Making What Everybody Wants - Part A | Skip Heitzig

[Music] [Applause] [Music] this is scott dooley welcoming you to another edition of connect with skip heitzig our current series is give peace a chance here's lenia heitzig with our introduction thanks scott one of the easiest things in the world is to march for peace one of the hardest things in the world is to make peace what does it mean to be a peacemaker and how can it best be done today we consider the great beatitude of jesus blessed are the peacemakers and the unique place of the child of god in this role we also cover some practical steps to accomplishing it as shown in the life of jacob and esau his estranged brother now let's join skip as he begins today in matthew chapter 5. there's a great story about a little girl who was doing her homework one night and her father noticed how diligent she was at getting it done she really didn't even look up and so dad said sweetheart what are you doing she said daddy i'm writing an essay for my class on how to achieve world peace well he was impressed that his little girl was writing an essay on that and he just sort of remarked well that's a pretty tall order for one little girl and she shot back and said oh no daddy there are three of us in class working on it i love the optimism of a girl who thinks that three kids can change the world the three kids can bring peace on earth but given the track record of people in the past she's not going to do any worse of a job than what has been done by some in the past the bible opens with peace it's a garden of peace it's the garden of eden and the bible also closes with peace it's the eventual peace on earth that the messiah is going to bring so we deal with a book that opens with peace and closes with peace but between those two points the garden of eden and the garden of eternity there has been anything but peace it's been a world it's been a history that is filled with conflict even though there have been pretty noble attempts to bring peace and to ensure peace one of the most notable examples from the new testament era was called the pox romana the pax roman is a latin term for the roman peace the romans were pretty successful at bringing in a stability around the world by ridding the sea of pirates and ridding roads of thieves and with the iron fist of the roman army ensuring a peaceful existence for most people that it ruled over that was the park's romana in more recent times there was something called the pox britannica which is also a latin term for the the british piece and that was during the 18 and 1900s the early 1800s to the early 1900s about a century of peace where through their efforts they brought a stability to the more modern world which enabled economic growth and development but something happened after that that shattered all of our hopes that any country was going to bring a lasting peace it was called world war one yeah when that happened it's like all bets are off and then after world war one came world war ii and as soon as world war ii ended in 1945 a group of people got together october 24th 1945 and decided that they would form finally an agency to bring world peace it was called the united nations oops they didn't quite make it did they the united nations mission statement is we are about the maintenance of international peace and security that's a pipe dream because from that date october 24 1945 until this day there has not been a single day of peace in the world not one i have a quote from an interesting source in canada called the canadian army journal which notes that since 3600 bc 3.64 billion people have been killed in conflict and the value of the property destroyed is equal to a golden belt that would go all the way around the earth and the measurements of that belt would be 97.2 miles wide almost 100 miles wide and 33 feet thick that's just the value of property that is lost in all of those conflicts so what this tells us is that mankind has this endless capacity for conflict for war for not experiencing peace so what can we do is there a role for us to play in this crazy world and the answer of course is yes there is it is the role of a peacemaker it is the role that jesus addresses in the sermon on the mount in the seventh beatitude beatitude is the blessings that jesus gives to his followers and in matthew chapter 5 verse 9 as part of that list he says blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of god now we're going to consider that verse we're going to consider the concept of peacemaking and then we're going to look at a really good example of that in genesis 32 and 33 between two brothers jacob and esau who had been estranged but made peace but there's a special word that this beatitude begins with hence the name beatitude and it's the word blessed it is used in all of the beatitudes that jesus gives in the sermon on the mount and i suppose if ever there were a christian word it would be this one blessed or blessed we use it in our conversations don't we we say what a blessing or we say have a blessed day or before a meal we say a blessing for the food or down south they'll look at you and say bless your heart which i've discovered isn't always a compliment down south that's sort of a a phrase that covers a multitude of sins you know they may be talking smack about you but then they say after they talk their gossip they say but bless his heart but it's a it's a common idea bless or blessing the word that jesus uses in all of these beatitudes including in verse 9 blessed are the peacemakers is the greek word makarias and macarios is a word that means fortunate blissful or happy think of it that way happy happy are the peacemakers what's interesting about that is if you read the beatitudes they don't sound like it's the stuff happiness is made out of it sounds counterintuitive for example in verse 3 blessed are the poor in spirit or how about verse four blessed are those who mourn what's so happy about mourning or blessed are the meek in verse five or how about verse 10 blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake that does not sound like happiness to most people that sounds like misery with another name but when jesus uses the term he's not speaking about the outward bliss or an outward situation as much as an inward condition i think a better way to translate blessed is satisfied it's as if to say no matter what's happening on the outside you will be satisfied on the inside that's blessed it's not a temporary feeling of bliss it's a deep supernatural contentedness now with that i want to explore this concept of making peace and i want to give you a four-fold explanation of it first let's begin with the definition peace making defined there is a single word in verse nine peacemaker that is grabbing our attention for this message blessed are the peace makers it's a beautiful word i'm not going to say it in the greek language because when you hear that it doesn't sound like a beautiful word but it is a beautiful concept it speaks about a person who either brings in a level of peace or restores peace that has been lost so it's somebody who cultivates peace it's someone who brings harmony where there was previous hostility in classical greek a peacemaker was an agent usually of a government who would go out and plead for peace between warring parties or warring tribes sometimes it was used to describe a strong ruler who would establish peace by force like the pax romana that was peace by force or the united nations did you know that the united nations has a group within it called the united nations peacekeeping task force now anytime you have to put peace and force in the same title you know you're you've got problems united nations peacekeeping task force in other words the only way to keep peace is to threaten war we're going to enforce it and i i don't know if you knew this or not but there was in our arsenal up until a few years ago an icbm in the american nuclear arsenal called the peacemaker yeah that'll do it right hey we got one of these things you better watch yourself we got one of these babies the peacemaker the lgm 18 intercontinental intercontinental ballistic missile somebody once said washington has lots of peace monuments they build one after every war we have seen diplomatic peacemakers go all over the world they go in where there's conflict they get parties to sign some document so that for three weeks nobody's killing somebody else but that's not very lasting because after a while they pick up their arms again and they go at it again it never lasts what they should do is send in the real peacemakers and the real peacemakers are god's children who know what it is to be forgiven by a holy god and based upon that love and forgiveness have the wherewithal to make peace horizontally they would do a far better job they would share the gospel they would do evangelism they would share of god's forgiveness for them and peace for them we've had enough of worldly peacemakers and their continued failure nobody's been able to do it no one has been able to bring peace in fact the bible even predicts that there is someone who is coming in the future the ultimate peacemaker goes by an interesting title the antichrist he's going to bring peace to a world filled with conflict and the bible says when everybody goes peace peace then sudden destruction comes upon them like a woman in labor so this man of peace is really just a harbinger of future conflict so peace making is part of our calling because in the list of beatitudes blessings that jesus is describing his followers with he gets to verse 9 and says blessed blissful fortunate satisfied oh how happy are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of god did you know that peacemaking is very important to god it's an important theme for god's children it is not the job of politicians it is not the job of presidents it is not the job of diplomats it is not the job of prime ministers it is not the job of lawyers it is not the job of kings it is not the task of nobel peace prize winners it is the calling for god's children psalm 34 verse 14 says turn away from evil and do good seek peace and pursue it romans 14 verse 19 let us pursue the things which make for peace and which edify one another hebrews 12 14 pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the lord now i think there is a single word in the new testament that best describes the idea of peace making and that is the word reconcile reconciliation it is used for what god has done for us and it is used as the basis that god expects us to pull off with one another in second corinthians 5 18 let's put this up on the screen and read it together you don't have to read it out loud i'll read it to you but you can follow along all this is from god who reconciled notice the word because he repeats the idea who reconciled us to himself through christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that god was reconciling the world to himself and christ not counting men's sins against them and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation you see that word is all over the place in a single verse reconcile what does it mean it's the word catalaso which means to change or to alter completely to change thoroughly so the idea is in reconciling you change the relationship you bring peace where there was hostility in a relationship you alter it completely thoroughly you turn hostility into friendship if we were reading the new living translation or the living bible the old living bible it translates the word reconcile in a very different way it translates it to clear the path to clear the path it says god has cleared a path for everything to come to him that's god has reconciled he's cleared the path so we could illustrate that right let's say we're walking someplace and we have a let's let's get the path all messed up shall we a little bit so these are obstacles in the past let's just make a couple more yeah there's so there's i'm getting from there to there okay so uh if i'm walking from here to there and i'm not looking where i'm going there are obstacles in the path i'm going to get hurt i'm going to fall down i'm going to stumble so if i want to reconcile if i want to bring two parties together i clear the path right i move the these things out of the way right i clear it and when i clear it i have reconciled so that this party on this side and this party and this side can come together that's what it is to make peace to reconcile to clear the path so that everything or everyone can come to him so god has cleared the path for us god cleared the path on the cross he reconciled us to god and because he's done that he's given us a very clear calling as we just read he has given us the ministry of reconciliation and the message of reconciliation so understand how this works vertical reconciliation god doing it to us is what produces horizontal reconciliation us doing it to others right it's like everything else it's like forgiveness we forgive because we've been forgiven forgive us our debts as we forgive those who have trespassed against us we love because god loved us so when we experience that reconciliation that path-clearing experience we are then equipped to do it and are called to do it for others so we are god's diplomats we're as messengers of peace that's peace making defined um let's look at a second and that is peacemaking demonstrated for that i want you to go back to that passage i told you to pre-mark genesis chapter 32. genesis chapter 32. in verse 1 it says jacob went on his way and the angels of god met him when jacob saw them he said this is god's camp it's always good to go camping with god and he called the name of that place mahanaym which means double camp two camps god's camp and my camp then jacob sent messengers before him to esau his brother in the land of seer in the country of edom and he commanded them saying speak thus to my lord esau thus your servant jacob says i have dwelt with laban and stayed there until now i have oxen donkeys flocks male and female servants and i have sent to tell my lord that i may find favor in your sight brother i want to make peace with you i want to clear the path i want to let bygones be bygones now i thought of a whole different array of examples that we could look at in scripture about people who made peace there are some notable examples one of them is jonathan jonathan the son of king saul king saul and david were at odds with each other jonathan sought to step in between them and bring them together as a peacemaker that's a good example another good example is abigail the wife of nabal in the first samuel 25 her husband nabal nabal means fool and he lived up to his name because one time when david protected his employees nabal's employees and then later on asked for just a little bit of food to sustain david's own troops nabal refused and so david said let's just attack this guy and wipe him out well his wife found out about it abigail and she went with a gift bread raisin cakes grain and presented them to david and humbled herself before david and brought peace she was the peacemaker she's a good example of one paul is an example of a peacemaker in the new testament when he took a vow of a nazarite and paid for others to take that vow just to assuage the feelings of legalistic jews who are having a hard time with gentile believers so all of those are good examples of peacemakers i would even say an evangelist is a good example of a peacemaker anybody who shares the gospel is a peacemaker because he's bringing the gospel of peace even though by bringing the gospel of peace there might be like a little bit of a war thing that happens because unbelievers don't want to hear it the gospel can bring a sword but he is bringing the message of peace the message of reconciliation you might say a peacemaker is somebody who's not content to go to heaven alone that's evangelism but i want to consider this example what we have just read two brothers who had been estranged who had been apart for years jacob and esau jacob stole his brother's blessing years before dressed himself up like his brother he made himself smell bad like his brother went into his blind old dad and got dad's blessing tricked him and then ran away because esau when he found out said i'm going to kill jacob i'm going to kill my brother well years have passed since then jacob has been with uncle laban now he's coming back because god told him to go back but as he's coming back he hears that esau is on the move and coming toward him jacob immediately wants to make peace with his brother and he and he says in verse 5 here's this gift that i am giving you these animals i'll get to that in a minute but he says that i may find favor in your sight that we can finally make peace that the bad blood between us can be erased i want to be a peacemaker did you know it says in romans chapter 12 listen to this verse if it is possible i'm glad paul said that if it is possible as much as depends on you live peaceably with all men listen to that that's a great verse that you and i should live by if it is possible as much as depends on you live peaceably with all men i'm glad paul wrote it that way because sometimes it's not possible he said if it's possible do it but sometimes it's not possible you know why because some people are impossible and what i mean by that is some people refuse to let it go some people will refuse to forgive some people will hold on to their pain and nourish it water it fertilize it stroke it pain resentment bitterness don't let i'm holding on to this you can't have it i'm not letting it go and so because they refuse to get over their hurt you can only try your best and sometimes it doesn't work so paul said if it's possible as much as depends on you live peaceably with all men but this is a great example genesis 32 and 33 because it worked it was successful and therefore it is always worth a try it's always worth a try listen peacemakers are people who build bridges not walls anybody can build a wall anybody can have a reason an excuse to sever a relationship put up a wall peacemakers build bridges you put it this way peacemakers drain their moats you know what i'm referring to in ancient times when there was a castle they would put a moat around it what was in the moat what's it made out of water what was the purpose of a moat to go swimming in to sail in little boats and no it was to separate people from you it was to keep outsiders outside it was to keep enemies away the only reason a person would drain the moat of their castle is if they have no more enemies peacemakers drain their moats one one of the best ways to destroy our enemies is to make them our friends make peace so jacob approaches esau and says i want to make peace in ephesians chapter 2 verse 14 paul said for he himself christ is our peace who has made the 2 1. that's all the time we have today for this teaching segment from the series give peace a chance i'm glad we're able to reserve time to make this important offer our good friend and author joel rosenberg has published a new non-fiction book enemies and allies this book can be ordered now as our september resource here's more information about enemies and allies the beating heart of bible prophecy is the land of israel and the middle east joel rosenberg has his finger on the pulse of the world shaking changes happening right now and he unveils them in his new non-fiction book enemies and allies this is the first book of its kind that takes you inside the oval office inside the palaces of the kings and crown princes the presidents and the prime ministers in israel and in the arab world as as we ask them what do you think about religious freedom about making peace with israel about the threat from iran about u.s arab relations was israel relations enemies and allies from multiple new york times best-selling author joel rosenberg takes you on an unforgettable journey inside the turbulent middle east you'll go behind closed doors to hear from the very kings and crown princes presidents and prime ministers who are leading the charge enemies and allies includes exclusive never-before-published quotes insights and analysis from the author's conversations with some of the world's most controversial leaders your hardcover copy of enemies and allies is our thanks for your generous gift of 35 or more today to give call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com join us next time on connect with skip as we continue the series give peace a chance thanks for joining us on connect with skip heitzig we're connecting you to god's never-changing truth in ever-changing times this program is brought to you by connection communications

Channel: Connect with Skip Heitzig

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Keywords: Bible Study, Connect with Skip, Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip Heitzig, Sermons, Calvary Church, How to Study the Bible

Id: FomdXJxjIkg

Length: 27min 30sec (1650 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 03 2021