Peace in War

We're in the middle of a series called Silent Night. We started it last week. And just to recap a little bit of what we talked about last week. We love the song Silent Night.

We sing it. We're going to sing it Christmas Eve. It's a beautiful song. It's a peaceful song. But it was all but peaceful on that night.

There was a lot going on. I mean, think about it. Mary was a teenager. She was pregnant. There was taxes due.

They were traveling across country to do this, to pay their taxes. There was no hotel. What did they have to do? They had to be in a smelly, dirty stable. They had cows.

And I don't think it was very silent when cows are around you and sheep are around you. And they had to lay them in some kind of trough that fed animals because they didn't have anything, anywhere else to take their child. She had, she birthed her child right there. And nobody, nobody desires to experience something like that. And none of us would ever think that that would actually be a silent night for us.

So today I want to, I want to entertain that once again, this silent night, the concept of silent night. Many of you are going through, through a lot of things. Tis the season to be jolly, but for a lot of people it's not so jolly. In fact, depression is up probably more in the, and statistics actually show that more people are depressed during the holidays than they are any time of year. So we're joyful, silent night, wonderful.

Let's get together. But there's a lot of people going through a lot of things. So, so our, our theme verse is in Luke and it's the gospel story. So if you want to follow along with me, you've got some notes in your bifold and you can, you can roll along with me here. It says, do not be afraid.

I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. And today in the town of David, a savior, all of you know, know this or, or at least you've heard this, this, this, a savior, which is born, uh, has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you. You will find the baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a, what?

A manger, a trough. Yeah? And suddenly a great company of, of, of, uh, the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest. And on earth, peace. And on earth, peace to man on whom his favor rests.

Last week we, we titled the series Peace on Earth because really what it comes down to is we don't really experience peace on earth. In fact, if we look at the scripture, we see something completely different. We say, we see on earth peace. And when we switch things around like that, we learn that God didn't come to bring peace to earth. In fact, Jesus said it himself.

I didn't come to bring peace on earth. The only time we actually see peace on earth in the Bible in that order is I didn't come to bring peace on earth. I become, I come to bring something else. It actually will divide people because the gospel does divide. Because the, the, for some reason, the good news divides.

But God, God has something, something for us, but the world rejects it. So today I want to talk a little bit about, about war. Well, this is a Christmas message. But, but if you, you'll, you'll track with me for a minute. I think you'll find the, the, the wonder that we do have in Jesus Christ.

It wasn't such a silent night. It may not be a silent night for a lot of you. But I think if you follow along and learn what's really going on, we can learn to have on earth peace. On earth peace. In 3,500 years of recorded history, there have been 268 years of peace.

268 years of peace of recorded history. 3, 35, that's a long time. Not many, not much peace there. 3.6 billion people in recorded history have died in war.

3.6 billion people. 8,000 peace treaties have been arranged. How many of them have been fulfilled? Zero.

Zero. The first two statements in the charter of the United Nations when they charted it back in 1945, 72 years ago was this. We want to maintain worldwide peace and security and develop relations among nations. What do we know today? In 72 years, we have not accomplished that.

It's almost as if the United Nations is a failure. Why? Because we live, we live in war. We live in a, in, in a, a state of, of constant battle. So the question is, what does this look like?

Well, John 14, 27 says, I am leaving you with a gift. Peace of mind and heart and the peace I give you isn't fragile like the peace that the world gives. So don't trouble, don't be troubled or be afraid. So he's talking about this peace. We're, we're searching for peace.

We want peace, but we're not finding peace anywhere else. He says, what the peace I offer you, it's not fragile like the world. It's not, it's not a peace that's going to die. It's a, it's a peace that actually lasts. It's a peace that, that is, is, is everlasting and, and, and, and you, a well that you can dip into at any time.

It's overflowing. There is a peace there available for us. Although we look around us and we see no peace, we can rise. So how do we lose our peace and where do we lose our peace? What is, what is this, what, what, what causes this downward spiral that leads to war, that leads to divide, that leads to conflict or, or what have you?

What causes that? And the simple answer is this, it's people. People, right? I mean, in any situation you've been in, any conflict you've been in, in any, any divide, in any great nation that's fallen, at, at any, any, uh, war that's, it's come across, what, what is the result? It's usually people.

People can rob you of your joy. People can rob you of, of your happiness. People can rob you of peace. And that seems to always be the thing we come back to. People are people and it's always an issue, right?

Dealing with people is the hardest thing to do. Would you agree with me on that? Yeah, it's just really hard because you and I know, even if we look at ourselves, we're hard people, right? We've got opinions, we've got frustrations, we've got backgrounds, we've got things that are going on, and somebody just like that, just like that, can say something and just ruin your attitude, right? I mean, just the other day, I'm excited.

It's Saturday morning, I'm up, I'm happy, I had this little thing with my kids the night before, we had a great time, got to see Savannah sing, we went to Chick-fil-A afterwards, saw Santa Claus, you know, and we're all happy, wonderful, and then I received a text message, don't worry, it's nobody in this church, and it was a hateful text message about, you know, misrepresenting me and some things that weren't true that were said or whatever. And just by those words, it really hurt me, and it killed my day. And the power of words is so strong, and it can really affect a person's attitude, it can affect a person's joy. And the enemy wants to steal your joy, right? And people often, he allows people, he uses people, but we know that the battle is not against flesh and blood, right?

It's not against the people, and we need to keep that in mind. You get an email, you get a Facebook post, whatever it might be. With the age of social media, it just happens all the time, right? I mean, people just kind of throw something at you or say something about you sightingly. People just always feel like they have a spot because they have their little area on Facebook.

They can say things about people. Hey, let's be positive a little bit, right, church? I mean, if we're going to use social media, let's just be positive and not be negative. But people tend to be negative, and it always comes back to people. So let's talk about war and people for a little bit.

Psalm 120 says this, Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. The psalmist knew this. And I am a man of peace, but when I speak, they are for war. So we have war all around us. Maybe it's your co-workers, maybe it's your family members, maybe it's just the nation in general, the things that we have going on today.

I mean, we just learned that our president wants to move the embassy to Jerusalem. Now we've got all this stuff going on about Jerusalem, and there's a lot of fear, and there's a lot of divisiveness, and there's a lot of things. Just today, the political pressure is enough, right? And I don't even want to really bring it into the church, you know, because the church is a place where we want to lean into Jesus, not lean into all that going on out there, right? And people get involved, and they get frustrated and get upset.

And I want to tell you this. This isn't a message of conflict resolution. I'm not here to kind of give you a nice... We will save that for another time. We can talk about conflict resolution in another sermon, but I want to share with you something more.

How do you deal? Let's just assume that people are not going to change, that people are always going to be like this, because for 3,500 years of recorded history, people have always been like this. Why would we assume they would change today? There's always going to be somebody in your life. There's always going to be a situation.

There's always going to be a division. There's always going to be a frustration that comes into your life. There's always going to be something. Let's assume that people are not going to change. How do we do that?

So the question is, can we find peace? This series is about peace. How can we find peace? Can we find peace? And the answer is yes.

So let's learn how to do that. But first, I want to talk a little bit about how these things happen. What causes division? What causes strife? What causes conflict?

What causes war? Well, it starts out with internal inconsistencies. That's your first blank if you're following notes there. Internal inconsistencies between people. Some of you may call this cognitive dissonance if you're a psychologist.

Or some of you may just call them thoughts or ideas or values that we have that conflict with other people. And a lot of times, we don't even know these conflicts are taking place because when we're in the workplace, say there's somebody who's across the office from you, you really don't have any bad intentions towards the person, but there's just something there. And you just can't, you can't, maybe it's a value issue. You know they're on the other side of the coin and there's something internally that's not sitting right. Maybe it's something that somebody said, some type of disagreement, some type of philosophical discussion, an idea, political, whatever it is.

And this happens between coworkers. It happens between family members. It happens all over the place. We deal with this all the time. These eternal, and it creates a separation and a distance between people.

We start, we start distancing ourself. And then we enter into the next stage, which is barriers. We put barriers up in our life. We put walls on our lives and we separate ourselves. Well, you know, if they're going to be like that, I'm just going to go over here.

I'm going to shut the door and I'm going to shut my life off. And I'm not going to deal with it. And they're not going to come in here and they're not going to do that to me anymore. Right? They're not going to be that way.

They did that to me. They said that to me. That conflict or whatever that presented itself, that started growing, forced you to put up barriers. You shut people off. And you don't want to do this because it leads to this stage.

It's called escalation. Escalation. These are psychology terms and conflict and stuff. These are kind of secular principles that we can learn. Escalation.

The simple problem that we have becomes a big problem. And we make these big problems much bigger than they need to be. And this always happens. I mean, this isn't just, I mean, war comes because of little disagreements that really are made larger than they actually are. And it grows to the point where it's just out of our control.

We can't deal with it. And it brings us to this next phase. And we never want to go to this phase because this is where it starts crossing the line to demonically influenced. Okay? And that's called false belief.

We enter into this stage of false belief. That person that sent a text to me on Saturday morning and ruined my day, it was a false belief. It was a lack of understanding of the context of what was going on in a particular situation. And they began to make beliefs about me that weren't necessarily true. And this happens to all of us.

People misrepresent us all the time, right? Because they hear something or they see something that may not accurately portray that person. And then they began to make lies about them. And people literally can't see that these are lies. They believe that it's true.

And not only that, they bring Bible into it, right? Well, you know, the Bible says this, I should separate my, you know. And they use scripture to try to support something that's false. And not a belief we should stand for. And then, it comes down to this, and this is where it really, really starts dropping.

It not only is a false belief, it becomes hostile. Hostility. Hostility is your next blank. We become hostile, and it sets down in our souls. So it goes from an external thing to an internal thing, and it starts digging at us, and it starts rooting inside of us.

It starts growing inside of us. It starts, and it just makes us angry and hostile, and we have no peace in our souls. We're peace-less. And David even prayed this. David came to that point.

Why so disturbed within me, O my soul? We're disturbed. We're disturbed. And then, it becomes war. War with yourself, you're war with others, because you are not at peace with your own soul.

You become unpeaceful with God. You don't even want a relationship with God. You start blaming Him. You start blaming everybody else around you. You become disobedient.

And God doesn't want that for us. You know, perhaps even this. Maybe you're so hostile because you haven't really submitted everything to God. You know? And you're battling with those internal things.

But really, it's an act of obedience. It really is an everyday act of obedience to submit ourselves to God. And it's a decision we have to make every day. It's as simple as that. When we wake up in the morning, we really need to make a decision.

That we're not going to allow us to dip into this area. But we end up blaming everybody around us. James 3 says this. But if you harbor, or hold on to, bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not boast about it or deny the truth. That's what we usually do.

We deny the truth. We throw it out. We even boast about it. What does he mean by boast about it? You're bragging about it?

In a way, we are. Because you're like, I am. I deserve. I should. That person did me wrong.

I throw a Bible in it. This is what the Bible says about this person. The way they're acting. When it really is an internal thing that I deal with. Or you deal with.

And we're arguing with these people. And we're making things out of nothing. So we boast about it. And we deny the truth. And it says, Such wisdom does not come down from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.

So this is a demonic thing. As you can see. This is how we get these roots in us. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. Every evil practice.

Not just some evil practice. So the root cause is always, always people. So how do we settle this? How do we find peace amongst the unrest and the conflict that is happening all around us? How do we do that?

How do we find peace? Ephesians 2 says this. Remember that at the time you were separated from Christ. When you were separated from Christ, without hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away, have been brought near through the blood of Jesus Christ.

You have been brought near. You were separated. You were divided. You were hostile. You were dealing with conflict.

But because of Jesus Christ, you can have peace. For he himself is our peace. Peace is not just some idea, some kind of philosophy, some kind of thing that's sitting out there. He himself is our peace. It's a person that we place ourselves, our trust in.

Who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier that we set up, the walls, and all the hostility that we have. He destroys all of that. So let me give you three things. Three things. Three things real quick.

Now I'll land the plane. The first one is you won't find peace until you make peace. You won't find peace until you make peace. You can't have peace until you make peace. And this starts inside of us.

You can't have peace. And it's not just getting together with somebody and trying to do some type of resolution. You have this. I have this. I was wrong here.

You were right here. Yeah, that's all good and everything. But it has to be more than that. It has to be a peace. You have to have peace in your heart.

You have to make peace with that individual in your heart. You got to be willing to say, I forgive that person. I'm not going to carry bitterness. Just deciding to go your ways and we agree to disagree is not enough. We have to really come in terms of peace.

You settle the issues when you have resolutions, but you don't settle the heart. And the heart is really the matter of it. You practice mercy just as God practiced mercy for you. You've got to be merciful people. We have to have peace in our heart.

The brother of Jesus, James, said this in chapter 3, verse 17. He says, but the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. So we're looking for wisdom from heaven, right? Then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, and good fruit, impartial and sincere. And listen to this second part.

Peacemakers who sow in peace, what do they do? They raise a harvest of righteousness. It means that we're made right. Things are made right with you. There's peace that we can have, we have access to.

We have a harvest of righteousness. Matthew 5, 9 says, This blessed are the peacemakers. For they will be what? The sons and daughters of God. Because people who are peacemakers, they get it.

There's two Greek words used for blessed in the Bible. One of them is financial blessing and prosperity and things like that. And the other is this. And this is what this scripture uses. It's simply happiness.

Just enjoying life. Being blessed. Having joy in our hearts. Something deep down that goes far beyond what the world offers us. We have peace.

We have hope. Blessed are the peacemakers. Those are the people that are really the children of God. That get it. That know what it is to have a relationship with God.

Blessed are the peacemakers. Number two. You make peace. How do you make peace? How do you make peace?

How do you make peace? Some of you are asking that. How do you make peace? You say, we've got to make peace. How do you do that?

Well, through reconciliation. This is where it becomes outward, excuse me. Not awkward, outward. Sometimes it might be awkward. That's a good thing, right?

But it's outward. Outward. You know what reconciliation literally means? Most of you know this. When you say reconcile, you use the word reconcile all the time, you know?

You reconcile your bank account. What are you doing? You're bringing the balance to zero. You're canceling out everything. Everything.

You're bringing it to zero. You want to bring the balance to zero. We like to resolve. Again, we like to resolve. We like to bring solutions to everything.

But in terms of, but reconciliation is actually getting rid of the record completely. 1 Corinthians 13 even says, love has no record of wrong. You've got to bring a balance to it. Because God did the same for us. When he forgave us.

When he put it all on the cross. He reconciled. He took away the sin. 2 Corinthians 5 says this. Verse 18.

All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. He actually gave us a ministry for that. That God. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ. Not counting men's sin against them.

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors. What does that mean? We are standing. We are standing for Christ.

In Christ. We are walking with Christ. Christ is not literally physically here on stage. He is with us spiritually. But who am I?

I am an ambassador of Christ. We have, we have the ministry of reconciliation. As though God were making his appeal through us. So he is making his appeal through us. So we implore you in Christ.

So Paul is just begging the church. I implore you in Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God. You need to be reconciled yourself. To God.

God made him who had no sin to be the sins for us. So that in him we might have the righteousness. And God that we might be made right. Not by works. Not by rules.

Not by coming to church every Sunday. Not by attending salt groups every week. As much as possible. But because you have a relationship with Jesus. He reconciles you.

While you were yet sinners. He reconciled us. And God makes it very clear that reconciliation isn't so important with the people that we reconcile with. If we are going to reconcile with God. We reconcile with others.

Right? In Matthew 5.24. Jesus said don't even bring your gifts to the altar. Until you go back and reconcile with your brother or your sister.

Right? Don't even. I don't even want your offering. I don't want your gifts. I don't want anything.

Until you reconcile. And in Matthew 5. He says you've heard it said to hate your enemies. Well I'll tell you to love your enemies. Do good to them.

You know. Love them. Love people. Matthew 22. He makes this point.

Matthew 22. Love God and love others is the greatest commandment there is. That's the greatest commandment. Somebody was putting him on the spot. What is the greatest commandment?

Jesus. The greatest commandment is for you to love God. Love me. And to love your neighbor. Love God.

He couldn't even put it in one commandment. He had to say it like that. Now I'm not saying you haven't been hurt. I'm not saying that you haven't been beat up. I'm not saying it's easy.

Right? I'm not saying even your life has probably been forever changed by something that somebody's done for you. I'm not even saying that that's going to be all fixed overnight and done. I'm saying that our job in obedience is to reconcile just as God has reconciled with us. And number three.

You can't reconcile until you've been reconciled. You cannot reconcile until you've been reconciled. Proverbs 16 says. Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned. For through the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil.

And when a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord. What does that mean? A man's ways are pleasing to the Lord. Because there's no way we can be perfect enough to please God. Right?

There's no way. We fail every time when we try to add up to these things. Right? That God, you know, God has these commandments. Man, I can't beat them.

Right? He said, he said, it's through a relationship with him. It's through knowing him. It's through walking with him. It's through being with him.

It's through loving him. And him loving you. And having dialogues. Not just monologues. And really just being filled with the spirit of God.

And just walking it with him. It's a relationship with him. That's what's pleasing to the Lord. Do you know the Lord loves it when you walk with him and love him? And he says this.

He makes even his enemies live at peace with each other. Do you know he even says he will prepare a table before your enemies? Because you can't have enemies when you have God as a friend. And God as a savior. And God as a relational part of your life.

Because that's what he wants. Because that's what it's really like. You can still have enemies and be at peace. You know that? You can be at peace.

Because war is happening all around us. War is going to be there. Dealing with wars right now all across the world. But you can have peace. And with all heads bowed and all eyes closed.

I just want to pray real quick. We're getting ready to go into a time of communion. But I just want to open up this place. And allow the spirit of God. Spirit of God come in and be here.

Right now Lord. Just touch hearts. Touch lives. Touch hearts and touch lives Lord. Show them your love God.

Show them Lord Jesus that you care. And that you're here. And that no matter what they're going through. You're very real. Show them Lord.

Touch their hearts and touch their lives. Show them that you want a relationship with them Lord Jesus. Show them what you have for them God. Oh God. Spirit of God.

Pour your love on us right now. Some of you here today. You have not made your heart right with Jesus. What does that mean? It means simply entering into a relationship with Him.

It's not about the things we do. It's not even about making it to church this morning. Although it was. It wasn't a coincidence that you're here because God said, I want you here today because I want you to know that I've reconciled you, I've reconciled you. If that's you here today, and you're feeling this tug on your heart, and you're like, I can't get away from it, today is the day to make that commitment.

If that's you, I want you, I'm not going to embarrass you, I'm not going to call you to the front, I'm not going to line you up on stage, I just want to pray with you. I want you to pray for me, if that's you today, if you would just gently raise your hand, just say, I'm in, I'm in, I'm in pastor, I'm in, I've made my decision, I've tried to do it my own way for too long, and this world just, I'm ready, I'm ready God, I'm ready God, I'm ready God, I'm ready, is that you? Is that you? There's others of you that, that are, that are facing, you know, tremendous unpeace and unrest in your life. If you would just, I want to pray for you as well, I want to pray for you.

If that's you today, if you just lift your hand, just say, I'm just dealing with a lot of unrest and unpeace, just be honest, just be vulnerable before the Lord, amen, I see that hand. Amen, amen, amen, thank you, thank you, thank you for being honest, thank you being so honest. Pray, we're going to pray in Jesus' name that, that, that a peace would rise up in you, a peace would rise up in you. Holy Spirit, we ask God that you touch each hand that was, that was held up today, Lord Jesus, that you would show them your love and your kindness and your peace and your mercy, Lord Jesus, that despite what's happening, Lord, you are in control. You have it, God, we give it to you today, Lord Jesus, touch the life, touch the heart, fix the situation, fix the, the, the, the, the, the lack of reconciliation that's happening in people's lives right now, Lord Jesus.

Fix that financial issue, Lord Jesus, whatever that, that tremendous burden is, Lord, lift the burden. You said my yoke is easy and my burden is life, so we're asking, we're asking, Lord, that you take that, just lift it in the name of Jesus, right off of each, each hand that was raised, even the hands that weren't raised. And for the others that, that they do not know you, making today the day, I, I pray, pray this with me, and dear Jesus, I give my life to you. I've done it my way for a long time, but today, Jesus, I make you, Lord of my life, come into my heart, change me from the inside out. I'm walking with you from this day forward.