Happy Are The Peacemakers | With Our Very Own Pomona Campus Pastor Chris Morgan

[Music] matt can we give jesus a praise i i was gonna say you you you you did a great job when you welcomed me right now but i said can we give jesus a praise okay because that praise should be so much louder right god is doing some amazing amazing things in this ministry i am so grateful i am honored to be up just to be a part of it they're gonna put me in the parking lot and i would have just been grateful to be a part of the move of god which is taking place right now in 2021 [Music] and it's true we've been in pomona we've seen firsthand what this pandemic has done in the city and in the churches you can drive in the blocks and you'll see boarded up churches block after block after block some of the major churches were able to to stay open but all these small churches they're just it's like a graveyard of churches right now so us going into this city right now and like you said is a beacon of hope there are brothers and sisters in christ that have been sitting in their homes for over a year not able to serve we are coming there we are there to show them that it's okay to come out now so i just want to say thank you to the team thank you pastor marco for for just allowing me to be a part of this um we're going to get right into a word and uh we're going to be going off of you know pastor marco has been in in um in matthew 5 he last two weekends ago or two weeks ago he was in matthew 8 uh 5 8 and he talked about happy where the clans cleansing hearted right so today we're going to jump into right into matthew 5 9. and it says happy are those who work for peace god will call them his children and i love at the end of that if you look it up in the in the in the uh in the gnt version and it has an explanation point right he said god will call him his children explanation point that's like a stamp of approval so we're gonna go over and we're gonna answer two questions today and the two questions are what is a peacemaker and it's really ironic that i would be up here today speaking about this because this is exactly the opposite of what i was my wife is here today and she's holding me accountable for what i say so i'm going to go ahead i'm going to say 100 the truth i'm going to lay it all out there guys my wife will be the first to tell you when i came home it was chaos i didn't bring peace into our house i brought chaos so that's the first thing we're gonna go over what is a peacemaker the second one is how do we become a peacemaker because the world will tell us what peace is right or how to become a peacemaker but we want to go off of what the word of god says right so the definition of a peacemaker is a person who brings about peace excessively by especially by reconciling adversaries i heard the word adversaries and i was okay i didn't have a high school diploma or anything so i'm like man that's a big word so i jumped right into the next one and i said okay i want to look up what is an adversary it is one that contends with opposes or resists an enemy how many of you know what it's like to have been an enemy of god and let's tell the truth let's tell the truth who at one time has opposed god who at one time has contended with god that should be every single one of them they got real quiet right now i'll stand up here and say yeah i did all of that and some so the first question we're going to answer is is what is a peacemaker and a peacemaker is is a reconcile of adversaries or enemies it's that simple that's what a peacemaker is somebody who reconciles brings together adversaries or enemies right and in a society today we live in a society where peace is not the normal anymore we see two people fighting and all of a sudden we want to pick up a cell phone and put it on tick tock or i'm not familiar with all these things today but we want to put it on social media right away instead of stepping in right to help some people to make amends with each other that's exactly who i used to be and i'm just to be real with you guys and the world that i came from we had a form of of it was it was fake peace we could claim brotherhood we could say that's my homeboy that's my family right some of you know what i'm talking about the minute somebody got busted things got changed around a little bit huh and i'm going to be real with you guys that was me we can sit there we could say that we were tight that we do anything for one another the reality is the minute somebody turned their back the minute somebody put their guard down we attacked them in a lot of ways that's happening right now it's happening right here i'm not saying to say this church but i'm gonna say in the church itself we could see a brother or sister hurting and all of a sudden we start to judge all of a sudden we start to talk bad of him oh did you know so and so was doing this we have been called to reconcile just say that with me we have been called to reconcile it's important that you know that so that you know who you are so jesus was the greatest example of a peacemaker his his earthly mission while he was here was to reconcile our relationship with god that simple that's what he was here for he didn't just come out to check out the scenery he didn't come down here to judge and point fingers he came back on a mission to bring us back into fellowship with god and the reason why is right here in romans 5 10 and it says and this is the niv version you guys it says for if while we were god's enemies and let me see you raise their hands who was god's enemy at one time come on guys let me do that one more time who was god's enemy at one time or another i should see every single hand go up come on when we start being real with ourselves we can we can start getting some breakthrough right so it says while we were god's enemies we were reconciled to him through the death of his son what did he do what did he do he gave his life he took it to a whole other level of reconciliation right because what there was a price that needed to be paid for us to be reconciled to god for each and every one of us there's a price there's a price that needs to be paid whether it be our time whether it be our finances when we see a brother or sister hurting when we see two brothers and sisters quarterly we don't jump on one side or the other right we go to try to make amends with them we don't go start talking about the whole church man did you know so-and-so was doing this and so-and-so was doing that did you know they're beefing we look just like the world when we do that and what we've been called to be set apart right to be different so the second thing we're going to answer today so the first one is what is a peacemaker right i think we all got understanding of that number two is how do we become a peacemaker the first thing that we do is we make peace with god wow there was only a couple claps right there the first thing we do is we make peace with god but maybe some of us don't want that we we want to be called what was the blessing in in the second part of that in that scripture that we would be called children we want that blessing right oh i want to be called a child of god we even proclaim it i'm a child of god but do we do the first part of the scripture that tells us to work for peace right but the first thing we need to do is make peace with god some of us want to hold on no i still want to do things my way i still want to talk bad i still want to gossip i still wanted to to jump in and start recording people fighting and doing all these crazy things in my case before coming to christ i used to have a s ignorant statement that i used to make try to keep it real but not that real right but i used to make this stupid stick or this this ignorant statement and this statement was that i'll stay out of god's house because i want him to stay out of mine i wanted the lifestyle i was living i didn't mind what i was doing i know it sounds crazy you see me i i do all kinds of stuff around here i've been a greeter for i was a greeter for years where's my greeters at i've been in parking lot i've been in discipleship baptism i've picked up trash i've done you know i've been all over the place and you could see that but not know who i was before i was dirty i was dirty i was conniving manipulative a liar alcoholic drug addict gun running i mean it was all bad and you know what the old me loved it i'll be honest so i didn't want to reconcile with god i didn't want a relationship with god i wanted to do what i was doing we have some pictures i just want to pose oh he's already got some up i don't know how long they've been up for but does that look like somebody who who was gonna be up uh was it a good person to go ahead and tell all your secrets to you're gonna tell me the combination to your safe oh yeah that's great no worries look at that guy really i look at him i don't even want to tell him nothing but to make peace with god is absolutely powerful when we make peace with god something changes transformation begins to happen although i love doing the things that i was doing that's what he does [Applause] when you make peace with god he gives you a peace like no other but you guys it doesn't stop right there it doesn't stop there making peace with god at the altar is the beginning of something not the end of something [Music] he begins to transform you he begins to show you the things that that are wrong although i knew they were wrong i began to see them the way that god sees them how filthy and disgusting i was i'm not trying to call anybody out what i'm doing is i'm telling me out and i want to go to second corinthians 5 18 and 19 and it says and all of this is a gift from god what is it guys a gift from god who brought us back to himself through christ and god has given us this task of reconciliation what did it say right there he said he's given us this task right with people for hit to him for god was in christ reconciling the world to himself no longer counting people's sins against them and he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation and there's two parts that i want to speak on just really briefly on this when you look at this when he's reconciled us to him and remember this is him this is all him this isn't us all's we're doing is accepting it he's saying son daughter i don't want to be at war with you you are not my enemy stop acting like it come to me and guess what he did not only did he say come to me he made a way for you to come to him it don't get much easier we make it hard we want to hold on to the things that we've been doing so either we can listen to what he's telling us or we can stand in our ignorance and i say that because that's exactly what i did for 34 years i stood in my ignorance and i disguised it with oh well i'm just down well i'm just being real got quiet guys the second part of that is look at what he says he said he's given us the task now of reconciliation so what has he done he's given us the ministry once we've gone we've made peace with god now he says okay now i need you to go out and be a peacemaker i need you to begin to bring people to me tell them that i've made a way it's nothing that they have to do all they have to do is say yes we make it hard so we must understand i'm sorry i don't want to get ahead of myself guys so when he's giving us this ministry guys he's giving us a purpose right and it's up to us if we accept the offer the second part of this is the first part was of how do we become peacemakers we make peace with god and the second part is we work for it we work for it it doesn't come easy especially from some of the stuff that we've been watching some of the stuff we've been listening to i'm sorry i was the first to put on some tupac and all of a sudden i was the the biggest gangster ever and i was 16 years old they're talking about rolling around in 100 000 cars and i borrowing two dollars from mama and my mom and my dad are here today you guys [Applause] but we have to make sure that i don't want to go too far off the point but we have to work for this peace does not come naturally especially in the society that we're in where they say it's okay to talk bad about people oh well i'm just telling the truth really keeping our mouth shut takes work yeah i hit a nerve on that one and i'm not trying to sit here and point figure i'm going to say that again you guys know don't throw rocks at me when you see me in the foyer but what we're here to do is we're here to recognize something right and we're here to change something maybe maybe we have been doing that maybe we've been entertaining gossip maybe we've been being judgmental right but this is our opportunity today to recognize it and be set free from it so we work for it as believers the scripture matthew 5 9 isn't just an encouraging scripture but it's a command as believers how many believers do i got in the house tonight [Applause] as believers when you hear that scripture i didn't look at that scripture and say oh be a child of god i saw the work involved i'm already a child of god now okay this is what i got to do there's work right so this is a command not a suggestion and here's a couple of scriptures in case you didn't you don't you're not feeling that one that says that it's work in first thessalonians 5 15 it says don't repay evil for evil but strive for peace so right now what do we do we're not going to repay evil for evil i'm going to hold back somebody cuts me off i'm no longer going to be that person that kind of gives them a nice nudge into the gutter right that takes work especially on my part right now guys it's something that god's delivered me from and it's you know but it takes work to strive for peace it doesn't come naturally so second one in hebrews 12 14 it says make every effort to live in peace with everyone make every effort effort is work right so in psalms 34 14 it says turn from evil turning takes work i'm just pointing this out you guys it takes work right and do good seek peace and pursue it in ephesians 4 3 it says make every effort again to keep the unity of the spirit in romans 14 19 make every effort to do what leads to peace you guys that's just a little bit i couldn't go on all night just in the scriptures on peace but it all boils down to this peace will take work but for children of god for children of god this is a calling this is a command this is not a suggestion so we must understand that pursuing peace is work and at times it will not be easy in some cases we really must go out of our way to seek to to pursue peace right how many of you guys are married okay okay so right off the bat how husbands raise your hands okay so right off the bat i see some peacemakers right here i don't know about you but in my house in my house if i don't come up with a way to make peace it's going to be world war three for the next 20 years i love my wife she's holy spirit filled she's spirited we call her spirited but i want to use this as an example for those husbands and paul says it clearly right in ephesians 4 26 he says that we should not let the sun go down on our anger or on our wrath that's just what he's talking about here is just a small portion of what we're to do to not go to bed angry to not go to bed mad right it doesn't matter whose fault it was it doesn't matter if your brother or sister or and you know let's go even outside the church it doesn't matter if your co-worker was talking about you you're a child of god what are you supposed to do oh i i'm just not gonna talk to them i'm gonna go tell everybody else about it but i'm just not gonna talk to them no we're called to reconcile reconcile takes work not just stand back we're going to go out of our way to make friends there's a there's a brian today whole song and it says i will love all my enemies until they become my friends i want to i want to tell you a quick story uh and it happened right here in fact and with the pictures that you saw of me in my past needless to say i had some enemies right one of them happened to walk through the door of the foyer i forgot what it was it was an event because we were standing outside these doors right here we're waiting in line to come in i was being introduced to uh uh one of one of my disciples his mother for the first time that came and this gentleman was looking at me from far off and i could already tell i know that look he comes up and the first thing as i do is i put my hand down hey how you doing i have no idea who he was but he knew who i was he goes yeah i go hey you know he looked at my hand and looked down just mean mugging right so obviously i knew i must have done something wrong in his past but but i want to be serious you guys because my past when you look at that that's just a couple pictures that got taken my past was real so when this guy comes up i knew it wasn't phony the look on his face wasn't phony i had done real damage in whatever area that was so the first thing i do is i recognize okay there's an issue right needless to say i thought he was gonna knock me out in the foyer i was gonna have to come and explain to pastor marco what happened but the first thing you have to do is i put my hand out he looks at me he looks down he says now i go hey brother my name is chris how you doing he says yeah i know who you are with some other words involved and i go okay now i'm embarrassed i got this lady here for the first time and you know and i'm like and i said is there something i can help you with he said absolutely nothing he gave me a look and i wouldn't stand there i was like i go hey man do you want to go talk like everything okay what was i doing right there trying to reconcile a situation that i didn't even know what i did it doesn't matter whatever the case i was trying to reconcile so what ends up happening and this is the power of god this is the blessing that comes behind it so he takes off he walks away he's mad and all i could say to the to the our first time guest was sorry about that you know we there is some people here that you know maybe they mistake to me she looked at me like come on dude you're lying when i saw that look i said okay i go we all have a past but what ends up happening is i see him again the next week come through the doors and what do i do again i could have went the other way no i'm hunting him down i make it a point when i see him i'm getting in front of him i'm coming through the other door to get in line so i can greet him i want to reconcile this situation and why i want to see him at the altar i don't want to see i don't want him to leave this place being upset or focused on me i need to reconcile this thing so my brother in christ can receive god's forgiveness so week after week i did this and i talked to my wife about this and then i saw and i just kept praying for him and i was like lord just i don't know what i did but soften his heart let him hear another message let him get another good word then i see him bring his daughter and i got to say hey what a beautiful little girl amen hey brother you know hey i got you a c i wasn't even an usher i got you a seat i went out of my way he gave his life to christ that day the next the next week i'm like hey brother you made it back he gave me the biggest hug the next week after that we start talking never once never once did i ever bring up what was his problem he was able to get a a really good job he moved out of state but i kept contacting into a bible-based church out of state but imagine imagine that soul that would not have came to these altars if i wouldn't have went out of my way to reconcile with him power in it and that's exactly why we've been given the ministry right but it takes work so oh man time is running out so it's intentional guys the choice is intentional and the effort is intentional we must work for peace we must choose peace over conflict when we see something story up oh no i nope that's not gonna happen right we choose unity over division we won't allow when we see another brother or sister going at it oh that's their problem no you're a child of god it's your problem now so we choose harmony over strife encouragement over slander and blessings over gossip we do not run off of our emotions could you imagine this guys could you imagine if jesus going to the cross would would have ran off of his emotions could you imagine that peter just denied him three times these guys are pulling you know beating them up he's like what am i even doing this for right so we don't run off of emotions we understand the purpose jesus had a purpose to drag that cross to be denied everything was leading up for his purpose and i want you to recognize something that when things take place in your life they're leading up to a purpose if you handle it the right way so this means that we put our pride down we put our judgment judgmental uh being judgmental down we go ahead there's no more self self-centeredness i don't even know if that's a word and we pick up love compassion and forgiveness those words you guys are not just feelings each one of those words that i've said takes work love is an action word forgiveness is an action word and compassion is action work work work so as believers now more than ever it's time that we stand out it's time for people to say you're strange you're odd right the way we love the way we forgive the way we seek righteousness after righteousness the way we strive for peace it should stand out so over the top that people look at and say oh my god they're just ridiculous wait there's something weird about them right and in first corinthians 1 18 it says for the message of the cross is foolish to those who are perishing it's okay i'll look foolish if being a child of god looks foolish sign me up [Applause] so as my time is ending guys man that went fast i want to end it with a challenge as you go into your day maybe it's not today maybe it's not tomorrow maybe it's not next week for some of us it's gonna happen right when we get in the car but here's the challenge and i pray and i pray this is my prayer that you would this would be brought to you to remembrance when these things come up the next time somebody displays hatred towards you in any any kind of way whether it be backstabbing speaking bad about you slandering your name i want you to look at it as an opportunity to display god's love and forgiveness towards them that is reconciliation so today you guys that that's it for my message um a little bit over but [Applause] can everybody please stand up thank you billy there's two types of people here today and one of those is the one that hasn't received reconciliation with god they haven't made peace with god and some of it and for some people it's hard to even understand or grasp the concept of peace for me it was hard there was no peace inside me so i wasn't i wasn't portraying to be a peaceful person but i guarantee you today if you take the first step to coming down to this altar to be reconciled with god he will begin to change you and the word says the word says that he will give you the ministry of reconciliation i know for some of us that could be scary we're like man i don't want to make peace with people i don't want to teach people to make peace but understand that's the call of god some of us today have been so full with hatred that it even discusses you and i know because that was me some of us today we go home and and our house and and our families are just utter destruction because of what we bring into the house our conversations are tearing our families apart the lack of peace in our homes we can look into the city we're looking in pomona right now and the biggest thing that we see and there is neighborhood after neighborhood after neighborhood and these neighborhoods are not getting along at all and so what does that do puts up walls today god is telling you man we need to break down some of these walls you guys just come to me so today we don't have to leave the same way we do not have to leave the same way and it would be a shame if we did we can hear a message like this and jump back in the car and all of a sudden we're right back at it again so it's important it's important that we make peace with god he gives us the peace that we desire we've been looking for and if that's you i'm going to ask you to take a bold step in just a couple of minutes but if that's you don't allow anything to hold you back what the person next to you might say how you feel sorry man that's embarrassing man we did a whole lot of embarrassing stuff for the world and we gladly did it right or was that just me but this is your opportunity to not leave the same way you came in here and maybe there's some of you today that you've already received christ but you haven't been walking in the task that he's given you to do maybe you're not doing you're not being a reconcile or maybe you're not being a peacemaker we have a group of alter workers here that would love to pray with you let's get back on task let's make sure that we're not calling ourselves children of god and not portraying it so if if you're in one of those two categories i'm gonna count to three and i'm gonna ask you to raise your hand and not just raise your hand i'm gonna ask you to raise your hand boldly today is the day when we say you know what enough is enough i'm tired of living in such hatred i'm tired of living the way i've been living i want that peace that you're talking about chris so on the count of three just raise your hands one and remember don't let anything hold you back don't let the thoughts in your mind telling me that that that nothing's gonna change that nothing can change i'm here to tell you that it can two three is there anybody out here just raise your hand say i'm done with peace i i want peace i'm done with strife i'm done with arguments i want to trade it in this is your trading post right here trade it in give it to god and receive his love his forgiveness for those of you raising your hands go ahead and just come to the altar right now even if you didn't raise your hand come to the altar right now don't leave don't leave without receiving the peace that god offers the reconciliation that god is offering you today calm you guys come [Music] nothing else [Music] just [Music] if there's somebody who's saying right now you're standing there and you're like man why am i not going up there's still time i know there's somebody out there right now there's somebody out there right now we're waiting for you god is waiting for you he's saying come come daughter come son so we thank you we thank you lord so we're gonna pray right now you guys yes yes yes this is huge you guys this is huge proud of you brother proud of you i'm gonna have chris pray with everybody but i want it's just so important because tomorrow's not guaranteed and your life has limits to it if you waste your money you could go out there and get more money but if you waste your life and time time you can't get back and there's going to be a time a moment that you breathe your last breath and you will go into eternity you know chris has not been transformed from being in a bike gang and gangster and criminal to the person he is today because of his discipline he became a new man because of a relationship with the creator of the universe that made him new and i just want to just under what you want you to understand this that jesus makes himself available to you his love his forgiveness and his eternal life not religion you might think if i died right now i'd go to heaven and i would say why and this is the answer i was at a i was at mathis brothers and a salesperson was trying to sell me some furniture and i told them most people think that if they die they'll go to heaven because they're good people and you know what he told me he goes that's what i believe and i told them no one gets into heaven because they're good people because the truth is we've broken all of us at broken god's laws and you can't stand before a judge and tell them hey i've done a lot of good things can you excuse all the bad i've done the reality is we are we're all sinners and we all deserve punishment and we're all guilty but god loved you so much that he sent his son to pay the price for all the wrong you've done so you could be forgiven the price must be paid i want you to get this either you accept the forgiveness and the price has been paid or you pay it but there was something he said i'm gonna end it with this and i just got a picture of this and this is happening to every single person that's in this room or has happened to every single person that's in this room is this i see a picture of jesus knocking on your door he's saying will you let me in so we can have a relationship will you let me forgive you will you allow me to give you a free gift of eternal life i want to give you a new start i want to set you free i want to make you new i want to give you comfort that if you died you'd know you have eternal life and you'll live forever and you'd have peace with god forever but as he's knocking and maybe you've done this have you ever had someone knock on your door and you knew who they were and you didn't want them to come into your house and you act like you weren't there be quiet be quiet be quiet don't do that to god because right now jesus he's humbled himself and he's knocking at your door he's knocking at your door and he's saying come on let me in and forgive you give you eternal life let me give you let me give you freedom and peace let's make peace and this is the reality either you're war with god or you've made peace with god being at war with god is saying no not right now chris did that but i pray today's your day you're not gonna receive eternal life without making a decision open up your heart story and let jesus in is there a day that you did that if there's not a day you did that if you don't remember when did i do that you never did it when was the day you gave your life to jesus i don't know you never did it that's why because when you did it you know you did it so give your life to jesus today if you're in this room and you're not sure if you were to die right now that you'd go to heaven that you were saved you have made peace with god i'm asking you a question are you 100 sure if you're not 100 sure why would you leave here like that tomorrow's not guaranteed we had one of our sisters in church two weeks ago darlene that passed away she just broke she was here she's gone don't leave here not knowing you're right with god the opportunity's here tomorrow's not guaranteed i'm gonna give one more opportunity if you're here and you're not sure you're right with god you're not sure if you died right now you'd go to heaven this is what i want you to do i want you to leave your seat and i want you to come up for real quick i'm going to give you one more shot because there's somebody here that this is your moment to take a step and say you know what i'm not right i want to get sure i want to get right with god and god loves you enough to give you one more opportunity ask your neighbor you want to go up there i'll go up there with you [Music] awesome thank you lord awesome all right all right there he is right there come on just one more come on that's right there another chris right now come on another chris all right chris lead him in prayer proud of you [Music] man praise god praise god so after this prayer remember it doesn't end here this is the beginning of something okay there's a task when you've been reconciled with god you've been called to the ministry of reconciliation so go ahead repeat after me father forgive me for the times that i've warned against you when i've rejected you when i've said i want to do it my way forgive me lord i recognize i want the gift of reconciliation that you offer through your son jesus christ i pray that your holy spirit feel me now i pray for the task of reconciliation would be given to me father we thank you lord we praise you in jesus mighty name amen amen it's the beginning you guys this is the beginning come on let's give jesus a shout of praise of all these souls that we're safe today and just like pastor chris said this is the beginning everybody here in the front our next step is starting and away our discipleship class so make sure to sign up you guys this sunday is father's day we got a great word in store we're gonna have some old cars here we're gonna have a little car show for the man you don't want to miss it this sunday father's day and then next wednesday our anniversary kicks off pastor mark will be with us so many great speakers next wednesday thursday friday and then that sunday three lunches in three different countries we love you guys if anybody needs prayer come on down we'd love to pray with you guys if anybody needs additional prayer come on down we'd love to pray with you guys pastor chris great job great great word today if anybody needs prayer come on down this sunday father's day don't miss it we have a car show outside we're gonna have a great time we love you guys if god is for you who could come against you have a great week you guys

Channel: The Way World Outreach

Views: 1,548

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Keywords: Jesus Christ, Christian Church, Southern California Churches, Online Ministry, The Way World Outreach, San Bernardino

Id: Db9rsXnWH2w

Length: 47min 46sec (2866 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 17 2021