Jesus the Lord of Reconciliation

Jesus: The Lord of Reconciliation, Not Just Forgiveness The title of my message is Jesus the Lord of Reconciliation. Speaker 2 Hmm. Speaker 1 Is it good? You know, sometimes I prefer the word reconciliation to forgiveness, aye, because forgiveness to people, it's just too hard. If I say to you that you must forgive those in your life that have wronged you and then you have no response to me. Speaker 2 Hmm. Speaker 1 That is too hard to forgive. I can forgive some, you know, the easy fights, but I can't forgive all. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 And that's why we need to understand that Jesus is the Lord of reconciliation. It takes the responsibility of you because this is his business and that's been your business too long and you've been hooting yourself. When you recognise Jesus as the reconciliatory, the pressure is off and the work is already done. All reconciliation needs is obedience if we'd allow Jesus to be the reconciliatory because they're who he is. I haven't made this. Speaker 2 Up, huh? Speaker 1 So if I tell you forgiveness to hard, if I say reconciliation, you say what does that mean? Right. What does reconciliation mean? It means to reunite. It's completion of unity between two parties that were at war, called her husband and her wife. You know, there's just one warring between two parties. Reconciliation means that these are truths between you. These are forgiveness that has been given from one party to the other and from the other party to the other. Real, real simple life. Yeah. If you say said yes, well then you're gonna be the perfection of reconciliation. Reconciled to Christ, Then to Each Other All right, Two Corinthians, let's have a look at the Scripture, right? 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18 and 19. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself. Speaker 2 Ohh. Speaker 1 Through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. There is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 So he's reconciled everything to himself. Are you reconciled to Christ? Because if you still hand holding on forgivenesses, are you, Ozzy, have a bit of work to do, but they're a bit of work can be immediate. Because I don't want you to be unreconciled after today. Speaker 2 Huh. Speaker 1 But have you been reconciled to Jesus? You've been saved. And if you allow yourself to be reconciled, you are. You are. That's Pauls faith and that's through the grace of Jesus. You are, Say I am. Yeah, You're being reconciled. Therefore, if you've been reconciled to Christ, it's easy to reconcile yourself to another human being, because you must be reconciled to Christ first before you can reconcile to another human. Speaker 2 Ohh. Speaker 1 So if we're holding into just going back to my opening line, it's so if we're holding on to things, are we genuinely reconciled to Christ in those areas? And the answer is most probably no is my point. I thank you for letting me know rhetorical questions. Hey, that is there's a bit of work to do if you're not able to reconcile. I understand the trauma and I'm not minimising that that you might have incurred throughout life, but when we come into Jesus were made brand new, huh? Well made, brand new when you don't have to carry the weight on your shoulders anymore. That's why our Jesus died on the cross. Speaker 2 Hmm. Speaker 1 Ohh right, so 2 Corinthians 5 verse 18, the message from God, they're through Jesus Christ. That relationship between God and humanity once broken by sin. Now we know in Romans. I know it might be a surprise to some of us Romans 323 for all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. So we've all sinned. We've all fallen short and we all need reconciliation. Huh. We're all in the same Walker. Is that good? But they relationship between God and humanity once broken by sin has been restored and that forgiveness and peace with God. I'm now available. Ohh, now available. They're available to you, but you can't have what you don't own. Speaker 2 Hmm. Speaker 1 Forgiveness and peace with God and now available. You gotta, you gotta uptake that so that you can get rid of the crap. And when we get rid of the crap, we open ourselves to the ability to be reconciled to those that we have hurt and to those that have hurt us. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 And when we don't have that in our life, that's a barrier to the blessings of God, isn't it? It's a it's a barrier to to that us stepping into more. We can talk about favour and the abundance of blessing, but you sell yourself short if you don't allow yourself to be reconciled. Because people are precious to God and your greatest function on earth is to build relationship with people and bring them into the salvation. So even those people that have hurt you, all that you have heard are entitled to their grace from Jesus and they're entitled to your grace because Christ in you. Hi, is that good? It's simple. So Jesus doesn't just reconcile us to God, he reconciles us to each other. Speaker 2 Hmm. Speaker 1 See, this is that this, This is the best mental health ministry you can never have. Hey, you can go to therapy and all of that and all the qualified people, but you ain't gonna get this. And this is the truth. And this truth sets your mind free because it renews it. Don't get too caught up in the system's ways. I get frustrated with that. I do and then I hear multiple people saying that we are so mouldy that we do it our way. You're just a brown person delivering a popular system, a colonised system. Yeah, and I know that there are good works that are done there, that's all goods. But why not come to this? I know because I'm fruit of this. You're fruit of this. Hey, coming here to get Christ therapy, you're not getting ohh no, a state driven into your heart that's off the cross and getting healed by it. And it's good if you're offended by me because that's the area that I want to heal. There's that part where you say LD could have said it nicer. Maybe so. But unfortunately, this is my personality, not what you want. Hi. And I'm not gonna change that. I'll just let God speaks through me with my uniqueness. Speaker 2 Huh. Speaker 1 So you were just a God? Not to me. I hear they will be cool. That's called reconciliation. It has been. Deal With Past Shadows, Then Worship Fully So I just want to head over to Matthew 5, verse 23 to 24. And indeed it says therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar. And they remember that your brother has something against you, your husband, your wife, your children. Let's go. There hurts more. I mean, you get it better. So here's 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 at the altar. Speaker 2 Ohh. Speaker 1 This is the amplification of blessing and your ability to reach more, to do more in your ministry. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 Because I want to see your more. And when reconciliation is in you, part of your brilliance is hidden because you're unreconciled and those things negate you and blind you in different you. And shut your mouth. Aye, it does. But when we go and make good was so those that we've hurt and that have hurt us, our ministry begins to explode. Speaker 2 Huh. Speaker 1 Do you wanna do more in your ministry? Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 Because this somebody either gets up your nose. That makes us whole, huh? Speaker 2 Hmm. Speaker 1 There's somebody in their upbringing, fatherlessness or that sort of stuff. Ohh can be unreconciled within us and then we focused on unreconcilable nation and it stops our ministry of reconciliation because you limit yourself on what you haven't reconciled. Therefore, when other people need reconciliation inside their broader life, you can only bring them to where you're at and no further. You see how we can extend our 10 pigs around reaching more if we deal with our crap? Ohh. Aren't you sick and tired of poisoning yourself? I'm just talking to maybe one or two people here. Am I? I'm talking to me. Aren't you sick and tired of that? Letting those things hinder my reach. They've been on unreconciled. I just stick to me or a certain grouping of people that are like me hurt. Ohh so let's let's have a yarn about their day. So many of us have come into Christ later in life. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 You know, after our glory days, whatever, there wasn't glory. There was something else there. The opposite. Speaker 2 Hmm. Speaker 1 So we've come into Christ in the later life, and then we've made changes according to Christ. Beautiful changes and now we're walking in the light but have left some shadows behind. Speaker 2 Ohh. Speaker 1 Maybe you've walked away from addiction. Beautiful violence. Selfishness. Maybe you've been healed, born again, baptised, and that's stunning. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 And you're a new creation. So I'm not touching that with what I'm talking about here that all of that remains the. So don't think I'm trying to pull you get back into the bottom of the barrel. I'm trying to extend your barrel, but there's still somethings that are lingering, something unspoken between you and your children or your wife or your husband. Even the adult children who stole carry the pain of their past. We're we're we're pure now, but our past is the shadow that has been cast and we've come into something amazing. But they are not ready for that yet. And Joe moving, you know, and you're running in the things of God in there, still left in the shadow of my past. Yeah. You see the reconciliation that needs to be done. And The thing is, if we're reconciled to Christ, we have the ability to be calm in our reconciliation with those that are in our shadow of the old. Yeah. And that will the the shadow of your old can be diminished by the light of your new. And that's not quoting scripture to them. Don't do this because they will read you, but even when you talk out of your newness, they are confused because they can still see the old you, but they can see the new you. But it's confusing. Why didn't I have this when you were a mongrel? Hi, this new you. And it becomes confusing to them. And people can say, you know that keep walking in God. I say that too, keep walking in God. But there's a level of reconciliation that you have to have as you're advancing yourself in God. Yeah, there are a lot of older sons and daughters there. We fell victim to that shadow of old. Speaker 2 Aye. Speaker 1 And so we have to reconcile that. Now, they may never ever forgive you for that, but you have to jointly be graceful to them. And when you're gentle in your grace and that you're kind to them that they have a platform now for it was starting point of forgiveness. It's not forgiven, but at least you opened up the door. That forgiveness can come at any moment that thou ready, not when you're ready. Speaker 2 Umm. Speaker 1 So. Saying Sorry: A Spiritual Act of Accountability So the Christian journey is not a shortcut around accountability. Becoming a Christian doesn't erase history. Now I know God forgets our sins. I understand it. I'm talking about those people who aren't in God that we hurt and that we're we're learning reconciliation. I had to learn reconciliation. It's not automatic. You have to learn how to do this, how to approach it. What are my opening words? How do I just drop what I need to drop for that moment and let that be digestible for them? Not give them too much, not make it about you. Because this is all about them. Reconciliation is about them because you're already reconciled to Christ. Yeah, so don't start tuning it about me when they start firing back. But you did this and you've done that. Then all of a sudden you're in an even playing field and you're arguing, hey, that means you're not reconciled with Christ. Speaker 2 Hmm. Speaker 1 Sorry, our faith isn't just about we were going A to heaven, it's about where we're willing to go back and make right. That's part and parcel. It's not all of it, but it's part and parcel of who we are and the harvest that we need to be allowing access to Jesus. So in Matthew 523 to 24, Jesus says if you come to worship and remember someone has something against you, not if you have something against them, but if they are still carrying hurt from you, you need to stop, leave your gift, go and reconcile, then come back. Speaker 2 Hmm. Speaker 1 Jesus is saying your worship is incomplete without reconciliation, and you gotta catch me right here. I'm not saying that everybody stopped the ministry because I'm unreconciled with somebody now. I'm not saying that at all, but what we need to do is start adopting and justice, bringing to the, you know, to the forefront some of the these things that I'm talking about because it will amplify your ministry if we don't bury our head in the sand and say, yeah, but I've been forgiven by God. Well, you're denying somebody that needs God access to heaven when the power is in your hand to give them those keys. Speaker 2 Hmm. Speaker 1 And all you need to do is put the key into the lock that may be binding their heart. But it's up to them to turn the key, aye, to set themselves free. But we just give them the opportunity to be able to do that. We're doing alright. So the Gospel is about truth and restoration. And John 832 Jesus says, And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. So you first must know the truth to set others free. They haven't got the Intel that you've got, the intelligence that you have, the mysteries of the Kingdom they haven't got. So you must have first and that's the the word of God. But one of the angles that I need to speak the word, even scripturally, without saying word for word verbatim, the scripture, we have to learn how to how to do that very smartly. Aye, smartly. So freedom doesn't come from pretending it never happened. Freedom comes from acknowledging the truth. So many of us have come from homes where no one ever said sorry. I came from one of those homes where nobody said sorry, but we were masters at mocking. But no one said sorry. Even when they knew they were wrong, no one said sorry. We just created a new mock to cover up my fucking my that I was wrong. So we've come from these homes. We grew up thinking that's just how it is, but Christ changes their cycle. He teaches us to go back and to sit in the truth and to face it not just with God, but with people. Yeah, and you're not going to. This isn't about you're gonna go out there and do that and I'll get there. Gonna run into church and give their hearts and become disciples. They're not going to do that. But you're opening up the door for their opportunity to happen, aye. So, you know, don't disappoint yourself. So that's part of what repentance is, not just turning away from sin, but turning toward people we have sinned against. Saying sorry is a spiritual act. Apologising to your wife, your husband, your children, even if they're adults now, it's not weakness, it's the spiritual strength to say sorry. I had to learn how to say sorry to my wife, into my children. I did not know how to do that. I had to be taught, and it's OK that if you've been in in God for a while and you still don't know how to do that, that's OK. But let's Start learning today on how to do that. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 Get around the people that have their victory and can teach you how to do that because your whole home and relationships change. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 So it's a spiritual strength that tells the other person, I see you, I hear your pain, what I did was wrong, I hurt you and I'm sorry. Speaker 2 Aye. Speaker 1 We've got to become masters of it and a lot of people, even in the overcoming anger, was, you know, learning how to say sorry. You've got to practise it and practising means I I used to say sorry when I didn't mean it. Then all the clever ones say, well that's wrong, No we don't, that's practise, because you gotta learn to say sorry and practise that well before you can learn to say sorry. What for? Aye, so get out of the way. If you've got their thinking inside of you that you've got to know you're sorry before you say sorry. Cause it's fake. Of course it's fake, but it turns into something powerful when you allow me to loon me in God, not you in the world. That's good right there. Don't bring your worldly thinking into me, changing into Christ. Speaker 2 Huh. Speaker 1 You need to follow my lead. So sometimes people say, but I've changed now can't we just move on? Here's the thing, you might be ready to move on, but those that are still stuck in your old shadow, they might be still bleeding. They need to hear that you have taken responsibility. You have with God, but now with Maine, Aye, And you can only do this stuff with me. And if you've done it in God and you've been healed of it, that's the power that you're able to do it with those that you've hurt. Aye, is it? You've gotta do the work vertically before we can do it horizontally. Speaker 2 Ohh. Two Paths to Reconciliation: Healing and Healed Even if they don't forgive you straight away or at all, your healing is in doing what's right. You don't apologise to get a reaction, you apologise to walk in righteousness. So what does real manhood in Christ look like in womanhood? I'll pick on, tell Marty I'm alerted because that's part of me. We talk about mother tongue to integrity, personal authority. It's all good stuff earned through our actions, our successes, our achievements, and we get accolades of men. But when you carry Christ, you carry the manner that is bestowed upon you from heaven and those are the accolades of God. It takes real money to go to your son or daughter and say I should have protected you better. I've had to have these conversations with my children. I should have protected you better. I was hard on you when I should have been present. I was broken, but that doesn't excuse what I did. I'm sorry. Speaker 2 Ohh. Speaker 1 And, you know, I've had to say sorry 50 billion trillion billion times. And I may still have to say that, you know, just for their sake, not for my sake because I'm healed, but I have to be strategic in how I open up healing inside of them. Speaker 2 Huh. Speaker 1 So the world tells us, man and woman, to bury your feelings. Jesus tells us to resurrect relationships. The world tells us to move on and Jesus tells us to make peace. So today the challenge is this. Before you keep going with your ministry, and this I'm not saying pull out a ministry blinking, blinking before you keep advancing your ministry, your worship, your life of faith, Ask the Holy Spirit, is this something I need to go back to now? This is, I'm talking about you, you know, making your ministry bigger. You're already doing awesome. I'm just saying let's take away those blind spots so that you can advance and more power and authority in the Kingdom of Heaven. Is there a daughter who needed your love when she was young? Her son who needed your time but got your anger instead. A wife who cried silent tears while you were lost in your arrogance and pride. You can't carry the guilt anymore of your past anymore. Yeah, see, I just made you feel guilty because, you know, straight away. So don't feel guilty. Don't carry the guilt that I just imposed on you. Release it to God cause even without me saying that people carry guilt and have carried it in the ministry and then even in the church for so long. Don't know why. So release it to God so the redeemed you can be released to your family. Speaker 2 Ohh. Speaker 1 Today, maybe you need to knock on the door of your wife's hat. Seemed to message or asked to talk over a cup of tea in Super One. Not to justify yourself, not to defend the past, but to humbly own it. Then let Christ do the mending. You may have tried to reconcile prior and it turned into an argument and it caused resentment, Further resentment. So there are two reconciliation meetings that you have to have 1 reconciliation while healing. Speaker 2 Hmm. Speaker 1 So as I was healing, I was apologising and saying sorry to my wife. When I realised my sin, when I listened to the preach wood and I went, ohh, that hurt. That's what I do in my house. That's what I say to my wife. That's what I did to my children. Yeah. And it was like I was getting stabbed up, you know, while sitting in the seat. But you take that stabbing into something bigger then your flesh, because when you allow the word of God to heal you, you know the blood that comes out of the stab wounds is Christ blood. I am redeemed blood, and that's what we have to allow to happen. So reconciliation while you're healing, you can reconcile. Reconciliation when healed. Yeah. So if you and your wife are healed, I'll start there. If you and your wife are healed, what are some reconciliations that you need to make to who now? Both meetings need this as part and parcel of your reconciliation, so this is 1 dimensional. This is my advice to you. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 So whether it's reconciliation while healing or reconciliation when healed, you need to have a a good foundation right before you opened your mouth. So this is me talking to my wife, and I need to do this, this reconciliation from a healed state, even to my children. I just want you to listen. Speaker 2 Ohh. Speaker 1 I just want you to listen. So just imagine me talking to my wife. I just want you to listen. I don't want you to say anything, I just want to share my heart. I don't want you to respond. I am not asking you to forgive me, I just want to say what I have to say and then we carry on. Would that be OK? Speaker 2 Ohh. Speaker 1 See, it just puts everything on me. Whereas you know when you have arguments, you try and pull them in to your readiness. And even a lot of people's readiness isn't properly coming from a healed place. There's still some selfishness inside of why I want to have a conversation with you, because I'm trying to change you, not me. Hey, hey, I got you all then. No, but does it make sense? I just want you to listen. So you might have had a tittu with this sort of thing, but it turned into an argument because you didn't lay down the foundational rules of your conversation and then you just carry on. So I practise what I'm preaching and my wife and I from a healed place. So even when I'm completely healed, my wife is completely healed. I called the reconciliation hooey because we're both Marty Hurry. And so we went down to the lake and time to car seat to me. Ohh. What are you fellows doing at the lake? Be quiet, sound your father's been met a man. So we're we're down there and it was dark time and it was amazing how many people walk into the pitch black in anyway. I was trying to build up my courage to recommend to have my What do I say here? Ohh yeah, I took a bath. I think about 20 minutes watching people walk past and thinking that they're crazy. And then I started talking to my wife and just saying to her, I'm sorry for. And the very first thing I thought I mentioned to her was criticising your father when I was 18 years old, when he first confronted me about what's what, What do you want? What are you doing with my daughter or what's your intentions for my daughter? This is was when when I was drunk and he was drunk and I looked at him and I seized to him. Ohh would never clue. We need to speak this will I see to him? But I thought to myself, and I've always stood on this and I've always said to and then he died about six months later, three months, six months later. And I said to my wife, and this is horrible. This is me as 18 year old. And I ceased to hear, you know, your, your father was a prick when he was alive, and he's still a prick to me now. That's what I said to my wife, and I've always held on to that, even in, in God, I've, I've, I thought that their thinking was OK, you know, and it wasn't. And that was one of the very first things I said to my wife. I'm sorry for what I said about your father. I apologise for that. And then I went like in the timeline. About all the things that I was sorry for abandoning her, you know, when we had our children and that that it did all this sort of stuff. And you know what? Out of I thought to myself, this was gonna be emotional, even at a healed state. But it wasn't. You know what it was? It was powerful. It was powerful. We were trying to figure out the word how did she feel and how did I feel inside of that? And we were stunned about what I said, and then she was stunned about what I said and how it made her feel. Aye. So even in their perfection of reconciliation and from a healed state, these power little alone if you you know you would still use that foundation to create your healing. Speaker 2 Ohh yeah. Speaker 1 And this is the same for if you were having to go back to anybody has just opened their heart to further. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 And I might want to reconcile. I have a reconcile meeting again and some things might pop up. But see, it was power to my wife when her husband we reconciled at a healed state. It's a whole different level and it's a powerful level. With it, we can release ourselves into our ministry even more so because we we done them because they're good. Let God Be God: Christ Our Mediator So the cross, the power of the crossing, is both utu, which means justice, and aroha, love. It is. The cross is just as satisfied, and love poured out. Then just the Ephesians 2 verse 14 to 16. I'll just shorten it. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both, one having abolished in his flesh the immunity. Yeah, the Christ is the one who takes out the wall between the warring parties parties. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 Christ is the mediator there and when we allow the mediator to step into His role then we don't have to have reoccurring hearts being raised when we try and do it in our strength. Aye, let God be God, let Jesus be Jesus, and let the Holy Spirit be the Holy Spirit. Stop leading on our understanding. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 But on his and you'll find release and then release. You'll find freedom. And then freedom. You'll find power. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 When we allow God to be God, was it good? I'm done. Awesome. So we'll stand to our feet. Well, Father, we just thank you, Lord, that you are the Lord of Reconciliation and Father that we hand over the reins to youth, Lord. Father that if we're still stuck, Lord, and some of those hurts of old, hurts of yesterday, hurts of coming even into the church today, Father, God, that these release when we allow you, Father, to forgive us. Pharrell unrated conciliation with you in law that just in the in a prayer in the heartbeat Lord, we can be reconciled and healed far.