Thank you for once again reading the sermon for the week. I've been having a lot of health issues the past week, so please continue to pray for me. I really appreciate it. I hope that all of you are in good health and doing well. I thank the Lord for the opportunity to post this message.
Last week, I decided to post a message with a thanksgiving theme as it was that holiday here where I live. Before that, we'd been studying what the Bible has to teach us about the subject of peace. I want to continue with that today.
One of the things that Jesus talked about a lot was how to have peace. He spoke about having peace with God and having peace in our hearts. He also spoke about what was necessary to have good and peaceful relationships with those who are around us. That is what I want us to focus on today.
Jesus is the one we have to focus on when we look into anything within our lives and how we are to live. Jesus gave us several teachings on peace. The first component of this teaching is the Great Commandment and the second like unto it. Jesus told us that we are to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. He then told us that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. All of the commandments, Jesus said, are contained within these two.
Having true peace in this world and in our relationships starts with loving God with all that we have within us. When we love the Lord with all that we have, we will obey His teachings and His commandments. This will then allow us to live in the world as He intended. If we are not willing to obey the teachings of the Lord Jesus, they is no way that we will be able to have peace within this world.
We must follow Jesus' teaching to love our neighbor if we are going to have peace. If we are striving with others we cannot have peace. Jesus gave us the Golden Rule in order to show us how we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are told to do unto others as we would have done to us. This means that we are actively to treat others in the same way that we would want to be treated.
When we keep the Golden Rule in mind and put its principles into practice, we will have peace in our interpersonal relationships. I also believe that if we would practice this on an international level, it would lead to a lot more peacefulness. If we would all put ourselves in someone's shoes, we would treat others better which can only lead to more peaceful relationships along with the justice and goodness that is needed for true peacefulness to be a possibility.
In order to have peaceful relationships, we have to follow the teaching of Jesus to not just love our friends, He also calls on us to love our enemies and those who persecute us. When we help those who aren't really good to us, and when we don't respond to hate with hate, we have the chance through the love of Jesus working through us to bring about change in another person's life. It isn't always easy to practice this. However, when we keep retaliating against those who are opposed to us, a negative chain of events just spirals out of control.
Having peace in our relationships requires doing something. Jesus said it required that we show love to all. Paul said that we overcome evil with good. When we do good for all and show and spread the love of Jesus to all, it will lead to better relationships. As far as nations are concerned, when we help others to have a better life, it will lead to better relationships as well.
By following Jesus and His way of love and goodness, we will have more peace in this world. Let us follow the way of the Lord in all that we do. Amen.
Prayer Requests
I want to thank the Lord that Israel and Lebanon are working towards more peacefulness. Let us pray that peace can come all over the Middle East. Pray for release of the hostages.
Keep praying for peace in Syria and Yemen.
Sudan is a mess. Pray for peace.
Pray for peace in Ukraine.
Remember to pray for those in Cuba who are having such a terrible time with the power going off all the time. Pray that they can figure out how to keep the power on.
Let us pray for those affected by storms and natural disasters. Pray that they will get the aid and the help that they need.
For our prayer focus this week, let us all pray that many will hear about the love of Jesus in Jordan and Guinea-Bissau.
Next week, we will continue with our current sermon series. I will post the verses on Monday. I am working on a special post, and will have that up in the next few days. May God bless you all.
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