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Looking for peace? Go to the Prince.

Looking for peace? Go to the Prince.

DECEMBER 23, 2021

/ Programs / Key Life / Looking for peace? Go to the Prince.

Steve Brown:
Looking for peace? Go to the Prince. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
God’s grace changes everything, how we love, work, live, lead, marry, parent, evangelize, purchase and worship. This is Key Life with practical Bible teaching to get you home with radical freedom, infectious joy, and surprising faithfulness.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey man. Prince of Peace.

Steve Brown:
Hey. This has been a wonderful week, hasn’t it? I have really loved this. We ought to do this more often.

Pete Alwinson:
I know.

Steve Brown:
I mean, it’s, like I said yesterday, it’s kind of a small group Bible study with, and Cathy’s a part of that too cause she’s standing in the control room with Jeremy. So, there are four of us. We could get our entire staff and teach this way. It works. By the way, you were off the air before we came on to do this. You read a very moving, piece of literature to me about your favorite carols. And I thought, it was so moving that we ought to share it with our audience. So, why don’t you tell us about those christmas carols.

Pete Alwinson:
Well, you know, Steve, they’re kind of Christmas carols for the disturbed, like for the schizophrenic, do you hear what I hear? Or the multiple personality disorder? We three Kings disoriented are. The narcissistic, hark the herald angels sing about me. One more, one more, the obsessive compulsive disorder, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells. Okay. Okay. We’re all a little disturbed. And we need Jesus.

Steve Brown:
That’s right. We need peace, you might say.

Pete Alwinson:
We need peace.

Steve Brown:
So, the fourth name that Isaiah spoke about the coming Messiah 700 years before he came was Prince of Peace

Pete Alwinson:
Prince of Peace. Yeah. What do you think?

Steve Brown:
Well, I think we still have wars. I think people still hate each other. I think people are looking for peace and I haven’t found it. So, maybe listen, three out of four is not bad, for Isaiah, but he does four out of four. So, how was Jesus the Prince of Peace?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, you know, it’s such a powerful thing because Christmas time can be a time when some people, really, they do enjoy the great carols of Christmas. They really enjoy the family time, but it also can be a time for great dis-ease and great, a great lack of peace because of those who didn’t have good earthly experiences, early life experiences. So, I think that there’s a sense in which Jesus does bring, I don’t know, if you’re doing a three-point sermon, societal peace, spiritual peace, personal peace. Okay.

Steve Brown:
Let’s do that.

Pete Alwinson:
Alright.

Steve Brown:
Societal peace.

Pete Alwinson:
You know, we don’t have that right now, but that’s coming. I think that, when I think of the societal peace of Jesus, that’s what he promises when he comes back the second time, to clean up the mess and to establish his kingdom forever.

Steve Brown:
And you know, one of the things that sometimes we forget is that everywhere the gospel of Jesus has been preached and lived and taught by missionaries, major. And, people don’t believe this, but it’s documentable. And it’s been true throughout history that wherever the gospel is gone, hospitals were built, government became kind and connected with its people, schools were built, education became important, people found hope that they didn’t have before, slavery came to an end, women were set free from their roles. And so, that’s, and you can see it. You can see the Prince of Peace everywhere that’s been preached and lived, there is societal peace.

Pete Alwinson:
So, what is going to happen when he comes back is happening now

Steve Brown:
in a lot of places

Pete Alwinson:
in a lot of places.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, it really is. And in so far as we turn away and I fear in our country and I’m talking to you guys in Canada, too, I fear, you know, you look at our universities, they were almost all without exception founded by Christians with a view to teaching the truths of God as they applied to the world where we live. And they’ve lost all of that. It’s not there anymore. And as it is lost, the universities become chaos. The leaders they create lead us into dark places. The societal things that were built by men and women who love Jesus, the Prince of Peace no longer stand, children get hurt, sexual trafficking becomes the definition of art. I could go on and on and on.

Pete Alwinson:
I know.

Steve Brown:
We miss it. And at Christmas, Christians need to not only see that, but to stand for it.

Pete Alwinson:
Yes. And to see where is that area within our society that we can move in, and seek to make a difference. I mean, we have to be involved because if we pull out and are uninvolved, all that it takes for chaos to reign is for good people to do nothing.

Steve Brown:
That’s really true. And Christmas is a time when we need to say that, as we look at Jesus, the Prince of Peace and the difference he makes in society, in our culture and our nations. Christians need to say, I’m not on the losing side. I’m on the winning side. I have a truth that is universal and that makes the difference. It’s called love and it comes from Jesus and it changes things. And then the Prince of Peace will begin to take place in your school boards and your town councils and your Senates and your House of Representatives and in your leaders because that’s a part of who Jesus is.

Pete Alwinson:
Absolutely. I love that.

Steve Brown:
That’s societal.

Pete Alwinson:
Societal and that societal peace comes from the spiritual peace that Jesus gives us as he connects us to the Father through his death, burial and resurrection.

Steve Brown:
Personal peace.

Pete Alwinson:
It really is. Yeah.

Steve Brown:
You know, we were both kidding, when we came in to do these programs, we were talking about how both of us. And, you know, we both, I’ve been a pastor a lot longer than Pete, but he’s no spring chicken. So we’ve been pastoring, and you know, a lot of years we’ve done, and Christmas is a hard time for a pastor because you’re dealing with broken hearts, with the people who are going through hard times, that Christmas has a bunch more that we didn’t have during the regular weeks of the year, I mean, it’s just, it’s a hectic time, but at Christmas Eve, and we were both saying to each other, that’s our favorite service.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. I loved it. I loved it because you did a message that was familiar, but you could try to add one idea of the many facets of the gospel and the birth narratives to your people and just enter in with them and just, there is something incredibly unique about that time.

Steve Brown:
Oh, that’s wonderful. And, when you say magical, that’s a good word. It’s supernatural. And it’s what we’re talking about here. It’s when all the stuff has been done or if it isn’t done, it’s too late and, we get quiet. And something magical, supernatural happens, which could happen any other time, any other place during the year because Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Peace on earth, goodwill toward men, I feel that the most on Christmas Eve.

Steve Brown:
I do too. And it’s something we could feel. We don’t have to wait for Christmas Eve for that to happen.

Pete Alwinson:
Right.

Steve Brown:
You know, sometimes, you know, I’m, we’re both early risers, so you know, and you know, I like to kid people that’s because I’m more spiritual than you are. It’s not that, it’s because I’m a bigger sinner, but there is that early morning when there’s nothing but him and the quietness is to me the most peaceful time of my life. And I couldn’t survive the rest of the day without the Prince of Peace in the morning.

Pete Alwinson:
You know, that is, me too, me too.

Steve Brown:
I know.

Pete Alwinson:
And it’s interesting that how many of the letters of Paul, start and end with grace and peace, grace and peace. And how he wants us to live in peace, to live with our hearts settled toward God, settled toward others and settled toward ourselves. I think we don’t accept ourselves a lot of times.

Steve Brown:
And when you do, you’re calling God a liar.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Because he accepts you just the way you are, as messed up as you are with your doubts and your sins, he’s not going to leave you that way, but he accepts you just the way you are at this very moment. And that’s where the peace comes from. It’s a, you can be that way with other people because the peace of God in our hearts has been settled with our acceptance and forgiveness and mercy and grace. And, we can be dynamic in our culture and in our society because we don’t have anything to prove. We don’t have to win anything. We don’t have to pretend to be better than we are. We don’t have to, we have to do anything. We just have to show with the Prince of Peace who offers himself to anybody who will come to him.

Pete Alwinson:
I love that. If we have it, then we can give it. If we get his peace, we can give it to others.

Steve Brown:
And so, and we’re about out of time, but there’s an evangelistic side of Christmas, isn’t it?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, boy. But to, to welcome and invite people to our churches, is to invite them into our lives too.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. That’s true. And this time of Christmas, even for unbelievers is a soft and warm time, and it’s a time to bring up the name of the Prince of Peace. We’ve got to go. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve and Pete. There are so many titles for Jesus, but Prince of Peace, boy, do we ever need that right now. Hope you’ve been enjoying this week of team teaching as much as we have and make sure you tune in tomorrow for our special Christmas Eve episode, we do it every year. And it’s when Steve reached the Christmas story as told in Luke two, it’s one of our favorite Key Life traditions. And I know you’ll be blessed. Of course Christmas isn’t just about gifts, but listen, all the same we have when we would like to give you, it’s a free booklet called Christmas Meditations. It’s a newly reprinted collection of Steve’s writings on the real meaning of Christmas, the incarnation of God in Christ. The booklet also includes Scripture and devotional questions to help you focus and reflect on the impact of Christ’s coming. Get it right now by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] and ask for that booklet. If you would like to mail your request, send it to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

In Canada, mail

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

Just ask for the booklet called Christmas Meditations. And one last thing, would you consider giving to support the work of Key Life? Giving is easy. You can charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or now just pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 and then follow the instructions. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And as always, we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.

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