He Shall Be Called: Prince of Peace

When my daughter was just a few weeks old, she had colic. Now that groan that you just heard, that's the groan of parents that have survived colic. Now, if you don't know what colic is, here's a simple version. A perfectly healthy, perfectly sweet baby morphs into an angry red faced tornado siren every single evening when the sun starts to go down for no medical reason at all. Now, people say that they know what causes colic.

They're trying to sell you something. No one actually knows what causes such a sweet baby to turn into a monster. A s sad thing. See, every night for us felt like a low budget horror movie where an alien creature would crawl out of our little sweet baby and shriek like a bear was chewing her leg off. And after multiple nights of zero sleep, I told Heidi, at least one of us should survive this onslaught.

And so I sent her upstairs with a box van cranked up to maximum hurricane force wind mode, trying to drown out the noise, and embraced my fate, which was to sit awake all night with a wild banshee baby. A baby. The only thing that would keep her from screaming was this little bouncy seat. And I could put her in this bouncy seat and I put it down in front of the couch and I could rock it with my foot and I rocked it. And if I rocked it just shy of violently, it would keep her from screaming.

I figure that it was just enough to keep her so startled that she couldn't breathe. Stop. She's 16 now. She's totally fine. She's mostly fine.

So I'd rock her in this little bouncy seat and just put on a movie. And inevitably, at some point, I would start to fall asleep and my foot would stop and the wild creature would come back to life and we'd start this whole thing over again. And then one night, it stopped. It stopped. It was just peace and quiet when we laid her down and she slept.

And we slept. Twelve days later, we got up to check on her. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

Maybe you've experienced the war, the great war of colic, too. Maybe something else has been loud and exhausting and difficult in your life. Or maybe it is right now. And maybe the noise inside your head is constantly telling you the that you're behind or you're not good enough, that everyone else is doing better than you. Maybe the noise is stress from work or grades that feel like they decide your future.

Maybe the noise is a toddler melting down in aisle seven because you didn't give them gummy bears. Maybe the noise is middle school drama where one errant word or comment can turn a group chat into a nightmare. Or trying to make friends without looking desperate or pretending like you're fine, but you're not fine. Maybe the noise is something else. ACT scores, college plans, sports tryouts, relationships, expectations, anxiety.

Maybe it's money problems or doctor's visits or job insecurity or a family conflict that nobody knows how to deal with. Maybe it's grief, like an empty chair at Thanksgiving. Maybe the noise is regret. Something you said, something you did, something you didn't do. Something you can't let go of.

Maybe the noise is just you laying in bed at 2 in the morning, wishing that your brain had an off switch.

But we all, all of us have noise in our lives that is just constantly trying to suck the life out of us and exhaust us and distract us and wear us down, don't we? And we're all longing for that moment when the noise just stops. Where peace replaces it. But it feels and seems often that it's impossible.

The kind of peace we're actually looking for isn't something that we can manufacture or force. And so most of us just settle for anything that kind of vaguely feels like peace. We settle for distraction. If we can scroll long enough or binge something funny enough, maybe our brain will calm down. Or we settle for achievement.

If we can just get one more win or one more A, or one more promotion or one more raise, then maybe we'll feel better. We settle for control. If we can just manage every detail and keep every plate spinning and make sure nobody's ever disappointed with us, then maybe the anxiety will get quiet. We settle for escape. Sleep it off, drink it off, shop it off, work it off.

Anything to drown out the noise, even for a little bit. And sometimes these things buy us a tiny break, a little artificial quiet. But the moment our distraction ends or our escape wears off, the noise is right back where it was. Right in our face again. Now, I doubt that anyone would be shocked to hear me say that.

I believe that the only place that we find this kind of peace is in the person of God. I mean, you showed up to a Christmas Eve service at a church. Did you expect me to say that? It would be like a weighted blanket and a bowl of ice cream, you know?

And the peace that we're starving for isn't a mood. It's not a product. It isn't vacation. The peace we want is bigger than our circumstances. And I know some of us can say confidently that we found peace in God.

But I also imagine that there are some in this room listening online right now. Maybe that kind of roll our eyes at the idea. Maybe you've tried to find peace in God and it didn't feel like it worked. Maybe you're hanging on to faith by a thread, or maybe because someone dragged you here, you showed up tonight. Or because it's tradition, or because something in you is hopeful but doubtful.

But I think that we can all agree, whether we're all in on Jesus or barely curious or maybe even resistant, everything the world has promised us will give us lasting peace. All of it isn't working. In fact, if psychology or meds or science could solve our peace problem, then somebody would have monetized it already, we would have bought it already, and we would be the most peace filled generation in history. But we're not. So tonight my aim is pretty simple.

I just want to look to the Bible, because the Bible makes a claim, a pretty big claim, that this kind of peace can be found, that it's not something that we achieve, it's a gift. And it's only found in the one who claims to be the prince of Peace.

Now, for some of us, this will sound like a storyline from a movie, but the truth is, all the movies just stole this storyline from the Bible. In the book of Isaiah, there's a prophecy of a messiah who will come to redeem the world. And God calls him Prince of Peace. Now, that word prince doesn't mean what we would usually picture when we think of a prince, an entitled royal child waiting for his turn for the throne. It means ruler or commander over something like an army or a territory or a political system or a people group or a kingdom.

But Isaiah says this child, this prince of peace, will rule something no army can seize and no empire can produce. He will rule over peace, peace that restores, peace that heals, peace that reconciles us to God and to one another. Later in the Bible, Jesus says, my peace I give to you. He rules over this peace. And Isaiah says that kind of peace is going to arrive in the most unlikely way, not through military or political power, but in a manger.

And that's what leads us to the Christmas story. We're 700 years after this prophecy of the coming Messiah. The Prince of peace comes. Matthew 1. Starting in verse 18, this is how the birth of Jesus, the Messiah came about.

His mother, Mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace. He had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet Isaiah that we just spoke about. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son and he gave him the name Jesus. And then we'll hop over to the Book of Luke, where he shares part of the story as well.

In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.

She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks. At night, an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth.

Peace. Peace to those on whom his favor rests. When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about. And so they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger. And when they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.

And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen which were just as they had been told. Did you catch the hope? Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth.

Peace to those on whom his favor rests. See, the Christmas story is not a cute tradition. It's not sentimental nostalgia. It's not a seasonal escape from real life. It's not a fairy tale.

The Christmas story is an announcement that peace has come not as a feeling, not as a holiday mood, but as a person. And think about who first heard the news. Shepherds, the lowest rung of society. People no one noticed. People whose lives were loud and dirty and exhausting and overlooked.

And God said, tell them first. Why? Because the message of Christmas is that peace is for everyone. The tired, the outcast, the anxious, the guilty, the grieving, the overwhelmed. Peace is for every single person who is done pretending that they can quiet the noise on their own.

And the angels didn't say, try harder. They didn't say, do better. They didn't say, if you guys would clean yourselves up real quick, we could send the king. They said, a savior has been born to you. A savior has been born to you.

This is the heart of Christmas. God came close. God didn't send advice or distraction. He sent his son. He didn't send a philosopher or a military leader.

He sent a savior. He didn't wait for us to figure out how to gather up peace on our own. He brought the Prince of peace. Peace, the owner of peace, the one who rules and governs over peace. He brought him right to us in our mess.

And the Bible goes on to tell us that this savior, this prince of Peace, he grew up. He lived a perfect life that we could not live. He carried the sin that we could not carry. He died the death we deserved. And he rose from the grave, conquering sin, death and guilt forever.

This is the hope that was born at Christmas. And this is why Jesus is the only one who can offer what the world cannot. Real, lasting peace. Peace with God. Peace within ourselves.

Peace with each other. Peace that outlasts and overshadows everything that tries to consume it. And so for those of us who are already followers of Jesus, maybe tonight is just a gentle but needed reminder to let the Prince of Peace do his great work in us again. Not just as our Savior from sin, but as our Prince of Peace, as the ruler of our hearts. And for those who have never accepted Jesus as Savior, as Prince of Peace, or maybe you've walked away, or maybe you're unsure that you believe at all.

I want you to hear this clearly. Jesus is not asking you to have everything figured out. He's not asking you to sort it all out and get all cleaned up before he receives you. He came right into your mess as the Prince of Peace.

But he does ask us for something real, something very real. He asks us to lay something down so that we can pick up this peace.

To give up the illusion that we can save ourselves, to give up the need to stay in control. To give up carrying this guilt and shame and fear and exhaustion that pins us down. And in exchange, he offers a gift.

A gift we cannot earn peace. We all already know that the world's answers aren't working. They can't. They won't. And so what do we have to lose?

Giving the Prince of Peace a chance to be that in our lives. So if you're ready to do that, please come talk to me after the service. I'd love to talk to you about him. I'd love to answer any questions that you might have and tell you maybe I don't know the answers to some others, but invite you to receive him now. One of the most beautiful things about peace is this peace never stops.

There are no cul de sacs of peace, no dead ends of peace. Peace, real peace, it always ripples and echoes outward to heal and restore and bring hope wherever there's brokenness. And every Christmas Eve, our church chooses to reflect the heart of God by giving peace away. In just a moment, we're going to receive an offering. But this offering is a very different offering, because it's not for us.

Every dollar given in all of our Christmas Eve services goes right outside the door, beyond these walls to supporting local and global efforts that meet real needs, like feeding people who are hungry, strengthening schools and neighborhoods, mentoring and developing leaders, bringing hope into places where it's needed most. And this year, we have set a goal to raise and give away $100,000 not for ourselves, but to invest in people and help restore what's broken and support work that brings healing and stabilities to communities all around the world. And even if we raise more than $100,000, all of that will be going outside of these walls too. Now, I do want to say, I know that the church talking about money can send us a little sideways. And if you're a guest tonight, if this isn't your church family and, and it makes you a little sour to hear that, I don't want you to have any obligation or expectation to give.

In fact, I'm just, I'm glad you're here that you could be a guest with us tonight. But if you care deeply about changing people's lives, about creating positive change, about being a part of something bigger than yourself, if this moves your heart, then I'm just asking you to give and to give generously toward this offering.

Before we receive the offering, I want to show you just a little snippet, a video that gives a glimpse of the kind of impact and partnerships that this money will help support. And then during this next song, we'll pass the bags and receive the offering. As you watch, I want you to remember this. The prince of peace. He came to offer peace not only for you and not only for me, but he came to offer peace to the entire aching and hurting world.

As Christ's ambassadors, we advance the kingdom by sharing the gospel, restoring what's broken and equipping people to flow, flourish in Christ. It's pretty simple really. Sharing, restoring and equipping. And we see this happening around the world.

This is brother Sarat and we are in front of his little shop here. The Village people come here to buy daily groceries and things with his wife and three boys joining the DBS group. They've been doing really well. The business pick up little bit and then we have a loan system within our church called Village Savings and Loans to invest on this little shop. Pastor Vijit has done wonderful job taking care of these people.

Now they actually disciple makers. You know, they've been wonderful asset to church, the kingdom of God, good job, keep it up. And we see God's hand at work in restoring what's broken here locally. Meet Marie. So I always knew that I wanted to take care of people.

I'm the second oldest of. We have 16 siblings. My parents have adopted 11 kids from Eastern Europe. So I've just kind of grown up taking care of them. That's like an everyday struggle I guess.

Just what else can I do? What else can I do for you? For anybody? You sometimes forget who you are as a person. I had a really unfortunate end to a fairly long term relationship that Ended up with needing some intervention from fire and rescue and running to my parents house and like just getting to a safe place.

And I didn't have a job at that point. This person was really controlling and kind of took away a lot of options for me. It's hard to ask for help when I'm used to helping everybody else. It's a very uncomfortable feeling to know that I am an intelligent, able bodied, capable, good human being. So I came to the life center and I said, I just, I need some help.

I can't do this right now. So I came and I actually met with Jerika. She and I sat down and had a really good conversation and she asked kind of like what the biggest need that I had was. What's the most pressing thing? And it was keeping my electricity on to be able to focus on other things in my life that need attention so that I can get out of where I was.

It felt like you're out in the middle of the ocean and you know that there's a little island where you're gonna be safe, but the waves are so big they swell up and you're like, oh, there it is. Nope, sorry. Just kidding. You're gonna go back underwater. Then all of a sudden, there I am walking onto the shores of this little island where I feel safe and I can then focus on rebuilding my family.

Gosh, just being safe is huge.

So we're all safe, everybody's happy. I've definitely started to get more confident in becoming myself again. I was a shell of who I was. I didn't think that I was like, worthy of having these things. I'm worthy of feeling safe and happy and not feeling like the world is going to crumble all the time.

So.

So after I had met with Jerika for the first introduction for the hero on a mission, I'd started meeting with Tom. And he just knows. He knows so much about life and he's really easy to talk to. He's a great mentor and he's a great teacher. He can take things from his life and just kind of relate it to what's going on in the work that we're doing and how it relates to my life.

This Christmas is so, so different from my last Christmas. And it makes me emotional to think about how far I've come in that year. Like, I didn't think I could do it. I didn't think that I'd be here like this, this far. And I was self reflecting.

Like with the hero on a mission thing, it's. You do it every day and just doing a little bit of thinking and reflecting and, like, I want someone else to feel as special and loved as I did last year when I didn't feel like I deserved it.

So. So that's what I'm doing this year. I contacted Tom. I said, I know the guy for this. I sent him a text, and I said, let's help a family today.

So that's what we're doing. So I've been coming to Whitewater for over 10 years, and in that time, my kids have been able to grow up here. They've been able to make friends. And those kinds of true friends are hard to find. But it's like, there are so many good people centrally located.

It's really, really cool. And it's really important for me to show my kids that there are things, like, there are places like this that can feed your soul. And every time I come here and, like, I meet with Tom or I see Pam or just people that I know, it's just that I'm around safe people, and this is a safe place, and it reminds me that I'm safe. It pulls me out of inside my head with that trauma that just perpetuates, and just like, you are not there anymore, you're safe.