Beatitudes IV

uh good morning once again it's aprivilege to be standing before you herethis morning in the house of God and tobe reflecting with you again on theseincredible and these beautiful teachingsof our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ it'sa privilege to be here this morning uhwith our brothers and sisters we like togive a warm welcome to all of you aroundthe world watching online on yourdevices in your homes hopefully notwhile you're driving uh but it's aprivilege to welcome you here today anduh today going to be looking at two moreof the Beatitudes of Jesus uh the firstis blessed are the pure in heart forthey shall see God and the second isblessed are the uh peacemakers for theyshall be called the children of Godthese are beautiful Beatitudes of Jesusthey're pregnant with meaning and uh souh before we open the word of God I'dinvite you to Bow your heads with me weask the Holy Spirit to open our heartsso shall we pray our heavenlyfather we ask this morning that we behumble andteachable I ask that uh there be less ofus at the end of this hour and more ofJesus in ourlives father as we see this worldunraveling I pray that we indeed canbuild our lives and our characters uponthe rock of Jesus and histeachings so speak to each of our heartsnow father mold us and shape us break usand convict Us in jesus' name I askamen so the first of these Beatitudes isfound in Matthew Chapter 5 uh in verseum where it is the pure in heart inverse 8 and you see it there on thescreen blessed are the pure in heart forthey shall see God and we may askourselves what does Jesus mean by thepure in heart and what does it mean toto see God well actually Jesus isdrawing this teaching from a verywell-known Psalm is Psalm 24 I inviteyou to turn in your Bibles to uh the24th Psalm and we will see there whereJesus is taking this teaching from uhthis Psalm here um verses 3through6 uh we're going to be looking umat these verses here this morningremember the other day when we talkedabout blessed are the meek for theyshall inherit the earth uh well Jesuswas drawing upon Psalm 24 and verse onewhich says the Earth is the Lord's andall that is in it and we have theattitude yes the Earth is the Lords allthat is in it but this bit of land witha white pick it fence around it this ismine and so in this beatitude Jesus iscontinuing his exposition of this Psalmin Psalm 24 and we're going to pick itup in verses 3-6 and this is what itsays who shall Ascend the hill of theLord and who shall stand in his holyPlace those who have clean hands andpure hearts who do not lift up theirsouls to what is false and who do notswear deceitfully They will receiveblessing from the Lord and Vindicationfrom the god of their salvation such isthe company of those who seek Him whoseek the face of the god of Jacob andwithin these um these three verses ofPsalm 24 we have the essence of whatJesus then summarizes in this beatitudeblessed are the pure in heart that isincluded in this Psalm those who haveclean hands and pure hearts and for theyshall see God says Jesus and the at theend of that that verse six it says theywill seek the face of the god of Jacoband so Jesus is really expounding onceagain one of these Psalms of David andthis Psalm was a Psalm that was sungwhen people entered the Temple ofJerusalem it is a Psalm that is thatthat relates to when we actively cominginto the presence of God now when wetalk about Clean Hands and clean heartsin jesus' time are the rabbis Focusprimarily on the question of externalritual cleanliness and Purity themissioner covers includes an entiredivision on the topic of cleanlinessit's called tooro which meanscleanliness and that includes nearly 200Pages divided into 11 chapters ortractates as they're called and thesecover such topics of cleanliness of ofyour of your cooking vessels cleanlinessof your clothing and a cleanliness ofyour accommodation butcrucially this chapter of the missionerdoes not say anything about cleanness ofthe heart the rabbi is focused onexternal cleanliness why do yourdisciples eat food without washing theirhands that's a question that everyparent asks their child why do you eatthis food without washing your hands andduring this covid pandemic uh my mydaughter every time I walk home she saysDad why didn't you wash your hands wellI've just literally walked in the door Ihave to walk 3 meters to the sink butshe's caught me in that moment dad whyhaven't you washed your hands now therabbis focused on external cleanlinessthey argued that there were three levelsof ceremonial cleanlinessand the hands were on the second or thethird level but nowhere do they discusscleanliness of theheart Jesus is not critical of theseceremonial laws per se in this beatitudebut he is asking us to focus not onexternal cleanliness so much as onpurity of the heart in Hebrew thinkingthe heart was not just the center ofone's feelings but it constituted theentire real reality of our inner lifeincluding our thoughts our emotions andour conscious will so to be pure inheart we might say from a Jewishperspective means to be so individundivided internally before God and Hiswill that this is Manifest in a trans ina transparency in our dealings withothers that we reflect God's love andhis character and his will to thosearound us now if you turn back to TheSermon on the Mount Matthew Chapter 5because that is where this beatitude isfound um Jesus repeatedly connects inthe beat in The Sermon on the Mount andthroughout the gospel of Matthew herepeatedly connects the issue of theheart and the eyes and and so Jesuslinks the heart and the eyes that aswhat comes in the eyes affects the heartand so forth and what our heart desiresis where it directs our eyes to to lookat so for instance in Matthew 6:22 and23 you want maybe turn there in yourBibles Jesus says the eye is the lamp ofthe body so if your eye is healthy yourwhole body will be full of light but ifyour eye is unhealthy your whole bodybody will be full of Darkness if thenthe light in you is Darkness How greatis the darkness and Jesus says here thatour eye our physical eye you might sayour spiritual eye or at a deeper levelour spiritual taste buds they're eithergood and sound they either simple orthey are evil they are divided in theirattention or they are focused on Godhimself we've already seen in Matthewsin these beattitudes that the just arethose who are P poor in spirit and thosewho they they are who tremble at theword of God who come to God with emptyhearts with empty hands that is they donot come to God on the basis of theirownself-sufficiency but in Matthew Chapter5 and verse 28 Jesus connects the eyesand the heart once again uh we see thereuh Jesus says in Matthew 5:28 but I sayto you that everyone who looks at awoman with lust has committed adulterywith her in his heart and how can weknow where our hearts truly are wellit's what where we spend our timeand Jesus talks about this in Matthewchapter 6 and verse 21 he said he talksabout do not store up for yourselfTreasures on heaven where on Earth wherethieves break in and steal and moth docorrupt and Destroy but then heconcludes that little passage by sayingfor where your treasure is there yourheart or your cardia will be also and soJesus discusses in a number of placesthroughout the gospel of Matthew inthere are five major sermons in thegospel of Matthew he discussesrepeatedly the question of the humanheart and the influence of that the eyesand what goes into our through our eyesand how it affects the humanheartyet as we Ascend the hill of the Lord asthe psalmist might say because thepsalmist said who can Ascend the hill ofthe Lord as we Ascend to the hill of theLord or as we seek to draw closer to ourHeavenly Father Jesus discusses um atleast four different experiences of theheart within the Sermon on the Mountthat can actually be cause a cause ofstumbling that may prevent us fromreaching the presence of God himself andI want to just dwell on those fourconditions of the heart that are thatare uh that are not recommended by Jesusbecause Jesus says blessed are the purein heart for they will see God but thenhe discusses a number of otherconditions of the heart that that reallyum troubled many people today and it'san invitation for us to reflect onwhether we experience these heartconditions ourselves now the firstcondition of the heart that Jesusdiscusses is the occupied look now Iwant to preface this discussion aboutwater which we're going to come to In aMoment by saying that in in John chapterwhere is it John chapter 8 John chapter7: 38- 38 and if you want to turn therein your Bibles John chapter 7 myapologies John chapter 7 Jesus saysthere in verse 37 John 7:37 on the lastday of the festival the great day whileJesus was standing there he cried outlet anyone who is thirsty come to me letthe one who believes in me drink as thescripture has said out of the believer'sheart shall flow rivers of Living WaterJesus is affirming his divinity in thischapter of John and so the question ofthe psalmist who shall Ascend the hillof the Lord or who may come into thepresence of God is also questioned whomay come into the presence of Jesus andJesus talks about coming to him asseeking living water and when we come toJesus then the the the presence of Jesusand the presence of the spirit flows outof the believer's heart um as a streamof Living Water so there's this questionabout the purity of heart and streams ofLiving Water that come out of ourhearts so Jesus discusses in The Sermonon the Mount four conditions of theheart heart conditions you might saythat actually prevent us from cominginto the presence of God and the firstof those is the occupied heart turn backto Matthew chapter 6 in The Sermon onthe Mount there and we see there thatJesus discusses from verse 25 through 31the occupied heart he says therefore Itell you Matthew 6:25 do not worry aboutyour life what you will eat or what youwill drink or about your body what youwill wear is not life more than food andthe body more than clothing look at thebirds of the air they neither sew norreap nor gather into bars and yet yourheavenly father feeds them are you notof more value they and can any of you byworrying add a single hour to your spanof life and why do you worry about yourclothing consider the ladies of thefield how they grow they neither toilnor spin yet I tell you even Solomon inall his glory was not clothed like oneof these but if God so clothes the grassof the field which is alive today andtomorrow is thrown into the oven will henot much more clothe you oh ye of littlefaith therefore do not worry saying whatshall we eat or what will we drink orwhat shall we wear for it is theGentiles who strive after these thingsand indeed your heavenly father knowsthat you need all these things and thenthis is the the conclusion but seek yefirst the kingdom of God and hisrighteousness and all these things willbe given unto you so let meillustrate uh by using some water herehere's an emptycup and here is some fresh drinkingwater and Jesus teaches in the gospelsthat um out of the believer's heart theHoly Spirit pours forth like a stream ofLiving Water it's lifegiving isn'tit it's delicious to TheTaste the problem is is that some peoplehave a heart condition known as theoccupiedheart and uh I have here some crownedcinnamon I stole it my wife's kitchenthismorning she doesn't know so but this isall on the record so everything I dowill be taken down and used in evidencehere's some cayennepepper is cayenne pepper goodabsolutely it's great for putting withegg on your lettuces so the rabbitsdon't eat them and here we have some sowe have some cinnamon we have somecayenne pepper and we have some garlicpowder now each of thesethings each of these things isintrinsically good would youagree well theoretically we have somegarlic powder okay I'm going to pour itin here all right so you've seen thereare some garlic powder in here andum the point about this let me put theseback inhere the point about this isthat Jesus intends for our hearts to befilled with living water the presence ofthe Holy Spirit and we can add lots ofgood things to our lives pepper is notgood pepper is not bad um cinnamon is agood thing these are all nice thingsthings but the problem is when our lifebecomes filled with these good thingsthat which was intended to be pure andlifegivingis it's no longer lifegiving it'sabsolutely disgusting one of theconditions of the heart that Jesus talksabout is the occupied heart worryingabout our food and our drinking and oureating and our clothing and ourmortgages and our businesses and ourcars winterizing our boats uh doing allthe host of activities we have to do themore we accumulate possessions the moremaintenance we have to do we spend somuch time on the cares and worries ofostensibly good things that you end uphaving no time left over for God and youhave no time to come closer to God aswe've been seeing in our eveningprograms uh the the prince of prayersermon two nights ago we are so busy wehave no time to pray to our with ourheavenly father any longer and so thebusy heart the occupied heart is filledwith things that are not necessarily badbut when they fill our heart to thisextent then no longer from my heartflows a stream of Living Water now thesecond condition that Jesus talks aboutin The Sermon on theMount is is a is a is a condition of theheart that it affects more and morepeople thesedays God intends for us to have thestreams of living water coming out ofour heart but the second condition thatJesus talks about is the lustful lookthis is the eye and this is sugar hereokay this is the eye that is so focusedon that which is sweet sweet to TheTaste anduh the lustful look as we've just readhere looking looking upon a woman withlust he's already committed adultery inhis heart um this condition of the heartthe lustful look is the eye of the heartthat is f focused on self-gratificationin all of its many forms a life that isfocused on Pleasure on sensation seekingon gratification they're always wantingto taste something sweet a new sensationevery day ultimately that which wasintended to be life-giving by ourheavenlyfather again even though the sugar isn'tintrinsically bad in and of itself whenyou mix it with water it tastesabsolutely disgusting and it pollutesthe taste of that otherwise life-givingwater Jesus says out of the heart comesevil intentions murder adulteryfornication theft false witness andslander there in Matthew 15 verse 19 soJesus talks about in Matthew's gospelthe occupied heart being worriedexcessively about the daily realities ofLife your physical possessions and thiscan actually prevent your heart being astream of Living Water Jesus talks aboutthe lustful heart the heart that isfocused on self-gratification this is aheart that you know thear sugar isn'tintrinsically bad but when you mix itwith fresh water it really tastesdisgusting and and it pollutes the waterthere then Jesus talksabout a heart that is polluted by angerwe we find that in Matthew Chapter 5 andverse2122 and Jesus says there I'm going toread these two verses Matthew 521 and 22you've heard that it was said to thoseof ancient times you shall not murderand whoever murders shall be liable tojudgment but I say to you that if youare angry with a brother or sister youwill be liable to judgment and if youinsult a brother or sister you'll beliable to the counsel and if you say youfool you shall be liable to the hell ofto the hell of fire and so forth and soJesus commands us here to seekreconciliation rather than allowing thepain of the past to stain us and so onceagain we have some life-giving water asJesus intends our hearts to be filledwith lifegivingwater but the reality is is thatsometimes bit experiences come ourway and those bitter experiences tend tostay in ourheart that which was supposed to beclean and lifegiving and a blessing nowGod it smells disgusting I'm not what isit it's lemonextract all right so would I drink thisprobably not certainly not in largequantities ah yes I don't want to drinkany of that actually the heart that isstained by bitterness and anger is notthe heart that Jesus wants us to have ashis followerstoday we may have an occupied heartwe're excessively busy with the cares ofthis world we may have a heart focusedon self-gratification and lust we mayhave a heart that is stained or taintedby bitterness or range or anger from thepast and a lack of forgiveness all ofthese are common heart conditions thatJesus discusses within the Sermon on theMount but it is the pure in heart whowill enter the presence of God not somuch those with busy hearts or lustfulhearts or bitter Hearts then the otherkind of heart that Jesus discusses hereis is the um is the the frozen heart nowI did actually prepare a frozen bottleof water this morning or last night as Iwas in the rush to come here thismorning I forgot it you know one ofthose things that got away so I want Iwant you to imagine for a moment herethat this is not a glass of Living Waterbut this is a glass of Frozen water thefrozen heart the cold heart you mightsay the embittered heart and where doesJesus talk about this well um he hetalks about this in Matthew 7:1-5 this is the the idealized heart andJesus says in Matthew 7: 1-5 do notjudge so that you may not be judged forwith the measure you make you will bejudged for with the Judgment you makeyou will be judged and the measure yougive will be the measure you get why doyou see the speck in your neighbor's eyebut do not notice the log in your owneye and or how can you say to yourneighbor let me take the speck out ofyour eye while the log is in your owneye you Hypocrites first take the logout of your own eye and then you willclearly see to take the speck out ofyour neighbor's eye the ideal look theidealized heart is often a frozen heartit comes often with people have a senseof their own self-sufficiency howperfect I am that everything is in orderin my life and because everything is inorder in my life I can now look down oneverybody else and it leads to acritical spirit a backbiting spirit aslanderous spirit an attitude that tearspeople down because they don't meet yourhighexpectations and so Jesus talks in inThe Sermon on the Mount about busyoccupied hearts that are so busy thatthey are no longer a source of LivingWater to those around Jes Jesus talks inThe Sermon on the Mount about heartsthat are consumed by um lust andentertainment and gratification againyou would never give this to anybodyelse it's it's it's a terrible drink andit's not going to do us any good eitherJesus talks in The Sermon on the Mountabout hearts that are tainted by angerand bitterness and once again you wouldnever dream of giving this to somebodyelse as out of the believer's heart willnot come a stream of Tainted water andthen Jesus talks about the frozen heartthe the frozen heart experience whereyou are so so sure of your own goodnessyou're like a Frozen a Frozen glass ofwater which is unpalatable to anybodynobody can drink a frozen glass of waterthere are four heart experiences withinthe gospel within this Sermon on theMount and yet Jesus wantsus to have a heart from which flows astream of Living Water I would neverdream of giving any of these options toyou if you're a guest in my home but Iwould give youthis but in order to give you this Jesusis counseling us against lives that areso occupied with the Daily Business andchores that we are too busy to serve himJesus is counseling us against heartsthat are so consumed by desire forentertainment and and lust and uh andgratification that is unpalatable toanybody else Jesus warning us againsthow can you be my disciple if your heartis Tainted by anger or bitterness out ofyour mouth will never become a stream ofLiving Water and Jesus is warning usagainst having an idealized self-imagethinking we are better than we reallyare because that just leads to criticismof others and pointing out all theirfaults rather than lifting them up intothe kingdom of God no it is jesus'intent that the pure in heart out oftheir hearts flows a stream of LivingWater this is the only glass you'd giveto somebody else is it not and that iswhat Jesus is inviting us to within thisparticular beatitude so what are theimplications of this beatitude wellfirst ly the human heart is deceitfulabove all else all the ways of a manindeed do seem right unto him yet theend thereof is destruction when wereflect on the motives behind ouractions If we're honest with ourselveswe come to the conclusion that we reallydo not know our own motivation there aremotives we like to tell ourselves theseare these are my motives there aremotives that we suspect are hidden inour hearts but we don't want to vocalizethem because we're kind of embarrassedabout them and there are motives thatwe're afraid of her in our hearts andbut we really don't want to go down thatpathway at all the truth of the matteris we do not know ourselves we dress upour motives with window dressing we canalways dream of a good motive uh for forfor whatever we do but the human heartis deceitful Above All Else and so we'reinvited to pray with the psalmist asPsalm 51 and Psalm 139 creating me ohGod a clean heart and put a new and aright Spirit within me the sacrificeacceptable to God is a broken Spirit abroken and a contrite heart oh God youwill not despise search me oh God andknow my heart test me and know mythoughts see if there be any wicked wayin me and Lead Me in the way Everlastingso a recognition of our inability toknow the exact condition of our heartwhen we recognize we do not know whetherour heart is in this condition or thiscondition or in this Condition it's aninvitation to us to open our heartsHearts to God so that he can perform theDivine heart surgery that all of us needthat we may be counted among the pure inheart secondly we read in Psalm 19: 1-4that nature reveals God and hischaracter we can see God all around uswe can see God in the blessings of ourbrothers and our sisters we can see Godin the natural revelation of the Eartharound us if we are looking for God andwe're not looking to criticize othersGod will reveal himself to us and ourhearts can bechanged and finally do we actually wantto see God with the psalmist thebeatitude says blessed are the pure andheart for they shall see God but thequestion is do we actually want to comeinto the presence of God some peoplehave cherished sins they know they havethose cherished sins and they say wellI'm happy for Jesus to come but just notat this stage of my life today thank youvery much I'm enjoying my cherished sinsfor others their relationship with Godis like a long-distance relationship andall longdistance relationships havetheir ups and they have their downs alack of joy in our relationship todaywith God indicates a lack ofanticipation of meeting him one day whenJesus comes again and so in thisbeatitude Jesus is inviting us to ponderour relationship with him if we do notfind Joy with Jesus today we're notgoing to look forward to his returnwe're not going to work for his returnand his other disciples and their stateof being will be of little concern to usbut if we eagerly awaiting the momentwhen we indeed can see God face to facethen all of a sudden we want to work forhis return we're concerned about what'shappening with our brothers and sisterswe're concerned about what is happeningin the world and reaching the loss sothat they may too hear the Gospel ofJesusChrist there are three uh uh fourquestions here based on this beatitude Iwant to share withyou is the S is the describe is thepsalmist describing me as I am or as Ihope to be what is the condition of myhearttoday Jesus says it is the pure in heartare going to see God these otherconditions need to be replaced by thosewho are pure in heart is Jesusdescribing me today or is he pointing meto how he wants me to be how can I besure today that my motives are pure andGod-fearing Jesus inviting us to reflectand to slow down and to think about whatour motives truly are uh many years agoI was in aaban we had no electricity formonths at a time I go home every eveningworking refugee camps and um with noelectricity I would sit in my sleepingbag because it was cold as in themountains I'd have a candle there forlight and I went from being a humandoing in England where I used to live toa human being in aaban because when youare forced to slow down you have time tothink and Jesus is inviting us in thisbeatitude to slow down and to askourselves what truly is the motive of myhearthe's also the next question is Jesus isseeing Jesus face to face more or lessimportant than seeking social Applausetoday we touched on that yesterday umthat those who hunger and thirst afterrighteousness are seeking the approvalof God rather than the approval of theirCommunity of Faith and finally is therea promise or an invitation from God forme in this beatitude today blessed saidJesus are the pure in heart for theyshall see God it's a beautiful promiseand invite you today to ask God toindeed give you that clean heartexperience and to clean out the otherheart experiences that Jesus discusseswithin the Sermon on the Mount whichleads us to our final beatitude fortoday and this is found in Matthew 5:9where Jesus says blessed are thepeacemakers for they shall be called thechildren of God now interestingly thisis the only place in the entire Biblewhere we find the word Peacemaker uhjust just a couple of days ago we sawthat the merciful the only place in theBible where we have the word merciful isfound in the Beatitudes and the onlytime in the entire scripture where youfind the word Peacemaker is found herein Matthew Chapter 5 and verse 9 now wetoday often associate peace with an endof hostilities such as the Armistice the11th Hour of the 11th day of the 11thmonth that ended World War I or we wetalk about the Treaty of versailes weassociate peace with the absence of waror the cessation of hostilitynow ceasefires and surrenders areimportant preludes to peace butscripturally they do not constitutebiblical peace peace in the Bible is notso much the absence of War but thepresence of Shalom it is the finest ofloving relationships with betweenindividuals within families withincommunities and across Nations andacross Nations that seeks for the humanflourishing in all of its variety anddiversity PE peace includes good healthand the peace that Jesus is discussinghere as he discusses later in thisgospel is the peace of God it is a forceof good for Mutual trust and deep innersecurity Now Jesus lived in the time ofthe Pax Roman or the Peace of Rome andthe Pax Roman um arose from the Romansself-belief that they had the superiorsystem of governance and it was theirunique Mission their historical missionto impose their laws and theircivilization on the rest of the world inpractice the arrival of the Pax Roman inan unconquered territory was a IED bymass rape deportation selling intoslavery the complete destruction oftowns and homes and communities and themass deportation of the survivors whenRome was when Rome conquered Jerusalemin ad70 and they took over a millionpeople out of Jerusalem they sold themas slaves in the slave markets of of ofuh Egypt they were selling them by the30 by batches of 30 because there wereso many slaves they needed to get rid ofthe arrival of the Roman emper Emperorinto newly conquered territwas announced by his public Heralds withthe Greek word Evangelion which is wherewe get the word Evangel from or goodnews so while the Pax Romano was goodnews to the Romans themselves it wasterrifying news to the conquered and thefirst Disciples of Jesus were called topronounce the El angelion the good newsbut the good news of Jesus Christ cannotbe compared with the good news of thePax Romana or the Pax Britannica or thePax Americana for the pronouncement ofto the good news of Jesus Christincludes the announcement of the peaceof God to fall upon all and any who willreceive it Jesus says in Matthew 10 ifyou want to turn there for a momentMatthew 10: 12-13 discussing this peaceof God Jesus says there Matthew 10:12 ashe sends out the the 12 he says as youenter the house greet it if the house isworthy let your peace come upon it butif it is not worthy let your peacereturn to it this peace of God thatJesus commands his disciples to bring tocommunities involves peace with Godpeace with our neighbor and peace withourselves but Jesus knows only too wellthat peace does not easily happen amongdisciples I had a friend once who was apastor and he became an accountant and Iasked him why did you make thetransition from pastoral Ministry to thetreasury he said Conrad he said it'seasier to reconcile figures than peopleand there is some truth to that it isharder to reconcile people than it is toreconcile figures you can have abalancing item in a balance sheet butyou can't have that amongindividuals but to be like Christ meanswe are to be peacemakers and Jesustaught us in Matthew 18 what it means tolive as peacemakers within the communityto um if any of you put a stumblingblock between one of these little oneswho believe in me says Jesus in versesix it is better for you if a greatMillstone were fastened around your neckand you were drowned in the depths ofthe sea woe to the world because of ofSC St stumbling blocks and the word forstumbling block in Greek is scandalonthat's where we get the word a scandalfrom a scandal is a cause of stumblingoccasions for stumbling are bound tocome says Jesus but woe to the one bywhom the cause of the stumbling blockcomes followers of Jesus therefore areto be aware of causes of stumbling inour own lives and Jesus inviting us tovoluntarily hold back from that whichmight cause a younger disciple to have acrisis of faithin our Western World we we we emphasizethe fact that I'm free to do what I wantand you're just going to have to like itor lump it but I'm free to do what Iwant and Jesus is teaching that to be apeacemaker means that if I know that I'mdoing X but X is going to be a cause ofstumbling for my sister y over hereJesus is is teaching me to hold backfrom X because I don't want to be anunnecessary cause of stumbling for mysister over there Jesus is inviting usto live our lives with reference to tohow our lives are perceived by thosearound us so that we are deliberatelyand intentionally removing causes forstumbling uh from those in the Communityof Faith even lawyers understand this ifif you have if you're a defendant in acriminal trial and and you have you knowum your body is covered with tattoosyour lawyer will probably advise youthat if if you're being you know umcharged with you know aggravated assaultor murder or attempted robbery that isbetter to wear a nice suit preferably asingle tone suit black or blue suit witha single tone shirt and a single tonetie why because you're giving the juryas few reasons as possible to dislikeyou and if you have love and hatetattooed across your fist your your yourknuckles keep your hands in your lap orbehind your back at all times evenlawyers understand that it's in your owninterests not to unnecessarily be acause of stumbling for somebody else andJesus in Matthew 18 talking about whatit means to be a peacemaker he Hecommands us uh that woe to those by whomthe cause of stumbling comes if there issomething in my life or in your lifethat you know is a cause of stumblingfor somebody else don't do it it may beyour Christian Liberty to do it it maybe lawful for you to do it says Paul butit's not beneficial for the body ofChrist so we have to live our lives withreference to how we impact those aroundus peace in the gospel of Matthew is tobe actively worked for Matthew 18:115-20 these are familiar verses that ifif somebody sins against you go to themprivately not on Facebook or Twitter orInstagram go to them privately and andexplain the matter to them and and ifthat doesn't work if the appeal to theconscience doesn't work then take two orthree Witnesses again privately not onFacebook not on Twitter not in the thechurch parking lot and you discuss thematter with them there and if this doesnot work uh then you bring it the matterto the the whole church you're seekingfor a resolution that there may peacemaybe peace in interpersonalrelationships and there may be CommunityHarmony and in bringing the matterbefore the entire church family bothsides are agreeing to live with and tohonor the decision of the entire churchfamily what are the implications of thisbeatitude blessed are the peacemakersfor they shall be called the children ofGod firstly Jesus himself is the Princeof Peace uh many years ago well actuallyhe was in 2015 it wasn't that long ago Iwas in Northern Iraq I was in an airportIsis were just half an hours drivingaway and I was sitting in a localTransit Hub and an army officer came upto me an Iraqi army officer he was a bigBurly guy he was dressed in combat gearthere's a lot of soldiers on the streetsthey were very nervous um I was a primetarget for Isis being a Westerner inthat part of the world and he came up tome and he sat next to me and I thoughtwhat's he going to say and he said whyare youhere why why did you come to our countryin the midst of Isis and the fightingand so what do you say in thosecircumstances I said well actually I'm apastor and I'm a amissionary and so that's interesting hesays tell me aboutJesus and what did I explain about Jesusthe first thing I said about Jesus isthat do you know one of the titles ofJesus is he is the prince of peace andwe spoke throughout an hour about Jesusbeing the prince of peace and in a worldthat is racked by conflict the the thenotion of following Jesus as the Princeof Peace is a beautiful Concept in thetime of the disciples Jesus made made itcomplain that those homes or communitiesthat rejected him will be rejecting thepeace of God and in rejecting the peaceof God they would find them subject towhatever human form of domination wouldbe imposed upon them and all forms ofhuman peace whether it be the Pax Romanaor the Pax britanica or the PaxAmericana are ultimately based onimbalance of power and some peopleenforcing their position in the worldover somebody else at a broader level wemay understand the conflicts between theArabs and the Jews in the Middle Eastbut it's arising from the fact that bothof them Judaism and Islam have rejectedJesus as the pce prince of peace and ifboth sides have rejected the Prince ofPeace it is no wonder that there isinevitable conflict in our own familiesthe implication that if we reject therule of the Prince of Peace if at theend of The Sermon on the Mount we do notbuild our lives and our homes and ourfamilies and our marriages on theteachings of Jesus if we do not wantwant the Prince of Peace to bepreeminent in our lives then why are wesurprised when conflict enters ourmarriages and enters our homes andenters ourcongregations second the secondimplication our times moving on here isthat there's an African proverb thatsays when the elephants fight the grassistrampled it's a great proverb yes whenthe elephants fight the grass istrampled and sometimes in congregationsyou have two Elders like bull elephantsthey bear the Battle Scars From years ofbruising me me on the board meeting andchurch business meetings and they'regoing to Juke it out over this this thisissue or that issue and the problem isis that because they're old bullelephants they're not going to retirefrom the fight but the grass getstrampled all around When leaders fightin the church when spiritual leaderschoose not to work and sacrifice forpeace but they want their way or or noway at all it is the young in faith whoare discouraged the grass is trampledthe children the teenagers they see thisconflict and they say they don't say Iagree with this bull elephant or thatbull elephant they say I want nothing todo with the entire zoo and I'mleaving when elephants fight the grassis trampled if you're watching thisonline I want you to reflect on thiswhatever is happening in your church inyour family in your Community of Faithdo not fight over matters that are ofreally of no consequence when Jesuscomes again this church will be burnt tothe ground it matters not the color ofthe carpet when Jesus comes again thechurch manual will be burnt witheverything else it doesn't matter what'sin section 6 paragraph 3 subsection 3Ait really does not matter at the end ofthe day we should not be fighting aboutthings that divide us but we should befighting for salvation to come to thosewho are lost today and Jesus in thischapter pronounces Eternal judgment uponleaders who fight in a way thatdisillusions those who are young intheir faith it is a cautionary note thatthose in position are not authorized tofight and and without regard for theimpact on teenagers and children in ourchurches today and finally peacemakinginvolvesself-sacrifice and why do I say that wastur in your Bibles to our final text toEphesians chapter 2 and verse 4Ephesians chapter 2 sorry and verse14 and Paul wrote about Jesus Christbringing peace between Jews and Gentilesand he says there in Ephesians 2 andverse4 says for he that is Jesus is ourpeace in his flesh he has made bothgroups into one and has broken down thedividing wall that is the hostilitybetween us our peace with God comesthrough the self-sacrifice of Jesus whowas entirely innocent he was not theguilty party he was not to blame for thebreakdown in our relationship with ourheavenly father yet our striving forpeace today generally involves requiringsomebody else to apologize somebody elseto admit that they were at faultsomebody else to say that they weresorry somebody else else to lose facewhile while I come out smelling of roseswhen we make peace today we wanteverybody to know that I was in theright and I'm entirely Vindicated andyou are entirely in the wrong and you'regoing to repent in sackcloth and Ashesbefore the brothers and the sisters butthat is not how Jesus made peace tofollow Jesus in peacemaking to be apeacemaker as was Jesus involves awillingness on my part to be personallyhurt or personally compt uh compromisedor humbled in order that the communityas a whole might experience the peace ofGod Jesus sacrificed himself that wemight have peace with God and if we areto follow Jesus in his way ofpeacemaking we must be willing tosacrifice ourselves in order that theremight be peace within the widerCommunity if everybody is seeking fortheir way to be followed there willnever be peace if everyone is willing tomake peace and to follow in the path ofJesus in making peace then finally thepeace of God will flourish in our ourhomes in our churches and ourcongregations within our communities andwithin our Nations blessed said Jesusare the peacemakers for they shall becalled the children of God and closewith a some questions for personalreflection what are the personalcharacteristics of someone who's atpeace with himself or withherself describe what the presence ofGod might look like in your life in yourhome in your congregation or in yourcommunity if you're involved in aconflict right now what personalsacrifice are you willing to make inorder to be known as a peacemaker and asa child of God is there a promise foryou in this beatitude is there aninvitation for you in this beatitude ifthe holy spirit is speaking to yourheart today I would appeal to you do notquench the words of the Holy Spirit butheed the words of Jesus blessed are thepeacemakers for they shall be called thechildren of God Jesus was the ultimatePeacemaker and he invited inviting ustoday to follow in his footsteps to bemen and women of peace that people mayknow that the Prince of Peace is comingsoon may this be our experience for theglory of God and for the glory of hiskingdomamen I invite like to invite you as weclose this SE segment here to Bow yourheads wherever you may be and we willclose withprayer our heavenlyfather it's easy to go to war where ittakes courage to make peaceoh Father I ask that you change thebroken Tendencies of ourhearts that you take away these occupiedhearts these busy hearts these Frozenhearts these lustful Hearts I ask thatyou replace them with hearts that arefilled with the Living Water of yourspirit that we indeed might bepeacemakers in our homes and in ourcommunities oh Father we ask today thatyour peace May reign supreme in ourhearts in our homes around our hearthearts and in our community in the nameof Jesus we ask amen