Go, Fight, WIN!

What do you do when your friend hasn’t been much of a friend? How do you respond when your coworker brags about being dishonest? How do you respond to a fellow church member who disagrees with you about some subject? In a world of such dissonance, how can we model what it means to be a people of harmony? As we embark together on a new sermon series this week, we’ll be unpacking how we can navigate conflict in our world. How should we respond when you and I experience conflict within ourselves, our families, our places of work, and our churches? Do we fight? Do we flee? Do we live in fatigue? Do we forgive? In this first sermon on Matthew 7:1-6, what we will see is how a judgmental attitude often leads to brokenness in relationships. While showing genuine concern for people living contrary to the gospel is appropriate, we are not called to pronounce a verdict on them. If the sin is more important than the soul, it indicates that we are the ones with the issue. We will find that in our desire to fight and win, Jesus calls us to remember that he alone is the truly righteous judge. He also calls us to do the humbling work of self-examination. Only then can we appropriately come alongside other people who may be struggling with brokenness and sin.