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0:01 Well, Merry Christmas from all of us here at Everyman Ministries. We love Christmas at Everyman. I'm sure you do too. The lights, the music, all of the celebration. There's just this sense0:14 of hope. There's just this general goodwill we experience between men this time of year. And as the season starts, before it really gets into full steam, our prayer is that this Advent series0:25 would start to prepare all of our hearts for the coming king, to get us ready to experience the wonder when King Jesus entered0:37 humanity. You know, this time of year, we talk a lot and we hear a lot about Advent. My kids' favorite thing, I think, is the chocolate Advent calendar. That's not what I'm talking about here. Advent simply means the0:48 coming of a notable person. Advent means the arrival of someone great. That is what we celebrate this time of year as followers of Jesus. We're not celebrating1:00 winter. This is not some cultural holiday. We are getting our hearts ready to celebrate the coming of the Messiah, the birth of Jesus Christ. But a lot of times,1:12 even though we want to celebrate Jesus, we wanna make Christmas all about the baby, we wanna make it all about the coming king, it can be really hard to focus. There's just a lot going1:24 on. There's a lot of noise. Right? It's hard to bend our hearts and our minds towards Jesus and really just focus on him. It can be a challenge to live above our daily to dos. It seems like this1:36 time of year gets incredibly busy. We become slaves to our own Christmas calendar. It seems like more and more and more during this time of the year, at least for me, it1:48 seems like the speed of life can steal the joy of Christmas. Is that ever true for you? Do you ever find that that the speed that life is moving at, that this entire season2:00 can just become a blur? It feels like it's over before it even starts. And beyond just moving quickly, it's obvious. Culture has made Christmas about so many2:11 things apart from Jesus. Right? Year end business objectives start to start to loom. We look at Christmas performances and parties. We've got 1000000 presents to buy, and2:23 Jesus can get buried underneath all this. I know that many of us have closed the door in the Christmas season and purposed that next year, we will make sure that we pursue and focus on2:35 Jesus. But I think the best way to keep Christ at the center of Christmas is to start before the seasons here and really go back and unpack what it2:47 was that Christmas originally meant, what it still means for us 2000 years later as followers of Jesus. Now, don't know about you. The Christmas season in the Davis House doesn't2:59 start until there's Christmas music. Right? Until the till the girls are singing along to Mariah Carey and All I Want for Christmas is You, until the the silky voice of Michael Buble is is kinda going over a crackling3:10 fireplace. That's when Christmas has arrived, and we can't start Christmas music until mom says so. My wife usually says yes on the way home from Thanksgiving dinner. But if you think about the songs we3:22 sing at Christmas time, if you think about the music that defines this time of year, there are some themes. 1 of which you can't avoid is peace. Now, just think about it. Silent night,3:34 holy night, sleep in heavenly peace. Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king. Peace on earth and mercy mild. In the in the first3:46 Noel, right, we we actually hail the heaven born prince of peace. On and on and on, it's obvious. Peace is tied to Christmas, or at least it's supposed to be.3:58 But like we said, as the flow of our lives can get so busy, as Christmas season speeds up exponentially becoming this speeding bullet train heading to year end, racing through culture, we4:10 can find ourselves desiring but lacking peace. Wanting peace but not not finding it. But I want you to take hope. Because peace,4:22 real peace, is something that was birthed into this world the moment that God draped himself in humanity. Really, the coming of Jesus, the advent of Christ was also4:34 the advent of peace. But his peace is so much more than we consider peace and what that means today. You know, for too many people, peace is just synonymous4:46 with quiet. Right? During the bustling Christmas season, we can say we want peace when really we just don't want noise. We've reduced peace to just mean the absence of struggle. Right? Peace is4:57 just kind of that that quiet moment, that stalemate in the family arguments when everybody lays their weapon down. Too often and for too many people, Peace just means the absence of war, the5:09 absence of strife. But to the first century Jews, peace or the Hebrew word shalom meant so much more than all of that.5:21 See, the Hebrew word shalom, echoed in the Greek New Testament in the word irene, they both mean perfect wholeness. Right? It's it's it's the presence of completeness. That's what5:33 peace is. It wasn't about what was missing. Peace is about what what was there. Right? We see in Job. Job looked out on his tent, saw that none of his sheep were missing, and said that they were in a state of shalom.5:44 They were whole. They were as they should be. We see that Solomon brought shalom to the temple when he completed it, when the temple was was full and done. The term was used5:55 relationally. Let's say my livestock kinda wandered into your crops and ate a bunch of them. Now I could bring shalom back into our relationship if I paid you back for everything that you lacked,6:07 if I made you whole again. So shalom, peace, in this context was never just the absence of fighting. It it speaks to the peace that you and I long for. That's6:19 the kind of peace that we were designed to experience, the kind that our hearts still want. Right? This was God's hope for his people. And the kings who were were overseeing the people of God, some brought this peace.6:30 All were intended to bring this peace, but all of them were limited because all of them had been affected and infected by sin. They were human6:42 beings. They could not bring about this perfect wholeness because they were sinful. They'd have moments of it, but it wouldn't last forever. But the prophet Isaiah promised6:54 the people, promised you and I that 1 day 1 would come who would bring to us true peace, lasting peace, perfect wholeness. Isaiah chapter7:06 9 is 1 of the most beautiful passages in scripture. It's probably the most spot on Christmas passage because it so clearly speaks to us about the coming king, about what Jesus is like.7:17 Verse 1 starts off by telling us the situation he was birthed into. It says, nevertheless, the time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. It starts off with hope. It's a good word for us,7:30 especially for people going through a dark and challenging time right now. It's not gonna last forever. This wasn't just wishful thinking. Isaiah wasn't just hoping that I guess this bad luck's gotta run out eventually.7:41 His hope was based on the coming Messiah. And what was he like? Look at Isaiah chapter 9 verses 6 and 7. It says this. For a7:53 child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God,8:05 everlasting father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. That was the object of his hope. That's the promised8:16 coming king. That's the Messiah. That's the advent and the birth of true shalom. Right. They were promised. We were promised. We have received a savior, a redeemer.8:29 Right? The 1 whose kingdom of peace would never ever stop. The 1 with shoulders broad enough to support the governments of the entire world. We're talking about king Jesus. In this series,8:41 we're gonna unpack what the birth of Jesus brings. We're gonna look at some of the gifts that we receive from his birth, the first of which we see in this passage is peace. Now8:53 remember, we say peace, we're talking shalom, which means wholeness and completeness, the kind of peace that we long for, the kind of peace that we're never gonna find on this earth apart from Jesus.9:05 And in this short passage, we see how Christ brings peace through some of the names that Jesus receives, some of the ways that he's described. We have to remember,9:18 before Jesus was birthed, we were not at peace. Even in the moments when there was no war because we weren't at peace with God. Our sins separated us from him. We were9:29 sinners by nature. Born into it, we were sinners by choice. We choose to sin. There was separation between us. We could not experience peace until Jesus9:41 came. We have to remember, Jesus wasn't birthed into some neutral situation. Our peace had to be fought for. Christ had to win our peace. He had to fight against hostile,9:53 evil, and unseen powers. What was going on that night of Christ's birth if we had eyes to see supernaturally must have been unbelievable. But10:04 Jesus, triumphant in his life, in his death, in his resurrection, in his ascension on high, he won our peace. And it was a hard fought peace against10:16 spiritual oppression, against sin, and against death. And on Christmas, we can now sit together and sing, all is calm and all is bright, only because Jesus10:28 is victorious. This verse from Isaiah reminds us there is only 1 true and lasting source of peace. We can't find it anywhere else. It doesn't exist10:40 apart from Jesus. As we look at the names Jesus receives and the way we receive his peace, it begins by calling him the wonderful counselor. Isn't that10:51 beautiful? Jesus Christ is our wonderful counselor. You know what that means? That means we need counsel. If the first thing he receives is that he gives wonderful counsel, you11:03 better believe we need counsel. It means that life is confusing. It means that truth is hard to figure out. It means our situations are challenging. But knowing that Jesus11:15 Christ is our wonderful counselor means that God hasn't left us to figure all that out on our own, and that brings us peace. God's given us Jesus, the wonderful counselor, and11:27 it's the wonderful counsel of Christ that brings peace into our lives. Wholeness, shalom, completeness. It starts in our lives when we receive11:39 and apply the wonderful counsel of Jesus. Right? If that's true, then this passage is inviting us into some serious self reflection. Because if I'm not experiencing11:50 peace, I have to ask myself, am I really pursuing? Am I really receiving? Am I really applying the counsel of Jesus? If I'm not experiencing12:02 deep and persistent peace, even in the midst of struggles, I gotta ask, am I studying? Am I applying? Am I submitting to the counsel of Jesus? Through his written word.12:15 Through the daily leading of his Holy Spirit. Through the community of saints that he's put around me. Or maybe if I find my heart lacking peace, there might be another12:26 voice of counsel that I'm building my life on. Maybe it's the news machine, Fox News, CNN. Maybe I'm seeking out my favorite podcaster for the answers to all of life's questions or my favorite political12:38 commentator. Maybe it's mindless stuff like ESPN or social media. Maybe it's my favorite business leader or self help guru. I don't know what it is, but I have to ask myself, whose counsel am I trusting this Christmas12:49 season? Whose counsel do I pursue? Do I submit to daily? Is it Jesus's? And if I am seeking his counsel, if I'm sitting in church and hearing his word preached, if I'm engaging with the word13:01 during the week, the second question is, am I applying it? And what do I do when I come up against the counsel of Christ and it's at odds with what I've always thought to be true or what I'd13:13 like to be true or what I want. What do I do in the counsel of Jesus is just beyond my ability to understand because, guys, the peace in our lives will not ever outperform our13:24 submission to the leading of Jesus in our lives. The peace that we experience on a daily basis is directly tied to whether or not we're allowing Jesus to be the loudest voice in our lives.13:37 Now, I'm not saying that by submitting to Christ's counsel, you somehow avoid the struggle. Scripture promises the opposite. It says that in this world, we will have trouble.13:49 But we have to understand that peace will always escape us when we're building our lives on the counsel of someone other than Christ. This passage goes on. Right? Not only14:01 is he our wonderful counselor, and that gives us peace, it also says that he's a mighty God. And you could translate this also as God is a mighty warrior. Another reason14:13 we can have peace this Christmas season is because our God is a warrior. He fights for us. We can get stuck this time of year marveling at the baby in the manger. We can forget he grows up to be a warrior.14:25 God is a mighty warrior who fights against his enemies, the evil rulers and principalities in this world. Don't forget the end. Don't forget the book of Revelation,14:37 where we see the sweet baby that was wrapped in swaddling clothes is now in a robe dipped with blood, sword coming out of his mouth, tattoo on his leg, eyes on fire, literally melting everything in front of him that14:49 is not holy. Our God is a warrior. That gives us peace because our God's a warrior who fights for our peace, and he will not stop fighting until the enemy is destroyed.15:01 Look at First Corinthians chapter 15 says this in verse 24. After that, the end will come when he will turn the kingdom over to God, the father having destroyed every15:13 ruler and authority and power for Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. That brings us peace. To know that that's the end of our story,15:24 Christ reigning all of his enemies beneath his feet. The reality that Christ has won is winning in your life and will 1 day deal the death blow to your enemy and my15:36 enemy. That's good news. And remember, we're not efforting towards this. We're not trying to earn it. We're not trying to get there. We just receive Christ's victory. His victory brings us15:48 peace. Systematic theologian Michael Bird put it like this. I love this. Satan's force is spent. His worst was no match for the best of the son of God.16:01 The fatal wound of Jesus deals a fatal blow to death. The powers of this present darkness shiver as the looming tsunami of the kingdom of God draws ever near.16:13 Nugget, Our God's a warrior. He fought for our peace. Don't forget that. This is the eternal warrior king. He gives us wonderful counsel. But16:25 then look at what it calls him next. It says that he's our everlasting father. That seems like kind of a sharp turn, doesn't it? I got wonderful counselor, wisdom from on high. I got the mighty warrior destroying16:37 everything, and then I've got Abba, daddy. We don't see this language very often in the Old Testament. It's a little more common in the New Testament. Jesus certainly drew us in to pray to our father16:48 who's in heaven. But why would he go from counsel to warrior to father? Because he wanted us to find peace in the loving embrace of our17:00 eternal father. Just like a child finds security and finds peace in the nearness of their father, God desires to bring peace by pulling us close,17:12 by holding us fast. I love surfing with all my kids. My youngest is who I surf with most often now. And when she first started surfing, I would stay close. I would make17:24 sure I was close, especially when a big set of waves would come through. You know, when a big set would come through and she was on a board much too big for her, I didn't leave her to figure it out on her own. I didn't17:36 coach her from the shore. No. What I would do is I would let my board go, and she would let her board go. And I'd swim over to her and she would just17:48 grab hold of me. And we'd go under the waves together. Now, I didn't have any control over the waves, but I was never going to let her go for a18:00 moment. She had no control over the waves, but she had control over choosing to trust me. She let her board go and she would just hang on tight.18:12 She found peace in my embrace. Now, she trusted me to carry her. We have a loving father who actually does control18:24 the wind and the waves. He actually controls all things. But similarly, he's inviting you and me to let go of our board, to let go of the other things that we're holding on to for peace,18:36 to let go of our tight on our tight hold on that the company that we're running or the money that we're making or the friends that we have or the image that we've created or the house that we live in or these the18:45 vacation that's coming, the things that we think are adding to our peace. God says, let go of those things and just hold on to me. And he promises that he'll never let us go. If we're looking to18:57 something else besides Jesus to find peace, we'll always slip beneath the waves. But if we choose to cling to him, we find peace in his embrace. That's our God. That's whose birth we're19:09 getting ready to celebrate. The wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father. Truly, in all those things, he is the prince of peace. He defeated spiritual oppression,19:22 The spiritual oppression you and I were under. He restored our broken relationship with the father. He broke the chains of sin. He defeated death. Jesus set us free.19:34 So as you look for peace this Christmas, don't settle for quiet. If you want the peace that Jesus Christ brings, make sure you're submitting to the prince of peace.19:45 Let him rule. Trust the wonderful counsel of Jesus and walk in his truth. Entrust yourself to the power of the mighty God. Let19:57 him fight your battles for you. He's already won them. Choose to let go of anything else you're holding on to for peace and just cling to your eternal father who loves you.20:10 And then you will experience his peace, his shalom, his perfect wholeness this Christmas.20:20 Isaiah 43 19 says, see, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the20:32 wasteland. Hi. I'm Kenny Luck, founder and president of Everyman Ministries. And for the last 25 years, God has been using every man to reach, to train, to encourage,20:44 and equip men to live out their calling as men. And today, I'm standing in Montana where we're hosting the very first every man encounter. God certainly is doing something20:56 new. We have a group of men here encountering powerful and in new ways. You know, 20 25 was such an incredible year and we are in awe of21:07 everything that God has done. Every man was a part of live events all over21:30 more. In conferences, and more. In 20 25, we continued to follow Christ's encouragement in Matthew 25, where he said, I was in prison and you visited me. We saw21:42 incredible fruit in our prison ministry and partnership with God behind bars. Can you believe 1848 men profess Christ for the first time this last year?21:54 Our content was viewed in prisons over 1300000.0 times. And here's the real exciting thing. We have 1600 men enrolled in Get Healthy courses.22:06 This year we introduced the eBook Collection and the first 3 books have been seen over 11000 times. We get feedback every week from prisoners telling22:18 us about the encouragement and the transformations that are happening behind prison walls. In 20 25, God took the ministry of every man literally22:29 everywhere through our international partnership with pray dot com. All over the world, we've seen 7500000.0 minutes streamed on the every man platform. You know what that amounts to?22:41 188 countries all over the world. And now, we're using AI to translate our content into nearly every22:53 language. Allowing us to encourage and instruct and teach every man like it says in Colossians 1 28. And we proclaim him admonishing every man and teaching23:05 every man so that we may present every man complete in Christ. Well, was 20 25. What does 20 26 hold? We wanna focus on 3 things that are new. The local23:16 church, the next generation of younger men, and discipling men on a daily basis. Let's talk about the local church. We are launching a brand new series of our classic get23:28 healthy discipleship program. Over 1000000 men have been through it and we're excited for the next generation of men to go through and get healthy in family, in temptation, in friendship, and in their marriages.23:40 We're also going after men who are younger, the next generation. How? Through father son events. We're gonna have events that are geared up toward young adults and college age men. To model what it means to be God's23:51 man. And so you're gonna witness the launch of the dangerous good and young movement. In terms of discipling men daily, we're going to launch the new every man24:02 encounter app. We're so app. Excited about this because you're gonna be able to walk through daily challenges, daily studies, along with all of our content with the men in24:14 your life. We're gonna share prayer requests through the app. We're gonna remain connected to your forever brothers in group settings and situations. Be able to encourage and sharpen 1 another all through the Everyman24:25 Encounter app. Now, we are going to continue our partnerships with pray dot com. We're gonna expand that partnership. You know, they've asked us to film for all 17000000 of their users a new series24:37 for the women in men's lives. We're excited about that. They've also asked us to own Father's Day with unique, highlighted video content, daily devotions,24:49 and more to encourage all of those users. In 20 26, we're gonna continue to expand our prison ministry. Actually, looking at in person events within the walls of the prison for25:01 every man. We're gonna make some unique content just for the prisoners filmed exclusively behind bars. And we're gonna continue to speak at conferences, churches, schools, and25:13 retreats wherever God calls us to transform the lives of men. But listen, my brothers, it is going to take all of us. If we're gonna reach every man to continue teaching25:25 and encouraging men behind bars, to train up the next generation to live out their calling as God's men and continue to see marriages strengthen. And finally, to reach men all over the world25:36 with the gospel of Jesus. It's just gonna take all of us because this is the great super story. The super adventure called the kingdom of God. And we25:48 all get to play our part. So this is our invitation to you to take up your spot in the kingdom and serve with us. God bless.
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