How To Be Blessed- Part 2 - Be A Peacemaker Series

How to Be Blessed

Part Two

We are continuing out theme obtaining God’s blessing with our texts coming from various parts of the Bible. I truly believe that God desires to bless us and has provided us with a blueprint for receiving His great blessings, it is called the Bible. The Bible is a book about how to receive God’s blessings.

As we continue to explore this theme, I have to offer the following disclaimer. This is not about getting rich. This is not about naming and claiming. For the purposes of our study, our personal definition of blessed is threefold:

1) To be especially happy and content

2) To have inner peace within

3) To be confident and fulfilled

Last week we explored Psalm 1 which suggested that we needed to make certain that our pattern for life was not developed from the COUNSEL, BEHAVIOR or ATTITUDES of ungodly, wicked people, but rather from God’s Word. We recognized that we would have to break some relationships that might be corrupting our spiritual walk.

To balance the idea of breaking relationships a bit, this morning I want to discuss the need for believers to make certain that when they break a relationship it is because they MUST do so.

From the Sermon on the Mount (and I am just picking and choosing for the purpose of this series from a list of being blessed in Matthew 5) we read “Blessed are the peacemakers for the will be called children of God.”

The most important impact a believer can make in this world is for ungodly, worldly, people to recognize godly character. The most important reputation you can seek to obtain is for people to refer to you, consider you, and respect you (or even hate you) as a child of God. The best way to obtain a reputation as being a child of God is to be a peacemaker.

Some years ago, my dad went into a barber shop while visiting from California. As he sat down in the chair, the barber said, “Which one of Woody’s boys are you?” Years after leaving Oklahoma, this barber still recognized the family resemblance.

The world recognizes the believer’s resemblance to God when they see that a believer truly wants to make peace.

This does not mean that the believer is not to stand up for what is right. Christ was quite outspoken about right and even took a whip and at least twice during his earthly ministry drove the money changers from the temple. Yet, we know he was a peacemaker.

Some months back, I objected to a young man using strong language in front of my young granddaughter in a grocery store. He told me to go away or he would beat me up. (he used stronger words than that) My response will likely surprise you. I stopped in my tracks and told him, “Come on if you want, but I’m not going to run from you. I don’t want to fight, but I’m not afraid of you. If you come over here and beat me up big deal, you beat up an old man. If I win the fight then you have the shame of being beaten by an old man. I don’t want to fight, but I’m not going to run away from you.” I believe that was a peaceable approach. I declared that I did not want to fight, but I was unwilling to be bullied or mistreated. Perhaps I could have been MORE peaceable. When he ignored me I said, “I’m sorry you’re having a bad day and I can see something is really wrong, but you don’t have to take it out on the rest of us.” Then, I walked away. A grocery clerk stopped me as I left the store and thanked me for taking a stand against the strong obscene language the man was using. She told me that the man had apologized to her and complained that he lost his job. She told him that he needed to come and find me and apologize to me. He left the store, she said, with his head hanging in shame.

A peacemaker needs to let people know that he will stand firm for righteousness, but prefers not to enter into strong conflict.

One of the most interesting things about peace is that it is elusive. We are told in Psalm 34:13 that we are to seek peace and pursue. We are not only to look for it, but we are to chase after it. Peace does not come easily.

Do you remember the 49’ers??.. I don’t mean the football team, but rather the hordes which headed for California after hearing about the gold rush. Some of them though that they would just find gold lying around on the ground and were shocked when they discovered that they had to dig, or spend the day panning the rivers and creeks. They discovered that finding gold was not an easy thing to do.