Friends, if you'll open your Bibles to Matthew chapter five, we'll be continuing in verse nine. And as I've already given away properly, we're gonna be talking about peace this morning. But in order to talk about peace, we have to talk about war. Because the reality of war is one of horror, is one of loss, is one of trauma, It's one of destruction. And I think we should realize that war is the natural state of things in a world that is full of sin, with people that have rebelled against their creator, that are enmity with God. And so therefore, war is something that we should expect. And so I know for many of us that pay attention to the news, we know of war happening right now in different parts of the world. Ones that we fear would expand and the peace that we experience here, what little of it that we experience, would then be destroyed. That suns would go off to war. That the destruction would then reach our shores. And so when we think about peace, we have to start to think about what it costs to get to peace. Because when we think about peace and what we're going to think about when blessed are the peacemakers, is that we have good news. We have the most incredible good news because we serve a God who is the only source of peace. It should not surprise us that the Beatitudes continue because the Prince of Peace would invite us into his action of making war against war. His ultimately making a war for peace. And he is fighting in his ministry and he fights all the way to the point of death. And so it's truly a war that we must wage, and I believe that'll become clearer as we dive into this concept of peace and we discover what Jesus was really teaching us when he said, blessed are the peacemakers. So I wanna read this brief passage for us and pray briefly, and let's dive in. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your son's perfect teaching, his incredible revelation of what his people, his followers will be like, must be like, and the blessings that come to them, come to us, Father. as we live according to your ways and according to your will and live like your son, Jesus. And so Father, I pray that we would desire, like the Prince of Peace, to fight against the war and the destruction and the calamity of this world and truly fight and wage war for peace. And I pray that you would call us to this high calling, and that we would be ready to answer, ready to be blessed, as we would be your sons and daughters. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So let's talk about the meaning of peace, because it really, as we started, only makes sense when it contrasts it with war. But the Greek word Irenae, which is peace here, It talks about not just a absence of conflict, but a wholeness. It talks about the fact that there is no division, there's no warring parts. And so a peace that God calls us to speaks of a serenity between people that actually shouldn't be there. I think that's the part that was most amazing to me, is that when a world is wracked with sin, there should be no peace. in a world full of rebels against God, there should be no peace with God. But the reason that peace is so incredible is because it is so rare. In the history of civilization, I was looking at estimates that historians have gone back through and looked at, okay, there was a war that was happening here at these times, and they were going back through and looking, was there a single year throughout history that there was no war? And they were estimating that maybe in recorded history, Maybe there's two hundred and about 30 years without some kind of massive scale war. But we have to understand that doesn't. Take into account the wars we have in our living rooms. That doesn't take into account the wars we have between neighbors over who's going to cut down that tree. And it's just the reality of conflict is so prevalent that I don't know if we could actually find a single day on Earth where there hasn't been incredible conflict and a lack of peace. And so if you go small enough, you can find a war going on in the hearts of men. And this is why we should marvel at the Beatitudes and what God calls His followers to live in, the blessings He calls us to live in, but also we can marvel at the fruits of the Spirit. Because what's listed in Galatians 5, of what marks the believer, is not a wish list of traits of a Christian, but it's ultimately the supernatural gifts given to those who belong to Christ. And among them, we find peace. And we find both. We find that fruit here in the happy Beatitudes. But before we close out our definition of peace, we can look at the Old Testament. We can look at the Old Testament concept, the Old Testament word of Shalom. Now, many of you guys know that the Greek or the Jewish people would use Shalom as both a greeting and a farewell. It was meant to indicate a closeness to that person. As you're meeting with them, you're close to them, you have peace with them. And then as you leave saying, we have no conflicts either. We get to be separate and be at peace. And so what I want us to realize is that peace is not an abstract concept. It's not just an absence of some kind of conflict on the global scene. But what peace is, is a highly relational, highly up close reality. And it's one of the key traits of those who have a relationship with God. we can be close to God, we can be with God, and we can also be with one another. Because what we find in the Beatitudes, each Beatitude overlaps with each other. And many of them show up together in the teaching of scripture. And one of the passages I was looking at this week, I just had to read for you because you read it in James chapter three, and it just shows up all of the incredible ways in which the beatitudes, the happy blessings of Christ's followers show up and peace is right there at the forefront. So if you turn with me to James chapter three, we're going to start in verse 13. And I'm going to read a few verses. And I just want us to marvel at how God does this, how God is instructing us Because verse 13 starts this section on godly wisdom. What is the gift that God gives us? And so James chapter three, verse 13 through 18. I'm going to read it for us in just a moment. Because James is an incredibly practical book, and it says this, who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. But the wisdom that from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. So what we find in contrast to the human wisdom is God's wisdom. And God's wisdom is described here throughout this passage as a wisdom that is truly from above and truly filled with the incredible blessings of the Beatitudes. Human wisdom is described as demonic, but God's wisdom comes from above and has characteristics which we should recognize. What does it say there at the beginning? That his good conduct let him show his work in the meekness of wisdom. What do we find here in the middle? This not selfish ambition, but true humility. We find a purity of hearts that's described there in verse 17. The wisdom from above is first pure and then peaceable. And it's righteous in every way as those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And I just found it incredible that James is ending this section of all of these incredible wise sayings and all the things that he wants for the people of God. And the section ends with saying, a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And what I know from James is that he learned from his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. James knew and began to pick up from Jesus that peacemakers are the ones that are going to see all the rest of these blessings show up in their life. So let's talk about peacemakers, because that's who are truly blessed in Matthew chapter five, because what we want to make notice of is that it's not blessed are those who have peace or blessed are those who find peace but it's blessed are those who make peace. Now, we could use some alliteration and say it's for those who call themselves peace pursuers, those that are actively pursuing peace. And the point is, right here in this blessing, is that the blessing comes to those that are actively pursuing, not someone that's passive or avoiding to try to find peace or have peace, but as someone that is actively doing something to make peace. And there's two passages that come up that are almost the negative examples of this concept of if we're supposed to be making peace, there's places in scripture that talk about those that fake peace. And so it says in Ezekiel chapter 13, verse 10, that God condemns the prophets, the people of God that fake peace. It says precisely because they have misled my people saying peace when there is no peace. God was saying that those that go around saying, look, it's all good, it's peaceful when there is no peace should be clearly rejected. But the second is in the prophet Jeremiah chapter six, verse 14. It says, they have healed the wound of my people lightly saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. And what God is doing in both these cases is rebuking those that claim peace when there is none. Ultimately poor leaders and false prophets will claim that we can have peace with God or claim that there is peace with God when there clearly is none. And so the first attribute that I want us to recognize of the peacemaker, that Jesus is commending, will be the person that does the opposite of this. It's not the person that just claims peace, peace, when there is no peace, but a person that is honest about the problems, honest about the war, honest about the issues. And only then can they pursue peace. See, a truce can only be called when both sides recognize that the fighting must end. The fighting must end. The cost is too high for us to continue in this war. And so a peacemaker first deals with the truth that the cost of war, the cost of conflict is too high. It must be recognized and there must be a pursuit to the end of it. But the second attribute of a peacemaker is that of somebody that enters in and risks pain in order to make peace. Peace cannot be found by those that run away, cannot be found by those that just try to avoid, but peace is only found by those who make it, by those who pursue it, by those who actually are willing to risk the pain of getting through whatever the conflict is to get to the end. You know, we've seen the conflicts that have happened throughout the Middle East over our lifetimes, but over all the centuries. And the reality of the conflict that is there is so incredible. And oftentimes, when we look at the attempts that are being made to make peace, we just say they don't understand. They don't understand the conflict is in here. It's not a matter of how much humanitarian aid. It's not a matter of how many people you can get to the table. It's not about having the right mediator. It's the fact that these men and women, at the core of who they are, are not at peace with God, and therefore the peace with one another will always be an elusive reality. And so I want you to turn with me to something that might be a little bit odd, but I want you to turn with me to later on in Matthew, because if Jesus, as the Prince of Peace, says that he's going to make peace, and he's blessing those who are peacemakers, I want us to be reminded of how Jesus didn't pursue peace at any cost, he pursued peace in the right way. So Matthew chapter 10, And I'm just gonna read one verse for us, but I think it's striking enough. Matthew 10, verse 34, where Jesus teaches, do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. And what follows from this is Jesus explains that he has come and he will divide fathers from sons. He will divide mothers from fathers. He will divide husbands and wives. He will divide families because ultimately those who love him most will be divided from one another. So here's what I want you to see. is that how could Jesus bless the peacemakers and claim here that he did not want to bring peace, that he came to bring a sword, he came to actually separate families. How can we hold those two together? Is Jesus anti-peace, but yet calling his disciples to something higher than what he did? But what I want us to recognize is that what Jesus recognized is that loving God, loving Him, is the only way to get to peace. It is the only way to recognize that peace can be truly achieved. Because we have to understand that what Jesus knows about us is that we will continue to war. And only ultimately when we are separated painfully from this world, painfully from the things that we hold most dear and united with Him, will we truly ever have peace with those we hold dear. Because what Jesus is teaching in this section is that loyalty to a family, but disloyalty to God will never get us anywhere. we ultimately, by coming to the Lord and loving him first, we no longer love our family at all in comparison to how much we love him. So what Jesus did is when he stepped into the world, when he said, I have come to divide, he came to separate his people from a love of the world. He came to separate his people from a false peace where we might have unity in our family, but yet if we have no peace with God, we have no peace at all. Because what good is it to be at peace with the world, but to be at enmity with God? And so a true peacemaker like Jesus holds both of those attributes I talked about. Jesus recognizes the real issues at hand, the real war that continues in our human heart, that doesn't just say, peace, peace, and gloss over everything, but comes actually to divide all the way to the point of truly saving his people. but then he also enters in and he risks pain. We have to recognize that what Jesus did when he brought the sword, when he separated, is he, through his blood-bought sacrifice, bought a people for himself, that although they'll be separated from their family members, they will be united to him through his blood. And so what I ultimately believe what Jesus is teaching us about Christians being peacemakers is we can be the right type of pacifists There's this reality in some cults of Christianity and even some Christians that have taken a pacifist perspective. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to undermine everything Jesus is saying, but what I am trying to say is that there's a right type of pacifist. What Christians do is truly fight for peace, because a pacifism of absence, a pacifism of saying, I won't enter into that conflict, is ultimately someone that is going to be content with letting that conflict continue. Someone that's content to say, look, it's okay that you would be at odds with each other. I just want you to stop being angry and out loud about it. But a true peacemaker goes to the heart. A true peacemaker says, I'm gonna enter into the pain and the trial of this and say, we want real, lasting, enduring peace, first with God and then with others. And so Jesus is actually calling on, as Pastor Kent Hughes says it, that a peacemaker wages peace, actually wages war on the true conflict, so that through their striving, through their real dealing with the issue, can get through the conflict and arrive at true peace. And we can think about this in the conflicts that have happened in the world. It's not that peace comes when one enemy just decides, look, I'm going to no longer take up my weapons. Peace comes when truly both sides agree, both one side decides we cannot win. And so therefore there's a peace that we say, look, we're going to actually figure out how can we live together as neighbors? How can we live alongside one another? How can we unite the governments that we thought we were competing for and truly be at peace with one another? And so Jesus says, the Prince of Peace brings a sword because he destroys false peace and he destroys those that think they're at peace with God by truly rescuing sinners bound for hell and graciously saving his children and making them at peace with God their Father. So if the first thing we talked about was what is peace, what does peace mean? And then we're gonna talk about peacemakers. Now I want us to talk about what do peacemen look like? Because it's Father's Day, so we have to talk about men just a little bit. But I want you to see in these Beatitudes that peacemakers are happy ultimately because they become sons of God. Sons of God enter into the inheritance of their father. They enter into what I'm calling the family business. Because men that are at peace, that make peace, ultimately make peace their job. If you're a part of a family business, I don't know how many of you guys have grown up in a family business, but if you're a part of a family business, likely part of your life or most of your life was preparing you to run or be a part of that business. Either by expectation or by opportunity, the family business was just simply a part of what you've done since the early age. So I'm grateful, and just reflecting on Father's Day, I'm grateful, as many of you are, for a dad that was truly a peacemaker. Many of you have met my dad. One of the things that has struck me about my dad and that my mom reminded me time and time again is that my dad is the peacemaker of our family, especially as we were growing up. My mom said it in a pretty funny way one time. She said that my dad is the cream in our Oreo cookie as a family. Which, again, if you love Oreos, you recognize the cream is the best part, right? But you also have to think about it in this funny way because without my dad being the cream in the Oreo cookie, what are those cookies going to do? They're just going to smush up against each other and then probably irritate each other until they just turn to crumbs. So that cream becomes really important, not just because of how delicious it is, but it keeps everything in the right proportions and it keeps those cookies from getting just useless, right? Because you got to keep those cookies whole so you can dip it in milk, right Lex? But see, just this week, my dad, and I'm very proud of him for this, negotiated a huge business deal, and it's not about the size of the deal, but it's when I was talking to my dad about this, basically my dad realized that it wasn't really about the contract that was in front of these two men's, these two parties. What was going on in his business life of trying to get a man to sign the contract and to move on with the business and to get things going, was my dad was having to look at these two parties, and this one man in particular, and say, Look, you need to make peace with this. My dad was doing the hard relational work of entering in to talking to this man and saying, you know, this is what's good for you, for your family. It's good for this whole company. It's good for what's going to be happening. And ultimately my dad was doing the hard relational work of saying, look, I'm gonna enter into this business. I'm gonna help it run. I'm gonna work towards this contract. And even if it all goes up in smoke, my dad said he trusts the Lord with it. And so my dad has been practicing throughout his life, how is he going to be a peacemaker? How is he gonna bring business deals together? But more importantly, how is he going to reconcile people with their Heavenly Father? And that's what I'm most proud about my dad's true purpose. Because a peacemaker is like Jesus that honestly recognizes the problem and enters into the issues. And so we praise God for peacemakers that enter into very stressful circumstances, difficult scenarios, and say, because of the Lord, we want peace. Not a fake peace. Not an absence of conflict, but a true place where otherwise warring parties can actually be together. So the blessing of being in the family business of God, to being called sons of God, is that we get to fight for peace like our father. fights for peace. He sent his son, Jesus, to die and to be a sacrifice. He sends his sons, his church, into the lives of those around them to make peace with men in two ways. And we've been talking about it, but the first way we see a desire for men to be peacemakers is for them to be reconciled to God himself, to be at peace with God. See, of course, Jesus is the way to be at peace with God. But we, as sons of God, get to be the beautiful feet to bring the good news that you too can be at peace with God. We are ambassadors, as the scripture calls it, of peace of the loving God, to make peace with God through the gospel. And so there's a way in which the family business is that of saying, we make peace everywhere we go. But the second is that we desire for men to be at peace with one another. We look at our relationships first and we fight for peace. We fight through the conflict and say, peace with God and with you is the goal. Then we see those around us and we pray for them to have that peace too. First with God and then with each other. And we look for opportunities that we may be invited in. We may desire for peace to reign in our church, in our relationships. So I want you to turn with me to Ephesians chapter two, because Paul knew a thing or two about church conflict. And so he wrote to the church at Ephesus about the conflict that they were enduring and how the gospel applies to it. So, you get to Galatians and Ephesians chapter two. Verses 13 through 17, because one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture is Ephesians 2, 1 through 10, where it lays out the gospel message in an incredible way. Dead are our trespasses and sins, but then we were made alive with Christ, and it's by grace we've been saved through faith, and then therefore, in verse 11, we remember that the Gentiles in the flesh are that were once called the uncircumcision, but by what is now called the circumcision. But now what has been alienated have been brought into the Commonwealth of Israel. There's this unification of Jew and Gentile. And so where it starts up in verse 13, I want to read for us. It says, But now in Christ Jesus, you were once far off. The Gentiles. Have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two. so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to the to you who are far off and peace to those who were near. We'll stop right there. I want you to notice the incredible language that Paul uses to describe the peace that was created within the Ephesian church, within the sons of God. First, what does it say there in verse 13? They have been brought near to God. Peace draws near. Peace is not an avoidance of one another, it's presence with one another. But second, God, what did he do? Broke down, tore down the dividing wall of hostility. This was the hostility between Jews and Gentiles. This is the hostility of generations of those that said they were in and those that said they were out. Those that said they were never going to your house and some that said you should never come in my house. They were so separated that it would seem impossible that they could then come sit in a home together, sit in pews together. It would seem impossible, but that dividing wall had been there so long, but Paul says that through the blood of Jesus, the dividing wall of hostility, has been torn down. Through Christ, their differences, Jew and Gentile, were destroyed. But the third, we have to recognize that they were then created as one new man. The peace is so complete that as they're brought together, as they're drawn near, you can't tell them apart anymore. They don't look around and say, I'm so glad that we still have Jews and Gentiles sitting on one side of the church and ones on the other. Now, I'm not saying you guys need a flip-flop next week or all sit in different places. I understand you have your comfy spot. But the idea is that we shouldn't be looking around our churches, and the Ephesians were called not to, to look around and say, you used to be a Gentile, and I don't know if I can get over that. You used to be a Jew that kept me out of the temple. I don't know if I can get over that. Because now they're one man. You can't divide those parts. The eye can't say to the hand, I have no need of you. But fourth, what does Paul get to? It goes back to the gospel. He reconciled us to God, killing the hostility. You see the activity in that? Making war, killing the hostility. The peace that God has in mind for us is to participate in fighting for what is true peace based on the relationship we have with God. We fight when we are made at peace with God from a place of strength so that we can now bring peace to any circumstance we are in. The gospel compels us to be peacemakers because to be divided, to be at each other's throats is exactly Satan's goal. just as he divided Adam and Eve and conquered them in the fall. And then he conquered their descendants and their murder and their war to the point where every inclination of their hearts is evil. We see that same division today, don't we? We need to think about being peacemakers, not about being peace fakers. And if you show certain qualities, you may be working against peace in your life and not working for it. So that's the last thing I wanna do. I wanna talk about peace fakers. What are some marks of those that may say peace, peace, but truly don't have peace? And the first is that of the quarrelsome person. There's a reason that divisive quarrelsome men are not qualified to be pastors and deacons in the church. To be quarrelsome destroys churches. And so if you look at the relationships that you have, and you think that they are, and you recognize that they are marked by conflict, conflict after conflict seems to just be following you. Maybe you have business partners, and former business partners, and former business partners before that, that it seems like you just can't keep somebody around. Maybe you have family relationships that are strained, You've just let them stay strained all these years, made no efforts or very little efforts to recover them. Maybe you just have a long list of people that don't speak to you anymore and you don't want to speak to them. It's time to see the common denominator, that you, as you see conflict and quarrelsomeness inside your own heart and ways, Maybe you're just willing to blame others for the conflict, but ultimately you have to recognize that as a peacemaker, today can be the day that you decide I will no longer be the quarrelsome one, but I will be active in entering in and making war for peace. And so to fight this tendency, and I think it's a tendency in all of us, I'm not trying to pick on individuals in this room because I think that ultimately to be at war is the default, to be at peace is the God-given blessing, and to be peacemakers and sons of God, the blessing beyond that. But I want us to understand that as peacemakers, we should focus on not what keeps us apart, but what is our common ground. That's the first thing you do. When you think, I can't be at peace with that person, you likely have not searched hard enough, prayed hard enough to say, what is our common ground? And how can out of that common ground can we build the peace we need? Don't focus on where you're at odds, but strive to see where you must first be unified and then build from there. This is what must happen in our church when conflicts show up. our desire must be at first to say, because of the blood of Jesus, we are united. Because of the blood of Jesus, that is our common ground. And therefore, none of us have the ability to say, I have no need of you or don't wanna be with you. And so our desire to be loving to one another and be at peace with one another will only be possible when we are equally committed to Christ and willing to let go of the small divisions that Satan would wish to use to separate us. So the first mark of a peacemaker would be quarrelsomeness, but the second would be the person that's defensive. And I wrote this knowing that the people that know me best know that this is my propensity that I have to work at and work against constantly. I'm speaking to myself here. When I am confronted or corrected, do I even hear the correction? Do I even hear what could be good in the correction? Or am I already developing my defensive response? Have I already decided what I'm going to say to defend what I've done? Because if we're so ready to defend ourselves, we will not listen, we will not grow, and we certainly won't be at peace. So instead, to fight for peace, this is for me and this is for all of us, we gotta remember two scriptures. Earlier on in James, chapter one, verse 19. Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. So when we're confronted, when we're wanting to be defensive, the first thing to do is just listen. The second thing to do is to say, how can I not say anything right now? How can I maybe even wait for tomorrow? How can I even wait for next week and just say, I hear your concern, I'm listening. And if I get some time, I'll be able to handle this and be able to respond to you well. See, if we don't respond right away, if we're quick to listen and slow to speak, that confrontation can go from something that can escalate very quickly to be something that we can grow from and listen and ultimately be reconciled to that person in. You just tell them first, I hear you, I'll consider it, I'll pray about it. And then what you can do is just go to people around you that know you maybe even a little bit better and say, hey, this person was confronting me in this. It may not be right, but I want you to tell me, I want you to help me. Is this correction good? Is this helpful? Can the Lord use even this angry person confronting me here to show me something good? And then ultimately when we respond well after that, we can make peace. But the second scripture we can understand and know is that Proverbs 27, six says, faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Friends, we would much rather have some brief conflict with our friends who want us to grow in Christ and want us to become more like Christ and to receive those wounds Because if you feel wounded in correction, we have to remember that. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. We don't want to miss correction from God when a wise, godly friend comes and wants to help us. We should be approachable. We should be the ones that when someone wants to correct us and wants to make peace with us, we're able to. But the third mark of a peacemaker is the person that's just simply unwilling. Both in Matthew 18 and Luke 17, Jesus teaches on forgiveness. In Luke, he says in verses three and four, pay attention to yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him. See, a peace faker will hold bitterness and grudges when conflict comes. A peace faker will pretend to forgive and give it lip service. Say, I've forgiven you, but I won't be with you. They hold those who hurt them at arm's length and are unwilling to fight through the conflict for peace. Instead, we need to view every conflict as peacemakers and opportunity for the gospel. Can you imagine the marriages restored after years of conflict, what that would display for the gospel. Can you imagine long held grudges given up? And what that would mean to show what our heavenly father has done in our hearts. To say, I will fight for peace. I will pursue peace as long as the Lord calls me a son of God. our pursuit of peace will be costly, just as it was costly for Christ, but it will be well worth it. So as we close, I want us to think about one of the more vivid pictures that has been painted about fake peace. And it comes from a book written by C.S. Lewis. It's called The Great Divorce. And it's a book It's not a great book for explaining heaven and hell, but it does give this great image, and I want to give it to you. In this book, C.S. Lewis describes a quasi-thing that might be hell. And he describes it as a place that is eternally gray. That's a rainy city where people start by all coming to the bus stop in the center of town and living in houses near each other. But as conflict comes and as they want more and more things, then they realize they've got to move farther away to no longer have conflict with people. And what C.S. Lewis is portraying is that the selfishness of our hearts pushes us farther and farther away. The conflict avoidance concept makes us want to be farther and farther away from people to the point where it just pictures for us a sea of houses as far in this gray landscape as you can see. And maybe you see a little smoke coming up from chimneys one way over there and one way over there. And you realize that the sinfulness of their hearts, and even if they have peace now, They really have peace with nobody. And so what Lewis depicts here is the prideful isolation of sin and fake peace. What the picture really does is it shows us really a pale understanding of what isolation will truly be like. Because what hell is actually depicted at is much more terrifying than a gray landscape. It is truly the active wrath of God being poured out on those that rejected His peace and rejected peace with one another. And so what this depiction does get right is that when we forget that we are the peacemakers, that what we are called to do is to fight for peace, when we forget that, we can very easily think that separation is peace, that separation will solve our problems. But the fact is that war and conflict and strife are the default of this world. So the question is not, who will go to war? The question is, who will strive for peace? Who will war to get through to real, lasting, and enduring peace? So I want to remind you of the vision of the ultimate redemption that is coming for Christ and his bride. That those who are once far off have been brought near. That Christ is preparing, as the groom, a bride that he has selected and prepared and made pure and holy. And that unification of a husband and a wife, no longer two but one flesh, and the unity that God is preparing in the new heavens and new earth when the new Jerusalem will descend and heaven and earth will be together. All of that imagery of unity and peace is the place that the sons of God are headed towards. Those of us who are sons of God are headed to the place of perfect, eternal peace. not because we are perfect and peaceful, but because of Christ's blood and Christ's preparation. So what we get today in our imperfect gathering here this morning, in our imperfect relationships, in our conflict prevalent world, is to pursue peace so that we can experience the blessing of being sons of God and really fight in our homes, in our workplaces, in our community, in our world for true peace. What a blessing it is to be in the family business of fighting for peace. Because the sons of God ultimately are the army of God that fights for true peace. And so my question for you as we close this morning is, Are you ready to fight? Because to truly make peace, it's gonna take truly entering in and truly risking the pain and trouble that it costs to receive and to live in peace. Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We love you, God. we ask for the truth of this beatitude, the truth of the testimony of the fullness of your scriptures, would give us the confidence that we can fight for peace. That it is not passive peace that we are after. It is not the passive life hoping that avoidance will lead to peace, but it is truly the pursuit of peace. waging war for peace, the killing of discord that you're after in us. And so Father, I pray for all of us here in this room that have found ourselves by your grace to be sons of God. The blessing of us making peace with you through your son Jesus, of making peace with one another as a part of the family business. Father, I pray that you would give us the desire and the perseverance and the joy of not pursuing what is easy in avoidance, but pursuing what is hard in actually fighting for peace. And so God, I pray for the person this morning that is not at peace with you, the one that maybe has even faked peace with you. I pray that they would realize through the blood of Jesus, as they repent of their sins and trust in you, that they can have a true peace, a real peace made by your son. And I pray for all of us this week, as we look at our lives, as we consider whether we are peacefakers or peacemakers, God, would you reveal the truth? Will we have honesty with what's going on in our heart as we quarrel, as we are defensive, And Father, would we recommit once again as sons of God, daughters of God, to be truly peacemakers. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.