← ArchiveSunday, October 25, 2015DateOctober 25, 2015Speaker—Text2 CorinthiansPassages in this sermonMatthew 5:10:552 Corinthians 57:052 Corinthians 19:00Proverbs 2010:392 Corinthians 711:44Galatians 614:03Romans 715:05Romans 815:502 Corinthians 1:8–1018:44Psalms 11919:35Ecclesiastes 423:46John 324:32Romans 8:2824:50Genesis 50:2026:04TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00I don't know if that's on the CD, but it should be. Amen? Hey, turn with me to Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 5. We are still in this Beatitudes series. And thank you so much for those kind words that you sent this week from last week's message and several weeks as well.0:26Thank you so much. And I really appreciate those of you that didn't like it to keep those to yourself as well. That always blesses me when you keep your negative comments to yourself. But, no, send them on, and I'll just forward them on to Brad. It's all his fault. When it goes good, it's all mine. If it's all bad, it's all his. Amen? That's the way we show the love around here at Bethel. Turn with me to Matthew, Chapter 5, Verse 1, and following in this Beatitudes series.0:55Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth, and he taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.1:24Blessed are the pure in heart, excuse me, for they shall see God. And here's our text today. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sakes, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you who others revel against you, revel you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.1:44Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Father God, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Lord, we thank you. We love you. We praise you for what you're about to do in the life of this church.2:12We thank you so much for all you're doing in our lives. And Father, as we unpack your word today, I pray, Lord Jesus, that we walk away from this place completely different than we came. And we give you all the praise and all the glory and all the honor. In Jesus' name we pray. And the church said, amen. We live in a broken world. Would you contest to that? Would you say amen to that?2:42We live in a broken world. Every one of us in this room have gone through some form of brokenness. We all have gone through some brokenness. We're in a broken world. We have a broken society. Many, many times we talked about this being broken. Pain is indeed part of life. It's part of living. There is no such thing as a pain-free lifestyle. Pain is inevitable to every one of us. Pain is universal to every one of us.3:10When you and I began to follow Jesus Christ, we did not stop going through the pain and the suffering. We will. The pain and the suffering is not going to be taken away until we get to glory. We will always go through pain. Jesus does not eliminate all your pain and all of your sufferings. He will, however, if you surrender to his lordship, he will transform it. He will give meaning to the pain that we go through.3:40He gives purpose to the pain that we go through. We see a significance of the pain while we're in the midst of it if we are truly following him. However, as long as we live here on earth, as long as we live here on earth, we will go through pain. We will experience some form of pain and some form of suffering. That's what makes hope in heaven such a wonderful place because in heaven there is no pain.4:06In heaven there is no suffering. There is no heartache. There is no more sorrow. There is no more sickness. There is no more sadness. There is no more tears. There is every tear will be wiped away from our eyes. There is no tangles in our life. There is no more problems. There is no more balancing the checkbook, so to speak, of our life. We have no issues once we step over into heaven.4:33That's heaven. That's why it's so glorious. Especially for those of us that are Christ followers, that's why we look forward to heaven. We have our ticket punched. All He has to do is call upon our name and call us to that glorious eternal life with Him in heaven because there is no more pain. There's no more aches and pains and joint aches and no more need for medication whatsoever. But while we're here on earth, we will continue to experience some form of pain, some form of suffering, regardless of the pain that we have, regardless of the pain that we go through.5:03Christ, a Christ follower will learn from the experience and allow God to work in our lives as we go through that pain. God wants to make us peacemakers, not just keepers of the peace.5:27Now, there's nothing wrong with being a keeper of the peace. There's nothing wrong with that guardian of the church. There's nothing wrong with that. But He wants us to be peacemakers. And I want us to unpack this word peacemaker here in a few moments and understand what that simply means. Once we begin to experience recovery, once we begin to experience restoration in our own personal life, revival or renewal in our own personal life, once we begin that spiritual journey and spiritual growth starts to take place in our lives, we begin to experience the peace that passes all understanding that God gives us.5:48Once we begin to experience the peace that we can't.6:05Once we begin to experience the peace, we begin to experience the peace, we begin to experience the peace, we begin to experience the peace.6:35In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 19, the century English version translation, I've printed it for you.7:05God was in Christ offering peace and forgiveness to the people of this world. And He was giving us the work of sharing His message about peace, about peace. That's what He's giving to us. We have a mandate. I was in a conference where Dr. Charles Stanley, the great pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta, was the keynote speaker. Several months ago, I was there and he was one of our keynote speakers.7:35And this grand Baptist statesman, this grand preacher of the word, he was talking on brokenness that day. And his topic was on brokenness. And he made this statement, and I scratched it out. Boy, it just really resonated with me. He said, you'll never be used of God greatly until you have been broken much. Now, I'll tell you, that didn't make any of us happy in that room. Bunch of preachers sitting around, and we were going to, oh, Dr. Stanley's going to give us one of those stirring, encouraging messages.8:01And he opens up with that statement, you are going to be used great when you go through the brokenness. Folks, let me tell you something. It's in the deepest, darkest despair when we see God work the greatest. So God needs to break us some down. Being broken is a good thing. God uses broken people. Look what the message truth I've given to you. This is from Rick Warren. I stole this line from him.8:30I choose to yield myself to God and to be used to bring the good news to others by both my example and by my words. Church, I want you to know something. God is desperately wanting to use each and every one of us. But sometimes he's got to get our attention. Sometimes he's got to bring us to the brink of destruction. He's got to break us down sometimes. He's got to allow us to go through that.8:592 Corinthians 1, verse 2 through 4, look what it says. I pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you and will bless you with peace. The Father is merciful, a merciful God who always gives us comfort. He comforts us when we are in trouble so that when we can share that same comfort with others in trouble, We share in the terrible sufferings of Christ, but also in the wonderful comfort he gives.9:23Now, folks, let me tell you something. We share in that terrible suffering, but we also are allowed to share in the comfort that God gives. We can walk and journey with people. You've been there when someone's gone through trouble. You've been there when you've walked into that hospital room when someone is sick. You've been there when there's a death in a family. You've been there.9:53You all, every one of us have experienced that. And those of us that are Christ followers, we get that we have the opportunity to walk in this comfort time with them. What can I share to help others when they're going through a most difficult time? Number one, I want to give you four things. Number one, the mess is not going to be long today, so buckle up because I'm going to talk real fast. Number one, how pain got my attention. Nothing speaks, nothing resonates better than a personal experience.10:23Amen? If you can relate to that, not one-up them in their situation, but if they can see that you've gone through that, they will be more apt to listen to what you have to say. The Bible is quite clear in Proverbs 20, verse 30. The Good News Version says sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our way. God uses pain to correct us. God uses pain and suffering to redirect us.10:53God uses pain and suffering to perfect us. Folks, let me tell you something. No pain, no gain. This past week, I decided, okay, I'm enough with this knee thing. Enough with this problem. I've gotten the steroid shot. I've got arthritis in my left knee. I know it. It's there. It's not going away. So I'm just going to work through it. And so I pressed hard Thursday's workout. I pressed hard somewhat on Friday's workout.11:22I pressed hard yesterday's workout, and I felt it. No pain, no gain. This morning, getting out of bed, I'm saying, Lord, if you do not do something with this knee, I'm not going to be able to stand up and walk. I mean, I was stiff. But you see, folks, I feel so much better because I pressed through it. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 9, listen to what it says. I'm glad, not because it hurts you, but because the pain turned you to God.11:47Pain is a wake-up call for every Christ follower. If you're going through the pain, rejoice in it. Enjoy the journey and share that with someone else. Now, you know, you've been around those people that, you know, they're in pain, and they want you to be as pain, as much pain as they're in, you know? They're in misery, so they're not comfortable. They're not feeling good until you're miserable as well, right?12:17You've been around those people. Don't look at your wife. She will smack you if you're not careful, right? So, how pain got my attention? To help others, we got to be honest. We got to be honest. Number one, we got to be honest about our feelings. Now, this is where men have the biggest problem right here. We have the biggest problem about this feelings thing, right? I mean, our feelings is we don't mind expressing our feelings about two things.12:42Number one, and cover the kid's ears. Number one is food. We're hungry. We express that, and sex. Men, that's just, I mean, our minds, I'm just going to be honest with you. That's just where we are most of the time. Amen, men? Don't look spiritual at me, guys, out there. Shake your head yes to me, right? Go ahead, Brad. Go ahead, shake your head. There you go. Thank you very much for being obedient, Brad. Right?13:13Right? It's about hunger and sex, and that's what we are about, right? Listen to what he says. We have spoken frankly to you. We have opened our hearts wide. We've got to be honest about our feelings. Number two, we've got to be honest about our faults. Now, we don't mind pointing out your faults, but sometimes we don't want to point out our own faults, do we? If we're going to help somebody, we've got to be honest about our fault. We've got to be specific that we've gone through some of these same scenarios. In a counseling technique, I'm not a counselor, I'm a good listener, but if you're going to13:42be a counselor, I say it all the time, you're probably going to leave suicidal, but I will listen to your situation. And usually, somewhere along the way, I'm going to relate a story that I may have gone through something similar, not to one-up you, but to give you comfort, to be specific about my own faults. Galatians 6, verse 5, let each of us bear the faults and the burdens of his own, for none of us is perfect, not one of us.14:09So, we've got to be honest about our feelings. We've got to be honest about our faults. We've got to be honest about our failures. Our failures. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom Paul says, I'm the worst. Now, understand, this is the writer of the two-thirds of the New Testament that we study today. The apostle Paul, writers of two-thirds of the New Testament, he says, I am the worst of all the sinners.14:39In fact, the matter is, he goes on to say, I stood when they stoned Stephen. I stood there and watched it. Here I am, you call me some kind of special person, but I stood there while they stoned Stephen. I'm the worst. So, we've got to be honest about our failures, right? Be honest about our feelings. Be honest about our faults, our failures. Number four, we've got to be honest about our frustrations. I love what Romans chapter 7, one of these great texts. I keep going back to that because it's one of those texts that just kind of resonate with15:08Paul when he's writing to the church at Rome. In chapter 7, verse 18, he says, I have the desire to do what's right, but I cannot carry it out. I keep on doing the evil that I don't want to do. Paul's saying, man, I know what to do. I know what to do. I'm smart. I'm intelligent. It's like all the people sitting here at Bethel Church today. Intelligent, good-looking folk.15:38Got it going on. We know the right thing to do, but what do we do, Brad? We keep going back to the ways that we don't want to do it. That's what Paul is saying. And then he goes on in Romans chapter 8, that glorious text of declaration of freedom where he says, there is there now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But he first admits he is blatantly honest. Being frustrated will keep you off balance, church.16:05We need to be honest about the frustrations in our lives that we continue to do the wrong things. But if he's Lord of our lives, if we surrender to his complete lordship, he will lead us. Yes, we will stomp our toe along the way, but we will admit it and immediately recognize it and we will move forward to help others move forward in the journey with us.16:31So we got to be honest about our failures, our faults, our feelings, and our frustrations. And finally, we got to be honest about our fears. Now, I want you to know something. Zig Ziglar, the old Christian motivational speaker, used to use the word fear as an acrostic, F-E-A-R. False evidence appearing real. None other than Satan puts that fear in our lives. You see, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.16:58Greater is he that lives in me than he that is in the world. I am more than a conqueror in Jesus Christ. I am saved by his glorious grace. I have the power of the Holy Spirit indwelled in my life. Satan has second place, third, fourth, fifth place in my life. He has no dominion in that area. So I don't have to be afraid about anything. But we got to be honest that occasionally that we go through a period of being fearful.17:23I do admit that I have fears, that when I come, you'll disappoint me and I'll disappoint you. And then frustration, frustration with each other, everything will fall to pieces. We have fears. So to be honest, be honest about your feelings. Be honest about your frustrations. Be honest about your failures and your faults.17:52And be honest about your fears. So we have got to speak to people when we're sharing the gospel, when we're sharing our lives, sharing about our church. We got to be honest by helping them understand we've gone through the pain as well. Secondly, how can I help others? What I've learned in the process. See, not only share the story, but we got to help on what we learned in the process.18:19I've learned, number one, to depend on God's love. I've learned to depend on God's love. We got to get out of the habits and the hangups and depend solely on his love. God demonstrated his love towards us as we've said time and time again that Christ died for us. We got to depend on that greater love. Second Corinthians chapter 1 verse 8 through 10 says, we were crushed and overwhelmed and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves.18:44But that was good for then we put everything into the hands of God who alone could save us. And he did help us. Folks, let me tell you something. Listen, we can help others when we help them by what we've learned through the process of the brokenness. Through the process of depending on God's love. Number two, what I've learned to follow God's word.19:14Now let me gather in here close. Because sometimes we have a tendency to think that the word of God is a series of do's and don'ts. It's a series of yeses. Amen? Follow me and you'll see this. Take up your cross and follow me. Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me. Psalms 119 verse 71 and 72 says, if it was best thing that I could have happened to me, for it taught me to pay attention to your laws.19:35Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto thy path. Trust the Lord with all your heart, Proverbs says, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and his word and he will direct your path. And his word, my words added to the scripture. Folks, let me tell you something.20:05When we surrender to his lordship, it's not going to say that we're not going to go through some pains and problems. We are going to go through them. It's not going to be hallelujah and amen all the time. If you're around those people, they walk around and say, well, praise the Lord. I had a car wreck. Well, praise the Lord. Had a flat tire. Hallelujah. I don't hallelujah nothing over a flat tire. Amen. Do y'all? I don't hallelujah over that kind of stuff. I mean, there's going to be situations, but we got to learn in the process to follow God's word.20:33Number three, I learned that I needed other people. Now, I want to tell you something. I'm pretty self-contained, and I have a tendency not to think I need a lot of people, but then I realize I need a lot of people. Folks, we need each other. That is why life groups, in my opinion, are the most important thing you do as a body of believers.20:56You say, wait a minute. You mean coming to preaching and singing? Well, that's just the icing on the cake. You're going to do life together. We have a young couple, not a young couple. They're in their 40s. They have four kids. He's got one in college now, and they're delightful. They've been to Honduras with us several times, and they were in one of the churches I served over in Atlanta, Georgia area, and they're just delightful.21:22He's a sharp, sharp. He's an executive vice president for a big health care company, and he has kind of taken a liking to my son. And so every month, they're meeting, and they're communicating back text and email and that kind of stuff and back and forth. But they're meeting together, and he's mentoring. He asked me, do you think that I could start meeting with your son? I really like it. I'd like to hear what's going on in his world. And so they're meeting. Paul and Seth are meeting on a regular basis.21:52I mean, every week, they have a day, and they have a game plan that they're working towards, and he is mentoring my son. And I'm saying, whoo, hallelujah, this godly man pouring life into my son. And he's saying absolutely the same thing that he's heard me say. But all of a sudden, Seth, life's turned on. Wow, you wouldn't believe what Mr. Paul said. Dude, I've been saying that for 10 years. What up with that? Well, it came out of a cool-looking guy that's got it going on, that's following Jesus, that's pouring life into his family.22:21And he told Seth the other day, he said, Seth, I'm telling you, you need desperately to stay connected to your life group. Because chances are you living in Atlanta, Georgia for the rest of your life is probably slim and none. You may spend your career here, but you may have to go somewhere else. So you need to understand the importance of life group, because when you do life together with a church group,22:46you move from one church to the next church, and you can go to that life group. I go way back to the 60s when my parents moved from the west part of Birmingham to Trustville, Alabama. The first Sunday, we moved into our house on Saturday. On Sunday morning, guess where we were? We were at the First Baptist Church of Trustville. And not only were we in morning worship service, but we went to Sunday school that day. I didn't know a person that time. But me and my father realized how important it was to do life together.23:17If you're not in a life group, please stop now. Confess your sin and get in one. Because it will be a life-changing experience for you. Remember that God's plan, men and women need each other. Not my words. The Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, he said, we need each other. Ecclesiastes 4, verse 9 and 10 says, two people are better than one.23:46If one falls down, the other can come and help him. But it is bad for the person who is alone falls, because there's no one there to help him. That's why working out with a group is fun for me, because I can get some help. And I can help one of those other knuckleheads. But folks, we can't just do this thing by ourself. We need to be collectively needing each other. Number three, how God can bring good out of bad.24:14When you're walking through life, how can we help someone? How can we share to help others in their journey? It's how God can do good out of bad. Now, one of the most revered verses of Scripture, you know, John 3, 16 is the most quoted verse of Scripture in all the Bible. It is the summation of the gospel, John 3, 16.24:41For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. One of the other top five is Romans chapter 8, verse 28. And a lot of times, here's what happens. We misquote that because we misunderstand what it says. Listen to what the Bible says. We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose.25:04People in Mexico today are wondering, hmm, is that really good? Patricia just hit the banks in those communities or wiped away. Is that good? God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and call according to his purpose. What it doesn't say, it doesn't say that God will work it out the way I want it worked out.25:31We've got to understand that God says, when he says something, he means it. And we may have to go through some pain and through some suffering and through a period without a senior pastor. We may have to go through that period of transition. Why? Because God works everything out to good. To those who will love him and are called according to his purpose.25:58Genesis chapter 50 verse 20 says, they intended it to harm me, but God intended it for good. God always intends even the most difficult situations in our lives. He intends it for his good. God doesn't owe us anything. This is not Burger King, guys. We can't just have it our way.26:27It's got to be God's way. Amen? So we need to know how God can bring good out of a bad scenario. Number four, and I'm done. He gives me hope. We can share that God gives us hope. As always, be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks. You give the reason because the hope you have.26:57First Peter. We have a hope. A hope of eternal blessing. A hope of eternal salvation. We can go through the pain when we know on the other side there's so much hope. Time and time again, I've stood at the bedside of that one that's drawing their last breath on earth. They're standing there. They're laying there at the bedside.27:27And those who have the most hope are excited. I'll never forget the day of my mom passing away. I was passing through the city on my way to another preaching assignment. It was a summer, and I was doing the whole youth camp run, Brad. And I was going from Florida, and I had a couple of days in between. I headed to the mountains to preach at a youth camp. I spent some time with my mom that day, and I went into her nursing home room.27:54And there she lay after multiple strokes. And she could not physically move, but she could see a bit, and she could speak. God had transformed her life for a couple of weeks where she couldn't move, but she could talk. But for three years prior, she could walk around and move, but she couldn't talk where we had understood. It's amazing what God did. And in those last days, she laid there, and all she would do in her waking hours would quote scripture and sing the great hymns of the faith.28:18And I went by and knocked into her room and walked into that room, and I said, Mom, how in the world are you? She said, Oh, son, sit down. Let's sing something together. And, Greg, we started with the old hymns of the faith, and we sang, Great is Thy Faithfulness. And she went on and began to sing wonderful songs like, My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and his righteousness.28:41I dare not trust the sweetest friend, but on Christ, a solid rock, I stand. And I sat there with my mom laying there, Brad, and I wondered, how in the world could this lady have so much hope and so much joy? And she said, Oh, Dan, it's going to be a short while. I'll take my last breath here, but my next breath will be for all of eternity in heaven.29:07Church, let me tell you something. Going through pain and suffering, going to try to be the keeper of the peace when all he wants you to be is the peacemaker, grab ahold of the peace that passes all understanding in the person of Jesus Christ. He gives us hope. That's how we help others. We point them to the hope that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.29:34The question begs today, will you tell your story of that glorious hope? Will we stop being the church that's consumer-based and become consumed with his love, his care, his joy, his life-changing salvation? Will we be the church that will proclaim that? Will we be that church when the new pastor comes knowing that we're on this journey of life-changing,30:04presenting the life-changing message of Christ Jesus? Will you be that person to tell that beautiful message truth that Dr. Warren wrote, I choose to yield myself to God, to be used to bring the good news to others, both by my example and by my words? You want to see God work in your life?30:33Start presenting the message of hope and the message of salvation to those who feel hopeless in Christ Jesus. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Let's pray. Let's pray.More sermons on 2 Corinthians →
