A TIME TO BE RECONCILED
LK 2:14
8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 “ Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Does anyone know the number of wars that have occurred over time? Yea, me either. Does anyone know how many wars are happening as we speak? TELL YOUR NEIGHBOR, “TOO MANY”. That is one thing that people are good at: NOT GETTING ALONG. We once thought that education was the solution. If we could educate the whole world then there would be peace. Then we had WWI and WWII. The most educated countries in the world were at war. And what did we learn? Education does not create peace. It creates a better way to kill another person. Think about it: prisons are filled with overly intelligent people. Education is not the answer. I submit to you the answer: RECONCILIATION!
A survey was completed. The question: Where would you like peace this year?
· I would like peace with my parents, my ex, and my kids.
· I’d like to see the end of the political bickering.
· I need peace in my mind and heart.
· A peaceful neighborhood.
· If people were more peaceful maybe they wouldn’t be so rude.
· Honestly, if we don’t find peace soon, my marriage will be over.
Maybe you can relate. Maybe you find yourself experiencing one of these categories. If so, here is the answer. Reconciliation: it restores peace. It defuses conflict and turns chaos into calmness. It is the powerful miracle cure for broken relationships, lives and hearts. Reconciliation quiets quarrels and swaps stress for God’s serenity. It turns tension into tranquility. AND HERE IS THE FORMULA!!!! PEACE WITH GOD; PEACE OF GOD; AND PEACE WITH OTHERS.
READ AND PRAY
WE NEED:
· PEACE WITH GOD.
Peace is attainable. “Good will toward men” is possible in spite of a culture that is cynical, sarcastic, and demeaning. The genesis is SURRENDER. We need to understand the two causes of conflict.
SELFCENTEREDNESS: What happens when I want everything my way, and you want everything your way? What happens when my agenda clashes with you agenda? War unless one of us is willing to compromise out of love.
Listen to Prov 13:10 10 By pride comes nothing but strife,
Here is the second cause. I will often council couples that are considering marriage, “Don’t expect so and so to meet certain needs that only God can meet.” NO HUMAN BEING CAN FULLY MEET ALL OF YOUR NEEDS! Instead of complaining about your unmet expectations, instead of battling it out, the Bible says to ask God instead: Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. James 4:1-2
At a stress management seminar, the instructor gave several suggestions for managing stress. One was “unload your stress by telling it to an unconditional listener.” Then he quickly added, “The best way to do this is talk to your pet. Can you imagine paying someone to tell you this? Can you imagine having a heart to heart with you hamster? Pets are great, but they cannot help you manage or resolve the conflicts in your life. But Jesus can and does!!! Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Rom. 5:1
What we forget is that when we the life that God has given us our way instead of God’s way then we are in immediate conflict with God. We then are at war with God. Here are some symptoms of being at war with God: IRRITABILITY, QUICK TEMPER, INSECURITY, IMPATIENCE, MANIPULATION, ARROGANCE, BOASTING, HOLDING GRUDGES, and many others that the Bible refers to as the “works of the flesh.”
However when we have peace with God, we experience: LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, AND SELF-CONTROL. The Bible refers to these as the FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT.
Jesus came that we might have peace with God! This only happens when an individual is surrendered to Him! I want to suggest to you what is found in Job 22, “Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.
PEACE WITH GOD leads to the PEACE OF GOD!
· PEACE OF GOD.
Once you have PEACE WITH GOD you start experiencing the PEACE OF GOD. Ex, the more you pray the less you panic. The more you worship the less you worry. Here is why: 3 You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Is. 26:3
Stop for a moment and ask yourself, “What is robbing me of my peace?” It is probably something that you cannot control. Whatever the label, you are being robbed because you cannot control it. So what is the natural response? We try to control the uncontrollable. Which leads to obvious failure. What is the solution? Put your faith in the object that has control! Jesus, has reconciled us to God that we might experience the peace of God in the midst of our storm!
Peace requires faith. Not blind faith. Faith in the One who controls all things! Faith in the One who knows what is best. Peace comes through a daily walk with Him. Trusting Him to lead you in the direction He wants. Recognizing what cannot be changed and choosing to worship Him in spite of the desire to worry. What does this look like? How do I physically walk this out? Jesus says,
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” MT. 11:28-30
Jesus gives us three things that we can do. 1. Come to Him. He invites us to enter His presence. 2. Pick up His burdens. To pick His up means that we must lay ours down. And 3. Learn from Him. We are to learn about Him, learn about our life. Why? Because once we obtain PEACE WITH GOD, then we learn the PEACE OF GOD, so that we can have AND enjoy PEACE WITH OTHERS.
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Cor. 5:18.
· PEACEWITH OTHER.
Jesus transforms you into a peacemaker. Our vertical relationship affects our horizontal relationships! We now have a job to do; a task to render. It is restoring relationships. God wants us to be in the restoration business. Any time that you ATTEMPT to restore a broken relationship you are doing what God would be doing! 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. Mt. 5:9 God went out of His way to restore broken relationships with humankind. We were all at enmity with God. We were all enemies of God. Then Jesus enabled us to be restored. Did we all choose to be restored? No. Will everyone choose to be restored to you? Of course not. But nevertheless, when you act in this way, you are acting as God would act. You are CHILDREN OF GOD!
Notice Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are the peace lovers.” Everyone loves peace. He didn’t say, “Blessed are the peaceable”. Never disturbing anything is not making peace. He never called us to be a doormat. Peacemaking is not avoiding a conflict. It is not acting as if one does not exist. That is cowardice. Peacemaking is actively trying to end the conflict. When relationships break down you take the initiative to resolve it to reconcile it. You choose to forgive those who have hurt you. You choose to pass on grace on those who have mock you; you pray for those who despitefully use you.
Don’t confuse reconciliation with trust. Some of you are afraid to reconcile because that may mean that you have to return to an abusive, hurtful, or dysfunctional situation. NO. NOT TRUE. That would be called enabling that individual to live that lifestyle!
RECONCILIATION IS NOT RESOLVING. To reconcile you start working on the problem in a healthy Christ like manner. Instead of implementing sarcasm and anger, you talk with respect, humility, and love. There are moments when you agree to disagree. You don’t bury the hatchet until you have dealt with the issues.
FORGIVENESS IS NOT TRUST. Forgiveness simply says, I am turning this over to God. I give it to God because if I don’t I will get stuck in the past. I will become resentful, and bitter. Jesus said it best, 14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Mt. 6
Forgiveness takes care of the past. Trust is about the future and it must be earned.
In order to be successful there are some steps you can take to having peace with others.
1. Attack the problem not the person.
2. Cooperate whenever possible. Look for common ground.
3. Emphasize reconciliation not resolution.
Avoid resentment and buildup by dealing with your pain and anger. When you rehearse and replay what happened over and over you continue to hurt yourself.
Because Jesus offers “peace on earth and good will toward men”, Christmas is the perfect season to offer peace to another person. But to offer peace, you must first have peace. You cannot give what you do not have. To get peace you must first have PEACE WITH GOD.
Then you can obtain the PEACE OF GOD to give to OTHERS!
