LIGHT HAS FOUND US - Week 3

If we're not careful we can let Christmas become cliche. We forget what it really meant when the savior of the world came. There's some housekeeping things we're going to get to but before we get to that I want I want to read Isaiah chapter 9 and Rufus you can stay with me a little bit longer. Isaiah chapter 9 because when I hear that song and it hit me as I was sitting I decide fall on your knees. It's hard to fall on your knees. It's hard to bow down in reverence when you don't have in mind exactly what his birth meant. Exactly what it meant for us to receive a savior. Exactly what it meant for this gift to come and when I look at this scripture in I'm reminded of exactly what it meant. Isaiah chapter 9 verse 2 it says the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. Here's what he says you have enlarged the nation and increased their joy. They rejoice before you as people at the harvest as warriors rejoice even as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder for as in the day of Midian's defeat you have shattered the yoke that burdens them. The bar across their shoulders the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning will be fuel for the fire. This is an interesting Christmas scripture. It seems like so much is going on then he says this in verse 6 he said for to us a child is born to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father prince of peace the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end he will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. I love how he says this it says the zeal of the Lord almighty will accomplish this not my efforts my efforts won't accomplish it not my strengths or my weaknesses those things won't accomplish it it's the zeal of the Lord that will accomplish what God is going to do the title of the message today is simply this peace in the dark peace how do you have peace in a dark situation how do you have peace in uncertainty when I read this scripture in Isaiah I'm reminded of a couple things one oftentimes we say we want peace but if we're honest I love this quote I read this quote before that says this

if your peace is contingent upon everything in your life being right you don't really want peace you want control the hardest thing for us sometimes is to reconcile how can I have peace how can I have peace when everything is uncertain and I believe God brought some people in here today to remind you listen I never offered you control but I did offer you peace I never said here you can take control and if you take control things will begin to work no no no he said he said listen to this the government as he said in Isaiah the government the authority the control rests with me and if you're willing to relinquish control you can take the peace that I give you but you cannot have peace and control because peace is the byproduct of my rule peace is the byproduct of me reigning and ruling this is why it says his government and his peace it goes together and oftentimes if we're honest even in our own life even when God holds out his hand and says his peace i'm giving you peace oftentimes what we do is we we continue we we have this god i see you giving me peace but i want to control god god i see you giving me peace but but but i want demetrius could you come up for a second please this this is random because i feel like it's necessary to to to illustrate this you could just come on up come on up he didn't expect this this morning he didn't expect this this morning could you do me if i just need to illustrate this you hold out your hand and offer peace and in the back i just need you to that's control can i tell you this is what it looks like sometimes when god is offering us peace and we're like no i don't want peace don't let me get that demetrius don't let me get it i want control but god is like no i'm giving you peace no i don't i don't want i want i want control i want control god is like no i'm giving you peace we're like but but can i can i can i can i i want god i want i want control he's like i didn't give you control i'm giving you peace and what happens oftentimes is we can't experience the peace of god because we don't have peace with god because in our fight for control we end the fight with god and god is like if you want my peace you have to relinquish the control and take what i'm giving you thank you demetrius when i think about peace i've come to understand peace is trifold peace runs in a number of different ways you there's peace with god which comes first

because you cannot i'll say like there's this peace with god this peace of god which is peace within that comes from god and then it's peace with others god is like i've desired you to have peace all throughout peace with everyone i desire for you to have peace all around you but sometimes we can't have peace with others because we have not experienced the peace of within ourselves and we have not experienced the peace of god within ourselves because we have not made peace with god he's like if you if you want to experience the peace that comes with my authority the peace that comes with my rule the peace that comes with my government see here's the thing it's never a question of whether or not god is in control that's never the question the question is never whether or not god is god is ruling and reigning it was settled god gave him that power god gave him that authority not our vote we couldn't vote him in and we can't vote him out we can't manipulate him in and we can't manipulate him out the power alone the authority belongs to god now whether or not we experience the peace that comes with his authority is contingent upon whether or not we surrender the fight in our own lives some of us have not experienced the peace that god wants us to experience because we haven't even surrendered our own hearts to god we still want to live life the way we want to live life we want to do things the way we want to do it and god is like all right but remember remember the fight remember the fight you can take the peace that i'm giving you he said this peace i leave with you or are you going to continue to fight me for control are you going to continue to fight me for control in your own life in your own situation i love how the scripture says it it says the government in a certain translation they use the word this is use this word the government rests on his shoulder it rests on his shoulder and god began to show me if the government rests on my shoulder guess what so can you you can rest on his shoulders but you can't rest on his shoulders and continue to fight him you can't rest on his shoulder and continue to want to have your way i love in isaiah and i've gone way on script but i love in isaiah i love how when i read isaiah that first the first verses that i read it's important for us to know and realize that isaiah was a prophet Isaiah was a prophet so what this prophecy that I just read to open this is something

that had not yet happened this is something that had not yet been realized he's he's he's proclaiming this revelation of God he's saying it out loud and and I want you to listen to the words that he's using he says the people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned it says you have enlarged the nation and increased past tense their joy they rejoice before you as people rejoice at how at the harvest as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder for as in the day of Midian's defeat you have shattered the yoke that burdens them the bar across their shoulders the rod of their oppressor why am I reading like this because it struck me I'm like at the time he's given this prophecy at the time he he's proclaiming this revelation they are still in darkness how could you still be in darkness and talking in that tense how could you be in darkness and say God you have done this God God God God you you have increased their joy God you have broke the oppression God you have already done this can I tell you it's because when you get a revelation from God you can speak it and walk in it as if it's already done no matter what the situation you're standing and looks like he's proclaiming this in the dark may I suggest to you that the revelation the peace of God had become so real to him that in the moment he's proclaiming he sees it unlike anyone else sees it could a revelation from God give you so much peace in the moment that you just open your mouth and you just start declaring in the moment God you haven't done it yet but I I if you said it it's already done I'm already living in it although I don't see it yet this is the importance and we talked about it a couple weeks ago but I feel it's it's worth repeating this is the importance of having a revelation from God sometimes having a rate of revelation from God will have people look at you like you crazy don't you see everything that's happening don't you see like we are in oppression like it's dark right now things are uncertain right now how could you not be stressed how could you not be upset how could you not be worried how could you not be complaining because I've chosen his peace I could have titled this message today choosing peace even as the the illustration I just had here with Demetrius it's funny there's a saying that says some people wake up and choose violence some of us although God is constantly giving us peace we constantly say God I'm not choosing

peace I'm choosing violence I want to fight you for control and and again we would never explicitly say that but you know you you know the term actions speak louder than words so what we may never say out loud with our mouths we live in it with our actions I wonder how many people in here when God puts before you peace you decide you know what I'm choosing violence and you wonder why you have no peace and you wonder why you're still stressed and you wonder why you're still defeated and you wonder why you still have headaches and you wonder why you're still tired and you God is like hey hey hey authority rest with me it listen it rests with God it doesn't rest with you doesn't rest with CJ doesn't rest with your favorite leader or your favorite president or your favorite celebrity or your bank account or your drug of choice or your addiction it doesn't rest with none of those none of those have the power to bring you peace if you want to it's funny I heard somebody once before I'm looking for a leader worth following can I tell you you already have one you already and if you need to know his name can we put up Isaiah chapter nine can we put it up chapter nine verse verse verse seven I think it is just throw it up on the screen throw it up on the screen if you need to know his name Go go right here. Where is it? Where is it? Somebody find his name for me? No, move back to verse 6. I gotta find it. I gotta find it. There it goes There it goes. Can I say it? It's wonderful counselor. It's mighty God. It's everlasting father It's Prince of Peace and get this and the government in his peace will reign forever and ever and ever and ever And whether or not you experience it will be determined by whether or not you lay down There's some things God wants to do, but you have to move out his way. He's not going to fight with you. His invitation still remains. Would you stop fighting and accept the peace that he's trying to give you? Heads bow, eyes closed. Rufus plays. Rufus just continue to play whatever God please on your heart to play. Peace isn't found in CJ's words. There's nothing more to say. As Rufus plays, I just want you to let the spirit of God just minister to you. Let him speak to you in your seat. Let him highlight the areas in your life where you have to relinquish control. Let him highlight the areas in your life where you haven't even recognized, but you've been fighting and you stressed and you've been asking for peace and you've been asking for rest and God is like I got you, but I need you to surrender. Play Rufus.

Rufus plays. If you're in the room right now, you feel like there's some things you have to lay down. You tired of fighting. You want to surrender completely and fully to God. I know we opened up the altar earlier, but I feel right now it's just important right now. You just you just you just want to come and you just want to take some time. Take a significant step and say, God, I'm laying it down. I'm laying it down. If you're in a room, you just say, God, I just want to lay it down. I don't want to fight anymore. I don't want to fight with you anymore. I want to experience your peace and I want to lay down and say, God, you rule and you reign. You have your way in my life. If that's you in the room right now, don't worry about what the person is doing next to you. I want you to come up right now. Come up right now. Come up right now. Don't wait. Don't wait. Continue to play. Thank you. There we go. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. No more fighting, we lay it down. No more fighting, we surrender it all to you, God. We surrender it all to you, God. Things that's hard for us to let go, we let it go. We lay it down. We lay it down before you, God. To yours, oh Lord. To yours, to yours, oh Lord. To yours, to yours, oh Lord. Peace, God. Your wonderful peace is coming down from the Father above. Sweep over our spirits forever, we pray. In fathomless billows of love.

Peace, God. We accept your peace. We receive your peace. We rest in your peace. And Father, God, we pray that your peace not only run to us, but let it run through us. We thank you, God, for everything that you've done. We thank you, God, that you even made a way for us to have peace with God. And it's nothing that our effort could have done. It's nothing that we could have done to deserve it, God. As your word says, unto us. You gave it to us. You gave it to us. Teach us how to accept your gift. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Since when. My heart found a surgeon. My soul found a friend. So I run to the Father. Again, again. I run to the Father. I fall into graves. Burdened with the hiding. No reason to wait. My heart found a surgeon.

My soul found a friend. So I run to the Father. I run to, I run to the Father. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Father God, for the people standing right here, Father, would you let your peace just overwhelm their souls? Would you give them peace, Lord God, that would guard their hearts and their minds? Lead them and guide them, Lord God. Be with them. Give them people that will come around them and support them in the areas of their life that they need support, in the areas of life that they need strength, Father God. Open up their hearts, open up their eyes, open up their minds, so that they will hear your voice, know you, and follow you. In Jesus' precious and mighty name we pray, amen. You can head to your seat. As we... Come on, can we give God a hand clap of praise? Whoo! As we get set to close today, I think it's worth us just celebrating some of the things that God has done in this house, through this church. Sometimes the best way to stay anchored in the dark, to have joy in the dark, to have hope in the dark,

to have peace in the dark, is to be reminded of God's past faithfulness, of his past goodness. And so we didn't really get a chance to celebrate it all that much before, but this past summer we had hope offering, and we are... pilled a number of times and God came through in such a miraculous way, man. All of our needs, the people we provide for in other areas of the world, outreach ministries, all those things God provided and made a way. And so can we just thank God right now for that? Can we just put our hands and know we're not taking another offering right now. But we have our Christmas offering and if you didn't get the sheets as you came in, you get it as you head out. There's still so much more work to be done. God is still not done. He's still moving and he always offers us to partner with him and what he's doing. So this is, we have the graphic up on the screen, the different areas that all throughout the next year we're going to be raising funds for to be able to maintain and support ministry. So what I want to do right now, I just want to, I want to pray over this hope offering. The need is $220,000. That's the need, but there is nothing impossible for our God. My God will supply all of my needs according to his riches and his glory. So can we do this as a church right now? Can we all stand as a church right now? And I want to pray over the whole, over the Christmas offering, over the different needs that's needed. And I'm believing that God is going to supply, he'll provide, he'll begin to put on your heart how you can contribute what you can give over these next couple of weeks. But I pray that when he begins to show you, when he begins to put it on your heart, could you not fight him? Could you not just, just try it for one time? I know it's hard, but just, just for once, just, just, just, just don't fight. Just surrender and see what God would do. Can we lift our hands right now? Father God, we thank you for your past faithfulness. We thank you for everything that you've done, everything that you've provided, everything that you've

Every mountain you move, every sickness that you've held, every door that you've opened, every piece of food that we've ate, that you provided for. Father God, have you not proved your goodness and your faithfulness enough? So Father God, we come to you again, even as the song says, we run to you again, Father. And we ask God that as a church, that you provide all of our needs. Father God, touch the heart of your people to give where they can, not out of manipulation, not under stress or compulsion, but out of cheerfulness and recognition of all that you have done. We thank you, Father God, we honor you and can we clap and praise you now as if it's already done. In Jesus precious and mighty name we pray. Be blessed. Have a great rest of your Sunday. Next week is Christmas Sunday. We will see you there. We love you.