The Power of Reconciliation

Pastor Jonathan Cargill continues this two-part series on restoration and reconciliation, exploring God's heart for restoring broken relationships. He shares practical biblical principles on forgiveness, humility, and taking the first step towards reconciliation, even when it's difficult. 

Our heart at Celebration Church Rarotonga is that this message will greatly bless your walk with Jesus and help bring you closer to Him. We pray that you would be stirred to live a life that is passionate about loving Jesus!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to this week's podcast by Celebration Church Laratoga. We believe this message will empower and equip you to live a life of breakthrough. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Last week I spoke about restoration of friendships, restoration of relationships. There is a real strategy in the world to bring division. And I sincerely mean that. Division, and I understand Jesus Christ said, I didn't just come to bring peace, but I came to bring a division between light and dark or good and evil. Okay, so we understand that. There's a backdrop and explanation behind that. But it's simply what it is, is a real strategy to divide marriages, to break up marriages, uh, to bring enmity or division between siblings, uh, misunderstandings, misrepresentations, conflict, contention, that sort of stuff, uh, between neighbors and uh and relatives and uh and so forth. But you know, um, what it is is this is in I think it's Matthew 5.9, it is Matthew 5.9, it says, Blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the peacemakers, because they shall be called sons of God. So if we want to be called a son of God, we want to be a peacemaker. And it's one of the things I put up my hand for is to be an arbitrator or a peacemaker, to vouch for peace, uh best possible. So I want to jump into the subject here, continue on, and um I'll I'll just jump into the word of God as it is, okay? Okay, so 1 John 3 10, it says this, and this the children of God, and the children of the enemy or the devil are shown or manifest. Whoever does not practice, that's our key word, practice, righteousness is not of God. The key word though is practice. It's not talking about uh having a downer once or falling into a bit of a pit and getting yourself out. No, that's those that actually consistently, week by week, month by month, year by year, those who are practicing and walking in that kind of track or that kind of flow. That's what that's talking about. Okay, those who um uh practice righteousness is not of God, and then it's got here. Now he nor is he who who does not love this is King James Version a little bit, nor is he who does not love his brother. Okay, so here we've got, we're actually exhorted as Christians to love our neighbor as ourselves, okay? Uh then the word love will define it this way: it's seeking the highest good for another person at our personal cost. It's sowing kindness and mercy, forgiveness and patience, it's acting for another's benefit, even when it is a challenge, okay? That's what the love of God is. So, in other words, God has put within us the capacity to walk with his nature and to love one another. That's very important that we have the highest good for our neighbor. It's just not about us four and no more. No, we stretch the pen, uh the tent pegs, and we get a concern for our neighbor, okay? We we know that because we live in a community where we care for that. So I think in Polynesia we're probably steps ahead uh than other countries in the world. But there's a baseline scripture, there's two of them, and it's Ephesians 4.32, and it says, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as Jesus has forgiven us. Okay, then we're coming to Colossians 3, 12 and 13. This is just foundation. Therefore, as the elect of God or the chosen, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies: kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, even as Christ forgave us. Okay, now what I understand is it's one of the greatest uh plans or goals or objectives, if you like, of the kingdom of darkness is to have you withdraw back, right? Withdraw back, withhold, but withdraw back on your key relationships. In other words, to hurt you or to injure you as a wife that you just pull back on your husband. So you now become professional, you do stuff together, but you're emotionally disconnected or you're emotionally just drawn back a little bit. That is a plan that's a key that the enemy wants to have us. Like the pastor, a pastor can get wounded by people in the congregations. So the pastor just dumps the message on the people, but there's a distance between him and the people in terms of he's just withdrawn his heart. Uh, we're talking about your neighbor, somebody next to you, or maybe your brother, or maybe your sister, your siblings, or your parents. Uh the enemy wants to bring a division or enity or separation, so there's like an emotional wedge. I believe it's on the one of the highest orders from the kingdom of darkness, because God commands a blessing and unity. Very important that the spirit of oneness, Jesus cried out and declared that we would be one. Okay, so we're one heart, one mind, and one spirit. And we know the Bible says it talks about what one person where two or three are gathered, believing anything or touching anything on earth. It also speaks about two putting X amount to flight and hundred people putting X amount to flight. So that's important that we are unified people. It is. It's uh there's nothing worse. Look, let me tell you, this is nothing worse than having strife or discord in the house. Nothing worse than having that kind of contention in the home or in the marriage. It's horrible having to come home and it's just like a cold dinner or whatever it is, and uh, lucky if you get any, and uh, because there's contention in the home, right? And uh, or he comes home and just dumps it on his wife and how's your day, darling? But he's not feeling it, and he goes, Oh, all right, you know, and uh, but no, no, God wants harmony. Can you say to your neighbor, harmony? Great name for a little girl, actually. Harmony, peace, serenity, all of these things, very, very important for us to have. But don't lose that now. It's exactly what the enemy is trying to do. What he wants to do though, God wants to restore relationships, bring connection, togetherness, oneness. The word restore is interesting because it's this the Greek word talks about setting a bone that's been broken, putting it together. It talks about healing and recovery, it talks about repair, restoring into proper condition. That's what Jesus wants to do. Now, he wants to restore our minds to give us sound thinking, he wants to restore our emotions, bring healing into our emotions from trauma and grief and accumulated disappointments and bitternesses, all that sort of stuff. He wants to bring his presence. We know in Luke 4, 18, where it talks about God bringing healing to the soul of humanity. That's the will of God, that's the purpose of God. But to get it, to get that, you have to draw close to him. Okay, because you you you you get invited in, God invites you in, and then when you draw close, you find out where he is. That's the seeking and the finding. If you're at a distance and saying, Oh God, here I am, if you want me, that's a little bit casual. But if you say, Lord, I know you're real, I know you exist, but Father, I would ask, Lord, that you would touch me, you draw close to me. You will find God is faithful to reveal himself to every one of us at any one time. And he does want to heal us. That's part of who he is. The Bible refers to him as the great physician, the great healer. That's Christ. Came to heal, set the oppressed free, heal the brokenhearted. That word brokenhearted actually means to have a shattered heart. Maybe you're here this morning and you've got a shattered heart, a broken relationship, maybe you're betrayal, maybe something that happened many years ago, but you learn to cope in life. When we go to college and high school, we never get taught these things. But maybe that's your world today, and God wants to bring definite healing to every one of us. That's that's on the heart of God. Now, the thing is this about relationships, and I've itemized these as little points for us. God or the Lord puts an incredibly high value on unity and oneness. He wants us to be proactive in this area. I'm gonna go somewhere with this. Number two, a relationship is often wounded a long time before it's broken. So the way to stitch up a broken or a wounded relationship, and I know this because I've tried and tested and proven the principle of the word of God, is to sew. You know what I mean? So if you're at loggerheads with your neighbor, it's just you're not getting on, so and what I mean by sew is do good to them, make it something, create something, mow their lawns, shock them, cut their hedges, do something good, do some good works, but sew, speak well of them. It takes a whole, emotionally whole person to speak well of somebody when they haven't spoken to us well. You know what I'm saying now? In other words, you hear someone said, Oh, did you know that so-and-so has been criticizing you or whatever it is, and you say in return, oh yeah, well, they're this and they're that, but look, here's a whole person. You ready for this? You say, Well, actually, they are good people, it will shock the messenger because often the messengers love bringing you that message. Have you ever noticed that? So-and-so says sus and such, and you get confused between the messenger and the actual the originator of it, the perpetrator of it. And uh, so anyway, so that's important. I'm telling you, that's the way out. It's a biblical principle. You sow and you reap. You reap what you sow, that determines where you go in life. And so, if you've got an issue with something, I'm telling you, a great idea is to sow, to bless. If you're having problems with your boss, speak well of them. Bless and sow. If you've got problems with your parents, honor, bless, sow. And I'm telling you, the windows of heaven will open up to you. That's that like you got that for free this morning. How about this? An emotional wound and an injustice themselves do not produce bitterness. Have you ever thought about that? Because there's been plenty of people that have been betrayed or hurt and not bitter. Bitterness is a choice. Resentment and unforgiveness, that's our choice. It's not necessarily Siamese twins with the herd. We make the decision to have the carnal response. That's important for us. Okay. Every believer who's following the name of Christ, guess what? We don't get any luxuries in this one. We've been called to forgive. Regardless of how we were betrayed or the or or what went down in our town, we've been all called to forgive. And forgiveness means, it doesn't always mean to trust again, but it means we're gonna release them, we're gonna give them over to God, we're gonna forgive them in Jesus' name. Now, I spoke to a woman many years ago, and she uh and I I used the um it was a it was a relationship situation. I was actually over there when I spoke to her, and uh people are around, and I I she said to her, you know, I hate my old husband. And I said, That's a strong word to use, hate him. I said, You sure you hate him? She said, I hate him. And I said, How many years were you married for? X amount. And I said, How long have you been hating him for? And she said, Well, over about 15 years, we broke up and I just hate him. And I said, Okay, so you hate him and he's destroyed the last 15 years, and he's gone off with somebody else, and probably not even thinking about you, right? She said, Nah. And I said, So you've allowed yourself to be bitter for 15 years, you've allowed your ex-husband really to uh destroy 15 years of your life. She looked at me and I said, Do you want him to destroy the next 30 years of your life? She looked at me, so that's 45 years of an incident. You're gonna have the rest of your life totally and absolutely robbed because of what took place. It what took place, I said wasn't good. I said it was unfair, it was unjust, it was wrong, and I'm sorry for that. As a pastor, you know, it's just like you can't jump into anybody's skin and help them out, and you turn people around. Would be good if he came and apologized and laid down his life and sorted things out for you. But if that's not a reality, are you going to allow the next 30 years to be absolutely robbed? And unfortunately, sometimes something happened to us, it went down in our life. We hold a bitter root judgment to them, and we allow the rest of our life to be formed and fashioned according to the bitter root. It's not worth it. Really, it's not worth it, but it's a temptation, eh? It's a temptation to get your nose out of joint or get upset or hold a judgment on somebody. But you know, it's a great thing when we come to that place in Jesus because that's what he did to us. That's what he did, he let us go. He didn't hold it against us. We were pretty slack lovers. We've been up and down, in and out, and hot and cold. Doesn't hold he's graceful, he's merciful, his kindness endures forever. But for us, it's a temptation, want to hold these things tight, but it's time to let go. I reckon this is a modern-day 2026, more than even last year. Around the world, when you see so much strife and discord and racism and prejudice and hurt and pain, it's time to let some things go. It's time to let some people go. It's time to let you ready, some nationality and people groups go. It's time to let a regime go. You can get bitter towards an organization, you can get bitter towards a bank. True way. You can get bitter towards your doctor, bitter towards your neighbor. It's time to we've got to let it go. Because one day we're gonna face the father. You gotta let that stuff go. It's eating you up on the inside. You're keeping a record of wrongs, it's like a little filing system on the inside of your emotions and soul. Let it go, go through every one of them and just let release, release, release. Do you know the good thing about it? As you do that, and it's a process, and you might have to get up in the morning and do it again, and you might have to do it again and keep doing it, and this thing begins to progressively come out of you, and finally, it's just like the final release. And you can look at that person, there's no pain. Seriously, there's no pain, and that's the message of the cross that God forgave us. We've also got to forgive humanity. You say, Well, it's not fair. I agree with you, it wasn't fair, it was horrible. It's part of the sinful, broken world we live in. Disappointments, losses, betrayals, grief settings, terrible stuff. When we when we when we live in hope and we live in faith that something's gonna happen, it didn't work out, we get bitter and we get upset about it. But it's time, honestly, for all of us. I've had to walk this a lot. I think I was born with bitterness, actually. Sorry. I think I was. Born with my nose out of joint. No, I yeah, I think I received that from, I won't tell you whether it's my dad or my mum, or honored them, they both passed away. But I reckon that they were they had received it in a hereditary spirit down their line. But when you study the the culture where we came from, you realize, mate, that's it's it's it's there, it's just a deep-rooted thing, it sits within us, and uh, but I don't identify with that. That's the key. Seriously, I don't identify with it. I identify with the cross, I identify with my new life, new creation. Behold, all things have become new. I identify, you ready? I took that junk along with the filthy imaginations and the temperaments and the stuff, the selfish living and the pride, the arrogance, bringing it to the cross. That's where that belongs. So I identify, you ready for this? Not even with the cross, I identify with the resurrection because he's alive, you see. And guess what? We are the righteousness of God, we are the expression of God as we behold him, we become like him. That's good news. Let's give the Lord a hand, I tell you. Jesus said, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. And he said, Go and learn what this means. Wow. Now let me jump into this. Romans 12, 18. If it's possible, how many of you know that all things are possible? For those who believe, right? Okay, so we don't kind of get out of the scripture, but it says, if it's possible as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men, as much as it depends on you. So there's an exhortation though, but all things are possible, those who believe. So we've got to believe it's possible for reconciliations. I've got friends of mine that are logger at loggerheads with other people and so forth. I am praying almost daily for a supernatural reconciliation. Brothers, sisters. We must pursue peace. Now, I want to say this. Did you know that there are three things? There are some observances, there are some issues, and there are some uh offenses. So the first one, I thought about this a while back. You can have an observation. I'll give you two little two illustrations. Let's just say we started the church, it starts at 10 o'clock, but we started at 10:30. And respectfully, you're a tourist and sat here. You observed, hey, the it's it's now 10:30, this stopped. Did we get the time wrong? And you you all you've done, you're not offended, you're not upset, you just observe that we're actually half an hour later than what we had said we would be. That's called an observation. An issue goes a little bit more. It's but I think it's important though, it's an issue. I think we should say something, or or maybe uh that needs to change because I noticed they did it last week, and maybe they need to change it on the timing or whatever it is. Cool, you're not offended, that's just an issue. You you see it as an issue, so I can see observations, see them every day, and I can see that some things need to change. It's like I think it is an issue, it's all good. I think this needs to be tweaked, changed, but then there's an offense. Ah, I'm annoyed that it's half an hour late because my lunch is burning, and we had programmed to get out of here at a certain time, and they started half an hour late. That's an offender person. Do you see what I'm saying? Okay, let me give you another illustration. Coffee. Sorry, baristas. I really love your coffee. I don't drink coffee, but I just I know they're great because I hear about it. But let's just use this as an example. Come into the church and you order a coffee and it was cold. You think that I order the right thing? They get their order right or wrong. So you order it and it's cold. That's an observation at that point. Last week was also warm. That's an observation. But you might go the next step further. This is going to be more than an observation, it's now an issue. An issue is I think I should say something maybe, because what are other people feeling? Well, uh, people that don't know Jesus coming in and supposed to be hot coffees and it's freezing and cold. Maybe I should say something. That's good, and I think you should say something. That's cool. Like, that's that's like it. We see it as an issue. So we observe, yep, cold coffees, but it's more than that, we're gonna do something about it, okay? But then there's an offense is I'm annoyed. I paid my $4.50 or six bucks, so how many? And I got it myself a cold coffee. I'm annoyed. Jesus doesn't exist anymore. That's that's called an offense. You see what I'm saying now? Okay. So it's okay to have observations, folks. It's okay to see things as an issue that we can work together and stitch up or whatever, but offense is the choice. The last one. That's where we got offside. That's where we get our nose out of joint. That's where we get upset about things and we allow things to grind on the inside of us. Now, when the Bible says about restoring things, what we want to do, it's in the beginning process. Put it together. Why wait till it's really broken completely when it could have been sorted in the observation or the issue frame? You know something now? Why do we wait till something is absolutely broken? And because it's sometimes harder and it takes more of a skill set now that a relationship is completely broken, but we could have spoken, been transparent, and communicated in the beginning part, elementary part. Okay, remember this method number one, real quick. Prescribe method. And a problem is we don't do this, and that's why we've got so much stuff. Matthew 18, 15. Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you've gained your brother. So we know we've learned what? We don't go telling our neighbor, we don't we don't call a family meeting, we don't start telling the people at work, we're not gossiping on the person. The Bible says you go in private or you go alone. It's okay to tell your wife about it or something like that. She might say, Well, you go and need to be talking and that sort of stuff, but we need to talk. The problem is, and I want to say this because I want to reinforce this principle, we don't do that. We are slack people at this principle. Yet, you ready for this? If Jesus is the great physician, he's talking about healing physical bodies, but he's also talking about the broad aspect of this of how to restore relationships. We should go in the infant stage and actually have a conversation. And the conversation is I'm not going battle-hardened in and say, Hey, you said this man, and I know your motivation is really poor. No, no, no, we just say, hey, can you help me understand something? And we I got a little bit upset when you said something or this took place, uh, that. Can we talk about this? That's reconciling, and that's what Jesus asks us to do. And if we all did that in our marriages, we did that with our brothers and sisters, we did that even at work, rather than forming a judgment and getting critical on the inside and allowing that thing to be like a mountain on the inside, or going telling other people and it defiles them, like a root of bitterness, defiling others, it spreads real quick, it's called gossip. We'd be much better off, people. We'd be far better off if we followed the prescribed method of the doctor Jesus is telling you, okay, there's tension in the relationship. Don't worry, I've got a prescribed method. And notice it says alone. Other translations, private. Very important. So if we've done it, all we have to do, okay, God bless us. All have to repent. But in the future, going forth, what a way to get oneness. Yeah? All good. Honestly, I've been uh over well over 40 years in the faith, and I've seen this violated constantly, constantly, constantly, constantly, constantly. Constantly. Yeah, just honestly, it's it's in the body of Christ. Certainly in the secular world, definitely in the secular world, but I think we could do better if we just followed the pattern, follow the model. Jesus is telling us to do something. If we do it his way, we're graced to get his results. Okay, Matthew 5, 23, 24. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, tithes or communion, you're gonna fellowship. I think praise and worship, all that. And there remember that your brother has something against you. Leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift, reinforcing these principles. So I'm gonna bring an offering here, but I've got an issue with somebody else, or I believe that somebody has got an issue with me in the church. Do you know it's very humbling? But isn't this not what church is supposed to be about? Family? But we we like we we have professional Christianity where we just clock in and clock out, but there are some real live principles in the word of God that we're supposed to be abiding by. And what Jesus is saying, hey, if you think somebody is at loggerheads with you, you know it. Maybe you've done nothing wrong, maybe they've just got a problem with you. You, you say, Well, I'm an innocent guy, they know my address, they know where I sit, they could come up to me. They've got my cell phone number actually. No, it says no. You contact them and work to make peace with them and say, Hey, look, I know that things are a little bit rough. I just wanted to talk about it. Is everything okay? And the key, spirit, without going into all the details, is you are doing it in order to bring reconciliation. Again, guess what? We don't do that because we say this is if they've got a problem, they can come to me. I'm innocent in this, if they've got a problem, they know where I am. But that's not what Jesus said. If they've got a problem with you and you're innocent, you take the high road, the initiative, the innocent guy, and you go talk to them. And even it says, before you do an offering, because there's a connection between your offering and my offering, horizontal and our offering towards Him. Our relationship with each other, say this way here is connected this way, but we often think, oh no, it's just this way to hang with everybody else. That is not Christianity. That is not Christianity. Christianity is very much this way. Christianity is loving one another, it's treating one and honoring one another, it's speaking well of one another. That's what Christianity is. It's about oneness. Praise God. Hey, if we could do that in our church, that'd be awesome. If we could do this, it'd be powerful. Religious devils hate this, but it's the truth. It's the way to go. Okay, so let's talk about this. Complaining. Can I jump into that? When was the last time you complained? I was complaining at 1:35 in the morning. We are we are warned not to allow our complaining to injure relationships. Philippians 2 15, 14 and 15. Philippians 2, 14 and 15. Do all things without complaining and disputing or debating, that you may become blameless and harmless. You may become harmless, suggesting that when we complain, we're not we're bringing a little bit of harm. Children of God without fault. Complaining actually means to mutter or murmur, to whisper, to grumble, to express dissatisfaction in a low negative way. It's secret harboring criticisms and resistance to God's dealings. The children of Israel complained. They moaned. How many times have you complained against the government? When was the last time you prayed for the government? You read something in the newspaper, you go through that newspaper down and said, I'm upset with somebody on the island. Oh, okay, that's a response, but wouldn't the better response be, Father, in Jesus' name I command the change in the name of Jesus Christ. Different way of living, but we're sojourners, we're ambassadors. Seriously, we are a different breed of people. David understood it. He said, I'm not of this world. But you were born into it, but he's not of it. Do all things without complaining. Corinthians 10 10. Nor complain, as some of them also complained and were destroyed in the desert. Complaining, it's hard to explain, but complaining, we're so used to complaining in our communities, in our society, in our world today. It's just a given, it's part of the broken natural nature. It's just to complain or to murmur, whatever. But what the Lord is saying, don't go down that road. Don't complain against your wife, don't complain against your husband. Honor them. Have an honest conversation. Don't go talking behind their back like that. Don't complain against your teachers. And you say, Well, hang on one moment. Where's the balance? Because what they're doing is actually wrong, or what the board is doing wrong. No, you know what you do? You go make appeal. You write it out and you say, Well, we're gonna, I'd like a meeting, and this is what I like to talk about. We are concerned, the educational system, what's coming through our school for our children. We don't believe this is this is this shit, this is adult talk, adult conversations, and we don't believe, and that's that's different from staying at home and having a good old mutter, good old murmur, good old criticism patch, all that sort of stuff. Don't go down that way because it doesn't produce fruit. The appeal will produce the fruit, but this here, you're just gonna get bitter and complaining. The fact proverbs are stacked, stacked up with scriptures that talk about respectfully, ladies. I'm not on your case, but it's it talks about women uh there that are complaining in the home. It says it tears down the home, so to speak. But it's the same with men. Ever meant ever met a grumpy old guy? Have you ever met a grumpy teenager complaining, murmuring, criticizing, inner judgments, harboring all that stuff? The Bible is saying, don't go down that path. Now, if you want a great relationship and there's misunderstandings and tensions, one of the first things that you go to bat is don't complain. Seriously, don't have that inner world complaining, murmuring, and getting upset, make speak life. This is gonna come together. This relationship is gonna work. We're gonna love them, we're gonna grace them, we're gonna do our best, we're gonna take the high road, we're gonna take the low road of humility, we're gonna take the high road of faith, and we're gonna believe for a miracle outcome in Jesus Christ's name. That's you did you know what would happen? What would happen if one government did that to another government, nation to nation, nations of friction like that? That'd be incredible. Where one government decides we're gonna humble ourselves, we're gonna ask for their forgiveness. We're gonna ask them, would they reconcile with us nation to nation and come to some form of agreement? No, it's not about that, it's about fighting and contending. The Bible says in James, why do war start? Because of the stuff inside of us. The selfish ambition, all these things. So if you're in a conflict matter, maybe you're not right now, but you probably will be this time next year. Tension, it's stuff that's going on in your world with family and relatives. Look, I can tell you this: if you follow this word of God here, you'll be graced and watch the anointing oil come over the relationships. It makes the difference. Honestly, I've seen it happen, but I've seen the violations of both those scriptures where we don't go in private, we don't do that, but we grame, uh uh, uh complain and and uh grumble. I'm not used to those words. And if somebody's got an issue, we don't go see them. Honestly, well, the reason why I'm repeating this is because you're gonna go from one message to another, you'll forget it. Has to be a reinforcement. You can ask me questions afterwards and that and ask the leaders, but this here will honestly, it'll change your whole framework. It will change, you ready for this? It'll change what's inside of here. It will change. God has graced you never to walk in bitterness, never to have that level of frustration inside of you, but he's graced you, he's graced you to have successful relationships, have an awesome marriage, have an awesome um uh you know, kids and and grandparents, all that sort of stuff. That is the will of God. Now, okay, it doesn't mean that you have to agree with everything that everybody does. I didn't say that. You can still believe. You you you can still love them, sorry, you can still stand with them and love them and honor them, but it doesn't mean you have to agree with what they do or what they believe. Even as Christians, there are some of my Christian friends have got completely different convictions than I've got, like just polar opposites of convictions, very different, but still good friends. Some of them theologically are very, very different, very different, but they're still my friends. Sometimes we have to lay down some things in order to get the better thing. I'm not saying lay down uh uh moral morality or anything like that. No, I'm not talking about that or laying down the word of God and compromising the word of God to get peace. I'm not talking about that. Oh no, no, no, no. We're not laying down the principles of the word of God to get peace. If we have to stay with the word of God here and someone's at loggerheads with us, we have to walk that one through. But what do we do? We're gonna love them, we're gonna speak well of them, we're gonna sow to them, we're gonna be kind to them, we're gonna pray for those who persecute us, but we're not gonna compromise the word of God. Amen. I've got here, don't spread rumors, questioning someone's motives without evidence, sharing someone's failures to make them look bad, criticizing a person behind their back instead of addressing them lovingly. I think we'll just leave the message there, eh? It goes on. Praise God. Hey uh uh. I'll tell you what, God's destined you to have an awesome relationship, enriched relationships. You know what rich relationships mean? Able to be transparent, able to be together, able to be whole, all that. God wants you to have that, wants you to have the best marriage on the block because you represent Him and you got the grace of God flowing through you. You get old, really old, and man, you're both walking together still alive, mate. That relationship is like gold. People look at you and say, Man, we've got people that we know that have had uh like 70 years of marriage, 70 years, still not tired of each other, no infidelity, just loved each other because they've followed this. I've got people that are in that I know in conflict situations because they're preaching the word of God and so forth, but they go to bed with peace in their hearts. They're walking in discretion, they're walking uh blameless before the Lord.

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