Video Transcript: The Two Fires of Conflict – A Metaphorical Narrative

In the late 1990s, four young men went out on a hike through the Tomales Bay State Park in California, near Mount Vision.  These were experienced hikers; they were not amateurs.  They had been on trips before and so they started out on their journey and at the end of their first day, they set up camp, but in an unauthorized location.  There were campsites available throughout the camp, but they chose to set up their camp in an unauthorized location, but again, these were not inexperienced hikers.  They knew what they were doing.  And so they set up a perimeter ring of rocks around their campfire, lit the fire, spent their time with the campsite, woke up the next morning, and before they left to make sure that the fire had been extinguished, they threw dirt, they threw rocks, they threw more dirt on top of the fire.  And there was even a handprint on top of the pile of dirt, where they had checked for radiant heat.  Convinced that the fire was out, the young hikers moved on and finished their journey two days later.  

Well, what they didn't know is that in that unauthorized campsite, there was a root system underground, and their fire had spread to that root system.  And for three days, those roots burned underground but you couldn't see the smoke.  After those three days expired, the fire had traveled outside of the perimeter ring.  And the winds were blowing just right and ignited a wildfire that burned hundreds of acres and over 50 homes.  

Conflict is a lot like the Mount Vision Fire.  We set up camp in an unauthorized location, we go someplace we shouldn't be, or someone else go someplace we don't want them to go.  Or they do something we don't want them to do.  Or we do something we shouldn't do.  Or we say something someone else doesn't want to hear.  The fire starts underground.  In our heart, in our mind, in our emotions, no one can see it yet.  No one sees the smoke.  No one sees our motivations, our desires, or our intentions.  But when the wind blows just right and that fire comes above ground, the destruction begins.  That's the first fire of conflict and we’ll refer to that destructive nature of conflict, that destructive fire of conflict as The Wildfire.  

The second fire of conflict also can burn when a conflict wildfire ignites, and we call this fire The Peacefire.  What I mean by The Peacefire is described for us in Daniel Chapter 3.  In Daniel Chapter 3, is a story about a king called Nebuchadnezzar and he has created this golden image.  It's 90 feet tall and almost 10 feet wide.  And he's invited all of the rulers and leaders have his kingdom to come for the unveiling of his statue and for them to bow down and worship at this statue.  There were some dynamics in his kingdom at the time that loyalty was important to him and this was a test of loyalty of his leaders.  Well, when music started to play, the instructions were that everyone was to bow down and worship this image.  

Well, the music started but there were three young Hebrew men who were rulers in Babylon who refused to bow down.  Well, this infuriated the king and he had them brought to his presence and he gave him an opportunity to reconsider.  Here's what they said to the king in response.  “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.  If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from Your Majesty's hand.  But even if he does not, we want you to know Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

Well, this infuriated the king.  So he had them bound hand and foot and thrown into the fiery furnace.  And they heated the furnace seven times hotter than normal.  It was so intense, the heat was so intense, that the men who threw the three Hebrew band into the furnace, were consumed by the flames themselves.  Well, these three young men were thrown into the furnace, bound hand and foot, and they landed on the floor of a fiery furnace.  And that's a great picture for us of what conflict can look like.  We can’t move, the heat is intense, and we may feel like everything's over.  It feels like a place of death.  

Well, the King had a vantage point where he could see into this fire and he turned to one of his associates and he said, “Didn't we throw three men into that fire?  I see four.  Walking in the fire, and the fourth looks like a Son of God.”  And sure enough, there was a fourth man in the fire.  And the bonds of the three young Hebrew men were loosed, and they were walking around in the fire.  Their clothes weren't burning.  They weren't burning.  All because of the presence of the fourth man.

King Nebuchadnezzar called them out of the fire.  They didn't come running out.  They stayed in the fire in the presence of the fourth man until the King called them out.  Now, I don't know about you, but if I was in that fire, and my bonds were loose, I'd hightail it out of there, but it's not what they did.  The king called them out in the king made this declaration.  He said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants.  They trusted in him and defied the Kings command, and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.  Therefore, I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be cut into pieces, and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other God can save in this way.”   And then the last verse of that story tells us this.  “Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon.”  The presence of the fourth man in the fire turned a place of intense conflict and death, into a place of purpose and power.  

The presence of the fourth man protected God's servants while God accomplished his purposes and promoted his servants.  Jesus Christ is the fourth man in every conflict wildfire that you encounter, just like he did for those three young Hebrew men, he can transform a place of intense conflict into a place of peace, purpose, and power.  Listen to Isaiah 43:2, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.  And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned and the flames will not set you ablaze.”

In the New Testament, we read of some astonishing responses to conflict.  These are conflicts that involve men who had come to know Jesus Christ and had been filled with his Holy Spirit - The Spirit of the fourth man.  One of these men was Steven, and Steven was a deacon in the early church in Jerusalem.  As Steven was brought before the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the religious people in that day and he testified about Jesus Christ.  And they were offended by his testimony, and they were enraged by his testimony, and they began to stone him.  Stephen didn't plead for mercy.  Stephen didn't ask them to stop.  The Bible tells us that Steven looked toward heaven in Acts Chapter 7.  He said “Father, lay not this sin to their charge.”  That's an astonishing response to conflict.  

There's another astonishing response in Acts Chapter 16:22-31.  It's a story about the Apostle Paul and Silas, his associate.  They were in the city of Philippi and they had been arrested.  They've been beaten, mistreated, without due process, and thrown in jail.  Retributive justice, punitive justice, unfair justice.  In the middle of the night, at midnight, they weren't crying out for a lawyer.  They weren't bemoaning their circumstances.  Though their wounds had been untreated, they were singing praises to God.  And while they were singing, the jail doors flew open.  The jailer came in thinking everyone had escaped.  And the Apostle Paul said, “No, we're all here,” and he spoke with that jailer, and as a result of their singing praise to God in the middle of the night, in a prison after they'd been beaten, their wounds untreated, the jailer and his whole family gave their lives to Jesus Christ.  It’s astonishing.  

Well, we have something that the three young Hebrews didn't have.  The fourth man in the fire was there with them.  But because Jesus Christ has come, died, and rose from the dead, and sent His Holy Spirit to live in his people, Jesus Christ isn't just with you and I in the midst of conflict, He lives in us.  John 1420, Jesus said, “On the day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.”  The Peacefire is a curious place in the midst of conflict because Jesus Christ lives in his people.  The fourth man is present in every conflict Wildfire that a Christian encounters.  The presence of Jesus Christ in a conflict converts a place of confusion, destruction, and stress into a place of peace, purpose, and power.  

One of the goals of this course is to equip you to change the way you process and respond to conflict in order to change your conflict stories.  This goal is accomplished by doing two things, understanding what the Bible teaches us about conflict, combined with a second thing, a relentless, a relationship of relentless reliance on Jesus Christ.  

At the Peacefire, conflict presents curious opportunities, curious opportunities about how to treat other people who are in the conflict wildfire with us.  Curious opportunities about how God wants to use you to bring about restoration of relationships that are damaged by the conflict wildfire.  Becoming curious about the dynamics of conflict can change your life.  It can change your conflict stories.  The Scripture theme for this course is found in Isaiah 26 :3-4.   It reads, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in You.  Trust in the Lord forever.  For the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”

Let's review what we've covered in this lecture.  We talked about the two fires of conflict and I introduced you to the wildfire and the peace fire.  The wildfire is a destructive force.  But the peace fire provides a place of peace, purpose, and power in the midst of conflict.  Jesus Christ is the fourth man in in the fire of every conflict his followers encounter.  One of the goals of this course is to change the dynamics of your conflict stories to make you curious about your conflicts.  We pursue this goal by learning what the Bible teaches about conflict and combining that knowledge with a relationship of relentless reliance on Jesus Christ.  And we introduced our Scripture theme from Isaiah 26:3-4.  

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