Lets open our Bibles to Galatians 1 (page 1151 of pew Bibles). [Id like to] just review with you what weve covered so far. The first week we talked about the mission of the church. The mission of the church is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that is summed up in 2 Corinthians 5:20 (page 1151 of pew Bibles). God was in Christ reconciling Himself for the world, not counting mens sins against them as entrusted to the church, the ministry of reconciliation. Paul writes and says, We implore you, therefore, as Christs ambassadors. Be reconciled to God. So first and foremost, we take this message of the good news: that God took on flesh; that He lived a perfect and sinless life; that He offered that life on the cross as a payment for sin. Gods justice, Gods holiness, the demands of the law were met, and Gods grace and love were demonstrated in the pardon that He offered to all who would come. That message of new life in Christ-that message of repentance and that you can know God, have your sins forgiven and know the promise of Heaven-is the mission of the church. Now there is an enemy that we face, and Satan seeks to thwart that mission-to divide the church, to cause a stumbling block for believers, to cause a tension amongst believers, to divert us from our mission. We said last week that Paul said were not to be ignorant of his schemes or his devices-to know how he operates. His method of operation is first and foremost to distort the truth. In the Garden when he attacks and tempts mankind, he does so by distorting the truth. Did God really say you would die? He distorts the truth. When he attacks the Gospel, what he usually does is distort the truth of the Gospel: minimizing what Jesus did; minimizing who Jesus was-making Jesus to be simply a man and not the divine Son of God. [He used] many other tactics, but he attacks the truth, the purity of the Gospel. When that happens, unity breaks down in the church because the truth is what binds us together. When truth is distorted, and then that distortion is believed, unity is broken down. When unity is broken down, love is displaced. Instead of loving God and loving our brothers, we begin to love ourselves, our system, our structure, our denomination, our agenda-whatever it might be. That becomes first. We saw that happen in the churches of Galatia. We turned to the Book of Galatia, and we saw how Satan had gotten a foothold in those churches. Galatia is a region; its not a city. There are many cities of Galatia, this Roman province, to which Paul writes. Thats why this is so crucial to the spreading of the Gospel. There was a group of people called the Judaisers. Judaisers were a group of men from Jerusalem who basically set out to make Christianity just another sect of Judaism, to render Christianity innocuous. [They set out] to say, Listen, if youre a Gentile. You want to follow Christ. What you need to do is be circumcised; you need to follow the Mosaic Law. You need to observe the customs and rituals of the law; and if youll do that, youll be right with God. Its not enough to simply have faith in Christ and trust Him to be your righteousness. It is Christ plus your good deeds. The churches of Galatia started to believe that message, that perversion, that distortion of the Gospel. As a result, unity broke down. The church became divided. They began to fight in and amongst themselves, and love was displaced. We saw that in Peter of all people-Peter reverting back to his old ways. Remember in the Garden when Christ was betrayed? He is questioned, and they say, Arent you one of His followers? Peter says, No, Im not, because hes afraid of what they might do to him. Well, sadly, Peter reverts back to that pattern. The Judaisers-these men are very intimidating. They use bully tactics. They come into a meeting where Peter is in Antioch; and as soon as they come into the meeting, Peter leaves the Gentile Christians and goes and associates with the Judaisers from Jerusalem. Paul then confronts him because the unity of the church is broken down. He says, Listen, you do not live by the law. Youre being a hypocrite here. You are breaking down the church. You and I both know that it is faith in Jesus that justifies us and not the works of the law. So Paul seeks to restore the unity of the church. So, those three things [are what we are talking about today]: the truth is distorted; when truth is distorted, unity is destroyed; when unity is destroyed, love is displaced. So Peter begins to love himself. He begins to protect his own self over and above the Gentile believers, so thats what happened. There needs to then be a reconciliation or a restoration in the church, and Paul sets out to do that. Now were going to look at what happens once that breach has occurred-once there has been a breakdown in relationships between individuals or groups. How is that restored or reconciled? Were going to turn to Ephesians 4-what were going to call the reconciliation chapter. Were going to see how it works in reverse order. There are some prerequisites that must take place in order for reconciliation to happen, just the reverse order of what we talked about last week when conflict occurs. For reconciliation to take place, the base of the fundamental issue is love. Love must be preeminent; love must be supreme. Paul writes in Verse 1 of Ephesians 4 (page 1158 of pew Bibles), As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Love is fundamental. Notice that everything that he talks about-the patience, the humility, the gentleness-all spring from love, a spirit of love. So when there is a conflict, and I need to approach that group or those individuals about restoring peace and harmony, I come in a spirit of love-not in a spirit of seeking to win. There is a principle that we need to remember: retaliation always leads to escalation. If we come with rhetoric, if we come with inflammatory words, we exacerbate the problem-not solve the problem. Love is preeminent. Secondly, Paul seeks that unity to be restored. He says, Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to one hope when you were called-one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. What is the word that Paul repeats here over and over again in that verse? One. He wants us to understand the concept of the fact that we are one in Christ. Hes not speaking in a metaphoric way. He is not speaking just in a poetic way. Paul means this literally. We are members of one another. We are one spiritual family, like it or not. He says in Verse 3, Make every effort to keep the bond of unity. It is not easy to have unity when there is a group of people. You have your family come home for the holidays. The bigger that family reunion is, the more likely [it is that] there is going to be some relatives there that you dont necessarily like or are in agreement with, right? Maybe when it is your immediate family, you do fine; but the more extended family you invite-aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws and out-laws, when all brought together-the more chances there are for conflict or for disagreements, right? Some of you can relate with that-such as over the holiday that we just went through. In a church of our size, when you get over 700 people gathered together as a church, I guarantee you, there are going to be some people in here that you dont agree with or that you dont like. They rub you the wrong way. Its an effort to maintain. You have to be diligent to maintain unity. Just like in a family when there is conflict, you work it through. So in the church, when there is conflict, we work it through because we are one. We are literally a family. We belong to each other. So many times through the years, people just leave the church. You have no idea when they went or why-no idea. Usually, its something really petty. Theyre offended or somebody looked at them cross-eyed or something insignificant [occurred]. Rather than working it through, they leave. Were a family. Family members dont just walk out on other family members. We work through to solve our problems in the church; were a family. We are one; we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Unity must be preserved. I believe the greatest president-well, with Washington and Lincoln, its hard to… You can make a case for either one. President Lincoln came into office at a crucial time in our nations history. The North and South were divided. The South was going to secede from the union. President Lincoln wanted to preserve the union at all costs. He did not want war; but should they secede from the union, then war would be forced upon them. If they were the aggressors, the North would not be the aggressor. Lincoln comes to the inauguration address. The South is watching them very carefully. There is a lot of tension and a lot of hostility. They think that Lincoln is going to take from them. They fear Lincoln; they fear what he is going to do; and [they fear] this new political party called the Republicans of which he is a part. What will he do? So Lincoln seeks to avert those fears and concerns. In his inaugural address, he says to the people of the South toward the very end of it… Civil war is going to start in a matter of a month-right after this speech. He says, We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union… He says, Like it or not, we are one nation. We have to live together. We have to work through these differences. We are the United States of America. We are not the North; we are not the South, and I will not allow us to be a divided people. Lincoln came with a spirit of reconciliation. He did not come to seek to make the matters worse or to agitate the South. He said, We are one. Paul wants the church to understand that we are one. When there is conflict, we are not enemies; we are friends. We work through those issues. We want to talk about how to do that in the rest of our time together. Were going to focus on that last item, talking about when love breaks down-when love is displaced-we redirect love to God, to one another. Then we seek to restore unity, the bond of peace, because we are a family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We do that by getting to the truth. Verse 25, Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. What is the truth? Putting off falsehood could take many forms. Putting off falsehood could be simply clarifying a rumor or clarifying a position; or falsehood could be actual deceit on somebodys part; it could be poor judgment. Whatever it is, you desire to get to the truth. You strip away all of that, and you focus on the truth-both content and intent. Content and intent-because intent is important. How many in this room have ever caused conflict or hurt somebody, and it was not your intention to do so? Right, sure. It happens, right? Our hearts might have been innocent; either words were misconstrued or whatever it was that we believe or thought hurt somebody, and that was not our intention at all. Intent is important. I was coming home from a class recently in Milwaukee. It was about 11:30 at night, and everybody was sleeping. So I wanted to be really quiet and not wake up the dog, get her barking and wake up everybody in the house. On my keychain, I have two keyless entries-one for each car. Some of you can kind of guess whats going to happen here as Im feeling in the night and accidently press the panic button; so the alarm starts to go off on the car. I was like, Oh, no! Now I have to turn that off! Im turning that off, and its dark. I dont know which car is for which, so I turn on the panic button on the second car. Now both cars are blaring horns. Rather than just calmly going, Okay, if I just press both red buttons at the same time, it will turn off, Im panicking. Im turning them on, turning them off, turning them on, turning them off. The dog is barking. Man, it was not good, but that was not my intention to cause that conflict, to hurt my neighborhood or my family. That was not my intention. It would have been pretty sinister if I had been out there and was going, Its midnight. Theyre sleeping. I should now press the red buttons and wake up the neighborhood. Ha ha ha ha. That would have been evil, right? There are times we do things intentionally, and there are times we do things quite not so intentionally. The end result is the same: conflict has happened. So Paul says, We get to the truth. We get to the truth in an expeditious manner. Thats important. Notice Verse 26, ‘In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. What does he mean by that? The longer you put off resolving conflict, dealing with tension, the harder it is to resolve [issues] because what happens is anger many times does not subside. You get increasingly angrier or increasingly bitter. It has a way of doing that, so we are to resolve those conflicts in an expeditious manner because if we wait, Satan has a foothold then to work. Hell use that. Hell whisper untruths in our ears. Well embellish the facts. Well see things as worse than they really are. That time factor is very crucial. That's why when Paul has a conflict with Peter, what does he do? We read about that in Galatians 2. As soon as he sees the hypocrisy, he says, As soon as I saw what Peter was doing, I gave him the silent treatment. Is that what he did? No. As soon as I saw what Peter was doing, I wrote him a nasty ten-page letter. No. As soon as I saw what Peter was doing, I said I cant wait until I get back and tell Timothy and Titus all the bad things that Peter has done! Is that what he does? No. He says, As soon as I saw what he was doing, I opposed him to his face! He sought to restore unity in the church. He did not procrastinate. The more I procrastinate, the worse it gets. I want to share a story with you of a family that I know that you dont know, but Im not going to divulge the facts. There was a conflict that happened between the mother and her daughter. The daughter had children. The grandmother was very close to both her daughter and the children. Something happened involving the womans husband, which would have been the step-father to the daughter. The accusation was so egregious that it caused a division in the household. The wife sided with her husband, and the daughter then became hurt because she had chosen her husband over her and her children; and a breach took place in the relationship. I tried to encourage the parties to get together and talk, but they would have nothing to do with it. They were too mad. After a period of time of nasty letters being sent back and forth disowning one another, the mother wrote the daughter out of her will. The daughter would have nothing to do with her mother. [She began] referring to the mother by her first name and not by Mom. The children were the innocent victims because they very much wanted to have a relationship with their grandmother, but now they were cut off from the grandmother; and there was no contact. Whats more, the families were divided because certain family members began to side with the mother, and certain family members began to side with the daughter. Both sides, when listened to, had a very perverted version of the truth. It was thought if they could just get together and share the truth and share what happened, they could resolve this conflict. At this point, it was going to take a miracle, and I would simply tell them, I am praying for a miracle. I would say this to both sides, I am praying. You are so far apart; its going to take an act of God. You love one another. No, she doesnt love me! Yes, she does. No, she doesnt love me! Yes, she does, Id say to the other party. Im praying for restoration. One day-I believe it was an answer to prayer-the daughter and her children went out for breakfast at the same time as the mother, who lives in another state, went out to breakfast. She had visited the city and went out to breakfast that same day, the same time, and at the same restaurant. They met one another at the buffet, unexpectedly. What do you think transpired? Rather than exchanging angry words and hurtful thoughts, they began to cry and embrace-in a public restaurant, of all places. For 20 minutes, the daughter, her mother and the granddaughter embraced, cried and wept. Finally, the daughter said, I dont care what happened. I just want to have my mother back in my life. I need you in my life, and I love you. The mother said, I do too. Ive missed you. Ive cried. I want you back in my life. More crying and more hugging [took place]. Reconciliation took place that day because they realized though they were not able to agree on the facts, their bond was more important than anything. They were a family. They were called to love one another. Friends, we may not agree on everything, but we are a family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and our love for one another is greater than anything that might divide us. Paul stresses that to the church. He says, You deal with the truth. You deal with it quickly. Also in Verse 29, he talks about the importance of focusing on the goal. He says, Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. The word unwholesome does not mean naughty talk; it does not mean bad words, cuss words. Unwholesome means corrupt. Unwholesome means words that are inflammatory, words that make the matter worse instead of better. It says when you have a conflict; the goal is not to win the argument. The goal is not to be right. That's the way it is in the world. Thats the way it is in the video with Ms. Ding Dong talking to us about how to solve [problems]. (There was a clip played from the movie The Bucket List). That's the way it is there. Thats not the way it is in the church. The church is entirely different. The goal is to restore what has been broken; its to rebuild the bridge. Its to reestablish communication; it is about restoration first and foremost, so the words coming out of my mouth are meant to restore unity. Yes, sometimes that involves confrontation. Paul confronted Peter, but the goal of that confrontation was the unity of the church and the purity of the Gospel which was being compromised. It was not that Paul ceased to love his brother Peter. He did not; they still were brothers. This would be the springboard to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 where Peter, Paul and the others came together and made that public stand: We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus and not by the works of the law. There was reconciliation between Peter and Paul as well. The questions that Paul asked, the open-ended questions that he asked, were meant to bring about the reconciliation and unity of the church. So when you do speak, guard your words. Guard your words. The words Im speaking-are they unwholesome? Do they break down or do they edify and build up? Are they spoken in a spirit of love or in retaliation? Retaliation leads to escalation. Then we have to talk about the final step. Look at Verse 30-32. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. The final step is forgiveness. Now were going to talk more about forgiveness next week, but I want to touch on it now because you dont know what next week looks like. Maybe youre planning on being here, but maybe something happens and you cant make it. So lets talk about it a little bit this week, and well develop it more next week. I want you to know that everything that Paul says here as he gives these commands to us: Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger. Be kind and compassionate, forgiving each other, those are all in whats called the imperative tense, which means they are not suggestions. They are commands. What Im sharing with you this morning is not my opinion on this subject. This is the Word of God; so if you do not adhere to whats being said today, its not that youre disagreeing with me or that youre disagreeing with Paul. You are disagreeing with the Word of God as Paul writes [while being] inspired by the Holy Spirit. God commands forgiveness; He does not suggest it-He commands it. A command can be two things, plain and simple. A command can be followed, or a command can be disobeyed. You dont kind of sort of obey a command. You either follow through with a command and obey the command, or you disobey the command. Now, were going to be talking in about two weeks about situations where reconciliation is not a good idea. There are times when we do not reconcile. They are not often; theyre more rare. We can always forgive, but reconciliation is a second step. Its usually the right thing to do, but not always. I guarantee you God and Satan are not going to reconcile any time soon. There are times in the Bible where its not healthy to reconcile. In those times when it is the right thing to do, which is most of the time, forgiveness is key. If forgiveness is a command, then you and I have a choice; and thats the one point I want to bring home about forgiveness this morning: forgiveness is a choice. It is not an emotion; it is not a feeling. For the believer, its not an option. Its not just an alternative. It is a choice that we must make. It is a choice between freedom and bondage; a choice to be free in spirit from bitterness and resentment; or a choice from bondage to the past; a choice between doing things the way I would like to do in my flesh or a choice between obeying the will of God in the Spirit. That is the choice that I make. It is an act of the will that is brought about through the grace of God working in our lives. There is a story or an image that we have all seen-or most of us have seen-from the Vietnam War. Its a story of a little girl. We see her running down the streets of Vietnam, and shes naked. Shes probably about six or seven years old, and she has a look of terror on her face. How many of you have seen that picture before? On her face are emotional distress, physical distress and confusion. What you may not know is the story behind the picture. That little girl had just been the victim of a napalm strike. As those chemicals landed on her back, her clothes were removed from her. She was running down the street in terror with burns on her back. That same bomb took the life of her grandmother; that same bomb took the lives of her brothers. Shes running down that street, and its captured by the photographer who then helped her, by the way, and brought her to the hospital after that picture was taken. What you may not know is the rest of the story. Have you ever wondered what happened to her? Did she survive? Is she alive? What happened to her? Interesting that you would ask because I have an answer. She is very much alive. She grew up; she married. She married a Christian man. Shortly after her marriage to this man, she too gave her life to Jesus Christ. She asked Him to come into her life, forgive her sins and be her Lord and Savior. Today, she is a Christian. Whats more, she is desiring to train for the ministry. She wants to go to Bible College to study and be able to go back to Vietnam and share the message of the Gospel with her people. In giving an address recently, she had these words to say about man who had dropped the bomb. If she could speak to him-she doesnt know who he is-but if she could speak to him, what would she say? She said, I would say these words-I would tell him that he is forgiven. I would tell him that he cannot change the past, and he cannot change what happened. What he can do is he can choose to live for peace. Words of reconciliation, words of forgiveness. Friends, I dont know whats happened to you in your life. I bet you have some pretty horrific stories you can tell of people whove hurt you and wronged you. I do know this: if that little girl who was a victim of war, saw her mother and brothers taken from her and felt the pains literally, emotionally and physically of those burns-if she could forgive the man who dropped that bomb by the grace of God-you can forgive the person in your life or the people in your life whove hurt you. God will help you to do that. The grace of the Holy Spirit will help you to do that. As I said, were going to talk more about that next week, but I want to lead us in a prayer right now before the team comes up to lead us in music. Would you pray with me right now? Father, we have been challenged today through Your word. We are challenged because we know our mission. Our mission is to spread the Gospel to the world. We know the enemy seeks to thwart that mission, and he does so by attacking the truth, seeking to cause division in the church and to get us fighting with one another. Lord, you called us to love one another; to recognize the oneness that we have; to preserve the unity that we have; to forgive one another; to reconcile with one another. Lord, we recognize further that this is the work of the Spirit in our lives. This does not happen through our sheer will and determination. This takes place as we yield to the Spirit of God and choose to obey the command of God; so I pray that all over this room-all those who are listening would take those steps, hard though they may be; take those steps to reconcile. Take those steps to forgive by the grace of God. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.