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Trusting God in reconciliation

by Mike Vandermause on August 27, 2019

What is reconciliation, why should you care and how do you go about it?

Those were the questions guest speaker Rob Murray tackled during his message on Sunday, August 25 at Community Church in the final part of the sermon series “In God I Trust". Rob is a consultant, coach and former staffer at Church of the City in Nashville, Tenn. Here are key points from his message:

*Reconciliation is about change, which can be difficult, scary and awkward.

*We can be reconciled to God, others, ourselves and our stuff.

*There are four categories of reconciliation:

-Something has been violated. It needs forgiveness.

-Something has been broken. It needs fixing.

-Something has been lost. It needs finding.

-Something has died. It needs a funeral.

*We use different strategies to avoid reconciliation:

-Fight, flight or freeze. I will fight you, run away or do nothing.

-Denial. That didn’t happen. If I don’t see it then I don’t have to show up to it.

-Minimizing and shaming people. We keep people in their place by saying things like: “Don’t be a baby” or “You’re making this into such a big deal.”

-Instant demands. We say things like: “I reached out and he/she didn’t respond, so I guess that’s it. I’ve fulfilled my responsibility.” In reality, reconciliation is a process that takes time and patience.

-We can over-function (escape to action) or under-function (escape to apathy).

*Why should we care about reconciliation? Because God reconciled us to himself and gave us a message of reconciliation (2 Corinthians  5:17-21). You should care because God first cared about you. God did not wait for us to be worthy of being died for. He took the first step while we were still sinners, haters and rejectors of God. Out of God’s love for us we risk. We seek to heal brokenness with others because we have first been healed.

*Everyone has an unpaid church job involving the ministry of reconciliation. We are all in this ministry.

*We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is making his appeal for reconciliation through you. He is urging you to be part of that.

*How do we go about reconciliation?

-Remember what Christ has done for you.

-Take the first courageous step toward reconciliation, and then take another hundred after that.

-Take your heart, soul, mind and strength -- all of you.

-Take a lunch, and maybe dinner too, because it’s going to take time. Reconciliation can be like dial-up Internet - slow and frustrating.

*You can trust God in reconciliation, if you so choose. God will lean into your mess and say, “I’ll go with you. I’ll stay with you. You’re mine.” That's a promise you can bank on.