Before You Come to the Altar

If you look at the Hebrew calendar very often, you'll know that next Sabbath is the first day of the 12th month of God's sacred year. God's calendar. Just eight or nine days ago, if you looked up at the sky on a Thursday evening, you saw a beautiful, bright, full moon. And I know as we draw closer to the Holy Days, when I see those full new moons, I find myself counting how many full moons until we're together for the days of Unleavened Bread in the fall until we are at the Feast of Tabernacles. So we are closing in quickly on the spring Holy Days.

And as you heard in the sermon, it's time and really past time for us to be thinking about those Holy Days and preparing for the Passover. Of course, as God has given us those Holy Days that we observe every year and we learn more about His plan every year as we go through them, we see there is a common principle in those.

And every single Holy Day, God is working with something and there is a common denominator in all of them. Today, I want to talk about that common denominator as we begin, maybe begin our preparation for Passover, something that all of us can look at and something that all of us can pay attention to as we examine ourselves and see where we are in our walk with God. You know, if you think about every single Holy Day, they're all about relationships with God.

Every single Holy Day, Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, Last Great Day or Eighth Day, whatever you want to call it, all have to do with relationships. Relationships with God and relationships with each other. You can't escape it as you go through the meaning of those days and as we go through our lives.

God is a God of relationships. We've heard that many, many times. And he looks to see how we are dealing with the relationships in our lives. As we look at the world around us, it's not a very pretty picture when you look at the success of relationships, is it? We look globally and we see nations that just can't get along with one another, leaders that don't like each other, so wars erupt and all these other things begin to erupt around the world. Even the tensions we see in the world today, it's a matter of failed relationships.

People don't know how to get along with one another. Nationally, we're in a state that's kind of unique, at least in our lifetimes, as we look at the tensions between people in our country and the political process. There's people who don't like each other, who don't get along with one another, who aren't even talking to each other, but just say, stay apart. It's a world of broken relationships. If we bring it down to the individual levels, we see a world that we live in that is marked by divorce, friends that separate and don't talk to each other, let little things, you know, part them so that lifelong friends no longer talk to each other.

We see marriages breaking up, a divorce rate that's very high, and a divorce rate that only stays stable because most people are – I shouldn't say most – but many people don't even get married anymore. They just live together, and then they break up, and that doesn't get reflected in the divorce statistics.

But those are really divorces when people have lived together for a year, two years, five years, and then they break up and go their separate way. We live in a world that is just messed up. We can't learn how to have relationships by looking at the world around us. And broken relationships is a sign of Satan's influence in the world. When we have broken relationships in our lives, God's people who Jesus Christ, on that last night before he was arrested, prayed how many times?

My will is that you be one with each other the way God the Father and Jesus Christ are one.

When we aren't becoming that, when we let our relationships, whether it be friends, whether it be marriages, when we let those relationships sour, when we don't bring them back together again and realize that part of our calling is to heal those relationships, and that God is a God of reconciliation, that God is a God of relationships that are put together, not apart, that we're missing the point. That we're missing the point because God is about unity. God is about healing those relationships, putting people back together. He's not about division and separation. That's the mark of Satan. That's the mark of the world around us.

When we look at heaven, the glimpses that we have of heaven, the beings that live up there with God the Father and Jesus Christ at His right hand, what do we see?

We see joy. We see respect. We see life up there. If we can call it life up there, the eternal life up there. Everyone is in unity. Everyone is at peace. Everyone is in joy. When we read in Revelation about Jesus Christ coming back to earth, there's joy. When He succeeded and completed His mission on earth, there was joy in what He did because they could see the world will come back to the point where it will be what God created it to be.

And mankind will finally experience what it's like to have those God-given relationships that are peaceful and joyful. Relationships that make each other better rather than sour people and make them bitter and make them want to no longer talk with each other.

Every single holy day points to the importance of our relationships with God and our relationships with each other.

God simply will not have people in His kingdom that don't know how to heal relationships and be reconciled to Him, but also learn how to reconcile with each other.

You've heard me say it before, and I repeat it because a pastor that we had decades ago made a comment in a sermon that has always stuck with me.

If both people in a relationship have God's Holy Spirit, then that relationship will heal. If it doesn't, it's because one or both aren't being led by the Holy Spirit.

That struck me when he said that.

So in the Church, if both people are friends, there should be reconciliation. It should be able to come about.

Because God is what God is about. That's what Jesus Christ came to earth to do, that we might be reconciled to God.

He set the pattern. He showed us the way.

Let's go back and look at just a few scriptures here as we begin and see the pattern that God showed when He was going to reconcile man to Himself.

It was Adam and Eve who made the choice to reject God, break the relationship. Why? Because Satan influenced Him to do that.

When Satan enters, broken relationships occur.

In John 3.16, such a common verse. The world talks about it. You can see it. Well, you could see it when there were fans in sports stadiums.

But in John 3.16, we learned some of the keys about relationships.

And if we have broken relationships in our lives, how we can begin to put them together the way God opened the door that we might be reconciled to Him.

Verse 16, There's that word agape. God so loved the world.

At the bottom line, even though mankind had rejected Him, even though mankind was living apart from the way that He wanted them to live, He still loved mankind.

And He was going to take the step to begin the reconciliation process.

When we find ourselves at odds with friends, spouses, people that we used to be at one with, but we've let whatever has come between us separate us, and we no longer want to talk to that person, we don't want to deal with them at all.

You know, where's the love?

Jesus Christ loved every single man, woman, and child. He died that every single man, woman, and child might have eternal life.

And part of our calling is that we will love mankind as well.

We will develop, if we have God's Holy Spirit or once we have God's Holy Spirit, that love certainly for everyone in His body, but for the whole world.

So there's an action there. God so loved the world that He gave. Jesus Christ sacrificed. God the Father sacrificed.

Okay, I'm going to give you this. I'm going to give you my son that your sins that separate you, mankind, from God the Father, I'm going to give Him that you could be reconciled, that your sins could be given.

In reconciliation, it requires some sacrifice on our part. We can't stand on old laurels, can't stand to say, I'm right, they're wrong, everything is wrong about them, it's 100% their fault.

If we're mankind and relationships are concerned, there's problems on both sides, usually.

But it takes the communication. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Why? That whoever believes in Him... Remember, every time you read the word believe in the Bible, it's an action word.

It's not just a feeling. It's not just like the world would say, oh, I believe in Jesus Christ.

When we believe in Him, that means we have to do something about it.

We can't just say, I believe, and that's enough.

Belief in Jesus Christ, belief in God, requires an action and a change on our part.

Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Jesus Christ came that the door to reconciliation might be opened between mankind and God.

Let's go over to Romans 5.

Romans 5 and verse 8.

Again, hallmark verses that we're very familiar with.

As we head toward the days of Unleavened Bread and Passover, the spring holy days, things for us to remember and to focus in on what God has done for us.

In the Bible studies, how much God and the Father and Jesus Christ have sacrificed for us.

Romans 5, God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We weren't reconciled to God. We weren't coming to Him.

But Jesus Christ, even though we were still living in ways that were apart from Him, that would separate us from Him, He was willing to sacrifice that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, the ultimate sacrifice.

Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

We all earn the death penalty. It's only through Jesus Christ that we can escape that eternal death that comes upon us if we don't repent.

It's only upon Him that we'll escape the wrath at the end of the age, in the day of the Lord, that we'll come upon mankind.

For if, when we were enemies, do we have enemies in our lives? Do we have people that we would look at and say, I look at that person as an enemy. I don't want anything to do with them. They only have my worst interest at heart.

God says, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.

He was willing to give because it is important to Him to have mankind reconciled to Him. He created mankind for a purpose.

He created the earth for a purpose. And that purpose wasn't going to be nullified by the actions of man. He made the first step to reconcile.

We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Much more, having been reconciled, will be saved by His life.

When we follow, when we commit, when we yield ourselves, when we sacrifice our own desires, ideas, whatever it is, so that our will becomes His, will be saved by His life. And not only that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Let's think about the word reconciliation for a moment.

No, Jesus Christ came that our sins could be forgiven. That was a necessary first step in reconciliation.

Forgiveness is necessary for two parties to come back together.

Like God the Father says, when we repent, when we acknowledge our sins, He forgives our sins and we're baptized, He forgives our sins, and He doesn't even remember them anymore.

It's a new life. Let's get a new beginning and start afresh.

And in our relationships with each other, sometimes we have to do that as well.

There has to be forgiveness for reconciliation to occur, because parties just don't separate and become bitter with one another or estranged from each other.

Something has happened that created that. Something along the way, one party was offended, both parties were offended, or whatever they did.

Forgiveness has to happen, but forgiveness is not the end product.

Forgiveness is a necessary part.

Jesus Christ died that we could be forgiven, but that isn't the only reason He came.

He came that we could be reconciled to God.

Forgiveness had to happen. He was willing to forgive. But we have to be reconciled to God.

Looking at the Greek word for reconcile, it says that it is primarily, and this is from Vine's dictionary, primarily an exchange.

It denotes a change on the part of one party, induced by an action on the part of another. So let's look at this reconciliation that Jesus Christ made possible between us and God.

It denotes a change on the part of one party.

Does God need to change? Does Jesus Christ need to change?

No. They're perfect. The same yesterday, today, and forever. They're the answer. They're the way. Jesus Christ said He's the way, the truth, the life. They don't need to change.

But reconciliation denotes a change on the part of one party, induced by an action on the part of another.

What's the action? Jesus Christ came. Jesus Christ died. He instituted the opportunity for reconciliation. He took the first step, and if we're going to be reconciled to God, change has to occur in us.

We need to become like Him. He doesn't change. He doesn't need to change. There's perfection where He is.

There's perfection in Heaven. There's joy. There's unity. That's what we aspire to.

For us to achieve that in this physical life among each other, among parents and children, between friends, between marriage, partners that are estranged, it requires change.

And it requires commitment to God on the part of both parties.

Because reconciliation can begin, but unless the other party wants to reconcile and change, it's not going to happen. Jesus Christ died for all mankind. He opened the door for reconciliation. But only a few today are in the process of reconciling.

Even in the Second Resurrection, not every man, unfortunately, isn't going to reconcile with God. They will choose to do their own things.

But God took the first step.

You and I as Christians, if there are estrangements in our lives or things that people we just don't even really want to have anything to do with, we might want to consider, as we're headed toward Passover, this is an area of examination. What do we do? Do we go to Passover recognizing that there are issues in our lives? As we come to Passover, we're supposed to examine ourselves. Look at who we are. Look at our attitudes. And one of the key parts that God wants us to have is this idea or this process of reconciliation that we're in.

Let's go forward to 1 Corinthians. Not 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 5.

You and I, who have been called, you and I are sitting here today, everyone who's listening to this today, and the more besides that, we understand the reconciliation that Jesus Christ made possible through his death, that God made possible by sending Jesus Christ to us and resurrecting him, and he says that God's right hand today. And as we have received the reconciliation and in the process of reconciling with God as we go through our physical lives, in verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 5, we find that we have a responsibility as a result of that. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 18, Who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation. Now we've got a job. Now we understand the reconciliation. Now we're in the process of doing what God wants to do. Now we have this responsibility that we demonstrated to others, that by our examples, we're not going to be people who say, I never want to talk to you again. I never want to see you again. It's hopeless. This relationship is over. Might be, if that's what the other party decides. But for those who are Christians, I'll have the door open. I'll have the door open. Has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God. So that's one of the messages of the church. Be reconciled to God. Jesus Christ came. Jesus Christ did die that our sins could be forgiven. Accept that sacrifice, but understand there is a responsibility on your part to be reconciled to God, and that requires a change on your part. Jesus Christ is not the offending party. God the Father is not the offending party. You and I were the offending parties. You and I now have the responsibility, as we have received the reconciliation and count on it, that we would follow the example that Christ gave us in the relationships in our lives.

Just a nice sigh. Let's go back to 2 Corinthians 1, just a few chapters back. We see a pattern in the Bible, and as we read through these things, we see how God demonstrates His love for us, expects us to pass that love on to others. And these things that He gives us, He expects us to build into our lives and be that for other people as one. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3, we see this concept. It says, You know, God really is the God of comfort. Through everything that we go through in life, we come to realize He is there to comfort us as well as to give us the strength to go forward. Who comforts us, verse 4, who comforts us in all our tribulation, as well as in times of death, and times of grief, and times of stress, who comforts us in all our tribulations. Why? Because He is that God who is there with us, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. We receive, we learn, we see the goodness of God, and then He expects us, in turn, to have that part of our lives, that we can share that and benefit others with what God has shown us. So that we are people who are people of agape, that we are people who can comfort others and learn how to comfort others who may be going through a trial, a tribulation, the death of a loved one, whatever it may be that people need comforting for, a time of sickness, a time of illness, financial stress, whatever it would be, to help remind them, God is there. God knows. He's working with you. He's preparing you. Let Him prepare you so you are there in His Kingdom because He does have requirements for us. He does have a model in His mind of who we need to be to be in that Kingdom. And unless we use this lifetime to become what He wants us to be, we simply will not be there. There are actions that have to be taken in our lives to show God that we really do understand His calling and what He has called us to, and we demonstrate our love to Him by the things we do and the way we draw closer to Him by the choices we make and the changes we make in our attitude.

Let's go back to Matthew 5. Let's look at Jesus Christ's own words. It's instructive as you look at Jesus Christ, how He lived His life and the words He said. Here in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, we have the Sermon on the Mount. He provides many principles during that time. Of course, if we get into chapter 5, He talks about the attitudes. He talks about us being lights to the world, the salt of the earth. Then He mentions that He didn't come to destroy the law or the prophets. He didn't come to do away with the Old Testament. He came to fill them up. And so we know that by that, we now keep His way of life, which is perfect from day one to there, and our instructions on how to live to get along with one another. And if we live by those principles, it would be a much different world than we live in today. But those were not only just physical commands, but also the spiritual end of it, that we've talked about many times. So let's look at verse 19 and read down through it. Because it's instructive as Jesus Christ goes through this, what He highlights first as we begin to follow Him. Verse 19, Matthew 5, "...whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven." How do we teach? Oh, we can teach by speaking things. I mean, we can tell people, ah, it's okay, you don't have to do that. You don't have to pay attention to that. That would be a wrong thing. But we also teach by our example, don't we? So others may see us doing something and think, oh, well, that must be okay. I didn't see that as part of the biblical teaching, but if they're doing it, it must be okay. We can teach people that way, too. Okay, so, "...whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, they will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does..." and notice the word, and, "...does and teaches them, he'll be called great in the kingdom of heaven." "...understand and apply, do them and build them into your lives. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." Now, we know what the Pharisees did. One thing that marked the Pharisees is they were full of broken relationships, weren't they? Were the Pharisees or the Jewish world of that time? Were they a picture of unity? No way! They couldn't stand the Samaritans, they couldn't stand the Gentiles, they weren't even going to be seen with them and thought it was a sin. These people are so far beneath us, we don't even have to have anything to do with them. They didn't like each other, the little groups that they had among each other. They didn't like Jesus Christ.

That system, that religion was full of broken relationships. Jesus Christ said, if you're like the Pharisees, and what they're doing, you're not going to be in the kingdom of heaven. Don't look at them, look to Him. Look to Him who came to reconcile, who said, before He died, my will is that everyone be one, not like the Pharisees, not like the scribes, but like Him and the Father. Like Jesus Christ was, then demonstrated what He was on earth. No one was beneath Him. He was willing to talk to anyone. There was no partiality. And if He had had an issue with someone, He was willing to bring it to them, to be reconciled if they would accept that reconciliation.

So He said, unless our righteousness, unless the way we live our lives is different than the Pharisees, or the people around us, or the world around us, that is marked by broken relationships everywhere, He says, you'll by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. You've heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. It's the ultimate broken relationship, isn't it?

You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. And whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that He was even angry with His brother. Just angry. I wish you were gone. I don't ever want to see you again.

Now let's pause for a moment and look at that word, brother, because when we see the word brother in the Bible, it's different than neighbor. It's not every man. If we look at Matthew 12, you don't have to turn there, Matthew 12 verses 46 to 50, you'll see there where Jesus Christ, He's with His disciples, and His mother and brothers come in and they say, your mother, tell him, you know, your mother and brothers are waiting for you, and He says, who are my brothers?

They are the ones who do the will of my Father in heaven. So everyone in this room, everyone that's listening, we're brothers. We're brothers if we have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, if we have repented, if we've been baptized, we become the family that He puts us in.

There are neighbors that are out in the world. There are neighbors we work with, neighbors we live next door to.

But what He's talking about here is the body that He puts us in, whoever is angry with His brother. Now, it doesn't mean that it's okay to be angry with your neighbor and angry with your coworker or anyone else, but He's saying, you know what? In the Church, you need to be united. You need to be practicing this unity in the Church. You need to be working on this together. You need to be there with each other. You need to be learning this. This is a skill, a learned skill, prompted by God's Holy Spirit, led by God's Holy Spirit, that we learn to follow Him, what we need to do, when we need to do it, when there's a problem in our lives, and we need to approach someone and say, I might have offended you. I might have offended you. We need to talk about that because I don't want that to be separating us. God is not about separation. And here He's talking about the cocoon that He has put us in, the training program He's put us in, in this Church, in this body. People need to become one. We learn today in this body that He's given us what we will be teaching in the Kingdom. If we can't be one in the area that God is today, how will we be teaching people in the Millennium how to reconcile and be one with one another? Because it will mark His Kingdom. We have to be learning that today. And that takes some things that will take some character traits here that we'll talk about in a little bit. I say to you that whoever is even angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raka, that's a, you know what, be gone with you. I wish you weren't here. I wish you would cease from being. Whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the Council, but whoever says you fool, shall be in danger of hellfire.

That's all about relationships. We may not say those things, but what's in our hearts? What's in our hearts with some people in our lives? Verse 23, quite instructive, therefore, all these things that have gone before, therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there, remember, there is a days of unleavened bread word, that word, remember, we talk about it every year. The Holy Spirit leads us into remembrance, correct? The Holy Spirit teaches us all things, helps us to understand all things, will lead us into what we need to do. The Holy Spirit will bring to remembrance, oh, oh, there's someone that I can't say I'm at one with. There's someone that I just don't care for. I don't really want anything to do with them.

You know, when that comes to mind, it means we may need to pray, we may need to look at things and say, I need God's guidance in this, because He's bringing to our attention something we need to do.

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, you're coming to God. And there, remember that your brother, remember, your brother has something against you.

Now, in this case, it means you've done something. There's something that your brother has against you. I've done something to offend you, not the verse. This is what it's talking, or not the reverse.

It's talking about this. You know, sometimes we don't even know that we've offended someone else. And I'll publicly state right now, if I've done anything to offend anyone here, or if there's ever been a word that you didn't understand, please let me know. Please let me know. We'll get to that point of the relationships and the responsibilities on that in a minute.

But if we've offended our brothers and we know there's something, oh, in the past, I did do that. I need to talk to that person. I need to get this straightened out before Passover.

Before I come to Passover, I need to enact this process of reconciliation.

If you bring your gift to the altar and there, remember, your brother has something against you. You've done something, and God will bring our to our minds what it might be.

Leave your gift there before the altar and go your way.

Before you come to me, before you come to the altar, he would say, first, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

First, put the relationship back together.

First, begin the process of getting that relationship back in order, and then come to me.

Because it's very important to God that our relationships are intact. They don't happen overnight sometimes, but the process needs to begin.

If you recognize something that's there, don't delay.

Before you come to me, he says, before you come to the altar, go and be reconciled to your brother.

Well, you may be thinking, okay, but there's someone that has offended me. They may not even know it.

Let's go back to Matthew 18.

And in verse 15, we find the other part of the responsibility of reconciliation.

If we know we've done something, and it may not even be something active, if we just ignore someone, if we just don't ever contact them, sometimes you just know people want nothing to do with you.

If we have that in our hearts, we might want to begin looking at that.

Now, Matthew 18.15 is the other end of the coin, because we just don't sit back there, and if someone's offended us, do nothing about it, and just say, we become more and more bitter against them.

In Matthew 18.15, we have the people who have been offended. Matthew 18.15, moreover, if your brother, not neighbor, sins against you, I've done something to you. I may not even know it, so I repeat, if there's something there, talk to me.

Talk to each other. Sometimes it's hard to do, and it requires the Spirit on both parts when these things happen.

The God's Holy Spirit needs to be there so that we receive these things in the right attitude and not become all defensive and angry and upset.

We do it the way God would have us do it. Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

Did you know you did this? Do you know I've been kind of harboring this grudge for a while?

You know that I kind of feel that you want nothing to do with me?

There might have been times, you know, a few months ago you ignored me.

I sent you an email you never responded to. I sent you a text you didn't respond to. All the little things that we can do that can well up in people's minds and think it's offensive, and on the other party's part it may not be anything else.

But if it never gets talked about, it never gets resolved, and it's something that's there that's interfering in the relationship.

If your brother sins against you, tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you gain your brother.

The unity has been back. All of a sudden there's this relationship again. Oh, I didn't know that.

But look at the beauty that's there when that happens.

When both parties have God's Holy Spirit, and they even have to catch themselves and think, you know, I was wrong. I don't need to be defensive.

I don't need to justify I was wrong, and I need to be aware of this going forward that I don't make the same mistake or whatever.

If he hears you, you've gained your brother. There's the oneness, the relationship.

But if he doesn't hear, take with you one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

If he says, this is all in your head, I'm the greatest person that ever lived, whatever it might be, you know what?

Take a couple people with you, because this is a problem. What God is interested in is not showing anyone up, but showing us our sins that they may be repented of and that they may be dealt with, and that we can go to work on overcoming, as we heard in the sermon ad.

If he won't hear, take with you one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church, because now we know there's an attitude problem here that needs to be dealt with. Everyone in the church, everyone in the church, everyone in the church, everyone in the body has a responsibility.

You know, that we're supposed to be living the way that God has called us to.

It's not okay to continue in sin, and this is an indication where someone is just simply not paying attention at all, and it's completely rejecting anything that even two or three people have come to him and said, this is a problem. And the answer is, not me. It's all your problem.

You know what? That's an attitude problem that has to be with, because that attitude won't be in the kingdom of God.

And so it is an act of love and building the relationship between you and him, and between him and God, to then get the church involved.

And it says there, if he refuses even to hear the church in verse 17, let him be to you like a heathen in a tax collector.

Meaning you might have to be put out for a while.

Like that man in 1 Corinthians 5, who was sinning and the church was tolerating it all that time, and Paul said, put him out.

And we remember, don't we, what the result of that process was? The man did repent.

When he was apart for a while, he recognized his problem. He did repent.

And we can go back to 2 Corinthians 7. It's always instructive to see the result of applying God's way and the results of it.

In 2 Corinthians 7, we see what the result of doing things God's way were.

It wasn't easy for that church to say, okay, we're going to follow what Paul says, put him out.

No one wants to be put out of the church. No one wants to do that.

But apparently, he wasn't listening. The church wasn't listening. They did, to their credit, follow what Paul said.

And down in 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 10, I'll begin in verse 9, says, This is the aftermath of the actions of 1 Corinthians 5.

I rejoice not that you were made sorry. Well, they were sorry. No one wants to do that.

But that your sorrow led to repentance.

For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted.

The sorrow of the world produces death.

That's the sorrow that says, oh, I'm sorry. Let's let things go back to normal, and then within a day, week, month, or whatever, the same behavior results.

Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation.

It's okay to say, I'm sorry. Reconciliation and repentance requires change.

And again, when you look at vines in the verb reconcile, it means to change thoroughly. Thoroughly. Completely. A process through life.

Okay, godly sorrow produces repentance.

Verse 11, for observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner.

What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication.

In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this manner.

Do you see the energy that resulted from doing things God's way? Do you see the joy that was there? Do you see how much closer that church was?

The people were to each other? Doing things God's way when it's received by both parties, when it's done God's way and received God's way.

It produces all the things that we're looking for.

The joy, the excitement, the zeal. But when things are just kind of left by the side and we have these little obstacles between us that keep us apart, there's not the joy, there's not the zeal.

There's just kind of this feeling of, okay, when we do things God's way, the way it's done with relationships in heaven, there's joy, there's energy, there's a desire to please God.

And we are excited about doing His work and seeing the progress that He makes in our lives, in others' lives, and even in the world around us as we march closer and closer to the return of Jesus Christ.

So we see how important it is to God that our relationships be healed. His desire is that we would all be one.

How do we go about it? It's not an easy thing to do. It does require commitment to God.

But like all things with the Bible, God doesn't leave it to us just to figure out the steps to reconciliation. He shows us through the life of Jesus Christ, the death of Jesus Christ, how to do it.

But He also provides us examples in the Bible if we look closely. So let's go back to a well-known example of a reconciliation between brothers that we find way back in the book of Genesis. Making restitution can be a difficult step, but it's an important and necessary step. The twin brothers Esau and Jacob learned that they needed to reconcile. Actually, it was Jacob who God brought to his remembrance. You did something way back when you were a teen or a younger man. You offended your brother greatly, and you know the story of Jacob and Esau.

He tricked him out of his birthright, and then he and his mother conspired to trick him out of the blessing as well.

So Esau had very good reason to be upset with Jacob. If that had happened to you or me, we also would have been pretty upset with Jacob and everything.

It was so bad that Esau wanted to kill him. And so Jacob had to run to Uncle Laban and live there all those years.

No one can doubt that what Jacob did was wrong. It was a major offense that changed the course of both lives.

Jacob did go to Laban, and he lived there for many years. He married a couple lives there, Leah and then Rachel. He worked well with Laban, and while he was there, he did remember the things that he was taught. He did remember what his father had taught him about being God. He didn't become a renegade. He didn't become a rebel.

He remembered the laws of God, and he applied them. When he told Laban he would do something, he did it. He became a very good employee.

And I'm sure Jacob prayed for the blessing of Laban, and he labored in that regard toward that end. And as he was there, blessed with several children, God enriched him. You remember the story of the speckled goats and the white goats and all those things that happened?

And God did enrich Jacob because of the way he lived his life. He was living God's way.

In a time of exile, away from his family, he did apply God's way of life.

God blessed him, and he became a different person.

When we pick up the story in Genesis 31, then he was back when we first speak of Jacob, and he saw back at the time of the deception. So in chapter 31, in verse 1, Jacob's been there for a while. God has enriched him.

But the attitude of the atmosphere of Laban and his family has changed toward Jacob. Sometimes we can see this in our lives when we read verses 1 through 3 here. Sometimes we work with people, and we can kind of see a change in attitude. We think, you know what? Maybe it's time that I need to change jobs. There's something going on here that just doesn't seem right. Maybe we sense that even in our relationships with each other, that something's just not right.

It might be the time we want to go and address it. We might want to go and address it. Chapter 31, in verses 1 through 3, God is about to bring to remembrance to Jacob that he needs to do something because reconciliation has to be part of everyone's life. Chapter 31, 1. Now, Jacob heard the words of Laban's son saying, you know, Jacob has taken away all that was our fathers, and from what was our fathers, he's acquired all this wealth.

And Jacob saw the countenance of Laban, and indeed it was not favorable toward him as before. So the eternal said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you. It's time to go back, Jacob. There's work to be done. What you've done and learned here, but there is something in your life that has to change. Go down to verse 13. I am the God of Bethel, where you anoint to the pillar, and where you made avow to me.

Now arise, God says, get out of this land. Return to the land of your family. It's time, you might tell us. You know what? I'm bringing this to remembrance. You need to go to this person. You need to get this worked out. My will is that you become one. And that takes some effort. Down in verse 32. Let's just visit verses 20 and 21 here, just as an aside, as we're headed to chapter 32. Verse 20. Jacob follows God's commands, but Jacob makes a mistake as he leaves Laban's domain.

Jacob stole away, it says, in the middle of the night, unknown to Laban the cerium, and that he didn't tell him that he intended to flee. So he just left with all that he had. He arose and crossed the river and headed toward the mountains of Gilead. So now here's Jacob. He's making a mistake. Okay. God tells him to leave, but he doesn't even bother telling Laban, I'm going back, and this is the reason why.

And Laban, understandably, is a little ticked off, as you would be if your, you know, your children and grandchildren left, and they just stole out in the middle of the night and didn't even say goodbye. Jacob had to learn a lesson. I've got to be up front with people. I've got to tell people what the plan is. I can't just steal off in the middle of the night.

And here in verse 24 we see God. He knows this is going to be a difficult thing because Laban, of course, is a little ticked off. He's coming after Jacob, wondering what's going on. In verse 24 it says, God came to Laban, the Syrian, into the dream by night, and said to him, Be careful that you speak to Jacob, neither good nor bad.

Not going to be a problem here. Okay? You need to go see him. He was wrong on what he needs to do. He needs to realize that he needed to close the door on this. He needed to do things the right way. And I'm sure Jacob learned his lesson. All worked out okay, as you read through the story. Now we can go back over, or forward, to chapter 32. And we see Jacob coming to the point where this reconciliation needs to occur.

Remember, God led him. It's time to reconcile. I brought this to your mind now, Jacob. Get back there and do it. Chapter 32, verse 1, Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. It was God's will that was going on here. When Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's camp. God is with me. I'm doing what God wants me to do. I'm doing his will. And he called the name of that place Mahania.

And so Jacob makes a commitment there that he's not going to turn back. He makes the phone call. He sends the email. Whatever message he's giving, he saw, I'm coming. We've got something to talk about. He just doesn't show up on his doorstep. Ring the doorbell. After years of not having seen him and say, What's going on? He sends a message ahead of time. We can learn when this is done. Maybe we need to. Maybe send an email. Send a text. Send a letter. If you don't know how to get ahold of the person, I'd like to get together with you.

I'd like to get together and talk about something. I'd like to go to lunch. I'd like to go get a cup of coffee. We have some things to talk about. Jacob sent messengers before him, verse 3, To Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And he commanded them, saying, Speak thus to my Lord Esau.

Thus your servant Jacob says, I dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants that I have sent to tell my Lord that I may find favor in your sight. Now, remember, Esau might still be thinking of Jacob as that guy who stole everything before him and thinking, What is Jacob coming back for? Is he coming back to take what I have now? Is he looking for something? Jacob tells him, You know, I'm not coming. I've got plenty of my own. I'm coming back because I want to find favor in your sight.

I want to heal whatever it is that's been there between us. We need to talk, is what the message was. And if we are going to be in a process, we need to send the message and just say, I'm coming. You know, I'd like to get together and talk.

I'd like to resolve whatever issues that might be there or even mention. Years ago, I did something that I want to talk about and apologize for. Set the tone. You know, Jacob just didn't show up on his doorstep. Jacob sent the message, and God is showing us, Pave the way. Pave the way a little bit with that.

But he also, for the reconciliation at that time, he determined he was going to follow through with it. When he sent the message, he was committed to following the course that God set for him. In verse 6, things take a little bit of different turn. Maybe Jacob didn't get the message from Esau that he expected. It says, the messengers return to Jacob, saying, Oh, we came to your brother Esau, and he is also coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.

Wow! What is Esau? Again, they haven't seen each other in all these years. If you were Jacob, you would have the same thought he did. He hasn't forgiven me at all. He just wants me dead. The same words that are still ringing in my head as I left, that I'll kill you. I'll kill you. Jacob. And so he panics, as people do, and he devises his own little plan here on how he's going to save part of his family, so he divides them into two camps. And maybe we will get a sour retort from someone when we do that.

Maybe we'll get some kind of cryptic comment back. We shouldn't let that deter us. We should offer to keep going forward. But if the other person, point blank, says, I want nothing to do with you, I don't want to see you ever again, you know, we have to respect that. We can want reconciliation. We should take that step. Jacob was taking that step. He gets this response from Esau, and he's thinking, well, does? What is Esau? How is he going to take this? It's our responsibility to do it. But we can't make the other person do it.

Certainly in the church, as I said, if both people are with the same spirit, there should be this accord and desire to be together. That's what God's spirit is about in the church, in the body that he places us in. And it's important that we know each other, we're with each other, and we have these opportunities. There is a reason God puts us in a body, because we would never learn how to get along with one another and the things that we need to do. If we were all sitting at home by ourselves, week in and week out, and never dealing with each other, and having the human mistakes that we all make, or the human personalities that we have that others might even take the wrong way, it's important for us to be where God places us to be, and not moving around from place to place to place, because if we aren't where God put us to be, we can't learn the things that he wants us to learn.

We have to be there. We have to learn the way he says it. We're hopping from place to place to place, one week here, one week there, another week there, another week, nowhere at all. That's not how God is training us. That's not how he's preparing us. We have to be where he wants to be. We have to learn the things that he wants us to learn. We can't do it by running here and there and everywhere.

We have to be in the place of instruction that God wants us to be, so we can learn these things and exercise that with one another, when God wants us to become the people that he wants us to become and the body he places us, and then the larger body that he will make us part of as we learn in this element how to do the things that he wants. Well, so anyway, so Esau, going back to the story here, sends us retort. It doesn't keep Jacob from moving forward.

He doesn't say, Call off the guards. I'm not going. He advises his own plan, and sometimes that's what we do. But in verse 9, he does what we always have to remember in reconciliation. If we were going to approach someone, if we're going to take this step, that takes humility to take, we have to have God involved. And so Jacob gets God involved in verse 9. Jacob said, O God of my fathers, my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me. And he reminds God of the promises that he told me this God.

You said to me, return to your country and to your family and I'll deal well with you. I don't know what this response from Esau makes, but you told me to go. I am going. I'm going to do this. Verse 10, you see the humility. I'm not worthy of the least of all of the mercies and of all the truth which you have shown your servant.

If we're not humble enough to do this, if we're not humble enough to realize we were the problem and we have to admit to some of the things that we did, then the reconciliation isn't going to work. I'm not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which you have shown your servant. For I crossed over this Jordan with my staff and now I become two companies. And he asks, deliver me.

We might have to ask God, I don't know what that means. But if you want this, and I want that, please help us to reconcile and be together again. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. I fear him lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. And again he reminds God, you said, I will surely treat you well and make your descendants as a sand to the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude.

You told me to do this. I'm doing your will. Maybe if we receive one of those emails or text messages or phone messages or letters in the mail that says I want to talk, maybe we need to ask God too. Okay? I do have something, an issue with this person. But I'm going to do what God said.

Something, that something being God, led him to contact me. That's something I'm going to go there and I'm going to put it in your hands because your will is that we reconcile. Your will is that this relationship you put me in because he's put us all in these relationships we have with each other in this church, whatever church body we're in, in our marriages, it's my responsibility to work with them and to become a part of the church.

Become one. That's what God is looking for us to become. I have to take the lead, but ask God on both parties that we can be done the way that he wants it done. So Jacob provides this prayer that we need to be remembering, that we need to get God involved in everything that we do. He'll lead us. And again, if both parties have the Holy Spirit, the reconciliation may not be immediate, but it will occur. Sometimes we have to wait. We can't just give up. We can't try once and say, well, that didn't work. I'm done. No. It's a process, just like our lives of overcoming is a process. If we go down to verse 13, we see that Jacob, after he prayed to God, even sent on, he sent a gift. Okay, Esau, just so that you know, I'm not here to usurp everything of yours again. I'm sending you this present. I am coming in peace. I am coming because I have the right purpose in mind for contacting you. I wish we had the time to go through, but you'll see in chapter 32, it's interesting at this time, God comes that Jacob has the occasion of wrestling with the one who is Jesus Christ for the entire night. The entire night, it's the rest of chapter 32. And this is a momentous occasion in Jacob's life, as momentous in his life as Abraham, the sacrifice of Isaac, was in Abraham's life. This is a telling moment. The messenger, the angel comes down, and Jacob won't let him go. No matter what pain that he endures with his hip being put out of socket, we can only imagine the pain he went through. I won't let go of you. No matter what pain we may go through, never let go of God. Never let go of his purpose. Never let go of what he has called us to do and what he leads us to do.

Wrestle with self, go through the pain, stay loyal to him, have that defining moment that you are completely loyal to him. No amount of pain, no amount of tiredness separated Jacob from what was going on that night. He had other things on his mind, but he stayed there.

It was that night that God looked down on Jacob and said, you know, your name is going to change. Now I know. Now I know you'll do my will. You're no longer going to be called usurper, which Jacob means, but now you'll be called prevailor, Israel.

Keep close with God and committed to him. Don't let someone or our pride or our inability to face up to what we've done and what we need to acknowledge keep us from what God's will is. There has to be the reconciliation. We have to become one with one another. It is a part of our calling and a part of what he expects us to be if we truly want to be in his kingdom. And it's not a process that's going to happen overnight. It's going to happen throughout our lives and as we enact these things in our lives.

So in chapter 33 and verse 4, among all the turmoil and the plans that Jacob had and he didn't know what to do, when the two brothers came together, joy resulted. Chapter 33 verse 4, Esau ran to meet him when they met, and they embraced him, and he fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

Look at the joy. Look at the energy. Look at all that. When things are done God's way. When we engage him. When we seek it and when we do it and when we follow through on it.

God is a God of relationships. He wants us to do that. He promises us. And again, we both need to be, we both are both parties and all of us need to be examining ourselves what it is.

Are we ready to reconcile? Is there someone out there that we have offended? Ask God.

And before we come to the altar, before we come to Passover, make the step. Is there someone who's offended you that you think they don't like me, they don't want anything to do with me? Pick up the phone. Send a text. Send an email. Set up a time.

Do that. Let's begin where God begins with relationships. And of course the other examination we do is in addition to that, the sins and the faults that we have. Perhaps the lack of pride, because it does take humility to do these things and to own up to what we've done and then to recognize the effect that we've had on other people and be deeply repentant of that and determine that we won't have perhaps that negative effect going forward or at least be cognizant of it.

So as we examine ourselves and as we may see where we've got some broken relationships, remember that our relationship with God is broken, too.

As long as there's broken relationships between us and our brothers or a brother, between us and our spouse, our relationship with Him is broken before you come to the altar. First, be reconciled to them.

And that means the steps that we have to take in order to be one. Let's close in Isaiah. Isaiah 58. Again, as we enter into the kingdom and people live over into that time that you and I will be teaching, they're going to be coming from so many broken relationships, it's not even funny. In their personal lives, they've watched the world around them completely fall apart. And you and I will be the ones teaching them how to reconcile. This is the training time for that. And it will be up to us, under God's direction and as Jesus Christ leads us, to rebuild and restore and teach how to do that. Isaiah 58, verse 12. Those from among you, those from among you, shall build the old waste places. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations. You shall be called the repairer of the breach. Those that are separated, you're going to be the ones teaching it. Matthew learned it today. You'll be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.