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.
Finding and making peace with others is not easy to do. Where we have people we have selfish attitudes, even in the church. (See James 4) Peace does not come naturally, and neither does a desire to make peace. Getting along with people is perhaps the hardest thing we have to do as believers.
If you don’t believe getting along with people is a difficult thing to do then perhaps you should look at the divorce rate. Over 50% of all marriages end in divorce. Why? At one point, each of these couples stood up and declared their love publicly and stated their desire to live committed lives. Yet, time marches on and those relationships either become stronger or weaker, and sadly, far too many of those relationships don’t blossom into stronger marriages, but degrade until the marriage is nothing more than a contract between two people who can only agree on one thing.. THEY WANT OUT!
This morning, I want to offer you a topical message about how to be a peacemaker, I want to present to you what I call the peacemaker’s toolbox.
Luke 6:27-28
Jesus speaking says: “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
What tools do find in this short list?
1. Love
God calls us to love our enemies. This does not mean that love will be returned. God loves a lost world, but you meet people everyday who hate and despise God. To love those who are unlovable is to act like God. Also, you will never turn an enemy into a friend without love.
To love someone means you have a change of heart towards them. You begin to become concerned with their position. During a really tough period I was going through I had a person who had chosen to be my enemy because they did not like my strong, outspoken, and bossy authority. One day, a person pointed out to me some of the wrong that she was doing to me and I started to say that she was evil and wicked, etc. I stopped and told the other person that I was wrong to say that because she was in trouble. I recognized that her attitude all stemmed from a rejection of authority and therefore under the judgment of God. Her actions toward me were simply a demonstration of her attitude, ultimately, towards God. At that moment I begin to truly be concerned for her, and this made it easier for me to pray for her needs. The focus shifted from my hurt from her actions to her needs. I believe this is the way we begin to love our enemies.
2. Good Deeds
How can people continue to hate those who are doing them good? It is easy to do good things for people who love you and are appreciative of you. We need to find ways to do good to those who hate us. The opposite of doing good is doing bad. Do you want to act badly towards people? We will look more on this when we look at some words from the Apostle Paul.
3. Blessing
One of the hardest things for anybody to do is to speak words of blessing to those who are speaking discourteously to us. The things that we say to others are supposed to build them up. If we respond to nastiness with nastiness then we are failing to be God’s people. Paul speaks of this as well and we will look at his words on the matter momentarily.
4. Prayer
Jesus commands us to pray FOR those who are abusive towards us. We are not commanded to pray AGAINST those people, but FOR them. We are to ask God to provide blessing, to work in their hearts, to word for their good. We cannot truly do any of the other things in this list if we fail to do this. Praying for those who are hurting us is the way that we prepare ourselves to speak blessing to them in the face of their opposition. It is how we prepare our hearts to involve ourselves in doing good to people who
PROVERBS 15:1
“A soft answer turns away wrath but grevious words stir up anger.”
5. Speak Softly
This is a great tool in the peacemaker’s toolbox and one that the believer needs to learn how to use often. You need to know that a soft answer will not always turn away wrath, but there is a law of escalation. Grevious words continue to escalate a conflict to a worse conflict.
Speaking softly doesn’t mean speaking like a sissy. One of the toughest guys in Hollywood never raises his voice, but his words are firm. Clint Eastwood says things like, “Go ahead, make my day!” or “A Man’s got to know his limitations!”
Raising your voice is almost guaranteed to escalate a conflict. So also is saying cutting, mean, things that bring grief to others. Peacemakers learn to moderate their words, their tone, and their volume in order to deescalate a conflict.
ROMANS 12:17-21
“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay says the Lord. On the contrary:“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
6. Refuse to return evil for evil
It is a choice not to repay evil for evil. It is a choice that the believer makes not to respond to evil with evil.
7. Always do that which is good
Paul doesn’t write that we should usually choose to do that which is good. He doesn’t write that we should sometimes choose that which is good. Always do that which is good. You will never have to apologize for doing that which is right.
8. Live at Peace with those who allow you to do so
Paul acknowledges that some people will not allow you to live at peace with them but declares that it is your responsibility to seek peace.
9. Do not seek revenge
God has declared that we are not to seek vengeance because it belongs to him. He has claimed title and ownership of vengeance. When we take revenge then we are taking that which belongs to the Lord God Almighty. If we look at revenge as God’s personal property then maybe we will be smart enough to avoid taking it into our own hands.
10. Leave God room to work and to judge
If we leave vengeance to the Lord, we also have to give the Lord time and room to work in the hearts of others. Sometimes, we think we have the responsibility of fixing people, but we need to let God bring about change in people’s hearts and sometimes that means getting out of God’s way.
11. Meet your enemy’s needs
This is really tough. Paul writes to feed your hungry enemy. To provide water for a thirsty enemy is difficult. Meeting the needs of an enemy is a powerful tool in the peacemaker’s toolbox. It is hard for someone to stay angry at a person who is trying to meet their needs.
12. Overcome evil with Good
Have you read that the wrath of man doesn’t work the righteousness of God? You cannot use evil to accomplish the work of God. A campaign of gossip to remove even a sinful pastor from a pulpit is not God’s plan. We cannot use the Devil’s methods to bring about the will of God.
SUMMARY:
If you are a person who has left a chain of broken relationships behind you out of anger or bitterness then you are not a peacemaker. If you have broken friendships out of hurt or selfishness or a refusal to forgive then you are not a peacemaker. If you are a person who hops around from church to church because your feelings are being hurt time after time, then you are not a peacemaker.
If you aren’t a peacemaker you aren’t blessed. You are constantly in the midst of turmoil and unresolved conflicts. How can you be happy when you have unresolved conflicts with other? How can you have inner peace when you don’t seek to fix problems that arise? How can you feel fulfilled when you know you did not act properly towards others?
You can never obtain the reputation of being a true child of God without demonstrating a desire to properly resolve conflicts.
