Childlike Peacemakers

Childlike Peacemakers

Matthew 5:9 and Romans 14:12-19

Series: The list of Blessings – Things that will fulfil us if we live them out in life.

Today, we come to the 7th!!

Perfect number in Jewish culture, so maybe we are at the crucial beatitude.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God.

This series was planned months ago; yet here we are on a Sunday when . . .

Ukraine – and invasion.

War.

Explosions . .

Yes! PEACE is needed in that land!

And year by year we have noise, unrest, people clamouring for our attention.

And we cry out, “we need Peace”.

And I agree that we need peace;

but we need to work out exactly what peace we are looking for.

You see,

We can look for peace in the wrong places

• We can think of peace as – no war

Yet many countries don’t have war, but they also don’t have peace, right?

• The stress of relationships can give us tension and anxiety;

and we can be mistaken in thinking that, if I didn’t have this person in my life, or

if I could sort out that relationship I would enjoy peace.

• If only we could take away disagreement = peace.

What do you think?

• And if I could off-load my anxiety and stress, I would be at peace.

So we think that if we can get rid of certain things or people we will have peace

But that’s not true.

Real peace, the peace the bible often talks about, is being filled with the right thing – it’s being fulfilled

So here’s the truth – real personal peace is not dependant on external things.

Most think it is, so they are constantly looking to things outside of their control –

Relationships

Battles

Noise

Stress of work

And the truth is: it can be difficult,, if not impossible to sort those things out.

So the assumption is – I can’t have peace – it’s outside of my control.

To find peace we are often looking in all the wrong places, and we miss out on real peace.

Think about this:

You and I can experience deep peace in the midst of turbulent situations

One day, Jesus Christ spoke to his friends, and he said something profound.

You and I have read it many times, but I wonder if you have really taken in its significance.

“My peace I give to you. It’s a peace that no one else can give.”

That’s a “light bulb” moment I think.

We are talking here about a peace that we cannot get from anywhere or anyone else.

• It’s personal

• It’s within

• It’s nothing to do with what is going on around us.

You can know peace with God through Jesus.

It doesn’t matter

who you are or

what you’ve done, or

the “state” you are in at the moment,

You can know God’s peace.

“My peace I give to you….”

Last week, in the service we had a video which started with people holding on to stone/rock.

And it took us to the point of the need to let go!

Powerful video

We aren’t going to experience the peace of God while holding on to things that are cold and hard.

Things like hurt, hate, horror,

A clenched fist means you are holding on to resentments

Different illustration….

[Vase] clenched fist – carry around

• Anger

• Hurt

• Bitterness

• Memories

•

You say you want peace, but you are physically or mentally holding on with a clenched fist to something.

All that time we are looking at people and situations that we have little influence over.

That clenched fist – that holding on

Prevents peace running through your body.

But if we release – let go – the burden drops off from US!

Let go . . . . of those things

And let God come and fill you with His peace.

Oh and . . It’s not that – if you get peace, you can let go.

No, we have to release things in order to be at peace.

For this inner peace to happen, we have to let go and let GOD in

Remember – we are not talking about external things:

• Absence of war,

• battles,

• tension,

• disagreements

We are talking about a satisfying inner peace…

A simple example of the kind of peace I’m talking of here:

You may have experienced it too -

I can be in the centre of London – Leicester square . . . busy….. film premiers, street performers . . .

Sit on a bench and be …. at peace.

So we can have fights going on around us, and tensions with bills and ills, and spills, yet in here (point to body) we can have peace.