All right, so this morning we are continuing on with what has been our Christmas series called The Missing Piece. Maybe some of you in the rush to Wednesday are feeling distinctly that peace is missing in your world and today I really want to talk about the gift of peace. For those of you who were here last Sunday, how great a job did Luke and Key do? So, so, so good. Kieran, oh my gosh, the reluctant speaker. Far out. Come on, dude. Come on, you can do it. You can do it.
It was like weeks of, you can do it, you can do it. And look, he gets up here and it's like a, Fish in water. If you weren't here last Sunday, well, may I stir FOMO in you? And, to which you can easily be relieved of by listening to the podcast. And so they talk about Key and Luke last week, spoke about the path of peace. But today we're going to talk about the gift of peace.
And the scripture I want to, I guess I want to draw our attention to today, not a typical Christmas scripture, but I think one that will really help us lean into and embrace this idea of the gift of peace that really is so much of what Christmas is about. So let's just have a look at Psalm 85 verses 1 to 10. You Lord showed favour to your land, you restored the fortunes of Jacob, you forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins. You set aside all your wrath.
and turned from your fierce anger. Restore us again, God our Saviour, and put away your displeasure towards us. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger through all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love, Lord, and grant us your salvation. I will listen to what God the Lord says. He promises peace to his people, his faithful servants, but let them not turn to folly.
Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. Love and faithfulness meet together. Righteousness and peace. Kiss. each other. Amen. All right. So as I've just mentioned, we have been away for the last couple of weeks on our annual pilgrimage down to the Holy Land, which is Busselton, the Holy Land for West Australians down south.
And, You know, this is something that we have done every year now for some 23 odd years and it is very much for us a place of peace and rest. And, one evening while we were away, as we sat overlooking the beautiful ocean down there, I was having a conversation. with a couple of very dear friends of mine about a book that, one of them was reading, because that's what we do a lot of down in Busselton, us readers, we read a lot.
And one of the plot lines of this book, is that people become afflicted with a gene mutation that causes them to slowly transform into a certain kind of animal. I know, random, right? Apparently it's a very good book, right? But this got us wondering, and musing, and hypothesizing. If you were to mutate into an animal, what animal would you mutate into? Fun question, you can bring it, feel free to bring it up on Christmas Day.
So my response in that moment was I would want to mutate into some kind of creature that can sit at the very bottom of the deep blue sea. As it so often goes with conversations of this nature though, one friend very passionately defended her position that it would be much, much, much, much better to mutate into a bird and be able to fly than to mutate into some kind of aquatic creature which is just limited by water. To which I strongly replied, right, he loves arguing hypotheticals, yeah.
Some of us just like arguing. Oh no, not for me. The sky is so exposed. You can be seen in the sky. Who can see you at the bottom of the deep blue sea? Who can find you there? And it is just so, so, so very still and quiet down there. And so my other friend who was listening in said jokingly, Dale, do you think you're projecting some deeper issues onto this hypothetical?
So the next morning as I'm partaking in my daily constitutional, which is my early morning walk on the beach, I find myself wondering about just how much I really, really, really want to be able to sit at the bottom of the deep blue sea where no one can see me or find me. Anybody else relate? Anybody else want to join me at the bottom of the deep blue sea? Luke, Luke, yep, alright, I'm alone there. Just to be alone. You can't come actually, because the whole point is to be alone, but anyway.
The ocean's vast, right? Um. So just to be alone and in the still and in the quiet, and so on this walk, you know, rather than belittle or ignore this feeling as stupid, irrational, or perhaps even as unchristian, I gave the space for this longing that I clearly had to be felt, for it to become articulate. And so the more I imagined it, the more the longing stirred into almost a desperation for this hypo, for what this hypothetical represented.
So do you ever find yourself longing and desiring something so much, you like, you feel it in your chest? And sometimes it even like rises to your eyes and you start to tear up at the thought of just how much you just wanna, I don't know, have that thing or be in that place.
Whatever it might be for you, though, Places of deep, deep hunger and thirst and longing and, you know, so that's, that was my space as I'm walking along the beach that morning as I'm thinking about what deeper issues are at play here. So I begin to have a chat with God about what this might all mean because let's face it, I can't mutate into a sea creature that can exist at the bottom of the deep blue sea no matter how much I might want to.
And as I talked with God about this and as I journaled about it later, I sat with the question. Why do I want to live at the bottom of the deep blue sea? And as I pondered, I really began to see that there very much was a very deep and very real longing and desire that was behind it. So to be able to sit at the bottom of the deep blue sea in the isolation, in the stillness and the quiet seemed to be an answer to a very deep longing and a hunger and a thirst within me for peace, for peace.
My heart, just like your heart, longs for peace. We all do. We are made for it. I think we profoundly underestimate just how much and then we miss it so much when we don't have it. We miss it at a deeply existential level. I think we all miss it so often in our searching for it as well. And I think we also misunderstand often what it truly is and where it is that we actually go to find peace.
So let me just talk for a moment about misunderstanding peace because the world's idea of how you find peace is very different from the Lord's idea. of how we receive peace. Is anybody a fan of Michael Leunig? You know, he passed away this week, and cartoonist. Some of his stuff, it's just like, like a bit of a modern day prophet in some ways, but he does these great cartoons and these punchy little poems, and here's one on peace, on the world's idea of peace.
To live in peace, prepare for war, learn to hate the man next door, he is wrong and you are right, spy upon him in the night, spread some lies about his wife, denigrate and plague his life, and when you've done, or you can do, he will do the same to you. Now that's the world's idea of peace, isn't it? And in many different ways, we can fall prey to this idea. Peace is something that we've got to take. Yeah, that we've got to construct, but that is not the message of Christmas. And so we need.
Peace so very deeply that we will go looking for it whether we realize it or not when it is missing. But when we don't actually understand how it is that we receive peace and what peace truly is we end up grasping at all manner of counterfeits. So we can look for peace in acquiring things and experiences, relationships, We can look for peace in food, in drink. We can look for peace in the binging of that next series or that next trashy novel.
We can look for peace in having everything about our lives in order and under control. Just so how we like it. We can look for peace in working so hard to be good enough. We can look for peace in pursuing all manner of knowledge and understanding about all manner of topics. We can look for peace in trying so very hard to be right. We can look for peace in trying to make sure that everyone else around us is happy and is okay. But peace isn't found in any of these places, is it?
And yet we still relentlessly pursue peace in all manner of places where we will not find it. We won't even find it at the bottom of the deep blue sea. Because actually, if I was to go sit at the bottom of the deep blue sea, you know what? The loneliness would be crushing. Because I'm not actually made for isolation either, as much as I might crave it sometimes. So the Bible has much to say about peace.
In the Old Testament, the primary Hebrew word, and Adam talked about this when he spoke a few weeks ago, is the beautiful word shalom. I love this word. And in its essence, what this word means is nothing missing, nothing broken. This is what scripture teaches. True peace is nothing missing, nothing broken, complete wholeness, complete reconciliation, To shalom is to take what is broken and to make it whole. And is that not the message of Christmas?
God has come in human likeness to be with us and to shalom us, to give us peace, to restore us to wholeness with himself, with one another, and with creation because ultimately peace isn't an external reality. Peace is a profoundly relational reality. True peace is right relationship with God. Vertically and horizontally with self but with all creation as well.
That is true peace I will not find peace at the bottom of the deep blue sea I won't even find peace that I long for in stillness and quiet and isolation. Peace is found ultimately in relationship in right harmonious relationship with all of creation. God, one another. And so where is this missing peace? Found. So let's just reflect on a verse from that psalm that we just read. Psalm 85, verse 8. I will listen to what God the Lord says.
He promises peace to his people, his faithful servants, but let them not turn to folly. So to the one Who is listening today, who would say, I am missing peace. I am longing for peace. May the wisdom of this psalm find you today. Which is also the wisdom and the message and the meaning of Christmas. So in this prayer, the psalmist cries out, he's crying out on behalf of God's people for deliverance and for salvation, for God's restoration, for God's revival. It is a cry from a place of distress.
It is a cry for peace. It is a cry for God's shalom, that God's well being would come, that God would restore and reconcile. And so what does this psalm tell us about missing pieces to be found? Firstly, it's this. When the psalmist says, this psalm does a drastic shift at this point in verse 8, when the psalmist says, I will listen. I will listen to what God the Lord says. The peace we are missing and needing and seeking is found in listening to the word of God.
The peace that we all so much hunger for and were made for is found in listening to the word of God, to the voice of God. You know, Adam's already mentioned this scripture again, but Matthew 1, 22 to 23, all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. Emmanuel is in his name as a title. To find who Jesus was, his role. He is God with us.
And we say this phrase so flippantly, right? But this phrase means everything. These little words mean everything for you and I. For the only place that we will find the peace that we need and crave is in those words, God. There is no peace outside of those words, and the meaning of those words. He is Immanuel. He is with you. Are you His? He is with you. You know, I got, had a beautiful glorious time with the Lord while we were away, and then I came back into the crazy of, of this, of life.
And just yesterday, I'm like, Oh Lord, where are you? Yes, I've never left. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I am with you. I am God with you. Some of you need to be reminded of that. Okay, you haven't ticked him off, right? He's not like sulking in the corner because you've been neglectful of your relationship and now he's punishing you and he's being all passive aggressive. You know the amount of That crud we just transpose onto God, our emotional brokenness.
He doesn't do that, right? He doesn't do emotional manipulation, right? He's always, always with you if you are his. So the real question is, are you his? Like once, once you've answered that, once you know that you are his, he is yours, my beloved is mine and I am his. You can't be undone from that space. Yeah, how you experience? Oh, yeah, okay. That is up to the choices you make, how to choose to live each day where you set your mind to. But he's not left you.
So our missing piece is found in communion and in conversation. With our God, our God who promises peace to his people. It is found in relationship with him. I, he will speak peace. He will speak peace if we will listen. If we will but receive the gracious gift of His very presence through His Word. And His presence is a communing presence, yeah? It's not like the force in Star Wars. Sometimes I think we just devolve this withness of God to this nebulous force. And it's not, it's a relationship.
It's a conversation. It's communication. And in that place, peace is found. As I walked and I talked with the Lord about my deep longing for peace. When I was away, he spoke to me. He spoke peace to me. You know, at first he spoke to me through my friend who said, do you think you've got some deeper issues going on here, Dale? That was like, that was the Lord speaking to me. Pay attention here, Dale. Pay attention. There's something going on, something I want you to bring to me.
You see these places of longing? He wants you to bring them to Him, not sort them out on your own. Thinking that once I've sorted it out, then I'll be acceptable to Him. No, no, no. Bring all your hunger, all your thirst, all your longing, no matter how irrational, logical or unchristian it might be, bring it to Him, that He will be able to be the answer to that thirst, that longing, that hunger. He led me to truth in that place. His presence with me through his word became my peace.
And you know what happened? As I conversed with the Lord about this very bizarre longing to want to sit at the bottom of the ocean, He became my peace that I was missing. And as he did, the desire to retreat, escape, to isolate, it left. Suddenly, I know I no longer wanted to stay hidden. You know, nothing in my external world had changed, but it was the fact that my, oh, that's right, just through conversation, through listening, God spoke and peace came because He speaks peace to His people.
You know, just think for a moment of the creation story in Genesis, right? You've got this chaoticness going on, this formless dark void, and chaotic waters. And what, what does it say? You know, God hovers over this space and he speaks, and peace comes. He brings shalom, he brings order. Out of the chaos.
And this he will do also for the one who belongs to him that finds themselves in a state of chaos and strife and confusion and pain and despair to the one who will bring all that to him and then listen to what he has. to say to you. You know, another story that demonstrates this, Jesus and his disciples are in the boat. Chaotic waters are overwhelming them. They are terrified. They cry out to Jesus. And what does he do? He speaks peace. Shalom.
Great calm is what comes where once there was great chaos. When the Prince of Peace speaks. And He wants to speak. We don't have to convince Him. Yeah? If you take nothing else away from this morning, just that acknowledgement and that recognition. He sent His Son to speak to us. To speak peace to us. To bring us into communion. This is not something we have to twist God's arm about.
This is his sheer delight because such is his devotion to each one of you, such is his desire and his hunger and his thirst and his longing. God has longings and desires and hungers and thirsts as well, but it's for you. And it is that you would know him and that you would know his peace and that you would receive it as a gift. He promises peace to his people, his faithful servants. The message of Christmas is the promise of peace.
He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, of the greatness of his government and peace. There will be no end. Romans 5 verse 1, therefore since we have been justified through faith, faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The work of making peace. It was completed long ago, 2, 000 years ago on the cross. It is done. Jesus, who is our peace, he carried our sins to that cross and he removed the barrier that caused separation.
Between us and God and on that cross he resolved the conflict and fulfilled the promise of peace There is nothing to add to it consider these words the punishment that brought us peace Was upon him isaiah 53 verse 5 through his sacrifice peace was made by his blood Now because of his death and through faith we are justified And we have peace with god. This is very good news So when Jesus declared it is finished on the cross, what he did, he brought righteousness and peace together in harmony.
Don't you just love the line in that? That's, that's, that, that was the line that dropped into my spirit. I was walking the beach one morning trying to, you know, think about this message. And just out of nowhere, just the words righteousness and peace kiss each other, just like. Dropped. And I was like, where is that? Righteousness and peace kiss each other. How are we gonna lean into the intimacy of that language?
You know, we can get all weird and uncomfortable with intimate language, can't we? God's not, clearly. This is profoundly intimate language. And this is the message of Christmas, right? The righteousness of God, given to us as a gift, enables us to so intimately know peace. They kiss each other. Kiss is such an intimate thing, isn't it?
Yeah, I want to make you a little bit uncomfortable here those of you like, you know, kissing, no, not in church Profoundly profoundly intimate this language, isn't it? Yeah But such is the gift of Christmas this profound intimacy with the one who is peace and it is a free gift You know uses the word folly in this psalm Doesn't it?
Speaks of you know, may we not turn back to folly, let them not turn to folly and so one folly we so often fall into is that we try and grasp at peace instead of simply listening to the one who is peace and receiving his presence as sheer grace, as pure gift. That is one of our greatest acts of folly or a striving to earn, deserve, to prove what is being freely given as a gift. You know, I just want to take a moment this morning.
Because it's great, you know, I can speak about all of this, right? You know, I will listen to what the Lord says to me. He will speak peace to his people. But I don't want you just to hear this as a, oh yeah, okay, that's a good message. I want you to hear God speaking to you, speaking peace to you today, in the midst of all that this season brings. And so I just want to take a moment of reflection and stillness, because quite often that's our biggest problem.
We can't hear because we don't stop long enough to just put our self in places of stillness where we can. And so we just keep going and we keep going and we keep going and we keep trying to distract and fuel ourselves on stuff that isn't good and true and beautiful. So I'm giving you a gift this morning. The gift of space and stillness. Can we just put that image up Sharon? And Sinead, would you mind coming and tinkling on the old ivories for me love?
So, this here is a picture I took one morning, on the glorious beach down south. The holy sacred land. And this was at, So this, this place represents peace for me. And, I just wanted to, I guess, put this up there. Just to maybe help encourage you. into a space of peace. I don't know what it might be for you. Maybe a beach isn't it for you, but what, what kind of imagery represents peace for you? Use your imagination, your God given imagination.
Okay. And just as we just take a few moments of stillness, just, just seek the Lord for his voice. He is speaking. Yeah. You don't have to convince, just close your eyes. Take a deep breath because goodness knows that helps bring us to a place of stillness. Just a few deep breaths. And just Lord, put yourself in that posture of receiving. The gift of his voice, the gift of his presence, the gift of his witness. Just say, just say quietly to us, to, to God in prayer, you know what?
I'm listening Lord. What would you say to me? Lord, thank you that you are with us. Oh Lord, I pray for each person here. For a very real awareness experience of your peace, of your withness, of your heart for them. Lord, by your grace, Would you deliver each person who is stuck in a place of guilt, shame and condemnation that would stop them from receiving your gracious presence?
Lord, send your Spirit to comfort, to counsel, to lead and to guide, to lead us in the path of peace, that we would be people of peace in a world that so desperately needs your shalom. Who needs your restoration, your reconciliation. Oh, Lord, may we be beautiful carriers of your peaceful presence into all the spaces that our feet will tread over these coming days. Lord, may we guard that peace.
Jealously, Vigilantly, Intentionally, Holding it so dear, But with a deep, deep and profound desire to share it with those around us. Lord, would you bring to mind right now, For each of us, Lord, for Christmas is a special time, Where we are thrown in with family that we might not otherwise choose, To be around. Bring the person to mind Lord, who we might otherwise naturally be repelled from.
But Lord stir in us a desire to want to share your peace with that very person who is only so obnoxious because they desperately need your peace. Lord may we be such profoundly different types of people in the craziness of this season because we are bearers of your very presence and you are peace. Lord, may we be astounded with wonder and awe. May we be humbled to our core that you would call us your vessels, your instruments of grace and peace and mercy and truth and salvation.
Lord, help us to have a vast, far grander vision. Of your peace than just for ourselves alone for Lord your peace it only Expands exponentially when we share it So may we know more of it as we seek To share it in the places of strife and conflict and brokenness That we will enter into over these coming days while we worship you. We love you. We adore you. Amen