Kingdom Logic (Part 6) - Becoming a Peacemaker

Welcome to episode 246 of Grasp the Bible. In this episode, Pastor Drew continues our study entitled Kingdom Logic. Today we will cover: 

• “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” — Matthew 5:9 
• “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” — Matthew 5:10–12 
• Kingdom logic versus worldly logic. 

Key Takeaways: 

• The Beatitudes is how Jesus lived and how we should be living. 
• Peace is not passive — it is an active pursuit. 
• God first, others second, me last. 
• Righteous living either draws men to our Savior or repels them. 

Quotable: 

• “Peace is a Person!” 
• “Peace is a pursuit!” 
• “You cannot be a peacemaker unless you’ve made peace with the Maker.” 
• “The inevitable cost of living like Jesus — persecution.” 

Application: 

• First — we must have made peace with God, only found in Jesus. 
• Second — we must actively pursue peace with others. 
• Live like Jesus — to be salt and light. 
• Choose to live righteous lives, even when it leads to persecution. 

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https://www.facebook.com/SBCKleinCampus (Klein Campus) 

https://www.facebook.com/SpringBaptist (Spring Campus) 

Need us to pray for you? Submit your prayer request to: 

https://springbaptist.org/prayer/ 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Crash the Bible is a podcast of Spring Baptist Church that walks through selected books of the Bible verse by verse as well spends time exploring biblical ideas and topics to help you understand and apply God's Word in your daily life. On this week's podcast, we'll be joined by Drew Boucher, a pastor to students at Spring Baptist Church. Well, it is good to have you with us, Pastor Drew. Yeah, I'm glad to be here. Well, it's been a busy week for you, hasn't it? Yeah, a little bit. It's been been crazy, but we're so glad that you had the time to be with us today. Now, we're kind of wrapping up your um spring uh series. Yeah. So do you want us to let us know what's going on today? And uh what we can look forward to in today's teaching time.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Yeah, so today we are doing the last two Beatitudes. Um we're talking about being a peacemaker, and we're also talking about the uh inevitability of persecution as uh believers. And uh and then uh as we kind of wrap today's up, we'll be looking forward to uh kind of talking about salt and light living uh in light of being changed by Christ. And so the Beatitudes flows right into uh being salt and light, uh, and and I think that was intentional by Jesus in his sermon.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

So awesome, awesome. Well, let's get into today's teaching time.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Well, good evening, everybody. I'm excited to be here with you. And uh we're gonna have some fun tonight, okay? Always fun when the youth pastor has props, right? Especially when they're going to be boiling here in a minute. Well, uh, I wanted to start off because tonight we are gonna look at our last two Beatitudes uh as we continue in our series called Kingdom Logic. Now, when we think about kingdom logic, we think about there's two kingdoms. There's God's kingdom and there's the world's kingdom. And to have kingdom logic means you think like you're ruled by that king. And for us, if we're ruled by the world, there's a certain way that we think. It's about me, it's about mine, it's about my passions, it's about my desires. And when we think about kingdom logic in terms of Christ reigning, we think about his desire, his purpose, his plan, his passions. And so when we think about those two logics, we have to understand that if we are to be Christ's followers, we are in a world that is not our home. We are living in a kingdom while being ambassadors for another kingdom. And so as I think about this, I have this pot here that's not hot yet, but it will be in a minute, I guess. So I probably shouldn't grab the handles anymore, okay? But uh what does your life look like? That's the question I want to ask us tonight. What does your life look like? What do your actions lead others to believe about you? Because who you are shows in how you treat and how you love and how you care for other people. Are you impacting the world with Jesus or are you being impacted by the world? Now, for this illustration right here, I have this pot and this water that is going to represent our relationship with the world. And it's going to be the world for us. It's going to be boiling in a second, and it's going to be, you know, there's going to be all sorts of things that it's going to be going through. And I want us to think about this. This is a place. It's a boiling pot. It represents a world that we're living in with toil and strife and turmoil. And that's what the pot is going to represent. But I also have three types of people. Okay. First, I have an egg. Okay. So maybe this is you. Okay? We'll talk about what this represents later. Okay, so first we have an egg. Alright. Second, we have a carrot. Okay, maybe this is you. Maybe you'll eat your vegetables. No, just kidding. Alright, here we go. And then third, we have a coffee bean. Okay? Raise your hand if you drank coffee today. Alright. Alright, good. One coffee bean. Okay. There we go. Now, as we think about this, we're gonna rep be represented by one of the three of these. Now, uh, tonight we're going to read the Beatitudes, and I want you to remember our big ideas as we think about this and as our world begins to boil, okay? So, here are our big ideas that we've talked about, and this is the last time you'll hear me mention these. The two big ideas. First, the good life is not normal, it's faithful. The good life is not normal, it is totally different than the world around us. You see, if I were to be normal and I were to go to corporate America or I would go to the golf course, or I would go to the mall, there's a certain way people would expect me to act and to respond when different situations arise. But as a Christ follower, we're not called to be normal. We're supposed to be Christ-like. And to be Christ-like takes something called faith. And it requires us to live faithfully. And see, the thing is, there's a lot of times that it feels like we're sacrificing so much to be faithful. But what we see here in the Beatitudes is that he gives us a full life when we honor and when we love and when we hold to his promises. And that's why we see the blessed life or the happy life is not normal, but is faithful. And then we see that the Beatitudes are a self-portrait of Jesus and a portrait of us that's still being completed. So as we dive into this tonight and as we read our text, I want us to remember these beatitudes is how Jesus lived and how we should be living. And so let's read our Beatitudes together tonight. Matthew 5, 3 through 12. Here's what it says. 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. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Let's pray. Dear Jesus, we love you. Thank you for today. Thank you for your word. God, as we study and look at the depth of just how all-encompassing your word is, help us to know and to understand. Not where we fit, but but where your truth meets our life. What convictions we need to change in our lives, whether it's a sin to abandon, a promise to hold on to, an example to follow. God, show us tonight. Show us where our life meets your word and help us leave different. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, so as we think about this, we have this progression in the Beatitudes that I've mentioned multiple times now, but here's what I want us to see again. We have this inward need that leads to this outward expression. It all starts with needing Jesus. And I can't tell you how many times in my recent study and preparation for different things, including a wedding, including uh Wednesday nights with our students, including doing an evangelism training, including all the different things I've had to get ready for. I can't tell you how many times I've been like, well, let's go back to the Beatitudes because here's what we learned, right? Because every single aspect of our spiritual walk with Christ starts at the beginning of the Beatitudes. It starts right there. If you're wanting to pray for a lost loved one or co-worker, if you're if you're wanting to see what God wants for your will with your family or or or whatever the case may be, it starts with coming to God and saying, I am poor in spirit. Because we can do nothing on our own. That's what it says in John 10. We can do nothing on our own. For I am the vine and you are the branches, and apart from me you can do nothing. And so we need to come to Him like we are an empty cup ready to be filled. And that's when our inward person begins to change. When we say I'm poor in spirit, then we're broken over our sin. And we're meek and we're saying, God, I'm so broken, I'm ready to repent and change my ways. And then that's when life change happens. Because then we become those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Then we become those who are merciful. Then we become those who are pure in heart, and then we become those who are peacemakers. And that's what we see in our progression. We're leading to now we are called to be peacemakers. Now, it says, blessed are the peacemakers. But what does this mean? Okay, I'm gonna give you a profound definition, definition. A peacemaker is someone who is a maker of peace. Wow, profound. I know, I just took a word took the word apart, okay? All right, but let's not overcomplicate it. That is what it is. Someone who is striving for and trying to create peace in their relationships, in their world, in their sphere of influence that they have in life. Whether that's at work, whether that's with their marriage, whether that's with their children, right? Sometimes I instigate my children, and the Bible says, fathers, don't exasperate your children, and I do that all the time. My wife's like, Bible literally says, What are you doing, Drew? Right? But we're supposed to be peacemakers, not peace breakers, right? That's the opposite is peace breakers. But in order to understand biblical peace, I think we have to understand what that truly is and what God is telling us we can possess. And here's what we see in Isaiah 26, 3. You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. Now, before I talk about what peace means, did you see the Beatitudes right there? Okay, where does it start? Coming to Jesus saying you're poor in spirit, and then letting him change you? And look what he says. You will keep him, God will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts on you. So, in order to have perfect peace, you have to be broken, you have to mourn your sin, you have to say, God, I'm gonna do it your way, and you have to focus on him, and he will keep you in perfect peace. Now, here's what perfect peace means. If you look at the Hebrew, it literally is the word shalom followed by the word shalom. And so it's shalom, shalom. And when you repeat a word like that, you're taking it to its extreme. So instead of just peace, it's now saying perfect peace, is the best way we can translate it in English. And so it's saying perfect peace. In the Bible, shalom doesn't just mean peace, though. It's much more than just the absence of conflict. It signifies wholeness, completeness, well-being, and peace with God and others. Do you see that it's more than just, hey, I have casual peace, right? Like I had a peaceful moment this afternoon where my kids were in their fort playing together peacefully, my daughter was asleep, my wife was taking a nap, and I got to make a cup of coffee. But is that real peace? No, that's temporary calmness, right? Right? But peace is something much different. It's wholeness, completeness, well-being, and peace with God and others. And so when we think about this, the opposite then would be someone who is seeking out breaking peace. A breaker of peace is someone who's focused on themselves rather than on Christ. So if we think about kingdom logic, the order of priorities for a peacemaker is like this: God first, others second, me last. That's the priorities for a peacemaker. God first, others second, me last. So maybe it's something like this. All the law and prophets can be summed up in love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself. Right? Well, that is what we see here. God first, others second, me last. I think a verse that epitomizes that concept is uh Philippians 2, 3 through 4, which tells us instead of being selfish, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself. See, worldly logic is opposite of kingdom logic. Worldly logic, watch this, watch this. It's me first, myself second, and I last. Me, myself, and I, right? That's their logic. Kingdom logic is God first, mother second, me last. So, how is this a portrait of Jesus? How does the word peacemaker describe Jesus? Well, first, wasn't he, you know, how how was Jesus a peacemaker? A lot of times people like to say, like, Jesus wasn't a peacemaker, he flipped tables, wasn't he like against the establishment? Uh, you know, wasn't he like a rebel with a cause? Like, isn't that who Jesus was? And yes, but he wasn't any of those things like you are taking it in in consideration. What he was rebelling against was the system that was perverting the law and who he was and why he came to this world. See, Jesus is the ultimate peacemaker, he is peace. And here's what he did: he brought us peace. Now, here's what that means. You know, when Jesus was born in the most humbling of circumstances, what did the angels proclaim? Peace on earth, goodwill towards men. And so Jesus came and brought us peace. Not peace from the Romans. In fact, he says, give to Caesar what is Caesar. In fact, you know, some of the disciples, right, Paul and Peter, would be killed by the very people they told other followers to abide by their rules, would be killed by those same emperors. But you see, the peace that he brought wasn't a physical peace, it was a spiritual peace. It was a peace that most people didn't even realize they didn't have. You see, the truth is we were enemies of God. And I don't like when people say, you know, like Satan is like our enemy, right? Yeah, true. Yeah, Satan is a deceiver, and he wants to trick you and make you oppose God, but the consequence of our sin wasn't from Satan. It was because we had sinned against the holy and eternal God, and we deserved the wrath of God, and we were going to receive the wrath of God, and we were enemies of God. And in being enemies of God, God sent peace to this earth, and his name was Jesus. And he not only brought us peace, but he bought us peace with his blood. When he died on the cross for our sins, he wasn't giving a payment to Satan. He was giving a payment and being a sacrifice before Almighty God. Satan had already lost his battle. The moment we sinned, God already said there's gonna be a seed from Adam that's gonna crush your head. It had nothing to do with him. It had everything to do with appeasing a holy and righteous God. And so he bought our sin and he bought our peace and he brought us peace. And he demonstrates that peace is a pursuit, it's an active pursuit, it's an intentional action. He left his throne, he endured every temptation, every suffering, and died on the cross for our sins. So the question is, how do we become a peacemaker? And here's what I have You cannot be a peacemaker unless you've made peace with the Maker. And peace with the Maker was made possible by the ultimate peacemaker. Let me say that again. You cannot be a peacemaker unless you've made peace with the maker. And peace with the maker was made possible by the ultimate peacemaker. See, Jesus is the ultimate peacemaker. And you and I cannot become peacemakers until we have peace with God. And see, the truth is we needed that for salvation, but we need that for sanctification too. See, because Christians can still be proud, and God opposes the proud. And when we're in our pride and we're not willing to admit our sins before him, then we cannot be at peace with him. Sure, we're saved and righteous before him, but hey, he has a task for you today, just like he did 10 years ago, 20 years ago, however long you've been a believer. And so we have a peacemaker. Now, one of the effects of sin is broken and shattered relationships. Now I'm gonna check on this real quick, make sure we're I see a little bit of steam coming. All right. There we go. Let's turn up the heat in the world, okay? All right. No, let's not actually do that, but we'll do that for our illustration, okay? All right, so here's what that means for us. So remember that we need Jesus for every aspect of our life, right? We need to come to Impoor in spirit. And so what that looks like for us, you've heard me mention this before, is that if we want peace with our children, if we want peace with our spouse, if we want peace with people in our relationships, we need to get our vertical relationship right first, and then that'll impact the rest of our life. Christ needs to become central. Vertical first, horizontal relationships are impacted when we get right with God. Now, let's dive in some more and see. In order to become a peacemaker, we must have made peace with God, only found in Jesus. Then we must actively pursue peace with others. Romans 12, 18 tells us, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Follow Jesus' example. He left heaven, he became a man. When our old nature cries, I want to be first, I'm not getting what I want, people aren't doing what I say. That's when we need to put down our desires and pursue what Christ did. How do we become a peacemaker? Well, let's follow Jesus' example. The first thing we see is peace is a person. Okay, peace is a person. If we already talked about that, peace is Jesus. And and the second thing we see is peace is a pursuit. Now, for us to be able to have peace with God, it took intentional action by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to come down. Hey, we saw how hard this was at him. He literally sweat blood as he said, Father, your will be done. If you can take, if there's any other way, God, if you're gonna take this cup from me, but if not, your will be done, God. It was an intentional pursuit to go to the cross, to not argue himself before Pilate, to not remove himself before mockers, to not call down a legion of angels before all of his enemies. Instead, he pursued sacrificing himself on the cross for our sins. And so, peace is a pursuit, and peace is a person. And so what that tells us is we need to depend on the person and we need to pursue peace. And that happens through pursuing Christ. And as we pursue Christ, then we see that when I'm in an argument with my spouse, okay, the goal is not to win the argument. The goal is that peace would reign. That Christ would reign. And so in any argument, I need to be looking at myself. What have I done wrong in this? If I get an offense from someone else, I need to ask myself this question. Is that an offense I can overlook? Is that an offense I can get past? And if it is, then I need to get past it. I need to overlook that offense. And if it's not, then I need to go to that person and tell them, hey, you hurt me. I don't need to go to my friend and be like, hey, did you hear what so-and-so said? Like, that's the opposite of pursuing peace. That's pursuing an ear that will help you feel vindicated, right? And so we pursue peace by going to that person. And if it doesn't get made right then, then the Bible's clear. The next thing we do is we grab a brother or sister in faith and go to them together. Because we're supposed to live at peace. God tells us, hey, if there's anything wrong when you're about to give your offering to God and you don't have peace with another, you need to go. Drop your offering there at the table and go and make peace. That's what we're called to do, pursue peace. It doesn't happen if we stand still. We have to pursue it. So now let's look at our last beatitude. And that's where we'll get to our pop. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Oh, such good news. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad. For your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. These verses tell us that the believer living the good life, that there is an inevitable result. The inevitable cost of living like Jesus. Oh, I'm sorry. This was our blessing. All right. Our blessing from being a peacemaker is that you're called a child of God. Now, let's go to our next one, okay? The inevitable cost of living like Jesus. Okay? I like that word inevitable because I'm a huge Marvel fan, okay? I love all the little Marvel movies, especially leading up to Thanos, who is the best bad guy ever. And he has the line, I am inevitable, and he snaps his fingers, and the Avengers lose, right? And then they come back the next movie, and Iron Man says, I am Iron Man, and he snaps his fingers, right? So, all that to say, there is an inevitable cost. No matter what we do, there is a cost of living like Jesus. Right? The Bible's clear. It's not like you may get persecuted, you may have hard times if you live like Jesus. It says, no, you will, because they've done this to Christ, they did this to his followers, and they're going to do this to you as well. The final beatitude is that if I live like Jesus, I'm going to be persecuted. Jesus was scoffed at, Jesus was beaten, Jesus was plotted against, Jesus was killed. So why do we see so little persecution in America today? The church in America, if we're being honest, is not being persecuted. It truly is not. So the question is, is the Bible wrong? Or are Christians not showing righteous character? Are Christians not truly living like Jesus as a whole? See, the thing is, the truth is, in America, and I'm not talking about individuals, I'm talking about a population as a whole. In America, evangelical Christians are forgetting a huge part of being a Christ follower. It's being like Jesus. It's sharing the gospel with boldness. And because we're not seeing that on a mass level in America, we're not seeing persecution. Why? Because we're already living like the world in many respects as believers in America. Why are Christians persecuted? Jesus says, because of righteousness, because of him. Not politics, not because of other things. Christians are persecuted because they're like him. Now, I don't mean that as a personal thing. I mean that as something that, hey, we as a collective, as people in Spring, Texas, we can impact that. If we grab our other believers and we say, hey, we need to live different. We need to have life-on-life accountability. We need to be sharing the gospel in the workplace with our grandkids on the ball fields, wherever we go, because we need to be distinctly different and we need to be distinctly like Jesus. And see what that does, the inevitable cost of that, it says, is persecution. Now, when we think about this more, here's what I want us to see. As we begin to think about this more, uh promise for the persecuted is happiness. Okay, the blessing is happiness. Blessed are the persecuted. Happy are the persecuted. How? How is this so? Well, remember, these blessings have value in this life and the life to come. The value for us in this life is that persecution is evidence of knowing Jesus. It's evidence of knowing Jesus. It's evidence of being transformed by the Holy Spirit. The blessing is blessed assurance. The blessing of being persecuted is blessed assurance that Jesus is truly yours. See, that's why the blessing here is for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. See, persecution, though painful, is a sign that you are different than the kingdom you're living in. Inevitable. Righteous living, living like Jesus, either draws men to our Savior or repels them. See, that's the thing we see here. Righteous living, living like Jesus, either draws men to Jesus or repels them. Either is going to cause persecution or it's going to cause repentance. That's one of the two things. The message has no middle ground. It's either going to draw people to him or repel them. That's what living like Jesus will do as well. We live like him to be salt and light, which is going to be my last message for us in a couple weeks. But in living like Jesus, it is a matter of fact that we will face opposition. So in conclusion tonight, where are you? Are you in the world? Who are you? As we look at this, here's what I want us to see. Okay, so we had three different people that we put in this pot earlier. Okay, and I've lost where the coffee bean went. We'll find it. We'll find it together, okay? Alright. So first, and it didn't get as hot as I thought it would. So we'll see if this works. First, we have the carrot. Okay? It's been in the world for a little bit. And you know what? Something has changed about it. It's really soft and rubbery. I don't like heated up carrots. They're gross, alright? I'll eat a carrot normal, thank you very much. This carrot is now gross. It has changed. What it was was a hard, fresh carrot, and now it's soggy, wet, warm, and easy to bend, right? So it's changed. Now we have this egg. This is the tricky part here. Now the egg, it changed too. It's hard-boiled. It changed completely. Okay? It would probably be pretty delicious right now, okay? But it's not the same. It's completely changed by the world around it. And then we have the little coffee bean. It has not changed at all. It's still a bean. Still probably could be ground up and made into delicious coffee if we wanted to. But the thing is, the world around the coffee bean has changed. See, what was once just clear water. Just from boiling just a little bit has been changed completely. And that was just one coffee bean. Imagine if you got a whole bunch of coffee beans to impact the world like that. See, the truth is the reason why he shares all of this stuff in the Beatitudes is the next few verses. Okay? His mission is not complete. His pursuit for peace is not complete. He says, You are salt and light. And he talks about how salt and light impacts the world around it. Tastiness, sight, light. See, that's how we have peace. Is when we are willing to follow Jesus. Guess what? He protects us, he's with us. We're not changed, but the world around us is changed. So that's my prayer for us is that we can be not coffee beans, but we can be like Jesus. And we can impact the world around us so that no matter what, they're going to know that something is different about us. And then we get to tell them. So let's be like Jesus. Let's pray. Dear Jesus, we love you. God, we want to be more and more in your image so we can impact the world. God, tonight, we just come to you and we just ask a few things. One, we ask that we would impact the world. But two, we ask that you would put in us a love for righteousness, a love for you, a desire to know you more, to see your glory, to see your kingdom, so others might know you. God, we just pray that as we continue to pursue you and continue to know you more, that you would just point out to us where we've fallen, where we've messed up. God, because we want to get right with you and get on the same page with you so that we can impact and leave eternal impact for this world around us. We love you with our whole heart. Thank you for these awesome uh adults in here who love you and who come consistently and who invest in our church and in our home. God, we just pray a prayer of blessing over them that they would just find you and know you more deeply, God. We love you so much. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

Thank you for that. Now, as we do every time we're together, we like to take a moment after the teaching time and sort of talk about the big idea, the key takeaway for today. Pastor Drew, thank you for that word. Now, what is that big idea for today?

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Yeah, our big takeaway for today was kind of two parts. Uh part of it was uh really just the impact we can make and have on the world around us, uh, if we become who God intended us to. Because I think that's what we see in the Beatitudes. These are things that we are becoming, uh, these are things that Christ demonstrated, and these are things that um just really uh teach us what the good life is, what this blessed life is. And so the first thing we learned was about being a peacemaker, and uh kind of like the the thing that we understood is you cannot be a peacemaker unless you've made peace with the maker, and peace with the maker was only made possible by the ultimate peacemaker. And so basically, it's through Jesus that we can have peace with God, and we cannot be peacemakers ourselves unless we first experience that peace with God and that indwelling of the Holy Spirit that allows us to interact with the world around us. And so that was kind of our last attribute we see of someone who follows Jesus, and so we kind of had this progression of the Beatitudes, it started with heart, mind, feeling of righteousness, and then this is what you'll look like. You'll be a peacemaker, you'll be merciful, and now we get to and blessed are the persecuted, and that is a wild statement to say, uh, because it doesn't seem like it would go together at all, uh, which is kind of how all the Beatitudes were, if we're being honest. But um persecution just kind of hits a little bit differently. But we learned about the inevitability of persecution for those who are living and acting and submitting their life to Jesus. And so and in that we kind of saw through an illustration uh that Christ being our strength, we won't be the ones changed, but in the world we can end up impacting the world deeply if we'll stay true to who Christ is and who he desires us to be. That's pretty heavy stuff. Yeah, there's kind of a lot in this week's lesson.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

Well, very good. Now, it it strikes me that those two things are very contrary to what the world says, right? The world says, you know, not blessed are the peacemakers, but blessed are the powerful, right? Right. Blessed are those who force peace on others, right? That's kind of where we're at. And then the other one is if you're being persecuted, you must be doing something wrong. Right. Like, you know, that's what the world says. Well, if people are lining up against you, you're you must be wrong. So I love that idea of that being so counterintuitive to the world. Now, what's the application point for this?

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Well, the application for being a peacemaker is we learn that peace is a pursuit, something that you have to intentionally pursue after, uh, and that peace is a person, Jesus. And so it takes intentionally pursuing Christ uh to be made more into the image of him and to know, hey, where have I messed up here? Where, you know, like what is the biblical response to these things, and doing everything I can to be at peace with those around me. And so uh so that's kind of one of the things that we we saw. But then the application for the persecuted is I think it can be a self-evaluation for us. In America today, we don't see hardly any persecution. Uh, and political persecution does not count. That's not persecution for our faith. Um, and so, and even the laws that we have, they may allow other people to do things, but they don't force us to do anything right now. And I think that in a world where persecution uh is not present, it is indicative that the believers as a culture, as a conglomerate, are not being like Christ because it's inevitable that if you're like Christ, the world is not gonna like you. And so I think the absence of persecution can sometimes as maybe not as an individual, right? Um praise God that you know we have people in our church that are giving glory to God and and who are living and following after him. Um, and maybe for the individual, they may not experience persecution as a whole as much as, you know, the church wide, but for the church as a whole to not be experiencing persecution, uh, it really shows that maybe the church as a whole is not being like Jesus in the way that we see because it's not a you know, you might experience percu persecution, you will experience persecution.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

Oh yes, yes. So now just pause, bunny trail real quick. A lot of people cause self-persecution by being jerks, though.

SPEAKER_00 41:51

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 41:52

Like, so I I love your self-evaluation thing, like they're going, okay, if you're being a jerk and then people are mean to you, yeah, well, that's on you.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

Yeah, and I guess it's really like a corporate evaluation of the maybe the the church as a whole, you know? And so uh not to say that there aren't people that experience persecution for their faith, um, but the American church as a whole does not experience a lot, and I think we've lost a lot of that boldness that would lead to that kind of persecution.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

Well, if we live like Jesus, it will go against the grain of of the power structure of the world to the point that they will feel the need to suppress us.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

Right.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

Right. So yeah. Wow. That's kind of an indictment, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 42:43

Yeah, so so I think that when and maybe this is my bunny trail, I guess. I think that when we're talking about pursuing, you know, a world that, you know, like in recent years, you we've heard a lot of people talk about uh like, hey, I wish we could go back to how it was when we weren't having to deal with, you know, legislation for LGBTQ and legisl legislation that allows this and allows that. And I don't think it's because you know we grew silent in the political realm. Um, and I don't think that that's necessarily like uh anyways, I'm getting off on off topic. But I guess what I'm trying to say is uh it's less about the political. It's it's not about the political. What it is uh is about is uh is about our boldness as we're living for and like Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

So well, I think the brighter our light, the more darkness will come to fight it. Yeah. And when our light is not bright, when it's it's not doing exactly what Christ has called us to, the darkness doesn't have a lot of work to do. You know, if we're kind of like I I I love your word boldness. I I think that that's you know, sometimes we're we're pretty Kind of just sort of okay with everything. We're just sort of just sitting here and we're not um drawn to being bold. So I love that word. Well, anything else as we kind of wrap up today?

SPEAKER_00 44:14

No, I think that's it. But join us next time as I make some great dad jokes about uh us as believers needing to be salty and lit. I know, Gen Z terminology, it's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_01 44:29

Oh man. Okay. Well, thank you for joining us. Join us next time as we continue to grasp the Bible.