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Well conflict. Conflict is a part of life. If you have breath in your lungs, if you have blood coursing through your veins, which I'm guessing all of you do, uh you are gonna be dealing with conflict. It's a part of life. I remember I was in the 11th grade, I went to a small private school in Australia, and uh I was in the 11th grade, and I was one of those people in school who liked to like everybody. Like I wanted to be liked by everybody, and I wanted to like everybody. You know, I was like, you know, tried to be the friendly guy at school, but there was this one kid in my class who was just so antagonistic. He was that type of person that if you had one view on something, he'd pick the opposite just to annoy you. If you said one thing, he had to say the opposite. If you had one view on something, he was always going against it. And he would do it just to get a rise out of you. That was his personality. And one day, he and I got into a heated conversation that I cannot remember what it was even about. So this conversation went back and forth, it got a little heated, and in this conversation, I did something that wasn't very smart, right? So I'd been, as we were talking, we were out there on the play yard, I'd picked up a little piece of mulch off the like a little piece of bark. And I was playing with it as we were talking, back and forth, kind of going back and forth. Well, I took that and I flicked it at him as we were talking, right? And uh that wasn't a very smart idea because that made him angry or more angry, and he'd been playing as we were talking with a bolt, like a big bolt, big metal bolt that had fallen out of one of the benches there in the s at the school. And he took that bolt and he threw it at me. And I turned around to try and avoid it, hit me right in the middle of the back, and I was done. My temper fled up, and I was completely out of control in that moment. And so I ran at this guy, and I I tried to punch him and did this like crazy straight punch as I lunged towards him, and it was an ugly scene as my friends kind of pulled us all apart, and and and we were both really, you know, heated in that moment. But I did get known as from that day on as Harley, the guy with the straight punch. So uh to this day, if I'm hanging out with my friends and I start to like disagree with someone, they're like, oh, watch out, Harley's gonna pull out the straight punch on you, and I'm like, okay, great. But I remember going home that day, very clearly remember going home that day, sitting in my room, getting quiet by myself, and being completely freaked out by how quickly I'd lost my temper, and really I think freaked out more than anything by the fact that I didn't have any control over myself in that moment. My anger was so strong that I had no control over my rage. And I remember being very, very scared by that, and I also remember being saddened by the fact that I knew in that moment that I had not represented Christ well. As somebody who had on that school campus very vocally been a Christ follower, in that moment I had not represented Christ or the peace that He offers to us. And I remember feeling remorse about that. I remember thinking, you know, God has given us peace, and I and I'm not showing this peace. I didn't show peace in that moment. And we've been having this conversation about peace here at church these last couple of weeks. We're talking about uncommon families, as you can see, and we're talking about this because we feel like as a church, as Christ followers, we are called to look different from everybody else. As Christ followers, we are uncommon. And what what does that really mean for us as families, as individuals, as our in our homes? How do we look different and what does that mean for us? And specifically, we've talked about how, as uncommon people, people rescued by Jesus, how does that mean that we're to carry peace in the places that we we go in life? And so last week, Nick and Jada did a great job of talking about having peace in the midst of chaos. As Nick and I were talking about this series, we discovered pretty quickly that this idea of having uncommon peace wasn't something we could cover in just one message. So we divide it up into two messages. Last week, like I said, Nick and Jada talked about having peace in the midst, I'm gonna get these words out, in the midst of chaos. And uh we talked specifically out of a scripture that I really like, Philippians 4, and that's a scripture that says, be anxious about nothing, but in everything through prayer and petition, present your request to God, and the peace that passes understanding will guide your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. One of my favorite scriptures of all time. Great message to this talking about in the busyness of life, in the chaos of our worlds, how do we have peace? People are gonna notice that when we have peace in the midst of chaos. Well, we didn't end there. What we're gonna do is today we're gonna talk about how do we have peace in the midst of conflict. If you look at Romans chapter 12, verse 18, there's a scripture there that says this if possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone. So, as Christians, we're called to live at peace with people, but how do we do that? How do we live as uncommon people who carry peace in the places that they go? So I want to kind of back us up before we start this conversation and really ask the question of where do we have why do we have conflict? Where does it come from? Why does it arise in our lives? And as I got to thinking about that the last couple of weeks, I pretty quickly came to the realization that we have conflict in our lives because of sin. Sin entered our world a number of years ago, many, many years ago, and it's affected us drastically. Sin brings sickness, pain, hurt, disease, and conflict in the midst of everything. So if we're gonna back this thing right back out, I I figure it may be good for us to say, okay, if sin is a part of life, how does it fit into the scope of what we know and understand from God's Word, from the Bible? So what I want to really quickly do before we jump into talking specifically about conflict is to ask the question, where's conflict come? It comes from sin. How does that fit into the whole ski scope and scene of the Bible? So as we back back out and look at God's word, we see that there's four themes that are carried throughout the scripture. And I really quickly want to recap these with you. I know some of you have heard this before, but I want I think it's important for setting up this conversation on conflict. The first thing that we understand and know from God's word, the first idea that we find in God's word is that we are created by God. That He was the intelligent designer who breathed life into the universe and made us exist. I personally don't believe in evolution. I believe that there was an intelligent designer who created everything. And I believe that that's what God's Word tells us very clearly. And God created us to be in perfect relationship with Him. But the problem is that we chose to reject God. And that second idea that comes into the text. So you got the first idea is creation, the second idea is fall. And that's the story of Adam and Eve in the garden choosing to reject God, choosing to want to be like God by eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. And so you got creation, fall, and thankfully we have the third piece of uh of the theme that we get in scripture, and that is this idea of redemption. The idea that Jesus came back to rescue us, he came to earth as a man to live a perfect life for us. You guys have probably heard me say this before, but what how we understand it is we've got God here, we've got us here, and what Jesus did was he created a bridge between us so that we could be back into right relationship with God. That's who Jesus was. He came and lived a perfect life as a man and died a death on a cross for our sins. Something we talk about here every week, right? So you've got creation for redemption, and then the last piece is restoration. That's the idea that God is going to come back and renew everything, he's gonna make everything right again, and he's gonna eradicate all the evil in the world, all the sin in the world, which means there'll be no more sickness, hurt, pain, disease, and also no more conflict. Amen, right? We look forward to that. But what I want to point out to you, the reason that I show you this whole thematic idea of the gospel, there's some good churchy words all thrown together, uh, is that we live right in between, we're wedged between in history the redemption and the restoration. And what I mean by that is we already know that Jesus came to save us from our sins. And those of us who are Christians, we believe in Christ to save us from our sins, but the problem is we the world hasn't yet been restored. The world around us and our bodies still struggle with sin. We're wedged right here between those two big periods, those two big themes of the scripture. And that's where conflict comes from. That's why conflict is a part of our lives. So, as we look to the scriptures today, I want to ask you guys to turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4, because this scripture is going to show us kind of this big idea and then zoom us specifically into relationships and talk about, okay, this idea that if we are Christians, we are to look different. But what does that mean for us specifically in relationships and relational conflict? So Ephesians chapter 4 is where we're going. We'd invite you if you don't have a Bible, feel free to grab one of the ones in the seats in front of you. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 20. As you're turning there, I'd just like to remind you that what Paul has been saying here before we get to the scripture we're going to read today, is basically you guys used to struggle with darkness, with living with sin, with with all of these things, the effects of sin. And then he picks us up in verse 20. This is what he says. But that is not how you learned about the Messiah. Assuming that you heard about him and were taught by him, because the truth is in Jesus. You took off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by evil desires. You are being renewed in the spirit of your minds. You put on the new self, the one created according to God's likeness, in righteousness and purity of the truth. We're going to come back to the scripture, but let's just pause there for a moment and think about this. What essentially Paul is saying is that through Christ, a Christian is one who has taken off the old self and put on the new self. I don't know if you guys ever get really dirty and disgusting like I do sometimes, but sometimes I'll go and do some exercise, right? And I'll come back home and I'm all like sweaty and nasty. Liz will, my wife will sometimes try and give me a kiss on the cheek and then she'll be like, oh, you're salty. You know, it's really kind of gross to her. But in that moment, I'll be like, okay, I I'm kind of nasty, but I'm gonna do some more work around the house. So I'll I'll set to like going and doing some yard work, I'll I'll do some weed eating or whatever else, get some more stuff flicked onto me, do some more sweating, and then I'll get out in the garage and clean some stuff up and get some dirt and grease on me. By the end of the day, I'm absolutely disgusting. Like I wouldn't want to be near me. I'm I I stink, I got dirt and grime all over me, and there's really it's one of the best feelings in the world to take those nasty clothes off, get in the shower, scrub, get clean, and put a new set of clothes on. And essentially, that's what Paul is saying to us here. When you're a Christian, when you become a Christ follower, in that moment you go, it's like taking off those nasty, dirty sin clothes and putting a new outfit on. You're a new creation, you're a new being in that moment. The old self is gone and the new self has come. Now, for some of you here this morning, I want to encourage you. Um obviously, Paul in this text is talking to Christians. And a lot of what we're talking about today is going to be contextualized by having a relationship with Jesus. But don't let that turn you off from this conversation. This is a great way for you to hear about and to learn about what it means to be a Christ follower and how that means you deal with conflict here in a few minutes as we steer the conversation in that direction. So don't disengage in this moment. But I just want to remind you, yeah, when you become a Christian, what that means is you're taking off these nasty, this nasty self and putting on this new self that is in Christ. Another way that Paul described it in the book of Corinthians, I won't get you to turn there, but I'll read it for you. In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17, he says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. I like those words. Old things have passed away, and look, the new things have come. So this is just another way of saying the same thing. He's saying, Old self, new self, new creation. For the sake of our conversation today, we'll probably use this word new creation a lot, because I really like the way that that sounds. When you are in Jesus, you're a new creation. Now there's far-reaching implications for this. This affects all the areas of our lives, how we use our time, our energy, our resources, how we we interact with each other. But specifically, what Paul is about to do here as we continue to read is he's gonna say, okay, because you're a new relation, sorry, a new new creation, how's that gonna affect your relationships? How's that gonna affect the way that you deal with conflict? How's that gonna affect the way that you have peace in the midst of conflict? So let's continue to read on in verse 25 of Ephesians 4. Since you put away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Don't let the sun go down on your anger, and don't give the devil an opportunity. So Paul starts out by saying, Since you are a new creation, essentially what he's saying is, because of that stuff that I just said in the last paragraph, because you're a new creation, because you've been changed radically, let's talk about relationship. And then he goes on to give us two specific instructions. The first instruction is this speak the truth. He says, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor. The second thing that he tells us is to be angry and not sin. Now I want to dissect these a little bit. I want to go into some more depth on this, but I want to do that by first talking about how we typically deal with conflict. All of us here in the room, when we get into conflict, lean towards either being a stuffer or a shouter. Let me explain that a little bit. If you're a stuffer, you're somebody who, when you get into a conflict, a little bit of a scuffle, a little bit of relational turmoil. What you typically will do if you're a stuffer is you'll kind of just suppress down, you'll push or stuff down what you want to say or what you're feeling, and you'll bottle all up inside. You'll get all passive and quiet. You're kind of like a turtle that's pulling its head into its shell, right? So that's how we act if we're a stuffer. So some of you, when it comes to conflict, that's how you lean. That's kind of your default when it comes to conflict. Now, other people in the room, your default is when it comes to uh to conflict, is you're a shouter. You're somebody who just likes to blurt it on out, just lay it out on the table, and later on you oftentimes probably regret some of the things that you said, but you're somebody who just likes to get it out there, okay? So I just wanted you to think about that in the light of conflict and relational struggles and come back to the scripture with me. Because it specifically applies. If you're someone who stuffs your emotions, your feelings, the things that you want to say, the first of these two statements applies directly to you. What's the instruction? It says, speak the truth. So, my first kind of practical thought for you guys to think about as we read this text this morning, if you're a Christ follower, if you're a new creation and you're in conflict and you lean towards being somebody who likes to bottle things up, God is calling you to speak the truth in those moments of conflict, in those moments of hardship and difficulty. And I know that may not be easy for you, but that's what you're called towards. Also, if you're somebody who naturally leans towards being a shouter, the second instruction applies directly to you. It says, be angry and do not sin. If you're someone who just likes to blurt things on out, you need to be careful. You need to guard your mouth and your heart in that moment because when you're angry, you may say something that later on you regret. I don't know about you, but when I read that text and it says, be angry and do not sin, I'm a little bit surprised by it. Because I'd almost expect to be reading through the scripture and and hear it say, Don't be angry, don't sin, blah, blah, blah. You know, continue on going. But it doesn't say that. It says, be angry and do not sin. And I think the reason that I think that is sometimes in church circles, when we hang out in these around church for a while, we get the feeling that emotions are a bad thing. You know, those are things, especially emotions like anger. That's that's something that we shouldn't ever talk about or think about. But the truth is that God designed us, and he created us in his image, with emotions. This is the way he created us. Not only that, to feel is to be human. And when I say that, I mean that in a good way. Feeling is a good thing. So it isn't a question of if we should feel emotions, but it is a question of how do we use our emotions when the emotional temperature gets hot. So think about this with me. Jesus got angry. I'm sure when the early uh the early church was reading this letter. So just a little bit of background here. When we read from the book of Ephesians, originally this was a letter written by Paul, the author of Ephesians, to some friends in a church that he helped start in a city called Ephesus. That's why it's called Ephesians. And they would have read this letter out loud to the church, and they would have been thinking about some of the stories they'd heard about Jesus. They didn't have the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. They had actually something better. They had people who had literally been there with Jesus when he'd done things, and then tell him stories about Jesus. They could interact and say, Well, what did Jesus do then? You know, like they had the ability to hear firsthand accounts of Jesus. And I'm sure as this letter was being read out and it says, Be angry and do not sin, some of these people in the church were thinking about stories they'd heard about Jesus. Because they would have thought of the story that we read in John chapter 2, where Jesus goes into the temple. You guys know what I'm talking about? Jesus walks into the temple and he sees what's going on. Now it's interesting in John's version because he walks in, sees what's going on, and then walks back out. And when he walks back out, he gets some cords and braids them together, and then he walks back into the temple and he uses that as a whip to clear out the temple. Now, don't have time to dissect all of that, but we know that the people were like going against God's law, going against God's word, and they were doing business in the temple. They were selling sacrifices and making money off the people who are coming to worship God, and that made Jesus angry. And in that moment, he goes in with this whip and like literally clears out all these money changes and all these people doing all this buying and selling in God's house. We see him be angry in that moment. Another account in Mark chapter 3 is this story of Jesus there with some religious people, and there's this man there with a crippled hand, and they're all watching to see if he's going to heal this man because it's a Sabbath, and he's not meant to do work on the Sabbath. And Jesus looks at them and says, Hey, is it okay for me to heal this guy? And as he looks around, we're told in God's word that Jesus looks at them with anger and sorrow at the hardness of their hearts. So the better question for us to ask is how do we honor Christ with our emotions? Because we can see very clearly here that Jesus was angry. So how do we be angry and not sin? And essentially the question we're asking here, and the one I really want you guys to think about for the next couple of minutes, is how do we honor God when our emotional temperature runs hot? Whether you're somebody who stuffs your emotions or shouts about them, either way you're angry, how do we honor God when the emotional temperature runs hot? Well, I'd like to propose an answer to you. And it's gonna sound a little bit churchy, but I need you to stick with me, okay? What I'd like to propose to you is the way that we honor God in the middle of heated moments in our lives is by keeping Jesus as Lord in our heart. Now, I know that sounds churchy, but let me explain that a little bit. When we say our heart, we're not talking about this piece of muscle in our chest that pushes blood through our veins. When we Say our mind our heart in the middle of a spiritual conversation, what we're talking about is the very essence of who we are. One of the great definitions that I like to use for heart is our heart is the seat, like a seat, of our mind, our will, and our emotions. That's a great working definition. Our heart is the seat of our mind, our will, and our emotions. So when you tie all of those things together, basically what it's saying is your heart is the very core, it's the very essence of who you were. And when you become a Christ follower, when you make Jesus as Lord in your life, when you're a new creation, what that means is that he comes in and assumes that top spot in your heart. And that's where he's called to stay in your life. In essence, what you do when you become a Christ follower is you say, I'm going to take myself off the throne of my heart and I'm going to ask Jesus to come and sit in that top spot. That means my everything that I do is filtered through that lens of who Jesus is and what he's done for me, because he's the most important thing in my life. He's at the essence, he's at the core of who I am. You guys tracking with me this morning? So that's what it means when we have Jesus as Lord in our heart. The problem is, remember earlier we talked about how we live between the redemption and the restoration? It means we still struggle with sin. And even as Christians, we continue to struggle with leaving him as Lord in our hearts. There's other things that vie for that, that they all compete for that top spot in our hearts. And those things that are competing for that top spot in our hearts sometimes struggle to against Jesus being the Lord in our lives. It may be our selfish wants or desires, things that we desire, but sometimes it's our emotions. And for our conversation today, sometimes our anger tries to compete for Jesus. And it wants to be the most important thing in our hearts and in our lives. And so what I would like to propose to you guys is a really good question to ask yourself in the heat of the moment of conflict is this Is Jesus still Lord in my heart? In the midst of the conflict in your marriage, in the midst of the conflict in your parenting, in your family, your extended family, in the midst of your work conflict, is Jesus still Lord in your heart? The reason that I say all of this is because Paul went on to say something very interesting. He said, Don't let the sun go down on your anger. Now, why would Paul say that? That's like an interesting statement, right? Well, I think it's because he knows that if anger you are experiencing, the anger you're experiencing, is so intense that you're carrying it with you as you lay down to sleep, that that anger is likely trying to compete for the space of top priority in your heart. It's trying to be in the throne of your heart. If your anger is so strong that you haven't dealt with it by the time you're going to sleep, it's trying to take Christ's place as Lord in your life. And so Paul doesn't just say, hey, don't let the sun go down on your anger. He goes on to say, and don't give the devil an opportunity. That's a pretty stern warning. And the reason he's saying that is because he realizes how important this is for us not to let the devil have an opportunity. Some of your translations that you were reading out have probably said, foothold. It's a really good way of kind of thinking about it. This is important, guys. Like if we're letting anger rule our lives, if it's eating our lunch, it doesn't mean good things for us. If it's consuming you when you're going to bed at night, it's probably vying for that top spot in our hearts. So if we were to read on today in the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, we'd read several more warnings that Paul gives about stealing and looking after each other, providing for one another. But then we finally get to verse 31, and that's where I want for us to pick back up in this conversation about relationships, conflict, and finding peace in those. Verse 31 says this All bitterness, rage, sorry, all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice, and be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another just as God also forgave you in Christ. I really like the way that Paul kind of ends this little part of his conversation because essentially what he's doing here is he's saying, okay, we've talked about relating with each other a little bit, but let me give you a recipe for successful relationship. And this recipe includes taking out some ingredients and adding some ingredients, okay? And so in this recipe, he gives us this list. He says you need to remove bitterness, anger, wrath, shouting, slander, malice. Now, malice is a word we don't use a lot, but it's the word we get malicious from, and it means intention or desire to do evil. But he doesn't just say, hey, get those out of your life. He says, hey, remove these things and replace them with these things instead. Kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. And so Paul's instruction to us is, hey guys, let's get really practical here. He says, yeah, don't let the sun go down on your anger. Speak the truth to each other. Yeah, those are good things. But he says, we need to work towards leaning away from bitterness, anger, wrath, shouting and slander and malice, and we need to lean towards in conflict kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. Now, while we're talking about practical things, I want to just throw in a couple of other things just to think about as we deal with conflict. I'd like to propose to you that in the midst of conflict, if we're to have hearts of kindness, compassion, and forgiveness, we need to remember that our spouse or our children are not the enemy. I'll say that again. Your spouse, your child is not the enemy. I know that in the middle of conflict it doesn't feel like that sometimes, but they're not the enemy. The second practical thought that I'd have from this passage is this don't let the sun go down on your anger. It doesn't get much more practical than that, right? Paul's been very clear with us. That wasn't some like high-fluting idea that he just lofted out there and said, Hey, why don't you guys think about this? No, it's very practical. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. And what that means for some of us is that we need to stay up a little bit later sometimes and work out the stuff that we need to work out with. We need to deal with the things that we need to, because remember the very sobering caution. If you don't let the if you let the sun go down on your anger, you may give the devil an opportunity. That's a sobering reminder. So one of the practical things that I'd really like to encourage yourselves and myself with is we need to be very good about not going to bed angry, not trying to sleep it off. That's a ridiculous idea. We need to deal with it in a way that honors God. Third thing that I encourage you with is this be quick to listen and slow to become angry. If you read James chapter 1, that's what we're told. I'd actually encourage you in your listening guide, we have a reading plan of scriptures that apply to the message that and it gives you a day-by-day reading plan. One of the scriptures is James chapter 1. We're not going to turn there today, but it's in the reading guide for you guys to listen to uh read through today, this week. Sorry, I'll get that right. So be quick to listen and slow to become angry. Now I've just given you guys a whole bunch of practical things about how to better deal with conflict. I've given you a couple of things, but I don't want you guys to walk out of here saying, okay, if I just apply these principles, I'm going to have this figured out. Because there is a greater truth that's being pointed to as there is every week when we get up here and talk about God's word. And that's found in this week's message in verse 32. Because Paul says to us, hey, be kind, be compassionate, be forgiving. But he goes on to say, just as God also forgave you in Christ. And so what you need to walk out of here knowing today is yes, you're going to have conflict, yes, you're going to mess it up, yes, you're going to get angry, and yes, you probably will sin and struggle with sin. But you need to know that Jesus is the hero of this. Jesus is the savior of this. Jesus gave us the ultimate example in this. And so what I want you to write in, you're filling the blank there for this next one is Jesus is the king of reconciliation. I read you guys a scripture earlier, and I purposely only read you the first verse because the rest of it is awesome, and I was saving it for till now. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17 starts out. That's the one that talks about the new creation. It says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. We read that already, but listen to what it says as it continues. Everything is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses. That just means sins against them. And he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. Certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. Isn't that a great scripture? As we read that today, I want to point you to one last story that Jesus told. If we were to turn in Matthew, I'm going to give you a paraphrase, but if we were to turn to Matthew chapter 18, you would hear a story that Jesus told, that's a very sobering story about reconciliation. Like I said, I'm going to paraphrase that a little bit, but essentially, this is what this how the story goes. There was a king, and he called in his servants one day to settle an account with them. And this servant comes in that he, one servant in particular, that owed him a large sum of money. And for our story today, we'll say it was a million dollars. So this servant comes in, owes the king a million dollars, and the king says, Hey, I need my money. And he says, Uh, I I don't have it. And the king is like, Well, that's not good enough. I need it now. Uh and he's like, I don't have it, I'll try and get it. But the king says, No, no, no. I'm gonna have to like try and sell you and your wife and your kids to some forced labor so I can get some money back out of you. I'm sorry, that's just the way it is. And the man falls on the ground and says, Please have mercy with me. Would you give me some grace? And the king says, Okay. I can do better than giving you some more time. I'm actually gonna get rid of your loan. You don't owe me anything. You can walk out of here a free man. And so that man walks out of that building that day, having been forgiven a debt of a million dollars. And as he's walking out of that place and he's walking down the road, he sees a guy, he sees a guy across the street who owes him a thousand dollars. And he runs over to this guy, grabs him by the scruff of the neck, and says, Hey buddy, you owe me money, you owe me a thousand bucks. And the guy says, I I I don't have it, I'll I'll get it for you, I'm sorry. And the guy says, No, no, no, that's not good enough. And the guy says, Please, I promise I'll get it for you. And he says, No, that's not good enough. And he takes this man and throws him in prison until he can pay back the money. And word of this circulates around. Some people saw what happened, and it gets back to the king, and the king calls in this servant and says, What in the world, dude? That's not exactly what he said, but uh he says, What in the world? I forgave you a million dollars, you can't even forgive this guy a thousand dollars. What's wrong with you? And I don't know if you're anything like me, but you if you've heard that story growing up, you hear it and you're like, What an idiot. Why can't he get the bigger picture? And we forget that this story applies directly to us. Because if we were to read this story in context, we would understand that what is being said here is Jesus is talking to Peter. Peter has just come to him and said, Hey, how many times am I meant to forgive this guy who keeps sinning against me? And Jesus says, You're meant to forgive him endlessly, 70 times seven. And then he launches straight into that parable. And we read that parable and we're like, oh, you know, well, that's silly. Like, why didn't he see? But we do the exact same thing. Let me explain. If you're a Christ fellower, if you're a new creation, you have been forgiven of the biggest debt that you can ever, ever think of the debt of sin between you and God. He reconciled, as the passage told us, us to himself. It's like we've been forgiven a million dollars. And yet we get caught up in these petty little conflicts. Now I know to you it may not seem petty, the fact that your wife doesn't respect you, or your husband doesn't love you, or your child doesn't listen to you, or your boss is a horrible person. I don't know what your conflict is. But that may seem like a big deal to you, but in the light of eternity, in the scope of everything that's happened, it's like a thousand dollars compared to a million dollars. And as Christ followers, as new creations, we are called to be ambassadors of grace, ambassadors of reconciliation. And we get all caught up on being right or winning the argument or or you know, making sure somebody hears our point. And that's not what we're called to lean towards. Now, I'm not proposing to you guys today that we as Christians should all be a bunch of pushovers, you know, that people are like, oh yeah, you're right, I'm sorry, you know, like no, Jesus at moments was angry, but he didn't sin. What I am proposing is that we are meant to lean towards reconciliation, we're meant to lean towards kindness, compassion, and forgiveness because Jesus has given us those things. And so in your marriages, in your families, in your workplaces, you are called as a Christ follower to be an ambassador of reconciliation. And so, really, as we get ready to wrap up here today, I would encourage you to think about what that means practically for you. I'm not going to give you the specifics because I don't know the specifics of the areas you struggle in conflict. But I want you to think about how do I honor God in the midst of conflict in my life. If you're not a Christ follower, I'd invite you to take that million dollars, right? I'd invite you to be reconciled with God. And that you really don't literally get a million dollars, but what I'm saying is that that's how amazing the grace is that's offered to us by Jesus. So, whatever place you find yourself in today, I hope that you're encouraged that in the moments of conflict that there is reconciliation offered to us by God, and we're called to offer that to the people around us, that we're called to walk in peace and be God's ambassadors of peace in the places that He puts us. Let me pray for us.