Sermon 3-6-11 blessed are the peacemakers mt. 5:9 kkk
Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God
Sometimes there can’t be peace
Peace? No peace –
Eccl 3 – a time for war, a time for peace
Should be a whole lot more peace than there is
World
Much work to do.
Never joy in the witness of war
Micah - Beating swords into plowshares
At work
Are you in conflict?
Do you create conflict?
pr 16:7
When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
At home
Are we listening?
Do we have common goals?
Looking for win –win
Be willing to lose an argument
People are more valuable than ideas
We must learn to talk without hurting one another
Col 4:6 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone
Is it really that important?
Video- these aren’t the droids you are looking for
Most fights, we don’t even remember 2 wks later what they were about
Peace in yr heart – hard to make peace if you don’t have it in your heart
When we don’t have it, we tend to point the finger at others
One of the lessons of the beatitudes is that God is with the broken.
Once you understand that god meets others at their least, their worst,
Then you tend to be a little more gracious to others.
You can never see them the same.
Us and them- it doesn’t need to be us and them
We can have opinions, but we can’t treat each other poorly
Radio personalities- not their opinions but how they treat each other
Politicians same- we can’t follow their example.
Demonizing others
We are good they are evil
We get it, they don’t
Too much of this and you start to understand that they are hiding something…..
A brokenness of their own
a- I am not right with the world
The world hands us two options
When the gospel takes root, this doesn’t work anymore. The labels don’t work. We have met them and they are loved by god too.
In fact, when we really read the scriptures we find not just that there is no us and them, but that the evidence of faith is found in how we treat the them.
As your fears are met by god, we can rest in him and accept people right where they are... why ….because god embraced us right where we are.
Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the childrn of God
Peacemaking and children of god
Love your enemies…..move towards them mt 5
Trying to get people on one team or the other
Or understanding that everyone is on God’s team
There is no more taking sides.
Joshua 5:13
13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord[e] have for his servant?”
15 The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Man w a sword- for us or for our enemies?
That church that theological system that country, that people
Neither…
I am the commander of the lord’s army
U are on holy ground… get off your high horse
If you show them what god’s love is like, everything changes
Jesus love is all encompassing
To find peace in your heart so that you can be a peacemaker
Trust in god
Receive forgiveness and grace
Give it away
Keep working on it
Turn your life from its about my ideas, my feelings, my stuff,
to I am loving others in the name of Christ
We are all in this together
So lets celebrate this gift of life that God has given
And lets live together in our homes in our church, in peace
Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God
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