Forgiveness: The Oxygen of the Kingdom - Part 4: From Rupture to Repair | Pastor Phil Holcomb

Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is

an international church in Bangkok, Thailand

with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.

We invite you to connect with us from wherever

you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our

mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed

by this week's sermon. We're concluding our sermon

series focused on forgiveness. So we've taken

the month of July to unpack a number of different

parts of this sermon series, and our hope is

that just because we're concluding this teaching,

that it doesn't mean that we don't conclude our

formation in this important and essential aspect

of what it means to follow Jesus. As a quick

recap, let me go back to the questions that we

consider. The very first week, we looked at,

why should I forgive? What's the reason for me

forgiving to motivate me to forgive? In that

we answered that it's out of obedience because

we have received forgiveness for God, we give

it to others. The second week we looked at why

is forgiveness so hard? And for that we borrowed

a definition from a theologian who he says my

personal act, forgiveness is my personal act

to release the one. who sinned against me for

my personal right to collect a debt, a moral

debt, and to pay him back for his offense. Instead

of giving him back the pain he gave me, I absorbed

that pain into myself with God's help. Obviously

a very difficult task, something we have to have

that last piece about God's help. And then we

said, well, what happens if I don't forgive?

And this was last Sunday. Well, if I don't forgive,

resentment begins to build in me, which then

turns into bitterness, which puts these deep

roots deep down inside of me and actually strangles

myself. And in all of these different questions

that we asked, we could have done a long series

on each of those. So the very first thing that

I want to just call your attention to right now

this morning is as we have taken a very complicated

topic and put it into four weeks, if there's

anything in this series that you want to have

more conversations about and to wrestle through

with or things that were unsettling to you, please

come and talk with me after and I'm happy to

walk with you through those. Along those lines,

I want to invite us to pray and just ask that

the Holy Spirit would be doing what he does best

in this time. God, we are here gathered together

because of you. And we are gathered with you.

And we are gathered turning our attention towards

you. So I ask that the words of my mouth, the

meditations of my heart, that they would indeed

be pleasing to you because you are our rock and

our refuge as we declared. Holy Spirit, we want

to invite you to move in us through this time.

Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Ruptures all

over the place. Things torn apart, not as they

are supposed to be, right? And relationally,

we understand this. There's conflicts with different

people in this room amongst each other. There

are things within your own families, things within

the community around. There's ruptures with the

very world that we live on that we keep causing.

I want to turn to two different ways that we

often respond to ruptures. before we get to a

third way that Jesus often calls us to. One of

those ways, to borrow from Scott Hayden's words

for this, is to fake peace or to fake repair,

right? So there's those of us who may tend to

curate the world around us in such a way to make

it seem as though there's peace. As an illustration

for this, my family had the privilege of driving

up to Chiang Mai earlier this year. Eight -hour

drive, right? What could go wrong with three

kids in a car for eight hours? I had two choices

before me, two different vehicles that I could

use. One where all three of them were sitting

in the same row or another vehicle where I could

put each of them in their own row. What do you

think I chose? The second one, right? Such a

great father. So put them each in their own rows

that I can have peace as I'm driving all the

way up to Chiang Mai, right? This is a fake form

of peace where we kind of, separate ourselves

depending on how we feel, but we fake that there

is a sense of unity together. But there's another

side to it that we can force peace. And for this

one, I'm going to go back a number of years to

when I was just starting as a father. And there

was a friend of mine who had been parenting for

a while. And I was over at his house one day

and I said, what do you do when your kids are

arguing and fighting? And he said, by the way,

Let me say from the get -go, this is not parenting

advice. So please just leave it there. This is

to illustrate. So he said, what I do when they

are arguing and fighting with each other, when

there is tension, I get the shirt of repair out.

And I was like, what's the shirt of repair? It's

a single shirt that I put both kids in. And so

they wear this shirt for the rest of the day,

walking around in this, forcing them to reconcile,

right? So again, not parenting advice, but just

an illustration. We can fake peace or we can

force peace. We can fake repair or we can force

repair. But Jesus, like he always does, is going

to call us to a third way. Something that is

much more difficult. Something that actually

in our own ability is impossible. But it requires

him. And so we're going to ask this question

today. What is forgiveness actually for? Because

we've been talking about it the last three weeks.

It is not the actual end goal. It's a means to

something much more significant. So what is forgiveness

actually for? A more serious situation that happened

in 1994. This spring, over the course of 100

days, in the country of Rwanda, 800 ,000 people

were murdered. Neighbors killed neighbors. Friends

killed friends. People from within the same group

actually turned on one another and killed them.

Now, the ruptures that had been the history of

this are long and complicated and tragic. But

it all culminated in one single time frame where,

think about the numbers of this, around 300 people

per hour were dying during these 100 days. I

want to ask you, though, when you hear that story,

what do you do? What goes on in your own heart?

My guess is that one response that we have is

to say, oh man, that's not the way things are

supposed to be. Which calls out to the fact that

we know that that's wrong and that repair or

a sense of wholeness is supposed to be there.

But perhaps another thing I want to have you

pay attention to is, do you relate or do you

push away from that? Do you hear this story and

say, what in the world would make them do that?

Because the story of scripture actually is going

to help us to see that you and I all have this

capacity ingrained in the very fabric of our

DNA. The same capacity that caused what happened

in Rwanda, you and I are capable of. This is

why when Jesus comes and he gives the Sermon

on the Mount, he doesn't say, hey, those who

are murderers, you go over here and the rest

of you, you check out. He says, nope, actually,

if you call a brother raka or fool or you have

contempt for them or there's anger within your

own heart, you're in danger of the same thing

that caused somebody to murder another person.

So we begin with what is forgiveness for? Can

it actually respond to the problem in Rwanda?

We're going to park that story. We'll come back

to it in a little bit. But instead, we're going

to turn to the larger story of Scripture, and

we're going to look at the big frame before we

get to the third -way passage that was just read

for us right in the middle. So as a quick summary,

Genesis 1 and 2, what does God do? God places

a man and a woman in a garden. He creates them

to reflect his very nature. They are supposed

to and designed to take what is good, what's

right, what's true, what's beautiful, and they're

supposed to multiply that in the world around

them, right? So the idea is that they're going

to multiply this and it's going to go out into

the world around. But a significant thing happens,

a rupture that completely severs that intimate

moment by moment relationship. Adam and Eve decide

to say, hey, instead of us having this repaired,

this perfect relationship, right relationship

with you, God, we're going to turn our attention

over to your enemy. And we're going to trust

him. And what the enemy does is he comes to steal,

kill, and destroy. And so the same mechanism

within us about multiplication, ends up becoming

us being able to have the capacity to kill, steal,

and destroy written within us. And that's what

scripture does. And you know what's incredible

about God's word? If I was writing a book trying

to convince you that I'm a good God and that

I want you to come back to me, I may polish over

some of the stuff that happens. I may not include

some of these harder stories. But God doesn't

do that. He does it as a warning for us to say,

hey, this is actually a part of our own existence,

our DNA, and we need help. So we're going to

look at somebody, King David, really briefly.

King David in 1 Samuel 13 is called a man after

God's own heart, right? So this is by many metrics,

one of the best leaders that ever was. He was

an incredible man. The Psalms are written by

him. These beautiful dialogue with God that gives

us an insight into what it's like to journey

with God through life. He's the one who actually

brought the nation together. But he has this

rupturing ability that shows up a number of times.

And potentially one of the most tragic stories

in scripture revolves around this man in 2 Samuel

13. You have one of King David's sons, Amnon,

who tricks and manipulates his half -sister into

the room and violates her. And then, out of disgust,

throws her out of the room and says, I want nothing

to do with you. Get out of here. So she leaves

with shame, and the rupture has already started

there. What does King David do in this situation?

This leader that we're supposed to look to to

say, okay, maybe there's hope. Maybe I can respond

in a different way. What does he do? He gets

angry, but he doesn't actually cause repair.

And instead, one of his other sons, Absalom,

ends up plotting the murder of Amnon and kills

his own brother. And then Absalom flees. And

David is just out of, he's grieving for the fact

that his son is now about rupture upon rupture,

right? Well, Absalom eventually comes back, takes

over David's throne, and David runs away. So

you've now had a coup that has happened in a

kingdom by a son against a father. Story we're

familiar with, right? Well, eventually David

comes back and Absalom is fleeing and David says,

hey, don't kill him, but he gets stuck in the

tree. Remember this story with his hair? Gets

stuck in the tree and he dies. And so now you've

got King David who is lamenting the fact that

this has happened within his family. But there's

seeds that are planted here that are actually

going to cause the division of God's people into

two nations that will never return until Jesus

comes back. That's the power of this multiplying

rupture that is written within your and my very

fabric. So what do we do? Well, You have two

different choices to look at. You can look to

humanity and say, hey, can you please solve my

problems? Or we can look to God himself who came

as a human and say, could you show me a third

way? Could you show me a different way forward,

Lord? I want repair. I long for it. I see that

I'm searching for it. Can you show me that repair?

So this is where Jesus comes. King Jesus steps

into the very mess of our reality and he brings

about a different vision. But it's tough. It

is really, really hard. And we're going to unpack

it here looking at the passage. Before we do

that though, because the very first aspect of

the passage that is necessary is for us to be

people who practice forgiveness. Then we're going

to look at the purpose of forgiveness. And then

we're going to look at a path towards reconciliation.

This is more of a review from the first service.

There's a practice that we engage in that we

saw from God in how he forgave us that we forgive

others, right? And the very first one is to name

the debt. As followers of Jesus, we don't put

things under the rug or simply forget them. We

actually name what has happened, the rupture

that is before us. And we say, this is what I

experienced. But we don't stay there. We turn

to the next one, which is about our identity.

And it is to say, Lord, I know that you have

given us this great gift of grace. And I need

to remember, as I'm naming the dead, I remember

how you have forgiven me. And then the third

part of it is releasing it and trusting our desire

for vengeance or the desire to fix things ourselves,

giving that back over to God. And this was review

from week one. So there's far more to this that

we unpacked there, and I would encourage you

to check it out if you missed that sermon. But

the practice of forgiveness is not all, right?

We still want to answer that question, what is

forgiveness actually for? What is both the purpose

of it as well as a path forward? And in order

to understand this, we need to look at one of

the first things that Paul says in this passage.

Go ahead and read it out. What does he say? Christ's

love, what does it do? Controls us. Different

translations will say compels or moves us. Why

would Paul start this whole passage about reconciliation,

about control? Well, because the way that you

and I are designed is we give our allegiance

to something. Everyone in here has given our

allegiance to something. And there is... all

kinds of different ways that we can give our

allegiance to that. And whatever we give our

allegiance to will end up controlling or moving

us in life. And there is currently, that has

been for some time, a worldview or a paradigm,

we might say, that comes at us, voices, over

and over and over again. And it's termed moralistic

therapeutic deism. So when you go to lunch today,

whoever you're having lunch with, you can just

sit across the table from them and be like, hey,

what do you think about moralistic therapeutic

deism? And on the other side, they'll be like,

can you pass the french fries? And then you'll

wonder the next week, why did this person not

want to go to lunch with me again? But this term,

although it sounds big, there's some components

to it that I think you and I might recognize.

The moralistic part is about me living a good

life. What does it look like for me to be a good

boy or a good girl in this world? What do I do

to live a good life, right? And the therapeutic

side is to say that my main goal is actually

to be happy. So I'm going to try to live a good

life and I need and I deserve to be happy. Does

it sound somewhat like from scripture? Yeah,

there's a little... bits and pieces of that.

I think God wants us to live morally, accurately,

according to the way he has designed. And I think

he also cares about our well -being, our wholeness,

and our healing. But this third part, the deism,

which is usually to say that there's some God

that's far out there. This God in moralistic,

therapeutic deism is basically there to help

me accomplish those two goals. So God, I come

to you when maybe I'm not able to be a good boy

or a good girl. And I say, help me with this.

Or I come to you when I'm not feeling happy and

I don't feel free. And so I say, hey, can you

help me with this? But the problem with this

is when that controls you and you face something

like the Rwanda genocide or something so significant,

like many of you have shared stories of incredible

rupture in your own lives. It only goes so far.

If it is truly about my own happiness and my

ability to cause things, I'm going to come up

short. So Jesus is going to say, hey, I'm going

to call you to a bigger vision, something even

more significant. And what is that bigger vision?

Well, forgiveness is more than moral improvement

or personal healing. It's something beyond that.

Here's what Paul says. So we have stopped evaluating

others from that human point of view. And right

now, that's the most common one we face. But

it's not the only one. There's been all kinds

of narratives that have caused us or called for

our attention. So whatever those are, we're not

going to evaluate people by that human point

of view. You see, at one time, we thought of

Christ merely from a human point of view. How

differently we know him now. He's not just there

to make me happy and healthy. He's there for

something much more significant. What is that?

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ

has become a new person. The old life is gone

and a new has begun. Now, the NLT translated

begun, which I love. And if you actually look

in the Greek, it is talking about it's not completed.

This is all of us going forward. This is something

that is moving within us. And Paul's going to

say, and all of this is a gift from God who brought

us back to himself through Christ. I'm going

to invite you to sit with me for a little bit

as we go more technical into this verse here.

And for those of you who are grammar people,

you may like this and enjoy it. For the rest

of you, there's a point to it that we will get

to. So just hold on a little bit, but do some

deep work with me. Here's what Paul is actually

saying in this passage. Who actually caused the

offense against God? You and I, right? Our ancestors

did and we've continued that going forward. So

it would make sense that we would be the ones

doing the initiating to repair. But the way Paul

packs in a theology in this section is incredible.

God, the one who is offended, is the one who

does the movement forward. And he does that movement

forward at a cost to himself as the very instrument

of fixing things. He becomes the means. And what

is the action that is happening? The action that

is happening is that he's bringing us back to

himself. He's repairing, he's reconciling. And

we, as the one who caused the offense, get everything

in the situation. What in the world? Nobody treats

us that way, right? This is... What grace is.

It's incredible. And Paul has packed this into

this verse here. And it reminds me of an important

art practice from Japan called Kitsuki. I have

a neighbor that actually practices this just

a few doors down. And what Kitsuki is, is it

actually takes broken pieces of pottery. So imagine

that you have your favorite mug or a bowl or

vase or something of that nature and you are

taking care of it and it falls and it drops and

it ruptures, it shatters. Now you normally, you

would look at that and you'd say, look at all

these pieces, there's maybe nothing I can do

to it and you kind of scoop it back together

and what would we think of doing? We'd probably

take it to the garbage bin, right? But God, In

such a more magnificent story, he looks at us

in that and he says, actually, I can take that

and put it back together. And the thing with

this art is that you take a glue, an adhesive

that is infused with gold. But his neighbor said

that actually that gold -infused adhesive is

toxic. And if you get it on your hands, you're

actually going to have a sense of like a rash

that's there where your skin is saying, hey,

I don't like this. Does it sound a little bit

like forgiveness? This comes at a cost to me

to put this thing back together. Not only is

this meticulous work of taking all of these pieces

and putting it back together, but the very glue,

the fabric that holds it together is toxic in

and of itself. That's what Paul is saying God

has done for you. And for me, this work of reconciling,

of bringing us back to himself. But God hasn't

just left it there. He's given us the task of

reconciling people to himself. He didn't just

put the bowl back together and say, all right,

we're done. He's actually called us to something

even more significant with that. So for God was

in Christ, reconciling the world to himself,

no longer counting people's sins against them.

And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

He finally ends it with this. So we are Christ's

ambassadors. Ambassador is like a representative,

somebody who speaks on or acts on behalf of the

one that they represent. God is making his appeal

through us and we speak for Christ when we plead

what? All together, come back to God. Again,

what? Come back to God. Brothers and sisters,

if there is one guiding vision statement for

your life, It is that you are helping people

come back to God. That is a great call that he

has called us to. So you look at the full story

and you see Christ coming in the middle. He does

this reconciling work, inviting us back to himself.

And then he sends us out to be people who cause

repair in the world around us. But it doesn't

just end there because we know in Revelation

21 and 22, it says that all things that were

wrong are made right again. And that God's very

dwelling is amongst his people. What was at the

very beginning, this perfect union with God,

has not only been restored, but like a beautiful

vase that has been recovered and repaired through

the artwork of Kintsuki, is actually more beautiful

than when it started. That's the God that we

serve. And he calls us to that very work in the

here and the not yet. And it is difficult work

of reconciling. So it is not your job to cause

reconciliation. It is your job to join God's

reconciliation. This is important because I will

get easily offended if I am running around and

I have. trying to reconcile things, either ways

that I have been offended. And I believe this

is my reconciliation that I'm trying to cause.

Whose reconciliation is it? It's God's. And I

partner with him in that reconciliation. So whenever

we have a conflict or something, we sit across

the table and we are both on the same side with

God doing that magnificent work in the middle.

But you might say, okay, Pastor Phil, this sounds

nice. But how do you actually do this? What does

that look like? Well, again, we could take a

long time going into what it looks like to begin

to collect the pieces of our own lives that have

been ruptured, of the lives of people around

us, of the lives of a community and put it back

together. How do we actually do that? For this,

we're going to look at a path of repair. And

it's long and it's complicated and it's an art

in and of itself. And I give you that as a warning

beforehand because if any of you think, okay,

all right, I heard that I'm supposed to cause

repair and I'm going to go out and do that. This

is something you can practice your whole life

and we're still going to need a lot of Holy Spirit

inspired wisdom throughout the whole thing. And

that's kind of the point. There's a picture that

was taken of my daughter and one of her friends

this past week. And as I was working on the sermon,

this picture shows up in my messages. and it's

from a local place here in Bangkok. And we think

about a rupture that is there. You see, when

we've talked about forgiveness, we've talked

about it being really an attitude that we have.

For the most part, it's an internal thing. It

can be expressed towards another, but it's me

and God doing work here. Reconciliation is different.

Reconciliation is me actually holding my hand

out, and there has to be a person on the other

side. I cannot reconcile when there's not somebody

on the other side. Forgiveness is a solo, as

they say. Reconciliation is what? A duet. It's

two people working together to do this. And this

is another important point. You cannot force

people to reconcile. This has to be the act of

God working within the two of you to come together.

And so this picture of reaching out your hand,

hold on to that as we continue going forward.

So what are the actual components of this? Well,

one of the first ones is conviction. I need to

know that I am capable of rupture. If you are

sitting here and you're like, okay, he's talking

about rupture and I know people who cause rupture

and your whole thought process is, Oh yeah, that

one. Oh yeah, that guy over there. You're missing

the very foundation of what needs to happen for

reconciliation. And that's that you and I are

able to cause, and we do cause, rupture with

our own lives, with the lives of others. We are

capable of committing rupture. That's the foundational

thing. So if you and I are dealing with some

kind of rupture, if I come into it thinking,

yeah, I don't really have a problem, that's all

on you. It may be, 5 % and 95%. I still have

a part to own in that process of reconciliation.

So I need to acknowledge it. The second one is

confession. Confession at the most simple sense

is to say, I agree with God. I agree with God.

Whatever God says is good, right? True and beautiful.

I agree with that. So if he says, Phil, you need

to live in such a way where the fruit of the

Spirit is evident in you. Love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self -control. Oh, man. All right, God, I believe

that that is correct. I agree with you. I confess

that that's correct. I acknowledge that. But

there's a second side to this. It's kind of like

two sides of the same coin. Repentance is the

other one. Repentance is a change of direction.

It's committing to do something different. Now,

as an illustration, I believe that the stage

has a drop -off here, right? So I can agree to

that in my mind. The stage has a drop -off. And

if I'm simply agreeing that the stage has a drop

-off, but I'm not doing anything about it, I

fall right off, right? This is God actually telling

us, hey, You can agree to something, but you

need to actually demonstrate a movement in a

different direction. Reconciliation requires

me to begin to show that movement. So if you

are reconciling with somebody and they stop at

the second one of confession, but you don't see

any changes within them, you're going to have

to go back to the beginning and work through

it again. Because this has to begin to change.

Now, a note, we do not change overnight. You

cannot simply say, anger, I want you to be done,

and it's gone. Anybody who works with counseling

will tell you that does not work to just say,

I'm going to try harder not to. I'm going to

force it to be gone. What's the next step? Restitution.

Paying back for something. Now, if I happen to

swipe a thousand baht out of your pocket, by

the way, I did not do that, just to be clear.

If I swipe 1 ,000 baht out of your pocket, how

do I pay that back? That's quite easy, right?

I need to take 1 ,000 baht and pay you back.

But I've caused a second form of rupture, which

is trust. You now no longer trust me. You are

walking around the church because the pastor

has been stealing and you're now keeping your

hands in your pocket. And the front row is wide

open and everybody's kind of sitting back there

because I've made a name for myself. Restitution

is an important part of actually working towards

rebuilding trust. I do what I can to pay back.

Now, the really difficult thing with restitution

is there are some things, some ruptures, some

ways that we hurt other people that we can never

pay back. But you still are grieved by it and

you help the other person know that this sits

with you and you do what you can to pay back

restitution. And then the next one is reconciliation.

This is the part where both of you, again, rebuild

trust together and it can take a long time. So

yeah, we've been talking about forgiveness for

a number of weeks. This is possibly the longer

work that goes on and it keeps going and going

and going. And it's a complicated path with different

pieces and components. And it's a lot of work.

So what do we often do? Go back. to either shoving

a shirt on a person and saying, get along, or

we just kind of, I'm just going to let that one

go. And I'm going to let that one go. And that

one as well. And we're going to fake peace or

force peace, right? But this isn't what Jesus

has done with us. And it is not what we are invited

into. There's such a bigger story of us participating

in it. And you know what? I'm going to unsell

the entire sermon with this statement. I've engaged

in paths of reconciliation many times. And more

often than not, they don't succeed. I'll sit

through conversations with others or I will participate

in them. And more often than not, we will not

get to that last one. So you might say, well,

then what's the point of all of this? The point

is actually that in and through each one of those,

the ultimate goal of life is being accomplished,

which is me increasing my awareness that God

is with me. So the more I don't cause repair

in the life around me, whether it's my own and

the community around, the more I'm going to say,

Lord, help, Lord, help, Lord, help. And in that

process, I'm actually learning to journey through

life with him again and again and again. And

ultimately, it's his job as well. So he will,

as we said, cause all things that are wrong to

be right again. So in this process, I'm simply

a steward of it as I journey forward. This is

why Jesus comes and he said, blessed are the

peacemakers. Not blessed are those who... experience

peace or blessed are those who force peace. He

said, blessed those who cause peace, who make

peace, who do the incredible difficult work of

peace. Now, if you look at the Beatitudes, Jesus

isn't saying, hey, here's ways that you should

and should not live your life necessarily. Some

are, some are not. But really what he's doing

is he's saying, these people, when you begin

to experience this, the kingdom of God. or them

being children of God is going to be evident

to them. Because the harder peacemaking is, the

more I'm going to end up spending time with my

heavenly father and looking and smelling and

acting and thinking like him. And that's what

Jesus is calling to say, blessed are the peacemakers

for they are going to look like children of God.

Brothers and sisters, that is the invitation

for us. We are called and commanded to forgive

and you are invited to a larger thing of reconciliation

together. So what is forgiveness actually for?

Forgiveness is not the end goal. Forgiveness

is a means to that end goal. The process of forgiveness

helps me to engage in reconciliation. And when

I engage in reconciliation, I am doing that all

with God himself. And in that, I am experiencing

the goal of life, which is to be with God. I'm

actually taking what is at the end, Revelation

21 and 22, and I'm bringing that into the present

as I walk around. I am becoming the bull that

actually is the picture of where all things are

going. So I'm going to invite you to answer and

to reflect on and think through a couple questions

this morning. Do you tend to fake or do you tend

to force repair? And again, this is God's work.

He knows it. Do you tend to fake or do you tend

to force repair? And a more important question

next to it is, what is God calling you to? What

aspect of repair is God calling you to right

now? Possibly it's your marriage. Possibly it

is a friend of yours. If you've got children,

possibly it's a relationship with one of them.

Perhaps it's somebody that's sitting in here

in a life group or something of that nature.

And know that, if God is calling you to that,

that he journeys with you and it is a complicated

process, but that's what God has done for you.

And as you participate with that, something even

more beautiful than at the beginning can start.

When my daughter broke her arm as a young kid,

there was the question, of course, as a father

to say, oh no, is her arm going to be weaker

from now on? And this doctor actually looked

at me and said, you know what is fascinating

about our bodies? is a broken arm that is healed

is actually stronger than when it first broke.

So when she goes through this process of having

a healed arm, she's actually going to be stronger.

In a similar way, relationships that go through

this process of reconciliation are far stronger

than they were before that. Returning to the

story in Rwanda. We know that that's a complicated

mess. How do you take a tiny nation where close

to a million people have lost their lives? What

do you do, right? Maybe you just divide the country

in half and you have people live in different

parts. Sounds like my van story, right? But the

church stepped in. They went into the prisons

and they practiced this incredible work of reconciliation.

And they started not by saying, hey, you need

to turn to your neighbor and say, I'm sorry.

They started by introducing the gospel and started

by going back to this story of us being forgiven.

And in that, there was repentance that happened,

a conviction that says, hey, I actually have

wronged. And in that, there was far more repentance

than had ever come out in just normal court cases.

They worked alongside the court cases, but people

came forward with things that were far more than

what happened at the beginning. And then they

invited them if they wanted. to be part of what

they called reconciliation villages, where you

could go and live with these people that had

caused you harm, but they had gone through this

whole process. And you begin to rebuild trust

in that space. And one of the stories that came

out of that, that helps us to just kind of land

the plane with this, is the following. There

was a mother from the Tutsi tribe. They were

the ones who lost the most amount of lives. who

had a young kid and she needed to head into town

and she was in one of these villages. And without

thinking twice, because this whole process of

reconciliation had happened, she turned to one

of her Hutu neighbors and said, hey, would you

mind watching my kid? Think about this. You're

turning to somebody that within two or three

years ago had actually been part of what had

caused all this pain upon you. But something

incredible had happened, which is that journey

of reconciliation, this redoing that is only

the work of God in and through that. And she

said, I realized at that moment that that process

of reconciliation in this relationship had gone

into its completion. It's a lot of work, but

it got there. I'm going to invite the worship

team to go ahead and come up. For the rest of

us, as we are waiting, I'm going to invite us

to think about the following. In the new heavens

and new earth, we get to be with God forever,

with him. But it's not just something we are

holding onto and waiting. You see, when Jesus

paid, when he was paying for our own sins, and

there was that restitution process where he was

being crucified on the cross, something else

happened at that moment. A veil was torn. There

was a curtain that was thick that you and I could

not tear apart that was meant to separate the

space of God's symbolic presence and our being

alienated from him that pictured that rupture

from the very beginning. And when Christ was

crucified on the cross and he cries out, he says,

it's finished. This veil tears in two, this curtain

tears in two, symbolically representing that

you and I now have access to God here. Not just

some far out thing that we're waiting for. We

get to participate in that now and that's great

news. We get to actually journey through life

with God and that's the actual point of forgiveness.

So would you join me in praying? Father, I thank

you for your great story. I thank you for all

the parts and pieces to it that reveal your character.

This morning as the prayer team was praying and

they... They sensed you calling us to have a

single -heartedness. As Jesus says, the pure

of heart. That we would be so fixated on the

fact that we are journeying through life with

you, God, that we don't shy away from the very

difficult journey of reconciliation, but that

we participate in that. And we do so with you

each step of the way. You are a holy God. completely

set apart, completely different from any other

way of trying to solve the difficulties in the

world around us and in our own lives. And we

look to you and we say, holy, holy, holy, you

are the one that we cling to and we long to be

with and thank you that we can be with you now.

We pray this in the precious, wonderful name

of Jesus. Amen. Thank you for tuning in to the

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