Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / Special Sermons- Minister Max Lucado

Transcript

Special Sermons- Minister Max Lucado · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today we continue our discussion of the thirty Big Ideas
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: in the Bible, turning our attention to a topic that
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: is universally needed and desperately needed, and that is the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: topic of peace. Before we begin our message, we'd like
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to pray for one of our partner churches. We do
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: this each week because several churches have partnered with us
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: in the study of the Belief Series and we want
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: to pray for them as we know they're doing the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: same for us. Today we pray for the partner church,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: First Baptist Church of Bernie. Mark Hark Writer is the pastor,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: So Heavenly Father, we lift them up to you. We
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: envision that beautiful church right in the heart of Bernie.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: We know the difference that they have made, the churches
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: that they have planted, the lives that they have touched.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: We ask your dearest Father to continue to pour out
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: your blessing upon them, to strengthen their pastor, and let
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: them know of your favor and goodness.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you forgive our speaker today his.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Sins are many.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Help us to see see Christ, just Christ to Christ.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: We pray, and all the church said, well, Chippy the
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: parakeet never saw it coming. One minute, he was peacefully
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: perched in his cage, the next he was sucked in,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: blown over, and washed up. The problems began when Chippy's
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: owner decided it was time to clean Chippy's cage with
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: of the hose and stuck the vacuum cleaner in the cage,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: turned it on, and that's when her phone rang. She
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: turned to answer it, and Chippy disappeared. She turned off
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the vacuum cleaner, opened it up, and there was Chippy alive,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: but a little shook up since he was covered with
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: dirt and soot. She rushed him into the kitchen and
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: turned on the water and held him under the hydrant
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: and washed him off. Then, realizing that poor Chippy was
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: would do. She grabbed for the hair dryer and blasted
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: the poor bird with hot air. Poor Chippy never knew
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: what hit him. A few days after the trauma of
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the reporter who initially made a story out of the event,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: contacted the pet owner and asked her how Chippy was
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: faring these days. Her response, Chippy doesn't sing much anymore.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Chippy just sits and stairs. Not hard to see why
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: I sucked in, washed up and blown over. It's enough
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: to steal a song from the stoutest heart. Maybe you
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: can relate. Maybe Chippy's not the only one. Maybe you've
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: been sucked in and blown over, washed up. One minute,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: you're sitting in familiar territory with the song on your heart,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: and then the pink slip, the divorce papers, the doctor calls,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the policeman knocks on the door, and all of a sudden,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: what was protected and calm is unfamiliar and frightening.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: The storms can suck the joy.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Right out of our lives, and they can take with
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: them one of our most precious commodities, our peace, Our peace,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: that since of settledness within us, that belief that though
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: everything isn't always right, there is someone who is running
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: the world in a right way. And if you've ever
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: lost your peace, if you've ever lost your song, then
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: you will relate to the question that's found in this
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: week's study in Our Belief Book. The Believe Book is
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: a topical bible that Randy Frazy compiled, and The Believe
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Book has thirty chapters and each chapter contains one key
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: idea in scripture. We've turned the corner in this and
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: are in the final third of the chapters. We're looking
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: at the virtues of the Christian life, and one of
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: those virtues is peace. And so the question on page
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: three hundred and sixty nine in your Believed book or
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: chapter twenty three, is this, where do I find strength
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: to battle anxiety and fear? Where do I find strength
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: to battle anxiety and fear? Would you consider that irrelevant question?
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Where do I find strength to battle anxiety and fear?
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: What do I do?
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Do I move to the mountains, do I try yoga?
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Do I get a new job, do I get a
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: new spouse? Where do I find strength to battle anxiety
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: and fear? Well, the answer that comes from Scripture is this,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I'm free from anxiety because I've found peace, peace with God,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: peace with others, in peace with myself. Yoga's great, and
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: who wouldn't like to spend some time in the mountains.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: And sometimes it's appropriate to change jobs, But we need
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: to have realistic expectations. Those cannot bring the peace that
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: you want, and really the peace that God offers, But
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: God can. The key verse reminds us do not be
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: and your minds.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: In Christ Jesus.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: These are the most underlined words of any book on
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: the planet. We know this because, according to Kindall, who
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: monitors underlined phrases, the Bible is the most underlined book
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: in the world, and of the Bible's verses, these two
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: are the most underlined verses. Isn't that interesting? Apparently many
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: of us would love to be anxious for nothing, and
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: many of us would love to find the peace of
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: God which transcends all understanding. Could you use this peace?
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: It is not God's will that you lead anene, unsettled, troubled, anxious,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: fear filled life. It is not God's will that you
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: lead an unsettled, troubled, tumultuous, fear filled life with regrets
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: of yesterday and fear of tomorrow. That's just not God's
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: definition of normal. He'd like to take you to a
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: new definition, to a new normal. On page three hundred
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: and seventy in your Believed book, we find Isaiah, chapter
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: nine and verse six, and we read foreigunto us, a
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: child is born, to us, a son is given, and
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the government will be on his shoulders, and he will
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: be called wonderful counselor Mighty God, everlasting Father.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: And what say it out loud? Please, Prince of Peace?
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Who is Isaiah talking about here?
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ? Can you envision a more beautiful full title
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: to be given to anyone than Prince of peace, not
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: warlord of war, not dictator of conflict. But Jesus, he's
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the prince, He's the overseer, He's the sovereign lord over peace.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: And this is the peace he offers to you. He said, peace,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I'll leave with you my peace I give to you.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I do not give you as the world gives. So
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: be afraid. So Jesus promises to give you his peace,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: not just his virgin of peace, but his peace, the
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: very peace that kept him serene when he faced his enemies,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the very peace that kept him clear headed in the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: garden of Gathsimone, the very peace that allowed him to
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: care for his mother as he hung on the cross.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: And forgive those who crucify him, and forgive the thief
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: on the cross the very peace that came to dominate
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: his life. That is the peace that God gives you. Again,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: could anyone use that? It begins by making peace with God.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: You can be at peace with God. You can be
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: at peace with God. Peace with others, and peace with
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: yourself only happens once you are at peace with God.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: And this is the desire of God. Many people are not,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: I would dare say most people are not at peace
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: with God. They think God has ticked off at him.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: They think God is perpetually in a bad mood. They
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: think that somehow they've got on God's bad list. They think,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: if there indeed is a God at all, he's too
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: busy to be concerned with the likes of them. They
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: are too small, too sinful, too forgettable, too unimportant. Consequently,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: they are not at peace with God. They do not
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: enjoy a relationship with God. They don't talk to God
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: except on desperate circumstances. They do not have a relationship,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: a living relationship with God, because they're not at peace
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: with him. Perhaps no one ever told them about Romans
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Chapter five, verses one and two, where the apostle says Therefore,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: since we have been justified through faith, we have what
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: we have gained access by faith into this grace in
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: which we now stand. Paul used the first four chapters
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: of his letter to the Church in Rome to describe
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the problem with humanity. He would say, our problem is
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: that we're at all gods with God. We're not at
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: peace with God. Well, we are enemies of God. We've
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: rebelled against him. In chapter one, the apostle said gentiles
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: have rebelled against him. In chapter two, the Apostle said
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the Jews have rebelled against him. First part of chapter
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: three he says all of us have rebelled against him.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: He says, so where does that put us? Do we
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Jews get a better break than the others?
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: Not really.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: in identical conditions, which is to say, we all start
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: out as sinners. Scripture leads no doubt about it. There's
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: nobody living right, not even one, nobody who knows the score,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: nobody alert for God. They've all taken the wrong turn,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: They've all wandered down blind alleys, nobody's living right. I
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: can't find a single one. That's not a very encouraging message,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: is it. But the apostle Paul is spelling out the
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: problem with humanity, and that is every person on God's
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: green Earth has blown it. The heedonists in chapter one
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: have blown it. The legalists in chapter two have blown it.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: The judgmentalists of chapter three have blown it. We've all
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: blown it. The only difference between Adam and Eve and
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: us is that they did it first. We all would
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: have done it eventually. We all have chosen the forbidden fruit.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: We've all walked the prodigal path. We've all told God,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: I don't want.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: You to be my king.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: I don't need a king. We've all sinned.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: And we've all fallen short of God's intent and left
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: to our own resources. We're cut off from God. We
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: are enemies, we are separated from God. We're not at
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: peace with God. But we have not been left to
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: our own resources. We keep reading in Romans chapter three,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: and Paul says, but God has made a way to
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: make people write with him without the law. But God
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: has made a way to make people write with him
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: without the law. And he has now shown us that
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: way which the Law and the prophets told us about.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: God makes people write with himself through their.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: Faith in Jesus Christ.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Now, I don't know if you like to underline words
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: in the Bible, but I do that one deserves three
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: or four highlighters. God makes people write with himself through
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: their faith in Jesus Christ. Couldn't be more simple.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: This is true for all who believe in Christ.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Because all people are the same, All have sinned, are
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: not good enough for God's glory. All need to be
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: made right with God by his grace, which is a
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: free gift. They need to be made free from sin
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: through Jesus Christ. God gave him as a way to
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: forgive sin through faith.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: In the blood of Jesus's death.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: This showed that God always does what is right and
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: fear as in the past when He was patient and
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: did not punish people for their sins, and God gave
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Jesus to show today that he does what is right.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: God did this so he could judge rightly and he
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: could make right any person who has faith in Jesus.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: So any person who puts their faith in Jesus as
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: savior is made.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: Right with God.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: They are on a right relationship with God, or another
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: way of saying that is, they are at peace with God.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: They no longer contend with God, they no longer run
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: from God. They may not have God figured out, none
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: of us do, but they realize that God is for them,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: and they are for God, and they are in harmony,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: and they begin to enjoy and develop a relationship, yes,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: a relationship with the living God. When I was in
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: high school, we had a high school principle that everyone feared.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Brody Hutcheson walked around campus with a stern expression, and
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: he had a fierce reputation.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: Do it well.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: I had visited the principal's office and always left.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: With a stinging rear end.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: That was back in the days when that could happen,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: And so I avoided him, and I was part of
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: that chorus of concern, avoid Brody Hutcheson. Don't talk about
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: mister Hutcheson. Mister Hutcheson's coming. Everybody be quiet. I mean,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: we lived in fear of Brody Hutcheson. Well then, much
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: to my chagrin. When I was a senior in high school,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: for reasons I do not still understand, I was given
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: the assignment of being mister Hutcheson's student assistant. I didn't
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: want that job. I wanted to avoid the principle, not
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: assist the principle. All I wanted to do was get
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: out of school. But now I was given this assignment.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: That included a daily visit to the principal's office.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: I thought, he's found out some things about me that
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: he wants to settle the score about. So every day
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: I had to go into his office, and I can
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: remember that very first day. I walked in and the
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: secretary said, oh, yeah, Max, come on in. Mister Hutchison
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: is waiting for you. I walked in and there he
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: was sitting behind his desk. I just knew he was
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: gonna I imagined a bull whip coming.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Off the wall.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: He said, Max, come in, sit down, and he stood
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: up and walked around his desk and sat down next
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: to me. He said, I want to get to.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: Know you a little bit. Tell me about yourself.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: I did.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: He said after a few minutes, that's good. We'll pick
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: this up tomorrow. Come back tomorrow, and that was it.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I came back the next day. He made the same requests.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: We continued the conversation. I came back the third day.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: The fourth day, I kind of started liking the man.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: I realized he's stern, he's strict, but he's also kind
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: and he's very fair. He invited me to come to
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: meetings with him. Why on one occasion I went on
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: a trip with him. My attitude toward the principle changed
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: because I developed a relationship with him.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: At his invitation, I.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Had access to his office, and from then forward, from
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: that day forward, whenever that locker talk would surface about
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: our principle, I'd speak up and I'd say, I don't
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: know who.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Gave you that information, but I know him now.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know who gave you your information about God.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know who told you that he doesn't care
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: about you. I don't know where you got the idea
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: that he doesn't love you and he's never thought about you.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: But I'm here to tell you that the Almighty God
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: knows you, and he loves you, and he has a
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: purpose for you. And other people may have walked away,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: but he has always stayed by your side. He is stern,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: he is fair, He does have a standard, but he
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: knows that you and I have both fallen short and
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: in order to at once satisfy his justice and his grace.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: that we could not pay, so that we could receive
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: the gift we could not resist. His son died on
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: the cross for our sins. That's how much God loves you,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: and that's how much God values you. And because Jesus
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: died for your sins, because Jesus came for you, then
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: you can be at peace with God. Because you can
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: be at peace with God, you can be at peace
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: with yourself. God is kind to you. You can be
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: kind to yourself. God has forgiven you. You can forgive yourself.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: God accepts you. You can finally accept yourself with all
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: of your weaknesses, with all of your foibles, with all
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: of your mistakes. Hey, God is still working on you,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: and he's for sure still working on me. But did
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: you know that God's acceptance of you does not depend
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: upon your performance for him. God does not have a
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: performance based relationship. He has looked at you from start
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: to finish, from birth to hears and he has said
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: I want that child in my kingdom. Now you think
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: about that specifically, would you mind thinking about make yourself
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: a note to think about this tomorrow morning. The first
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: thing when you wake up and you stumble into the
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: back through him and look in the mirror.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, the very first thing you turn on the light.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: You stumble into the bathroom with the grace of a
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: pregnant elephant, and you turn on the lights and you
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: blink your eyes, and you got all that crud in
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: your eyes, and your hair's all matted, and you got
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: breath that could bring the paint off the wall. And
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: you think, Okay, I got to get myself all fixed
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: up to make myself presentable.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: You do, We hope you will. But before you.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Do that, just speak quiet for a minute and let
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: God love you just the way you are. You don't
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: have to fix yourself up for him. You don't have
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: to decorate. He doesn't require any makeup, doesn't require a brush.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: We appreciate it, but God doesn't. He doesn't need it.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: And I dare say, if you were to listen carefully,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: you might even hear the angels as they with color
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: coctive hush, say, oh, behold the one in whom God dwells.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: You see, Once you're at peace with God, you can
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: then finally be at peace with yourself. The scripture says
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: that when God sees you, he sees his son. For
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: God caused Christ, who himself knew nothing of sin, to
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: actually be sin for our sake, so that in Christ
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: we might be made good with the goodness of God.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: You see, when God sees you, he sees the goodness
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: of God, unsullied, unrivaled, unmarred, peerless, virgin, pure, undeserved yet
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: unreserved perfection. He's still working on you, He's still working
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: on me. But he has made a decision that he
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: has accepted you. So no longer do you need to
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: be at war with yourself. You can forgive your past.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: You can make peace with your past. You can make
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: peace with your mistakes, you can make peace with God.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: You can make peace with yourself, and then guess what,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: you can make peace with others. Do you think our
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: world could use some peacemakers?
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: Boy, I do too.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: We have wars on every continent right now, and the
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: threat of wars in every newscast.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: Why is this?
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Why is this?
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: In the last one hundred years, more people have died
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: as a result of war than any other century, more
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: educated than ever, more sophisticated than ever, and yet shedding.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: More blood than ever.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Seems like our sophistication is just resulting in more sophisticated weaponry.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Is there any hope? According to the Bible, there is,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: and that hope is nestled and buried and embedded within
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the hearts of people who are at peace with God.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: You see, when you're at peace with God and then
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: at peace with yourself, there is an opportunity to be
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: at peace with others. I was working on this message
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: last Monday, really at about this point in the message
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: when I received a text message, and that text message said, Max,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: have you heard Buckner Fanning died last night? Many of
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: you know Buckner Fanning. He was ninety two years of
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: age when he passed from this life into heaven. For
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: forty two years of his life, he served as the
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: pastor of Trinity Baptist Church here in San Antonio. I
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: called Buckner the Protestant Pope of San Antonio. He was
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: a man of peace, a man who reached out to
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: people of all religions, of all faiths, of all ethnic backgrounds.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: He was determined to lead a life of peace. Many
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: years ago, Buckner and I went through a period of
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: about five years in which every year for one Sunday
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: he would come and preach at Oak Hills, and I
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: would go preach at Trinity Baptist Renterview around back in
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: those days. The first time Buckner came, he had a
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: prepared message, and I wasn't, of course, there to hear it.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: I was at Trinity, but I later heard about it,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: and he later described what happened to me. Just prior
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: to standing up to present the sermon, the church did
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: what we still do today. We celebrated communion, and there
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: was something in that moment of Buckner being handed the
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: communion element that surfaced in his mind.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: A memory in.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: What he told the church that day is absolutely one
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: of the most astounding stories that I've ever heard. And
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: knowing that some of you know this story, I'm going
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: to tell it again in honor of Buckner and in
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: honor of peace. He said, I wasn't intending to share
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: this story today, but the communion celebration reminded me of
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: a moment in my life. And he went on to
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: describe how he was a soldier stationed in Hiroshima, Japan,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: in the days in the aftermath after the dropping of
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: the atomic bomb. He was a twenty one year old marine.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine what it might have been like to
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: wear an American uniform and betry all the streets of Hiroshima?
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: The devastation, the grayness, the death. Can you imagine the hostility,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: the glares, the tension. Can you imagine what it must
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: have been like to be an American soldier in Hiroshima
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: just weeks after the atomic bomb?
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: He describes how on one of his.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Rounds he noticed a sign that was half hanging had
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: become dislodged from the chain, but he could still read
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the wooden sign in Japanese. The letters on the top
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: were Japanese. He couldn't understand read Japanese, but in English
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: in parentheses was the translation. In the translation said Methodist Church.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: And there was an arrow pointing. He made note of that,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: and the next Sunday morning, this twenty one year old
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: marine climbed out of bed, put on his uniform, grabbed
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: his Bible, and went to where that sign was and
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: discerned where that sign pointed, and walked through the rubble
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: until he came upon a small church building. One wall
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: completely collapsed, the roof had a hole in it, but
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: still inside that building there were fifteen or twenty Christians
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: who had gathered on a Sunday to worship. How would
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: you have felt had you been a member of a
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Japanese member of that Methodist church and looked up and
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: had you seen this American soldier carrying a bible walk
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: into your church, how would you have responded? Buckner said,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: I only knew one word in Japanese, and that was
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: the word brother.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: He said.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: I stood at the entrance and I waited, and for
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: a long time the people looked at me, and no
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: one spoke. Finally one of them did, and a man
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: looked up at me and said brother. And he walked
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: across the dirty floor and extended his hand to Buckner
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: and walked him in, gave him a place to sit.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Butner didn't understand any Japanese, so he didn't know any
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: of the lyrics to the songs, and he didn't know
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: what the preacher was talking about. But he could read
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: his Bible, and so as they were studying theirs, he
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: was reading his. And then at the end of the sermon,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: there came a moment in which they took out the bread,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: and they took out the cup to celebrate communion, and
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: once again a Japanese Christian looked at this American Christian
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: and walked across the room with the bread and the
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: cup and presented communion to his brother. And in that moment,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: there were no Japanese American people. In that moment, in
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: the sacredness of that moment, there was no war, there
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: was no conflict.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: There was peace peace.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Why because they had negotiated a settlement, because they had
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: reached a peace accord. No, there was peace because two
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: men had made peace with God through Jesus Christ, made
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: peace with themselves of Jesus Christ. And because there was
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: an opportunity, because they had made peace with God, there
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: was an opportunity to make peace with others. And those
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: two men did what two governments could not do.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: What two secretary of states secretary's of state could not do.
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: They reached peace.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: sons of God. Is there anyone in your life with
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: whom you need to make peace? I'm not in a
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: hurry take time to answer that question. Is there anyone
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: with whom you need to bring down a wall and
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: build a bridge? James, the brother of Jesus, said this
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: reach reap a harvest of goodness. Would you sow a
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: seed of peace? Would you extend a handshake to a neighbor.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Would you choose not to gossip about a co worker?
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Would you give somebody the benefit of the doubt. Would
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: you reserve judgment until you've heard someone else's side of
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: the story. Would you resist a temptation to label someone
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: according to the color of their skin, or gender, or
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: political preference. Would you become an ambassador for peace. Let
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: me tell you something. Our world needs peacemakers right Our
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: world needs peacemakers. In Jesus, the Prince of Peace has
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: taken up residence in you and residence in me. May
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: we be people of peace because He has made peace
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: with us. Amen, Lord, this is our prayer that we
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: could be people of peace. We confess that we have
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: been people of hostility, and we've contributed to tension. We
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: have fought, we've engaged in battles. But we would like
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Lord to turn a new page and to be people
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: of peace, and that when people think about us, they
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: think of peace, and that when we come into a room,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: we bring peace and when we sit down with someone,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: they sense your presence, the Prince of Peace. It would
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: bring us great joy to bring you this honor, to
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: carry on your legacy of peacegiving. We pray this now
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: in the name of Christ and all the Church said.
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: At a A A A A A A A A.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: A A.
• 35:28
  Speaker 5: I'll be all right. You don't have to stay if
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: you've already chosen. I won't stand in your way. I
• 35:44
  Speaker 5: can feel it in your distance.
• 35:47
  Speaker 6: And the way you barely speak, like your heart is
• 35:52
  Speaker 6: somewhere else now, somewhere I can't reach.
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: I was trying to just holders.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: Why are you slowly slipped away?
• 36:06
  Speaker 5: Now I'm left with all the sides.
• 36:10
  Speaker 6: You didn't wanna say.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: Maybe I just held along to something.
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: Already gone.
• 36:28
  Speaker 6: I'll be fine.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: You can't leave.
• 36:31
  Speaker 6: You don't know anything. If your heart is found, Louis,
• 36:39
  Speaker 6: how what.
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: We used to be?
• 36:42
  Speaker 6: How be fine?
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: Don't look back?
• 36:46
  Speaker 6: How survived this empty space? Not tonight, maybe not soon,
• 36:53
  Speaker 6: but holler to be okay.
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: We don't need to fake the feeling.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: I can see in your eyes.
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: There's no reason left the stand.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: When the love already died.
• 37:17
  Speaker 5: Through the quieting your voice.
• 37:24
  Speaker 6: I can hear your choice be fine.
• 37:32
  Speaker 5: You can't leave.
• 37:34
  Speaker 6: You don't know me anything. If your heart has found no,
• 37:41
  Speaker 6: how do what we used to be? Be fine?
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: Don't look back.
• 37:48
  Speaker 6: House survived this empty space, not to night, maybe not so,
• 37:56
  Speaker 6: but I'll learn to be okay. I don't need a
• 38:02
  Speaker 6: reason why. I can see it in goodbye.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: And it breaks me in Dutch.
• 38:11
  Speaker 6: But I won't ask you to stay. I'll be fine. You, Kelly,
• 38:22
  Speaker 6: you don't don't know me anything. Give your artest bound
• 38:28
  Speaker 6: a work. How do what we to be? I'll be fine.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Don't look back.
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: How serve I have this empty space?
• 38:41
  Speaker 6: Not tonight, maybe not soon, but I arn to be okay.
• 38:55
  Speaker 5: I'll be all right.