The Beatitudes Why don't you turn with me
if you would to Matthew chapter 5 if
you would please and then tonight I'd like
us to stand together and we'll read them
Together, so if you'll turn to Matthew 5
and then stand and then we'll read We'll
just read them together and beginning at verse
3 and On down to verse 12 together,
but let's here again, many people believe this
to be the central message perhaps of the
Bible the greatest sermon ever preached and that
is arguably I believe the case and but
it all begins the foundation of it all
is here in these Beatitudes and To me
the importance of knowing them the rest of
the sermon it picks up and has tremendous
things to say but the foundation upon which
it is all built is here in the
Beatitudes and So let's read them together at
verse 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed
are they that mourn for they shall be
comforted Blessed are the meek for they shall
inherit the earth Blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall
be filled Blessed are the merciful for they
shall obtain mercy Blessed are the pure in
heart for they shall see God Blessed are
the peacemakers for they shall be called the
children of God Blessed are they which are
persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven Blessed are ye when men
shall revile you and persecute you and say
all manner of evil against you falsely for
my sake Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for
great is your reward in heaven for so
persecuted day the prophets which were before you
Father we thank you for your word and
Lord how we long that we would understand
more and more and more the profound depth
Lord of these Beatitudes They seem to be
part of what I think the Bible could
almost call the unsearchable riches of Christ Lord
if we could only search these things out
we could only know them not just theologically
But Lord even far greater than that we
long that our life wouldn't just be theologically
sound but Lord that we Would find ourselves
so rooted and grounded in you that our
experience of our theology that we live in
a theocracy our own personal Theocracy where God
is absolute ruler and Lord that you would
teach us these things They would be so
central to our lives and Lord that we
would know that the better.
We know them the greater our joy That
the greater the depth of our joy the
fullness of our joy the absolute excitement of
our joy the reality of our joy Lord
that we wouldn't spend so much time with
the deceptive joys of this life the deceptive
happiness is Chasing after them, but Lord that
there would be something in our heart We
would chase deeply after true eternal joy and
know it more and more and more father
We ask it in Jesus name Amen You
may be seated And here once again and
again and again and again, I guess now
each time As we go through these Beatitudes,
I always kind of need to back up
just a little bit I suppose just in
case there's a couple of you that haven't
been here and and then for those of
you that were here and didn't pay any
attention and then for those of you that
were here did pay attention, but Forgot it
and so that should cover most everybody so
but anyway the Here in these Beatitudes, they
are all built one upon another You skip
one or you do or the degree that
you know The depth of one is going
to be the depth that you're going to
follow all you know along with the rest
of them As again, I believe that they're
almost like a continuous cycle This isn't something
you just go through once in life and
have got it It's a continuous learning and
it's an unending thing that what a person
may be discover I when I first started
loving and studying the Sermon on the Mount
was back actually in the 1960s and When
I was first kind of confronted with it
and there at that time when I went
through and Study blessed of the poor in
spirit, and I thought I understood it And
I think at the time I did understand
it But to the degree that I did
it was tremendously different than you continuously learn
it through the through your own life It
life is that way what you think yourself
to be having victory over you might say
in one stage of your life Then you
enter into another stage and you find you
didn't know as much about it at all
To me.
I know before I got married.
I was I think I was very unselfish
and Well, I don't have to say any
more on that do I but the venue
you get married and you find out a
whole new level of selfishness that you didn't
know somebody else has an opinion about the
thermostat and You know all these sorts of
other things around and the next thing You
know you're going back and forth about that
and then you maybe Grow and you learn
a new depth of hopefully selflessness and that
exposure and then you have children And then
you go through the whole thing again Learning
again as you got these beans running around
your house who can care less about anybody
else But themself they don't know what time
it is.
What's early?
What's late?
What anything else is they've got their own
little world and and you start dealing with
that and you learn again How selfish you
can be and so also with the beatitudes
that to what you may consider self to
be broken in?
Contrite or poor in spirit at one stage
The life as we continue to grow you
find out the need for it more and
more and more But also as we have
looked at these things They are things as
well that as we see them each one
is a building block upon the previous Jesus
there says the greatest happiness that a person
is going to know is the degree that
they are poor in spirit That is the
degree as we've been through it so many
times now that a person knows the utter
Poverty stricken spirit of their own soul There's
something that has happened that they have realized
I was creating the image of God and
I've lost it Then they mourn over it
and the degree that that I am poor
in spirit is the degree.
I will mourn over it is The degree
that I look and realize God I have
sinned and I am wrong and I'm wrong
with you Or I'm wrong with others and
to that degree is the degree.
I'll be sorry if I'm not wrong.
Well, then I'm not sorry And I don't
mourn over it But the degree that something
happens in my life or in my relationship
with God or my relationship to another where
I realize What I am capable of The
abilities I have to sin and to bring
that sin out and to expose it to
others not expose it to others But but
to have them have to be almost assaulted
by it By my sinfulness and have them
have to deal with my weakness of my
nature there to when I see this Capacity
that I have That if I see it
and I did ought to produce a mourning
a grief that happens within myself And if
that grief is genuine, it'll produce a genuine
meekness.
I won't recover from that grief I won't
recover from that morning so easily but it'll
result in a sense of a meekness before
God a Meekness before others and Jesus says
this is going to be a truly joyful
Happy profoundly happy person then Blessed are they
that are filled their hunger and thirst after
righteousness for they should be filled the happiness
now that happens when a person Discovers after
God has emptied them of themselves and emptied
them of their sin and forgiven them for
it.
It's produced an open broken contrite heart and
a meekness and a gentleness within them that
just hungers for God and There is it
hungers now God says now you'll be filled
and there is that person is is wonderfully
Beautifully filled by the Lord then the deepest
of God's nature begins to be carved into
their nature and they become merciful Oh How
happy is a person that now that looks
out and they could be negative or they
could be hard or they could be hostile
And they could do all sorts of things
to other people they could you know, very
simply very easily but now there's something happens
where mercy begins to come in a great
godly sorrow begins to get into their heart
and in their life then it is followed
up by a purity of heart that begins
to Happen as this mercy is happening in
them.
There is a wonderful purity of heart that
happens That's where we left off last week
tonight.
We pick it up.
Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be
called the children of God I'll tell you
I suppose as wonderful as it is to
be a child of God It's even more
wonderful to actually be called one but to
be actually mistaken in public for one and
that's quite a novelty sometimes these days when
you look at the people that as we're
told by all sorts of People that go
out and evaluate statistics in society the percentage
of people that profess to be a Christian
But then when you would look at how
many people actually are confused with being one
People have said I think that I saw
one.
I actually met one.
I swear they must be a Christian and
That's a wonderful thing.
He says, oh, I happy of the peacemakers
for they should be called the children of
God And here we have something that as
Jesus gets into these things, by the way,
these are quite contrary to natural man In
fact, they're quite contrary to the Jewish world
even when Jesus came They weren't they weren't
looking for Jesus at all as a Messiah
that would come like Jesus They were looking
for a Messiah that was going to come
like Moses They were looking for one that
would be in the likeness of Moses who
was going to come in with a here
with the Roman Oppression that was upon them
as a people as a nation somebody that
was going to come in and as Moses
led them out of Egypt The Messiah was
going to come and lead them away from
Rome and from the oppression of Roman the
control of Rome They wanted a military leader.
They wanted somebody that was going to come
in and bring miracles There's somebody who's gonna
open rivers, you know or make the earthquake
and destroy the enemies and here when Jesus
came and he Brought in a whole new
message of that.
Peace is not going to come so much
through the external aspects of it Moses didn't
bring them peace He just merely got them
from one side of a river to another
but they were just as frustrated of people
when they got over There as when they're
on the other side of the river.
They just added a view for themselves from
the other side That's all but they were
still stuck with themselves And they were delivered
from Egypt into the wilderness, but they weren't
delivered from the nature of Egypt from the
selfishness from the pride from their own natures
and here when Jesus came and he began
to call them to follow him and Jesus
began to share that he was the bread
of life that he was the basic sustenance
of all of life And saying whosoever eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal
life.
I'll raise him up at the last day
This is not that flesh that your fathers
did eat in the wilderness are dead But
who so eateth of me will never die
and here he is actually telling people that
what you need to do is so Appropriate
me into your life.
You've got to make me the absolute basic
sustenance of your existence who you are The
defining, you know identity of who you are.
What makes you tick what you're all about
Jesus said this is what I'm here for.
I'm here to take over your heart.
I'm here to take over your life I'm
not here to lead you geographically so much
from one place to another as I am
to lead you spiritually from one world to
another and they and entry into that world
is going to be as you devour me
as You want to you long with your
soul to digest all that you can of
me And it take all of my heart
all of my life that you possibly can
Well when Jesus shared things like this it
goes on even in that text to say
that many of his disciples upon hearing this
they Walked no more with him that there's
a lot of thing.
They said this is a hard thing who
can hear it He said, you know, we
look we love we love what Jesus does.
We love his miracles.
We love his power We were they they
wanted to make him king at times.
They came to him if forcibly wanted to
just force him to become king Judas some
feel that that was his whole one of
his aspects of his nature that it when
he he was gonna push Jesus into becoming
a forceful King and By just bringing the
crisis as some analysis that some have I
don't know that that's so but but many
people we'd love to Forcibly make Jesus come
and use his power deliver us this way
says no I'm not here to deliver you
this way.
I'm here to deliver you eternally I'm here
to deliver you from an enemy.
That's far worse than Egypt and far worse
than Rome I'm here to deliver you from
the oppression of your own self the rule
of your own arrogance your own pride your
own self-willed nature And if you don't
want that then you really don't want me
so much and this is what the Beatitudes
is all about It's a wonderful message of
deliverance from the reign of our own fallen
nature From our own character left alone and
here the Even the disciples they had such
a hard time with this Jesus of course
never let up on it was always the
same, but they wanted a powerful Jesus.
I Love the story one time when Jesus,
you know They're about to head into a
town and Jesus's reputation of you know In
different towns of people getting up in arms
about him It's kind of gotten around so
much that they sent the leaders out of
town They said please don't come in here
where there's so much controversy Over you that
we just as soon you don't come in
Jesus being so gentle.
That's okay Don't force my way anyplace.
We'll move on But John so wonderfully, I
mean here the Apostle of love he ends
up to be but at the time, you
know, John He turns to Jesus the Lord
Shall we call fire from heaven to consume
them?
I mean here John.
He just looked there and he says what
do you think?
Nobody talks to us that way Nobody comes
and tell who do they think they are
telling you of all people that you can
come and you can go we know Who
you are and knowing who you are.
You shouldn't put up with this in there
You just wanted Elijah's kind of power.
He says shall we as if Jesus, you
know, John, that's a good idea Let's just
let's just smoke the whole town, you know
sort of a thing.
I mean John would have been quite delighted
Jesus turns over to him and he says
John I've got a nickname for you and
Oh, really, what's that?
son of thunder So he called him the
son of thunder There's no light with you
just noise, you know the type of thing
and not a big noise You're the son
of one, you know sort of a thing,
but he looked at him and it is
John what?
what makes you tick and Wonderfully though when
John was really converted and he did become
that Apostle of love He did become the
one that would look back and realize what
was this within me that I was literally
willing to see an entire town destroy fire
from heaven There's simply to have you know
My Jesus be King but when we sit
there and realize that the King that Jesus
is is he comes there to want to
take our heart and take Our life and
to change it more than even he's interested
in doing a lot of other things But
the wonderful thing is is here He says
blessed are the peacemakers and one of the
things about a peacemaker I suppose that rather
easily so blessed is in one sense.
He's so entirely different than anybody else There's
something within his heart and within his life.
He's a child of God and he wants
to tick that way He wants to think
that way.
He wants to function that way.
He looks around in a world in such
war and turmoil discord and he realizes there
just because now what he has been through
the processes in his own life a Peacemaker
is somebody there He realizes the the things
that destroy men the lust and the greed
and the self-will the self-centeredness the
ego the pride All of these demanding hearts
and demanding lives and and you put a
bunch of people together like that.
You've got wars You've got fights.
You've got battles.
You've got struggles But here when somebody is
they begin to God has taken their poor
in spirit and they mourn over it and
they become meek and now They're emptied so
much that that stuff is broken out of
them.
It's being washed and cleansed out of them
They don't like that pride any longer that
I want I will I'll have I'm right
I want it my way that that is
something about themselves.
They begin to hate They begin to look
at this and they see why am I
so, you know self-centered?
Why am I it what drives me this
way and when I realize it's it's the
fallen ego the sin nature The flesh but
they realize that and so they mourn over
it and that produces a meekness and then
there's They're hungry for God and they're filled
in the consequence of that fullness is a
merciful spirit begins to get in them and
a singleness Of heart a purity of heart
and now we're having somebody that because of
the course they've been through The processes of
their heart in their life.
There is such a sense of peace within
them It's not somebody by the way another
thing about a peacemaker though I want to
mention that before I go on a peacemaker
is not somebody that's just peace at any
price In something that is just there such
a milquetoast sort of a person that they
just avoid Anything it could be any different
anything tense or any trouble Not just avoiding
problems or whatever.
It is whatever you got to do to
make peace do it Sometimes a peacemaker will
turn over, you know tables in the temple
Sometimes a peacemaker will look right at those
that are in opposing the kingdom of heaven
and call them what do you know a
generation of vipers as Jesus did or they'll
look at the the the priests and the
Pharisees and he says you're white at sepulchers
You act like there's life on the outside,
but there's nothing but death on the inside
it's not that a peacemaker they can't confront
or can't deal with things and It all
kind of like the story of the fellow
that all of a sudden he just appears
there in heaven and paint Peter looks over
at him and and He appears they're standing
and he looks at he says well Tell
me did you ever do anything good in
your life?
Looked like he had a pretty rough ride
He said you're doing good in your life,
and he said Well, yeah One time there
was a gang of bikers They were terrible
and they're threatening a young girl Innocent precious
young girl and I came up to the
obvious leader He was big and burly and
muscle-bound and he had tattoos on him
And he was obviously the leader of them
all and I looked him straight in the
eye And I pulled his beard and I
pulled a nose ring right out of his
nose I did I told him if you're
gonna bother her you got to get there
through me And Peter says well, that's amazing
He says when did that happen?
He says oh about two minutes ago but
the But sometimes the person they need to
do what may be right it may not
be easy There may be some degree of
confrontation that may result in in it in
wanting to bring peace to another It doesn't
mean that they have no courage about them
But a peacemaker is somebody who first of
all as the Beatitudes have shown he's at
peace with God He has found the greatest
key to peace in the whole world the
keys with the peace within his own soul
peace within his own nature Peace there that
is most wonderfully there.
The war with God is over He has
found the way to settle it.
He has found the way to end it
and he has found the peace of God
Reigns within his own heart and with his
own life because what has happened in the
Beatitudes is Essentially there's been a wonderful exchange
of the of the self and of the
of our own Ego and of our own
pride and it's been broken It's no longer
desired and it's been replaced by the nature
that God always wanted to have within us
his own nature his own spirit And that's
going to produce peace within our heart.
We'll never have peace Until that's happened.
We'll look for peace.
We'll try for peace There'll be maybe a
peace for a season but an abiding peace
The only person that really knows it is
the person that agreed that they understand the
Beatitudes They realized there that by nature.
I was opposed to God I avoided God
and I I fought against him and his
and I did my own character in my
own nature It was my biggest enemy and
then when God began to break me as
David said a broken and a contrite spirit
God will not despise David there realized how
God loves gentleness and meekness and when he
can break a man of his own ego
and of his own pride His own self
-willed and a pair of person knows that
and then he's been filled with God.
There's a man who knows peace And a
peacemaker is somebody that he's got a new
nature he has a new heart that has
come in and he's Constantly a peacemaker is
somebody that ought to always be desiring to
be delivered constantly through his life of self
Constantly there of our own self-interest our
own self concern you know one of the
things you know that That it takes us
a while sometimes to realize is you know,
we Jesus gives us the power of the
Holy Spirit But it seems in the resurrection
power, but it also seems like the flesh
Has the power of the resurrection?
You know if you notice that about us,
but you go and and you die and
something happens You're extremely sorrowful and you cry
out to God There's a meekness and he
fills you with himself But then amazingly the
next day You can turn right back and
all of a sudden this self that you
held a wonderful funeral for you buried him,
you know God I'm through with self.
I hate myself.
I never want to see myself again and
the whole family says we vote Yes to
you know, and everybody else is in full
agreement.
I can't believe what I've done.
I hate myself and God I'm sorry, and
he says everybody.
I'm sorry.
You're sorry.
Okay.
Well, here's me and he fills us with
himself In somehow or another the flesh the
next thing, you know, I mean the God
calls us one of the things that he
calls us in the Bible that we're to
present our bodies as a living sacrifice And
I guess one of the great tragedies about
a living sacrifice is it has the capacity
to crawl off off the altar You know,
we can go put ourself there and present
ourself, but we can get right back in
control So easily and so it's something there
like Paul said I died daily His venture
in life was he never just took it
for granted that any previous experience he had
Was sufficient there he constantly there, you know,
you know wretched man that I am who
should deliver me from the body of this
death and The wonderful thing is when somebody
realizes God, I know who I am I
don't need and want to see myself again
again, but as I do instead of being
amazed or surprised, let me just be broken
and The wonderful thing is is that what
happens to a person like this is because
the war is over with God They found
a way to resolve it.
Their life is surrendered essentially to God Then
the wonderful thing is they now whether they
know it or not and then they're merciful
and they're pure in heart They are not
only have peace with God, but they are
now have the capacity to become a peacemaker
They now understand the message of where peace
is really found It's one thing just simply
to go in and try to keep the
peace But it's another thing to go in
where there is no peace with the capacity
to produce it And this is what Jesus
says this person who has been through the
Beatitudes has He now has a message of
understanding.
He can go into where there's war He
can go into where there's battles and where
they don't work together.
They don't get along And when there's people
that are agitated and fighting and saw their
struggles and going back and forth He has
the message to go in and make peace
He can sit down and say I can
tell you what your problem is And while
they're sitting there there most people like that
are convinced I can tell you what it
is do when they point the finger at
the other one It's them You know when
they and it's in my husband, it's my
wife, you know the ginger I mean that
we never never a sinful man never has
any problem finding problem who it is Soon
as Adam sinned Next thing, you know, I
mean, it's the funniest thing to me It
wasn't so tragic, but God comes looking for
him and Adam's hiding as if he can
truly hide from God Adam God God comes
along.
What are you doing?
I'm hiding, you know, or the and why
are you hiding?
well There's naked.
Oh How'd you find that out?
Oh The woman sinned, you know, I mean
it's a thing to where you God says
you ate at the tree, didn't you?
Well, I know it looks that way You
know sort of a thing but immediately he
says it's the woman that thou gave us
me I mean what a crafty little thing
to come up with.
There's a problem in his life.
He's naked.
He's in trouble He knows he's in trouble.
But then we say why are you in
trouble?
He says well, it's the woman thou gave
us me and that's quite a cunning little
thing.
The woman thou gave us me here He
brings up two things.
It's the woman and you gave her to
me.
So it's between you two.
You figure it out I don't know what
went wrong here.
But but She was here.
You gave it to me, but you started
it So one of you two is a
sinner, you know or something in the sort
of a thing and and and I'm clean
I'm just fine.
Of course, he goes to her and he
says what do you think about it?
Because there was a serpent and you made
him so I mean so ultimately God's the
sinner to you know, there's a lot of
people But a person who's broken doesn't need
to look for anybody else.
They realize no, it's inside.
That's where the problem is and Coming to
a place where we were people begin to
become aware of that where they begin to
have a true sorrow And but a peacemaker
the wonderful thing is he goes in with
a message of the Unbelievable capacity of what
God can do for that for anybody else
because of what God has done for him
When then on one hand, you know, he
was devastated by sin destroyed by sin killed
by sin Mourned over his sin became meek
before God, but in his death he hungered
for God and God raised him from the
dead Gave him new life forgave him of
it all Poured his love made him a
merciful man and gave him a pure heart
for the things that are right and eternal
That's a person there that has the capacity,
you know, because of what God has done
for them Now they know how to produce
peace To be there when a person that
was created in the image of God was
absolutely destroyed by sin and yet God came
and entirely rebuilt him restored him Regenerated him
resurrected him brought him back in the newness
of life and hope in eternal capacities That's
the person that has the capacity to bring
peace Last September 11th, obviously 2001 a day
that'll live in infamy, but there is the
world's eyes, you know Watch there is these
jets flew into the Twin Towers and other
places as well But but watching so graphically
a person doesn't even have to close their
eyes to remember that sight and to watch
there is those buildings just absolutely came crumbling
down as The dust rose up to so
high and so awesome.
It could be seen from this from space
we're told But as here is these these
huge towers Came down and there and you
know The the whole infrastructure all of the
steel the metal the windows the doors They
you know every elevator every stairwell every office
everything in the thing was absolutely destroyed and
Thousands of people inside the building with it
and there is a dust settled and there
was a pile of rubble And then of
course we came in after that to try
to clean it up and try to figure
out what went wrong and All sorts of
engineers came and they hauled off all sorts
of pieces of it The twisted metal this
do studies in engineering and what could we
do and how do we avoid these things
and look at all of The other things
you can learn from them and then of
course is in the process they're getting little
bits of memorabilia to give to the families
of those that lost loved ones and then
another teams are actually finding the body parts
and the tragedy of what happened there and
And but never for a moment in all
of man's genius did anybody ever dream of
taking all that stuff They gathered and saying
let's see if we can take this metal
and maybe we can find enough doors in
here We can get a few elevator parts
and and we can get some stuff and
let's see if we can just go put
all this back together Nobody ever dreamed for
a moment of doing that But could you
imagine if somebody there had the capacity there
to literally take that entire?
Destruction and there not only begin to take
out of that rubble to Speak and to
work and to rebuild and to restore and
the next thing you know it all begins
to come back together a brick Upon a
brick and the metal kid takes its strength
and its shape back again And then out
of the rubble comes all of these, you
know shattered windows of you know Tons of
glass beginning to come back into pieces and
the next thing You know the thing begins
to rise and then every body that was
within it life comes back in and it's
restored Well, that's exactly what Jesus did for
a Christian Only far greater He did it
eternally He takes somebody there that that was
Devastated sin came in like that jet and
he had him right in the midsection and
destroyed With it it deposited self and arrogance
and pride and and and Accusation to everybody
else and whose fault it was when instead
of saying I sin We blame it all
on everybody else and there we lay in
the rubble Nothing, but out of it Then
the the God the power of the gospel
gets in and restores a man's soul regenerates
his life resurrects his being Reno takes everything
he is you look at these wonderful words
of the gospel and he takes a man
He says I can take you back into
my image.
I can fill you with myself I can
give you a heart like mine.
I can take away your stony heart I
give you a heart of flesh and I
give you a heart of purity if you
want it And here is he builds that
up and he pours his love back into
it now that building all tell you It's
got a message for every crumbled building in
the rest of the planet doesn't it?
That life is a peacemaker that life of
every other life that's been hit and destroyed
and Annihilated and here the wonderful thing is
is this is what Jesus says he's done
when he's restored us and The way he
pours his heart in his life and his
love back in But unfortunately, I think we
live in a day and age where lives
are oftentimes the peace that has brought him
to a lot of homes The way we
look for peace Even in Christian circles.
I look at a lot of Christian books
quote-unquote Christian books I personally debate some
of those things, but it's probably not supposed
to If I'm really merciful and pure at
heart, so obviously I'm not yet because I
think a lot of it's well trash, but
anyway the But the thing is is that
to me I mean, I look at a
lot of people here where their their life
is destroyed and they're and they're by they're
trying to gain peace by some sort of
human process Human treaties human agreements here.
You got a marriage.
It's in trouble You got two piles of
rubble throwing bricks at each other You know
on a thing and in blaming each other
on why they're both pile of rubble And
as they're throwing it back and forth and
accusing one another they they get a counselor
of which there's no shortage of these days
It seems like they're pretty expensive probably that's
the reason but anyway, it's these people that
come along say wait a minute We can
help you You know and and we can
negotiate a treaty here We we need to
negotiate a ceasefire here and we've got to
go in and put you through a battery
of tests and If we get a little
battery of tests and we get a psychological
makeup We'll find out why you throw bricks
You know at each other and we'll find
out why you're unhappy and we'll find out
why you say and do these things to
each And why all of this lack of
P Why you don't have peace in your
home and peace in your marriage and peace
in your life and peace with your children
It's obviously there's some psychological difficulty here that's
going on that hasn't been understood yet and
dealt with but we're professionals And so they
go in and they do this and they
help produce peace by negotiation in discussion You
got a fee.
You got to realize each other you you
got how you got flashpoints You got you
you got there's things you avoid and in
issues in your life that you realize you
don't push this Button and you don't do
that and and they help us find out
all these things about each other But it's
a superficial piece.
It's a negotiated piece.
It's a human piece not a supernatural piece
it's not something to happen because Jesus has
come and poured his power into them and
transformed them and because he has taken their
nature and their character that that caused the
rebellion and reckoned it dead and let it
die and buried it and given a new
life and Given a new spirit so much
with it within it and we to me
sometimes I get a little cynical because I
don't go into many Christian bookstores and As
oftentimes you go into it's filled with to
me what I call how-to books Just
telling everybody, you know how to do everything
how to be happy in your marriage, you
know something how to be You know happy
though married.
I mean do you look at that?
So that's a title I saw how to
be happy though married in other words.
Oh you poor dear you're married Well, you
know, you here's the stuff you got to
work through to be happy how to love
your husband I love your wife how to
love that teenager how to love that adolescent
how to love that one going through puberty
how to You know all these different things
on how to do these things and and
it's interesting to me because that's obviously they're
selling like hot cakes Anybody that can tell
you how to raise a child or how
to work through your marriage or how to
do that We don't seem to be able
to make enough of those books But to
me the reason we need so many of
those books is that we is that we're
not doing things spiritually They're not we're not
living in in in the power and the
transformed life of the Holy Spirit in the
home We're just negotiating peace You got two
selfies people How to be absolutely we should
write we should change the titles of the
books how to be absolutely selfish and happy
You know, that's you know how to remain,
you know Alive to yourself and walk in
the flesh and be happy, you know how
to have, you know Selfish arrogance nasty children
and be happy, you know or something how
to negotiate happiness within a layer with a
bunch of lives That are all far from
God and those are probably so good.
I suppose and that's to me That's almost
what they're what they ought to be titled
sometimes because when you get inside of them
They don't deal with they with with with
our pride in our arrogance I think I'll
want I have I am alive and because
I am alive you gotta tolerate me And
we're the whole issue As the great issue
in the Christian life is somebody is is
died Died to self and when a person
learns that When that's begun to really happen
and you know the this sermon it's not
a how-to Sermon, it's a the books
of a hundred years ago.
A lot of the books I have they're
written a long time ago And I you
if you went in look you look at
books 50 75 hundred years ago.
They weren't how-to books.
They were who to Who to live by
who to surrender to you know, and then
they're driving us to Christ They were before
God of living before him We've gotten away
from that in a way from a surrendered
life away from an obedient life away from
a broken life away from a desire for
a transformed life and An exchanged life with
God or whatever else somebody may want to
call it but we've gotten away from these
things and yet we're still trying to live
as Christians and So you get two selfish
little people in the house and you got
a book you can't write enough books for
him I don't think you get it, you
know enough, you know, you get then you
start they start reproducing then you then you
really you can Need a library, you know
in a sense there to try to figure
out what in fact today I think if
I were the average kid, I think if
they walk into their mom's Dad's bedroom.
They probably they see all these books records
tapes videos how to raise children how to
raise a strong child Will child how to
do this how to do that how to
discipline how to do that sit there figure
man You must really be bad parents and
need that many books to raise me, you
know or something or I don't know what
your problem Is but you need a whole
bunch of stuff It's because we're not broken
Because there isn't something where we found real
and true and lasting peace Or something has
happened to where the you know Whether when
you do it when he's taken those that
that twin towers and there they stand in
their former glory They're created recreated in Christ
and that's what they're longing for You get
a man you get a woman regardless of
what we do in the rubble and how
it all is You know You can spend
a lifetime trying to rebuild it and never
you'll never get one piece of glass to
stick to another one Let alone put life
back into it again Only God though in
his love and in mercy when somebody comes
says God would you would you forgive me
and I'm sorry I've sinned the problem isn't
her.
It's me.
It isn't him.
It's me Paul says we wrestle not against
flesh and blood There are no problem with
you with human beings all human beings do
is reveal if there is one in me
I'd be very happy if none of you
existed, you know sort of it because I'd
be just in a sense there There's nobody
to have a problem with In a sense
as a human being but when you take
a human being who is selfish All we
got to do is just two people walk
out a single door together and meet in
our shoulders him What excuse me?
I was here first, you know, or whatever
else you got a problem Instead of when
we find ourself God If they are not
the problem It's my far-off relationship with
you I'm not broken And I don't mourn
over it and there's no meekness But when
that begins to happen and then he fills
us now, that's the person that one day
they can look virtually at anybody They can
go to work.
They can go home and sit down with
that teenager and They can tell that teenager.
I think I know what's wrong with you
And the and it isn't what you've been
thinking and I've been thinking I think I
know what's wrong with you.
It's you You're a sinner, you know a
good one, you know sort of a thing
and you haven't come to grips with that
And until it in when when we in
our own lives sometimes when we sit there
with our own loved ones and say, you
know Your problem is God.
You're not right with God You're not hungry
for him and and while they're in their
youth to me to constantly turn them to
that Constantly one of our boys was a
bit of a test for us when growing
up And I'm being very nice about that
right now, but the but he put us
through a little bit But I know my
dad would stand up and say and you
deserved every bit of it, but the Literally
one time I'm talking to my dad.
It's a true story I'm going through something
with my kids and my problem with him
and this and that and while I'm trying
to talk seriously with him My dad's laughing
He's laughing like I didn't believe there was
really justice.
He didn't say that but you could tell
you see.
Thank you God Thank you But I'm going
through it with mine and then fortunately it
does happen again one of mine did the
same thing and I'll never forget that I'm
laughing.
He says what are you laughing about same
thing?
My dad laughed about you're a sinner, you
know or something and and but one time
when he was going one of them was
going through a thing and He decided he
thought he could live better on his own
and around us and I decided that was
true.
I Said you may go You may go
do whatever you want to do.
You're free to And when everybody else has
to leave the party you want to stay
at the party and stay there and everybody
else man My dad's gonna be looking for
me.
I won't look for you You're free And
when there's something you want to drink you
want to drink you go ahead and drink
it You have to worry about oh, man
My dad's gonna found out a drink that
or there's something else you want to do
you do it You got I don't agree
with it, but you want to go do
it you go do it so you're free
and you go do it And I say,
you know, I grew up kind of like
you And I said I thought I had
said that there was something out there and
I looked I said you've spent most your
life you think there's something out there better
than Jesus and So you go look I
don't think there is I didn't find anything
But only one thing I ask of you
is your father He said what's that and
I said when you find it you come
back and tell me what it is Some
months later the very first words that he
had when he stood on the door step
Wanting to come back home as he says
I've looked and there's nothing better than Jesus
and the thing is is that until somebody
comes to that they'll not have peace and
Still each one of us comes to that
where we looked I okay God I have
looked but there's nothing better than Jesus And
his power and his love and his cleansing
and his goodness I want to be filled
with him and when somebody there that brokenness
and So often what what may be going
on in your home or your marriage tonight
and that you didn't you might ask yourself
Do we have peace by negotiation?
Do we have peace by agreement?
Do we have peace by treaties or say
and do we sit there and everything that's
going on?
We're trying to hold it all together because
I'll tell you what it's no stronger than
your ability to do it But if what
has happened is peace by transformation Peace because
you know that the one of the things
about the gospel as a gospel isn't in
the repair business The gospel is the restoration
the replacement plant.
It's Christianity by replacement, you know, you're not
a good one But here I'm gonna give
you the perfect one Son of God invite
him into your life.
Let him take over and you can live
and you'll have the message to be a
peacemaker and When we find God I want
to be a peacemaker Well, you can be
one to the degree that he has brought
peace within you through this process the Beatitudes
Then is when you can sit down with
virtually anybody in the world Tell them where
peace is you'll never find greater peace with
men than you have with God And when
you and I find ourselves, that's what I
need in my home.
That's what I need in my life That's
what I need in our family.
That's what we long for God Give us
this not peace by agreement or negotiation and
you know And and how to book that
we if I'm not putting all those books
down No, I'm not doing but the I
mean there is I'm sure there's they got
some good stuff in them the I just
haven't found it yet, but the I'm not
no, I don't mean that.
I'm sure that they really do and but
if it if it's short of The Beatitudes
Then it's short Because it isn't biblical To
think you can have a greater marriage to
think you have a greater family and more
peace within a home than a human being
Can have peace with God is absurd That's
a negotiated peace.
That's an agreed peace but when there's a
spiritual peace because I've been conformed to the
image of Jesus Christ by his power and
Then when that's what we want Now we're
on the road to be looking at, you
know in our homes and our marriages and
our families And being a peacemaker Bringing it
in You may go home tonight and do
a family and in a home or go
to work tomorrow and there's absolute war That's
all right.
All you need is one peacemaker To bring
peace When there's a true peacemaker when somebody
can sit down and say, you know, I
think I know where I found peace Let
me tell you how I found it and
you tell me what you think of it
Could this be part of our problem?
And see what happens, but the wonderful thing
is he says this person is the happiest
person in the world Wouldn't you love to
be a peacemaker?
That's the exciting thing Father we thank you
for your love Thank you dear Lord that
you look at us and how you long
to bring great peace And Lord maybe some
of us we look at our own lives
and then the reason for peace has nothing
to do with the person because we can
be around all sorts of different people and
Still don't have peace we can change jobs
Not have peace.
We can change partners not have peace We
can go from one end of the country
to another not have peace But Jesus when
we're broken before you And the great battle
of heaven Has been won at the cross
and we find ourself coming in there saying
Jesus.
I just want to die And having you
be able to turn and say, you know,
that's what I did for you And now
if you'll just accept your death Now if
you just step out of the way Receive
my life.
Oh The peace that'll come let me fill
you and then as we continuously would want
to be filled with you again and again
continuously finding peace Lord becoming merciful pure in
heart Then Lord, we have the message of
being a peacemaker To be able to sit
down with other lives that are struggling and
say I can tell you where you can
find peace I can tell you where I
found it and it works for absolutely anybody.
All you need to do is be a
sinner to qualify All you need to do
is have something that's hit you and devastated
your own life called sin And it may
have reduced you to rubble and may beyond
anybody's ability to read store it but Jesus
With his word he can actually raise it
from the dead And as grand as the
thought of the Twin Towers would be the
eternal image of God But poured into a
human being is greater still Lord, may you
give us that kind of peace we ask
it in Jesus name Amen