Luke 2:1-21

[0:00] Now, while you're getting there, I want to prepare us a little bit for what we're going to be studying this morning. And I believe that over the last week, if we think about it, the last month maybe, or even the last year probably for all of us, we can think of times when we have struggled with worry, when we have struggled with anxiety, when we've struggled with feeling overwhelmed.

[0:23] I know that from talking to many of us and knowing myself that many of us can often struggle with the feeling that we can never do enough at our jobs, for our families, or even that we can never do enough work for the kingdom.

[0:40] Others of us struggle with the feeling that we can never measure up to the work that others are doing. Many of us set really, really high goals for ourselves, and then we're so, so, so frustrated with ourselves when we see the great distance between where we're at and the goals that we've set.

[0:58] I've been in all those places. I've seen the reality of reaching the end of my power in almost everything. I've fully exhausted the end of what I can do and failed to acknowledge or accept the Lord's help.

[1:14] And that's when we run to that worry, that anxiety, that avoidance. I ran to everything I could to get rid of that weight that can just be weighing down on us so much.

[1:28] And I think if we all think about it, I think if we're honest, we all hit those points. We've been there, and sometimes that may just be a mindset struggle, or other times it may flow out in our actions and be very apparent.

[1:41] But I'm up here this morning to preach about peace. So why am I starting with all of this anxiety, this worry, these ideas about work?

[1:53] Because those tend to be the opposites of peace. We often run to those and away from the peace that the Lord has provided through his birth, life, death, and resurrection.

[2:05] It's what we so often run to. So just a quick story. So almost three years ago. I know the exact date. It was March 14, 2016.

[2:16] I know that because it's the oldest note I have in my current phone. I was sitting on the back porch of what y'all call the refuge where Matthew and Alex and Ian and Spencer live. I was talking to Clay.

[2:29] Back then, I was in his discipleship group. And he had had us listen to a sermon that is called Work and Rest. It's by Tim Keller. It's a really good sermon that has done me a lot of good in going back and listening to it quite a few times since then.

[2:43] I'd really recommend that if you struggle with prioritizing work and rest. And in his sermon, he talks about the modern culture and how in many ways, many of us have become workaholics in a way that has never been seen before.

[2:57] He explains that because many of us can work from anywhere, we do work from anywhere and work from everywhere and often do that all the time. We struggle to find true rest.

[3:10] Many of us, I know that I personally get called out for this a lot, constantly have a productivity mindset. If something doesn't seem immediately productive, we're not going to do it.

[3:23] I think a lot of us struggle with that. And rest is one of those things that doesn't seem immediately productive. Those that are really close to me have had to call me out to remind me that the Lord has called us to a life that needs some rest, needs some Sabbath, needs some peace.

[3:40] After all, we're not God. We're simply laborers in the Lord. We're not our own lords, but so, so, so often we try to be. So often. In Keller's sermon, I'll borrow a few things he says.

[3:54] He gives three ways in which we often try to constantly work. He asserts that we constantly feel this pressure to prove ourselves in three different ways. Firstly, he says that we feel the need to prove ourselves to God.

[4:08] We feel the need to prove ourselves to God. Secondly, we feel the need to prove ourselves to ourselves. And thirdly, that we feel the need to prove ourselves to others. So going back to that day in March of 2016, as Clay and I were talking on the back porch, I really began to think about those three.

[4:25] And realized that I had put so much effort into one of those for sure, and oftentimes all three of those. And that's so dangerous. Being in a constant state of trying to prove ourselves and feeling this weight that we're not good enough, either for God, for ourselves, or for others, takes us so far away from that hope, that joy, that peace that are found in the gospel of Christ.

[4:50] Now these realities, I think, can come in the forms that we often think of them in. I think what comes to my mind when I think about proving ourselves to God is the view that pretty much all of the world that does not trust in Christ, is their only hope, has that if we do enough good things or we avoid enough bad things, that we're good.

[5:14] We'll have whatever afterlife we imagine. We'll be set. When we think about proving ourselves to ourselves, I think many of us have the idea that we need to have as good of a house, as good of a car, as raise our family well, at least as well as our parents did, hold down a good career.

[5:33] When we think about proving ourselves to others, I think we think of some of the same things. doing lots of good things, having lots of worldly possessions, doing every possible activity that we can.

[5:45] And all that's just to impress other people. All of that. Now all those are very, very dangerous, and I don't want to deny that in one bit, because they show a heart that is either not currently set on the gospel or has never put its hope in the gospel.

[6:01] But I know that for myself and for many of the rest of us, there's some very much more subtle ways that we start believing these, and because of how subtle they are, I think they can be possibly even more dangerous.

[6:15] Thinking about trying to prove ourselves to God and doing every possible ministry opportunity and never saying no. Being a part of way too many campus ministries to the detriment of commitments to each one and to the church and to all the other legitimately important things in life as well.

[6:35] Or hanging about proving ourselves to God and taking pride in these long stretches of avoiding sin and boasting that we haven't struggled with something in a really long time.

[6:49] And then when we do sin, being utterly defeated when we slip up, and that shows we've been putting our confidence in our own good works instead of the finished work of Christ.

[7:01] I've also found myself in the state of wanting to prove myself to myself and being completely unwilling to participate in something like a leisure activity because it doesn't seem productive.

[7:13] Running away from opportunities to be with the community because we feel that we are too busy and thinking that everything must be directly productive.

[7:24] And treating ourselves as if we have all the power in the world and so we can be involved in everything there is that is good. And then I think even worse of trying to prove ourselves to others and wanting people to realize how busy we are or wanting to do service that is in the spotlight but being unwilling to do something that's behind the scenes.

[7:47] I think I could go on and on all morning but I don't think I need to. I'm aware that many of those overlap and I want to communicate those realities for a number of reasons not the least of which being that I want to apologize to any of you who have been hurt by my own sinful tendencies to want to prove myself.

[8:08] I also believe that if we're honest we all struggle in some way of feeling the need to prove ourselves. And any of those start to rely on our own works and not putting our hope and joy and ultimately having peace in the finished work of Christ.

[8:27] Okay. So I'm here to talk about peace. So let's get to it. So Luke 2. Luke 2. So this is a very, very, very familiar Christmas passage. If I'm not careful in my reading of it I'm going to switch half the words to KJV because I remember men in my family's church reading it so often.

[8:48] Because of those kind of realities I'd really like to encourage you not to just check out. Don't think you've heard this passage 80 times and so you don't need to listen. Brothers and sisters, as Nathan faithfully reminds us this is the word of God.

[9:02] It was written for the Lord's glory and for our good. It will be good for us this morning to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands. So verse 1 of Luke 2. So as in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

[9:18] This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea 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 is with child.

[9:38] 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 swaddling clothes 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 in the field keeping watch over their flock by night.

[9:53] 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 said to them Fear not for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

[10:06] 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 to you for you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and 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 pleased.

[10:26] When the angels went away from them into heaven the shepherds said to one another let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.

[10:39] And when they saw it they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things pondering them in her heart.

[10:50] And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. And at the end of eight days when he was circumcised he was called Jesus the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

[11:03] Let's pray. Lord this morning I just ask that you would teach us about your peace. Let us not go away from here struggling with the anxiety and the worry that we so often try to hold on to Lord.

[11:19] Help us learn from your word. Guard my tongue from saying anything false. Let anything fall on deaf ears that is untrue Lord and truly teach us from your word this morning.

[11:30] In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So I'll be very honest and say I had a very difficult time deciding on my main text for this morning. Very, very difficult.

[11:41] There are many passages about the peace of God. The peace we have with God through Christ. The peace we have within our souls because of being accepted in Christ and the peace we can share with others because of who we are now in Christ.

[12:00] But I really struggled to decide which one would be most beneficial. So after a lot of thought and prayer and confidence that all scripture is beneficial for teaching, correction, reproof, training in righteousness I landed here and we'll also hit a lot of the other passages.

[12:16] So before we talk about this text I want to give you a little bit of the structure for the forward heading. So I'm going to use a heading and there will be three sub points within that. So our heading is How Our Saviors Birth, Life, Death, and Resurrection.

[12:32] That's How Our Saviors Birth, Life, Death, and Resurrection. The three points under that will be firstly brings us peace with God. Brings us peace with God. Secondly brings us peace with ourselves.

[12:45] And thirdly brings us peace with others. So, we're going to start with how our Savior's birth, life, death, and resurrection brings us peace with God. So here in this text we hear the very familiar story of our Savior's birth.

[12:59] We see Mary and Joseph have traveled to the town of Bethlehem to be registered or taxed and while they're on this journey it came time for Jesus to be born. When he was born he was laid in a manger there was no room for them in the inn.

[13:12] And we hear a little bit about the perspective of some other people. So some shepherds who were doing their thing they were just watching their flocks like they typically do and suddenly an angel appeared to them told them of good news of great joy something that would be good for all people it says.

[13:29] The angel told them that that day a Savior had been born who's called Christ the Lord the long expected Jesus. The angel then tells the shepherds how they're going to find him and as the angel is finishing giving the spill about Jesus suddenly there's a ton of angels and they're so excited they say glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

[13:51] So this birth ushers in great glory to the Lord great excitement as they say peace among those with whom he is pleased. Seems like a pretty significant event for that to happen.

[14:03] I mean angels have come proclaiming glory to God in the highest but then I go and see this child born and nothing seems overly fancy here in this account fairly normal birth so what's the big deal?

[14:19] How does this birth bring glory to God in the highest and peace among those with whom the Lord is pleased? Well I think most if not all of us are very very acquainted with the glorious truth of us but it is good to be reminded so let's let the scripture do that.

[14:35] So now really getting into our point of how it brings us peace with God. We follow the narrative a little bit through Luke we see Jesus grow up we see Jesus at age 12 in the temple answering questions and asking questions and the teachers are amazed at his understanding and his answers and we see something beautiful I believe if you flip over to Luke 3 where John the Baptist is preparing the way for Jesus' ministry and he says sweet words found in Isaiah 40 recorded here in verses 4-6 says the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make his path straight every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall become straight and the rough places shall become level ways and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

[15:23] So John is preparing the way ushering something new in all flesh shall see the salvation of God that's huge later on the chapter he explains that he's baptizing with water but there's one coming that he's not even worthy to untie his sandals and he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

[15:40] So there's something new coming and this new thing that's coming is coming through this boy who was just born Jesus. So looking a little bit further into Luke we see Jesus being tempted of the devil and we see Jesus strongly rebuke the devil as someone with authority and with power.

[15:56] We then see him begin his ministry preaching good news preaching repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And there's remarks all the time of this Jesus is preaching with authority and not like the typical teachers.

[16:12] But then I believe one of the most astounding things about the accounts of Jesus' life is that he never gives in to temptation. Never gives in to temptation. In fact in describing Jesus' life the author of Hebrews says this in chapter 4 verse 15 for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who is in every respect has been tempted as we are yet he's without sin.

[16:38] He never gave in to temptation. And so going through the accounts of Jesus' life he offended many. After all he spoke with the authority of God.

[16:50] He spoke with the authority to forgive sins and to call out sin which he did so quite frequently and did not back down from at all. And ultimately people were so offended and so hardened in their own ways that they decided that instead of having what we would now think of as the worst type of criminal killed they would have that man freed but would have Jesus crucified.

[17:15] And now this Jesus was crucified and in fact he died. But then three days later he rose from the dead. And this isn't some myth that we like to tell especially during this time of year but he appeared to many witnesses.

[17:29] So what does this matter for our peace? Why were we not at peace before? So to answer that question turn with me to Romans 5. Romans 5. Romans 5. So here in Romans 5 I would like to look at the first 11 verses and unpack just a bit of what it has to say here.

[18:01] Pick it up in verse 1 of Romans chapter 5. It says Therefore since we've been justified by faith we have peace with the God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

[18:18] Not only that but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

[18:34] For while we are still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly for one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us since therefore we have now been justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life more than that we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation so I'm very aware that this is a very packed passage and it's not my goal this morning to completely unpack everything but there's some really important things about our piece here that I want to talk about so I'm going to somewhat work it from the middle end area back to the beginning so let's look back at verses 6-8 it says for while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly for one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die but God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners

[19:43] Christ died for us note a couple of things in these verses okay Paul describes us as weak and as sinners I think he's being honestly kind of nice there elsewhere where we're described as dead as dead in our sins unable to do anything good we're described as not being righteous completely unable for any good work never seeking for God always turning away worthless now Paul is stating that even with us in that state Christ died for us he didn't die for an innocent child he didn't die for a lovely woman he didn't die for a strong and loving man he died for sinners he died for the ungodly he died for us while we were in that state of never seeking him and always railing against him never turning away from our sin and in fact not even being able to turn away from our sin we were worthless but he died for us in that state and we could talk about what great love that is for hours but I don't want to steal next week's sermon but what I do want to talk about is how that death brought us peace now we believe that God is altogether righteous and altogether holy he cannot tolerate sin sin must be punished or otherwise he would not be righteous or holy think about the realities of sin for any length of time and as Lord gives you grace to see it we will truly see it that it is that horrible so if this is the case if it's the case that God is truly altogether righteous altogether holy and we are worthless and always turning to sin we should not be able to be in his presence we should be damned to punishment forever and that's rightful but here in verse 1

[21:36] Paul states that through faith in Jesus life death resurrection we can have peace with God the angels back in Luke proclaimed glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased so how does that work how can this work with the reality of the depth of our sinfulness and the depth of the Lord's righteousness and holiness let's go back to this person of Jesus we said this person of Jesus lived the perfect life was tempted just as we were but yet did not sin but was crucified suffered a sinner's death but three days later he rose again then look down at verse 9 it says since therefore we have now been justified by his blood much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God for if while we were enemies were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life more than that we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation as we've been justified by his blood and saved from the wrath of God and for even more clarification in verse 1 it says we are justified by our faith in his life death resurrection so putting all that together through our

[22:43] Lord Jesus and putting faith in his blood shed on our behalf on the cross he lived that perfect life the life that we should have lived but have never been capable of but he suffered the death for our sins so that when God sees us he does not see our filthy nasty worthless sin but he sees Christ's righteousness and his blood shed on our behalf and that's the heart of our faith and because of this the great work of our Savior's birth life death resurrection we have peace with God no more need to prove ourselves to God number one because we can't and number two because Christ has already done the work for us Christ has already done the work for us so that brings us to our next point how our Savior's birth life death and resurrection brings us peace with ourselves how our Savior's birth life death and resurrection brings us peace with ourselves like I said earlier I think many of us hold ourselves to really really high standards

[23:47] I think we often feel the need that we must prove ourselves to ourselves we set really lofty goals and get so angry at ourselves when we can't meet them whether they be spiritual or just typical goals when we fail to meet those goals we get frustrated we can get really down on ourselves even hate ourselves I must confess that that is really often where I find myself never quite living up to the goals I have for myself as a follower of Christ as a husband as a church member and as a teacher I believe many of us can very easily begin to believe lies that we will lose God's affection if we're going through a rough patch spiritually or not living up to how we see our roles working out but let's think about that idea for a bit all of our striving all of our work all of our pressing on all of our trying to be the very best that we can be all of our so often trying to be God whether that be intentional or unintentional what is that compared to all our righteousness is compared to filthy racks apart from the saving work of

[25:02] Christ we can do nothing good and you may say that doesn't help me feel peace about myself at all and it doesn't me either but we keep tracking a little bit earlier we concluded all those things that yeah we're filthy sinners who are worthless yeah but we also concluded that somehow we have peace with God is this peace with God coming from how well we work spiritually coming from how well we are doing in our roles whatever those may be not at all not at all yes we can do nothing good without Christ but we have been given God's love he's shown us such great love that even while we were sinners railing against him he died for us when the Lord sees us he no longer sees our sin he sees the finished work of Christ now God is the person who controls our ultimate destiny it's not up to us it's up to him and because of this we are justified reconciled accepted in sight and that's what matters to go off of our theme that we missed last week I think that should bring us great joy that it's not not up to us having peace with God and not just that but being welcomed into the Lord's family it's not up to us and if that's the case we shouldn't let our failings overly frustrate us or even turn to hatred of ourself but instead we should marvel at the grace shown to us in the Lord while we were yet sinners and even now as we still struggle so much sometimes he's shown great love to us so yes we should be constantly in a process of acknowledging our failings but then taking our minds off that and marveling on the great love of

[27:02] Christ shown to us to forget about ourselves more and more and to dwell on Christ yes we have failed and we still fail but our Lord has begun the work and he has promised he will complete it I think Paul expresses this idea really really really well at the end of Romans 7 turn with me there just over to Romans 7 I remember going through a certain part of my walk with the Lord a few years back and I just kept coming back to this passage over and over and over being frustrated with my own actions and I think Paul says it well so picking up in verse 15 here says for I do not understand my own actions for I do not do what I want but I do the very thing that I hate now if I do what I do not want I agree with the law that it is good so now it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me for

[28:06] I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh for I have the desire to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out for I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing now if I do what I do not want it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right evil lies close at hand for I delight in the law of God and my inner being but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord so then I myself serve the law of God with my mind but with my flesh I serve the law of sin I think this idea we just talked about is exactly what Paul is talking about so often I believe we find ourselves really enjoying the gospel but then so quickly our affections being turned towards sin but look at the ending praise to

[29:07] God that he will ultimately deliver us from this body of death so we should be at peace with ourselves and not constantly feeling down about our failings but feeling the joy of Christ's work so that brings us to our third point how our Savior's birth life death and resurrection brings us peace with others how our Savior's birth life death and resurrection brings us peace with others we mentioned earlier when discussing the felt need to prove ourselves to others that we so often want to compare ourselves to others we try to look at each other's struggles and think oh I'm I'm not that bad or we tend to look at what we're doing for the Lord and then look at what our brothers and sisters are doing for the Lord and get some sort of sick satisfaction of thinking that we do more so we must be better off or we want to show others how busy we are and how committed we are and how because of this somehow our thinking tells us that we're better followers of

[30:12] Christ we want others to see our own work brothers and sisters none of these are gospel mindsets none of these bring glory to the work of Christ and all of these try to take the glory that the work of Christ deserves and put it on something that we've already concluded is worthless and so with that as we truly understand the gospel of who we are in Christ what he has taken us from of the depths of our sin then understand why he chose us of simply his grace I think we as believers see that we're all really in the same boat we were all sinners we're all in a state of spiritual death we all needed new birth but I think we so often struggle with the idea of subtly thinking that oh I've never done anything like they've done I'm better off or sometimes we either intentionally or unintentionally end up thinking that we've always done good works or that we don't need the

[31:21] Lord's grace as much as the next guy or why did the Lord save them when they've done such bad things and all these sound awful like we would never think these things but that is what we're doing when we're comparing ourselves to others it's exactly what we're doing and so we have to be vigilant against these mindsets as they so often creep in we must remember that all of us every single one of us has committed an infinite trespass against a holy God and we're so all of us are fully deserving of death and hell and we're given a grace to not be sent there right now so how does that bring us peace with others we have no room for boasting salvation is all based on grace and undeserved kindness so all our boasting must stop we all need the Lord if the Lord counted trespasses against us who could stand no one right we all have that flesh that still tries to creep in to destroy us to distract us from the good work the

[32:26] Lord's giving us and only the Lord will deliver us from that body of death none of our striving it's the Lord's work but so often we carry around the sense of some sort of spiritual pride thinking that we do the most good works of anybody around us or that we avoid more sin than most but when we truly understand our position of being saved completely by grace alone through faith alone in the work of Christ and nothing of ourselves alone that there's no good in ourselves apart from his work our pride and our boasting should be gone entirely gone we have no grounds for it and as it goes away we can have the great peace and harmony that the Lord has called us to with each other with our brothers and sisters working together as one body for the Lord just one more quick thing on this point to demonstrate the reality of how ridiculous our pride can be sometimes I want to share a song that I believe demonstrates its ugliness if you grew up in a very traditional country-ish type church you might recognize these lyrics what I want you to pay attention to is the level of pride that it communicates and then the realization of that in the end I'll probably get made fun of for quoting this one later but but I really think like this communicates the ugliness of pride and the reality of it's I guess not having any sort of base and it's simple but it's good it says I thought number one would surely be me I thought I could do what I wanted to do excuse me I thought I could be what I wanted to be I thought I could build on life sinking sand but now I can't even walk without you holding my hand I thought I could do a lot on my own I thought I could make it all the day long I thought of myself as a mighty big man but Lord I can't even walk without you holding my hand so often we try to take credit and take pride in the things that the Lord is giving us to walk in this tears down our thinking about the gospel we forget that any good thing that we're able to do is a sweet grace to us and yet another thing our pride tears down the relationship we have with our brothers and sisters who make up the church so let's remember the gospel the good news that yes we can do nothing but even while we're in that Christ showed his great love to us and that he gave us his great salvation by paying the ultimate price of a sinner's death and bearing the wrath of God for our sins let that reality rule our minds and there will be no room for pride left we'll have so much more room for peace with our brothers and sisters I believe that's the number one thing that can tear that down now we've we've talked about the realities of peace that the Lord has ushered in at this point we've talked about how our Savior's birth life death and resurrection has brought us peace with God peace with ourselves and peace with others but how do we maintain this how do we hold on to this peace and what does it look like can we have it all the time I want to look at one more passage before we close to turn with me to Philippians 4 Philippians 4 I think this or maybe Ephesians 2 is probably the most common passage used to talk about this and I think rightfully so so I want to look at verses 4 through 13 here in

[36:16] Philippians 4 picking up in verse 4 it says rejoice in the Lord always again I will say rejoice let your reasonableness be known to everyone the Lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts in your minds in Christ Jesus finally brothers whatever is true whatever is honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable if there is any excellence there is anything worthy of praise think about these things what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice excuse me practice these things and the God of peace will be with you I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you've revived your concern for me you were indeed concerned for me but you had no opportunity not that I'm speaking of being in need for I've learned in whatever situation I am to be content I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance I've learned the secret of placing facing plenty and hunger abundance in need I can do all things through him who strengthens me so in closing a couple of things to note when

[37:33] Paul is talking about this piece that surpasses all understanding he describes being able to have it in any circumstances and as verses just below it he says that he has learned in whatever situation he is in to be content he can have peace no matter what is going on around him now why is this is he some sort of super Christian that had special powers that he can do it he can have peace no matter what but we can't do it absolutely not he's able to be at peace by doing what he says right here by setting his mind look at verse eight finally brothers whatever is true whatever is honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable if there's any excellence if there's anything worthy of praise think about these things he's setting his mind and that is how he's able to keep peace no matter what's going on around him sets his mind on the things that are actually worthy of praise he doesn't get caught up in comparing himself to others he doesn't get caught up in wallowing about in a sin but he sets his mind on the great hope we have in

[38:47] Christ he's thankful he takes everything to the Lord in prayer he rejoices in the Lord what a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and griefs to bear what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer just like it says here oh what peace we often forfeit oh what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in care in prayer we can take our anxieties to the Lord we can set our minds on the things that are true that are honorable that are just that are pure that are lovely that are actually commendable and excellent and truly worthy of praise and now as we set our mindsets on the gospel always vigilant to battle the pride or the opposite the self-hate and the disbelief that comes in we can have true peace through our Lord no more trying to prove ourselves to him and we're trying to prove ourselves to ourselves he's done the work and to ultimately say that we are his so thus far I've spoken about a peace that is here a peace that can be had now but even better than that brothers and sisters our true life and eternity our peace will no longer have to be fought for we will have it and it will be with us forever a whole sermon could be preached on that peace but time so when we're struggling when the cares of the world try to choke out our peace when unbelievers scoff at the gospel when we are down when we are just struggling so much we can set our hope on the promise of such a great eternity when we'll be in perfect peace and thus have such great hope such great joy such great peace now as we look toward that ultimate full development so grab your bulletin grab your bulletin there's a quote on it from william guernal who's a 17th century english theologian i think it communicates this reality super well says therefore you who think so basely of the gospel and the professors of it because at present their peace and comfort are not come should know that it is on the way to them and comes to stay everlastingly with them whereas your peace is going from you every moment and is sure to leave you without any hope of returning to you again look not how the christian begins but how he ends so let's pray and