Sermon Transcript
It was a beautiful March, late March afternoon, and the weather was perfect, the sky was perfect, the temperature was perfect, everything was perfect. And Shannon and I were one week into our relationship where we were officially boyfriend and girlfriend. This is obviously many, many, many, many years ago, but we had recently had our defining of the relationship, and even though we had known each other for a couple of years, as friends, we finally decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend, and spring had sprung, love was very much in the air, and that’s when it all began to go downhill. We found ourselves at the marina of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, Central Texas, many years ago. We were college students there where we had met through a church ministry there where we were both— played on the worship team there and had again established a strong friendship.
We made the fateful decision, let’s go canoeing. This is a great way for people who are just starting their relationship to just really cement things and determine the course of where things are going to go. And Shannon made it clear that she was better at canoeing than I was without having seen what I can do with a canoe. But nevertheless, I let her be in the back and she was going to steer and I was going to paddle and I didn’t think that that was going to go very well, and I don’t remember exactly all of the details. I’m going to assume I was right about all the things that happened.
There was paddling, there was arguing, and then there was some splashing— more her towards me— when I don’t know what I said, babe, but you got upset and you splashed me once, twice, 3 times. I don’t— again, it was all just a blur, but It was over at that point, and I just decided, we’re going back to shore, and this relationship is over.
Obviously, I was the more mature one, and we worked things out, and we’re still married to this day, but we’re all familiar with conflict, right? We’re all familiar with things that can go wrong in our relationships, and how even the best of relationships and the best of our intentions can go awry. And so, as I’m talking to you today, as we continue in our Perfectly One, 40-day study on the focus of church unity, and what does unity look like in our relationships, we have to talk about conflict. And so I’m not sharing something with you today that you’re not already familiar with. How does a conflict happen?
You all know the recipe. You take 2 or more people, right, with different personalities and different preferences and different opinions, some odd quirks and idiosyncrasies, you sprinkle in some pride, you dash some selfishness, some me-first personality, you throw in some bad habits and maybe some expectations that you sprinkle in there, toss it in the oven, turn up the heat with the daily trials of life, and boom, in 5 minutes you got conflict. We know what the formula is. We know what the recipe is. We’ve all been there and done that.
The question is, what do we do with these conflicts? What do we do with our problems? And it would be one thing if we were just simply saying, hey, let’s have a conflict resolution message here. I don’t want this to be that. Although we are going to give you some principles today that specifically talk about how to deal with conflict that can help you in your marriage, that can help you in your life group, that can help you in your relationships, the reality is, is there is something deeper going on here.
The stakes are so much higher than just simply getting along with one another. When you are talking about church unity, You’re talking about representing Christ to a watching world. You’re talking about the reputation of God in the eyes of others. And what we represent in those conflicts has an opportunity to turn somebody towards God and leave somebody with a positive taste in their mouth about who God is, or it has an ability to turn people away from God. It has an ability to split a relationship.
It has an ability to split a church in 2, in 3, in 4. And splintering where one person gets their feelings hurt or multiple people get their feelings hurt or there’s misunderstanding and somebody says, I’m leaving this church and I’m going over here, and they divorce the church, so to speak, or somebody divorces their life group. I’m no longer part of this life group. I can’t believe what this person did or what these people did, and so I’m going to go over here. And I realize that that’s a part of our daily life.
What are we going to do with that? How are we going to minimize misunderstanding? How are we going to deal with these things? Because it’s not a matter of if conflict, It’s win conflict, right? Some of you are going through conflict right now, right now, or you’re about to go through something, or you’ve just come out of something, or you’re a part of something long-standing.
I think that the things that we share today are going to be helpful to you. But again, I want us to come into this thinking not as the world thinks, but God, what do you want to say to me in the midst of this as a child of God? As children of God, as people of God, what does the unity that you want us to have look like, and what does that have to do with us and our witness to the watching world? So we’re going to be looking at the Old Testament book of Joshua. If you have your Bible, you can open up to the book of Joshua in chapter 22.
I need to set the stage for you very, very quickly. Some of you are like, oh, Old Testament history. Just be patient with me. I’ll get through this really, really quick to understand the setting here for Joshua 22. Prior to the book of Joshua, the people of Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for hundreds of years.
God rescued them out of Egypt miraculously through the leadership of Moses and several others, and they were led across the Red Sea by God miraculously. And then the people were to inherit the Promised Land that God had promised all the way back to their forefather Abraham. Many, many years before. And that’s how it was supposed to happen, but we know through reading the book of Exodus and the book of Numbers that there was grumbling and there was complaining, and on the way to the Promised Land that God had promised, there was wandering because God gave multiple opportunities for Israel to recognize God’s provision and His protection and His preeminence over all things, and people said, no, we’d like to go back to Egypt. And so they grumbled against God, they grumbled against one another, and they just wandered and they wandered.
And they wandered for 40 years until everyone who said no to the Lord and to what he wanted died. And so now there’s a new generation here at the beginning of Joshua, including Moses, the longtime leader who’s just died, and a new leader Joshua takes over, and he’s going to lead the people across the Jordan River into the Promised Land that God had promised to give to them. And before Moses died, he had said People of Israel, here’s how it’s going to happen. This tribe is going to go over here, this tribe’s going to go over here, this tribe’s going to go over there. They had 12 tribes of Israel.
That’s how they were divided. And if you look at a map, you’ll see how it was supposed to be. But there’s a Jordan River coming right down the middle that’s going to divide some tribes, because there’s some tribes on the right— the tribe of Gad and the tribe of Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh. See, Manasseh is a gigantic tribe. And so there’s these 2 and a half tribes on the right side of the Jordan River who said, we would prefer to be over here on the right side of the Jordan River.
There’s a lot of land for our livestock, for our herds. We’d like to be over here. And so they requested before Moses died to not cross over the Jordan River and to not go into the Promised Land with their Israelite brothers and sisters from the other 9 and a half tribes. Well, Moses thought about that and said Bad idea. I’m not for that.
Initially he said that because he didn’t want that to discourage the other 9 and a half tribes. Moses was remembering, ah, I remember our ancestors used to grumble and complain, and they were discouraged by people not taking, uh, the Promised Land when the spies had spied out the land, and that discouraged the other tribes and they rebelled against the Lord. So he initially told the 2 and a half tribes of Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh. He initially was going to say no, but they said, tell you what, if you allow us to go into this land over here in the east that is more fit for our livestock, for our herds, we would like to settle our wives there, we’d like to settle our children there, we’d like to build pens for our livestock, for our herds, and then we will come— we promise to come fight with the other 9 and a half tribes, and we’ll help them to conquer their land. And in fact, We will not return back to the east until we help them, these other 9 and a half tribes, to get the land that they promised.
We all on the same page here? This is what happened. And so sure enough, they kept their promise, these 2 and a half tribes. They helped the other 9 and a half tribes to occupy their land. Took about 7 years or so.
And throughout the book of Joshua, that’s what we see— people occupying the land, people going into the land and settling. And so now these 2 and a half tribes are gonna go back to their homes in the east with their families. After having kept their promise. So at the beginning of Joshua 22, where we’re going to look today, those first 8 or 9 verses is Joshua saying, way to go, 2 and a half tribes. Way to go, tribe of Reuben and Gad and you half-tribe of Manasseh.
Way to go. You followed everything that I asked you to do. You did everything that Moses commanded. You did everything that the Lord commanded. You didn’t desert your brothers and sisters.
You fulfilled everything that you need to do. Now go back to your home, be blessed. Go. Sounds great. Get to verse 10 in Joshua 22 here, and this is where it says in verse 10, when they came— who’s they?
The 2 and a half tribes. So they’re going back to the east, they’re going back to their original homes. When they came to Gilgaloth near the Jordan— because the Jordan is this dividing thing in order to get back into the east— when they came there near the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites, the half-tribe of Manasseh, they built an imposing altar there by the Jordan. Verse 11, and when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar, meaning the tribes in the west, the 9 and a half tribes, heard that these 2 and a half tribes had built the altar, this imposing altar, on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side. Verse 12, the whole assembly of Israel, these 9 and a half tribes, said they gathered at Shiloh to go to war against these 2 and a half tribes.
What happened? Unity just so quickly disappeared after this wonderful moment of, great job, 2 and a half tribes, now go back to your home. And unity quickly disappeared. And what happened was what happens to a lot of churches. They had a building program.
They built this imposing altar and said that this would be a good idea. And many churches who’ve experienced conflict, looking back, would say it all started with the building program. And that’s what happens here, the building program of this— not just this altar, this imposing altar.
And so the 9 and a half tribes are saying, this isn’t right. Well, what’s the problem? Well, in Deuteronomy 12, Moses— God speaking through Moses— had said the people of Israel are only allowed to sacrifice offerings at the place that God prescribes. And eventually, one day, that would be Jerusalem. But for now, it was at a place called Shiloh.
Where the Ark of the Covenant was located. And so the 2 and a half tribes are going off in their own direction, and they’re building this imposing altar, and the other 9 and a half tribes say, it’s go time, we’re gonna go to war here, a civil war. So what happens? Well, first of all, we have to take a look at what did they do wrong. And I want to point out here a couple things that I think would be helpful for all of us as we think about our conflict.
One thing not to do As we look at the tribes in the east, one thing not to do when conflict strikes is to undercommunicate your intentions. Don’t undercommunicate your intentions. You see, the best of intentions can be undercommunicated. They can be misunderstood. You have a speaker, you have a listener.
None of us are perfect in our communication. None of us are great listeners. Sometimes it’s not the right time. Sometimes it’s a message we don’t want to hear. Sometimes there’s just things that Keep us from hearing the message.
And for whatever reason, the tribes in the east did not communicate what they were doing. What were they doing? Well, we know that they were building this imposing altar, and maybe they made it so imposing so that they could see it from far away. We don’t know. Nobody has communicated anything at this point.
And how often does communication fall apart and then conflict arises? Maybe you’re a part of a conflict right now where somebody said the wrong thing or somebody misunderstood something. I was talking to somebody earlier who said that a conflict that they’re in right now started because of a text message. Texting is a lousy way to deal with conflict, is it not? Because you just misunderstand one another.
Better communication here could have saved a lot of time, a lot of unrest. But the tribes in the West weren’t faultless either. One thing not to do when conflict strikes is to react before you have all the facts. Did you notice what it said there? It says that they just merely heard about the altar.
The tribes, these 9 and a half tribes, maybe they hadn’t even seen it at this point. They just heard about it. And that’s how rumors get started, and that’s how hearsay happens. Did you hear what the pastor said? Did you read the email?
Did you see how she looked at me? Why isn’t that person talking to me? Well, they haven’t come in the last couple weeks here to church. There must be something going on. Rumors get started.
People talk. Around the situation rather than talking to the person, and we react. And we typically, whenever we react, we do so before we have all the facts, and we do so by taking information and we blow it out. We react just negatively to it. We always assume the worst, always.
And so we can learn here immediately, conflict can be avoided if we communicate better. Conflict can be avoided if we quit jumping to conclusions, and we react once we have all the facts. Let’s allow the facts to come in here. But immediately they said, nope, we’re going to war.
They wisely, though, these 9 and a half tribes, decided in verse 13 to take a different course of action. Hey, before we go to war, let’s do something else. Verse 13, the Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the land of Gilead, to Reuben, to Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. And with him, verse 14, they sent 10 of the chief men, one from each of the other 9 and a half tribes of Israel, each the head of a family division among the Israelite clans. One thing to do that they did wisely here, and it’s something we would do well to do, is to devote your best resources to making peace.
To devote your best resources to making peace. Notice they didn’t just send some low-level token employees here to go check this out so that they could check off the box and say, well, we looked into it. No, they sent their best. They sent the prime leadership, the people who represented the prime leadership there in Israel, whose voices would carry the greatest weight, and they said, this is important enough for us to stop whatever we’re doing, for these individuals to leave their home. We’re sending these leaders here.
And I guess I would ask you the question, if there’s ever been a time whenever you’ve made an excuse for not resolving a conflict, has there ever been a time when you’ve dragged your feet and it hasn’t been top priority? Maybe because there’s a fear of what would happen. What’s the other person going to say? Oh, I’m making too big of a deal out of it. Meanwhile, we’d rather stew over it.
We’d rather wallow about it. We’d rather let the other person suffer by us playing the silent treatment, or we make excuses about, well, you know, they’re just wrong. They need to come to me first. Whatever the excuses, we make excuses. Instead of devoting our best resources, and by best resources, I’m talking about time and energy.
Guys, it takes time, it takes energy. You got to go to the other person. You’re going to have to take time out of your schedule and say, it doesn’t matter. Everything else is going to have to wait.
The key word here is now. What do I have to do right now? I’m going to devote my energy here. We’re not going to sweep this under the rug. And so we can learn here from this, one way to avoid conflict or to work through conflict when it happens is to give your time of it.
That sounds simple enough, and yet again, we come up to so many different reasons as to why we don’t want to do it. We’d rather the other person suffer. We’d rather not have to forgive the other person, or maybe we don’t have to want to have to admit that we’re wrong. It doesn’t matter. We make excuses, and it deserves our best attention, because when it comes to unity in the church among our brothers and sisters in Christ, You’re talking about, again, the reputation of God that we’re trying to protect.
It’s protecting our witness. It’s honoring God with our time and with our resources and saying, what do we got to do? If we got to meet 5 times, if we got to meet 10 times, if we have to meet multiple times on the weekends, in the evenings, what do we have to do to sit down to reason together? It’s going to take time. Deserves your best.
It deserves my best. Let’s keep reading. Verse 15: When they went to Gilead to Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. These 9 and a half tribes, or these leaders, said to them, the whole assembly of the Lord says, how could you, 2 and a half tribes, break faith with the God of Israel like that? How could you turn away from the Lord and build yourselves an altar in rebellion against him now?
Was not the sin of Peor enough for us? Up to this very day we have not cleansed ourselves from that sin, even though a plague fell on the community of the Lord. And are you— 19, verse 19— and are you now turning away from the Lord? If you rebel against the Lord today, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community of Israel. If the land you possess is defiled— listen to this— come over to the Lord’s land.
Come over here across the Jordan where the Lord’s tabernacle stands and share the land with us. But do not rebel against the Lord or against us by building an altar for yourselves. Other than the altar of the Lord our God? When Achan son of Zerah was unfaithful in regard to the devoted things, did not wrath come on the whole community of Israel? He was not the only one who died for his sin.
So one of the things we see here is a principle that anytime a conflict strikes is to go directly to the other party, go directly to the other person to gain better understanding. Again, sounds simple enough, and yet how often do we go over here to this person, or I’m going to take this over here to these people before I go directly to the person I need to deal with here. To their credit, the tribes in the west and their representatives went and they shared what it is that was on their mind, and they brought up different incidents from Israel’s past— the sin of Peor and Achan’s sin. What he’s— what they’re talking about there is they’re saying, remember those times in the past when one or more people made a foolish decision and sinned against the Lord and broke fellowship with him. And remember that whenever that happened, it wasn’t just that they were punished, the whole nation of Israel suffered for that.
And so they’re stating their claim here in order to provide better understanding. They’re going directly to the source before a civil war breaks out, before this escalates, before things go off into an even worse direction. We’re going to deal with this in order to gain better understanding. And notice I use the word understanding there. I’m not talking about agreement.
You know, there’s a difference between meeting for agreement and meeting for understanding. I talk about this all the time with couples and with parents, that it’d be great if we all agreed, but sometimes that’s not possible. But what is possible is better understanding. And in order for that to happen, I need to see you face to face. You need to see the other person face-to-face, not through email.
Email’s not the right way to have this conversation. Ideally face-to-face, so that you can hear each other, so that you can see each other, so you can have better understanding. It’s great if there’s agreement as well, but if nothing else, I need to better understand you, you need to better understand me. There’s that much at stake. And so the 9½ tribes say, we want to know what it is that you would have to say, 2½ tribes, and we want you to know where we’re coming from.
Because your sin here, if indeed we’re interpreting this correctly and you’ve sinned against the Lord, it’s going to affect all of us. This is that big of a deal. It’s going to affect us as the family. It’s going to affect the whole nation of Israel. We got to get this right.
The New Testament, Jesus in Matthew 18 gives us the formula for what to do when somebody sins. They sin against you or they just sin in general. It says you go to the other person, point out their sin, It’s wonderful if that person says, you know, you’re right, I made a mistake here. But sometimes that doesn’t happen, and sometimes you need to take another person along after you’ve tried to reason with that person. So you take one or two others along.
If that person then still won’t repent and they won’t turn, well, then you take more people and you widen the circle some, but only after you’ve gone directly to the person when that person is in the wrong. But earlier in the Gospel of Matthew Before he even said that, Jesus said, if you are at the altar, if you’re making a sacrifice, if you’re in worship, and you there remember somebody has something against you, leave your gift and go to them. So either way, whether you’re the one who was wronged or you’re the, the one who wronged the other person, your responsibility is to go. Go to the other person. Don’t wait.
That’s what we need to do, is to be able to go. But did you notice also in verse 19, I pointed it out, Just briefly there, another thing that we see here for us to do whenever conflict strikes, and that is in verse 19, we need to be willing when we go to make sacrifices in the interest of peace. Sometimes it’s going to require sacrificing more than your time. What did the western tribes say? They said, listen, if the land has been defiled in some way, if that’s why you built this imposing altar, then come over.
And live with us. This was a significant gesture because these 2 and a half tribes— Gad and Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh— they made up about a quarter of the rest of the population of these other 9 and a half tribes. That would have been a significant deal for these 2 and a half tribes to move over, but that was the sacrifice, the compromise that was being offered to them. That was a significant gesture. And so I would ask Simply that what sacrifices are you willing to make, or what are you willing to sacrifice or to compromise in order for there to be peace?
I’m not talking about compromising your convictions. I’m not talking about compromising your Christian witness when there’s a clear right and wrong. I’m just talking about sometimes we have our mind made up, a line drawn in the sand, a chip on our shoulder, and we’re saying we’re not going to be deterred. And so I’m going to go point out what this person’s doing wrong instead of going in and saying, what do I have to do to sacrifice here in order for us to have peace. It may mean that I’m gonna humble myself and give up some territory for that to happen.
It may mean that I’m gonna have to sacrifice my turf. It may mean that I’m gonna have to say I’m sorry. It may mean that I’m going to have to make some sort of gesture to say our peace and our unity is that important. We’ve gotta do this. And what is that sacrifice?
I don’t know until you’re in that conflict. But when you’re in that conflict, sometimes that’s what’s necessary. Be willing to make sacrifices in the interest of peace. Verse 20— or excuse me, verse 21: Then Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, they’re going to reply to what these 9 and a half tribes have said. Verse 22: The Mighty One God the Lord, the Mighty One God the Lord, he knows.
And let Israel know, if this has been in rebellion If this altar that we’ve built has been in rebellion or disobedience to the Lord, don’t spare us this day. If we have built our own altar to turn away from the Lord and to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it, may the Lord Himself call us to account. They start there in verse 21 with a description of who God is. Verses 21 and 22, a description of who God is. Automatically, they’re just— their responses— they didn’t realize the concerns.
They didn’t realize what their actions had done. So they could have said, hey, you guys just get over yourself. How dare you question us? Who are you to know the motives of the Lord? They could have had a chip on their shoulder and gotten defensive, but instead they pointed to their common ground of shared belief in the God of peace.
And they’re even willing, these 2 and a half tribes, to say, we didn’t mean anything from this. This is not what we intended. And if we’re wrong, then we’re willing to suffer whatever consequences that is. You can judge us. They were that humble.
And they go on in verse 26, this is why we said, let us get ready to build an altar, but not for burnt offerings or sacrifices. On the contrary, verse 27, it is to be a witness between us and you and the generations that follow, that we will worship the Lord at his sanctuary with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and fellowship offerings. Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to ours, you have no share in the Lord. We said, if they ever say this to us or to our descendants, we’re going to answer, look at the replica of the Lord’s altar which our ancestors built, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you. Far be it from us, verse 29, to rebel against the Lord and turn away from him today by building an altar.
They’re making it clear. They said it 3 times here. We’re not building this altar for sacrifices, for offerings, to worship any other god. Okay, it was to be a testament and a testimony to future generations, because what we know is that this Jordan River is gigantic and it’s dividing us, and future generations are going to say, oh, this Jordan River is a dividing point here. These people over here on this side are not unified with this side, and there’s going to be war.
And they said, we built this altar so that people would know that we are united in our shared belief that That God is one, that the Mighty One, God the Lord, He knows our hearts. He knows our hearts. Verse 30 says, when Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the community, the heads of the clans of the Israelites, heard what these 2 and a half tribes had to say, they were pleased. And Phinehas the priest said to Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, today we know that the Lord is with us because you have not been unfaithful. To the Lord in this matter.
Now you have rescued the Israelites from the Lord’s hand. Verse 33, they were glad to hear the report as they took the report back to the, to the 9 and a half tribes. They were glad to hear the report, and they praised God. They talked no more about going to war against them to devastate the country where the Reubenites and the Gadites lived. Verse 34, and the Reubenites and Gadites gave the altar this name, a witness between us that the Lord is God.
There is something more that is going on here than just simply this group did one thing and they didn’t communicate it correctly and this group is jumping to conclusions. There is so much more here than this, and that is God is creating stronger unity between these tribes. God is redeeming this conflict because you have people who submit this to the Lord and say, God, we want this to be a testament to Your goodness. So it’s an opportunity for unity to be elevated. It’s an opportunity for our witness to the watching world to be elevated.
And this is one principle that I think we can do whenever conflict strikes. And it’s— boy, we don’t do this very well, but we need to view it as an opportunity to strengthen unity. This conflict as an opportunity to strengthen unity and to draw attention to the goodness of God. What if instead of coming in and saying You’re wrong and you need to change. What if we, instead of avoiding a conflict and just ignoring it altogether, what if instead of coming in with our mind already made up, what if we did something radical as the people of God and said, God, what do you want to do with this conflict?
Is it possible that you could turn this for good somehow? I don’t know how, but is it possible that if I’m willing to forgive as You’ve forgiven me, is it possible, God, that if I’m willing to love my enemy and to pray for those who hurt me, is it possible that You could redeem this and strengthen our unity rather than our unity being torn apart? Is it possible, God, that You could get credit and honor and glory by redeeming this conflict? Is that possible? Wouldn’t that be radical?
I know that that sounds really naive and impractical for somebody who’s going in the midst of a trial right now. I met with a couple after the first service, and they were sharing about a circumstance with somebody who’s not a Christ follower in which there doesn’t seem to be any way out. It involves an inheritance, and it’s a difficult one with a family member. And so you can do all the things here that we talked about, you could do it all right, and yet it not work out. And yet what we talked about was, how can this be used for God’s glory?
How can this be used to testify to this other individual about God’s goodness? How can this be used to strengthen your relationship with the Lord? Because Romans 12 says this: if it’s possible, as far as it depends on you, you live at peace with everyone. It doesn’t say as it depends on the other person. God’s looking at your heart.
He’s looking at my heart. Whenever there’s a conflict. Here’s what I know to be true, that peace with others among the family of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, in order for us to have unity, that is only possible if God is able to make peace with us. And he did do that by sending Jesus to be our peacemaker. I know that peace with God is the door It’s the only road that leads us to peace with others.
And so, when I’m settled in that, as a follower of Christ, and I say, God, you sent your Son Jesus. Ephesians 2 says Jesus came to be our mediator. He came to be our peacemaker. He tore down the wall that divided us between us and him. We were hostile towards God, enemies towards God, and God made peace with us.
And if Jesus is our peace, then that changes everything. That changes how we deal with conflict. There’s a lot that’s at stake here. Conflict can tear apart a church, and it can sully the reputation of God in the eyes of the world. And again, as I said earlier, it’s just another reason for a person to say, God’s not good, God’s not real, whenever we mishandle conduct.
But if we go into it and say, God, what do You want to teach me through this? How can I testify to You, and how can You build something greater out of this? God can get the glory through that. God’s after our hearts whenever it comes to conflict. What are you going to do?
What am I going to do in order to make peace? If it’s possible, as far as it depends upon you, we are to make peace, and that peace with others is only possible through the peace that Jesus makes available to us through the cross, when He died for us, and He came and took our sins.
Let’s be people of peace. Because of the God of peace in our lives. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we are grateful for an ancient text that, though written thousands of years ago, still has something that is relevant for us today, and that is how you can take a difficult circumstance where there’s miscommunication and misunderstanding, and both groups, Lord, had the best of intentions, but just how sometimes it just doesn’t go well. But I thank you that you can turn that and you can use it for good, and I pray you would do that in our conflicts.
I pray especially for those with whom we are in conflict within the body of Christ, that we would be people of peace, that we would be people who go and seek to be reconciled, that we would be people who are willing to go and to humble ourselves and to not hold grudges, to not withhold forgiveness, But to go with the goodness of God in our heart, because You’ve made peace with us, so how can we withhold that from somebody else? I pray, God, that we would forgive as we’ve been forgiven. I pray that we would extend peace as it’s been extended to us. I pray this week, through our conflicts, that You’d give us hope, that You’d help us to fix our eyes on You. We can’t do this in our own strength.
We need You to do supernatural things in our hearts, and in the hearts of those with whom we are in conflict. And I pray that the result would be that we would be perfectly one in the body of Christ, that others would see the unity that we have, just as Jesus prayed that we would be one, that others would see and know you as a result. So God, we thank you for Jesus, and we thank you that you are our peace. And we pray in your name. Amen.
