It’s Complicated - Power, Posture and the Way We Appeal - Philemon 1:8-11

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Well, good morning. Is it hard to believe last week was Mother's Day? Doesn't that seem like centuries ago? And then, can you believe next weekend is Memorial Day weekend? And so, I hope you have great plans to celebrate, take that extra Monday off. But I want to remind you next weekend because it's Memorial Day weekend, we're only having one service here at the church. And we're going to try something different. Usually, we start at 9 and make all the 11:00 people come and they gripe because they have to come at 9. So, next week, we're going to make everybody gripe. We're going to start the service at 10:00 a.m. next week. Okay? Go ahead and mark that on your calendar right now. One service next weekend for Memorial Day weekend service and it will start at 10 a.m. Everybody repeat after me. 10 a.m. You got it. Okay. Now, if you come at 9:00, the doors may be locked, but just bring me some donuts cuz I'll get here a few minutes after that and we'll have a great time waiting for that 10 am service. But one of the things taking place in next week's service is we're going to have a special just part of the service dedicated to baptisms. We've been talking about this for the last few several weeks and that we're having believers baptism. And you might ask the question, what is believers baptism? Here's what the Bible says is that once we profess our faith in Jesus Christ, then we are in obedience to Jesus following through by being baptized. It's really this special outward expression that we can show people and tell people what Jesus has done inside of our heart. And we've already got six people lined up to be baptized next week. Several of them have accepted Christ in the last six months or a year and they want to come forward. And we even have several others that have been following Jesus for a very long time, but they realize their baptism took place before their profession of faith and they're just stepping forward and say, "We want believers baptism now that it's we declare it's our own faith and they're being baptized." But as you came in or in your handout, there's a blue card like this. If you're interested or want to have more questions about it and being baptized next Sunday as part of our service and our believer's baptism, fill that card out and then I will get back with you this week and we can talk more about that and possibly line that up for next week. So bottom line, what time does next week's service start? Look at the person next to you going, I know you're going to forget, so don't show up early next week. 10:00 a.m. Hey, several years ago, I had a lady call me, a young lady, and she said, "Keith, I've got to come by. Can I talk with you?" And I could tell that she was upset. So, I set some time aside, and she came by, and she was just a mess. And she sat down. I said, "What's going on?" And she said, "My father is dying." And I knew that would be upsetting to anybody, right? But she goes, "You don't understand. I haven't talked to him for two years." And what I learned over the next 30 minutes talking to this young young lady, she was definitely upset because he was reaching the end of his life here on this earth. But really what was taking place was more the deep hurt that she had for this unreconciled relationship. And she began talking. I said, "Tell me what was the catalyst? What caused you guys to break relationship where you and your father haven't spoken to one another for two years?" And she says, "Well, you have to understand growing up it was a difficult relationship. He was physically there but never really emotionally present. And she said, "So he never gave me what I needed, what I wanted as a young girl growing up in the family." And she said, "So one day we were sitting and she had two small children and she said, he was over at the house and he looked at her and said, "You're not a very good mom." And she said, "That just took the lid off. It it took the lid off the last 32 years of her life." And they began this and that and you and you and pointing fingers and accusing one another. and she said, "It just got really, really ugly." And so finally he looked at her and said, "You've never given me the respect that I deserve." And she looked at him and said, "And you've never apologized for never being the father that you're supposed to be." So you can imagine this conflict that's taking place in there. And there was always is you never did this and you always did this. And she goes, "It ended where he finally just walked out of the house." And she goes, "I have not spoken with him for two years." And she said, "Keith, here's what I realize. She goes, "For the last two years, there's never been a birthday. There's never been a holiday. There's never been a phone call. Neither one of us had made a step towards him." And I said, "How come you have never even taken a step?" And she goes, "Because he owes me so much. It's my right." And she used that term. She goes, "It is my right as the daughter that he owes me this. It's my right that he should make the next move." And as she's saying these words, it is my right. You could tell kind of little light came on in her head. Didn't take away all the hurt. It didn't take all the way away from all the brokenness, but the light came on and she realized that's why the relationship is so complicated. It's more than lack of reconciliation. It was her right laid on top of the relationship that led to no reconciliation. It's complicated. Now, I share that story with you. And sometimes when I'm up here talking, I wish you could stand where I am and see your faces. And I can see you're going, "Woo!" But many of you are hearing not that story, but you're hearing your story. Your story with a parent, your story with a child, your story with a co-orker, your story with with a friend that you once thought was a good friend. that many of us are faced in our everyday life of relationships that are unreconciled. And if I sat down, every one of you going, "Well, tell me the story." Here's what they would all have in common. They're complicated, right? It's not like one time this happened, this happened. So, it's all no big deal, right? Like there's layers and layers and layers of complication of that relationship that led to the lack of reconciliation. And so, if you were with us last week, we began a brand new series. And guess what it's entitled? It's complicated. And can you guess what it's about? It's about relationships. It's about broken relationships and the act and the idea of is it a place in our lives that we should look to reconcile those relationships. In fact, last week when we began and we're starting this this this book that's called Phileiman. It's in the New Testament. And let me give you a little background of this little book. And it's really a onechapter book about Phileiman because if you don't understand the background, you'll never understand the actual letter of the book that we're reading. Phileiman was a believer. He's a follower of Jesus and he was a wealthy follower of Jesus. And so very customary of those days back then is that he had slaves in his house. And he had one particular slave by the name of Anissimus. And on this one day, the best we can tell, stole some things from him. And as he stole these things from him, he fled the owner's house. He fled Phileiman's house. And he took off. And during his fleeing of Phileiman's house, he came across a mad man by the name of Paul, the Apostle Paul, that we read about a lot in the New Testament. And in his friendship, the slave's friendship with Apostle Paul, the slave actually came to know Jesus as his own personal savior. And as he's learning more what it means to love Jesus and act like Jesus, there was something about it that he came to realization that he needed to go back to his master, go back to Phileiman and make things right. But that added some complications to that relationship because not only had he stolen from him as the tradition and thank goodness was no longer a custom of our day because it was a dark series dark season our in our country's life when we had slavery but as a slave he was still owned by Phileiman and Phileiman had the option of putting him in jail when he returned. He had the option of beating him. He had the option of even possibly executing him because he was a runaway slave. So as Anissmus is considering about going back to Phileiman, you can see the complication. And so Onismus looks at Paul and goes, "Paul, what should I do?" Ironically, Paul knew Phileiman. So he said, "Let me write a letter on your behalf." And the whole letter of Phileiman, that's one chapter in our New Testament, is about Paul as a letter to give to Onismus as he goes back to Phileiman, his owner, and says, "You need to make things right with your former slave, and you no longer need to look at him as a slave. You need to look at him as a brother in Christ." Bottom line, he says, Phileiman, as a follower of Jesus, you have the responsibility to reconcile with Onissimus. And so the letter, the book that we're covering and looking at for a couple of weeks is really about this idea about relationships and reconciliation. And last week we started the study and here's why we ended up the study last week. And kind of the main takeaway point is our relationship with Jesus should transform the way that we relate to others. See, Phileiman was once a slave, but as a brother in Christ now Paul's going, you got to relate to him completely different. So whether it's a good relationship or broken relationship, a reconciled relationship, one that needs to be reconciled, it doesn't matter what kind of relationship we have with the people around us, our relationship with Jesus should influence our relationship with everybody else. Because it is Jesus in me that leads me, the way I act and interact with the people around me. And last week, Angela Miller did an amazing job on Mother's Day teaching most of this passage. And here's what she boiled down to. Says, "And when we make room for Jesus in our lives, it allows us to make room for others in our lives." Again, whether good relationship, bad relationship, broken relationship, unbroken relationship, all relationships are made better when we make room for Jesus in our lives because this is Jesus in us that lets us live him out of us. But the letter goes on this week, and let me go ahead and give you the spoiler alert. Let me give you the takeaway for this week. If you're taking notes, you can write this down. The takeaway for this week is this. Our relationship with Jesus leads us to pursue reconciliation with others. So, our relationship because we're followers of Jesus, it should lead us to pursue reconciliation. In fact, let me read it for you starting there in verse 11. Here's what it says. is and this is what remember Paul is writing the letter he gave it to Onismus and said carry this letter to Phileiman so when you see him he can read what I'm telling you and this is what Paul wrote to Phileiman he goes that is why I am boldly asking a favor of you I could demand it in the name of Christ he's talking about reconciling with Phi or with Onysimus he goes I could demand it in the name of Christ because it is the right thing for you to do but because of our love our relationship our love with Jesus But because of our love, I prefer simply to ask you, consider this as a request for me. He said, Paul, an old man and now also a prisoner for the sake of Christ Jesus. He goes, Phileiman, I appeal to you to show kindness to my child Onimus. Not his physical birthchild, but his spiritual child. He said, I to show kindness to my child, Onissimus. I became his father in the faith while I was here in prison. Onissimus hasn't been much use to you in the past, but now he is much very much useful to both of us. You see what Paul is doing here? He's saying, Phileiman, we need to allow the gospel of Jesus Christ to reshape our relationships. He's going, Phileiman, rather than sticking in anger and bitterness because what Phileiman did to you, you or what Anismas did to you, you need to move from that anger. You need to move from that bitterness and you move to a life of grace and reconciliation. You make things right. You reconcile with your former slave as a brother in Christ. There you go. Nice sermon finished in about 10 minutes. Let's go home. Right? But you're sitting where you're sitting going, "But Keith, hold on a second. That's really easy." say for someone to write in a letter to someone else. Would we all agree that reconciliation is hard? It's one thing to tell someone else they ought to do it. It's another thing that we need to live it out in our own lives. And maybe the reconciliation you're thinking of right now is as deep and and difficult as the story I just told you earlier. Maybe the reconciliation that's a part of your life right now is simply just a weekend squabble squabble with somebody around you. Maybe it's some kind of um different opinions of somebody at work, but we all have relationships in our life that need to be reconciled. And let's all agree reconciliation is difficult. And do you know what makes reconciliation so difficult? The other person, right? if the other person would act nicer, if the other person would do this or if the other person did this or if the other person would stop doing this one. Reconciliation would be really good because we never look in the mirror going and I'm the problem. But can we all agree to something else? We're part of the problem. Now, if you take a piece of pie or big big pie here, I'm not saying it's half and half. Maybe your your part of the problem is a quarter of that pie. Maybe your part of the problem is a sliver of that pie, but there is no broken relationship that we can name that we have no part in the brokenness of it. The full responsibility might not be ours and maybe just a little bit, but still even a little bit, we have a part to play. And so here's what I want to do is take the next 15 or so minutes and let's dig a little bit deeper into what Phileiman was told to what Paul told Phileiman because he's going to give us some ideas. How do you move towards reconciliation? We all agree it's difficult but there are some things that that Paul addresses to Phileiman and says if you move and do these things it will make reconciliation a little bit easier. It's our way to pursue reconciliation. And if you're taking notes, here's the first one. If we're going to prioritize, if we're going to begin pursuing reconciliation, the first one is this, that we prioritize restoring the relationship over winning the argument. If you want to move towards reconciliation, we prioritize restoring the relationship over winning the argument. Look at back at verse eight with me again. And that is why Paul says,"I am boldly asking a favor of you. I could demand it in the name of Christ because it is the right thing for you to do." You see, Paul could have pulled rank. Paul was an apostle. Paul was was was spiritually over an umbrella over Phileiman and his life. And he actually led a church at his house. He could have pulled rank. He could have demanded obedience. He could have won the argument with Phileiman. But he didn't do that. He appealed relationally to him. The apostle Paul was modeling for and to Phileiman what he wanted Phileiman to do towards Onissimus. And he goes, it's not about being right. It it's not about winning the argument. It is about the relationship. You see, rel reconciliation is more about restoring hearts. than it is winning the fight. Let me say that again. Reconciliation is more about restoring two hearts than it is winning the fight. Number of years ago, I was at a church and there was a there was a fight. There was a disagreement. There was a broken relationship between two pastors on the church. They just couldn't seem to make it figure it out. And so somehow I was appointed the mediator and I had heard both their stories and I could see both what was going on and all of that. And so I sat down with both of them and I said, "Okay, now let's say it again now what took place." And the one pastor just shared everything. And and there was some hurt that this person felt. Now I knew both sides. And I knew the person that had experienced the hurt really had just done some things that probably shouldn't have done. But the other pastor had responded in such a way going I am right, you're wrong. Kind of a finger pointing, finger shaking mode. And in the process, it had caused hurt with this other pastor. And at one point in this discussion, I'm the mediator. I'm listening to all of it. And the one pastor that had been hurt said, "It's like this." this. She goes, "Maybe I did something wrong, but it's like this that I'm standing in the driveway and I'm standing there and as you pull the reverse the car out of the driveway, you run over my foot." And she said, "All I want you to recognize is that you hurt me." She goes, "That's all I need you to do is just understand the hurt I'm going through that you rolled over my foot with your car." The other pastor's over here listening. Yeah. Shaking his head. He's trying to be nice. He's saying all the right things. We ended. Didn't fix anything. we get in my car to leave with the pastor. And he goes, "If she would have just moved her dumb foot, I would have never hurt in the first place." But he was so much on needing to be right that they never restored the relationships. In fact, the one pastor had to finally lead the church because they never could reconcile because it's all about winning it. If your goal is just to prove you're right, you may win the argument, but you may lose the relationship. And reconciliation is never about winning. It's about restoring. Here's the second thing Apostle Paul was was telling in the letter to Phileiman. But he's letting us know as we pursue and how do we go about pursuing reconciliation even when we know it's so difficult. Second thing is this. Invite Jesus centered voices into your conflict. Invite Jesus centered voices into your conflict. Look with me again in verse 9. Paul says this, "But because of our love, I prefer simply to ask you." He says, "Then watch, consider this as a request from me." The God- centered voice is the Apostle Paul. He goes, "Consider this as a request from me, Paul, an old man and also a prisoner for the sake of Jesus Christ." Can we all agree that we like me centered opinions? I want you to think back the last fight, the last argument, the last disagreement you had with somebody. You're mad. You're upset. You can't believe it. So, what do you do? You find someone to talk it out with, right? Not the person you're in fight with, but you go to somebody going, "Can you believe this?" Now, let me ask you a question. When that happened to you last time and you went and found somebody that you could share what the disagreement, share the conflict with about this other person, did you go to somebody that would agree with you or did you go to somebody that would set you straight? Can I answer for you? You went to someone that would be on your side. You went to someone that would be listening going, "Oh yeah, is that right? I can't believe she did that. I can't believe he did that." And here's why. because we like me centered opinions. When we are upset about something, when we are in disagreement about something, we just naturally go to somebody that will listen and sound and say exactly what we want them to say. And the problem with that is it just keeps reinforcing your feelings. It keeps reinforcing your thoughts. It keeps reinforcing your perspectives. Now, don't get me wrong. Your feelings may be authentic and they may be real and they may be spot-on. Your opinion may be right. What took place may really you may not be at fault. But when you continue to go into me centered people and it piles on and reinforces and reinforces everything you're thinking and feeling. But remember the pie that we talked about. Maybe the conflict is you're responsible for one quarter of it. Maybe you're responsible for just a sliver of a piece of that pie, but when you go to me centered others, they're always reinforcing the part that you know you're right. And so what the apostle Paul is doing here is the Phileiman. He's going, "Hey, hey, I'm in this old guy, just an old man. I'm a prisoner of Jesus for for Jesus Christ." He said, "Can I give you a perspective?" And so in this particular situation, it's not like Phileiman sent Paul a letter going, "Hey, can you tell me what you think?" But there was a mutual agreement of hearing what Paul had to say. It's funny when Paul refers himself as an old man. He's not talking about like an old physical man that can't get around. He's basically basically saying, "I'm a man of maturity and spiritual wisdom. I've been around the block a few times." That doesn't mean you can't get good advice from somebody 20 years of age. But often years around the block gives new perspective and new insight and greater wisdom from people. And Paul referred to himself as a prisoner for the sake of Jesus. Here's what he's saying. He was Jesus centered. So tell me, what's better place can you look for wisdom than someone have years of experience and perspective and they are Jesus centered? And he's going, "Faleiman, I'm coming to you from this perspective. I think I may have an idea of what we need to do." You see, we naturally look for people who will validate us instead of challenge us. And the Apostle Paul says, "Filean, just trust me. I'm about to challenge you. I'm about to nudge you in a direction that you might not have gone on your own. But rather than listening to all the echo chamber voices that are just saying what you're feeling and saying what you want them to say, listen to something else for a change. You see, sometimes reconciliation stalls because we only listen to the voices that make us feel justified. Now, let me do something. Let me pause here for a second because every one of you probably have a person or persons in your mind that you're like, "Oh, I'm feeling guilty. Oh, I don't want to be here because I don't want to have to even think about this person." Right? There's this this tension that's going on inside of most of us when it comes to reconciliation. So, let me kind of pause the sermon and put it over here for a second. And let me just give you some two truths about reconciliation. True reconciliation, biblically God- centered reconciliation does not, listen, does not mean that we don't have healthy boundaries around our lives when it comes to some people. There are sometimes just people that you may know, whether they're family, whether they're friends, whether they're co-workers, they're just toxic. And not that you don't want to love them like Jesus, but reconciliation doesn't mean you're my best friend. Reconciliation doesn't mean you're invited to my dinner on Friday night at my house. So, it is a spiritually mature, spiritually healthy thing to do. Sometimes it is very good to put just good spiritual boundaries, personal boundaries, emotional boundaries around yourself, even when you reconcile with somebody. Again, reconciliation does not mean you're inviting somebody to be your go-to bud. You got that? Here's the second thing you might consider when it comes as truths. Sometimes when it comes to reconciliation, you have done all that you can and the other person just chooses not to move towards reconciliation. And the Bible says there are different types of personalities. And one of the personalities is that of a peacekeeper. If you're a peacekeeper and you don't like broken relationships and you don't like things that aren't undone, it can wear you out emotionally. It can wear you out spiritually. It can even wear you out physically when you think and feel this spiritual need to reconcile with somebody and they don't and you beat yourself up because it never happens. It is a truth that sometimes you have done all that you can and at some point you stop and you put that good spiritual boundary around yourself that emotional boundary and you step back and say I have done all that I can in fact it says this in Romans 12:1 18 if it is possible as far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone. So, in a great world, we all live at peace. But sometimes we can only do what we can do. Now, here's why I bring those two truths back up. Let me step back into the sermon. You know what good, godly, Jesus- centered counsel around you does? It can help you decipher those two things. It can help you look going, "No, you haven't done everything that you need to do." Or it can look at you going, "You need to take a step back because there's nothing else you can do." Good godly counsel can help you establish healthy boundaries around yourself for some people that you can live reconcile but not live best friend with. Does that make sense? But again, what we need and the point said this, we need to invite Jesus centered voices into our lives when we have conflict. Let me get to number three here. Number three says this, make kindness a high priority. When you have a broken relationship and you need to move towards reconciliation, we wish we could like kind of wave the badging wand, right? Oh, it's all done is good. But many times reconciliation is a process. And in this process of reconciliation, we need to make kindness a high priority. Look at Phileiman verse 10. He says, "I appeal to you to show kindness to my child onus. I became his father in the faith while we were here in prison. He's going reconciliation's over here, but the road, the pathway to get to reconciliation is through kindness. He could have called him this runaway slave. Hey fame, I got tell you got this runaway slave. You got this problem guy. He could have called him all those names. It' have been right to call him those names. But well, here's what the Apostle Paul did. He reframed who Onismus was in the eyes of Phileiman so Phileiman could start responding to him in a different way than he had been in the past. Paul called him my child. He referred to him as my son in the faith. When Phileiman reads those, he's got to now see Onismas in a totally different way because of the kindness that Paul is showing towards his former slave. Paul is intentionally intentionally refraraming how Phileiman sees Anissimus and he says, "Do it through kindness." If you're taking notes, these aren't on your on your page there, but let me just give you four quick things about kindness. Here are some things about kindness to keep in mind. Kindness begins when God's grace is remembered. Kindness begins when God's grace is remembered. If you have someone, now I'm going to give you some truth here. Are you ready for this one? If you have someone in your life that you've not done everything that you can to reconcile, it's just one of those relationships. It's one of these relationships, right? Yeah. Just waiting. I'm waiting for them to make it right. I'm ready. waiting for them to make the first step. I'm waiting for them to say they're sorry. And you have one of these relationships right here and you're not willing to move towards reconciliation. There's a good chance you for maybe forgotten about God's grace in your own life because who made the first move when it comes to reconciliation with us and God? Jesus did. He left heaven on our behalf. He made the first step. He died on the cross that we could be reconciled to God. He made a big step. So kindness begins when God's grace is remembered. Here's the second thing real quick. Kindness lowers defenses. Okay? Like reconciliation doesn't happen like this. So if you're kind to them even in the brokenness, if you're kind to them when the relationship is unreconciled, but there's still a kindness in your spirit, it will lower the defenses. That old expression, kill them with kindness. That's a good expression. Not kill them part, but the kindness part. You with me? Here's the third thing about kindness. Kindness is not weakness. It's Christlikkeness.

Kindness is not a weakness. It is Christ likeness. Look in the gospels, the story of Jesus. How many times he was kind to somebody when they probably didn't deserve it.

Here's the last thing about kindness. Kindness is the road that leads to reconciliation. I'm not sure I can act like 100% say this, but I think I'm really close. Without kindness, there'll never be reconciliation.

So, kindness is the road that leads to reconciliation.

Without kindness, there'll probably never be reconciliation.

So, how do you move towards reconciliation? You make kindness a priority. And here's the last one. You with me? Refuse to weaponize the past.

When you have a broken relationship, what happens? You can so focus on who that person was or what this person did or the history of the relationship that we almost weaponize the past. Phaleiman in verse 11 says this. Paul wrote, "Annismas hasn't been of much use to you in the past, but now he is very useful to both of us." Here's what's ironic about this whole story. The name Onissimus, do you know what the name means? Onismus means helpful. But Paul's writing Phileiman going, "So far he's not lived up to his name." Okay? So far, he's not really lived out who he says he is by his name. But that's the past. And he goes, Phileiman, God's redemption story in my life and in your life. God's redemption story does not focus on the past. It focuses on the future. Paul was helping Phileiman to see Onismas as what he could be, not what he had been. Aren't you glad that's the way God looks at us? If God based his thoughts, if God based his love, if God based his interaction with me on choices I've made in the past, it would not be a very good relationship moving forward. But God sees me and he sees you for who you will become, not what you have been.

Don't make somebody live forever with their worst mistake. Don't make somebody live forever with their worst mistake.

And so as you think about reconciliation in your life, can we all agree it's hard? It's difficult. There was a number of relationships in my own life that I had to run through this filter. And some I'm going, I need to do more. There was one I'm like, I think I've done everything I can do. But it still puts a knot in you, doesn't it? This is not one of those sermons you're going, man, I'm glad I came today. This is one of those sermons you're going, I needed to hear, but I didn't want to hear. And you might ask the question, but Keith, why? I mean, it's hard. Isn't it easier just to let that person exist over there and I'll exist over here? Whether it's a parent or whether it's a child, a family member, a friend, a co-orker, let's just not be together. Let's don't worry about reconcile. You just don't come into my world and I won't come into your world. Keith, wouldn't that be better? Why should you do the hard thing to try to reconcile? You know what the answer is? The why is because Jesus did? That's why that Jesus's whole life is about reconciliation. He came that you and I might be reconciled to the father in heaven. And can we just say this? If we look at our relationship with God as the pie, we get the whole pie, don't we? When it comes to a broken relationship spiritually that we have with God, the Bible says this that we're all sinners and we get the whole pie. But Jesus said, "But I'll come that they may have life and that life is spiritual life that he came to reconcile us together." And if you're here today and you've never been reconciled with God, that you have a broken relationship with God, and what keeps you apart, you going, "Well, look what I've done." The past doesn't matter. That Jesus said, "I will take the first step and I will move to bring you two together." And here's what the Bible says. To be reconciled with God is simply saying, "Jesus, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm messed up. I own the pie. But will you forgive me, Jesus, because I believe you're the son of God? And the Bible says this thing hard thing of reconciliation, it's really easy when it comes to God because that's all there is to it. And that Jesus becomes the bridge that brings us into relationship with God. You know, we take communion here weekly at church. And do you know why we do that? To remind us to remind us that our reconciliation with others is because God reconciled with us. Came in. You've got your communion cup and we're going to take communion here together. I'm going to throw something out at you as we take it together today. And if you're a guest here together with guest here today with us, we believe this that commune is for all people who are followers of Jesus. So regardless if this is where you normally attend church, you're invited to join us. But I'm going to throw something else out before we take communion together today. The Bible also says this. Before you take your offering to God, if you know you have something against your brother, it really says this, "Or your brother has something against you." It says, "Before you take your offering, go make it right with your brother." This is not the normal words we use here today. But for some, it may be that you don't take communion today. Not because you're not reconciled with God. you are, but you hang on to it until you can reconcile with your brother to make it right with that person. You nobody's like judging. Nobody's looking who's doing what. But maybe it's one of those things that you just quietly just going, Jesus, thank you that you reconciled with me today to remind me. I'm going to hang on to this until I can make an effort towards my brother or sister. But communion, it's a reminder of God's reconciliation to us through Jesus. So, if you'll take out your wafer

and the Bible says this, that on the night that Jesus was crucified, he sat with his disciples and he said, "This is my body that's broken for you." It was his broken body on the cross that made a way for us to be reconciled to God. And he said, "So when you take this, remember my reconciliation."

In the same way, he took the drink that night and he said, "This represents my blood." And we know this without the shedding of the blood of Jesus on the cross there is no reconciliation between us and God. And so he said this is remembrance of the price I paid for your reconciliation.

And so Jesus, we come before you now

and confess and maybe even complain or shout, "Relationships are hard and they are complicated." And Jesus, I'm going to confess this for all of us and we probably just mess them up more when we're in charge. And so Jesus, will you come and live through us in our relationships that we can love others the way you loved us? And we pray this in your name. Amen.