Speaker 1: Hello, everybody. One of the most important life skills that
Speaker 1: you have to learn in life. You must learn this
Speaker 1: is conflict resolution. How to resolve a conflict and how
Speaker 1: to restore or reconcile a strained or broken relationship. If
Speaker 1: you don't learn this one, you're going to spend a
Speaker 1: lot of your life miserable. Because we're imperfect people. We're
Speaker 1: all different, and so we have conflict almost every day
Speaker 1: of our lives. If you run from conflict, if you
Speaker 1: try to get away from it, it's not going to work,
Speaker 1: and you're going to be miserable and unhappy much of
Speaker 1: your life. Now, this is an important skill you have
Speaker 1: to use. How to resolve a conflict at work. You
Speaker 1: got to know how to resolve a conflict in your marriage.
Speaker 1: You got to know how to resolve a conflict off
Speaker 1: your parent, with children, with friends, in the community, at church,
Speaker 1: in a small group, literally everywhere. Here's the problem. Nobody
Speaker 1: taught you how to do it. Nobody. You certainly didn't
Speaker 1: learn it from your parents. The truth is they might
Speaker 1: not have even been a very good model of conflict
Speaker 1: resolution because nobody taught them. You never had a class
Speaker 1: in school on how do you resolve conflict, how do
Speaker 1: you work it out? You didn't ever take a class
Speaker 1: on how do you restore a broken relationship? And yet
Speaker 1: this is one of the most important skills to your
Speaker 1: happiness in life. But since you're here today, you picked
Speaker 1: a good week to come to church, and I highly
Speaker 1: recommend that you take notes, because what we're going to
Speaker 1: look at today are the seven steps of how to
Speaker 1: resolve a conflict and restore a broken relationship. You may
Speaker 1: not need this now, but you are going to need
Speaker 1: it at some point in your life. So take notes,
Speaker 1: and you're going to need to pass it on to friends,
Speaker 1: to co workers, to your own children, because nobody's teaching
Speaker 1: them how to resolve conflict either. Now, we've been in
Speaker 1: this series all summer on the Eight Beatitudes of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus says there are eight conditions for being blessed by God.
Speaker 1: It's the first ten or twelve verses of the Sermon
Speaker 1: on the Mountain, and Jesus says, if you do these
Speaker 1: eight things, you will have God's blessing on your life,
Speaker 1: on your relationships, on your finances, on your time, and
Speaker 1: your health, on all these different areas. Blessings come from
Speaker 1: these things and when we come to Matthew chapter five,
Speaker 1: verse nine, we come to the next to the last beatitude,
Speaker 1: and it says this, God blesses the who are peacemakers. Peacemakers,
Speaker 1: for they peacemakers, will be called the children of God.
Speaker 1: The mark that you are really a child of God,
Speaker 1: the proof that you are on your way to heve.
Speaker 1: And one of the characteristics of a true believer is
Speaker 1: you're a peacemaker. Now, let me just start by telling
Speaker 1: you what peacemaking is not. You might write these down.
Speaker 1: It's not avoiding, and it's not appeasing. It's not avoiding
Speaker 1: and it's not appeasing. It means some people they will lie.
Speaker 1: I keep peace in my marriage. I just don't rock
Speaker 1: the boat. I sweep everything on the rug. I swallow it,
Speaker 1: I grin and bear it. That's not peacemaking. That's cowardice.
Speaker 1: That doesn't help at all. So peacemaking is not running
Speaker 1: or avoiding running from the problem. It's not appeasing. Appeasing
Speaker 1: means I always give in. They always get their it's
Speaker 1: peace at any price. Appeasement is not peacemaking. That's called codependency.
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ never ran from a legitimate conflict. He knew
Speaker 1: how to deal with it face on, and how to
Speaker 1: resolve it, and how to restore a relationship. Now, the
Speaker 1: Bible says, God blesses those who are peacemakers. Do we
Speaker 1: need peacemakers in our world today? Hello? Right now, there
Speaker 1: are five wars going on on our planet, five international wars.
Speaker 1: I don't know the last time we had five of
Speaker 1: them going on at the same time. That doesn't count
Speaker 1: all the internal strife going on within nations. It doesn't
Speaker 1: count strife at the border of our own nation. It
Speaker 1: doesn't count all of the conflict going on between the sexes,
Speaker 1: conflict going on between generations, conflict going on between races,
Speaker 1: between religions, between political parties. It doesn't count all of
Speaker 1: the conflict going on in cultures, between rich and poor,
Speaker 1: between educated and uneducated men and women, and on and
Speaker 1: on and on. We definitely need this message, not just
Speaker 1: in the world, but in our own personal lives. Now,
Speaker 1: what I want to do this weekend is teach you
Speaker 1: what you've never been taught before in school or anywhere else,
Speaker 1: and that is the seven steps according to God for
Speaker 1: resolving a conflict and restoring a broken relationship. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you get back with your ex. It means that
Speaker 1: you bury the hatchet. It means you make peace, that
Speaker 1: it's no longer resentment there. Now, before we go into
Speaker 1: these steps, I want to just quickly mention three reasons
Speaker 1: why this oughto matter to you, because you don't realize
Speaker 1: how much unresolved conflict messes up your life. Some of
Speaker 1: you have been in a conflict to somebody for weeks
Speaker 1: or months, or years or even decades, and you just said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna let it slide. I've been out of
Speaker 1: fellowship with my dad since who knows when, or my mom,
Speaker 1: or my brother or my sister, and you just let
Speaker 1: it slide, not realizing the damage it actually does to
Speaker 1: your life. The Bible says that when you don't resolve
Speaker 1: a conflict, well you just let it lay out there,
Speaker 1: pretend like it's not happened, and you try to get
Speaker 1: on with your life without ending that conflict. Three things happen.
Speaker 1: Write these down. Number one. The first problem with unresolved conflict,
Speaker 1: it blocks my fellowship with God. It blocks my fellowship
Speaker 1: with God. You cannot be right with God and wrong
Speaker 1: with other people. The horizontal and vertical relationships in your
Speaker 1: life come together at an intersection, and God says, I
Speaker 1: can't be right with God and wrong with you. That's
Speaker 1: exactly what he says. God says that I can't claim
Speaker 1: to be close to God if I'm distant from somebody
Speaker 1: in my life that I've got a conflict with. It
Speaker 1: is an amazing thing. Now. The Bible says it in
Speaker 1: First John, chapter four, verse twenty. It's up here on
Speaker 1: the screen. You can't love God, whom you've never seen.
Speaker 1: If you don't love the people you do see. To
Speaker 1: claim that you love God while hating others makes you
Speaker 1: a liar. That's pretty clear. He's saying. I can't say
Speaker 1: me and God we're like this when you and me
Speaker 1: are like this stand off in conflict with each other.
Speaker 1: Number two, it not only blocks my fellowship with God,
Speaker 1: it blocks my prayers. It keeps my prayers from being answered.
Speaker 1: Did you know that when you're out of whack in relationships?
Speaker 1: The Bible says, God cannot hear your prayers. They are
Speaker 1: connected together because God is love, and the number one
Speaker 1: thing God wants you to learn on this planet while
Speaker 1: you're here is to learn how to love and if
Speaker 1: you're in conflict with people, you certainly aren't loving them
Speaker 1: at that moment. Now, guys, let me just point out
Speaker 1: something that's a little scary for those of us who
Speaker 1: are husbands. Look at this verse on the screen first,
Speaker 1: Peter three, verse seven. Husbands, be considerate of your wives
Speaker 1: and treat them with respect so that nothing hinders your prayers.
Speaker 1: Are you telling me, Rick that if I'm out of
Speaker 1: fellowship with my wife and I'm not treating her with
Speaker 1: the respect, God is not hearing my prayers. That's exactly
Speaker 1: what I'm telling you, because that's what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: There is a connection between the horizontal and vertical relationships.
Speaker 1: Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbors yourself.
Speaker 1: There's a third reason why you need to resolve conflict
Speaker 1: is because it blocks my happiness. Now you know this
Speaker 1: in personal experience. You can be the most famous and
Speaker 1: wealthiest celebrity on the planet, and if your relationship stink,
Speaker 1: life stinks. You can accomplish all kinds of things and
Speaker 1: get your picture on the cover of Time magazine and
Speaker 1: be awarded all kinds of awards for your accomplishments. But
Speaker 1: if your marriage isn't working or you're out of harmony
Speaker 1: with your kids, or you don't really have any close friends,
Speaker 1: or you're out of fellowship with your own family. It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter how much money you make. You know, you
Speaker 1: can go on a family vacation to Bora Bora or
Speaker 1: Tahiti and if you have a bunch of arguments there,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter how beautiful it is. It's not a
Speaker 1: happy time. It's just not happy. Now. The Bible says
Speaker 1: this in James Chapter three, verse eighteen. Those who are
Speaker 1: peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest
Speaker 1: of goodness. I want God's goodness in your life. How
Speaker 1: do you do that? You plant seeds of peace. We're
Speaker 1: gonna look at the seven seeds of peace that you
Speaker 1: can plant. Now. This is the law of sowing and reaping,
Speaker 1: or planting and harvesting. It's one of the universal laws
Speaker 1: in all of the universe. God designed the universe that
Speaker 1: what you sow, you reap. Now, this is true for
Speaker 1: good or bad. If you sow gossip, people are going
Speaker 1: to gossip about you. If you sow anger in your children,
Speaker 1: they're going to be angry at you. If you sow bitterness,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get bitterness back. If you sow resentment, you
Speaker 1: get resented in the back. Works good either way. If
Speaker 1: you're generous with people, people will be generous with you.
Speaker 1: If you're kind with people, people will be kind to you.
Speaker 1: If you're generous with praise, people will be generous with praise.
Speaker 1: But here's the interesting thing about sowing and reaping. You
Speaker 1: don't get back exactly what you put out. You get
Speaker 1: back more of the same. If you plant one kernel
Speaker 1: of corn, you don't get one kernel of corn back.
Speaker 1: You get a stalk with thousands of kernels of corn.
Speaker 1: If you plant one tomato seed, you don't get one
Speaker 1: tomato seed back. You get dozens of tomatoes and thousands
Speaker 1: of seeds. So whatever you plant, if you plant conflict,
Speaker 1: you're going to read more conflict than you can imagine.
Speaker 1: And if you plant jealousy, you'll get that back. On
Speaker 1: the other hand, if you learn how to plant seeds
Speaker 1: of peace, which I'm going to teach you how to
Speaker 1: do today, your life's going to be a lot of
Speaker 1: peace today. I've got a quick note from a listener
Speaker 1: in Minneapolis. His name is Bill, and Bill wrote to me, Rick,
Speaker 1: I want to let you know that I prayed with
Speaker 1: you this morning accepting God into my life. Wow, that's great.
Speaker 1: Daily Hope has become the way that I start each
Speaker 1: day listening to your podcast. So much has changed in
Speaker 1: my life over the past year. I had a job loss,
Speaker 1: I had a transition, I had a divorce, my dad
Speaker 1: passed away, cancer, and my faith all in the same year.
Speaker 1: I'm so thankful for all that you do. Well. Bill,
Speaker 1: I want to tell you, I know you've been going
Speaker 1: through some really tough times this past year, but there's
Speaker 1: no greater news than hearing that you've accepted Jesus into
Speaker 1: your life. And the fact that God used the Daily
Speaker 1: Hope podcast to lead you to Him is such a blessing.
Speaker 1: And I want you to know that as you continue
Speaker 1: to study God's word every day, you're going to find
Speaker 1: that your faith is growing and you'll see God actively
Speaker 1: working in your life. And I really am as excited
Speaker 1: to think about what the next year is going to bring.
Speaker 1: Year two in your life will be very different than
Speaker 1: the last year. And to the rest of you, all
Speaker 1: of our Daily Hope listeners, I just want to thank
Speaker 1: you because we're able to provide the Daily Hope podcast
Speaker 1: to people like Bill because of your generous support. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you
Speaker 1: for helping us share the good news all around the world.
Speaker 1: We love you, and imagine what it's going to be
Speaker 1: to get to heaven and see all these people who
Speaker 1: came to know Christ because of your giving. God bless you.
Speaker 1: You can join us and bring hope to others. Just
Speaker 1: scan the QR code or go to dailyhopetv dot com. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's look at these seven steps to resolving conflict and
Speaker 1: you can use this in any area of your life.
Speaker 1: Number One, you want to be a peace maker, make
Speaker 1: the first move. You make the first move. You don't
Speaker 1: wait on somebody else. You take the initiative. Now I
Speaker 1: know what you're thinking. Anything, well, you know it's all
Speaker 1: their fault. And when they come to me, then I'll
Speaker 1: be glad to face the conflict and deal with it. No,
Speaker 1: God says, he expects you to make the first step.
Speaker 1: That's what's called being a peace maker. Not a peace keeper,
Speaker 1: but a peace maker. Now listen, God says, reconciliation in
Speaker 1: your relationships, having harmony in your relationships is so important.
Speaker 1: God says, it's more important than worship. It's more important,
Speaker 1: and you coming to church. Don't everybody leave it once.
Speaker 1: But if you've got somebody that you're out of whack
Speaker 1: with right now, there's something more important than actually you
Speaker 1: listening to me. Here's what Jesus said in Matthew, chapter five,
Speaker 1: verse twenty three. This is still in the Sermon on
Speaker 1: the Mount, verse twenty three and twenty four. If you're
Speaker 1: standing before the altar in the temple and you're giving
Speaker 1: an offering to God and you suddenly remember somebody has
Speaker 1: something against you. It doesn't matter if you've got something
Speaker 1: against them or they got something against you. You leave
Speaker 1: your offering there beside the altar, go at once, and
Speaker 1: first be reconciled. Circle the phrase, first be reconciled. That's
Speaker 1: to be the top priority in your life. First be
Speaker 1: reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your gift
Speaker 1: to God. Now this is Jesus talking. Now again, some
Speaker 1: relationship conflicts in your life that have gone on for
Speaker 1: months or years or longer, God says, don't do that.
Speaker 1: You don't realize how much it's hurting you spiritually. Now,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter whether you are the offended person, or you
Speaker 1: are the offender, or it's a little of both. God says,
Speaker 1: you make the first move. It's always your move. Now,
Speaker 1: I had to admit early in my marriage I didn't
Speaker 1: get this. I didn't understand it. I ran from conflict
Speaker 1: all the time. I never did one I was. There
Speaker 1: was a guy in the in the musical Oliver called
Speaker 1: the artful Dodger. That was me. And Kay would throw
Speaker 1: an issue at me, and I'd duck and I'd dodge,
Speaker 1: and she'd throw another issue and I'd duck and dodge
Speaker 1: because I did not want to get into any kind
Speaker 1: of conflict. You know, in every marriage, there are skunks
Speaker 1: and there are turtles. Skunks, when they get upset, they
Speaker 1: stink the placeop when you're If you're a skunk, you
Speaker 1: let everybody know when you're unhappy. Turtles, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: pull into a shell and hide when there is conflict. Now,
Speaker 1: skunks always marry turtles always, So I'm not telling you
Speaker 1: which ones which in your marriage. But want to use
Speaker 1: the skunk and want to use the turtle, and it's
Speaker 1: hiding and hurling. That's what we do together. Conflict has
Speaker 1: never resolved accidentally. It just doesn't happen. It's always intentional.
Speaker 1: You got to make the move. Conflict never resolves itself.
Speaker 1: Now you've heard the expression time heals all things. That's
Speaker 1: a bunch of balogney. That's not true. Time heals nothing.
Speaker 1: If you've got cancer, so I think I'll just wait
Speaker 1: for it to get better, it's not gonna get better,
Speaker 1: it's gonna get worse. If you get shot in the
Speaker 1: side and you're bleeding to death, you think time heals everything.
Speaker 1: I think I'll just wait this one out. No, when
Speaker 1: you have a wound, it gets worse. It festers, it
Speaker 1: gets pussy, it gets infected. Time has never healed anything
Speaker 1: in your life. It only makes it worse. And if
Speaker 1: you hold onto resentment and bitterness, it doesn't get better.
Speaker 1: It gets worse over the years, and you get more hardened,
Speaker 1: and your heart gets harder and hard If time healed everything,
Speaker 1: you'd never need to go to a doctor. You could
Speaker 1: just go sit in the waiting room and say, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't need to see the doctor. I'll
Speaker 1: be here twelve hours and my flu will be gone,
Speaker 1: or my back will automatically heals it out. Time heals nothing,
Speaker 1: And the more you put it off, the worse the
Speaker 1: problem gets. Now I want you to write this down.
Speaker 1: The only way to resolve a conflict is to face it.
Speaker 1: Write that down. The only way to resolve a conflict
Speaker 1: is to face it. You can't go around it, over it,
Speaker 1: underneath it, behind it. You've got to go through it.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to teach you how to do this
Speaker 1: with the minimal amount of pain. You have to make
Speaker 1: the decision. I'm going to resolve the issue. Now. What
Speaker 1: causes us to postpone and procrastinate over issues that we
Speaker 1: know when we're out of whack with somebody at work
Speaker 1: or at home, or in our family, whatever. Well, the
Speaker 1: answer is one word. It is fear. Fear. We're always
Speaker 1: afraid of conflict. I've seen very masculine, manly marines who
Speaker 1: would die in a battlefield shrink in terror when their
Speaker 1: wife says four words, we need to talk. Those four
Speaker 1: words put the fear of God in every human male.
Speaker 1: We need to talk because people don't like conflict. Now,
Speaker 1: this fear of conflict is as old as the first couple,
Speaker 1: Adam and Eve. Adam and he disobeyed God. They got
Speaker 1: out of fellowship with God, that were out of whack
Speaker 1: with him. And here's what the Bible says in Genesis three,
Speaker 1: Adam said to God, I heard you in the garden,
Speaker 1: and I was afraid because I was naked, and so
Speaker 1: I hid. Now, notice he says, I'm afraid because I
Speaker 1: was naked. What's he talking about. I feel vulnerable, I
Speaker 1: feel exposed. I'm not covered up. So I was afraid
Speaker 1: and I hid. And men have been hiding from women,
Speaker 1: and women have been hiding from men ever since. In relationships,
Speaker 1: we hide and we hurl, and we're afraid. What is
Speaker 1: it that we're afraid of. We're afraid of vulnerability. We're
Speaker 1: afraid of being exposed. And that does three things. It
Speaker 1: makes you distant, It makes you demanding, and it makes
Speaker 1: you defensive. First, when you're afraid in a relationship, you
Speaker 1: get defensive and somebody brings something up, and then you
Speaker 1: get defensive about it, and you're afraid to reveal your
Speaker 1: true self, and you get distant. And what happens is
Speaker 1: we withdraw and we hide, and we build walls. We
Speaker 1: become distant, and then we become demanding. The more insecure
Speaker 1: you are, the more you try to control things in
Speaker 1: your life, and the most controlling people of the most
Speaker 1: insecure people, and the more insecure you are in a relationship,
Speaker 1: the more demanding and defensive and distant you can become
Speaker 1: because you don't want to let me get close to you.
Speaker 1: Some people think, I've talked to some singles if adults,
Speaker 1: you think, you know, the worst thing in my life
Speaker 1: is that I didn't get married. No, that is not
Speaker 1: the worst thing in your life. A far worst thing
Speaker 1: would be to get married and then live in emotional
Speaker 1: distance from the person you're married to the rest of
Speaker 1: your life. And we see it all the time when
Speaker 1: the very person you're supposed to be one with you're sharing,
Speaker 1: holding back secrets from and you can't reveal the true you,
Speaker 1: and you've been married to them for twenty years and
Speaker 1: you still can't be honest, can't be open, can't be vulnerable.
Speaker 1: That was what fear does. Fear keeps us from the
Speaker 1: connecting at a deep level. What is it that I'm
Speaker 1: afraid of. I'm afraid of your rejection. I'm afraid you're
Speaker 1: going to misunderstand me. I'm afraid that I might say
Speaker 1: something in a conflict that you're going to come back
Speaker 1: and use against me later on. And it keeps us
Speaker 1: from disconnecting at a real level. Why am I afraid
Speaker 1: to tell you what I'm really feeling about this problem,
Speaker 1: because I'm all I've gotten. You don't like me, That's it.
Speaker 1: Where do you find the courage to make the first move?
Speaker 1: You keep waiting on somebody else resolve the conflict. They're
Speaker 1: waiting on you and peacemakers take an issue. Where do
Speaker 1: you get the courage to deal with your dad or
Speaker 1: your mom, or your brother or your sister, or a child,
Speaker 1: or your husband or your wife, or an ex or something.
Speaker 1: Where do you get that courage? There's only one place,
Speaker 1: the Holy spirit, God's holy spirit, the spirit of God's love.
Speaker 1: The Bible says, there is no fear in love. Now
Speaker 1: God is love. If you get full of God, the
Speaker 1: fear is going to go. What motivates a normally rational
Speaker 1: person to run into a burning building because they know
Speaker 1: a baby's in there, and the fear is overcome by
Speaker 1: their love for that child. We never change until our
Speaker 1: love exceeds our fear. We never change until the pain
Speaker 1: exceeds our fear. And so the starting point is to say, God,
Speaker 1: I need you to fill me with your love, because
Speaker 1: perfect love casts out all fear. The Bible says this
Speaker 1: in two Timothy one seven. Here on the screen, it
Speaker 1: says God has not given us a spirit of fear
Speaker 1: and timidity, but a spirit of power and love and
Speaker 1: self discipline. So everything I'm going to teach you today,
Speaker 1: the steps, and they're very practical steps cannot be done
Speaker 1: unless you get filled with God's love. Because it is
Speaker 1: a love of God. It's going to eliminate the fear.
Speaker 1: And then you have the courage to make the first step.
Speaker 1: How do you get that love? You ask God for it.
Speaker 1: So here's the second step, ask God for wisdom. You
Speaker 1: made the decision. Okay, I'm not gonna let this thing
Speaker 1: go anymore. I'm not gonna let it fester. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: deal with this conflict that's been under the surface for
Speaker 1: so many years or months, and I'm going to ask
Speaker 1: God for wisdom. The Bible says in James chapter one
Speaker 1: that if we ask God for wisdom, God will give
Speaker 1: it to us James one, verse five. If you want
Speaker 1: to know what God wants you to do, ask him
Speaker 1: and he will gladly tell you. So the first thing
Speaker 1: you do is you make decision. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: go along with this unresolved anymore. I don't want to
Speaker 1: be out of fellowship of God. I don't want my
Speaker 1: prayers unanswered. I don't want to be unhappy. I don't
Speaker 1: want to be miserable. So I'm gonna take the first step.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna wait on them, and then I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say God, I really need your help. I need you
Speaker 1: to fill me with love because I'm scared to death
Speaker 1: and God, I don't know what to say. I don't
Speaker 1: know when to say it. I don't know where to
Speaker 1: say it. I don't know what's the best time. You
Speaker 1: plan a peace conference, and you find a time when
Speaker 1: it's good for them, not when you're tired. By the way,
Speaker 1: never have a conflict resolution while you're in bed, save
Speaker 1: that for other things in bed. If you start having
Speaker 1: a conflict, but half the time you go through, you
Speaker 1: start to get the major point you're going to hear,
Speaker 1: and that kind of ruins it. So don't use the
Speaker 1: bedroom for your conflict area. But you get where you're alone,
Speaker 1: where you're not in a public spot, where people can
Speaker 1: be real, and you say, Okay, God, what do you
Speaker 1: want me to say? Where do I say it? When's
Speaker 1: the right time to say it? And you ask God
Speaker 1: for help. So God I don't want to be out
Speaker 1: of whack with you. I don't want to be out
Speaker 1: I don't be on have my prayers un answered. So
Speaker 1: I want to deal with this issue now. I'm sure
Speaker 1: that even as I've just started talking to you about this,
Speaker 1: you're already thinking about somebody in your life that you
Speaker 1: know there's a strain in that relationship. It's likely somebody
Speaker 1: in your family or in your marriage, parents, kids, or
Speaker 1: maybe somebody at work. So I want to stop right here,
Speaker 1: and as your pastor who loves you, I want to
Speaker 1: pray that God will give you the courage to take
Speaker 1: the next steps we're about to do. Okay, let's bow
Speaker 1: our heads. Father. You know that we're all scared to
Speaker 1: death of conflict. Nobody who's rational likes it. And yet
Speaker 1: you have said that it's more important than worship that
Speaker 1: we actually go get something right with somebody that we're
Speaker 1: out of harmony with. And Lord, we know you're not
Speaker 1: saying go back, and you know, rebuild a relation, remarry us,
Speaker 1: an acts or whatever. You're just saying, bury the hatchet,
Speaker 1: make peace, harmony. And I pray that you would give
Speaker 1: my people, the people here in our church, the courage
Speaker 1: to reconcile, the courage to deal with tough issues that
Speaker 1: have been pushed under the carpet and swept into the
Speaker 1: corner and pretended like they were not happening. Lord, help
Speaker 1: us to face what we're pretending not to know. Help
Speaker 1: us to be real, and help us to have integrity.
Speaker 1: And God give us the right place, the right time,
Speaker 1: and the right thing to say, and help us to
Speaker 1: come with the right attitude, ready to reconcile. In your name,
Speaker 1: I pray Amen.