I want to bring to you a
message this Good Friday that I'm calling
Forever Hold Your Peace. If you have a way to get to
the scriptures, Exodus 14. And if you don't we'll have
them on the screen for you. I want to read to you
verses 10 through 16. And it says, "And when
Pharoah drew near, the children of Israel
lifted their eyes and behold, the Egyptians
marched after them. So they were very afraid. And the children of Israel
cried out to the Lord. And they said to Moses, 'because
there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away
to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us
to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that
we told you in Egypt saying, let us alone that we
may serve the Egyptians. For it would have been better
for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should
die in the wilderness.' And Moses said to the
people, 'Do not be afraid. Stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord which he will accomplish
for you today. For the Egyptians,
whom you see today, you shall see again
no more forever. The Lord will fight for you
and you shall hold your peace.' And the Lord said to Moses,
'Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of
Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod,'
God said to Moses, 'and stretch out your hand
over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel
shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.' God we bless your name. We say that you're good. We're grateful for this
day and what we remember. And what it causes
us to realize. And what it gives us
permission to look forward to. We don't know what to say in
response to such great love except thank you. We pray in these
quiet moments together you would cause something new
to burst forth inside of us. We pray for people
who don't know you to be drawn to you
through your Holy Spirit. Thank you for the way that we
are linked up across thousands of different cities and
places all around the country and world, and yet we
have this in common. We're loved by our God. And you have something
to say to us. And you wrote a
book for us to read. And your spirit is
with us near not far able to help us to see the
way through, the way forward, the way to go. And what you said to
the children of Israel, you say to us today. Forward-- yes many difficult
dark days lie behind us. But you say forward. Yes, it's been
challenging in many ways. Unprecedented-- that word
has been touted around, and yet you say to us-- forward. No retreat, no surrender. You're calling us to go
further up and further in. And we pray you'd give
us the grace to do so. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. I don't know where it
came from, for real. I found some different
things online-- the book of Common Prayer
came up a bunch of times. But I've never in
my entirety of being a pastor some 17, 18, 19 years,
in all the weddings I've done, I've never given permission
for anybody in the room to object to what's
happening on the platform. Really ain't none
of their business. [LAUGHTER] You're there as a guest
to support, to celebrate, to endorse, to commit
to pray, and hopefully to bring something
good off the registry. But you're not there
to object, right? But it's in the movies. There's always the
scene where the pastor, when he is finished
with his "Mah-wedge" the bad Princess Bride jokes
are obligatory in a wedding ceremony. I always have a hard
time with obligatory. That's a hard word
to say-- obligatory. Obligated to tell bad jokes. That's what pastors
are, all right? So when you're done with
that, you're in the movies always see them moving on to
the moment where it's like, now does anybody here have reason
to object to these two coming together in Holy matrimony? If you do, speak now
or hold your peace, means this is your time y'all. One website I found said
that this was actually really important at
one point in history. In the medieval time is when
they began to be commonly a part of wedding
ceremonies because there was risks of someone being
already in a marriage. Or someone being forced to
marry against their will. Or, this was legit, that they
hadn't been baptized yet. If one of the two hadn't
been baptized yet, that was cause for you to be
like, no that girl is dry, she has not been baptized. She has not been dunked. And my favorite,
the funniest to me was, if you had proof that they
were actually blood relatives, you could speak up. Like, no, that ain't
right she's his sister. And so that's actually
like, you can object. If you are ever at
a wedding and you happen to know that dude
is marrying his sister, please do speak up, and
do not hold your peace. But every other situation please
be quiet during the service. But here we have Moses and
the children of Israel, they've come out of bondage. They've come out of Egypt. They've come out of, what was
for 400 years unimaginable pain and difficulty and loss
being slaves to a cruel king. And, God miraculously, with
his power raining down plagues upon the Egyptians,
eventually pharaoh relented and allowed them to go free. Having been spared the plague,
the most horrific of all, the death of the firstborn. And that the death of
all the Israelites' first born was spared
because of the death of an innocent third party,
a lamb, which was revered in Egypt, by the way, as a god. And it was at that
time of the year that they worshipped
that particular god out of all their gods. And so it was definitely
flouting their God and sticking it in
his nose a little bit to save them through
the death of a lamb. And of course, all of this
gives us such a clear picture in our minds of Jesus. And how did Jesus
spend his final moments on the earth, his final
hours before going to the Garden of Gethsemane
and eventually to the cross? He was of course, remembering
these days he was remembering these moments--
the Passover lamb, and the rich symbolism and
imagery contained therein. So if there ever were a
group of people who was like, no matter what happens,
we're unflappable, we're just going
to trust you God. It should be them. They had seen boils. They had seen hail. They had seen frogs. They had seen lice. They had seen pets heads
were not falling off, but the Egyptians were. I mean they had seen God
so clearly, dramatically, emphatically, once and for
all prove that he's good. And yet the first
sign of resistance, the first barrier in front of
them, they get to this Red Sea. How are we going to cross it? Well while we're figuring out
that they turn around and see that Pharaoh has had a severe
case of seller's remorse. And he and his buffest army
are hot on their heels. They're only 70 miles
outside of Egypt. But now it looks
like, if anybody ever used the analogy
correctly, they were between a rock and a hard place. Sea on the one hand and an
army of soldiers on the other. And so what do they do? Is their first resort to trust? Is their first resort
to assume the best? God's got this. Remember the frogs? It's cool. Remember the lice? It's amazing. Remember the bloody
river that he's got this. No, they panic. They completely panic. They start crying
out to God and then they start screaming to Moses. And they start
turning on each other. And this will become a theme
throughout the Book of Exodus. Any difficulty, they freak out. Moses is gone for a while? Let's just have an orgy
and declare this metal god that we just made the new god. Right? They just completely lose
their cool under pressure. They start bickering. They start devouring each other. They will in many times
throughout the Exodus period turn on Moses and want to tear
him down want to take him out. Under stress the worst
in them came out. I wrote this question down,
this uncomfortable question, but one that we have no option
but to confront because it's such a useless
exercise to just pile on them for their mistakes. But rather we should
be asking the question, how are we like them? Because I don't think human
nature has changed that much. The question I wrote
down is, how much discomfort and
disappointment does it take for you to become unhappy? How much hardship do
you have to go through to become disillusioned with
God and to start acting badly? What does it take? How much does the pressure
have to get turned up for you to turn on others in your life? I think that this is a perfect
and an appropriate question in response to these days
that we've just lived through and are living through. Where in response to all of
these things, what we have seen is people turning on each other. But we have seen is people
turning away from God. What we have seen is people
criticizing, devouring, cannibalizing, finger pointing. Yes, living in the day
of the cancel culture, which is really
just nothing new. It's just sinful human nature
repeated again and again. When life gets hard
we lose our cool. When things go bad we freak out. Welcome to being a human. And in response I love what
Moses speaks and God so clearly put it on my heart, as a
word for us this Good Friday marching towards Easter, heading
into what is before us in 2021, in the days of this decade that
still are before us where there is so much that
God wants us to do. I felt like God whispering
to each of us Exodus 14:14, the Lord will fight for you,
and you to hold your peace. Do you receive
that word from God? That's my whole assignment today [APPLAUSE] I feel like God wants you
to hold peace in response to every single thing
we see on the news, in response to every
single thing we read on Facebook, in response to
every polarizing opinion, and faction, and party, and
dissenting, disagreeing. This is not how it should be. You're the problem. This is the issue. God wants us to realize
he's going to fight for us. So we get to hold our peace. The cross proves
once and for all that when we face
difficulty behind us, when we are up against something
insurmountable in front of us, God has a plan. He saw it coming. He is not surprised. He was not caught off
guard and he has more than prepared to deal with every
single difficulty that will coming your way, Christian. Do you have the
confidence to believe that you can hold your
peace because he's going to fight your battles for you? I dare you to believe
that God is better at fighting than you are. [APPLAUSE] So when we walk in rest, we get
to watch him fight our battles. So, first takeaway truth
of five, jot it down, peace is what we need. I would dare say that
peace is our greatest need. God will fight for you. To hold peace you've
got to have peace. So first we must
acknowledge the fact that we have a need for peace. But let's define it. Because peace is so much more
than the absence of conflict. We throw the peace sign peace. What is peace? Peace is in the Bible,
one of the most important, and one of the most rich words. It's shalom, in
the Old Testament, and that became so
important that the capital city of Jerusalem,
of Israel, Jerusalem. Where Jesus would die
on the cross for us, 2000 years ago, became
named the city of peace. The city of peace, Jeru Shalom. Salem, the city of peace. There's a promise of peace. Peace is what we need, shalom. In the New Testament
the word is Eirene, in the Greek, the same
richness, same importance, and much more than just,
there's not conflict right now. It's finally a moment
of peace and quiet, that's kind of how we use it. In fact, just words upon
words to try and get a sense of how big
this concept is. It includes well-being,
it includes completeness, it includes (SIGH), it includes
safety, it includes wholeness, it includes tranquility,
it includes prosperity. These are all synonyms attached
to it at various points. Just to give you a picture of
what God wants you, what you need inside, his perfect peace. Warren Wiersbe said
that, "Peace is what happens when God's will is
being completed in your life, and you look up
one day and you see streams of living
water gushing out of the inmost parts of you." What a wonderful
thing to believe for. That as we walk in
God's will we'll look up and there's just gushing living
water instead of the dryness, instead of the fear,
instead of the worry, instead of the meanness. There will be love. There will be peace. That's good news. That peace is an amazing thing. Who's like, I like peace. That sounds great? That is my greatest need. Didn't even know about that. The problem is,
Isaiah 48 says, "There is no peace for the wicked. There is no peace
for the wicked." The problem is we can't-- that's
an amazing lofty thing but we can't have it. Why? Because according to
the Bible's definition-- ready for it? Here's the offensive truth-- you're wicked and I'm wicked. How dare you? You don't even know me? And why would we
push back on that? Why would in a secular
society, this ever-hastening to a post-Christian
culture mentality, would we not even have
room for the notion of sin? Partially because we've all
been through enough therapy to know every
single thing that's wrong with us is the fault of
someone up the family tree. So how dare you, sir. You don't know what
I've been through, so how can you judge me? So we're ever hastening
towards a worldview where there's not
even language for sin. And if there is room
for transgression, room for improvement
in our lives, then we kind of have this
mentality where sin-- and here's kind of how we've
probably more define it if we would even allow
the word to even be used, is that I've done
more bad than good. So I'm not a sinner as long
as I've done more good things than bad things. Because surely when I
die, if there is a God, he's going to add up everything
good I did, and everything bad I did. And as long as the
heaviness of the good side is a little bit heavier,
even my one little coin, than the bad side, that
I'm going to be OK. So I'm not a sinner and Levi,
I am certainly not wicked. And I would say this
to you, two things. Number one, the biblical
definition of sin, is not you've done
more bad than good but that you've ever
done anything bad ever. Kind of makes sense--
how many people you got a murder to be a murderer? Right? How many sins you have
to commit to be a sinner? Well just the one, actually,
and you have sinned. And the Bible says that the
soul that sins shall surely die. There's wickedness that
comes through even a sin. Romans 3 says, all
have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Therefore all of
us have come lower than the standard
of righteousness required by God to not be
a sinner, to not be wicked. And the second thing I would say
is that if we're not sinners, then the cross makes no sense. If we're not wicked, then
the cross makes no sense. And if we're not completely
and totally helpless when it comes to
saving ourselves, the cross makes no sense. If indeed to not be
a sinner you just had to do slightly more
good things than bad. Then don't you think
when Jesus was praying in the Garden of
Gethsemane, Father, if there's any other way
let this cup pass from me. I don't want to go to the cross. I don't want to be
separated from you. Don't you think the
father would have said, you know Jesus we could
just tell them to be good. If that was a possibility. But Jesus said,
there's no other way. Therefore he took
the cup and was willing to drink
the cup of sorrow so you and I could
drink the cup of joy. He wants you to walk
in peace but there's no peace for the wicked. So peace remains elusive to us. And what do we do, We,
on this fallen planet? We grasp for things that
we hope will give us just a taste of peace. Maybe this will do. Maybe that will do. Because we need to-- it we all kind of
know that don't we? We're all kind of with a--
there's still something. It's an uncomfortable
reality that all of us, no matter how
successful, no matter how accomplished, no matter how
put together we try to appear, there's a real
brokenness isn't there? When we lie in bed in those
difficult hours, two, three, four. And we're awakened
with those terrors, and we're awakened
with those bad dreams. And heck, let's even
just admit it full tilt. Sometimes even after our
greatest accomplishments are in our hands do we
realize they're hollow. Man I sure sure thought if
I got to this I would be-- but it turns to
sand in our mouth. Jesus put it this way,
it's possible to gain the whole world
but lose your soul. Peace, church is what we need. Secondly, jot it down,
peace is who He is. Peace is who He is. That means that it's
not just what he does. But it's actually a
part of his character and it's part of his essence. It's part of his identity
not just his personality. In fact, one of his
names, God has many names, one of his names
is Yahweh Shalom. God who is peace. To know God is to know peace. And that's why 1
Thessalonians 5 introduces him as the God of peace, notice,
who wants to sanctify you completely, your whole
spirit, your whole soul, your whole body. So you'd be preserved blameless
at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is he saying? He's saying, the
God of peace wants you to experience that peace. Then we could say this,
and it would be true, peace is everything sin has
made wrong turned right. And you all of a sudden one
day, not just in your body, not just in your soul,
but also in your mind, in your complete total being,
experience that wholeness, that tranquility, that wellness,
feeling a sense of buoyancy and light and joy. It's who He is. We've kind of snuck this
into the various parts. He has kind of snuck this into
various parts of his story from Genesis to Revelation. In fact, every
year at Christmas, when we worship Jesus,
one of the names that he told us that he
would be worshipped by is the Prince of Peace,
Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6. Peace was a part of the
announcement of the angels. Goodwill on earth,
peace, all this was a part of the
Christmas story. Paul said in Ephesians
2, he himself is our peace, who
has made both one and has broken down the
middle wall of separation. So it's his nature. Therefore it's the
byproduct of knowing him. And it's what will happen
to you as you walk with him. Because our God, who has so much
peace as a part of who He is, is willing to share. Third take away, truth. Peace is what he gives. He came to this earth to
give peace, to bring peace, to show us how to walk in peace. Zacharias, the father
of John the Baptist, he wrote a beautiful
poem worshiping God and one of the
lines and it was, that Jesus was going
to come to give light to those who sit in darkness
and the shadow of death, to guide our feet. Notice this, into
the way of peace. There are ways in life you
can walk and you felt it. There's peace in it. And there's things that
you've done, that I've done, there's things we've said, as
arguments we've gotten into, and you just realize
even if you won the fight you lost the peace. And even if you
proved your point you forfeited the
peace, the peace that God wants you to
experience inside, outside, to be a part of. Jesus said on his
way to the cross before he died, John 14,
"Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives
do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid." Peace is what God offers. Philippians 4 says,
don't be anxious for anything, but in
everything you face, every wall of water
you're up against, every army chasing you down,
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your
requests be made known to God. And what will happen
if you do this? The peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts
and guard your minds through Jesus Christ. It's so beautiful in
the Greek, the word guard, peace is
going to guard you, if you pray when you
want to freak out, when you want to
give in to anxiety, when you want to have an attack
of your crazy panicked self that responds to
the tribulations and troubles of this
life by freaking out, when you want to just
go berserk, and wish to be back in Egypt. I mean, what are
they even saying? We want to be back in Egypt. It's so good there being a
slave, building the pyramids. They honestly actually said,
we would rather live as slaves than die free. Get us back there. And in that moment they
gave in to that fear which is so common for us. But Paul says. If you instead choose to pray
to God in the midst of what would make you want
to doubt his love, then you will experience peace
that will guard your heart. And the word 'guard'
is a word that describes a whole battalion
of soldiers coming to protect someone under their charge. Like when Paul in
the New Testament was almost put to
death, and they sent a whole bunch of soldiers
to guard him, stand around him. So think about it. That's what peace is
going to do for you. So don't think about peace
as just this kind of flowy. No. Peace can protect you. Peace has teeth to it. Peace is strong. Peace is what can protect
your heart and your mind. Now peace is freely given to us. But we must never
mistake something that's free with
something that's cheap. I think because
it's offered freely, we sometimes are tempted
to take it for granted. I've been, throughout
my life, our ministry, done lots of events
around the country-- tours, and hope to one day
do things like that again. And in the ticketing,
and the pricing of events and
figuring it all out, we've learned the hard
way over the years that it's actually a mistake
to make an event free. Even if you don't need
to, even if someone has made it available
for everyone to be free of charge to come,
that often times something free, even if people
register and RSVP to come, they're far more likely to
be a no show if they don't have anything invested in it. It's easy to take
something for granted when there's no
sense of ownership. And so here's peace that
Jesus offers freely. And I think we are all
tempted to at times dismiss it because it can't be
that good if it's free. But never mistake
free and cheap. Free to you but
not cheap to him. It was the most expensive
thing ever purchased. In fact fourth point,
peace is what he held. Jesus, in the moment of truth,
the day we celebrate today, Good Friday he held his
peace and he certainly didn't have to. In fact Matthew
puts it this way, "Jesus stood before the governor
and the governor asked him saying, 'Are you the
King of the Jews?' Jesus said to him,
'It is as you say.' And while he was being accused
by the chief priests and elders notice he answered nothing. " He held his peace "Then
Pilate said to him, 'Do you not hear how many
things they testify against you?'" They have straight
canceled you, Jesus. You were Dr. Seuss,
and Abraham Lincoln, and everybody else that's
been- you are canceled, Jesus. So speak up. Come on speak up for yourselves. Defend yourself Jesus. "But he answered
him not one word so that the governor
marveled greatly." Why? He was a man on a mission. He wasn't there
to defend himself. He wasn't there
for his ego energy. He wasn't caught up
or swept up in this. He was walking in perfect peace. And when you're
walking in peace people can bait you, and goad you,
and try and push your buttons, and try and get you
triggered, and try and get you to lash out so that they can
feel vindicated in what they have said about you all along. But Jesus stood there
perfectly at peace. Confident and
competent to handle all that was coming at
him, the river of pain that was headed his way. The soldiers there were
all about the flagellum that was about to
tear the skin off of his back, the nails that were
about to go through his wrists, the crown of thorns that
was about to be pressed upon his head, and worst
of all, your sin and my sin put upon him that he
was about to pay for, being separated from his
father and having him losing all peace on the cross. But here he stood
with steely resolve. He held his peace. He did not object to
any of the accusations. He did object to
any of the things they were saying, though
he knew they were not true. Colossians 1:20 says, by
him God chose to reconcile all things to himself. By Jesus, whether things on
Earth or things in heaven. How? Having made peace through
the blood of his cross. We heard it a moment
ago but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for
our iniquities. The chastisement or
literally the stripes of the whip for our
peace was upon him. And by those stripes we are
healed, capable and able to walk in shalom,
able to wake up, and through prayer and through
worship, and through constantly relying on the Holy Spirit,
and his word, and each other. We are able to walk
in shalom every day until he brings us to the
city of peace once again. His place, his city
that will descend from the sky and re-fuse
with the brand new created Earth, where there will
be no pain, where there will be no sorrow, where it will
take no effort to walk in peace, where it will take no constantly
re-calibrating the compass of our soul to walk in peace. In the meantime though, we
get to wake up every day and walk in that peace
because he purchased it for us looking forward to
all that he has for us. And we get to be a part of him
bringing peace to other people through us, as well. Peace is what Jesus held,
showing us it's possible, proving the concept,
telling us that we can follow his footsteps
and exhibit serenity in the face of crushing
adversity, complexity, and even torture of body. And now we're coming
full circle because now I want you to see 2 million
Israelites standing behind Moses murmuring,
criticizing, doubting, and God's whisper,
peace be still. I will take care of this. Hold your piece. Moses, stand at the
edge of the water. Nation, you're about
to move forward. I love that he told
them to go forward even when the water was still there. He didn't make it all go
away then say for-- he said, no you're going forward. Watch as I take care of
it to make it happen. Moses raises his arms out,
stretches his rod out, the shepherd's staff, the rod in
his hand, and the water parts, and a wall of fire appears
between them and the Egyptians. And they're able to
cross over on dry land and the Egyptian
army was consumed in the sea when
the walls of water fell back and folded
back in upon one another. I believe this happened as
the Bible says that it did and I've read people
who have said, oh well this couldn't have
happened it's too crazy. Red seas parting, that's just-- it couldn't happen like that. So what this is a
translation issue. This isn't the Red
Sea was the Reed Sea. a there was this very, very
small very shallow 18 inch sea, a marsh really. And the Reed Sea was
what they were at. And someone thought
it was Red Sea. Well, you know
that to me is even a bigger miracle
than the Red Sea, if it was actually the Reed Sea. How did God drown an entire
army in 18 inches of water? [LAUGHING] Either way you cut it to
me it's miraculous but [APPLAUSE] But to picture in
your mind the nation of Israel standing
there not doing anything to save themselves. How are they to be saved? The arms stretched
out in front of them. Your rod and your
staff they comfort me when I'm up against the
Valley of the shadow of death. Soldiers and waves both
things that could take me out. But I trust the one
standing in front of me with his arms raised high
who says, peace be still. The champion of our salvation,
the lover of our souls, the one who gives us peace
which we desperately need. He died so you could
forever hold your peace. Come on, thank him for a moment
for His goodness and grace. [APPLAUSE] And then let me tell
you the final thing that is so beautiful. Peace is what gives us power. The peace that we hold
on to gives us power to do what God has
called us to do. It's a weapon. And it will always
feel wrong just like standing in front of
the Red Sea moving forward believing we're not
toast, felt wrong. Sometimes it feels like
a betrayal to reality to not freak out. I need to give justice to the
situation here and at least be anxious for just a
quick minute, right? I need to fire off seven
nervous text messages just to at least dignify the reality
of what I'm facing here. For thus says the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest
you shall be saved. In quietness and confidence
shall be your strength. I will fight for you. You hold your peace. Hold your peace and
watch me fight for you. It's not in being loud,
it's not in being angry, it's not in being even right. It's being people who are
resolved to walk in peace and to allow that peace
to flow through us. And the less you feel it
the more important it is. Hard times, difficulty,
loss, complexity, setbacks, don't panic, remember. Remember the cost of your peace. Remember the rod stretched out. Remember the arms spread out. Remember that Moses
points us to Jesus. Who, as he approached the
grave, he did so with purpose so that he could part it. He split the sea of death so
we could walk right through it. You and I will go through the
valley of the shadow of death. But it will not be
able to touch us. The walls have
been torn wide open so we can pass
through miraculously on dry ground which might be
the greatest miracle of all. Not just that the
water was parted but that he dried
up all the mud. Remember when water pulls
back that is a lot of mud. But he don't want their
kicks to get messed up. [LAUGHING] He had
appreciation for the beauty of a nice pair of shoes. So he didn't allow
even mud to be there. So I just love that to be
on your radar on your mind. Romans 8, what shall we
say to these things then? If God is for us what
can be against us, who can be against us? If he did not spare his son but
he delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? This is called an argument
from the greater to the lesser. And here's such
an important thing to tuck away into your heart. God wants you to
use massive truth to treat minuscule issues. So the smaller the issue is in
your life the more important for you to use, it's like a
tiny little nail that comes up and you grab like the
giant mallet and just-- comically oversized. He says you're up against
difficulty and hardship. But if he let Jesus
die to save you he's probably going to
deal with this, too. Use massive truth to deal
with minuscule issues. Then he continues,
who will bring a charge against God's elect? It's God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It's Christ who died and
furthermore is risen, who is even at the
right hand of God who makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Can tribulation,
can distress, can red seas, or soldiers, can
bills, can pandemics, can difficulties, and
presidential elections that we're thankful
are over, can famine, or nakedness,
or peril, or sword? As it is written we feel
like sometimes for your sake we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep
for the slaughter. This is our minds
catastrophizing. The minuscule things
have gotten really big. We're being killed. Oh my gosh. Life is so horrible. Life is so horrible. Remember in those
moments when you feel like a sheep
for the slaughter that he was oppressed
and afflicted yet he opened not his mouth. He had the power to call
for 12 legions of angels to get him off the cross. But he fixed the
ear of Malchus when Peter tried to bust him out
of the Garden of Gethsemane out of the chains he was in. And he said, put N chains
back on me, I'm good. Could have called for
12 legions of angels but he opened not his mouth. And now you need to remember
those angels are guarding you. Those angels are serving you. The New Testament
says that angels are the guardians of those who
are the heirs of salvation. God will send them
to guard your home. God will send them
to guard your heart. There is protection in peace. Roman 16:20, the
end of the story is the God of peace is going
to crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ will be with you. The devil wants you to get you
on your heels, knocked down. And God will put
peace under your feet to give you a firm foundation. And that's why in Ephesians 6
out of all the pieces of armor we're given, peace is
what protects our feet. He says to shod your
feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You will find your footing
as you walk in your peace. Now I'm almost done. I want to close with this. And then we'll pray,
we'll take communion, we'll believe for God
to drive these truths through his spirit into our
hearts as we sing again. A few months before the pandemic
began my daughter Clover and I went on a
little preaching trip. And I planned a day for us,
just a daddy daughter day. And so we went to the
beach and we were there and I was trying to really
be present and focused and not distracted. So I turned my phone off and
left it on the beach chair and we went to the
edge of the water and was trying to care about
what Clover cared about. And what Clover cared
about were seashells. And she said, Daddy I want
to get some seashells. And of course I go, where
are we going to keep them? She goes, [CRINKLE] Pulls out a Ziploc baggie
that she had produced out of her bathing suit. [LAUGHING] Because that's
Clover, always a plan. She goes, they're
going to go in this bag that I brought for the seashells
that I'd planned to pick up. And so we walked around. I got to admit Clover was
better at picking up seashells than dad. Because I was having a
hard time finding any. But she had so many
in the bag already. And she goes, what's
the matter with you? You haven't contributed any. I said, I can't find any. All these are broken. And she goes, Dad, the broken
seashells are beautiful, too. [SIGH] [LAUGHTER] That was worth the price of
admission right there, church. Come on, thank God that he sees
beauty in your broken places. [APPLAUSE] He still puts us in his bag
and has a plan to bring us home even though we're broken. So we end up, she
gets 150 seashells. I know that because she
counts them all 150. We were proud of our day's work. And we set the bag up by
the chairs by my phone, and we went down to
the edge of the water. And we had bought a
boogie board and so were playing in the water And
I don't know what made me, but at some point, I looked
back up toward the chairs. And I saw that there
was a seagull standing at the base of our chair
and it had its head in the bag of seashells. And something told
me, this is not good. So I just ran and Clover
goes, Dad where are you going And I didn't even answer her. I was on a mission. I had to get there
before he noticed me. And about two feet away,
he looked up and saw me, grabbed the bag of seashells
and just started flying. And so I am off after
this seagull I'm running-- [LAUGHING] and he can't go that fast
because the 150 seashells kind of a heavy bag. And so he's kind of trying to
fly, and I'm gaining on him. And I am going to get him. And I hear Clover behind
me and she trips on a dune and she falls. But I can't help her. I am on a mission
at this moment. And luckily the seagull
dropped the bag on the ground and I'm like, I got you now. And he grabbed it but he grabbed
it by the side of the bag so when he flies off
now the seashells are flying out of the bag. And they're like
manna from heaven. I'm trying to catch them
up but I'm still running. And so I realized,
this is my moment because it's going
to get lighter. He's just going to
take off with it. So I just yell really
loud (SHOUTS) Ah! And he dropped the bag. I got it and he just sat
there right next to me. As Clover and I
began walking back to the chairs getting as many
of these seashells as we can. At which point I
immediately looked up and he was right there
behind our chairs looking at us, looking for his
opportunity to get them again with a smug look on his face. [LAUGHING] I turned on my phone
and I snapped this photo to just document the moment
because it was so beautiful. [LAUGHING] There's the seagull right there
just looking for an opportunity And look at Clover. She's like, you
will not prevail. We're going home with our
beautiful broken seashells. [MUSIC PLAYING] We were walking to
the car after this and we were just talking
about how out of all that, we've picked up seashells on
a lot of beaches in our lives. We're talking about how these
ones they something different. She's like, Dad these
seashells mean a lot more to me than any other seashells. Because not just
not just are they special to me because
I picked them all up but because they were taken away
from you and we got them back. And I just want you to
know that if you're ever doubting that God's got a plan
or God is good in your life, I just want you to know
that he doubly loves you. He loves you
because he made you. And he proved his
love because when you were lost, when you were
taken away from him by sin and it disconnected
you from the peace that he wants to flow through
you, look at the great lengths he went to on the
cross to save you when you were taken away from him. And so yeah, you
feel you're broken and you feel like, I
can't really be used. God can't really love me
because of all the pain, but you're
misunderstanding the point. He clutches you to his
heart because of your sin. He clutches you to his
heart because of the ways that you've erred. Because you're a sheep
that's gone astray. But he now has you
around his shoulders and he is rejoicing
that what was lost has now come home come home. Come one, thank God for his love [APPLAUSE] that knows no bounds. But I got to tell you
That it's always a mistake to try and get the peace
of God without first knowing the God of peace. This world is full of people
trying to get the peace of God, trying through spirituality
or this or for that, to experience that
tranquility, that wholeness. A lot of people going
to go to yoga classes this week trying to
get the peace of God and not realizing that
when you, as CS Lewis put it, when you aim at Earth
you don't get heaven or earth, but when you aim at
heaven you get both. When you just look to the
God of peace as a byproduct you will always walk in peace. But we can't experience
the blessings of God without knowing the
one who blesses. And so today if you've
never given your heart to Jesus, the Prince
of Peace, that's your next step, to respond to
his love and his invitation. Because he invites you to
walk in relationship with him. He invites you to walk
in wholeness with him. And then you will
watch that peace begin to flow through you
as your story unfolds. The Bible says that he stands
at the door of our hearts and he knocks. And if anyone opens the
door he will come in. And so today's the day and now's
the time because the reality is we never know when our hour
of death is going to come You and I don't know when we're
going to stand before God to be judged. And it will not be did
you do more good than bad. That's not how it works,
it's heaven or hell, and it comes down to Jesus. And so let's pray together. Let's believe for salvation. Let's believe for strength. Let's believe for peace. If you're ready to give
your heart to Christ, to ask him to forgive
you of your sins, to be your Lord and Savior,
I'm going to say a prayer. And I would like for you to say
it with me out loud after me, prayed in your heart yes. But speak it with your
lips because there's power in confession. And even these words
coming out of your mouth right there in your living
room, right there in your car. At one of our
locations there's power in confessing the name of Jesus. Church family say it with
us, no one praying alone. Dear God, [REPEATED WORDS] I know that I'm a sinner. [REPEATED WORDS] I need your peace [REPEATED WORDS] I can't get it on my own. [REPEATED WORDS] Thank you for buying it [REPEATED WORDS] On the cross [REPEATED WORDS] With your blood. [REPEATED WORDS] And thank you that the
story did not end there. [REPEATED WORDS] that Jesus rose from the dead [REPEATED WORDS] and is alive forever [REPEATED WORDS] I give you my heart [REPEATED WORDS] I give you my pain [REPEATED WORDS] I give you my sin [REPEATED WORDS] Be my Lord. [REPEATED WORDS] Be my Savior, [REPEATED WORDS] In Jesus' name [REPEATED WORDS] Heads still bowed,
eyes still closed, if you prayed that
prayer I'm going to give you space to act on it. I'm going to count to three,
and if you prayed that prayer to give your life to
Jesus, when I get to three I want you to shoot
your hand up in the air. If you're watching
at home, if you're watching this on
the beach somewhere, watch out for the seagulls,
but raise your hand right where you are. Every location in
the back of the room in Portland, Salt
Lake City, Utah, in Bozeman, Montana, and
Whitefish, and Kalispell, and in Helena. And I want you when
I get to three, raise your hand
believing, triumphantly for the peace of God
to rule in your hearts, to rule in your minds. One, two, three, shoot your
hands up, shoot your hands up. We're celebrating with you. We're praising God for you
every single one of you. [APPLAUSE] You can put your hands down. Well let's thank God
for what he's doing. Look at the salvation
he's working. [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC PLAYING] Amen, Amen, Amen.
