Every Saturday, Pastor Mike and Sherry write our congregation a letter of encouragement as well an introduction for the sermon topic he will preach the following morning. Below you will find the letter from September 21st, 2024. To watch this sermon, follow this link: The Things That Make For Peace, a sermon on Romans 14:19.
Week of September 22, 2024
May our Lord and Master Jesus Christ pour His gracious blessings on each of you. I pray this message finds you living in the fullness of His wonderful grace. It’s been a few weeks since I have sent out a message due to circumstances beyond my control. But I wanted to take time today to send out an encouragement to all of you. You are a blessing to me and to each other. It is a great privilege to be a part of your lives as God has allowed.
Tomorrow I’ll share with you a message out of Romans 14 where we are called of God to “pursue the things that make for peace and the building up of one another.” I look forward to sharing these truths with you and I pray you will join us for worship.
The Kingdom of God is unshakeable because it is built on a peaceful foundation. The King of this kingdom is called “the Prince of Peace,” and through the violence of crucifixion, Jesus made peace with God available to all who trust Him as savior. Peace with God is made sure through the sacrifice of Christ. This then becomes the foundation of Paul’s admonition to the Church in Rome and by extension to us.
Paul has been urging those who are strong in faith to be willing to set aside the open exercise of their freedom in Christ, if necessary, to keep from harming the faith and obedience of those who are less strong. Then comes the admonition that we are to “pursue the things that make for peace.”
Pursuing the things that make for peace. Now that’s a big challenge, since so many things in our world lead us to conflict, the idea of pursuing, chasing down and grabbing ahold of the things that make for peace seem far from our grasp. Yet, that’s exactly what Christ, through the apostle Paul calls us to do. “For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. SO THEN we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.” (Romans 14:18-19)
Scripture doesn’t call us to live outside reality; quite the contrary. Scripture recognizes that getting along with some people in this world is often difficult—if not impossible. The Apostle understands that our relationships with others are two-way streets. There is only so much that we can do. We cannot change the hearts of other individuals. We cannot force them to like us or give us the benefit of the doubt. Some people will still hate us even if we bend over backwards to show them kindness and mercy. Despite our best efforts, there will be people who will oppose us even when we go the extra mile for them.
That reality, Paul says, should not keep us from pursuing the things that make for peace with others in this world; rather, we must be peacemakers and live harmoniously with others as long as we do not compromise God's truth to do so. Still, there is only so much we can do. Paul says earlier that it is, “So far as it depends on [us]"—the Lord calls us only to do what is ours to do, namely, to apologize when we offend people unnecessarily, to seek the well-being even of our enemies, and to make sure that we do not put up a stumbling block to living at peace with others. If we do such things, we should be confident that we have done what our Creator requires.
We cannot force others to be at peace with us, and the Lord does not expect us to do His work of softening the hearts of others toward us. Our task is to give no one a legitimate reason to be at war with us. If people are at war with us only because we are standing for the gospel, we have fulfilled this admonition. If they fight with us because we are obnoxious, cantankerous, mean-spirited, or for any similar reason, we have not obeyed Paul's admonition.
Christ calls us to do whatever we can to live at peace with all people. This does not mean denying the truth but cultivating a gentle spirit that seeks the good of all, that is humble enough to confess one's faults and failures, and that puts the needs of others before our own. Only as we walk in the Spirit will we do this. May we seek to be peacemakers and to do whatever we can to commend the name of Christ by living at peace with others insofar as it depends upon us.
As you pursue peace it’s important to remember that your circumstances don’t have to determine the amount of peace. Peace begins within you, and it comes from Jesus Christ. Regardless of what is going on around you, you can have peace of heart and peace of mind. Jesus Christ is our Prince of Peace. He brought peace between us and God and even in the most trying and difficult situations He can bring you peace. All you have to do is turn to Him. When we belong to Him not only do we have peace but we are to pursue peace with all men and the things that make for peace.
God bless each of you! As I close this I want to thank you all for your partnership in in the work of Hall Blvd. Baptist Church. See you soon.
All Our Love, Mike and Sherry
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