Reconciliation

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. We are in our fourth week of this series called Vulnerability. It's a tour through the second letter to the Corinthians by Paul. And so far we've learned a number of things. One is that nobody likes vulnerability. We don't like it, but we seek it in other people. We want somebody else to be open, but we're kind of afraid to be ourselves. And we've learned that it's really not weakness. Vulnerability isn't weakness, it is openness. Openness to others, openness to the spirit, openness to new experiences, and yes, sometimes openness to pain. And we've also studied how uncomfortable that can be, but how comforting it is to know that we've got a God who has chosen to be vulnerable towards us. And how we can, because of that, have confidence in this life to be open. And that that's really what strength looks like. And how it's easy to lose heart going through all of this, but God calls us to live wholeheartedly. So today we're going to work through chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others, but what we are is known to God. And I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you a cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for their sake and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Reconciliation. That word, reconcile, to be reconciled, reconciliation came up five times in just those last few verses. And when Paul repeats something that often, it means it must be important. And so we're going to be looking at that. God's plan for you. God's plan for all of us is that he wants not simply that you are forgiven. I know so often in church we think, OK, I'm forgiven. That's it. Moving on. That's the start. That's the start. What he really wants is you to be restored, reconciled, that your relationships are all brought together and repaired. Not just forgiven, but full restoration. So I guess the question this morning, you can answer it yourself. I don't expect you to have to say it in front of everyone else right now, but do you have some relationships that need repair? Yeah, I think we all do. Zoe is laughing on that one. OK. And that is kind of God's work from the beginning. So when Adam and Eve broke faith with God, not trusting him, they basically also broke their relationship with each other. And you can tell because they started blaming each other. They started calling on each other. They started pointing the finger elsewhere. You could just see that. All their relationships were broken. And so, like we have said from the beginning of Thrive, it's all about relationships. That's what it's about. The church isn't about programs, and the church isn't about numbers, and the church isn't about being an education center alone, and definitely not an entertainment complex or a self-help movement. I like what Paul David Tripp wrote in a book. The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness, and sanctification center where flawed people place their faith in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed. Flawed people. That's who you see in front of you, too. So five times this letter comes up, this word reconciliation comes up, and we're going to study these three things. What it is, why it matters, and how to be reconciled. So first of all, what it is. And if you know me, we're going to go to the Greek word, because often it's amazing that in God's providence that the New Testament was mainly written in Greek, because the Greek language is just very technical, profound. When I studied Greek in college, it felt like I was studying calculus. Some of you like ...