(Clip) When There Is Surrender There Is Peace

And then the angels announced Jesus to the shepherds. And it's interesting, the angels went to the lowly, the humble. The humble and the receptive.

He didn't go to kings. There was King Herod right there. There was Pontius Pilate at that time.

There was Herod Techarach. There's different religious leaders. I think Pilate came a little bit later.

But if you look at all the different Caiaphas or the high priests, he could have came to all these strong religious leaders or secular leaders. But he went to the shepherds, the lowly. So let me remind you that God wants a humble heart this morning.

He wants a humble, broken heart that is teachable and receptive. That's who God goes to. He doesn't go to the proud and arrogant and wealthy and rich and think they've got all... He'll go to the country boy, the barely graduated high school, me, and says, you're going to speak, me? I don't have a master's.

I don't have a PhD. I can barely speak as it is. God, I barely graduated high school.

I'm going to use you because you look so foolish. But people are like, I can't believe you're even still alive. You were an idiot.

You just drank and partied. You cheated your way through high school. Now, because God uses the foolish things to confound the wise.

That's the whole point. When people say, how? I say, I don't know. I have no clue.

How have you written books? I have no clue. God used my mom and editing process to be able to write. And I have no clue.

It's all God. He goes to those. And he had to break me.

So don't, oh, Shane, you're so humble. No, he's not. He had to break me and break me and break me because it takes broken men to break men.

Doesn't it? God first breaks you and then you break others in a good way. So the angels came to the lowly shepherds that were just out tending. And he said this, these following words, verse 13, and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.

Can you believe that? But here's what many people think. What is wrong with these Bible writers? Shane, how can you believe that book? What good news? He's the Prince of Peace. What good news? Have you checked the news lately? Have you just walked around Lancaster at night? Or Palmdale? Have you just went to Los Angeles? What are you, Shane, what's wrong with you? You guys live in a bubble.

There's no peace. How can he be called the Prince of Peace? Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Where is this? Well, here's something that you need to understand.

Peace, actually the good news has to be received. You have to receive it. If somebody wins a lottery ticket, this might be a bad example, but I'll just ask for forgiveness now versus a permission, right? If you win a million dollars on the lottery, I've never played so I don't know, but if somebody did and they found out oh, this is great news, what would happen if they never claimed it, they never went and did anything? It's the same thing with God's good news.

It has to be received. Then it becomes wonderful news. Without receiving it, it's convicting news.

It's actually disheartening news. That's why people don't, Shane, if your church talks about hell, I don't want to come. If you talk about the blood of Jesus and repentance and the judgment of God, I do not want to come.

Why do you not want to come? Those are foundational doctrines of the Christian faith. Yes, is love and mercy and grace, of course, but also the other side of that coin is God's justice and righteousness. See, that's the good news.

How can you appreciate the good news if we don't tell you about the bad news as the backdrop? Is it really good news if I don't know what the bad news is? The bad news is we know that God has laid it out that man without God is lost eternity. For eternity, he is lost. He is condemned to death.

The wages of sin is death. Oh, Shane, you're making me feel uncomfortable. Why? Why when there's peace? There's peace.

It would make you feel very uncomfortable if I said, too bad, you're out of luck. There's nothing we can do. We're going down with the Titanic.

You might as well just get your affairs in order. That's a very negative pastor. I'm never going to that church again.

But all we're saying is here's the answer. Here's the answer. Peace, repentance, fully surrender your life.

That's, you'll have tremendous peace. And if you ever, if you noticed in war, go back to the early French-American War or with Britain or America or World War I, World War II, in all cases, when there is peace in a war, what happens? Somebody surrenders. So in order to have peace, you have to surrender.

And I heard from a gentleman last night, he said this is exactly why he came here. And it's funny, I put this in my note. Some of you are here just to hear this.

You won't have peace until you surrender. I know some of you I'll never see again. I will never see you again.

And what I know, if we really believe what the Bible says, wouldn't we plead? I mean, preachers I read, George Whitefield and Edwards and Wesley and a lot of the old preachers from hundreds of years ago, they would preach with tears in their eyes. D.O. Moody would preach with tears in his eyes knowing the truth, knowing the truth reading about the Welsh revivals. And in Scotland, men like Hal Harris, Griffin Jones, Daniel Rawlins in the 1700s, they would preach, they would preach and the tears would stain their sermons because they saw that the truth of God's Word when they compared it to how man was living and where man was destined to go without God.

Wouldn't you weep over that? God, we cry when the Broncos lose, for goodness sakes. Or the Steelers lose, for goodness sakes. Oh my goodness, I just lost my job.

But how about losing eternity? This is an important part. You have to surrender. That's when you have true peace, when you surrender.

And I talked about this a little last night. I didn't know if I should talk about this morning. But I was given the opportunity to go and talk to a guy caught in a homosexual lifestyle in West Hollywood as a male prostitute.

And he was in the hospital for four days and very depressed, wants to kill himself every day. And I had two hours with another person and just quietly just loved this person. I genuinely felt for, man, you're trapped in this lifestyle and here's what God's Word says.

Here's what you have to do to encounter peace. And he said things like, you gave me a lot to think about. Thank you and yeah, but this was written by men and we don't really.

But you're fighting God. You're fighting God. That's why you have no peace.

You've got to surrender your will. What about if that lifestyle is wrong? What about if it is? Have you considered that? Have you considered any sin? People go, oh, there goes Shane, goes again. No, let me just talk about all sin.

All sin, people are miserable when they're caught in their sinful lifestyle. So why shouldn't we offer peace and hope? You can't just put on Oprah and hope they come to the Lord by osmosis. How's that gonna work? Let's put on Ellen today and just hopefully we feel better.

It doesn't work that way. Peace happens when full surrender takes place. You have to surrender your will and say, Lord, no more my will, but your will be done.

I was on the broad road to destruction, but Lord, I need you. I need to be on the narrow road. You are my Lord.

You are my Savior. Lord, take away the shame and this guilt from me. That's how you experience true peace.

I mean, I can come up here for the next hour and just, oh, let's talk about this and talk about that. But the hard issue is man's heart needs to be right with God. We can plead.

We can pray. We can encourage, but ultimately, you need to make the decision to repent and believe in the only name that saves.