 Today, we're in Matthew chapter 5. We're continuing our series in the Gospel of Matthew. And as we got into chapter 5, I was mentioning to you that chapter 5, chapter 6, and chapter 7 are actually a continuous sermon by the Lord Jesus Christ that has been called the Sermon on the Mount. I mentioned to you that in every sermon there's an introduction and Matthew 5 is the introduction to that, especially the first several verses that are called the Beatitudes. The word Beatitude means blessings. And the Lord Jesus Christ is pronouncing blessings on individuals in chapter 5, especially the first 12 verses. And so as we've been looking at this, he is actually pronouncing eight blessings on those who are his followers. And the blessings that he is pronouncing can actually be divided into two sets of four. Now the last four Beatitudes correspond with the first four. And each of the first four blessings are related to inner drives and motives, but the next four blessings would be fruit or outworkings that correspond to the first four. And so as you look at Jesus saying, blessed are those who are poor in spirit, well the corresponding response would be that that person who is poor in spirit will readily show mercy. Those who mourn over sin against God, well that produces a purity of heart. We'll see next time we're together that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will not hide from persecution. So today we're going to see how that those who are meek will be quick to seek peace because humility leads to a desire to live at peace. So as we introduce this, I'm going to give you a prolonged introduction. I'm going to develop a foundation so that we can get an understanding of what Jesus is saying when he says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. We need to begin at the foundation, at the basic. We need to remember something that is very obvious and that is this. Man is not naturally in a constant state of peace. Man is not in a state of peace. The Bible reveals very clearly that man by nature is in a state of constant warfare, constant hostility and that's because we are born with a sin nature and therefore are prone to sin. Now there are those who would argue that man does not have a sin nature and these are people who usually don't have any children. You know, we can argue from our ivory tower and say that men are born good and there are many who do that and there are religious beliefs that man is born a blank slate and what he becomes is simply that which has been written on that blank slate. But the fact is the Bible does not teach that. There are those who would say that man is not a sinner by nature but becomes a sinner when he actually or she actually has sinned. So we become a sinner when we sin. But the theological truth is that's not the case at all. The truth is is I don't become a sinner when I sin. I sin because I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner by nature. According to Psalm 51 verse 5, King David said it this way. He says I was born a sinner. Yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. So that is what is called the Adamic nature. We receive from 8 from Adam his nature, a nature that has been corrupted by sin. And so we receive that from him. So by nature we are sinners. We sin because we are sinners. Somebody said the decisive seat of evil is not in social and political institutions but simply in the weakness and imperfection of the human soul itself. Because we're born with the sin nature then our natural condition is a state of constant conflict. We are in a constant state of hostility. We are in a state of hostile opposition in war. First with God. We actually fight God. Romans 8 7 says the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so. By nature we have an opposing spirit. If God says something is sweet we say it's sour. If he says it's black we say it's white. If he says it's up we say it's down. So there is a constant opposition, a constant hostility towards God. And it's part of our sin nature. It's because of our sin nature. In 1st John chapter 1 verse 8 John said if we say we have no sin we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. And there are people who will say well I have no sin nature. There are those who say I don't sin. You know there was a song when I first got saved. One of the lines of the song was never been a sinner. I never sinned. I've got a friend in Jesus. And that is nonsense. He was lying when he was saying that. So he became a sinner when he's saying that. Because we sin. That's the way it is. We have sin nature and we're in hostile opposition to God. So not only are we in hostile opposition to God constantly but we are also at war within ourselves. In Romans chapter 7 verse 18 Paul said it like this. He said I know I am rotten through and through. So far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn I can't make myself do right. I want to but I can't. I have something within me. A war within my nature. It's a sin nature that is in constant rebellion. And man before they come to faith in Christ are in constant hostile opposition to God. They have a sin nature that is in constant opposition to authority. And that's the truth. If the speed limit is 55 we say well we have a five mile per hour grace on that. If the sign says stop we think it really means slow down and look around. It's kind of a suggestion on a lot. It's a sin nature that we possess and I still remember I was in London back in 1975 and we were looking at a palace. I believe it was Buckingham Palace and as we were walking there was a patch of grass and on the patch of grass was a sign and the sign said stay off the grass. I have a picture somewhere of me laying on the grass holding onto the sign because I shouldn't have told you that right now you won't trust anything else I have to say this morning but we have this thing within us that says you say no I say yes. And so it's just a fact we know that one we're in hostile opposition to God. Two we are within constantly in hostile opposition because we have a sin nature that wars against doing what is right and then three we have conflict with other men. We are in opposition to other people. Now James made this observation through the form of a question when he said in James chapter four verse one what is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Isn't it the whole army of evil desires at war within you? What is it that causes wars? In context James would be speaking of church wars but what is it in general that causes conflict amongst men? He said isn't it the passions that war within yourself? Isn't it something that even amongst yourselves you can't get along and you're constantly at hostile opposition to one another? And so this nature that we have this nature that before we're born again is totally given over to just satisfying itself produces conflict it produces conflict in daily life it can actually lead to actual physical combat or wars within the world. The great enemy of peace the great enemy of peace is not financial it's not educational it's not societal the great enemy of peace is sin sin separates separates men from god and sin produces chaos in our life and sin itself will eliminate peace that's why Isaiah 48 22 would say there's no peace for the wicked say at the Lord. So when we come to faith in Jesus Christ the sin question is answered and we can be restored to fellowship with God that fellowship had been broken by sin but now because Jesus died on a cross with one hand he holds his father's hand will say and on the other he holds ours and he brings us together through himself. We come to God through Jesus Christ and the way I can have fellowship and and cease having hostility is when I give my faith to Christ receive the message of reconciliation in the gospel and make my peace with God. In 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 4 Peter was writing and he said who speaking of Jesus who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we having died to sins might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. So Jesus died on the cross he satisfied his father's righteous demands and his wrath simultaneously. Now there are many today who don't like the idea that Jesus should die in a cross as an offering on their behalf they would like to believe that they somehow can have a relationship with God just by doing the best that they can be the best person that they are. For them the cross is really what we would call a stumbling block but the idea of the the cross being in offenses and something new it's actually something we find in scripture it's even described in such a way. In 1 Corinthians 1 22 and 23 Paul said it like this he said God's ways seems foolish to the Jews because they want a sign from heaven to prove it is true and it is foolish to the Greeks because they believe only what agrees with their own wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it's all nonsense. So in reality the death on the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is what is called central to our faith. We cannot be believers in Christ if we do not believe that he died on that cross and he was resurrected. Yet there are those who say that they can have a relationship with God without Jesus Christ but the Bible differs the Bible says no Jesus is the way the truth and the life no man comes to the Father but by him and so that's Christianity and that's what causes people to be so offended by by you and for me to believe that because they think oh no all roads lead to God you Christians have your own path but there are other paths that go to God and the fact is as they all ultimately lead before God to be before God but some are coming to judgment and others are entering into the kingdom and the way that you enter into the kingdom is through faith in Christ. In early Christian history perhaps around the second century there was a creed that was recited that basically itemized our faith. There are creedal statements there's there's statements of faith there they're put together in a form that you can actually memorize call them creeds and there's their doctrinal statements they were used for argumentation with those who didn't believe in God. The pagans that were in great opposition to Christianity would actually formulate arguments against the faith of Christ and so what happened early in the history of the church is is what would be called the church fathers put together creedal statements belief statements this is what we most surely believe these are the essentials of the Christian faith and perhaps around the second century there was a creed that was recited and was originally developed to refute early heresy and deviations from orthodox Christian teaching it was called the Apostles Creed. Now I'm out of curiosity I've been asking the services today how many of you have heard of the Apostles Creed I'd like to see your hands see some of you haven't haven't heard of it the Apostles Creed was something I learned by heart when I was around seven or eight years old and it's basically an itemization of our faith and it's encapsulated in a statement called the Apostles Creed and it goes like this I believe in God the father almighty maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the father almighty from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead I believe in the Holy Ghost the holy catholic the holy universal church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen and so that was a statement that basically was clarifying all that we as believers believe in terms of the essentials because what you would do is you would begin that Creed by saying I speaking of you as a creative person believe speaking of your faith in God who you deposit your faith in and that's how it would work and you could actually break it down to a whole argument he's the maker of heaven and earth I believe in Jesus Christ his only son etc and that's what we would most surely state and that's what we would believe we believe that Jesus Christ was crucified we believe that he died we believe that he was buried but we also believe that he rose from the dead so he died on the cross was buried but resurrected that is essential to Christian faith but there's a growing number of people who believe that you can have peace without the cross that brings peace somebody once said people today want to hear about a god without wrath who brings people without sin into a kingdom without judgment through a christ without a cross and that's true you see it is by the cross that god most beautifully illustrates for us what love really is again we live in a time when the word love has to be defined because we use the word love for so many different things you know I I love my dog I love my cat I love tacos I really love tacos um you know I love driving I love the mountains I love the beach and I love my wife and I love my kids and I love my god so we use the word love to describe so many things that people today don't really understand what it means and the church has had the responsibility of teaching the world what love is because god demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners christ died for us for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life so love is not a concept theory it's not a philosophy it is not an emotion it is an action on the part of god that causes us to respond to what he has done god loved me that's why the scripture says we love him because he first loved us he showed his love for me and you can read your scripture and you can find the most clearest description of what love is because god demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners christ died for us if you're a parent you have a child from a man's perspective my wife tells me she's carrying my child and i get all like wow we're gonna have kids that's heavy and so i begin by saying it's just an idea i mean my wife isn't all swollen i thank god we had nine months to get ready i mean what if she told me one day on the next day oh here it is i mean no thank you he gave me nine months to prepare for that event right and so from the beginning i've shared this so many times i'll say quickly from the beginning when i know that there is life in the womb and then that life is is my child i i get attached i got attached very quickly to all of our kids and and and and i would pat marie on her little belly as it was swelling with child and and i would put my face next to it and i'd yell in her stomach i'd say i'd shake her stomach and and cause corin to kind of you know move around in there because she used to kick you know and i wanted to put my hand and feel the kick and all that's how i got my kicks and i used to put my hand on her belly and she would do that and when she wouldn't kick then i would shake marie and the baby would kind of like get active and kick and all of that and i used to put my face next to marie's belly and i'd yell out baby baby i love you i love you and and that was long before that baby was born and then the day comes and then the baby is born they bring the baby to me i look at this baby i say can't be mine it's ugly i handed to marie you know anybody who says the babies are beautiful they are theoretically i remember one of my children was born and they had what we call the cone head i mean that baby was kind of like that and i remember saying to the doctor i said uh will this baby outgrow this head don't worry about it it all kinds of rounds out at the end and it did thank god you know but you look at this baby and you say oh my and baby can't talk and do anything it just has little cross eyes and little hands that are moving around and feet and all of that and that are just kind of always kicking in but you love that baby you wrap it up you hold that baby you love that baby you take the friends and they say oh beautiful baby and yes yes yes and you enjoy that baby the baby grows up you know it's a year old and then goes into two years and before you know what the baby's talking to you saying little sentences the first word they say is no you know you have to no you have to no and they never stop saying that by the way they get that from their mom but what goes on is eventually that baby some babies not all but that baby may get mad at you and that baby may say to you you don't love me you've never loved me if you loved me you'd buy me that car or whatever and you smile at them if you can depends on mad they're making you but and you say oh no no that's where you're wrong when you say i never loved you that's where you're wrong you see when you and your mama's womb before you were even aware of your own existence i loved you when you were born and they handed you to me and i rocked you for the first time i loved you and when you started to walk and you would walk to me and i reached my hands out to you and you would take your hands off the the coffee table and i would shake those keys and you wanted the keys and you took your steps you were walking towards me i loved you when i dropped you off at school when you're five years old for your first day at kindergarten you cried because you didn't want to go you wanted daddy i loved you when you went to school to junior high in high school i loved you i don't like you right now but i did love you see so you've never been able to say to me that i didn't love you there's never been a day in your life that i didn't love you every moment that i've known you've existed i loved you and by the way if you ever say you love me it's because i loved you first and yet we do to the lord we say you don't love me and god says oh no no no i have loved you before you even knew i was in existence i have loved you god demonstrated his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners christ died for us what else can he do to show you how much he loves you my daughter karin was a year and a half two years old and she was telling me one day i love you daddy and i said oh no you don't and she said oh i do daddy i love you daddy i said no you don't i love you how much do you love me she says i love you this much and she stretched her little arms i love you this much and i looked at her and i said that's not very much that's not much at all and i have a picture of her somewhere where she's stretching her arms as far as she can and she's got a real strained look on her face and because i had said how much you love daddy i'm bang you took the picture that's before we had phones that you could do that with and the holy spirit spoke to me through a plaque my mom gave to me and the plaque was for christmas and it simply said i asked god how much do you love me and he said this much and he went to the cross and he died that's how much god loves you god loves you and he gave his son so that you might have everlasting life and love was demonstrated by the cross somebody said the world takes us to a silver screen on which flickering images of passion and romance play and as we watch the world says this is love god takes us to the foot of a tree on which a naked and bloodied man hangs and says this is love and god demonstrated his love towards us and that christ died for us and in that death on the cross he's reconciling god with sinful man and as we embrace christ says our lord and our savior and say god forgive me a sinner god grants us something we don't have he gives us peace he promises that we can have peace with him and he also promises that we can have a piece that comes from him you see when we're reconciled to him through christ we are brought to being at peace with him and peace with god is made possible because of jesus's death on that cross for us in colossians 1 19 and 20 it says it pleas the father that in him should all fullness dwell and having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things into himself so at the cross all a man's sin was carried by and atoned by jesus christ god's righteousness confronted man's sin god won so how do i receive peace with god how can i be at peace with him well it comes through a total faith in jesus christ alone as my savior it it is not jesus for a while and then someone else later it is jesus forever when i got saved i didn't say well i appreciate what jesus has to say i'll try this for a while see if it works but if it doesn't then i'll try confucius or i'll try a mohammed or i'll try boot i'll try some other guy some other philosophy i didn't do that when i gave my heart to christ it was forever and as a result of that according to roman's five verse one uh we've been justified through faith and we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ you see the war is over we've been reconciled to god and now we are at peace with him no more conflict the hostility has ceased he gave us terms of peace in the gospel i embraced the message of the gospel and i was reconciled to god the hostility has ended and now i'm at peace with him but also when i come to faith in christ i am given a piece that originates with him this is something that jesus promised to give to those who followed him in john 14 27 jesus said it like this he said peace i leave with you my peace i give you i do not give to you as the world gives do not let your hearts be troubled do not be afraid you can't get peace anywhere else outside of god himself you can have a temporary piece a cessation of hostile leader anxiety all of us can experience that on a temporary basis but through the lord jesus christ when i no longer am at war with god no longer am i hostile and opposed to him um and and i am at peace reconciled with him and now i can have a piece that passes all understanding i can have a piece in times when others may be shaken but but i i trust the lord and i know he's in control uh paul said it like this he said do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to god and the peace of god which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in christ jesus you can be going through the most anxious moment of your life the most concerning time of your life and and and you realize there's nothing you can do there's nothing i can do to make this better and you cast your cares on him you cast your cares on him your child isn't doing well you're concerned there's nothing you can do they're in rebellion you've done the best that you can you go to the lord and you say god i i did my best i raised them to know you i took them to church sunday school they got involved in in retreats and conferences and even served you voluntarily and they go to college and and they come back saying you know i don't need your your christ i don't need your faith i don't need it i i've leaned on your testimony all along and i need a testimony of my own what are you gonna do when you go to your room and close the door and you cry out to god god in jesus name i dedicated this baby to you i raised him the way that you taught me to you said in your word if i train up a child in the way you should go when he's old he will not depart but lord it seems as if they've walked away from you it's he's saying he has god in jesus name you cast your cares on him one of the things i've discovered about the lord is his time is always perfect and he does his work sometimes silently sometimes you don't see it but he's at work he's doing something he's he's tying things together moving one chess piece to another if you will he's working all things together for the good of those who love him to those who are the called according to his purpose and you cast your anxieties on him and you trust him and he has said that i can he said that he loves me he said that he's good to his word i'm gonna hold fast to that you see isaah 26 3 says you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you whose thoughts are fixed on you jesus said in john 16 33 these things i've spoken to you that in me you may have peace in the world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer i have overcome the world you see i can't go to the store and buy 10 dollars of peace 10 dollars of joy i'll take 20 dollars of love today i can't buy that's not something i can i can not go and purchase it anywhere those are things that come from the lord what i do is i ask god in jesus name teach me to love in jesus name lord fill me with your joy in jesus name i need to have your peace that passes all understanding because at this moment i don't comprehend the events that are taking place jesus on one occasion john chapter 13 speaking to his disciple says what i am doing you don't understand now but you will later and i've discovered something there's a benefit in having a long life following the lord and that is this his timetable is not mine but he's always on time he always does what is right in the right time what i've learned is these these things that i'm going through this too shall pass this will pass when you're young you start thinking oh no it's always going to be this way speaking to a young woman she says i'm in a trial and when is it going to end i've been it for three whole weeks and because you're young you think that my goodness if it doesn't change now if it doesn't change in five days or 10 days or in a month or even a year then it's never going to change that's not true that's not true it's just when we're young we think that it has to change now at the things have to change right this minute and if it doesn't change now it never will change and that's not true that's not true at all give god time you go out into the backyard you plant a tree you don't go the next day to pick an orange from it it takes time but it does produce fruit if it's cared for and when you trust the lord he's not on your timetable he doesn't have to do things when you say he's not my heavenly bell boy i don't snap my fingers and god jumps i don't grab a scripture and quote it and then put it in his face and say you said you said you said because that's what children do it's interesting how my kids when they're small i'd say clean your room can you clean your room yes dad and then they wouldn't do it then i'd say i thought i told you to clean your room oh i forgot but if i said we're going to disneyland a year before they say you said what you said we're going to disneyland when did i say that 321 days ago i mean they remember everything you said you said and there are people who do that to the lord i don't think you have to remind god of his promises god keeps them you simply embrace them and wait on him and guess what the lord is good to his promises and he keeps you in perfect peace if your mind is anchored on him he holds you he takes care of you he loves you he will see these things through it will work out for good because you belong to him jesus said be a good chair i have overcome the world and i trust him in that so what happens is we have this peace with god and this piece from god and then we have a desire for others to have peace with god and so we'll get to the scripture that was your introduction verse nine blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of god we become peacemakers we have peace with god and peace from god and so we become peacemakers again a peacemaker is somebody who has first made peace with god themselves a peacemaker is somebody who has personally come to faith in god through jesus christ and has been reckons out to him roman's 510 if when we were god's enemies we were reconciled to him through the death of his son how much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life so a peacemaker one personally comes to faith in him but two because they have made peace with him they will lead others to having peace with god in other words they share they witness they tell others the gospel of peace that enables them to have peace with god and peace from god we evangelize paul said in 2nd corinthians 5 18 through 20 now all these things are from god who reconciled us to himself through christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation namely that god was in christ reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation we are christ ambassadors and god is using us to speak to you we urge you as though christ himself were here pleading with you be reconciled to god when you take this gospel message and you share it it's basically a plea from god to man be reconciled and you become a peacemaker i walk up to my father i've been saved three weeks i have my bible my mom and dad are seated there at the kitchen table i read a portion of scripture i tell him i don't understand what this means but i know it's not speaking to me it's speaking to you and i say to my dad you're a good man you're the best man that i'll ever know but you will be the best man in hell if you don't give your heart to jesus christ i say daddy i love you and i don't want to go to heaven without you bow your head you're going to pray and receive christ as your lord and savior right now what caused me a brand new christian to have the courage and boldness even some would say the disrespect to tell my father how much i loved him and didn't want to spend eternity without him what was it god had reconciled i reconciled with god god gave me peace with him i began to understand peace with others i had peace within and i wanted my dad and i wanted my mom to have the kind of peace that comes through jesus christ it's evangelism calvary chapel came out of what is called the jesus movement many of the early early pastors in calvary chapel are evangelists preaching that gospel of peace we have been reconciled to god christ was in god christ christ was in us using us by his spirit to bring the reconciliation to others through the message the gospel message is a message of reconciliation to reconcile simply means to take two warring parties and bring peace the gospel is what god uses to take man who's at war with god and brings him to peace again jesus on the cross with one hand holding his father's hand the other hand reaching for us and at the cross we are united in him through faith in jesus christ and so god was in christ reconciling the world to himself and he has given to us the message of reconciliation and we say be reconciled to god you become an evangelist and third you become a bridge builder because you want peace in the church it grieves your heart when the church is not living in peace with one another the psalmist in psalm 133 one said it behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity in Ephesians 4 verse 3 paul speaking of peacemakers would say that they endeavored to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace there's just something about peace i love it i love it and when my kids were growing up and it got loud and it got got loud in the angry way i never i never i didn't like that i didn't like the noise i didn't like the the attitude i didn't like the raising of the voices and things and and i would come in as a father and i would say you too need to stop right now you need to stop that's enough no more stop it because i like peace and all of you do and in church it's the same way guys there's an interesting story it's found in the book of philippians how that paul had written this letter and he was speaking concerning the fact that god had taught him to rejoice rejoice and the lord all the way again i say rejoice the word joy and rejoice are the main words that he uses throughout the book of philippians in four chapters he continuously uses the word joy and rejoice because he wants people to have the joy of the lord and and at a certain point he actually brings a word of correction and it's interesting how that takes place you need to remember that in the early church history when paul would write a letter to a church the church would receive the letter through somebody who brought it an emissary and they would bring it to the pastor and they'd say the apostle has written a letter for the church so that happened in the church of philippi and so the pastor of the church of philippi is given a letter by the apostle paul and he calls the church together they convene in order that he might be able to read this letter to the congregation so the church gathers together and the apostle paul's letter is read so the pastor just begins with the introduction paul you know a call of god or whatever his introduction is he begins with the letter through its introduction as paul identifies himself it is a apostle etc goes through and just is reading to the saints in philippi and goes on and starts speaking about the various things that paul is is writing about and the church is there like you are right now just listening but at a certain point as the pastor just reading and he's not he's not reading and explaining he's just reading and as he gets to a certain point it's found in philippians chapter 4 verse 2 and you got a picture this the church is together he says i implore euodia and i implore syndicate to be of the same mind in the lord he calls out these two women in the church by name euodia and syndicate that had a well-known argument there was hostility between the two of them and paul calls them to task right there even as the pastor is reading and he doesn't avoid it he's reading the letter and it says i implore euodia i implore syndicate be of the same mind in the lord that's how valuable unity is in the body of christ why is it so important for us to do that well when the church is divided the world is not attracted to its message because it's a message of reconciliation it's a message where man who is at war with god is now reconciled to god man who has war within himself is now at peace man who is at war with other people is now at peace with other people and the church is supposed to be that shining city on a hill that is known by its good works so that's why paul would say get along with one another you see a peacemaker will speak what is true but that peacemaker will say it with love and it's not belligerent when paul was speaking again in efficiency said speak the truth in love so you speak with with a love for others so that they might have a relationship with christ and a relationship with one another you see when it says blessed are the peacemakers they shall be called sons of god my god wants to be wants to have relationship with man he sent his son so that might happen so reconciliation could occur and so christians will reveal what god is because they have a family resemblance christian simply means little christ or christlike somebody says what is it what is your christlike what is jesus like the believer as they mature in the things of the lord may one day be able to say he's like me and i'm like him we have a mark and i've shared with you this but this is something kind of new it's a little twist let me share this very briefly we have a resemblance mark of the believer my daughter karin well let me back up i as a little boy i have my mom and my dad my dad had black hair blue eyes dark complexion my mom had black hair brown eyes olive complexion my brother frank my older brother black hair dark complexion and then me i had real ruddy hair real pale skin blue green eyes so when my mom would take me and my older brother frank some place i can still remember people would say oh are you baby city and they would point to me and that's when i got to the idea the idea that i don't belong in this family when i went to family we go to my grandma's every week and all my cousins many cousins would be there and all of them have black hair and olive complexion and then there was me and i i finally started thinking something wrong here something's wrong i don't look like these people and so i got it in my head i was adopted and so i would talk to my mom and i would sit on the couch and i would cry i literally would cry i'd say i'm not yours i don't belong to you you i'm just a kid you found on the street corner and you're brought home and you're raising people and and my mom would oh she'd patient with me patient with me patient and finally she would say you're my baby and i would say no i'm not and she'd say yes you are i don't look like you i don't look like dad i don't look like this family she would always lift up her blouse she had birthmark on her right as well as her left she had a birthmark right here she would always lift it up and she'd say now lift lift up your shirt and i would lift up my shirt and i have a birthmark right here and she would say my birthmark your birthmark you belong to me so i took the mark of the beast but anyway i shouldn't have said that but i had a birth i have a birthmark right here so fast forward corin is born they hand her to me i unwrap her i look into her right rib cage my daughter has this birthmark my baby's mark she gives birth to our first grandchild my josephia they hand him to me i look at his little rib cage my josephia has a birthmark so to me it's been cool you know that's cool but i didn't know this i just found out this week i didn't know this i have a nine month old granddaughter named zoe and my daughter hannah said daddy have you seen this he said soon what she lifts her little shirt up and guess what she's got my mark well guess what you have your father's mark too you have a resemblance to god amen amen you do you do too and that resemblance is this god desires people to be saved that's your father's heart it's what you have embraced to my father wants people reconciled i want them reconciled like father like child evangelism share your faith that they might be reconciled to god we are children of god and like our father desires people to have a relationship with him we do too jesus said go into all the world preach the gospel to every creature you see god loves the world and desires it to be saved and peacemakers do too we become sons of god somebody said soldiers of christ in truth arrayed a world in ruins needs your aid a world by sin destroyed and dead a world for which the savior bled his gospel to the lost proclaim good news for all in jesus name let light upon the darkness break that sinners from their death may wake the peacemaker takes this message of reconciliation they have been reconciled to god the turmoil within has ceased and been replaced by the peace of god they encourage others to have peace with god they live at peace with others and they take this message out so that those who yet to know him will have relationship with him and like jesus said blessed are the peacemakers they shall be called sons of god