Matthew 5:9 (NIV) – “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

Matthew 5:9 (Message) – “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.”

How Should We Pursue Peace?

1. Begin With God – the Source of Peace

Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV) – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Isaiah 59:8 (NIV) – “The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks in them will know peace.”

James 4:1-2 (NIV) – “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  You want something but don’t get it.  You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want.  You quarrel and fight.  You do not have, because you do not ask God.”

Jesus Came to be the Prince of Peace

Romans 5:1 (NIV) – “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.”

3 Anxieties in Man’s Heart that the World Can Not Satisfy

  • Death
  • Guilt
  • Purpose for Life

Christ Offers Peace…
• In Death

John 11:25 (NIV) – Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

Christ offers Peace…
• From Guilt

Acts 22:16 (NIV) – “And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling his name.”

Ephesians 2:13 (NIV) – “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.  For he himself is our peace.”

  • Christ offers Peace…
    • In Purpose of Life
  • Ephesians 1:11 (Message) – “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.”

Colossians 3:15 (NIV) – “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.”

How Should We Pursue Peace?

2. Live at Peace With Other People

Romans 12:18 (NIV) – “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone”

Remember…Being A Peacemaker Does Not Mean To Compromise The Truth

James 3:17 (NIV) – “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.  Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.”

Remember…As A Peacemaker You Don’t Deliberately Antagonize

Romans 12:18 (NIV) – “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

Remember…Be Careful in Dealing With Conflict Personalities

Acts 9:19-31(NIV) – Saul of Tarsus as a new convert didn’t immediately get along with other believers.

John 17:21 (NIV) – “My prayer is not for them alone.  I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

Proverbs 16:7 (NASV) – “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”

3. Be Peacemakers Between Other People

Romans 12:18 (NIV) – “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

4. Be Christian Peacemakers where the World is at Odds

Ephesians 2:14-18 – “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”

“He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

Matthew 5:9 (NIV) – “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

James 3:17-18 (Message) – “Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.”

James 3:18 (NIV) – “Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.”