Rev. Michael McGuire - Blessed Are The Peacemakers

it's good to see everybody in the house of the lord on this wednesday night and uh you braved the storms and i'm gonna try to get you out of here before at least nine o'clock brother andrew i promise you that before that storm hits hard but yeah it is wonderful to see everybody in the house of the lord i'm going to read from matthew chapter 5 if you have your bibles let's turn to matthew chapter 5 and we will start with verse 2. it says and he opened his mouth and taught them saying 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 peace makers for they shall be called the children of god blessed are the peacemakers i want to talk to you tonight on that topic and that thought blessed are the peace makers would you lift your hands with me and would you ask the lord to speak in this place tonight lord i thank you for your spirit and for your power that we already feel in this place here tonight i thank you god that you've given us your word to direct us to help us and to encourage us it's anointed and i pray god that you would anoint my lips tonight to speak your word let our hearts be open to receive from you we thank you for what you're going to do in the name of jesus you may be seated when jesus spoke the famous sermon on the mount that day which we know as the beatitudes it challenged the new believers it was a new culture that jesus was trying to create no longer did he want them to live after the ways of society or religion or tradition but he was teaching something so profound that it would separate his followers from everyone else around them following the teachings of jesus meant that you would seek to be meek and you would seek and hunger after righteousness and you would seek mercy and purity and peace it was revolutionary in their day and it is still revolutionary in today's world being a follower of jesus uh has always meant one thing you are going to stand out from the crowd if you are a believer and you are a follower of jesus christ you will stand out from the crowd and he is asking us to be different from the normal of culture that we live in today jesus's sermon that day was asking the same thing of the first century church he was asking them and he's stealing asking us today to live a life that's different than what culture demands for the sake of tonight's lesson i want to focus on one of these beatitudes and take a few minutes to dissect it and what it means and how to apply it to this christian lifestyle matthew 5 9 blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of god the bible describes god as a god of peace romans 16 and 20 and the god of peace shall bruise satan under your feet shortly first thessalonians 5 and 23 and the very god of peace sanctify you holy and i pray god your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the lord jesus christ hebrews 13 and 20 now the god of peace that brought again from the dead our lord jesus the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant he is described as the god of peace and as his children in matthew chapter 5 and 9 as his children we are called to be peace makers the history of redemption god dealing with his people is a history of god reconciling rebellious men to himself there will always be war and strife and conflict because god does not rule in the hearts of all of humanity the first thing that happened after adam and eve sinned there was conflict no matter how many laws we establish or treaties we sign there is and always will be strife and conflict and war people don't get along because their hearts are sinful and need to be changed and that that's just where we live that's where we're at if there is a mountain stream that is fed by a contaminated spring that is polluted the stream does not matter how much time and energy and money you put into cleaning up the stream because the source is bad if you want to clean the stream you go to the source the spring the same is true with humanity god is he's radically committed to reconciling humanity to himself he promises to fill the earth with his his glory and he does that by turning hard calloused hearts that do not value worship uh to him and their hearts they they don't value any of that he's he is is moved to turn those hearts towards him so that they might live a true life of worship and value that life of worship more than anything and therefore live a life of worship you see this room here this room us is full of testimonies of what god can do when he takes a sinner and he turns them around and transforms them into people that are striving to live for god and to please god and to worship god god is a god of peace and as children of god we are called to be peacemakers i came across the term recently peace breakers peace breakers are those people who are always in conflict with others no matter what you do they are always creating conflict they're troublemakers they cause division they're abrasive argumentative and disagree for the sake of disagreeing don't look at your neighbor right now and bug your eyes out we're not judging anybody right now peace breakers are the opposite of peacemakers they thrive when there is division the bible though has a i'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on this but the bible has a stern word for this romans chapter 16 and verse 17. it says now i beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not the lord jesus christ but their own belly by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple the niv reads it like this i urge you brothers and sisters to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching that you have learned keep away from them for such people are not serving our lord christ but their own appetites by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people the writer was saying that there are people that will try to cause division division in the church they will stir things up they will turn people against each other and that is contrary to the doctrine of peace and unity and brotherly love that you have learned paul was dealing with division in the church in first corinthians chapter 3 and verse 3. he says this for you are still carnal for where there is envy and strife and divisions among you are you not carnal and behaving like men paul was saying that there was a different way to live as a spiritual mature believer but where there is envy and strife and division the carnal human man thrives on those things because of his sinful nature and paul here he wasn't he he called it out straight he wasn't pulling any punches he said are you not carnal when you're acting this way and talking this way and doing what you're doing acting and talking like that as a trait of a carnal person so if we're saying stuff that is critical divisive we are self-serving and tearing down the body of christ peace breakers are destructive against the work of the spirit the spirit's purpose is to bring unity ephesians chapter 4 and 1 i therefore the prisoner of the lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering for bearing one another in love endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace the new living translation says it like this in verse three make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit he says binding yourself together with peace binding yourselves together with peace because where there is peace there is unity amen where there is peace there is unity a spiritually mature believer wants nothing to do with envy and strife or division a spiritually mature believer wants peace kelly and i have two different personalities if you didn't know that well each of our personalities have its own strengths and weaknesses we have both agreed that when it comes to the topic of being a peacemaker that she has me be she's easygoing and will choose to avoid confrontation unless absolutely necessary unless it's with me she likes to keep peace she likes to tell me that some hills are just not worth dying on and sometimes keeping peace is more honorable than dying on that hill because of her personality this comes naturally and seems easy for her now i'm on the i'm hey listen i'm not perfect i've grown up in this church my whole life most of you have known me my whole life i'm on the other side of this many times if i'm challenged and there's people in here like this if i'm challenged i want to challenge back if i disagree i want to share my opinion i'm not scared of confrontation because i value an honest conversation so while i want to be a peacemaker and and hear me jesus is calling us to become peacemakers while i want to become a peacemaker this is all right it doesn't come naturally to me like it does to her and so that means that it's something that i have to work at intentionally every single day you with me to the ones who have strong personalities a type personalities or adam dennis does the disc assessment and they call them the high d i'm a high d on that personality test does that mean that something is wrong with us no does that mean that we're carnal and not spiritual no it means that some people have to work harder at being a peace maker i feel that it is important that we recognize where we stand it's important that we understand ourselves and the areas that we need to work harder in thankfully i've got a wife that points out all my flaws no i love her but i and in all seriousness i am thankful for a woman of god that does help me and that does tell me when i'm wrong and that does say you need to work on that you need you need to work on that you need to work on that and in all truth i probably wouldn't be standing up here today if it wasn't for her and i'm going to go out on a limb here but we all need people that will speak truth into our lives we all need people that are spiritual that's the key word that are spiritual that will speak into our lives not only that will speak into our lives but we have got to get to a point where we're not prideful and we're not too big that we'll accept a spiritual word into our life that they can help us to grow spiritually i don't know about you but i don't want to stay the same place i am spiritually if i'm here great i want to go here and if i'm here i want to go there and sometimes in order to get there we have got to have people speaking even correction into our lives so that we can grow in the spirit we've got to open ourselves to allow spiritual people to speak into our lives there are some hills that are worth dying on but i'll say this you cannot die on every hill and confess to be a peacemaker we have to work and be intentional that's what i'm trying to get across here tonight we have to work at and be intentional about peace making recently i became a chaplain with this jefferson county sheriff's department and last night i did a ride along with one of the deputies for about six hours and we did all kinds of different things a lot of different things went on things that blew my mind happen and we went to a couple of domestic disputes and i was taken back at how the officers responded to those disputes so you hear the call coming in over the radio and it's i mean it sounds like world war three is happening and you pull up and you've got people screaming and this person's screaming and there may be kids involved and everything's going on and this is what i observed last night is that these officers stepped onto the scene very calmly and began to talk with those people and now they could be stern if they needed to be stern but their intention wasn't to go there and to you know be stern really what they were there to do was de-escalate and bring peace to that situation and knowing what i was teaching on tonight as i'm there and and listening to everything that's going on and and let me tell you i was standing back there this is my first time doing this i was standing back there going you need to go there and shut your mouth and you need to go over there but i didn't say a word i just stood back and i watched them all do what they were going to do and and it amazed me at how they walked up and how they stood and and they talked and they listened and they talked and they listened and i'm telling you what that it went from here all the way down to here because of how they responded to the situation and on one of the calls that we went to the people didn't want this person at their house any longer and so they said you've got to leave and and that person said well i'll just sit by the mailbox till my ride comes and that officer said listen you can't disturb the peace and something hit me in the spirit when that officer said that they said we've come to bring peace to this situation and you can't disturb the peace right now you're going to have to go somewhere else something else is going to happen you and i have got they were intentional they could have went in their guns blazing they could have started handcuffing people and i'm sure that they do that at some points and sometimes they they have to do that but they were there to de-escalate and to bring peace to the situation you and i can react all sorts of different ways when things happen to us but we are called to be peacemakers and we have to intention in our hearts and in our lives that we've come to de-escalate the situation and we've come to bring peace into the situation why because we're the children of god and god is the god of peace god is the god of peace the excuse doesn't work it's not my personality to be a peacemaker sorry it doesn't work god has intention for us to grow spiritually and when we are growing spiritually we will see the value of being a peace maker peacemakers are people who pursue peace with all people no matter what the circumstance is matthew 5 and 43 you have heard that it's been said thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy jesus is is dropping a bomb on these people right here think about all the conflict and their day and what they're dealing with and the persecution and the and the all the things that are going on in the world and with rome and all that and he says i say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you and when i was reading that passage of scripture this afternoon you know what what settled in my spirit as i was reading about enemies and and the ones that persecute i was thinking those are others that's our theme and we think of others as people that are hurting people that are in our community that we need to reach and and that's what that is but you know what else others is our enemies the ones that are divisive against us the ones that are cursing us the ones that aren't doing good to us those are others as well and jesus makes a mandate here and he says love them and bless them and do good to them and pray for them watch this he's saying you're going to do all of that that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven here we go again in order to be the children of god we can't just uh go and and and with this carnal flesh and do and act however we want to do it we've got to be peacemakers and we've got to follow the word of god and that really goes into how we treat others that you may be the children of your father which is in heaven for he makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sinneth reign to the just and the unjust he says for if you love them which love you what reward have ye do not even the publicans do the same being a peacemaker might sound easy enough but jesus makes it very clear what it means in this verse it's easy to be a peacemaker to those who love you but rubber meets the road when he talks about loving our enemies he says love them do good to them and pray for them something that is difficult is loving those who are hostile to us loving people i'm going to get real here now for a minute okay loving people who talk behind your back loving people who are rude to your face loving people who attack your family loving people is difficult it's difficult to love people who are out to get you isn't it it's different it's hard to love people that that seem like they want the worse for you who try to make you fall people who have hatred towards you we want to avoid them we want to vent to other people how angry we are at them we want to create distance and our relationship from them because they've hurt us in some way this is what we want to do and by the word world standards most people would find it completely acceptable to do that but this is where we as the church of the living god are called to stand out from among the crowd and to be identified as a follower and believer of jesus i'm called to be a peacemaker when it makes no sense to anybody around me this is what it means to live a life that pleases god you know what it's counter-cultural culture and the world says if they do bad to you do bad to them if they talk to you like that if they treat you like that cross them off your list but jesus says love them do good to them and pray for them because we are called to be peace makers general robert e lee was once asked what he thought of a fellow officer in the confederate army an officer who had made some mean-spirited remarks about him lee thought for a moment and then he rated this man as being very satisfactory the person who asked this question seemed very troubled and he said to him general i guess you don't know what he's been saying about you oh yes answered generally i know he said but i was asked my opinion of him not his opinion of me see you and i have a choice to make we can tear down destroy humiliate one another or we can choose to build up and encourage and strengthen and help one another and when we choose the latter we are choosing to be intentional and intentionally being a peace maker we are when we do that we are promoting unity we're promoting unity whether that's in our friend's circle whether that's in our family whether that's in our church we are promoting unity when we choose to build up and encourage and strengthen and help one another loving the people who are good to us is easy loving our enemies sometimes almost seems unbearable at times so how do we do it how do we offer peace and prayer in the middle of life's hurts how do we love and pray for people who talk behind our back or people who are rude to our face or people who attack our family or our character how do we forgive them and step into what god has called us to be the scripture says it like this i say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that despite fully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your father which is in heaven specifically you love them by not holding a grudge you'll find in matthew 5 and 47 and being civil and kind to them when you see them because when people hurt us when we're hurt and when we're offended if they're coming down this aisle where are we going that aisle wait a minute i brought the church into this i didn't mean to do that when you're at walmart and you see them they're in the produce aisle you're like i'm going to the outdoor section but to be a peacemaker when we grow to a spiritual level of becoming what god has called and intentioned us to be as a peacemaker we don't hold grudges against them we don't go down the other aisle or are far away from them we're kind to them we're civil to them we love them despite the offense despite what they have done i know i know it's one thing to say this up here and it's another thing to do it the second thing we do we find in verse 44 is pray for them pray that god will change them pray that god will change us and pray that god will change the situation how many believe that prayer works that scripture says pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you and i just have to believe in the power of prayer i just have to believe that when i'm praying for them and i'm praying about the situation it's not up floating into space somewhere but that god is hearing it and god answers prayer and that god is going to work in that situation why because prayer works a peacemaker is someone who is actively trying to resolve conflict choosing to keep the peace is honorable but sometimes it's difficult and it might come at the risk of rejection or being misunderstood or appearing wrong or even foolish those are some practical things i've had people recently not in this church but at an event recently come up to me and apologize to me and said if i've offended you i want to apologize to you and and i never meant to do that and i'll be honest with you i i didn't know that they had offended me i didn't think that they offended me maybe they thought that they did something that offended me but then when i took a step back i thought that takes some courage to walk up to somebody and to apologize i mean i hugged that person and said you haven't offended me i love you thank you but that takes some courage to do that sometimes we've got to do some practical things some some honorable things and you know what sometimes they're not easy they're hard keeping the peace might mean having an uncomfortable conversation where you have to forgive and show grace and you know what you're not the one that maybe calls the problem but you might have to be the one that steps out and makes peace in the situation to that person it might mean you have to make the first move in the relationship i feel the holy ghost here right now would you lift your hands would you just ask the lord to help you lord i pray right now i feel your power your word your spirit i pray that it would come deep into our hearts that it would pierce our hearts tonight jesus i pray that you would help us help us to be the men and women of god that you've called us to be help us god to deal with frustration and offenses help us god to be the peacemakers that you've called us to be you see being a peacemaker it's not just something that is in the beatitudes that's a good thing for us to be but being a peacemaker is a high calling from god god has called us to be peacemakers like him ephesians 2 and 14 says for he himself is our peace who has made the two groups and won and destroyed the barrier of the dividing wall of hostility by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations his purpose was to create in himself one new humanity about the two thus making peace and one body reconciling both of them to god through the cross by which he put to death their hostility verse 17 says he came and preached peace unto you who were far away and peace to those who were near and when i read that the holy ghost got a hold of me who am i that i won't make peace with somebody who am i that i won't forgive or give mercy or grace offer that to somebody when he saw me he saw me at my worst he saw me as a sinner he saw me every single time and yet he came to give peace it says he came and preached peace unto you who were far away and peace to those who are near for through him we both have access to the father by one spirit why because god is our peace and through his sacrifice on the cross we have this access to salvation our salvation hear me somebody our salvation came at such a high cost and the calling of the believer to become a peacemaker is a high calling you see to be a peacemaker is to live against the norms of our society it's to forgive someone who who may be undeserving that we think is un deserving but because we are forgiven we must forgive them to be a peacemaker it is for us to offer prayer for our enemy why because we once were unworthy it is us to be a peacemaker hear me somebody let this let this word seep into your spirit tonight it's our duty to be a peacemaker and our families and in our friendships with our and in this church and the body of christ would you stand with me it's our calling i said duty i'm changing that word it's our calling to become peacemakers in our families in our friendships and in this body you see we apostolic pentecostal church we are a family sometimes there is conflict in a family i'm i'm being transparent with you sometimes there's conflict in a family nobody is above this i don't care who you are sometimes there's a conflict and a family sometimes we disappoint each other but we have to remember who we are and to whom we belong we belong to him we belong to him we are the children we are called the children of god matthew 5 and 9.

blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of god i'm going to ask our pastor pastor brad to come and lead us in just a minute in prayer but before we do that i wonder would you lift your hands and would you thank god for this opportunity to be called the children of god thank you god for the opportunity thank you god for the opportunity to be a part of your thank you body for your forgiveness for your grace oh god we thank you for it lord and we turn it to others and we turn it even to those that have harmed us and hurt us thank you for that grace i want to pray a very specific prayer tonight it's an obedience to the word of god it says to pray for those who despitefully use you not just those who offend you at a passing glance or those who maybe said something but someone who despitefully uses you both the lord himself and stephen demonstrated this to us in the most extreme example the lord's on the cross praying for the people gambling for his garments and stephen as he's being stoned asked that the lord would forgive those who are doing that they don't know what they're doing uh that i think is the example tonight of it doesn't matter the extent of it there's no cut-off line to be a peacemaker even the people that were stoning and the people that were that were taking his life and the people that were mocking and ridicul they're praying for those individuals that despitefully used them so tonight i'm going to ask us to pray a specific prayer it could be that there's no one that comes to mind and that's awesome and i thank god for that but if there is someone that would come to your mind right now that you would think maybe it could be someone in the past that you've already forgiven and you've gone past that and you've you've healed from that or it's an ongoing dispute or it's an ongoing rift between you and this person we're going to pray for that person right now just like the lord prayed for those who gambled for his garments and stephen prayed for those who were taking his life we're going to pray for that person who may have harmed you or used you or hurt you whether it's in the past or sometime in recent times and i believe that god's going to begin a process of healing and if that is ongoing god's going to help you to begin to forgive there is something about praying for someone that god would give them grace when you're hurting because of their actions so there's going to be a power i believe that's going to be unleashed in this prayer and a healing as well would you pray with me right now in obedience to the word of god and for the benefit of that other person lord we pray for your help right now i thank you jesus that you have forgiven us you've forgiven me of all my sin and all my iniquity and i'm asking for your help right now that i would forgive others lord if there's a brother or a sister or a family member or someone that's close to me that has harmed me or hurt me i pray for that person even those who have despitefully used us lord those who have harmed us god in very deep ways we pray for them tonight we're seeking peace lord we're seeking restoration we're seeking forgiveness and healing so tonight we pray that you would cover them in grace and then you'd pour out your love and your grace on that person as much or more and you'd pour it out on us that you would encircle them in your love and if they don't know you and they haven't found you that they would find you and there'd be complete restoration between us and them we pray it in the name of jesus in your precious name amen amen