WEBVTT 00:00:09.449 --> 00:00:14.289 Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is 00:00:14.289 --> 00:00:16.589 an international church in Bangkok, Thailand 00:00:16.589 --> 00:00:19.789 with dozens of nationalities worshiping together. 00:00:20.089 --> 00:00:22.989 We invite you to connect with us from wherever 00:00:22.989 --> 00:00:27.190 you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our 00:00:27.190 --> 00:00:31.050 mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed 00:00:31.050 --> 00:00:36.130 by this week's sermon. We're concluding our sermon 00:00:36.130 --> 00:00:39.630 series focused on forgiveness. So we've taken 00:00:39.630 --> 00:00:42.490 the month of July to unpack a number of different 00:00:42.490 --> 00:00:45.729 parts of this sermon series, and our hope is 00:00:45.729 --> 00:00:48.609 that just because we're concluding this teaching, 00:00:48.789 --> 00:00:51.170 that it doesn't mean that we don't conclude our 00:00:51.170 --> 00:00:54.049 formation in this important and essential aspect 00:00:54.049 --> 00:00:57.469 of what it means to follow Jesus. As a quick 00:00:57.469 --> 00:00:59.649 recap, let me go back to the questions that we 00:00:59.649 --> 00:01:02.270 consider. The very first week, we looked at, 00:01:02.369 --> 00:01:06.609 why should I forgive? What's the reason for me 00:01:06.609 --> 00:01:11.430 forgiving to motivate me to forgive? In that 00:01:11.430 --> 00:01:13.890 we answered that it's out of obedience because 00:01:13.890 --> 00:01:16.670 we have received forgiveness for God, we give 00:01:16.670 --> 00:01:19.609 it to others. The second week we looked at why 00:01:19.609 --> 00:01:23.170 is forgiveness so hard? And for that we borrowed 00:01:23.170 --> 00:01:26.489 a definition from a theologian who he says my 00:01:26.489 --> 00:01:29.129 personal act, forgiveness is my personal act 00:01:29.129 --> 00:01:33.099 to release the one. who sinned against me for 00:01:33.099 --> 00:01:36.799 my personal right to collect a debt, a moral 00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:40.859 debt, and to pay him back for his offense. Instead 00:01:40.859 --> 00:01:44.200 of giving him back the pain he gave me, I absorbed 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:49.739 that pain into myself with God's help. Obviously 00:01:49.739 --> 00:01:52.700 a very difficult task, something we have to have 00:01:52.700 --> 00:01:55.819 that last piece about God's help. And then we 00:01:55.819 --> 00:01:58.200 said, well, what happens if I don't forgive? 00:01:58.459 --> 00:02:01.319 And this was last Sunday. Well, if I don't forgive, 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:04.060 resentment begins to build in me, which then 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:06.959 turns into bitterness, which puts these deep 00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:10.060 roots deep down inside of me and actually strangles 00:02:10.060 --> 00:02:15.659 myself. And in all of these different questions 00:02:15.659 --> 00:02:19.259 that we asked, we could have done a long series 00:02:19.259 --> 00:02:22.389 on each of those. So the very first thing that 00:02:22.389 --> 00:02:24.610 I want to just call your attention to right now 00:02:24.610 --> 00:02:27.810 this morning is as we have taken a very complicated 00:02:27.810 --> 00:02:29.990 topic and put it into four weeks, if there's 00:02:29.990 --> 00:02:33.090 anything in this series that you want to have 00:02:33.090 --> 00:02:35.250 more conversations about and to wrestle through 00:02:35.250 --> 00:02:37.930 with or things that were unsettling to you, please 00:02:37.930 --> 00:02:40.490 come and talk with me after and I'm happy to 00:02:40.490 --> 00:02:44.710 walk with you through those. Along those lines, 00:02:44.729 --> 00:02:46.530 I want to invite us to pray and just ask that 00:02:46.530 --> 00:02:48.610 the Holy Spirit would be doing what he does best 00:02:48.610 --> 00:02:55.379 in this time. God, we are here gathered together 00:02:55.379 --> 00:02:58.919 because of you. And we are gathered with you. 00:02:59.300 --> 00:03:02.080 And we are gathered turning our attention towards 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:06.060 you. So I ask that the words of my mouth, the 00:03:06.060 --> 00:03:08.300 meditations of my heart, that they would indeed 00:03:08.300 --> 00:03:10.939 be pleasing to you because you are our rock and 00:03:10.939 --> 00:03:14.639 our refuge as we declared. Holy Spirit, we want 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:18.639 to invite you to move in us through this time. 00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:26.009 Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Ruptures all 00:03:26.009 --> 00:03:28.969 over the place. Things torn apart, not as they 00:03:28.969 --> 00:03:31.110 are supposed to be, right? And relationally, 00:03:31.110 --> 00:03:33.810 we understand this. There's conflicts with different 00:03:33.810 --> 00:03:37.189 people in this room amongst each other. There 00:03:37.189 --> 00:03:39.969 are things within your own families, things within 00:03:39.969 --> 00:03:42.830 the community around. There's ruptures with the 00:03:42.830 --> 00:03:45.409 very world that we live on that we keep causing. 00:03:46.889 --> 00:03:50.949 I want to turn to two different ways that we 00:03:50.949 --> 00:03:54.500 often respond to ruptures. before we get to a 00:03:54.500 --> 00:03:57.900 third way that Jesus often calls us to. One of 00:03:57.900 --> 00:04:01.419 those ways, to borrow from Scott Hayden's words 00:04:01.419 --> 00:04:05.400 for this, is to fake peace or to fake repair, 00:04:05.659 --> 00:04:09.240 right? So there's those of us who may tend to 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:12.960 curate the world around us in such a way to make 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:15.560 it seem as though there's peace. As an illustration 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:17.759 for this, my family had the privilege of driving 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:21.120 up to Chiang Mai earlier this year. Eight -hour 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:23.639 drive, right? What could go wrong with three 00:04:23.639 --> 00:04:27.199 kids in a car for eight hours? I had two choices 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:29.319 before me, two different vehicles that I could 00:04:29.319 --> 00:04:32.279 use. One where all three of them were sitting 00:04:32.279 --> 00:04:35.639 in the same row or another vehicle where I could 00:04:35.639 --> 00:04:38.519 put each of them in their own row. What do you 00:04:38.519 --> 00:04:42.279 think I chose? The second one, right? Such a 00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:45.060 great father. So put them each in their own rows 00:04:45.060 --> 00:04:47.199 that I can have peace as I'm driving all the 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:50.079 way up to Chiang Mai, right? This is a fake form 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:53.089 of peace where we kind of, separate ourselves 00:04:53.089 --> 00:04:56.250 depending on how we feel, but we fake that there 00:04:56.250 --> 00:05:00.149 is a sense of unity together. But there's another 00:05:00.149 --> 00:05:02.990 side to it that we can force peace. And for this 00:05:02.990 --> 00:05:05.550 one, I'm going to go back a number of years to 00:05:05.550 --> 00:05:08.750 when I was just starting as a father. And there 00:05:08.750 --> 00:05:11.310 was a friend of mine who had been parenting for 00:05:11.310 --> 00:05:14.129 a while. And I was over at his house one day 00:05:14.129 --> 00:05:15.629 and I said, what do you do when your kids are 00:05:15.629 --> 00:05:20.350 arguing and fighting? And he said, by the way, 00:05:21.069 --> 00:05:23.310 Let me say from the get -go, this is not parenting 00:05:23.310 --> 00:05:25.769 advice. So please just leave it there. This is 00:05:25.769 --> 00:05:29.170 to illustrate. So he said, what I do when they 00:05:29.170 --> 00:05:31.069 are arguing and fighting with each other, when 00:05:31.069 --> 00:05:34.569 there is tension, I get the shirt of repair out. 00:05:34.709 --> 00:05:36.810 And I was like, what's the shirt of repair? It's 00:05:36.810 --> 00:05:39.910 a single shirt that I put both kids in. And so 00:05:39.910 --> 00:05:42.089 they wear this shirt for the rest of the day, 00:05:42.209 --> 00:05:46.230 walking around in this, forcing them to reconcile, 00:05:46.550 --> 00:05:50.319 right? So again, not parenting advice, but just 00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:54.339 an illustration. We can fake peace or we can 00:05:54.339 --> 00:05:58.740 force peace. We can fake repair or we can force 00:05:58.740 --> 00:06:03.759 repair. But Jesus, like he always does, is going 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:06.199 to call us to a third way. Something that is 00:06:06.199 --> 00:06:08.860 much more difficult. Something that actually 00:06:08.860 --> 00:06:12.319 in our own ability is impossible. But it requires 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:14.339 him. And so we're going to ask this question 00:06:14.339 --> 00:06:18.800 today. What is forgiveness actually for? Because 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:20.480 we've been talking about it the last three weeks. 00:06:20.540 --> 00:06:25.040 It is not the actual end goal. It's a means to 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:27.699 something much more significant. So what is forgiveness 00:06:27.699 --> 00:06:33.699 actually for? A more serious situation that happened 00:06:33.699 --> 00:06:38.170 in 1994. This spring, over the course of 100 00:06:38.170 --> 00:06:43.670 days, in the country of Rwanda, 800 ,000 people 00:06:43.670 --> 00:06:49.949 were murdered. Neighbors killed neighbors. Friends 00:06:49.949 --> 00:06:55.350 killed friends. People from within the same group 00:06:55.350 --> 00:06:58.110 actually turned on one another and killed them. 00:06:59.019 --> 00:07:01.779 Now, the ruptures that had been the history of 00:07:01.779 --> 00:07:06.220 this are long and complicated and tragic. But 00:07:06.220 --> 00:07:09.920 it all culminated in one single time frame where, 00:07:09.939 --> 00:07:13.300 think about the numbers of this, around 300 people 00:07:13.300 --> 00:07:19.680 per hour were dying during these 100 days. I 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:21.879 want to ask you, though, when you hear that story, 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:25.399 what do you do? What goes on in your own heart? 00:07:26.990 --> 00:07:29.829 My guess is that one response that we have is 00:07:29.829 --> 00:07:34.470 to say, oh man, that's not the way things are 00:07:34.470 --> 00:07:37.910 supposed to be. Which calls out to the fact that 00:07:37.910 --> 00:07:40.870 we know that that's wrong and that repair or 00:07:40.870 --> 00:07:42.790 a sense of wholeness is supposed to be there. 00:07:43.509 --> 00:07:47.149 But perhaps another thing I want to have you 00:07:47.149 --> 00:07:52.410 pay attention to is, do you relate or do you 00:07:52.410 --> 00:07:55.300 push away from that? Do you hear this story and 00:07:55.300 --> 00:07:58.920 say, what in the world would make them do that? 00:08:00.600 --> 00:08:03.560 Because the story of scripture actually is going 00:08:03.560 --> 00:08:06.759 to help us to see that you and I all have this 00:08:06.759 --> 00:08:10.459 capacity ingrained in the very fabric of our 00:08:10.459 --> 00:08:13.879 DNA. The same capacity that caused what happened 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:16.949 in Rwanda, you and I are capable of. This is 00:08:16.949 --> 00:08:18.769 why when Jesus comes and he gives the Sermon 00:08:18.769 --> 00:08:20.970 on the Mount, he doesn't say, hey, those who 00:08:20.970 --> 00:08:23.490 are murderers, you go over here and the rest 00:08:23.490 --> 00:08:26.750 of you, you check out. He says, nope, actually, 00:08:26.769 --> 00:08:29.870 if you call a brother raka or fool or you have 00:08:29.870 --> 00:08:32.409 contempt for them or there's anger within your 00:08:32.409 --> 00:08:35.350 own heart, you're in danger of the same thing 00:08:35.350 --> 00:08:39.169 that caused somebody to murder another person. 00:08:40.570 --> 00:08:44.769 So we begin with what is forgiveness for? Can 00:08:44.769 --> 00:08:47.649 it actually respond to the problem in Rwanda? 00:08:48.070 --> 00:08:50.049 We're going to park that story. We'll come back 00:08:50.049 --> 00:08:52.370 to it in a little bit. But instead, we're going 00:08:52.370 --> 00:08:54.570 to turn to the larger story of Scripture, and 00:08:54.570 --> 00:08:57.830 we're going to look at the big frame before we 00:08:57.830 --> 00:09:00.210 get to the third -way passage that was just read 00:09:00.210 --> 00:09:02.970 for us right in the middle. So as a quick summary, 00:09:03.149 --> 00:09:06.730 Genesis 1 and 2, what does God do? God places 00:09:06.730 --> 00:09:10.210 a man and a woman in a garden. He creates them 00:09:10.210 --> 00:09:14.470 to reflect his very nature. They are supposed 00:09:14.470 --> 00:09:17.450 to and designed to take what is good, what's 00:09:17.450 --> 00:09:19.830 right, what's true, what's beautiful, and they're 00:09:19.830 --> 00:09:21.789 supposed to multiply that in the world around 00:09:21.789 --> 00:09:25.049 them, right? So the idea is that they're going 00:09:25.049 --> 00:09:27.190 to multiply this and it's going to go out into 00:09:27.190 --> 00:09:30.899 the world around. But a significant thing happens, 00:09:30.980 --> 00:09:34.659 a rupture that completely severs that intimate 00:09:34.659 --> 00:09:38.039 moment by moment relationship. Adam and Eve decide 00:09:38.039 --> 00:09:41.419 to say, hey, instead of us having this repaired, 00:09:41.659 --> 00:09:44.000 this perfect relationship, right relationship 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:45.840 with you, God, we're going to turn our attention 00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:49.559 over to your enemy. And we're going to trust 00:09:49.559 --> 00:09:54.220 him. And what the enemy does is he comes to steal, 00:09:54.299 --> 00:09:56.759 kill, and destroy. And so the same mechanism 00:09:56.759 --> 00:09:59.950 within us about multiplication, ends up becoming 00:09:59.950 --> 00:10:04.710 us being able to have the capacity to kill, steal, 00:10:04.889 --> 00:10:08.110 and destroy written within us. And that's what 00:10:08.110 --> 00:10:09.429 scripture does. And you know what's incredible 00:10:09.429 --> 00:10:13.549 about God's word? If I was writing a book trying 00:10:13.549 --> 00:10:18.009 to convince you that I'm a good God and that 00:10:18.009 --> 00:10:21.450 I want you to come back to me, I may polish over 00:10:21.450 --> 00:10:23.490 some of the stuff that happens. I may not include 00:10:23.490 --> 00:10:27.009 some of these harder stories. But God doesn't 00:10:27.009 --> 00:10:29.450 do that. He does it as a warning for us to say, 00:10:29.529 --> 00:10:31.970 hey, this is actually a part of our own existence, 00:10:32.129 --> 00:10:35.590 our DNA, and we need help. So we're going to 00:10:35.590 --> 00:10:37.769 look at somebody, King David, really briefly. 00:10:38.210 --> 00:10:42.250 King David in 1 Samuel 13 is called a man after 00:10:42.250 --> 00:10:45.629 God's own heart, right? So this is by many metrics, 00:10:45.690 --> 00:10:48.970 one of the best leaders that ever was. He was 00:10:48.970 --> 00:10:51.490 an incredible man. The Psalms are written by 00:10:51.490 --> 00:10:54.669 him. These beautiful dialogue with God that gives 00:10:54.669 --> 00:10:57.529 us an insight into what it's like to journey 00:10:57.529 --> 00:11:00.330 with God through life. He's the one who actually 00:11:00.330 --> 00:11:04.289 brought the nation together. But he has this 00:11:04.289 --> 00:11:07.529 rupturing ability that shows up a number of times. 00:11:07.750 --> 00:11:11.610 And potentially one of the most tragic stories 00:11:11.610 --> 00:11:15.730 in scripture revolves around this man in 2 Samuel 00:11:15.730 --> 00:11:22.299 13. You have one of King David's sons, Amnon, 00:11:22.340 --> 00:11:26.620 who tricks and manipulates his half -sister into 00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:31.100 the room and violates her. And then, out of disgust, 00:11:31.100 --> 00:11:34.120 throws her out of the room and says, I want nothing 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:36.960 to do with you. Get out of here. So she leaves 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:39.159 with shame, and the rupture has already started 00:11:39.159 --> 00:11:42.480 there. What does King David do in this situation? 00:11:43.289 --> 00:11:45.470 This leader that we're supposed to look to to 00:11:45.470 --> 00:11:48.129 say, okay, maybe there's hope. Maybe I can respond 00:11:48.129 --> 00:11:50.809 in a different way. What does he do? He gets 00:11:50.809 --> 00:11:53.149 angry, but he doesn't actually cause repair. 00:11:54.009 --> 00:11:56.450 And instead, one of his other sons, Absalom, 00:11:56.509 --> 00:11:59.470 ends up plotting the murder of Amnon and kills 00:11:59.470 --> 00:12:03.950 his own brother. And then Absalom flees. And 00:12:03.950 --> 00:12:08.549 David is just out of, he's grieving for the fact 00:12:08.549 --> 00:12:10.929 that his son is now about rupture upon rupture, 00:12:10.990 --> 00:12:15.379 right? Well, Absalom eventually comes back, takes 00:12:15.379 --> 00:12:19.279 over David's throne, and David runs away. So 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:21.600 you've now had a coup that has happened in a 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:24.340 kingdom by a son against a father. Story we're 00:12:24.340 --> 00:12:28.299 familiar with, right? Well, eventually David 00:12:28.299 --> 00:12:32.259 comes back and Absalom is fleeing and David says, 00:12:32.360 --> 00:12:33.879 hey, don't kill him, but he gets stuck in the 00:12:33.879 --> 00:12:36.480 tree. Remember this story with his hair? Gets 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:41.370 stuck in the tree and he dies. And so now you've 00:12:41.370 --> 00:12:43.669 got King David who is lamenting the fact that 00:12:43.669 --> 00:12:47.070 this has happened within his family. But there's 00:12:47.070 --> 00:12:49.090 seeds that are planted here that are actually 00:12:49.090 --> 00:12:51.950 going to cause the division of God's people into 00:12:51.950 --> 00:12:55.570 two nations that will never return until Jesus 00:12:55.570 --> 00:13:00.289 comes back. That's the power of this multiplying 00:13:00.289 --> 00:13:03.850 rupture that is written within your and my very 00:13:03.850 --> 00:13:08.399 fabric. So what do we do? Well, You have two 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:10.580 different choices to look at. You can look to 00:13:10.580 --> 00:13:13.399 humanity and say, hey, can you please solve my 00:13:13.399 --> 00:13:17.820 problems? Or we can look to God himself who came 00:13:17.820 --> 00:13:20.460 as a human and say, could you show me a third 00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:22.500 way? Could you show me a different way forward, 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:25.799 Lord? I want repair. I long for it. I see that 00:13:25.799 --> 00:13:29.100 I'm searching for it. Can you show me that repair? 00:13:30.350 --> 00:13:32.990 So this is where Jesus comes. King Jesus steps 00:13:32.990 --> 00:13:37.990 into the very mess of our reality and he brings 00:13:37.990 --> 00:13:42.769 about a different vision. But it's tough. It 00:13:42.769 --> 00:13:44.889 is really, really hard. And we're going to unpack 00:13:44.889 --> 00:13:48.490 it here looking at the passage. Before we do 00:13:48.490 --> 00:13:50.870 that though, because the very first aspect of 00:13:50.870 --> 00:13:54.289 the passage that is necessary is for us to be 00:13:54.289 --> 00:13:58.049 people who practice forgiveness. Then we're going 00:13:58.049 --> 00:14:00.090 to look at the purpose of forgiveness. And then 00:14:00.090 --> 00:14:02.049 we're going to look at a path towards reconciliation. 00:14:03.149 --> 00:14:05.409 This is more of a review from the first service. 00:14:06.149 --> 00:14:08.629 There's a practice that we engage in that we 00:14:08.629 --> 00:14:11.809 saw from God in how he forgave us that we forgive 00:14:11.809 --> 00:14:14.190 others, right? And the very first one is to name 00:14:14.190 --> 00:14:17.029 the debt. As followers of Jesus, we don't put 00:14:17.029 --> 00:14:19.549 things under the rug or simply forget them. We 00:14:19.549 --> 00:14:22.429 actually name what has happened, the rupture 00:14:22.429 --> 00:14:25.269 that is before us. And we say, this is what I 00:14:25.269 --> 00:14:29.200 experienced. But we don't stay there. We turn 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:31.879 to the next one, which is about our identity. 00:14:32.100 --> 00:14:34.860 And it is to say, Lord, I know that you have 00:14:34.860 --> 00:14:38.960 given us this great gift of grace. And I need 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:42.000 to remember, as I'm naming the dead, I remember 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:45.480 how you have forgiven me. And then the third 00:14:45.480 --> 00:14:48.779 part of it is releasing it and trusting our desire 00:14:48.779 --> 00:14:51.759 for vengeance or the desire to fix things ourselves, 00:14:51.899 --> 00:14:54.629 giving that back over to God. And this was review 00:14:54.629 --> 00:14:57.769 from week one. So there's far more to this that 00:14:57.769 --> 00:14:59.470 we unpacked there, and I would encourage you 00:14:59.470 --> 00:15:03.750 to check it out if you missed that sermon. But 00:15:03.750 --> 00:15:05.730 the practice of forgiveness is not all, right? 00:15:05.830 --> 00:15:08.649 We still want to answer that question, what is 00:15:08.649 --> 00:15:13.429 forgiveness actually for? What is both the purpose 00:15:13.429 --> 00:15:16.769 of it as well as a path forward? And in order 00:15:16.769 --> 00:15:20.169 to understand this, we need to look at one of 00:15:20.169 --> 00:15:22.850 the first things that Paul says in this passage. 00:15:23.450 --> 00:15:26.309 Go ahead and read it out. What does he say? Christ's 00:15:26.309 --> 00:15:31.629 love, what does it do? Controls us. Different 00:15:31.629 --> 00:15:36.029 translations will say compels or moves us. Why 00:15:36.029 --> 00:15:39.529 would Paul start this whole passage about reconciliation, 00:15:39.529 --> 00:15:42.710 about control? Well, because the way that you 00:15:42.710 --> 00:15:44.429 and I are designed is we give our allegiance 00:15:44.429 --> 00:15:47.090 to something. Everyone in here has given our 00:15:47.090 --> 00:15:50.460 allegiance to something. And there is... all 00:15:50.460 --> 00:15:52.740 kinds of different ways that we can give our 00:15:52.740 --> 00:15:54.360 allegiance to that. And whatever we give our 00:15:54.360 --> 00:15:56.960 allegiance to will end up controlling or moving 00:15:56.960 --> 00:16:01.600 us in life. And there is currently, that has 00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:06.580 been for some time, a worldview or a paradigm, 00:16:06.759 --> 00:16:11.000 we might say, that comes at us, voices, over 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:16.519 and over and over again. And it's termed moralistic 00:16:16.519 --> 00:16:20.039 therapeutic deism. So when you go to lunch today, 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:22.000 whoever you're having lunch with, you can just 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:23.899 sit across the table from them and be like, hey, 00:16:23.940 --> 00:16:26.000 what do you think about moralistic therapeutic 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:28.980 deism? And on the other side, they'll be like, 00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:32.340 can you pass the french fries? And then you'll 00:16:32.340 --> 00:16:34.799 wonder the next week, why did this person not 00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:38.679 want to go to lunch with me again? But this term, 00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:41.980 although it sounds big, there's some components 00:16:41.980 --> 00:16:43.940 to it that I think you and I might recognize. 00:16:44.519 --> 00:16:47.340 The moralistic part is about me living a good 00:16:47.340 --> 00:16:49.720 life. What does it look like for me to be a good 00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:53.399 boy or a good girl in this world? What do I do 00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:58.039 to live a good life, right? And the therapeutic 00:16:58.039 --> 00:17:01.279 side is to say that my main goal is actually 00:17:01.279 --> 00:17:04.180 to be happy. So I'm going to try to live a good 00:17:04.180 --> 00:17:09.200 life and I need and I deserve to be happy. Does 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:12.420 it sound somewhat like from scripture? Yeah, 00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:14.680 there's a little... bits and pieces of that. 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:17.720 I think God wants us to live morally, accurately, 00:17:17.759 --> 00:17:20.299 according to the way he has designed. And I think 00:17:20.299 --> 00:17:24.640 he also cares about our well -being, our wholeness, 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:28.700 and our healing. But this third part, the deism, 00:17:28.859 --> 00:17:30.980 which is usually to say that there's some God 00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:34.980 that's far out there. This God in moralistic, 00:17:35.019 --> 00:17:37.720 therapeutic deism is basically there to help 00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:41.269 me accomplish those two goals. So God, I come 00:17:41.269 --> 00:17:44.589 to you when maybe I'm not able to be a good boy 00:17:44.589 --> 00:17:47.289 or a good girl. And I say, help me with this. 00:17:47.750 --> 00:17:50.769 Or I come to you when I'm not feeling happy and 00:17:50.769 --> 00:17:52.829 I don't feel free. And so I say, hey, can you 00:17:52.829 --> 00:17:56.309 help me with this? But the problem with this 00:17:56.309 --> 00:17:58.950 is when that controls you and you face something 00:17:58.950 --> 00:18:02.869 like the Rwanda genocide or something so significant, 00:18:02.930 --> 00:18:05.730 like many of you have shared stories of incredible 00:18:05.730 --> 00:18:09.539 rupture in your own lives. It only goes so far. 00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:13.400 If it is truly about my own happiness and my 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:17.440 ability to cause things, I'm going to come up 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:20.420 short. So Jesus is going to say, hey, I'm going 00:18:20.420 --> 00:18:22.380 to call you to a bigger vision, something even 00:18:22.380 --> 00:18:24.980 more significant. And what is that bigger vision? 00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:27.380 Well, forgiveness is more than moral improvement 00:18:27.380 --> 00:18:31.759 or personal healing. It's something beyond that. 00:18:32.190 --> 00:18:34.650 Here's what Paul says. So we have stopped evaluating 00:18:34.650 --> 00:18:37.710 others from that human point of view. And right 00:18:37.710 --> 00:18:40.150 now, that's the most common one we face. But 00:18:40.150 --> 00:18:43.289 it's not the only one. There's been all kinds 00:18:43.289 --> 00:18:46.369 of narratives that have caused us or called for 00:18:46.369 --> 00:18:48.809 our attention. So whatever those are, we're not 00:18:48.809 --> 00:18:51.309 going to evaluate people by that human point 00:18:51.309 --> 00:18:54.210 of view. You see, at one time, we thought of 00:18:54.210 --> 00:18:56.910 Christ merely from a human point of view. How 00:18:56.910 --> 00:19:00.589 differently we know him now. He's not just there 00:19:00.589 --> 00:19:03.130 to make me happy and healthy. He's there for 00:19:03.130 --> 00:19:05.369 something much more significant. What is that? 00:19:06.690 --> 00:19:11.450 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ 00:19:11.450 --> 00:19:15.490 has become a new person. The old life is gone 00:19:15.490 --> 00:19:19.829 and a new has begun. Now, the NLT translated 00:19:19.829 --> 00:19:22.569 begun, which I love. And if you actually look 00:19:22.569 --> 00:19:24.769 in the Greek, it is talking about it's not completed. 00:19:25.529 --> 00:19:27.569 This is all of us going forward. This is something 00:19:27.569 --> 00:19:30.609 that is moving within us. And Paul's going to 00:19:30.609 --> 00:19:33.029 say, and all of this is a gift from God who brought 00:19:33.029 --> 00:19:37.250 us back to himself through Christ. I'm going 00:19:37.250 --> 00:19:39.609 to invite you to sit with me for a little bit 00:19:39.609 --> 00:19:42.529 as we go more technical into this verse here. 00:19:43.250 --> 00:19:45.710 And for those of you who are grammar people, 00:19:45.849 --> 00:19:48.369 you may like this and enjoy it. For the rest 00:19:48.369 --> 00:19:50.309 of you, there's a point to it that we will get 00:19:50.309 --> 00:19:52.869 to. So just hold on a little bit, but do some 00:19:52.869 --> 00:19:55.539 deep work with me. Here's what Paul is actually 00:19:55.539 --> 00:19:59.420 saying in this passage. Who actually caused the 00:19:59.420 --> 00:20:04.539 offense against God? You and I, right? Our ancestors 00:20:04.539 --> 00:20:07.279 did and we've continued that going forward. So 00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:09.660 it would make sense that we would be the ones 00:20:09.660 --> 00:20:14.140 doing the initiating to repair. But the way Paul 00:20:14.140 --> 00:20:17.720 packs in a theology in this section is incredible. 00:20:17.819 --> 00:20:21.559 God, the one who is offended, is the one who 00:20:21.559 --> 00:20:26.069 does the movement forward. And he does that movement 00:20:26.069 --> 00:20:30.170 forward at a cost to himself as the very instrument 00:20:30.170 --> 00:20:34.710 of fixing things. He becomes the means. And what 00:20:34.710 --> 00:20:37.490 is the action that is happening? The action that 00:20:37.490 --> 00:20:40.390 is happening is that he's bringing us back to 00:20:40.390 --> 00:20:43.549 himself. He's repairing, he's reconciling. And 00:20:43.549 --> 00:20:47.450 we, as the one who caused the offense, get everything 00:20:47.450 --> 00:20:50.509 in the situation. What in the world? Nobody treats 00:20:50.509 --> 00:20:53.799 us that way, right? This is... What grace is. 00:20:53.940 --> 00:20:56.339 It's incredible. And Paul has packed this into 00:20:56.339 --> 00:20:59.400 this verse here. And it reminds me of an important 00:20:59.400 --> 00:21:03.799 art practice from Japan called Kitsuki. I have 00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:06.319 a neighbor that actually practices this just 00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:10.099 a few doors down. And what Kitsuki is, is it 00:21:10.099 --> 00:21:14.650 actually takes broken pieces of pottery. So imagine 00:21:14.650 --> 00:21:18.049 that you have your favorite mug or a bowl or 00:21:18.049 --> 00:21:20.509 vase or something of that nature and you are 00:21:20.509 --> 00:21:22.869 taking care of it and it falls and it drops and 00:21:22.869 --> 00:21:27.089 it ruptures, it shatters. Now you normally, you 00:21:27.089 --> 00:21:28.589 would look at that and you'd say, look at all 00:21:28.589 --> 00:21:30.670 these pieces, there's maybe nothing I can do 00:21:30.670 --> 00:21:32.730 to it and you kind of scoop it back together 00:21:32.730 --> 00:21:35.210 and what would we think of doing? We'd probably 00:21:35.210 --> 00:21:40.460 take it to the garbage bin, right? But God, In 00:21:40.460 --> 00:21:43.339 such a more magnificent story, he looks at us 00:21:43.339 --> 00:21:46.059 in that and he says, actually, I can take that 00:21:46.059 --> 00:21:49.779 and put it back together. And the thing with 00:21:49.779 --> 00:21:52.839 this art is that you take a glue, an adhesive 00:21:52.839 --> 00:21:56.980 that is infused with gold. But his neighbor said 00:21:56.980 --> 00:22:01.400 that actually that gold -infused adhesive is 00:22:01.400 --> 00:22:04.640 toxic. And if you get it on your hands, you're 00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:07.299 actually going to have a sense of like a rash 00:22:07.299 --> 00:22:09.079 that's there where your skin is saying, hey, 00:22:09.140 --> 00:22:11.259 I don't like this. Does it sound a little bit 00:22:11.259 --> 00:22:14.079 like forgiveness? This comes at a cost to me 00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:16.859 to put this thing back together. Not only is 00:22:16.859 --> 00:22:19.180 this meticulous work of taking all of these pieces 00:22:19.180 --> 00:22:21.799 and putting it back together, but the very glue, 00:22:21.900 --> 00:22:24.599 the fabric that holds it together is toxic in 00:22:24.599 --> 00:22:28.539 and of itself. That's what Paul is saying God 00:22:28.539 --> 00:22:32.529 has done for you. And for me, this work of reconciling, 00:22:32.529 --> 00:22:36.990 of bringing us back to himself. But God hasn't 00:22:36.990 --> 00:22:40.450 just left it there. He's given us the task of 00:22:40.450 --> 00:22:42.869 reconciling people to himself. He didn't just 00:22:42.869 --> 00:22:44.829 put the bowl back together and say, all right, 00:22:44.869 --> 00:22:47.349 we're done. He's actually called us to something 00:22:47.349 --> 00:22:49.789 even more significant with that. So for God was 00:22:49.789 --> 00:22:52.529 in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, 00:22:52.690 --> 00:22:54.990 no longer counting people's sins against them. 00:22:55.170 --> 00:22:58.809 And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 00:23:01.390 --> 00:23:03.930 He finally ends it with this. So we are Christ's 00:23:03.930 --> 00:23:06.589 ambassadors. Ambassador is like a representative, 00:23:06.710 --> 00:23:09.589 somebody who speaks on or acts on behalf of the 00:23:09.589 --> 00:23:12.509 one that they represent. God is making his appeal 00:23:12.509 --> 00:23:15.369 through us and we speak for Christ when we plead 00:23:15.369 --> 00:23:19.609 what? All together, come back to God. Again, 00:23:19.670 --> 00:23:22.990 what? Come back to God. Brothers and sisters, 00:23:23.029 --> 00:23:27.430 if there is one guiding vision statement for 00:23:27.430 --> 00:23:30.380 your life, It is that you are helping people 00:23:30.380 --> 00:23:33.799 come back to God. That is a great call that he 00:23:33.799 --> 00:23:38.519 has called us to. So you look at the full story 00:23:38.519 --> 00:23:41.400 and you see Christ coming in the middle. He does 00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:43.960 this reconciling work, inviting us back to himself. 00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:46.960 And then he sends us out to be people who cause 00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:50.940 repair in the world around us. But it doesn't 00:23:50.940 --> 00:23:52.799 just end there because we know in Revelation 00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:55.519 21 and 22, it says that all things that were 00:23:55.519 --> 00:23:58.609 wrong are made right again. And that God's very 00:23:58.609 --> 00:24:01.529 dwelling is amongst his people. What was at the 00:24:01.529 --> 00:24:03.690 very beginning, this perfect union with God, 00:24:03.730 --> 00:24:07.369 has not only been restored, but like a beautiful 00:24:07.369 --> 00:24:09.990 vase that has been recovered and repaired through 00:24:09.990 --> 00:24:12.769 the artwork of Kintsuki, is actually more beautiful 00:24:12.769 --> 00:24:15.690 than when it started. That's the God that we 00:24:15.690 --> 00:24:19.009 serve. And he calls us to that very work in the 00:24:19.009 --> 00:24:21.769 here and the not yet. And it is difficult work 00:24:21.769 --> 00:24:25.289 of reconciling. So it is not your job to cause 00:24:25.289 --> 00:24:28.690 reconciliation. It is your job to join God's 00:24:28.690 --> 00:24:33.130 reconciliation. This is important because I will 00:24:33.130 --> 00:24:35.869 get easily offended if I am running around and 00:24:35.869 --> 00:24:39.720 I have. trying to reconcile things, either ways 00:24:39.720 --> 00:24:42.079 that I have been offended. And I believe this 00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:44.700 is my reconciliation that I'm trying to cause. 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:48.700 Whose reconciliation is it? It's God's. And I 00:24:48.700 --> 00:24:51.599 partner with him in that reconciliation. So whenever 00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:54.019 we have a conflict or something, we sit across 00:24:54.019 --> 00:24:57.859 the table and we are both on the same side with 00:24:57.859 --> 00:25:00.640 God doing that magnificent work in the middle. 00:25:01.339 --> 00:25:03.859 But you might say, okay, Pastor Phil, this sounds 00:25:03.859 --> 00:25:07.440 nice. But how do you actually do this? What does 00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:09.759 that look like? Well, again, we could take a 00:25:09.759 --> 00:25:12.059 long time going into what it looks like to begin 00:25:12.059 --> 00:25:15.259 to collect the pieces of our own lives that have 00:25:15.259 --> 00:25:16.960 been ruptured, of the lives of people around 00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:19.799 us, of the lives of a community and put it back 00:25:19.799 --> 00:25:24.700 together. How do we actually do that? For this, 00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:28.099 we're going to look at a path of repair. And 00:25:28.099 --> 00:25:31.160 it's long and it's complicated and it's an art 00:25:31.160 --> 00:25:34.700 in and of itself. And I give you that as a warning 00:25:34.700 --> 00:25:36.980 beforehand because if any of you think, okay, 00:25:37.019 --> 00:25:39.240 all right, I heard that I'm supposed to cause 00:25:39.240 --> 00:25:41.440 repair and I'm going to go out and do that. This 00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:43.619 is something you can practice your whole life 00:25:43.619 --> 00:25:46.980 and we're still going to need a lot of Holy Spirit 00:25:46.980 --> 00:25:48.940 inspired wisdom throughout the whole thing. And 00:25:48.940 --> 00:25:52.160 that's kind of the point. There's a picture that 00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:54.299 was taken of my daughter and one of her friends 00:25:54.299 --> 00:25:56.619 this past week. And as I was working on the sermon, 00:25:56.759 --> 00:26:01.140 this picture shows up in my messages. and it's 00:26:01.140 --> 00:26:04.900 from a local place here in Bangkok. And we think 00:26:04.900 --> 00:26:07.400 about a rupture that is there. You see, when 00:26:07.400 --> 00:26:09.119 we've talked about forgiveness, we've talked 00:26:09.119 --> 00:26:11.480 about it being really an attitude that we have. 00:26:11.900 --> 00:26:14.180 For the most part, it's an internal thing. It 00:26:14.180 --> 00:26:16.240 can be expressed towards another, but it's me 00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:19.460 and God doing work here. Reconciliation is different. 00:26:20.380 --> 00:26:23.680 Reconciliation is me actually holding my hand 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:26.500 out, and there has to be a person on the other 00:26:26.500 --> 00:26:29.859 side. I cannot reconcile when there's not somebody 00:26:29.859 --> 00:26:34.140 on the other side. Forgiveness is a solo, as 00:26:34.140 --> 00:26:39.279 they say. Reconciliation is what? A duet. It's 00:26:39.279 --> 00:26:42.039 two people working together to do this. And this 00:26:42.039 --> 00:26:44.259 is another important point. You cannot force 00:26:44.259 --> 00:26:47.509 people to reconcile. This has to be the act of 00:26:47.509 --> 00:26:50.049 God working within the two of you to come together. 00:26:50.210 --> 00:26:52.529 And so this picture of reaching out your hand, 00:26:52.630 --> 00:26:55.549 hold on to that as we continue going forward. 00:26:55.730 --> 00:26:58.630 So what are the actual components of this? Well, 00:26:58.650 --> 00:27:03.230 one of the first ones is conviction. I need to 00:27:03.230 --> 00:27:07.650 know that I am capable of rupture. If you are 00:27:07.650 --> 00:27:10.450 sitting here and you're like, okay, he's talking 00:27:10.450 --> 00:27:13.289 about rupture and I know people who cause rupture 00:27:13.289 --> 00:27:16.099 and your whole thought process is, Oh yeah, that 00:27:16.099 --> 00:27:19.299 one. Oh yeah, that guy over there. You're missing 00:27:19.299 --> 00:27:22.140 the very foundation of what needs to happen for 00:27:22.140 --> 00:27:25.000 reconciliation. And that's that you and I are 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:28.019 able to cause, and we do cause, rupture with 00:27:28.019 --> 00:27:30.960 our own lives, with the lives of others. We are 00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:35.740 capable of committing rupture. That's the foundational 00:27:35.740 --> 00:27:38.660 thing. So if you and I are dealing with some 00:27:38.660 --> 00:27:40.859 kind of rupture, if I come into it thinking, 00:27:41.079 --> 00:27:43.059 yeah, I don't really have a problem, that's all 00:27:43.059 --> 00:27:49.000 on you. It may be, 5 % and 95%. I still have 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:52.180 a part to own in that process of reconciliation. 00:27:52.319 --> 00:27:55.039 So I need to acknowledge it. The second one is 00:27:55.039 --> 00:27:58.079 confession. Confession at the most simple sense 00:27:58.079 --> 00:28:01.200 is to say, I agree with God. I agree with God. 00:28:01.819 --> 00:28:04.980 Whatever God says is good, right? True and beautiful. 00:28:05.099 --> 00:28:08.539 I agree with that. So if he says, Phil, you need 00:28:08.539 --> 00:28:11.740 to live in such a way where the fruit of the 00:28:11.740 --> 00:28:14.339 Spirit is evident in you. Love, joy, peace, patience, 00:28:14.440 --> 00:28:16.140 kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, 00:28:16.180 --> 00:28:20.599 self -control. Oh, man. All right, God, I believe 00:28:20.599 --> 00:28:25.119 that that is correct. I agree with you. I confess 00:28:25.119 --> 00:28:29.019 that that's correct. I acknowledge that. But 00:28:29.019 --> 00:28:30.799 there's a second side to this. It's kind of like 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:33.730 two sides of the same coin. Repentance is the 00:28:33.730 --> 00:28:36.029 other one. Repentance is a change of direction. 00:28:36.029 --> 00:28:38.549 It's committing to do something different. Now, 00:28:38.549 --> 00:28:42.829 as an illustration, I believe that the stage 00:28:42.829 --> 00:28:45.970 has a drop -off here, right? So I can agree to 00:28:45.970 --> 00:28:49.349 that in my mind. The stage has a drop -off. And 00:28:49.349 --> 00:28:51.930 if I'm simply agreeing that the stage has a drop 00:28:51.930 --> 00:28:54.809 -off, but I'm not doing anything about it, I 00:28:54.809 --> 00:28:58.589 fall right off, right? This is God actually telling 00:28:58.589 --> 00:29:01.920 us, hey, You can agree to something, but you 00:29:01.920 --> 00:29:04.599 need to actually demonstrate a movement in a 00:29:04.599 --> 00:29:07.279 different direction. Reconciliation requires 00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:11.400 me to begin to show that movement. So if you 00:29:11.400 --> 00:29:14.019 are reconciling with somebody and they stop at 00:29:14.019 --> 00:29:16.420 the second one of confession, but you don't see 00:29:16.420 --> 00:29:18.440 any changes within them, you're going to have 00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:20.359 to go back to the beginning and work through 00:29:20.359 --> 00:29:23.720 it again. Because this has to begin to change. 00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:27.720 Now, a note, we do not change overnight. You 00:29:27.720 --> 00:29:30.279 cannot simply say, anger, I want you to be done, 00:29:30.420 --> 00:29:33.220 and it's gone. Anybody who works with counseling 00:29:33.220 --> 00:29:36.000 will tell you that does not work to just say, 00:29:36.059 --> 00:29:37.720 I'm going to try harder not to. I'm going to 00:29:37.720 --> 00:29:41.759 force it to be gone. What's the next step? Restitution. 00:29:42.440 --> 00:29:46.680 Paying back for something. Now, if I happen to 00:29:46.680 --> 00:29:50.000 swipe a thousand baht out of your pocket, by 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:51.559 the way, I did not do that, just to be clear. 00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:54.319 If I swipe 1 ,000 baht out of your pocket, how 00:29:54.319 --> 00:29:56.359 do I pay that back? That's quite easy, right? 00:29:56.440 --> 00:29:58.700 I need to take 1 ,000 baht and pay you back. 00:29:59.700 --> 00:30:04.460 But I've caused a second form of rupture, which 00:30:04.460 --> 00:30:08.740 is trust. You now no longer trust me. You are 00:30:08.740 --> 00:30:11.599 walking around the church because the pastor 00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:13.700 has been stealing and you're now keeping your 00:30:13.700 --> 00:30:16.259 hands in your pocket. And the front row is wide 00:30:16.259 --> 00:30:18.200 open and everybody's kind of sitting back there 00:30:18.200 --> 00:30:21.190 because I've made a name for myself. Restitution 00:30:21.190 --> 00:30:24.049 is an important part of actually working towards 00:30:24.049 --> 00:30:27.430 rebuilding trust. I do what I can to pay back. 00:30:28.170 --> 00:30:30.410 Now, the really difficult thing with restitution 00:30:30.410 --> 00:30:33.230 is there are some things, some ruptures, some 00:30:33.230 --> 00:30:36.109 ways that we hurt other people that we can never 00:30:36.109 --> 00:30:42.390 pay back. But you still are grieved by it and 00:30:42.390 --> 00:30:44.150 you help the other person know that this sits 00:30:44.150 --> 00:30:46.950 with you and you do what you can to pay back 00:30:46.950 --> 00:30:50.480 restitution. And then the next one is reconciliation. 00:30:51.119 --> 00:30:53.619 This is the part where both of you, again, rebuild 00:30:53.619 --> 00:30:57.460 trust together and it can take a long time. So 00:30:57.460 --> 00:30:59.380 yeah, we've been talking about forgiveness for 00:30:59.380 --> 00:31:02.140 a number of weeks. This is possibly the longer 00:31:02.140 --> 00:31:04.960 work that goes on and it keeps going and going 00:31:04.960 --> 00:31:09.299 and going. And it's a complicated path with different 00:31:09.299 --> 00:31:12.279 pieces and components. And it's a lot of work. 00:31:12.900 --> 00:31:17.859 So what do we often do? Go back. to either shoving 00:31:17.859 --> 00:31:21.200 a shirt on a person and saying, get along, or 00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:25.900 we just kind of, I'm just going to let that one 00:31:25.900 --> 00:31:29.920 go. And I'm going to let that one go. And that 00:31:29.920 --> 00:31:33.700 one as well. And we're going to fake peace or 00:31:33.700 --> 00:31:38.920 force peace, right? But this isn't what Jesus 00:31:38.920 --> 00:31:41.980 has done with us. And it is not what we are invited 00:31:41.980 --> 00:31:45.720 into. There's such a bigger story of us participating 00:31:45.720 --> 00:31:51.180 in it. And you know what? I'm going to unsell 00:31:51.180 --> 00:31:56.519 the entire sermon with this statement. I've engaged 00:31:56.519 --> 00:32:00.799 in paths of reconciliation many times. And more 00:32:00.799 --> 00:32:05.640 often than not, they don't succeed. I'll sit 00:32:05.640 --> 00:32:08.160 through conversations with others or I will participate 00:32:08.160 --> 00:32:10.720 in them. And more often than not, we will not 00:32:10.720 --> 00:32:12.799 get to that last one. So you might say, well, 00:32:12.839 --> 00:32:15.279 then what's the point of all of this? The point 00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:17.839 is actually that in and through each one of those, 00:32:17.920 --> 00:32:20.220 the ultimate goal of life is being accomplished, 00:32:20.299 --> 00:32:23.259 which is me increasing my awareness that God 00:32:23.259 --> 00:32:28.119 is with me. So the more I don't cause repair 00:32:28.119 --> 00:32:30.599 in the life around me, whether it's my own and 00:32:30.599 --> 00:32:32.839 the community around, the more I'm going to say, 00:32:32.900 --> 00:32:35.440 Lord, help, Lord, help, Lord, help. And in that 00:32:35.440 --> 00:32:38.099 process, I'm actually learning to journey through 00:32:38.099 --> 00:32:41.079 life with him again and again and again. And 00:32:41.079 --> 00:32:44.099 ultimately, it's his job as well. So he will, 00:32:44.259 --> 00:32:46.579 as we said, cause all things that are wrong to 00:32:46.579 --> 00:32:49.220 be right again. So in this process, I'm simply 00:32:49.220 --> 00:32:53.859 a steward of it as I journey forward. This is 00:32:53.859 --> 00:32:56.240 why Jesus comes and he said, blessed are the 00:32:56.240 --> 00:32:59.579 peacemakers. Not blessed are those who... experience 00:32:59.579 --> 00:33:02.940 peace or blessed are those who force peace. He 00:33:02.940 --> 00:33:06.319 said, blessed those who cause peace, who make 00:33:06.319 --> 00:33:09.119 peace, who do the incredible difficult work of 00:33:09.119 --> 00:33:11.720 peace. Now, if you look at the Beatitudes, Jesus 00:33:11.720 --> 00:33:14.220 isn't saying, hey, here's ways that you should 00:33:14.220 --> 00:33:16.220 and should not live your life necessarily. Some 00:33:16.220 --> 00:33:18.539 are, some are not. But really what he's doing 00:33:18.539 --> 00:33:21.240 is he's saying, these people, when you begin 00:33:21.240 --> 00:33:26.150 to experience this, the kingdom of God. or them 00:33:26.150 --> 00:33:28.470 being children of God is going to be evident 00:33:28.470 --> 00:33:32.309 to them. Because the harder peacemaking is, the 00:33:32.309 --> 00:33:35.589 more I'm going to end up spending time with my 00:33:35.589 --> 00:33:38.329 heavenly father and looking and smelling and 00:33:38.329 --> 00:33:42.210 acting and thinking like him. And that's what 00:33:42.210 --> 00:33:45.009 Jesus is calling to say, blessed are the peacemakers 00:33:45.009 --> 00:33:47.049 for they are going to look like children of God. 00:33:47.579 --> 00:33:50.339 Brothers and sisters, that is the invitation 00:33:50.339 --> 00:33:53.200 for us. We are called and commanded to forgive 00:33:53.200 --> 00:33:56.299 and you are invited to a larger thing of reconciliation 00:33:56.299 --> 00:34:00.900 together. So what is forgiveness actually for? 00:34:01.830 --> 00:34:05.009 Forgiveness is not the end goal. Forgiveness 00:34:05.009 --> 00:34:08.230 is a means to that end goal. The process of forgiveness 00:34:08.230 --> 00:34:11.050 helps me to engage in reconciliation. And when 00:34:11.050 --> 00:34:14.110 I engage in reconciliation, I am doing that all 00:34:14.110 --> 00:34:17.929 with God himself. And in that, I am experiencing 00:34:17.929 --> 00:34:22.030 the goal of life, which is to be with God. I'm 00:34:22.030 --> 00:34:24.530 actually taking what is at the end, Revelation 00:34:24.530 --> 00:34:28.030 21 and 22, and I'm bringing that into the present 00:34:28.030 --> 00:34:31.840 as I walk around. I am becoming the bull that 00:34:31.840 --> 00:34:35.300 actually is the picture of where all things are 00:34:35.300 --> 00:34:39.559 going. So I'm going to invite you to answer and 00:34:39.559 --> 00:34:41.599 to reflect on and think through a couple questions 00:34:41.599 --> 00:34:47.119 this morning. Do you tend to fake or do you tend 00:34:47.119 --> 00:34:54.119 to force repair? And again, this is God's work. 00:34:54.139 --> 00:34:57.059 He knows it. Do you tend to fake or do you tend 00:34:57.059 --> 00:35:00.949 to force repair? And a more important question 00:35:00.949 --> 00:35:05.190 next to it is, what is God calling you to? What 00:35:05.190 --> 00:35:09.030 aspect of repair is God calling you to right 00:35:09.030 --> 00:35:14.090 now? Possibly it's your marriage. Possibly it 00:35:14.090 --> 00:35:17.190 is a friend of yours. If you've got children, 00:35:17.289 --> 00:35:19.389 possibly it's a relationship with one of them. 00:35:20.650 --> 00:35:22.789 Perhaps it's somebody that's sitting in here 00:35:22.789 --> 00:35:25.190 in a life group or something of that nature. 00:35:26.730 --> 00:35:29.690 And know that, if God is calling you to that, 00:35:29.750 --> 00:35:32.010 that he journeys with you and it is a complicated 00:35:32.010 --> 00:35:35.349 process, but that's what God has done for you. 00:35:35.449 --> 00:35:37.829 And as you participate with that, something even 00:35:37.829 --> 00:35:40.190 more beautiful than at the beginning can start. 00:35:41.510 --> 00:35:44.289 When my daughter broke her arm as a young kid, 00:35:44.449 --> 00:35:46.610 there was the question, of course, as a father 00:35:46.610 --> 00:35:48.809 to say, oh no, is her arm going to be weaker 00:35:48.809 --> 00:35:52.329 from now on? And this doctor actually looked 00:35:52.329 --> 00:35:54.250 at me and said, you know what is fascinating 00:35:54.250 --> 00:35:57.920 about our bodies? is a broken arm that is healed 00:35:57.920 --> 00:36:00.679 is actually stronger than when it first broke. 00:36:01.340 --> 00:36:04.000 So when she goes through this process of having 00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:06.119 a healed arm, she's actually going to be stronger. 00:36:06.280 --> 00:36:09.119 In a similar way, relationships that go through 00:36:09.119 --> 00:36:11.719 this process of reconciliation are far stronger 00:36:11.719 --> 00:36:16.599 than they were before that. Returning to the 00:36:16.599 --> 00:36:21.380 story in Rwanda. We know that that's a complicated 00:36:21.380 --> 00:36:24.139 mess. How do you take a tiny nation where close 00:36:24.139 --> 00:36:27.199 to a million people have lost their lives? What 00:36:27.199 --> 00:36:30.619 do you do, right? Maybe you just divide the country 00:36:30.619 --> 00:36:32.139 in half and you have people live in different 00:36:32.139 --> 00:36:36.860 parts. Sounds like my van story, right? But the 00:36:36.860 --> 00:36:40.519 church stepped in. They went into the prisons 00:36:40.519 --> 00:36:43.079 and they practiced this incredible work of reconciliation. 00:36:44.179 --> 00:36:47.039 And they started not by saying, hey, you need 00:36:47.039 --> 00:36:48.800 to turn to your neighbor and say, I'm sorry. 00:36:49.400 --> 00:36:53.460 They started by introducing the gospel and started 00:36:53.460 --> 00:36:56.099 by going back to this story of us being forgiven. 00:36:56.179 --> 00:36:58.699 And in that, there was repentance that happened, 00:36:58.719 --> 00:37:02.300 a conviction that says, hey, I actually have 00:37:02.300 --> 00:37:05.179 wronged. And in that, there was far more repentance 00:37:05.179 --> 00:37:07.539 than had ever come out in just normal court cases. 00:37:07.699 --> 00:37:09.800 They worked alongside the court cases, but people 00:37:09.800 --> 00:37:12.300 came forward with things that were far more than 00:37:12.300 --> 00:37:16.119 what happened at the beginning. And then they 00:37:16.119 --> 00:37:19.260 invited them if they wanted. to be part of what 00:37:19.260 --> 00:37:22.219 they called reconciliation villages, where you 00:37:22.219 --> 00:37:25.559 could go and live with these people that had 00:37:25.559 --> 00:37:27.980 caused you harm, but they had gone through this 00:37:27.980 --> 00:37:31.300 whole process. And you begin to rebuild trust 00:37:31.300 --> 00:37:34.739 in that space. And one of the stories that came 00:37:34.739 --> 00:37:37.159 out of that, that helps us to just kind of land 00:37:37.159 --> 00:37:39.980 the plane with this, is the following. There 00:37:39.980 --> 00:37:43.420 was a mother from the Tutsi tribe. They were 00:37:43.420 --> 00:37:47.300 the ones who lost the most amount of lives. who 00:37:47.300 --> 00:37:51.400 had a young kid and she needed to head into town 00:37:51.400 --> 00:37:54.619 and she was in one of these villages. And without 00:37:54.619 --> 00:37:57.159 thinking twice, because this whole process of 00:37:57.159 --> 00:37:59.900 reconciliation had happened, she turned to one 00:37:59.900 --> 00:38:02.420 of her Hutu neighbors and said, hey, would you 00:38:02.420 --> 00:38:05.820 mind watching my kid? Think about this. You're 00:38:05.820 --> 00:38:08.420 turning to somebody that within two or three 00:38:08.420 --> 00:38:11.099 years ago had actually been part of what had 00:38:11.099 --> 00:38:14.579 caused all this pain upon you. But something 00:38:14.579 --> 00:38:16.539 incredible had happened, which is that journey 00:38:16.539 --> 00:38:20.420 of reconciliation, this redoing that is only 00:38:20.420 --> 00:38:22.920 the work of God in and through that. And she 00:38:22.920 --> 00:38:26.360 said, I realized at that moment that that process 00:38:26.360 --> 00:38:29.400 of reconciliation in this relationship had gone 00:38:29.400 --> 00:38:33.360 into its completion. It's a lot of work, but 00:38:33.360 --> 00:38:35.519 it got there. I'm going to invite the worship 00:38:35.519 --> 00:38:39.619 team to go ahead and come up. For the rest of 00:38:39.619 --> 00:38:41.920 us, as we are waiting, I'm going to invite us 00:38:41.920 --> 00:38:45.239 to think about the following. In the new heavens 00:38:45.239 --> 00:38:48.340 and new earth, we get to be with God forever, 00:38:48.639 --> 00:38:52.320 with him. But it's not just something we are 00:38:52.320 --> 00:38:55.239 holding onto and waiting. You see, when Jesus 00:38:55.239 --> 00:38:59.519 paid, when he was paying for our own sins, and 00:38:59.519 --> 00:39:01.760 there was that restitution process where he was 00:39:01.760 --> 00:39:04.480 being crucified on the cross, something else 00:39:04.480 --> 00:39:09.300 happened at that moment. A veil was torn. There 00:39:09.300 --> 00:39:12.159 was a curtain that was thick that you and I could 00:39:12.159 --> 00:39:15.179 not tear apart that was meant to separate the 00:39:15.179 --> 00:39:19.599 space of God's symbolic presence and our being 00:39:19.599 --> 00:39:22.179 alienated from him that pictured that rupture 00:39:22.179 --> 00:39:24.840 from the very beginning. And when Christ was 00:39:24.840 --> 00:39:28.699 crucified on the cross and he cries out, he says, 00:39:28.719 --> 00:39:32.340 it's finished. This veil tears in two, this curtain 00:39:32.340 --> 00:39:35.480 tears in two, symbolically representing that 00:39:35.480 --> 00:39:39.679 you and I now have access to God here. Not just 00:39:39.679 --> 00:39:42.480 some far out thing that we're waiting for. We 00:39:42.480 --> 00:39:45.019 get to participate in that now and that's great 00:39:45.019 --> 00:39:48.280 news. We get to actually journey through life 00:39:48.280 --> 00:39:52.099 with God and that's the actual point of forgiveness. 00:39:52.539 --> 00:39:55.940 So would you join me in praying? Father, I thank 00:39:55.940 --> 00:39:58.039 you for your great story. I thank you for all 00:39:58.039 --> 00:40:01.780 the parts and pieces to it that reveal your character. 00:40:02.760 --> 00:40:05.079 This morning as the prayer team was praying and 00:40:05.079 --> 00:40:08.900 they... They sensed you calling us to have a 00:40:08.900 --> 00:40:12.699 single -heartedness. As Jesus says, the pure 00:40:12.699 --> 00:40:17.480 of heart. That we would be so fixated on the 00:40:17.480 --> 00:40:19.739 fact that we are journeying through life with 00:40:19.739 --> 00:40:23.440 you, God, that we don't shy away from the very 00:40:23.440 --> 00:40:25.420 difficult journey of reconciliation, but that 00:40:25.420 --> 00:40:29.119 we participate in that. And we do so with you 00:40:29.119 --> 00:40:33.519 each step of the way. You are a holy God. completely 00:40:33.519 --> 00:40:35.920 set apart, completely different from any other 00:40:35.920 --> 00:40:38.260 way of trying to solve the difficulties in the 00:40:38.260 --> 00:40:40.619 world around us and in our own lives. And we 00:40:40.619 --> 00:40:44.320 look to you and we say, holy, holy, holy, you 00:40:44.320 --> 00:40:46.860 are the one that we cling to and we long to be 00:40:46.860 --> 00:40:48.760 with and thank you that we can be with you now. 00:40:48.820 --> 00:40:50.840 We pray this in the precious, wonderful name 00:40:50.840 --> 00:41:00.099 of Jesus. Amen. Thank you for tuning in to the 00:41:00.099 --> 00:41:04.539 ECB Sermon Podcast. Whether near or far, if you 00:41:04.539 --> 00:41:07.760 are looking for community or are in need of prayer, 00:41:08.059 --> 00:41:11.300 we welcome you to engage by sending us an email 00:41:11.300 --> 00:41:16.659 to office at ecb .asia If God is calling you 00:41:16.659 --> 00:41:19.400 to support our ministries, you will find giving 00:41:19.400 --> 00:41:23.199 options on our website. And remember to join 00:41:23.199 --> 00:41:25.300 us next week. God bless you.