Placing Altered Relationships on the Altar
Peter Moore · Tidal Church Moncton · February 11, 2024 · Who Am I? series
Peter Moore looks at the split between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark in Acts 15 and offers four steps for broken relationships in the church: examine yourself, engage the shared mission, accept what is reciprocal, and stay on mission.
More from Peter Moore · The Who Am I? series
Topics: Identity, Relationships, Discipleship
Transcript
[1:08] It was a good day for Silas, and it was a great day for the future of transformed lives in Egypt. And we're gonna circle back to that in just a moment. But before we do, I just wanna check in with you folks and ask you a question now. Now there's opportunity for crowd participation here. All right? So this is your chance to be involved. I'm gonna ask you a question. How many of you have ever had a day when things did not turn out the way you hoped they would? Raise your hand. Alright, that's good. Now for the three of you that did not raise your hand, we're gonna call you down to the front.
[1:58] We're gonna lay hands and cast the demon of deception out of you and get you re-saved and rebaptized right on the spot. It's gonna be great. I'm looking forward to sharing the thoughts that God has laid on my heart with you today, which I've shared in other places. These are thoughts that have been born in the crucible of leadership, but I believe that they apply to all of us as Christ followers and kingdom servants. And let me ask you another question. You know, how many of you are glad that the global pandemic is over, right? Yeah. I think all hands went up. Yes. There we go. Getting your clapping practice in there. That's good.
[2:46] Well, you know, we all did what we needed to do to make it through the pandemic. And I don't know if Pastor Jim's out back or if he's back in here now, are you at the back there? There's Pastor Jim at the back. He's sitting back with the Baptist and, and so they always sit at the back so they can make it to the buffet first after the service, right? So, but you know, Pastor Jim, I love having you as my pastor and Ellen and I just enjoy you and Gisèle so much as friends, and but I hate to kind of put you on the spot here, but I have to make a confession in front of the whole church. I mean, this is my church family. I'm not here very often 'cause I'm a professional church shopper.
[3:32] I get paid to be in a different church every Sunday, but, but to make it through the pandemic, Pastor Jim, I took up a smoking habit. I know it's shocking, it's disappointing. But just before you go too far down that path, could we, could we have the next slide here? Just want to have a look. So this is my smoking habit. When I turned 50 just over three years ago, my family graced me with something that I had wanted for quite a while, an 820 D3 Pit Boss pellet grill. And boy, that was a great day in my life. I'll tell you, when I got that bad boy in a box and put that together and just started my smoking habit. It was during the pandemic.
[4:23] I don't know what you were thinking earlier, but so, no need, you can retract that text to the board from an emergency board meeting after to withdraw my membership. But so, and I just love it. It's so much fun. It's a great hobby. And, and what you see up there is a picture of the two turkeys that I actually smoked for my family for Christmas dinner. And, you know, here's a little trick for the, and look, this is for free. I mean, you got outta bed this morning, you didn't know church was gonna be this good, this is for free. But if you take, and when you spatchcock a turkey, which means cutting the backbone out, and you flatten it so that the smoke gets all through it and it cooks nice and even, it's just so juicy. But if you take a little bit of butter, the right amount of butter, and you season it and you slide it in under the skin, then about just a few hours into the smoke, when you're hitting that internal temperature you need to hit, you can crank the heat up and it just crisps up that skin.
[5:22] And some of you're nodding and smiling, the rest of you're just drooling on yourselves, you know? And it's just absolutely amazing. And so, you know, I just love it. It's so much fun. Well, I do wanna share with you something that, that frankly is very embarrassing for me, but I suspect will be very entertaining for you. In Thanksgiving of 2022, a very important event happened for our family because this past summer we had a huge day in our family because Ellen and I have three daughters, and we welcomed a son into the family. And our oldest daughter, Mallory, married Nick, and I think they're here today, Mallory was out working in the welcome tent.
[6:08] And that was huge. But in the previous year's Thanksgiving, we met Nick's parents for the first time. They came all the way out from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and it was a big deal. And the day they arrived, I had smoked a pork butt on that smoker. And I'm telling you, I mean, with kernel fried, it was heaven, like, like it was the cotton candy of the meat world. And that pulled pork was just amazing. And I was pretty impressed with myself. And there's a book that we read, I'd recommend, it says that pride goes before a fall. You heard of that book? Well, I was getting set up big time, so I thought, boy, you know, that went so well. And they loved it. The next day, because it was Thanksgiving, I was smoking turkeys and I thought, you know, if a little bit of butter is good, what if I tripled the butter in there?
[7:06] Like that would just be so amazing. Now look, we got lots of stuff to talk about here, so I gotta pick up speed, but the, let me just fill you in. Here's a little Martha Stewart secret for you in your cooking regime, butter can catch on fire, just so you know. And so I was like, if a little bit, so I just loaded those bad boys up with the butter, like triple or more. And I was so excited, and it came to my attention. Some wise family members attempted to tell me that there was a little too much smoke coming outta the smoker and being a man, I was in denial, right? It's one of our spiritual gifts as men. And I was in denial and I just waited and all of a sudden I looked out and this thing was in a ball of flame, like Moses' burning bush had nothing on this, all right?
[8:02] And I ran out and I rescued. So here's what the end product was. Go ahead and flip to that next slide. So you've done that. Yeah, there we go. We can start a support group after church today. So that's great. So I ran out and I pulled these things out of the fiery flames, snatching them from the very eternal damnation that they were about to experience. And I took them and we threw them in the oven, cooked them old school, and, and the skin was a total disaster, but we were able to save about 80% of the meat. And I got to eat lots of humble pie at Thanksgiving, I gotta say. And it was a really interesting experience. Well, why do I share all that? Well, first of all, it's fun to make fun of yourself in front of other people.
[8:49] So I thought you might enjoy that, but you know, sometimes in life things don't work out the way we think they will. And as we continue this series talking about our identity in Christ and talking about who we are, I want you to think about these two pictures. We're gonna come back to them at the end, and let's go ahead and advance the slide. I want to talk to you today about what it looks like to place altered relationships on the altar. All of us have had days in our life when a relationship that matters to us goes wrong. Some days that turn of events is a little bit unpleasant, but not significant.
[9:40] Other days, it blows things up and it goes up in smoke, and you realize that relationship has been permanently altered, and you don't know what to do with that relationship. And just to be really clear, as we make our way through this today, I'm not talking about the relationship you have as a Christ follower with people who do not yet know Jesus. I wanna specifically narrow our thoughts today on what we do in the family of Christ, in the body of Christ, because I will say this, there is nothing that will be a greater challenge to your sense of identity as a believer than the journey of dealing with less than ideal relationships in the body of Christ.
[10:28] You know, few things in life are actually a greater gift. It doesn't feel like it at the time, but then the opportunity that these challenges give us to choose to be like Christ with His strength in the face of difficult relationships. So what do we do when we thought we were getting one kind of turkey and we get another kind of turkey in our relationships? What do we do with that in the body of Christ? We're gonna take a look at four different things that I believe Scripture makes clear that we can choose, that will result in us placing altered relationships on the altar in a way that honors God and advances His kingdom. But first of all, I wanna just give you a little bit of a case study because if you're sitting here this morning, or if you're watching online, and you're thinking, man, like, I've got some really tough relationships happening with my brothers and sisters in Christ.
[11:28] And does that just mean I'm a bad Christian? Like, what's going on? I just want you to know you're in really good company, like really good company. Let's go ahead and consider, if you want to advance that, we're gonna just look real quick at a couple of case studies of relationships between four people in the early church, like these are good names to be on a list with. You got the apostle Peter, you got the apostle Paul, you got Barnabas, the son of encouragement, and you got John Mark. So let's look first of all at what happened between Paul and Barnabas. Acts 15, verse 36 says, "After some time Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let's go back and visit each city where we previously preached the word of the Lord to see how the new believers are doing.'" So that was their first missionary journey, we call it now.
[12:25] And Paul said, "Let's go on the second missionary journey." Verse 37. "Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along John Mark, but Paul disagreed strongly since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in their work." John Mark, some of you know this story, John Mark, in the first missionary journey, they got to their second stop and he bailed. We don't know all the reasons, but he bailed, and Paul was not happy. And there was still a rift there. Well, look at verse 39. Barnabas is saying, "No, we gotta give John Mark a second chance." Paul is saying, "Nope, I've got a one-off policy. And that kid screwed up and he's done." Verse 39.
[13:12] "Their disagreement was so sharp that they separated. Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus, and Paul chose Silas, and as he left, the believers entrusted him to the Lord's care, and then he traveled," et cetera, et cetera. Now, wait a minute. You know, Peter, you said a few minutes ago that this was a good day for Silas and a great day for the future of transformed lives in Egypt. I mean, this doesn't really seem like a good story. You've got two giants of the faith in the early church who are at each other's throats and cannot land their differences to the extent that they decide they can't minister together anymore.
[14:04] Have you ever felt that tension in a relationship with a brother or sister in Christ? You know, the spaghetti pile of this relationship gets even more complex because if you go back and you do a little study on Paul and his early journey, Chris, we know about the Damascus road experience. But what you may not realize is that Barnabas was the key early church leader who had advocated for Paul. He had actually taken Paul secretly to see Peter, who was kind of the ranking apostle, and to try to convince him that Paul had had a change of heart and wasn't killing Christians anymore. And over time, it was Barnabas who had really advocated and stood in the gap for Paul.
[14:53] And so here's Barnabas doing the same thing for John Mark to the guy that you could argue had the job he had because of Barnabas, and Paul wouldn't hear it. He was happy to be on the receiving end of that grace, but he wasn't gonna return the favor. Like that was messy. But here's the interesting thing about that. Paul takes Silas and he goes, and we know that they went back to the churches in Asia Minor, but the Spirit of Jesus wouldn't let them go to Bithynia. And he had the vision of the Macedonian man who said, "Come and help us." And they went to Troas. They landed there and they went up to Philippi. And that's when the church in what we now call Europe started, the church in Europe started because of this disagreement.
[15:45] And I've been in the excavation in Philippi, and I've stood on the dais of the city where the city leaders condemned Paul and Silas and sent them to prison. And that was an incredible story of how God was at work. And Barnabas took John Mark and first they went to Cyprus, but then John Mark, shortly after that, started the church in Egypt in AD 49. He started the church in Egypt. And I've been in Alexandria at the cathedral of St. Mark. And if you go down into the basement of that cathedral, there's a little hallway, and you come to this room and there's a marble crypt. And in that crypt, they say, is the relic of St.
[16:34] Mark's head. Now, is it really there? I don't know. And they didn't have dental records back then, so no one can confirm it, but there is a head in there and Mark's head has to be somewhere, so it might as well be there, but they say it's there. And the impact of the church in Egypt, I've, I've been there about 10 times and we have partner Wesleyan churches there. And so grateful for the focus of Moncton Wesleyan and your heart for missions and for Jordan and your leadership and missions and what's happening with this trip to Bahamas. I just got back a week ago from a couple of weeks in Bangladesh with our Wesleyan church there, and I love the international church, and there's something about being a part of mission where we're sent out and we see the church expand. And that's what happened.
[17:20] The other part of this story, you know, you look at Galatians 2:11, it says, when Cephas, meaning Peter, came to Antioch, I, meaning Paul, opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. Now, we won't go into all that story, but here was a case where two giants of the faith, Peter and Paul, got in each other's face right in front of the whole group of believers, and it was sparky. It was not warm and fuzzy, and there were altered relationships and it was difficult. So what do we do? My friends, now that you know, you're on a good list. If this has been happening since the days in the church when people who actually walked with Jesus couldn't always get this right, then we need to cut ourselves a little bit of slack.
[18:20] That doesn't mean we need to excuse our behavior. There are good choices we can make. And that's what I want to talk about for the rest of our time this morning. What does it look like to place altered relationships on the altar? And the first step is this: we need to examine. We need to assess what is yours. We need to look inward and we need to resist the temptation to think it is our job to point out to the other person what is wrong with them. I'll just let that sink in for a minute. It's a lot easier to start with that part of the process, but guess what? That isn't even on your list. It's our job to ask the Holy Spirit to be at work in their life the same way that the Holy Spirit is at work in our life.
[19:12] Altered relationships are rarely binary. It doesn't make one person bad and one person good. There's a spaghetti pile of complexity. So how do we do that? How do we assess? We listen to others that we trust. We listen to the Holy Spirit. Psalm 139 says, "Search me, God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." You know, you may think of things that you need to forgive or even going to a counselor or a pastor to kind of help unpack some things. And we have to resist the temptation to come up with a list of what the other person should be doing and why they're terrible, because they're not. We leave that with them and God, and we work on our stuff.
[19:58] Charles Spurgeon said it so well, he said, "Satan always hates Christian fellowship. It's his policy to keep Christians apart. Anything which can divide saints from one another, he delights in. He attaches far more importance to godly intercourse than we do. Since union is strength, he does his best to promote celebration." A few years ago, I was interacting with a very high level leader that I have a lot of respect for. And they responded in a given situation in a way that I did not expect. It was a bit of a disappointment. And so after a few days, I went to see this person, and before I could sort of gently bring this up to talk about it, they looked at me and they said, "Peter, I need to apologize.
[20:48] I was overcome with fear and pride, and I now realize that what I said and where I was headed in my actions are wrong." The Holy Spirit worked in that leader's life. And here's the reality, I didn't think less of that leader. Guess what? I thought more of that leader. I thought, well, this is a person I can trust because we all have moments and times where we are fallen and where we disappoint and let one another down. And this is a leader who, when that happened in their life, could be counted on to allow the Holy Spirit to work on them and to bring them around in His time and in His way. They owned what was theirs to own.
[21:38] Number two, we place altered relationships on the altar, not just by examining and assessing what is yours to own, but we place them by engaging. We apply what is common. Now, what am I talking about? Acts 1:8 and 1 Peter 3 or 1 Peter 5:8. We have something that is common even with those that we have sharp disagreements with. And there are a couple of things that I wanna highlight. The first one is we have a shared mission. In Acts 1:8, "You'll be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth." And we get to be on mission together.
[22:26] Even if we can't do it together, like Paul and Barnabas, you know, we fulfill the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment, and we all get to be a part of that shared mission. But we also, 1 Peter 3, or 1 Peter 5, verse 8, we also have a common enemy, not just a common mission. The Apostle Peter said, "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." Folks, we have an enemy and it is not one another. Can I get an amen? Amen. It's not, and no matter how disappointed you are by the people who have a bad day and who intentionally or unintentionally do things that break your relationship, or you have a bad day and you're on the end of the stick that needs correction or some combination of both, that does not make us one another's enemy.
[23:32] We have a common enemy and old red legs, as I like to call him, loves to get in there and do everything he can to divide the church. And so our behavior reveals our beliefs. And so here's what I would say to you, as I'm sure many of you are thinking maybe about one or two relationships as we're walking through these steps together here, here's what I wanna challenge you. Think about a relationship with someone that is altered in a way that is difficult or painful for you. Are you acting as if you have a common mission with that person? Are you actually acting as if you have a common enemy and that it isn't that person? And if not, what can you do to apply those truths in a way that you embrace that truth?
[24:24] Or do we just gossip about them behind their back and try to get other people to side with how we're the victim and they're the enemy? You know, Barnabas taught us something powerful here about how you can actually work to elevate the influence of others as brothers and sisters in Christ. Even if it's not the right season for you to do ministry together. You know, I can be for you, even though you for a season may not want you, may not want me to be with you. That's spiritual maturity, my friends. We can serve the growing influences of others even when they don't feel they can serve directly with us in the way we would prefer.
[25:12] I love what Albert Tate says: the worst thing that can happen to you is not that you get offended, but that you do not love. Well, those who have offended you, you know, Barnabas advocated for Paul, but then Paul didn't return the favor when Barnabas called it in for John Mark. That's tough. That's tough. But Barnabas never stopped believing that they had a common mission, and he never made Paul out to be the enemy. Number three, how do we place altered relationships on the altar? We examine, we engage, and then we embrace, and I love this one, we accept what is reciprocal.
[26:01] Now let me explain what I'm talking about here. There's two scripture passages you'll see there, Romans 12:18 and Psalm 133. But we accept what is reciprocal and we keep our heart tender. So what is our part in this? Here's what I mean. Romans 12:18 says, "As far as it's possible with you, live at peace with everyone." Well, if you inverse the message of that wisdom, it actually is saying that there will be times where it is not possible for you to be in full peace with someone else. Because guess what?
[26:46] There are some things about relationships that must be reciprocal. We can forgive in a one way direction, but we cannot reconcile in a one way direction. And so we have to remember and accept what Scripture clearly teaches is reciprocal when it comes to difficult and challenging altered relationships. Psalm 133 is a beautiful short psalm, and the heart of it is the verse where David writes how beautiful it is when brothers dwell in unity.
[27:32] It's a beautiful psalm, and isn't that what we want with each other? I mean, I'm a people lover. I love being around people and it just kills me when relationships aren't what they could be. And I just drink it in, it feeds my soul when I know I am dwelling in unity with someone, but sometimes that can't happen. The best I can get is Romans 12:18, even though I always want Psalm 133. And there's nothing wrong with accepting that you may have to live for a while in a relationship at a 12:18 address before you upgrade to a 133 address.
[28:20] And that upgrade may never happen. But as far as it's possible with you, you will live at peace with that person and you will keep your heart tender. You know, this often happens when friends work together. Now, I know I'm not just speaking to people in kingdom leadership, lay leadership here in the church or pastoral leadership. I'm speaking to some business owners and people in various levels of management and government leadership. And any of you who are in leadership who have friendship relationships to some degree with the people who report to you, know that it can get really messy quickly. It can get complicated. And I love the work of Pete Scazzero. He wrote a book called Emotionally Healthy, The Emotionally Healthy Leader, and I'd recommend that to you.
[29:12] It's, you know, unapologetically a book written for those in spiritual leadership, but it would really apply to anyone who's a Christ follower in leadership. And I wanna encourage you to order that book, The Emotionally Healthy Leader. Chapter 2 and chapter 8 are the key ones. Chapter 2 talks about dealing with your shadow side. Chapter 8 though talks about power and wise boundaries. And in that chapter, Pete Scazzero helps us understand that there are just times in relationships where because of the dynamics of org charts and relationships, we have to take certain steps to make sure that we can maintain healthy community with those dynamics at play.
[30:00] And oftentimes that's what leads us to altered relationships, which is why I love one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible is 2 Timothy 4:11. It's an incredible verse because this is the second letter that Paul wrote to his protégé, Timothy, and Bible scholars tell us it's the last letter that Paul wrote before he was beheaded for his faith in Rome. And in the last letter that Paul wrote, you ready for this? Listen to what 2 Timothy 4:11 says, I love this. "Only Luke is with me." He wrote one of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And then he says this, "Get Mark, get Mark and bring him with you because he is helpful to me in my ministry."
[30:58] Isn't that beautiful? Look, I don't know what happened from the end of Acts chapter 15 to 2 Timothy, but God did something beautiful in that relationship between John Mark and between the Apostle Paul. And it's just an incredible promise to me when I'm in situations where I feel disappointed and even discouraged that some people just seem to be unwilling to be reciprocal so that we can move from 12:18 to 133 together. But I'm clinging to this, that God is still at work in their hearts and that some way, someday, and I pray that God will keep my heart tender. I love what my friend Brett Jones says.
[31:44] He's the national superintendent of the Wesleyan Church in New Zealand. And I've been there with him a couple of different times and what a great leader he is. And he said to me a couple of years ago, we were having a meal together. He said, "You don't really need the fruit of the Spirit if you're stranded on a desert island, maybe patience for when the, you know, the rescue helicopter comes, but we don't really need the fruit of the Spirit." And folks, we are not just called to a cause, we are called to community. Amen. That's part of our mission. And for us to experience community the way God wants us to experience it in a way that glorifies Him and unites us.
[32:30] And in the spirit of the prayer that Jesus prayed, that the world sees that we are one and they go, how do they do that? I want what they have in my life for that to happen. It's gonna require that we are surrendered to pursuing the power of holiness and the Holy Spirit in our lives, and that we are filled with the fruit of the Spirit, so that our relationships, especially the ones that are altered, are marked by kindness and gentleness in how we demonstrate our love to these people. And I'll suggest to you as Christ followers, this will be one of your greatest tests of spiritual growth and maturity, choosing who I am in a way that is independent from how they have chosen to be regardless of what they have done.
[33:28] I am going to choose to be a certain kind of person back to them, not necessarily because they deserve it, but because God calls me to it and I will do it for His glory. Last step, just real quick. We elevate, we examine, we engage, we embrace and we elevate, we activate what is missional. Now, I don't need to repeat all this 'cause you guys have got the picture, but we know what happened with Paul and Silas. They engaged in mission. We know what happened with Barnabas and John Mark. They engaged in mission and even though they couldn't do ministry together, they still did mission together and they were on track with God using their lives to make an eternal difference.
[34:15] And I was having breakfast with one of our pastors in Ontario, a couple of years ago. Nathan Masky, some of you know Nathan because his dad Cal started Harvest House. And the church has a wonderful partnership with them. And I was having breakfast with Nathan and he had just preached a sermon on Barnabas like three weeks before that. And so we were talking about this and talking about the dynamics and I said, you know, Nathan, like, I can't wait to get to heaven 'cause I've got a list of about 10 conversations I want to have. And one of those is I want to bring Jesus over with Paul and Barnabas and John Mark and I wanna say, "Hey, Jesus, you know, in Acts 15 and Paul goes, 'Excuse me, what's Acts 15?'" And I'll say, you know, in Acts 15, what happened at the end there?
[35:09] Who was right? I just want to know. I just gotta know, was it Paul or was it Barnabas? Because until I had breakfast with Nathan, I was pretty sure I knew 'cause Paul was a jerk, and it was definitely Barnabas and I just wanted to hear Jesus say it. Well, Nathan looked at me and he totally blew my mind. He said, "I think Jesus is gonna look at you and say they were both right. You know, we serve a God so big, He has the power to make more than one way, right?" I'm not talking about compromising immutable truth.
[35:55] So don't go outta here and say I'm a heretic. I mean, I am, but that's for other reasons. No, I'm just kidding. But, what if there was a dynamic there where, John Mark, in his own leadership development journey, needed to see the impact of his immaturity in a way that really called him from the depths to face off with what he had done on that first missionary journey. And that if Paul had just kind of patted him on the head and said, "Okay, I'll give you a sec," maybe he wouldn't have become the leader that God needed him to, I don't know. But what if they were both right? All the players that are impacted by these altered relationships, Peter, Paul, Barnabas, John Mark, they all leaned into God's plan.
[36:41] And the greatest victory that old red legs can get from those who are called to follow Christ is to convince us it's just not worth it because of those others who claim to be Christ followers who have wounded us, and we suck our thumbs and we pull the bushel over our flame and we just sit around and we have a nice pity party. Boy, Satan loves it when that happens. And that's why this last point is so important. We need to activate what is missional as we are doing all those things and engage in who God has called us to be. Joni Eareckson taught us this: believers are never told to become one.
[37:28] We already are one, and we are expected to act like it. It is that good: be united with other Christians. Corrie ten Boom says, "A wall with loose bricks is not good. The bricks must be cemented together." All right, guys, here it is. Throw up that next slide. Guys, you remember the turkeys? This is what can happen when relationships happen. Sometimes we get the nice golden brown outcome we were hoping for, that we savor and celebrate. And sometimes because of mistakes we have made or mistakes other people have made, we end up with a big puff of smoke and a mess to clean up.
[38:22] But you know, even though those turkeys on the right look as horrible as you think they look, it was even worse when the day it was happening. But we were able to salvage about, you know, 80% of the meat and do something with that. And we didn't starve to death that day. And God can take any relationship regardless of how difficult it gets. He can take any relationship. And as we continue to place that altered relationship on the altar, He will help us to find a way forward that brings glory to Him, that keeps our heart tender for what He may do with that relationship. And ultimately, that keeps us on mission to lead other people to Jesus. So here's what I wanna offer you as I pray, and then Aaron and the team are gonna lead us in a moment of reflection. Would you please stand?
[39:15] So flick to that last slide. I want you folks, look, we're brothers and sisters in Christ. This is my home church, you know, and we love being a part of Moncton Wesleyan. We love your pastoral team and it's such a blessing to serve alongside them. And, but I really do feel like I'm just talking to family here today. And as we pray together and as we sing together, I want to challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit to show you one or two relationships that maybe you have gotten a little sidetracked in what your part is when it comes to placing that altered relationship on the altar of God's goodness.
[40:07] And I want you to think through these steps and are there things that you need to examine? Are there things that you need to own? You've been so preoccupied with what their issue is that you haven't been honest about what your part in it has been? Are there things you need to engage about the commonality we have about our shared mission and our shared enemy? Are there things that you need to embrace about the truth? That there are certain aspects of altered relationships that are just, they're just reciprocal and you can't fix what isn't yours to fix. And until they are ready, you've gotta just lovingly wait and be patient and not let your heart get hard. And maybe all those things are true, but you say, "You know what?
[40:53] I've been kind of sitting back and I'm so busy pointing the finger at them that I've given myself a pass on being engaged in mission. If this is who the church is, then I'm out. I mean, I still want my fire insurance. Like I'm not, you know, cashing in my ticket to heaven, but I'm not throwing everything into mission." If that's how Christians treat each other and we withdraw, and the mission that God wants to explode through, our influence becomes minimized or even disappears altogether. It was a good day for Silas, and it was a great day for the future of transformed lives in Egypt.
[41:43] And that, my friends, and kingdom colleagues is what God can do when we place altered relationships on the altar. Let's pray. Lord, I thank You for my brothers and sisters and for this great church. I just ask in Jesus' name that You'll give us not only the humility, but the strength by Your Spirit to hear what You are saying to us and to be willing to embrace even the things that are difficult or challenging for us to become in this series on our identity in Christ, that as we answer that question of who am I, we can say, even in the face of altered relationships that are not the way they should be, that God is giving me the strength to be the person that I should be.
[42:39] And I pray, Lord, that You will help us to do that. And if there's any next step that You would prompt in any of our hearts today, speak to us as we sing and worship and give us the courage to go out and not just be hearers, but doers of Your Word. In Jesus' name, and all God's people said, "Amen."