Video Transcript: Confront in Love

To extinguish a Wildfire, one way is to remove all fuel sources.  By cutting off fuel sources to the fire, the fire will be extinguished, burn itself out.  In a conflict Wildfire, sin or wrong that led to the conflict must be exposed and confronted in order to extinguish the conflict Wildfire and resolve and reconcile and restore the relationship. 

Jesus Christ put it this way. He said, first of all, we’re to confront those who sin against us. In Matthew 18:15, he said, “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you.  If they listen to you, you have won them over.”

But what about the situation not where someone has sinned against us, but we know that we've offended someone else?  Jesus talked about that in Matthew 5:23-24 when he said, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, first go and be reconciled to them, then come and offer your gift.”  

Reconciliation is so important to the Father that He would rather have us reconcile a wrong in a relationship than to come and worship Him. 

First to go and reconcile the relationship, then come and worship Him with a pure heart, with a reconciled heart with a heart that reflects the love He has given you that's been given to someone else.  

Now back to Matthew 18.  Jesus says if we go to that brother who has sinned against us, and if they fail to hear us, we don't just give up.  He says that if they will not listen take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.  And if they still don't hear Jesus tells us to tell it to the church.  Get church leadership involved, to address the situation. 

The goal at every step of this process is reconciliation.  Restoration of a lost sheep, restoration of a relationship.  So if that is the objective how do we go whether we go alone or with others, or to the church Galatians 6:1 reads, “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.  But watch yourselves or you also may be tempted.”

If you ever gone in an attempt to help someone reconcile a conflict and it was just like a Wildfire accelerant?  It just added more fuel to the fire.  Maybe you went and confessed something to someone and they took it in a wrong way and it just inflames the conflict even more?  Remember, the Battle of the kingdoms is always at a foot in the midst of conflict and sometimes we'll follow the Lord's leading - go and confess, go and confront, go and try to forgive, but the Wildfire rages even hotter. 

So we're to go in gentleness, and a spirit of gentleness, in a spirit to restore.  And why do we go?  Because the Lord's hardest to rescue the lost sheep.  The Lord's goal is that our relationships would reflect His relationship with us.  A relationship of grace, a relationship of mercy, a relationship of love, and we’re to go because of what the Lord reveals to us at the Peacefire, so that we can be free, so that they can be free, and then we can experience the Lord's goodness and walk in love with toward one another and toward the Lord.  

If we go to the other person motivated by the Wildfire, our attempted confrontation will focus on our being right, and we trying to prove to the other that they should fall in line with our desires for the lantern, or whatever the issue may be.  But when we go out of what we've received from the Lord of the Peacefire, our goal will be to restore relationship to address the issues that need to be addressed, but the father’s agape love will be present as the power as the power that's motivating us at every stage of the process. 

In the confrontation process, how we confirm sin is very important.  If we go with a judgmental attitude, the Lord is going to expose that.  If we go with a self-righteous attitude, the Lord is going to expose that.  And when He does, it's our opportunity to humble ourselves at the Peacefire, confess it to the Lord, and ask Him what He wants us to do.  Don't give up.  Don't let your response be hindered by the response of another who may be walking in the flesh at the moment.  But remember that it's the Father's desire to rescue the lost sheep, to pursue the offended sheep, and bring them back where they belong to relationship of relentless reliance on him. 

Thanks for watching. God bless you. We'll see you next time.