Why is it so hard to be at peace with the people around me?
WATCH
Fruit of the Root, 3 of 8 from June 21, 2026
“Jesus makes peace between our God and our neighbors.”
Galatians 5 & Ephesians 2 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)
SUMMARY
This sermon teaches that true peace, a fruit of the Spirit, is not neutrality or mere lack of conflict but the costly reconciliation God accomplished by sending Jesus to die and rise for people who are naturally at war with Him. Because Christ Himself is our peace—making us right with God and with one another—this vertical reconciliation is meant to overflow into transformed, unified relationships within the church and the broader community.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 Would we describe our relationship with God peaceful?
💬 Who or what are we looking to for peace? Are those substitutes actually working for us?
💬 How is our peace with God changing our relationship to other people?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
-
Well, good morning, church. Welcome to our neighbors. Glad that we're all here together this morning. We've been in a series, we call it Fruit of the Root, that we've been looking at. What is it like when we.
When Jesus is working in us? What are the things that he grows in us? What are the evidences that he's working, that he's actually doing something in us? And what comes out of us when he's at work? Before we were married, Jesse and I took three months and we got on a plane and went to an orphanage in South Africa.
And at the time, we called it a missions trip. I don't know if it was or not. Like, I don't know if it counts at the time. I can remember my dad being very concerned because my dad was an accountant. So he was very like, I needed to make sense in the spreadsheet.
If it makes sense in the spreadsheet, then you can do it. He was very by the books. And I was a musician, I played in a rock band. And I was like, gonna live my life for Jesus. And so I was like, hey, dad, we heard about this orphanage in South Africa.
We're gonna go and work there and volunteer for three months. And he was like, the what? You're gonna volunteer? With what money are you gonna go volunteer? I'm like, no, no, we're gonna volunteer.
He's like, yeah, you still, you got to get there. And then what are you going to eat? And I was like, I don't know, we're just going for Jesus. And to his credit, he said, okay. And he helped me with fundraising and we were able to raise enough money.
And we went and spent three months kind of working in this orphanage. And that was where I kind of cut my teeth, if I use that term, cut my teeth on, like, parenting. I was 19 years old and everything I learned about how to like, handle a baby, I learned from these South African mamas. And they do babies different in Africa than they do here. Like, we're very precious.
And I can remember there was one baby, there was something going on, and this mom is just like rocking them back and forth like this to try to get pressure. And I didn't understand any of it. I was like, this is what is happening. It's a 19 year old teenage boy. And there's nothing like that's gonna.
There's nothing that's really gonna get you into like the parenting mood. Then one of these house moms kind of handing you a screaming baby. Like, what am I supposed to do. And they're, like, just crying because they need a diaper change. And like, oh, okay, cool.
And like, it was not, number one, like, they just threw you in the deep end. Number two, all the way up the back. Like, she knew what she was handing me when she handed me that baby. And that was day one. And so we spent three months kind of working there.
And so, yeah, that was fun. I should have known from then on that God had parenting things in store for me. But one of the things that happened while we were there was 20. 19. Was it 19?
No, it wasn't 19. It was way before that. I don't remember. It's 2009. Yeah, something like that.
2009. There's a nine in there somewhere. One of the things that happened is we were outside of the main city, the main city, the capital city, is Johannesburg. And we were in a region nearby. It was within driving distance.
But one of the things that happened while we were there is that the garbage union decided to strike. And they were like, we're not going to collect trash anymore. I was like, oh, that sounds like a party. Then they left. Like, it went on where their strike wasn't being effective enough.
So then they went and grabbed the garbage and just dumped it all out in the streets and stopped all the traffic and all this kind of stuff. And so, like, the whole city of Johannesburg, there was a little bit of a funk going on. And it was at a time when the Confederation cup was coming to town, which is like a huge global soccer football thing. And so had a bunch of press, and so the city capitulated. And they were like, yeah, okay, we'll do whatever it is that you want to do.
So you guys got to go back to work on Monday. What's your job on Monday? If you're the sanitation worker in the city of Johannesburg, you got to clean up the mess you made on Friday. So they went and they got all their negotiation stuff, but then they had to go back in and they had to clean up all the mess and all the stuff that they made. And so it's kind of like, did you really, like, was that really.
Did you get what you wanted out of that? And they did. Being able to negotiate for better whatever. I don't remember what the specifics were, but they got some long term gains. But the short term was like, you gotta fix what you broke, right?
And there's times where I think where we come to God and that's our attitude with him. We expect him to look at us and be Like, I hear that you say you're sorry, but now you've got to fix what you broke, go back in and clean up that big old mess that you did. And he's kind of. And we. I think when we picture him, we think of him as just, like, super disappointed.
And he's got his arms crossed like, you know what you did. You better go back and make it better. Like, I'll forgive you, but you still got to clean up your mess. And I'm not sure, based on our text today, I'm not sure that that's actually God's posture towards us when we come to him and we ask him for forgiveness. One of the things that the spirit of God grows in us as we surrender to his leading is he grows in us peace.
And there's a sense in which piece is something that everybody kind of wants. There's a reason why we expect Miss America to say that she wants world peace. Like, it's just. Oh, yeah, generic. Everybody wants world peace, right?
But there's that, like, instance that that inkling that we want to be at peace is something that touches deeper in us. And I think the answer to what that peace looks like is maybe different than we would anticipate. So you guys want to explore that with me this morning? Okay. Cool.
Good, we got there. Let's pray. And it's our habit to pray the disciples prayer. I'll put that up on the screen so that when we get there, you can pray along with me. But it is Father's Day, and so I've got a prayer that I like to pray just for our dads before.
And so when I get to the end of that prayer, I'll just invite you to pray together with me and we'll pray the disciples prayer. Okay. All right. Well, let's bow our heads.
Blessed are you, Lord our God. You are the Creator and the redeemer of all God. You father us from all eternal, from all eternity, giving life to creation and pouring your love into all that you've made.
You are merciful and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. You will not always chide, nor will you always keep your anger forever. You don't deal with us according to our sins or repay us according to our iniquities. But as a father shows compassion to your children, you show compassion to those who fear you. For you know our frame.
You know what we're made of. And you remember that we're dust.
And you take dust and you breathe your spirit. In it. And you make men, and you call men unformed and untrained and make them fathers.
From the beginning, we've known you as father, and all our families have their origin in you. And through the love of earthly fathers, you give us a glimpse of your everlasting love. So we thank you for those fathers who strive to shepherd well the demands of work and marriage and children with an honest awareness of their sacrifice and their inadequacy. And we pray for those fathers who, lacking a good model for what a dad is supposed to be, they've broken new ground to become good fathers to their families. We thank you for those fathers who, by their own account, were not always there for their children, but who continue to offer those kids, now grown, their love and support.
We thank you for those fathers who, despite divorce, have remained in their children's lives, and for those fathers whose children are adopted and whose love and support has offered healing. We thank you for those fathers who, as stepfathers, freely choose the obligation of fatherhood and earn their stepchildren's love and respect.
This morning we ask a special blessing on those fathers who've lost a child and those who continue to hold those children in their hearts. We give you thanks for those men who have no children, but cherish the next generation as if they were their own. We pray for those men who have fathered us in their roles as mentors and guides. And we ask that you would bless those men who are about to become fathers. May they openly delight in their children.
We pray for those fathers who have died but live in our memories and those who continue to love and nurture us. May your love shine through our earthly fathers and draw us ever nearer to you. And we pray together. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Amen.
In this series, we've worked from Galatians, chapter 5, and then have jumped around to some different sections. I'm going to ask you to navigate to the book of Ephesians in chapter two. The book of Ephesians 2. I'm going to have to navigate there too. It's on page 1126 in the blue Bibles.
If you'd like to follow along, there should be one tucked around somewhere.
11:26 in the blue Bible is Ephesians 2.
That's actually just a couple of. In the blue Bible. It's just a page over from Galatians 5.
In that chapter in Galatians, we read that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control, and that against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires. So as we've started this series, we looked first at love, and we saw that we grow in love as we walk in God's spirit. That's in this list of things. It being the first thing that is a fruit of the Spirit is probably an emphasis, but especially when we look at it in context.
He just had finished saying in chapter five that love was the fulfillment of the law. And so he's saying love is the first thing. And we looked at First Corinthians, chapter 13, which said that there was no spiritual accomplishment that we could actually celebrate if we did it without love. So love is kind of the peel of the fruit. It kind of encapsulates the whole thing.
Then last week we saw that God grows our joy as we focus on his glory and on his work. And today, as we look at Ephesians in chapter two, we'll discuss peace. Let's read. We'll start in verse 12. Ephesians 2.
Starting in verse 12, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off 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 you who were far off and to those who were near. For through him we both have access and one Spirit to the Father.
So then you're no longer strangers and aliens, But. But you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. He Starts off in verse 12. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel.
Now, how many of us have like, woken up in the morning and thought, oh, no, I'm alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel? Like, is that the first thing we're thinking about when we wake up in the morning? Has that thought ever crossed your mind? If the Bible hadn't told you that at one time you were alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel, would that have been a concern that you might have stumbled across? Probably not.
Maybe. But for the people that he's writing to, this was actually a super big deal. The church that he's writing to and Ephesus had some of the same concerns of the churches that we've seen in Galatia, where they come to Christ and they start learning about Christ. But the Bible that they're learning about Jesus from is the Old Testament. It's the Hebrew Scriptures.
And as they're reading the Hebrew Scriptures, they realize Jesus is the Messiah. He's the Savior, but he's a Jewish savior. And so if I want to be saved by Jesus, how Jewish do I have to be? Do I have to be all the way Jewish in order to be able to come into, like, saving faith with the Jewish Messiah? It was a question for them.
They were actually really, really concerned. And it's a question that when we. That we would phrase it in different ways, but we kind of wrestle with that to some degree or another, as we've explored in Galatians. So Paul is also writing in Ephesians that God's work through Jesus is available to everybody. Everybody is able to be adopted into God's family.
But we're not adopted. Following rules and regulations were adopted by trusting Jesus to bring us in.
But here you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope without God in the world. What he's highlighting is the fact that when we start, we start as enemies of God. In fact, a couple of verses earlier in chapter two, like, he outright says that before you trusted in Jesus, you were actually children of the devil. You were working together as a son or a child of disobedience. You were in rebellion to God, which is interesting to me.
I think. I tend to think of myself as a pretty good person generally. And I'm very some people more than others. But most of the time when you talk to people, you ask them, they're pretty sure that they're pretty good. Like, I'm Pretty good.
I don't. Maybe I go to church or I think about going to church or sometimes they, you know, whatever. Like, I, sometimes I like, don't flip people off in traffic when I really, really want to. Like, I'm a pretty good person. I've got self control.
I can handle it, Right? But here, like the scripture says, if you were outside, like earlier on in the previous covenant, if you were outside of the Commonwealth of Israel, if you didn't belong to that family, you had no way of being reconciled to God. And if you didn't have reconciliation with God, like you were at war with God. In fact, I think that's like our idea for the section. Our hearts are naturally at war with God.
Like Michael, that's a really strong. It's a really strong way to put it. I don't know that I would say I'm at war necessarily. I just disagree with some of the things. I have some objections.
I have some concerns about the way he's been managing this planet that he supposedly created. I'm not at war with him. I just would like to address some concerns.
Maybe I'm neutral.
I believe he exists. I'm for the idea that there is a God, but I'm not sure that I'm on track with Jesus being the God or all of the stuff that Jesus says I got to be about. I'm okay with there being a God. I got a problem with that God trying to tell me what I do in my bedroom or what I do when I'm talking to people or how I behave myself at work or any of those things. Like, he can be in charge of things, but he doesn't get to micromanage my life.
And the scriptures say that, like, naturally there's actually like a clear dividing line between those people who are at peace with God and those people who are at war with God. And our default state when we're born is that we are naturally at war with God. We're alienated from him. We are separated from Him. There's a distance.
I thought the fruit. Michael, what are you doing? We're talking about peace. The fruit of the spirit is peace. Why are you talking about war?
Well, the first, like if you look back at the Hebrew scriptures, the first time that peace becomes like an extended concept that they discuss is in a book called Leviticus, which gives laws about how to make peace offerings. Like, over and over again, peace becomes a theme when we talk about peace offerings. Now, those peace offerings were animal sacrifices that God prescribed to the nation of Israel. To help them overcome this war in their hearts against God. Like, even for the people who were part of the promise, they had this conflict that they were at war against God and they would have to give this sacrifice in order to signify the.
That they were at peace with God. And it's interesting because it comes in a section of that law in Leviticus that's actually dealing with people conflict.
What do you mean, people conflict? You mean I got to apologize to God because I punched my brother in the nose? Yeah, that's actually how it reads. Like if you. If you have this conflict and you guys are reconciled, then you need to make a peace.
On offering to celebrate the fact that God has brought peace into our horizontal relationships. It seems like from God's perspective, all of our conflict with others, the source of our interpersonal conflict, stems from our conflict with God. And that if we're not at peace with God, we don't have the ability to be at peace with other people.
Like, okay, that's a big idea. It's actually bigger than I think we think it is. Because in the context, it's not just if we don't have peace with God, we don't have peace with people. It's that in order to express that peace, something has to die.
One author, Stanley Porter, puts it this way. Peace is not simply an empty wish. It is the result of a process that in this instance, as he's talking about peace offerings, exacts the high cost of life. Something dies in order to show that we've made peace.
That's heavy. I don't point that part of the law out in order to say, like, you better go get some goats. Right? Like, we gotta make sure that we copy that. I point that out to show A, that the dynamic that first our relationship interpersonally is directly tied to our relationship with God, and B, that peace isn't free.
That in order to make peace when there has been a transgression, there has to be some kind of restitution, some kind of a payment.
But our hearts are naturally at war with God.
How do we describe our relationship with God? If you think about, okay, where am I at with God today? Don't tell me what you think that I want to hear, because I'd rather hear the truth than whatever you think I want to hear. Like, think about your relationship with God. Would you describe your relationship with God as peaceful?
Would we want to say, no, I think I'm actually just kind of neutral on the whole God thing. I think we're think I'm doing my thing, he's doing his thing. We kind of get along a little bit.
Or would we say, no, no, no, I'm hostile, I'm angry, I don't want it. I'm mad that he's even putting me in these situations where I have to think about this. Why is this bald guy asking me this question, like, why don't you just shut up? Would we describe our relationship with God as peaceful? The default in our hearts is to be at war, and there's not actually a neutral ground.
He says in chapter two that you're either working in obedience to the enemy who is actively hostile to God, or you've been brought together. Verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For Israel, in that old law, peace with God was the exclusive privilege of being his chosen people. They were the ones that knew how to show that they were at peace with God. They were the ones that had the law. They were the ones that knew what God's character was like and that was available to them solely because they were the family that God picked. In fact, they would greet one another and to this day will greet one another by saying, peace, shalom.
The way you greet somebody else in Hebrew is shalom, peace for the church. For those of us who maybe are Gentile, but for those of us who put our faith in Jesus, grace and peace together are a common way to greet believers, and they're definitive Marks of our faith. In 13 of the letters in the New Testament, they open with a greeting of grace to you and peace.
A Mark of our trust in Jesus is that by his grace, his costly, undeserved favor that he bestows on us through Jesus, that we also have now peace with God, grace to you, and peace from God our Father.
When Israel did not have peace, it was a result of their rejection of God's method for restoring peace. They're like, oh, yeah, we see that that's the sacrifice. We know that that's how it's supposed to work. But we actually want to do it this way. We want to do this other thing.
And peace can't be maintained with those who won't have it. Do you know that you. You can't have peace with somebody who wants to fight you.
And if we choose to set our hearts at rebellion with God, is he able then to have peace with us?
We read from Romans 12, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. There are times where it's not possible. And there may be times where we have made it impossible for God to be at peace with us because we're just ready to fight Him.
Maybe it's just me, though. I'm kind of a grumpy dude and so I sometimes just am mad at God and I want to fight Him. So what hope do we have?
It's Jesus. I'm sure you're surprised to learn. Jesus makes peace between our God and our neighbors.
Remember, don't forget. Remember, don't just put it away just because it's old, just because it happened a while ago, just because it's in the book, just because it got published. Don't just forget it. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Jesus makes peace between us and God, verse 14. For He Himself is our peace.
For He Himself is our peace. Who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. 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 for through him or and he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.
All of the offerings and sacrifice that made peace with God were designed to make us God dependent, to trust in his character and not in the system God would prescribe for these people. Hey, here's a way that you show that you have peace with others. Here's how you make that restitution constitution between you and your neighbors, between you and God. This is how all of that works. Here's what has to die to make sure that the transgression has been covered to end the conflict.
And we looked at that and said, wow, like we can do something that makes us better. And God says, the point is that you have to do it at all. The fact that you have to make a peace offering over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, over and over and again and again and again and again should show you something about what's wrong in your heart.
You could go into the temple and make a sacrifice of peace offering for that fight with your wife last week and you could go home and have the exact same fight again. Because the purpose of the system was to show you that you were dependent on the Creator and that apart from him, your heart was never going to change.
But Jesus is the sacrifice which makes peace possible. He Himself is our peace.
This is the overarching message of the book of Galatians that we've been studying together over the last months. The good news is that Jesus is himself, our peace. It's not a system. The Christian religion is not a set of rules to follow. It's not a self improvement plan.
The Christian religion is not about knowing the right people who can help you get a favor from the big guy. It's not about paying a big enough bribe to God to make sure that he just kind of looks the other way when you lose your cool.
The Christian religion is not about suffering enough to show how sorry you are for your sin. It's not about. The Christian religion is only about the person of Jesus dying to pay the price for our sin and resurrecting to show that the payment was accepted. Have you ever written a check and you're not quite sure if it's going to clear the bank?
Jesus went to the grave to pay for our sin. He was clear about that from the get go. Hey, I'm going to go pay for this. And then he died. How do you get a receipt from that?
How do you know whether that charge cleared? He could have died for some of the sin because the penalty of sin is death. So if he just was going to die for my sin, he could have gone and he could have died and he could have paid for it. But how would I know that he had paid for me? How would I know that that payment was satisfactory for the whole world?
The way that Jesus, the way that the Father showed that the payment from Jesus was satisfied as he brought him back to life to tell you, the debt is paid. You're set free. You owe me nothing. I have saved you for freedom. I've brought you into my family.
I want you at my table and I want you to go tell somebody that the offer is open. Don't let these people keep paying for bills that I've already satisfied.
We don't do to earn. We trust that it's already paid.
So then if that's true, there's something in that that feels like. I hear what you're saying, Michael. That's a Sunday morning. The air condition's cooking. Like I'm feeling good right Now, I think what you're saying is true, but like, is this going to be true on a Tuesday?
Like, is it actually, Is that actually how it works in the real world? Because it works in this little box that you have here where everybody like takes a shower before they come and they kind of smile when they come. It might be true in this room, but is it true out there?
My question then is who or what are we looking to for peace?
If you're not trusting that Jesus is doing it, what are we looking to for peace? I'm not looking for peace. I love you a lot. I love you a lot. But I don't think I've met a single person in my whole life that wasn't looking for peace.
I'm not looking for peace. I just got to drink a little to take the edge off. Oh, I'm not looking for peace. I just. I got to talk this out.
I got to talk it out again. I got to talk it over and over again. Because if I don't talk about just eats me up inside.
I'm not looking for peace. I. I just keep going and trying to get that next achievement. I keep trying to get that next paycheck. I want to get that raise. I need that.
I need those people to look at me and think that I'm great. But I don't need peace. I just got to work harder.
Who or what are we looking to for peace? Think about it. Because I suspect that we look to something and then the follow up question that I actually want us to spend some time considering is, are those substitutes actually working for us?
I'm not very smart.
I make the same mistakes over and over again. I am pretty sure I've got an answer for most things. And you know what? When I have an answer for something, that's just what I do. Even if it doesn't work right, I just keep going back.
Because that's the thing. I know I'm not smart enough to invent a new thing, to think of a different way to think outside the box. I get mad at God when he tells me I'm wrong about the solutions that I came up with. They're not working for me. But I'm mad that he would tell me I'm wrong.
What are we looking to for peace? And are those substitutes actually working for us? When we try to fall asleep at night, we close our eyes.
Do we know that regardless of what happened today, Jesus had made peace between me and my maker?
Because what's incredible to me in God's Economy, it's the offended party that makes the arrangements for the restoration of peace in South Africa. If you throw all the trash out in the streets in order to prove a point, then you're out on Monday cleaning up all the trash you threw in the streets. You're the one who made the mess. You got to clean it up. In God's economy, it's the offended party that makes the restitution.
God says, I see what you did there. And what I would like to do is I would like to send my son to pay the price in full. Is that satisfactory to you? We say, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want to earn it.
Okay, you can't, you can't. I mean, you could try, but when you get to the bottom of your self effort, I hope that you'll look up and see that Jesus has already paid it. The astonishing thing is that in God's economy of grace and in peace, it's the offended party that makes things right. It's not, it's not on me to make peace with God. God says, I'll take care of it.
I will make peace. Do you trust that I have the ability to make peace between you and me? Because Jesus makes peace between our God and our neighbors. Jesus not only makes peace between his chosen people and God, he makes peace between those who had exclusive rights to peace with God, the nation of Israel, the Jewish people. He makes.
And he makes peace with those who were excluded from the promises initially. Amen. That's what he's saying here. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off 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.
There's not two walls ways, there's only one. By abolishing the law, the 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. He made the payment. But here's the cool thing.
He told me what I didn't know because I woke up thinking that I was at war with God. And he says, no, I've made peace. There's peace between you and I. And verse 17, he came and preached peace to those who were far off and peace to those who were near. I didn't know that it was available.
We was Juneteenth this week too. You know what that is? Juneteenth is the holiday Where? Where they celebrate the day that those who had been emancipated from slavery in the United States learned that they had been emancipated, paid it. So there was a guy in Washington that declared, all the slaves in the country are free.
And there were people down in Georgia that had no idea. And they just kept living life like a slave. And Juneteenth was the day they heard the news that they had been set free.
When we close our eyes at night, do we rest secure, knowing that regardless of anything else in our life, that Jesus had made peace between us and our Maker.
And if you don't know, let me encourage you that the price has been paid in full for that to be true of you.
It's not just for bald guys. It's not just for guys who can play guitar.
It's not just for the ladies in the church that always have the right shoes.
It's not for people that have all their teeth when they smile.
It's not for people who never worry about when their next paycheck is going to come through.
Peace with God is available to each and every one of us, not just to those whose families, like, still get along and get together for holidays. Not for those that are not ashamed of their families and stories and where they came from. Not for those that, like, their closets are clean, there's no skeletons to find. Like Jesus offers peace with God to anybody who will come to him. And you can.
You can sleep tonight knowing that you are at peace with the Creator of the universe.
And I can tell you that. And I can't give it to you.
It's outside of my power to hand you his spirit of peace.
The offending party or the offended party in this conflict hands you the treaty.
And respects your wishes if you choose not to sign it.
And so you've got to choose.
I think it would be enough if that's all he did.
I think it would be more than generous for Jesus to make peace between us and God.
And he came and preached peace to those who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also, y' all also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. He doesn't just save us as individuals and make peace between us and God in the.
In the payment that he paid on the cross. He also makes peace between us. Jesus makes peace between our God and our neighbors. And embracing peace with God makes unity with others.
It's not just my thing. It's not just for me. It's not just that I can sleep at night. It's that he says, if you have peace with the maker of the universe, after all the things that you've done, all the things that you've thought, all the things that you've said, if you can have peace with God, surely if God can give you peace, you can extend some peace to your neighbor.
You're like, I don't know if I can. Have you met my neighbor? I understand. I completely sympathize. However, the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace.
We've been adopted into his family. He's transformed us for freedom. We have unity with other people who are in the family of God. It's. It's.
It's a thing that he's doing in us, together in Him. Y' all also are being built together in a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. You ever go to a church, you're like, man, something's not quite. We're not quite there yet. Do you know?
Because God's not done yet. You ever go and you're like, man, I go to church, I visit this church. It just feels like there's something that's missing. It may be, in fact, that you are the thing that is missing. I keep going to church, and they don't have this thing that I'm really, really good at.
Yeah, probably because God gave it to you and is trying to put you in that church so that you can contribute something to edify the rest of the body. We are in process together, growing together, being built into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit together. And Jesus will and absolutely does answer our individual prayers for salvation. And he also takes us as individuals and incorporates us into the larger body of Christ, where there's people that don't think like you, they don't talk like you, they don't look like you. They don't have all the same values.
But let me tell you what. Jesus loves them and he blesses them with gifts that you don't have, and he blessed you with with gifts that they don't have in hopes that you might bless them by being a blessing.
Peace.
What might change in Marion county if the believers of the church of Jesus had peace with one another.
I prayed for other churches this morning by name in our prayer circle, and I don't usually do that, but it just struck me that, like, we should be praying for the other congregations, because we're not. We're not the only position on the field. We've all got the same jersey on if we're playing on Jesus's team. But if we're not at peace with one another, how can we tell the world to be at peace with God?
Well, I came into church and it was. It was hard. Like, I had to work at being peaceful with other people, and they weren't necessarily peaceful to me. And, yeah, I understand. We're building.
We're growing. Sometimes in the construction, it doesn't look quite finished. And sometimes you put up a wall and it's in the wrong place, and you got to move it.
Peace is not just internal, it's not just spiritual. Vertical peace with God fully manifests as horizontal peace with those who are like us and those who are different from us. I think. I suspect that's why Jesus said, hey, when you pray, you should pray like this. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And we pray that. I think we should. It would be a good habit to pray that every week. If you got together with some Christians and did that, I think you're like, life would be better. But one of the things that we do, and I don't think it's wrong, but I just.
I'm aware that we do it. We take the conclusion of that prayer in Matthew, chapter six, and we kind of ignore that one, and we go to Daniel way off at the end of the Book of Daniel, and we grab the end of that phrase. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. That's how we close that prayer.
And that's okay. I think it's appropriate. It's traditional. It's a beautiful section of the prayer. I think it does.
Does good stuff. But do you know how those verses end in context in Matthew?
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
And I'm not saying that to articulate that. I think you can lose your salvation. Don't think that's what he's talking about. I think he's emphasizing the fact that of all of the things that you want to pray for, you should be praying for peace with Your neighbors first. Because I'm like, I pray the Lord's Prayer, and I'm locked in on daily bread.
Lord, give me what I need for the day. I need you, Jesus, would you help me out? And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear that. That's in there. But also, don't you remember that if you pray as you pray, forgive us as we forgive others.
Don't you know that if you don't forgive, forgive, then maybe Jesus hasn't forgiven you? God's heart is to make one unified family growing together into maturity in him. So I think it begs the question, if we're at peace with God, how is our peace with God changing our relationship to other people?
Because Jesus makes peace between our God and our neighbors.
And when and when those objections come up, you're like, well, do you know my neighbors? Yeah, I do know your neighbors. And that's how much I trust that Jesus is able to do work. I look at people all the time and I say, say to Pastor Ryan, most of the time, if Jesus doesn't show up, there's no way this is going to work.
And you know what? That's the point. If we could do it by ourselves, we would. And he's designed it so that he has to be involved in the process.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus, I just thank you for this day.
Lord, in my heart, I think of peace as like an absent of conflict. Would everybody just stop yelling and we'll be at peace? And, God, you want something so much deeper for us than that. Jesus, I can be so easily distracted by the conflict that I have with other people. I could be distracted at the conflict I have within myself that I can overlook the incredible truth that, Jesus, you came to make peace between us and our maker, that you, God, the offended party who has done no wrong, would take our wrong upon yourself to make it right.
So, Jesus, if there's somebody who's hearing my voice that doesn't have that confidence, that doesn't know for sure that their sin is forgiven and that they can be made right with God. Jesus, I pray that today, today would be the day that they turn to you and ask that you would do that.
There's no magic spell or prayer, there's no formula or whatever. But just in your own words, if you're thinking that in your own words, say to Jesus, Jesus, I know I haven't been actually neutral, that all my claims for neutrality are really just masks for my hostility towards you and Jesus today, I ask that you would make make peace. Would you forgive my sin and everything that's blocking me from being right with God? Those are my words. Whatever it is in you that you need to say to Jesus, I just invite you to say that today.
And Lord, for those of us who have trusted you'd for salvation and have quickly forgotten that you make peace between us and our neighbors, Lord, I pray that you would highlight for us the ways that we are opposed to your peace.
Lord, for the times that we've been exacting perfection on other people and other communities. Lord, I pray that you would fill us with your grace that we might extend it to others who have failed us in the past.
And that you by your mercy, in your strength and your power, that you would grow forgiveness in us and that we would be a people that forgive like you forgive, that you would bring unity in our churches and like you said at the end before you were crucified, that the world would see that unity and that love for one another and know for sure that there's a God in heaven.
I pray for your church in Ocala, whatever flavor it might be.
Good News or Live Oak or Trinity, Mount Moriah, City Light, Meadowbrook, Church of the Springs, Revo, College Road, One Life.
We thank you for this morning. We pray that you would do your work in our hearts and in our neighborhoods. It's in Jesus name we pray.
LINKS
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
