The peace of God in your life is determined living at peace with others.

• So Paul wrote 3 letters to the Corinthians (we only have 2) covering lots of different issues.

• Among the issues was disunity.

• 2 Cor 13 is his last warning in his last letter - it’s the summary:

• Vs 11B - “…And the God of love and peace will be with you.”

• Do you want the God of peace to be with you so His peace can be yours?

• Well then you have to do what the first part of the verse says.

• Vs 11A - “Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace.”

• Here are the five steps on the Path to Peace:

• 1) Rejoice - peace is born out of joy. If you don’t have joy you need to “re-joy.” How?

• Know God is in control (Psalms 97:1) - “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice.”

• Give Him what you have (1 Samuel 2) - Hannah gave her firstborn Samuel to the Lord and she went away “rejoicing.”

• 2) Strive for restoration - like restoring a new car.

• Be willing to work hard (strive).

• Be willing to make it right (restoration).

• NAS says “be made complete.”

• 3) Be an encourager - “to make courageous.” How?

• Let them know you’re in it with them.

• Come alongside people where they are and fight alongside them.

• 4) Be like-minded - definition: “having a like disposition or purpose; of the same mind or habit of thought.”

• Constant disagreement negatively affects relational depth.

• We need to seek agreement. How?

• * Focus on your purpose - big pic thinking (“what is our ultimate goal?”)

• * Listen to understand - find common ground and anchor there.

• 5) Be a peace-maker - when relational tension rises, do you:

• Increase the chaos

• Inspire the calm

• When you do these five things, the Result is that you will have God’s peace!