[Andy Duran] So, it's not quite a month ago, we were finishing up the final of God's annual Holy Days with the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day. We were taking time at worshiping God at a location He placed His name. Now, during that time, hopefully we heard messages and thought about the coming Kingdom of God, starting with that 1000-year reign of Jesus Christ and the saints. And during this time in the future, we can find prophecies all throughout the Bible that relate to a time of peace, a time of peace, that there'll be no end of. We know that when Christ returns to set up that new government, that time of a new government and an everlasting peace will begin.

I was thinking about the concept of peace for the last several months, and I'm sure we've heard sermons and messages regarding peace, especially at the Feast, or at least hopefully. But while we transition into the coming long winter months ahead, it can be hard to keep this concept of peace on our mind when times get challenging or times get difficult between the next Holy Day season. When we're thrown back into the world after such a wonderful gathering and assembling, sometimes we can become discouraged or overwhelmed at different times. But it is at these times, the times when we're outside God's Holy Days, that we should keep this concept of peace on our minds.

As a way of introduction, let's turn over to Psalms 34. Psalm chapter 34 and verse 14. Psalms 34:14, one verse here says, "Depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it." The word here used for peace is a Hebrew word shalom. This may be a common word. It may be a word you've heard before. It's a greeting still even to this day, even if for those that don't speak Hebrew always, maybe you've heard shalom as a greeting. The root of that word I believe is "salem" and the root gives a meaning of completion or fulfillment or entering a state of wholeness and unity,or entering a state of a restored relationship. Of course, this word can mean the absence of war and the absence of fighting, but it also tends to lean towards an absence of strife, an absence or a completeness, excuse me, a wholeness or a harmony among other concepts as well.

That's the Hebrew word that we typically find translated “peace.” The root and all the derivatives we see used over hundreds of times throughout the Old Testament. And the Hebrew word shalom is over 250 times throughout the Old Testament, over a hundred and some being translated as the English word "peace." So, it's a very common word, it's a very important word in the Old Testament. Look at Matthew 5:9. I wanted to bring to example here two words, Hebrew and then a Greek complement, in Matthew 5:9. It says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." The Greek word here used for "peacemakers" as you would think, is probably the combination of two words and the word for peace is eirini. Now, I'd spell it, but I don't think it really matters since Greek letters aren't like English letters, but eirini. It's similar to the Hebrew word. It has a lot of similar concepts: absence from war and absence from fighting, but it also tends to lead to some differences as well, something a little bit more to the meaning of maybe security, both physical and mental security, safety, and even prosperity.

And so, peace is a concept much more than just the absence of war or the absence of fighting. You know, throughout the history of mankind, we maybe have had only a handful of years where there weren't any wars happening. Actually I didn't research that, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember, maybe there's a handful of years where there's no fighting going on. But that doesn't mean the world was ever at that peace for that moment. Sure, that maybe we've had an absence of war, but not truly peace.

If you haven't caught it yet, there's a theme between the two scriptures I read. It's a concept that peace was not just that we are to be keeping on our minds or thinking about a future time when we'll be at peace. It's not just this future aspect that we'll need to always be waiting for, but in reality, we are to be seeking peace now being peacemakers in our daily lives today, seeking peace and pursuing it. And so, that's what I'd like to look at today, a concept of peace, seeking peace. Where should we start? And then two areas of focus that we can apply in our lives on a daily basis to help us go forward from the Feast of Tabernacles, seeking peace daily in our lives.

The first concept that it's great to start off with when dealing with seeking peace is that as human beings, we should seek God's peace within our lives. We need to be seeking God's peace within our lives. First off, we should look towards Him, to Them as an example. There's an element that God gives… Turn the page over to John 14:27, John 14:27, we see the words of Christ here written down for our record, John records, John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." This would have been a time closely before Jesus Christ’s on sacrifice, a time of, no doubt, some chaos around for those that were following Jesus Christ at the time, maybe some turmoil and a total lack of peace. Jesus Christ would have been enduring a lot during this time coming up. But what did Christ say to those that were following Him? "Peace I leave with you." Even though it would be maybe in the midst of a turmoil, He was going to leave them peace.

He continues by saying, "Not as the world leaves you," or not as the world gives peace. It was a different type of peace. Throughout history of mankind, we can be good at making peace treaties. Lots of wars come to end with peace treaties, but it doesn't mean those people gave those individuals peace. It's a different type of peace that Jesus Christ is talking about here. As I mentioned before, it's about the fears and doubts. It says, let... excuse me, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." It's this concept of the troubles of the mind. He would give peace to overcome the troubles of our minds, peace about security that even though physically around us may not be secure, we can still have peace and security within our minds. That leads to a question: why don't we have peace at times, individually? Why don't we have peace at times? We see here a promise from Jesus Christ that we were to be given peace. Why don't we have it at times? Why do we fear? Why do we have anxieties? Why do we have troubles? Why do we have all these things affecting our lives on a daily basis sometimes?

Well, there's a fundamental problem that we have caused for ourselves. Look at James 4, starting in verse 1, James 4, starting in verse 1, we see a hint to the trouble that is within ourselves. James 4:1, "Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?" There's this war inside ourselves. It begins within ourselves. That's where we have to look at when trying to deal with this concept of peace, why we don't have peace on a daily basis. You know, I look back at some of my conflicts in the early years of my life. When I was a teenager, I was a little bit of a hothead at times in high school. And I look back at some of those conflicts, and I see a thread and a similarity between a lot of them. At times I was generally motivated by pride, by pride, or by self-ambition. Those conflicts that I would have had with an individual were because of some issues that I had within myself.

Continue reading on to James 4:2, it says, "You lust and you do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain, You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures." Sometimes we ask of God certain things and we don't get it. Is it because we ask Him selfish desires? Is it because we're asking because of our lusts or our greediness at times, that we may spend it on our pleasures? James is getting to this crucial part of this inner war that's in ourselves, that’s inside of us. He continues on in verse 4, "Adulterers and adulteresses," some strong language there. "Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?" So, we know that God provides peace. Jesus Christ said, "I would leave you peace." And then He says, "Don't you know that..." Here in James, saying that friendship with the world is enmity with God? How can we receive peace if we're enemies of God? How can God provide us with peace if we're enemies? As we know that we are… we need to know where our allegiance lies. Is it with the world around us, or is it with God?

Continuing on in verse 5, “Or do you not know...” or excuse me. "Or do you not think that the Scripture says in vain the Spirit that dwells in us yearns jealously, but He gives more grace. Therefore,” He says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." God's Spirit given to us at the point of repentance, baptism, laying on of hands. You know, when we get brought into the body of Christ, it's struggling within us to point us in the right direction. You get that concept of hearing that voice telling you, "This is the way, walk ye in it.” You know, there's a struggle within myself and it's a Spirit that's yearning jealously, as it puts it here. Sometimes I found myself in the past wanting to force my will on individuals around me, that I had conflicts, “If you just see it my way, or if you take my will, if you do what I tell you to do,” then maybe the conflict would go away. Maybe I'll have peace then. That's not always the case. Most of the time that's not the case. We see that with... totali… well, bad leaders... [laughter] I don't have that one in my notes. We see that with bad leaders, they force their will on people. That doesn't bring peace. There's still conflict stirring up in the people around them.

See, we have to make sure that we finish this war that is inside us first, so that we can have peace from God, that we can seek that peace and ask it from God. Make sure that we're not led by selfish desires, make sure that we're not full of those prideful ambitions because what does it say? James puts it and he's quoting Scripture in the Old Testament, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." It leads me to think that during the Feast of Tabernacles, thinking of the coming Kingdom of God and the coming starting of a peaceful reign and a peaceful government, you know, how can we ever have true peace on the earth if we aren't working for it in our own… starting with ourselves first? You know, how can we have true peace in a worldly sense, in a whole national sense without first working at it within ourselves? Of course, God can do everything, He doesn't need me to do it, but He wants that. It's part of His plan to work with people, to start striving to be peaceful now, to be seeking and getting rid of that war that's in ourselves. Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 16. 2 Thessalonians 3:16. Just at the end here of the letter to the brethren in Thessalonica, "Now, may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all." Such a wonderful ending to a letter.

You see, we have to pray for peace from God through Jesus Christ. God provides His Spirit, and we know throughout the Bible elsewhere, it discusses what that Spirit is. It's not a spirit of fear. It's not a spirit of anxieties or troubles. It's a spirit of what? Of power, of sound mind, right? It's a power to overcome sin within our lives, the power to overcome that war that is within my members. It's a peace from Him, but we must pray for it. We must ask God for it, we must seek God's peace in our own lives. That's where it needs to start. That's where it should start. If we want to try to find peace with our brethren or peace with our communities around us, we should start with asking God for His peace. Peace. Excuse me. It's only after seeking first the peace of God and dealing with that war inside ourselves that we can begin to find and pursue peace all around us. It can be part of who we are. A step in seeking peace... one of the steps in seeking peace is to seek peace in the communities around us, seeking to avoid unnecessary conflict. And so, that's one of the areas of focus that we need to be seeking peace in is in our communities, avoiding unnecessary conflicts.

Let's turn to Genesis 26. We'll start reading in verse 1. We won't read the whole book or the whole chapter of Genesis 26. When thinking about seeking peace, there's a story that's recorded in Genesis 26 that comes to mind. Genesis 26:1, "There is a famine in the land besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham, and Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar," or Gerar. I'm not sure how to say that. So, it says, so just for context, we have a famine approaching the land, we have Isaac and his family, his servants and all the people in his party, they have a famine that was like in the days of Abraham. If you want to jot it down, I believe that's in Genesis 12 for some context on that. There's some interesting parallels between the two events. Some interesting things – like father, like son – that happens that we can take lessons from. We won't be touching on those today, but I wanted to point out Genesis 12 in case you want to research it. So, what they would have had a famine in the land and kind of like Abraham's day, except Abraham went down into Egypt, which was common at the time, when you had a big famine, Egypt would have been very prosperous, usually with the Nile River, and how fertile that was. And so, Abraham went down to Egypt and dealt with the Pharaoh. And in this account, it's Isaac with the Philistines and Abimelech, a title for a king at the time.

But I want to point out one more thing in verse 2 before we jump ahead in the story. Verse 2, "Then the Lord appeared to him and said, 'Do not go down to Egypt, live in the land which I shall tell you.'" I wanted to point out that the Lord appeared to Isaac. You see, the Lord was working directly with Isaac at this time as well, just like He was with Isaac's father. He says, "Live in a land of which I tell you." Just an interesting note, so the Lord was telling him where to live. I think it'll become key later, understanding some of Isaac's attitude and perspective that the Lord was working with him. He had faith and there was a relationship, and I wanted to point that out. Let's jump down to verse 12 though. Verse 12 of chapter 26, "Then Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him."

It's amazing. We see here in verse 12, so Isaac settles here and he starts to sow some seed, starts to work the land, trying to get a harvest. And it says, that same year he reaped a hundredfold. That's a term that is an exceedingly, abundantly blessing from God. Remember, there's a famine going on, yet he reaps a hundredfold. And it says, "The Lord blessed him." Because there's a famine going on, and through this process, Isaac and his servants are digging some wells and they deal interestingly with the Philistines just like his father did. But in verse 13, “Then…” or sorry, "The man began to prosper, and he continued prospering until he became very prosperous. For the,” excuse me, "For he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants, so the Philistines envied him. Now, the Philistines had stopped up the wells, which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham, his father, and they'd fill them in with earth, and Abimelech said to Isaac, ‘Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.’”

You see, he began to work the fields, and the Lord had blessed him so abundantly that he became very prosperous. It says exceedingly, abundantly, much, right? Very prosperous, that hundredfold. We can clearly see the Lord blessing Isaac. And so, we see the Philistines starting to become envious, and they want to try to drive him out. And so, they said, "Go out from us for you are much mightier than me." So, they're getting scared of Isaac. He's very prosperous in their land, and they want to kick him out. It would have been common at this time to fill in people's wells, you know, either put earth in them, stone in them, dirt, or sometimes they put like decaying animals and stuff to make the water unclean. I don't know why this is common in history of mankind, because we don't know the way of peace, that's for sure. But it would have been common, they stopped up their wells, and they were kicking them out of the land. And in verse 17, "Then Isaac departed from there, and he pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there."

So, we see here… Let's continue on in verse 18, "And Isaac dug again the wells of the water which they had dug in the days of Abraham, his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by names which his father had called them." So, we see some context that Isaac had moved to a new area, same place that Abraham had moved to, the valley of Gerar, and he started digging up more wells, digging through where his father had dug up. It says the Philistines had stopped those up after Abraham had died. How many of you have ever dug a well? Probably nobody, maybe. I've never dug a well. I have dug holes for posts on a fence. It's not the same thing, but it is hard work. I used a post hole digger, I didn't use an auger or whatever those are called, the engine things. But I used a post hole digger and it was a ton of work. I was from Missouri, tons of limestone in the ground. And I used a big 6-foot or 7-foot big pole, right? Big bar of metal to break the rocks that we had. It was a ton of work. I spent many Sundays throughout the summer with a buddy putting a whole fence around our backyard. Well, on one side of our backyard in Missouri. So, I've never dug a well, but I can understand that it probably would have been a good amount of work. I was looking a little bit up on the time frame that it would have took people to dig wells in this time, I didn't find anything super conclusive, but I think it's safe to say several months. I think that's safe to say that, you know, depending on what the variables, how big the well is, how far you're digging down, but a couple months I think that's fair to say.

And so, they put all this work and all this effort, maybe not Isaac, specifically, but definitely his servants put all this work into digging up these wells that the Philistines had stopped in. And so, let's continue reading, in verse 19, "Also Isaac's servants dug the valley and found a well of running water there." And so, they found running water, they dug up the well and when something good was produced, look what happens. Verse 20, "But the herdsmen of Gerar, quarreled with Isaac's residents saying, 'The water is ours.' And so he, Isaac, called the name of the well Esek," I think it means quarreled, “because they quarreled with him.” That's an interesting scripture. Let's stop right there. What would you do in this situation? You can ask, what would I do in this situation?

I know what I would have done as a teenager, as a young man in that time. If I'd moved through all that, I had my servants dig all that, if I was digging in there, I probably would have a fight, I would have fought them, right? An argument could be made that Isaac had the right to those wells, that his father had dug them. And you can look in context in Genesis 21, I believe, talking about an agreement that Abraham had made with an Abimelech of that time. An argument could have been made that Isaac had the right to this land. One, God had promised it to Abraham and therefore Isaac and his descendants. You can say, "All right, servants, let's draw our swords, let's fight for this well." Remember there's a famine going on. Water is an important commodity of the time. I mean, it's important today too, but we get it a little bit differently. They could have fought for that, but no. What do they do? What does Isaac do? He doesn't do that, he handles it differently. Look in verse 21, "Then they dug another well and they quarreled over that one also, so he called the name Sitnah." I think that means enemies or enmity.

There's not a lot of words given in this account. There's a lot going on in this time frame, so we don't know the exact conversations they may have had, but we see that instead of quarreling, instead of fighting, Isaac simply moves and digs another well. He moves on, he calls the other well “quarreled,” and he moves on. You can say he took it for the team, he took it for… with a better purpose. He chose not to take a stand at this time, trusting in God that He would provide. Remember, because they had this relationship, the Lord and him, He was appearing to him telling him where to go. Maybe he was trusting in God. And so, he puts effort into another one. And guess what? They didn't like that either. The herdsmen quarreled with him about that next well and so Isaac, he and his servants put another time into building a well looking at this time, and so surely now is the time to fight.

“We gave up that other well. We spent months on digging that other well. Now we're going to dig another one, and they're going to quarrel with us on this one? This is my land. Surely, now is the time to fight, time to really stick it to him.” Nope, Isaac doesn't handle it like that. He calls it “enmity” and he moves on. You see, brethren, when seeking peace we need to know when to make a stand and when not to. I'm on the side of the argument that Isaac had the right, but he chose not to quarrel. He chose not to fight, and instead he just moved on to another well. Verse 22, "And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So, he, Isaac, called the name Rehoboth because he said, 'For now the Lord has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land.'" So, he calls this new one – they didn't quarrel over it – Rehoboth, which is open spaces or space, or what does the margin say? Spaciousness or open spaces. It says, "For the Lord has found space for us in the land."

We can see this theme throughout these events. There's not a lot of words given it in the Bible. There’s a phrase for that. That's slipping my mind at the moment. But it goes really quickly, the words that are given here, but there's a lot going on. If you read the commentaries on this section, there's a lot of people that argue Isaac was weak. He was a weak man. He wasn't like his father. He wasn't strong, he should have stood up taking that land. There's some commentaries that point out an alternative, but I don't see that here. Maybe meek, weak and meek sound the same, but they're very different. Isaac was seeking peace no matter what was going on. He was learning to trust in God to provide for him in that famine. This can be very difficult for us at times, can't it? Asking God, “You take care of me. I know so and so are trying to do this to me, or that group is really hurting me, or there's big quarrels going on,” but stepping aside and saying, “You know what? That's fine, let's move on. God, You take care of me.” You see, because sometimes, just because we have the right and it may be lawful, it doesn't mean we should always do it, right? Just because it's lawful, it may not always be helpful. Maybe that's bringing to remembrance of Scripture in the New Testament from Paul, "All things are lawful, but not all things are expedient."

You know, sometimes things are lawful to do, but they're not always helpful. Sometimes you have the right to take a stand, but maybe you don't. Seeking and pursuing peace in our communities is really about calculating and knowing when to take a stand. Calculating, is there collateral damage here? Is someone going to get hurt because I need to take a stand? Sometimes we need to take it for the better of the team, for the better of the community around us. I see Isaac thinking to himself, “It's not worth it. God is on our side. It's not worth fighting over it. I don't want a single man to die for this well.” I see Isaac thinking that. Maybe that's a little bit of a speculation, there's not a lot to go on in this section of Scripture, but we see Isaac time and time again to an argument can be made on three wells, he moved on and he started another one. I believe he had faith that God would provide and bless his works. And we see that, it clearly ends that way. In verse 22, it says, "For now, the Lord has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land."

That story continues on, we won't go any further. It's a different story of an agreement that's made. But let's turn over to Matthew, in chapter 5 and verse 38. We see an example in the Old Testament we will look through with Isaac showing an attitude of seeking peace, pursuing peace earnestly. Matthew 5:38, we see some statements from Jesus on conflict. 38, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’” A very common thought process in the world around us. Jesus Christ is either quoting here or paraphrasing several scriptures in the Old Testament. It's common mindset for people today to want to take revenge for ourselves, to avenge the wrong that was done against us, an eye for an eye. “You did that to my family? I'm going to do this to your family.” That's not the way of peace. Verse 39, “But I tell you not to resist an evil person,” that is to stand opposed to them, or to start a quarrel with them. “But whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him your other." We've heard this said, but it's a difficult one to digest. I've only been in a couple of fistfights throughout my life. I was bullied as a younger kid. Usually I just took the beating because I had no fighting in me. But a lot of times we've never been affected by this literally. Walking around and someone slaps you in the face, but Christ is saying don't slap them back, just turn the other cheek, give them the other cheek to slap. Jesus Christ went through this literally later when He's brought before council after council, court after court, spit on and beaten beyond all recognition. He took it for the team, for the community around Him, and we know throughout the Bible He says, "Follow my example."

He's talking about conflict and going that extra mile. Let's continue reading. "If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let them have your cloak also." That's extremely against the American culture. You're telling me I have to give him more than he's asking in the lawsuit? That's a rough one. "And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away." Let's continue on. You have heard that it said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemies. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who despitefully use and persecute you." That's not saying let the evil people do whatever they want to you. We can find some principles out there and scriptures that are contrary to that. But the principle here is don't return evil for evil.

I think you can find that in Romans 12 as well, if that's coming to mind correctly. Don't return evil for evil. If someone slaps you, turn that cheek. It says, "Love your enemies." You know, it continues on by saying, verse 45, it's saying, "And pray for those who despitefully use and persecute you, so bless those people, that you may be sons of the Father in heaven, for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rains on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore, you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect." I think it's interesting He brings up tax collectors, that doesn't come to mind. I don't know if we have the same system of taxes that they seemed to have back then. There seems to be this disdain with tax collectors back then. I mean, I don't like giving a ton of my money to taxes, but I don't hate a tax collector. But it's this concept that you need to go against what is common sense in the world around you, striving to live as Christ lived. Love your enemies.

If you're here for morning services, I think Mr. Hall actually went to the section of scripture that talks about that when we were enemies against God, Christ died for us. I think he went to that, and if not, just it was a memory that was false. [laughter] But Jesus is telling here, let's seek peace. Let's pursue peace. Seeking peace is not just looking for an absence of war. Being in an American society, it's interesting, we're at war right now. It may not come to mind because we're so blessed in our abundance over here, in our separate nature of where we are with the waters as our borders, but we're in several wars right now, several conflicts. But it doesn't come to mind. Seeking peace is more than just an absence of war. We do have the draft, it's not really in force right now. But if we were drafted up, hopefully we'll just say, "You know what? Conscientiously object. I'm seeking peace." But it's more than that. It's not just absence of war, it's this mindset, it's this, how we interact with those around us on a daily basis, on a minute basis.

It's about knowing when we should take a stand and when we shouldn't, it's about knowing when would be the time to cause hurt and destruction or when wouldn't be the time for that. Hint, there's not a lot of times that it's okay to cause hurt and destruction. It's such a tremendous section of Scripture, but it's really hard to digest truly. Because it goes against the caramel… the caramel…carnal, excuse me, I am misspeaking today. It goes against that carnal human nature in our society around us today. It's so hard to digest and to apply in our lives. But we should be seeking peace within our communities, avoiding unnecessary conflicts around us with those outside the faith and those inside the faith. As so that's our last aspect that we'll look at here is that we should be seeking peace within our families, seeking peace within our families.

Turn with me over to 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 1. I let this category, at this point, kind of merge because these apply for those spiritually our family members, but also physically our family members. We should be striving and seeking peace within our families. 1 Corinthians and chapter 6 and verse 1. Okay, I'm in 2 Corinthians, I'm so sorry, everyone. Okay, 1 Corinthians 6:1, "Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints." So, I just wanted to pull that scripture and we're not going to read any more further down right here, just for context. So here we see Paul writing to the church in Corinth and among other things he would have been dealing with issues of unity and divisiveness. If you remember the first chapter talking about those that were, “I'm with Apollos. I'm with Paul. I am of Christ.” These divisionist…or divisive attitude and this disunity. And so, here in this section he's talking about taking a brother to court, bringing not criminal but more civil matters "before the unrighteous" as he puts it. You know, there's many reasons we shouldn't go to court against the member of the body of Christ. I'm not going to touch on that too much today, but we're going to jump down to verse 7. So, I wanted to read one for context, verse 7, it says, "Now, therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another." Paul says that it's already an utter failure if you get to that point.

Let's continue reading on, "Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?" You see, if you have quarrels among ourselves, and we let it bubble up and fester until the point it gets to, "I need to take a person to court," we've already failed in that conflict, right? We should have been seeking peace before that. If it isn't dealt with, with love and humility and care for one another before it gets to there, Paul says it's an utter failure. At times, we should be willing to accept wrong, to accept to be cheated. Maybe we're in the right, maybe we'd win the case. But sometimes we need to accept wrong and accept that we are being cheated. Let God work all that out. Such an amazing principle. But again, this is so contrary to our natural thinking. And, in fact, the brethren that Paul is referring to in Corinth were conducting themselves in the opposite. Look how it continues in verse 8, “No...” so let's back up. "Why do you not rather let yourself be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat and you do these things to your brethren." They were doing the cheating, they were trying to rip off, they were trying to get their good, right? Not try to resolve the conflict and the quarrel before it bubbled up into a legal case. They were doing the opposite.

We should be seeking peace within the body of Christ, so that things don't bubble up and quarrel out of hand into legal matters. Let's turn to 2 Timothy 2 and verse 23. I definitely started turning in the wrong direction. I should have been paying attention when we were in 1 Corinthians. 2 Timothy 2:23. I guess for context...I guess my Bible, the New King James Cambridge edition has the title "Approved and disapproved workers" way above verse 14, and in verse 15 is a good context scripture. "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." So, diligently, we are to be seeking to diligently… rightly dividing the word of truth, applying it in our lives. And so, let's read in verse 23. "But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient in humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will."

There's some strong language there at the end. And I'm not saying all of our quarrels are because of that, and I don't even know of any current quarrels among ourselves. This is more of a principle thing, right? It says this, "But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes." It's something to keep in mind. You can ask yourselves, am I contributing to strife, generating strife, or am I contributing to unity within the body? Am I contributing to an attitude of love, agape love that Mr. Hall taught on this morning. Am I contributing to that or am I contributing to generating strife? It's an interesting question to ask ourselves. Am I seeking peace within our families, seeking peace within the brethren, but then also our physical family, if they don't keep the faith or if they don't agree with all the things that you do? You see, brethren, seeking peace in our families is about knowing that some conversations are foolish, some lead to just generating strife, knowing that some dialogue is ignorant. It's a weird statement, but not all things are beneficial. We should be seeking peace within our families, knowing that sometimes we need to avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, not quarreling amongst ourselves. It just reminds you back to that story of Isaac and the wells.

He didn't want to quarrel with his community, with those people. We should strive and seek peace by not quarreling with those around us. But instead of that, being gentle to all, able to teach, being patient. Patience is a big deal within a Christian life. Because we'll offend people, people will offend us. And we need to be patient with one another and in humility having conversations. You know, sometimes we all need correction, right? Sometimes my brother, or my sister, or my aunt, or my uncle, or somebody in our family, needs to be corrected. It's not always my job to do that. I'm not saying it's always our job to do that, but if something happens, how much more will it be taken, correction that is, how much better will it be taken if it's coming from humility, or coming from pride? A lot different if it's coming from humility, right?

We should be seeking and pursuing peace within our families. Not just our physical family, but also our spiritual family, within the body of Christ. The topic of peace has been on my mind for a while now because we did just celebrate the fall Holy Days, and we look forward to that coming kingdom of peace, but sometimes within our own lives we're full of anxious, we're full of fears, and we're full of doubts. We get caught up in troubles and meaningless quarrels or problems with our families, and we lose sight of that kingdom and we lose sight of trying to seek peace within ourselves on a daily basis. And so, we just had that opportunity not quite a month ago, we had that opportunity to worship God and to take part in that small portion, that glimpse into the coming Kingdom of God, that coming true peace on earth. Once we leave the Feast of Tabernacles though, we can have a hard time keeping peace on our minds.

It's the long and cold season ahead of us. We don't have another Holy Day for several seasons or one season. We have man's holidays which get really rambunctious and crazy out there in the world. And it can be hard. It can bring us down at times. But we need to understand that God has promised us true peace. We need to seek that peace, that peace within ourselves. We should strive to see God's peace within our own lives. And only after dealing with that, you know, we're able, you know, after we deal with that war that's in ourselves, we're able to begin striving and seeking and pursuing peace within our communities and within our families, living that little bit of the coming Kingdom of God.

As a way of conclusion, let's turn over to James chapter 3 and verse 13. James 3:13, excuse me, "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth." The wisdom... "This wisdom," excuse me, "This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." Brethren, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Let's strive at becoming peacemakers in our daily lives. Let's strive to seek and pursue peace earnestly.