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Hebrews- Part 13- " Peace- Love And Jesus" Series
Contributed by Randy Edwards on Oct 9, 2016 (message contributor)
Summary: Part 13 of our Hebrews series
Hebrews- Encouragement for a life of faith
Part 13
“Peace, love and Jesus”
In the winter of 1914 all along the western front of World War 1 in an area that covered some 27 miles a strange and very unusual event occurred on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.
Books
Movies
And even commercials have been written about this event
It is commonly known as the Christmas truce
On a very cold night after 5 months of heavy fighting
The men of both the German army and the British army
Refused to continue fighting though Christmas
The event started with the Germans singing Christmas carols
With The British soon returning the favor with their own songs
At some point in the night both sides sang silent night
The next day, Christmas day
Soldiers from each side began making their way into what is commonly known as no man’s land
The area between the German trenches and the British trenches
Throughout the day the soldiers from opposing sides
Exchanged gifts of hats, coats, buttons, tobacco and food items
It is reported all up and down the line
Impromptu soccer games broke out
It is also reported that in the heart of a terrible a bloody war
No shots could be heard
And the sound of laughter and singing filled the air
For a short time
There was peace
Today we are going to continue our study of the great book of Hebrews
Our writer has taken us though much soul searching
Toe stomping exhortations
He has mashed on us and stepped on us
And as a result I have done the same to you and to myself
All of this mashing is to get us to a place where God wants us
As we studied last week
Discipline is designed to mold us
Shape us
Into
Better Christians
In the hard topics prayerfully we saw ourselves in a clear light
And prayerfully we took stock of our lives
Took stock of our commitments
And we have been encouraged by what we are doing right
And convicted by the things that the two edged sword of scripture showed us we were doing wrong
-------
In an effort to cause spiritual growth in the readers of Hebrews
Then and now
Our writer moves to another bit of encouragement
Let’s open up to Hebrews 12: 14
In an effort to help us truly receive all God has for us
And in order to get us doing what he has called us to do
He tells us
Verse 14
14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.
Work at living in peace with everyone
Work at living at peace with everyone
Even those we don’t like, there are some
Even those who hate us
Even those who have different views
Opinions
Beliefs
Even those that----
God through our writer does not say
Work at living at peace with those in your church
Or those in your family
Or those you like
He says
Work at living at peace with --- EVERYONE
When we talk about peace in church
When we peach on peace many times we focus on peace with God
We do know that this is important
We need to understand how to have peace with God
Without Jesus we are enemies to God
But Jesus makes us friends
But more importantly Family
God’s children
Next we want to focus on our peace
Peace of heart
Contentment
Peace that comes with a true and life changing relationship with the savior
We need this peace
This peace is a fruit of the spirit
This peace is what helps keep us focused
This peace is what lets me personally get up every morning without fear
And go to sleep at night with contentment
Peace with God is life changing
Peace within is amazing
But
Today our writer is talking about peace that crosses borders
Peace that crosses differences
Peace that causes others to see Jesus when they look at you
Wednesday night we continued our study of Matthew
In this study we heard how Jesus when asked what is the greatest commandment
Say
“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’[e] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[f] 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Love God above everything, with all you have
And Love your neighbor as yourself
Loving others as we love our selves develops peace
