Finding True Peace: A Christmas Sermon

A poor man lived in a tiny, one-room house with his wife and six noisy

children. Driven crazy by the constant chaos and lack of space, he went to

his pastor for advice on how to find peace.

"Pastor," he moaned, "my house is a nightmare! My wife, my

children—we're all on top of each other! I need peace!" The pastor

listened thoughtfully and then, to the man's astonishment, advised: "Go

home and bring your chickens into the house".

Confused but desperate, the man did as he was told. The next day, he ran

back, crying: "What have you done to me, Pastor?! It's awful! The chickens

are all over the house!"

"Go home," he calmly said, "and bring the goat into the house".

The man obeyed. The following day, he returned, even more distressed:

"The chickens are gone, but the goat is smashing all the furniture and

eating everything!"

The pastor paused and then said, "Now go home and bring the cow

inside". The man, now completely exasperated, followed the advice. The

next day he was back, wailing about the cow making the house a stable.

Finally, the pastor said gently, "My friend, go home now and take all the

animals out of your house".

The man went home and, with great relief, shooed all the animals out. The

next day, he came running back to the pastor, a huge smile on his face. "O

Pastor," he exclaimed, "we have such a good life now! The animals are all

out of the house. The house is so peaceful, and we've got room to spare!"

We can all find peace in life when we look for it.

Let’s read from Luke 2. I read from the NLT.

Life can be chaotic. Especially during the Christmas season with buying

gifts, figuring out who is coming over, how much food do you need, is the

house clean enough, are the sheets clean and this list goes on and on. We

bring it on ourselves, right? We get so wrapped up in the things that don’t

really matter that we forget to enjoy the moment and we have no peace.

God doesn’t call us to live a frantic lifestyle, matter of fact, He says, “Be

still and know that I am God.” Chill out and realize that I am God, from the

Gen Z bible. Sit down, shut up and focus. Know that I am God. That one

is the Mark translation. That is how God gets my attention from time to

time.

Many times, I put too many irons in the fire and feel like I am not going to

have enough time to get it all done. So, I sit and get frustrated because I

lose my peace. Maybe you do too?

I have a few things that we need to not only realize, but we need to

understand and live our lives with these in mind so that we can have

peace. The first one…

1. Perfect peace is a gift from God; you can’t get it on your own.

John 14:27

John 16:33

I played for you my favorite non-traditional Christmas song a little bit ago.

It just puts a smile on my face every time I hear it. My favorite Christmas

movie is A Christmas Carol, but moving in real close is the one that we

watched last Sunday night, Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

In A Christmas Carol, Mr. Scrooge thinks that he has peace of mind, but

what he really has is bitterness and frustration. He has a lot of money but

yet he doesn’t have joy or hope or love in his heart. I wouldn’t even say

he cares about himself. He lives from day to day thinking that he has life

right where he wants it, until he gets confronted by the Spirits of Past,

present and future.

And when he sees the consequences that others pay because of his

actions, he realizes that he doesn’t have any peace. That something within

himself has to change and he becomes more Christlike.

In The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the family of five…hateful, scary,

mean, rude and a lot like Karen Wheeler. Just kidding… Anyway, these

kids did all kinds of bad stuff and what they needed in their lives was

peace. They show up to church for free food and take over the play. As

they are practicing, they start learning about Jesus and Mary and the whole

story. And so, they researched about the birth of Jesus and as they

learned more about Him, they got the peace they really needed.

Here's what I know some times, many times, life isn’t fair. It really just

bites from time to time. It seems like no matter what we do, we can’t get

a head. We consistently fight against, illness, mortgage, death, payments,

arguments, and anything else that gets thrown at us.

When it comes to peace, we can’t earn enough money to get it on our

own. We can’t do enough good to get it either. There is only one way to

get peace. That is through the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. There are a

few different types of peace. One type is where there just isn’t any

fighting. I just let it go to keep the peace. That ain’t peace. That is just

not fighting.

And then there is a peace that we get that helps us understand no matter

the situation, no matter the storm we are in, we know that we are safe in

the arms of God. The peace that comes from knowing and understanding

that no matter what life has in store for you, God has something better.

Problems are temporary. Life is temporary, but you know what is not

temporary? Eternity. You can have peace about where you will spend

eternity.

Let me give you another one.

2. God’s glory lights up dark places, even fields at night.

Luke 2:9-10, 13-14

John 8:12

One of the sermons that I have done since being the pastor was one that I

covered all the windows in the sanctuary and had all the lights turned off

and it got fairly dark in here not completely dark. Then I had Davis turn on

the spot light and it was amazing how much brighter it was in the

sanctuary.

I talked about how the light overcomes the darkness every time. The

darkness does not make the light dimmer in any way. The light makes the

darkness brighter and to prove my point, I opened this door and even

though this room was full of darkness, the light from the spotlight

continued to be as bright in the sanctuary and also added light to the

closet.

Science, in their multiple attempts to disprove the bible continue to

reinforce what the bible says over and over. We just fail to see it. I did an

internet search of “Can you measure darkness?” And the answer was this,

“Yes, darkness can be measured indirectly by quantifying the absence of

light or the level of light pollution.” See what they did there. They say you

can measure darkness by measuring the amount of light? So, what they

are really doing is measuring light. God is the light and in Him there is no

darkness at all.

When I was in college, my biology teacher, who was more of an agnostic

(wasn’t sure if there was a God or not) than an atheist (doesn’t believe

there is a God) and he made the statement that like only comes from like.

You can’t plant an apple tree and get largemouth bass. The only thing that

you would get is apples. Every cell that reproduces, will reproduce the

same kind of cell.

Even in the darkness of some educations, the light is still shining.

Sometimes we have to make our way through the high level of light

pollution to see it, but it is there.

3. Glory to God… peace on Earth… promised and proclaimed.

Isaiah 9:6

Isaiah 7:14

Luke 2:11-12

Anyone ever make a promise? Everyone that is married has. Anyone ever

make a promise and fail to keep it? Anyone ever been promised something

and it never happened? We love promises and guarantees, right? Unless

it’s one of those “If you don’t watch it, you’re gonna get it” promises.

Don’t want that one.

We like to buy stuff with the promise that it will work or we will repair or

replace it. We like it when we believe the promises of a politician and they

actually keep them. We don’t like empty promises. If you tell me that you

are going to do something, then you need to do it. If you tell me that my

car will be fixed by the end of the day, then it needs to be fixed by the end

of the day, not the end of the week.

But the best promise ever made, the promise of a Savior, the Prince of

Peace, Jesus Christ took about 700 years to be kept. Now, as I said, I

don’t like waiting until the end of the week, but this promise was worth

waiting for. This promise meant so much more than just a warm fuzzy

feeling. This promise brought about all the things that we have talked

about this advent season.

Hope…the promise of the Messiah brought hope to the Israelites and it

brings Hope to us. An anticipation of Heaven for those that truly trust in

the Lord.

Love…For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son….

Joy… not to be confused with happiness, but real joy in our souls that no

one can take away.

And Peace…God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His

peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:7

Do you have those today? You can have them if you just surrender to Him.