Where Is Your Peace?

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0:00So, as you know, my name is Joe Brown. We are a connected church. So, I'm about to read for you the text. This is Exodus 18. The reason why I'm preaching from Exodus 18, I'll just be honest with you, is because I preached on this text last week at my home church. So, a version of this sermon was preached already last week. So, you are already learning about Joe Brown that I'm a bit lazy. But, the other great providential thing about Exodus 18 is this is like the proof, not proof text, this is like one of the core texts for how church government polity happens, how we're all connected. You're going to see that in the text. So, we're going to spend the next 30 minutes just talking about church government. That was a joke. If you got nervous, then you're my people. If you were excited about that, I'm so sorry for you. But, and then lastly, because I won't get too biographical, but as you guys know, my family and I, we're going to go plant a church in Goochland as you, as Jerry just prayed, we are gathering a core group together now. And what is great about this, the reason why we're, you know, providentially talking about Exodus 18 is that we're connected, right? We are part of a larger body. We don't just, churches just don't pop up and, at least in our sort of neck of the woods of Christendom, we belong to one another. We do this stuff together.

1:47We need each other. And so, you guys are a church plant here in Chester, praise God, and we pray for this church plant regularly. There's another church plant in our presbytery out in Amelia, Marty Cates doing that. And then now the Goochland church plant with me and my family. My wife works on staff with Young Life. She works with the disability ministries, Capernaum in the West End. And I have four kids. I have a 20-year-old boy, excuse me, 20-year-old man, an 18-year-old daughter, and twin daughters who are 16. They're driving in one week. Lord, help me. Lord, help me. All right. With that said, I'm going to put this right here. And I'm going to read this. This is a long text. This is a whole chapter of Exodus 18. It's long. And I apologize. You're going to hear some repetition of the word father-in-law mentioned. Jethro is big in here. So, without further ado, let me read it. And this is the word of God, and we should hear it and respond to it as such this morning. Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. Now, Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her home, along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom, for he said, I've been a sojourner in a foreign land, and the name of the other, Eleazar, for he said, the God of my father was my help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where

3:40he was encamped at the mountain of God. And when he sent word to Moses, I, your father-in-law, Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her, Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. Welfare there is that word, is the word shalom, peace. Asked for each other the peace and went into the tent. Then Moses told his father-in-law that all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way and how the Lord had delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. Jethro said, blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God. The next day Moses sat to judge the people and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, what is this that you're doing for the people?

5:11Why do you sit alone and all the people stand around you from morning till evening? And Moses said to his father-in-law, because the people come to me to inquire of God. And when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws. Moses' father-in-law said to him, what you are doing is not good. You and the people will certainly wear yourselves out for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice. I will give you advice and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God. And you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you. You will be able to endure and all this people also will go to their place in peace.

6:34So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. Then Moses let his father-in-law depart and he went away to his own country. As I've already said, we could spend time talking about church government, how we need other people to bear the load. We're not going to do that. What I want to talk about is, you heard this guy, Jethro, mentioned a lot. You know Moses. Most of you, I assume, I don't know most of you, most of you know and have heard of Moses, right? You know Moses. Moses is the Old Testament prophet who received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. That's happening in two chapters right after this.

7:32Moses is the one that led the people out of Egypt, the slavery of Egypt, through the Red Sea. So you know who Moses is. Jethro, his father-in-law. So if you remember from your Sunday school classes, Moses, you know Moses, when he was born, he was put in the Red Sea in a raft to be saved from Pharaoh trying to murder all the baby boys of Hebrews. And he was ended up providentially, he was raised in the Pharaoh's home. That was Moses. And he grew up in Moses' home. And then what did Moses do?

8:04He goes out and murders somebody. Moses is literally a murderer. Murdered someone for reasons that you can read about if you want to. It's back in Exodus, earlier in Exodus. He was a murderer. So he fled. Pharaoh was going to find him and execute him probably for murder. So he fled and he went into Midian, the land of Midian. And that's where he met this guy Jethro. And he married Jethro's daughter Zipporah. Jethro, and it's in Midian that Moses has the vision where he meets the burning bush. And the burning bush. God meets Moses and says, you're going to go back to Egypt. You are going to save your people. Moses is like, who should I say sent me? A burning bush? And the voice from the burning bush said, no, my name is I Am, the Lord. That is who's sending you. And so he goes to Jethro, his father-in-law, and says, hey, I've been serving you for years. I have a family here, Zipporah and these two kids. What should I do? Or Moses says, I need to go back to Egypt. And Jethro, the last words he says to Moses before this text, the last words Jethro says to Moses is, go in peace.

9:24Go in peace. So brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, I'm not going to talk to you about church government. I want to talk to you about peace. How many of you here this morning have peace? I think if you're honest, you might say all of us feel tumultuous in our hearts and minds and souls. How many have peace with yourself? And I think this text talks about Jethro dealing with Moses. Moses was not at peace. He was being worn out. Moses was not at peace with himself. Jethro was saying, what you're doing is not good. He helps him. We're going to talk about that. But it's not just peace with ourselves. What about peace? How do you live with others? Do you have peace with others? Are you one of those people that is a hail fellow, well met kind of guy that everyone loves you and you love everybody? You're at peace with everybody? Or are you the type of person that is an anxious presence maybe? As soon as they walk in the room, you run the other way. Have you ever met those people? If you haven't, you might be one of those people. Are you at peace with your God? Jethro found peace with his God. Jethro found peace with his God. Jethro is a great example for us to see how we can be at peace with God, peace with one another, and peace with ourselves. So when you think about how you at peace with one another, we're not doing slides or any of that stuff, are we? Whoa! Look at that. Go in peace. What's the next thing say? Here we go. This is a Tim Keller quote. I couldn't do a sermon

11:27without quoting Tim Keller. Talking about peace. What is peace? And he has this great quote, God created the world to be a fabric. Is it up there? Yes. I'm going to use my notes. You are going to follow along and you're going to do a great job. And if the slides don't line up with the sermon, it is not his fault. It is my fault. I'm jumping around in my notes. God created the world to be a fabric for everything to be woven together and interdependent. I mean, that's how we are designed to be created, to be interwoven, interdependent. If I threw a thousand threads onto the table, they wouldn't be a fabric. They'd just be threads lying on top of each other. Threads become a fabric when each one has been woven over, under, around, and through every other one. The more interdependent they are, the more beautiful they are. The more interwoven they are, the stronger and warmer they are. God made the world with billions of entities, but he didn't make them to be an aggregation. Rather, he made them to be in a beautiful, harmonious, knitted, webbed, interdependent relationship with one another. That's the design of God's. That's the design of our creation.

12:49But if you're like me, you might be tempted to think it might be just easier as a thread just to be by myself over here. Let me just throw myself on the ground like a little thread over here. It's so much easier. Who likes to be woven? Who likes to be woven up and down with one another? No one likes that. It's hard. It's messy. It really rubs up against each other. But that's the way God designed his creation for us to be interdependent with one another. When we are by ourselves and running away from one another and refusing to forgive one another, we are like a clanging gong. God's harmony is his peace. God's harmony is his peace. How do you live with other people? Who do you need to forgive this morning? Who do you need to forgive this morning? So, I'm talking about three things.

13:52Living at peace with, right now I'm talking about the first one, living at peace with others. Living at peace with other people. Do you need to forgive someone this morning? Just think about it. Do you need to forgive someone you live with? Do you need to forgive someone that sinned against you 10 years ago? I firmly believe that you need to forgive someone the minute you remember what they did to you. They may have sinned against you 80 years ago. Months ago, just a few months ago, I was talking with someone and he was an older gentleman. He was in his 70s and he was angry about what his father did to him when he was seven years old. Now, what his father did to him when he was seven years old was horrible.

14:50But that sin was so long ago, but that man, even 70, 60 years later, needs to forgive. The minute you remember it, you need to forgive it. It is a hard work what you need to do. Forgiveness is hard, hard work. How do you live with others? Brothers and sisters, if you hear nothing else, please remember this morning. Maybe some of you need to leave here and you need to go do some work with Jesus and say, help me to forgive that jerk. Maybe we need to do that.

15:29But if you look at this text, you see that Jethro finds peace with God. Jethro had heard what happened with Moses and the people in Egypt. And what does Moses do? He shares his testimony. He shares his testimony. I mean, Moses heard about it. They greet each other, they kiss each other, then they go into Moses' tent and Moses shares with Jethro his testimony. I have now been at staff at West End Presbyterian Church for 18 years. This coming week is my last week. For 18 years, I have done a lot of things, a jack of all trades. And one of the things is I would do stuff with children's ministry.

16:16And I wrote a letter about 17 years ago that when we baptize little babies at West End Presbyterian Church, when we baptize babies, infants, children of believers, we then send them a letter through the snail mail. I hope it gets there. I don't know. I send them a letter to the parents because the parents just took vows. Congregation takes vows. The parents took vows. The vows, I'm going to raise up these children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So I wrote a letter about 17 years ago trying to think, what would be a helpful thing to say to parents after they just baptized their kids?

17:00And in this letter, I wrote that I think you should do three things. And this is just me writing. Who knows? I think you should do three things. You should remember your salvation, tell your story, you should teach the big story. I mean, as parents raising kids, as anyone who is pointing others to Jesus, what we need to do is first of all, remember our salvation. Remember what is truly happening. Because if you know the story of the Bible, you know that Moses and all of his people, they continually forget, don't they? They continually forget the grace of Christ.

17:41And they wander away from God. You need to remember your salvation. What else do you need to do? You need to tell your story. Kids love stories. Dare I say adults love stories, right? Adults and kids, we love stories. Tell your story. Teach the big story. Teach what scripture says about God. Um, you know, I didn't grow up in the church. Uh, I was what I would probably most, um, uh, uh, probably what I would say is I grew up church adjacent. Um, went to vacation Bible school, went to, I think I even went to an Awana's club once. Um, and I, I knew the name Jesus. I knew the name Moses, but I thought they hung out together. Uh, I don't, I didn't, I was, I did not go to church regularly on Sunday mornings. Um, and then through the ministry of young life, it was a high school student. And I remember going on a camp trip because we went skiing and I liked to go ski.

18:50This was up in the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania. One of the other great commonwealths, there's four of them after this service. You can, you can tell me if you know what the other two are. Um, um, um, and I remember going on this camp trip and hearing the gospel presented clearly for the first time. And I remember thinking, wow, that sounds amazing. That sounds great. I don't think that's true, but it sounds great. And then my young life leader challenged us to come and meet him after camp every morning at his house before school. Um, and go through this thing, this little booklet, like my first 30 quiet times is what it was called. And I, and we would do the devotion each day and then we would come and we'd talk about it. I remember, I don't know, day seven, day eight, being in my room by myself reading this devotion thinking, I don't know if it's true, but I really want it to be true. So you know what? And I, I remember talking, I remember exactly where I was in my room. I remember talking to God thinking, all right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say it's true. I'm gonna say it's true. And I, and you need to prove me wrong, God. You need to prove me wrong. I'm just gonna say it's true. And he has proven himself true over and over and over and over again since that day. God has proven himself true to me who did not grow up in the church, but God saved me that, that day, whatever day that was, I don't remember it. But we need to tell our kids and others our story. You just heard my, a little bit of my story.

20:38Do people in your family know your story? Go tell them. Go tell people. How does Jethro respond to Moses telling the story? You heard it. In verse 11, he had faith. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods. In verse 9, he had joy. Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel. In verse 10, Jethro said, blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. He praised God. He had joy. He had faith, praise. Jethro responded with response. He responded to Jesus. He responded with salvation. How do you live with God? Brothers and sisters, you're here at church. You know this stuff. But I'm telling you now, I'm asking you now, how do you live with God?

21:35Are you at peace with your Lord and Savior? Do you have peace? Have you seen the rags that you wear and toss them at the foot of the cross? Have you received the glorious robe of righteousness that Jesus puts on his people? Do you walk daily with the Lord in peace? Jesus's peace is different than the world's peace. This shalom, this harmony, this interwovenness. Peace I leave with you. This is what Jesus says. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Do you know and do you see and do you feel the peace of God?

22:18I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm jumping around. I apologize to my video slide guy. I'm jumping all around because I want to end with something. But before I get there, I'm going to say this. Moses finds peace. So do you live with peace with others? Do you live at peace with God? But do you live at peace with yourself? Moses finds peace with himself when Jethro challenges him? What you're doing is not good. Jethro points out to him that, you know, you're trying to do everything. I would say Moses is probably a good over-functioner. That's how I would classify it. Someone who, you know, nothing is going to happen unless I do it. Look, I don't know how Joel does it around here. He's not here, so we can talk. But it would be terrible if this church was built upon only the back of Joel and the Passmore family, right? This church would fail. And I'm not even talking about just, I'm not saying just the pride and the selfishness that could come from that, that could be flowing from that. I don't know.

23:34Maybe Joel needs to repent of that. I'm not here to be his Holy Spirit. But for us as a church, you as a church, how are you coming along and helping? What Joel is doing, if he's doing it by himself, if he's doing too much, someone in the church needs to go to Joel and say, what you're doing is not good. If you do that, someone come, just email me. Let me know that you do that. That'd be great. You know, but Moses, he was doing too much. Maybe because no one else was stepping up. Maybe because he thought only he could do it. Maybe whatever he thought. Whoever knew, Jethro wanted to tell him, you need other people to help you. You are living not peaceably with others. You're not living peaceably with yourself. Where is your peace? Guys, this is not just silly sermonizing.

24:30I pulled into the parking lot. And as I pulled into the parking lot, after I turned off the engine, I checked my phone. And I received an email that someone who used to go to my church, I hadn't seen her since 2019, she committed suicide two days ago. A believer in Christ, as far as I know, a believer in Christ, she died by suicide. Brothers and sisters, I share that to say, Lord, that crushes me. I loved this. I love this woman. She's wonderful. And I know, I believe that she's with her savior now. How many of us live like that? Not at peace with ourselves, not at peace with God, not at peace with others. How many of us are being crushed by whatever feels, whatever wants to crush us? The world would tell you, you need to find peace by transcendentalism or whatever it is.

25:25But Jesus says, no, the peace I give you is so much better. Maybe the way I'll end is this. Actually, not maybe, definitely the way I'll end is this. Back in 1911, over a hundred years ago, a French Catholic poet named Charles Peggy, he wrote, you're welcome for that. I took seven years of French. I know how to say we and je m'appelle Joe Brown. That's about it. But he wrote a poem about the three theological virtues, faith, hope, and love. Whenever I think about these theological virtues, I think of this poem. It's a beautiful poem. And I hope that it blesses you. Charles Peggy wrote this poem. Let me jump back to my notes where it was.

26:23And he fought in World War I. He fought and died in World War II. He was Charles de Gaulle's favorite poet. If that means anything to you, if you're a historian, you might know anything about that. It doesn't matter because he was a French Catholic poet and he wrote this poem called Le Poche du Mysterie de la Dixième Vertu. That's the end of my French. That's all I got. But he writes this poem about the three theological virtues. And I believe it tells us a lot about living at peace with God, with ourselves, with others. Where these three virtues are three sisters.

27:04They're three sisters. And they're walking on a road. They're walking on a road. So brothers and sisters, if you are a human being alive right now, you're walking on a path. That's what you are. Your life is a path, right? These three sisters are walking along a path. And he describes them as three very different personalities. Let me see if you can catch any of this. The first sister is Faith. Faith is walking right here. Here's Faith. She is described, remember it's a poem and it's French, so it's all descriptiveness. Vivid imagery is what he uses. But she is a cathedral. She is a solid foundation, ancient, venerable, lasting for centuries, steadfast, upright, a married woman of unquestionable fidelity. Her demeanor is marked as is fitting for such an important virtue.

28:06You see the image of her, right? She is solid. I mean, maybe you know some people like this, but this is that faith. She knows where she's going. If someone came up to this imaginary woman and said, hey woman, let's go over here, she would look at this person askance because she knows where she's going. She's going to her faithful Savior, Jesus. She's walking that way. Solid, faithful woman, faith. Then there is the second sister, and her name is Love. He was Catholic, so he used the word charity, but it's love, this love. She's walking right here on the other side of the road.

28:50And she is a hospital, an almshouse. She gathers up all the miseries of the world. She welcomes the wounded, the sick, the sorrowful, the unwanted. She is unceasingly giving herself over to all those who are stuck. So, do you see that woman? Do you see that woman, this charity, this, she is loving other people, constantly caring for, gathering up the wounds. I hope you see these two women. What of hope? She's my favorite sister. And the reason why I'm sharing this poem, what of hope?

29:31Peggy's hope is a little child. Innocent, trusting, defenseless. She carries no heavy burdens. She skips along between her two older sisters, careful and joyful, and no one takes much notice of her, but she goes to sleep every night, and she rests well. She gets up every morning refreshed, renewed. I mean, can you see this little girl holding the hands of faith, holding the hand of charity, of love, skipping along? Brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, that's what I think living at peace is.

30:11It is holding firm to the foundation of Jesus Christ, the solid faith of Jesus Christ, holding firm to the love that Jesus gives to his people, and skipping along confidently, knowing where you're going, knowing where you're going. That is what peace is. That's what living harmoniously is. Are you at peace with your God? Are you at peace with others? Are you at peace with yourself? So, I'll end with this. Maybe you can throw this one at Exodus, or excuse me, Ezekiel 37, because you and I are heading to the mountain. You and I are heading to the mountain, our eternal home, and it is there that Ezekiel speaks of this vision. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will set them in their land and multiply them, and I will set my sanctuary in their midst forever. Brothers and sisters, guys, if you forget everything else, think of the eternal home that we have in Jesus.

31:17And that's where we're going. That's where we're going. If you believe in Jesus Christ, that's where we're going. Hold firm to the hand of faith. Hold firm to the hand of hope, and skip along confidently, because we'll get there. Will we get there? Yes, we'll get there. Amen.