WEBVTT 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:19.000 But, you know, we're going to hop into this. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:24.360 But there's something about this time of year that, you know, 00:00:24.360 --> 00:00:27.600 always just kind of feels different. 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:31.120 Maybe it's like the five minutes that Texas has like a cold front, 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:34.720 and we're like, oh, like, San Antonio. 00:00:34.720 --> 00:00:37.440 We're like, suddenly we need our flannels and fire pits. 00:00:37.440 --> 00:00:41.040 And, um, you know, and then we're like, it's hot. 00:00:41.040 --> 00:00:44.920 Actually, I bought a fire pit this weekend. 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:46.080 I don't know what for. 00:00:46.080 --> 00:00:49.560 Uh, I keep trying to think, like, I'm going to be an outdoors guy. 00:00:49.560 --> 00:00:55.280 Um, so I got a fire pit, but it's still in its bag. 00:00:55.280 --> 00:01:00.040 Um, it's a travel fire pit, which is even cooler, 00:01:00.040 --> 00:01:03.520 so we can go camping, which we don't do. 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:07.680 But, um, I think I had a good story. 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:09.400 So, it's like, this is exciting. 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:10.440 It's made here. 00:01:10.440 --> 00:01:13.280 Oh, anyway, um, yeah, maybe it's that. 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:14.960 Maybe like the flannels and the fire pits. 00:01:14.960 --> 00:01:18.840 Maybe it's the peppermint, everything who likes to drink peppermint stuff. 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:20.840 [inaudible] 00:01:20.840 --> 00:01:27.000 Okay, um, or maybe it's the way like the Christmas lights start to show up. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:29.440 Anybody put your Christmas lights up yet? 00:01:29.440 --> 00:01:30.440 All right. 00:01:30.440 --> 00:01:32.440 Anybody like heights? 00:01:32.440 --> 00:01:33.440 Okay. 00:01:33.440 --> 00:01:34.440 Okay. 00:01:34.440 --> 00:01:36.800 I need help putting Christmas lights up on my house. 00:01:36.800 --> 00:01:38.080 It's too tall. 00:01:38.080 --> 00:01:41.920 Um, a couple of years ago, I hired a 20 year old kid who didn't care about his life, and 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:45.880 he would go to the edge and like, lean over and put him, uh, that's not me. 00:01:45.880 --> 00:01:52.240 So I need to put those up, but we, we did decorate our house. 00:01:52.240 --> 00:01:57.200 Mighty got a really good picture of us looking like we were all happy, decorating the tree. 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:03.280 Like we weren't yelling at each other at all, um, did just the kids. 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:10.360 They were yelling at each other, not us, um, but no, like whatever, whatever it is, something 00:02:10.360 --> 00:02:12.720 shifts at this time of year. 00:02:12.720 --> 00:02:20.800 And inside the church, that season has a name and this time of year is called Advent. 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:23.240 And some of us grew up with it. 00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:26.480 Some of us discovered it maybe later in life. 00:02:26.480 --> 00:02:29.760 Some of us just thought it was a calendar with chocolate in it. 00:02:29.760 --> 00:02:38.800 They like maybe made Christmas time feel more spiritual, but Advent is this like older and 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:47.340 deeper, more human experience than what maybe, you know, just like chocolate calendar says. 00:02:47.340 --> 00:02:56.280 It's a season designed to slow us down, to discover some things in life that are happening 00:02:56.280 --> 00:02:57.280 around us. 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:02.740 It's a season designed to help us learn how to wait. 00:03:02.740 --> 00:03:04.400 It's a season of longing. 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:14.160 It's a season where we remember that the world is not yet what it should be. 00:03:14.160 --> 00:03:16.760 And yet light is already breaking in. 00:03:16.760 --> 00:03:17.760 It's here. 00:03:17.760 --> 00:03:21.400 It is, we see glimpses. 00:03:21.400 --> 00:03:26.880 Last week we lit the candle of hope and today we're going to lean into peace. 00:03:26.880 --> 00:03:34.720 But before I talk about peace, I want to talk about something else, like because I'm often 00:03:34.720 --> 00:03:41.200 reminded and I have been this last week by how children encounter this season and how 00:03:41.200 --> 00:03:49.200 much different it is a kid sees Christmas lights and they're like entire body changes. 00:03:49.200 --> 00:03:56.720 Right, their eyes get big, their breath kind of like softens and they make that like, "Oh, 00:03:56.720 --> 00:03:59.560 sound," right? 00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:05.760 It's the sound that you guys probably make like when you have a good taco, like, "Oh." 00:04:05.760 --> 00:04:11.960 But they, with Christmas lights, they do that and kids haven't lost their sense of wonder. 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:18.760 They haven't learned to talk themselves out of beauty. 00:04:18.760 --> 00:04:23.620 Kids haven't learned to rush past the moments of awe in their life. 00:04:23.620 --> 00:04:30.080 And I think whatever Jesus meant when he said in Matthew that, "Truly I tell you, unless 00:04:30.080 --> 00:04:35.480 you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." 00:04:35.480 --> 00:04:37.680 I think this has a part of it. 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:39.560 This is part of that. 00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:48.920 It could still let themselves be moved, adults, sometimes we forget how. 00:04:48.920 --> 00:04:59.320 And maybe that's why Advent exists, to bring us back into present, to help us notice again, 00:04:59.320 --> 00:05:07.640 to guide us back to wonder, which I believe is the doorway to peace. 00:05:07.640 --> 00:05:19.460 And the Bible, peace, is not this word that means the absence of conflict or stress. 00:05:19.460 --> 00:05:24.080 The Hebrew word for peace is shalom. 00:05:24.080 --> 00:05:31.760 And shalom, if you look at the definition of it, it literally means wholeness or harmony 00:05:31.760 --> 00:05:38.160 or integration, everything in its right place, it's not perfection, it's not performance, 00:05:38.160 --> 00:05:42.880 it's not control, it's wholeness. 00:05:42.880 --> 00:05:50.360 And shalom, it describes the life you have when all the scattered pieces of you begin 00:05:50.360 --> 00:05:53.400 returning to center. 00:05:53.400 --> 00:06:01.760 Your mind, your heart, your relationships, your sense of meaning, biblically, peace is 00:06:01.760 --> 00:06:07.880 what wholeness feels like on the inside. 00:06:07.880 --> 00:06:12.680 Most of us, we grew up in church, if you grew up in church, you probably heard the Christmas 00:06:12.680 --> 00:06:14.760 story. 00:06:14.760 --> 00:06:21.840 And when I step back and look at my upbringing in church and what this all meant for us, 00:06:21.840 --> 00:06:30.600 a lot of times the Christmas story, its main point was still what happens after we die. 00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:36.320 The idea was, baby Jesus is born so that he can become an adult die and so he can go 00:06:36.320 --> 00:06:38.240 to heaven someday. 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:39.720 Thanks. 00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:50.040 There's not a whole lot, yeah, there's talk about virgin birth and all the people that 00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:56.360 come to see Jesus when he's a baby, but really the idea is like, how is he going to be an 00:06:56.360 --> 00:06:59.520 adult and how is he going to die to forgive us of our sins? 00:06:59.520 --> 00:07:04.480 So that one day we can get a ticket to go somewhere when we die. 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:10.280 But I don't think that's actually what this story is supposed to be about. 00:07:10.280 --> 00:07:16.320 In the actual text, that's not what angels are saying, that's not what we see happening. 00:07:16.320 --> 00:07:22.960 There's actually way more about what is happening with us right now in our life than there is 00:07:22.960 --> 00:07:25.600 about where we're going. 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:28.560 Let's read it. 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:35.820 In Luke 2, it says, "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch 00:07:35.820 --> 00:07:38.340 over their flocks at night. 00:07:38.340 --> 00:07:42.720 An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:46.280 they were terrified. 00:07:46.280 --> 00:07:51.120 Right here is this Greek word, phobos." 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:56.480 And phobos is like, where we get the word phobia? 00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:02.360 It means dread, terror, like threat. 00:08:02.360 --> 00:08:08.560 It is a different version of the word that we've talked about, Yerah, terror. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:14.600 They experience terror when these angels, of course, like you're sitting in a field. 00:08:14.600 --> 00:08:16.640 You see all the stars. 00:08:16.640 --> 00:08:17.640 This is where you live. 00:08:17.640 --> 00:08:22.200 You've been here your whole life, not your whole life, but like, this is what you do. 00:08:22.200 --> 00:08:23.520 Every night you're here. 00:08:23.520 --> 00:08:27.600 And all of a sudden, an angel just appears in the sky. 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:33.280 I don't know about you, but I'm terrified. 00:08:33.280 --> 00:08:40.920 And this is a group of people who, if they're associating an angel with God, their understanding 00:08:40.920 --> 00:08:49.640 of God is if God shows up, you're in trouble, like terror enters in. 00:08:49.640 --> 00:08:55.480 But watch what happens next, it says, "But the angels said to them, 'Do not be afraid.' 00:08:55.480 --> 00:09:01.440 I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:05.520 Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. 00:09:05.520 --> 00:09:08.320 He is the Messiah, the Lord." 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:14.600 Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared, saying, "Glory to God in the 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:20.120 highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests." 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:29.360 I don't know how the shepherds felt when the host showed up and started chanting, but "Glory 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:37.240 to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests." 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:43.720 Being here in this statement that the angel's making or this, the host of angels that show 00:09:43.720 --> 00:09:49.160 up, nothing here is about afterlife. 00:09:49.160 --> 00:09:51.760 Nothing's about escape. 00:09:51.760 --> 00:09:54.480 Nothing is about fear of judgment. 00:09:54.480 --> 00:10:07.200 It is about the arrival of peace, of wholeness, the shalom right now to them. 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:13.960 The Bible has this fascinating thing that, with the Bible, it's written in multiple languages, 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:14.960 right? 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:22.380 Yours is in English probably, but that's not how it was written. 00:10:22.380 --> 00:10:32.360 I just thought, anyway, I remember having a debate with someone one time about the scripture 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:35.920 and they were like, "Well, you're just trying to confuse me." 00:10:35.920 --> 00:10:40.480 I was like, "No, no, I'm just telling you what the Greek word meant." 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:44.160 They were like, "Well, my Bible is written in English." 00:10:44.160 --> 00:10:56.840 Yes, but it was originally Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, these are the languages that were 00:10:56.840 --> 00:10:59.800 used and written that have been translated to English. 00:10:59.800 --> 00:11:05.080 But when you go through the language of the Bible, it gets fascinating. 00:11:05.080 --> 00:11:14.020 There's a verse this year that shook my world. 00:11:14.020 --> 00:11:20.000 If you've been here more than once now, you've heard me talk about the emotion of awe. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:27.160 The verse that really just kind of wrecked me was that I talked about fearing God and 00:11:27.160 --> 00:11:28.600 I just don't understand it. 00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:31.520 I don't understand being afraid of God. 00:11:31.520 --> 00:11:36.720 Why the gospel would have anything to do with fear, a God who is love, fear doesn't make 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:37.720 sense to me. 00:11:37.720 --> 00:11:41.640 In a relationship that is loving, I don't understand why I need fear in order to love 00:11:41.640 --> 00:11:44.560 or enter into a relationship. 00:11:44.560 --> 00:11:48.720 I had some people push back on it, and so I went to the scriptures to look at what the 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:49.720 word was. 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:53.560 And so, like I said, most of you guys have heard this, but in the Old Testament, in Proverbs 00:11:53.560 --> 00:12:01.040 9, verse 10, it says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of 00:12:01.040 --> 00:12:02.800 the Holy One is understanding." 00:12:02.800 --> 00:12:07.320 And this is one of those ones where I was like, "I don't get it. 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:10.360 How does fear lead to wisdom?" 00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:14.000 It's just not a normal path that someone would take, and I don't believe that that's 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:15.840 how our minds work. 00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:19.880 And so, I went to the original language and started studying it. 00:12:19.880 --> 00:12:25.360 I found that the word fear here is actually yerah in the Hebrew language, and it means 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:32.800 ah, or reverence or wonder, not terror. 00:12:32.800 --> 00:12:39.120 Like I said, this is the verse in a moment that really shook me theologically this year. 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:47.160 The trajectory of my theology is so based on this idea now that I re-enrolled in school. 00:12:47.160 --> 00:12:52.640 I'm like the 43-year-old man in college with a bunch of 20-year-olds. 00:12:52.640 --> 00:12:58.560 And Algebra's kicking my butt, which I don't know why I had to take it again, but I thought 00:12:58.560 --> 00:12:59.560 it was in my credits. 00:12:59.560 --> 00:13:02.560 I have a lot of credits. 00:13:02.560 --> 00:13:06.360 But I went back to school for psychology, because I really, I just want, like this is 00:13:06.360 --> 00:13:12.760 fascinating to me, and I wanted to study this emotion and what is happening with people, 00:13:12.760 --> 00:13:17.460 and there's been quite a bit of studies on it, but now I'm a 43-year-old man sitting 00:13:17.460 --> 00:13:24.800 in psychology classes in college because this shook me theologically. 00:13:24.800 --> 00:13:29.000 The awe of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:36.200 Later in the New Testament, we see that John says in 1 John 4, there is no fear in love, 00:13:36.200 --> 00:13:39.080 but perfect love drives out fear. 00:13:39.080 --> 00:13:43.680 Because fear has to do with punishment, the one who fears is not made perfect in love. 00:13:43.680 --> 00:13:47.160 Now, like I said, biblically, there's some fascinating things with words. 00:13:47.160 --> 00:13:50.200 This word in the Greek is the word phobos that we were talking about. 00:13:50.200 --> 00:13:51.200 It's terror. 00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:53.560 It's a dread. 00:13:53.560 --> 00:13:55.840 It is love cast out fear. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:58.560 Now, is the Bible contradicting itself? 00:13:58.560 --> 00:14:01.720 Because it's said in the Old Testament that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 00:14:01.720 --> 00:14:03.840 Here it says that perfect love drives out fear. 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:08.200 Well, there are two separate words kind of definition-wise, but I believe that it's not 00:14:08.200 --> 00:14:09.840 a contradictory. 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:16.360 It's describing two very different human experiences. 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:22.120 How you are experiencing something, how you, the emotion you have, the reaction to whatever 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:30.680 that is, could be terror, phobos, this thing that closes you off, it pulls you away. 00:14:30.680 --> 00:14:34.040 You are afraid, so you have to protect. 00:14:34.040 --> 00:14:43.880 Or it could be ah, your ah, which opens you up, which makes you more curious and more 00:14:43.880 --> 00:14:48.360 focused outside of yourself. 00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:52.760 The angels aren't saying here when they come to these shepherds and they say, don't be 00:14:52.760 --> 00:14:53.760 afraid. 00:14:53.760 --> 00:14:55.400 They're not saying don't feel anything. 00:14:55.400 --> 00:15:04.680 I think they're saying don't experience this as terror, experience this as ah. 00:15:04.680 --> 00:15:17.920 Because ah opens the heart, it softens the spirit, it creates room for peace and wholeness. 00:15:17.920 --> 00:15:24.400 So what happens to these shepherds in this moment is they go from fear to ah, and they're 00:15:24.400 --> 00:15:34.760 now invited into wholeness or peace. 00:15:34.760 --> 00:15:41.600 I've given you the definition before, ah is the feeling you get when you encounter something 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:49.640 vast or beautiful that expands your perspective and pulls you out of yourself. 00:15:49.640 --> 00:15:53.200 It makes you feel small but safe. 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:56.460 It creates a sense of connection. 00:15:56.460 --> 00:15:59.880 It interrupts fear. 00:15:59.880 --> 00:16:06.480 It opens you like I've given you multiple different ways to, you might like see this, 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:10.440 but like if you're standing outside of the Grand Canyon and you're just looking at this 00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:15.400 massive hole in the ground, you're like what, what is this? 00:16:15.400 --> 00:16:17.400 This is fascinating. 00:16:17.400 --> 00:16:18.960 How did this happen? 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:24.320 And it's a reminder that you're not the only one here, but that there's so many things 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:29.320 that are happening that you are part of something, you are small part of something so much bigger. 00:16:29.320 --> 00:16:33.360 But not in a bad way, in a fascinating way. 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:40.680 An invitation to be curious about what else is out there, what is happening around me. 00:16:40.680 --> 00:16:47.120 And the studies show that when you experience, I thought it's like wow, that's cool, like 00:16:47.120 --> 00:16:53.120 it is I am part of something bigger than my anxieties. 00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:57.080 I am part of something bigger than my worry, I'm part of something so much bigger than 00:16:57.080 --> 00:17:02.840 the struggles that I think are going to end this. 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:08.440 Psychologists, they describe awe as a self-transcendent emotion. 00:17:08.440 --> 00:17:20.440 One that pulls your attention from fear and ego toward presence, gratitude and connection. 00:17:20.440 --> 00:17:24.040 Because when you experience something so vast, your mind has to now accommodate what just 00:17:24.040 --> 00:17:25.040 happened. 00:17:25.040 --> 00:17:29.480 Something changed and like I don't know how to experience this, your mind has to open 00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:30.480 up. 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:36.120 And once you've experienced all multiple times, you just get curious about what else is out 00:17:36.120 --> 00:17:37.120 there. 00:17:37.120 --> 00:17:42.000 What else is going to surprise me is going to create this emotion, this awe. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:47.680 And you begin to, the studies show that when you experience awe, you are less self-focused 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:50.040 and more others focused. 00:17:50.040 --> 00:17:52.680 You learn that there is connection that happens with us. 00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:56.040 That we are actually here for each other. 00:17:56.040 --> 00:17:58.920 I love when Brittany has talked about this. 00:17:58.920 --> 00:18:10.600 She says that we breathe with the trees, like the trees create oxygen, which we need, science. 00:18:10.600 --> 00:18:18.200 And then we expel carbon dioxide, which the trees need, they breathe in. 00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:22.960 And it's just like maybe we were actually made to be together in this thing. 00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:31.320 Look, how fascinating is this? 00:18:31.320 --> 00:18:37.160 Keltoner says, "Aww, quiet's the self and brings us into deeper connection with the 00:18:37.160 --> 00:18:39.160 world around us." 00:18:39.160 --> 00:18:48.520 It quiets the brain's default mode network, which is this area where you actually are 00:18:48.520 --> 00:18:50.160 experiencing anxiety and overthinking. 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:51.160 It quiets it. 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:54.060 It reduces your anxiety and your overthinking. 00:18:54.060 --> 00:19:02.440 It activates the parasympathetic nervous system, this part of your body that literally, naturally, 00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:06.880 it's a calming system in you, slows your heart rate. 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:11.880 It allows you to breathe a little bit deeper and it allows you to slow down. 00:19:11.880 --> 00:19:12.880 It's built in. 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:14.960 It is this thing that gets activated. 00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:23.640 In fact, it's like peace begins to happen in your body, restores your attention to things 00:19:23.640 --> 00:19:33.480 around you, increases compassion and humility, reduces stress hormones like cortisol, researches, 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:37.040 even find that it reduces chronic inflammation. 00:19:37.040 --> 00:19:40.720 It's a healing thing that happens when you begin to experience this. 00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:46.200 I know that's not what we're talking about, but it is the throughline that I'm finding 00:19:46.200 --> 00:19:58.320 now in what I believe we experience in life as humans. 00:19:58.320 --> 00:20:07.000 I truly believe that awe, psychologically, physiologically, is the doorway into wholeness, 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:12.000 opens us up to peace, to shalom. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:21.780 It makes sense why awe is spiritually transformative, but somewhere along the way, Christianity 00:20:21.780 --> 00:20:32.040 became so centered on getting us out of here, getting to heaven that we forgot about what 00:20:32.040 --> 00:20:38.680 it's so amazing about where we're at. 00:20:38.680 --> 00:20:39.680 It's fascinating. 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:45.040 I saw yesterday, anybody raise your hands. 00:20:45.040 --> 00:20:46.640 I know some of us did. 00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:50.600 Raise your hand if you grew up with the Left Behind series. 00:20:50.600 --> 00:20:51.600 Okay. 00:20:51.600 --> 00:20:52.600 Yep. 00:20:52.600 --> 00:20:59.080 Trauma, trauma, trauma. 00:20:59.080 --> 00:21:05.600 I saw yesterday Kirk Cameron, who was like, some of you guys have seen the Left Behind 00:21:05.600 --> 00:21:08.200 series and it was like Nicholas Cage. 00:21:08.200 --> 00:21:10.560 That's fake. 00:21:10.560 --> 00:21:12.680 Kirk Cameron's the real stuff. 00:21:12.680 --> 00:21:18.600 Kirk Cameron was like the main guy in the Left Behind series. 00:21:18.600 --> 00:21:23.840 Even after that has been a spokesperson for a lot of these things. 00:21:23.840 --> 00:21:28.200 And yesterday I saw that he was on a podcast where Kirk Cameron said that he'd actually 00:21:28.200 --> 00:21:32.280 changed his position on what he believed about afterlife, that he doesn't believe in eternal 00:21:32.280 --> 00:21:35.880 conscious torment anymore, which is crazy, because that's all the Left Behind series 00:21:35.880 --> 00:21:40.720 is about. 00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:47.800 He's walked into what they call annihilationism, where we just kind of cease to exist. 00:21:47.800 --> 00:21:53.280 But I can tell Kirk if I was going to talk to him, that's the entry drug. 00:21:53.280 --> 00:21:58.280 He gets an annihilationism that you've been to read and study and you're like, oh wait, 00:21:58.280 --> 00:22:01.800 maybe Jesus was about all of us. 00:22:01.800 --> 00:22:05.360 This is what it looks like to experience life together. 00:22:05.360 --> 00:22:12.640 See, Jesus didn't talk about getting us out of here somewhere else, but Jesus spent his 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:16.960 life talking about here. 00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:18.880 How to be merciful. 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:20.680 He said, blessed are the poor. 00:22:20.680 --> 00:22:25.120 What happens here, forgive, love your neighbor. 00:22:25.120 --> 00:22:31.520 Come to me, all who are weary and I will give you rest. 00:22:31.520 --> 00:22:34.200 He says, come to me. 00:22:34.200 --> 00:22:38.720 All you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:46.320 from me, for I am gentle and humble and heart and you will find rest for your souls. 00:22:46.320 --> 00:22:56.280 This rest is not after you die, this rest is the beginning of wholeness now. 00:22:56.280 --> 00:23:01.480 When Paul talks about it, he talks about it as through the spirit. 00:23:01.480 --> 00:23:06.760 He describes the traits that grow out of a life that is becoming whole. 00:23:06.760 --> 00:23:14.360 Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. 00:23:14.360 --> 00:23:22.600 These are all fruit overflow of a life that is becoming whole, but experiencing the peace, 00:23:22.600 --> 00:23:23.600 the shalom. 00:23:23.600 --> 00:23:32.760 They are not behaviors to perform, these are natural fruit of wholeness. 00:23:32.760 --> 00:23:38.780 It opens the heart, wholeness begins to root itself there, shalom is what wholeness feels 00:23:38.780 --> 00:23:40.720 like, this peace. 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:49.500 And the fruit of the spirit is what wholeness produces through us. 00:23:49.500 --> 00:23:58.480 So in order to find ways to get us to wholeness, to experience shalom, there's a couple of 00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:02.180 things that I want to point out that we can do in our everyday life. 00:24:02.180 --> 00:24:09.880 So sometimes, when you begin to study this idea of awe, there's a lot of things that 00:24:09.880 --> 00:24:15.040 are like, oh, you got to get out in nature and you got to go fly fishing, which is cool. 00:24:15.040 --> 00:24:16.600 I did it this year. 00:24:16.600 --> 00:24:18.560 I didn't catch anything. 00:24:18.560 --> 00:24:24.600 I went fly casting, but it was fun. 00:24:24.600 --> 00:24:33.000 But it was just out in Oregon, just like, I've never seen trees like that. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:39.240 It's beautiful, but there's also bugs and things that I'm still trying to work through. 00:24:39.240 --> 00:24:44.720 But we can't always just get out and go places. 00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:50.880 So part of experiencing the emotion of awe, in order to begin to experience wholeness 00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:57.600 and peace and live from that, there are some things that we can do in order to just really 00:24:57.600 --> 00:25:02.240 adjust our mind to experience around us. 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:09.480 And I think this lines up with advent, this idea of waiting, this idea of slowing down. 00:25:09.480 --> 00:25:14.620 So yeah, I put four ways to experience awe and find peace. 00:25:14.620 --> 00:25:24.800 One is linger, to linger, like don't rush past beauty, slow down for a second. 00:25:24.800 --> 00:25:33.280 Then light hits a tree in a way that stops you, then stop and just stay there. 00:25:33.280 --> 00:25:38.320 Wait a moment, look, be aware of what's happening around you, the beauty that is everywhere 00:25:38.320 --> 00:25:39.320 around us. 00:25:39.320 --> 00:25:44.840 We're so worried about getting somewhere or doing something that we forget just how beautiful 00:25:44.840 --> 00:25:48.600 life can be. 00:25:48.600 --> 00:25:50.800 Linger. 00:25:50.800 --> 00:25:56.160 In order to linger, you have to slow down, so number two is to slow down. 00:25:56.160 --> 00:25:59.240 All requires presence. 00:25:59.240 --> 00:26:05.540 It requires you to realize where you're at, not be focused on where you're going or where 00:26:05.540 --> 00:26:11.360 you've been, but be right where you are. 00:26:11.360 --> 00:26:15.960 Presence, it requires like pace. 00:26:15.960 --> 00:26:27.240 So there's in the message, there's this translation where it says, "We enter the rhythm of grace." 00:26:27.240 --> 00:26:31.240 Not our pace, our rhythm, but God's rhythm of grace. 00:26:31.240 --> 00:26:36.600 And I believe it's a much slower rhythm than we typically run at. 00:26:36.600 --> 00:26:37.800 Slow down. 00:26:37.800 --> 00:26:40.880 Three is to engage your senses. 00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:45.240 You have them, they were given to you. 00:26:45.240 --> 00:26:52.040 None of you have lost sense, but these are the other senses, taste, touch, sound, sight, 00:26:52.040 --> 00:26:53.040 smell. 00:26:53.040 --> 00:26:54.040 Engage those. 00:26:54.040 --> 00:26:56.880 Your senses, they anchor you in the moment. 00:26:56.880 --> 00:27:01.560 You walk by and you smell something sweet or floral. 00:27:01.560 --> 00:27:08.760 Brittany loves these floral smelling things, it's weird. 00:27:08.760 --> 00:27:10.160 Let that happen. 00:27:10.160 --> 00:27:16.600 Let those moments actually engage you to the moment. 00:27:16.600 --> 00:27:29.920 I joke about Brittany, but I remember we, Brittany is all about like sunrises and sunsets. 00:27:29.920 --> 00:27:35.120 I would always make fun of her, I'm like, "I don't want to get up that early, we're not 00:27:35.120 --> 00:27:36.120 going out there." 00:27:36.120 --> 00:27:40.120 She's like, "Come on, you and Marty want to come with us, we're going to go to this." 00:27:40.120 --> 00:27:44.520 This sunrise at 4 a.m., no, I do not. 00:27:44.520 --> 00:27:49.520 I'll see the sun when it's already up there. 00:27:49.520 --> 00:27:54.280 But really, I think what it is, is Brittany has found the beauty in that. 00:27:54.280 --> 00:28:00.600 I was like, "Hey, you're missing it, like the color is really like..." 00:28:00.600 --> 00:28:07.840 When we were in Oregon, we were out there for Marley and Cassie Jo's wedding, and just 00:28:07.840 --> 00:28:12.360 so happened while we were out there, Brittany and Vin got married, and I was like, "Let's 00:28:12.360 --> 00:28:14.160 do this thing." 00:28:14.160 --> 00:28:20.880 So they did, but we went to Lake Trillion, went to Lake Trillion, which is surrounded 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:30.200 by these mountains that have just beautiful trees, pine looking trees, just like green. 00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:36.360 We get out there and, of course, it was going to have to be at sunrise. 00:28:36.360 --> 00:28:40.000 We got to do this at sunrise, so we got up early, we went out, and there's pictures of 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:41.920 it, but we got out there. 00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:47.600 The lake was so calm, it was like glass, like you could see the reflection of the mountain 00:28:47.600 --> 00:28:49.160 behind it. 00:28:49.160 --> 00:28:55.080 You could hear the birds chirping, I mean there was nobody else there until this one guy tried 00:28:55.080 --> 00:28:59.320 to get up on the thing we were at, we were like, "Go away, we're doing a wedding." 00:28:59.320 --> 00:29:07.560 But it's just us, quiet in nature, and there's just this thing that happens that you do slow 00:29:07.560 --> 00:29:08.560 down. 00:29:08.560 --> 00:29:17.320 You just got to look around like, "Wow, this exists here, and I miss it. 00:29:17.320 --> 00:29:21.400 I miss, engage your senses. 00:29:21.400 --> 00:29:25.400 Even when you walk out of here, there's beautiful flowers, and we have bees on the top of the 00:29:25.400 --> 00:29:26.400 roof. 00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:27.400 You can go see them." 00:29:27.400 --> 00:29:34.400 We really do, but we haven't checked on them in a little while, so be careful. 00:29:34.400 --> 00:29:41.880 Even that, it's fascinating, they make honey, and the way they operate, it's just fascinating. 00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:52.320 It sees moments in life where you slow down, you engage your senses, and last is unplugged. 00:29:52.320 --> 00:29:59.040 Because they pull us inward, and aw, it pulls you outward. 00:29:59.040 --> 00:30:05.040 When we're stuck, a lot of times when we're in these moments of just beauty around us, 00:30:05.040 --> 00:30:11.360 the first thing we do is what? 00:30:11.360 --> 00:30:12.360 Which school? 00:30:12.360 --> 00:30:13.360 I do it. 00:30:13.360 --> 00:30:14.360 I'm bad about it. 00:30:14.360 --> 00:30:24.460 Marty says yes, but the picture doesn't capture the moment and the emotion of all. 00:30:24.460 --> 00:30:28.080 Even when I look at it, maybe, "Oh, that's really pretty," but I don't experience what 00:30:28.080 --> 00:30:31.920 I experience there. 00:30:31.920 --> 00:30:32.920 Unplug. 00:30:32.920 --> 00:30:37.000 Allow yourself to just be there. 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:39.320 These aren't like self-help hacks. 00:30:39.320 --> 00:30:43.360 These are spiritual practices, I believe. 00:30:43.360 --> 00:30:51.040 They're pathways back into our own humanity, finding who we are, finding our wholeness, 00:30:51.040 --> 00:30:55.800 finding out how we can operate in this world, and what's around us. 00:30:55.800 --> 00:31:01.840 There's something else that happens when awe opens us up. 00:31:01.840 --> 00:31:05.800 Peace begins to settle into our bodies. 00:31:05.800 --> 00:31:11.280 We stop living from these fragmentations, we start living from wholeness. 00:31:11.280 --> 00:31:15.760 When people begin living from wholeness, something remarkable emerges. 00:31:15.760 --> 00:31:26.160 We talked about it a little bit earlier when we read the Scriptures, we become peacemakers. 00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:31.840 Is this outflow of what happens when you experience wholeness, not peace keepers, not avoiders, 00:31:31.840 --> 00:31:36.440 not people who pretend everything is fine, but peacemakers, people who create wholeness 00:31:36.440 --> 00:31:41.960 around them because wholeness has taken root within them? 00:31:41.960 --> 00:31:46.200 It's exactly what Jesus says when in Matthew 5, 9, he says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, 00:31:46.200 --> 00:31:48.920 for they will be called children of God." 00:31:48.920 --> 00:31:53.880 They're not special Christians, they aren't spiritual elite, they aren't people who never 00:31:53.880 --> 00:31:59.280 get angry or overwhelmed, peacemakers are simply people whose inner life has been rearranged 00:31:59.280 --> 00:32:02.120 by love. 00:32:02.120 --> 00:32:08.840 Anyone no longer governed by fear or ego or the need to prove themselves, people whose 00:32:08.840 --> 00:32:17.720 lives are becoming whole because peacemaking is the natural overflow of Shalom. 00:32:17.720 --> 00:32:26.720 When we're fragmented inside, we react, we defend, we control, we grasp for certainty, 00:32:26.720 --> 00:32:35.360 we compete, we fear difference, we hurt others out of our own unhealed places, but when pieces 00:32:35.360 --> 00:32:42.800 begin to come together, when all opens up, when peace takes root in us, something shifts. 00:32:42.800 --> 00:32:49.280 Wholeness expands our capacity, it increases our compassion, it softens our judgments. 00:32:49.280 --> 00:32:59.040 It makes us curious, instead of defensive, it helps us hold tension without collapsing. 00:32:59.040 --> 00:33:04.200 Wholeness makes peacemaking possible. 00:33:04.200 --> 00:33:09.380 As the part I think often missed in the Christmas and Christian story, Jesus didn't come to 00:33:09.380 --> 00:33:13.760 create people who go to heaven, Jesus came to create people who bring heaven into this 00:33:13.760 --> 00:33:22.560 world, peacemakers, wholeness carriers, people whose lives are healing agents in this world. 00:33:22.560 --> 00:33:27.800 Paul captures it in Romans 12, 18, he says, "If it is possible, as far as it depends 00:33:27.800 --> 00:33:34.080 on you, live at peace with everyone." 00:33:34.080 --> 00:33:40.520 You can only offer the world, the peace you've experienced inside yourself, which is why 00:33:40.520 --> 00:33:47.400 all matters, it's why presence matters, it's why wholeness matters, peacemaking is not 00:33:47.400 --> 00:33:52.960 about effort, it's about overflow. 00:33:52.960 --> 00:33:58.840 So the work is, how am I experiencing the world around me, how am I experiencing awe, 00:33:58.840 --> 00:34:04.480 which has opened me up to begin to become whole as a person? 00:34:04.480 --> 00:34:09.680 Because when peace becomes the interior atmosphere of our soul, peace begins to radiate outward 00:34:09.680 --> 00:34:13.960 through your conversations, your relationships, your posture, your hospitality, your compassion, 00:34:13.960 --> 00:34:21.160 just your everyday interaction, it's what the world is longing for. 00:34:21.160 --> 00:34:26.720 It's what God is forming in us if we slow down. 00:34:26.720 --> 00:34:36.360 It's what Christmas announces that peace has come, and now peace comes through us. 00:34:36.360 --> 00:34:47.380 That's the imitation of Advent, not to believe harder, but to wonder again. 00:34:47.380 --> 00:34:52.680 Maybe peace isn't something you wait for, maybe peace is what happens when awe opens 00:34:52.680 --> 00:35:00.080 us up just enough to let God gather the pieces of you back together. 00:35:00.080 --> 00:35:06.960 The wholeness begins the moment you allow yourself to be surprised again. 00:35:06.960 --> 00:35:13.880 Because when awe opens up, peace makes its home in us, rest becomes possible and wholeness 00:35:13.880 --> 00:35:25.760 grows, and we slowly, beautifully, gently begin to look more like love. 00:35:25.760 --> 00:35:32.640 The Advent is an invitation to look around, to find the present, to see the beauty around 00:35:32.640 --> 00:35:37.600 you in the midst of chaos, and open yourself up to find new, creative ways to love those 00:35:37.600 --> 00:35:42.280 near you. 00:35:42.280 --> 00:35:51.520 Maybe you find this promised peace, and you experience wholeness that Christ offers, and 00:35:51.520 --> 00:35:56.400 you begin to look like Jesus. 00:35:56.400 --> 00:36:01.920 So my prayer is, may you find that promised peace. 00:36:01.920 --> 00:36:09.120 May you experience the wholeness that Christ offers you more and more this week. 00:36:09.120 --> 00:36:14.320 Because as you experience it, Scripture says in Philippians 2.4 that to discover your own 00:36:14.320 --> 00:36:19.240 completeness, to discover your wholeness in Christ, frees you to turn your attention away 00:36:19.240 --> 00:36:23.280 from yourself to others. 00:36:23.280 --> 00:36:29.720 You experience awe, you experience presence and presence, you experience what it looks 00:36:29.720 --> 00:36:37.080 like to be a human, you begin to discover wholeness, and you begin to become whole, and 00:36:37.080 --> 00:36:40.960 then it frees you to turn your attention away from yourself to others. 00:36:40.960 --> 00:36:46.520 Even the research shows that when you experience awe, you begin to be compassionate and kind 00:36:46.520 --> 00:36:52.160 and loving, because you realize that it's not just about you, but it's about us, that 00:36:52.160 --> 00:37:00.120 we are interconnected, and that the way that love works is only in relationship, only in 00:37:00.120 --> 00:37:04.440 how we treat each other. 00:37:04.440 --> 00:37:09.760 You discover your completeness, and it turns your attention from yourself to others. 00:37:09.760 --> 00:37:15.640 Because when you experience the awe that is all around you, and you begin to discover your 00:37:15.640 --> 00:37:21.400 wholeness in Christ, then natural response looks like love. 00:37:21.400 --> 00:37:32.000 So may you slow down, linger, engage your senses, unplug, and allow awe to blow you 00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:39.480 away, so that wholeness, shalom, peace, give me into take root. 00:37:39.480 --> 00:37:47.440 You can experience that, and then from that overflow, you can go love well, because that's 00:37:47.440 --> 00:37:48.960 who you're made to be. 00:37:48.960 --> 00:37:51.000 I love you guys. 00:37:51.000 --> 00:37:52.000 See you next week.