Peacemakers Glorify God
1st Corinthians 10:31-33 – Victory Fellowship
November 30, 2025 - Rev. Roderick Grabski
First Sunday of Advent
I. Introduction:
a. Jesus – the Prince of Peace
i. He calls us to be Peacemakers as well.
b. (Ken Sande) Peacemakers four points for Conflict Resolution:
i. Glorify God: How can I please and honor God in this situation?
ii. Get the Log out of Your Own Eye: How can I show Jesus’ work in me by taking responsibility for my contribution to this conflict?
iii. Gently Restore: How can I lovingly serve others by helping them take responsibility for their contribution to this conflict?
iv. Go and Be Reconciled: How can I demonstrate the forgiveness of God and encourage a reasonable solution to this conflict? √
c. This First Sunday of Advent we will focus of #1: Glorify God: How can I please and honor God in this situation?
II. RELATING THE TEXT:
a. Paul is teaching the Corinthian church that situations of conflict are really opportunities for the Christian to Glorify God, to Serve Others, and to Grow to be more like Christ.
i. He reflects the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 23:23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
ii. And also of Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
b. CONFLICT is always an opportunity to Glorify God by Praising and Honoring Him in the way that we show Who He is, What He is doing, and What He is like.
c. There are four primary causes of Conflict:
i. Poor communication
ii. Differences in values, opinions, priorities, expectations, interests, or goals
iii. Competition over limited resources such as time or money and possessions
iv. Sinful attitudes that lead to sinful words and actions.
d. In these conflict situations, we show that we depend upon God’s grace, and we draw attention to His grace in the way that we communicate His gifts of undeserved love, mercy, forgiveness, strength, and wisdom. √
III. APPLICATION:
a. In our world today we have AMPLE opportunity to Glorify God in conflict situations. We live in a litigation hungry world.
b. The Christian is commanded to be different!
1st Corinthians 6:1-8 Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?
2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? 4 So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, 6 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren. √
c. Even Secular Judges have agreed with Paul:
i. Antonin Scalia in 1987
ii. Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1982
d. We Glorify God when we choose to agree with His word and adapt our actions to it.
e. There are four ways we can accomplish this seemingly difficult, yet worthy, task:
i. We can TRUST God
ii. We can OBEY God
iii. We can IMITATE God
iv. We can ACKNOWLEDGE God
IV. CONCLUSION:
a. Conflict is not an inconvenience nor is it an opportunity to force our will upon others – rather it provides us with an opportunity to Glorify God by demonstrating His love and power working through us.
PRAYER
SONG: Glory (Let There Be Peace) Matt Maher
1st Corinthians 10:31-33 NLT 31 So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Don’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God. 33 I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved.
