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Introduction
Video - Skit Guys - Baggage, 10 minutes
Introduction
Unfortunately that skit is the truth of many of our lives at times.
We compare ourselves to others, we get in conflicts and heap issues on ourselves and others that we love.
Jesus promises us something different though, and this morning I want to dive into that.
We all have people that we don’t get along with easily compared to others, it is part of being human.
The difficulty is that Jesus pushes us to treat others; including those we don’t get along with as lovingly as anyone.
Maybe it is that co-worker, sibling, or relative that you are going to have to see this upcoming Christmas season.
Or even possibly, it is someone in this church.
Conflict is part of being human, but more than that, conflict with others brings us face to face with our own conflicts and problems.
Small groups bring conflict, because they bring relationship.
The fact is though that we all need relationship.
Illustration
16.
ON USING HOSPITALITY
Use hospitality to one another without grudging.
—1 Peter 4:9
Note the precise terminology of the text.
It does not simply read: “Be hospitable,” though that, of course, is patently involved in the exhortation.
It says: “Use hospitality.”
It is, to be sure, possible to use it in the wrong way.
We can invite people to our homes not for their sakes but for our own.
“Come and see what a beautiful and well-appointed house I have.”
“Come and be impressed with my social graces or culinary competence.”
“Come and keep me from being lonely.”
If we were absolutely honest, we should have to admit that quite often our motives in this matter are pretty mixed.
Hospitality may, however, be used for higher ends.
It may be used for God’s glory and for human good, with only incidental benefit to ourselves.
For consider:
1. Hospitality may be used to help us to break out of the closed circle of domestic life.
It may be a charmed circle but it can be a vicious circle.
Its philosophy is epitomized in the probably apocryphal prayer: “O Lord, bless me and my wife, our John and his wife: us four and no more.”
Love for strangers is one of the most Godlike of qualities.
The Greeks had a word for it—philoxenia—a beautiful word denoting a beautiful thing.
“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb.
13:2).
2. Hospitality may be used to enable us to give practical expression to the love which as Christians we claim to have for others.
One of the most searching and challenging texts in the New Testament is this of the apostle John: “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).
There is a tremendous amount of loving in word in the Christian church today—much pious patter, but little benevolent action.
To wish people well in word and do nothing practical to improve their lot is sheer cant.
3. Hospitality may be used to win others to Christ.
A very ragged and unkempt man presented himself at the door of a Christian couple one day.
He asked for a drink of water.
They brought him in and brewed him tea.
Then they thought he needed a bath: they gave him that.
Next a new suit of clothes: they furnished him with that.
Then a home: they lodged him in a room of their house.
After a while the old man took ill and died.
Although they never suspected it, he was rich and he left all of his fortune to his benefactors.
With the money the Christian couple were able to pay for a university education for their son, there being no state subsidies in those days.
He became a well-known Methodist minister—father of the famous David Frost.
There is a saga of hospitality.
Conclusion
I want to encourage each and everyone of you to get involved in small groups in the coming months.
It is an important aspect of the church, church is more than just Sunday morning for two hours.
It is a good opportunity to practice having good relationships with others and to throw away some of the baggage in your life.
This morning I want to talk about conflict, especially conflict within the church.
Joking aside, we need to learn how to say no.
More than that we need to realize that authenticity is the best response in relationships.
When we do this, we experience true relational intimacy.
The difficulty is that...
Paul does not say “punish” or “pass judgment” but “restore.”
Nor did he even stop there, but showing that he strongly desired them to be patient with those who stumbled he adds “in a spirit of gentleness.”
He does not say “in gentleness” but “in a spirit of gentleness,” showing that this also is the will of the Spirit and that the capacity to correct another’s faults is a spiritual gift.
Let’s see what has to say about all of this.
Verse 1, starts by saying to live creatively...looking for an opportunity to help or sow into your fellow man’s life, reserving your comments or what you think, for you yourself may need to be helped as well at any moment.
Don’t pay so much attention to what others are doing, Pay attention to what God has given you to do.
The Bible says, if you think you’re above that… You are mistaken and you have another thing coming!
Sometimes our will gets in the way, doesn’t it?
Our will is like a pressure switch.
When it gets to be too much for us to handle, we activate our pressure switch and we shut off or shut down whatever we don’t think we can do or handle.
Our will is a manufactured pressure switch between us and God.
A pressure switch is designed to limit and control how much gets let through it.
We can have as little or as much of God we want in our lives at any given moment, and He has the resources to deliver!
When it comes to the things God has to offer, why would we ever want to limit the good things God has in store and planned for us?
What does all this mean?
Why does Paul contradict himself when he says carry each other’s burdens, and each should carry their own load?
We will answer all this, but first let me ask a question.
Intimate Settings Bring Us Face To Face With Our Conflicts
Intimacy, love, affection.
Simply put these words all define closeness.
Closeness can be a good thing, like the love you share with your family.
It can also be a bad thing, like the tight confines of a vehicle on your way back from a youth retreat.
Bunch of sweaty kids that need a shower, and all you smell is dirty socks.
Tight spaces, or intimacy brings us closer together.
Jesus desires the church to be like a family.
Even if we have to smell each others sweaty feet at times.
How many in this room are married?
How has your life changed since you have become married?
Most likely you live in a different place (house, apartment etc) but more importantly you are a changed individual.
First year of college story compared to others years of college.
When I got married I realized that I wasn’t as perfect as I thought I was.
It has caused me to be more considerate, to consider someone before myself.
That is the point of marriage, to cause us to grow.
More than that, that is the point of relationships.
Story of first year of college.
This is why deepened relationships within the context of church is so important.
The problem is that, relationships involve conflict.
Not only that, but it is easy to look at the faults of others and ignore our own.
While sharpening can happen, so can things that are detrimental to relationships.
What do I mean by that?
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