Don't Avoid Conflict

 TRANSCRIPT

We're in this series Risk Taker, right? And I said it's not really about risking to get more out of this world. It's not about that. It's not risking to get more out of this world. If you understand and do self devotions, you'll understand this world is wearing out. It is decaying, or at least that's the way it is according to God.

And he says, and pretty soon one day I'm going to roll the whole thing up. Throw it into the fire and there'll be a new heavens and a new earth. That's confronting. In fact, the very last part of your Bible, the last two chapters, this is what Jesus says. I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first one had, what?

Passed away. Has anybody here been around someone that is passing away? What happens? Everything starts to break down. Everything stops working. And Jesus is saying, Don't get too attached to this world because it is passing away. I just wish some other people would listen to this and maybe consider the equation that it's not all about us as human beings.

We always think it's all about us. We can fix the climate because we mess it up and we'll do this, this, this, this, this, and we put all this behind us. pressure on them. We're going to do this and we put pressure and pain and suffering on people. But at the end of the day, we might do all of this and guess what?

It changes nothing because it's passing away. Maybe God's got a timetable. Now, if you have to be, if you're really, really far down the climate change thing, that's going to be very confronting. It's like, so you're saying we can't fix this thing? Well I'm not saying anything because I don't know, it's all above my pay grade, but when he tells me it's passing away, I've seen enough passing away to know what that means.

It's breaking down, it's dying, it's wearing out, and maybe we can't fix it. So what we said was being a risk taker, it's not about getting more in this world, it's actually about risking all we have in this world. for the kingdom, for the kingdom of God to come on earth as it is in heaven. That's where our risk is.

Our risk is having everything that we have and all that we do and all that we are, that God might use us. He might work through us to help reach his children that are still estranged from him at the moment. He's not wanting any to perish. That's why Jesus last words to us, to humanity, before he returned to heaven, he said, all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me.

Now, you've got to understand, he's talking to Jews, who have struggled with this all the way through, right up to going to the cross. They're still waiting for a Joshua to come and return the kingdom, so they become a great superpower. He's saying, guys, all authority on heaven and earth is given to me now.

I know Moses was your guy. And I know the law and the prophets set the tone for you for thousands of years. But it's time to unhitch. The only authority now is me. That's all you got to worry about me and allowing me to work through you. It's a completely different paradigm. And then he gives us our mission.

He says, therefore go and make disciples of all peoples. of all peoples, and I'll be with you always. I'll always be with you. That's the promise to the very end. So the Holy Spirit was given to us. So to be a risk taker is understanding this world is wearing out. We're not going to invest into that. It is passing away, but sooner or later, the era of grace and truth and salvation in Jesus, that door will close when this culminates.

And everybody who has not taken the time to figure out where Jesus fits into the plan is going to miss it and miss eternal security. And that should break our heart like it breaks our Heavenly Father's heart. So this is what risk taker is all about. Time's short. We need everybody playing. Everybody's got to get in the game.

We need all the gifts, all the talents. We need everyone on board for that mission. Go and make disciples of all people. So Pauline kicked it off last week. She did a great job. She did a great job. And she helped us understand the cut, where the courage to risk comes from. It doesn't come from anywhere external.

It comes from your relationship with Jesus. That is where the trust comes. That's where the confidence comes. That's why we are so, so strong on saying, Do your soap devotions, which is just a Bible reading plan that someone worked out over a 10 year period. So you could read a little bit about how God works through ancient Israel as a military nation and how he's working through us, but it's so that you can learn to hear God's voice, read the teachings of Jesus, apply them because that gives you trust, that gives you confidence, that gives you the ability to step out.

and to risk. I often think of Peter, you know, like Jesus comes walking to them in a storm. I know things, I know a few things about boats. I know the best thing in a storm is not to get out of the boat. That is the last place you want to go in the storm. You don't get out of the boat, you stay on the boat, unless of course it's sinking and then your option, but the safety is in the boat.

But Jesus says, you can come out if you want to come out Pete. And Pete goes, Oh, okay. He gets out, starts walking on the water. Wow. And then he sinks cause he loses focus. But to experience the supernatural presence of God and his power, you have to get out of the boat. You got to get out. And I love the way that Pauline wound it up at the end.

The Holy Spirit just prompted, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? I started, I had so many conversations during the week about something that transpired and it reminded me again, like I've been following Jesus since I was 21. I've been pastoring for the close, close to 40 years and I have met so many pastors and I have discovered that a pastor will do anything, I'm serious, anything, as long as he doesn't have to do that.

Go and make disciples of all people. We'll put on conferences! We'll put on seminars. We'll do Zoom things. We'll do big worship nights and we'll sing forever and ever. They do anything bar do this and spend heaps of time. Why? Because this is difficult. The other stuff is all nice. It's fun. It's celebration.

It's all sexy. There's nothing sexy about making a disciple. You get involved with their life and you take a risk and you come involved there and it's messy right from the word go.

But we're waiting for it. Oh God, do something, do something. And God is saying, what else do you want me to do? I took a walk across the universe, come as a child clothed with flesh, grew up, showed you what I'm like in human being, went to the cross for your sins and the sins of the whole world, went on down to hell and took the punishment that you deserved, But because I was holy and righteous, I rose from the dead.

And then I said, whosoever wills can come, you can all have eternal life and relationship with God through me. And then I gave you one simple mission, go and make disciples. And then I said, I'll be with you always, not as Jesus, but as the Holy Spirit, because I can be everywhere at once. And I will empower you.

And God is looking down across the Western church now going. What else do you want me to do? It's over to you. You've got to get out of the boat. You've got to get out of the boat and start doing the mission. So, here's my foundational verse just for today. For God has not given us a So anytime you've got fear going on, where did it come from?

Not God. He hasn't given us a spirit of fear, but he's given us a spirit of Power. Not your power. Not this world's power. His power. And a spirit of love. Not your love. Not the world's. His love. And that leads to a sound mind. He's not given us a spirit of fear. We are actually born to be risk takers. Now here's the risk that I want to hover around today.

And this is why everybody's going to get a little uncomfortable. So just have a little wiggle around right now. You guys online team, I'm going to get a big glass of water. Risk takers have the courage to confront. And I know how much we all love confrontation. The courage to confront. I had to confront this years ago, not within the context of this church, I had to confront an older man.

He was older than me, probably in his seventies. Uh, and something had been found out about him from when he was in his twenties that had transpired. And the whole arm of the law was coming down. His wife was devastated. He was devastated. I just had to confront the issue and go after and say, is this correct?

Yes, it is. Then you have to own what's yours to own. You have to own and you're going to have to throw yourself on the mercy of the court and whatever happens, happens. Now that's okay. That's one confrontation, but you see, cause now I've actually loved him enough to confront him. Then it says, will you walk with me?

Holy cow. That's going to take years. See that with confrontation comes a responsibility. And anyway, I did and um, the, the courts were very gracious with him. But you have to love enough to confront. I have been in so many meetings, so many pastoral meetings where people's lives have blown up. They've walked into a relationship that's really bad and it's all blown up or they've done a dodgy business deal and the long arm of the law is coming down or they've betrayed friends and then I, I sit there and that's not the big catastrophe.

Because I'm going to help them now to rebuild their lives. But the big catastrophe is when I interview the family and friends and they all go, Oh yeah, saw that coming.

Yeah, everyone can see that a mile off. Well, for the love of God, why didn't you do something about it? And you know what the answer is? No, it's not my business. None of my business. I'm sorry. But if you're a follower of Christ, it's your business. We display our love for God by loving people and you let people do stuff that's going to destroy them and hurt them and damage them and you know different and you won't say something because of fear.

Well we don't have a spirit of fear. Now I wonder who you're thinking about right now. What circumstances in your life you're thinking about, Oh man, I should be confronting this. I should, should be doing that. And, or maybe something's going on in you, man. Cause sometimes with confrontation, like what, what Ruth was sharing in that word, that's why I grabbed it.

Sometimes the confrontation is the Holy spirit deem with the things that us, the enemies that are in our own hearts that are there. The lies that we believe that we hold onto. So, are there areas that perhaps you're not leaning in, that maybe you're a little bit fried, afraid of? The excuses we give ourselves, Oh, well, you know, we've had great friendship and I don't want to lose the relationship.

Let me tell you, they step on that landmine, you've lost the relationship and a bunch of other people have lost it too. And you can't say it's none of your business. If you love Jesus we get an opportunity, we got the responsibility to disciple each other, to love each other, to care for each other when we see each other straying.

And nobody is beyond this. Even me. I'm just like you. And at times people have to get in my face and say, you're missing it, you're believing wrong. And then I just pull out my Moses hat and punch him. I'm the man of God, right? No, no, I don't. I listen because it's in the listening and it's in the confrontation that the discipleship happens and things begin to change.

Now this, I want to say something very delicate here to parents. You have to have tough conversations with your kids. You have to have them in love, and particularly when they are approaching a time when their sexual activity is starting to become aware within them. You have to have the conversations, and I know, I know what you're going to say, but you don't understand.

I've seen people say, well I mucked up and did that and I'm doing okay, and I have to go say, newsflash, you are not doing okay, and neither is your family. You gotta have the conversation.

And here's how it goes. Let me help you a little bit. Honey, can I talk to you? Dad didn't always get things right. Uh, I did some things that I'm really regret when I was younger and I made a mess of my life and, and I don't want you to have to suffer this pain and this suffering. I should have followed what God said.

He didn't say don't have sex before you're married because he's down on it. He said it because it protects you. Cause it says you get united with another person, destroys your soul. So I just want to tell you, I did it wrong. Sorry about that. But I want, I love you enough to let you know from my weaknesses and my flaws that hopefully you will choose better.

Job done. Don't be afraid to confront where you've missed it. Cause we do. I, there's so many things that I have to deal in meetings. I'm going, well, why am I confronting this? I wrecked this completely. He said, yeah, look at messed up. You are, I said, yeah, okay. I said, I love them enough to, he said, love them enough to make their starting point point, not your failures and flaws, put them away, make their starting point Jesus and doing it right.

So we have to deal with it. You've got to confront issues, and you've got to, for our young people, please, please, please talk to them. If you don't talk to them, someone else will, with a hidden agenda. And you don't want that. People think like, oh, it's just sex. It's not just sex. Two become one. And it destroys the soul of another person when that relationship busts, or doesn't happen.

It actually says the person that sins sexually destroys their own soul. Don't destroy your soul for a moment of lust. Figure out what God's best bet is and then do that. I had so many people that I mentored in like this in Ipswich and their parents all said to them, oh wait till you get married you're gonna have all these problems and they listed off all these problems and rah rah rah and I coached them, I know it's hard but go God's way and remain purity married.

I still see them today and they go, kids are all rising up, we're still waiting for all these problems that mum and dad said we're gonna come. I said they're not coming because mum and dad did it wrong. They probably didn't mean to, they just messed it up. But you've got to be able to confront it. So, I'm going to handle this a little bit differently now, because I want to, I want to try and figure out, how do I help you learn how to confront?

I think the best way is just to share some different ways to confront from Scripture. That Scripture I shared at the start, which was, for God's not given me a spirit of fear, but a power and of love and a sound mind. Paul gave this to Timothy. Timothy was his young protege coming up and Timothy was struggling because he's inherited a church of people coming out of the Jewish community in here.

A lot of older people, a lot of senior people, and he's feeling really intimidated because he has to start speaking in and calling them out because they keep drifting back to Moses and to the Law and the Prophets and he's got to keep calling him to Christ. So Paul delivered this to him to let him know where to go.

His ability to risk and to confront comes from. So we know it comes from having a relationship. The only way I know for you to get a relationship with God is to surrender to Christ, learn how to read the Scriptures, learn to hear Jesus voice, obey what He says, there's that soap thing, it's coming up again, and you get trust and you get confidence.

So here's some different ways that you see confrontation happen in Scripture. Uh, Matthew chapter 16, you'll see, uh, the, the backstory is, uh, Jesus has just had a conversation and Peter has just marvelously come up with, uh, who do you say that I am? He says, Oh, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

And now we're about four verses later after that. And so Jesus decides to tell them plainly. Now he's starting to speak plainly. I have to go to Jerusalem. I'm going to be crucified. They're going to abuse me. They're going to this, that, and the other. And Peter takes him aside and pulls him aside and starts to rebuke Jesus.

And says, Jesus, you can't do that, man. I've got a whole tour booked. Our band, we're on tour, man. We've got several cities. You can't, you can't be doing that. You can't break up the band. We're going. And then Jesus lovingly looks at him, because it's all done in love, and says, get behind me, Satan. I'm gonna advise you to not go with this one at the start.

Maybe just back off on this one a little bit. You can't go at this one unless you have incredible trust, unless you have incredible, uh, relationship and confidence in there. You can't go at it like that. But anyway, Peter seemed to respond. But I can tell you what Peter would have, what Jesus would have done if Peter didn't respond.

He'd have followed a principle in Matthew 18 of how all conflict is dealt with. And it should happen in every Christian church and every Christian organization. When there's an accusation or something goes on, the first thing they do is, Hey, let's get you guys together. That's terrible. I can't believe John did that.

But, you know, it's so out of character. I don't, I don't think, I don't think John would mean to do it. Maybe there's something going on. Let's go talk to John. Come on, let's go talk to John. One of two things is going to happen right there. Pauline's going to say, yeah, let's go talk to Jonno. We can work this thing out.

Or she's going to go, oh no, I can't, I can't come. Why? Oh, I'm frightened of Jonno. He's a bully. He's going to do this. Well, I'm coming with you. Come on, let's go, let's work this out with Jonno. And so then she comes along and we work it out. Or, uh, she decides she doesn't really want to go there because the whole thing's a furphy.

It's just a character assassination going on. So that's step one. It's just with one. And then if, if he wouldn't have been able to educate, Peter said, let's, James and John come here. We need to talk to Pete. He's batting for the wrong team again. You know, so they help him again. If that didn't work, they'd probably bring the whole 12 in there.

Maybe not Judas, maybe 11. Jesus has got a bit of revelation going on there. I don't know. And then eventually maybe it becomes like, well, okay, that's it. Sorry, buddy. You're out. So there's a process, a biblical process for this, and this is all confrontation. It's all taking place. So, but you got to have a lot of strength and you got to have a lot of relationship and a lot of credibility to be able to say to someone, get behind me, Satan, and still have, have a good conversation afterwards.

So, maybe not go that way, because sometimes Jesus is confronting directly, sometimes it's indirectly, it's public, it's private. Paul, uh, Paul did the same thing to Peter. It's always Peter, Peter's the one getting in trouble. Paul did the same thing to Peter in Galatians chapter 2, um, when Peter and, was with Paul and they were in Antioch and they were hanging out with the Gentiles and it's lovely hanging out with the Gentiles because we drink wine and we like all the fine foods, everything the Jews are not allowed to have and we like to party and that kind of stuff so, so Pete's doing that with Paul but then some of the Jewish guys turn up, so then Peter starts withdrawing.

And he starts to get this kind of duplicity lifestyle going on where it's like, over here I'll have a few drinks now, over here I'm holier than thou, all this kind of thing happening over here. And so Paul just figures, we've got relations, he just calls him out. He said, mate, this is not right. You, you behave like a Gentile, you eat with the Gentiles, you drink with them, and now you're going back, sneaking back up under the law again, back under here.

Make up your mind. Which one are you? I'm over here. I think it was the wine that tipped him over. So I'm over here, but that was a public confrontation because he could see that his behavior was affecting others. Barnabas was starting to do the same thing, sneak over here and have a few drinks with the Gentile guys and let's get out of here.

Well, I don't know what we do with the Jewish guys, not much, but we're over here, duplicity, but there's a challenge. There's a challenge in that. There's a, there's a confrontation. People were bringing children to Jesus to have his hands laid on them, to bless them. Disciples yet again. What are they thinking?

Oh man, oh, it's getting busy around here. We've got a whole tour. We've got to get on all these places. Got to protect Moses and we're going to make this all work out. So hey, listen, you can't bring the kids. No time for the kids. Get the kids out of here. Come on, leave Jesus alone. So Jesus has to confront them and says, Oh, wait a minute.

No, no, you let those kids come here to me. Because the kingdom of heaven is for likes of these. And then he goes on and tells them a whole story about unless you become a child, you ain't going to make it either. So this. What, I hope you're seeing this, with confrontation, there's always a confrontation with truth, but it's always got an agenda behind it, and that's the agenda, is loving the person that's there, to help them adjust their thinking away from unbelief to belief in Jesus in the area, an area where they're slipping.

And where, an area that if, like, if that, if he wouldn't have been confronted, Paul on that, uh, Peter on that one there, that would cause massive division. If he lets that go on the kids, that would Man, that's a major issue. So Jesus is willing to confront in love to make things right. And that's what discipleship is all about.

People say, what's so, what's so big about discipleship? It's helping people move from unbelief to belief in Jesus in every area of their life. Every area. And it, he does it in so many different ways, which is why I can't preach enough sermons to educate you on every way. But the whole, I trust that the Holy Spirit, because our top value is spirit led, he'll bring you revelation.

Jesus does it differently next time he walks into the temple. This is the last time God visits the temple. before it's destroyed in AD 70. And he walks in there and there's all these guys in there buying and selling and doing all kinds of stuff. And, and so he's not happy about it. So it says he went off and made a whip of cords.

So it's not like as if he went ballistic on them. He went off and built a whip. I don't know how long it takes to build a whip of cords. I've never built one. Probably take me a month. Anyone built one? I don't know. So it took a while for it to do this. And anyway, he drives them out of the temple. But it's not, the issue is not about what they're doing there.

The issue is about he's pointing out the corrupt nature of what's going on. Because what had happened was people were coming all into the temple from all over the place and they, they had to have a special coin. There was only one particular coin that they had to have to buy their sacrificial animals to make themselves right with God.

And so people would come with all these different, uh, Money trades, all different sorts, and then they would have to decide on the exchange rate that they were, how much they would have to give to get this coin. And who do you reckon set the exchange rate? The chief priests. It was corrupt. Jesus was letting them know in this whole thing, you think you're getting away with this?

Man, this thing's a teardown eventually. He's educating, he's confronting, but not directly to a person. He's actually confronting a system and he's using it through teaching. He's using it through discipleship and he's just letting people know this is not right. So when things aren't right, you have to love people enough to point it out.

He does the same thing in the temple. He stood by the temple and the guys are bringing in their offerings. So he's watching, he's watching the offerings coming in, they're bringing their money in. And obviously the conversation must have been going on like, wow, look at that gift. Look at that gift. Cause the guys are a bit enamored with it.

And Jesus doesn't seem to be all that enamored with it. Although he is watching it. Which is kind of confronting because I always say around here as the pastor, I don't know who give what, who gives what. But apparently I'm not watching it, but apparently Jesus is. So that's between you and him. But he doesn't do anything and all this money's coming in and everyone's so excited about it.

And then this old woman gets, comes in with two copper coins. Like two little coins. It's like a few cents. And then Jesus stops up and goes, wait a minute. This is worth celebrating. This is worth pointing out. And they go, what? What's the matter with you, Jesus? And he says, see this woman here? She's given more than all of these other guys.

And they're going, you are out of your Vulcan mind, Jesus. Look how much these guys have given. No, no, she's given more. Why? Because those guys, they just chucked in what they wanted out of their wealth. But she said, but she, she's given out of her poverty, everything that she has, she's given in to me, so trust me.

See how he's doing again? He didn't challenge the, he didn't come to the wealth, wealthy people and go, you should be given more money. He didn't do that. He used the moment, he framed it within there to allow the Holy Spirit to do the work. To begin to challenge and prick people's consciences by saying, this woman's given more?

Ah, what, what, what is this kingdom life? This is, this is nuts. Listen. Our job as risk takers is to love God by loving people. And you got to love them and you got to love them enough when you see them doing something that is going to damage them or their family. You have to figure out a way to confront in love.

You've got to figure it out. And it could be God gives you a little story to prick their conscience like that. Or it might mean that you lovingly have enough relationship to say, Hey, listen, I noticed you got this going on. Is everything okay? Is everything okay? Yeah, I'm fine. Okay, well it doesn't seem to line up with what Jesus taught.

Have you seen this portion of scripture? Oh, right, okay. So you've got to be able to do it. You should never confront to judge someone and you never confront to win an argument. Because you will never win the argument and you will only just make things worse. You only ever confront out of love. David had a great prayer.

David was one of the top kings of Israel. In fact, under David's reign, people thought that it was the golden era for Israel. Um, he was quite an amazing guy. But he had this prayer that he prayed, which I tried praying a few times. And I do do it now and then, but I don't do it for long. And that's the prayer that goes like this.

Search me God and know my heart, which means I don't trust my heart. Lord, I really don't know. He seems to be able to betray me, test me and know my anxious thoughts. Even my best thinking is not real flash. I don't know what to do it and see if there's any offensive way of me and lead me by the way of everlasting.

Whenever I feel like I'm doing like, sometimes I feel like, you know, I'm doing okay, I think I'm turning into a bit of a spiritual giant here. Yeah, I think I'm okay. Then I start praying this prayer. It never goes more than 24 hours. And by the time 24 hours is up, I've got a list, yay long, and I go, okay, let's just, just work on those for now.

Because it does something, it positions your heart. Because there's something in us human beings, a pride that gets in there that we think that we know it all, we think we've got it all. So one more story. Just one more quick story. About King David. He's a man after God's own heart. This is a different way that looking at, that you can approach it.

Uh, David is one of the military commanders as well as the king and they have to go out to war. And they have to go out to war. They have to deal with the pagan nations and all the brutality that's going on. And I know sometimes if we look at Israel's covenant and go like from a 21st century and go, that's barbaric.

It was way, way better than anything anybody had in the pre BCs with the pagan era. So he's supposed to be off at war and for whatever reason, he's not off at war, he's goofing off. He should be on the mission, but he's not on the mission. So then he is just up on his palace and he's just looking down over all of his subjects.

And the way that that was designed was that he would look over all the roofs of, of the, of the people of the town, of the city, and then, um, with the women. Because they'd like some privacy when they're bathing. They would go up and bathe on the rooftops. That's where they get their privacy. Except for when the king's home, looking out over the palace.

And so anyway, he, he looks out across there and he spots, he spots Bathsheba and he goes, Man, she's drop dead gorgeous. He says, Who is that one? That is Uriah the Hittite's wife. He's your commander. He's off at war. And so he says, Get her for me. So anyway, they bring her up and I don't know, maybe they played Monopoly or Twister, I don't know what they played.

Uh, I don't know, but anyway, short, short thing, a few weeks time. Hey, man, we got a baby here, this is a problem. So now the king has committed adultery, uh, but he's supposed to be a man after God's own heart. And then he's committed adultery and now, and now he's going to try and cover it up. So what he does, he invites Uriah the Hittite back from the, uh, from the battle and he feels like if I can just get him in to have relations with his wife I can slip this in here and no one will ever be there because they didn't have DNA in those days So, he tries, but then Uriah doesn't go and spend time with his wife, so then Dave tries, gets him drunk and says, Well, surely he'll go after you've had a few beers.

He's gonna go, he's gonna go with his wife. No, he doesn't. And it turns out that Uriah, the Hittite, was a very honourable man. And he said, I am not gonna have relationships with my wife, when my men are dying on a battlefield. He said, I'm just not doing it. So David was stuck. His plan to cover up wasn't going to work.

And so he comes up with another plan and he says to Uriah, come to me in the morning and I'll give you a letter to send to your commander. And so he gives the letter and he, Uriah's taken the letter off to the commander. Little does Uriah know he's carrying his own death sentence. So he gets it, gives it to the commander and it says to the commander, it says, put Uriah the Hittite when it's the most fierce battle, put him right up the front on the front line.

And then when it's at its fiercest, I want you to withdraw the other men. And let him die.

And this is the man after God's own heart.

What a mess. And all this has happened because David wasn't doing what David was supposed to be doing. He was supposed to be on mission and he wasn't doing it. But after Uriah the Hittite died, then he was available then to take Beth Sheba as his wife, because then, and now it looks like. Out of honor for Uriah that has died in battle serving the king, he's now going to look after his wife.

And David thinks he's got away with it. He's, he thinks he's got away with it. And then Nathan, the prophet comes along. Now you got to remember David. Yes, yes. He wrote songs and poems and things like that, but he was a military man. He was, he was a fierce fighter. So you wouldn't, confronting the king is a difficult thing.

So, he just comes up with this story and he says, David, can I tell you a story? He goes, yeah. He said there was a farmer, had hundreds of thousands of sheep. David's going, whoa, good story, okay, yeah. And then there's this, There's this one farmer, he's got one little ewe lamb, one little lamb, and he loves this little lamb, and he's treasuring, it's like a door to him, and he's selling this whole thing to him.

He's going, wow, this is a good story. And he said, and then a traveler comes down, and they need an animal for sacrifice, and, uh, but this farmer here, he doesn't want to sacrifice one of his, so he steals this one, and then he sacrifices this one. What do you think about that, David? David's outraged. David is there, he said, by the Lord's hand, if I find that man, he'll be dead before sunrise.

And Nathan gets, that's you, David.

That man is you, David. You had the pick of any woman that you want in the kingdom. Your eye had one woman and you stole her.

And this is why David's a man after God's own heart. David responded. He responded to the challenge and he repented and he sought the Lord out of it and the Lord restored him to a degree. He didn't get everything that he wanted because he had committed murder. So he was no longer going to be able to do some things and it destroyed his family.

His two sons fell in sexual, sexual immorality, exactly the same. So there's consequences for it. All these. are different ways by which God could use you to confront. It could be confronting over a portion of scripture to say, have you thought about this? If you've got relationship, you can get a little bit harder.

If you've got a really good relationship, you can just say, man, you're batting for the wrong team. You're working for Satan now, but you better have great relationship on that one. Or you learn how to find ways. to get their attention. If you've got no relationship, don't even bother confronting. That will not go well.

But if you see something and you can tell a nice, if you're a good storyteller, you can whip a nice story up or something like that and get them thinking about it, then maybe God can use you that way. But we have to be these risk takers. We've got to love each other enough, and we've got to love our families enough.

And that's why God's not given us a spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. So just practically as the team comes up, I want you to just listen for a bit, but, um, you've got to guard, check your heart when it comes to confrontation, you will have to confront yourself. God will ask you to go and share with someone, and you will need to confront things in you of unbelief that's stopping you from being able to do that.

And then you'll need to confront others, but you're going to have to confront in love. You're going to have to check your heart motives. Why am I doing this? Do I just want to stick it to someone? Do I just want to prove my point? Do I want to win the battle? You're going to need wisdom. Your whole tone, the way that you approach is going to have to be right.

You need empathy and understanding, but you've got to get through this fear of rejection. Oh, I'm going to get rejected. Because there is no growth in a disciple without confrontation with what Jesus said or Jesus taught. And no one can even come to Christ without there being a spiritual confrontation of light and darkness.

And we have to have hearts that are willing to take the risk to go in to at least present another option, present the truth to people. We've got to learn to protect and serve each other. We've got to learn to learn and grow and help each other keep growing and in our areas of serving and giving and participating and loving and caring because everyone's got to be kind of all in.

And for the sake of our next generation, we have to be willing to share our flaws and our failures so that that doesn't become their starting point. devastating if they do all the wrong things that we did because we couldn't bring ourselves to actually humbly confront in love out of our own brokenness and out of our own thing.

How do they learn? So we got to do it. And just remember this in closing, David got himself in all that trouble because he wasn't where he was supposed to be. He was supposed to be on mission and he wasn't. He was home goofing off. We only have one mission.

Go into all the world and make disciples. And here's the deal. If we don't find a way to engage in that and we sit off to the side, we will settle for lesser missions. Or things that create excitement and things like that. Sadly, in most, in most of the times that I've had to help people that where there's been unfaithfulness in relationships, it's got really nothing to do with the sexuality side of things.

It's always got to do with, I'm bored. I have no challenge. I feel like life's going nowhere. This is as good as it gets. We're going round and round in circles. Nothing's ever going to change. And that, and that then led to the error of thinking, well if only I could just be over here, where there's none of that responsibility, everything will be just fine.

And they step on that landmine and everything implodes everywhere. I don't know who said it to me once, but Probably one pastor friend, he said, Kev, he said, when you come under pressure, when you come under pressure, everybody else's wife looks better than yours.

I thought, wow, there's a lot of wisdom in that. But he said, here's the deal. The grass is not greener on the other side. The grass is greener where you water it. That's your choice. But you have to be able to confront. You've got to be able to love. Jesus loved us enough to confront us with the sin that we have and the separation that's in us.

But He confronts out of love, because I want you to have eternal security. And this is not about me, actually, it's actually about you. I got your best interests at heart. And so He confronts in love, and then there's a teaching and discipleship part to it, which is what everything is all about. making disciples.

Let's pray together. Father, would you please help us to realize that this is a spirit led process? And we got to have the courage to confront in love and give us the wisdom that we need. Help us to always realize this is not about winning an argument and controlling people. It's about helping people on their spiritual journey where they've strayed into an area of unbelief and it's going to damage them and damage people around them.

And it's helping pointing them back to you, Jesus, the one that sets us free. Holy Spirit, help us to even confront the things in our own lives as Ruthie just shared there before. Sometimes we can believe the lies that come in and sometimes we believe our own lies and Look, confront that with the truth and search our hearts.

May we never be ones that will sit back and watch someone walk into devastation and then say, Oh, well, I saw that coming. That is definitely not loving the way that Jesus asked us to love. So Holy Spirit, would you teach us how to do this and how to do it well? And I thank you in Jesus name. Amen. For God's not giving you a spirit of fear, but a power and of love and a sound mind.

And just remember, no confrontation if you've got no relationship. And confrontation only for cause of love, and only because of best interest and love for others, and only so that they can learn an area where maybe they're not believing right, so they can lean further into Jesus to be conformed to the image of Christ.

I said to you this, probably we're all going to be feeling the pinch on this one and we're all have things that we know that the Holy Spirit just needs to settle on. So I've asked the team if they'll sing this song and, uh, just allow God just to speak to you about what He might have you do. And don't do anything impulsively out of this message.

I don't want anyone to like, don't take your phone and go, by the way I'm confronting you right now Pastor Kev says so. No, let the Holy Spirit settle it. And it's a spirit led process.