How to be Happy
Contents
Happy are the Peacemakers 1
Matthew 5:9
1. Peace was broken in the Garden of Eden when man sinned. A the cross it became a reality again as Christ became our peace.
2. Isa 9:6, Christ is given the title: "the Prince of Peace".
3. There are about 400 references to peace in the Bible.4. The opposite of peace is a state of confusion dissatisfaction and war.
It is man who is a war...not God. God is at Peace and seeks that all men everywhere also come to know perfect peace.
5. Man is the author of war. He rejects the truth and rather believes a lie. Refuses to admit to the existence of God and what God has revealed about Himself.
Rather is invents gods who are the product of his own imagination or the imagination of someone else. Some change the truth about God and change commandants, change the Bible, change what God has said.6. Jesus in Matt. 5:9, is saying happy are those who are peacemakers, they will be called the sons of God.
I. What is the meaning of Peace?
A. The world would define it as the absence of conflict.
1. Their is no strife in the cemetery. That kind of peace few people want.
2. Biblically peace is no so much the absence of conflict.. but the presence of righteousness.
3. Peacemakers, Scripturallydo more that stop conflict, they replace conflict with friendship and love.
4. Jew says, "Shalom", it means "peace." He is saying more that "I wish for you no conflict." He is saying, "I wish for you all the righteousness of God can bring."
B. There is a difference between a "truce" and "peace." A truce folks stop shooting. Peace comes when the problem is solved.
C. True peace comes from wisdom based on a knowledge of God James 3:17, "The wisdom that is from above first pure, then peaceable."
1. Only a wise man can have peace! He uses the knowledge he has.The wise man seeks God, he believes what God has said about
Himself and this man wisely puts his trust and faith in that knowledge.The fool, hears the truth, will not accept it as true, believes a lie.
2. Peace has a price!!
Matt 10:34, Jesus seems to contradict Himself is saying, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth, I came not to send peace, but a sword." He was saying He did not come to bring peace at any price.
ILLUS:
The Gospel message of the Death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that by believing in Christ one can have eternal life, is first always preceded by the acknowledgement of that we are all sinners and need salvation.
Folks that causes strife. Many people will die in their sins and spend eternity in Hell because they will not deal with the strife the truth causes.
Yet once received, peace comes...eternal peace. Many say, I do not want to offend anyone who isn't a believer. That is not the statement of a true peacemaker.
3. A true peacemaker uses truth, which is the only thing that brings true peace.
ILLUS:
If is say to a person who believes in a false religion.
"It's OK, you believer your way, I'll believe mine...we are all working for the same thing aren't we?"
I am compromising the truth for the sake of a like of conflict between our believes. I'm no peacemaker.
I can not be at peace with false doctrine, churches who teach it, preachers who peace it or believers who believe it.
It is interesting to note that believers in Christ are the most persecuted people on earth. The Jews are not. They lost 6 million in the horror of WWII. Since the time of Christ it is estimated by some, 40.000.000 Christians have died for their belief in the Word of God and Jesus Christ as their Saviour.
Luke 12:51-53. READ
Some have said to me over the years, "you are too narrow in your Beliefs!" You did to have a non-denominational church, say nothing negative about other detonations and etc. We should find a common ground and discover and emphasise what we agree on.
Folks, if the Bible is true, then we have the revealed truth.
It is not my truth, or someone else's truth, but God's pure truth.
Then if I have the truth, which shall make me free, why should I not make a stand for truth.
ILLUS:
Should I not proclaim that salvation is the free gift of God, apart from works, churches, ritual, and all the man made religion?
Should I not love my neighbour enough to tell him or her the true. If they are deceived into believing they will get to heaven by being good, shouldn't I lovingly teach and tell them the true?
D. Biblical peacemakers are not easygoing people, who go around trying to smooth out conflict, who do not make waves.He is a person who loves the truth and faithfully proclaims it in love and concern for the souls of others. If you refuse to share the truth with someone who believes a lie for the sake of so called peace.....that's a cop out.
That is not peace, but a truce.
To bring God's peace is to bring truth and that will bring true lasting, eternal peace.
A. The true peacemaker helps men to make peace with God. The conflicts of men are temporal, the Conflict of God that is not settle end in eternal damnation.
B. However, before one can lead others to know the peace of God they themselves must have the peace of God.
1. That means trust Christ as your Saviour and become a Christian.
2. Next, you must be in fellowship with God yourself. Sin in the life of a Christian, hinders and breaks fellowship with God.
3. True peace comes from having and living a life of righteousness before the Lord.
That means confession of sin. I am not talking about, doing good works and outward acts, I talking about confessing sin, fighting sin in your life and yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit.
CONCLUSION:
1. Are you at peace with God? Depending on Works God has already spoken.
2. Christian? are you at fellowship?
Confessed up?
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