How is the Worlds Strife Pulling at You?

Good afternoon, everyone! I was going to say it's nice to see your smiling faces, but I can't actually see your smiling faces, so I'll just convince myself that you're smiling at me.

But it's good to see everyone here at services today.

I wanted to start out this sermon reading a news article that I got from The Vintage News from August 11th of 2018. It's the amazing story of a seven-year-old who survived Niagara Falls.

So I guess I'll give you a trigger warning. If you're afraid of water or afraid of heights, beware, it has to do with both. I actually first got exposed to this story when I visited Niagara Falls with the family several years back and just found it really intriguing.

Story starts. Over the years, people have gone down Niagara Falls in a wide variety of contraptions.

Wooden barrels, a rubber ball, a kayak, even a jet ski. But the most impressive descent took place on July 9, 1960, when seven-year-old Roger Woodward went over the falls wearing little more than a life jacket. It would become known as the Miracle of Niagara. It began on a sunny July morning in 1960. Roger and his 17-year-old sister, Deanne, joined a family friend, Jim Honeycutt, 40, on his 14-foot aluminum boat equipped with an outboard motor for a trip down the Niagara River high above the falls. Honeycutt piloted the boat past the Ontario Hydro Control Dam.

Only a mile from the brink of the Horseshoe Fall on the Canadian side, it provides a more even flow of water over the falls. Not many boats venture past this point where the friendly river turns turbulent, but Honeycutt underestimated the river's strength and the danger that came with it.

Soon, the boat's passengers could see Goat Island dividing the river into two sets of rapids, one going over the American Falls, the other the Horseshoe Falls. In the distance, the three could see the spray caused by the massive amounts of water falling over the falls and crashing into the river below. Now realizing the danger, Honeycutt desperately tried to turn the boat around and head for Goat Island, which extends at the very edge of both the American and the Horseshoe Falls, but it was too late. The boat was in the rapids now being tossed around helplessly. There were two orange life jackets in the boat. Roger was already wearing his. DeAnn struggled to fasten hers. Water pounded the boat, rushing over the sides, and soon it capsized, and its passengers were tossed into the swirling water. DeAnn could make out her brother's orange life jacket bobbing further away from Goat Island towards the Horseshoe Falls. The girl swam furiously, trying to reach the edge of Goat Island, where a crowd had gathered looking on in disbelief. Suddenly, a man rushed to the railing. John Hayes, a truck driver and auxiliary policeman from Union, New Jersey.

Climbing over the guardrail, he extended one arm as far as he could while grasping the rail with the other, but the girl was out of reach. Refusing to give up, Hayes ran ahead on an 18-inch ledge a few inches above the water. Kick harder, he pleaded. Anchoring one foot around the bottom rail, he again stretched out his arm. DeAnn's fingers clasped his thumb, and Hayes was able to stop her just feet from the brink of the falls, but he couldn't pull her out of the violent current. Help came from another hero, John Quattrocki of Pennsgrove, New Jersey, who climbed over the railing, grabbed her other hand, and helped Hayes pull her to safety. Meanwhile, her brother and Honeycut were still in a fight for their lives. When they were first pitched into the water, the boy was holding on to Honeycut, but the turbulent water ripped them apart. The rapids carried the two away from Goat Island and closer to the center of the Horseshoe Falls, where they shot over the brink and into the mist below. Fate was with Roger that day. The boy could have been hurled into the hundreds of rocks jutting from the water's surface, but because he was wearing a lifejack and because of his slight 55-pound frame, Roger rode the crest of the falls and was shot beyond the pounding water. Honeycut, heavier in weight and not wearing a life jacket, dropped straight down and was dead within seconds as the current sent his body deep into 200 feet deep well.

Roger was alive but not yet out of danger. Bobbing in the water, he could make out the outline of a boat through the heavy mist. It was the made of the mist, taking tourists close to the base of the Horseshoe Falls. Captain Clifford Keach was about to turn his craft away from the falls when he spotted the orange jacket. He maneuvered his boat to pick up the boy as he drifted past.

The boat's crew flung a life preserver in Roger's direction once, twice, and then on the third attempt Roger was able to grab on and was pulled to safety. He was lifted out of the water and placed gently onto the deck the amazement of the boat's passengers, many of whom didn't realize the boy had come from over the falls. Surprisingly, Roger's trip over the falls left him relatively unscathed, save for some minor bruising on his jaw and around the right eye. His sister, DeAnn, recuperating in another hospital, was equally fortunate, coming out of it with just a small cut on her hand.

Jim Honeycutt's body, however, wouldn't surface for four days, finally released by the current beneath the falls. So pretty amazing, and if somebody tried to do that, the chances of surviving something like that would be just incredible. How many have been to Niagara Falls? If you've taken the tunnel that goes through where you can go actually right at the side or behind the falls, you get just this feeling what the power of that water is like, don't you? And as you read a story like this, I'm sure you could think of your visits to the falls and just think of the sheer might of all that water. I was browsing some other stories this morning, actually, and since this happened in 1960, this man is actually still alive, and there was a story of how he and his sister had gone back about 15-20 years ago now and actually met up with the people who saved the sister and and pulled her up onto the island. It was a really interesting story to read. What I'd like to focus on is the power of the water and the current. So none of this had to happen unless that boat had been close and gotten pulled into that current. And it's deceptive sometimes the power of the water, isn't it? Maybe you've been in the ocean, you felt a riptide sometime, or you've been in a river that has a current that catches you in an unexpected way. Sometimes if you're in the ocean, even the water receding after a large wave comes in can take you right off of your feet unexpectedly.

Water and the power, the current of that water, is incredibly strong. Some of you might have read stories of Lewis and Clark as they traveled across the country mapping out the country, or I lived in Colorado for a while. John Wesley Powell is a legend back there. He was a man who lost his right arm in the Battle of Shiloh in the Civil War and took not one but two expeditions to travel all the way down through the Grand Canyon, braving rapids, almost falling over waterfalls himself, and incredible stories about what he went through. But I'd like to focus on the water for a minute, because the Bible uses the power of water as an analogy, and it's an analogy of something that we deal with today, and that's where I'd like to focus our time for today. Turn with me if you would to Proverbs 17 verse 14. Proverbs 17 verse 14. I'll use this simple two-line proverb as really the outline for the message today. Proverbs 17 verse 14 says, the beginning of strife is like releasing water, therefore stop contention before a quarrel starts. The beginning of strife is like releasing water. And if there's one thing that we see in our society today, I think it's strife. And if you're like me, you can emotionally just feel, if you want to call it a tidal pull, you want to call it a current, you can feel those waters tugging at all of us in society right now, can't we?

It's sadly become almost normal to see on nightly news stories of not just a murder or some unfortunate incident, but sometimes tens, certainly if not hundreds of people on the streets of different of our cities. Not just peacefully protesting, which our Constitution absolutely allows us to do, but destroying property, causing mayhem. And it's things that have would have been unimaginable even a few years ago, are becoming regular day-to-day events. And if you're like me, we get concerned about this. So we should be concerned not only about what we see in the society outside, but the impact that it has on us as individuals. So I'd like to use Proverbs 17, 14 as a template today and spend a little time on the two lines of this proverb. As we think about strife, we think about those currents that are going on in the world around us. How are those currents pulling on us? What are they doing to us? Those currents start out fairly weak and innocent.

I grew up in Minnesota, and one of the things that anybody growing up in Minnesota is cognizant of is the Mississippi River. One of the first things I remember learning in first grade is how to spell Mississippi. M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. Pretty much, maybe even today, every first grader in Minnesota can kind of give you the sing-song voice and tell you how to spell Mississippi. It's this monstrous river that's incredibly strategic to the United States. And you might remember when a bridge fell down in the Mississippi River, probably going back 15, 20 years ago, they had a lot of difficulty recovering bodies from the river because the currents in the river are so strong and swirling and unpredictable and a lot of strong downward pull on them. But you know where the Mississippi River starts? It's a little place called Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota. And if you were to go up to Lake Itasca, you could take your little two-year-old child and let him or her wade in the waters of the Mississippi River at the source. And it would be a trickle. You could jump across it. Any adult could jump across it because it's that small. Yet, as you get downstream, as the might of that water carries on, it turns into a current that nobody, even cars, can't withstand. That's the power of water, and that's what this proverb brings up. So let's wade into this proverb, no pun intended, and talk about these couple of elements that are mentioned. First of all, how does strife begin?

And secondly, how can we stop contention before a quarrel starts? So first of all, how does strife begin? I'd like to touch on just two areas here that the Bible points out fairly strongly. The first one is human actions. Not surprisingly, we as humans have an incredible ability to stir up strife. It's one of the things we specialize in if we're honest about ourselves as individuals, as cultures, as societies. Turn with me, if you will, to Proverbs 22 and verse 10. Because not only actions, but specific actions, and that is the words that we speak, can be the start of strife, and often are. Proverbs 22 and verse 10. Here we read in the proverb, cast out the scoffer, and contention will leave. Yes, strife and reproach will cease. We're told that scoffers, people who scoff, cause contention. When you remove them, strife and reproach cease. Now, the word scoffer here is from a Hebrew word, lutz, L-U-W-T-S, and it means one who mocks or boasts or who scorns. A babbler is also something it can mean. And if you remember, the Romans would often call people barbarians. If they spoke languages they didn't understand, because the language sounded like babbling. And this word also means a babbler, as in someone who speaks an unintelligible different language. By extension, it can even refer to an interpreter or an ambassador, as in one who represents an idea or a position. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says the verb indicates the manifestation of contempt by insulting words or actions. It combines bitterness with ridicule. And from the biblical site GotQuestions.org, it says the word translated scoffer in English can mean one who mocks, ridicules, or scorns the belief of another. In Hebrew, the word translated scoffer or mocker can also mean ambassador. So scoffer is one who not only disagrees with an idea, but he also considers himself an ambassador to the opposing idea. He cannot rest until he has demonstrated the foolishness of any idea that's not his own. A scoffer voices his disagreement, ridicules all who stand against him, and actively recruits others to his side.

Now, if we're honest about it, we see plenty of this acting itself out in society today in fairly serious ways. I thought I'd focus on a couple of silly arguments, too, that can cause strife, just to point out the fact that it's not always big, monumental, world-shaking ideas that can cause incredible arguments. I did a quick internet search and found one site that had 25 dumb arguments that turned into fights. One that caught my eye was my college roommate and I didn't speak for three weeks because of an argument regarding toilet paper roll placement. It started off as a discussion, then an argument, then to the point where he insulted my sister, and then I broke his wrist. Now, funny, but as people used to tell you in literature class, things are funny because there's a kernel of truth in them, right? And when we think about it, we probably experience things like that. A friend of mine, once, when talking with a whole group of our friends, I feel like I can share this and it's anonymous, told me about an argument that he had with his wife during the first year or two that they were married. Now, this argument had to do with the very important element of how you make the bed. Most specifically, when you make the bed, how do you place the flat sheet on the bed? You place it with the pattern downward so when you fold the sheet over, you can see the pattern over the comforter, or you place it with the pattern upwards, in which case you could see it when the comforter is pulled back, but you can't see it when you pull the edge over.

That argument went downhill at the point when he started a sentence with, any intelligent person would know. So for anyone looking for marriage advice, I would advise you not to start a sentence with any intelligent person would know. Silly things, but silly things can turn into strife if we're not careful, and the words that we speak and how we speak them can have a big impact on that. Let's go to Proverbs 29. We'll read verses 8 and 9.

We read how things go even further afield as a result of the words that people speak.

Proverbs 28 verses 8 and 9, or 29, sorry, verses 8 and 9. Here we read that scoffers set a city a flame, but wise men turn away wrath. If a wise man contends with a foolish man, whether the fool rages or laughs, there's no peace. So can we think of situations like this that we've had? We've probably worked with somebody like this, gone to school with somebody like this, hopefully not, but people sometimes had neighbors like this. It doesn't matter, like it says here in verse 9, whether the fool rages or laughs, whether the person is having a tirade or just joking around, there's never peace because somebody who is a mocker, somebody who's constantly digging and going at whatever the issue is, whether it's a big one or a small one and won't let it go, digs in their heels, has to be right about every single argument, does not leave any peace when it's there. They always have a drum that they have to beat. They have a driving need to be right and take it personally if anyone even implies the fact that they're not right, and they come right back again and again and again. Now we see that playing itself out a lot in society. I want to be careful not to just stereotype everything going on. There are a lot of important dialogues going on in society today that need to be had in terms of the way we've been treating people, about racism that people still do experience in our society today. And I don't mean to say anything against raising our voices in an appropriate way against wrongs that are going on in the world. But there's also a spirit of strife that's going on in our world. I think we all see it, and it attaches itself sometimes to legitimate grievances and takes them way beyond where they should go. Scuffing has gone mainstream in a lot of ways. We think about our leaders and how many of our leaders talk, whether either side of the political spectrum, anyone you want to point out within the country. And, you know, a few years back, politicians, if you go back a decade or two, would actually call themselves Mr. or Miss. We don't really hear a lot of that unless there's some sort of a joking or mocking name attached to it these days, do we? And likewise, finding common ground between people trying to solve a problem driving towards some level of compromise politically in order to find a solution that's going to be best for everyone is often now considered by people to be selling out, rather than finding a prudent way that we live together as a society.

Political arguments nowadays are fracturing families and friendships. You know, even arguments about public health issues now are fragmenting friendships and some families. You'll find people who say, well, I can't even talk to my brother, my sister, my cousin anymore because, and then the reason comes out, whatever the topic might be. And if we're honest about it, the whole idea of prejudice is tied to this as well, because we tend to generalize, don't we? We attach labels very quickly to classes of people, whether we sort them by color, by size, by shape, by where they came from, and we attach different words. We view different people as dangerous or lazy or industrious, or you know, you choose it. And we tend to attach those labels very quickly to people based purely on their appearance. That idea of mocking or scoffing, of attaching those labels and calling those names. And we attach treatment of those people based on the label without often and usually even knowing anything about that person. And those are the tides, those poles that we have to be careful of that are going on in our society. We have to think introspectively about what is it that's going on within ourselves as those tides of society, as those currents start to flow around us. And that really ties in to the second way that strife begins, which is our fleshly desires, our carnal desires that war within us. I think as we know as Christians, there's a limit to what we're going to be able to do to change society around us. But one of the things we are absolutely called to do is to look inside ourselves to ensure that Jesus Christ is living within us through His Spirit, and that we're showing the world a better and a different way in the way that we're acting. And we also know, as we'll read about in a few sections here, that the words that come out of our mouth, whether we are mockers and scoffers, or whether we speak words of wisdom and health and grace, comes from what's in a side of our hearts, and whether we're converted, and who's winning that battle, frankly, that goes on every day inside of us. Turn with me, if you will, to James 3. James 3. And James attaches together very closely what's going on inside of us, inside of our hearts, and the condition that we're in spiritually to the words that we speak. James 3, we'll read verses 8 through 18. James 3, verse 8, he starts out, No man can tame the tongue. It's an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Then he goes into why. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives? Or grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, don't boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above.

It is earthly, sensual, demonic. For envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. So what is it that James is saying here? He's laying out to the people he's writing to, and he's saying, just as we see in nature, we don't expect that we can go to a spring and draw salt water out of it if it's a freshwater spring. We know that. We don't go to the pear tree to pick olives, as he's pointing out. And likewise in our lives, he's focusing on the fact that we need to have one single life that's focused on God that's driven by his Spirit. That's an ongoing topic in James.

He talks earlier in James 1 about the instability of a double-minded man, pointing out again the fact that we have to be single-minded in our approach, as we have God's Spirit, that we have one thing that's driving our life forward, and that is to become like our elder brother Jesus Christ, to walk with him and to be more like him every day. Now obviously James, as everyone who's a Christian understands that none of us are perfect in what we do every day. This is not in any way a thought that we're going to be perfect and won't make a mistake and won't sin in any way in our lives, but it is a commentary on what it is that has to be going on within us. There has to be one way that's dominant, and as that way is dominant, we have to also see the things around us that are fighting against that way of life and not give up our battle. James urges us to look at our own hearts in order to make sure that we slow down those currents that are going on around us, trying to pull us in a different direction. Let's go to James 4. We'll read verses 1 through 5 of James 4. Here he gets more specific again about the topic of strife, and he asks the question in James 4 verse 1, where do wars and fights come from among you? It's a good question to ask. We all get in arguments. Sometimes we get in strife, even though we might not necessarily want to, but we do. And where does that come from? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war and your members? You lust and you don't have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, and yet you don't have because you don't ask. And you ask and you don't receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulters and adultresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? James is using incredibly strong language here, isn't he? He's writing to people in church congregation. He's calling them adulterers and adultresses. He's talking about murder, as well as covetousness and lust. Very strong language to use as he's talking with God's people. But he was giving very strong correction in this book and talking about the fact that there is a war, a struggle that goes on within us, and recognizing that struggle and the fact that we have to be focused on it and through God's Spirit working to go God's way and not give up to those poles that we have within us as our lusts and our flesh tries to take us in a different direction. Let's go for last scripture in this section to Galatians 5. We'll read verses 16 through 21 of Galatians 5. You'll probably remember Galatians 5 is the area that has the fruit of the spirit, but before talking about the fruit of the spirit, Paul also talks to the Galatians, writing to them about the works or the fruit of this flesh.

So in Galatians 5, starting in verse 16, Paul writes, I say then, walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another. So you don't know the things that you wish. But if you're led by the spirit, you're not under the law, and the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, and sorcery. And look where he turns to after this and the works of the flesh. Hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, parisees, envy, which then leads into murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Of course, again, that word practice we understand is important. He's not saying those who, by their own will, are able to force these things out of their lives, because we can't do that as human beings.

But those who are not practicing that, those who don't live, if you will, in that current or in that stream of these behaviors, but rather are putting themselves into the stream of God's Spirit, and to live as best they can by that Spirit, by the grace of God every day. I find it interesting here, and something I hadn't really focused on that heavily before, in these works of the flesh, look at how many of these works of the flesh are aimed at different forms of conflict between individuals. Hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy. A good portion of these works of the flesh have to do with how we relate with one another as human beings, like Mr. Thomas pointed out maybe a month ago in the sermon that he gave on hate. And unfortunately, hate is part of that human nature. As human beings, we look back at history, we look at ourselves as people. What do we tend to do? We tend to group up. We always tend to make it some sort of an us versus them. We tend to put ourselves in whatever group is better, because that's what we like to do as human beings. We like to think we're better because of and fill in the blank. We look a certain way, we live in a certain place, we act a certain way, we have certain things, and then we group everybody else in the other people. And then we look down on the other people because they're not like us. It's a natural thing in the way that humans think, and that's why these qualities are pointed out here in Galatians 5 as works of the flesh, things that we have to put out of our practice of regular life as the Holy Spirit works within us. So this first section was about how does strife begin. We think back to Proverbs 17 and verse 14. Let's ask a few questions of ourselves as we conclude this section. What are the attitudes and intents of the heart that motivate my actions? It's a question we should all probably sit back and take some time to answer as we're making the different actions we are. Certainly as we feel ourselves getting drawn in, as those currents start to get stronger around us, any of you who've been in any sort of a fight or conflict or a controversy with somebody else, you know exactly what I'm talking about because you can feel it, can't you? You can feel it within your body, you can feel it physically, you can feel it mentally as you start to get pulled into conflict and controversy. And that's where we need to make sure we need to think about and make space to think what is motivating my actions? What are the thoughts and intents of my heart at this point in time and compare it to God's Spirit and question whether it's that Spirit working within us? When we let the lust of our carnal mind rule us, then strife results. That's what we've seen here. The book of James is rich in themes that are applicable to our lives today. One of the things, if you're looking for something to spend time studying and reflecting on in the week to come, I'd recommend the book of James. I think it's very applicable, as we've seen in some of these passages, to the things that we're experiencing in the world around us today and really reflect on the things that James talks about. Some people would say it's a master class in Christianity, how we need to live our Christian lives, that our walk and the way that we do things from day to day reflect God's Spirit within us. The second question that I encourage asking is, what about my words? Am I a scoffer? How do I talk about other people, other things, other ideas? How do I go about relating with other people and expressing myself to them?

Am I willing to give up an argument in order to save a friendship? Do I know when to stop when I've gone too far and apologize if I've done that? Am I known as being the one who has one or two topics that I keep coming back to in a discussion and trying to convince people that they need to think the way I do about those topics? How do I feel about being wrong and apologizing?

How do I act when I'm proven wrong? Good questions for us to reflect and ask ourselves as we're thinking about our words and thinking about that beginning of strife. Let's go back to our text for today, the scripture that we read to begin with, Proverbs 17 verse 14. The beginning of strife is like releasing water. Therefore, stop contention before a quarrel starts. So I'd like to spend a few minutes thinking now in this second portion of the Proverbs, stopping contention before a quarrel starts. How is it that we can do that? And maybe I'm going to be a bit simplistic, but I want to give some at least a framework that we see within the Bible for how we can stop this from happening. Before we go there, though, I'd like to talk for a few minutes about conflict and strife.

What's the difference between the two? I think within your own mind, how would you define conflict versus strife?

They're not necessarily the same thing. Conflict can turn into strife. Conflict is a difference of opinion between people. People want to do something in a different way. They don't agree. That's a conflict. Strife is something that then erupts often out of conflict as people start to have a personal problem within one another. Get into an argument, get into a fight, whether that's a physical fight or emotionally being at odds with each other and not willing to back down and continuing on with that contention. But conflict in and of itself is going to happen as long as there's two people with functioning human brains. And chances are, if you're somebody who says, well, I've never really had a conflict with anyone, chances are it's because you've often given up what it is that you believe in very strongly to simply give in to what the other person wants.

Because as human beings, we all have different opinions, whether it's how we put the toilet paper on the roll, what we're going to eat for breakfast, all of these things. We have different opinions and there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes those opinions are different than the person we're living with, traveling with, working with, living next door to, and you know what?

That's okay, too. It's human and it happens. But what's really important is how do we deal with those conflicts when they arise. And that's when things can go really well or they can go poorly.

We might not think about it, but actually conflict, when resolved in a healthy way, strengthens the relationship. So for those who are married, if you could think about it, consider the difference of opinion you've had, especially early in your marriage. You encounter a lot of things that you do differently. You don't necessarily even think about it. You've got all kinds of things to sort out, families on both sides, all of those things. And a lot of married couples deal with that very constructively. They'll sit down, they'll say, you know, we've got this difference of opinion, let's figure out how to work through this and let's find solutions.

And when you do that, you center on something as being more important than the argument that you're having. And what you're saying, in reaching a constructive resolution to it, is you're both saying this relationship is more important than this difference of opinion that came up. And we're going to set the relationship first. And when we do that, we can sort out the difficulties that might come and will come from time to time. I've certainly found the same thing at work. I work a lot serving clients. Sometimes they're happy with me, sometimes they're not. Sometimes it's my fault, sometimes it's not. Regardless of the situation, I have to resolve those things. And as I've matured as a person over the years, it's been more and more constructive in those relationships that I have, as I realize I need to go. And if I've done something wrong, or even if I sense that my client thinks I've done something wrong and isn't happy, I have to go to them in an appropriate way. I have to call it out, and I have to find a constructive way to say, look, let's find a way to work through this. You're not happy. I'm not happy. There's something bigger and better we can achieve here. Let's find a way to do it. And I can tell you without a doubt that situations I've been in, sometimes really difficult situations, that then got resolved in a constructive way, are some of the best relationships that I have today. Because we've gone through that process, and we've made a commitment that the relationship that we have, in this case to do business together, is much more important than some of the differences of difficulties that we find along the way.

How many of you remember high school math class?

Adding and subtracting and multiplying and dividing fractions.

Okay, less hands there. The idea of the common denominator. Do we remember what the common denominator does? If you're trying to multiply and divide a fraction, you can simply multiply numerator times numerator, denominator times denominator. But if you're trying to add or subtract a fraction, you have to find a common denominator, or you're not going to be able to get the answer.

Right? So if you're adding three quarters and two thirds, you have to find the common denominator of 12 in this case. Three quarters becomes nine twelfths, two thirds becomes eight twelfths, and you end up with 17 twelfths as a result. So by finding the common denominator, you're being able to add those things together and come up with an answer. That actually is a biblical principle, and I'd like to spend the rest of the message talking about that as we think about at least a high-level framework about how we can avoid turning conflict into strife. Turn with me, if you will, to Genesis 13 verse 6. I'm willing to believe Genesis 13 verse 6 in the story of Abraham and Lot was not mentioned in math class when you're talking about adding and subtracting fractions.

I think we remember that Lot and Abraham are related. I didn't double check this, but I believe Lot was Abraham's nephew. They traveled together. They were part of the same family group as they were traveling and settling the land that God was bringing Abraham to. And they reached a point where they were so successful they were getting too big, and maybe this was where the saying started, this place isn't big enough for the both of us, because that's essentially what they said, isn't it? Genesis 13 verse 6. Now the land was not able to support them that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. So God blessed Abraham and Lot, that whole group that was together, so much they were starting to outgrow the space that they had. And there was strife in verse 7 between the herdsmen of Abraham's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The Canaanites and the parasites then dwelled in the land.

So what did Abraham do? He said to Lot in verse 8, let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you?

Separate from me. If you take the left, I'll go to the right, or if you go to the right, I'll take the left. So what did he do here? He called out the conflict early on. Abraham went to Lot, and he said, look, the guy's working for us. They keep bumping into each other, and it's not good. They're starting to get into petty arguments. If this continues, there's going to be a problem. And what does he point out in verse 8? He goes to the common denominator. He says, Lot, we're family.

We're family. We don't want a fight within our family. That's more important than anything else.

This is something that we have in common, and it rises above anything that's going on between my herdsmen and your herdsmen. At the point that they were able to anchor on that common denominator, and both agree that, you know, it's important that as a family, we have a harmonious relationship, the pathway was open to find a constructive result, because they were able to anchor on something that was more important and put the other things into perspective. And they were able to go and to solve it. And so the first element of this is conflict, acknowledging that conflict, and dealing with it before it turns into strife. We're not going to turn to Matthew 5, but many of us have probably heard Matthew 5 talked about in terms of the principle of going to a brother.

If somebody, if you're, if you think that somebody has something against you, going to that person in order to settle it. There are a couple of things that are mentioned in verses 24 and 25. They just want to point out and feel free to go and look back at it later. It gives two examples. One example, it says, if you go to the altar to make an offering, what does it say to do?

If you're at the altar and you're making an offering to God and you think somebody's got a problem with you? It says, leave your gift there and go. There's an urgency that's pointed out there. So if you're there, figuratively offering a prayer to God or offering something at the altar, and you think that someone might have something against you, you immediately go and you solve it. You don't finish out your offering, and then maybe the next day go and talk to the other person. There's an immediacy here because Jesus Christ recognizing the fact that conflict can turn into strife very quickly if we're not careful. The other example is in verse 25, and it talks about agreeing with your adversary quickly. If you're, if you have a difference of opinion, agree with your adversary quickly. So that haste and doing it quickly. And then, as we talked about a moment ago, commonality is identified. So the first idea, conflict acknowledged before it turns into strife. Secondly, a commonality identified. In this case, Abram pointing out to Lot, we're family.

And then lastly, the commonality recognized is more important than the difference. Now, I'm not naive enough to say that this is going to solve every single conflict we have with anyone else, but it's a framework, and it's recurring framework in the Bible, so we need to think about it.

Turn with me for another example of this very same framework in action. This time, we'll see Paul using it in 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. We might remember that in addition to Paul being out there as an apostle, making his journey, raising up churches, there were others who came in behind him, serving as ministers in these different churches, preaching to the same people. And, as can happen, as does happen when there are different personalities involved, different members of the congregation liked Paul's preaching better than Apollos. Some liked Apollos' preaching better than Paul. And what is it that was happening? In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 3, Paul writes to them, he says, "...you're still carnal, for where there is envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal, and behaving like mere men? For when one says, I am of Paul, and another I am of Apollos, are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers, through whom you believe, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field. You are God's building. According to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder, I've laid the foundation, and another builds on it.

But let each one take heed how he builds on it, for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." So we see the same framework here, don't we? Paul calls out the fact that there is a conflict. He wasn't going to hide from it. He knew that in the Corinthian church there were people who liked him and said that he was the best, others who said Apollos was the best, and what did he do? As soon as he called that out, he went to commonality.

He said, it doesn't matter. You like Paul, you like Apollos? We have one thing in common, that is, God is the foundation. We're both ministers of God. We're both trying to do the same thing.

We might be doing it in different ways. We might be doing it in different phases of your spiritual maturity. He's saying, but we're doing the same thing for the same God who is the one who called you and formed the foundation. Based on that commonality, it puts the other differences into perspective. That's where he lays out, for example, according to the grace of God that was given to me, I've laid the foundation and another, referring to Apollos, builds on it. He's pointing out, if we recognize the fact that God is supreme and in charge of this, then we can put those differences into perspective and let them go back into the background where they belong.

Let's look at the last example that I'll offer today, and that's in Galatians 3. Galatians 3. This one perhaps has a little more applicability to what we deal with today as he's talking about differences of race, ethnicity, and class, all right into the Galatians in Galatians 3. He starts out in verse 1, sort of setting the stage and says, Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? And then in verse 26, he goes down and continues, saying, you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

There is therefore neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you're Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Now, why was he referring to male and female, slave and free, Jew and Greek? Well, because those are differences that existed in those congregations and differences that were causing strife. There was a lot of discussion around the cultural customs of the Jews and the things that they did, and whether in order to be a New Testament Christian you had to adhere to all of those things, and how much, and how, and when, and why.

There were differences of opinion about women. It's addressed in different parts of Paul's writing in terms of what their role was within the church, whether they were equal to men in terms of their calling, and Paul making it very clear, absolutely 100%, whether you're male or female, you're a child of God and you have the same potential.

And likewise, slave or free, so in this case class background, national background, because enslavement came through military conquest at that point in time, and so people who came from other non-Roman cultures. But again, he went through these different steps. He acknowledged the fact that there was conflict. There were differences. He didn't try to hide from that, and then he had to identify the commonality through Jesus Christ. Even going back to the fact of Abraham and the greatest promise made to Abraham, which was through his seed, through Jesus Christ, all of the world would have the ability eventually to come to God.

He mentions that in verse 29. Through Jesus Christ, all become Abraham's seed. And then that commonality can be, or that the commonality can put the differences into perspective as people understand how to act towards one another. I think back sometimes to a sermon that I heard at the feast, probably going back five to seven years ago, and it was given by a man who works within United.

He did at that point, I think he might still, and he works a lot with people who are in abusive or addictive situations. And he gave a sermonette, and he talked about the difference between a peacekeeper and a peacemaker. Of course, we recognize there are situations where just simply being a peacemaker and not letting something escalate is the right way to do it. Just set things aside and don't react. But what he pointed out was the fact that something that's in common in most addictive relationships is that you have somebody, whether you call them an enabler or something else.

So in an alcoholic or a drug abusive relationship, if people are married or there's a family situation, often one person will take on that role as being the enabler. And that person, in a classic enabler situation, whenever there's a flare-up, whenever there's a problem, they find a way to sort of contain it, put in a box, hide it, push it away on the side, and not deal with it. And in this message, this person referred to that as being the peacemaker rather than the peacekeeper. That's why I'm pointing out in all these situations that we read in the Bible, it wasn't a matter of denying that there was an issue.

The issue, the conflict that was there was called out, it was identified, but then dealt with in a constructive way. I think that's an important thing to think about as well, because what we're not told to do is simply hide from conflict and say, oh you know what, I agree with you, everything's okay, because over the course of time, that's not a healthy way to work with things. And people eventually get frustrated, and when they get frustrated, they blow up. And that's not the way that God wants us to deal with one another. So as we conclude thinking about this idea of a common denominator and resolving conflict, what are the areas of conflict in our lives that need to be acknowledged? Have they already turned into strife? Something we need to sit back and think about? If so, how can we walk that back? How can we heal those relationships? What are the underlying commonalities that we have? How can we express them to the others that we're involved with and rally around those things that we have in common, which frankly are almost always greater than things that we don't have in common? And lastly, then, how can we make those commonalities and recognize them as being more important than the differences? So in conclusion, going back briefly to our text for today, Proverbs 17 verse 14, the beginning of strife is like releasing water. Therefore, stop contention before a quarrel starts. As we recognize what causes the beginning of strife, encourage us to think about our words. How has the attitude of scoffing infiltrated our own behavior?

And in our hearts, in what ways does the war between what we want and what God's spirit inside of us wants cause strife? Things for us to reflect on in our mind that certainly, again, refer you to the book of James for some great reading that I think is very relevant to us right now. And then the second point in terms of stopping contention before quarrel starts, the framework that I pointed out, identifying conflict early before it turns into strife. Not being able, not being afraid of pointing out the fact that there is a difference, and having a conflict does not mean it's irretrievable. It simply means people have different opinions on something. Find common ground and then resolve together that the commonality is more important than the difference. We face a lot of tides, a lot of currents pulling at us today, and as we do that, I encourage all of us to think back on this scripture and Proverbs and continue to resolve to solve conflict and make sure we're avoiding strife in our lives. Have a great Sabbath!