The Prince of Peace

Just a merry Christmas to everyone as this is our Christmas service uh for this year. My name is Dwayne, one of the pastors here at the district. And again, just a merry Christmas. Uh, one of the reasons why we wanted Tyler to read Luke 2 1-14. Not only is it the Christmas account essentially and the birth of Jesus, but it also uh lands with a tradition that uh I say it's a tradition, it's it's more so new to our kids, but one of the things that we like to do is show them the Charlie Brown Christmas TV special. All right.

Um, for the younger folk in the room, you're thinking, I have no idea what you're talking about. Uh, but this was a 1965 Christmas TV special that came out and Charlie Brown, I mean, most of us know who Charlie Brown is, the cartoon. Uh, but Charlie Brown in the Christmas special, he just starts talking about Christmas time and he just starts sharing about this despair that he has around this season. He says this, "I don't understand Christmas. I don't understand Christmas. I guess I I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy.

I always end up feeling depressed at Christmas time. And Lionus, one of Charlie's best friends, who most people know him because he always has his security blanket with him everywhere he goes. Lionus gets up on stage and he gets up and he steps forward and he asks for the lights and he says, "I want to I want to show you what the actual meaning of Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." And he begins reading from Luke 2, literally what Tyler just read for us. And when he gets down to the end of it, he he finishes with that phrase in verse 14, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. And Lionus at that moment he says that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

And the great thing that you actually see in there is what again one of the most famous things that Lionus is known for is carrying around his security blanket. But when he walks up on stage and he starts reciting Luke chapter 2, he drops the blanket and he leaves it off to the side. It's because the message that he's reading, what Christmas is all about, is where he finds his security. It's where he finds his ultimate peace. And that's what we're going to be talking about today. We've been walking over this kind of Advent season through Isaiah 9:6.

And there's four titles given to the child that's to be born, the son that's to be given. And those four titles are wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, and prince of peace. Prince of peace. Because if you think about it, if you look at our world today, if you look at our culture today, if you just look at the last 24 hours of your life, or at least I know this for mine, I would guess the word we're looking for, what we want in our life is not policy or power, but peace. Peace. That's what we want.

All the way back, even throughout the ancient Roman Empire, the primary goal for everything that they were doing was what they called the Pax Romana, which is peace through order. And today is no different. Today is no different. We want peace in our homes. We want peace in our careers. We want peace in our relationships.

We want peace in our minds. We want peace in our souls. We want peace in our world. And yet we live in the loudest, most distracted generation in human history. I mean, we've got noiseancelling headphones and yet we can't find quiet. We've got all the meditation and medication that exists and yet anxiety is through the roof.

We've got smart homes filled with dumb humans and every December we sing about peace on earth which is beautiful but it's also ironic because if we're honest with I mean is not December where peace goes to die. I mean, it's one of the busiest months of the year. Credit card statements, family group texts, that one relative that you're looking forward to this coming week that's going to say, "I'm not trying to start anything, but" and then they start something. If we're being honest, this season is a hard season to find peace. It's a hard season to find peace, but it's really just a season that reveals the constant reality of how much peace we lack on a regular basis in our chaotic lives. It's just revealing what's actually normal regardless of the season.

And as I mentioned, we've been unpacking Isaiah 9:6. This prophecy given by God through the prophet Isaiah more than like 700 years before Jesus was actually born, before Luke 2 actually came to fruition. And so when Isaiah says in a time in his context that was chaotic and dark, when he says to them, "A child is born and a son is given." That's not just sentimental good vibes for them to have. Oh, a new baby born. How wonderful.

I mean, I feel like we get to celebrate that as a church almost every few months because we have babies born all the time. [clears throat] But when he says this, it's not sentimental. It's intentional. It's intentional. It's not there's always next year. It's not, "Hey, we're in a dark time right now, but hey, there's hope for us."

It's more than that. Because here's the reality is those who always say there's always next year, even though this year was chaotic, they're the same ones who were saying things like, "2025 is my year." And right now they're thinking, "Man, we can't get to 2026 fast enough. Can we just erase 2025?" Isaiah isn't giving them blind hope or empty optimism. Isaiah is not giving us just a hallmark moment or a fleeting feeling.

He's making a bold claim that peace does not come through policy, power, or progressivism. peace comes through a person. A person. And I want to kind of click on that for a moment and dive a little bit deeper into that peace. When we think about it as a world, as a society, as a culture, and just specifically, we're going to dive in a little bit in our American culture. There's this idea of progressivism, which doesn't sound very Christmas-like, but I'm going to talk about it for just a moment because it's so important for us to decide what we're trusting in in looking for peace.

From a societal standpoint, progressivism is best understood as a philosophical and political approach to social organization that emphasizes institutional or intentional change aimed at, and this is what's important, aimed at improving human well-being. The key word there is that progressive change is aimed at improving human well-being. Now, if we're honest, I don't fault anyone for wanting to pursue the improvement of human well-being or aka peace on earth. Regardless of what your political stance is, both are landing on those sides. They're striving for human well-being. They're striving for what they believe will bring peace on earth.

But for those who don't have a relationship with God or a promised eternity with him, this world and this society is all that they have. And they're going to want to try and make the most out of it without without a wonderful counselor, without a mighty God, without an everlasting father, without a prince of peace. And good luck. That's going to be a train wreck. It's going to be a train wreck if you try to establish peace on earth in your life without this child to be born, this son who was given. And so today, I aim to help us stop trusting in anything that's outside of the wonderful counsel of a mighty God who is the everlasting father and brings prince and is the prince of peace on our earth.

We got to stop trusting in anything and everything else in the name of progressivism or being on the right side of history or whatever you want to fill in the blank for that. It's not going to work. It's not going to work. One thing I want you to remember is that this prophecy that was given 700 years before Jesus, it's a promise from God through the prophet Isaiah to be delivered to the nation and people of God 700 years before the birth of Jesus. regarding a child that would be born, regarding a son that was given, a governor whose reign will never end. And there's something that we need to know and understand about that because that is a bold claim in the time of Isaiah in his context.

That's a bold claim. Something you might not know. Back in February of this year, there was an executive order signed by our president establishing the White House Faith Office. White House Faith Office. And here's how it operates. It's a specific branch within the executive office placed in the West Wing so that people actually take it seriously.

And its primary goal is this. To bridge the gap between government policy and faith-based organizations or Christian values. Essentially what is established in this executive order is that there are pastors and Christian leaders who are placed in every single department of government in order to advise them on Christian principle and biblical principles and values as they are making decisions for our country. In other words, yeah. Amen. Clap for that.

And one of the reasons why they're doing this is because they've looked at the role of prophet in the Old Testament. that is essentially operating as an in between of God and the people in order to establish what is God saying and informing and counseling us in so that we actually live out flourishing lives. But could you imagine if this White House faith office right now in the next couple of weeks we we see a headline come from them that says, "Hey, America, my fellow Americans, keep your eyes out. There's going to be someone born in America who's going to become our leader and he won't have any term limits. He's going to be wonderfully wise, incredibly strong, providing and protective of all and all wars are going to cease when he takes office. Could you imagine the chaos that would erupt across all social media and podcast platforms and news outlets if there was a claim like that made and yet that's exactly what Isaiah did.

That's exactly what he did. And that's the headline the people received. But what is he really saying here? To know that, you've got to understand a bit more of the background going on in Isaiah's culture. You've got to understand this backdrop because the promise of this child, this Messiah, is like a lighthouse flashing in the middle of a dark and stormy night. When I was 5 years old, uh having the light on is important.

When I was five years old, I remember coming into my house back in Tennessee and and I was I was a wild child. All right, I would just say that my kids are um not compared to what I was. And so and they're pretty wild, too. But I just I I came into the house all lights off, dark, and I just took off running. I mean, straight into my bedroom and just running in circles. Complete darkness, total darkness, total ignorance.

And I have a 1-in scar on my right eye from the desk that I ran into. And I remember my dad instead of consoling me came up to me and said, "Well, it's dumb to run in the darkness." And that's one of the things that Isaiah is calling out to the people of God. Judea at this time, Judah, the southern portion of God's people, they're running in the dark. They're running in the dark. Total ignorance.

Total stupidity spiritually, morally, socially, politically. I mean, they were a mess. To to connect them to us today, they thought they were being progressive in their time. They thought that they were being smart and wise. Isaiah calls it out. Isaiah 1, I'm going to try to stay in the context of this, but Isaiah 1 2 through 4, he basically says, "You've turned from God.

You're rebelling against God. Your leaders are crooked. Your people are corrupt. And God's not impressed with you. He's not impressed with how you think you're doing. Isaiah 5:21, the prophet tells the people, "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight."

Man, they think they're doing awesome. The nation's leaders instead are making bad moves. People are scared. There's shadows of war creeping in. And Isaiah 8:22 describes it well. They look to the earth and behold only distress and darkness and fearful gloom.

And they're thrust into the thick of darkness. Isaiah 5 20-23 just again tells us that the leaders, they're taking bribes. They're perverting justice. They're twisting what is right and what is evil. It's a society that's lost its moral compass because they're calling evil good and calling good evil. In the middle of all of this, the people are wandering around in spiritual numbness.

Numbness. I mean, they're trusting themselves. They're trusting their armies, their strength. They're trusting their treaties. They're trusting their money. But you know who they're not trusting?

They're not trusting God at all. And here's where grace comes in. Because they don't deserve it. In the middle of all their darkness and their choices, Isaiah says in Isaiah 9:2, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." Have seen a great light. Those who dwell in a land of darkness, of them has light shone.

This is Christmas in a nutshell. This is the Christmas story in a nutshell. God doesn't just swoop in with a motivational pep talk or a new policy for the people. He sends a child into all the mess into all the corruption. He sends a child, a son to be given, a messiah, a prince of peace. And this child is the light that starts to pierce the darkness even before the world realizes how dark it actually is.

Isaiah 9:6, a child is born, which means he's fully human. A son is given, which means he's fully divine. The government will be on his shoulders. Not just the government of Judah, not just the government of Israel, not just the government of the Middle East. The government of the world will be on his shoulders. Meaning he has ultimate authority.

Ultimate authority. And he's going to be the prince of peace. Which means his rule doesn't produce war. It produces peace. peace. And that word peace isn't just good vibes.

It's shalom. It's shalom. Shalom means things are the way they're supposed to be. Not numb, not distracted, not an escape from reality. Whole and holy. Shalom.

Isaiah is saying this child won't just help you cope. He's going to restore what sin has broken has broken. And I want to give you a couple of things in regards to this to be able to show you the type of peace that the Prince of Peace is bringing this Christmas season, but ultimately in your life if you receive it. Number one, Jesus brings peace with God. He brings peace with God. Before Jesus brings peace on earth, as we sang, he must bring peace between heaven and earth.

He must bring peace between God and man. In other words, before Jesus brings peace around us, he must be bring peace between us and God. And here's where Christmas gets honest. Here's where the rubber meets the road on why Christmas is never as happy as you'd like it to be. like we say merry Christmas to one another and then come January 1, we'll look back on it and we'll have some good memories. We'll have some good things, we'll have some good laughs, we'll have some good conversation, we'll have some good gifts, but for some reason it just still won't feel quite as merry as it should.

Why is Christmas not as merry as it should be? Well, it isn't culture. It isn't tradition. It isn't inflation. It's not that person at work. It's not the lack of presents under the tree.

It's not that you asked for one thing and you got a different thing. It's because of sin. Sin. Christmas is blue because sin is still present. Period. What is sin?

Glad you asked because I want to tell you. To summarize from John Owen's book, The Mortification of Sin, he puts it this way. Sin is a deceitful active principle of enmity against God. It's dwelling in the human heart and it's always aiming to oppose God's rule and corrupt his image within us. In other words, as RC Sproul puts it, sin is cosmic treason against God. It's the creature's defiance of the creator.

And because of that act of rebellion and willful separation on our part, Herman Beink puts it this way. Sin is corrupting power that fractures our relationship with God and it distorts his image in us. Sin's a problem. Bottom line. Like if sin did not exist in your life and if sin did not exist in our world, man, this day, every day, every season would be perfectly pleasing and perfect peace. It would be true.

Like that's what it would be like. It would be amazing. It'd be awesome. Every Christmas would be the merriiest of Christmases. But there's good news. Jesus brings peace with God.

Jesus brings what is necessary and needed to restore us. Those who rebelled against God to restore us and rec rescue us from chaos, from calamity, from separation, and bring us into order, comfort, and relationship with God. That's what the Prince of Peace is bringing. But there's a way that he does it. It doesn't come through you cleaning up yourself. It doesn't come through you cleaning up your life.

Like for example, my kids made a mess. They spilled something. I don't know what they spilled, but they spilled something and and it sat. It was there for a while. And I came in and I said, "All right, clean it up. You got to clean it up because I might throw up if I try to clean it up."

Well, they cleaned it up and I still had to come back and clean it up myself. Religion in general across all of the world, all the different world religions are telling you you need to clean yourself up. You need to clean yourself up. But if we're honest with ourselves, the reason why we still have a hard time looking in the mirror is because we can't clean ourselves up. There's always a stench. There's always a mess.

There's always something imperfect. There's always something that's off. There's always something that's wrong. There's always something that we just can't get there. We can't arrive. And it's sin.

We clean up our sin in our lives, which are all of our wrongdoings, all of our bad choices, all of our negative thoughts, all of our all of our things that are contrary to God's design for us that we still do on a daily basis. All of those things, we clean them up like my kids clean up their messes instead of wiping it clean. It's just smearing it into the cracks. Thank God a child is born and a son was given. Thank God that he sent his son Jesus to clean up our mess for us. I want you to hear this.

Romans 5 1-11, the Apostle Paul speaking to the Romans, he gives it as articulate as it possibly can be, and I need you to understand this if it is not in your soul already. Romans 5:1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, justified as just a a legal term that means to be pardoned, which means you've sinned against God and you're guilty and you deserve death. That's what Romans 6:23 tells us. When we lie, death. When we look at someone else that's not our spouse lustfully, death. When we are angry with someone who cut us off in traffic or whatever it might be, death.

That's that's our that's our punishment. No matter what the sin is, that's our punishment. There is no tipping the scales of God's justice and getting there one day and saying, "Hey, God, remember all those good things I did and then let's see if those cover over the bad things that I did." Doesn't work that way. Doesn't work that way. We are born sinners.

[snorts] Romans 3:23 is very clear that all have fallen short of the glory of God. All have fallen short. And no one's looking for God. No one's searching for God. No one's seeking after God. And even those who think they are doing so again are just smearing the sin in the cracks.

And so justification is a legal term where Jesus steps in and says, "I have justified you. I have pardoned you because your punishment, your death, I have taken on behalf of you so that God can give you righteousness and life and come and follow me." Therefore, since we have been justified by faith. By faith. Believing in what Jesus accomplished for you, not believing in what you can accomplish for yourself. By faith, we have what?

Peace with God. Peace with God through all of the good things that we have accomplished. No, through our Lord Jesus Christ. through the prince of peace who comes through him. We have also obtained access to God by faith into this grace. Again, what is grace?

Grace is not just some um fluffy term that we've created in society for how someone falls without hurting themselves. Look how graceful that fall was. No, grace is you receiving what you don't deserve. That's all it is. It's someone giving you something. Not based on anything about you, but based on the charity and and the the loving and the kindness that comes from them.

They want you to have this through Jesus. We have also obtained access to him by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Look down at verse six. For while we were still weak. Well, that doesn't sound like we were the mighty ones.

No, he's the wonderful counselor. He's the mighty God. We're the weak ones. While we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For the ungodly. Again, not for those who cleaned themselves up, but those who became aware of their mess and came to Jesus and said, "I need you.

I need your help." For one will scarcely die for a righteous, he's speaking kind of hypothetically here. One will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. He's speaking in human terms there. People don't die for ungodly people. But the prince of peace does.

The prince of peace does because God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, not cleaned up, still sinners, Christ died for us. Man, when you start to see the reason why a child was born and a son was given, the reason why Jesus left his throne in heaven, the second person of the Trinity, who then stepped into humanity, when you start to understand the reason why he is Emmanuel, God with us, the incarnation, God coming to be in human form. When you start to understand the reason why the baby's in the manger, it's because he's ultimately coming to accomplish everything that we could not accomplish for ourselves in order for God to then reestablish relationship with us, to bring us home, to bring us back into relationship between creator and creature because we're separated from him because of sin. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, and much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life, more than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

You got to see this. How many times he just says through Jesus through Jesus through Jesus not you through Jesus through whom we have now received not achieved but received reconciliation which means there's an active agent and there's a passive agent Jesus is the active agent in our reconciliation and we are the passive agent who are just receiving it by faith. You can't have the peace of God without first having peace with God. And Jesus is the one who comes and establishes that for us through all of the work he did in his life and his death and his resurrection is what makes Christmas merry. That's why when the angels didn't when the angels came, they didn't announce a blanket peace. What I mean by that is just because Jesus arrived doesn't mean that joy to the world is automatically applied to all of the world.

I need you to see this. Luke 21:14, peace on earth among those with whom he is pleased. Among those with whom he is pleased. That implies it's not for everyone. We need to see this because I think sometimes our culture just sees Christmas roll around and check off the box. Joy to the world.

Yeah, I believe in God. I believe in the baby in the manger. Joy to the world. It's It's already been accomplished. It's already good to go. I don't need to go to church.

I don't need to follow Jesus. I don't need to put any trust in him. He's come and just done it all. Now there's there's a little bit more to this that you need to understand here. We need to get to the bottom of what he means by among those because we want peace. Remember our society and culture is starving for it.

We want peace on earth but it comes to those who with whom he is pleased. That's not exclusion. That's an invitation. It's an invitation. And that's why even though the majority of Americans and the world celebrates Christmas, not all of them actually experience what Christmas intends for us to experience. Not all of them actually experience joy in this season.

Not all of them experience peace in this season because they're not in relationship with the one who is joy and the one who is the prince of peace. Here's the question of the century. How do you become one of those with whom Jesus is pleased? Because if you're looking at verse 14 and it says, "Peace on earth among those with whom he is pleased," then I want to make sure I want to have assurance that I'm one of those. Again, when you look at Romans 5:1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. God look did not send a contract or a policy or a political party. He didn't send a religious system that if we check off all the boxes of reading enough scripture or attending enough Sundays or giving enough money that that makes us among those with whom he is pleased. He sent his son to be received. And if you receive his son whom he is pleased with that he says of him when he is baptized then then you become one of those whom he is also pleased with. Has nothing to do with what you do for him.

It has everything to do with what you receive from him. Again, Jesus didn't come and and and open up as a king of the people in order to negotiate policy on their behalf. He came instead to bleed for it, to bleed for our peace. Colossians 1:20 says, "He made peace by the blood of his cross." That's how the prince of peace came and established it for us, by the blood of his cross. Peace wasn't just spoken into existence from a Roman emperor's decree.

It was paid for by the suffering servants sacrifice. Isaiah 53 going back to the context of this promise given. Isaiah 53:5 puts it this way. This child to be born, this son to be given, he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us what?

Peace. Peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. Which brings me to the second point. Jesus brings peace within us. We find healing when we come to know Jesus.

Jesus doesn't just reconcile us to God. He settles something inside of us. John 14:27 puts it this way. He says, "Peace I leave with you, not as the world gives." Jesus does not begin by fixing the world out there. He begins by healing the war that is going on in our lives.

Scripture says he is our peace. He's not just a peace giver. He's not just a peace coach. He is peace himself. where sin fractured us, where guilt haunts us, where shame whispers in our ear every single day that we are beyond repair. Jesus steps in and he makes you whole.

He makes you whole again. The peace he establishes isn't shallow calm or circumstantial relief. That's not what he's giving us. It's reconciliation between us and God. Which means you your soul no longer feels the weight of God's impending wrath upon you. Like that's what is most unsettled in our world is that we know something is wrong and we're doing everything we can to try to fix it.

What's wrong is the fact that we are heading towards destruction and death. And we're trying to avoid it and escape it by all means. And so we're trying to create new policies. We're trying to create new products. We're trying to numb and medicate our souls because we know we know because it's written on us that we are fractured, that something's wrong. It's why when you look in the mirror, when you look in the mirror, and especially the older you get, it's harder and harder and harder to look at yourself.

It's because we're getting closer and closer and closer to his wrath. Guys, right now there is something very popular going on even in the Christian world of this idea of what we call annihilationism, which is essentially we're erasing hell. And you want to know why right now people are so hellbent on erasing hell is because we don't want to deal with the reality that that's where we're heading. That's where we're heading as sinners, as enemies of God. That's where our destination is going. And you can't get off that road.

No matter how better of a car you put yourself in, it's still heading to the same place. And so we do everything we can to meditate and medicate ourselves away from the reality that is coming. But praise God, a child was born and a son was given. Praise God that he does not give us a list of rules and say achieve it and I'll let you in. He sends his son Jesus. And to make sure that you are one of those who are among those with whom he is pleased, Paul tells us things like this in Galatians 2:20, knowing that he can't do it himself.

And I'm going to tell you right now, if there was anyone who could have, he's pretty close. But he even refers to himself as one of the most wretched men who's ever lived. He says this in Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I have peace within me because the prince of peace has taken up residence in my soul.

I'm able, as the older I get to look at that man in the mirror and as he continues to make me more like Jesus, I'm able to look at that man in the mirror and say, "You know what? There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's Romans 8:1. I I tell y'all all the time, my one of my biggest issues is road rage. I had it yesterday. It's just a weekly thing.

I don't I don't know why. Right now, my biggest pet peeve is when you're in a lane heading straight and there's either a left turn or a right turn and people go into that one and then bypass the person to jump in front at the beginning. I don't know why. Sets me off. Sets me off. I had the thought yesterday.

Literally had the thought. Don't even know if I verbalized it to Kelsey, but I had the thought. I said, I'm going to become a police officer. I think I'm just going to do it because the amount of joy I would take in pulling these people over and just giving them the biggest ticket in the world would be amazing. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Someone relates with me. And then in that moment, in that moment, man, it's like just the tap on the shoulder. Aren't you happy God didn't treat you the same way? You're right.

They might be heading to a hospital. Who knows? I don't believe they are, but it's it might be. Thank God he did not deal with me the same way. Instead, he sent his son, Jesus, to live the life that I could not live and to die the death that I deserved. And because his wrath towards me was satisfied in Christ's sacrifice on the cross, three days later, God brings him back to life, resurrects him, and says he is the firstborn among those with whom he is going to be pleased when he applies his work to our lives.

We didn't work for it. He worked for it. You are saved by works, not yours. His. And we then get to come into relationship with our heavenly father because his son whom he's pleased with has applied that pleasure to us and we get to be sons and daughters of him once again. Praise God for what he has done for us.

He makes us holy. In other words, you're all on the naughty list. And this is the only way to be transferred to the nice list. It's it Jesus. It's through him. So stop fighting it and just receive it.

Receive it. It's for you. 1 Peter 2:24 preaches it this way. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, Peter quoting Isaiah 53 there. By his wounds, you have been healed.

This is souldeep restoration. This is peace coming within you which brings peace for you because he is the prince of peace. And the last thing that I want to show you here that that establishes is when you have peace with God and then peace within yourself because the prince of peace has come and take up residence in you. What it does is it then propels you into being a peacemaker amongst those around you. Jesus brings peace on earth. And one of the primary ways he does that is through you.

Through you, man. When you come to that realization, I actually go back to maybe I I this is where the road rage comes from is because I was crazy. When I was 16 years old, I had a 1987 5. 0 Mustang that I should have never been driving, but I had it. And uh there was this one time where I pulled out onto a country road in Tennessee and my friend who was with me was like, "Hey, let's see what this thing's got." You know, and so I was like, "All right."

So I stomped down on it and and this road's like a 35 mph road. I mean, nobody goes that, but that's what it was set at. And I take off and as I take off, I'm coming over this hill and there's this cop that's parked right on the other side of the hill. And as I pass over him, I see the front of his bumper and I slam on the brakes. So, I'm skidding past him. Yeah.

I mean, it's like, well, if he didn't see me, he heard me. Um, and so then as we pass by, I then turn off onto this side road. And I asked my friend, I was like, what what what's he doing? Did he see us? Like, 16-year-olds are just the dumbest of the dumb. And he's like, "Yeah, he he's he's pulled out.

His lights are on. He's like, "What do I was like, what do we do?" And my friend's like, "Go, go, [screaming] go." And so, I was like, I mean, I just listened. like I I I had no wisdom at that age. And so I take off and it's straight up I mean I used to watch Dukes a Hazard almost every night before going to bed.

That was like my like nighttime routine. Um and I was like I'm living it now. And so I take off and I'm running from the cops at this point. And so I'm going about 80 85 through this uh backwoods road and and it it's dipping up and down hills because it's Tennessee rolling hills. And so one of the moments when we dipped down, he couldn't see us. And so I pulled off into this little side road with some houses and literally parked in someone's backyard.

No idea who it was. Parked in someone's backyard and waited it out like a good It felt like forever, but it was probably like 5 minutes. We pulled back out and I was like, "We're about a mile away from your house. I think we can make it." Here's the other dumb thing is this town's a town of about 3,000 people and this is a baby blue 1987 5. 0 no Mustang.

There's only one in the town. What was the end goal here? But anyways, that's a side note. So, I pull back out and as I pull back out, he has done a good job in calling for backup. No idea where he was, but there's two others out there now at that entrance. So, when I pull out, one's behind me and one's in front of me.

And so, I look at my friend again because I don't know what to do. And I'm asking him for everything. What should I do? And he's like, "Just pull over." And I was like, "All right." So, I end up pulling over and he comes up and I'm just envisioning it.

I've seen how they do it on Dukes of Hazard. This is what's about to happen. I'm I'm get it. He's going to pull me out. He's going to throw me on the hood, handcuff me, and I'm going to spend a night in jail. That's what's going to happen.

He comes up. He askked me to get out of the car, ask me for my driver's license. I hand it to him. And here's the wonderful thing about small towns. Dwayne Gibbs. I said, "Yes, sir."

This was on a Saturday. He goes, "Man, you played a heck of a ball game last night on the night before. It was a Friday night game against our rivals, and I haven't scored the winning touchdown um in the last like 20 seconds of the game." And so now we're talking about the game. And in the moment, I'm thinking, has he just forgotten? Like, I just ran from him.

To which then he brings it back around and he's like, you know, there's only a couple reasons why people run from the cops. Either they're just dumb or they've got drugs in the vehicle. I had only had the car for about a month, so I had no idea what was in the car. Now, there wasn't any drugs in it, but he was like, "I'm not going to search the car." He goes, "Here's what I'm going to do." He's like, "I know your father."

Cuz my dad was a volunteer or volunteer fireman at the time, which was another thing. He sits at a chair with one of those uh police scanners right next to it. He heard the whole thing. My phone's blowing up. He heard the whole thing. He literally heard they said the plates come back to a Dwayne Gibbs of White House, Tennessee.

He's running. And so immediately my dad starts calling me at that moment and I'm not answering. And so anyways, he then says, "I know your father and he served this he served this town really well." And so he's like, "I'm going to let you off, man. He gave me what I did not deserve and he withheld what I did deserve. And it wasn't because of me.

It wasn't because of the night before. It wasn't anything like that. It was because of someone else who's done something well. When it comes to us, when you receive something like that, you want to share it. You want to become a gracious person, which I think I'm preaching to myself right now with my road rage. I need to be more gracious to people.

But Jesus has established this peace within you for us to take that peace to the world around us. Christmas is merry, but it's also meant to be shared. It's meant to be a moment that we share with others and we tell them of the greatest gift that's ever been given to us. It's very clear in Isaiah 96 and 7 when you look at the text, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given, the government shall be upon his shoulder. We need to know of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. How does that come to fruition?

It comes through him giving us the ministry of reconcil reconciliation as second Corinthians 5 tells us where we then take his peace that he's given us and we start to extend it to others by sharing with them the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father and the prince of peace. this child who's born and this son who is given so that peace on earth comes from the throne of the prince of peace. And so a couple things we need to do. We need to stop shopping for peace in places it's never been sold. We need to stop doing that. Amazon delivers a lot, but it cannot deliver you peace.

Only Jesus can bring you peace with God. You need to know that. The second thing is you need to bring your anxiety to the Prince of Peace. We all look in the mirror and we don't like what we see. If you don't believe that, you're lying to yourself. We need to bring that to the Prince of Peace.

Your soul will continue to unsettle and unravel itself. But a soul surrendered to the prince of peace will become settled, restored, and on firm ground. And the third thing you need to know is that when when we receive this peace, we become people of peace. We don't win arguments to establish peace. We win hearts for the prince of peace. We win hearts.

We're ministers. We're agents of this reconciliation. Real estate agents help you find your physical home. Gospel agents, they help you find your spiritual home in Christ. We're all called to be gospel agents. And I want to close with this.

If you've never received the Prince of Peace, if you've never received Jesus, is there any reason why you wouldn't do that today? knowing the truth, knowing the facts. Stop lying to yourself and just look into like when you look in the mirror and you don't like what you see. When you look at the world around you and you don't like what you see and you look at your season and you're like, man, there's just there's always something lacking. Why would you not look at Jesus and say, man, that solves everything? That's the peace that I've been starving for.

That's the one who can actually reconcile and restore and rescue everything that is broken within me. Peace isn't progress. Peace is a person. It's the prince of peace. It's the child who was born, the son who was given, not king of the Jews, but king of kings and lord of lords. And his name is Jesus.

And he's Christ the king. One of the reasons the magi show up in Luke, they're always kind of that oddballs in the in the story. If you have a nativity scene in your house, the best way to do it is actually have the nativity scene and then put the magi like in a different room because they show up a couple of years later. But the reason why they show up in Luke is because they were kingmakers from the east. But this king, they didn't make this king. came to worship and bow down to.

And that's the only appropriate response for everyone in this room today. When we come to this prince of peace, bend your knee to him and surrender your life to him and you'll find pr you you'll find peace in your life. If your soul is tired, if your heart is heavy, if your life feels fractured, peace isn't something you achieve. It's someone you receive. Listen to this one more time from Romans 10:9-13. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

You will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." Why? Because you become one of those among those with whom he is well pleased. [music] For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.

For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved this Christmas. Don't just admire the manger. Don't just gloss over the Christmas story as part of your Christmas tradition. Take a page out of the book of the magi and bring yourself to bow to the prince of peace [music] and worship the child who was born and the son who was given to come and take away the sins of the world. and truly establish [music] peace with God, peace within us, and peace in our world.

Would you go and stand with me as we come to this time of communion? And [snorts] every one of our hearts is a throne. And either we are on it or Christ is on it. I pray right now if you're on your throne, I pray right now that you get off. I pray that you repent from running in the dark. And I pray for Christ to take up his rightful place as wonderful counselor, [music] mighty God, everlasting father, and prince of peace of your life.

Of your life. Would you bow your heads with me? If right now as you've been hypothetically looking in the mirror, hearing the word of God preached this morning, hearing the wonderful news of what Jesus has accomplished for you. If you're looking in the mirror and you've never received this grace that Christ has accomplished, living the life you could not live, dying the death that you deserved, and then resurrecting three days later to guarantee life for you for eternity with the father in heaven. If you've never done that, right now, there's nothing special in this prayer, but it's just you bending your knee to him and surrendering your life to him right now. Just say, "Father, I recognize that I'm a sinner and I don't like what I see in the mirror, right now, I want to receive your son, Jesus, and all that he has accomplished for me.

I deserve death, but instead he took my [music] place. And by faith, I believe that that was accomplished for me to be reconciled in a relationship with you. And I want to follow Jesus for the rest of my life and forever more. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, the Bible is [music] clear.

It's the most rejoiceful thing that you can do. I don't know if rejoiceful is a word or not, but I like it. Nothing is greater than bending your knee to Jesus and trusting him and confessing it. And at the same time, like when it happens, scriptures tell us that the angels in heaven, I mean, it's like someone scoring the final touchdown in the last 20 seconds and the crowd erupts in praise and joy and celebration. And the same thing is amongst the the people of God, amongst the church. When someone c crosses that line from death to life believing in Jesus, it's the greatest joy that we also get to experience as the church with one another.

And if you've prayed that for the first time, I just want you right now just to raise your hand if [music] you've prayed that for the first time so that we can just celebrate with you and praise God for the work that he is doing in your life. And I know it might even be a nervous thing to do, but again, it's Jesus that's accomplishing this, not you. We just want to celebrate with you. If you've prayed that for the first time, just [music] raise your hand. And if not, it's okay. [music] If you're still wrestling with that and you're still wondering whether or not it's something that you need to do, if you've been invited here by someone and you want to talk with them about it more, [music] man, this is this is uh not a sprint, it's a marathon.

We want you to follow [music] Jesus and we and that's the reason why this church exists. Literally, our mission [music] statement is that we treasure Jesus and we help others follow him. That's why we exist. [music] We want to help you be able to do that if you if you've never done that before. For those who do believe in Jesus, who have made that statement of faith before, who have made that profession, who call on the name of Jesus, who believe that he has lived the perfect life, died to death, and resurrected three days later. Communion is a time when we come to remember that sacrifice of the suffering servant at the [music] cross where he broke his body and he shed his blood for you.

And we remember that by partaking of this meal every single week [music] because we want to be reminded of all that Jesus accomplished for us 2,000 years ago. It's him telling us every single week, this is how much I love you. This is how much I love you. This is what I was willing to do for you. This is why the baby was born in the manger to eventually come and die [music] for us to bring us back into relationship with the father for you to receive all the joy and all the meriness to to ever be accomplished. [music] If you believe that, I invite you to come down, grab the elements, [music] bring them back to your seats.

We're going to sing through this song in worship and