Are You a Maker of Peace?

All right. The title of today's message is, Are You a Maker of Peace? Are you a maker of peace?

Matthew 5 and verse 19, of course, the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. I think we all know from Galatians 5, 22, Fruits of the Spirit, the third fruit listed there, after love and joy, is peace. Peace! Do we have peace in our lives? Probably is not as much as we would like. None of us do.

But are we a maker of peace? Do we think about that? I heard this sermon this past week while I was in St. Lucia. While we were in St. Lucia, we had quite a walk to go to the bus station to take the bus to get to services on the different days. And one day in particular, I had to go in on Friday and do some work at the church hall.

And so it's about a half a mile, maybe three-quarters of a mile, from where we're staying to the bus stop. And then once you get on the bus, it's another 25-30 minutes into town. And as I was walking this sidewalk, which typical sidewalks, there is three foot wide, and you would meet various people on this sidewalk.

And on the sidewalk, there's on one side in particular, there's a bit of drop-off. They don't have the code like we have here, so the drop-off can be six inches, or it can be a foot, foot and a half, quite down to the ground, or wherever it's into a ditch, whatever the sidewalk. So as I was walking out to the bus, had my backpack with my drills and stuff that I was going to do some work at the hall, and I met two individuals, two guys, walking towards me as I was going this way.

And typically, as Mary and I have walked those sidewalks many times, when you meet a couple or you meet someone else, you usually drop in line and fall behind somebody, so that way there's two people that the people can pass. Well, this time, these guys decided they didn't want to do that, and so they just stayed right there as I was walking. And as I got closer, I thought, well, one of them might do this.

Well, they didn't. So my choice was to walk and bump into them, showing my place on that concrete, or step aside and walk on the dirt. So, what did I do? I stepped aside, and I walked on grass, and they just continued to walk. I could have said in French, excuse me, but I didn't. I just took a side and walked. And that was the right thing to do. But I felt something in my gut. And I'm like, that's rude!

And you know, the interesting part was, I came back that evening, walking the same side and walk, coming back tired, ran into the same two guys again. Except in a different part of the sidewalk. So I didn't even look. I just stepped right off the pavement and let them walk. Because I had time to evaluate during that day that this isn't anything worth the fretting about.

This is very small. And I began to look at myself and say, why was I even bothered by it? But then Mary was with me on, I think, Pentecost, and we took the bus. And we came back, and any of you have traveled in Third World countries, you realize how the buses are in 14-seater, and everybody jams in, and they stop here and pick somebody up, let people off, and you do these things.

And so we were coming back from Pentecost, had a great Pentecost day, and enjoyed it, and I felt very empowered by God's Spirit that day. And just really enjoyed being with the brethren. And as I said, we're getting off this bus, and it's crowded and packed. We stop, and here Mary is off, and this, and we're one of the last ones to get off this bus. And of course, there's people waiting to get on. They had been standing there waiting for this bus to come. And as they were getting off, I was probably the last one, I was pulling my money out to pay for the taxi.

As I was getting off, there was this couple young ladies ready to get on the bus. And I could see because I'd been looking, waiting for everybody to get out, and they were patiently and very calmly standing there for the bus. And as I start to step out of the bus, here comes this young man, maybe 17 or 18, almost knocking me out of the way to get on the bus. The thing is, I saw him coming.

He wasn't waiting for the other ladies. So my thought ran across my mind, why don't I just stand here and block his bus? So he will not be this rude, you know, because of these ladies. And I decided not to. I decided to pay my thing and walk around to him. At which point then, as soon as he got around me, the ladies, because I almost, almost blocked them so they could get on the bus.

But as I looked back and turned around, what did he do? Just push them out of the way. He got on where he wanted to sit. And not he, he didn't even think about it.

He didn't even think he was just going to get his seat. Why did that bother me? But it did. It did. And so it was the catalyst of this sermon. I had to question myself, do I have anger issues?

Do you have anger issues? Are you one that refers to Ephesians 4 and verse 26 as, be angry, but say not. Is that something that you think about? I realize that parents have a unique responsibility. You do. You do. Is that you have to be angry, but it has to be a controlling when you discipline your children. In a way, that's what God wants us all to be able to control our anger. But he also asks us to be peacemakers, to be makers of peace, to find a way to make peace every single day in every single event. That's a big task. It's a big task for us. For me, I realize I didn't think I thought I controlled my anger very well over the years as I had to battle that. I came from a family that my father wasn't that way. My grandfather definitely wasn't that way. They didn't control their anger. They let her roll. My father changed. But I realized that I had the opportunity to be a maker of peace rather than try to change people, because that's not my job. That's God's job. My job is to change me, not to change other people. And that's what I understand, that I need to be more like this.

So I ask the question, is your nature one of a peacemaker? Is that in your nature? Because I realize that God has to change my nature, because we men typically are not great peacemakers. Are we men? You know, it's something that we can do. I find women to be better peacemakers. Makers of peace. But with us, it goes against our nature sometimes to take the sidewalk, to get off the sidewalk, to see justice not done. That's why so many of us men like to see these movie action movies where the character straightens things out. Right?

Is our nature that of a peacemaker? I look in this Bible, I look in this scriptures, and I see this. And I see the first two brothers. One appeared to be probably a peacemaker, and the other had anger issues, didn't he? Cain and Abel. And it's interesting because, uh, Neil has three boys, but all three of their natures and characters and personalities are different. And that takes even more adjustment. I remember a very good friend of mine in the church in Tennessee. She had her first child. It was this girl, Laura Beth's children. And Laura Beth just the best girl you could think of, and just always kind and everything else. And she said it was such a joy, is that she would just play, you know, even, and she never gave any problems, never gave any trouble. She slept at night the entire time, and everything was just great. She said this was wonderful, so we decided to have another one. And it was a boy, and his name was Brian. And Brian was everything that Laura Beth was not. He's all boy. He's all man now. A great guy. But he was just into everything. He just had to know everything, climb everywhere, do everything. I once asked her, is that the reason you only had two? But we look at the story of Cain and Abel. Cain couldn't control his anger. And God said, wait a minute, unless you get a hold of this thing, this thing's going to get a hold of you, and it's going to own you. God wanted to make Cain a maker of peace. It didn't work. It did not work. When you go back and you look at the story of Moses, as great a man as Moses was, as the Bible says, the most humble man on the earth at the time, he had anger issues. What got him sent into the desert for 40 years, he lost his temper, didn't he? And he killed a man because he saw injustice, he felt like, and he wanted to take it into his own hands. Later, that same anger is what kept him from going into the Promised Land, didn't it? He got angry at the people. God said, just talk to the rock and water, come out. But he said, do I have to? He struck the... Do I have to bring water for you?

So it is an issue for people. I'm just using those few examples, but I think one of the greatest examples is the story of two brothers who were hotheads. They were both angry, and they took it out on people. And in one particular instance, the instance is called the story of Dinah. Story of Dinah. She had... Dinah was Jacob's only daughter, and she had all these brothers. And she had two brothers, Simeon and Levi. And you... I won't read the story since you can read it. It's in the scripture, but I think you remember well how Dinah decided to go into a town, at which time she says that she went in to meet the other ladies, young girls at that time. She went into town, and the prince, the king's son, saw her and wanted her, and took her, and raped her. But then the prince, the words, and that's why it's a great story to read, said he spoke tenderly to her, and he fell in love with her, and he was very much wanted to make her his wife. And so the king and the prince went to see the father, Jacob, and wanted to make a deal with them, on show that he wanted her hand. And then the brothers showed up, and they were very upset. And they said, there's nothing you can't make this wrong into a right, except by one way. All you men in your village and in your kingdom need to be circumcised. And so they decided to do it.

At which time, then, says on the third day, when the man had not fully healed, Simeon and Levi go in with swords and kill every single man, kill the king, kill a son, and every living man in the place. And then, they not only steal, they take all the wives, they take all the cattle, they take all the crops, everything. They took it all.

And Jacob was upset, of course. But you see from the story that everybody knew that these two had a problem, especially Simeon. And years later, when Joseph is thrown into the pit, it did not name the brother who said, let's just kill him. Where others said, no, let's do something else. Was it Simeon? It could have been. It's a possibility. You can read that into the story yourself. But I find it interesting that Joseph, almost two decades later, when he was working with the family, and they hold one of the sons back, Joseph says it's Simeon. Make sure Simeon is held back. Reason for that? I don't know. It's probably conjecture. But I'm sure Joseph knew. He remembered who was the one that wanted this cruelty done to him, and who was kind of the one that's large and in charge when it came to doing something violent.

David, 1 Chronicles 23, verse 11. Let's go there, if you will.

1 Chronicles 28, verse 3. David talking. He said, But God said to me, You shall not build a house for my name, because you have been a man of war, and have shed... What? A lot of blood.

You're a very bloody man, as one translation says. He was required at one time to bring in, to have Saul's daughter bring in 100 foreskins of the Philistines.

Saul hoping that he wouldn't be able to do that. What did David do? He brought 200 in that night. Would you say David had an anger issue?

Remember the story when David was caught in adultery, and Nathan came to him and told him this little story about a sheep, a little lamb, a little lamb, that this rich guy had just gone over to his poor neighbor and just took it, and then killed it because he had guests there.

And so Nathan said, Need your judgment, King. Remember what David said? Kill that man! How dare he do that? If he'd had a sword and a man in front of him, he would have slain him right there.

Remember what Nathan said? You are that man. You are that man.

So has God had to work with people with anger issues or ones who are not makers of peace? Absolutely. This book is full of them, full of them.

But he wants that. He wants there to be makers of peace on this earth now.

Remember Peter? Ear chopper Peter?

Pulled out that thing and chopped that ear off? He said the thing was he wasn't aiming for the ear, I don't think. Do you?

And then you had what the Bible calls, or you might call, the very first firemen.

Before they were firemen, James and John, who'd ask Christ, let us call fire down from heaven, burn these people up! How dare they? Mmm!

Christ didn't cast them aside, did He? He wanted to work with them. Why?

Because He knew they would be ministers in His church. They would be apostles. And they had to be worked with, just like we have to be worked with.

And what is Christ called? One of His names? The Prince of Peace. The head of the church, one of His titles is the Prince of Peace.

And we will serve under Him and with Him for eternity in the Kingdom of God. If we can be makers of peace.

Blessed are the peacemakers!

Now the translation in the Old English is, Happy are the peacemakers, for they shall be sons of God.

Every day we're presented with the opportunity to be a maker of peace. Every day something comes into my life, and I think it does in yours too, that allows us to start looking at ourselves, seeing if we can get this human nature under control.

Do you have yours?

Yes. Is our nature that of a peacemaker?

Does it matter?

Something I very seldom read. Gladwell wrote a book called Outliers, a book that I want to read just a few pages from. How many of you have ever been to Kentucky? Been through? You've been to Kentucky? Kentucky, yes. It's an interesting state. It's very beautiful horses and horse ranches, but it's also a part of the state is a lot of coal mines, and it's very rugged and rough area there. When you see a rough and rugged area, you understand that to settle that area, sometimes the people settling have also to be rough and rugged. I read from Gladwell's book.

Said, in the southwest corner of Kentucky, in the stretch of the Appalachian Mountains known as the Cumberland Plateau, lies a small town called Harlan. The Cumberland Plateau is a wild and mountainous region of flat-top ridges, mountain walls, 500 to 1,000 feet high and narrow valleys, some wide enough only for a one-lane road and a creek.

Harlan County was founded in 1819 by eight immigrant families from the northern regions of the British Isles. They had come to Virginia in the 18th century, and then moved west into the Appalachians in search of land. The county was never wealthy. For its first 100 years, it was thinly populated, rarely numbering more than 10,000 people. The first settlers kept pigs and herded sheep on the hillsides, scratching out a living on small farms and in valleys.

Until well into the 20th century, getting to the nearest train station was a two-day wagon trip.

The only way out of town was up Pine Mountain, which was nine steep miles on a road that turned on occasion into more of a muddy, rocky trail. Harlan was a remote and strange place, unknown by the larger society around it, and it might well have remained so, but for the fact that two of the town's founding families, the Howards and the Turners, did not get along. Remember the story of the Hatfields and McCoys? As I was doing this study, I found out that the Hatfields and McCoys were minor players in Kentucky compared to some of the other people who were in Kentucky, as they could not get along. So I bring this story to you today.

The Howards and the Turners in Harlan, Kentucky. The patriarch of the Howard clan was Samuel Howard. He built the town courthouse and the jail. His counterpart was William Turner, who owned a tavern and two general stores. Once a storm blew down the fence to the Turner property and a neighbor's cow wandered into the land, William Turner's grandson, Devil Jim, as he's called, shot the cow dead.

The neighbor was so terrified to press charges that he fled the country. Another time, a man tried to open a competitor to the Turner's general store. The Turners had a word with him. He closed the store and moved to Indiana. These were not pleasant people. One night, Wicks Howard and little Bob Turner, the grandsons of Samuel and William, respectfully played each other in a game of poker. Each a coat accused the other of cheating. They fought. The following day, they met in the street, and after a flurry of gunshots, little Bob Turner lay dead with a gunshot blast to the chest. A group of Turners went to the Howard's general store and spoke roughly to Mrs. Howard. She was insulted and told her son, Wills, about it. The following week, he exchanged gunfire with another of the Turner's grandson, young William, on the road to Hagan, Virginia. That night, one of the Turners and friends attacked Howard home. The two families clashed outside the courthouse and gunfire, and William Turner was shot and killed. A contingent of the Howard's then went to see Mrs. Turner, the mother of little Bob, and asked her for a truce. She declared, You can't wipe out that blood, she said, pointing to the dirt where her son had died. Things went quickly from bad to worse, as Will Howard ran into another Turner near Sulphur Springs, and shot him dead. The Howard's ambushed three of the Turner's, three friends of the Turner's, the K-woods, killing all of them. Posse went after them. There was a resulting gunfight. Six more were killed and wounded. That's where the posse went. I could go on and on.

That's the history.

Finally, one day, Will Turner's mother snapped at him. Stop that!

When he staggered home howling in pain after being shot in the courthouse, gun battle with the Howard's. Die like a man, like your brothers did, she said. She belonged to a world so acquainted with fatal gunshots that she had certain expectations of how they ought to be endured. Will shut his mouth, and he died.

One final little story here. A writer that was looking at this area said, in the backcountry violence wasn't for economic gain. It was personal. You fought over your honor.

Many years ago, the Southern newspaper, Hodding Carter, told the story of how as a young man, he served on a jury as he described it. The case before the jury involved a gentleman, an irascible gentleman, who lived next door to a filling station. For several months, he had been the butt of various jokes, played by the attendants and miscellaneous loafers who hung around the station. Despite his warnings and his notorious short temper, one morning he emptied both barrels of his shotgun at his tormentors, killing one, maiming the other permanently, and wounding a third. When the jury was polled by the incredulous judge, Carter was the only juror who recorded his vote as guilty. As one of the others put it, he wouldn't have been much of a man if he hadn't shot them, fellas.

It's how they lived. It's how they died. They weren't peacemakers.

I want to pull... Grab this real fast.

I'd like you to go with me. I'll read from the New Living Translation. I'd like you to go with me back to Genesis. Genesis, chapter 49.

49.

Verse 1, So then Jacob called together all his sons, and said, Gather around me, and I will tell you what will happen to each of you in the days to come. These are the sons that he was addressing before he died. If you go down to verse 5, and I read from the New Living Translation. Simeon and Levi are two of a kind. Their weapons are instruments of violence.

May I never join in their meetings. May I never be a part of their plans. For in their anger they murdered men. And they crippled oxen, just for sport. A curse on their anger, for it is fierce. A curse on their wrath, for it is cruel. I will scatter them among the descendants of Jacob. I will disperse them throughout Israel.

Simeon and Levi live by a code. That if you hurt me, I'm going to hurt you twice as bad.

One raped sister could have resulted in one man dying. The one who did the crime. But instead, they took it out on a whole city and killed many. It was their code. It's what they did, as Gladwell said about Kentucky. It was what they did. It was their honor.

They did what they thought was right in their own eyes.

And Simeon and Levi, it was their code. What about you? What about us?

We have been given a code, haven't we? We've been given a code to live by.

And that incredible code is something that we are talked about before our time by Jesus Christ in Matthew 5.

That code is what Jesus Christ is trying to teach us today. It's what we have to teach our children and the example that we have to live with other people. This is why Jesus Christ called us. Eclaecias, it was probably described in the New Testament, properly described as called out ones. We've been called out of the world to a certain way of life, to a certain code to live by. That's dictated by the words in this book that are dictated by the Prince of Peace for each one of us. We're all being trained to be peacemakers. We all have that opportunity.

Matthew 5, he said, it is said, he didn't say it was written, it is Christ that it is said, you shall hate your enemies and love your neighbors.

But I say, what? The code.

You shall love your enemies. If you're going to love an enemy, what is it going to require? I know for me, I can't be me.

I have to be Christ in me to be a peacemaker.

I have to be the one.

And that's tough. That's the code.

That Jesus gave us to live by. Love your enemy.

Blessed are the peacemaker, for they shall be sons of God.

Another unique part about that.

Look at it in reverse.

If you're not the peacemaker, will you still be the sons of God? Don't think so.

I still have some work to do. I don't know about you. These are something that I want to do.

But in Romans 12 and verse 18, Romans 12 and verse 18, Paul's addressing the church in Rome, and hey, there were some issues there. But he said, if it is what possible, as much as is up to you, you got it?

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men, or all mankind.

Do you know what that does?

That puts it on us.

As much as possible, because sometimes, some things aren't possible, they knew that from the Roman government.

As much as depends on Chuck Smith. It's all on me.

But it's also on you, if you follow the teachings of this Word.

Live peaceably with all men. That means the neighbor who's a real pain. That means the person down at the bank, who is rude. That means the guy on the sidewalk, who won't move, are not going to cut you any slack.

As much as possible, from my end. So it's on me. It's not on the jerk, or the jerk ass.

It's on me. And I have to work at that. He didn't say with most men, he said with all men.

Brethren, that's a code.

That's a code. Simeon Levi had a code. The Howards and the Turners in Harlan, Kentucky had a code. Well, brethren, everyone in this room today has a code. Have peace, make peace, and love your enemies.

That's a big one.

One last Scripture, if you will, go with me as we wrap this up today. Let's go to James 3. James 3, verse 17.

James 3, verse 17, from the New King James Version.

It said in verse 17, But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then, what does your Bible say? Peaceable. The wisdom. So it's not our wisdom, it's God's wisdom that knows we need to have not only peace in our personal life, but peace with others all mankind. Isn't it amazing how one person that can cause you grief can steal your personal peace, can make you lose sleep at night because you're upset, and they're sleeping like a baby. Isn't that amazing? And God said, don't let that happen.

One translation says that we are to pursue peace.

Pursue peace.

The problem is, I don't always want to do that.

But the code says, that's my responsibility, that's my job. To be a maker of peace, I have to pursue peace. So let's finish with this. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle. Ooh, that kind of comes with the peace thing, doesn't it? You've seen somebody that has peace in their life, and they're pretty gentle. We kind of like hanging out with people. We kind of like spending a little time with them because they're not always stirring the bucket. Willing to yield. What is this? He's talking about the wisdom from above. Full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who do what? Make peace. Make peace. So we want peace in our life.

We have to make it. We have to use the wisdom of God.

I think it's an incredible lesson for us that we can be makers of peace. Be makers of peace.

And let's face it, in a world that does not have peace or does not want peace, we have political parties that just want to fight. And they control half of the country. One side does, the other side is like split right down the middle. Now we may have leanings, we may agree with this point and this point and this point, but where are we?

We are peacemakers. We live by a code that the world does not live. And I realize the two gentlemen that didn't know me from Adam, they're just living by their code. And me?

I must live by God's code.

Have a great week. Enjoy living by the code.