[0:00] Father, have mercy. Our Lord's disciples came to him and said, teach us to pray. Lord, we say it with them.
[0:12] We echo the first apostles. We echo, they cry, teach us to pray. Help us to pray. Thank you that you've given us your spirit who prays in us and for us.
[0:27] Help our lips to be moved. Help our own hearts to be turned towards you. Help us to know what it means to pray without ceasing. Oh God, we know you hear us.
[0:41] And we know you love us. But it's so hard for us to pray. And it's hard to understand that, Father. There's all kinds of reasons. But Lord, help us.
[0:52] Please, help me. Help me. Help us to pray. Together and alone. Help us to pray.
[1:06] For we know that your arms are open wide. You are the father who is looking for his children to come home.
[1:17] Help us to come home today. In prayer. In faith. In repentance. In hope. In joy.
[1:31] Pour out your fire on us. Revive our lives, our souls. Our church.
[1:42] Revive us, O Lord. Pour out your spirit now as your word goes forth. And give us ears to hear what your spirit is saying to our church.
[1:57] Use your servant who needs to hear the message that he preaches. And give us hearts to follow Jesus.
[2:08] And to be the people, the kingdom people he's called us to be. So, Lord, we submit ourselves now to you and to your word.
[2:22] And we pray you make your word live in us. By the power of your spirit, may Jesus be seen in us. May Jesus be glorified in us. May Jesus be our great hope and joy.
[2:35] May he be our life. May our lives exalt you.
[2:51] Speak for your servants are listening in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Matthew chapter 5.
[3:01] Once again, we're continuing in our study of verse 10. Verse 9. Excuse me, verse 9. I'm just going to read that passage.
[3:15] Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. That is the word of the Lord.
[3:28] Thanks be to God. Please be seated, family. Thank you once again. Praise team. We so appreciate your ministry to us in word. In the song word.
[3:41] Lord, there's a famous prayer that's attributed to St. Francis of Assisi.
[3:56] I'm sure many of you have heard this prayer. I think it captures the idea of my message this morning. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
[4:09] Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith.
[4:23] Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy.
[4:33] O divine master. O divine master. Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand.
[4:47] To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
[4:58] It is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. Amen. Oh, that every true church of Christ was full of such hearts.
[5:15] This is the prayer of someone who is a citizen of the kingdom of God. It reflects the heart of someone full of the spirit of Christ.
[5:31] Who lives to be God's agent of peace. So I have to ask. Does this prayer reflect your heart?
[5:46] Are you actively pursuing a life of peacemaking in the name of Jesus? It doesn't happen by accident.
[6:02] Are we pursuing it? By review, remember the kingdom of God is a kingdom of peace. In order to be peacemakers, we must first be at peace with the God of peace.
[6:20] Through his son, the Prince of Peace. And that only comes by admitting that we're rebels. We have to start there.
[6:32] That we are not peacemakers. In our hearts, we are peacetakers. We are sinners in rebellion against God. But in giving ourselves to Jesus by faith.
[6:49] Trusting in him alone to forgive us our sins and save us, making us right with God. We now enter into that place where we have peace with God.
[7:05] The war is over. We are no longer shooting at God. And most importantly, he is no longer shooting at us.
[7:17] We are at peace. He did it. And once we have this peace with God, we are given the privilege of living in the peace of God.
[7:31] The peace of God applies the peace that Christ has won for us to our hearts. It applies the peace.
[7:43] And it especially applies that peace in difficult situations and conflicts. That's when we need that peace.
[7:55] It's what Isaiah 26 says. You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. Because he trusts in you.
[8:07] Trust in the Lord forever. For the Lord God is an everlasting rock. See, that's the peace of God.
[8:18] It comes from being at peace with God. Because that's why I can think about God all day. I can keep my mind on him. I can remember whose I am.
[8:31] I can remember who's in charge. Who's driving the bus. Who's in control of all things. That's how I remember him in my day. That I am doing all that I'm doing.
[8:44] Not for my own glory. But for the glory of the living Christ. You see, that's how I keep my mind stayed on him. And when I do, by the grace of God.
[8:57] By the gift of God. By the kindness of God. He keeps me. And I love that phrase. Perfect peace. Woo.
[9:08] Only time the word perfect can be used in relationship to Kevin Smith. Is God's perfect peace. Because we trust him.
[9:24] Amen. Faith. Faith. That's faith. Trusting in God. That whatever crazy is happening. I know the one who calms the storms.
[9:40] When the waters are choppy. And the waves of, I'm getting wet from the spray. And the splash. And I'm all, I'm feeling discombobulated. I can remember that there's one who says, peace be still.
[9:57] I can remember. Amen. Here's the thing. I feel like monk. You know, I'm having more monk moments in my life. I'm feeling this now.
[10:08] Not that I get it right. I'm just saying, I'm just having more thoughts of him. I feel like him sometimes. The reason we fail to be peacemakers. Is because we are not living in one or both aspects of kingdom peace.
[10:26] We are either not at peace with God ourselves at all. Or we're not trusting in the peace of God.
[10:39] You see, this is one of the chief tools of the enemy that causes splits and disruption in our churches.
[10:53] And therefore makes us ineffective in the world. We are full of anger. We are full of anger. Resentment.
[11:04] Fear. Disappointment. And pride. We are agitated. We are agitated. All the time. In our stuff.
[11:15] Inside of us. We're agitated. We're not walking in the peace of God. Therefore, we cannot make peace. And so our marriages fall apart.
[11:31] Somebody not at peace. With God or have the peace of God. Something's broken. Maybe both parties are guilty. But somewhere, if you are a Christian.
[11:44] Our marriages fall apart because there's no peace. There's no peacemaking. Our churches split and disrupt because where are the peacemakers?
[11:58] Is it any wonder? Listen, saints. I just had to think about this this week. Last week. Is it any wonder that our nation is at such disarray and pulling itself apart when the church of God is not walking in peace?
[12:15] Just a thought. You see, the king's people fight for peace.
[12:29] I didn't say fight each other. I said fight for peace. The king's people, we fight for peace. You see, the world and too many of us even in our churches are looking for peace inwardly.
[12:45] Stay with me now. I'm not saying that's bad. Totally. Here's the problem. We tend to be happy when we find it internally. We're happy through when we meditation and incense.
[12:58] I love the world too now. And drugs, music, and crystals. Even reading scriptures when we feel tranquil. Everybody's looking for tranquility.
[13:08] Everybody's looking for peace, right? That's why we got those crystals hanging around in our cars, floating around. And people breathing incense to try to find a measure of peace. And as a Christian, I'm reading scripture. Amen.
[13:19] I'm praying because I want a sense of internal peace. Amen. Amen. But there's a problem if that's it.
[13:30] You see, the Lord doesn't say, blessed are the peaceful. But blessed are the peacemakers.
[13:46] Now, you can't, remember I said before, you can't be a peacemaker unless you have the internal peace of God. Amen. But he didn't say, stop there with you. Our Lord gives us internal peace for our good, yes, but also for the good of others.
[14:06] Like our Lord in Philippians 2.4, we look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2.4, right?
[14:17] You know that passage. That's what Paul's saying. Like Jesus, the people of God are not just concerned about ourselves and, in this passage, our own internal peace.
[14:30] Amen to that. But we're also looking, how can we be God's agents of peace? We use the word reconciliation in our church, right? We put the word racial in front of it.
[14:44] Racial reconciliation. But if you can't do reconciliation, you have no business talking about racial reconciliation. And you can't do any kind of reconciliation unless you have the peace of God moving you to do it.
[15:03] To do it. Remember, the devil comes to do what? Come on, John 10. Come on, steal, kill, destroy.
[15:17] Does that sound like he's a peacemaker to you? So if we are being peacemakers, we are in direct conflict with the enemy of our souls.
[15:29] Which means we're spiritually fighting for peace. We are warriors of peace. Because the enemy of our souls is the ultimate peacetaker.
[15:46] Definition of a peacemaker. A peacemaker is one who restores peace and reconciliation between persons, groups, and even nations. Amen. Pretty simple.
[15:58] Without negotiating the truth. It is not peace at any price.
[16:11] We seek peace according to the truth of God. We will not have a fake peace. A false peace. Because we give up on the truth of God.
[16:23] That's not kingdom peace. And God can use us saints. Listen. When we are walking in kingdom power, when we are following the king, we can be used by God to bring peace in small and large conflicts.
[16:44] You've heard me mention the trip to Amman I had several years ago. And I'll never forget it because it made an impact on me. But one of the things that impacted me when I was in Jordan was that we went to a church service.
[16:57] And I met a husband and wife team who were actually working with Christians in Israel and Jordan to bring reconciliation.
[17:15] Now, if you know anything about that area, you know there's conflict between those two people groups. It's difficult.
[17:28] And the church is right there in the middle. And the people of God are looking to bridge the gap between people groups that are not compatible in their minds.
[17:46] Why? Why? Because the kingdom of God is bigger than human conflicts.
[17:59] Okay, that was a weak amen. See, y'all don't believe it. That's why we're in trouble. If we do not believe that the kingdom of God is bigger than human conflicts, if we think the human conflicts are supreme, that explains why we're in the mess we're in right now.
[18:21] It really does. You see, peacemakers must fight against hostility, anger, ethnocentrism, nationalism, misunderstandings, pride, gossip, slander, desire for revenge, in order that we might be God's vehicles of peace.
[18:51] We're at war. Warriors, are you out there? We're at war. All of those things I've just mentioned and more. Keep humanity from being reconciled.
[19:07] And let me get personal. Let me come right down the street of the church and even our street probably as well. Two of the most destructible weapons of the devil in churches are what author Jerry Bridges calls respectable sins.
[19:26] Two that he highlights that I am convinced the devil uses them to great, to great effect. Here they are.
[19:37] Gossip and slander. You didn't expect that, did you? Two of his best weapons in the church of God.
[19:49] Gossip and slander that destroy peace. By gossip, Bridges goes on. And this is a lengthy quote, so stay with me. It's on the screen. Gossip is the spreading of unfavorable information about someone else.
[20:02] Even if that information is true. However, gossip is often based on rumor. Which makes the sin even worse. Indulging in gossip seems to feed the sinful ego.
[20:17] Especially when that information we're passing along is negative. It makes us feel self-righteous by comparison. Passing along negative information about your brothers and sisters, even if it's true, is called gossip.
[20:41] Do you know that God hates it? Are you aware that that's considered sin? He goes on.
[20:54] Slander. They're related. Slander is making a false statement or misrepresentation about another person that defames or damages the person's reputation.
[21:06] We slander when we ascribe wrong motives to people. Even though we can't see their hearts or know their particular circumstances. Kevin Smith interjection.
[21:18] See, when you do that, you are now the fourth member of the Trinity. Because you can read hearts. You read motives. You know exactly why that person is doing that.
[21:29] I know why she said that. I know what's... No, you don't. Cut it. Let me go on. We slander when we misrepresent another person's position on a subject without first determining what that person's position is.
[21:50] Oh my goodness. We slander when we blow out of proportion another person's sin and make that person appear to be more sinful than he or she really is.
[22:03] Now, I want to tell you, Bridges is right. His definitions are right on point. And he's talking about...
[22:14] That's why he calls it respectable sins. He's talking about the church of God. And you know where we do most of the gossiping and slander? Two places. The phone and the internet.
[22:28] The phone caller says, hey, what do you think about? Or have you heard? At that point, you should go click. I'm sorry.
[22:39] That's old school. Click. When someone calls you and say, have you heard about... And they go on to talk about somebody...
[22:50] You should say, stop. Hold it. Whoa. Whoa. In the name of Jesus, whoa. We are not having this conversation. They're not here.
[23:04] And it's amazing. Gossip and slander. The person wasn't even there to see it or hear it themselves.
[23:15] So they're telling you what they have not seen or heard themselves. That's usually what happens. That's usually what happens. So how do they know it's true?
[23:28] Don't shoot. How do they know it's even true? Here's the thing. To the gossip or the slanderer, the truth doesn't matter. It's the news.
[23:41] It's sharing the news. And it's not gospel. It's not good news either. It's sharing the news. It makes... Somehow it makes us feel superior.
[23:52] It makes us feel like we in the know. We got the T. No, you got the devil. No. You got the D. No.
[24:04] This is the church of God. It kills me. Help us, Lord. We are being spared. Too often we are letting the enemy spur us on to spread bad news.
[24:18] Listen. Listen. And when you listen to gossip, listen. When you... You will find yourself being irritable, dissatisfied, and suspicious.
[24:30] Because you can't take fire into your lap and not be burned. You cannot take gossip into your heart and not be corrupted.
[24:45] And so you find yourself. You're all out of sorts. You're all dissatisfied and angry. And you don't even know why. Because you've taken gossip and slander into your heart.
[24:57] And the enemy is just playing you like a harp. Plucking your strings. And it gets worse and worse. It spreads. You're not at peace.
[25:11] Because you're trafficking in ungodliness. And allowing your own heart to be tainted. You can't be a peacemaker if you're trafficking gossip and slander. You can't.
[25:24] You don't even want to be. I said there were two places. The second is social media. This is the... This is crazy, y'all.
[25:35] I'm sorry. I look at X. I really do. I get good articles off X, by the way. I get some books, never... Recommended articles. I get some good stuff off X. I really do. But here's what I see on X all the time.
[25:48] People will come on and post. This happened to me at my job. This happened to me at my church. This happened to me. And so-and-so, the CEO did this.
[26:01] Or the pastor did this. Or that church did this. Or those people did that. And then you will see... Check out the comments.
[26:11] You know you're on it. Check out the comments. Oh, yeah. It's happened to me at my church. Happened to me at my job. Oh, yeah. It happened... You get all these favorable comments. People are just...
[26:22] Oh, I'm so sorry for you. I'm praying for you. You're not... How do we know it's true? Do you know how many sick people are on X looking for attention?
[26:38] Are you... Are we... Have we lost our minds? And we will... We will cut people off. We will cancel folk based upon what somebody wrote on Twitter that none of us heard or saw ourselves.
[26:51] And we will swear it's the truth. David, help me out, brother. Are we that gullible?
[27:03] Are we really that gullible? Christian people, are we really that gullible? I'm not saying it's all lies. I'm not saying that. It may actually be true.
[27:14] But if they're putting it on the internet, what does it become? No. And if... And just suppose the person's perspective is wrong. Suppose they misread something.
[27:26] Suppose they misunderstood something. Suppose they did something they shouldn't have done. That's why they got fired. And Christian folk are ready to go to war.
[27:41] I've seen it time and time again, you know. And here's the thing. Then the truth comes out. But everybody get quiet then. And nobody ever says, I was wrong.
[27:54] I've never seen a retraction. They may be pulled in text. They pull it down. But nobody ever says, please forgive me. I have sinned... I'm talking about Christians now.
[28:05] I've sinned against the Lord. I shouldn't have said that. What was... You never hear that. Never see that. Family, brothers and sisters. Why is there no peace in our churches? Why is there no peace in our families?
[28:16] Because we are being deluded by the enemy. We are listening to the devil and not verifying anything. We don't trust. We trust, but don't verify. We don't verify. And people run out the door of whatever family, organization, church, whatever, because of what they heard.
[28:45] It destroys the peace of the Lord's body. It's ungodly. We need peacemakers.
[28:57] Family, we need peacemakers. We need people who are willing to say, no. Let's fix this. Let's get together. Pulling folk together.
[29:09] We need reconcilers. Can I ask you a spiritual diagnostic question? When people are at each other's throats, either online or in person, they're angry and arguing.
[29:25] What happens when you show up? Do you end up being a peacetaker?
[29:38] Even a peacemaker, but not a peacemaker. You see, a peacetaker shows up and takes sides and inflames the situation.
[29:50] The peacetaker spreads more gossip and slander rather than bringing people to the table to talk things out. That's what the peacetaker does.
[30:01] The peacetaker ignores the conflict as if it's not happening. That's the peacetaker. They don't want to get involved even though they are right there.
[30:16] And they're already involved, really. Because they're listening. And they don't want to... Now, listen. It doesn't mean that every conflict you see as a Christian you should get involved in.
[30:30] But it does mean you should be open to God using you to reconcile people. To bring, especially the householder, especially the saints, to bring people...
[30:44] Even on your job, whether it's a Christian place or not. Where do you fall out? Are you a gossip? A slander? Or are you a peacemaker? On your job? In your school? In your family?
[30:56] Blessed are the peacemakers. They are the children of God. They are the ones who bear the family likeness.
[31:10] Whose likeness do you bear? Are you willing to be Christ's agent of reconciliation and not the devil's agent of peacetaking?
[31:26] So, most importantly, therefore, I'm going to... It might be a part three. I don't know. We'll see. But it's likely. Most importantly, God's people must fight for peace in the church.
[31:40] This is where we... Listen, saints. Galatians 6. Let us do good to all people. Especially to the household of faith.
[31:56] Our first call is right here in the family. Let's do good. It's all over the New Testament.
[32:07] Do good. But where does good start? At home. At home. In your family and in this family.
[32:18] This is where we begin. This is where we... Because this is where the witness is being born. This is the place of God and the peace of God. Which should be...
[32:28] And this peace should be manifest most here. The most peaceful place in the earth should be the place of the kingdom in the embassy of the Lord.
[32:43] His church. And yet we see so little. We see so little. COVID just revealed it. It was already there.
[32:55] It just gave us an excuse. Schism. Whether it be pastors abusing their authority or church members abusing their membership.
[33:07] Factions within the church fighting and gossiping and slandering and pulling churches apart. Politics. We're all taking sides. I'm a Republican. I'm a Democrat.
[33:18] This is my candidate. This is my candidate. And we're fighting among ourselves. And where is it? And then we talk about racial reconciliation.
[33:30] Which is a joke in the middle of all this. We got racial... We got all this racial disharmony around the church of God. And when you try to talk about it sometimes, you get labeled something.
[33:45] You know what it is? Woke. Woke. Can't talk about those things. Because you're woke now. So...
[33:56] So... Do we get reconciliation then? No chance. Because you can't talk about it. You're breaking the peace by even talking about it, people will say.
[34:11] The peace has already been broken. The only way to fix it is to begin talking about it God's way. Sherry Harder, president of the Trinity Forum, wrote a telling article.
[34:25] And I sent it to the session in the academy as well. But she says this. Our houses of worship now, rather than offering a respite from some political battles, increasingly serve as new fronts for them.
[34:38] Disagreement over policy or personalities have all too easily morphed into what is perceived increasingly as a class between good and evil. If you don't vote my way, that's your evil.
[34:52] Hello? Where the future of the country or the culture lies in the balance and compromise or even kindness is seen as capitulation. So it's perhaps not surprising that a recent Barnard survey...
[35:07] Now, we're going to talk about us now, people in my spot. Okay? She does this. I want you to hear it. Found that over 40% of evangelical pastors reported seriously considering leaving the ministry within the last year.
[35:21] Up from 29% the year before. The three main drivers of their demoralization were reported to be stress, loneliness, and political division within their churches.
[35:35] That's sad. That's truly... The whole thing is truly sad. What's the problem?
[35:49] No peacemakers. No peacemakers. No peacemakers. That's really... Hello? That's it? No peacemakers. Where are the warriors for peace? Too often, the only peace we see in our churches is when our churches look the same and vote the same and think the same.
[36:09] But that's not the kingdom. It's a false peace. Gospel peace is not about sameness. It's about unity and diversity around Christ and his kingdom as our supreme passion and goal.
[36:28] This leaves us free. Watch this. When you see this, this leaves us free to humbly, to disagree humbly on lesser issues.
[36:40] The kingdom is up here. Everything else is down here. Don't get me wrong. The kingdom affects everything down here. But when you come... But when it comes down to the big issue, those other things, like who's in the White House, on the Supreme Court, they're lesser issues.
[37:04] This leaves us free to disagree humbly on lesser issues. Listen, because our identity, security, and purpose are not found in them. You see, the reason there's so much disharmony is because we are finding our identity, our security, and our purpose in the lesser things rather than Christ and his kingdom.
[37:29] You see, when it comes to Jesus, he never loses an election. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never.
[37:40] And there's never any sin or corruption in him. And his kingdom is forever.
[37:54] Listen, if you and me are in that kingdom together, I can disagree with you. I may have a good time debating you over politics.
[38:08] But it's an in-house family debate. It's okay. And at the end of the day, I'll put my arm around you. I'm going to hug you. We're going to get a Smirnoff ice and play some disc golf together.
[38:20] Because it's a lesser thing. And my life is not tied up in lesser things. Come on, somebody.
[38:31] I got a... Okay. I got a few minutes, Pastor Billy. I just got to take a couple more. I just want to... I'm just trying to... I'm trying to be practical here, y'all.
[38:42] I'm trying to get... Because this is killing me. Listen, if Ephesians 2, 14 and 17, which tells us that Jesus himself is our peace, and he's made Jew and Gentile one.
[38:54] If he's done all that, Jew and Gentile. Jew and Gentile. The people of God, Jew. The people who are not the people of God, Gentile. That's what that means, okay? If he can bridge the gap between those two groups in Christ, making them one in Jesus.
[39:10] In Jesus now. In faith in Jesus. It doesn't matter whether you're Jewish descent, or whether you're Gentile descent. If he can make us one in Jesus. If he can bridge that gap. Believe me.
[39:20] There's no other gap he can't bridge. In Christ, all those other things take on secondary manifestations. It's not about who... My ethnicity.
[39:30] It's not about my political stance. It's not about my... Whether I'm male or female. Only two genders, by the way. Whether I'm male or female. It isn't about what nation I'm a part of. Whether I'm a Russian.
[39:41] Christian. Or a... Or an American Christian. Or a Chinese Christian. Or... Hello, somebody. It doesn't matter if our nations are at war. If we are in Christ.
[39:52] We are family. And we are destined for each other for eternity. And I can live with you. And you can live with me. I'm a peacemaker.
[40:05] I will not let lesser things separate me from you. How do we make peace?
[40:18] Well... I have to save that for next time. But I will give you this hint. I'll be looking at Matthew 18.
[40:30] Matthew 18. Matthew 18. Matthew 18. Just so you know. I'll be looking at Matthew 18. I don't know if you know the story or not.
[40:43] There was a guy named Alfred Noble. Alfred Noble. Anybody ever heard of Alfred Noble? Alfred Noble invented dynamite.
[40:55] He invented it because he wanted to remove obstructions. Like mountains and whatnot. In order to, you know, build roads. And railroads.
[41:06] You know. Level ground so we can put up buildings. The problem is. Someone found out. That dynamite was good for blowing people up too.
[41:21] And so they begin to use his invention of dynamite. To destroy people. The very thing he was against. He was trying to make life easier.
[41:33] And yet people begin to use his invention to cause great destruction in people. So Noble got so depressed.
[41:44] He really did. He got very depressed. And he decided to take some of his millions. And he developed something called the Nobel Peace Prize.
[41:58] Because he wanted to do good. And he wanted to encourage people who did good. Who brought people together.
[42:09] Who benefited humanity. The Nobel Peace Prize. And you know all about that. Every year we have winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. And various fields of endeavor.
[42:20] That are good. And so he invested his own money to establish this. But I'm here to tell you that God. God. Is giving out kingdom peace prize winners.
[42:37] Kingdom peace prize pursuers. Now go me wrong. They may win the Nobel Peace Prize. Amen. But it's bigger than that.
[42:49] He's looking for people who in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The risen son of God. The ascended Lord and coming again king. He's looking for people who call him master.
[43:01] Who call him savior. Who call him big brother. He's looking for people like that. Who will then go into the places of the world. And the church. And bring people together.
[43:12] Reconcile people. Seek to be his agents of peace. Who will go into their jobs. Their schools. Even other nations. As he gives them opportunity. To be used of him.
[43:24] To bring his peace to bear. And best of all. His peace comes with good news. Because first of all. Listen. Peace comes through the gospel.
[43:36] The gospel of the good news of Jesus Christ. Is what brings us to God. And then brings us to one another. Anybody out there want to win that prize?
[43:47] Kingdom Peace Prize. Anybody out there want to pursue that? In the name of Jesus. We need you. Oh we need you.
[44:00] Because the enemy. Is joking with us. He's laughing at us. He's tearing us apart.
[44:14] He's destroying our families. He's destroying our families. We're breaking our vows. He's destroying our churches.
[44:27] Breaking our vows there too. All for the sake. Of what we want. What makes me feel better.
[44:37] What makes me feel better. It's not about Jesus anymore. He's doing. He's leading us to do that to ourselves. But I'm here to tell you.
[44:51] God forgives. And God transforms. Fire. Fall on us. Fire. Fire. The fire of the spirit.
[45:03] Fall on us. So that we're full of the spirit of God. The peace with God. And the peace of God. So we can make peace for God. Can I just ask you one more thing?
[45:20] If you've been trafficking in gossip. The Lord forgives. Ask him to forgive you. And when you have opportunity.
[45:34] With gentleness and respect. Tell the person. Who wants to gossip to you. Jesus is Lord.
[45:47] Just say that. Just say that. Just I just. Just say. Say Jesus is Lord. And then when they ask you. What do you mean? He's Lord of my tongue.
[46:01] He's Lord of my ears. He's Lord of this conversation. And this conversation. Is of the devil. I will not be a part of it. I love you.
[46:12] I won't be a part of this anymore. God will use you. They'll wake up. They'll wake up. Many will wake up.
[46:26] Some won't. That's between them and God. That's between them and God. Let's love one another family.
[46:40] And let's pursue peace with one another. Father in Jesus name. Lord help us. Lord you know there's so much more to say. And I. I thank you. That there is more to say. And I pray Lord.
[46:51] You will help me say it next week. From your word. And clearly preach and teach it. But I pray most of all right now. That we as a church. And all those who hear my voice.
[47:01] Over the internet. In their churches. That Lord we will pursue. Peacemaking among our brothers and sisters. That we would be those. Lord who recognize the enemy's.
[47:12] Tricks and traps. And no longer give in. That we will repent. Where we've fallen. And that we will walk in righteousness before you. Help us Lord. Unify our bodies.
[47:23] Around the truth of Christ. May we not run away. From issues that need to be dealt with. But may we do them in a way that honors Jesus.
[47:34] Deliver us from the evil. And the evil one. For thine is the kingdom. And the power. And the glory forever. Amen.