Glory to God, Peace to Men // Luke 2:1-14 // Advent

In his sermon, Pastor Evan emphasizes the core themes of Advent—hope, peace, love, and joy—while challenging the congregation to reconsider their understanding of Jesus. He warns against the dangers of misleading teachings often prevalent in the American church, suggesting that the greatest threat is not external forces but the way Jesus is misrepresented from the pulpit. Many believers, he argues, encounter a "made-up Jesus," leading them to approach their faith with boredom and superficial expectations aimed at personal comfort and prosperity rather than a deep, transformative relationship with the true Christ.The sermon delves into Luke 2:1-14, spotlighting the significant historical context of Jesus’ birth as a profound event meant to bring peace to humanity. Evan articulates that real peace comes only through a genuine relationship with Christ, who is both Savior and Lord. He underscores the necessity of aligning one's understanding of Jesus with Scripture in order to experience genuine peace in life. Towards the conclusion, he calls the congregation to seek the true face of Jesus, reminding them that Christ alone provides lasting peace, joy, and the ultimate fulfillment of God’s glory.

Transcript

Well, I was preparing for the second week of Advent. I was thinking over the Advent season and the Advent series that we're in. And what it means for us to be believers is what it means for us to be disciples and followers of Jesus and how Advent is a time of looking at the hope, peace, love and joy that is found in Jesus. And I have come to believe that there are a lot of people, there are a lot of people who have been preached a made up Jesus. There are a lot of people who have been preached a fairy tale Jesus, a Jesus that does not exist.

And the reason why I said that is because I heard recently another pastor say this, and I thought it was so great that the number one threat to the American church is the American pulpit. It's not the devil. Because Jesus says in Matthew 16 that on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it. The greatest threat is not the devil to the church. The greatest threat to the American church today is the American pulpit.

And that's because false teaching is one of our greatest threats. It's why we have American Christians who are bored with Christ. They're bored with the Advent season. We have American Christians, we have Christians who approach Advent focus solely on what Christmas means to the secular world and the secular season.

It's why we have Christians who are bored when it comes to hearing about our Lord and Savior's birth and the greatest day of human history in the world. AW Tozer says this, that it appears that most people go to church for consolation. In fact, we have now fallen upon times when religion is mostly for consolation, where we are now in the grips of the cult of peace, peace of mind, peace of heart, peace of soul. All we want to do is relax and have a great God, have the great God Almighty pat on our heads and comfort us. And this has become our religion.

I would add to this and say that people are not only going to church for consolation, but it has become that people are going to church for blessing and what they can get from God. Because American preachers have told the great lie, that God wants you to have the new house, that God wants you to have a great life, that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy and successful, that God wants you to make a ton of money, that God wants you to have the perfect wife or husband or even just a husband or a wife.

The American pulpit has ignored for the greatest part, I would say for the next, for the last 50 to 60 years, that God doesn't care about any of those Things if they become more important than him. If we are arriving to church because we want to say that we believe in God, believe in Jesus for the sole fact of that he will give us blessing and prosperity, that he will comfort us, God doesn't want us to have that type of relationship with Him. He is a jealous God and he wants to be first in our lives, first, above all things, above all.

And then when those things don't happen, when they're not comforted, when they go through suffering, when people go through suffering, when the blessings don't come, the prosperity doesn't come come, they get sick. They have families, members that get sick, they have brokenness in their home where families are ripped apart and you struggle with anxiety or depression and the prosperity that you've been told by these televangelists, these social media preachers, these pastors who have preached the great lie of comfort and prosperity to the American people, when those don't happen, we get bored with Christ, we get bored with Jesus, we get bored with church, we get bored with fellowship and ultimately we step away and we don't know what to do with religion.

And it's why when we, when we approach Advent and talking about our Lord and Savior showing up on this earth, the greatest event in human history and the hope, the peace, the love, the joy that is found in this event, that we are bored, that we've heard this before. And so why does it matter?

How is it not refreshing to our souls to be reminded of the hope, peace, love and joy that comes through Christ?

This morning we're going to be looking at Luke 2:1 through 14, and we're going to be looking at this passage because it, it encompasses some of the most familiar and greatest words that surround the Advent season and Christmas. And specifically we're going to be looking at verses, at Luke, chapter 2, verse 14, and looking at the peace that comes from Jesus. And the reason why I, I talked about the church being bored with Jesus is because we oftentimes come up and say, I don't have the peace of Christ in me. I don't experience the things that we're talking about. I don't experience the hope that we have in Jesus, I don't experience the peace that we have in Jesus.

I don't experience the joy, I don't experience the love. And it is because we don't know who Jesus is. There are many in this congregation, there are many watching online that have not experienced and do not know the real Jesus. They have been preached a false Jesus, a made up Jesus, who is there for your pleasure and your want.

But we don't know the historical real Jesus that came to give and bring peace on earth. And so let's read Luke 2:1 14 together to see who this Jesus is that brings peace. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinus, the governor of Syria, and all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph went up to Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea and to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in a swaddling cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out of the field keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with great fear. And the angel, angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the 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 will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those whom he has pleased.

I want to emphasize to you the importance of this text, not just to the world, but to ourselves. How this happy, joyful statement that we find in 11 through 14, how this happy and joyful statement pronounced to us by an angel, revolutionizes and transforms our lives. And for today our main focus is going to be on verse 14 that says, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he is well pleased. But before we jump into that, I want us to look at this passage and some of the things that we see here.

Verse 11 says that for unto you is born on this day. I want us to recognize that this is a real historical event, that it happened on a day, on a day like today, like a day, like many other days, a day in history, a day for history, not a made up day. This isn't an imaginary story or mythology, but this is a day and we can go back and it says, in the days of the decree, when Caesar Augustus was the emperor, this is a day that we can look back and see this is a historical day.

And it was a day that was planned for all of eternity. It was a day that was planned for all of eternity before the creation of the world. In fact, the whole universe was created and made for this day and what it means for human history. Colossians 1:16 says, for by all, by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him, and for him.

Those last two words, for him, all things were created for Him. For his appearance, for this day, all things were created for Him. For Jesus, the Son of God. Galatians 4:4 says that but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law. If you remember, way back in Genesis 3, at the fall, God pronounces that one day he would send a messiah that would save us.

And in the fullness of time, Christ arrives. And it happened on a day, this perfect day in the fullness of time.

It goes on in verse 11 that says that he was born in a city of David.

This city is real. It's a real city. It happened in a real place. Not in a galaxy far, far away, not in Westeros, not in Middle Earth, not in the parallel universe or the multiverse, but in a real city that existed and exists still today. Bethlehem.

It happened in Bethlehem, which is about six miles away from Jerusalem. This is the city where Jesse lived, the father of David, who was the greatest, one of the greatest kings in Israel's history.

This was the city that Micah in Micah 5:2, prophesied that. But, O you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah, you who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth from me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from ancient days. This was a real city, like the city that we're living in. It was a city like Topeka, maybe a little bit smaller, but it is a real city.

Verse 11 goes on, the angel calls him a savior. A savior? What does that mean? Why do we need a savior? Well, it's because for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Romans tells us that we were enemies to God, in need of a savior.

And only God can forgive sins against God. It's why when Jesus, he healed the person on the mat, and he called and he said, I forgive your sins. It's why the Pharisees were so upset, because Jesus was declaring himself a savior, the only one who could save humanity, the only one who could forgive sins, because only God can forgive sins against God. The angel goes on to proclaim that He, a savior who is Christ. Who is Christ, who is the Messiah?

This is the one that we were waiting for in the fullness of time, that all promises of God are fulfilled through him and in him. The angel goes on to call him Lord, the Lord Christ, the Lord. He is the ruler, the sovereign, the mighty God, everlasting Father, Lord of the universe. And so as we look at Advent and we look at Christmas and we look at this story, we look at this announcement from the angel, we recognize that this is a real day in history, in a real city, that this happened. That our Savior, who takes away our guilt and our sin, entered into this world.

Who is the Christ that fulfills all of our hopes, all of the promises of God, and our Lord, who defeats all of our enemies and makes us safe and satisfies us forever. And I don't know how we don't get excited about that. I don't know how every time we talk about Jesus, we're not excited and screaming at the top of our lungs. I don't know how we can sit in church, in the pews, when we're saying to God, the creator of the universe, and sit there and not be belting out as loud as we can worshiping Him.

And yet many of us, many of us sit there bored with Christ, bored with Jesus, bored with worshiping God.

Maybe you've been told not to sing because you're not a great singer.

Whoever was rude enough to tell you that, man, God wants to hear you belt it out. He wants to hear you worship him. And we should be excited to worship him because he is real. He came to this earth to give us peace, hope, love and joy.

And in verse 12 or in verse 13, the angel has given this announcement to the shepherds in the field. And in verse 13, it says that suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God. A multitude of heavenly hosts. So when the angel came and he announced the news to the shepherds, he was alone. But it.

And so the announcement of the news, it was fine for one angel to be there to tell the shepherds. But when it came time to praise God for this announcement, when it came time to respond to this news, to the news of Jesus Christ, in the fullness of time being Born to bring glory to God and peace to men. And when it was time for the heavens to respond to this news, a multitude of heavenly hosts, an army of angels, had to show up to celebrate this. Heaven was excited. Heaven was responding.

How we should respond. We should respond to the news of Jesus Christ coming into this world as a. As a army, resounding as loud as we can, worshiping, excited for the glory of God and the peace among us to have been born this day.

And we see in verse 14 that he came. That Jesus came for two great purposes. He came for two great purposes. The first one is that he came for God's glory.

They announced, they say, glory to God in the highest, and he comes for God's glory. The coming of this child is the greatest revelation of the glory of God that has ever come to this world.

The coming of this child was the greatest revelation of the glory of God even amongst the highest of heaven. Which is why the angels responded the way they did. The coming of this child brings peace to men, to earth, to God's people. And the coming of this child is going to be culminated in his second coming when he comes back and he fills the whole earth with his righteousness and his peace. Which is why we look forward to it.

We look forward to it when Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 9,7 that of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. We look forward forward to that day. We look forward to the second advent, his second coming.

But first and foremost, God is glorified because Jesus Christ was born.

Peace then is spread everywhere that this child is received.

The great purposes of the coming of Jesus is that glory would be ever ascending from man to God. That we would continually everlasting bring glory and worship to the Father. That glory would be ever ascending to God, but also that peace would be ever descending from God to man.

God's glory is sung out by the angels that night, sung out to men for the sake of his name, so that men might know the greatest event in human history, in all of history, in all of eternity, has happened that night when Jesus Christ was born. That we might know and have that proclamation be given to us for the sake of his name.

And the fact that God's peace is lived out among men for his glory.

There is hardly a better way to sum up what God was about when he created the world or when he came to reclaim the world in Jesus Christ. His glory and our peace, his greatness and our joy, his beauty and our pleasure. The point of creation and Redemption is that God is glorious and means and the means to be known and praised for his glory by a peace filled new humanity.

And so God Jesus came to bring about to show humanity God's glory so that we might glorify the father.

In the second half of verse 14 it says that on earth peace among those whom he is pleased. On earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased. If you're reading out of the King James Version, it might say and goodwill to men.

I want to talk about that for a second because I love the King James Version, but it is well well known by scholars and researchers of the text that goodwill to men is not the appropriate and right translation for that.

It is because the peace is directed toward those who know and come to know Jesus Christ. The Greek there that is used is directed to a specific people group. The peace is directed to a specific people group. And that is those who come to know Jesus Christ, Lord.

And this is important because.

This is important because God's offer of peace goes out to all. God's offer of peace goes out to all, but only his chosen people, the people who receive Christ and trust in him as Savior and Messiah and Lord will experience the peace that he brings.

And so while the peace, while Jesus came to bring peace and offer peace to the world, if you don't know who Jesus is, you will never know what peace is. You will never know the peace of God. And this is why I, this is why it is so important to me that the word of God be preached from the pulpit and why I sit there and say for the past 50, 60, 70 years, the American pulpit, much of the American pulpit, especially the pulpits that you see promoted on TV of the wealth prosperity movement, wealth, faith, prosperity movement is a lie.

Because if you don't know who Christ is, who the real historical Christ is, who came and lived a perfect life, who died on the cross, who was raised three days later for your peace, then you will never experience that peace. If you believe in a fairy tale Jesus, if you believe in the made up Jesus that you have made up in your mind, if you believe in the made up God that you have made up in your mind, you will never experience the peace of God.

God's peace in Christ is offered to the world, but it is only the sons of peace who receive it. Only those who.

Only those who believe in Christ and trust him. So how do you know if you're a son of peace? How do you know if you are part of this promise?

How do you know if you are part of those who. With whom he is well pleased. The answer is, have you received Jesus? Not the Jesus that. That.

Not. Not the Jesus that you've made up in your mind, but have you. Have you received this Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible, the one that you might not always agree with, and that means that you might need to change, Actually, does need mean you have to change.

Have you received this Jesus five times? In the New Testament, Jesus is called the God of peace.

And in John 14:27, Jesus says, My peace I give to you.

And Paul says in Ephesians 2:14 that Jesus is himself, our peace. This verse right here, that Jesus says that he gives his peace to us and that Paul reinforces it and says that Jesus himself, He himself is our peace. Ephesians 2:14, he himself is our peace. Is why it's so important for us to understand why it is so important that we know who Jesus is and that we care about who Jesus is and that we care about our relationship with Jesus above everything else, above the troubles of the world, above everything else that we want to know Christ, that we want to be with him, that we believe in him, that we receive him, that we trust him. Because Ephesians 2:14 says that he is literally our peace.

And what this means is that the peace of God or the peace of Christ can never be separated from Christ himself, can never be separated from God Himself.

Romans 15:13 says that, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. In believing. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

My desire for you this Christmas, this Advent season, is that you enjoy and experience the peace that Christ offers to the world. Thomas Merton, who is a Trappist monk in the 20th century. If you don't know what a Trappist monk is, it's a sect of Catholic monks, but he says this. He lived in the early 19, 1900s, 20th century. He says, we are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves.

And we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God.

The peace of God, the peace of Christ can never be separated from God himself, from Christ himself. And if we want peace to rule our lives, if we want peace to rule in our lives, God must rule our lives. Christ must rule in our life. God's purpose is not to give you peace separate from himself.

His purpose is to give you peace by being the most glorious person in your life, the most important piece of your life, the most glorious person in your life, the Most basic need that we have is peace with God.

It is the foundation which all peace is built on. And if we don't have peace with God, all other peace is superficial and temporary.

Romans 5:1 says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. What does it mean to be justified by faith? What does it mean to be justified, counted as righteous?

It means to be counted as righteous before God. It means to have the righteousness of Christ imparted on us so that when we stand before God, we are no longer enemies, but we are sons and daughters of the living God.

And we are justified by faith in Christ. And that faith in Christ justifies us so that we might have peace with God.

And it is not by works, it's not by tradition, it's not by baptism, it's not by church membership. It's not by how holy we are. It's not by who our parents were or if our parents brought us to church or our grandparents brought us to church. It's not by how much we serve at church. It's not by how much money we give at church.

It's not by what positions we hold at church. It's not by the ministry that we perform at church. It's not by how many people we tell about Jesus. It's not by how many homeless people we help or people we adopt or how pure we are. It's not by any of that.

It is by faith alone in Jesus Christ that we have peace with God.

And so if you're looking for peace in your life and you're saying, I am in a world and my life is in shambles and I experience no peace, maybe you should start with a foundation of peace with God. And that is only through faith in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And once we experience peace with God and we build that foundation Jesus has brought brings us peace with other ourselves once, once we have peace with God, we can begin to enjoy peace with on ourselves.

Philippians 4, 6 and 7 says, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication, by with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Many Americans, many American Christians make prayer about seeking God's hand and what we can get from God. Many American Christians make prayer about seeking God's hand. And don't get me wrong, there are times that we should seek his hand.

Philippians just says that. It says to let Your request be known before God. But when the majority of our prayers are about seeking his hand rather than his face, we miss an opportunity to encounter his glory.

We are to seek. We need to seek his face more than we seek his hand. In Psalm 27, verse 8, in Psalm, verse Psalm 27, verse 8, though David is writing a psalm and he's talking to God and he says that you have said, seek my face. Seek my face. That's what the Lord wants us to do, is to seek my face.

It doesn't say that we can't pray for his hand, but it says that we are to seek his face. And what does that mean for us? We know who his face is, right? We know the one who came down on earth to show us his glory, his glory manifested. And that is Christ.

That is Jesus Christ. We are to seek his face. Our desire should be for Jesus and Jesus alone.

So often we get wrapped up in our needs and our wants and we pray, Lord, you know, if we were a church that did this, that prophesied and prayed that people would be. Would get everything they ever wanted, man, the pews would be full.

And we as American Christians so often have that tendency. We sit there and we pray, lord, I just want that bigger house. Lord, if I could just have that. My car's a mess, man. If I could only get that new car, Lord, I'm my bank accounts running low.

Lord, if you could bless me, I'll give you a hundred bucks in the offering. You. You say you're in a hundred times it, right?

We play these games seeking the hand of God, and we forget to seek his face. We forget that we don't come to church to get together and say hi to friends, to hear a sermon, to sing a few songs. We come to church to be. To be in fellowship with fellow believers who are at the same time of us, supposed to be seeking his face, seeking and wanting Jesus.

But our desire so oftentimes is distracted and becomes the desire for other things other than Jesus.

And it's the reason why we have an epidemic of people who are addicted to prescription bills, addicted to drugs. It's the reason why we have a country that is trying to vote in marijuana is legal. It is the reason why we have so many people struggling with alcohol addiction, with porn addiction. It is the reason why we have a great number of people who struggle with anxiety and depression, and they go to doctors and they get prescribed pills, and it's because they're not seeking Jesus face. Now, I'm not discounting the Fact that there are medical reasons that somebody can experience depression.

But as a whole, as a society, as the American church has become more about the things, the prosperity that we can get from God and less about who God is, Jesus, and how we are to only want him.

All of these things, the peace of God, the peace that comes from God, has left the church.

It's the reason why when things don't go your way in church, when things don't go your way in church, when it rubs you a little bit wrong, when the pastor makes a change that you don't like, when the deacons do something you don't like, when the worship team doesn't sing your song that you wanted, when you don't get to serve in the way you wanted to serve, when you change the color of the carpet, when the paint color changes, when all these things rub you the wrong way, the first thing we do is say, there's the door. I can go down the street to a different church that's gonna preach a different gospel to me, that's gonna let me do whatever I want. It's because we're not focused on Christ. We're focused on everything else other than Jesus. Because if Jesus was at the center, if Jesus was the only thing that we cared about, none of those other things would matter.

We would be able to find unity, and we would be able to get over our issues and our problems or differences because we're all seeking Christ, and that's all that matters.

And that brings me to peace with others.

God wants us to enjoy his peace in our relationship with other people.

This is also the relationship that we have the least control over, the least amount of control over. And that is why we need to understand what Paul says in Romans 12:18, when it says, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. We're entering into. The holiday season and holidays can be awkward for family, for families. It can be awkward for people, because it can be.

It can be awkward and can oftentimes be painful because of relationships. Sometimes the pain is old, sometimes the pain is new. Some of you have looked around and decided for the sake of peace that you have created boundaries within your family. And you might be celebrating Christmas alone for the first time this year. You might be celebrating Christmas alone, without your family for the 10th time or the 20th time.

And you're experiencing. And what you might be experiencing, you might feel isolated.

Holidays are a tough time because. Or you might be put in situations where you might not.

You might not enjoy that situation. Where you're going to have to go over to that family member's house that has the drunk uncle that gets drunk on Christmas Eve and makes a fool of himself in front of all your kids or whatever, maybe gets mad and angry. You have to deal with that. I don't understand why we think that it's okay to invite those people in our lives when they act like that. But Christmas, somehow we love to punish ourselves, I guess.

Ephesians 4:31,32 tells us that let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Be kind with, to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. And as God in Christ forgave you, we are to live peaceably among with, with, with others as as far as it depends on you. Ephesians 4:31 through 32 gives us a lens of how to do that. We are, we are to put away bitterness.

We are to put away anger and clamor and slander. We are, we are to be kind to one another. We are to be tenderhearted. We're to be forgiving one another because Christ forgave us. Now, this might be thrown back in your face.

Have you ever heard the term kill him with kindness? That's what we're called to do, is kill him with kindness. And it might be thrown back in your face because it was with Jesus. Jesus was the kindest, most glorious person to ever live. And he was crucified.

And I remember, if you remember, when, when Jesus has asked this question, how many times are we to forgive if this person, this person keeps on, keeps on annoying me, keeps on doing things to hurt me. And Christ's response was to forgive them 70 times 7. It wasn't to give a specific number. It was to tell the, to tell us that we continually show kindness, we continually give forgiveness because Christ forgives us.

And so we are to seek peace with others. We are seek peace with the world. And the world has benefited from that. The world has benefited in the last 2000 years as the message of Christ has spread throughout the world and as the gospel has spread to the world. The world has benefited from this peace, the peace that is experienced in Jesus and through Jesus because it is played out in those who know who Jesus is and experience that peace and live to be peaceably among with others.

In fact, our founding fathers, they created a governmental system that they said will only work for a believing, believing country. For those who believe in God, this government system will only work for them because it relies on the peace that is found in Christ.

And, and I, I thought it was so interesting the other day I was watching this, this new series that came out with Jordan Peterson. He's walking these intellectuals through the Gospels. And it's so interesting because he's got all kinds of different perspectives. He doesn't have a Protestant on, on, on the panel. I was so surprised by that.

But he's walking these through and in the first, in the first session, Dennis Prager, he's the founder of Prageru, he's, you've probably heard of it. He is a Jewish man and he was talking about his fear for the future. And he said the death of Christianity is not good for the world because he sees that Christianity is dead. He sees that we live in a post Christian world, which is what most people would believe, that we live in a post Christian world. Because if you look at society, society has largely rejected Christianity and Christ.

And so he says the death of Christianity is not good for the world. He poses, and then he goes on to pose a question to people, asking them what ideology has done more for the world? Because he sees that peace comes through Christianity and that peace comes through Christ. But he misses that point. He sees that Christianity is a vehicle and he instead, he sees Christianity as a vehicle to bring people to the Torah, which is the Old Testament.

He sees Christianity as a means of peace in this world, but misses that Christ is that peace. He misses. He, he sees, he calls it an ideology. An ideology that brings about peace. It's a religion.

It is not an ideology. It is not a religion. It is not even the people who make up Christianity. Because I'm going to go back all the way to Ephesians 2:14 when it says that he himself is our peace, the thing that he's missing is that he's missing Christ. He sees the benefit of Christ.

He sees how Christ, how Christ brings peace into people's lives. It reconciles them to God. It reconciles them to themselves. And they can address the issues and the turmoil that is going on in their lives and they can have peace amongst that turmoil because Christ is our peace. He even sees that the peace that comes from Christians being amongst the world and being peaceable to others because that peace is lived out through us because of Christ.

But he sees that and he misses that it is only because of Jesus. We only experience peace because of Jesus. He himself is our peace. And so if we don't know who Jesus is, if we don't have a clear picture of who Jesus is, who the real Jesus is if we're not seeking his face repeatedly, constantly. If we're not excited about that, if we're bored with Jesus, how do we expect to have the peace of Christ?

Christ should be our. He should be the most glorious person in our life. In fact, if we get up to heaven and if we get up to heaven and you're expecting all the treasures because of the works that you did, the treasure that we receive in heaven is Jesus.

We get to be with him.

That is the treasure of heaven. The fact that we get to be with Jesus, we get to have a relationship with the Creator, the universe, our God, our Lord and Savior.

And so when we hear about Advent, when we talk about Advent, when we talk about his coming, we should be excited about that. It should bring us joy and it should bring us peace.

I got really excited and I'm sorry, went a little bit long today.

I'm going to close with this. I'm going to close with a quote from Billy Graham that says that Christ alone can bring lasting peace. Peace with God, peace among men and nations, and peace within our hearts. Christ alone.

If you're not experiencing peace in your life, you need to get right with Jesus. You might not know who Jesus is or you might have. You might have been deceived into believing and made up. Jesus, a false Jesus, a Jesus that doesn't exist.

And we should continually seek his face, as David did in Psalm 27. Let's pray.