you are experiencing that, just look at me. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. I said, as a matter of fact, I'm going to leave my hand right here on this armrest. And if you feel the need to reach over and grab my hand, you feel free to do that. And we'll get through this together. And she said, okay, thank you. Good. So we're sitting there, we're minding our business. The plane taxis and it goes to take off. And as it takes off, I'm already kind of have my eyes closed, dozing a little bit. It's a short flight. I was just trying to get in a quick nap. And as the plane is picking up off the ground, which if you've never experienced that before, it can feel a little turbulent, I feel her hand reach over and grab mine. And so I just give her a little squeeze and let her know everything's going to be okay. We get up into the air and we're cruising. She's good. I'm good. I'm reading a little bit. And then I close my eyes to doze again. And as I close my eyes, the plane hits a little bit of turbulence. And if you've never experienced turbulence before, it can be scary. You bounce a lot. It can make you feel sick to your stomach. And if you've never experienced it before and you're already worried about flying, that can be a really terrifying thing. And so we begin to experience a little bit of turbulence. We're bouncing around and I'm aware that she's probably freaking out a little bit. So I keep my eyes closed. I'm not dozing anymore, but I keep my eyes closed because I just kind of have a feeling she's looking at me to see if I'm calm, to see if I'm worried. And I wanted to project some peace for her. I wanted her to know this is no big deal. It's just normal turbulence. And so while I'm sitting there kind of fake snoozing, trying to offer peace to her, I just kind of do a thumbs up with my hand like this, like it's going to be, it's all right. You got nothing to worry about. And I feel her hand kind of tap mine, like, thank you. I see that. I appreciate that. And we got through the flight. We landed. She said, thank you. She went about her business. I went about mine. And it just, that principle that I took away from that as I was thinking about peace and that story this week is just this idea of, hey, listen, you just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. I was thinking about that idea and how often Jesus does this for us in the Bible. It's something that we don't think about a lot. I never thought about it before this week. But then as I looked at the Bible and I went through the stories of Jesus in my mind and kind of asked that question, what are the times that Jesus looks at us? And he says, listen, look at me. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. And I saw over and over again in Scripture where Jesus offers us his peace. Maybe the most glaring example, the easiest place to go to is when Jesus calms the storm. A lot of us know this story. This is a story that shows up in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, three of the four Gospels. But we're going to look at the story in Mark, chapter 4, verses 35-41, just to make sure we're all on the same page. If you have a Bible, turn there with me as I read. It says down in verse 35, This is Jesus speaking. I love the story of Jesus calming the storm. The disciples are out on a boat. They're in the Sea of Galilee. They have been there thousands of times before. They are a crew of mostly fishermen. And the wind picks up and the waves start to buffet the boat and the water starts to come into the boat in such a way that they are freaked out. And it's a big deal that they're freaked out because, again, these are seasoned fishermen. They had weathered some storms. This isn't the lady on the plane experiencing light turbulence for the first time. This is the seasoned businessman or businesswoman who flies cross country twice a week going, holy smokes, what is gonna happen? This has to be the end. They're freaking out. They're so scared that they go and they wake up Jesus who's managing to sleep through this. And they say, are you not worried? Are you not worried? Can you not see that we are perishing? And Jesus is almost annoyed with them. And I see him stretching out a hand and saying, peace, be still. And everything calms. And they marvel at who this man is and what he can do. His legend with them grows. But the part of it that I see now as I think about this idea of peace is this invitation from Jesus. They're up there on the deck freaking out. They look at Jesus. He's sleeping. And what they should have done is said, he's clearly not worried. We don't have to be. And that's Jesus' first question to them. When they wake him, he says, why do you have no faith? Don't you see me? I'm at peace. You can be at peace. I'm not worried about this storm. You don't need to be worried about the storm. I'm not anxious. You don't have to be anxious. Look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. The disciples forgot in that moment who Jesus was. Or they didn't yet realize who he was. But it's so interesting to me that Jesus challenges their faith. Just look at me. Just remember who I am. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. And I realize that Jesus has this habit of calming storms in our life. He has this habit of remaining stoic, of remaining calm, of remaining unmoved in the face of turmoil. And he reminds us from the scripture, if I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. I was reminded of the story of the adulterous woman and thought about the peace that Jesus must have given her in that moment. In the book of John, there's this famous story where Jesus is teaching in, I believe, Jerusalem, and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, go and they catch a woman in the act of adultery. They drag her through the streets, and they put her down at the feet of Jesus. And they say to Jesus, the law of Moses says that she should be stoned. What do you think we should do with her? You see, they think that they have Jesus between a rock and a hard place. Because here's Jesus, this new radical teacher, who's teaching and proclaiming grace. And yet, they bring this adulterous woman in front of him. And if he says we should stone her, then he has no mercy, and the people that he's teaching will lose interest in what he's saying. If he says that we should forgive if we'll stop for just a second and think about it from her perspective. Being in the act of adultery, having men storm into the house or the room, grab her and drag her into the street. Maybe she was able to grab a sheet on the way. Maybe she wasn't. We don't know. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. She knows who these men are. They are Pharisees. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. It is to have big rocks dropped on her head until she dies. She knows that. She has to be at the height of fear and anxiety in her life. There is no possible way she was ever more worried or anxious than she was in this moment. And there she lands at the feet of this new radical teacher named Jesus. And for some reason, somehow, she realizes that her fate now rests in his hands. And these angry men are accusing her, and they're asking Jesus, what should we do with her? I would love to be able to go back in time and see whatever look it was that Jesus gave her. I would love to see her eyes connect with his. I would love to see his calm and tranquility transposed onto her. I would love to see the recognition on her face when she realized that she was in good hands. And Jesus responds in the midst of all this turmoil and chaos. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. And one by one, the Pharisees begin to go away. And then he looks down at her and he says, is there anyone left to condemn you? And she says, no, Lord. And he says, neither do I condemn you. And it's one of my favorite stories. Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. It's one of my favorite stories about Jesus to see this perfect balance of grace and truth in that moment. But what I've never thought about is the peace that he gave her, is the peace that he imparted onto her. When she is worried, she is anxious, she is fearful, she doesn't know if this is going to work out. And Jesus almost, you can just see him. Just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't need to be worried. Look at me. I've got this. These men will not harm you today. I'm going to protect you. Think about the peace and the certainty that he gave her in that moment. I think about the night that Jesus was arrested. He gets done praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. They've just finished their Passover meal. The disciples are outside with him, and the guards of Caiaphas, the high priest, come to arrest Christ. And in the scuffle, Peter takes a sword and lops off the ear of one of the guards. And Jesus stops everything and he reaches down and he picks up the ear and he places it back on the soldier. And it's almost as if he's saying, Peter, calm down. I'm not worried. This has to happen. And if I'm not anxious, then you don't have to be anxious. If I can be calm about this, you can be calm about this. Scripture tells us that Jesus was crucified, that he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, that he was quiet and that he was passive and that he was calm, that he was in perfect peace. And he's telling the disciples, if I can be at peace with this, that this is supposed to happen, then you can be too. Don't worry. It's going to be okay. What Jesus knows is that in three days he's going to conquer this death that he's about to face. He offers them perfect peace. You look at me. While everyone else in the Garden of Gethsemane, the troops are likely terrified because this Jesus figure just spoke words that knocked them all down. Now they have to get up, dust themselves off, and try to arrest this guy. The disciples are seeing their Messiah being taken, their leader being taken. Everyone around him is freaking out, and Jesus is in perfect peace. Look at me. I'm fine. You can be fine too. The last moment I would take you to is in the book of Revelation. John, at the end of his life, lifelong disciple of Christ, is whisked up to heaven for a vision and told to write down what he sees and share it with the people. And when he gets there, he's terrified. He sees God and he sees angels and he sees the span of heaven and he feels his feebleness. He feels how small he is and he's not exactly sure where he is and he's seeing angels for the first time, which are terrifying creatures, and he's kind of hunkered down in a corner, not sure what's going on. And in that moment, we see in Revelation that he feels a hand on his shoulder. And he hears a voice. And it's the voice of Jesus. And he says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And I have the keys to death and Hades. One of the great lines in the Bible. In this moment where John is anxious and terrified, Jesus gives him peace, puts his hand on his shoulder, lets him hear his voice, and he says, I'm here. I've got this. I'm the one that's in control of this space. You're going to be okay. He offers John his peace. And so as I thought about all these different stories, and there's more. I could do this for a lot longer. It occurred to me, this idea of look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. What's happening in that moment is that Jesus is imparting peace onto us. So what we need to realize is our peace is imparted by Jesus. The peace that we're offered in Scripture, the peace that God offers to us is imparted to us by Jesus. When we look at His face and see that He is calm, we can be calm. When we look to Him and see that He is at peace, then we can feel peace. When everything around us is chaos, and everyone around us is worried and losing their mind, we can look at Jesus who is not worried, who is calm, who is a picture of perfect peace, and we can experience his peace. And in that way, our peace is imparted to us by Jesus himself. And so it made me wonder, how is Jesus able to maintain perfect peace in all these situations? How is he at so much peace in a storm where seasoned fishermen are freaking out that he is taking a nap? When he is at the epicenter of an entire body of really smart men trying to entangle him, how can he be so calm and answer so eloquently and succinctly while protecting this woman? When he is being marched to his death, how can he maintain perfect peace knowing what lies ahead of him? It's because of this. Because Jesus has true peace. And true peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. Peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. It's like Jesus knows a secret. He's unmoved by everything around him because he knows it's all going to be okay. He's not worried about the storm sinking his boat because he's the creator of the storm. He made the heavens and the earth. Without him, there is nothing is made, says the book of John. So he's not worried about the storm because he made the storm. He's not worried about getting tripped up and entangled in the law because he wrote the law. He's not worried about getting marched off to his death because he came to do just that and he knows where that ends. That ends in him conquering the death that he is about to suffer for you and for me. He came to conquer death and sin and that's how he did it. So he's at perfect peace in going through the process. He's at perfect peace in heaven when everything feels like it's at chaos at the end of times because this is what he came to do and he offers that peace to John. Jesus has a peace that is untouched by circumstance because nothing in this world can change that God is sovereign. Nothing in this world can change that God's will will be done. Nothing in this world can change that God loves you. Nothing in this world can change that God has a perfect plan and in the fullness of time he will execute it. Nothing in this world can change that for those who believe in him we can look forward to an eternity where God is with his people and where we will be with our God and where there is no more weeping and no more crying and no more pain anymore. Because God is in control, because God has orchestrated all of time to bring about that moment, we know that there are no circumstances that can change the certainty that we have in Christ. And so we have perfect peace. Maybe this is why Paul writes about peace in the book of Philippians and points us to God in prayer so that we might have perfect peace. In Philippians, Paul writes this in chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. He says, Do not be anxious about anything, 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 understandings, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. You understand that our peace isn't just imparted by Christ, but our peace is guarded by God? As believers, we have this Christ-imparted, God-guarded peace that circumstances cannot touch. You understand that God advocates for your peace, that He wants you to feel at ease? He does not want you to be anxious. He does not want you to move through life with anxiety. He does not want you to be crippled by worry. He does not want you to be one of the ones freaking out and wondering how everything is going to be okay. And because of that, he offers you Christ-imparted and God-guarded peace so that your soul can be at rest. So we don't have to worry so much. And guys, has there ever been a year in our memories where we needed this peace more? where it feels like everyone around us is losing their mind, where we're in a culture that is rife with racial and political tension, where we're seeing riots and demonstrations and we're wondering what is going on here, where we are in a country that is more divided than ever, When will I ever get to see my loved ones? Is the vaccine really going to work? Will the economy recover? Will I be able to find a new job? Will my position still be there? We have all sorts of anxieties and worries this year. Has there ever been a time when we needed God's peace more? I know that for me, I've needed that peace this year. For me, I've worried a lot about grace. When we went into quarantine in March, we had come off of what was, while I've been here, a high point while I've been at grace. More people than we've ever seen were coming every week. We did a campaign. We were hoping to get a $1.5 million pledge. We had $1.6 million pledge. I would have never expected that. God was moving and shaking, and there was so much contagious enthusiasm here, and then we just had to stop meeting. And for a while, into doing online services like this, I would look for those numbers every week. How many people are watching online? How many screens we're on? How many downloads do we have? What's our engagement look like? Are we losing our momentum? Oh no, God, the church is gonna crumble. Everything's gonna fall apart. I think we're starting to lose people. I'm really worried and I lost sleep over what was happening at at Grace until I was gently reminded to just look at God. And over the course of the year, I saw his hand on Grace. I was so worried about giving because we're not meeting in person, and we're not telling anybody to give online, and I wouldn't dare, especially if you remember the beginning of quarantine when the economy was tanking and everything was going bad, I wouldn't dare ask for money then. So I just buttoned it up and just hoped. And God just continued to provide everything that the church needed, even so that we were able to continue to give away to other ministries who were in need. And God just reminded me over and over and over again over the course of the year, I care about grace. I've got this place. Look at me. Do I look worried? And so now, I don't even look at the numbers. Steve emails them to me every week as is our habit. I never even open it. Sorry, Steve. Because I don't care. They don't matter to me. God's got this church. We're not going anywhere. He's got big plans for us. He's chosen to sustain us. I have a certainty about grace that is untouched by circumstances because I see that God's not worried, so I'm not. He offers us this peace in our lives too. He's not worried about your kids. He's got a plan for them. He's not worried about how your family is going to make it. He's got a plan for that. He's not worried about if everything's going to be okay. He's not worried about what's it going to look like as we try to return back to normal. God isn't concerned with pandemics. He's unfazed with 2020. I promise you he's seen harder years from heaven. But I think sometimes we get so caught up in our worry and in our anxiety and in the circumstances of the day that we keep our focus down. And maybe what we need to do is slow down and let him impart his peace. Maybe this morning or wherever we are as we listen to this or watch this, what we really need to do is just slow down, look at the face of Christ, and let him impart his peace. Let him guard our hearts with perfect peace. When we will be people who will do that, who will constantly put our focus on Christ and not on circumstances, who will allow him to impart his God-guarded peace on us, we can have conversations like I got to have this week. Many of you are aware of what Jen's family is walking through, and just this last week I sat next to my father-in-law in his bed as he moves towards passing away. And I knelt next to him and I told him that it was time for me to say goodbye. And he said, oh, are you going somewhere? I said, no, John, I'm not, but you are. And he said, yeah, I am. And we shared a really sweet moment that caused me to go ugly cry for about 15 minutes on my own in the bathroom somewhere. But at the end of the conversation, I said, John, you're going to go to heaven soon. And you're going to see his parents are Porter and Bernice. You're going to see Porter and Bernice. You're going to hug them. They're going to be glad to see you. Jesus is going to be there. He's going to be glad to see you too. And John whispered in his soft and weak voice, yeah, and when I get there, there's going to be a lot of rejoicing. He's not afraid to die. He's anxious for it. He welcomes it. Because he has a peace that is untouched by circumstance. Because he knows where he's going. He's focused on the face of Christ and Christ is waiting to welcome him into perfect peace. And if there is a peace that is so strong that when someone is hours away from transitioning into the next life, they can lay in their bed at perfect peace and be certain that they are not about to be sad, but that they are about to rejoice. That's the kind of peace that we should want. And Christmas is our yearly reminder that God offers us a peace that no circumstance can touch. This year, as we celebrate Jesus, let's remember that Jesus imparts a peace on us. He imparts a certainty that circumstance can't touch, that God guards this peace. And maybe instead of being worried about all the things that we can't control anyways, what we should do is slow down and focus on the face of Christ and hear him say to us, I'm not worried. You don't have to be either. And let's all of us experience perfect peace as we finish up this year. Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful for your peace. We are so grateful for the way that you guard our hearts, that you don't want us to be anxious, that you don't want us to be worried. Lord, I pray that if there are people hearing this who are anxious, who are riddled with anxiety, who are riddled with worry, who haven't felt peace and rest in a long time, God, would you give their soul rest in you? Would they hear you today saying, look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. Would they today accept your peace? Would they rest easy in that? God, I pray for every person who can hear my voice, that they would experience the same peace that Jesus had, a peace that is untouched by any circumstance. Father, thank you for that gift. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.

There is something so peaceful about lighting a candle, watching the flame flicker, move ever so slightly that seems to lull us into an almost meditative state. So different from the lack of peace we've experienced in our world, we come here caught up in the flow of traffic and Christmas shopping, our feet moving in the way of the world. It is exhausting. Add to that the barrage of chaos in the news or on social media that has us scared or worried, that has angered and outraged us. At times like this, we welcome Jesus into our fearful, anxious hearts. This is one of the reasons why we celebrate Advent. It is a season of expectant waiting, and we light a new candle each week. The earlier candles have burned down, now misshapen, showing our patience wearing thin, our longing growing more fierce. And so we prepare ourselves in a fresh way for the coming of our Lord Jesus in our Christmas celebrations because hope, love, joy, and peace aren't just words we find on Christmas cards. No, we find them in Christ, who is our light, the most peaceful light we could ever experience. Like we read in the book of John, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. Jesus is that light. The prophet Isaiah calls him the one who would come, that he would be the prince of peace for hearts that grieve in a world in turmoil. We are a people whose whole lives have been go with the flow, but it is Jesus who shows us how to march to the beat of God's heart, who shows us what it means to really live. So let's welcome him. We welcome you with all of your peace, Jesus. Give us your peace so that we can be peace bringers. Stop us in our tracks so that the flicker of the flame captures our attention, so that we look past the flow of the world to Jesus who says to some meaningful plans with your family. I can't wait to experience the Christmas Eve service with you guys. I can't wait for y'all to experience the Christmas Eve service. I think it's going to be a really special time for Grace. This week, we want to wrap up the four different topics that we cover in Advent as we talk about peace. Aaron opened talking about hope. I got to talk about love. Kyle taught us about joy. And now we get to focus on the peace that Jesus brings us. As I reflected on peace this week, I was reminded of a story, something that happened to me on an airplane a few years ago. And now I'll warn you, I'm going to tell this story and it's going to make me look kind of good because I do nice things. I try not to share stories about myself that shed me in a positive light because I think that's gross and self-aggrandizing. But this one just kind of makes the point pretty well. So if you'll indulge me, I'll admit some kindness to you. I was getting on a plane a couple of years ago, and I sat down, and I sat down next to this older woman. It was just two on each side and two seats on each side. And as I sat down, it will not surprise you to learn that I'm not one that introduces myself to my seatmate on my plane. I'm one who just sits down and silently stares straight ahead until the plane lands, and then I get off and go about my business. But this particular woman decided that she wanted to introduce herself to me, and so we started talking. And it didn't take very long for her to say that this was her first flight ever. And I said, oh, really? Are you nervous? And she said, yeah, I actually am pretty nervous. I struggle with anxieties. It was hard for me to even get on the plane. Have you flown before? And I said, you're in luck. Don't worry. I've flown probably hundreds of times. I will guide you through the process. I'm not going to be worried at all. As a matter of fact, this is what I told her. I said, listen, when we're flying, if something feels weird, if it feels like it shouldn't happen, if you start to get nervous, you just look at my face. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't have to be worried. If it feels amiss to you, because if you've never flown before, there's all kinds of things that can happen that can make you go, wait a second, is this safe? Is this okay? And so I told her, if you are experiencing that, just look at me. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. I said, as a matter of fact, I'm going to leave my hand right here on this armrest. And if you feel the need to reach over and grab my hand, you feel free to do that. And we'll get through this together. And she said, okay, thank you. Good. So we're sitting there, we're minding our business. The plane taxis and it goes to take off. And as it takes off, I'm already kind of have my eyes closed, dozing a little bit. It's a short flight. I was just trying to get in a quick nap. And as the plane is picking up off the ground, which if you've never experienced that before, it can feel a little turbulent, I feel her hand reach over and grab mine. And so I just give her a little squeeze and let her know everything's going to be okay. We get up into the air and we're cruising. She's good. I'm good. I'm reading a little bit. And then I close my eyes to doze again. And as I close my eyes, the plane hits a little bit of turbulence. And if you've never experienced turbulence before, it can be scary. You bounce a lot. It can make you feel sick to your stomach. And if you've never experienced it before and you're already worried about flying, that can be a really terrifying thing. And so we begin to experience a little bit of turbulence. We're bouncing around and I'm aware that she's probably freaking out a little bit. So I keep my eyes closed. I'm not dozing anymore, but I keep my eyes closed because I just kind of have a feeling she's looking at me to see if I'm calm, to see if I'm worried. And I wanted to project some peace for her. I wanted her to know this is no big deal. It's just normal turbulence. And so while I'm sitting there kind of fake snoozing, trying to offer peace to her, I just kind of do a thumbs up with my hand like this, like it's going to be, it's all right. You got nothing to worry about. And I feel her hand kind of tap mine, like, thank you. I see that. I appreciate that. And we got through the flight. We landed. She said, thank you. She went about her business. I went about mine. And it just, that principle that I took away from that as I was thinking about peace and that story this week is just this idea of, hey, listen, you just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. I was thinking about that idea and how often Jesus does this for us in the Bible. It's something that we don't think about a lot. I never thought about it before this week. But then as I looked at the Bible and I went through the stories of Jesus in my mind and kind of asked that question, what are the times that Jesus looks at us? And he says, listen, look at me. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. And I saw over and over again in Scripture where Jesus offers us his peace. Maybe the most glaring example, the easiest place to go to is when Jesus calms the storm. A lot of us know this story. This is a story that shows up in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, three of the four Gospels. But we're going to look at the story in Mark, chapter 4, verses 35-41, just to make sure we're all on the same page. If you have a Bible, turn there with me as I read. It says down in verse 35, This is Jesus speaking. I love the story of Jesus calming the storm. The disciples are out on a boat. They're in the Sea of Galilee. They have been there thousands of times before. They are a crew of mostly fishermen. And the wind picks up and the waves start to buffet the boat and the water starts to come into the boat in such a way that they are freaked out. And it's a big deal that they're freaked out because, again, these are seasoned fishermen. They had weathered some storms. This isn't the lady on the plane experiencing light turbulence for the first time. This is the seasoned businessman or businesswoman who flies cross country twice a week going, holy smokes, what is gonna happen? This has to be the end. They're freaking out. They're so scared that they go and they wake up Jesus who's managing to sleep through this. And they say, are you not worried? Are you not worried? Can you not see that we are perishing? And Jesus is almost annoyed with them. And I see him stretching out a hand and saying, peace, be still. And everything calms. And they marvel at who this man is and what he can do. His legend with them grows. But the part of it that I see now as I think about this idea of peace is this invitation from Jesus. They're up there on the deck freaking out. They look at Jesus. He's sleeping. And what they should have done is said, he's clearly not worried. We don't have to be. And that's Jesus' first question to them. When they wake him, he says, why do you have no faith? Don't you see me? I'm at peace. You can be at peace. I'm not worried about this storm. You don't need to be worried about the storm. I'm not anxious. You don't have to be anxious. Look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. The disciples forgot in that moment who Jesus was. Or they didn't yet realize who he was. But it's so interesting to me that Jesus challenges their faith. Just look at me. Just remember who I am. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. And I realize that Jesus has this habit of calming storms in our life. He has this habit of remaining stoic, of remaining calm, of remaining unmoved in the face of turmoil. And he reminds us from the scripture, if I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. I was reminded of the story of the adulterous woman and thought about the peace that Jesus must have given her in that moment. In the book of John, there's this famous story where Jesus is teaching in, I believe, Jerusalem, and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, go and they catch a woman in the act of adultery. They drag her through the streets, and they put her down at the feet of Jesus. And they say to Jesus, the law of Moses says that she should be stoned. What do you think we should do with her? You see, they think that they have Jesus between a rock and a hard place. Because here's Jesus, this new radical teacher, who's teaching and proclaiming grace. And yet, they bring this adulterous woman in front of him. And if he says we should stone her, then he has no mercy, and the people that he's teaching will lose interest in what he's saying. If he says that we should forgive if we'll stop for just a second and think about it from her perspective. Being in the act of adultery, having men storm into the house or the room, grab her and drag her into the street. Maybe she was able to grab a sheet on the way. Maybe she wasn't. We don't know. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. She knows who these men are. They are Pharisees. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. It is to have big rocks dropped on her head until she dies. She knows that. She has to be at the height of fear and anxiety in her life. There is no possible way she was ever more worried or anxious than she was in this moment. And there she lands at the feet of this new radical teacher named Jesus. And for some reason, somehow, she realizes that her fate now rests in his hands. And these angry men are accusing her, and they're asking Jesus, what should we do with her? I would love to be able to go back in time and see whatever look it was that Jesus gave her. I would love to see her eyes connect with his. I would love to see his calm and tranquility transposed onto her. I would love to see the recognition on her face when she realized that she was in good hands. And Jesus responds in the midst of all this turmoil and chaos. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. And one by one, the Pharisees begin to go away. And then he looks down at her and he says, is there anyone left to condemn you? And she says, no, Lord. And he says, neither do I condemn you. And it's one of my favorite stories. Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. It's one of my favorite stories about Jesus to see this perfect balance of grace and truth in that moment. But what I've never thought about is the peace that he gave her, is the peace that he imparted onto her. When she is worried, she is anxious, she is fearful, she doesn't know if this is going to work out. And Jesus almost, you can just see him. Just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't need to be worried. Look at me. I've got this. These men will not harm you today. I'm going to protect you. Think about the peace and the certainty that he gave her in that moment. I think about the night that Jesus was arrested. He gets done praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. They've just finished their Passover meal. The disciples are outside with him, and the guards of Caiaphas, the high priest, come to arrest Christ. And in the scuffle, Peter takes a sword and lops off the ear of one of the guards. And Jesus stops everything and he reaches down and he picks up the ear and he places it back on the soldier. And it's almost as if he's saying, Peter, calm down. I'm not worried. This has to happen. And if I'm not anxious, then you don't have to be anxious. If I can be calm about this, you can be calm about this. Scripture tells us that Jesus was crucified, that he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, that he was quiet and that he was passive and that he was calm, that he was in perfect peace. And he's telling the disciples, if I can be at peace with this, that this is supposed to happen, then you can be too. Don't worry. It's going to be okay. What Jesus knows is that in three days he's going to conquer this death that he's about to face. He offers them perfect peace. You look at me. While everyone else in the Garden of Gethsemane, the troops are likely terrified because this Jesus figure just spoke words that knocked them all down. Now they have to get up, dust themselves off, and try to arrest this guy. The disciples are seeing their Messiah being taken, their leader being taken. Everyone around him is freaking out, and Jesus is in perfect peace. Look at me. I'm fine. You can be fine too. The last moment I would take you to is in the book of Revelation. John, at the end of his life, lifelong disciple of Christ, is whisked up to heaven for a vision and told to write down what he sees and share it with the people. And when he gets there, he's terrified. He sees God and he sees angels and he sees the span of heaven and he feels his feebleness. He feels how small he is and he's not exactly sure where he is and he's seeing angels for the first time, which are terrifying creatures, and he's kind of hunkered down in a corner, not sure what's going on. And in that moment, we see in Revelation that he feels a hand on his shoulder. And he hears a voice. And it's the voice of Jesus. And he says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And I have the keys to death and Hades. One of the great lines in the Bible. In this moment where John is anxious and terrified, Jesus gives him peace, puts his hand on his shoulder, lets him hear his voice, and he says, I'm here. I've got this. I'm the one that's in control of this space. You're going to be okay. He offers John his peace. And so as I thought about all these different stories, and there's more. I could do this for a lot longer. It occurred to me, this idea of look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. What's happening in that moment is that Jesus is imparting peace onto us. So what we need to realize is our peace is imparted by Jesus. The peace that we're offered in Scripture, the peace that God offers to us is imparted to us by Jesus. When we look at His face and see that He is calm, we can be calm. When we look to Him and see that He is at peace, then we can feel peace. When everything around us is chaos, and everyone around us is worried and losing their mind, we can look at Jesus who is not worried, who is calm, who is a picture of perfect peace, and we can experience his peace. And in that way, our peace is imparted to us by Jesus himself. And so it made me wonder, how is Jesus able to maintain perfect peace in all these situations? How is he at so much peace in a storm where seasoned fishermen are freaking out that he is taking a nap? When he is at the epicenter of an entire body of really smart men trying to entangle him, how can he be so calm and answer so eloquently and succinctly while protecting this woman? When he is being marched to his death, how can he maintain perfect peace knowing what lies ahead of him? It's because of this. Because Jesus has true peace. And true peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. Peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. It's like Jesus knows a secret. He's unmoved by everything around him because he knows it's all going to be okay. He's not worried about the storm sinking his boat because he's the creator of the storm. He made the heavens and the earth. Without him, there is nothing is made, says the book of John. So he's not worried about the storm because he made the storm. He's not worried about getting tripped up and entangled in the law because he wrote the law. He's not worried about getting marched off to his death because he came to do just that and he knows where that ends. That ends in him conquering the death that he is about to suffer for you and for me. He came to conquer death and sin and that's how he did it. So he's at perfect peace in going through the process. He's at perfect peace in heaven when everything feels like it's at chaos at the end of times because this is what he came to do and he offers that peace to John. Jesus has a peace that is untouched by circumstance because nothing in this world can change that God is sovereign. Nothing in this world can change that God's will will be done. Nothing in this world can change that God loves you. Nothing in this world can change that God has a perfect plan and in the fullness of time he will execute it. Nothing in this world can change that for those who believe in him we can look forward to an eternity where God is with his people and where we will be with our God and where there is no more weeping and no more crying and no more pain anymore. Because God is in control, because God has orchestrated all of time to bring about that moment, we know that there are no circumstances that can change the certainty that we have in Christ. And so we have perfect peace. Maybe this is why Paul writes about peace in the book of Philippians and points us to God in prayer so that we might have perfect peace. In Philippians, Paul writes this in chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. He says, Do not be anxious about anything, 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 understandings, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. You understand that our peace isn't just imparted by Christ, but our peace is guarded by God? As believers, we have this Christ-imparted, God-guarded peace that circumstances cannot touch. You understand that God advocates for your peace, that He wants you to feel at ease? He does not want you to be anxious. He does not want you to move through life with anxiety. He does not want you to be crippled by worry. He does not want you to be one of the ones freaking out and wondering how everything is going to be okay. And because of that, he offers you Christ-imparted and God-guarded peace so that your soul can be at rest. So we don't have to worry so much. And guys, has there ever been a year in our memories where we needed this peace more? where it feels like everyone around us is losing their mind, where we're in a culture that is rife with racial and political tension, where we're seeing riots and demonstrations and we're wondering what is going on here, where we are in a country that is more divided than ever, When will I ever get to see my loved ones? Is the vaccine really going to work? Will the economy recover? Will I be able to find a new job? Will my position still be there? We have all sorts of anxieties and worries this year. Has there ever been a time when we needed God's peace more? I know that for me, I've needed that peace this year. For me, I've worried a lot about grace. When we went into quarantine in March, we had come off of what was, while I've been here, a high point while I've been at grace. More people than we've ever seen were coming every week. We did a campaign. We were hoping to get a $1.5 million pledge. We had $1.6 million pledge. I would have never expected that. God was moving and shaking, and there was so much contagious enthusiasm here, and then we just had to stop meeting. And for a while, into doing online services like this, I would look for those numbers every week. How many people are watching online? How many screens we're on? How many downloads do we have? What's our engagement look like? Are we losing our momentum? Oh no, God, the church is gonna crumble. Everything's gonna fall apart. I think we're starting to lose people. I'm really worried and I lost sleep over what was happening at at Grace until I was gently reminded to just look at God. And over the course of the year, I saw his hand on Grace. I was so worried about giving because we're not meeting in person, and we're not telling anybody to give online, and I wouldn't dare, especially if you remember the beginning of quarantine when the economy was tanking and everything was going bad, I wouldn't dare ask for money then. So I just buttoned it up and just hoped. And God just continued to provide everything that the church needed, even so that we were able to continue to give away to other ministries who were in need. And God just reminded me over and over and over again over the course of the year, I care about grace. I've got this place. Look at me. Do I look worried? And so now, I don't even look at the numbers. Steve emails them to me every week as is our habit. I never even open it. Sorry, Steve. Because I don't care. They don't matter to me. God's got this church. We're not going anywhere. He's got big plans for us. He's chosen to sustain us. I have a certainty about grace that is untouched by circumstances because I see that God's not worried, so I'm not. He offers us this peace in our lives too. He's not worried about your kids. He's got a plan for them. He's not worried about how your family is going to make it. He's got a plan for that. He's not worried about if everything's going to be okay. He's not worried about what's it going to look like as we try to return back to normal. God isn't concerned with pandemics. He's unfazed with 2020. I promise you he's seen harder years from heaven. But I think sometimes we get so caught up in our worry and in our anxiety and in the circumstances of the day that we keep our focus down. And maybe what we need to do is slow down and let him impart his peace. Maybe this morning or wherever we are as we listen to this or watch this, what we really need to do is just slow down, look at the face of Christ, and let him impart his peace. Let him guard our hearts with perfect peace. When we will be people who will do that, who will constantly put our focus on Christ and not on circumstances, who will allow him to impart his God-guarded peace on us, we can have conversations like I got to have this week. Many of you are aware of what Jen's family is walking through, and just this last week I sat next to my father-in-law in his bed as he moves towards passing away. And I knelt next to him and I told him that it was time for me to say goodbye. And he said, oh, are you going somewhere? I said, no, John, I'm not, but you are. And he said, yeah, I am. And we shared a really sweet moment that caused me to go ugly cry for about 15 minutes on my own in the bathroom somewhere. But at the end of the conversation, I said, John, you're going to go to heaven soon. And you're going to see his parents are Porter and Bernice. You're going to see Porter and Bernice. You're going to hug them. They're going to be glad to see you. Jesus is going to be there. He's going to be glad to see you too. And John whispered in his soft and weak voice, yeah, and when I get there, there's going to be a lot of rejoicing. He's not afraid to die. He's anxious for it. He welcomes it. Because he has a peace that is untouched by circumstance. Because he knows where he's going. He's focused on the face of Christ and Christ is waiting to welcome him into perfect peace. And if there is a peace that is so strong that when someone is hours away from transitioning into the next life, they can lay in their bed at perfect peace and be certain that they are not about to be sad, but that they are about to rejoice. That's the kind of peace that we should want. And Christmas is our yearly reminder that God offers us a peace that no circumstance can touch. This year, as we celebrate Jesus, let's remember that Jesus imparts a peace on us. He imparts a certainty that circumstance can't touch, that God guards this peace. And maybe instead of being worried about all the things that we can't control anyways, what we should do is slow down and focus on the face of Christ and hear him say to us, I'm not worried. You don't have to be either. And let's all of us experience perfect peace as we finish up this year. Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful for your peace. We are so grateful for the way that you guard our hearts, that you don't want us to be anxious, that you don't want us to be worried. Lord, I pray that if there are people hearing this who are anxious, who are riddled with anxiety, who are riddled with worry, who haven't felt peace and rest in a long time, God, would you give their soul rest in you? Would they hear you today saying, look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. Would they today accept your peace? Would they rest easy in that? God, I pray for every person who can hear my voice, that they would experience the same peace that Jesus had, a peace that is untouched by any circumstance. Father, thank you for that gift. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.

There is something so peaceful about lighting a candle, watching the flame flicker, move ever so slightly that seems to lull us into an almost meditative state. So different from the lack of peace we've experienced in our world, we come here caught up in the flow of traffic and Christmas shopping, our feet moving in the way of the world. It is exhausting. Add to that the barrage of chaos in the news or on social media that has us scared or worried, that has angered and outraged us. At times like this, we welcome Jesus into our fearful, anxious hearts. This is one of the reasons why we celebrate Advent. It is a season of expectant waiting, and we light a new candle each week. The earlier candles have burned down, now misshapen, showing our patience wearing thin, our longing growing more fierce. And so we prepare ourselves in a fresh way for the coming of our Lord Jesus in our Christmas celebrations because hope, love, joy, and peace aren't just words we find on Christmas cards. No, we find them in Christ, who is our light, the most peaceful light we could ever experience. Like we read in the book of John, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. Jesus is that light. The prophet Isaiah calls him the one who would come, that he would be the prince of peace for hearts that grieve in a world in turmoil. We are a people whose whole lives have been go with the flow, but it is Jesus who shows us how to march to the beat of God's heart, who shows us what it means to really live. So let's welcome him. We welcome you with all of your peace, Jesus. Give us your peace so that we can be peace bringers. Stop us in our tracks so that the flicker of the flame captures our attention, so that we look past the flow of the world to Jesus who says to some meaningful plans with your family. I can't wait to experience the Christmas Eve service with you guys. I can't wait for y'all to experience the Christmas Eve service. I think it's going to be a really special time for Grace. This week, we want to wrap up the four different topics that we cover in Advent as we talk about peace. Aaron opened talking about hope. I got to talk about love. Kyle taught us about joy. And now we get to focus on the peace that Jesus brings us. As I reflected on peace this week, I was reminded of a story, something that happened to me on an airplane a few years ago. And now I'll warn you, I'm going to tell this story and it's going to make me look kind of good because I do nice things. I try not to share stories about myself that shed me in a positive light because I think that's gross and self-aggrandizing. But this one just kind of makes the point pretty well. So if you'll indulge me, I'll admit some kindness to you. I was getting on a plane a couple of years ago, and I sat down, and I sat down next to this older woman. It was just two on each side and two seats on each side. And as I sat down, it will not surprise you to learn that I'm not one that introduces myself to my seatmate on my plane. I'm one who just sits down and silently stares straight ahead until the plane lands, and then I get off and go about my business. But this particular woman decided that she wanted to introduce herself to me, and so we started talking. And it didn't take very long for her to say that this was her first flight ever. And I said, oh, really? Are you nervous? And she said, yeah, I actually am pretty nervous. I struggle with anxieties. It was hard for me to even get on the plane. Have you flown before? And I said, you're in luck. Don't worry. I've flown probably hundreds of times. I will guide you through the process. I'm not going to be worried at all. As a matter of fact, this is what I told her. I said, listen, when we're flying, if something feels weird, if it feels like it shouldn't happen, if you start to get nervous, you just look at my face. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't have to be worried. If it feels amiss to you, because if you've never flown before, there's all kinds of things that can happen that can make you go, wait a second, is this safe? Is this okay? And so I told her, if you are experiencing that, just look at me. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. I said, as a matter of fact, I'm going to leave my hand right here on this armrest. And if you feel the need to reach over and grab my hand, you feel free to do that. And we'll get through this together. And she said, okay, thank you. Good. So we're sitting there, we're minding our business. The plane taxis and it goes to take off. And as it takes off, I'm already kind of have my eyes closed, dozing a little bit. It's a short flight. I was just trying to get in a quick nap. And as the plane is picking up off the ground, which if you've never experienced that before, it can feel a little turbulent, I feel her hand reach over and grab mine. And so I just give her a little squeeze and let her know everything's going to be okay. We get up into the air and we're cruising. She's good. I'm good. I'm reading a little bit. And then I close my eyes to doze again. And as I close my eyes, the plane hits a little bit of turbulence. And if you've never experienced turbulence before, it can be scary. You bounce a lot. It can make you feel sick to your stomach. And if you've never experienced it before and you're already worried about flying, that can be a really terrifying thing. And so we begin to experience a little bit of turbulence. We're bouncing around and I'm aware that she's probably freaking out a little bit. So I keep my eyes closed. I'm not dozing anymore, but I keep my eyes closed because I just kind of have a feeling she's looking at me to see if I'm calm, to see if I'm worried. And I wanted to project some peace for her. I wanted her to know this is no big deal. It's just normal turbulence. And so while I'm sitting there kind of fake snoozing, trying to offer peace to her, I just kind of do a thumbs up with my hand like this, like it's going to be, it's all right. You got nothing to worry about. And I feel her hand kind of tap mine, like, thank you. I see that. I appreciate that. And we got through the flight. We landed. She said, thank you. She went about her business. I went about mine. And it just, that principle that I took away from that as I was thinking about peace and that story this week is just this idea of, hey, listen, you just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. I was thinking about that idea and how often Jesus does this for us in the Bible. It's something that we don't think about a lot. I never thought about it before this week. But then as I looked at the Bible and I went through the stories of Jesus in my mind and kind of asked that question, what are the times that Jesus looks at us? And he says, listen, look at me. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. And I saw over and over again in Scripture where Jesus offers us his peace. Maybe the most glaring example, the easiest place to go to is when Jesus calms the storm. A lot of us know this story. This is a story that shows up in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, three of the four Gospels. But we're going to look at the story in Mark, chapter 4, verses 35-41, just to make sure we're all on the same page. If you have a Bible, turn there with me as I read. It says down in verse 35, This is Jesus speaking. I love the story of Jesus calming the storm. The disciples are out on a boat. They're in the Sea of Galilee. They have been there thousands of times before. They are a crew of mostly fishermen. And the wind picks up and the waves start to buffet the boat and the water starts to come into the boat in such a way that they are freaked out. And it's a big deal that they're freaked out because, again, these are seasoned fishermen. They had weathered some storms. This isn't the lady on the plane experiencing light turbulence for the first time. This is the seasoned businessman or businesswoman who flies cross country twice a week going, holy smokes, what is gonna happen? This has to be the end. They're freaking out. They're so scared that they go and they wake up Jesus who's managing to sleep through this. And they say, are you not worried? Are you not worried? Can you not see that we are perishing? And Jesus is almost annoyed with them. And I see him stretching out a hand and saying, peace, be still. And everything calms. And they marvel at who this man is and what he can do. His legend with them grows. But the part of it that I see now as I think about this idea of peace is this invitation from Jesus. They're up there on the deck freaking out. They look at Jesus. He's sleeping. And what they should have done is said, he's clearly not worried. We don't have to be. And that's Jesus' first question to them. When they wake him, he says, why do you have no faith? Don't you see me? I'm at peace. You can be at peace. I'm not worried about this storm. You don't need to be worried about the storm. I'm not anxious. You don't have to be anxious. Look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. The disciples forgot in that moment who Jesus was. Or they didn't yet realize who he was. But it's so interesting to me that Jesus challenges their faith. Just look at me. Just remember who I am. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. And I realize that Jesus has this habit of calming storms in our life. He has this habit of remaining stoic, of remaining calm, of remaining unmoved in the face of turmoil. And he reminds us from the scripture, if I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. I was reminded of the story of the adulterous woman and thought about the peace that Jesus must have given her in that moment. In the book of John, there's this famous story where Jesus is teaching in, I believe, Jerusalem, and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, go and they catch a woman in the act of adultery. They drag her through the streets, and they put her down at the feet of Jesus. And they say to Jesus, the law of Moses says that she should be stoned. What do you think we should do with her? You see, they think that they have Jesus between a rock and a hard place. Because here's Jesus, this new radical teacher, who's teaching and proclaiming grace. And yet, they bring this adulterous woman in front of him. And if he says we should stone her, then he has no mercy, and the people that he's teaching will lose interest in what he's saying. If he says that we should forgive if we'll stop for just a second and think about it from her perspective. Being in the act of adultery, having men storm into the house or the room, grab her and drag her into the street. Maybe she was able to grab a sheet on the way. Maybe she wasn't. We don't know. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. She knows who these men are. They are Pharisees. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. It is to have big rocks dropped on her head until she dies. She knows that. She has to be at the height of fear and anxiety in her life. There is no possible way she was ever more worried or anxious than she was in this moment. And there she lands at the feet of this new radical teacher named Jesus. And for some reason, somehow, she realizes that her fate now rests in his hands. And these angry men are accusing her, and they're asking Jesus, what should we do with her? I would love to be able to go back in time and see whatever look it was that Jesus gave her. I would love to see her eyes connect with his. I would love to see his calm and tranquility transposed onto her. I would love to see the recognition on her face when she realized that she was in good hands. And Jesus responds in the midst of all this turmoil and chaos. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. And one by one, the Pharisees begin to go away. And then he looks down at her and he says, is there anyone left to condemn you? And she says, no, Lord. And he says, neither do I condemn you. And it's one of my favorite stories. Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. It's one of my favorite stories about Jesus to see this perfect balance of grace and truth in that moment. But what I've never thought about is the peace that he gave her, is the peace that he imparted onto her. When she is worried, she is anxious, she is fearful, she doesn't know if this is going to work out. And Jesus almost, you can just see him. Just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't need to be worried. Look at me. I've got this. These men will not harm you today. I'm going to protect you. Think about the peace and the certainty that he gave her in that moment. I think about the night that Jesus was arrested. He gets done praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. They've just finished their Passover meal. The disciples are outside with him, and the guards of Caiaphas, the high priest, come to arrest Christ. And in the scuffle, Peter takes a sword and lops off the ear of one of the guards. And Jesus stops everything and he reaches down and he picks up the ear and he places it back on the soldier. And it's almost as if he's saying, Peter, calm down. I'm not worried. This has to happen. And if I'm not anxious, then you don't have to be anxious. If I can be calm about this, you can be calm about this. Scripture tells us that Jesus was crucified, that he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, that he was quiet and that he was passive and that he was calm, that he was in perfect peace. And he's telling the disciples, if I can be at peace with this, that this is supposed to happen, then you can be too. Don't worry. It's going to be okay. What Jesus knows is that in three days he's going to conquer this death that he's about to face. He offers them perfect peace. You look at me. While everyone else in the Garden of Gethsemane, the troops are likely terrified because this Jesus figure just spoke words that knocked them all down. Now they have to get up, dust themselves off, and try to arrest this guy. The disciples are seeing their Messiah being taken, their leader being taken. Everyone around him is freaking out, and Jesus is in perfect peace. Look at me. I'm fine. You can be fine too. The last moment I would take you to is in the book of Revelation. John, at the end of his life, lifelong disciple of Christ, is whisked up to heaven for a vision and told to write down what he sees and share it with the people. And when he gets there, he's terrified. He sees God and he sees angels and he sees the span of heaven and he feels his feebleness. He feels how small he is and he's not exactly sure where he is and he's seeing angels for the first time, which are terrifying creatures, and he's kind of hunkered down in a corner, not sure what's going on. And in that moment, we see in Revelation that he feels a hand on his shoulder. And he hears a voice. And it's the voice of Jesus. And he says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And I have the keys to death and Hades. One of the great lines in the Bible. In this moment where John is anxious and terrified, Jesus gives him peace, puts his hand on his shoulder, lets him hear his voice, and he says, I'm here. I've got this. I'm the one that's in control of this space. You're going to be okay. He offers John his peace. And so as I thought about all these different stories, and there's more. I could do this for a lot longer. It occurred to me, this idea of look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. What's happening in that moment is that Jesus is imparting peace onto us. So what we need to realize is our peace is imparted by Jesus. The peace that we're offered in Scripture, the peace that God offers to us is imparted to us by Jesus. When we look at His face and see that He is calm, we can be calm. When we look to Him and see that He is at peace, then we can feel peace. When everything around us is chaos, and everyone around us is worried and losing their mind, we can look at Jesus who is not worried, who is calm, who is a picture of perfect peace, and we can experience his peace. And in that way, our peace is imparted to us by Jesus himself. And so it made me wonder, how is Jesus able to maintain perfect peace in all these situations? How is he at so much peace in a storm where seasoned fishermen are freaking out that he is taking a nap? When he is at the epicenter of an entire body of really smart men trying to entangle him, how can he be so calm and answer so eloquently and succinctly while protecting this woman? When he is being marched to his death, how can he maintain perfect peace knowing what lies ahead of him? It's because of this. Because Jesus has true peace. And true peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. Peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. It's like Jesus knows a secret. He's unmoved by everything around him because he knows it's all going to be okay. He's not worried about the storm sinking his boat because he's the creator of the storm. He made the heavens and the earth. Without him, there is nothing is made, says the book of John. So he's not worried about the storm because he made the storm. He's not worried about getting tripped up and entangled in the law because he wrote the law. He's not worried about getting marched off to his death because he came to do just that and he knows where that ends. That ends in him conquering the death that he is about to suffer for you and for me. He came to conquer death and sin and that's how he did it. So he's at perfect peace in going through the process. He's at perfect peace in heaven when everything feels like it's at chaos at the end of times because this is what he came to do and he offers that peace to John. Jesus has a peace that is untouched by circumstance because nothing in this world can change that God is sovereign. Nothing in this world can change that God's will will be done. Nothing in this world can change that God loves you. Nothing in this world can change that God has a perfect plan and in the fullness of time he will execute it. Nothing in this world can change that for those who believe in him we can look forward to an eternity where God is with his people and where we will be with our God and where there is no more weeping and no more crying and no more pain anymore. Because God is in control, because God has orchestrated all of time to bring about that moment, we know that there are no circumstances that can change the certainty that we have in Christ. And so we have perfect peace. Maybe this is why Paul writes about peace in the book of Philippians and points us to God in prayer so that we might have perfect peace. In Philippians, Paul writes this in chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. He says, Do not be anxious about anything, 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 understandings, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. You understand that our peace isn't just imparted by Christ, but our peace is guarded by God? As believers, we have this Christ-imparted, God-guarded peace that circumstances cannot touch. You understand that God advocates for your peace, that He wants you to feel at ease? He does not want you to be anxious. He does not want you to move through life with anxiety. He does not want you to be crippled by worry. He does not want you to be one of the ones freaking out and wondering how everything is going to be okay. And because of that, he offers you Christ-imparted and God-guarded peace so that your soul can be at rest. So we don't have to worry so much. And guys, has there ever been a year in our memories where we needed this peace more? where it feels like everyone around us is losing their mind, where we're in a culture that is rife with racial and political tension, where we're seeing riots and demonstrations and we're wondering what is going on here, where we are in a country that is more divided than ever, When will I ever get to see my loved ones? Is the vaccine really going to work? Will the economy recover? Will I be able to find a new job? Will my position still be there? We have all sorts of anxieties and worries this year. Has there ever been a time when we needed God's peace more? I know that for me, I've needed that peace this year. For me, I've worried a lot about grace. When we went into quarantine in March, we had come off of what was, while I've been here, a high point while I've been at grace. More people than we've ever seen were coming every week. We did a campaign. We were hoping to get a $1.5 million pledge. We had $1.6 million pledge. I would have never expected that. God was moving and shaking, and there was so much contagious enthusiasm here, and then we just had to stop meeting. And for a while, into doing online services like this, I would look for those numbers every week. How many people are watching online? How many screens we're on? How many downloads do we have? What's our engagement look like? Are we losing our momentum? Oh no, God, the church is gonna crumble. Everything's gonna fall apart. I think we're starting to lose people. I'm really worried and I lost sleep over what was happening at at Grace until I was gently reminded to just look at God. And over the course of the year, I saw his hand on Grace. I was so worried about giving because we're not meeting in person, and we're not telling anybody to give online, and I wouldn't dare, especially if you remember the beginning of quarantine when the economy was tanking and everything was going bad, I wouldn't dare ask for money then. So I just buttoned it up and just hoped. And God just continued to provide everything that the church needed, even so that we were able to continue to give away to other ministries who were in need. And God just reminded me over and over and over again over the course of the year, I care about grace. I've got this place. Look at me. Do I look worried? And so now, I don't even look at the numbers. Steve emails them to me every week as is our habit. I never even open it. Sorry, Steve. Because I don't care. They don't matter to me. God's got this church. We're not going anywhere. He's got big plans for us. He's chosen to sustain us. I have a certainty about grace that is untouched by circumstances because I see that God's not worried, so I'm not. He offers us this peace in our lives too. He's not worried about your kids. He's got a plan for them. He's not worried about how your family is going to make it. He's got a plan for that. He's not worried about if everything's going to be okay. He's not worried about what's it going to look like as we try to return back to normal. God isn't concerned with pandemics. He's unfazed with 2020. I promise you he's seen harder years from heaven. But I think sometimes we get so caught up in our worry and in our anxiety and in the circumstances of the day that we keep our focus down. And maybe what we need to do is slow down and let him impart his peace. Maybe this morning or wherever we are as we listen to this or watch this, what we really need to do is just slow down, look at the face of Christ, and let him impart his peace. Let him guard our hearts with perfect peace. When we will be people who will do that, who will constantly put our focus on Christ and not on circumstances, who will allow him to impart his God-guarded peace on us, we can have conversations like I got to have this week. Many of you are aware of what Jen's family is walking through, and just this last week I sat next to my father-in-law in his bed as he moves towards passing away. And I knelt next to him and I told him that it was time for me to say goodbye. And he said, oh, are you going somewhere? I said, no, John, I'm not, but you are. And he said, yeah, I am. And we shared a really sweet moment that caused me to go ugly cry for about 15 minutes on my own in the bathroom somewhere. But at the end of the conversation, I said, John, you're going to go to heaven soon. And you're going to see his parents are Porter and Bernice. You're going to see Porter and Bernice. You're going to hug them. They're going to be glad to see you. Jesus is going to be there. He's going to be glad to see you too. And John whispered in his soft and weak voice, yeah, and when I get there, there's going to be a lot of rejoicing. He's not afraid to die. He's anxious for it. He welcomes it. Because he has a peace that is untouched by circumstance. Because he knows where he's going. He's focused on the face of Christ and Christ is waiting to welcome him into perfect peace. And if there is a peace that is so strong that when someone is hours away from transitioning into the next life, they can lay in their bed at perfect peace and be certain that they are not about to be sad, but that they are about to rejoice. That's the kind of peace that we should want. And Christmas is our yearly reminder that God offers us a peace that no circumstance can touch. This year, as we celebrate Jesus, let's remember that Jesus imparts a peace on us. He imparts a certainty that circumstance can't touch, that God guards this peace. And maybe instead of being worried about all the things that we can't control anyways, what we should do is slow down and focus on the face of Christ and hear him say to us, I'm not worried. You don't have to be either. And let's all of us experience perfect peace as we finish up this year. Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful for your peace. We are so grateful for the way that you guard our hearts, that you don't want us to be anxious, that you don't want us to be worried. Lord, I pray that if there are people hearing this who are anxious, who are riddled with anxiety, who are riddled with worry, who haven't felt peace and rest in a long time, God, would you give their soul rest in you? Would they hear you today saying, look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. Would they today accept your peace? Would they rest easy in that? God, I pray for every person who can hear my voice, that they would experience the same peace that Jesus had, a peace that is untouched by any circumstance. Father, thank you for that gift. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.

There is something so peaceful about lighting a candle, watching the flame flicker, move ever so slightly that seems to lull us into an almost meditative state. So different from the lack of peace we've experienced in our world, we come here caught up in the flow of traffic and Christmas shopping, our feet moving in the way of the world. It is exhausting. Add to that the barrage of chaos in the news or on social media that has us scared or worried, that has angered and outraged us. At times like this, we welcome Jesus into our fearful, anxious hearts. This is one of the reasons why we celebrate Advent. It is a season of expectant waiting, and we light a new candle each week. The earlier candles have burned down, now misshapen, showing our patience wearing thin, our longing growing more fierce. And so we prepare ourselves in a fresh way for the coming of our Lord Jesus in our Christmas celebrations because hope, love, joy, and peace aren't just words we find on Christmas cards. No, we find them in Christ, who is our light, the most peaceful light we could ever experience. Like we read in the book of John, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. Jesus is that light. The prophet Isaiah calls him the one who would come, that he would be the prince of peace for hearts that grieve in a world in turmoil. We are a people whose whole lives have been go with the flow, but it is Jesus who shows us how to march to the beat of God's heart, who shows us what it means to really live. So let's welcome him. We welcome you with all of your peace, Jesus. Give us your peace so that we can be peace bringers. Stop us in our tracks so that the flicker of the flame captures our attention, so that we look past the flow of the world to Jesus who says to some meaningful plans with your family. I can't wait to experience the Christmas Eve service with you guys. I can't wait for y'all to experience the Christmas Eve service. I think it's going to be a really special time for Grace. This week, we want to wrap up the four different topics that we cover in Advent as we talk about peace. Aaron opened talking about hope. I got to talk about love. Kyle taught us about joy. And now we get to focus on the peace that Jesus brings us. As I reflected on peace this week, I was reminded of a story, something that happened to me on an airplane a few years ago. And now I'll warn you, I'm going to tell this story and it's going to make me look kind of good because I do nice things. I try not to share stories about myself that shed me in a positive light because I think that's gross and self-aggrandizing. But this one just kind of makes the point pretty well. So if you'll indulge me, I'll admit some kindness to you. I was getting on a plane a couple of years ago, and I sat down, and I sat down next to this older woman. It was just two on each side and two seats on each side. And as I sat down, it will not surprise you to learn that I'm not one that introduces myself to my seatmate on my plane. I'm one who just sits down and silently stares straight ahead until the plane lands, and then I get off and go about my business. But this particular woman decided that she wanted to introduce herself to me, and so we started talking. And it didn't take very long for her to say that this was her first flight ever. And I said, oh, really? Are you nervous? And she said, yeah, I actually am pretty nervous. I struggle with anxieties. It was hard for me to even get on the plane. Have you flown before? And I said, you're in luck. Don't worry. I've flown probably hundreds of times. I will guide you through the process. I'm not going to be worried at all. As a matter of fact, this is what I told her. I said, listen, when we're flying, if something feels weird, if it feels like it shouldn't happen, if you start to get nervous, you just look at my face. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't have to be worried. If it feels amiss to you, because if you've never flown before, there's all kinds of things that can happen that can make you go, wait a second, is this safe? Is this okay? And so I told her, if you are experiencing that, just look at me. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. I said, as a matter of fact, I'm going to leave my hand right here on this armrest. And if you feel the need to reach over and grab my hand, you feel free to do that. And we'll get through this together. And she said, okay, thank you. Good. So we're sitting there, we're minding our business. The plane taxis and it goes to take off. And as it takes off, I'm already kind of have my eyes closed, dozing a little bit. It's a short flight. I was just trying to get in a quick nap. And as the plane is picking up off the ground, which if you've never experienced that before, it can feel a little turbulent, I feel her hand reach over and grab mine. And so I just give her a little squeeze and let her know everything's going to be okay. We get up into the air and we're cruising. She's good. I'm good. I'm reading a little bit. And then I close my eyes to doze again. And as I close my eyes, the plane hits a little bit of turbulence. And if you've never experienced turbulence before, it can be scary. You bounce a lot. It can make you feel sick to your stomach. And if you've never experienced it before and you're already worried about flying, that can be a really terrifying thing. And so we begin to experience a little bit of turbulence. We're bouncing around and I'm aware that she's probably freaking out a little bit. So I keep my eyes closed. I'm not dozing anymore, but I keep my eyes closed because I just kind of have a feeling she's looking at me to see if I'm calm, to see if I'm worried. And I wanted to project some peace for her. I wanted her to know this is no big deal. It's just normal turbulence. And so while I'm sitting there kind of fake snoozing, trying to offer peace to her, I just kind of do a thumbs up with my hand like this, like it's going to be, it's all right. You got nothing to worry about. And I feel her hand kind of tap mine, like, thank you. I see that. I appreciate that. And we got through the flight. We landed. She said, thank you. She went about her business. I went about mine. And it just, that principle that I took away from that as I was thinking about peace and that story this week is just this idea of, hey, listen, you just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. I was thinking about that idea and how often Jesus does this for us in the Bible. It's something that we don't think about a lot. I never thought about it before this week. But then as I looked at the Bible and I went through the stories of Jesus in my mind and kind of asked that question, what are the times that Jesus looks at us? And he says, listen, look at me. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. And I saw over and over again in Scripture where Jesus offers us his peace. Maybe the most glaring example, the easiest place to go to is when Jesus calms the storm. A lot of us know this story. This is a story that shows up in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, three of the four Gospels. But we're going to look at the story in Mark, chapter 4, verses 35-41, just to make sure we're all on the same page. If you have a Bible, turn there with me as I read. It says down in verse 35, This is Jesus speaking. I love the story of Jesus calming the storm. The disciples are out on a boat. They're in the Sea of Galilee. They have been there thousands of times before. They are a crew of mostly fishermen. And the wind picks up and the waves start to buffet the boat and the water starts to come into the boat in such a way that they are freaked out. And it's a big deal that they're freaked out because, again, these are seasoned fishermen. They had weathered some storms. This isn't the lady on the plane experiencing light turbulence for the first time. This is the seasoned businessman or businesswoman who flies cross country twice a week going, holy smokes, what is gonna happen? This has to be the end. They're freaking out. They're so scared that they go and they wake up Jesus who's managing to sleep through this. And they say, are you not worried? Are you not worried? Can you not see that we are perishing? And Jesus is almost annoyed with them. And I see him stretching out a hand and saying, peace, be still. And everything calms. And they marvel at who this man is and what he can do. His legend with them grows. But the part of it that I see now as I think about this idea of peace is this invitation from Jesus. They're up there on the deck freaking out. They look at Jesus. He's sleeping. And what they should have done is said, he's clearly not worried. We don't have to be. And that's Jesus' first question to them. When they wake him, he says, why do you have no faith? Don't you see me? I'm at peace. You can be at peace. I'm not worried about this storm. You don't need to be worried about the storm. I'm not anxious. You don't have to be anxious. Look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. The disciples forgot in that moment who Jesus was. Or they didn't yet realize who he was. But it's so interesting to me that Jesus challenges their faith. Just look at me. Just remember who I am. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. And I realize that Jesus has this habit of calming storms in our life. He has this habit of remaining stoic, of remaining calm, of remaining unmoved in the face of turmoil. And he reminds us from the scripture, if I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. I was reminded of the story of the adulterous woman and thought about the peace that Jesus must have given her in that moment. In the book of John, there's this famous story where Jesus is teaching in, I believe, Jerusalem, and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, go and they catch a woman in the act of adultery. They drag her through the streets, and they put her down at the feet of Jesus. And they say to Jesus, the law of Moses says that she should be stoned. What do you think we should do with her? You see, they think that they have Jesus between a rock and a hard place. Because here's Jesus, this new radical teacher, who's teaching and proclaiming grace. And yet, they bring this adulterous woman in front of him. And if he says we should stone her, then he has no mercy, and the people that he's teaching will lose interest in what he's saying. If he says that we should forgive if we'll stop for just a second and think about it from her perspective. Being in the act of adultery, having men storm into the house or the room, grab her and drag her into the street. Maybe she was able to grab a sheet on the way. Maybe she wasn't. We don't know. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. She knows who these men are. They are Pharisees. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. It is to have big rocks dropped on her head until she dies. She knows that. She has to be at the height of fear and anxiety in her life. There is no possible way she was ever more worried or anxious than she was in this moment. And there she lands at the feet of this new radical teacher named Jesus. And for some reason, somehow, she realizes that her fate now rests in his hands. And these angry men are accusing her, and they're asking Jesus, what should we do with her? I would love to be able to go back in time and see whatever look it was that Jesus gave her. I would love to see her eyes connect with his. I would love to see his calm and tranquility transposed onto her. I would love to see the recognition on her face when she realized that she was in good hands. And Jesus responds in the midst of all this turmoil and chaos. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. And one by one, the Pharisees begin to go away. And then he looks down at her and he says, is there anyone left to condemn you? And she says, no, Lord. And he says, neither do I condemn you. And it's one of my favorite stories. Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. It's one of my favorite stories about Jesus to see this perfect balance of grace and truth in that moment. But what I've never thought about is the peace that he gave her, is the peace that he imparted onto her. When she is worried, she is anxious, she is fearful, she doesn't know if this is going to work out. And Jesus almost, you can just see him. Just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't need to be worried. Look at me. I've got this. These men will not harm you today. I'm going to protect you. Think about the peace and the certainty that he gave her in that moment. I think about the night that Jesus was arrested. He gets done praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. They've just finished their Passover meal. The disciples are outside with him, and the guards of Caiaphas, the high priest, come to arrest Christ. And in the scuffle, Peter takes a sword and lops off the ear of one of the guards. And Jesus stops everything and he reaches down and he picks up the ear and he places it back on the soldier. And it's almost as if he's saying, Peter, calm down. I'm not worried. This has to happen. And if I'm not anxious, then you don't have to be anxious. If I can be calm about this, you can be calm about this. Scripture tells us that Jesus was crucified, that he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, that he was quiet and that he was passive and that he was calm, that he was in perfect peace. And he's telling the disciples, if I can be at peace with this, that this is supposed to happen, then you can be too. Don't worry. It's going to be okay. What Jesus knows is that in three days he's going to conquer this death that he's about to face. He offers them perfect peace. You look at me. While everyone else in the Garden of Gethsemane, the troops are likely terrified because this Jesus figure just spoke words that knocked them all down. Now they have to get up, dust themselves off, and try to arrest this guy. The disciples are seeing their Messiah being taken, their leader being taken. Everyone around him is freaking out, and Jesus is in perfect peace. Look at me. I'm fine. You can be fine too. The last moment I would take you to is in the book of Revelation. John, at the end of his life, lifelong disciple of Christ, is whisked up to heaven for a vision and told to write down what he sees and share it with the people. And when he gets there, he's terrified. He sees God and he sees angels and he sees the span of heaven and he feels his feebleness. He feels how small he is and he's not exactly sure where he is and he's seeing angels for the first time, which are terrifying creatures, and he's kind of hunkered down in a corner, not sure what's going on. And in that moment, we see in Revelation that he feels a hand on his shoulder. And he hears a voice. And it's the voice of Jesus. And he says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And I have the keys to death and Hades. One of the great lines in the Bible. In this moment where John is anxious and terrified, Jesus gives him peace, puts his hand on his shoulder, lets him hear his voice, and he says, I'm here. I've got this. I'm the one that's in control of this space. You're going to be okay. He offers John his peace. And so as I thought about all these different stories, and there's more. I could do this for a lot longer. It occurred to me, this idea of look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. What's happening in that moment is that Jesus is imparting peace onto us. So what we need to realize is our peace is imparted by Jesus. The peace that we're offered in Scripture, the peace that God offers to us is imparted to us by Jesus. When we look at His face and see that He is calm, we can be calm. When we look to Him and see that He is at peace, then we can feel peace. When everything around us is chaos, and everyone around us is worried and losing their mind, we can look at Jesus who is not worried, who is calm, who is a picture of perfect peace, and we can experience his peace. And in that way, our peace is imparted to us by Jesus himself. And so it made me wonder, how is Jesus able to maintain perfect peace in all these situations? How is he at so much peace in a storm where seasoned fishermen are freaking out that he is taking a nap? When he is at the epicenter of an entire body of really smart men trying to entangle him, how can he be so calm and answer so eloquently and succinctly while protecting this woman? When he is being marched to his death, how can he maintain perfect peace knowing what lies ahead of him? It's because of this. Because Jesus has true peace. And true peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. Peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. It's like Jesus knows a secret. He's unmoved by everything around him because he knows it's all going to be okay. He's not worried about the storm sinking his boat because he's the creator of the storm. He made the heavens and the earth. Without him, there is nothing is made, says the book of John. So he's not worried about the storm because he made the storm. He's not worried about getting tripped up and entangled in the law because he wrote the law. He's not worried about getting marched off to his death because he came to do just that and he knows where that ends. That ends in him conquering the death that he is about to suffer for you and for me. He came to conquer death and sin and that's how he did it. So he's at perfect peace in going through the process. He's at perfect peace in heaven when everything feels like it's at chaos at the end of times because this is what he came to do and he offers that peace to John. Jesus has a peace that is untouched by circumstance because nothing in this world can change that God is sovereign. Nothing in this world can change that God's will will be done. Nothing in this world can change that God loves you. Nothing in this world can change that God has a perfect plan and in the fullness of time he will execute it. Nothing in this world can change that for those who believe in him we can look forward to an eternity where God is with his people and where we will be with our God and where there is no more weeping and no more crying and no more pain anymore. Because God is in control, because God has orchestrated all of time to bring about that moment, we know that there are no circumstances that can change the certainty that we have in Christ. And so we have perfect peace. Maybe this is why Paul writes about peace in the book of Philippians and points us to God in prayer so that we might have perfect peace. In Philippians, Paul writes this in chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. He says, Do not be anxious about anything, 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 understandings, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. You understand that our peace isn't just imparted by Christ, but our peace is guarded by God? As believers, we have this Christ-imparted, God-guarded peace that circumstances cannot touch. You understand that God advocates for your peace, that He wants you to feel at ease? He does not want you to be anxious. He does not want you to move through life with anxiety. He does not want you to be crippled by worry. He does not want you to be one of the ones freaking out and wondering how everything is going to be okay. And because of that, he offers you Christ-imparted and God-guarded peace so that your soul can be at rest. So we don't have to worry so much. And guys, has there ever been a year in our memories where we needed this peace more? where it feels like everyone around us is losing their mind, where we're in a culture that is rife with racial and political tension, where we're seeing riots and demonstrations and we're wondering what is going on here, where we are in a country that is more divided than ever, When will I ever get to see my loved ones? Is the vaccine really going to work? Will the economy recover? Will I be able to find a new job? Will my position still be there? We have all sorts of anxieties and worries this year. Has there ever been a time when we needed God's peace more? I know that for me, I've needed that peace this year. For me, I've worried a lot about grace. When we went into quarantine in March, we had come off of what was, while I've been here, a high point while I've been at grace. More people than we've ever seen were coming every week. We did a campaign. We were hoping to get a $1.5 million pledge. We had $1.6 million pledge. I would have never expected that. God was moving and shaking, and there was so much contagious enthusiasm here, and then we just had to stop meeting. And for a while, into doing online services like this, I would look for those numbers every week. How many people are watching online? How many screens we're on? How many downloads do we have? What's our engagement look like? Are we losing our momentum? Oh no, God, the church is gonna crumble. Everything's gonna fall apart. I think we're starting to lose people. I'm really worried and I lost sleep over what was happening at at Grace until I was gently reminded to just look at God. And over the course of the year, I saw his hand on Grace. I was so worried about giving because we're not meeting in person, and we're not telling anybody to give online, and I wouldn't dare, especially if you remember the beginning of quarantine when the economy was tanking and everything was going bad, I wouldn't dare ask for money then. So I just buttoned it up and just hoped. And God just continued to provide everything that the church needed, even so that we were able to continue to give away to other ministries who were in need. And God just reminded me over and over and over again over the course of the year, I care about grace. I've got this place. Look at me. Do I look worried? And so now, I don't even look at the numbers. Steve emails them to me every week as is our habit. I never even open it. Sorry, Steve. Because I don't care. They don't matter to me. God's got this church. We're not going anywhere. He's got big plans for us. He's chosen to sustain us. I have a certainty about grace that is untouched by circumstances because I see that God's not worried, so I'm not. He offers us this peace in our lives too. He's not worried about your kids. He's got a plan for them. He's not worried about how your family is going to make it. He's got a plan for that. He's not worried about if everything's going to be okay. He's not worried about what's it going to look like as we try to return back to normal. God isn't concerned with pandemics. He's unfazed with 2020. I promise you he's seen harder years from heaven. But I think sometimes we get so caught up in our worry and in our anxiety and in the circumstances of the day that we keep our focus down. And maybe what we need to do is slow down and let him impart his peace. Maybe this morning or wherever we are as we listen to this or watch this, what we really need to do is just slow down, look at the face of Christ, and let him impart his peace. Let him guard our hearts with perfect peace. When we will be people who will do that, who will constantly put our focus on Christ and not on circumstances, who will allow him to impart his God-guarded peace on us, we can have conversations like I got to have this week. Many of you are aware of what Jen's family is walking through, and just this last week I sat next to my father-in-law in his bed as he moves towards passing away. And I knelt next to him and I told him that it was time for me to say goodbye. And he said, oh, are you going somewhere? I said, no, John, I'm not, but you are. And he said, yeah, I am. And we shared a really sweet moment that caused me to go ugly cry for about 15 minutes on my own in the bathroom somewhere. But at the end of the conversation, I said, John, you're going to go to heaven soon. And you're going to see his parents are Porter and Bernice. You're going to see Porter and Bernice. You're going to hug them. They're going to be glad to see you. Jesus is going to be there. He's going to be glad to see you too. And John whispered in his soft and weak voice, yeah, and when I get there, there's going to be a lot of rejoicing. He's not afraid to die. He's anxious for it. He welcomes it. Because he has a peace that is untouched by circumstance. Because he knows where he's going. He's focused on the face of Christ and Christ is waiting to welcome him into perfect peace. And if there is a peace that is so strong that when someone is hours away from transitioning into the next life, they can lay in their bed at perfect peace and be certain that they are not about to be sad, but that they are about to rejoice. That's the kind of peace that we should want. And Christmas is our yearly reminder that God offers us a peace that no circumstance can touch. This year, as we celebrate Jesus, let's remember that Jesus imparts a peace on us. He imparts a certainty that circumstance can't touch, that God guards this peace. And maybe instead of being worried about all the things that we can't control anyways, what we should do is slow down and focus on the face of Christ and hear him say to us, I'm not worried. You don't have to be either. And let's all of us experience perfect peace as we finish up this year. Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful for your peace. We are so grateful for the way that you guard our hearts, that you don't want us to be anxious, that you don't want us to be worried. Lord, I pray that if there are people hearing this who are anxious, who are riddled with anxiety, who are riddled with worry, who haven't felt peace and rest in a long time, God, would you give their soul rest in you? Would they hear you today saying, look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. Would they today accept your peace? Would they rest easy in that? God, I pray for every person who can hear my voice, that they would experience the same peace that Jesus had, a peace that is untouched by any circumstance. Father, thank you for that gift. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.

There is something so peaceful about lighting a candle, watching the flame flicker, move ever so slightly that seems to lull us into an almost meditative state. So different from the lack of peace we've experienced in our world, we come here caught up in the flow of traffic and Christmas shopping, our feet moving in the way of the world. It is exhausting. Add to that the barrage of chaos in the news or on social media that has us scared or worried, that has angered and outraged us. At times like this, we welcome Jesus into our fearful, anxious hearts. This is one of the reasons why we celebrate Advent. It is a season of expectant waiting, and we light a new candle each week. The earlier candles have burned down, now misshapen, showing our patience wearing thin, our longing growing more fierce. And so we prepare ourselves in a fresh way for the coming of our Lord Jesus in our Christmas celebrations because hope, love, joy, and peace aren't just words we find on Christmas cards. No, we find them in Christ, who is our light, the most peaceful light we could ever experience. Like we read in the book of John, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. Jesus is that light. The prophet Isaiah calls him the one who would come, that he would be the prince of peace for hearts that grieve in a world in turmoil. We are a people whose whole lives have been go with the flow, but it is Jesus who shows us how to march to the beat of God's heart, who shows us what it means to really live. So let's welcome him. We welcome you with all of your peace, Jesus. Give us your peace so that we can be peace bringers. Stop us in our tracks so that the flicker of the flame captures our attention, so that we look past the flow of the world to Jesus who says to some meaningful plans with your family. I can't wait to experience the Christmas Eve service with you guys. I can't wait for y'all to experience the Christmas Eve service. I think it's going to be a really special time for Grace. This week, we want to wrap up the four different topics that we cover in Advent as we talk about peace. Aaron opened talking about hope. I got to talk about love. Kyle taught us about joy. And now we get to focus on the peace that Jesus brings us. As I reflected on peace this week, I was reminded of a story, something that happened to me on an airplane a few years ago. And now I'll warn you, I'm going to tell this story and it's going to make me look kind of good because I do nice things. I try not to share stories about myself that shed me in a positive light because I think that's gross and self-aggrandizing. But this one just kind of makes the point pretty well. So if you'll indulge me, I'll admit some kindness to you. I was getting on a plane a couple of years ago, and I sat down, and I sat down next to this older woman. It was just two on each side and two seats on each side. And as I sat down, it will not surprise you to learn that I'm not one that introduces myself to my seatmate on my plane. I'm one who just sits down and silently stares straight ahead until the plane lands, and then I get off and go about my business. But this particular woman decided that she wanted to introduce herself to me, and so we started talking. And it didn't take very long for her to say that this was her first flight ever. And I said, oh, really? Are you nervous? And she said, yeah, I actually am pretty nervous. I struggle with anxieties. It was hard for me to even get on the plane. Have you flown before? And I said, you're in luck. Don't worry. I've flown probably hundreds of times. I will guide you through the process. I'm not going to be worried at all. As a matter of fact, this is what I told her. I said, listen, when we're flying, if something feels weird, if it feels like it shouldn't happen, if you start to get nervous, you just look at my face. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't have to be worried. If it feels amiss to you, because if you've never flown before, there's all kinds of things that can happen that can make you go, wait a second, is this safe? Is this okay? And so I told her, if you are experiencing that, just look at me. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. I said, as a matter of fact, I'm going to leave my hand right here on this armrest. And if you feel the need to reach over and grab my hand, you feel free to do that. And we'll get through this together. And she said, okay, thank you. Good. So we're sitting there, we're minding our business. The plane taxis and it goes to take off. And as it takes off, I'm already kind of have my eyes closed, dozing a little bit. It's a short flight. I was just trying to get in a quick nap. And as the plane is picking up off the ground, which if you've never experienced that before, it can feel a little turbulent, I feel her hand reach over and grab mine. And so I just give her a little squeeze and let her know everything's going to be okay. We get up into the air and we're cruising. She's good. I'm good. I'm reading a little bit. And then I close my eyes to doze again. And as I close my eyes, the plane hits a little bit of turbulence. And if you've never experienced turbulence before, it can be scary. You bounce a lot. It can make you feel sick to your stomach. And if you've never experienced it before and you're already worried about flying, that can be a really terrifying thing. And so we begin to experience a little bit of turbulence. We're bouncing around and I'm aware that she's probably freaking out a little bit. So I keep my eyes closed. I'm not dozing anymore, but I keep my eyes closed because I just kind of have a feeling she's looking at me to see if I'm calm, to see if I'm worried. And I wanted to project some peace for her. I wanted her to know this is no big deal. It's just normal turbulence. And so while I'm sitting there kind of fake snoozing, trying to offer peace to her, I just kind of do a thumbs up with my hand like this, like it's going to be, it's all right. You got nothing to worry about. And I feel her hand kind of tap mine, like, thank you. I see that. I appreciate that. And we got through the flight. We landed. She said, thank you. She went about her business. I went about mine. And it just, that principle that I took away from that as I was thinking about peace and that story this week is just this idea of, hey, listen, you just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. I was thinking about that idea and how often Jesus does this for us in the Bible. It's something that we don't think about a lot. I never thought about it before this week. But then as I looked at the Bible and I went through the stories of Jesus in my mind and kind of asked that question, what are the times that Jesus looks at us? And he says, listen, look at me. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. And I saw over and over again in Scripture where Jesus offers us his peace. Maybe the most glaring example, the easiest place to go to is when Jesus calms the storm. A lot of us know this story. This is a story that shows up in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, three of the four Gospels. But we're going to look at the story in Mark, chapter 4, verses 35-41, just to make sure we're all on the same page. If you have a Bible, turn there with me as I read. It says down in verse 35, This is Jesus speaking. I love the story of Jesus calming the storm. The disciples are out on a boat. They're in the Sea of Galilee. They have been there thousands of times before. They are a crew of mostly fishermen. And the wind picks up and the waves start to buffet the boat and the water starts to come into the boat in such a way that they are freaked out. And it's a big deal that they're freaked out because, again, these are seasoned fishermen. They had weathered some storms. This isn't the lady on the plane experiencing light turbulence for the first time. This is the seasoned businessman or businesswoman who flies cross country twice a week going, holy smokes, what is gonna happen? This has to be the end. They're freaking out. They're so scared that they go and they wake up Jesus who's managing to sleep through this. And they say, are you not worried? Are you not worried? Can you not see that we are perishing? And Jesus is almost annoyed with them. And I see him stretching out a hand and saying, peace, be still. And everything calms. And they marvel at who this man is and what he can do. His legend with them grows. But the part of it that I see now as I think about this idea of peace is this invitation from Jesus. They're up there on the deck freaking out. They look at Jesus. He's sleeping. And what they should have done is said, he's clearly not worried. We don't have to be. And that's Jesus' first question to them. When they wake him, he says, why do you have no faith? Don't you see me? I'm at peace. You can be at peace. I'm not worried about this storm. You don't need to be worried about the storm. I'm not anxious. You don't have to be anxious. Look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. The disciples forgot in that moment who Jesus was. Or they didn't yet realize who he was. But it's so interesting to me that Jesus challenges their faith. Just look at me. Just remember who I am. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. And I realize that Jesus has this habit of calming storms in our life. He has this habit of remaining stoic, of remaining calm, of remaining unmoved in the face of turmoil. And he reminds us from the scripture, if I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. I was reminded of the story of the adulterous woman and thought about the peace that Jesus must have given her in that moment. In the book of John, there's this famous story where Jesus is teaching in, I believe, Jerusalem, and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, go and they catch a woman in the act of adultery. They drag her through the streets, and they put her down at the feet of Jesus. And they say to Jesus, the law of Moses says that she should be stoned. What do you think we should do with her? You see, they think that they have Jesus between a rock and a hard place. Because here's Jesus, this new radical teacher, who's teaching and proclaiming grace. And yet, they bring this adulterous woman in front of him. And if he says we should stone her, then he has no mercy, and the people that he's teaching will lose interest in what he's saying. If he says that we should forgive if we'll stop for just a second and think about it from her perspective. Being in the act of adultery, having men storm into the house or the room, grab her and drag her into the street. Maybe she was able to grab a sheet on the way. Maybe she wasn't. We don't know. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. She knows who these men are. They are Pharisees. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. It is to have big rocks dropped on her head until she dies. She knows that. She has to be at the height of fear and anxiety in her life. There is no possible way she was ever more worried or anxious than she was in this moment. And there she lands at the feet of this new radical teacher named Jesus. And for some reason, somehow, she realizes that her fate now rests in his hands. And these angry men are accusing her, and they're asking Jesus, what should we do with her? I would love to be able to go back in time and see whatever look it was that Jesus gave her. I would love to see her eyes connect with his. I would love to see his calm and tranquility transposed onto her. I would love to see the recognition on her face when she realized that she was in good hands. And Jesus responds in the midst of all this turmoil and chaos. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. And one by one, the Pharisees begin to go away. And then he looks down at her and he says, is there anyone left to condemn you? And she says, no, Lord. And he says, neither do I condemn you. And it's one of my favorite stories. Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. It's one of my favorite stories about Jesus to see this perfect balance of grace and truth in that moment. But what I've never thought about is the peace that he gave her, is the peace that he imparted onto her. When she is worried, she is anxious, she is fearful, she doesn't know if this is going to work out. And Jesus almost, you can just see him. Just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't need to be worried. Look at me. I've got this. These men will not harm you today. I'm going to protect you. Think about the peace and the certainty that he gave her in that moment. I think about the night that Jesus was arrested. He gets done praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. They've just finished their Passover meal. The disciples are outside with him, and the guards of Caiaphas, the high priest, come to arrest Christ. And in the scuffle, Peter takes a sword and lops off the ear of one of the guards. And Jesus stops everything and he reaches down and he picks up the ear and he places it back on the soldier. And it's almost as if he's saying, Peter, calm down. I'm not worried. This has to happen. And if I'm not anxious, then you don't have to be anxious. If I can be calm about this, you can be calm about this. Scripture tells us that Jesus was crucified, that he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, that he was quiet and that he was passive and that he was calm, that he was in perfect peace. And he's telling the disciples, if I can be at peace with this, that this is supposed to happen, then you can be too. Don't worry. It's going to be okay. What Jesus knows is that in three days he's going to conquer this death that he's about to face. He offers them perfect peace. You look at me. While everyone else in the Garden of Gethsemane, the troops are likely terrified because this Jesus figure just spoke words that knocked them all down. Now they have to get up, dust themselves off, and try to arrest this guy. The disciples are seeing their Messiah being taken, their leader being taken. Everyone around him is freaking out, and Jesus is in perfect peace. Look at me. I'm fine. You can be fine too. The last moment I would take you to is in the book of Revelation. John, at the end of his life, lifelong disciple of Christ, is whisked up to heaven for a vision and told to write down what he sees and share it with the people. And when he gets there, he's terrified. He sees God and he sees angels and he sees the span of heaven and he feels his feebleness. He feels how small he is and he's not exactly sure where he is and he's seeing angels for the first time, which are terrifying creatures, and he's kind of hunkered down in a corner, not sure what's going on. And in that moment, we see in Revelation that he feels a hand on his shoulder. And he hears a voice. And it's the voice of Jesus. And he says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And I have the keys to death and Hades. One of the great lines in the Bible. In this moment where John is anxious and terrified, Jesus gives him peace, puts his hand on his shoulder, lets him hear his voice, and he says, I'm here. I've got this. I'm the one that's in control of this space. You're going to be okay. He offers John his peace. And so as I thought about all these different stories, and there's more. I could do this for a lot longer. It occurred to me, this idea of look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. What's happening in that moment is that Jesus is imparting peace onto us. So what we need to realize is our peace is imparted by Jesus. The peace that we're offered in Scripture, the peace that God offers to us is imparted to us by Jesus. When we look at His face and see that He is calm, we can be calm. When we look to Him and see that He is at peace, then we can feel peace. When everything around us is chaos, and everyone around us is worried and losing their mind, we can look at Jesus who is not worried, who is calm, who is a picture of perfect peace, and we can experience his peace. And in that way, our peace is imparted to us by Jesus himself. And so it made me wonder, how is Jesus able to maintain perfect peace in all these situations? How is he at so much peace in a storm where seasoned fishermen are freaking out that he is taking a nap? When he is at the epicenter of an entire body of really smart men trying to entangle him, how can he be so calm and answer so eloquently and succinctly while protecting this woman? When he is being marched to his death, how can he maintain perfect peace knowing what lies ahead of him? It's because of this. Because Jesus has true peace. And true peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. Peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. It's like Jesus knows a secret. He's unmoved by everything around him because he knows it's all going to be okay. He's not worried about the storm sinking his boat because he's the creator of the storm. He made the heavens and the earth. Without him, there is nothing is made, says the book of John. So he's not worried about the storm because he made the storm. He's not worried about getting tripped up and entangled in the law because he wrote the law. He's not worried about getting marched off to his death because he came to do just that and he knows where that ends. That ends in him conquering the death that he is about to suffer for you and for me. He came to conquer death and sin and that's how he did it. So he's at perfect peace in going through the process. He's at perfect peace in heaven when everything feels like it's at chaos at the end of times because this is what he came to do and he offers that peace to John. Jesus has a peace that is untouched by circumstance because nothing in this world can change that God is sovereign. Nothing in this world can change that God's will will be done. Nothing in this world can change that God loves you. Nothing in this world can change that God has a perfect plan and in the fullness of time he will execute it. Nothing in this world can change that for those who believe in him we can look forward to an eternity where God is with his people and where we will be with our God and where there is no more weeping and no more crying and no more pain anymore. Because God is in control, because God has orchestrated all of time to bring about that moment, we know that there are no circumstances that can change the certainty that we have in Christ. And so we have perfect peace. Maybe this is why Paul writes about peace in the book of Philippians and points us to God in prayer so that we might have perfect peace. In Philippians, Paul writes this in chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. He says, Do not be anxious about anything, 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 understandings, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. You understand that our peace isn't just imparted by Christ, but our peace is guarded by God? As believers, we have this Christ-imparted, God-guarded peace that circumstances cannot touch. You understand that God advocates for your peace, that He wants you to feel at ease? He does not want you to be anxious. He does not want you to move through life with anxiety. He does not want you to be crippled by worry. He does not want you to be one of the ones freaking out and wondering how everything is going to be okay. And because of that, he offers you Christ-imparted and God-guarded peace so that your soul can be at rest. So we don't have to worry so much. And guys, has there ever been a year in our memories where we needed this peace more? where it feels like everyone around us is losing their mind, where we're in a culture that is rife with racial and political tension, where we're seeing riots and demonstrations and we're wondering what is going on here, where we are in a country that is more divided than ever, When will I ever get to see my loved ones? Is the vaccine really going to work? Will the economy recover? Will I be able to find a new job? Will my position still be there? We have all sorts of anxieties and worries this year. Has there ever been a time when we needed God's peace more? I know that for me, I've needed that peace this year. For me, I've worried a lot about grace. When we went into quarantine in March, we had come off of what was, while I've been here, a high point while I've been at grace. More people than we've ever seen were coming every week. We did a campaign. We were hoping to get a $1.5 million pledge. We had $1.6 million pledge. I would have never expected that. God was moving and shaking, and there was so much contagious enthusiasm here, and then we just had to stop meeting. And for a while, into doing online services like this, I would look for those numbers every week. How many people are watching online? How many screens we're on? How many downloads do we have? What's our engagement look like? Are we losing our momentum? Oh no, God, the church is gonna crumble. Everything's gonna fall apart. I think we're starting to lose people. I'm really worried and I lost sleep over what was happening at at Grace until I was gently reminded to just look at God. And over the course of the year, I saw his hand on Grace. I was so worried about giving because we're not meeting in person, and we're not telling anybody to give online, and I wouldn't dare, especially if you remember the beginning of quarantine when the economy was tanking and everything was going bad, I wouldn't dare ask for money then. So I just buttoned it up and just hoped. And God just continued to provide everything that the church needed, even so that we were able to continue to give away to other ministries who were in need. And God just reminded me over and over and over again over the course of the year, I care about grace. I've got this place. Look at me. Do I look worried? And so now, I don't even look at the numbers. Steve emails them to me every week as is our habit. I never even open it. Sorry, Steve. Because I don't care. They don't matter to me. God's got this church. We're not going anywhere. He's got big plans for us. He's chosen to sustain us. I have a certainty about grace that is untouched by circumstances because I see that God's not worried, so I'm not. He offers us this peace in our lives too. He's not worried about your kids. He's got a plan for them. He's not worried about how your family is going to make it. He's got a plan for that. He's not worried about if everything's going to be okay. He's not worried about what's it going to look like as we try to return back to normal. God isn't concerned with pandemics. He's unfazed with 2020. I promise you he's seen harder years from heaven. But I think sometimes we get so caught up in our worry and in our anxiety and in the circumstances of the day that we keep our focus down. And maybe what we need to do is slow down and let him impart his peace. Maybe this morning or wherever we are as we listen to this or watch this, what we really need to do is just slow down, look at the face of Christ, and let him impart his peace. Let him guard our hearts with perfect peace. When we will be people who will do that, who will constantly put our focus on Christ and not on circumstances, who will allow him to impart his God-guarded peace on us, we can have conversations like I got to have this week. Many of you are aware of what Jen's family is walking through, and just this last week I sat next to my father-in-law in his bed as he moves towards passing away. And I knelt next to him and I told him that it was time for me to say goodbye. And he said, oh, are you going somewhere? I said, no, John, I'm not, but you are. And he said, yeah, I am. And we shared a really sweet moment that caused me to go ugly cry for about 15 minutes on my own in the bathroom somewhere. But at the end of the conversation, I said, John, you're going to go to heaven soon. And you're going to see his parents are Porter and Bernice. You're going to see Porter and Bernice. You're going to hug them. They're going to be glad to see you. Jesus is going to be there. He's going to be glad to see you too. And John whispered in his soft and weak voice, yeah, and when I get there, there's going to be a lot of rejoicing. He's not afraid to die. He's anxious for it. He welcomes it. Because he has a peace that is untouched by circumstance. Because he knows where he's going. He's focused on the face of Christ and Christ is waiting to welcome him into perfect peace. And if there is a peace that is so strong that when someone is hours away from transitioning into the next life, they can lay in their bed at perfect peace and be certain that they are not about to be sad, but that they are about to rejoice. That's the kind of peace that we should want. And Christmas is our yearly reminder that God offers us a peace that no circumstance can touch. This year, as we celebrate Jesus, let's remember that Jesus imparts a peace on us. He imparts a certainty that circumstance can't touch, that God guards this peace. And maybe instead of being worried about all the things that we can't control anyways, what we should do is slow down and focus on the face of Christ and hear him say to us, I'm not worried. You don't have to be either. And let's all of us experience perfect peace as we finish up this year. Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful for your peace. We are so grateful for the way that you guard our hearts, that you don't want us to be anxious, that you don't want us to be worried. Lord, I pray that if there are people hearing this who are anxious, who are riddled with anxiety, who are riddled with worry, who haven't felt peace and rest in a long time, God, would you give their soul rest in you? Would they hear you today saying, look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. Would they today accept your peace? Would they rest easy in that? God, I pray for every person who can hear my voice, that they would experience the same peace that Jesus had, a peace that is untouched by any circumstance. Father, thank you for that gift. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.

There is something so peaceful about lighting a candle, watching the flame flicker, move ever so slightly that seems to lull us into an almost meditative state. So different from the lack of peace we've experienced in our world, we come here caught up in the flow of traffic and Christmas shopping, our feet moving in the way of the world. It is exhausting. Add to that the barrage of chaos in the news or on social media that has us scared or worried, that has angered and outraged us. At times like this, we welcome Jesus into our fearful, anxious hearts. This is one of the reasons why we celebrate Advent. It is a season of expectant waiting, and we light a new candle each week. The earlier candles have burned down, now misshapen, showing our patience wearing thin, our longing growing more fierce. And so we prepare ourselves in a fresh way for the coming of our Lord Jesus in our Christmas celebrations because hope, love, joy, and peace aren't just words we find on Christmas cards. No, we find them in Christ, who is our light, the most peaceful light we could ever experience. Like we read in the book of John, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. Jesus is that light. The prophet Isaiah calls him the one who would come, that he would be the prince of peace for hearts that grieve in a world in turmoil. We are a people whose whole lives have been go with the flow, but it is Jesus who shows us how to march to the beat of God's heart, who shows us what it means to really live. So let's welcome him. We welcome you with all of your peace, Jesus. Give us your peace so that we can be peace bringers. Stop us in our tracks so that the flicker of the flame captures our attention, so that we look past the flow of the world to Jesus who says to some meaningful plans with your family. I can't wait to experience the Christmas Eve service with you guys. I can't wait for y'all to experience the Christmas Eve service. I think it's going to be a really special time for Grace. This week, we want to wrap up the four different topics that we cover in Advent as we talk about peace. Aaron opened talking about hope. I got to talk about love. Kyle taught us about joy. And now we get to focus on the peace that Jesus brings us. As I reflected on peace this week, I was reminded of a story, something that happened to me on an airplane a few years ago. And now I'll warn you, I'm going to tell this story and it's going to make me look kind of good because I do nice things. I try not to share stories about myself that shed me in a positive light because I think that's gross and self-aggrandizing. But this one just kind of makes the point pretty well. So if you'll indulge me, I'll admit some kindness to you. I was getting on a plane a couple of years ago, and I sat down, and I sat down next to this older woman. It was just two on each side and two seats on each side. And as I sat down, it will not surprise you to learn that I'm not one that introduces myself to my seatmate on my plane. I'm one who just sits down and silently stares straight ahead until the plane lands, and then I get off and go about my business. But this particular woman decided that she wanted to introduce herself to me, and so we started talking. And it didn't take very long for her to say that this was her first flight ever. And I said, oh, really? Are you nervous? And she said, yeah, I actually am pretty nervous. I struggle with anxieties. It was hard for me to even get on the plane. Have you flown before? And I said, you're in luck. Don't worry. I've flown probably hundreds of times. I will guide you through the process. I'm not going to be worried at all. As a matter of fact, this is what I told her. I said, listen, when we're flying, if something feels weird, if it feels like it shouldn't happen, if you start to get nervous, you just look at my face. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't have to be worried. If it feels amiss to you, because if you've never flown before, there's all kinds of things that can happen that can make you go, wait a second, is this safe? Is this okay? And so I told her, if you are experiencing that, just look at me. And if I'm calm, you can be calm. I said, as a matter of fact, I'm going to leave my hand right here on this armrest. And if you feel the need to reach over and grab my hand, you feel free to do that. And we'll get through this together. And she said, okay, thank you. Good. So we're sitting there, we're minding our business. The plane taxis and it goes to take off. And as it takes off, I'm already kind of have my eyes closed, dozing a little bit. It's a short flight. I was just trying to get in a quick nap. And as the plane is picking up off the ground, which if you've never experienced that before, it can feel a little turbulent, I feel her hand reach over and grab mine. And so I just give her a little squeeze and let her know everything's going to be okay. We get up into the air and we're cruising. She's good. I'm good. I'm reading a little bit. And then I close my eyes to doze again. And as I close my eyes, the plane hits a little bit of turbulence. And if you've never experienced turbulence before, it can be scary. You bounce a lot. It can make you feel sick to your stomach. And if you've never experienced it before and you're already worried about flying, that can be a really terrifying thing. And so we begin to experience a little bit of turbulence. We're bouncing around and I'm aware that she's probably freaking out a little bit. So I keep my eyes closed. I'm not dozing anymore, but I keep my eyes closed because I just kind of have a feeling she's looking at me to see if I'm calm, to see if I'm worried. And I wanted to project some peace for her. I wanted her to know this is no big deal. It's just normal turbulence. And so while I'm sitting there kind of fake snoozing, trying to offer peace to her, I just kind of do a thumbs up with my hand like this, like it's going to be, it's all right. You got nothing to worry about. And I feel her hand kind of tap mine, like, thank you. I see that. I appreciate that. And we got through the flight. We landed. She said, thank you. She went about her business. I went about mine. And it just, that principle that I took away from that as I was thinking about peace and that story this week is just this idea of, hey, listen, you just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. I was thinking about that idea and how often Jesus does this for us in the Bible. It's something that we don't think about a lot. I never thought about it before this week. But then as I looked at the Bible and I went through the stories of Jesus in my mind and kind of asked that question, what are the times that Jesus looks at us? And he says, listen, look at me. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. If I'm at peace, then you can be at peace. And I saw over and over again in Scripture where Jesus offers us his peace. Maybe the most glaring example, the easiest place to go to is when Jesus calms the storm. A lot of us know this story. This is a story that shows up in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, three of the four Gospels. But we're going to look at the story in Mark, chapter 4, verses 35-41, just to make sure we're all on the same page. If you have a Bible, turn there with me as I read. It says down in verse 35, This is Jesus speaking. I love the story of Jesus calming the storm. The disciples are out on a boat. They're in the Sea of Galilee. They have been there thousands of times before. They are a crew of mostly fishermen. And the wind picks up and the waves start to buffet the boat and the water starts to come into the boat in such a way that they are freaked out. And it's a big deal that they're freaked out because, again, these are seasoned fishermen. They had weathered some storms. This isn't the lady on the plane experiencing light turbulence for the first time. This is the seasoned businessman or businesswoman who flies cross country twice a week going, holy smokes, what is gonna happen? This has to be the end. They're freaking out. They're so scared that they go and they wake up Jesus who's managing to sleep through this. And they say, are you not worried? Are you not worried? Can you not see that we are perishing? And Jesus is almost annoyed with them. And I see him stretching out a hand and saying, peace, be still. And everything calms. And they marvel at who this man is and what he can do. His legend with them grows. But the part of it that I see now as I think about this idea of peace is this invitation from Jesus. They're up there on the deck freaking out. They look at Jesus. He's sleeping. And what they should have done is said, he's clearly not worried. We don't have to be. And that's Jesus' first question to them. When they wake him, he says, why do you have no faith? Don't you see me? I'm at peace. You can be at peace. I'm not worried about this storm. You don't need to be worried about the storm. I'm not anxious. You don't have to be anxious. Look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. The disciples forgot in that moment who Jesus was. Or they didn't yet realize who he was. But it's so interesting to me that Jesus challenges their faith. Just look at me. Just remember who I am. If I'm not worried, you don't need to be worried. And I realize that Jesus has this habit of calming storms in our life. He has this habit of remaining stoic, of remaining calm, of remaining unmoved in the face of turmoil. And he reminds us from the scripture, if I'm not worried, you don't have to be worried. I was reminded of the story of the adulterous woman and thought about the peace that Jesus must have given her in that moment. In the book of John, there's this famous story where Jesus is teaching in, I believe, Jerusalem, and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, go and they catch a woman in the act of adultery. They drag her through the streets, and they put her down at the feet of Jesus. And they say to Jesus, the law of Moses says that she should be stoned. What do you think we should do with her? You see, they think that they have Jesus between a rock and a hard place. Because here's Jesus, this new radical teacher, who's teaching and proclaiming grace. And yet, they bring this adulterous woman in front of him. And if he says we should stone her, then he has no mercy, and the people that he's teaching will lose interest in what he's saying. If he says that we should forgive if we'll stop for just a second and think about it from her perspective. Being in the act of adultery, having men storm into the house or the room, grab her and drag her into the street. Maybe she was able to grab a sheet on the way. Maybe she wasn't. We don't know. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. She knows who these men are. They are Pharisees. And she knows the penalty for what she's doing. It is to have big rocks dropped on her head until she dies. She knows that. She has to be at the height of fear and anxiety in her life. There is no possible way she was ever more worried or anxious than she was in this moment. And there she lands at the feet of this new radical teacher named Jesus. And for some reason, somehow, she realizes that her fate now rests in his hands. And these angry men are accusing her, and they're asking Jesus, what should we do with her? I would love to be able to go back in time and see whatever look it was that Jesus gave her. I would love to see her eyes connect with his. I would love to see his calm and tranquility transposed onto her. I would love to see the recognition on her face when she realized that she was in good hands. And Jesus responds in the midst of all this turmoil and chaos. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. And one by one, the Pharisees begin to go away. And then he looks down at her and he says, is there anyone left to condemn you? And she says, no, Lord. And he says, neither do I condemn you. And it's one of my favorite stories. Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. It's one of my favorite stories about Jesus to see this perfect balance of grace and truth in that moment. But what I've never thought about is the peace that he gave her, is the peace that he imparted onto her. When she is worried, she is anxious, she is fearful, she doesn't know if this is going to work out. And Jesus almost, you can just see him. Just look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. If I'm at peace, you can be at peace. If I'm not worried, then you don't need to be worried. Look at me. I've got this. These men will not harm you today. I'm going to protect you. Think about the peace and the certainty that he gave her in that moment. I think about the night that Jesus was arrested. He gets done praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. They've just finished their Passover meal. The disciples are outside with him, and the guards of Caiaphas, the high priest, come to arrest Christ. And in the scuffle, Peter takes a sword and lops off the ear of one of the guards. And Jesus stops everything and he reaches down and he picks up the ear and he places it back on the soldier. And it's almost as if he's saying, Peter, calm down. I'm not worried. This has to happen. And if I'm not anxious, then you don't have to be anxious. If I can be calm about this, you can be calm about this. Scripture tells us that Jesus was crucified, that he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, that he was quiet and that he was passive and that he was calm, that he was in perfect peace. And he's telling the disciples, if I can be at peace with this, that this is supposed to happen, then you can be too. Don't worry. It's going to be okay. What Jesus knows is that in three days he's going to conquer this death that he's about to face. He offers them perfect peace. You look at me. While everyone else in the Garden of Gethsemane, the troops are likely terrified because this Jesus figure just spoke words that knocked them all down. Now they have to get up, dust themselves off, and try to arrest this guy. The disciples are seeing their Messiah being taken, their leader being taken. Everyone around him is freaking out, and Jesus is in perfect peace. Look at me. I'm fine. You can be fine too. The last moment I would take you to is in the book of Revelation. John, at the end of his life, lifelong disciple of Christ, is whisked up to heaven for a vision and told to write down what he sees and share it with the people. And when he gets there, he's terrified. He sees God and he sees angels and he sees the span of heaven and he feels his feebleness. He feels how small he is and he's not exactly sure where he is and he's seeing angels for the first time, which are terrifying creatures, and he's kind of hunkered down in a corner, not sure what's going on. And in that moment, we see in Revelation that he feels a hand on his shoulder. And he hears a voice. And it's the voice of Jesus. And he says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And I have the keys to death and Hades. One of the great lines in the Bible. In this moment where John is anxious and terrified, Jesus gives him peace, puts his hand on his shoulder, lets him hear his voice, and he says, I'm here. I've got this. I'm the one that's in control of this space. You're going to be okay. He offers John his peace. And so as I thought about all these different stories, and there's more. I could do this for a lot longer. It occurred to me, this idea of look at my face. If I'm calm, you can be calm. What's happening in that moment is that Jesus is imparting peace onto us. So what we need to realize is our peace is imparted by Jesus. The peace that we're offered in Scripture, the peace that God offers to us is imparted to us by Jesus. When we look at His face and see that He is calm, we can be calm. When we look to Him and see that He is at peace, then we can feel peace. When everything around us is chaos, and everyone around us is worried and losing their mind, we can look at Jesus who is not worried, who is calm, who is a picture of perfect peace, and we can experience his peace. And in that way, our peace is imparted to us by Jesus himself. And so it made me wonder, how is Jesus able to maintain perfect peace in all these situations? How is he at so much peace in a storm where seasoned fishermen are freaking out that he is taking a nap? When he is at the epicenter of an entire body of really smart men trying to entangle him, how can he be so calm and answer so eloquently and succinctly while protecting this woman? When he is being marched to his death, how can he maintain perfect peace knowing what lies ahead of him? It's because of this. Because Jesus has true peace. And true peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. Peace is certainty that is untouched by circumstances. It's like Jesus knows a secret. He's unmoved by everything around him because he knows it's all going to be okay. He's not worried about the storm sinking his boat because he's the creator of the storm. He made the heavens and the earth. Without him, there is nothing is made, says the book of John. So he's not worried about the storm because he made the storm. He's not worried about getting tripped up and entangled in the law because he wrote the law. He's not worried about getting marched off to his death because he came to do just that and he knows where that ends. That ends in him conquering the death that he is about to suffer for you and for me. He came to conquer death and sin and that's how he did it. So he's at perfect peace in going through the process. He's at perfect peace in heaven when everything feels like it's at chaos at the end of times because this is what he came to do and he offers that peace to John. Jesus has a peace that is untouched by circumstance because nothing in this world can change that God is sovereign. Nothing in this world can change that God's will will be done. Nothing in this world can change that God loves you. Nothing in this world can change that God has a perfect plan and in the fullness of time he will execute it. Nothing in this world can change that for those who believe in him we can look forward to an eternity where God is with his people and where we will be with our God and where there is no more weeping and no more crying and no more pain anymore. Because God is in control, because God has orchestrated all of time to bring about that moment, we know that there are no circumstances that can change the certainty that we have in Christ. And so we have perfect peace. Maybe this is why Paul writes about peace in the book of Philippians and points us to God in prayer so that we might have perfect peace. In Philippians, Paul writes this in chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. He says, Do not be anxious about anything, 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 understandings, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. You understand that our peace isn't just imparted by Christ, but our peace is guarded by God? As believers, we have this Christ-imparted, God-guarded peace that circumstances cannot touch. You understand that God advocates for your peace, that He wants you to feel at ease? He does not want you to be anxious. He does not want you to move through life with anxiety. He does not want you to be crippled by worry. He does not want you to be one of the ones freaking out and wondering how everything is going to be okay. And because of that, he offers you Christ-imparted and God-guarded peace so that your soul can be at rest. So we don't have to worry so much. And guys, has there ever been a year in our memories where we needed this peace more? where it feels like everyone around us is losing their mind, where we're in a culture that is rife with racial and political tension, where we're seeing riots and demonstrations and we're wondering what is going on here, where we are in a country that is more divided than ever, When will I ever get to see my loved ones? Is the vaccine really going to work? Will the economy recover? Will I be able to find a new job? Will my position still be there? We have all sorts of anxieties and worries this year. Has there ever been a time when we needed God's peace more? I know that for me, I've needed that peace this year. For me, I've worried a lot about grace. When we went into quarantine in March, we had come off of what was, while I've been here, a high point while I've been at grace. More people than we've ever seen were coming every week. We did a campaign. We were hoping to get a $1.5 million pledge. We had $1.6 million pledge. I would have never expected that. God was moving and shaking, and there was so much contagious enthusiasm here, and then we just had to stop meeting. And for a while, into doing online services like this, I would look for those numbers every week. How many people are watching online? How many screens we're on? How many downloads do we have? What's our engagement look like? Are we losing our momentum? Oh no, God, the church is gonna crumble. Everything's gonna fall apart. I think we're starting to lose people. I'm really worried and I lost sleep over what was happening at at Grace until I was gently reminded to just look at God. And over the course of the year, I saw his hand on Grace. I was so worried about giving because we're not meeting in person, and we're not telling anybody to give online, and I wouldn't dare, especially if you remember the beginning of quarantine when the economy was tanking and everything was going bad, I wouldn't dare ask for money then. So I just buttoned it up and just hoped. And God just continued to provide everything that the church needed, even so that we were able to continue to give away to other ministries who were in need. And God just reminded me over and over and over again over the course of the year, I care about grace. I've got this place. Look at me. Do I look worried? And so now, I don't even look at the numbers. Steve emails them to me every week as is our habit. I never even open it. Sorry, Steve. Because I don't care. They don't matter to me. God's got this church. We're not going anywhere. He's got big plans for us. He's chosen to sustain us. I have a certainty about grace that is untouched by circumstances because I see that God's not worried, so I'm not. He offers us this peace in our lives too. He's not worried about your kids. He's got a plan for them. He's not worried about how your family is going to make it. He's got a plan for that. He's not worried about if everything's going to be okay. He's not worried about what's it going to look like as we try to return back to normal. God isn't concerned with pandemics. He's unfazed with 2020. I promise you he's seen harder years from heaven. But I think sometimes we get so caught up in our worry and in our anxiety and in the circumstances of the day that we keep our focus down. And maybe what we need to do is slow down and let him impart his peace. Maybe this morning or wherever we are as we listen to this or watch this, what we really need to do is just slow down, look at the face of Christ, and let him impart his peace. Let him guard our hearts with perfect peace. When we will be people who will do that, who will constantly put our focus on Christ and not on circumstances, who will allow him to impart his God-guarded peace on us, we can have conversations like I got to have this week. Many of you are aware of what Jen's family is walking through, and just this last week I sat next to my father-in-law in his bed as he moves towards passing away. And I knelt next to him and I told him that it was time for me to say goodbye. And he said, oh, are you going somewhere? I said, no, John, I'm not, but you are. And he said, yeah, I am. And we shared a really sweet moment that caused me to go ugly cry for about 15 minutes on my own in the bathroom somewhere. But at the end of the conversation, I said, John, you're going to go to heaven soon. And you're going to see his parents are Porter and Bernice. You're going to see Porter and Bernice. You're going to hug them. They're going to be glad to see you. Jesus is going to be there. He's going to be glad to see you too. And John whispered in his soft and weak voice, yeah, and when I get there, there's going to be a lot of rejoicing. He's not afraid to die. He's anxious for it. He welcomes it. Because he has a peace that is untouched by circumstance. Because he knows where he's going. He's focused on the face of Christ and Christ is waiting to welcome him into perfect peace. And if there is a peace that is so strong that when someone is hours away from transitioning into the next life, they can lay in their bed at perfect peace and be certain that they are not about to be sad, but that they are about to rejoice. That's the kind of peace that we should want. And Christmas is our yearly reminder that God offers us a peace that no circumstance can touch. This year, as we celebrate Jesus, let's remember that Jesus imparts a peace on us. He imparts a certainty that circumstance can't touch, that God guards this peace. And maybe instead of being worried about all the things that we can't control anyways, what we should do is slow down and focus on the face of Christ and hear him say to us, I'm not worried. You don't have to be either. And let's all of us experience perfect peace as we finish up this year. Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful for your peace. We are so grateful for the way that you guard our hearts, that you don't want us to be anxious, that you don't want us to be worried. Lord, I pray that if there are people hearing this who are anxious, who are riddled with anxiety, who are riddled with worry, who haven't felt peace and rest in a long time, God, would you give their soul rest in you? Would they hear you today saying, look at me. If I'm calm, you can be calm. Would they today accept your peace? Would they rest easy in that? God, I pray for every person who can hear my voice, that they would experience the same peace that Jesus had, a peace that is untouched by any circumstance. Father, thank you for that gift. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.

I'm laughing with Aaron because after the last week, my name is Nate, I get to be the pastor. After the last week that I was here, I went to him and was like, hey dude, we're using that bumper a lot, can we get that shortened down to maybe 15, 20 seconds and go ahead and get to it? And he was like, yeah, I'll work on that. So I came up here and I was kind of getting ready and obviously obviously I'm jet lagged and stuff. I've been in Istanbul for a week. And I looked up and there's 10 seconds to go. And I go, this is the week you shorten it? And he goes, yep. And just smiled real big at me. Like it's his personal joke on me this morning to be caught off guard. But excuse me. Like I said, I spent the last week in Istanbul working with some Iranian pastors, and I'm going to tell you all about that, but I've had a lot of people ask about my safety. I'm so glad that you're home safe, which is a kind thing to think and to say. There was no real danger in Istanbul. As a matter of fact, for those of you who don't know, the president arrested the mayor of Istanbul. That's his biggest political rival, and so the youth took to the streets to protest and demonstrate and riot and there's a pretty heavy police presence I was just hoping that Jen didn't stumble upon the New York Times while I was over there luckily she did not but the second night of the planned demonstrations they were going to be in this place called Taksim Square and so we went down there early in the afternoon just to see it there's police barricades and SWAT vehicles everywhere with like crowd deterrent guns on top and things like that. And we thought that's pretty cool. And so then we went and we had dinner and it was probably about nine o'clock at night. And I looked at my traveling partner, Rue, and I said, Rue, do we do this smart? We're about 20 minutes south of Toxum at this point. And I said, Rue, by walking, should we do the smart thing and get on the subway and go back to our hotel? Or should we do the fun thing and go watch democracy die in Toxin Square? And he was like, he got his twinkle in his eye and we walked to Toxin. I was really hoping to grab a sign and protest as well. But apparently protesting and riots are a young man's game because it was like 930 and there was 20 people in the square and some getting off the subway. They were all younger than me. So I went to bed and I think the thing got really fun at about 11 o'clock. So I missed it, but I tried to go see it while we were there. But safety was never really an issue. The reason that I was there was through a friend of mine named Anaruda Sin. who goes by Ru. And so what I'd like to do this morning is rather than preach to you a sermon, what I'd like to take the morning to do, if it's all right with you, if it's not all right with you, tough. I mean, you can leave, but that's it because that's what's going to happen. But if it's all right with you, I'd like to just share about my experience over there and give you guys some takeaways of what I took away from it. Because I've just come back feeling incredibly full and incredibly blessed and profoundly humbled. And so I thought it would be better than preaching to you. And preaching, the point of preaching is to inspire and convict a change in hearts and minds for a change in that person. That's why you preach. But sharing is just to say, hey, I had this experience and I want you to hear about it. And I know that many of you will ask and many of you will want to know. And many of you did ask before the service, hey, how was the trip? And so I said, it's great. I'm going to tell you all about it. So if you have any questions for me after the service today, if you want to know more about who I went with or you want to know more about what's happening there, I would love to talk with you about that. And if it's too much for a lobby conversation, let's go out to lunch and we can talk about it more because I feel a tremendous passion for what I got to participate in. But a few years ago, I got to be friends with a guy who was introduced through a mutual friend to Roo. And Roo trains church pastors across the world in underdeveloped countries. So where I was exposed to him first was when he was training pastors who have churches in sub-Saharan Africa. There was a room full of about 60 pastors from about 10 different countries, and Roo was training them on how to build disciples and send them out to plant churches. And when you're talking about planting churches in underdeveloped countries, particularly in persecuted countries, which is who we're working with now, what you, what, how we would think of those churches is small groups. They meet in the home. The leader is considered a pastor. Some pastors can have two or three or four small groups. Tom Sartorius would be a remarkably successful pastor in underdeveloped countries because he has about eight small groups that he's in and lead. So he'd be great at that. But that's kind of the setup there. And so it's not quite the same as training up someone to go get hired at a church or to go plant a church the way we think about it. It's train up someone who can be a spiritual guide for 12 to 20 people and their children. So that's the process. And through that process, Roo, his network of churches plants three to 500 churches a year in India now for work that he started 10 years ago with no churches. So it's a remarkably effective way to spread the gospel in God's kingdom in these unreached people groups. And so a few years ago, Roo left the organization that he was working with to start his own organization to plant churches, not just in underdeveloped countries, but in persecuted countries. So now he works exclusively with pastors who lead churches in countries in which it is illegal to lead that church. And so a few weeks ago, he told me that he was going to fly to Istanbul and he wanted to bring me with him just as an exposure trip, just so I could see it and be blessed by it. He wanted to bring me with him. And so I had the opportunity to go and not help train. That's way too, that gives me self-aggrandizing. I did not help do anything. I was able to watch them get trained. And it was a group of seven Iranian pastors. Four of them brought their wives. Two of them brought their moms. We called them the grandmas and they were incredibly wise and incredibly wonderful. And so I had the opportunity to go over and watch him work with these pastors. And by the way, this is a ministry that is led by Summit Church. So there's a guy named Nathan, and I think his story is amazing. At the end of the service today, I'm going to show you a video, a message from one of the pastors to us that's translated by Nathan. I will not be able to show that to you online. We're going to actually cut the feed for the safety of the pastor in the video, and then we'll show it just here in-house. But in that video, you'll see the Iranian pastor, a guy named Yahya, and then you'll see Nathan. Nathan fled Iran when he was 19 years old due to religious persecution, came over to the States, and began a social media account and has a huge social media presence in the Persian world where he spreads the gospel to Iran and to the Iranian diaspora all throughout the world. And he has a huge following. And at one point or another, he moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, and he began to, he was a part of Summit Church. And then he loved J.D. Greer's sermons. That's a pastor over there. He loved his sermons so much that he started to retool them in Farsi and make the illustration something that Iranians could relate to and then preach them online and develop even more of a following doing that. And so then he went to Summit and he was like, hey, I'm doing this with your sermons. Is this okay? And they said, yes, of course it's okay. And he goes, by the way, I know a bunch of pastors that I'm still networked with, but they really need training. What can we do for them? And so they brought him on staff to help solve that problem. And then him and his boss, a guy named Chris Watkins, one of the missions pastors over there, started looking around for people who knew how to train pastors in underdeveloped, persecuted countries. And they found Roo. And now Roo has partnered with them to do what they're doing. And I got to tell you something. After being exposed to what Summit is able to do on a global scale, I've never cared about church growth. Not my thing. I care about church health and doing it the right way. But now I'm coming back and I'm like, y'all, we got to get in the building. We got to grow because we got to make a bigger kingdom impact. Invite your friends. Send out mailers. Let's make a video. Let's go. We've got to make a kingdom impact. Let's move it. I'm all about church growth. We're going to do some stupid Father's Day giveaway this year with a four-wheeler and a grill or something. So that's who I was with. So the first morning, I go into the room and I meet these pastors. And it was an incredibly humbling experience. Because every single one of the people in that room are risking jail time to do what they do. If their local authorities find out that they're having underground Christian services in their home, they can be arrested. If the wrong group of Muslims find out, and this is not a big if. This is not like me taking a chance going to Toxum Square on the 1.5% chance that somebody gets mad and punches me. It's not that kind of risk. It's a legitimate risk that if the wrong group of Muslims find out in their neighborhood what they're doing, they will beat them repeatedly until they stop. Or they will just murder them. And no one will care that that's why they were murdered. One guy told a story, Mikael. He said that they were talking about times that the Holy Spirit had guided them. And Mikael said that he had a neighbor that was harassing him and his family and his kids so bad, his wife and his kids so badly, that in the middle of the night he had to move away because he was fearful of what this neighbor might do. And he's so grateful that the Holy Spirit moved him to move on that night because the very next night, a lynch mob of Muslim men within the community stormed his house and burned it down in an attempt to kill him and his family. That's a real story that happened. And he told it like I would tell you I'm going to McAllister's for lunch today. And nobody in that room batted an eye. Nobody in that room said, oh my gosh, man, are you okay? I didn't know that. Like, if we share that story in an American small group, like the rest of the night stops and that's what we focus on. You share that in a group of Iranian pastors and they just go, oh, yeah, same. One guy made a joke. I couldn't believe this joke. And it crushed in the room. Everybody's laughing. This guy, Farh, was really funny. He said that he was sharing the gospel with somebody and the guy showed up at his house one day and was angry and he said, if God is real, how come my dad is dead? And Farood said, that's no problem. Mine's dead too. What else you got? It's just a joke he made. And it crushed like the whole room was dying laughing. They just live in a different world than us. Every one of them. They wake up every day. They kiss their wife and they kiss their kids. And the husband and wife don't know if they're going to see each other again for a while. Every day they could go out and the wrong person could find out what they've been up to and they will get arrested. And they'll be in prison for six to 18 months. And when they're in prison, they're away from their job. They're away from their family, they're away from their kids, they're away from their wife, they're away from their life, and they don't know what's going to happen to their family. And if you're an elder, there's three elders. If you're an elder and they find out, the Iranian government finds out that you're running a network, that there's other pastors underneath you, I was told that what tends to happen is you serve your 18 months and then within a year of your release, an accident happens and you're not there anymore. These men face beatings. They face arrest and ultimately they face martyrdom for their faith. So I was already prepared to be tremendously humbled when I walked into that room. And I had already thought about how ashamed I am of some of the things I complain about, having to sacrifice to build God's kingdom and to be a pastor when it isn't a fraction of what those men risk every day to build God's kingdom in Iran. So I already went in incredibly humbled by that. And then when we get there, it was pretty close to start time for session. And so we kind of say some hellos and we sit down. And then in the break between sessions, which those guys were getting it, we did four 90 minute sessions a day. It was a lot. In the first break, I'm walking down the hallway to find the restroom. And there's one, one of the hallway, and he's on his phone, and he looks at me, and he goes, and he walks up to me and gives me a huge hug. And while he's hugging me, and it wasn't like an American, like, how you doing, bro? It wasn't like one of those hugs. It was like how a grandfather hugs a grandson. Like, he just engulfed me, and I'm like, I guess this is what we're going for now. I guess I'm just settling into a Persian hug. While we're hugging in my ear, he says, my brother, my brother, every one of them came up and hugged me and learned my name and called me their brother, my brother, my brother. And it was so moving that by the time they were done, I had to get to the bathroom so I could close the door in a stall and just let myself gain my composure. Because I do not feel worthy of being their brother. Because what they do is so much harder than what I do. And those people that they pastor are your brothers and sisters too. And you'll meet them in eternity one day. They are our family. And it was incredibly moving to know that they so quickly regard me as their brother and you as their brothers and sisters. I was already ready and postured to learn from these pastors. As a matter of fact, that was the biggest thing that I went over there to do. My friend Rue had told me, which was very good for me. If you know me, you know this was an excellent exercise for Nate. He had told me as we were preparing, he was like, hey, listen, we're going to be in these sessions. I've got a translator. There's only one translator. He's working very hard. I've got a lot of information to get in. So, you know, just try to be really limited on interjecting or asking questions. Like, this is really not for you. It's for them. Like, you're an observer. And I said, got it. Speak when spoken to. And he was like, wasn't going to say it like that, but yes. And it was so, it was, y'all, I've never been around that many people for that long and used so few words. It was, I felt like Jonathan Poston. I just didn't say, I just didn't say anything at all, ever. It was crazy. You have a lot of time to think, dude. Like, I got to tell you. And so what I set myself about doing, because all I wanted to do is learn from them and their experience, is I had my laptop out and I wrote down every word they said. Every time an Iranian asked a question, every time they spoke up, every time they made a point. I wrote down the prompt that Ru had given so I would have some context for it. And then I wrote down their name and I wrote down a summary of what they said. Every single one. I've got a 9,500 word document on my computer of everything that they said all week long. So that I could listen to them and learn from them. And hear their hearts about ministry and how they do it. And here's my biggest takeaway from my time with those pastors as a group is just the vast difference in how the persecuted church behaves versus how the secure church behaves. There is a gulf of understanding and commitment between us, between American pastors, and the way that Iranian pastors think about their church and their mission. They use military language over there. The elders consider themselves the captains. The pastors, the foot soldiers. They have contingency plans in place. They are fighting a war. Discipleship over there isn't optional for them. It's urgent and necessary for them because Ruth would tell them, you are going to need to get beat up for the faith. And when you do, consider that suffering a gift from Jesus himself because nothing will spread the news of the gospel more quickly in your community than how you handle that beating. That was never said to me in seminary. They view themselves as soldiers in enemy territory trying to bring about a change as they build God's kingdom. They sincerely want to change the face of Iran. And I've said before that as you look through history, whenever you see a church in a persecuted area, that church is always thriving and always vibrant and always filled with the holiness and the fullness of God. And whenever you see a church that exists in a country or a culture where it's been allowed cultural primacy, where it's been set aside as this is our default setting. Think about Catholicism in the Middle Ages. Think about evangelicalism in the United States for the last 200 years. Whenever you see the church elevated to a place of cultural primacy, in walks corruption, in walks doctrinal issues, in walks power-hungry people, in walks greediness. In walks laziness. In walks the uncommitted. In comes the cultural faith that doesn't really mean it. When you are persecuted, you are lean and mean. And when you're risking your family and your reputation to step into that small church, you have to think twice before you do it. The bar of entry in American churches is so low that you can do it socially for your whole life and it not mean anything. So when I come back from seeing them and hearing them and writing down everything they said for five days, my overwhelming impression is just the gulf that exists between churches in persecuted countries and churches in secure countries. Which means that at Grace, it's our job to acknowledge that historical trend and to figure out how to be a church in a secure country that understands that our cultural Christianity is dying and should, but we want to rise from those ashes and taking on the mentality of a persecuted church. How do we do that? I don't know, but I know that that's our responsibility and I don't know what I'm going to do with that. I don't know if there's going to be a series or a training or just small things along the way. Or I don't know if I'll lose that conviction and just fall back into being fat and lazy and comfortable. I hope not. But we've got to do something with that. That's my takeaway from my time with the pastors as a whole. Now there's one pastor in particular that I want to tell you about this morning. And he actually illustrates the passage I knew I would be speaking about this morning. So if you have a Bible, turn to Mark chapter 9. We're going to be looking at verses 30 through 37. If you don't have a Bible, I would encourage you to pull out the one in front of you because I'm not going to have anything on the screen today. If you're using one of the blue Bibles, can you tell me what page this is on? Can you find it fast? And somebody just yell out the page. 1,000. I knew it. Perfect. All right. So page 1,000. Thanks, guys. That's the passage where we're going to be. This is the quintessential Mark passage. Okay. And I knew that I didn't want to prepare a sermon on this passage. I didn't want to prepare a sermon on this passage and not, do we have a different verse in the bulletin? Is that why you guys are laughing? Okay. I'll find out later. I didn't want to do a sermon on this passage without having that experience in Istanbul with the Iranian pastors, because I knew that if I were to write this sermon and then go over there and have that experience, I would want to change the whole thing. So I decided to wait until I'd have that experience and then come back and share with you what I learned. And so this is the quintessential Mark passage. The last two verses say that whoever wants to become great must be least, whoever wants to lead must be servant of all, okay? And so that is really, but there's one verse that summarizes the gospel of Mark, that's it. But I wanted to wait until this morning, and I'm waiting until now to bring it up in the sermon because there was one man that I met that personified this maybe better than anybody I've ever seen in my life, and that was the leader of their network of churches, a man named Yahya. I'm going to call him Yahya because that's what we called him. And to say Yahya sounds a little bit like an American going, I was in Colombia the other day. So I'm not going to do that crap. I'm just going to call him Yahya, okay, even though it's wrong, but we're going to agree to be wrong together. When I walked in and Ru introduced me to Yaya, and Yaya is probably in his early 60s, I would guess, maybe late 50s. When I saw him, he immediately looks at me, and Iranians have this thing they do where they go like this, my heart, my heart, I'm grateful for you. And he goes, like so many kind gestures. And he introduces himself, he holds out his hand and I shake his hand. He said, my brother, it's so good to have you here. Thank you so much for coming. And I'm like, are you kidding me? This is how many people get to sit in a room with persecuted pastors outside their own country and then get to meet the one that started this 20 years ago by himself? And this is only one network that Yahya leads. He has four or five groups of pastors that come to him for encouragement, for training, and he has his own churches that he leads. And the man runs a restaurant that's been in his family for generations. He's busy. Often, I put in front of you guys this verse from Colossians that says that we are led by Christ in triumphal procession and that through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of God. I have met maybe four people in my life, Yahya being the fourth, that is the very second I meet them, that's the sense that I get. This man is full of the Holy Spirit. I've never met this man in my life, but I know that he loves me. And I know that he loves everybody in this room. And I know that he knows God in a way that I have never approached. And I'm lucky to be in his presence. I think sometimes about the heroes that we'll meet in heaven. Those faithful believers who just quietly did God's work their whole life in far-flung places where they can't write books and they don't do podcasts and there's no conferences and we never hear about them. But they quietly and faithfully and humbly and lovingly did the work of God their whole life, built his kingdom. Yahya is one of these men. And it is one of my great privileges to have met him. And so as soon as I met him and got that sense of him, I watched everything he did. Like almost like a weird stalker, like I was locked in. I watched how he interacted with his pastors. I watched how he interacted with his wife, Vicki, and with his daughter. I watched how he caught food and made tea and let everyone else go first. I paid attention to when he raised his hand and when he didn't. I paid attention to where and why it seemed like he chose to chime in in the conversation for a man that knows all the answers to the questions that are being asked. And most people would use that as an opportunity to show off and to know the answers and to say the right thing. And maybe I'll let my staff talk for a little while, and then I'm going to come in and I'm going to give the really wise answer. He never did that. As a matter of fact, most of the time when he chimed in to talk, it was to repent in front of his other pastors and to say, we don't do this in my churches, and we need to, and I'm sorry. I watched the way that man holds leadership, and it is the personification of the verses that we have in Mark chapter 9. So let's go there and read them and then we disciples did not yet have a full perspective and understanding of who Jesus was and what he came to do. They expected that the Messiah was going to come, that he was going to rise into a position of political prominence, establish an earthly kingdom in Israel, and rule over all the world from Israel. Their vision was too small to understand that Jesus came to die and reconcile us back to the Father and establish a heavenly kingdom to exist for all eternity. Their imagination for who Jesus was and what he could do was too small. And we see that all through the Gospels. Okay, that's just a little sideline that I wanted to bring your attention to because when we start talking about Easter and the resurrection, that becomes really important. Verse 33, He took a little child whom he placed among them, taking the child in his arms, and he said to them, Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes by Yaya, so I brought this up with me. Now we're going to go back and we're going to look at this idea of whoever wants to be great needs to serve. Whoever wants to be first must be last. But before we do, just as further proof that Yahya is the personification of this. Look at those last two verses. He took a little child and he placed it among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to him, whoever welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me. During the second break, Yahya was near me again and I said something to him, and he says, Yaya, John. And I go, John? And he goes, yeah. And I joked with him, and I said, Yaya is way cooler. And he laughed and whatever. But then I thought, he seems like a sweet man. He'll probably like to know that my son is named John. So I went, do we have the picture? Okay, I went up to him, and I said,, yeah. And he looked at me and I said, I put my hand on his chest. I said, John? And he goes, yeah. And I said, this is my John. And I showed him John. I showed him this picture. And yeah, yeah, it goes. And I kind of pulled it back. He goes, oh my God, let me see that again. And I pulled it back up and he zooms in on his eyes. And he goes, he has the most beautiful eyes. What a blessing. Oh my God, John, that is so lovely. Praise God. What a blessing. And he says, I will pray for him. I said, thank you, Yahya. Three days later, I got to a session. You can take that down. That's just going to be distracting because he's so precious. Three days later, I got to a session early. I'm the only American in the room, and the pastors are all talking, and they start kind of laughing. And Yaya's daughter, who apparently has worked on English, says, they're all talking about your son, John. They've all been praying for him every day this week. It's just humbling. Let me just be honest with you. That is not how I respond to pictures of your children. Okay? That is embarrassingly far from my character. And they meant it. They meant it. And those men who have so much to be concerned about. I asked Nathan, the refugee, I said, what's their level of concern when they fly back into the country? What's their stress level when they're going through customs just to get home? And he said, as high as it can be. They know that one of these days they're going to fly back in country and one of them is going to end up in a security office. And I said, can I please get a text to know that they all got home safely? And when I landed yesterday, I had a couple of texts on my phone telling me that they had. So we praise God for that. They have so much to worry about. And they choose to spend their time in prayer, praying for my son. And I was told, Nathan told me, he goes, you're lucky. He goes, they're not kidding around. There's people that we dealt with three years ago and they committed to pray for them. And whenever I see them, they still ask me about those people. They will ask me about John for the rest of the time I know them. That's what it is to be the servant of all. Whoever wants to be great must be least. And I watched the way he held his authority. I watched the way he held his authority with those men and women in that room. How he supported them and put them first, and how very different it is from most of the pastors in underdeveloped countries that I've been to. This is a very sad truth, but most environments like that, these men get really competitive and they make the church about their ego. They even come up with titles. If you're a church pastor, if you have one church, you're a pastor. If you have more, if you have two churches, you get to be a priest. And if you have multiple churches, you're a bishop. And, and if you're, if you're a priest and not a bishop, you can't talk to a bishop. And if you're a, if you're a pastor, you can't talk to a priest. And if you're a pastor and a bishop is talking to you, you better listen or you'll be out of the church. It's very territorial and it's very sad. But it's not too different than how Americans hold authority either, is it? When we get positions of authority, we think about the rights and privileges that will be afforded to us by that authority. We think about what sort of things can I get to do. I remember vividly when I was 27 years old, I got hired as a Bible teacher and school chaplain at Covenant Christian Academy in Loganville, Georgia. And I remember after I got hired, it was the summertime and I had to ask, can I go begin to get my room ready? They said, sure. And I walked into my classroom for the first time. And I remember looking at it thinking, this is mine. I get to do what I want to in here. I'm going to, I think I have to design a bulletin board. How much can I, what's the least amount that I can put on that and not get in trouble? I was excited to come up with my own class rules. I'm the authority here. I get to, what I say goes. And so I sat down and I tried to generate some class rules and I landed on one class rule. This will surprise none of you. The one, the one class rule I had in my classroom was don't be dumb. That was it. I had it on the bulletin board and those stupid teacher round letters that you staple on. I had don't be dumb on my bulletin board. That was the one class rule. This made discipline very easy because when Aaron is in my class and he does something, he shouldn't, he cheats or he throws something at someone else or whatever it was. I pull Aaron outside and I say, Aaron, is what you did dumb? And he goes, yes, Mr. Rector. And I go, okay, so I'm going to have to punish you. Yes, Mr. Rector. All right, great. Let's go back in. It was very, very simple. But all I cared about in being an authority was what I got to do. And often this is how we hold it. Different than Jesus. Different than Yahya. When we get positions of authority, we think, oh, what do I get to do with this? What good things happen to me? How can I leverage this to continue to grow my authority? And when Jesus gives authority, and when Yahya receives authority, the primary question he is asking is, Father, how can I use this position to serve the people that you've entrusted to me? How can I use this authority to build them up? If we understand leadership to be intentionally deployed influence, which is how I understand it, then how do we use our influence to give away more influence to the people who follow us so that they can rise above us? This is how he holds his authority. Next week, I'm thinking about preaching about how that is possible. But for now, I'm going to leave this there. I told you I wasn't preaching to you this morning. I'm not driving to a single point. I'm sharing with you what I took away from this experience. And those are the two things I took away. First, we must learn what it would look like to behave as a persecuted church in a secure church culture. We must learn to behave more like them if we don't want to die on the vine like the rest of American churches. B, we must learn, I must learn to hold my authority the way that Yahya does. I must learn to hold my authority the way that Jesus tells us to, with an open hand, seeking to serve the people that we are in authority over, not seeking selfishly to make that authority about ourselves. We need to be more like the Iranian church and our leaders need to be more like Yahya. Let me pray and we're going to do a song and then I have a really special treat for those of you that are here in person after that. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for this morning. Thank you for the experience that you gave me. Thank you for impressing upon Rue to invite me. Thank you for the way that it's enriched me. And God, I just pray sincerely that grace can be enriched through my enrichment. That from your fullness flows grace upon grace. And from the fullness that you've given me, God, let it flow onto grace. That we might be a church that behaves more like there's something to do here, like there is a war to fight, that there is a battle to be won. And let us start that by holding our authority and loosely holding it like Jesus tells us to, holding it like my brother Yahya does. Make us more like them so that we might serve you better, so that we might reach future brothers and sisters and bring them into your family. Thank you for the week that you gave me. I pray that I would allow it to change me profoundly and that that change would be communicated and connected to this church at Grace and that we would be exactly who and what you've called us to be. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right, well, good morning, everyone. It's so good to see you. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here. Thanks for making us a part of your Sunday. I kind of had a feeling that this Sunday would look like this. Last Sunday, people begged out because of the weather, and we have a pretty good every other week crowd. So if everyone didn't come last week, I thought, you know, we might have some folding chairs up this week. So it's good to see everybody. I hope that you had a good week. For those of you that were able to enjoy the snow, I hope that that was fun and a nice reprieve for you. This morning we continue in our series called Mark's Jesus, where we're going through the Gospel of Mark, just looking at different stories and aspects of the life of Christ that Mark records. This week, we get to probably the most famous parable that Jesus teaches. Parables are the way that Jesus chose to teach most of the time. And parables are short, made-up stories that are told to make a point. And stories stick with us better. They help us think through things. They tend to drive the point home a little bit better. I've told you before, in a previous life, I was a Bible teacher and an assistant high school football coach. And the head football coach was a guy named Coach McCready. He was a recon Marine in Vietnam. I love that man so much. And whenever I'd ask him a question about what to do in life, he'd go, baby. And he'd tell me a story. He called everybody baby or everybody sugar. So sugar, sit down. And he'd tell me a story about him and Nam and the way that he had to handle some troops sometime. Or he did about when he ran an envelope factory after that in the 70s. He'd tell me about a problem employee that he would have. And he would never answer my question. He would just tell me a story. And I'd be thinking like, this old man's crazy. Like he's just, he's lost it. He's not paying attention to me anymore. But by the time he got to the end of the story, I realized, oh, and I had some clarity about what I needed to do in a situation. And so Jesus taught in similar ways. He taught through telling stories. And part of this, he tells us, is so that you kind of have to work to understand it a little bit because some of the Pharisees, he says, are ever seeing, but never perceiving, never hearing, never understanding. And so he wanted to teach this way to make things more memorable, to help you along, and to make you work for it a little bit. Now, you may have your favorite parable. You may know a bunch of parables. One of my favorite parables is the one about the unforgiving servant, the servant that was forgiven a ton by the king, this huge debt, and then turns around and he won't forgive a much smaller debt to a peer, and he gets in trouble for that one. And there's different, there's the workers in the vineyard, there's the pearl of great price, there's a bunch of different parables. But this parable that we're going to look at today is actually kind of the apex parable in that Jesus tells it to help us understand how we are to process the rest of the parables and the rest of the teachings of Jesus. So rather than sum up the parable, I'm just going to read it to you. It's in Mark chapter 4. We're going to look first at verses 3 through 8. Then we're going to look at verse 14. Then we'll go 15 to 20. So we're going to do a lot of work in Mark chapter 4 today. So if you have a Bible or you can reach that one in front of you, grab that and let's go through it together. I always try to encourage you, bring your Bibles to church, mark them up, take notes. I've been told recently I'm starting to make up words. So you could keep a list of the words that I'm making up. Tom was right last week. I made up the paralyzation. Yeah, yeah, paralyzation. That's not a word. Paralysis will do fine. You don't have to say paralyzation. So you can keep a list of those if you want to. But bring your Bible, mark them up, and let's have a spiritual track record of where we're going and what we're learning. This morning in Mark chapter 4, Jesus shares with us the parable of the sower. And it goes like this in verse 3. Listen. and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among the thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew, and produced a crop, some multiplying 30, some 60, some 100 times. So when you hear this parable on the surface without any context, it is a little bit difficult to understand. Like, okay, great. There's a farmer, throws out some seed. There seems to be four different kinds of soils. Four different things happen on those four different kinds of soils. Only one of them's good. But what are you talking about, Jesus? With no context, it's a little bit tricky to understand. And so the following verses, 9 through 13, are the disciples saying, hey, what are you talking about? What do you mean by that? And when you read the Gospels carefully, you see the disciples doing this often. What is he talking about? Maybe they don't even ask each other or ask him because they don't have the guts to do it. But he leaves and Peter will be like, did anybody get that? And they're like, no, we have no idea. And then they just have to try to pick it up the next time. But in this particular instance, lucky for us, Jesus explains it. And we have access to this explanation. Now here's one of the things that's really interesting to me as I dug in and studied this parable this time around. Many, many, many, I'm not going to raise your hand because I don't want to embarrass people who don't raise their hand, but I would bet that most of you in this room have heard that parable before. Most of you in this room, if I say the parable of the sower, you can at least, before you walked in today, you could have at least gotten two out of those four soils right. You know what I'm talking about. And so if you're a church person, we tend to think that that seed that goes out is the gospel. That's us sharing our faith, going throughout the world and planting the gospel. And we tend to make this parable about what we should do to plant the gospel of Jesus Christ, what we should do to share the good news of Jesus Christ with our unbelieving friends, neighbors, and cultures. And when we do that, it makes it reductive. It makes the parable smaller than it's supposed to be, I think. Because we make it this one-time deal. We make it this one-time thing where we throw the seed out, and if you respond to the gospel, there's four different ways to respond to the gospel. Three of them are bad. One of them are good. I'm going to throw out this gospel seed and hope that it lands on the good soil, and then I'm going to keep moving on. But it doesn't apply to us anymore because I'm a Christian. And when the seed landed on me, lucky me, I was good soil, and now this plant springs forth, and I have a spiritual life. So this is good. The way that the parable of the sower applies to me is that it's my job to sow the seeds because we say that the seed is the gospel. But that's not what it says. And that's not what Jesus says. Look at verse 14. This will not be on the screen, but look at verse 14. This is Jesus explaining the parable. The farmer sows the word. The farmer sows the word. The seed is the word, not the gospel. It's the word of God, not the gospel of God. Now, is the gospel part of the word of God? Yes. But so is Ecclesiastes, and the gospel is not abundantly clear in Ecclesiastes. Is the gospel part of the word of God? Absolutely, but God's word is so much more expansive than simply the salvation message. Now, everything in scripture points to Christ in one way or another. There's a scarlet thread woven through all 66 books where you can go through any portion of scripture and show how that eventually is pointing you and leading you to Christ. That's the whole point of it. But when we say God's word is the gospel, we either expand the gospel to include every possible thing that God says, or we reduce the word to just the gospel. And that's not right either. So when Jesus says the farmer sows the word, what he means is the word of God. So for us, that's any teaching based on scripture, any song that we would sing that's based on scripture, any word that we have from Jesus, anything that comes from God's word, any words that come from God, when we hear those, when we are taught those, when we sing those, when we talk about those, when we discuss those, that's the word of God. And so what he's saying is, what Jesus is saying is, the farmer sows the word. And if that's true, and the seed lands more than one time on us, but it's not just when we receive the gospel, it's every time the word of God is spoken or preached or sung, then what we see in this parable is this. This parable shows us that we can be different soils in different seasons. This parable shows us that we can be different soils in different seasons. So for us long-time Christians who always hear the parable of the sower and think it's my job to spread the seed. I've already received the gospel. I'm good. You have received the gospel. But you are, hopefully as a Christian, regularly, daily, multiple times a day, through a quiet time, through prayer, through what we're listening to, through what we consume, through our discourse, hopefully multiple times a day, the seed of God's word is landing on our soil. And this is helpful because we are reminded that we can be different soils in different seasons. I heard one time somebody said that a good book is 50% content and 50% timing. That you can read one great book in one season of your life and it just doesn't hit right. And you can read it 10 years later and oh my gosh, this is the most amazing thing I've ever read. I suppose that works for movies and TV shows as well for you Neanderthals who don't read. But I think that that's true. And I think that that's true of different sermons. I know for me, there are sermons that I preached. I'll just be honest with you, okay? Haley Lee, she did our announcements last week, did a phenomenal job doing the announcements. She and I were talking before the service and she said, nobody's coming this week because it was just because the weather was miserable. And word had gotten out that she was hosting, and so people said, I'll mail this one in. And I said to her, and I meant this in all sincerity, I said, that's fine with me. This sermon is the worst one I've preached in like six weeks. She goes, what? And I go, yeah, I don't like it. It's not very good. Like I, it is, it's, it honors the text. It is what it is. But the last five I've preached, I've liked more than this one. And she was like, well, do your best. And I tried. And the wild part to me is, um, I'm almost eight years in now. It'll be, it'll be, uh, Easter will be my eighth anniversary. So I'm almost eight years in here. And after doing this for eight years, week in and week out, you know, there's some sermons that you preach. And the only people who say a word to you about them are the ones that happen to make the mistake of looking you in the eye in the lobby. And they kind of see it and they're like, good job. Like, right? And it's only because they saw you. They don't mean it, and I know you don't mean it. That's fine. But then there's others that people, like, pull you aside, and they want to talk about it, and yada, yada, yada. You can kind of tell based on the feedback. And after I preached this one last week, the feedback I got, I was like, oh, okay, God. That must have landed on good soil. That must have been something that people needed to hear. So it's sometimes you preach a sermon, and you think it's going to be great. I'm going to rip their faces off. I'm going to light them on fire. This is going to be fantastic. And people are like, yeah, good job. And then other times I'm like, God, I'm sorry for this one. I'll try better next time. And then he uses it. So different, different teachings, sometimes different songs, sometimes different conversations we have with godly people who love Jesusesus and we just talk about spiritual things hit differently at different times of life and i think that this is tremendously encouraging particularly for those of you with children their soil changes season to season what they reject at one age they may receive at another what the enemy snatches up at one point may actually have time to germinate at another. Those of you sharing your faith and sowing seeds with your coworkers and with family members and with friends and with loved ones, keep spreading it. There's different soils at different seasons, and it may catch them differently if it got rejected the first time. But I think it's tremendously helpful to approach this parable not as a depiction of what happens when we share the gospel. That's a limited understanding of it. But let's approach this parable as an explanation from Jesus himself of what happens when we receive teaching about God's word, when we hear the good news of God's word, and how we receive that and what happens when we do. Because in that way, it continues to apply to us until we enter into eternity. So let's look at the explanations of Christ of each of the soils and understand what they are and what they're doing and identify those things in our own seasons of our own lives. Let's look at Mark 4.15. He describes the first one. Some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Okay. So that's the first kind of soil. It's like seed that's thrown along the path, never even has a chance to get into any soil at all, lands on concrete, lands on hard ground, cannot germinate, and Satan comes by and he scoops it up and he knocks it away. Okay. So how do we understand this soil in our own life? Well, we don't talk a lot about Satan around here. I've found that doing sermons on the devil are not the most fun. So we don't talk a lot about him, but when Satan comes up, I try to remind you guys that here's what's true, whether we're comfortable with this idea of an enemy or not, that Satan is real and he is against you. Satan is very much real and he is very much against you and your family and your children and your spouse and your friends. And he is constantly scheming on how to break up what God is doing. God is about the kingdom of God and inviting us to be in, participate in the building of the kingdom of God. Satan is about the tearing down of the kingdom of God. And anytime we get serious about building God's kingdom up, Satan gets serious about tearing us down. We're told that he prowls about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, that he is a liar and the father of lies, that his native tongue is lies. So we know that Satan is real and that he is against us. And the last thing Satan wants is for God's word to land on someone's life and take hold of it. So he's constantly trying to sweep those away. I don't have specific guesses for how Satan is active in our lives and in our world and in our communities. I don't have guesses for you there. But I do think that in the United States that Satan doesn't have to work very hard. I think he may have even set us on cruise control and gone and tended to other countries where the church is flourishing. Because I think that one of the greatest tools of Satan, I'm absolutely convinced of this, particularly in this generation, in this day and age, one of the greatest tools of Satan is simply distraction. He will just distract you. You stop at a red light. How many of you, don't raise your hand, how many of you, you can't just sit at a red light in peace. You reach down, you grab your phone, you start to do this. You can't just sit for 30 seconds. You're in the doctor's office, the wait is five minutes. You're picking something up to read or do. Because you look like a psychopath if you just stare at the wall. You've got to at least not intimidate other people even if you're not doing anything. But we are easily the most distracted, when I say generation, I mean historical generation, like people who are alive. I'm not talking about X's and millennials. I'm talking about everyone in the room, one generation of history. We are easily the most distracted generation in history. And I believe that that distraction is a tool of Satan to keep us from thinking about what actually matters, to keep seeds from germinating in our lives. We might be very moved by what happens in a service on a Sunday morning, and then as soon as we exit those doors, what do you want to do for lunch? What do you want to do about this? What do you want to do about this? We get into the car, whatever was playing on our phone that morning when we got to church, it starts to play again. And that begins to distract us. It takes our thought away. We've removed all time for contemplation. We've removed all time for stillness. There was one time, some of y'all will remember, I got so concerned about the distractions of the world and our need for stillness and silence that I tricked you guys. I didn't tell anybody. I brought you in here for a Sunday morning service. Emil knows what I'm talking about. Emil, our keyboardist, he remembers this. Me and him were laughing about it because I tricked everyone. And then we did a silent service. I shut the lights down. We played soft music. I put words on the screen and I made you preach to yourself through God's word and I didn't say anything. And some of y'all were like, that was amazing. And others of you said, never do that to me again. You've got to tell us. That's not fair. We have so little space for silence and contemplation in our lives, and I believe that that's absolutely a trick of Satan to keep things from germinating that should take hold. So if you are a person who's constantly distracted, who's constantly looking, who's constantly watching, who's constantly listening, who has no stillness, who has no peace, there's always noise in your life, I just want you to think about whether or not that's a trick of the enemy to keep you from thinking about what you really need to think about and to keep God's word from germinating in your life in the ways that it needs to. The other reason I think Satan doesn't have to work very hard in our culture is that, and I don't want to get too existential here, but we are the result of Greek thought as a culture. We are materialistic. And when I say materialistic, I don't mean we're greedy and we want things, although we are greedy and we do want things, and we are materialistic in that way. But I mean materialistic in that in our culture, if you can't taste it, touch it, smell it, feel it, it's not real. We insist that everything makes sense to us. We have even reduced emotions to chemicals in our brains. And until we can understand how those chemicals interact, we refuse to believe that emotions actually exist. We think that we've fabricated everything. We have no space for wonder left in our culture. We have no space for the fanciful. We have no patience for not understanding. And I think it is to our detriment that when we walk outside, we can't see stars anymore because we live too close to the city. There's this great book. I'll just throw this out here. This is for only one person, and I don't know who, but maybe it's you. Write it down. Abraham Kuyper was the Dutch prime minister, I think, in about 1900. He was a Christian, and he was a scientist, and he wrote a book called Wisdom and Wonder about this, about the things that we should try to know and the things that we should be so glad that we don't know and wonder at. We've lost our childlike ability to wonder and to wonder. And when we insist that everything makes sense to us all the time, I think we become way overly reductive with our faith. Because if you're trying to shrink it to what you can understand, I don't need to finish that thought. It's very easy to have a quick emotional response to a sermon or to a song or to a discussion. It's very easy to feel that quick conviction. Churches even know how to do this. Sometimes there'll be a cue at the end of the sermon, and Aaron knows that at that cue, when I say this word, you come up and you start to play soft music behind me, and it's going to make what I say a lot more impactful, right? Like we know those little tricks. I try not to use them very much because I'm not good at them, and then I feel this undue pressure to actually say something that matters at the end, and I'd rather just coast it out. But we know how to have emotional responses to things, and oftentimes church does this. How many times have you left, because I say this all the time, you guys know that I say this all the time. There's no more important habit that anyone in their life can develop than, a lot of you can complete the sentence, than to wake up every day and spend time in God's Word and time in prayer. How many of you have heard me preach a sermon on that and prayed at the end and said, God, I am reading my Bible every day, and you didn't make it a week? Multiple times, I bet, we've done that. How many times have I been convicted? I've had more day ones at the gym than anybody that's 44 ever. How many times do we hear things we should do, we receive conviction about it, and we go, yes, this is what I'm going to do, and then we flare out. That's the gospel landing on rocky soil. It flourishes, it shoots up quick. But it doesn't have any roots. And we don't tend it. And it gets crowded out. And we forget it. This is what happens. I've seen this over and over again. I don't mean to be too cynical. But I've seen people who come to church. They're new. They're coming from a different church. Or they're moving into town. Or they started to go to church again or whatever. And they come. they want to meet everybody. They meet everybody. They're such sweet people. They want to meet me. They want me to hear their story. I want to hear their story. They come to the very first Discover Grace that we have or the very first newcomers class that we have, and they sign up for all the things. They are on fire. I just know, I just know, this person's going to leave as easily as they came. There's other people who come and they sit back there and they're just kind of, who are these weirdos? What are they about? Sometimes their worship pastor stops singing and the rest of them just kind of keep doing it. What's going on? Is that pastor for real? Is he always like that? Yeah, yeah. And there's just slow germination. And then after about a year, they're like, maybe I'll help you hand out some bulletins. Great. Often that's signs of seed germinating and taking root because they're taking their time and there's deep soil there. I can remember going to camp when I was 17 and I came home absolutely on fire for God, camp high. And I told my dad, my life has changed. I'm going to make disciples. I'm giving my whole life to Christ. I'm doing all the things. Dad, I just, I can't wait to serve God. And my dad's response was, that's great, son. Be nice to your mom and your sister. Let it take root. Otherwise, I don't believe you. This happens to us, these flash-in-the-pan convictions. So my encouragement to you is if you're convicted about reading your Bible, don't tell anyone that you're going to do it every day. Just set your alarm. If you're convicted about praying with your spouse, don't tell her that you're going to pray with her every day. Just go grab her and say, can we pray? If you're convicted by God's word about something that you need to do or change, don't tell anybody. Just do it and let other people notice your conviction. But let's not be the flash in the pan faith that happens with this soil. The next one, 18 and 19. Still others, like seeds sown among thorns, hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. This is a picture of a cluttered life, of a life that's not correctly prioritized. The seed of God's word lands in a place that's able to convict us, lands in a place where it's able to germinate. The problem is our soil is so riddled with weeds and other things that it has no space where it can grow and call its own. This is a life where we've over-prioritized career. We've over-prioritized physical health, physical fitness. We've over-prioritized sometimes even family or friends. Often it's a life where we've over-prioritized pleasure and rest. And God's word starts to germinate in our life, but as it does, it requires of us. It requires space. It requires energy. It requires effort. It needs to grow. It needs the resources and nutrients offered by the soil that we're following along with the parable and with the metaphor, it needs its resources, but we're taking the resources that are needed to allow God's word to grow in our life and to grow us, and we're allocating them to other things that are not as important. This is the description of a life that's not correctly prioritized. Yeah, I know that I should probably go to a women's group, but I've got work. I know that I should probably go to a women's group, but I'm already out three nights a week, and so I can't add another night. And so instead of thinking about what's taking us out the other three nights and going, that can't possibly be as important as the spiritual health and the seed within me that is germinating. That can't possibly be as important. So let me rearrange my schedule around allowing God to grow me. We just say, I can't do that right now. I'm not available for that. I'd like to go to small group, but I'm shy and I don't really feel comfortable doing that. So I'm not going to prioritize that. I know I need to get up early and read my Bible, but it's just, I'm so tired in the mornings and it doesn't occur to us. Okay, well, what were you doing last night? That's making you tired. How late were you up? How do you, how do you, how can you recalibrate? I'll just tell you this, this year, one of my, one of the things I've been doing this year is I try to get up every day at five. I just, I just feel like that's a healthy pattern for me. I try to get up every day at five. And at first it was really tough because I'm not getting tired until 1130 or 12 o'clock at night and I'm only getting four or five hours of sleep at night. But you know what started happening? My body changed. Now at like 845, I'm like, Jen, we gotta get in bed. I got one episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine in me and then I'm out. And now I wake up at 430 with no alarm. My body just changed. I said, okay, if this is what you're going to do, let's do this. So we come up with excuses to not follow through on the things that we're convicted about without thinking about how do I actually tend my soil to make space for God's Word to grow. This is what the author of Hebrews is talking about when he tells us that to run our race well, we should throw off the sin and the weight that so easily entangles. The things that we have in our life that prevent God's word from growing and taking hold and taking root and radically changing us aren't always out and out sin. It's just things that we allocate energy to that is displaced. So I would challenge us this morning as we reflect on this soil, how much are you prioritizing your spiritual health and allowing God's word to grow in your life? And how much have you just allocated just a passive corner of your lot to it so that you can tend to everything else. Lastly is the good soil. Verse 20. Others, like seeds sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop, some 30, some 60, some 100 times what is sown. This is obviously what we want to be. This is obviously what we're hoping for when we share God's word with other people. But here's what's interesting to me about this good soil. In both the telling and in the explanation, Jesus makes sure to make that point, and it reproduces some 30, some 60, some even 100 times. I'm reminded of the parable of the talents, where the expectation of the master going out of town, who he gives the talents to his servants, is that they would produce more, that they would double what they're left behind. We are always expected to produce. The vine and the branches illustration in John chapter 15, abide in me and I in you. I am the vine, you are the branches. Abide in me and you will bear much fruit. Here's the thing, is good soil always bears fruit. Good soil, where the seed is growing, where there is good healthy life, a good spiritual life will always, always, always bear fruit. We cannot both be flourishing and barren within the kingdom of God. Do you see? If we are growing and flourishing, if that seed has taken root, if we are becoming the people that God has created us to be because we are his workmanship created for good works, if we are doing that, then we will absolutely produce fruit without question. Now, what does fruit look like? That's an important thing to understand, and I think it's an important thing for us to have a communal definition of. To produce fruit, and there's a bunch of ways to explain this, but let's explain it this way. Let's understand it this way this morning. To produce fruit means to grow God's kingdom in breadth or depth. That's what it means. If you are producing fruit in the kingdom of God, God is using you to grow it in its breadth or depth. Grow it in its breadth, evangelism, telling other people about Jesus. If you have been producing fruit by growing God's kingdom in its breadth, then in your wake, in your past, in the last six months, three years, five years, there are people who would say, because this person is in my life, because Jim Price is in my life, I am closer to God than I was when I met him. It's a wake of people who do not know the Father or are far from Jesus who have moved closer to him because God has placed you in their life. It's growing the kingdom of God in breadth. And so I would ask you, Christians, are there people in your past, in the last six months, three years, five years, who would point to you and say, because you exist in my life, I moved from being very far from Jesus to much closer to him. If that's true, then God is using you to produce and to bear fruit. And then hopefully they do that and they do that and they do that. And that's how it gets to 30, 60, 100 fold. And when we produce fruit, we grow the kingdom in depth. We disciple other people. We help people along in their sanctification journey. We help people become deeper in their spiritual walk to take their faith more seriously. And this way you look at the wake of your life and there are people who are in your life who say, yeah, when I met Jeff Lemons, I knew Jesus, but because God placed him in my life, I now know him in a more deep and passionate way. I would never know Jesus as deeply as I do if I had not been friends with Linda Sartorius. When people start to say things like that about you, that means that you are producing fruit. So if we are going to be the good soil, we will bear fruit. It's not we must bear fruit. It's not that we have to try to bear fruit. Abide in me and I in you and you will bear much fruit. All we have to do is try to follow Jesus. All we have to do is make ourselves receptive to God's word. He does the rest. We don't have to come up with some plan. He handles it. Which is why I'm so confident that a byproduct of walking with Jesus is producing fruit, growing God's kingdom in breadth and in depth. And that's what we should be doing. And I would say this, if you look at your life, I'm not trying to make anybody feel bad, but if you look, if you've been a Christian for three years, at least, and you look at the last three years of your life, and you ask yourself, who's closer to Jesus because God placed me in their life? Who have I had the honor and privilege of walking with as I watch them grow in their faith? If you can't point to anybody, there's a good chance that some of those other soils are happening in your life, that your priorities are crowding out God's word, that the schemes of Satan are actually working on you and keeping things from taking root. There's a good chance that the first three might apply to you. And that's for your soul to search. That's a question for you to answer. But here's how this applies to all of us. Because this is true that this parable, because this is true that this parable isn't just about the moment that we receive the news of the gospel, but it's about every moment that we receive the teachings of God's word. And it's ongoing for our whole life. We're different soils at different seasons because it continues to apply to us both as we share and as we receive. What should we do in light of this parable? What would Jesus have us do? I think it's this, keep spreading and keep tending. Christians, keep spreading God's word. Keep teaching God's word. Keep sharing God's word. Keep singing God's word. Keep inviting people into God's word. And keep tending. Keep tending your soil so that when you hear God's word, you can be receptive to it. To this end, this is not my point. This is a point that I heard another pastor named Alistair Beg make, and I thought it was fantastic. He didn't say it like this, but I am. Beware the spiritual atrophy of the informed. Church people, beware the spiritual atrophy of the informed. Here's what I mean. When you've been going to church long enough, when you've heard enough sermons, it doesn't take you but a minute or two to get into a sermon and figure out what the pastor's going to be talking about. You start a sermon, pastor says, open up John 15. You go, okay, we're doing Abiding in Christ this morning. Cool. Open up to 1 Samuel 17. Oh, good, we get to do David and Goliath, right? Open up to Philippians 3. Oh, I can do all things. Or 4. We know what it's going to be about. What I said this morning, we're going to be talking about the parable of the sower. A lot of us went, okay, I know what that one is. And what happens when we already know is that our knowledge inoculates us against truth. We're callous to it. I've heard that before. That's not for me. I actually know some people. I love them very much. They do not go to this church all the time. They have told me. They have told me that they don't go to church on Christmas and Easter because church is always really crowded on those holidays, and they already know those stories. They know what the message is going to be. The message is not for us. It's for the people who don't come very regularly, so we want to make sure that they have a parking space and that they have seats, which is an incredibly well-tuned argument of bullcrap. It's just a smoke screen for we don't want to deal with the crowds. That's all it is. That's all it is. But here's the sad part about that. How do we get to a place as Christians where we say, the message of the resurrection is not for me? The pastor, listen, I'm not complaining, okay? I'm not complaining, I'm not whining, but I know what it is to listen to sermons too. And I know that when I listen to sermons, you know what I want? Tell me something about this passage I don't know yet. Take a different angle. Ooh, I haven't seen it done that way before. We want something new. We want something shiny. We want something that we can chew on. We want something different. We don't want same. And in that way, our knowledge inoculates us from truth because we're not receptive to it anymore. May we Christians, longtime Christians, who already know where the sermon is going before it starts, may we be people who freshly open up our hearts to the truth of God's word so that it might take root in ways that it hasn't in years. And maybe, maybe, if we're not producing very much fruit, maybe it's because we're in spiritual atrophy because we know too much. And those of us who do, let us open our hearts in renewed ways to God's word that it might grow and produce a fruit 30, 60, and 100-fold. I'm going to pray, and we're going to move into a time of communion together. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the truth that is in it. Thank you, God, that its depths are unfathomable. Thank you that we can read the same book in your Bible two dozen times and have it mean something different and reach a different part of us every time. God, for those of us who have allowed our knowledge to inoculate us from your truth, would you please cure us of that? Would you please help us wonder again? Would you please help us be receptive to your word in fresh ways? God, for those of us who are distracted, for those of us who insist on making everything make sense, for those of us who have our priorities out of order. God, I pray that we would see those tendencies in ourself and that we would take very seriously tending our soil to prepare our hearts for your word. And God, here in this family of faith, would you build up healthy people who are flourishing in you and producing fruit beyond their wildest imaginations in whatever way you would have them do that in Jesus name amen