At Gateway Church in South Austin, we are looking at Relational Landmines. Week one at our North Campus, Robb Overholt dealt with “Conflict Avoidance.”
Next Steps
Discussion questions for your family, running partners, or life group.
Listen to the message Robb shared here:
Some of the insights Robb shared include the following:
When we get hurt, no one has to teach us to want revenge.
When we give into rage and anger, we go through doors we never intended to go through.
Sometimes we may be the one who has been hurt, but when we handle the pain badly we overreact and end up needing to apologize.
The Scriptures emphasize being reconciled in our relationships rather than taking revenge.
Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.
How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.
– 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (The Message)
“Reconciled” – “to put things back in order, to put things back to where they should be.”
Because of the willing sacrifice of Jesus, we can be reconciled with God and bring reconciliation to others.
God put the wrong on Him who had never done anything wrong
so that we could be right with Him.
Saul persecuted people of faith. Jesus intervenes to tell him that when we persecute people of faith, we are attacking Jesus.
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
– Acts 9:1-9
When a person cries out for mercy and forgiveness rather than revenge, he or she experiences a glimpse of God’s grace.
“Grace” means “receiving the unmerited favor of God.” Grace is mentioned over 120 times in the New Testament. Most of the time this word is mentioned by Paul because he experienced grace!
Our divided world needs people willing to become reconcilers!
Amen.