Speaker 1 (00:01)
So advent week 2 is week of peace. You should have got that by now. So the theme of the message today is actually peace in a crowded mind. So advent reminds us that Christ came to bring peace, not just a passing sense of calm, but a deep, soul-level wholeness. But also, if we're honest, most of us are not really living from a place of peace, are we? We live hurried, distracted, and over extended lives. In fact, there's one simple phrase that can probably describe most of our inner world, and that is, Our minds are crowded. Not just busy, but crowded. Crouted with noise, crowded with responsibilities, crowded with notifications, expectations, information, pressure, and the constant hum of being on. Now, we used to have natural boundaries built into our days. The end of a workday actually meant the end of a workday. There was a pause in the evenings. There was the Sabbath rest on Sunday, and there was the rhythm of the seasons. But now, our calendars are full, and not just for those that are working full-time or raising families. I constantly hear from people who are retired that they are just as busy now as they were when they were working.
Speaker 1 (01:49)
Our phones are always buzzing. How many of us are finding it increasingly more difficult to ignore our phones? In the past, I'm not that old, but I just do still remember phones that were actually attached to the wall. If you weren't home, you didn't get the phone call, and you didn't panic that you were missing a phone call. If it was that important, the person would call you back. We do have a generation here that probably is the first generation that always has had a phone. Naomi would never have known life without cell phones. That age group? Not that she had one. Yeah, no. But now, thanks to technology, we're on 24/7. Meaning not only can anyone call from anywhere at any time, but it also means that we're also expected to answer wherever we are and whatever time it is, no matter what we're in the middle of. There's no more downtime that is just assumed into our lives. Technology has given many blessings, but it has also crowded our minds. Even when our bodies are lying still, you've gone to bed, you're lying there. Who has that? Your mind is still scrolling. It's still racing through.
Speaker 1 (03:21)
It's still planning. It's still going through your to-do list, going back over conversations that you've had that day, phone call that you just had, late at night, whatever. Neuroscience now tells us that this nonstop digital stimulation raises anxiety, shortens attention spans, keeps our nervous system in a constant state of alert, reduces our ability to rest, makes silence uncomfortable, and disrupts our ability to feel peace. Anybody feel that experience through all the technology going on in their lives? In other words, technology has filled our minds so full that peace has less room to breathe. We are overloaded with information but starving for wisdom. We're connected to everyone, but not deeply present with anyone. We're entertained constantly, but rarely restored. So when Jesus says, Peace, leave with you. My peace, I give you. He said that in John 14: 20. 27. We want that peace. We crave that peace. But often there's no space left inside us for that peace to land. And it helps to remember what Jesus was actually saying in that moment. Because this wasn't a gentle, sentimental benediction. It was spoken on the night before the cross. Disciples were confused and afraid and about to enter the hardest season of their lives.
Speaker 1 (04:56)
Jesus wasn't promising a moment military sense of calm, he was giving them a permanent unshakable gift. He tells them, I don't give as the world gives. The world's peace depends on circumstances, but Jesus's peace depends on him. And this is the peace the Bible calls Shalom. Not just the absence of conflict, but the presence of wholeness, completeness, well-being, righteousness, and restored relationship with God. It's the peace the angels announced at his birth, the peace Isaiah foresaw when he called the Messiah the Prince of Peace, and the peace secured for us through the cross, where Paul says, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus doesn't just hand us a feeling. He gives us himself, a peace that the world cannot create or copy. And yet, if we're honest, many of us don't really experience that peace, not because it's not available, but because our minds are simply too crowded to receive it. Because while the peace Jesus gives us isn't a feeling that we have to chase, it does require room in our minds so that we can notice it, remember it, so that we can rest in the God who gives it.
Speaker 1 (06:16)
Isaiah tells us in Chapter 26: 3-4, You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. This promise of perfect peace is very meaningful. Again, it's back to this Shalom. It's that meaning that doesn't include just the absence of conflict or noise. It's that deep, steady be God-given stability in the midst of whatever is happening around us. And Isaiah shows us that this peace is rooted not in circumstances, but in a mind that is stayed, anchored, held fast, in the Lord, trusting him as the everlasting rock. And this is the heart of advent peace. Peace does not come from an empty schedule. Have you ever had a day where you literally had nothing to do, and yet you don't feel at peace? Sometimes you feel more anxious. Peace does not come from life just settling down. Peace does not come from everything suddenly going our way. Peace comes from a mind that is stayed or anchored on God. Peace comes from trust in the Lord, our everlasting rock. That's the peace that Jesus offers, not the peace of an escape, but the peace of Emmanuel, God with us, right here, right now.
Speaker 1 (07:49)
And that piece does not sound like what many of us are experiencing in our day-to-day lives, does it? Did you know that the average adult checks their phone hundreds of times a day? We always commented on the young people being so addicted to their phones, but many of us adults are just as guilty. Work follows us home in a manner of emails, texts, and phone calls, and we carry the world's crises right in our pocket. Many of us remember back when the news came on TV at set times, and if you missed it, you waited till the later one. There was a whole whopping, what, three channels? And then there was the message at 10: 00 at night. It's 10: 00 PM. Do you know where your children are? And then the TV went off for the night. Off. There was nothing to watch. But now our brains have been trained to constantly scan for updates, alerts, and information to check our phones constantly to see if anyone's messaged us, to check our likes on social media, to check if work has emailed us about something that we need to deal with. Even if it's late at night or really, really early in the morning, we are always on.
Speaker 1 (09:07)
And the neuroscientists have a term for this. It's called cognitive overload. And it means that the brain is asked to carry more than it can possess at once. And the result, as we know, is that we become anxious, we struggle to focus, we get irritated more easily, and our spiritual sensitivity dulls. And this is exactly into what advent speaks. Because advent is God's invitation to slow down the noise, externally and internally. We don't have a lot of silence in our lives, and we don't have a lot of stillness. And if we're honest, many of us don't even really know how to rest anymore. Yet God built a rhythm of rest into creation itself. Before there were smartphones and deadlines and notifications, there was the the Sabbath. And in scripture, the Sabbath is a gift. It's God saying, You are not a machine. You are not defined by how much you accomplish. You are my child, and you are allowed to rest. I made you to need rest. But in our time, Sunday isn't always a Sabbath anymore. For many of us, it's just another day to get things done, another day to catch up on stuff we haven't eclished during the week.
Speaker 1 (10:27)
And even coming to church, we can become more focused on doing than worshiping. Sunday can end up being just another day to scroll, respond, and react. Instead of stopping, we stay on. And instead of resting, we just keep producing. Instead of slowing down, we just keep on rushing. When was the last time you truly had a day where you didn't feel the pressure to get something done? Has anybody had a day? No. Isn't that scary? Sabbath rest is countercultural, but it's also healing, and it doesn't have to be on Sunday. The day of the week is not the point. Rest in being with God is the key. Sabbath tells our crowded minds that you don't have to carry everything. You can stop because God never stops caring for you, and you can rest because God is still working. Sabbath rest creates space, the very thing our crowded minds lack. Space for peace to take root. ' And creation itself seasons spring, summer, fall, winter. And each had That's purpose, right? The rhythms of the season teach us that not every moment needs to be filled. Not every space needs to be occupied. Not every day has to look the same.
Speaker 1 (11:56)
Cory Ten Boom once said that if the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy. Think about that. Both sin and business have the same effect. They cut off your connection to God, to other people, and even to your own soul. Peace grows when we let God lead us through the rhythms, not rush. But our culture has flattened all that out into one unending season of go, do, produce, respond, achieve, repeat. There is no winter anymore. No intentional slowing, no quiet recovery. And even Christmas, which once invited reflection and worship, now often feels like it's the busiest season of them all. But God wired us emotionally, physically, physically, spiritually, to live seasonally, to have times of work and times of rest, to understand that there are times of planting and times of harvesting, that we are made for times of activity, but also for times of slowing. God wired us to live seasonally, but we live constantly. Which season of life do you feel like you're in right now? Fast, slow, joyful, tiring, reflective, overwhelmed? When we ignore the seasonal rhythms God intended, we end up always working, always striving, always pushing, never noticing, and never resting.
Speaker 1 (13:29)
So can you think a very famous character from a Christmas movie that this describes. Someone who was always working, always driving, but only for their own gain, always pushing, never noticing or caring about the needs of others. I might be assuming the last one, but he certainly didn't ever seem to truly rest. His spirit was very tormented. So who knows who I'm talking about? Ebenezer Scrooge. Ebenezer Scrooge. Cindy Louhu? No. One of the reasons that a Christmas Carol has endured for so long is because Ebenezer Scrooge is a recognizable character, not simply because he's greedy or rude, but because his inner world resembles ours. Nobody wants to think of that. I'm like, Ebeneser Scrooge. Guess what? Because we're overloaded, crowded, noisy, restless. He carried unresolved grief, unhealed wounds, resentment and regrets, fear of scarcity, distrust of others, disappointment in himself. His heart had grown cold, but long before it grew cold, it grew crowded. His mind was full, full of things that he never dealt with, full of pains that never healed, full of fears that he never named. The ghost didn't come to punish him. They came to quiet the noise inside him so that he could finally see.
Speaker 1 (15:05)
And just as Ebenezer Scrooge needed to be pulled out of his endless routine to genuinely see his life, advent interrupts our hamster wheel pace and says to us, Slow down. Pay attention. Christ is coming. So how many... Show of hands. How many of you feel like your mind is constantly juggling too many things at once? That's something to look forward to then. I find, though, that once there's too many, it just shuts down altogether. And that's not good either. But this is why Scrooge resonates. This is why advent matters, because Christ comes into crowded places, into busy hearts, into restless minds, into people who desperately need peace. So if you were to describe your inner world with one word, just First one, what would it be? Would it be peaceful, anxious, rushed, crowded? If good old Ebenezer Scrooge was self-aware enough to tell us, what do you think his one word would be? Because when the Bible talks about peace, it doesn't mean momentary, quiet, or absence of conflict. Peace in the Bible is the idea of completeness, soundness, and wholeness. And Scrooge lacked peace because his inner world was disintegrated. There was no harmony between who he was and who he had been and who he hoped to be.
Speaker 1 (16:41)
And Jesus offers the opposite, an integrated, a mind, anchored soul. Paul says it this way, The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, not by giving you an easier life, but by giving you his presence in the middle of it. So for those of you who have seen the movie, through most of the story, Scrooge had been the epitome of resistance, right? Every time somebody tried to show him the truth about his life, his greed, his loneliness, his callousness, he pushed back, right? He always had an excuse. He argues, he scoffs. He interprets everything through suspicion and sarkam. But then comes a moment in the movie where he meets the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. It's at this moment when something in him shifts. That's when we start to see a few changes come over him. The first one is that we see that he finally becomes still. For the first time, Scrooge doesn't rush ahead with his own opinions. His armor comes down, and for the first time, we see vulnerability. Remember that ghost doesn't speak. It's just Scrooge talking to him. But he does so in a completely different attitude.
Speaker 1 (18:02)
He doesn't try to take control. His body language changes, his shoulders drop, his voice gets quieter, and he begins to realize that the visions that he's seeing aren't just uncomfortable. They're true. And the only way to understand them is to stop running from them. So then he stops resisting. Up to this point, Scrooge had pushed back on the Ghost of Christmas past's memories and on the Ghost of Christmas present's joy. But now with the Ghost of Christmas yet to come, he no longer fights. He stops pretending that he's unchanged. He stops insisting that he's fine the way he is. He stops trying to justify who he has been. His resistance melts into reluctant openness. And then he stops talking. And this is significant because Scrooge usually fills every moment with excuses or complaints. But in this scene, he doesn't say much. He stands quietly, he takes it in, and his silence reveals that he's finally ready to learn instead of defend. This is the time in the entire story that he gives space, real space, for the truth to reach him. He stops defending himself. When the visions show what others think of him as coworkers, acquaintances, even strangers, he argue with them.
Speaker 1 (19:31)
He doesn't say that they're wrong. He doesn't even try to justify his choices, and he doesn't blame others at this point. He doesn't minimize the hurt that he has caused. Instead, he recognizes that the life he has built is leading him somewhere dark and lonely, and he acknowledges that this is not who he wants to be. So then he simply watches and listens. And this is the heart of the turning point. He pays attention, and he takes responsibility for what he sees, and he allows the truth to land where it needs to. And he realizes that the future he has shown, unloved, unmourned, forgotten, is the result of the choices that he's made. And for the The first time in the story, he responds not with fear alone, but with a desire to change. This is the moment that Scrooge becomes receptive. It's the moment when transformation becomes possible, not because the circumstances change, but because he stopped long enough to see clearly. And this is a powerful illustration of advent peace because peace requires stillness. Stillness requires honesty. Honesty requires listening And listening creates the space for God's transforming work. Peace doesn't come from avoiding truth.
Speaker 1 (20:53)
Peace comes from facing it with God beside you. And this is what Christ does in advent. He enters our past with grace. He enters our present with peace, and he enters our future with hope. And peace did not change Scrooge's world. Peace changed Scrooge. His heart softened, his priorities changed, his generosity grew, his relationships began to heal. Peace didn't just calm him. Peace transformed him. And this is what Jesus offers you. Not the absence of chaos or a perfectly quiet schedule or a mind that has no competing thoughts, but he does offer his presence in the very middle of it all. A peace that doesn't wait for your life to settle down, but settles your soul while your life is still swirling. A peace that doesn't remove the noise, but steadies you inside the noise. Peace that doesn't erase the crowded thoughts, but rains above them. This is the peace of Emmanuel, God with us right here, right now. Christ brings peace to crowded minds, but we often cannot notice that peace unless we stop long enough to receive it. Even Jesus withdraw from the crowds to pray. If the Son of God needed stillness and silence and solitude, then obviously, so do The stillness doesn't create peace.
Speaker 1 (22:34)
It creates space to notice the Prince of Peace. So let me offer three simple practices that you can do this week. Number one, create a daily moment of silence. Just one minute, two minutes. Just being completely quiet, everything turned off. Just breathing and inviting Christ into the moment. Two, choose one time slot each day to go screen free. Maybe the first 10 minutes of the morning or the last 10 minutes before bed. Maybe it's mealtime or during your commute to work. Pray short peace prayers throughout the day. Jesus, guard my mind. Jesus, quiet my heart. Jesus, you are my peace. A crowded mind is not a failure. It's just a reminder that you need Christ. And the good news of advent is this, Jesus does not wait for your life to be peaceful before he arrives. He steps into your crowded world, and he brings peace into the storm, and he brings calm into the noise. He brings wholeness into the chaos, just as he did for Scrooge, just as he did in Bethlehem. And he will do for each of us if we let the Prince of Peace enter our crowded minds today. Let's pray.
Speaker 1 (24:20)
God, we thank you that you are the Prince of Peace, and that we don't have to Try and get to that place of peace in order to experience your peace. That you will meet us in whatever it is that we are in the midst of. So God, we thank you that in the chaos, in the busyness, in the ups and downs, in the rushing, we know that you are there. But God, I just pray that each one of us can take the time to be still so that we can be in a place to receive that piece that you offer. God, give us that nudge every day this week. Help us to remember. Slow down. Slowing down is not failing. Slowing down is not being lazy. Slowing down is giving us a chance to be still with you. And that is what we are made to do. We thank you for that, God. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
