Matt Chandler - Biblical Peacemaking I, Reconciling and Amending

If you have your Bibles, why don’t you go ahead and grab them? If you don’t have a Bible with you, there should be a hardback black one under your seat. I think it’s important that we see what the Word has to say today. We are in week nine of «Recovering Redemption,» our fall series, and the first eight weeks of that have all been built around the vertical relationship that we have with God. Although we have mentioned a couple of times some of the horizontal effects of our vertical relationship, we haven’t really dealt with horizontal relationships up until this point. I want to kind of turn here, and over the next couple of weeks, I want to discuss horizontal relationships in light of where our vertical relationship should be now if we have heard and submitted to the Word of God up to this point.

What we’ve covered in the first eight weeks is simply that you and I, by our nature, were separated from our Creator God, and in that separation, due to sin, we found ourselves on crooked paths trying to satisfy our souls in ways that we simply cannot. I’ve tried to flesh it out some, but let me say it more explicitly today. When we find ourselves on those crooked paths, separated from our Creator God, there will be collateral damage in regards to our relationships with others. So, let’s talk through those paths again.

If I’m on the crooked path that says a better version of myself will satisfy my soul and give me full life, then if what will finally satisfy the angst inside of me is becoming a better version of myself, despite the fact that, up to this point in your life, that has always been a future version of you, right? It’s a very rare person who gets to that spot and says, «Now I’m there.» And if that’s you, I’m guessing you don’t have any friends. That’s just my guess. You probably have some people who are willing to, you know, flatter you, but you don’t have any friends. So, if we’re on the path that a better version of me is what will satisfy me, then think of the collateral damage that causes around you. If life is all about you, and if it’s about you getting to this place and becoming this thing, then aren’t people quickly reduced to commodities? Aren’t you almost forced to use others as leverage to get where you want to go? Genuine relationships aren’t built like that; strong families aren’t built like that; strong businesses aren’t built like that. Sure, you might make some money for a moment, but even that eventually will be exposed to the light of the Sovereign King of the universe, and then what?

Say you’re on the path where you’re looking for somebody to complete you: your spouse, your group of friends, or your children. If you’re on that path that says, «I need to be accepted and loved; I need to be cheered on; I need someone to put me uppermost in their affections, ” then there’s all sorts of wreckage and collateral damage that will arise. Probably the greatest gift God has given me, outside of my salvation, is the wife He gave me. She’s an unbelievable woman, and she’s beautiful. I mean, I can’t help but say she’s beautiful, but that’s just the surface. She is a brilliant thinker; she doesn’t simply regurgitate what she’s read—she processes. She’s a fascinating writer with such a poetic, smooth style. She writes some of the songs that we sing here. In fact, even this morning, she’s up with our students at Focus, helping lead worship with them. She disciples a diverse array of women; she’s currently discipling a high school student, a 51-year-old woman just trying to get by, and an extremely wealthy woman who makes us all look impoverished, once a week.

The breadth of her ability to engage a 16-year-old girl’s heart, a 51-year-old woman struggling to make ends meet, and a wealthy woman who can cover all of our expenses—all while speaking truth and pouring into them—is fascinating to me. But let me tell you what Lauren stinks at: you ready? Being God. She’s awful at it. I don’t know how else to say it; she makes a crummy God. You know who’s worse than she is? My kids. All three of them: terrible, terrible, terrible gods. Now, are they cute? They’re ridiculously cute! Is it hard to discipline them because their disobedience is funny? Yes, yes. God help me, yes! And don’t judge me; you’ve been there. Like, „Go to your room!“ „No, sir.“ And in the end, they make terrible gods. My friends make crummy gods. This job is a crummy god. Shall I go on? If you’re on the path that says other people are going to satisfy me, then think of the weight I put on Lauren, the weight I put on my children, the weight I put on this job. If, in the end, what I want from them…