The Promise of Peace - Luke 2:1-14

And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch, over their flocks by night. And an angel, the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord, shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear not. For behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You'll find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, and suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those, with whom he is peace. Please. Glory to God in the highest, peace. on earth. You've probably heard that passage read many, many times, read it yourself many times. I'm always struck, though, with the irony of that announcement peace on earth. For 700 years, they had waited on that prophecy of Isaiah to be fulfilled. Isaiah said, there will be a child born to us, to us, the son is given, the government shall be on his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of peace. The prince of peace has come. There will peace on earth, and yet we ask the question, where is the peace? Where is the peace? It's ironic, really? The, that in 2000 years since that announcement was made, The world has seen very little peace. And the irony of that is that in the very region where this announcement was made, has been the place of some of the worst conflict throughout our history. They're very Middle Eastern region where these angels declared peace on earth has seen very, very little peace. I was just researching this week, all of the conflicts that have taken place throughout history in this very region. And one thing that I had forgotten about. It was about 20 something years ago. 2002. This happened April 2nd to May 10 of 2002. There was actually a siege of the Church of the Nativity, the very place where they believed Jesus had been placed in the manger. At the very center of where the Prince of Peace had come, Israeli forces chasing Palestinian forces, and the Palestinian forces held up in the very church of the Nativity, 200 monks and dozens of Palestinian soldiers surrounded by an Israeli army in the very place where it's believed that the prince of peace had come. At the end of that 39 day conflict, 13 people were dead, over a 100 injured, right in the place where the peace was supposed to to be, where the peace was announced. What irony? In fact, this was kind of crazy. I was reading about this this week on Saturday. I was doing a little final research on my intro here and I had a USA today alert about the soldiers who were killed yesterday, 2 American soldiers and an American interpreter killed in Syria. I thought, I wonder how far that is from Bethlehem. It's about 160 miles. Ironic? 160 miles from the place where the angels said, there'll be peace on earth. American soldiers are killed this very weekend. Where is the piece? I was at Cracker Barrel a few years ago. Christmas season. We were waiting for our table and walking around the little store there and they had some Christmas decorations there. They had these signs that said, joy to the world, away in a manger, peace on earth, your typical kind of phrases and cracker barrel signs. And a lady was wanting, they were with boxes for all of the sayings, except the one for peace on earth. They were gone. And so she asked an employee, are there more in the back? And I remember the employee going to the back room, coming out, yelling across Cracker Barrel. I'm sorry, we're all out of peace on earth. Does it feel that way today? We're all out of peace on earth sometimes. And not only is there not peace around the world today in a global sense. Many today would say you're lacking peace in your own life. You could use a little bit of peace. I kind of hesitate to ask this because I'm afraid I'm going to just feel like I'm getting older and older. How many have seen the show a Charlie Brown Christmas? All right, good, good. Anybody here not seen a Charlie Brown Christmas? Oh, wow, Emily. That hurts. As you get older, show's made in 1965 that you watched as a child and people don't know them, you start to realize you're getting older, but good. most of you have seen that. You remember that that show. It opens the opening scene. There's snow falling, there's kids skating on a frozen lake, there's this Christmas song plane. It's in a minor key. It's almost sad from the very beginning, from the opening seconds of that movie. It's a sad movie. Charlie Brown and Linus walk across the screen and Charlie Brown says this. I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel. I just don't understand Christmas, I guess. 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. Can you relate to Charlie Brown today? Christmas is here, but I'm not happy. Linus replies, Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know who could take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem. I'm going to guess Charlie Brown's not the only person. that would say, I'm not happy today. It's a common thing to come into the Christmas season and wonder where the peace on earth is. This morning we're going to take a look at that word peace. I'm going to look at that word in the scriptures. We're in our advent series. Where 4 words we're focusing on this month, in our sermons, in the daily devotionals we're reading, in the devotional videos that you've seen on social media. We're focusing on these 4 words, hope, peace, joy, and love. Rustin took us through the hope of Christmas last week. Today, the peace of Christmas will continue through Christmas Eve with our focus throughout this week. Hopefully, you've been reading along with our daily devotion guide that members of our church have prepared, the devotional videos that our communication team has put out there. And so you've been, if you've been tracking with us, we've been focused on peace. And so I've been thinking about those scriptures that we've been reading about and hearing the devotionals about, what does the Bible say about peace? Jesus said near the end of his ministry, peace, I leave you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives, do I give to you? Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Peace, I leave with you. It's not like the world's peace. So today you're looking for something that might not be the peace that God has in mind. He has a peace for us that's different than what we might expect. It may be different than what we might even hope for, but Jesus offers us peace at Christmas. I looked at several scriptures in the last couple weeks and studied this for this message, and I want to put some of these scriptures before us under 3 categories. 3 types of peace that God wants you to have today, 3 types of peace that Jesus brings at the promise of Christmas. The 1st is spiritual peace. Spiritual peace, a spiritual peace, is that we can be reconciled in our relationship with God. I want to say this is the most important thing you need to hear today in all of this message. Don't miss this point. The greatest need that you have is for right relationship with God. The Bible says that we are separated from God because of our sin, we would be forever separated from God. If God did not intervene in some way and redeem his fallen creation, he's done that, and he's provided for us spiritual peace through his son Jesus Christ. Romans 51 says. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have a peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. This piece is not a subjective feeling, but an objective reality. Well, talk in a minute, and the 2nd point about the feelings of peace that we desire, but our most important need is not to feel at peace, our most important need is to be at peace with God through faith in his son, Jesus Christ. He says, therefore, we have been justified by faith. And now that we're justified by faith, we can be at peace with God. What does it mean to be justified by faith? Justified means to be made righteous, to be looked upon as righteous in the eyes of God. It means that because Jesus took our sin to the cross, and because of his death on the cross, we now can receive his righteousness. There's an exchange that takes place, where we trade our sinfulness for Christ's righteousness. And we stand before God. God no longer looks at us as sinful. He looks at us as righteous. I thought about that this morning when I put on this shirt. I've told this story a few months ago or a few years ago. I remember it was. It was this very shirt I wore when I went to the courthouse in North Kansas City to fight a parking ticket. And I stood before the judge to argue that I shouldn't have to pay this parking ticket, prepared to make my case. I was just going to channel every law show I'd ever seen, and I was ready to go, and he just looked at me and said, is that a Chiefs logo on your shirt? And I said, yes, sir, it is. And he said, I like that shirt. I'm going to throw out this ticket. What did he do? He looked on me and he saw something he liked. He no longer saw my guilt. He saw this shirt. That's a silly illustration of this, but that's what happens at the judgment seat of God. He looks on you and does not see your sin. He sees your righteousness on you because of Jesus, and for that reason, you could have peace with God today, not a subjective feeling, but an object of reality. Peace on earth is not some quiet tranquility or merely the absence of animosity or conflict. It is a declaration from those angels that the hostility between a holy God and sinful humanity is ended in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. We are now declared righteous, and for that reason, we are at peace with God because of Jesus. Colossians 119 says this. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross, we are made at peace with God through the blood of the cross of Jesus. Why? Because all the fullness of God dwelt in Jesus. Catch that 1st part. All the fullness of God dwelt in Jesus. When you talk about the birth of Jesus, we talk about the Christmas story, you might hear the word incarnation used. What is the incarnation? The incarnation. It's a theological term that refers to God taking on flesh. God taking the form of a man in the person of Jesus Christ. John 114 says, the word Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us. Philippians 26 says that he was in, Jesus was in the form of God, but he emptied himself and took on the form of a servant. And he did this to reconcile us to himself, to restore us to a right relation with God. And now we have peace with God, because God took on flesh and died on the cross, in our place, that we now have a peace treaty with God, signed in the blood of Jesus, shut on the cross for us. We celebrate at Christmas as a rescue mission. God taking on flesh to rescue us. You can think of all kinds of analogies of that. The one that often comes to my mind that I've used in the past is, I remember when our boys were very little, and we take them to places like McDonald's or Chuck E. Cheese or Chick-fil-A back in the day when they had the little tunnels, a lot of places gotten rid of those, and they go, thankfully, gosh, so terrible. They go in these tunnels, and they smelled like feet, and just like the kids just crawling with their snotty hands all over those tunnels, and my kids would go up in those. What kind of parent does that? And, I remember one time they got trapped in the tunnel. They got, you know, you get up in there and they can't find their way out and they have those little plexiglass little windows, but you can't really see them because they're smeared with all kinds of snot for those little kids. And I remember Mason's little face, like pushed up against the snot smeared plexiglass, tears running down his eyes, and he was trapped, and I couldn't guide him out of the tunnels. His only hope was for me to kick my shoes off and go in the tunnels. and get them. And that's what Christmas is. It's God going in the disgusting creation to rescue fallen people who were trapped in their sin. And he comes into this world in the form of a man and dies on a cross so that we can have peace with God. Do you have that peace today? Have you received that gift of reconciliation? You can exchange today your sin for Christ's righteousness. Now, I'm going to make an assumption that today, and for the next couple of Sundays, into our Christmas Eve service, there's going to be 100s of people who come to Northland through those services, and I'm going to make an assumption that nearly all of those people believe to some degree in the story of Jesus. That's why they're going to come to a church during the Christmas season. I mean, a lot of people, maybe even here today, maybe this is you, you believe that Jesus is the savior. You believe that was the reason for the season. But I'm going to say there could be people today, maybe even here to reach you. You believe Jesus is the savior, but he's not yet your savior. I'm going to tell you, there's a world of difference, there's an eternity of difference. between saying Jesus is the savior, and Jesus is my savior. What's the difference between saying Jesus is the savior and Jesus is my savior? The difference is you can believe these things about Jesus, but you've never given your life to Jesus. You do not have peace with God today. You've not been reconciled to God today, because you've not yet given your faith in Jesus Christ. Perhaps today he's drawing you. Today's opened your heart. Today's the day where you would say, I just don't want Jesus to be the savior of the world. I want Jesus to be my savior. I want peace with God. Today can be the day you turn to him, Jesus. I know that I'm a sinner. I know you died for my righteousness. Jesus, I want to exchange my sin for your righteousness. I want to be, I want you to be my Lord, my Savior. Are you at peace with God today? There's a 2nd way that Jesus brings peace, and that's an internal peace. An internal peace. It's this internal calm and confidence in the face of external conflict and chaos. that once reconciled to God, The believer can face life's storms with peace. Our faith in God's care, our faith in God's sovereignty sustains us in the face of challenges and in the faces of turmoil. And here, I understand what we mean, and it's totally natural, totally acceptable to pray this way. When we realize we don't have peace in our life, our prayer is often this. God, would you remove the thing from my life that's causing chaos in my life? God, would you fix the problem in my life that's causing conflict? God, would you take away this trial? Would you take away this turmoil? And that's a totally natural thing to pray? And if you're praying that to God today, that's an acceptable prayer to pray to God today. But I want to say today, God might not answer that prayer the way you want him to answer that prayer. God may not take away your trial, take away your ch, take away your chaos, take away your conflict, and maybe that he wants to give you peace in the midst of it. He doesn't give us peace by taking away the darkness. He gives us peace by bringing the light of his presence into our life. Look what he says in Philippians. The word of God says in Philippians 4.6. Do not be anxious about anything. But in prayer, but in everything by prayer. And supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. So rather than being anxious about what troubles you, bring those anxieties to the Lord in prayer, in a spirit of a spirit of thanksgiving, with supplication, it means just making a request to the Lord, bring those to the Lord. And verse 7 says, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. It doesn't say, bring your anxieties to the Lord, and he'll take away everything that's causing you trouble today. This is bring your anxieties to the Lord, and then the Lord is going to allow the peace of Jesus Christ to guard your heart and guard your mind. And give us what the scripture calls here, a peace which surpasses all understanding, or your version might say something like this, a peace that exceeds anything we can understand or a peace that is beyond human comprehension. Have you experienced that peace before? Maybe you've seen it in others? And maybe you've experienced it in your own life. where maybe you've seen someone walk through some tragedy in their life, and you say, I don't know how a person could go through that, that would crush me. There's no way I could do that. And yet you see in this person's life a sense of peace. And you share with them, you talk to them about what they're going through, and you're expecting to just be completely and utterly devastated by what they're going through, and yet you hear in their voice a calm peace, a faith in the sovereignty of God in the midst of this, a hope in the midst of this. You say I don't understand that. I understand how you can go through what you're going through and have the faith and the hope that you have. Yeah, because it's beyond understanding. It's beyond comprehension. Maybe going through it in your own life. And God has given you peace, and the people around you are saying things like, I don't know how you're doing this. I't know how you're getting through this. I don't think I could go through what you're going through, and somehow you have this piece right in the middle of it. That's what he's talking about. Jesus gives us peace that is beyond comprehension, beyond understanding. Oh, I would love it if God would just take this away. He chose not to. What he did instead is he allowed his peace to guard my heart. Notice that phrase. The peace that surpasses understanding will guard your heart and your mind. The book of Philippians has written to believers in the city of Philippi, at that time, it was a Roman garrison or a Roman military outpost. And if you know that about the book. Now, you go back and now read it, you even in English, you'll catch a lot of the military language. If for the Greek scholars in the room, I'm not one of those, but those who are Greek scholars would really catch it. The book is full of military terminology. It's written to a church that would have been made up by a bunch of military veterans. guys in our men and women in our church who are current or uh, current members of the military or or veterans of the military. That would have been the church at Philippi. And so when he uses military language, it connected with him. So when he's saying, it will guard your heart, their mind went right to a soldier standing guard over an area. And he said, what God does in the middle of conflict, he doesn't take away the conflict, he just puts guards around your heart. He puts guards around your mind, and he protects you in the middle of it, and the result of God's gift of peace is that it gives us a confidence in the sovereign and loving character of God in the midst of what we're going through. Are you trusting Jesus today to guard your heart? Are you looking to him for peace in the middle of what you're going through? And I want to say, keep praying that God will take it away. But I'm saying he may not. And so the prayer also needs to be God, if you don't take this away. If you don't clear this up. If you don't remove this trial from me, would you put your peace as a guard on my heart today? Would you guard my heart? Would you God, would you exchange my anxiety for peace? The 1st time I really experienced this, was, uh, 20 something years ago, I can't remember how old my boys are, but Mason Amica, when Carrie was pregnant, She went into labor early. I was on a mission trip. I got a phone call, not a phone call. This is pre-cell phones. I showed up at a restaurant that she knew we were going to have dinner at, and the hostess said, go to the payphone and call your wife. He gave me the number. I called it, on the other end was my wife at the hospital, in labor at 26 weeks with our boys. Jumped on a plane and flew home and learned that it was very dire, the situation she was in. But the 1st doctor was kind of hopeful. The 2nd doctor, the next day came on his rotation a little more hopeful. The 3rd doctor had terrible bedside manner. Blunt to the point. And he looked at the chart, and he said, well, we have a really big problem, and I'm not sure what we're going to do about it. and walked out of the room. And I remember that being the hardest moment in that season we walked in, by God's grace. She stayed held him in there for a few more days. They were born at 27 weeks and after 2.5 months in the hospital, We brought him home and the Lord today is just been so gracious through that. But in that moment, it was so dark. I went for a walk outside around the hospital, the neighborhood around the hospital, and I began to call out to God, and I began to do what psychologists would call the bargaining stage of grief, what started making deals with God. If you spare my boys, if you'll spare their life, I will do this, this, this, this. And I've never heard the audible voice of God. I didn't even hear it on that day, but it's the closest I've come. Have you had that moment where you're just like, it was as if God spoke to you? And as I was saying, God, I will do this and this and this, it was like the voice of God said, but what if I don't? What if I don't? What if I don't spare them? What if you have to walk through the loss of your twin sons? Then what? And I realize in that moment, it's a lesson that's carried me all of these years is that what I need in my darkest times is not necessarily for God to answer the prayer that I'm praying, but to give me peace either way, he's going to answer it. to guard my heart. There's been times since then that God's answered my prayers. There been times God didn't answer my prayers. But in times when he answered the way I wanted, and the way, and he didn't answer in the way I wanted. He always stood guard over my heart in indescribable ways. That's a piece of God you can have today. If you bring your anxieties to him, Lord, I trust you. Lord, I bring my anxieties to you. Lord, my only hope is for you to give me indescribable, inexplainable peace to guard my heart in this season. So we come to God for spiritual peace. We come to God for this inner peace that even in the midst of the difficulty, he still guards our hearts. There's a 3rd piece that Jesus brings, and that's a relational piece. that Jesus not only restored my relationship with God because of Jesus' death on the cross and my faith in him. I can have a restored relationship with other people. Let's look at this scripture, Colossians 3.15. It's going to sound very similar to the passage in Philippians 4 we just read. And so we look at it on the surface of it. Seems like he's kind of saying the same thing. dive a little deeper and discover that there's actually another dimension to this. And let the peace of Christ rule your hearts. To which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. So 1st glance, let the peace of Christ rule your hearts, seems really similar to the phrase, let the peace of Christ guard your hearts. So what's the difference between God guarding my heart in Philippians 4 and God ruling my heart in Colossians 3. Context tells us a different story. Now, just we just put verse 15 on the screen. If you have your Bible, hope you do. Look at this in the scriptures in front of you, and let's dive a little deeper here at the context of Colossians chapter 3. Coloss chapter 3, verse 11 says this. There is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian and Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all. What is he saying here? Christ has united everyone. There's no longer Jew Gentile, male female, slave free. We're all one in Jesus is what the New Testament teaches over and over again. Ephesians 214. He himself is our peace who made both of us won and broke down the dividing wall of hostility. He took the wall that divided Jews and Gentiles. That what the context is of Ephesians 2. He broke the wall between Jew and Gentile, made them into one body. He's united all of us together. Philemon 16. Paul writes to the slave owner, Philemon to receive back his runaway slave no longer as a slave, but as a brother. It's where we get the line and the song, oh, holy night. Truly, he taught us to love one another. His law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother. And in his name all oppression shall cease. The teach in the New Testament was because of Jesus. Every barrier is gone. Every chain is broken. We are now brothers and sisters in Christ. That's what he's saying in Colossians 311. Colossians 3.12. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. Compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so that you also must forgive, and verse 14 above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. So what's he say leading up to verse 15. God's remove the distinction. There's no longer a difference from one group and another. You need to have hearts that are compassionate and kind and humble and meek and patient. You should show love to one another, forgive one another because God's put us all together in perfect harmony. And after he says all that, he then says, let the peace of God rule your hearts. Rule your heart. See what he's saying there? It's not an internal peace. It's an external pizza. how we relate to one another. The piece of Christ should rule in this place. In fact, it's in the plural. It's one of the disadvantages of the English language is we don't have a 2nd person plural unless you're in the south. We really don't have a proper y'all. And we should because you should have you and y'all. And the scripture has a you and a yaw. This is a y'all. What does he say? Literally, he said, let the peace of Christ rule in y'all's hearts. He's not saying, Matt, let the peace of Christ rule in your heart, so you'll feel at peace all the time. He's saying, Matt, let the peace of Christ rule your heart and your relationship to everybody else in this room. So you and Emily, let peace rule y'all's hearts with each other if you're in a conflict. It's not just, I want inner peace. I want relational peace, and Jesus came to give that. How? Well, you put all the pieces together. You see how the 1st 2 points logically flow into this? If Jesus Christ dialed the cross so I could be made at peace with God, would I not also then want to be at peace with other people? If Jesus sacrificed everything so that I could be right with God, what should I be willing to sacrifice so that I could be right with other people? And at the peace of Christ, guards my heart. He wants me to have peace in the middle of conflict. Should we not want to have peace with each other in the middle of conflict? He not only reconciles us to God, he then gives us inner peace, that God is in control, and then he frees us to have peace with one another as we let his peace rule in our relationship with other people. In fact, it's kind of a cool word. The word translated here, rule our hearts. It really means to function like an umpire. In fact, some modern paraphrases will actually phrase the verse this way. Let the peace of Christ act as an umpire in your heart. What does an umpire do? An umpire makes the call, calls the, when I was in high school, I played tennis, and we didn't have, at least not when you were as bad as I did on the, what a JV tennis team. you't have a line judge. You called your own shots. And so if I'm playing tennis, with Dusty and you hit the ball, I can go, oh, it's out. That's my point. I get to call the shot. And the coach would say, when in doubt, call it out. That was the slogan. win and doubt. If you're not sure, call it out. You make the call to your advantage, to your favor. This is say it, you don't get to make the call. The peace of Jesus gets to make the call. Our hearts won't make the right call in our relationships with other people. How so? I'm going to say today that probably there are going to be some who would say right now there's a lack of peace in your life. And the lack of peace in your life might stem because you're not at peace with God. We talked about in point one. It might stem from you don't want to go through what you're going through, and you'd rather God remove it than give you peace in the middle of it. That was our 2nd point. It could be, though, that your lack of peace today is a broken relationship with someone in your life. And one of the reasons, some of you, Christmas might be a difficult time right now because there's some conflict in your family. There's some conflict in a relationship. And Christmas isn't the happy season that you would hoped it would be because there's a lack of peace in your relationships. Why? Because we're letting something else rule our heart. Why do we have broken relationships? Because we let pride rule our hearts. Why do we have broken relationships? Because we let selfishness rule our hearts. Why you have conflict with someone? Because right now, unforgiveness is ruling your heart. Why do you not want to spend Christmas with that person because bitterness is ruling your heart? Because your opinion is real, you know, people aren't going to go, aren't going to show up for Thanksgiving dinner because of a Facebook post this season because they let their opinion rule their heart when the peace of God ought to rule their heart. It's saying, God, take away my pride, my selfishness, my unforgiveness, my bitterness, my own, and Jesus reign in my heart as the arbitrator, as the judge, as the umpire, and let Jesus call the shots in your relationship. So what do we do with all this? You're going to receive a gift in a couple of weeks, a Christmas that you don't like. And you're going to want to take it back. Either you don't want it, you don't like it. It doesn't fit, it's not the right color. You already have 3 other ones. I don't need this. And you're going to exchange it. I just, I'm just a worst gift giver. I just don't want anything. I just like, I got to pretend I like this shirt, I got to take it back, and then hope that you don't ask me if I still like the shirt. And it's just like, I'd rather have a, bought some gifts this week. I see you on a gift receipt. I'm like, yeah, they're probably going to hate it. Give me the gift receipt. This is stuff you're going to exchange. I'm going to tell you, Jesus Christ has the best exchange policy. You get to bring to him the stuff in your life that's causing a lack of peace and exchange it for the peace of God, as we've just seen in these points. Let me show you what this looks like. Because of what we said, the 1st point, you get to exchange your sin for his righteousness. You get to bring your sin and failure and rebellion to the cross of Jesus and lay it before him and walk away clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. Get to exchange sin for righteousness. You get to exchange anxiety for peace. You get to come to the feet of Jesus to say, here's what's troubling me. Here's what's breaking my heart. Here's what's crushing me. Here's what's overwhelming me. Are you going to say, Jesus, would you take this anxiety from me? And would you guard my heart with indescribable peace? And we get to exchange a heart ruled by pride for a heart ruled by peace. We get to bring broken relationships to him. And say, God, would you take away my opinions and views and hurts and bitterness and selfishness? And would you let the peace of Jesus, this Christmas, rule in my heart and in my relationships with other people? What resonates with you today? What exchange do you need to make this morning? lets pray together. I'll give you a chance to do it right here. to make an exchange this morning. The most gracious. Exchange policy anywhere out there is the cross of Jesus. Bring to him today, your selfish heart. And right now, as we pray, you know what the issue is, if this is your area. God, would you take the selfishness that's in my heart and exchange it for peace. Would you take the bitterness and exchange it for peace? Would you take the hurt? And exchange it for peace. God, I want my heart to rule, I want peace to rule my heart this Christmas. Would you take away my pride and fill my heart with your peace in my relationship with others? Or maybe your prayers, Lord, I want you to take this away, but it seems as if you won't. So God, would you just, I got to lay my anxiety at your feet. And I want to exchange my worry for your peace. I don't understand how I am going to have it. I don't know how in the world I'm going to be able to get through this Christmas season. With what's weighing on me, but your word says, if I bring it to you, indescribable peace will rule my heart. So God, I bring it to you. Or maybe this is the day you say I want Jesus to be my savior, not just the savior. Jesus, I'm turning to you, would you take away my sin and clothe me in your righteousness. God, hear our prayers this morning. Prayers of repentance. prayers of desperation. Hopeful prayers. Thought I pray that the one who's still a rebel would be reconciled today. for the one who's walking through indescribable pain would walk through it with indescribable peace. And for those facing broken relationships, would they turn over the shots to a heart of peace instead of a heart of pride. Let us experience this Christmas, not the peace that we thought we'd have, not the peace we wanted to have, not the peace as the world gives, but the peace that you give us, Jesus. Let us experience that in the fullest way this Christmas. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.