My name is Kathy Garman and today's scripture is coming from Matthew 5, 1-9, page 551 in the Bibles in the back of your pews, if you'd like to follow along with me.
When he saw the crowds he went up on the mountain and after he sat down his disciples came to him.
Then he began to teach them saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are the humble for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.
And blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God. This is God's word today.
So I don't know about you guys but yesterday I kind of went down a rabbit hole.
And I knew better but I did it nonetheless. So I went on X, formerly known as Twitter.
And I began to track the up to the minute reports that were coming out of Israel.
It's one thing to hear about it after the fact but it's a whole other thing to see it in images and videos coming live.
Unfiltered, unedited, uncensored.
The image of a young lady who was being taken, thrown onto the back of a motorcycle as she's screaming,
Please don't kill me, and reaching out for the person holding the camera.
A scene of many elderly lying at a bus stop who had just been gunned down.
The reports of thousands of rockets showering down on cities and neighborhoods in Israel.
The reports that in one day families who were there near Jerusalem had to rush to bomb shelters
at least 13 times to escape the rain of fire coming down on them.
That the call went out to all civilians in Israel who own a gun to find their firearm
and strap it on and carry it with them at all times, in all places, wherever they go.
The images of the parading of dead bodies in the streets of Gaza to the cries of Allah Akbar.
God is most great.
And the retaliatory strikes, the promise to repay the attack in an unprecedented way,
the commitment to completely eradicate Hamas, both their military and their governmental wing,
from the president of Israel.
And all of this, the day before, we're to talk about peacemaking.
Well, blessed are the poor, but blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God.
What is a peacemaker?
We're going to go on that journey today with what is fresh in mind from yesterday and today and continues.
Psalm 34, verse 11 through 14 says, Come, children, listen to me.
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Who is someone who desires life, loving a long life to enjoy what is good,
will keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech.
Turn away from evil and do what is good.
Seek peace and pursue it.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Sometimes the best way, or at least the way to start talking about something, is to talk about what it is not.
Let's talk about two things that peacemaking is not.
Notice, first off, that it does not say blessed are the peacekeepers.
Peacemaking is not peacekeeping.
So what is the difference between a peacemaker and a peacekeeper?
Well, Caitlin Garrison, she's a Christian blogger, she wrote this in an article about the difference.
A peacemaker is someone who is willing to resolve both outer and inner turmoil
in order to establish peace with others and within themselves.
Inevitably, peacemaking will require engaging in conflict and tension
to help bring about the situation to a solid place.
But peacekeepers, on the other hand, desire to maintain peace by avoiding conflict.
They typically give in to the tension or steer clear of disagreement to keep other people happy.
Peacekeepers hate rocking the boat, and therefore they will sacrifice their own inner peace
to maintain the facade of peace with others.
A peacekeeper avoids conflict, internalizes the discord within themselves,
and would rather have the appearance of peace instead of being on the solid ground of actual peace.
So think back to those words in Psalm 34.
Turn away from evil and do what is good, seek peace and pursue it.
True peace is not making an armistice with evil, not coming to some sort of agreement.
It's not about making nice with evil.
It is about completely and totally undoing evil so that peace might reign.
How? It's not about appeasing, but actively overcoming evil with good.
And that does not sound conflict-free, because either way, evil won't go down quietly.
Evil will bring the conflict to you, even if you're bringing good to the fight.
One pastor put it this way. Peacekeeping is when we keep our feelings suppressed,
we keep our thoughts repressed, and we keep our tongues stuck to the roof of our mouths
because we might say the wrong thing and end up in an unwanted conflict.
But conflict is not a sin.
Anger is not evil, and making right judgments is not bad judgment.
Some of you may be going, wait, I thought anger is evil.
God gets angry. God gets angry.
Such judgment is often the pathway to making peace.
Truth is not painless. Honesty is not easy, and facing reality does not come naturally to us.
Therefore, peace is made.
Sometimes by going through conflict, not by sidestepping it.
Peacekeeping is the safe choice, but it is not the wisest.
Jesus says to us this morning, what a life! Fully satisfied are the peacemakers,
for they will be called the sons of God.
This is the seventh pronouncement that we've looked out of blessing for those who are in the kingdom.
Peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Peacemaking is not peacekeeping.
Number two, peacemaking is not war making.
What is war making all about?
Well, this one relates primarily to our relationships with one another.
War making is all about employing both defenses and offenses to overcome your enemy, right?
That's what war is all about. Defense and offense.
You're trading. You're going between attacking and defending.
It's lobbing bombs and building walls to help fortify.
In relationships, gossip is war making.
In your relationships, slander is war making.
Manipulation is war making.
Judgmentalism is war making.
These are the offensive weapons we might employ against one another.
There are many more.
What are some of the defensive ones? Well, emotional walls, shutting down, not engaging, retreating, hiding.
These are all warcraft.
Not peacemaking.
This morning, let's look at a few points.
What are the marks of a peacemaker?
Number one mark of a peacemaker is their own heart is set at peace.
A peacemaker's own heart is set at peace.
The book of Romans, chapter eight, verse seven through eight, we read this.
The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God.
The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God's law.
Indeed, it's unable to do so.
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
The mindset of the flesh is an enemy of God.
It is hostile towards him. It cannot please him.
But we, a created being made by God for communion with God,
only in the perfect state of fellowship and harmony with our creator can we find true peace.
In our flesh, we cannot fulfill that destiny.
We cannot be at peace while we are hostile or at war with God.
If you are here today, I can tell you that you cannot find peace while you are at war and opposition with God, your creator, to whom you are accountable.
You will not find peace in this world.
You might find a moment where you let your guard down, but I promise you, lurking around the corner is strife and chaos.
For you cannot be at peace if you're at enmity with the God who created you and to whom you are accountable to.
And this is actually a good promise.
Because when evil and evildoers come our way and they inflict all kinds of pain on us,
we can trust that if they are walking in evil, then they're at enmity with God too, and they will not last either.
That all evil will eventually meet its maker and be judged.
And that can bring us peace, even now.
A peacemaker is one who, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, has been transformed, a new heart, a new mind,
one that desires to obey God and desires to remain in right standing with God,
even as it wrestles and toils with the presence of failure, falling short sin.
And so we are told in Romans 5 that therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have what?
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible says, it points us to Jesus, and it says it's through Jesus Christ that we have peace.
Jesus, the great reconciler, the great peacemaker, has done what you and I could not do.
In our enmity as enemies of God, opposed to God in our minds, in our flesh, we could not make it right.
But Christ could. This is good news. This is good news. This is grace.
If you are in Christ, this is true of you. You are at peace with your creator God.
This is a great and precious promise in reality. You are made right with God.
Your heart is set at peace.
Augustine said that peace is made perfect when there is no more opposition.
Peace is made perfect when there is no more opposition, and particularly it goes on to talk about opposition to your creator God.
Peace is made when you lay down your arms and you surrender to the one who made, created, and destined you.
From the heart at peace, a peacemaker then begins to take action.
So number one, a peacemaker, their heart is at peace with their creator.
Number two, they actively seek peace.
A mark of the peacemaker is that they actively seek peace.
Having now received that peace from God, having now received through the gospel of Jesus Christ, made right at peace with God their creator,
they now seek to spread it.
They are not peacekeepers who are just avoiding conflict.
No, they actively insert themselves into conflict.
They listen, they learn, and they feel the conflict, and they speak the truth in love, and they bring the warring parties together
to see if peace is possible.
To those who are hostile toward God, the peacemaker implores them.
As I implore you this morning, if you are outside of Christ and your mind and your flesh is hostile to God, then I implore you,
engage with you and plead with you for reconciliation to God your creator.
Second Corinthians chapter five has one of my favorite verses, one that has stuck with me so long, is one of the first songs that I wrote.
It's a terrible song.
I will never play it for anyone, but it came from second Corinthians five.
Listen to this amazing passage that speaks exactly to this ministry of peacemaking.
I don't usually say hello, but good morning, Jordan.
He can take it.
Listen to this, second Corinthians chapter five.
From now on, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective, talking to the believers.
Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet we no longer know him in this way.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old is gone, the new has come.
Everything is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation.
That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their transgressions against them.
And he was committing the message of reconciliation to us.
Here's the kicker. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
Since God is making his appeal through us, we plead on Christ's behalf with you.
Be reconciled to God.
He made the one who did not know sin at all to be sin for us,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
What an amazing truth. What an amazing truth.
God willing to not count transgressions against them, committing the ministry of reconciliation,
the ministry of peacemaking to us to go and therefore, as Christ's ambassador, to make the appeal,
to make the plead, to implore, be reconciled to your creator, God, to whom you are accountable.
Be reconciled. How could that go to waste?
My friends, my brothers and sisters, how could that message go to waste?
Shouldn't everyone know?
Don't keep the secret.
Shout it from the rooftops.
In relationships, the peacemaker takes the active steps to repair and reconcile the brokenness.
Two neighbors fighting.
The solution is not to avoid one or the other or to pick sides.
The solution is to get the two neighbors together to talk and see if peace can be made.
Husband and wife can't understand each other, relationship breaking down.
The peacemaker brings them together, sits them down and helps to negotiate real peace, understanding
the basis of what is good, one that overcomes evil with good.
This is peacemaking.
Peacemakers are actively seeking peace because their heart is set at peace.
They can go about the ministry of reconciliation to make peace in this broken world.
Number three, mark of a peacemaker is that they are resolute in the truth.
Resolute in the truth.
And this is important because there's all kinds of peace being peddled all around the world.
But a Christian peace, a peace that is in Christ, is a peace that is resolute in truth.
Because truth, because what is true in lasting peace can only be found in a covenantal relationship
with God, our creator. Peace cannot be achieved by setting aside the truth.
You can't lowball it for someone into the kingdom.
Bring the meeting of God way down and say, hey, you do anything you want, you be anything you want,
you act any way you want. No, you're going to meet your creator to whom you're accountable for.
Truth matters.
If there isn't peace in a relationship or in a situation or in this world because of injustice,
it is not peacekeeping or peacemaking to say, oh, let's just overlook the injustice.
Let's just overlook it. Remember the old, can't we all just get along?
That is not peacemaking because that would be to deny the truth.
True peacemaking means the injustice is confronted head on, head on.
This passage by some Christians in the past have been used to promote pacifism,
to say we ought to do nothing in the face of injustice and evil as forces around.
And I think this grossly misunderstands the scripture and the whole witness of scripture,
to whom God has given authority to do what, and therefore we cannot read it as pacifist,
that Christians are to oppose any sort of force whatsoever, even against injustice,
in order to achieve peace. I don't believe that. I don't believe that at all.
But that would be to take this passage and to over realize its implications in this world,
far beyond the whole counsel of the word of God, which does give the power of the sword to the government,
to punish evildoers. They've been given that authority.
And in fact, we oftentimes find ourselves in a place where we are begging them to do just that.
And a situation like what I saw yesterday, and what all of you have been seeing in the news,
is one I was telling some people earlier. I had to deal with my own heart before I got up here,
because I was like halfway out the door going to buy a gun and get on an airplane to head over to Israel.
Because I could not stand what I was seeing. Women and children. The elderly.
Peacemaking is not turning a blind eye to injustice. But when evil rises up, it's confronting it head on,
because there is no peace without right relationship with God. And there is no right relationship with God
in the presence of evil. Evil must be dealt with head on.
It is not peacemaking to turn a blind eye to injustice. And it is not peacemaking to tell an abused wife
that it's more important for her to get it right with her husband and just ignore the abuse.
You know what peacemaking is? Peacemaking is confronting the abuse, calling the cops and having him arrested.
And while he is in prison, remaining in the situation and pleading with him to repent and believe the gospel
for the salvation of his soul, and going and giving the wife the needed care and support that she needs,
with no expectation that she is to get back together or figure this out.
But it's to handle the injustice. To call them on it, not to say, you know, let's just smooth over and make right.
There will be no peace that way. It will only rise up again and again. Evil finds its way, right?
To rear its ugly head in many different ways. What does a peacemaker, or when does a peacemaker stop though?
When is it time to draw the line? When is it time to say enough is enough?
Is there ever a time when a peacemaker is to move on? And I think the answer is yes.
In fact, Pastor Stephen Lawson says it this way. Where does a peacemaker draw the line?
A peacemaker draws the line not when they themselves are rejected.
They only draw the line when the parties outright reject Christ.
Not when they're rejected, but when Christ is rejected.
What is he saying? Well, actually he's drawing from all sorts of points in the scripture.
You guys can probably see the hyperlinks there, right?
What are you to do with your enemies and those who persecute you? What does Jesus tell us?
Pray for them. Love them. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
What are you to do to those who reject the message of Christ?
See ya. You rejected the only hope that you had. You rejected life.
Wipe your feet off. Dust them and leave.
Some of us think we are peacemakers, but we've been hanging on really, really long
to those who've rejected Christ a long, long time ago.
And what you are doing is taking the ministry of reconciliation, which is from God,
this message, this beautiful message that God is reconciling mankind,
and you are dead set on getting this person to get it,
and you'll go to your grave even if they don't get it.
All the 20 people who live around you and that you interacted with all day long go to hell.
Ministry of reconciliation, peacemaking, is for those who receive their King.
Let the Holy Spirit do what it's going to do.
He'll bring them around. If he wants them, they'll work on their heart.
This message is too great and too precious to, like pearls, be cast to swines.
Do not cast pearls to swines. It's time to make peace elsewhere.
In Matthew 5, 9, we are told that the peacemakers are blessed.
Well, how are they blessed?
A peacemaker is blessed because they are called sons of God.
Notice that it does not say that they will call themselves sons of God,
but they are called sons of God.
It is an identity that is received and not one taken on themselves.
What does it mean to be called sons of God?
Now, some of you, I can look out here, and some of you all are ladies,
and you're going, that's messed up.
Sons of God? Well, what about the ladies of God, the daughters of God?
What does it mean?
Actually, it's pretty amazing what it means,
because you have to read the Bible with an understanding of where it was written
and what time it was.
To talk in general terms to you all that you are sons of God is to say you are heirs and inheritors.
You are inheritors of the great and precious things that are God's.
Yours is the kingdom.
And to know at that time the ladies weren't the first in line.
They didn't inherit. The sons did.
But you all are sons of God, which means you all are inheritors.
It's actually beautiful, liberating, glorious message, equalizing.
We all are inheritors. We're all sons of God.
Peacemakers.
It means that they live out what membership in God's family really means.
They've caught the culture of the kingdom.
They are recognized by the kingdom and the king's distinctives.
That's what it means to be a son of God.
It's someone walking by you and going, oh, yeah, I know. I know.
You must be his kid.
You got you got all of his kingdom and his kingship all over you in your peacemaking and your love.
A son of God displays the kingdom life.
They imitate the king and they act the kingdom part in this world.
They take the ministry of reconciliation seriously and the ministry of peacemaking seriously.
They will not back down. They will not skate around.
They will not turn a blind eye to injustice.
They will confront evil and injustice in this world with the hope to bring God and Christ to the situation
so that true lasting peace might be forged.
Anything short of that is a miss.
And that's what we are to be all about.
We are to be about God's kingdom and his kingdom culture.
So have you caught the kingdom culture?
Are you known as a peacemaker?
Do people go, oh, I know whose kid you are.
You're a kid of the king.
You're one of those kingdom kids.
You're always going around trying to make lasting peace.
Whoa.
That's that's something we didn't cover.
But in in Luke, the same scriptures that talk about the we talk about the Beatitudes, the blessed are actually
countered with woes and woes are the anti blessed.
Anti blessed the woes, whereas the blessed is a pronouncement of of God's promises and favor and glory and life on this person.
It's a it's a proclamation.
Look, wow, what a life.
Amazing.
A woe is oh, no.
How pitiable.
What a fool.
A foolish life.
Woe to the peace breakers, but blessed are the peacemakers.
For he, Jesus, we are told, is our peace.