Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:06 Now today is the final part of our Be Attitude series, except it isn't. What do you mean Mark? Well, I have two more be Attitudes to bring in order to bring this series to completion in order to bring us to a place of going over every one of the Be attitudes that Jesus gave on the Sermon on the Mount. I've got two to bring, there's one week left and I have scratched my head and I've redacted and I've worked out how I can fit two into one and I just can't do it. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna just do one today and the final one I'm gonna record on a video and I'm gonna put it out there and give you the video so that you can watch it in your own time so that we can complete the series. You've never tried that before.
Speaker 1 00:00:53 And if I just get one viewer and it's my mom, then I know that it doesn't work. But I know you've all got access online now and I thought it might be an option for us and also another way for us to continue conversations around series that we look at in the future as well. So please will you look with me at Matthews Gospel chapter five. We're gonna look from verse three to 10 and we're gonna read together the be attitudes spirit of the Lord as we come to your word. Now would you speak to us?
Speaker 1 00:01:32 We know that these words were never meant to be studied like some sort of textbook. We know that the words of Jesus and the word of God has life. It has life to transform us. So we know that you've not called us to lay down our minds and our thoughts and our thinking faculties, but you've also called our spirits to come alive. And we pray that as we read your word and look at it together now our spirits will intertwine with the Holy Spirit and that life, much life will come in Jesus' name. 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. Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. We're gonna look at today, verse nine. Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God.
Speaker 1 00:03:18 Just around 80 years ago, there was a war that took place across the nations of the earth. We call it World War ii and some of you family members fought and contended in that battle of the nations, a battle against uh, a Nazi regime that was trying to oppress and take over many nations of the world. And we celebrate the victory and the healing and the reconciliation that has come in many ways since that time. But I want you to imagine the outcome was different. I want you to imagine that the West hadn't won against Germany against this awful Nazi ideology that was trying to infiltrate the nations of the world. And I want to imagine that our streets were invaded by Nazis. I want to imagine that these last 80 years have been under the rule and the oppression of the Nazis that on the way to church this morning that you would've passed some uniformed officers with stickers on their arms and with a sense of watching what you're doing, that any Sunday could have those doors open and have some officers come in and just to monitor the situation.
Speaker 1 00:04:38 I want you to imagine that what you were living under, maybe your neighbor had conspired with them and was collecting taxes on their behalf and creaming off some of the prophets for himself as well. But you dare say anything because nobody criticizes the ruling party. Wait, imagine That's what you and I were living under. And if you can imagine that, you can imagine something of the context that Jesus was saying these words to an audience that were experiencing that very thing because the Israelites, we know in the Old Testament history, God had given them a promised land. God had led them victoriously into a wideness spacious place, a land flown with milk and honey. And we know that there was sin in their lives, sin in the nation. And as a result of that, the nation began to come under oppression. He went into exile and then it returned.
Speaker 1 00:05:33 But when it returned, it was under the auspices of other ruling people. And at the time of Jesus, the Romans were ruling, were reigning, they were supreme, the most powerful force on the earth. And as Jesus spoke these words, there were people in his audience that had held onto some prophetic words that said, A savior will come and liberate us. A savior will come and set us free from everything tyrannical on our nation. And they anticipated that that savior, that Messiah would come riding on a warhorse, riding with power and authority, garnishing armies, training them for war, that that savior would overthrow those oppressive Romans and would finally liberate and maybe in a similar way to how they were liberated from the Egyptians many generations previously. And Jesus to that waiting audience, an audience that we're wondering is Jesus that savior. We've seen him do miracles.
Speaker 1 00:06:47 We've heard him say profound things. Is Jesus that savior that will liberate us? There were people in Jesus' own crowd. The disciples that were what they call zealots terrorists, people that were resistant against the occupying Roman forces was Jesus the come in promised Savior who would liberate us and they listen intently to his words. You might remember after the freedom of the 5,000 that there were people that you were so amazed at what had happened that they begin to say, let's make him our king. Let's make him our king. And there was much excitement because maybe this is this promised savior that will liberate us. But of course they were understanding things in a very limited way. They were understanding the things of this world, the things of nations, the things of security. But they did not understand that there was a bigger tyrannical force in society than the Romans.
Speaker 1 00:08:01 And that was the tyranny that takes place in our hearts. And so they're listening. Could he be the promised Savior? War despite thousands of years of reading, history has not ended. There are, I understand at this time 32 nations of the world that are currently involved in some battle or war. We are of course one year in now from this war that we see horrifyingly playing out on our TV screens in Ukraine. Some of you are directly affected, some of you have had to move from the Ukraine for your own safety. Others have got family members in the Ukraine that you are with. All of that landscape that you saw, there was one's home and once beautiful, devastated and destroyed. Despite our reading of history and our understanding of the awfulness of war, it continues today and we see that Russia continues its brazen pursuits to restore the glories of the U S S R days.
Speaker 1 00:09:20 And we see Ukraine doggedly fighting to push back the aggression. War is a devastating reality. The Oxford dictionary describes war in this way. It says wars are usually started over one or more of the following reasons. Economic gain, territorial gain, religious disputes, nationalism, civil war or political revolution. Yes. When people say religion has been the cause of many wars in the world, they're absolutely right. But so has economic status. So has so many other things that people hold onto today cuz the issue is not the finance or the religion or the territory. The issue is something far deeper that exists in your heart. And in my heart we go back to the sermon on the mouth, the crowd's listening intently asking, is this the savior? He seems to have authority. He seems to have wisdom that's beyond anything we've encountered before. He seems to be able to deploy miracles in a way that we've never witnessed. But can he fight? Can he overthrow our oppressors? And then Jesus gives them the answer. He says these words, blessed are the peacemakers.
Speaker 1 00:10:50 These four words. Blessed are the peacemakers would have offended people so much they went against all of their dreams, all of their hopes, all of their aspirations, all of their interpretation of prophetic words. This would've upset them greatly. But what the Oxford dictionary and the Jews listen to the words of Jesus fail to realize is that wars don't just happen because of land or economy or religion. It happens in the heart. The breakout of the wharf of Russia against Ukraine didn't start on the battlefield. It began in Putin's hearts. All wars begin in hearts before they begin on battlefields. Before a single gunshot is fired before a single tank is rolled out, war has begun in hearts. I guarantee you today that if Putin humbled himself before the Lord, if Putin worked through these beatitudes line by line, I promise you that war would end.
Speaker 1 00:12:13 Cuz this works because the evil is great in our, in our world. But it's not something that's out there, it's something that's in here. And that's why Jesus started off by saying, blessed of the poor in spirit, our recognition of our bankruptcy. Not to try to capture the glory days of our life and say, whoa, look at me. Look how wonderful I am. Look how great I've got it. Look how powerful our nation is. But to say without you, Lord, we are nothing. Of course Jesus in Matthews gospel chapter 15 says these words for from the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies and slander. I believe every war would cease, every marriage would be healed, every broken relationship would be restored if every one of these be attitudes was instilled in our lives today.
Speaker 1 00:13:20 Poor in spirit, our mourn for our sinfulness, our humility, our hungering after righteousness, our desire for mercy and be merciful and be impure in heart. I believe if two opposing groups, I believe if a husband and wife are at log aheads with one another and there's broken trust, I believe that if both of them can work through these be attitudes that can be healing and restoration. I believe that can happen in any of our lives and our situations. And I believe it plays up to nations as well as people nation against nation, culture against culture, husband against wife, black against white, employer against employee rich against poor parents, against children. If both parties come to Jesus and allow the spirit of God to take them through these be attitudes, then peace will come.
Speaker 1 00:14:22 There are lots of conflicts in this world. I mentioned nation's wars, but there's so many more conflicts than that. Didn't it feel like during those pandemic years when we were devoid of conversation and outlets, it felt like we were a pressure cooker? It felt like there were things that were in within our hearts that suddenly began to stir up. And we saw all sorts of injustices becoming to the surface in our world and in our nation and the nations of the world. And there was lots of anger and lots of disputes. And I think it's fascinating since we come out of covid that there's a prevailing sense of anger and injustice around in society. God is a God of justice and he cares about things, he cares about the detail of these things. But I don't think it's an accident that following that time where all these things have been pent up, that we've now got some of the biggest cr um, crisis with strikes taking place in our nation.
Speaker 1 00:15:17 There there's battles, there's conflict, there's pitchfork wars that are taking place everywhere. There are people who have fallen out seriously over the last few years. You remember all those disputes around vaccines and you know there, there wasn't like a good honest conversation. It was just like ra ra, just shout at each other. And there there's been so much anger, so much bitterness and it may not result in people firing guns at one another, but they certainly fire an insults at each other. The world is so in need of peace. Our neighborhoods are so in need of peace. God's church is so in need of peace. Yes, I found it fascinating that over the last few weeks there has been this unusual thing that's taken place at ASRA University in the US where a normal college devotions just continued in worship and didn't stop for weeks and people from all over the world.
Speaker 1 00:16:27 Within one week this small village of small town with a population of around 10,000 people I think or 12,000 people, over a hundred thousand people had gathered there in this town over a space of seven days. The police had to close the roads because this town was completely overrun with people who had heard that God was doing something. No one knows the names of those who've been involved in this. It's been fairly anonymous. It's been stewarded with great humility. But I'm amazed how many angry voices there are online. How many videos you can watch on YouTube saying this is not God, this is not God. This is counterfeit and you just think you're so angry. You can go on YouTube and you can find people who make whole videos complaining against some of the songs that we sing in our churches and they spend ages and they've got audiences.
Speaker 1 00:17:26 Some of them have got views of like a hundred thousand people just listening to them being angry. The world needs peace. Yes, it does not need war. Yes, but we are desperately in an unjust world and the world needs justice as well. But we have to be careful that our pursuit of justice is in line with God's heart of peace. Yes. Because I know that it's possible to say that anger is sometimes righteous anger. After all we read in the scriptures that it says though God's anger may last for a fleeting moment, his favor lasts a lifetime. So there is anger in God. So it must be righteous cuz he's without sin. We read of Jesus going into the temple and he turns the tables over and he is removing these exploitative people that have turned his house of prayer for the nations into a place that's exploiting unjustly. And we see Jesus putting justice and holiness and righteousness as an important thing in his man and his ministry. But it's possible that our anger can be for a righteous cause but not be a righteous anger. What is it that makes anger righteous in our lives? How do we decide if some of the anger we're feeling is righteous or unrighteous? You know, some might say, well it it's all about the cause. That's what decides if it's righteous. I beg to disagree. For example, I believe in the dignity of the unborn child. I believe my understanding that life begins a conception not at birth.
Speaker 1 00:19:45 I believe in the dignity of the mother. I believe in the dignity of all life. And yet I know people who share my passion for the dignity of the unborn and the dignity of the mother. I know there are people who get very angry about that to such a degree that they have in history, bond abortion clinics. There is just because the cause is righteous doesn't mean to say the anger is righteous. I don't believe Jesus would do that. So what is it that makes anger righteous? If indeed it can be? And of course it can be because we see it in Jesus and we see it in God.
Speaker 1 00:20:43 And I'm gonna untangle something that I believe is really important for your life and my life today. I believe if we can grasp this, we can grasp the meaning of what Jesus is saying here. Because there are many righteous causes in this world. They are emerging almost at a weekly basis. There are so much injustice around that. And God hates the exploitation of people. He hates the denying of right in people's lives. Things that take away people's dignity and hope and life. It's not part of God's design. So these righteous causes, they rise up, these injustice issues, they're everywhere. But just because they're a righteous cause doesn't mean to say our anger is righteous. How do we navigate this?
Speaker 1 00:21:46 Well these causes can be compelling and emotive. But let me cancel you before you jump right in there. Jesus wants to call on you and I to join a higher revolution than the one that you are thinking of joining us and signing up to their courts. There's a higher revolution that every other revolution must bow the knee to whatever that, whatever that causes where there's the cause of the unborn child. Whether it's the cause of racial injustice, whether it's a cause of oppression, whatever the cause is, it must bow the knee to the cause of the gospel. It must because the issue is not the manifestation, the issue is the heart. Because it's the heart where all of these things flow from. That's where wars begin His revolution. Jesus revolution is the highest case and cause and it is the righteous path which you and I are called to walk on. Don't step off his righteous path to follow another path. And I believe that righteous anger flows from a pure heart.
Speaker 1 00:23:08 So if our hearts are hurting, if our hearts are offended, if our hearts are hypocritical, then any anger that flows from that heart is not righteous anger. I don't believe the order of these be attitudes are accidental, as I've said in previous weeks. And the previous be attitude was blessed are the pure in hearts for they will see God before we deploy any sense of anger about the injustices of this world. We need to make sure that our hearts are without any duplicitousness, without any fold. There's a picture of pure in hearts of being like an iron heart. It's flat, it's got no shadow, it's not creased. There are no places where sin can lurk and hide. It's completely flattened out. It's completely pure. It's completely see, be able to see every part of it. And I believe that it's not an accident that peacemakers are people who are called to have pure clean uncritical hearts.
Speaker 1 00:24:38 Peacemaking starts in the heart and the world is full of this unrighteous anger shouting loudly about righteous causes. The result is not peace, the result is division. I see so many of these causes taking place in the world's righteous causes, but they're done by people whose hearts are unrighteous and they're angry. And the result is that society gets more divided. We don't create unity, we create tolerance. And tolerance is not the goal of the gospel. Tolerance is not the goal of a family. We do not sit down husband and wife and look lovingly each to each other's eyes and say, I tolerate you <laugh>. It just doesn't work. That's not, that may be the highest goal of a fragmented unrighteous society. But it is not God's vision. God's vision for his church is not that we tolerate one another, but that we are one. That we are united in him.
Speaker 1 00:25:39 Yes. That we love one another. Yes. In our differences and our different views and our perspectives that we love one another. Not tolerate each other. See what toleration does, it's it, it pushes down the sense of anger and injustice. It may manicure it in some way, but it doesn't fix it. It doesn't resolve it. Many of my friends and colleagues in the Church of England right now, they are so struggling because there's been an attempt to bring different views together and they've ended up compromise it. Yes, they've ended up tolerating and God calls us to be one on a pathway of righteousness. Don't veer off that righteous path. Church of England. Come back on the righteous path. Come on, come and walk Jesus way. Don't, don't go off because you're trying to be peaceable and you're trying to negotiate your way. Get on the pathway of righteousness and walk Jesus' way because you cannot be a person of true justice unless you're a person of true righteousness. And that righteousness starts in our hearts.
Speaker 1 00:26:53 And I believe that the enemy is gonna tantalize increasingly the church with righteous causes that are going to spark and stimulate some activity within the people of God. Not because God is calling us to get involved in those, but because there's some offense in our hearts that the enemy is going to use to take us off track. We have to be ever so careful to the voice of the Lord. We have to make sure before we get involved in any activity. And you know, listen, I believe in protesting. I believe in campaigning. I believe in the power of people on mass agreeing and challenging the status quo. I'm not saying don't do that, but I'm saying make sure your heart is pure. Yes. Because right at the very epicenter of the destructiveness of our society is hearts that want what they want.
Speaker 1 00:27:51 And if we're campaigning for something that is essentially what we want, I don't believe that puts us in a qualifying place to be peacemakers. Incidentally, Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers, not the peacekeepers. If you are a peaceable character and you hate arguments and you hate fallouts and you're always that person that say, oh come on, let's sit down. Let's, let's, let's talk about this. Jesus is not saying peacekeeping. Sometimes in life, sometimes people don't like us. Sometimes people won't get us. Talk more about that on the video I'll do about persecution. Sometimes people will misunderstand us. But our call in life is not to just say, Hey, we nevermind. Let's just make sure we're all nice together. That's not the vision of Jesus. The vision of Jesus is that actually to make peace sometimes you gotta turn tidy tables over and make a messy room.
Speaker 1 00:29:02 And that doesn't feel very peacekeeping. But it is peacemaking. Over Christmas I had a series of sort of bugs and illness and stuff and, and I had this, if you've ever had really bad toothache like anybody had really bad, it's, it's the most horrible thing, isn't it? I, I had an infection in my mouth and I, I I think the pain was worse than childbirth myself. You know, it was really, it was really awful. Just you ladies don't know you, you know, you don't have I how easy you have it. Us guys, you know, when we have pain, we really have pain.
Speaker 3 00:29:43 Wow. You can only say that cause you're the other
Speaker 1 00:29:48 Side of that. Yeah. The mos the motors protecting me. Jerry will take more than a motor to protect me. I wanna travel home in the car with her <laugh>. Oh, I really tolerate you
Speaker 3 00:30:13 <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:30:15 I love you. I love you. I love you. Straighten my collar. Is it messy? Yes. Thanks for telling me.
Speaker 3 00:30:26 There you go. Thank you.
Speaker 1 00:30:30 Great. I dunno what I was saying, but I've got a straight collar now and two too. Fake childbirth. Chuck. Too fake
Speaker 3 00:30:38 Too.
Speaker 1 00:30:40 And the pain. We had some people around for a party one night and I think it got to eight 30 and I said, I'm really sorry I can't stare onga. I I I just need to get a bed, get some painkillers. And of course nothing was open. Um, anyway, I managed when doctors opened, uh, or the dentist opened to get some antibiotics and it didn't really shift it. I had a big old ulcer in my mouth and it's just been horrible and painful and I've not eaten on that side of my heart since Christmas. It's been horrible. And then this week I had it fixed. They stabbed some needles in my mouth, put some anesthetic in there. So I was doing Elvis impressions all afternoon. <laugh> dribbling down the side of my mouth and they put something on there and they yanked this tooth out that had a little cracked on the side of it and the infection was getting in. You don't make peace with dodgy teeth, you have to pull 'em out. You can't compromise. You can't pacify it. You can't say, listen, just have a bit of chocolate on that side of the mouth. He'll be all right. Just, you know, the sweetness will help you forget. You've got to deal with it. Yes. And Jesus wants us to deal with things that are not right in our world, but we have to do it in the right way.
Speaker 1 00:32:06 Is this all right this morning? Ouch. Amen. Is it ouch. Your amen. Ouch. Amen. Because I know that there are some of these causes are already got in some of our hearts.
Speaker 1 00:32:21 And please hear the corrective teaching of God's word today. Don't dismiss it. Don't become angry against it. Hear it be a hero and an obeyer of God's word. This is not a therapy book, this is a transformation book. This is not a book to make you feel good. This is a book to make you good. Come on. This is not a, a book that's giving you anesthetic for your pain. This is a book that wants to fix your pain. How do you allow it to shape you? Yes. If you want to, if you want to tear pages out of this are the things that you don't like, then I'm sorry, but you're not following Jesus. No. Come on you. You've made your own religion up. Yes. We have to follow this every letter and understand it. We have to be diligent in our approach of God's word.
Speaker 1 00:33:18 And we see God saying that we need to be pure in heart. Peacemaking starts in the heart, these quests for justice in our world. We must make sure that any alignment we make in our lives comes from a pure heart. Let me tell you some things that peacemakers do and then we're going to pray together around this. First of all, peacemakers, they have healed, reconciled, and restored hearts. There's no way around that. You cannot manifest the peacemaking ability of the Lord through your life. Unless your heart is submitted and righteous. We cannot do it. This, none of these things that we've looked at. NPI attitudes have been about personal disposition or characteristics of a life. They are about the work of godliness. And here's peacemaking work which the world needs so much right now. It flows through righteous people. The church are called to be. Those that bring peace, make peace. Secondly, peacemakers ready for this. They hold their tongue.
Speaker 1 00:34:48 In the book of James, we read, be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. Hold your tongue. When somebody comes and annoys you or says something that feels like an assault or an attack against you, hold your tongue, hold back. This tongue is destructive. It's powerful. Your tongue is powerful. Your words have the ability to crush somebody, to destroy them or to bring them life. Amen. Be very careful how you use this atomic weapon in your mouth. Be careful about how you apply it because even at the end of the service there are things that you can say that can bring life to people and there are things you can say that will destroy people. Be slow to speak and quick to listen. And you see, when our hearts are secure, when we are walking a righteous path and we're not trying to guard our own sense of reputation cuz we know that we're nothing without Christ, people can all over you honey. You don't have to fight back. You say, mark, that's really weak. That's really, really weak. Come on Mark. We want a tough masculine faith. If it's so weak, why do you find it so hard to do?
Speaker 2 00:36:23 <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:36:26 It takes great strength and great courage. Yes. To not fight back.
Speaker 2 00:36:30 Yes,
Speaker 1 00:36:31 It's the bravest thing you can do. Help is, it's the most secure thing you can do. Allow the Holy Spirit to determine what comes out of this mouth. Peacemakers, they hold their tongue. Peacemakers do not repeat words that they know others have passed onto them. That when they say them to others are gonna cause harm. Either sometimes in church life we, we don't have gossip columns, we have prayer chains. Just, you know, don't tell anybody else but this person's, you know, facing this issue. Just thought you should know for your prayers. Of course, God have mercy on us. If you know that passing something on is not gonna help someone. Mark, I just thought I'd let you know that someone in the church, I'm not mentioning who it is, but someone in the church has a problem with you. Oh, thank you for that <laugh>. That's lovely. Oh, I feel so, so washed <laugh>. In your words there, that's a beautiful thing to say. You've got a real anointing for saying this stuff other than you don't do that. Hold your tongue, hold your thoughts. Wash them in the washing machine of God's word. Let him purify and cleanse you.
Speaker 1 00:38:03 And maybe say to the other person, are you sure Jesus will be happy with you saying that? So peacemakers, do peacemakers consider all matters in light of the gospel. The gospel takes it away from my wants, my desires, my hopes, my dreams. And there's another gospel circulating the world right now.
Speaker 1 00:38:35 Years ago, you know, you might still have some sympathies for this, but I don't, the the prosperity gospel. The gospel that says if you, if you serve the Lord, he will make you rich. He will grant things on your life in this material world that will bless you. And it's really quite easy if you want to make a case for that from the scriptures, by selecting some verses and some words. Until you look at many of the stories of the early church and then it doesn't quite add up. And when you travel around the globe and you see some of our brothers and sisters in prisons in Iran right now and underground in China losing their businesses because they've given their lives to Jesus. When you see those things, it just doesn't add up. It doesn't stack up unless of course all those people just don't have enough faith.
Speaker 1 00:39:34 No, I I will say to you, I believe that gospel, the prosperity gospel, the gospel that says if you give you gets, you don't give to get from God. You don't give your ties and offerings just to support the work of the church. You give them to the Lord not to get, not to be blessed. God blesses us. God blesses us. The Lord will cause us to prosper in every way. So we can be generous on every occasion. But the gospel is not, if you give, you'll get more. The gospel is he has given everything and we spend the rest of our lives trying to give a little bit back to him.
Speaker 1 00:40:12 We, what's that old hyn that says, if the whole realm of creation were mine, that would be an offer in far too small love. So amazing, so divine demands, my soul, my life, my all. There's nothing we can give that comes close to how he's giving to us already. Don't give the get. So, but when I talked about another gospel, that's not the one I'm talking about cuz there's been a bit of a compromise. People say, well I know that's not what it is, but let me tell you this other gospel that comes in, it may not be, we come to God now to get blessed financially materially, but it's, we come to God to get blessed, to feel good.
Speaker 1 00:40:58 How was church today? Oh, I, I just, I felt so amazing in the presence of God. Will I, I have to agree. There's nowhere like the presence of Jesus, there's no more beautiful place you can be. But if the benchmark is our feelings, what we've created is a therapeutic gospel. Come on. Oh, I need the peace of God. I need the presence of God. Yes you do. But there are brothers and sisters right now in solitary confinement, facing torture. Their life is not given to Christ in order to make them feel better. They know that God is their refuge on their strength. Even when the most horrific trials come and what we've done, we've taken a a humoristic me-centered world and we've said, hey, just have a bit of Jesus and even make it even better. You know those testimonies before I came to Christ, you know I was lost and I was dark and things were difficult and then I came to Jesus and everything was amazing. Well we all clap and go, wow, that's amazing. That's brilliant. But I've gotta be honest, that's not my story all the time. Yeah. We face realities of the pain of this world.
Speaker 1 00:42:24 We see difficulties that we walk through and yet Jesus is with us. Come on. Are you hearing this today? Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:42:33 How? Amen. Mark. So good. So good
Speaker 1 00:42:41 Peacemakers consider everything. Not in regards to how this will bless me, but how this will impact the gospel. I believe if we can see rediscover church, make everything we are, everything we do subject to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe not only will we see a hundred churches, part of the southwest we'll say way beyond that. And it will not just be new communities of just gathered worshipers. There'll be people involved in community transformation. Peacemakers going into communities, bringing about change, taking the real powerful gospel of Jesus Christ coming to land. Peacemakers, they positively look for opportunities and methods of making peace all the time. Their radar's up and they're watching what Jesus is doing and they, they're agents of God. How can I make peace? How can I reconcile?
Speaker 1 00:43:46 Finally, peacemakers are selfless and approachable and they seek to radiate peace wherever they go. I don't know if you've ever been asked this question. Are you approachable? It's a difficult question, isn't it? I sat down, I met somebody for coffee about a year ago, part of rediscover, they've been coming for about four years, might be here this morning, lovely time. And then she gently over the table said, I've been really scared about meeting you. Mark me scared about me and me. I'm so sorry about that. He said, yeah, I see you every week. You're at the front speaking and I just feel a bit intimidated. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. People make conclusions, don't they, by all sorts of other people. And it was lovely just to enjoy that time. I was glad of her honesty and I was glad that we were able to hopefully diffuse any of that sense of intimidation. There might be wasn't me, it was my position. It was that sense of authority that I think they were intimidated by. But sometimes people don't approach us, not because of our position or if you're intimidated by us, but because they know that there might be eggshells around you.
Speaker 1 00:45:17 That if they talk about certain topics, they'll hear the crunch under their feet. It's sensitive. And I believe Jesus wants to work with you and I to sweep away those eggshells, to give us an unoffended and unoffended heart. And I believe to be pure in heart, to be righteous, to walk the Jesus way, to have righteous anger, to be peacemakers in the world. We've gotta get rid of our eggshells. And the promise in this be attitude says this blessed other peacemakers for they will be called sons of God. Sons have got, we'll be like him. So much so that other people will look and say they are a son of God. They act like God acts. They behave like God behaves. They have the attitudes that God has blessed other peacemakers for. They will be called sons of God. Let's pray together.
Speaker 1 00:47:00 I don't necessarily think my teaching's been deep today, but I believe the word of God has gone deep. Let it, let it go wherever it wants to go in your heart. Let it disentangle. Let it liberate you sensed or mourn in prayer that there are some that have you have given your passions to causes. That while they're righteous causes, the way your heart is entangled with them has led you off a path of righteousness. And the Lord wants to set you free and bring you back. Back on the pathway today, spirit of God, come and liberate from every deception. Come and liberate us from all our angst and our pain. Heal us. Lord, come and set your people free. Every demonic distraction against the people of God. I speak the freedom of the Lord on your life now be set free. They're like FETs, just snapping inside you. Be free now in the name of Jesus. And there's a battle. I can't let go of that cause it's become part of my identity. And Christ says exactly it's become part of your identity and he wants you to be a new person in Christ Jesus. And you say, well, will he give me back that cause it's up to him. It's up to him. That's what surrender looks like. It's not compromise. You don't meet him halfway. It's surrender and then he chooses. That's what a life of surrender looks like. Our Spirit of God.
Speaker 1 00:49:21 Spirit of the Lord. We finished off our gatherings with spoken prayers over the last few weeks. We're not gonna do that today. I'm not gonna ask the band to come and join me. There's gonna be no musicians, no singers, but I'm gonna ask us to lift our songs in prayer and surrender. I'm gonna choose a song that I think most of us will be aware of. It's a fairly old classic song that says, this is my desire to honor you. Maybe you can find those words on the screen for us. Let's stand together.
Speaker 1 00:50:36 This is my desire to all you Lord, with all my heart. I worship you. All I have with I give you praise. All that I is in you. Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my soul. I live for you. Hello. Every breath I take every moment I'm awake. Lord, have your awake in me. Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my soul. I live for you alone. Every breath I take every moment I'm awake. Lord, have your way. Lord, I give you my heart, Lord, I give you my heart. Come on, give it to him now. I give you my soul completely. Lord, live for you alone, Lord.
Speaker 1 00:52:36 Every breath that I take every moment I'm awake, Lord, have your holy, holy, holy. It's the Lord God Almighty. And he calls you and I to a higher pathway, a pathway of surrender. 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 show mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God blessed other peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed those who are persecuted because of righteousness for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. We surrender all to you, Lord. We know that your ways are higher than our ways, but may your ways become our ways. We know your thoughts are higher than our thoughts, but may your thoughts become our thoughts. And now, Lord, these words are not just for us to manifest or may gather together in these holy moments, but they're for us to live in our offices, our homes, our communities this week. Help us. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Speaker 7 00:54:45 Amen.
