Live Peaceably With All Men

It's great to see such a large feast of Tabernacles gathering. I'm used to being at a feast site around two to three hundred people, and this is so encouraging to see so many of us. Greetings to those who are online. I just wanted to let you know those of you who are back in my home area, who we left behind. We miss you very much. We are thinking about you, and that extends to everybody who is online who was not able to attend. We have not forgotten about you. God and Jesus Christ are so unified, so together in their thinking, so at peace with one another, they do not have conflict with one another. Hard to imagine, but true. In John 5 and verse 30, Jesus explained that on his own he could do nothing, that he always did the will of the Father. They are perfectly unified with each other, and they operate on an overriding principle, which they inspired the Apostle Paul. God inspired the Apostle Paul. I'm sorry. King Solomon. We'll get to Paul in a minute. In Proverbs chapter 17 and verse 1, and this is going to be the overriding principle of the sermon today. Proverbs chapter 17 and verse 1, better a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting and in conflict. Better a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting and conflict. God and Jesus Christ know how to solve conflict before it even begins. They perfectly communicate with each other, and they have a cooperative relationship that is not one of discord, and they will not allow discord or strife in their kingdom. So God and Jesus will, as a result, lead the way towards peace. King David explained the world actually needs a leader in peace. Let's read King David's last words in 2 Samuel chapter 23. This is the last public proclamation of King David. He had appointed Solomon his son to be king. He had lived a long life. He was aged, and he was about to die. And this was his conclusion. 2 Samuel chapter 23 verse 1. I'm going to read this from the English Standard Version. Now these are the last words of David, the oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel. And David said, The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me. His word is on my tongue. In other words, I don't give my own opinion anymore. If God says it, I believe it, and I say it. If God doesn't say it, I don't bother speaking it. That's what he just said. And then he said, verse 3, The God of Israel has spoken, the rock of Israel has said to me, When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, He dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes the grass sprout from the earth.

What a benefit when there is a righteous ruler ruling the people, a ruler that speaks the words of God, not his own opinion. Verse 5, For does my house not do so with God? For has he made me with an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure? Now that's pointing to Jesus Christ in the future. For he is of the line of David. For he will not cause to prosper all my help, and my desire, but notice the warning and the opposite now, which is a really a big Hebrew habit in their literature, is they will write opposing points of view in their literature. So they'll say one thing, and then in the Old Testament look for the word, but, and then you're going to see the exact opposite of what was just mentioned. So here comes the but. But worthless men are like thorns that are thrown away. They cannot be taken up by hand. You just can't deal with these people. You can't touch them. You can't get along with them. They're thorns! And notice how they are dealt with.

But the man who touches them arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear, and they will be utterly consumed with fire. And now if you know anything about prophecy, that is very messianic in its tone. Jesus himself is called the Prince of Peace in Isaiah. Let's go there. Isaiah 9, verse 6.

Isaiah 9, verse 6. This is a passage that we all probably know some of you have memorized. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. The government will be on his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Why do we need a Prince of Peace? Some of you might think that's quite an obvious question. But let's get the answer in Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3, verse 13. You can just watch the nightly news and know why we need a Prince of Peace. Romans 3, 13. This describes all of mankind, perhaps even all of us, to one degree or another. As we yield to God and then don't yield to God, we repent and then we slip up and fall astray, listen to the description of us, mankind.

Their throat is an open tomb, and their tongue, they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their way. And the way of peace they have not known. The world needs a leader to show the way of peace because they don't know it. By nature, human beings just don't get along. We don't know the way of peace.

Humans lie. We curse each other with harsh words. We fight each other, cheat each other. We compete with each other. We always try to be first and above each other, just by nature. We literally have no clue how to find the way to peace on our own. So how will Jesus Christ bring peace? Let's get down to brass tacks. The number one way Jesus Christ will bring peace to the earth. In fact, it is the only way. Mankind left the garden of Eden, and we left God, and we have been separate from God ever since.

We went our own way, and Jesus, as the Prince of Peace, will solve that great distance between mankind and our Father in Heaven. God's Holy Days demonstrate how Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Mr. Welch went through those on the first Holy Day. I'm going to go through them again, but I'm only going to describe the events and let you fill in the blanks on which Holy Day it is.

Because the Holy Days actually point to Jesus Christ being the Prince of Peace. And the number one way Jesus Christ makes peace is to reconcile man to God. His sacrifice makes it possible for mankind to have a relationship with God, making the way of peace between man and God possible.

So by dying a horrible death, He takes our death penalty away from us and from all sinners who will eventually repent. Romans chapter 5 and verse 6. Romans 5 and verse 6. For when we were still without strength, Romans 5 verse 6, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet, perhaps for a good man, someone even dared to die.

But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners. Now pay attention to this and what God is doing here, because we're going to get to some personal responsibility at the end of the sermon. And you and I are going to have to do this. This is how we have to be. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified, which means forgiven, by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

For if we were enemies, which means not at peace, if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. Now we are at peace. And how are we at peace? Because we were justified, made right, by the forgiveness of the blood of Jesus Christ. Through the death of His Son and much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

That peace is extended first to the church. Did you miss the first Holy Day? Because remember, I'm not going to tell you what Holy Day it is. We're just going to go through the Holy Days and what they mean. That peace that Jesus Christ gives at His death is extended first to the church, the firstfruits.

And we are called to learn and grow in God's way now, to be reconciled to God now during this dark and evil time. Paul, speaking to the church in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 20, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 20 says, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ.

As though God were pleading through us, meaning the apostles, we implore you, the church, on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. Learn to be at peace with your Maker, to become one with Him, like Jesus Christ is one with Him, exactly like that, in fact. God is going to use His firstfruits, those who repent now in this lifetime, to help Christ at His return. But that return will require some extreme action on God's part. And that extreme action is just to gain mankind's attention. For thousands of years since leaving the Garden of Eden, mankind has actually ignored God.

We read in Romans chapter 3 that the way of peace they haven't known. This is not a peaceful world. We see all the conflict. We heard about all the human trafficking and slavery from Mr. Welch and his sermon, the suffering, the trials that we all go through from Mr. Mollier. I was talking to somebody last night at dinner, and they flew in here to be at the St. George Fee site into Las Vegas. They hadn't been to Vegas in about 20 years. They said, whoa, it has changed.

It is so decadent now. You can hardly even look up. You need to just keep your eyes on the road. And don't look around, because literally it has earned its nickname, the Sin City.

This is not a peaceful world. It is not a world reconciled with God. And you and I are called to be reconciled with God and Jesus Christ now while things are so dark. So God is not going to stand for that forever. He will send judgment on the earth through what his prophet called the great and terrible day of the Lord. And once God has mankind's attention, and a meek and humble people are left on the earth, Jesus, our Prince of Peace, will return and set up God's government on this earth. And then Satan will be bound. Revelation chapter 20 verse 1. Revelation chapter 20 verse 1. Just after in Revelation 19, when Jesus Christ returns, 20 verse 1, then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand a key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed over him, so that he may not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for for a little while. So Jesus Christ returns. Satan is bound, and now the real work begins. And that's where we are today, in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles, picturing the great time of beginning the government of God, reconciling man to God, making peace between man and God.

God will start with a physical nation called Israel because God doesn't fail. God chose Abraham and his descendants, and they failed. But God does not ever fail. He finishes what he starts, so he will bring them back. And they will start again. Jeremiah chapter 30 and verse 3. God finishes what he starts. Jeremiah 30 and verse 3. For behold, days are coming, declares the Lord. When I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord, I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.

Drop down to verse 17. For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord. Because they have called you an outcast, it is Zion from whom no one cares. Thus says the Lord, behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob, and have compassion on his dwellings. The city shall be rebuilt on its mound, and the palace shall stand where it used to be. King Solomon built a palace called the House of the Forest, I believe it was called. And if you read the description of this palace, I don't know how many of you have ever been into a palace. I've never been to Buckingham Palace, but I have been to the palace of a king in the Middle East.

And it was nothing like what Solomon built his palace like. I believe it took him more than a decade to build this palace. Only the finest material was used on every wall, every floor, every beam, every column. It was gorgeous. And King Nebuchadnezzar burned it to the ground when he captured Judah. And all of that glory of Jerusalem, including the palace, will be rebuilt. God's going to bring Israel back, and he's going to start making peace with mankind, with the nation he started with. Verse 19, Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving and voices of those who celebrate. It will be a peaceful time. I will multiply them, and they shall not be few. I will make them honored, and they shall not be small. Then you know what God's going to do? He's not going to stop there. He's going to graft in other nations, starting with two very key critical nations. And he starts with these nations for a reason. Isaiah chapter 19, if you'll turn there. The two nations that God will start with are Egypt and Assyria. Why those two? And how is that significant? Isaiah 19, 21.

And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. In that day will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt. In ancient times, that would have never happened. Any time anybody was taking a road between Egypt and Assyria, it meant war, not peace.

Now there are going to be buddies. 24. In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of Host has blessed, saying, blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, my inheritance.

Why Egypt and Assyria? Those were the two great nations that captured and enslaved Israel. 25. Egypt, when Joseph moved down and then finally all of his brothers moved down and they became a great nation, and finally Pharaoh rose up that didn't know who Joseph was, enslaved the people, murdered the children by throwing them in the river, beat them with whips, wouldn't let them go worship the Lord, chased them through the desert, into the Red Sea, where they were eventually destroyed. Yet that Egypt, those people, the enemy of Israel will now be at peace.

Assyria, the same way. Later, Israel became a nation, a great nation, and turned away from God, constantly turning to God. God would send a judge and restore them. They would repent. Then that judge would die. They would forget God, and another enemy would come in and conquer them, pester them, and then they would repent. And that cycle over and over and over again happened. Finally, they got a king. Same thing. Some of the kings were righteous. Most of them were not. None of them in the northern kingdom of Israel were righteous. And eventually, God sends a mighty power, the Assyrians. Why the Assyrians? Because they were really good at war. They were fantastic at war. They were known as people of war, all the way back in Abraham's time. Do you remember when kings came in and conquered Sodom and Gomorrah, and they took Lot? So Abraham had to go rescue Lot, and he took a few hundred of his men and attacked them at night. Those kings came from countries that were later called the country of Assyria. Those were those people. Abraham described them as men of war. Generations later, they were a world-ruling empire, the Assyrian Empire, and God took them in there and just wiped out the northern ten tribes known as Israel. Left Judah a little while longer for Babylon to conquer. But when Assyria came in and took over the northern tribes of Israel, they moved all the survivors out by stripping them naked, humiliating them, putting a hook in their upper lip, and tying that hook to somebody else's upper lip. And that accomplished several things because they were really good at war. Number one, you wouldn't run away, because it would split your lip wide open. But number two, it puts a permanent scar right in the front of your face, so that if you ever ran away, even when you got to your destination and they took the hook out of your lip, you would have that scar. And that scar would mean property of Assyria, so that nobody would rescue you if you ran away, for fear that they would come and destroy your village for taking in the property of Assyria. I mean, these guys were good at war. But not in this day. In this day, Jesus Christ is going to reconcile Egypt and Assyria back to Israel. Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace! God and Jesus Christ get along with each other. In His kingdom, we will have to know how to resolve conflict and get along with each other. We're learning that now.

You and I, who are called God's faithful, will represent God and Christ and lead those who survive the great tribulation and the day of the Lord. We're still in Revelation 20. Let's look at verse 4. Actually, we weren't. Let's go back to Revelation 20. Revelation chapter 20, verse 4.

We had just read how Satan was bound.

In verse 4, I saw thrones, and they who sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Do you know what judgment means? Well, making a decision. As in a ruler, a leader, having to make decisions every day.

And judgment, or in other words, leadership. Someone to lead the way. What way? The way of peace, brethren. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness of Jesus in the Word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, had not received the mark on their foreheads and on their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. We're not going to cover that today. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power. But they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign, in other words, lead with him a thousand years. How are we going to lead? What will we be teaching? Do you think God and Jesus Christ are going to allow you and I to lead in an unrighteous way? And do you know that God considers conflict unrighteous? James chapter 3 verse 18. Notice the correlation between peace and righteousness.

How conflict is unrighteous, unacceptable, and will not be in the kingdom. Those who cannot solve conflict will not be firstfruits. But we can solve it, brethren. There is a way. Let's notice the correlation. James 3 verse 18. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace. Notice righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Now that word fruit means the things that righteousness produce. The produce, the end result of righteousness, comes from peace, comes from the ability to resolve conflict.

Simple. So simple. That means that you and I need to take peacemaking very seriously in our lives now. Now, our lives, our example right now, represent God and his way. We are ambassadors for peace now. And when we learn to overcome conflict and live in peace with others, then and only then will we be able to teach and lead others in the way of peace. So ask yourself a question. Don't look at your spouse or your brother or your sister. Let this be just you. Just between you and God. A little private moment. Do you have a lot of conflict in your life? Do you have difficulty getting along with certain people? Maybe marital issues, sibling issues, conflict with neighbors and co-workers, maybe your boss.

For your part, your life example, you should reflect God. If you don't control the other person, you're not responsible for the other person. You're not judged by how the other person treats you. But you are evaluated on how you treat them in response. Peacemakers. It's a really big deal to God and Jesus Christ. Remember the opening, overriding principle of this sermon today. It's better to eat a dry crust of bread in peace. This is God's opinion. And to have everything you could ever want filled with conflict.

Conflict with your neighbors, your co-workers, your boss, your spouse.

God and Jesus Christ require peace. So are you a peacemaker? If you can say, not really, or sometimes and sometimes not, you're in good company. Welcome to the human race, myself included. But we have a job to do. Do you, does your life, proclaim the way of God? The way of God. Do you proclaim God's righteousness through your life? 1 Peter 2, verse 9. 1 Peter 2.

Peter really gets to the point here, and he's very specific.

Very specific. He says, 1 Peter 2, verse 9, But you, brethren, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. That means very special to God.

Yes, God knows you're not perfect yet. Yes, he knows you have conflict. He's not confused as to why he chose you.

In fact, when you're at the feast and you're tired and you're stressed and you haven't eaten good home-cooked food and you're eating at restaurants all the time and your stomach might be a little upset, oh, conflict is easy.

But you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people.

Why? We know we're not better than anybody else. In fact, we might be a little deficient in certain departments.

Doesn't matter. We have God. We have Jesus Christ. Why are we his special people? Read on. That you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And how are you supposed to proclaim his praises? How are you supposed to proclaim the praises of the one who called you? Are you a Beyond Today presenter? Are you Gary Petty, Steve Myers, or Darris McNeely? I don't see them out there. Nope. Yeah, me either. Do you write for the magazine? Some of you do. I know. I don't. Most of us don't. How do we proclaim?

That's not what Peter was talking about. You and I, we have a different role to fill. A very important role, and it is a role right now. In preparation of being a leader of peace in the millennium, Peter explains very specifically what he means by you and I proclaiming God's praises. Here's how we're supposed to do it. Drop down to verse 12. First Peter, chapter 2, verse 12. Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, oh, have you seen those Church of God people?

They miss a whole week of work to go have some religious convention. They may, by your good works, which they observe glorify God in the day of visitation.

Do you take that seriously? Do you take personal responsibility to be a peacemaker seriously? I would like to give some practical examples of where we can challenge ourselves in our daily lives to become better peacemakers, just like Jesus Christ and God the Father, because that's who they are. That's their mantra. If you read how the Apostle Paul starts most of his or many of his letters, he says something like, peace be with you, or the God of peace be with you. He'll end his letters with that sometimes. Peace is throughout the entire Bible. God and Jesus Christ are all about peace.

So I'm going to go through a few, a little bit more than a few, practical ways that you and I can challenge ourselves to become better peacemakers, starting with, yes, you guessed it, husbands and wives. Husbands and wives. Being a minister is a privilege. It's also challenging when it comes to marital conflict. I have given the same advice to many, many different couples, having the same, almost exact conflict. And some of them solve it, and some of them don't. And it really depends on whether or not they are committed to solve it. Because the advice, the scriptures, they're the same. But you have to pick up that challenge and be the one to solve it. The scriptures don't solve it for you. They tell you how to solve it. So here's how, brethren. 1 Peter 3, verse 7. This is a really salient point that Peter makes here. It works both directions, even though he applies it to husbands, because husbands really need to hear this. But it actually works for wives as well. This is a beautiful point. 1 Peter 3, 7. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor, meaning great respect. Yes, women need respect, too. We think men are all about respect, and we are. It's true. It's not wrong.

But women need respect, but they need it from their husband. Not put downs in hostility and arguments and disagreements, and then ignoring them completely. They need understanding and honor respect. Honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, physically, not mentally. Oh, when we work together, oh, does it work? Does a marital relationship represent God and Jesus Christ? Oh, absolutely, when we get along. And when we don't get along, because we are so different. And when we don't understand each other, when we don't listen to each other, we don't live in an understanding way, like Peter said. Conflict, an unhappy house, children growing up with issues, little twitches.

Since they, talking about the wives, are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. One of the most common, I'll just give you an example, one of the most common conflicts that we deal with in marital counseling is essentially a huge misunderstanding between males and females. It's just, we miss each other. That's not what she meant. That's not what he meant. And we deal with that constantly. One of the really common ones is when she starts listing things in the past. Oh, yeah. She starts to get historical. Men call that hysterical.

But the man usually misunderstands.

She pulls out the laundry list from the past, and she says, you did this then, and you did this, and you're thinking as a male that you have to litigate every single one of those things that she brought up. We've already covered that. And you start to make assumptions as a male that your wife is a grudge holder, an unforgiving person, possibly unconverted. Uh-huh.

That's not what she's doing, guys. You just want to solve whatever it is that's bothering her now. Do you know what she's doing? Trying to solve what it is that's bothering her now. She's living in the same moment you're living in. She's simply trying to relate to you how all of those past things made her feel, and that's the same way she feels now. And the only one she wants you to solve is now. But that's not what men do. Since we misunderstand the laundry list, and this is really common, we hear this all the time, he starts to justify and argue or accuse for all of those things in the past. Yeah, but back in 1973, when I did that, this was going on, and I've learned since then. And then women tend to misunderstand what the man is doing, because she's not back in 1973 or 1985 or 1991 or 2000 or 2010. She's here now. So the only thing that she hears is, your feelings now don't matter, and I'm justified and you're wrong. So he misunderstood and judged her and started to argue everything in the past. She misunderstood what he was doing and thought he was saying she's worthless. Now they're super angry with each other, and a fight starts could last a week, could last longer.

All over a misunderstanding.

Gentlemen, live with your wives with understanding. When she gets historical, remember she's living in the now. And the only thing you need to solve is how you hurt or how you bothered or frustrated her now. Find it and solve it. Ladies, realize when you give a list of things, a man's going to put every one of those things in a little box in his mind. And he's going to go and try to deal with every one of those little things, even though you don't want him to. He's going to check them off and that's going to hurt. He thinks he has to because he thinks that's the issue. Because you said it, therefore I have to deal with it, even though he doesn't. He needs to deal with the now. One way you could be understanding of the male is to simply say, this is what I'm feeling now. You have to do that with guys. You have to make it really plain. To you it's plain because you're so intuitive. The female mind is so intuitive. I mean, duh. This happened then and then and then and then. It's all connected. It's related. See the relation? No, they don't. I love my daughters, my beautiful daughters. They say, men are a bunch of bad ideas covered with dirt. That's not all they think. They also think they're really cute and gorgeous. But I can see their point of view. From their point of view. Right? Because we are so different. Live with each other. Strive to understand each other. Reach across. Some of you do this really, really well. Some of you haven't quite figured that out yet. The overriding principle is in Ephesians 5 in verse 33. I'm going to wrap this up. Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let his wife see that she respects her husband. Learn to live in peace now. Peace is what we will be teaching in the kingdom. How to get along with each other. How to avoid conflict. How to resolve conflict. That applies to spouses. It applies to children and parents. It applies to siblings. Learn to get along with each other. Learn to obey your parents. What about on the job? You know, Proverbs 12 and verse 24 says, the hand of the diligent will rule, but the slothful will be put to forced labor. Do you realize, young adults, you have a golden opportunity? I was speaking to the chief operating officer of a major corporation in the United States, talking about the difficulty in the labor force today. People don't want to show up to work. They don't want to work from home. They don't want to follow rules. They want to make up their own rules and what they do in the company. And companies are struggling to adjust, to keep a workforce working. I mean, it's a crisis, which is perfect for you. Because that word, diligent, in the Hebrew, the diligent will rule, but the slothful will be put to forced labor. In other words, someone always driving you hard. That Hebrew word is cheruz, probably totally butchered that, but it means incisive. In other words, determination or eager. Diligent doesn't mean working hard only. The word in Hebrew means someone who does what they're told quickly.

What a golden opportunity you have. If you are the one, when your boss comes in and says, I need this done, you are always consistently doing it quickly. Your boss will have peace. Your boss will not always have conflict with you. And not only, I mean, this is a double benefit for you. Not only will you do very well in life by doing what you're told to do quickly, you will also learn to be like your elder brother, Jesus Christ, and lead in the kingdom. You will become like the Prince of Peace. Because your employer will have peace with you. Your employer will not have conflict with you. Your employer will love to see you walk through the door.

Great opportunity. Remember that. You represent Jesus Christ. We represent Jesus Christ in the community, to our neighbors at the store. But also, very importantly, we represent Jesus Christ in the church among ourselves, brethren. We haven't always done so well lately.

Romans 14, verse 10. Romans 14, verse 10. But why do you judge your brother?

Why do you show contempt for your brother? For we all shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

We are to be learning the way of peace now. That means learning how to treat your spouse, children, parents, extended family, coworkers, treating your neighbors, better than our human nature tells us to do. Our human nature prompts us to go the opposite way of peace. The world needs a leader to teach the way of peace, and our job is to learn how to live peaceably with all men. Romans 12, verse 18. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. The world needs a peaceful solution. We need the Prince of Peace. Proverbs 29, verse 2. We started with King David. We'll close it out with King Solomon, his son. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. And what did we hear in James 3 about those who are righteous? The fruit of righteousness is sown in what? Peace. When the righteous, those people who can solve conflict, rule. When they're in authority, people are happy.

But when a wicked man rules, the wicked do whatever they want to do. The people groan. Jesus is coming back to be the Prince of Peace. He's not going to allow his first fruits, you and me, to be unskilled in making peace. If you are unable to resolve conflict, you will not produce righteousness. So one of our very important responsibilities now is to learn to make peace. Don't seek your own way. Don't get revenge. Don't try to hurt other people when they hurt you, in other words. Don't even hold on to anger or resentment. But learn to let that subside in you. Let the aggression burn out.

The Prince of Peace has called you to join him to be a peacemaker. In order to prepare for our job in the Kingdom, if possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Thank you.