Blessed Be the Name

Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore!

Blessed be the name, blessed be the name; Blessed be the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name; Blessed be the name of the Lord!

I Will Enter His Gates

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart.
I will enter His courts with praise.
I will say this is the day that the Lord has made.
I will rejoice for He has made me glad.
He has made me glad; He has made me glad.
I will rejoice for He has made me glad.
He has made me glad; He has made me glad.
I will rejoice for He has made me glad.

This Is the Day

This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made.
We will rejoice, we will rejoice, and be glad in it, and be glad in it.
This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made.

This Is My Commandment

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

This is my commandment that you love one another,
That your joy may be full.
This is my commandment that you love one another,
That your joy may be full.
That your joy may be full; that your joy may be full.
This is my commandment that you love one another,
That your joy may be full.

Rejoice in the Lord Always

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice!
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice!
Rejoice, rejoice; again I say rejoice!
Rejoice, rejoice; again I say rejoice!

Advent Week Two: Jesus's Arrival Brings Peace

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace. . .” sang the angels on the night Jesus was born. And the word “peace” has been associated with Christmas ever since. Many people use it in their Christmas decorations or on their Christmas cards and greetings, and we sing about peace in many Christmas hymns and songs. A remarkable true story of peace at Christmastime involves soldiers during World War I who agreed to call a truce—a pause in fighting—to celebrate Christmas in 1914. These soldiers laid down their weapons and crossed battle lines to exchange food and gifts and even sing carols with their enemies!

Of course, as soon as Christmas was over, the fighting started again. And even today, as soon as the Christmas decorations are put away and the carols put aside for another year, people get right back to arguing over just about anything. Surely the peace that the angels announced is more than just a short break in all the fighting between countries, between neighbors, or even in families and churches.

Lots of stories in the Bible tell how fights were settled and peace created. King David was famous for leading the armies of Israel to fight against the surrounding nations. First Kings 4 tells us that since God gave David victory over his enemies, his son King Solomon could have “peace on all sides around him.” Still, the peace didn’t last. It wouldn’t be long before Israel split into two kingdoms that fought against each other and the nations around them.

God’s Word teaches that we should definitely try to live at peace with each other. But the Bible’s teaching on peace is about much more than settling trouble between neighbors or nations. It’s about settling the trouble between rebellious people and God. “All have sinned,” says , and our sin puts us in conflict with God. even calls us “enemies” of God who deserve His punishment! But Jesus came to “reconcile” us to God—to make peace between us and Him by taking the punishment for our sin! In fact when Isaiah prophecies about Jesus, the coming Messiah, he calls Him “the Prince of Peace,” and says that of His peace “there will be no end.” () Now that’s a peace worth celebrating!

We can rest and rejoice in the peace that Jesus brings to our hearts and minds even when the world around us is in so much turmoil and conflict. But we can also look forward to a day when Jesus comes again to put an end to all sin and trouble and establish His kingdom of perfect peace. Until that day comes, we can work at living at peace with others and pray with the Apostle Paul that “the God of peace himself sanctify [us] completely” that our “whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Object Lesson: Pursuing Peace

For Older Children

Raise your hands, clap them together tightly and rub back and forth. Faster, Faster!

(Rub your hands until they start to heat up a lot).

Do you feel your hands heating up? Do you know why they heat up like that? It’s because friction is generated between your hands when you rub them. What is friction? Friction is defined as the resistance that one surface or object encounters when moving over another, or as conflict or animosity caused by a clash of wills, temperaments, or opinions.

As you rub your hands together the friction generates heat. Just like your hands rubbing together, when we interact with others we can create friction and generate heat—not heat like hot and cold, but unpleasant feelings like frustration, anger, hurt or sadness.

This can happen when people insist on their own way without regard to others.  We can focus on the wrong things and suddenly we find we are feeling heated and upset. We can start rubbing each other the wrong way. We start irritating each other and we get frustrated. As our frustration increases, the heat builds up. This heat comes out of selfishness and anger, insisting on our own way.

If you are in a situation that causes friction with someone else, you should try to bring peace instead of bringing anger. The Bible says in Matthew 5:9 that God blesses those that work for peace. Peace is also one of the fruits of the Spirit. In Isaiah 9:7-8 Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. He brings peace between God and man and between each other. Knowing that Jesus came to reconcile us to God can help us remember to work at maintaining peace in our relationships and reconciling with those around us when we encounter friction and discord.

Some discussion questions for older kids:

a.  Marty just moved to a new school, where he doesn’t yet have friends.  The kids at school aren’t very nice and some have started to pick on him.  He doesn’t want to go anymore because he’s afraid that they’ll be mean.  What should Marty do?
b.  Jamie and Natalie are brother and sister.  Lately, they have been fighting a lot.  They yell at each other and take things and tattletale to their Mom and Dad.  There is no peace in their home.  They even have to share the same room!  What should they do?
d.  Gretchen just came to church for the first time – one of her friends invited her.  She had heard of Jesus, but didn’t really know that He was God.  She was excited to hear that He could bring peace to her heart, because she had a lot of problems in her home.  What should she do now?

Suggested Answers:

a.  Ask God for help in prayer.  Tell a trusted adult about this problem.  Memorize a verse.  Make a friend at church who goes to his school.
b.  Ask for forgiveness for their attitude.  Ask God for their forgiveness.  Remember how Jesus served others and try to put the other person first.  Pray that God will help them to be kind.
c.  She should ask her friend and/or Sunday School/Children’s Church teacher more questions.  Come to church again with her friend.  Start reading the Bible (with help from someone)!  As she grows to know Jesus she can ask Jesus to live in her heart and to forgive her sins. Pray about the problems in her home.  Invite her parents to come to church too.

Simpler Version for Younger Children

Raise your hands, clap them together tightly and rub back and forth. Faster, Faster! (Rub your hands until they start to heat up a lot). If your child is young you could rub their hands between your hands. Do you feel your hands heating up? Do you know why they heat up like that? It’s because one hand is moving the opposite way of the other hand and they as they run against each other, going different directions, they get warm, then they get hot!

Sometimes when we work or play with others we start going in different directions, too, like, when a friend takes your toy. Does that make you feel “hot” or upset, happy or sad? What do you do? Do you yell and hit back, or grab the toy? What should we do? Can we make peace? How can we turn our heated, upset feelings into good feelings with our friend? Perhaps we could share or take turns, perhaps we could find another toy to play with or talk it over with our friend or get mommy or daddy to help us. We don’t want to keep those hot, upset feelings and do bad things with those feelings. We can say, “God, please help me have a heart that is happy with all you give me and to be at peace with my friends.”

What is peace? Peace is loving what God loves and loving others through what we do and what we say.  So, if we feel hot and upset we can say, “God, please help me” and we can ask God to help us be kind and loving to others with our hands and our words and our hearts.

Advent Hymn

Jesus’s Arrival Brings Peace – “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus”

Charles Wesley wrote his hymns nearly 300 years ago, and many of them are still sung and loved by Christians today. Wesley took ideas directly from Scripture and put them into his hymns. In the first verse of “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus,” we can hear “I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.” Also in verse one, Wesley pictures the story of Simeon who was “looking forward to the consolation of Israel,” and who rejoiced to see the Lord’s Messiah as he held the baby Jesus in his arms ().

Verse 2 starts by praising our Deliverer, bringing to mind the words of Isaiah that Jesus quotes in , “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” The verse ends with our blessed hope “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne” .

“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus”

The people of the Old Testament waited a long time for the Messiah to come, and their longing was fulfilled when Jesus arrived to make peace between God and His people through His life, death, and resurrection. We wait, too, for Jesus to come again and put an end to all hostility and conflict and establish His kingdom of peace. While we wait, we praise God for the peace we have on the inside, the “peace that passes all understanding,” which “guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” ().