Kingdom Ethics 3

We've been talking about the Beatitudes and we have two more to go, or actually one more to go.

And then if time permits, we'll sum up what we've been doing over the last five or six weeks.

And then next week we'll start with the rest of the Kingdom thing we were talking about.

So all this started when we started talking about the Kingdom.

And we said that the Beatitudes are basically the profile or the lifestyle or the nature of people who belong to the Kingdom,

whose lives have been invaded by the King.

That's what he said the Beatitudes are.

The Beatitudes are basically the way people who belong to the Kingdom behave,

which is totally different from the way the world behaves.

I mean everything about the Beatitudes is so different from how the world would behave.

But it is specific to Kingdom people and who are Kingdom?

What did we define Kingdom as?

Kingdom is the governing influence of the King.

The governing influence of the King, that's what we said it is.

And we'll go over it again.

But it's the governing influence of the King.

And when the governing influence of the King touches someone's life, it changes the way they behave.

And the Beatitudes are basically a profile on this is how people whose lives have been invaded by the King behave.

And then Jesus says, hey look at me, this is how I behave.

And so that's what the Beatitudes are.

And today we look at, last week we looked at blessed are the pure, for they shall see God.

That's where we left off.

And I think we might have time to just look at the whole thing at the end.

But we left off at blessed are the pure and we talked about that.

But here's the part we didn't touch.

Blessed are the pure for they shall see God.

So how do the pure see God?

How does that work and what's the seeing God about?

What a brilliant phrase, a line for Jesus to use.

Saying hey Jacob if you're pure you'll see me.

So what does that even look like?

I mean do you actually see God?

Because at the end of the day God is spirit.

So what do you see?

How do you see God?

And yet Jesus isn't exaggerating.

He didn't expect us to go search out Greek or Hebrew.

He was plain speak kind of a carpenter.

Blessed are the pure for they shall see God.

Simple.

So how do you see God?

If you go to Psalm 24, Psalm 24.

And you look at that.

Say verses 1 to 5, Psalm 24.

1 to 5.

Hey both the teachings from last week and the week before are on sent1.org.

If you want to listen or catch up.

So Psalm 24.

So here's what it says.

Psalm 24 verse 1.

Psalms 24:1

To you O Lord I lift up my soul.

In you I trust O my God.

No that's Psalm 25.

So let's try 24.

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

The world and all who live in it.

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

The world and all who live in it.

For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

So on one hand David starts off saying hey listen.

The entire world belongs to God.

So he's king over the entire world.

But then he shifts.

In verse 3 he says.

Who may ascend the hill of the Lord.

Who may stand in his holy place.

He who has clean hands and a pure heart.

Who does not lift up his soul to an idol.

Or swear by what is false.

He will receive blessing from the Lord.

And vindication from God his savior.

Such is the generation of those who seek him.

Who seek your face of God of Jacob.

So on one hand he's saying.

Hey if you want to discover the king.

You can be anywhere on the earth and you can discover the king.

But then he changes it a little.

And he says.

But who will ascend the hill of God.

As in there is a place where God can be found.

Who gets to find him.

Then he goes on to say.

Ones who live a life or prosecute a life that is pure.

And so what does God mean when he says.

You will see him.

Here's how we need to think of it guys.

It's not that God limits his access to anybody.

But to find your way into how he thinks.

How he feels.

What he wants to do.

Purity is a requirement.

Because it allows you to.

I mean it's like playing a video game.

You know when you play a video game.

There are times when there are these secret doors.

Or you pluck an apple from a tree and suddenly it begins to glow.

And you get an extra shot of power.

And now you run twice as fast.

And you jump through this trap door.

And you find a new path into the next level.

It's literally like that.

Purity allows you to find trap doors into God.

That's the best way to put it.

It allows you to find trap doors into God.

Where you have these secret entrances.

Where you have these secret entrances.

Where you have these secret entrances.

Where you have these things that if you touch it suddenly opens.

It's like the Chronicles of Narnia.

Remember the girl goes up to the mirror in the cupboard.

And then she steps in and she enters a whole new world.

It was there all the time.

But she finds it.

It's literally like that.

Purity allows you to find paths that are hidden in open sight.

God never hides anything in such a way that it can't be discovered.

It's always like these curtains that just open for a second.

And if you see it, you can look and see what's outside.

But our problem is most of the time we're so not interested in what God is doing around us.

That we don't see when the curtains spot.

But if you see it, he'll show you the next thing.

And for some reason, because God is brilliantly pure.

When you and I walk in purity.

It is easy to discover these paths.

This is what happened to Peter at one point.

Where Jesus asks a question in Matthew 16, 15.

He says to all his disciples, who do they say I am?

And they come up with all kinds of answers.

And Peter makes such a bold statement.

Which has never been made on the face of the earth before.

He says, you are Jesus Christ, the son of the living God.

And Jesus says, this revelation did not come to you from the earth.

It came to you from the father.

This revelation was not from flesh.

This revelation was not from flesh.

It was divine.

How did Peter suddenly stumble upon it?

One of the ways you discover God is not by...

I mean people want to see God.

And they think if they see God, you'll be transformed for life.

Won't happen man.

People saw God and nothing changed.

They saw Jesus Christ walk the earth.

They saw him do miracles.

They saw him buried.

They saw him rise again.

And yet it says in Matthew 28 that they still didn't believe him.

You think everyone who has a near death experience and God knows if it's true or not.

And sees a bright light, comes back to the earth and becomes all good.

No. They are all good for about six days.

They write a book and then go back to being bad.

It doesn't last.

It's not seeing God that...

And anyways, whenever you see God, remember.

It's what people call an anthropomorphic image of God.

As in God is spirit.

But he comes in the form of something a man can understand.

So when God says he's got a mighty right arm, he really doesn't.

Or when God says to Moses, I'll hide you so that you only see my back.

Can you imagine what a massive back that must have been?

It wasn't God saying, okay, you can only see my back.

No. The point is that God is trying to say, listen, I'll reveal myself to you in ways that you can understand so deeply that it'll not shake you.

It is not Paul falling off his horse because he saw a bright light in Damascus that changed his life.

It is the voice of Jesus Christ saying to him, Paul, Paul, why do you persecute me?

Who are you? I am Jesus of Nazareth.

That changes life.

It is the revelation of who God is that begins to change people.

And when you and I walk pure, something strange begins to happen.

God begins to part the curtains and hold it for a little while so that you see what is beyond.

And boy, when you see what is beyond, it is very difficult, very difficult to turn away.

I was going through some old notes on my phone.

March 18th, 2013.

I'm in this place called, I've told some of you this before.

I'm in this place called Miri.

M-I-R-I. It's in Borneo.

And I'm in this church called Canada Hill Church.

In Borneo.

And I'm in the church and I'm looking around and I know I've been in this city before.

And I know I've never been there before.

It's the first time I'm visiting this place.

But everything about the place I know.

It's almost like I've been here before and it wasn't some deja vu kind of stuff.

It was just this sense where I know I've never been here before but I know everything about this place.

And I started asking God, Father, why do I know this place so well?

And I go to this church called Canada Hill and go and ask one of the older men sitting there.

Hey, do you know a guy called Tom Hamlin?

Tom Hamlin was a British missionary.

He was the first preacher I had ever heard in my life.

Three days after becoming a Christian, I went to this little US Navy chapel called the Juffair Chapel in the Middle East.

I went there and I sat there and there was this British missionary, old guy, who's sitting there and he starts telling the story.

About tribes in Borneo that were headhunters and cannibalistic.

And he begins to talk about how one day on top of a hill, close to where these tribes live, there's this light that begins to glow.

And all these people from the tribes start going up the hill.

They climb right up to the top and no one knows what happens there.

But all of them come back just repeating one word, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

That's all that they repeat.

And Tom Hamlin was a missionary to that village.

And he talked about how things change dramatically.

There's a book called Drunk Until Dawn.

It was written by someone who went to Borneo and said these tribes will wipe themselves off the face of the earth because all they do is drink.

And before 20 or 30 years expire, they will have died.

And yet that day they go up the mountain and come back and they never change again.

This church called Canada Hill was the church that was established amongst those tribes.

And that's why I realized and as soon as I asked a really old man, do you know Tom Hamlin?

He said yes, he used to come here.

And then everything began to click.

I was asking God, why did you do this father?

Why did you park the curtains a little so that I can get a glimpse of what's happening?

And God said 24 years ago, Jacob, you sat in that little chapel in Bahrain and you listened to this guy called Tom Hamlin telling you stories of what Jesus Christ did to remote tribe in the middle of nowhere that were headhunters and cannibals.

And I remember you praying and saying, if this is the Christianity that you can give me, I will follow you all the days of my life.

And that was when I was three days old as a Christian, man.

I didn't know nothing about Christ, but I'm sitting there listening to Tom Hamlin preach and I know that if this is who Jesus is, then this Jesus I badly want, man.

And 24 years to the day, perhaps not to the day, 24 years later, God is saying, I brought you full circle son.

I brought you full circle.

And he said, keep catching glimpses of me.

And if you walk this way, I'll give you another 24 where I'll bring you back to a place like this and remind you.

Guys, I'm telling you, God just enjoys it when we make an attempt to walk like him.

He's not saying, be perfect so that I can do things with you.

He's saying, desire purity, man, desire purity, because something resonates with him.

And when it begins to resonate with him, it begins to part the curtain.

So you catch glimpses and he'll bring you full circle, man.

I tried Googling Tom Hamlin, can't find him.

Must have been a nobody, must have been a nobody who God used to change tribes, tribes, man.

He used to go there again and again and again.

You think you don't have a destiny.

You think he doesn't want to bring you full circle.

That was in 2013.

I just happened to read it again because it was March 18, 2013 and I saw it on my phone and I thought, oh, shucks, father, four years have gone by.

I want to do everything in my power to begin to catch glimpses of what you want to show.

Because it's easy to walk life when you can see God.

And by seeing God, I really don't mean seeing God in person.

I'm talking about seeing how God thinks, seeing how God plans things far ahead, man.

You know how much it touched me when that boy asked, so where is God?

I prayed that some nights ago in Cloverdale that let Liam, early in his life,

begin to discover who Jesus is.

You know what that'll do to that boy?

No one may know his name, but he'll walk the earth like a giant who knows his God.

This is where God wants us to go.

In Revelation chapter 14, verse 1, it says,

Revelation 14:1

And I looked up and I saw the Lamb of God standing in Mount Zion with 144,000 others,

who had the name of the Father written on their foreheads, who had walked in pure ways.

Yeah, that's what it says.

Revelation 14, verse 1-3.

Revelation 14:1–3

What is God trying to say there?

Hey, whenever God says, I'll put my name on your mind, it is I'll help you think the way I am.

His name is his nature, his influence.

And he says, and they had the name of his father written on their foreheads.

I'll show you, Jacob, how I think, and I'll show you my ways.

One of my favorite scriptures in Psalm 105 or 106 is,

Israel knew God's acts, Moses knew his ways.

Churches crave after acts.

Show me another sign of miracle.

Like it says in Jesus Christ Superstar,

Walk over my swimming pool and I'll believe you, Jesus.

I don't recommend that movie at all.

I don't recommend that movie at all.

But the point is this, that God's soul wants us to know his ways.

After you know his ways, acts just happen.

Acts just happen.

Who will ascend to my holy hill?

Ones who have pure hands.

And we talked about purity.

So if you, I'm not talking about really perfectionism,

is, you know, the way you think.

You think, I'm going to be a man, I'm going to be a woman,

I'm going to be a woman, I'm going to be a woman,

but really perfectionism is, is anti-Christ.

Perfectionism will always drive away love and joy.

Anything that banishes love and joy is evil.

One thing that really drives away my love and joy is the annual general meeting.

Just so you know.

But we will move on because that's a necessity.

We are off the world, but we are in the world, but not off it.

We shall put that under that.

Guys, in Psalm 77, verse 19, it talks about how,

Psalms 77:19

David talks about how they saw God's footprint in the sea.

I mean, the Red Sea parted and they could see the footprints of God.

And sometimes God will, the whole idea of blessed are the pure in spirit,

blessed are the pure, for they shall see God is,

you'll see God without having to see a billboard or a sign

or flipping through your Bible and putting your finger

or all those other tricks we do.

And those tricks work, eh?

But that's not what he wants us to walk in.

He wants you to know.

Blessed are the pure, for they shall see God as in you'll know,

you'll see him before he emerges.

Because you know how to position yourself exactly the way he's coming.

How do you do that? You do that by knowing a person's.

You case the joint.

That's what they do in movies.

They'll go and they'll watch with binoculars and write down every moment.

They know when to get the getaway car to come here and there,

because they time it.

You begin to know God's ways.

This is real. It's not false. It's not pretend.

I mean, think of this.

There are maybe seven or eight guys in the boat that morning.

It's hazy.

They haven't caught nothing.

And there is the silhouette of a man walking on the beach.

All of them look at him, but one recognizes him.

And it's the same guy who recognized he was Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

It is the same guy who later on denied him thrice and wept bitter tears.

Yet there was something about Peter that was authentic and pure man.

That was so, so flawed that other than Judas, he was the worst.

And yet he's the guy who on two occasions sees Jesus and says, I know him.

And on the beach, nobody else spots him.

But Peter screams out, that is the Lord.

And then enthusiastically, he throws out his outer garment,

dives into the water and swims.

Why is he swimming?

To say, oh, I'm so glad you're alive.

No, he's swimming so that he can go grab Jesus's knees and say, I am so sorry.

This is what God is inviting us into, guys.

And know one thing, that every time the word is preached,

God is waiting to test us on it.

Every time the word is preached, God is waiting to test us on it.

And what do you mean by testing us on it?

He'll give us an opportunity to live this world.

He'll give us an opportunity to live it out.

As he'll say, okay, Joel, you've been listening to me.

You want to know me better?

I'll give you a chance this week, where I'll show myself to you.

You'll know me.

You'll recognize me.

That's going to happen to everybody here.

That's a strange thing.

Everyone here will be given an opportunity.

Whether we take it or not, it's completely up to you.

You'll be given an opportunity.

Whether we take it or not, it's completely up to us.

Any questions before we go on?

Any questions, any thoughts?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I look at it this way, based on what we taught over the last two weeks.

I was made in the image and the likeness of God.

When God made me and you, he sculpted us.

He painted a picture that was a self-portrait.

That's what he did.

If I'm made in the true image and likeness of God,

I actually am a self-image of God.

It got distorted because I was made in the image and the likeness of God.

It got distorted because of sin.

But it's been restored again.

Like I said over the last two weeks, there are no mirrors in heaven

because every time God wants to look at his reflection, he looks at you.

Why?

Because the distorted image has been restored.

You and I don't see ourselves like that, which is what Rhonda said.

That she doesn't think that she's a person at rest or is peaceful,

but others are beginning to see it.

So there is nothing you can do to get purer if Jesus Christ lives in you.

Nothing.

If you don't have Jesus Christ in you, you can do something to get purer.

Receive Christ.

It's like a blood transfusion.

You got really contaminated blood with every known disease in the world.

And you can keep visiting the doctors or you can get a blood transfusion

that solves you once and for all.

And once you get it, then there's nothing you can do

because you've received the best blood in the world.

You're as holy as you can get.

And now God is saying, now that I've made you holy, live it.

Now that I've made you holy, live it.

Purity is, as we are looking at it, is living out that which you have already become.

Living out that which you have already become.

And the last two weeks we've been talking about it.

Nothing will make you holy because the holy one lives in you.

Can't do better than that?

How can you improve on that?

Well, I pray God that this week when you get opportunities,

you'll catch glimpses of God.

Ask him, eh, when you go home tonight, when you're talking to him,

say, Father, heard about how you show yourself.

So can you do that this week?

Can you do that this week?

And he'll do it in a way that only you understand.

Any other questions?

Hey, the King is in our midst, eh?

The Kingdom has come.

The Kingdom is not going to come.

The Kingdom has come and will keep growing till one day

there'll only be one Kingdom standing.

But the Kingdom has come.

Jesus Christ is present.

He's present.

He's present.

He's present.

The Kingdom has come.

Jesus Christ is present.

And if he is present, he does two things.

With us believers, he changes our nature and our lifestyle.

And in the world, he just breaks in whenever he wants

because he's the sovereign King of the universe.

I was reading up on the Sultan of Brunei.

Has 20 billion dollars in his bank.

Little more than all of us put together.

And so he needs a big house.

Guess how many rooms in his house?

Anyone who gets the number right will get a free ticket to Hawaii.

Close.

72.

No one's going to Hawaii from this church.

1,788.

Okay, let's try another one.

How many toilets then? How many bathrooms?

257.

I don't know why we're going here.

It has nothing to do with what I was talking about.

But he is absolute monarch of Brunei.

He decides to change the religion, it becomes a state religion.

He decides to change the way the religion is practiced, he changes it.

Whatever he wants, he does.

He breaks in sovereignly into any...

He decided to ban Christmas, so no more Christmas.

No more trees, no more ornaments.

He decided some years ago, sorry, no more Christmas.

That is the end of Christmas.

Say that when you're in Brunei.

The point being, guys, that a sovereign King can do as he pleases.

And this is something Jesus does.

And he says, but here's what I want you to be like.

Ah, kids like Liam need an answer from grownups.

How do I see God?

God has shown them.

Can't send them to Sunday school for this.

I mean, he's in Sunday school right now, but the point is,

it's only an hour a week.

It doesn't cut it, guys.

Any questions on this? Is it clear or is it not?

Okay.

Let's take the last one.

I'll try and finish in 10 minutes and then I want to do one last thing before we go.

Guys, blessed are the peacemakers.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

That's the last Beatitude, so we wrap it up today.

And then we continue with the Kingdom next week.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

The word for peace in the Bible is shalom.

And shalom does not mean conflict resolution.

Shalom means soundness, well-being, wholeness.

Our definition of peacemaker is this Christian who gets in the way of two people having an argument

and with diplomatic statesmen like platitudes, tries to calm everyone down and then sings hallelujah at the end of it.

That is not peacemaking.

Nor is it conflict resolution.

Blessed are the peacemakers means I am someone who first in my life has wholeness, has soundness, has well-being.

And then God uses me to bring it into somebody else's life.

This kind of peace is a distinctive of the people of the Kingdom.

If you and I don't have it and don't practice it, it's because perhaps there are areas in our lives that need to be invaded by King Jesus.

Wholeness doesn't mean that you can't have a flu or a cold or an ache or a sickness.

Wholeness means in the midst of a flu or a cold or an ache or a sickness.

You keep walking towards being whole because you know the one who brings wholeness.

To be sound in body, mind and spirit.

If not Christians, then who guys? Who?

Which other God can provide it?

Religions have to come up with multiple Gods so that they cover all the provision.

We got one God who is all sufficient.

Who else can provide this? And he lives in you.

And he says blessed are those that bring wholeness, shalom, well-being and soundness.

And I desperately want you to be peacemakers because this is a world that is so unsound, so unwholesome and so not at peace or well-being.

Who else can he use but us?

I've said this before. God always uses man to fulfill his purposes here on earth.

And if he can't find you, he'll find me.

And if he can't find me, he'll find somebody else.

We love saying the Holy Spirit will do it, but the Holy Spirit uses people.

Use Jesus, use Mary.

Our grasp of peacemaking is that of conflict resolution.

While the kingdom defines peace, I mean just think of this.

Isaiah 9, 6, famous scripture, always repeated in every play at Christmas.

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders.

And then it goes on to say that off his government and off his shalom, there shall be no end.

That is limitless, limitless.

Hey, people don't know that you and I are a gift to humanity.

Don't say that to your wife, but it is true.

You and I are a gift to humanity, not because of anything we are, but because of who we have.

You have no idea how easily you can...

Guys, don't go by your flaw, sickness, disease.

You are made in the image of God, created in His likeness and His holiness.

You have someone to give, not something to give, someone to give.

Silver and gold I have, none.

But what I have, I will give you.

And it wasn't healing, it was in the name of Jesus Christ, as in the influence and the character of Christ.

There is not a person here who has received Christ who does not have this to give away.

Wholeness is our trademark, man.

Don't think in terms of power, think in terms of wholeness.

It's ours to give away.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

They shall be called children of God.

It's the sheer work of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 14, 17, what does it say?

The kingdom of God is not about talk, nor is it about food and drink.

It's about righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Ghost.

Itch this week to disperse wholeness.

I mean, some people are fortunate.

They work on Hastings in downtown and they have umpteen opportunities to distribute wholeness like Rhonda or at Kuman or in her school.

People waiting for wholeness.

Some of us sit behind a desk, but there's someone sitting behind another desk.

Disperse wholeness this week.

Jesus calls ordinary people like me and you to partner with him in the divine work of shalom making.

Declaring soundness, declaring wholeness, declaring well-being.

To whom? To the nations of the world, man.

In Vancouver, in Bahrain, in Mongolia.

Releasing wholeness.

How? Speak, act, do.

So, let's assume there are three people.

One, two, three.

She, you can speak and say this is what God wants to give to you.

Whatever you sense God saying, will you get it wrong?

You're saying something good.

If you get it wrong, you're only getting the good wrong.

It won't damage you.

Act.

If it is generosity, then generosity.

Do.

If it needs laying on of hands and rebuking something, do it.

I will never know my ability to disperse wholeness till I find a place to do it.

As long as I think this is something that one day will happen, we'll never, never do it.

This week, attempt it.

Next week, come back with stories.

Ordinary people like you and me are shalom makers.

Partaking with Jesus Christ in a divine work here on earth.

In Vancouver, in UB, everywhere.

Don't miss out a single opportunity this week.

Yesterday I was walking through Landsdown and I knew there was this lady who was cleaning there.

I was supposed to pull out and give money to.

But you know why I didn't give it?

Because I had too many things in my hand.

I didn't want the inconveniences of then putting them down and taking my wallet out of my pocket.

That's how lazy it can get.

There's this really sad verse in Ecclesiastes 5.

Where the woman who has just put on her pajamas and is going to sleep hears a knock on the door.

Because the lover is outside the door.

And she knows it's him and she almost gets up and then she says,

but I put on my PJs and I got my socks on.

This will be too inconvenient to get up and go and so she stays in bed.

He knocks a few times and he leaves.

Song of songs. What did I say?

Ecclesiastes.

Okay, someone's not sleeping.

Song of songs. Thanks.

And so she decides after a while she decides, let me go and open the door for him.

She goes and opens the door for him and he's gone.

And now she starts running through the streets trying to find him.

Gets beaten up.

Knocking around saying, have you seen him? Have you seen him?

Hey, when he parts the curtain, run like crazy.

When God gives you a glimpse of something you step, want to step into PJs or not, run in your PJs.

Because these are divine moments, man.

Abraham knew it.

He knew that there was going to, that the torch would come.

A torch with fire would come.

Come right between the sacrifice and consume it.

And so what does he do? He doesn't fall asleep.

He's continuously chasing away vultures that come to eat up the sacrifice.

Why? Because he knows God is up to something.

I've got to stay awake.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

Hey, the other thing about peacemaking is

you can't give out wholeness, soundness and well-being

without dealing with the good news of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 5.20

For your ambassadors who are called to bring people into reconciliation with Jesus Christ

in the armor of God, what are the shoes called?

The shoes of the gospel of? Peace.

Part of shallow making or peacemaking, part of being a peacemaker

is to be able to go and tell people that Jesus Christ has ended the enmity between God and you

by dying on a cross and taking away your sin so that you can approach him boldly.

That there is no longer a hostility between you and God.

That is the good news.

What did the angels sing at Christmas?

They didn't call it Christmas then.

What did the angels sing in the middle of summer in the Middle East?

It was peace and goodwill too?

All men.

This peace thing is big with God, man.

And it's limitless.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

It is impossible to be a peacemaker without being willing to share the gospel.

We are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us on Christ's behalf.

And the last bit about shalom is peacemaking cannot be done if you don't deal with the messy truth.

As in, God used to get really upset with people who would say,

Peace, peace, when the wound is bleeding.

His intent is, Hey Jacob, you got an issue with somebody?

You'll have to sit down and sort it out and it's going to be really messy.

And there'll be tears and there'll be emotions and you'll get upset and they'll get upset.

But it's the only way around peacemaking.

Peacemaking takes time.

What we want is not peacemaking.

We want to peace keep.

We want to be peacekeepers.

Join the United Nations for that.

But if you want to be peacemakers, join the kingdom.

Peacemaking is so different.

Peacekeeping is, let's just make sure everything is okay.

You don't say nothing and I don't say nothing and everything is fine.

That's peacekeeping and Christians love peacekeeping.

Peacemaking is when you deal with the messy truth.

I read this quote by a Brazilian bishop.

He said, When I feed the poor, they call me a saint.

When I ask them why the poor are poor, they call me a communist.

When I feed the poor, they call me a saint.

When I ask them why the poor are poor, they call me a communist.

The point being, shallow making requires delving in and dealing with the messy truth.

That's something we avoid because we don't want to pay the cost of it.

Peacemakers are men and women of maturity, of meekness and zeal.

Hey, Phinehas was a peacemaker.

Strange, eh?

Look how he made peace.

God was upset with Israel.

God was upset with Israel.

So here's what Phinehas does.

He takes a javelin and he goes and is so zealous that he takes the javelin and drives it through the guy who was sinning and the woman he was sinning with.

And he skewers both of them with a javelin and he's a peacemaker.

Thank God we don't have to do stuff like that to prove that we are peacemakers.

But the point is, here are the things required for peacemaking.

Zeal, wisdom, meekness.

Zeal, wisdom, meekness.

And at times the sacrifice of being misunderstood.

Because someone will not like your peacemaking, always.

We'll talk about this more next time.

Guys, if you don't have this kind of peace in your life, then here are some things that you need to consider.

Here is what jettison speaks from your life.

Striving, as in working everything out.

You've got to work it out.

You find it very difficult to receive anything from God.

You've got to work for everything you do.

And the last one is, I forgot one.

These are peace destroyers.

Anger, stubbornness.

Fear, pride.

Control, striving.

When I cultivate these, all of us will struggle with this at some point, but when I cultivate these, this is always destroyed.

Always.

So identify one in your life and you'll realize why most of the time you find it very hard to walk in peace.

Because if any one of them are present in a very strong way, it's very hard for this to combine.

So how do you correct it?

Before you even try dealing with this, do what Paul does in all his letters.

Here's how he starts all his letters or finishes all his letters.

Grace to you and peace.

The way to get peace into your life is to go and plead with God, saying,

Father, this is what I've been struggling with for the last little while.

Whatever you pick out of this, I need some kind of grace that will start knocking the heebie-jeebies out of it.

And then once that happens, this begins to have more traction.

And when you ask for grace, here's another thing you can really do well.

Grace with thanksgiving.

Philippians 4, 8.

Make your request known to God with thanksgiving.

And the peace of God that passes all understanding will mount God over your heart and mind.

Try this, guys. It always works.

These things will destroy peace.

What it's literally doing is chasing the Prince of Peace out.

Call him back in.

Ask for grace.

And sometimes the grace will look like a whip that will turn every table upside down.

So what? You end up destroying these things.

Is control a problem?

Control and peace never mix, oil and water.

I think it's one of the coolest tricks of the enemy.

I want all my ducks lined up. Go ahead, line them up.

And then he comes and just shoves one duck out of the way and...

Control is so anti-peace.

Never seek to have your ducks lined up because there's someone who's going to unline them up.

Other words for control? You can come up with them.

I'll stop now because I've got one last thing to do before I finish.

Just want to call up Joshua and pray for him.

And then if there are other people that need to be prayed for, we'll pray.

If we had time, I wanted Joshua to share some about Mongolia, but he'll give me some pictures and I'll show those pictures next week.

He's got some photos of the people that he's praying for.

He's got some phenomenal videos where he's in the Gobi Desert, which he wants me to come along with him.

He walks a lot and that's the one thing I hate about him.

And he makes others walk with him.

Yesterday he wanted to go to Stanley Park and I knew what that meant, so I decided not to.

So, come Joshua.

The first time I met him, I had my dress shoes on because I thought he's a pastor.

He'll probably take a cab and show me the city.

He decided to walk all across Ulaanbaatar.

And I'm thinking to myself, this is the first time I'm meeting him.

I can't tell him how much I hate walking, so I kept walking.

He made me walk for about four hours that day.

Do you want to share anything before we pray for you?

Say something.

Yeah, I'm greeting to you in the name of Jesus, on behalf of Mongolian Church.

And it's good to be here, very good to be here.

Because Jacob came a couple times and Mark and I heard that your church was praying for nations and praying for Mongolia.

And what God is doing through Jacob and us together, it's incredible.

You know, Mongolia was a, as you know, Mongolia was a communist country and then totally isolated.

And God opened the door of Mongolia back in early 90s.

And I was a teenager and I received a gospel book from foreign missionary in the street of Ulaanbaatar.

And God strongly touched my heart and I received Christ as my savior.

And then from that on I started serving Mongolian Church since 1992.

We started one of the first Mongolian Church in Ulaanbaatar.

And since then I keep serving the Lord.

And then one day Jacob came to Mongolia and it was God's time, I think, God's time.

And then he prophesied that, you know, on me that God is going to, I mean, the king of the world will offer you the good offerings.

But there's a lot of laws going to offer you, God is going to offer you the best one.

Which is that that time was for my life was kind of, you know, I was going through this transition.

And I had a lot of offering to, I could be a pastor, a Mongolian Church in USA or UK and some other places.

But God was really telling me, I mean, I had that, I got the offerings but I couldn't do that prophecy, you know.

And then God was strongly telling me that Mongolia is your ministry place, you know.

And then also Jacob was praying for me.