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Dec 08, 2019

Double Peace - Advent Week 2 - Peace

Passage: Isaiah 57:12-21

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: Isaiah

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: worry, fear, peace, anxiety, idols, comfort

We are angst-filled peace-hungry people, vainly trying to control our worlds with the expectation that doing so would finally give us internal rest. The Lord, knowing our anxieties and arrogant and false view of our personal sovereignty, radically lowered himself by becoming one of us, born a lowly outcast child in order to bring us, the truly lowly outcast children, true deep internal peace that isn’t dependent on our outward surroundings, costing us nothing (free grace fully paid at Christ’s cost), and costing us everything (giving up my fruitless pursuit of being my own king).

Order of Worship

CALL TO WORSHIP: Philippians 4:4-7

READING: John 14:27 & 16:33

MUSIC:

CONFESSION:

Psalm 51:1-4,7,10,12,17

ALL: 1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Assurance of Pardon: 

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. - Psalm 34;18

Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. - Romans 5:1 

PRAYER / GRATITUDE

MISSIONAL LIVING:

  • Christmas Eve
  • YoungLives Giving Tree

Advent Reading #2 - Peace (Second purple candle)

  • Isaiah, chapter 9:2c,6-7
  • Luke 1:46-55

MESSAGE: Double Peace

CENTRAL TEXT: Isaiah 57:12-19

ILLUSTRATION: Seinfeld - Serenity

PRAYER: The Broken Heart (from The Valley of Vision) 

ALL:  Blessed Jesus, though our sins rise to heaven your merits soar above them.           

LEADER: Though unrighteousness weighs us down. Your righteousness exalts us to your throne

ALL:  Grant us to hear Your voice assuring us that by Your stripes we are healed. 

LEADER: That You were made sin for us that we might be righteous in Thee 

ALL: We are guilty but pardoned.  Lost but saved. Wandering but found.

LEADER: Holy Spirit, keep us always clinging to the finished work of Christ. Open to us the springs of Your divine conviction and truths. 

ALL: Move us to love as we’ve been loved. And flood us every moment with this unending grace.  

BENEDICTION: 2 Thessalonians 3:16

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Luke 2:8-14
  • John 20:19-22
  • Romans 14:19
  • 2 Corinthians 13:11
  • Ephesians 2:13-16
  • Philippians 4:11
  • Colossians 3:15
  • 1Thessalonians 5:23
  • 2 Thessalonians 3:16
  • James 4:10
  • 1 Peter 2:23-25
  • Luke 18:11-13
  • Isaiah 53:4-5
  • Jeremiah 11:12

MEDIA:

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

    PeaceSeeker:

    What does “peace” mean to you?

    What steals your peace?

    How do you try to acquire peace?

    How are you like Israel in this passage, that sought peace through:

        1) Deeds (work my way out of chaos)

        2) Righteousness (through personal morality)

        3) Idols (turn to worldly things to control chaos and calm me)

    How is this kind of PEACE (“Shalom”) something much deeper than relief from chaos and conflict? Try to define it?

        Is this kind of peace good enough for you?

    PeaceGiver:

    Peace comes from a surprising place: humility.

    “Contrite” in this passage means to be “crushed” (also used in Isaiah 53 “he was crushed for our iniquities). What do you think this means in real life?

        BUT how is it NOT sitting in a “Woe is me” despair?

    What is the relationship between pride and peace?

    One way to look at it is to see how our pride convinces us that we can control situations and other people, and that peace comes when we open our dirty hands and let go, trusting in the One that actually has control intermixed with wisdom and love.

        How can believing that bring actual peace?

    Ultimately, we can have peace as we trust the PeaceGiver because of what Jesus said in John 14 (see the next page) about personally giving us Gospel-Peace. How does Advent, the anticipation of the Coming King, actually be the literal coming of PEACE himself?

    Look through the other passages on the next page and talk about whichever one speaks to your heart.

    QUOTES:

    • “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” - St. Augustine
    • “The punishment of every disordered mind is its own disorder.” - St. Augustine
    • “The peace of God is not the absence of negative thoughts, it is the presence of God himself.” - Tim Keller
    • “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” - C.S. Lewis
    • “Peacemakers are people who, through making peace with God, have finally learned how to admit flaws and weakness, how to surrender their pride, how to love without the need to control every situation.” - Tim Keller
    • “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” - Jimi Hendrix

    BOOKS / DOCS

    SERMONS / TALKS: