Leadership 3 | Shout Conference | Ps Shane Willard

it's so good to be with you I want to talk to you this afternoon about leadership and specifically one area and that is conflict resolution as so it's applicable as effective so our basic disposition in conflict is incredibly important and incredibly telling as to how effective of a leader were gonna be there's a way you can be right but be wrong at the top of your voice okay so so the the basic test of ministry in the first century was not did it line up with the Bible they didn't have a Bible the basic test of ministry in the first century was did that line up with the disposition of Messiah the disposition of Messiah was defined as Exodus 34 he is the compassionate gracious slow to anger abounding in love and forgiveness God there's a tension that leaders have to carry and that and it's not enviable it's not easy if it was easy everybody would be a leader right but but the tension is this how can I lead an environment with clear expectations and built-in accountability while keeping my disposition soft in conflict this is something that's not easy to navigate but I have a couple of thoughts about it leadership is really basically defined as your ability to have clear expectations with built-in accountability if you if you have clear expectations and no accountability you have a frustrated organization because you have a lot of expectations and it doesn't matter someone does or doesn't do their job there's no accountability for it that will frustrate your organization if you have built-in accountability with not clear expectations you're also gonna have a frustrated organization because people don't know when they're hitting the mark so the issue is the tension between that and all of that comes times with conflict and so I want to talk to you about that particularly if you're leading volunteer organization volunteer organizations are very difficult to lead because no one's getting paid look if everybody's on payroll and you can just fire them that's a whole nother deal but you're talking about conflict between volunteers it's a whole different ballgame which leads me to the cross and resurrection the cross and resurrection should not be something we believe in it should be something more profound than that the cross and resurrection should be something that fundamentally shifts the way we see everything the the idea of well you know I believe in the cross and resurrection good for you but the truth of it is is that where we are in our life at this point belief in the cross and resurrection what demons believe something like belief in the cross and resurrection whatever that's a good starting point but my god it should be more profound than that the cross and resurrection should not be an event that happened it should be an event that fundamentally shifts the way we see all other events after that and in that moment is something which leads me to this the cross is not something that has one meaning it's something that defies meaning but for the god of the universe to Humble himself allow himself to take on human form to be executed at the hands of a local government for the benefit of all humanity is not something that gives us meaning it is something that transcends meaning it's not loving it's something that redefines what love is this is this is something that this is profound this is why this is why you could preach 40 messages on the cross and resurrection never repeat yourself and never be wrong because the cross and resurrection doesn't have one meaning that this is why the New Testament writers struggled to find language around this like this look the cross surprised everyone if you were follower of Jesus then you expected him to take over Rome when wrong succeeds in killing him that was surprising what was more surprising was resurrection because in your experience dead people stay dead right as a matter of fact the root word in Hebrew for resurrection and the root words for surprise share the same root and that makes sense like if I died today and you came to my funeral on Tuesday and I showed up at your church next Sunday surprise sort of cuts it and so the New Testament writers went to great lengths to put language around the event all nature of the cross and resurrection which is why one place it's called the forgiveness of sins and we say yes amen we embrace that another place that's called the cancellation of debt another place it's called the in-your-face confrontation to principalities and powers in another place it's called the confrontation of oppression in another place it's called this in another place it's called exaltation through humility huh in another place it's this so in this afternoon session I just want to spend time on one and the reason I chose this one is because I don't think it gets enough play time and and I want to be clear about this I'm not doing this at the expense of the truth of all the other ones we embrace all of them but this is one session and so when you have one session you got to choose one so I chose this one because I don't think it gets enough play time this is Paul trying to put language around the cross and resurrection to a world that wasn't quite sure what it all meant if you could bring up that first slide is that okay we go for he himself is our peace who has made us both one and is broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place to the two so by making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility now the context of this passage is not between us and God it's it's it's because Jesus acted first to make peace with people who were hostile to him then the fundamental shift in world views should be if Jesus acted first to make peace while we were hostile to God then our shift in world view should be Chris chins of all people should always be the ones intentionally acting first to make peace and to end hostility what else would be more compelling than that there is nothing less compelling in the world than to Christians having a fight on the internet about something stupid that is just uncompelled let me illustrate this with a story changed my life a few years ago I was invited to do to study in Israel with a top history expert so he he rang me what had happened was his ID spoke at a conference with his son-in-law his son-in-law gave him my teaching and he rang me and said listen we'd like to invite you to come speak at our synagogue in Jerusalem and as a part of your payment I will take you around and teach you history 14 hours a day he said let me be clear I don't do tourists tours I do academic tours so you got to be okay with that condemned eeeh right I was like all I don't perfect why don't I just come and you teach me then skip the part where I speak to people about something they know more than me about right and so I went and 14 hours a day we went around Israel and he taught me history and this was I think it was the first thing he showed me he showed me something that was so amazing that I responded with exclamation now he speaks good English but English isn't his first language so the way I responded with exclamation was as I went really really now I was amazed he thought I wanted to argue now here's a guy that has forgotten more about Jewish history than I will ever know he is the expert he could have decimated me in an argument had I wanted to argue I didn't I was amazed but here's what's important he thought I wanted to argue and I'll never forget his response I'll be 95 years old and won't forget this here's the guy that could have won the argument easily and here's his response Oh Shane peace between us is the most important thing if one of us needs to be wronged let it be me I was confused which made it worse because my response to that was what he said Oh peace between us is the most important thing if one of us needs to be wronged please let it be me the world needs to see us at peace more than I need to be right about anything if an outsider looked at our conversation let Jesus be glorified I don't need to be right about anything more than I need the world to see us at peace because of the finished work of Jesus and I said as it Ari did you think I was arguing with you he said weren't you I said okay first I apologized that my tone of voice might have made it seem that way please forgive me that's first second let's just get this straight this is day one we're gonna do this for four days um we're in Israel and you're the history expert I won't be disagreeing with you about anything that's that second and if I did the problem is me I said I was amazed man he said were you amazed I said I was amazed Ari I was amazed he said oh so you weren't disagreeing with me and I said no we're in Jerusalem this is Jewish history you're the expert no I wasn't disagreeing with you he goes oh good because cuz I knew I was right about that but my goodness no he said Shane the world needs to see us at peace he said if Outsiders looks our conversation may they see us at peace now that's a man that understands that the cross and resurrection isn't just the forgiveness of sins it's the end of hostility now this is this is also Jesus talks about this this is his first sermon third line in check this ooh blessed are the peacemakers all four they're the sons of God really is Jesus allowed to do that oh by the way if I ask you if Jesus is allowed to do something the answer is yes so let's practice that is Jesus allowed to do that like we sing songs like I am a child of God are we so how are we doing with the peacemaker thing if the world sees how we handle conflict would they go that's children of God right there or would we rather be right on Facebook unless you think this is a one-off sentence 34 verses later in the same sermon you've heard it said that you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who's in heaven twice in the same sermon just reading it three minutes apart he makes the same point now listen I do not want to solve all the theological complexities of this because it's not my point let's back off and just admit this that our basic disposition in conflict is incredibly important to Jesus my question is is if the world around us saw how we treat each other in conflict would they go you know what right or wrong I'm not sure but those are children of God right there now to understand this now what I want you to see something it's verse 43 I want everybody to mark that in your head it's only important for later okay it's verse 43 and I'm not gonna do something weird and crazy around numbers they added that later it's just it's verse 43 and that's gonna be important in about 15 minutes or so 20 minutes or so okay so so this this requires us to understand two things one is how hostility works the other is then how peacemaking works now there's a great story in the Old Testament that illustrates how hostility works and it's the story of a guy named Samson all right now it's quite a long story so I'm gonna just tell it and I'm gonna read a few passages a few verses from it but I'll tell it okay so there was this guy named Samson and he was out of control he was an absolute lunatic I mean he had no regard for the law no regard for respect for his parents no regard for decency he ate food out of dead things this guy is an absolute right and he falls in love with this Philistine woman he comes back and tells his parents hey I'll fallen in love with a Philistine woman his parents go please don't do that she worships other gods please don't do that he goes I don't care what you think I love who I love well later he sneaks out of his house to see her behind their back evidently he runs into a lion No if you're gonna sneak out of your parents home to see your girlfriend a good way to get caught is to run into a lion right now evidently he was strong enough and trained enough and weaponized enough to kill the lion so he kills the lion sees her it comes back later he's going back to see her and evidently this Lions carcass was still laying there and evidently that bees had taken nest in there and he does something so disgusting he reaches into a dead rotting carcass and eats what was in the middle of it unbelievable he then goes on to have dinner and meet with this Philistine girl's family and he feels the need to prove he's smarter than everyone so he says hey I bet I bet I can tell you a riddle that you can't guess the answer to even if I let you all do it together no way you can have seven days to come up with the answer this riddle and here was the riddle allative the eater something to eat out of the strong something sweet now if you can guess that I owe you thirty pieces of clothes if you can't guess that you owe me thirty pieces of clothes I bet you can't guess that you can't guess bet you can't guess of course they can't guess he just made it up off the top of his head nobody else saw what he saw so seven days they can't guess so here's what they do they take his fiancee and they say hey you're related to us so what you need to do is you need to do whatever it is women do to get men to talk so she goes and does that he says okay I'll tell you but you have to keep it between us she says sure he tells her she goes and tells her family the last day they say what is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion well Samson knows how they got this and if you're one of these people that needs a life verse you're always looking for a life verse this is a direct quote from the book of Judges Samson says if you had not plowed with my heifer you would have never guessed that I love that I love that you plowed with my heifer I know what you did right right so now if you're following the story Samson owes them thirty pieces of clothes now instead of running down to the TK Maxx and saying okay you plowed with my heifer you got me right I now owe you 30 pieces of clothes he doesn't do that his response in that conflict was he went and killed 30 of their relatives stripped them naked and brought the clothes back and said hey I owe you thirty pieces of clothes I just killed 30 of your relatives here's the clothes I owe you right now listen that is a man that is out of control listen when you lose a bet and your basic response is to kill 30 people you are out of control listen if you lose a bet today and your response is to kill 30 people you will spend your rest of your life in jail back then they wrote books about you the world's getting a bit better now this thing starts escalating right so Samson kills 30 of their relatives right they respond by giving his wife to somebody else Heymann responds by tying foxes together and burning down their fields they respond by burning the whole family with fire Haman responds by killing a thousand of them with the jawbone of a donkey they then respond by capturing him blinding him and making him a slave he then responds by pulling an entire building down on them are you following this so what starts out as a joke no one understood escalated into everybody dying this is how it worked a joke no one understands a heifer plowing I don't know what else to call that a I kill 30 people to get you your 30 clothes we respond by giving your wife away I respond by burning your fields I will respond by burning an entire family to death I'll respond by killing a thousand people will respond by blinding you and enslaving you then I'll respond by pulling an entire building down on you so what starts off a joke as a joke no one understands ends up with everybody know if you're married you understand how this works right so here's what happens have you ever had an argument with your spouse that started about how to cut a tomato right right well that ain't how my mom cuts it well I ain't your mama wow she's huge all right so what starts out as an argument over how to cut a tomato ends up with insulting the other people's mother right right it's called the hostility cycle now let me show you the key phrase in this this is this is a passage from Judges 1 from in that story let me show you this here we go I was so sure that you thoroughly hated her that I gave her to your friend isn't her younger sister more attractive women had no rights back then by the way take her instead and sent watch Samson watch his response and Samson said to them this time I have a right to get even with the Philistines I have a right to get even I will really harm them it gets worse watch this and Samson said to them this time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm clear intent to harm somebody but I'm innocent because you hurt me first you did something which gives me a right to harm you that's the hostility cycle it gets worse watch this this then the Philistine said who's done this and they said Samson the son-in-law of the ten Knight because he took his wife and gave her his companion and the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire massive overreaction right then watch Samson's reaction watch this and Samson said to them if this is what you do I swear I will be avenged on you oh and then after that I'll quit in other words once I get one up at that point I'll stop here's the problem if everybody feels that way then eventually everybody dies the cross and resurrection as a doctrine allows for that but the cross and resurrection as a worldview does not allow us to think we are innocent in harming someone just because they came against us that's the hostility cycle the peacemaking cycle says wait a minute because Jesus acted first to make peace with me when I was hostile to God I never ever have a right to intentionally harm anybody I'll never be able to do that according to the Australian Bureau of Criminal Statistics 91 percent of all murders in Australia are morality based in other words it's very rare in Australia for someone to walk into a bar and stab somebody it's always why did you kill that person well if you knew what they did to me you would know they deserved it I'm actually innocent in regard to harming them because they harm me first and this is what makes the cross and resurrection so radically different the cross and resurrection says that for people who've embraced a God that says while you were hostile to me I acted first to make peace with you that when we allow that to be our worldview instead of just a bullet point on a pamphlet what happens is is we remove our right to harm anybody because they harmed us that has no place in leadership has no place in the kingdom of God has no place of people who embrace the cross the resurrection has no place in any of that now a couple of observations about this next slide yet so here's the hostility cycle hostility cycle works like this one there's an offense somebody criticizes how you cut a tomato they don't like one of your sermons whatever the case may be they come against your leadership whatever the case may be and you've got to balance then the balance of wait a minute how do I keep an organization with clear expectations and built-in accountability but I don't increase a hostility cycle when someone's come against me we don't do that either how do we navigate that so one there's a hug there's an offense then there's the dehumanizing of the adversary so this time I have a right because of what you did then there's an unwillingness to take responsibility for our part at no point in the story two stamps and go you know what I probably shouldn't have made up a riddle no one got hey you know what I probably shouldn't have eaten out of a dead thing anyway hey you know what when you got me I probably shouldn't have killed 30 of your family members my bad like no never ever did either side take responsibility it was always because of what you've done now I have a right and that leads to escalation that's how you get from a riddle no one understands to everybody dying that's that's how that works and then you have you have holding the other person responsible for the escalation well it wouldn't have gotten this far if you wouldn't have done that and since you've done that now I have a right it's like it's like it's like grown adults being six years old like have you ever dealt with that in leadership have you been sitting in your office going are you six like like so that somebody told me once and they thought I'd be impressed by this Shane I was listen to this preacher and they said one thing I disagreed with so I just walked out I won't listen anything else they ever said are you nine listen if you can't listen to someone that you don't just that you don't agree with everything they say you'll never grow if you only read books you agree with before you started what hope is there for us to grow what is wrong with you are you kidding me right now that is as immature as it gets and by the way by the way leave the preachers alone hey honestly do you know what preaching is this is what it is preaching is spending ten hours with for researchers to put together a talk what's gonna take 40 minutes to deliver so that someone who hasn't spent 10 seconds thinking about it can be a nameless faceless clunker on the internet and degrade the person then there's a failure to learn which leads to repeating the pattern that's how hostility works which leads me to a few observations about what peacemaking and being seen as a child of God might look like so the cross wasn't solely about forgiveness and freedom but was also an into hostility that the cross was a physical manifestation of a new way to live the most loving person acts first in the hostility everybody else was in the wrong but God acted first in the hostility which then removes any thought that we ever have a right to harm somebody it doesn't mean you don't have a right to draw clear non-violent boundaries like one of the Hebrew definitions of hell is a bound realest place in other words if someone can just treat you ever they want you can't anything about it you don't want to do that it's not that but it's never ever rationalizing a intent to harm it's okay because they did something let's say let's say it this way peacemaking is not passive it's charging in with a different way in changing lives now let's see if we remember right when Jesus said don't just love your friends but love those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father in heaven that was verse 43 it's Matthew 5:43 it's actually the concluding sentence of a three step thought that Jesus gave on peacemaking so sometimes peacemaking you could talk about it one way Jesus used imagery let me let me show you this right so the first imagery was in Matthew 5:39 four verses before 43 here's what he says but I say to you do not resist the one who is evil but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn the other cheek so the idea is that we should be people who turn the other cheek that is the opposite of hostility if someone slaps you on your right cheek turn the other one which leads me to this one how are we doing with that I am a child of God really are we do we turn the other cheek if the world looked at how we handle conflict would they go okay they turn the other cheek what's what's going how serious are we gonna take Jesus and what does that even mean and does that work now to understand turn the other cheek we have to understand first century Roman class systems okay do you want a great history read on this a Franciscan monk named Richard Rohr wrote a book called the Sermon on the Mount and he does a great 45 page exegesis on first century Roman class systems first century Rome had nine class systems there's name for each one for the sake of today we'll just call them one two three four five six seven eight nine okay now to understand this let me show you this all right there was a nine layered class system and there was a difference between left-handed slaps and right-handed slaps okay this is how it worked if I was class - and you were class - and we challenged each other I would hit you with my right hand because it was declaring you a social equal right but if I was class - and you were class eight which by the way Galilean peasants were class eight if I was class - and you were class eight I would never slap you with my right hand because that would be declaring you an equal it would be saying you we are we are the same I would always slap you with my left hand essentially saying you're so low class you're not even worth my good hand I'm gonna chew in my left hand cuz that's the hand I'll wipe my butt with I'm gonna hit you with my poopoo hand right it was that now watch watch Jesus's language if someone slaps you on your right cheek hang on think about that for a second if I'm gonna slap someone on their right cheek what hand would I use my left essentially Jesus is saying if someone is declaring you as less than them you turn the other cheek in other words you don't fight back but what you do is you draw a clear nonviolent boundary that says if we're gonna have this discussion you will address me as an equal you will turn the other cheek turning the other cheek has nothing to do with letting someone run over you turning the other cheek is drawing a clear boundary wait a minute you're in my office in my church and you're yelling at me uh-uh if we're gonna have this conversation you will address me as an equal we turn the other cheek we turn the other cheek and then you know this is the next verse very next verse watch this and if anyone would sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak as well that's verse 40 so Jesus here's how you here's how you make peace you turn the other cheek you give your tunic and your cloak now to understand this we have to understand Levitical and Deuteronomy law in Deuteronomy if someone sued you and you couldn't pay then you could give them your outer coat as a promise jesus says if you can't pay then give them your cloak as well your inner cloak as well well there's only two pieces of clothes here's what you got to understand that Galilee was an oppressed inhabited um region they were occupied by a foreign military and they were some historians estimate they were under eighty seven percent taxation so 50 percent of your grain 30 percent of your fish 12.5 percent text to Caesar as the son of God Roman roads taxes to move your product as well as the DA genus that the tax collectors and the temple tax um so these people just to name a few so these people were under they were losing their family land that had been in their family since the book of Joshua right and there was a few three percent Roman sympathizers who were profiteering off the Roman occupation at the expense of the Galilean peasants and then they were taking it a step further and they were suing these people who could not pay and their only recourse in Deuteronomy law was to give their outer coat and people were actually doing it Jesus is like if someone's going to demand that just go ahead and give them all your clothes Jesus is saying here's how you handle that get naked get naked which lays all kinds of questions like what right now to understand this to understand this we can understand a couple things in Hebrew culture being naked is not shameful sin kidness is so the man being sued is placing his shame on the other while being peaceful because what kind of person would take both cloaks essentially it's this is here's how you make peace you non-violently make people address you as equals secondly you expose greed and oppression with massive generosity not with fighting that massive generosity overcomes greed right it's sort of like this if I could be very simple with this if you're sitting at dinner with a friend and the waiter comes over and says how was everything great are you done yes how are we dividing up the bill if both of those people simultaneously if one of them says split it up and the other one says I'll take the whole bill right what will end up happening is both of them will end up fighting over who's going to take the bill even though the greedy man has already played all of his cards face up what happens is is the ultra generosity of the generous man exposes the greed for what it is Jesus said that's how you make peace you overcome oppression with excessive generosity you turn the other cheek you give your tunic and your cloak next verse watch what he says and this is verse 41 and if anyone forces forces if anyone forces you to go one mile go with him two now what is he talking about there now to understand the first one we got to understand first century Roman class systems to understand the second one we have to understand Deuteronomy law to understand this one we have to understand first century Roman military law the Galilean region was occupied by a foreign military it was a foreign military the Romans were horrendous to people and what they would do is is they carried these seventy pound packs now a Roman soldier was a class-2 person and they were surrounded by eight Galilean peasants and they carried these seventy pound packs around no if a Roman soldier has to walk somewhere they're not going to carry their own 70 pound pack thirty kilos no way what they're gonna do is they're gonna get one of these low-lives to carry their pack for them so Roman military law allowed for that it said that any Roman soldier could make a Class eight peasant carry their pack 1 mile thus if someone forces you to go one mile go - this would have happened all the time in Galilee but Roman military law said that you could force someone to go one mile but you could not force them to go more than a lot more than a mile because they wanted those people to go back to work to pay taxes it would have been counterproductive so Jesus says if someone's forcing you to go one mile go - why because if a Roman soldier made you go more than a mile Roman military law said you would be docked a day's pay and court-martialed for it right so Jesus says listen if someone is gonna force you to go one mile at the one-mile mark take off running and you'll have a Roman soldier chasing you down to get you to stop because he's not gonna lose his days page you can turn the whole thing around on them with uber generosity in other words get a little small reputation for being a little bit crazy and they will leave you alone this is genius stuff from a rabbi teaching people in an occupied territory how to live how do we make peace we turn the other cheek we go the extra mile we give our tunic and our cloak that the cross is not simply about forgiveness it is we embrace that but it's not simply that the cross should not be something we believe in the cross should be something that happened that fundamentally shifts the way we see all other happenings after that and Paul says people who really embrace the cross and resurrection also are the people who end hostility because God acted first when we were hostile we should be the people acting first to make peace when someone's hostile to us as leaders our basic disposition in conflict is incredibly important to our leadership credibility long-term you can be right but be wrong at the top of your voice and I realize it's difficult to navigate the tension between clear expectations built-in accountability and making sure our demeanor and disposition is correct in conflict is enormous but leaders who do this will not perfectly but leader nobody would but leaders who do this will increase their credibility in their organization long term there's one more imagery from Jesus's life I says that's to heal the ear to heal the ear this is weird story from Jesus's life where he gets arrested and and it says that this guy named Malka is leading the charge to arrest him Malchus is next in line to be the high priest and and Caiaphas didn't want to go get him himself so he did what you do you send the intern right you send the guy learning right and the Roman soldiers are there and it's such a weird passage because what happens is is is that it says one of Jesus's disciples took out a knife and cut off the guy's ear which leads to so many questions like was that legal like no one arrested Peter like Peter chops off this dude's ear in front of the police and the police basic response was are these crazy Jews like it leads to all kinds of questions like was that legal and at least the questions like how did we know it was Peter right we always say Peter but Matthew just simply says a certain companion of Jesus mark says a certain friend of Jesus Luke says one of Jesus's disciples how do you know it's Peter because John said Peter did it right Matthew Mark and Luke are like let's keep this on the down-low shall we John's like let's go Peter under the bus no problem now to understand this to understand why this was legal it's all about whom alkis was here's the situation there was a tension a conflict a hostility between the priests and the rabbi's here's why to be a rabbi you had to earn it thirty years of school with 24 years of school like to you there's three people in the whole Bible called rabbi Gamaliel Paul and Jesus that's it you had to earn it to be a priest you simply had to be born and so there was this tension between we did our work and earn this and you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth there was this tension between them and the question is is if all a priest had to do to be a priest was be born it there was a risk of a righteous man giving birth to an evil man and that evil man has the same rights as priests and you didn't want an evil man representing you before God particularly in the Holy of Holies so you had to have a way to disqualify people who you thought were evil and they had a way they used an obscure rule from Leviticus 21 on how to disqualify priests this is a list of things that disqualify you from the priesthood from Leviticus 21 here it is for no one who has a blemish shall draw near a man born blind or lame or one who has a mutilated face like was that even excuse me sir you are in line to be the next high priests but your face is just a bit mutilated for our taste I don't know how you live back then or a limb too long sorry one of your legs is longer than the other or man who has an injured foot or an injured hand or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles which leads all kinds of questions late was that actually a problem like could you imagine wouldn't you agree with me that's a bad day like hey Bill how was your week terrible what happened those four guys over there helped me down and crushed my testicles with two bricks you know what the worst part is I can't be a priest no more man that stinks like honestly can we agree together if four people hold you down and crush the testicles whether you could be a priest or not it's the last of your concern one other observation about this wouldn't you agree with me that whoever was in charge of inspecting the priests that's the worst job on earth imagine that mutilated face not so much check limb too long they look okay is he a hunchback nope a dwarf no sir there's just this one more inspection it's gonna be a little bit awkward for both of us but you know no one of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish he'll come near to offer the Lord's food offerings since he has a blemish he can't draw near see here's what they would do you could read about this in several history books but they would purposely do an evil man a blemish and what that would do is that would disqualify him and the common practice was they would mutilate their ear and let me explain that they would hold him down they would pierce the ear and pull now it would hurt and you would get over it but it would leave you with this obvious public blemish and let's be honest of all of their options that's the easiest one you don't want them choosing the whole crush testicle option and so what they would do the reason it was legal for Peter to mangle this man's ear was because he was the priest in my Sunday school teacher taught me that Peter was trying to kill him and missed well that doesn't make any sense they think about it like if I'm trying to cut your head off and I hit you in your ear hole that's a direct hit what more than likely happened is Peter came up behind him and just flicked his ear off and here's what's important what was Jesus's response to that he put his ear back on his head not only healing him but restoring him back to the priesthood of the temple Peter's response is hey you're fixin to kill the real temple then you have no right serving in the temple made with the hands of men and I'll make sure you never do that again and he gives them a blemish Jesus his response was what put your sword away if you live that way you'll die that way if you make a living finding reasons to disqualify people then at some point you'll be held to that same standard yourself listen to me the Church of Jesus Christ should always be a culture of Eire repairers never ear cutters and listen to me listen to me there will be times when despite all of your efforts they're not going to receive your restoration effort and in that case simply walk away but you never intentionally harm people and listen listen people all over the in this way this is so important a lot of churches roll over the world or recognized here or represented here listen to me next Sunday ten twenty thirty forty people are gonna come into your church for the first time and they don't know how to say it but somebody took their ear off somebody said you did something so bad God will never use you somebody said a because of this ear lopped off somebody somebody has disqualified people and if the Church of Jesus Christ is going to be compelling in our generation then we have to be known as sons of God how are we known as that we're peacemakers how do you do that you say listen of all the places you can come in this world the Church of Jesus Christ is the place committed to get your ear back on your head we don't give people life sentences around here we are committed to whatever process necessary to make sure your ear is bad on your head the Church of Jesus Christ should never be a place of ear cutting but also always a place of ear repairing how are we peacemakers we turn the other cheek we'd go the extra mile we give our tunics and our cloaks and we make sure we always make a way to put people's ears back on their head if they walk away from that then they walk away but ears should be on heads now great teaching is not meant to be agreed with nor disagreed with like if all you got from today is I love that I agreed with him I failed or if you walk away going I hated that I disagreed I also failed great sermons great teaching is meant to be wrestled with it's meant to be life changing so let's ask a few questions next one have we received the cross that forgives us while rejecting the cross that ends hostility like where have we received the cross that says okay we get saved we get to go to heaven when we die we're forgiven there's no debt but then we've rejected the part of the Cross that says because God acted that way to you you're meant to be a peacemaker with others let's say this way is there any place that we're escalating violence right now somebody's just got to say stop it where do we need to act first and be a peacemaker maybe there's a conflict in your marriage right now and it's on this crazy cycle of and somebody's got act first somebody's got to be the more mature one to go hey somebody somebody's got to be the guy in Israel going peace between us is the most important thing let's say this way whose ear do we need to repair is there any one we've taken their ear off and it's high time we made sure they understood that there was at least a process to get their ear back on and now if they still walk away they walk away but hey how can we get your ear back on your head how we make this right Jesus gave His life for us what's our offering back to him maybe we could say this one last way what if the cross was God saying how far do I have to go for you all to get along no one was more hostile to God than the human race and God acted first to end hostility how far'd I gotta go for you so all my brothers and sisters have shalt may you not just be people who have the cross and resurrection as a bullet point on a pamphlet but may the cross and resurrection be the fundamental event that shifts the way you see your whole world may we respond to the love of Jesus in our leadership by making sure that our basic disposition and conflict would lead the outside world to saying those are sons of God those are children of God I don't know who's right or who's wrong but my goodness they're children of God that's a child of God right there that's a child of God that's it that's what I'm talking about that's a child of God thank you so much maybe part of your afternoon listen I I hope um thank you I hope that I didn't have a clock up here and when I heard the piano playing I was like oh so I hope I didn't go over too long and if I did peace between us is the most important thing if one of us needs to be wrong let it be me grace of peace everybody god bless [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Equippers Church

Views: 1,713

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Equippers, Equippers Church, Equippers Church Auckland, Equippers Church in Auckland, Sunday Service, Church in Auckland, Church in New Zealand, Acts Movement, Acts Churches, Jesus, Gospel, Preaching, Preacher, Conference, Christian, Christians, Christian Message, Shane Willard, Shane, Willard

Id: _i5OnYTAb1I

Length: 47min 50sec (2870 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 24 2018