Oct. 20th 2013-Life in the Kingdom-Happy are the Peacemakers

October 21, 2013/Kasey Crawford

Are you an active agent of reconciliation, like your father in heaven?

In this message we explore the depth of Jesus’ call for his followers to be “peacemakers.”

If you want a study tool to go along with the podcast, see Lift Notes here:

Life in the Kingdom: Happy are the peacemakers

October 20^th, 2013 by Kasey Crawford

Today’s Passages: Matthew 5:9, Col. 1:19-20, Gen 2:25, Eph. 2:14-16

Review

The Sermon on the Mount is where Jesus sets forth a ___________ for a whole new way of _________ that is possible through following him- a life lived in God’s kingdom.

The “kingdom” is when God’s will is done on _________ as it is in ____________.

We “grab hold” of the kingdom through ___________ and ________.

The two most important questions in the life of a follower of Jesus:

What is ________ _____________ to me? (Repentance)

What am _____ going ______ about it? (Faith)

New

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9

The word Jesus uses for peace would be “Shalom”; a Hebrew word and concept that carries the notion of “well-being”, “_____________” and “______________”.

Jesus shows us that there is nothing in our life that is ______________ of what God wants to touch, redeem and heal with his Shalom.

In this context a peace-maker is someone who ____________ people to right ______________ with one another.

The only other place this verb stem is found in the bible is Colossians 1:19-20 as it says about God the peace-maker…

God was pleased to … reconcile to himself all things, by making peace through his blood…Col 1:19–20

__________________and peace are synonyms in this passage.

God is the _____________ _____________ of bringing peace to the world through his initiative action.

And Jesus says in this beatitude be peacemakers who redeem one of the age old problems of humanity, namely, that we are not only separated from God, we are separated from ______-______________.

God’s design is that humans live in Shalom with each other…the man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Genesis 2:25

The nakedness is a symbol of their __________for one another.

The oneness they shared became fractured and the trust was __________, fear was ____________, along with the need to protect ourselves from the “other.”

But Ephesians 2:14-16 shows that Jesus ________ on the cross, in part, to break the power of sin and hostility toward one another and renew the “oneness” that humanity is made for.

Do you ______________ peace and reconciliation in relationships where you go or do you bring hostility?

How can we do this?

Being a peace-maker isn’t something we need to try to _____________ up and be good enough at.

It’s an invitation once again to experience more of the ___________ of the father so that we can walk in more of our destiny of being __________ our father.

Living as a Disciple in the Kingdom…

What is God saying to you?

What are you going to do about it?

*Answers: vision,life,earth,heaven,repentance,faith,God-saying,I,do, wholeness,complete,outside,restores,relationships,reconciliation,

Active-agent,one-another, trust,lost,birthed,died,release,muster,heart,like