I'm really excited about hearing the message
today. We're in our second week of Advent. We
missed out on that first week due to the weather
last week, but we would have heard about hope
last week. And as we move into Advent, we remember
that Advent is about arrival. Advent is remembering
that in a moment in time that Jesus, the Son
of God, decided to arrive. And part of that story
is that he was then crucified to bear the sins
of the world, resurrected to prove that sin had
been forgiven and death had been defeated. And
he ascended to the right hand of God the Father.
We believe that one day he will come again. And
we wait again. We live in Advent every year,
waiting for the arrival of Jesus to come and
make all things new. So we need to be reminded
on a regular basis of things like hope, of peace,
of joy, and of love. And today, I'm really looking
forward to hearing the message because it's from
Dave Hodge. If you'll please welcome him up,
and he's got some really good things to share
with you today. Well, I am... I always want to
apologize because when I went to Indiana Wesleyan
University to study ministry, I told God I never
want to speak in front of anybody. I have one
of those Moses conversations, you know, like
Moses, hey, I stutter, you know, I can't talk
well in front of people. But my thing was I sweat
in front of people. And so I have asked God to
make it cold in this room just for me and my
comfort, not yours. I'm sorry. So that's just
what we have to deal with today. The Lord of
Peace is here with me today. Just before I get
started, there's a little bit of an intro. Look
if you had one shot or one opportunity, would
you seize everything you ever wanted in one moment?
Would you capture it or just let it slip away?
Yo. Eminem. Not the two chocolate guys. You know,
the rapper. I just say that because... This might
be my one shot in front of you at this church.
I attend here, have been a part of the house
since it started way back in the day, and then
I disappeared because I was the chaplain at Arrowhead
Ranch for 15 years and was out there on Sundays
and would try to pop in the very end, but then
I just kind of did stuff, tried to pop in different
churches. And then also with my position at Youth
Hope, I was in and out of churches all the time,
speaking and just visiting. And now I'm at World
Relief, which is not a new position for me in
a weird way because even though I've only worked
there for six months, I've been a part of World
Relief for over 20 years when I was working at
Youth Hope because of all the refugee families
that we worked with in youth centers. I was kind
of shocked my first week. I was like, why is
there three kids from Bosnia and two from Kenya
walking into my youth center in the Quad Cities?
I didn't think that's where I would be ministering
to, you know, that kind of population. But it
happened. And it was awesome because I thought
God was going to call me to go minister overseas
after college. And I came back to the Quad Cities.
So it's a big difference. You just get to cross
rivers instead of oceans over and over again.
Every single day you cross a river. or another
river, back and forth, if you're that kind of
person. Some of you stay on your side of the
rivers, and that's okay. But that's what we get
to do here. And so I just want to get a little
business out of the way. I came to support World
Relief today in kind of a weird way. And my job...
What I do as the church mobilizer is I get to
pair churches with families of refugees and immigrants
in our community. And we created this system
a lot of many, many years ago. This has been
a part of where we leave. But we've reinstituted
this in a kind of sense of urgency because of
what's going on in our country with immigrants
and refugees and organizations that work with
those. Obviously, all of the funding was rescinded
at the beginning of the year for World Relief.
That was promised not just to our organization,
but to help resettle families. And so we lost
a lot of our staff, a lot of our caseworkers.
We kind of had to pull back a little bit. And
we had just resettled about 200 or 270 individuals
from October to January. And we were trying to
figure out how in the world do we serve them
well in their community and help them get established
well. And so we started looking to churches.
There's no better place than a place that says,
hey, we are hope, we are love, we are kindness,
we are goodness, we are grace. And we want to
come around people and be the hope of the world.
We want to be the comfort, be the peace to those
people. And so churches have been rising up and
taking on some of those roles. Right now we have.
18 churches or 18 groups, families that are matched
with 13 churches. Some churches have done more.
We just got to celebrate them last Friday. And
that was just awesome to be in a room full of
churches who have experienced being peace and
being hope and being love, but also receiving
that from the families and to hear their stories
of life change in their own hearts through serving
other people has been amazing. And so Greg and
I have been talking. about the opportunity for
our church to see if that might be something
we might want to be interested in. And there
is no pressure because I know many of you are
serving all throughout the Quad Cities and organizations.
Many of you are at home serving your families.
Many of you and your jobs have amazing roles
serving our communities. And so I know it can
be a busy season and it can be hard. But if you
have interest in being part of a House Good Neighbor
team, there are a couple of families that we've
looked at and identified that do live. in the
Greenbush area or at least close to it if not
on the very outskirts that we would love to look
at maybe partnering with and coming around them
as a good neighbor team and so if you have interest
in that I will be around afterwards because there's
lots of food out here for us to eat after church
today so I of course will be sticking around
and you can find me and I'd love to get your
name and information and then we'll kind of have
a formal meeting about meeting as a team forming
a team, voting on some team leaders that would
help kind of orchestrate those things and keep
things organized for everybody. And then we would
kind of talk about reaching out to families and
meeting them in the community and seeing if they're
interested in partnering with us. And then we'd
get you partnered with a family, and then we
would get you rolling and have plenty of training
and plenty of fun along the way. And so if you're
interested in that... Please see me afterwards.
I simply just need a phone number or email from
you so I can reach out and we can set up a time
to get together. So with all that said, I want
to get that out of the way first because that's
the business part. And now I just wanted to take
a few moments just to talk about Advent and peace
this morning as Greg generously offered for me
to share with you just from my heart this morning
about this. So what is peace? It's one of those
things that we think about as an end result to
conflict ending. We hope peace comes. We have
that probably in our hearts and minds every single
day that we watch the news. We see that's all
going on all over the world. We want Christ to
return. We think about the return of Christ in
Advent. We want peace. But like many of the things
of Advent, hope, love, peace, joy. We have this
idea that they're outcomes through something
that we've been through. So therefore, we found
hope in hard circumstances. We found peace after
a conflict's been ended. We found joy because
something good's happened. We found love because
we met our prince or princess. And we think this
is what it's all about, the happily ever after.
We finally have it. And then the movie ends.
And they fool us because they don't show us after
the ending of what really happens and what life
is really like as you have to love someone. And
it's one of those things that there's all of
these things that we look at, especially when
it comes to the essence of who Jesus is. And
we think about it's when Christ returns, we will
have this ultimately. But that is not necessarily
it. It's part of it, but it's not all of it.
Because peace comes in the midst of conflict.
Hope comes in the midst of hard times. Joy comes
in the midst of sadness. And love comes in the
midst of struggles. And that is the beauty of
who Jesus is. Because Jesus is present in all
of it. I'm going to fast forward and tell you
a funny story that I came across on Facebook.
Maybe it's not funny to you. Maybe it's just
funny to me. But in 2017, 11 -year -old boy in
Arizona named Andrew survived being stung by
over 400 times by African bees. Andrew was airlifted
to Phoenix Children's Hospital, treated, and
made a full recovery. It's surprising because
he also had an allergic reaction to stinging
insects, which added to the danger. Andrew said
he coped with the pain by focusing on his favorite
Dragon Ball Z character, Vegeta, and calling
in his full force power, humorously telling reporters,
I am Andrew, but you can call me Vegeta. That's
amazing to me. 11 -year -old child in the midst
of being stung by 400 bees. calls and brings
in his favorite Dragon Ball Z character to get
him through that turmoil, that experience. And
maybe Andrew doesn't know about Jesus. But I
hope for some of us who do, when we're going
through the midst of our hardest things, are
we calling on Jesus to get us through? We're
just going to look at a quick passage in Luke.
It's Luke 1, 26 -38. It is tradition here for
you to stand as we read this passage. I would
invite you to do that if you would like, or at
least turn your hearts to God as we just kind
of listen. It says, In the sixth month of Elizabeth's
pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth,
to a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to
be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant
of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel
went to her and said, Greetings, you who are
highly favored. The Lord is with you. Mary was
greatly troubled at his words and wondered what
kind of greeting this might be. But the angel
said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary. You have
found favor with God. You will conceive and give
birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of
the Most High. The Lord God will give him the
throne of his father David, and he will reign
over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom
will never end. How will this be, Mary asked
the angel, since I am a virgin? The angel answered,
the Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power
of the Most High will overshadow you. So the
Holy One to be born will be called the Son of
God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going
to have a child in her old age, and she who has
said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth
month. For no word from God will ever fail. I
am the Lord's servant, Mary answered. May your
word to me be fulfilled. And then the angel left
her. Have a seat. Let me just open up in a word
of prayer real quick. God, I just thank you for
this word. I thank you for this story, this passage
of scripture that you've left for us to be reminded,
Lord, that you have a plan. You've always had
a plan since the fall. You've always had it in
place that you knew that your son, Jesus, would
come in physical form. To be present with us
on this earth, to walk in the shoes that we would
one day walk ourselves, to live a life of struggle
and hardships and things, Lord, that we would
question of wondering why is this happening?
And that you would come to die on a cross so
that we could have salvation. And then in our
hardest moments, we could find peace in you because
your Holy Spirit and your presence is with us.
And so, Lord, as we just kind of pull a couple
of things out, I just pray that we would look
to you in all things, in all ways. And trust
in a Savior who loves us and brings peace in
the midst of trials. In your name, amen. So just
a couple of things here I just want to pull out.
It's probably obvious stuff, but to me when I
just read scripture, I play it over in my mind
over and over again of what does this really
look like? What is really happening? I try to
picture it. I try to visualize it. And in my
mind, it's probably very strange. situation than
most of us would look at scripture and read and
just say, oh yeah, we know the story. But Mary's
just a young girl. She's a teenager. I have two
teenagers in my house, both girls. And I wonder
sometimes as a father what in the world is going
on. But that's okay because God has used it in
my life to change me and grow me in my relationship
closer with him. of understanding what it means
to be a father and to call him father. But when
I look at this, I laugh a little bit because
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered
what kind of greeting this might be. And then
the angel says, don't be afraid, Mary, for you
have found favor with God. And I go, but was
Mary afraid? Because she just sounds troubled.
She sounds like a 16 -year -old girl who's like,
huh? I don't get it. I didn't catch it. Can you
repeat that for me? I wasn't paying attention.
I was just scrolling on my phone. Were you calling
me? I'm sorry. I didn't hear you. You know, that's
what I think of. But Mary is like perplexed by
this. She is troubled by this. She's wondering
why an angel has appeared to her. And even though
she doesn't seem frightened, the Lord, the angel
says, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found
favor with God's eyes. And there's all kinds
of things that wrap up in that, right? It's that
anxiety. It's that pressure of what is happening?
What is going on? What is this angel saying to
me? Why is there an angel in my room? This is
strange. I don't know what's going on. All kinds
of things. But the angel brings words of peace.
Brings words of peace. Says it's okay. Just still
your mind right now. Pay attention. Just open
up your heart and listen. In the midst of this
moment, Let me just give you permission to stop,
not be afraid, and just listen. And I think that's
for all of us, it's a huge reminder. Because
we live in a world that produces thoughts in
our mind over and over and over again. We can
be listening to stuff, we can be taking in all
that people are telling us, we can be taking
everything in from the news and social media,
and we can live in a state of anxiety where our
mind is constantly rushing all the time. And
sometimes we just need a reminder from God that
says, it's okay, just stop. Stop listening to
those things. Just pause for a minute, don't
get anxious, don't worry, don't be afraid. Let
me be peace to you in this moment. And I think
that's something that we often forget, that we
have the ability, like Andrew, to lock into and
say, God, in the midst of this turmoil, in the
midst of this anxiety, in the midst of these
things, I need peace. I went through a huge period
of my time where I had huge anxiety. I think
it was triggered from a moment where I had an
allergic reaction to a flu shot one year, and
I was out at our camp at a retreat. And I woke
up in the morning and my arm had swollen to the
size of a softball. And I called Tricia, I think,
or somebody that was a nurse. If you have a friend
that's a nurse, I apologize. You know how it
is. You get called about everything. And Tricia
delivers babies. But I still call her about everything.
I'm sure she loves that. But it's great to have
a friend who's a nurse. And they're like, hey,
you should probably get to the hospital. It sounds
like you're having an allergic reaction. And
so I'm like 45 minutes outside of town at our
camp. And I get in the car and start driving
myself in town. And I got right next to Arrowhead
Ranch, probably 20 minutes within. And literally,
I felt like I couldn't breathe. I felt like I
was going to pass out. I felt like I was going
to just die on the side of the road somewhere.
And so I just passed Arrowhead, and I turn in,
and I go in, and I see their nurse. And I'm like,
hey, I don't know what's going on. I feel like
I'm going to pass out. They called my father
at the time. He came up, picked me up, took me
to the hospital. But from that experience, whenever
I'd get in the car to go drive after that, I
would start feeling like I couldn't breathe.
And so I had this anxiety that was building into
me of, hey, you had this experience, and now
you feel like you're going to have it again.
And so I was on medication for a while, trying
to control it, and I finally got off of that.
But I just used scripture over and over and over
again. That God does not give you a spirit of
fear, but a joy and a sound mind, right? And
I use that stuff over and over again, just reminding
myself that Jesus, in this moment while I'm driving,
you are present, you are with me, you have a
plan, everything is going to be okay. And so
just using those things to call on Jesus in those
moments, through that practice, through that
experience, I have found that is something that
I do all the time now. When I feel anxious, when
I feel stressed out, when I start getting worried,
I just have to stop myself and say, Jesus, in
this moment, I need you to be peace. And we're
reminded that we're given that. This angel reminds
Mary, hey, don't be afraid, Mary. God's found
favor with you. God has a plan for you. God is
with you in this moment. Secondly, Jesus is bringing
peace to all of us. You will conceive and give
birth to a son. You're to call him Jesus. He
will be great, and he will be called the Son
of the Most High. The Lord God will give him
the throne of his father David, and he will reign
over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom
will never end. This is a huge piece for all
of us in the scripture. Now we're not just talking
about Mary. Now we're talking about who Mary
will bring into the world, whose God is going
to use to bring Jesus into the world, and Jesus
is... kingdom will reign and never end. This
is where, not just the anxiousness, but this
is where we get to walk and live every single
day. Because we live after this story, guys.
Jesus has already died on the cross for us. Jesus
has already risen from the dead for us. Jesus
has already spent his Holy Spirit to live and
dwell in us. And if we call him our savior, if
we call him our friend, then Jesus is with us
and present in his kingdom now. Not just in the
end. And that is the beauty that we get to walk
in as believers every single day that we are
walking in the kingdom of God, not just waiting
to get to it. And if we're walking in the kingdom
of God, then Jesus is present with us and his
peace is with us in all circumstances. And that
is an amazing key to unlock. If you're going
to level up. with anything. Level up with understanding
that every single day. And if I talk in video
game terms, I'm sorry. It's the world I live
in. You know, I play board games all the time.
And this is how my mind thinks. If we're on an
adventure and I am a person who's just being
called on this adventure, if you know anything
about the hero's journey, he starts as some little
kid in his bedroom and it's dark and it's quiet
and he's scared and he's alone. And then something
happens and he's called into adventure. And guess
what that hero has to face to become the hero
he's supposed to be? Conflict. Trials. Tribulations.
He's got to face them. Because on the other side
of those things is greatness. It's perseverance.
It's overcoming. It builds into who we are. And
there's no surprise to me that when Jesus says
that you will face trials of many kind, but you
will find joy in it, not after it, that there
is peace in it as we go through it. Because on
the other side, on the other side, what God is
doing for us is something we can't even fathom.
But it will be beautiful, and it will be good.
Because many of us that are experiencing hard
times right now, are wondering what's on the
other side. But there's many of us that have
experienced hard times over and over and over
again, which seems to be the point of what we
experience in life sometimes. We have these hardships
that we go through, but as we overcome them,
we learn from them and we grow, and then we have
more, and then we overcome them and we grow.
I stand before you as a person who, like, I'm
kind of the last standing member of my family.
I experienced loss of my brother at a very young
age. Both my parents have passed away. All my
grandparents have passed away. My uncles, my
aunts, they've all passed away. I've experienced
death at a very young age. At seven years old,
my best friend died from a random fever. And
remember, I can still smell the pew, you know,
just sticking your face in and burying it at
the funeral. And I asked God why that had to
happen as a young kid going, why is this happening?
But that would be the pattern of my life over
and over again. In the midst of it, finally,
I was like, okay, there's a reason for this.
There's still beauty in this because the more
and more that I experienced grief and loss, the
more and more I met people who has experienced
grief and loss. And we realize it's a part of
life. And instead of running away from it, we
get to run into it and come alongside each other
and say, hey, let me just be with you in this
moment because there's peace here. And I understand
it and I feel it. And I want to bring that to
you also. After my brother passed away that first
summer, I was at church camp and I just young
dumb kid just stood up. after a message and just
raised my hand and said, hey, can I say something?
They're like, sure. And I was like, hey, listen,
my brother just passed away this past year and
it's been really hard, but I know there's other
people here that have probably experienced the
same thing. And in that dumb moment, God used
that to show me something real because I was
like, hey, if you want to meet after this, I'll
be over on this park bench. Just kind of want
to meet other people and pray with you if you've
been through that. And out of my surprise, I
didn't know if anything would really happen.
I just felt like it's something I needed to do.
But in that moment, like, people started trickling
over. And then there's probably, like, 20 of
us just standing around, not just kids and teens
my age, adults. And I was like, hey, guys, my
name's Dave, and this is what I've been through,
and if you just want to share your story, I'd
love to hear it. And people just started sharing
their stories of loss. And out of that, we just
started praying for each other. And that was
the moment that God said, hey, Dave, this is
what God can do with what you've experienced.
This is what you can do with what you've been
through. That you can be a person who's experienced
something horrible that I can restore and make
beautiful. Because I'm a God who brings peace
and offers that to us who follow him to be able
to bring peace to others. One of those weird
parts of this passage, if you realize this, is
when this whole passage starts, it tells us that
this is the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy
before we're told the story. And that's important
because previously in this passage, an angel
shows up to Elizabeth and tells her that she's
going to be with child and she's very old. And
she doesn't have the same response that Mary
does. She laughs. And then the angel gets very
angry. It's interesting. There's exclamation
points after every word the angel says to Elizabeth
after that. And he's like, okay, you laughed.
I know this is going to happen. You just need
to believe and trust because this is going to
happen. I found that kind of just interesting
to me. But part of this Mary story is it's just
not Mary who's experiencing something. It's also
Elizabeth. And so as soon as this happens, after
this passage, Mary leaves and goes visits her.
Mary leaves and goes and visits Elizabeth, who's
already experiencing what she's about to experience.
Elizabeth is six months into her pregnancy. Mary
has no clue what this is going to entail for
her. But yet she goes to someone who's already
experiencing it. Another miraculous birth. And
as soon as she arrives, her and Elizabeth are
immediately connected. It says that John the
Baptist notices Jesus in Mary's belly and leaps.
And there's this beautiful thing that happens
where Elizabeth actually blesses Mary. And then
through Elizabeth blessing Mary, Mary produces
this beautiful song that we have recorded in
Luke about her experience of being a mother and
carrying the child, the Savior of the world.
And so this reminds me over and over again that
God uses Mary or Elizabeth to bring peace to
Mary. And I think vice versa for both of them.
And Mary stays three months with Elizabeth. Together,
they just live in fellowship and caring for each
other through their pregnancies. And I think
that's beautiful. Because Mary could have done
anything. Mary could have ran and hid. She could
have isolated herself. She could have just sat
with this, this puzzling, how is this going to
happen? What are Joseph and I going to do? How
are we going to explain this to the world? What
are people going to think? She could have isolated
herself and tried to live in this fear of what
does this mean that God is calling her to? But
instead, she goes because she's heard that Elizabeth
is experiencing something similar. And so here's
a hard reminder. If we are sitting in something
that we feel like we're carrying and nobody understands,
there's people who do. And please go to them.
Please go find them. Please run to them. Because
we're not meant to do this alone. We're not meant
to do it alone. We're not meant to carry the
weight of the world on our own shoulders. That
is not peace. We're meant to call on Jesus and
we're meant to call on each other. Because we
as believers and followers of God get to be peace
to other people. What a cool opportunity that
we've been blessed with. If we follow Jesus,
we get to bring peace givers. We get to be peacemakers.
And some of the hardest wars you will ever fight
in will be on a couch sitting next to someone
who needs you. But we get that opportunity. To
love God and to love others. When Jesus says,
I've come to give you life and life to the full,
I think that's just simply the key. When God
calls us to love him with everything and to really
love other people as he loves us, to me, that
sends me on a mission every single day. When
I wake up, what can I do today, God? What can
we do together? How can we go bring love? How
can we go bring peace today? What's that going
to look like? And there's days, man, where I'm
just blown away. In my adventure mind, in my
adventure life, this is how I get through every
single day. I wake up and say, God, what are
we doing today? How can we bring peace? How can
we be joy? How can we bring love and hope into
the world? What does that get to look like? And
if you start to experience that and start to
practice that, oh my gosh, I can't tell you the
adventure that you will begin to live. Because
there's so many people who are just struggling
around and going, where do I find this? What
does it look like for me? And sometimes it can
look like us just walking up to them and just
saying, hey, how are you doing today? Really?
Can I sit with you for a little bit and just
hear about what's going on in your life? Can
I pray with you? Can we bring peace to who you
are? How are we doing? Good? How are we doing
on time? I don't know what that means. Tell me.
Five minutes? Okay, let's... Give me the freedom
to do something, okay? This is going to be weird,
but this is just how I live. Because I can't
just take words in and process them and walk
out of here and remember anything. But if I can
experience something, I often don't forget those
moments. So I've been a part of a program practicing
spiritual direction for the last two years. Spiritual
direction is literally just sitting. with someone
in the presence of God and asking God to speak
to that person and I get to be the person to
ask them the questions they don't want to be
asked sometimes I get to be the person that gets
to help them look for God and seek God in some
moments that are hard for them to even want to
process but they know they need to and when they
do something beautiful happens and so we're just
going to do a group experiment I'm going to practice
spiritual direction right now with all of you
And so it's going to be one of those awkward
moments for some of us because it's just weird
that people are around us. And we may have kids
with you or you may have a sweetie with you who's
pulling on you and laughing at you and chomping
you. But I'm just going to ask you to do something
real quick just to close your eyes. And if you
would just take a moment to take some deep breaths
and breathe in and breathe out and just allow
yourself to just to calm. And to seek peace.
To seek Jesus' face. This is one of the beautiful
things that I try to do every day. It's just
to find a moment to sit quietly and to picture
myself in an empty room. And if you can just
see yourself sitting in a chair in a room in
the quiet, maybe for Cindy there's snow falling
down in the window behind you. Maybe you need
that. Maybe you just need a moment just to sit
quietly. in a room, by yourself, in the calmness,
in the peace. And then I just want to invite
you to invite Jesus into that room. If you can
see yourself sitting in a chair and you can see
Jesus standing before you, just look into his
face and allow him to be peace. Allow his warmth.
that radiates off his body, bring you warmth
to your heart, your mind, your soul, your lungs.
Just allow him to be in that space and breathe
him in. And if you can sit with that in a minute,
and you can feel something stirring inside of
you that's been stirring, if there's something
that's bringing you anxiousness, or bringing
you hardship, or bringing you discomfort, if
there's something that is at war inside of you
in this moment with him, will you simply just
give it to him? Will you just simply just reach
out your hands and your mind and say, God, here
it is. Jesus, can you take this? I'm struggling
to carry it. And just allow him to speak peace
over you. Allow him to lay his hands on you.
And to say, you are my child. And you are loved.
Do not be afraid. I'm with you. And just take
a deep breath. Take a couple deep breaths. And
just be in that space. And some of us need this
moment, and some of us are struggling with it,
and that's okay. And if you need this moment
to say, you know what, God, I don't really know
if I'm carrying much right now, but I know there's
a world around me that is. Would you bring somebody
into my mind that needs peace? Would you bring
somebody to my heart that I know is going through
something maybe I haven't reached out to or haven't
talked to or I know I need to. Could you bring
somebody to mind, Jesus? Could we invite them
into the room right now with me? Could I pull
up a chair for them to sit with you for a minute
and just ask that you be peace in their life?
Can you put it on my heart to say, God, can you
just be with them and I'll be with them? God,
when I leave this room, when I leave this church,
when I go about my day, Lord, I will go visit
them. I will call them. I will text them. I will
let them know that you are with them, that you
can be peace for them, Lord, in the midst of
what they're going through as you are peace for
me and what I'm going through. And if you can
visualize yourself just asking God for peace,
if you can visualize yourself sitting next to
someone you know needs peace, Lord, we just thank
you for that. We thank you for allowing us this
moment and this space just to seek you and to
seek your face and to be present with you. We
thank you for who you are and how you love us
so deeply and how you care for us so deeply and
how in the midst of our hardest circumstances
you are present with us to be peace. And may
we have moments like this over and over and over
again where we just stop and we just picture
ourselves with you in the room. Standing before
us with love and warmth and goodness and grace.
God, we thank you for this day. We thank you
for this season. To use to remind us that you
are coming. And though your kingdom will come
again, that you have already come. And you have
died on the cross and rose again. And you have
sent your sweet Holy Spirit to live and walk
with us daily. And Jesus, the beauty of it is
there's no more temples. There's no more curtains.
There's a God who desperately loves us and wants
to be with us every moment. To be the peace,
love, joy, and hope that we can live life to
the full with every single day. We thank you
for this morning in your name. Amen.