Peace be With You

My wife and I have had opportunity to visit some 61 countries and protectorates around the world.

North America, Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, various places around this world.

The continents are filled with people approaching 8 billion people. People going to and fro in their daily lives. These people, whether they're in Asia or the Middle East, Africa, whether they're in the Americas, whether they are in a small country like Cambodia, a big country like Russia, people all tend to have the same desire. It's a common desire in every country, every city, every village. And if you had the opportunity to go out into the countryside and actually talk with the people through an interpreter, you'll find the commonality of something that each of you have in common with them. Let's notice in Genesis chapter 1, in verse 26, when God created Adam and Eve, God created the world around us in the symbiotic relationship that it has, where all things work together and they promote good, they promote life. God said in Genesis 1 in verse 26, then God said, let us make man in our image and in our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him male and female. So God established beings, you and me and our forefathers, in an image that was supposed to work well and be conducive to life and to the happiness and to the beauty that he had made here on earth. And he gave humans the authority and the oversight, dropping down now to verse 31, then God saw everything that he had made and indeed it was very good. When you get to meet people wherever they are in their typical environments, you sense that things are very good. God created us and when he was finished creating us, we were in his sight very good, along with his creation. Merriam Webster defines the word peace as this, a state of tranquility or quiet, a freedom from civil disturbance, a state of security or order within a community provided for by law, freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions, harmony and personal relations, a state or period of mutual concord. That is what our God is. He's a God of love and a God of peace.

Yet when we look at the world's landscape through a slightly different lens, one that comes to us through sources of news or information, we see that we live in a world filled with conflict. We don't immediately sense that often because people tend to work together in a rather cohesive way. People love their families generally. They care for their environment to a degree. They want the best for themselves and for those whom they love. And yet we see our world teetering today. Teetering as more and more people seek power.

More and more become self-centered and that tends towards greed and violence. And we hear of wars. In fact, we see wars at times and there's an uneasiness as the so-called big clock is now two minutes to midnight, they say, the doomsday clock. And it's an ever-present thought and a reminder as more countries pursue these weapons of great destruction and now, attached to them, artificial intelligence so that they are sort of have a mind and a control of their own once they're set free in mass in swarms. No one quite knows where the world is headed. But where does peace come from? And do you have any personal responsibility for bringing peace? Today I'd like to examine the true source of peace and then look at it through the biblical lens of your and my responsibility to bring peace to your surroundings today. Not just in the future, not just putting it off to the world tomorrow, as it were, but today that we are to be engaging peace within our surroundings.

Let's begin with the age-old question, where do wars and fightings come from?

You may be familiar with James chapter 4, but let's go back and re-familiarize ourself with some details in James chapter 4. We'll begin in verse 1.

James chapter 4 and verse 1. Where do wars and fights come from among you?

Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

The interesting thing we've heard here already is this is about us. We've heard the word your three times. We haven't heard anything about the world or society or others, but where do wars come from among us? In verse 2 it says, you lust and do not have, you murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight in war. We might think, well, this can't apply to me. I don't even own a weapon. But what does James talk about in the previous chapter as one of the biggest weapons everybody has? The tongue of character assassination, assassinating people's characters. So we do have within our minds an incredible power to either create division and conflict out of selfishness. Verse 2, lust and do not have or covet. These are self-centered things.

You fight in war. You do not have because you do not ask. You do not ask, you do not receive, because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. And then he uses the term adulterers and adultresses. I think many times we would just close the Bible and say, oh, now, wait a minute, I'm not fighting wars. I'm not an adulterer or an adulteress. He's speaking here spiritually. There are two suitors. You and I are betrothed to one. The other is trying to attract us as well. We should not dabble with the other suitors, Satan the devil, when we are betrothed to marry Jesus Christ. We, in other words, should be of the godly love, Holy Spirit mindset of love and joy and peace, which means bringing together. So as agents of peace, we are children of God who is the God of peace, and it's from him that peace come from.

Do current events have anything to do with self-centeredness? Well, the Bible answers this question just a few pages previously in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 1.

But know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come.

Perilous has the root word peril. It means danger, something that is a potential detriment to one's health or well-being, a detriment, a risk to that definition that Miriam Webster gave of the word peace. So it's something that could really be dangerous in the last days.

Verse 2, the first word tells us why. The word for. Another preposition there could be because. Because, in other words, it's going to be dangerous because men will be lovers of themselves. Now let's stop and consider here black and white, dark and light, right and wrong, good and evil. These are opposites, aren't they? God in his creation made everything to flow for the good of all things. That is what God is. He is love. Love does good things from its heart and desire, but as it processes two performing good things, the incidentals also are good. As God goes to help us be part of his family, he also creates a wonderful world that we live in. And that wonderful world contributes to us and our relationship. And as you and I as godly people go to help and love others, we have an example that others can see, which is not only helpful to them encouraging wise, but as we have opportunity to do good to people, God and the children of God rub off in good ways. So it's all good. It's all love. And love is outgoing concern.

Outgoing concern. But here we see the polar opposite. God is light and here we see darkness.

Men will be lovers of themselves. The same thing happens. As a person is a lover of himself, he may have an objective to go get something, but on the way to that, he will carelessly impact those things around him negatively. He will ruin his environment and his quest. He will bump into relationships. He'll take advantage of people. He will maybe even unknowingly cause damage to their property or to their character as he pursues that thing. And so consequently, there's a 180 degree difference to this course of life of men being lovers of themselves. Lovers of money, boasters of me, proud of me, blasphemers of others, dissapedient to others, etc., etc.

In verse 5, it says, having a form of godliness. Now we should know all about this.

Having a form of godliness is not about God, but a form of benevolence, let's say.

A form of environmentalists. And a form of good, you see. A form of choosing good and evil yourself and deciding what is best and what is not. In other words, it might be, oh, we want to help mothers, so we'll allow them to kill their full-term child just before it's born.

That is sort of a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Denying the true God. Denying the laws and the ways of love for all.

So when we look at the things in this life and in this world, it says at the end of that particular verse, and from such people turn away. You and I are supposed to do a 180 from that type of self-centered behavior and be part of light, not darkness. A part of love, not good. And that's up to each one of us to pursue that. It strikes me how unpeaceful humanity is, and you often hear the stories of throughout humans' existence, there have only been this many years without war.

And to tell you personally to me, that's a statistic that I appreciate and understand, but I don't live it. It doesn't really ring with any kind of emotion. However, when you dive into a bit of history, you just take a period in epoch, maybe during the Middle Ages or the Dark Ages or say the Protestant Reformation, instead of looking at what the politics of the day was, to dive down and look at the people and see what it was like to walk in their shoes and live their lives. Then you begin to see what the world has really been like down through time. I won't bore you with those details. Recently, I was doing some research about the history of the Pacific Northwest and how Western civilization came to dominate this area. It's kind of curious. A recent discovery found that an American, I guess you would say, a captain. He was an adventurer. He stepped out in the late 1700s, right after Britain had ceased war with America and yet blockaded the United States, where it could have no international trade and the country was sort of falling apart.

This particular man, John Kendrick, did what everybody did at the time. He went out on the high seas and stole two ships from the British. And of course, you know, that didn't foster good relationships. But he set out to come around South America and up here and establish some trade for the United States with China and Japan in otter furs, that is, not seals but otter furs, and worked with the Indians on Vancouver Island. Of course, he met the Spanish who were there, who wanted to sink his ship because they wanted the otters. The Russians were coming down. They wanted the otter pelts. The British were there. Captain George Vancouver, Captain McCook had been here before. All these people were in there, and on the island there were wars going on among the Indian tribes, not only there but all the way down here throughout what is now the Salish Sea.

It was dangerous for any western ship to even enter through the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and few would even try because of all the war that was going on. When they finally got some pelts and sailed to Asia, they stopped these ships, various country ships, at Hawaii for restocking. Hawaii was in civil war among the cousins and brothers fighting for control, and they got some cannons and they got some muskets from ships passing through to help them fight their war, put them on canoes and started blasting each other. They got over to China, and the Chinese were recoiling from various skirmishes, including the Opium Wars with the United Kingdom, or Great Britain at the time. Japan, the Sami rise. When they got up there, the Sami rise were in tight control of Japan and repelling anybody from the outside, and that was just a start. Back in Europe, things were going down fast. Spain was basically versus everyone because it had had a 15th century papal bull that gave it basically the Western Hemisphere without even going there, and they were trying to defend that on the high seas. France against Britain and Austria. You had the French Revolutionary Wars at the end of the 1700s.

Britain versus Spain and the sea skirmishes. Then Britain allies with Spain. Then Spain allies with France. Then they get defeated by Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar. You have Russia versus Sweden and Turkey. The New Polyanic Wars were coming just about to break out between France and the United Kingdom, Austria, Russia. And here on little Vancouver Island, you have the three nations starting to compete with each other and cannon fire being shot. And while they were wrestling to gain control of some lands up here, things changed on them. And adversaries back in Europe had signed peace treaties that they didn't even know about. It gets very confusing. I'd like to read you something from a book called The Culture of War. This book is considered among professional soldiers and military, you might call it management, higher management. Some of them have said that this is a groundbreaking book that people ought to know about. And all it is, is a look back at war throughout the human existence. The experience of war turns out, according to this author, and he paints a pretty good picture, isn't just an occurrence. It's not something that happens, but rather it's a culture. Let me just read you something here. Fighting itself can be a source of great, perhaps even the greatest, joy among men. Out of this joy and fascination, entire culture has grown from the war pain of ancient tribal warriors to various things that people decorate themselves with today, from the invention of chess, which is warring on a board around 600, to cyber-era combat simulators, to war games played by many people, children today, on their electronic devices. The culture of war, it turns out, has its own traditions, laws, rituals, music, art, literature, and monuments since the beginning of civilization.

The culture of war argues that men and women today are just as fascinated by war as they ever have been in the past, and a military that has lost touch with the culture of war is doomed, not merely to defeat, but to disintegration. What this shows is humanity, led by Satan, since the Garden of Eden, is all about conflict, opposite of peace. In fact, it relishes the concept of war.

You can think of various individuals down through time that have fought wars. I was reading another book this week, and it talks about the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, some of these, you might say, lesser educated warrior types. And if you look around, they existed in places like Scotland, and they just loved to war. Some of the Scandinavians and the Norwegians, you know, they just loved to get in their ships and go war. And if there's no war happening elsewhere, they'd fight themselves. You know, humans have just made a culture of war. It reminds me of Tiglath-Pileser. There's recently an inscription from Tiglath-Pileser whom we read about in the Bible. It was discovered in biblical archaeology. I'd like to read you just a little bit of the royal inscription that was found at the slab at Nimrud, or the city of Nimrod.

Palace of Tiglath-Pileser, great king, mighty king, king of the world, king of Assyria, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four corners of the world. This is his declaration.

You can see it's a culture of war, and the Assyrians were such a warring people. I was in Istanbul a few years ago looking at the the some of the, I don't know, inscriptions, drawings, carvings, whatever you want to call them, bas-reliefs that these armies lay down. And it was just wall after wall from Babylon, from that part of the world. And he says here, from the beginning of my reign until my 17th year. So in 17 years, notice, and I've got five pages, I'm not going to read them to you, but just I'll give you a little insight. I captured the tribes of Itu, Rubu, Hamuranu, Luhuatu, Nabatu, Hyrindu, Ruwa, Liatu, Marusu, Kukura, the Armenians, the Tigris, Euphrates, the lower sea of the rising sun. I annexed those areas to Assyria. And like a threshing sledge, I trampled down the lands of Bitzilani and captured their kings. I destroyed the city of Sabahu and Durbalaya, their large cities, making them like a mound of ruins. And I brought their people to Assyria. I entered Babylon. I exercised authority over Cardunius. You know, I could just keep reading this and reading this how like a threshing sledge Assyria came down and just conquered these people. One individual, he said, I defeated him and took his camp. He became frightened of the terrifying radiance of my weapons. I confined Sardu in the land of Uratu and such and I afflicted a large defeat upon him. For a distance of 70 leagues, I proudly marched through the extensive lands of this land and that land and I conquered Habaju and Mount Nal and built a city and so on and so forth. So that's page three. Here comes page four. See page four? Pretty big. Down in this conquest, listen to this, moreover, I overwhelmed and flew back from Egypt like a bird. I considered this and that. As for the land of Bit-Humriah, that's Israel.

One of his conquests that we read of in Scripture. In the land of Bit-Humriah, Israel, I brought to Assyria its auxiliary army and all of its people. That was the ten tribes, the northern ten tribes.

I killed Pequah, the king. You read that in Scripture. I placed Hoshiah as a king over them.

I received from them ten talents of gold, talents of silver. I brought them to Assyria.

I only printed out five pages. Towards the end of page 47 in the book, entitled, Jehoi has in the land of Judah. It says here, Hyrum at the land of Tyre is mentioned, and Pissrus and Carchemish, etc., etc., going down land of Ashkelon and then Jehoah has of the land of Judah. And he brought gold, silver, iron, lead, multicolored garments, linen wool, garments, the garments of their lands, red-purple wool, costly articles, produce of the sea and dry land, commodities of their lands, royal treasures, horses, etc. You see that there is and has been this culture of war that permeates everything everywhere. The time we spend in other countries, these are not history. These are current events.

Sometimes, as my wife and I have traveled to and from Africa, we have had our plane aircraft diverted different routes depending on which countries below us are at war.

It has not been uncommon for us to be in one place and have explosions take place right where we were or where we're going. One time as we enter the land of Israel, we had to pick a different entry point because 30 rockets were coming down at our scheduled stop. So we simply shifted over and kept going. In Isaiah chapter 10 and verse 5, we see that coming up into this end time when people will be lovers of themselves, this is going to come down on the 12 tribes of Israel once again.

Isaiah here speaks to Israel after it was already taken into captivity, as we read.

In Isaiah chapter 10, we'll begin in verse 5 here. This is a future prophecy for the last days.

Woe to Assyria, rod of my anger! We just read from the Assyrian, Tiglath-Pileser, who took the tribes of Israel captive, and the staff in whose hand is my indignation. I will send him against an ungodly nation and against the people of my wrath. I will give him charge to seize the spoil, to take the prey, to tread them down like the mire of the streets. So there is a future time that Assyria and its culmination of 10 nations, a band, will certainly sift out a remnant, as you can see down later in this chapter in verse 20, about a remnant of Israel that will escape. It says, it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel and such have escaped of the house of Judah will never again depend upon them who had defeated them. We'll trust in these various nations and alliances, but then they will depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. Verse 24, it says, Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, O my people who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian. He shall strike you with the rod and lift up his staff against you in the manner of Egypt. For yet a little while in my indignation will cease, as will my anger, in their destruction. We see a world that is not only not at peace, but has had a 75-year pause due to one item, the nuclear bomb. And that one item has not changed the culture of war, it has just gone other places. It has gone into development, it has gone into hyper-strategizing, it's gone into video games, it's gone into the minds of people, but it hasn't been unleashed.

The church has taught for a long time that Assyria is in modern Europe. I'd like to read something that was published yesterday from the Gatestone Institute. It discovered an agreement that was forged between Germany and France recently, and I'm just going to read excerpts from that agreement from Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking in Aachen, Germany, noted that the city was home to Charlemagne. Charlemagne, you may remember, crowned himself the Emperor of Rome, and she says that she describes Charlemagne as the father of Europe. Merkel said that the newly signed pack aims to build a Franco-German, quote, common military culture and to contribute to the creation of a European army. You know, we've spoken of these things developing over time, and to see the signs of them, at least in this case, the desire for them to take place, is very interesting.

She said, worldwide multilateralism is under pressure. In other words, everybody working together in a world, in a kind of a one-world economic government for prosperity, that is under pressure.

74 years after the end of the Second World War, what was seemingly self-evident is again being questioned. It's interesting that the Chancellor of Germany is saying that. She then says, therefore, first of all, this situation requires a new founding of our responsibility within the European Union, the responsibility of Germany and France in this European Union. Secondarily, it requires a redefinition of the direction of our cooperation. Thirdly, it requires a common understanding of our international role, which can lead to joint action. In Isaiah chapter 59, verse 2, we find the result of this culture-of-war mindset or the self-centered direction, as Paul mentioned in 2 Timothy. We see where all this is headed and what the basis of it is. Isaiah 59, verse 2, but your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has murdered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. Verse 5, they hatch vipers' eggs and weave spiders' webs.

Verse 6, their webs will not become garments, nor will they cover themselves with their works, for their works are works of iniquity and the act of violence is in their hands.

Their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their ways. They have made themselves crooked paths, and whoever takes that way shall not know peace. So we can see the cause of this, just as the Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy, is that people are lovers of themselves, and whatever concept they have of godliness in their own well-intentioned way feeds into that self-centered mindset.

And it is not a path of peace, and they will not know peace going that way.

As we know it says in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4 that Satan is the god of this world, and he is certainly the god of war, the father of lies and murders.

The traits Jesus described when he said in John 844, you are of your father the devil, you are of your pater, is the Greek word, the author, the father, the author of lies and of murders, you see, where God is the author, the father of love and joy and peace and life and light.

Without God, then, without the source of peace, they do not know peace. Their path is crooked, it's destructive, it's wasting. If we look in Galatians chapter 5, I'm not going to turn there, but you would see in verse 19, 20, 21 what the human heart is like. And that human heart is about me and the things that I can go and do. But when you drop down in verses 22 and 23, it says, but the fruit of the Spirit, God's Spirit, the fruit of God coming into us is love and joy and peace. God is the source of peace, and for one without God, there is no peace, as we've just read.

In 1 Corinthians 14 verse 33, it says, for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.

We begin to see then very clearly that peace comes from God, from godliness, from God's ways, his laws, his kingdom, his mindset, and it should be coming from his people, should it not? It should be coming from his people. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 9 now in verse 2. Isaiah is an interesting book. It looks in one sense at the day in which it was written, and it also looks forward. It also looks forward to another time. Isaiah chapter 9 in verse 2, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. See, there is hope in the future when the knowledge of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. Those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, a great light has shined. We can be part of that light in the future with Jesus Christ when he comes back.

We can assist him as a helper, as a bride, as a co-ruler, and heir. We can look forward to that. But what about now? Dropping down to verse 6, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

Ah! For us at this time, we have an opportunity to be part of the kingdom of God in this sense.

The kingdom of God exists in heaven right now, and we pray to its king, to its God, its Lord, its master, its great God. That is our Father. In fact, we are children of the kingdom of God in that sense. When we come under the Father of the kingdom, when we are brothers, we are called of the Son of that kingdom, and unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder. It should be on his shoulder right now within his church. This is his body. He is the head of the church. We should be submitting to him, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And he should be those things to us now.

A Prince of Peace. And we are to be ambassadors of reconciliation, which is peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.

In John chapter 14 and verse 27, John 14 is some directives from Jesus Christ to us. Strong directives. Commands. We are reminded of those later in 1, 2, and 3 John, back in the later writings of John as well, the commands that we are to keep. Let's notice here in Matthew 16. John chapter 14 and verse 27, peace I leave with you.

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Those words are worth reflecting on and thinking on. Not only is he giving us peace, but he's giving us something that we are to become like he is.

Not as the world do I give you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

In verse 31, but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandments, so I do. He went to love and serve us, and then he tells us, in verse 15, if you love me, keep my commandments. So there's this authority chain from the God the Father that went to him, told him what to do, what to say, how to live, to submit to the great gift that he has given us. And then in reciprocity, he now says, if you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper that he might abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth. Says the Spirit of truth at the end of verse 17, for it dwells with you and will be in you. Now that spirit then engenders in us the very things that God has, love and joy and peace with long suffering as we continue and we persevere in that love and gentleness and goodness and good deeds and faith and humility and balance, moderation.

All these things are good as we go through life. Those things should affect all that's around us in a good and positive way. So just as Jesus Christ is a source of peace and he gave us that peace, it wasn't for us to be selfish with, it was for us to imitate him and emulate him in living peace. In chapter 16 of John in verse 33, these things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you'll have tribulation. Notice he didn't say war. You're not going to go out and entangle yourselves in the warfare of society, but you'll suffer because you're different.

You will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. In Romans chapter 8 and verse 5, the apostle Paul helps explain how these things work in us, work together, for the good not only of us, but for all. Romans chapter 8 and verse 5 verses 5 and 6.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Now, oftentimes we look at our salvation in a selfish sense. Oh, I hope I get in the Kingdom. I hope I get saved. I hope God likes me. See? That's selfish, honestly, in that sense. It should be about, I hope we get in the Kingdom. I hope God's Kingdom expands. I hope that all humans ultimately get to join us in the Kingdom of God, you see. And as we go through, just notice his words here, if we live according to the Spirit, set our minds on the things of the Spirit, the wake, as it were, behind us should be good for all things that it touches. Family, our friends, our employer, our environment, the Kingdom of God, reflecting well on God, on God's way, should just be good. But previously, those who put their minds on the things of the flesh and see what kind of a wake that brings out, and it's not helpful really to anyone.

For to be carnally minded is death. Carnally just means physically minded, about the materialism, about the things of me in my life.

But those, let's see, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Spiritually minded is life and it's peace, not just for me. For all around, you see, it is the love of God that brings joy and peace to all around. So we become, in a sense, agents of it. So when we think of peace, do we think, oh yeah, the Kingdom's coming and I'll reign with Christ and then we'll bring peace? No. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ himself brought love and compassion. You know, as he traveled down the roads, what did he do? He would see somebody sick and he would heal them.

He would do various miracles. He was a wonderful person to be around. He enriched people's lives.

And then he gave himself ultimately for all humanity. I mean, the wake that followed him was all good, all the time. And we are to be Christ-like ourselves.

I'm reading here. We find, verse 7, that the carnal physical mind is enmity or hostility against God because it's the opposite way. See, it's the darkness, it's the self versus the love and the light because it's not subject to the law of God. In verse 9, but you are not of the flesh, but of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. We need to stir up that Spirit as it were.

And not only will we be agents of love, not only will we be children of God, but we will also be agents of peace. Notice in 1 Corinthians, just a little bit forward, chapter 1 and verses 2 and 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 2, to the church of God, which is at Corinth.

Church of God at Corinth was a church in a very interesting location. If you ever walk the streets of Corinth, you'll just see pagan this, pagan that, temple this, temple that. Any imaginal depravity that humanity thought would be good or fun was in Corinth, and here was a church. And so the church members there in Corinth are being spoken to. And those there were sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, that peace should come wherever we are. It may not be reciprocated, it may not be understood, and yet God gives us peace, and the result is a peaceful relationship. It says in Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 7, Proverbs 16 verse 7, when a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. See how that sort of rub off, that wake as it were, as we pass through life, even our enemies convert to a peaceful relationship with us, because we're not out to win, we're not out to get something from them. Jesus Christ didn't come to sort of do something for himself, make himself great, neither should we.

He said in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 9, what are often called the beatitudes, or attitudes that we ought to have, things that we ought to do, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 9, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. So peacemaking is not sort of for the future. Peacemaking is not sort of an item we don't have to be concerned about.

If we want to be called children of God, sons and daughters of God, then we're peacemakers, because that's what God does. And that peace isn't sort of a worked out agreement of, if you'll do this, I'll do that. No, it's just unconditional love. Whatever the situation is, hey, I love, I care, how can I help? Take a loss? Fine. But, you know, at the same time, we tend to avoid evil and getting caught up in evil, and yet at the same time, who's going to take a loss?

If no one takes a loss, you have war, you have a fight, you have a lawsuit, you have something.

But if we, like Jesus Christ, will take the loss, then we make peace.

I've heard some very good examples from various church members through the years who have taken the loss and the peace that results and the blessings that flow. It's a wonderful thing that we have. A great example we have from Jesus Christ. How can we be a peacemaker? In Romans 12 and verse 16, we're given some biblical instruction as to how to make peace. Romans 12, we'll read verses 16 through 20. Be of the same mind toward one another. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things.

See, where you have conflict is somebody wants something that shorts someone else, and that creates a certain amount of resentment or hard feelings. So bring that down to a level playing field, or maybe even slightly below. Be more of a giver than the receiver. Be like Abraham and Lot. He says, Lot, you just pick whatever you want first. I'll take what's left.

So here in verse 16, Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. In verse 10, he says, Be kindly affectionate to one another, with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another. You prefer the other person. It's hard to be angry when somebody's looking up at you, praising you, and helping you. So going on down here, don't be wise in your own opinion at the end of verse 16. I said, Oh, my opinion is better than your opinion. I have to have my way. I have to win every argument. If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you. Kind of a mindset. Verse 17, Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for the good things in the sight of all men.

If it possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Verse 19, Do not avenge yourselves. Remember, God said, Vengeance is mine. I will repay.

Just leave that with God. Let God perform some miracles in your life. If your enemy is hungry, verse 20, feed him. Wow. You care about everyone, including those who spitefully use you and mistreat you.

And that is peacemaking. Might be hard to do, but it is peacemaking. When somebody is jeering at you and stabbing you and ridiculing you and offering you something to drink that no human should ever put in their mouth and you respond with, Father, forgive them where they don't know what they're doing, that's very peaceful. Peacemaking.

If he is thirsty, give him a real drink, it says here, verse 20. For in doing so, you'll heap coals of fire on his head. Well, that shouldn't be the motive. But you will in a sense that the response will be, he'll say, oh no, wow. He'll be like those same people in Acts 3 who said, wow, men and brethren, what shall we do? We killed the Lord.

And the answer was, I mean, what shall we do? The answer was, it's all good. Repent, be baptized, receive God's Holy Spirit, have a wonderful life. That's what you can do. That's ultimate peacemaking. Do not overcome, do not be overcome by evil, verse 21, but overcome evil with good. And there's that light and dark, the black and white, the 180 degrees.

Don't participate in the evil side. Don't even go there. Just keep doing the good side. If you look in Colossians chapter 3 and 4, in the first part of verse 4, you'll see the summary of peacemaking. You can take that home as a Bible study and just read Colossians 3 in the first part of 4 and just read how peacemaking is actually done.

The Apostle Paul had a lot of peacemaking to do in his life. He created a lot of war, in a sense. He was killing people in the church, and yet he came back a different individual that had to actually live and create peace within the very church that he had persecuted. He did an excellent job, and he is an excellent example and a source of information for us. I just mentioned that passage to you. The thing that people want everywhere in all of those towns, in all those villages, in all those countries, they want the opportunity to have life with their family and have some productivity and peaceful existence.

Everybody wants that. Whether you're standing out in Africa, whether you're in Asia, China, whether you're just one of the people in Sudan or Croatia, in Russia, where things are very difficult, or down in Central America. Whenever you talk with the individual, they really want a peaceful life with the opportunity to be productive and enjoy what God created that was good. Let's look over in Micah chapter 4. Micah kind of hides out here in the Old Testament, some of the shorter minor prophets.

Micah chapter 4, we'll begin in verse 1. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days. Here are the latter days again. We've seen in the latter days that a cereal will come and really take down the numbers of Israel. And they will only have a small remnant left. We've seen in the last days that self-centeredness will rise. We've seen in the last days that Satan will be cast down to this earth and have a short time and will get humanity all riled up in their war culture.

Now we find in Micah chapter 4, in the latter days, the mountain of the Lord's house, the mountain referring prophetically to a country, a heavenly country, the mountain of the Lord's house, the kingdom of God, shall be established on top of the mountains.

It'll be over all the other nations. It shall be exalted above the hills, the smaller countries, and many people shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways. See, there is the source of peace, and people will come to embrace that after what humanity has been through with its culture of war and selfishness.

He will now say, hey, we have a new father. Let's go up there. He will teach us his ways. We shall walk in his paths, for out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples, rebuke strong nations afar off, and they will change their culture from war to peace. They will beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks.

Nations shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore. You know, one of the sad things you can do in history is go back to the invention of the camera and then look at historical photos for places like China and Japan and various other countries. And you'll see the old country's national symbols and their buildings and all, and usually a little inscription, this was destroyed in the next war. How sad that is!

You can go from place to place around the world and look at the ruins. And these places destroyed by war, destroyed by war. It's as if the culture of war builds up wonderful things for people to embellish people's lives and then they tear them down. They just love to tear them down.

They name the ships the destroyers, you know, and it's about destruction and they're professional killers, professional destroyers with things that blow up and things that pierce and destroy and destroy and destroy and destroy. Humanity is very good at destroying. To take all of those agents of destruction and to turn them into agents of production is something humanity has never seen on a global scale in its entire history. It's always, always been about tearing down. What would this world be if there had never been a war in the last 6,000 years? We just can't imagine. We just wouldn't know. You can't even go find Europe of 75 years ago, for the most part, because it was totally erased. It was destroyed. It was broken down.

And so now they're talking about another war. And Jesus said, if this war weren't stopped, it would destroy everything alive. Micah says here, verse 3, in part, Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

War is so pervasive. If you pick up a novel, it's generally about war. And if it's not, it's about murder. And if it's not about that, it's about illicit relationships between humans.

That's what people love to feed on. Basically, war or illicit relations.

But they won't do this in the future when you think of movies. What are the movies? Well, war and murder elicit relationships. What about sci-fi? Let's go out into space, sci-fi. It's about war. It just keeps going. And what do we spend our money on as human beings?

If you look at the US debt clock, it's an incredible piece of architecture on the internet, with numbers just spanning all over. But if you start looking at some of those and you compare what each country, this country in particular, but look at other countries, the comparison of what is invested in people and in the culture and the infrastructure versus what is invested in war. You hear very little about the one, but you hear a lot about the other and how important it is.

But here we see that they will not learn war anymore, but everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree and no one shall make them afraid. And that's the one thing that you find, I'm sure when you travel, you go out and it doesn't matter the country, whether the same thing with Iran, it doesn't matter what it says on the news. Believe me, I know an Iranian immigrant just came over, all this stuff back home, I've been over in that part of the world. They want peace and family security and they like human beings, actually like people on all continents. And you can go and look at travel logs online, you can look at some of the video travel logs that companies sponsor for various countries. Pick the worst ones out there and you'll find people love people, irrespective of what their governments want. They love each other, they want a simple life, they want a nice life, but then at the same time they complicate it by not living God's way of life. So what's the solution? Psalm 119 verses 165. Psalm 119 verses 165 says, Great peace have those who love your law. Not who know your law, but who love your law.

Not who have heard of your law, but have their own law that's sort of better, but love your law.

Let's go to Romans chapter 14 and verse 17 as we wrap this up. Romans chapter 14 and verse 17, there is a future for peacemaking and a future for the commission that you and I have. We are to not just be someday children of God, but the real sons and daughters that think and act on behalf of the God family now. Romans chapter 14, beginning in verse 17, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. It's not about this physical materialistic stuff like everybody else is pursuing, but about righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Love is right in God's eyes, so it's righteousness. Peace, joy in the Holy Spirit, that's what the kingdom of God is. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. That is where you and I live. That is what we are becoming more and more. For he who served Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. See, it's acceptable to God because it's godly and it's approved by men because men love peace. Humanity loves peace. People love peace. They love agents of peace. Therefore, verse 19, let us pursue the things which make for peace and pursue the things by which one may edify the work of another.

We should edify. We should build up one another. We should be small, another should be big. We should be the one who doesn't know as much and prefer, give preference, as we've read today, give preference, give honor to the other. When we do that, then ultimately we can serve in God's kingdom with the King of Peace. We can be the bride of peace. I don't know that that term has been given in Scripture, but our Prince of Peace, the King of Peace, will have a bride.

And we will be agents finally to bring about the solution. And what solves all the problems in the world? Remember the people who come to God and walk in His way change the culture of war to a culture of peace and prosperity. So in conclusion, peace comes from the God of Peace, the Prince of Peace.

We are peacemakers if, as they live in us, we follow their example. We develop their mindset through the Holy Spirit. Let the Spirit of God bear fruit in your life and let it be the fruit of love and joy and peace and long suffering. Bring peace to others as you have opportunity and leave a wake of peace and joy as you go through life. It says in 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 16. 2 Thessalonians 3, 16. Now may the Lord of Peace Himself give you peace always in every way. May the Lord be with you all. So, brethren, may peace be with you.