Don't run away from the conflict, solve it!

I invite you to go to the book of Acts, in Chapter 6, we are going to continue our study and I want to read verses from 1 to 7 that tell us about the election of those first deacons in the life of the early church. It says here:

“…In those days, as the number of the disciples grew, there was murmuring of the Greeks against the Hebrews because the widows of those, that is, of the Greeks, were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, "It is not fair that we leave the word of God to serve tables, look therefore, brothers, among you 7 men of good testimony full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom to whom we entrust this work. And we will persist in prayer and in the ministry of the word. And the proposal pleased the whole crowd and they chose Esteban, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolás Proxélito de Antioquia, whom they presented before the Apostles, who praying laid their hands on them and the word of the Lord grew and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And also many of the Jewish priests obeyed the faith…”

May the Lord bless his holy word. The rest of this passage deals with Stephen, one of those deacons and his ministry, his arrest and then in Chapter 7 his death. Maybe the next time we're sharing we can deal with that part. But I am going to concentrate on this text about the election of the 7 deacons and what gave rise to this moment.

In Chapter 5 that we discussed last Sunday, we saw the heroic behavior of the Apostles before the Jewish council in Jerusalem. They were arrested for preaching the word of the Lord, brought before the Jewish religious authorities and flogged for their testimony. They behaved heroically. The Apostles give powerful testimony of their faith in Jesus, in Chapter 5, as we see and in fact, we are told that they considered it a privilege to be scourged and suffer for the name of Jesus Christ.

We also see at the end of that Chapter 5, last Sunday, we see the persistence of these men in evangelizing and preaching the Gospel. We are told there that they did not stop teaching and preaching Jesus Christ in the temple and in the houses. By the way, before entering Chapter 6, it is important that we remember that, they preached the Gospel in the temple and in the houses. That, by the way, is a good pattern, a good habit for the children of God. We have to preach Jesus Christ both in the church and in our neighborhoods as well. Amen.

This is part of a pattern of effective evangelism. We are witnesses of the word of God. Wherever we go we have to carry that precious seed. How many know that we have something special? What is the Gospel of Jesus Christ? He says that even angels long to look over what we see as children of God. We live every day as witnesses of Jesus Christ and we cannot repress that seed. There are people who need to hear the Gospel at home, our relatives, our co-workers, our study partners. We have something beautiful and you have no idea how many people are waiting for a Christian to share what Christ has done in their life. Every day we see new people enter God's ways and be blessed because someone brought them, invited them to church, or told them about Jesus Christ.

They testified, they did not stop teaching and preaching Jesus Christ. Now, in Chapter 6 we see a pattern that is repeated at other times in the book of Acts. What's happening here? A blessing created a crisis. The prosperity that results from fidelity to the Lord can often, as we said last Sunday inclusive, can become an obstacle, a stumbling block, and that is why when God blesses us we must always remain very alert to make sure that those blessings do not become an obstacle to continue serving the Lord.

We often have to review and analyze the blessings and always remember that it is not so much the blessing but the one who blesses that matters. Amen. That's why I like that choir, the one we sing, he says, we don't just want a blessing, we want you. We always have to desire God more than blessing. You understand? There are many people who come to church, as Jesus says for the loaves and fishes, so that God blesses me, so that he gives me a job, so that he gives me a girlfriend, or a house with 4 bedrooms. But you know what, brothers? The most important thing is to have Christ in our hearts, to have God through him is the giver of every good gift and every perfect gift.

And we have to be careful because many times God prospers us, blesses us and then we fall in love with the blessings. Or sometimes, how many families have been separated and divided because when God blesses a family, well, work comes, money comes many times and then people fall in love with those things, they stop coming to church, division comes , comes the problem. We always have to keep our gaze fixed.

What happened here in this passage? Well, there was a very big blessing, the church was doing the work of social justice, food was being given to the widows, to the poor, and that blessing of serving the Lord in this way created a problem, generated division. Because? Because in that first century Christian community there were people, there were Jews of different extractions, of different cultural backgrounds, there were Jews who had lived in other countries abroad, in Greece, for example, in countries that were influenced by Greek culture. . They had returned to Jerusalem but their culture and their language was more Greek than Hebrew and they constituted a culture in itself, but there were also Jews who had remained in Israel, they had never left, they spoke Aramaic or Hebrew, and they also constituted a different culture from the of Greek culture. When these people converted the first church, then it was very multi-ethnic, there were people of Jewish extraction, others of Greek extraction, and what happened? It seems that when distributing the food, the Jews, who were like those who had the most influence, gave an extra ladle of rice and beans to the widow they knew of Jewish extraction and the poor Greek widow had to settle for an omelet with nothing salt. further. And so this generated dissatisfaction and a sense of offense.

And you see what happens? That is important for us to understand many times, how doing something that is good can become, if there is not a pattern of care, biblical and doing things in the spirit of the Lord, it can become a problem in a church, in a family. I thought our church is a very diverse church, we have people from different countries, we have Central Americans, from all parts of Central America, we have Caribbean people from different islands, we have South Americans, from the entire South American continent, we have North Americans, Africans, Asians, at the 9 this was full of North Americans from our ministry in English too, we have become a very complex Congregation. And I look at faces here that reflect all the colors of the human rainbow right now. Praise God for that. That must be celebrated and give glory to the Lord. What a bless!

There I see a Dominican sitting next to a Salvadoran, and that is not seen in the world many times. How cute! And a Colombian, but there's a Puerto Rican here too, and there's a Dominican preaching to them, so imagine what it's like. How nice that when we learn to know each other, to love each other.

But, brothers, we have to be careful because that harmony must be worked to maintain it, so that it does not become contaminated. We have to make a very big effort, as a church I try to do that as a pastor so as not to express preference. Brothers, I tell you, my desire as your senior pastor is that our church always maintain that beautiful diversity and be fair to each other. If you think of one that I am using as a preference, let me know because I am going to apologize, my desire is that everyone feels that we are part of the Kingdom of God, one family in Christ Jesus. And you have to help with that, you know?

Always say hello to people who are different from you, invite people from another culture to your home, don't just invite those who laugh like you and tell the same jokes and talk the same as you. No, get out of that comfort zone and invite someone different to enrich your life. Amen. The Lord Jesus Christ says, what good is it to you if you only invite those who are like you and those who can invite you in turn. That is what the wicked do. No, invite someone other than yourself. Reach out to someone who is different from you and always treat others with the same caution and care and consideration.

I ask the Lord, Father, that we always prefer one another and that I always be alert to the blessing of having a brother of a different color, different economic or social background or whatever. And we have to be a church of justice. In our ministries, choosing people not because they are like us or because we like them, but because they are the person God wants in that position. Amen.

So, there was a problem here, it was that there was an injustice and people were preferring one another and of course, the Greeks, the people of Greek extraction felt offended and went to the Apostles to complain to them. And so, the Apostles reacted and tried to establish a solution.

You know what, brothers? Conflict has always been a part of church life. Even in this very special community we see conflict. Conflict is natural and to be expected. You know what? The important thing is not if there is going to be conflict in the marriage, in the family or in the church, because there always will be. No, the key is how we navigate and resolve conflict, how we resolve tension when it inevitably comes into the life of a ministry or a church, or a family. Wherever there are, I would say, two human beings or more, there is going to be conflict. What's more, I would say that where there is only one, sometimes I have a conflict with myself, I fight with myself. Sometimes I don't agree on what I myself believe, imagine then. Sometimes I don't tolerate the things that I do myself.

The conflict is natural. Part of the Adamic fall. Now, you know what? What is important in a family is how the inevitable conflicts between husband and wife, between parents and children, between the pastor and the parishioners, between the members of a Congregation are resolved. I imagine that those who are, for example, in the cells and in the family groups, except for Sandra and Juan, I know that there is never a conflict there, nothing bad ever happens, right? but the truth, brothers, is that there will always be something that ugly a little.

So when you see conflict, don't be scandalized, don't step foot and leave, oh, how bad this cell is, how bad this church is. No, what you have to do is, ok, how are we going to resolve the conflict. And that happens like that in marriage too, even sometimes, the conflict can be a great opportunity for hidden things to come to light and then they can be resolved somehow.

And you know what happens that if you resolve the conflict properly, your relationship is going to be stronger than it was before. So I don't run from conflict. Look, for example, I was telling the brothers this morning, last Thursday the members of the praise group spent an hour and a half talking about how to improve relationships between us, because it is a very diverse ministry and now we have added other directors of praise and we are tightening the operation of the ministry and it is natural, where there are changes tensions sometimes arise. And at the end of the hour and a half, I said to the brothers, you know what? How good it is that we can talk about things freely, treat them, discuss them and leave with the hope that things will be better than ever. What a great blessing today praise! Because? Because when things are discussed, resolved, there is a blessing.

The conflict will pass, what I ask the Lord, Father, help us to be a church that knows how to handle the conflict according to biblical patterns, even in the group of 12 with Jesus right there, in the very midst of them, there was conflict, imagine now that he is in heaven otherwise things will be a little more difficult. Now the important thing is that, that there is an adequate processing of the conflict.

We see here in this passage good patterns and practices for resolving conflict. What are some of those mechanisms that they used? 1. There was good communication. Everyone say communication. The problem was not ignored, it was not swept under the rug, and they said, well, let no one know that there is a conflict between us, so everything continues as if nothing happened. In how many families there are things hidden, they are never spoken, they are never said, everyone sees the things on top as very beautiful, but below there are mice and cockroaches and a lot of things that are happening, an offended wife, an injured husband, some children emotionally bruised, but so that people don't think that this is a bad family, when we leave the house, everything is fine, every little hair in its place, we go to church holding hands and then we fist with the same hand that we grabbed when we were at home, right?

I have preferred, brothers, always honesty and communication. You have to talk about things, you have to process it. I like a song by Mercedes Sosa, that was the poor girl's name, she's already waiting with the Lord, a great South American singer, she said, you have to get everything out like spring, nobody wants something inside to die. I hear songs sometimes too, I'm not afraid, they are good songs. But I like that, you have to get everything outside like spring, nobody wants something to die inside. Because? Because things die when we keep them hidden.

Find someone trustworthy, discreet, mature and talk to her or him and discuss things with your loved ones as well. In church we talk about things, we have to process things. Here we see that the problem was not ignored but discussed, aired. The offended were able to communicate their dissatisfaction and were listened to, above all, they were listened to by the Apostles. They didn't say, get out of here, everything is fine. No, they listened and looked for a solution.

In the churches and the ministries of the church, an atmosphere of openness must be promoted where problems and conflicts can be aired before they become a destructive source of contamination. Do you know what happens? That if you don't process things sooner or later they become hostile elements. I have learned that, that the stresses of life, if you listen to them and pay attention to them, they become your ally, but if you ignore them, they start throwing stones at you from outside and break the window and the roof and everything.

The conflicts of life, the weaknesses of the human being, the differences of marriage and of a church are rare gifts that God places so that when we work on them we can be more like Jesus Christ. If there were no problems and tensions we would never develop the patience, love, kindness, tolerance, respect for diversity that are important parts of the life of a child of God.

So use the difficulties of life, use the problems of life and say, I am going to overcome it in the name of the Lord and when I finish I will be stronger than before the problem began. Don't ignore them, welcome them and say sit here and let's talk and let's figure it out. This is very important, God allows situations in the lives of his children for them to work on and in the name of the Lord I believe that any situation can be resolved, if there is a will to do things as God commands.

So we have to air out problems and conflicts before they become a source of contamination. Now, just as I say one thing I say the other, airing problems has to be governed by a spirit of patience, love, and tolerance as well. We cannot simply since anything happens at once, this is my right, you are suing, criticizing. There are people who specialize in criticizing. They are specialists in seeing problems and demanding their rights.

No, the attitude of a Christian must be one of generosity and tolerance. Now, when there is a situation that deserves to be talked about, approach the person, with love, with meekness and talk things out. Always affirming the person, not hitting his pride, his dignity. You have to do it in the spirit of Jesus Christ.

And there are times when it will even be necessary to wait a little while before expressing the grievance, because who knows, if in that time God does the work. And who knows if it is not the time either and first you have to soften that situation with prayer, and then sure of what you are going to say, and touched and prepared by the Holy Spirit and that person also softened by the spirit, perhaps it will be the moment and God does the work.

So there are many ways to resolve the conflict. I would also say something else, that when conflict comes into our lives, we also have to be generous and often suffer some loss so that the glory of God can be manifested.

For example, Abraham, when there was a conflict with Lot, his nephew, told Lot, look Lot, first choose yours and he took him to a mountain and all the land that belonged to them, Abraham told him, look Lot, choose the better land, the one you want first and if you go that way, I'll go the other way. And what happened? That Lot chose the super best land there was, served himself with the big spoon and Lot said, okay, no problem, you go that way, I'll go the other way, and you know what? God then blessed Abraham and even gave him the very land that Lot had chosen. Because Lot behaved in a selfish way.

So many times we have to be generous and sometimes even suffer wrong for God's blessing to prevail in a home. Sometimes you have to keep quiet a bit, but when you have to talk, when a situation needs resolution, speak up.

And listeners also listen in a spirit of, ok, what is that person saying to me? that he is right The Apostles listened to these people, there was communication, there was a very important process. And so the Apostles took corrective measures. Do you know what they did? They chose trained people to deal with the problem.

Another important element, the solution that they adopted obeyed the values of the church, obeyed the values of the institution over which they presided. That solution that they took to choose men filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom, was in alignment, was in tune with the spiritual priorities of their church in Jerusalem. What's going on? That sometimes we solve a problem but we do not solve it according to the values that we consider important.

For example, a strange, different person comes to church, a person dressed differently comes, or a person who smells of alcohol comes, or a person who has mannerisms that we don't like, or a young drug addict, or they come from moment many children who make noise in the environment, and what happens? The people established in the church, many times, not always, this does not happen here, but they complain and sometimes we even want to remove these elements from the life of the church because we want the church to always maintain a paragon of virtues, all good.

What's happening? When a church, for example, is doing effective evangelism, people come to the church with all kinds of difficult and different pasts, unconventional, unmarried couples come, they are simply living together, people come who have not yet been treated by the Holy Spirit, and if one begins to say, well, we don't want those people, and the pastor gets scared and removes them from the environment. Or yes, the problem was solved, we removed the element of discomfort but the principles of the church were violated. What does a church have to do? Be open to the foreigner.

I want my church to get complicated with people who don't know the Lord and who come here looking for God. Brothers, what good is a predictable church and where nobody has anything messed up. That means that we are not doing evangelism, because if a church is doing evangelism, new people with problems are always coming. And that is the value, for me, if a church is comfortable it is not doing the work of the Gospel. A church has to always have new people coming, may the self-righteous squirm in their chairs, but amen, keep coming the unconverted. We must preserve the values of a church.

Brothers, I say look, a church, excuse me if I go a little off topic, it's not going off topic, a church is a space where people come brought by the Holy Spirit to be treated by God in different ways. And the role of those who lead spiritually is to make sure that space is provided. Those people who come will take some two years, others three years, some a month to get a little into the right attitude for a Christian. If we try to rush them, if we take them out before their time, if we sometimes confront things too sharply, they break and leave us, our networks break.

There are fish that if you pull them too fast the bait breaks and they take the boat and everything with you. A pastor has to be wise and understanding and solve the complexities of congregational ecclesiastical life with wisdom and maintain a very complex ecology so that people's problems are solved and they enter into the similarity of Christ Jesus.

So what happened? When the Apostles hear that there is this problem, they say, you know what? We are going to solve it, but gentlemen, we cannot leave the preaching of the word and the study of the Gospel and prayer, for us to start serving tables to make sure that there is no injustice. What did you do? They chose other people from the Congregation who had the right qualities to serve the tables while they, the main pastors, the Apostles, were concerned with preaching the Gospel and looking after the spiritual interests of the Congregation.

How cute is this brothers! A very important thing, in a church there are so many talents and so many gifts and each one can do something beautiful. I rejoice when I know that there are brothers visiting the jails, visiting the homes, visiting the hospitals, sharing with the brothers when there is a loss. Pastors cannot be doing everything.

Glory to God, sister, thank you for that. At least one person agrees with me. When a church grows, you know what? We all need to become shepherds and givers to one another. I tell the brothers, look, when you go to visit a person in the hospital, go in the name of your church and your pastors, and tell them I am here representing the body of Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately we won't be able to be at all the fifteen-year-olds and all the doll dances, and all the baptisms of the people, we don't give a lot. No, a church must be full of pastors, full of counselors, full of home group directors, anointed by the Holy Spirit doing the work of the Lord and we must accept that the complexity of church life is like that because the pastor does not go to his hospital bed does not mean that the presence of Christ cannot go through a brother who visits him.

And so we have to understand that specialization in a sense. Now, of course, we have to do our part too. But we have to be tolerant, not place undue burdens on the people who watch over the spiritual health of the Congregation. These Apostles said, we are going to solve the problem but we are going to solve it in a correct way and we are going to look for people who can preserve those values that we want and we are going to anoint them and lay hands on them and then let them go forward.

We have to understand what our priorities are and stick to them. Finally, another thing that we see here, the Apostles chose qualified people and established clear requirements to choose them. It is interesting to see what those requirements were. He says that they had to be people filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom. Brother, if you want to work in the things of the Lord, fill yourself with the word of God, fill yourself with knowledge, study, prepare yourself, ask the Lord to prepare your character. I love to see people getting ready.

Just yesterday we had a training for leaders, we spent 3 hours here training our brothers. And I am committed so that when there is a need in the church there are always capable people, people of character and people who have knowledge of the basic principles of the word of God. There are discipleship that are taking place, there are classes of different kinds, take your class, prepare to serve the Lord. This is important so that our church always has many hands like Christ's, many feet like Christ's, many voices that can advise, that can preach the word, that can teach others, that can care for children. Every day the needs in this church grow and every day we are going to need more people giving the Lord of their time, preparing to serve the Lord.

Brother, you are an element, an instrument that God wants to use to extend his grace to someone. I ask the Lord to open in us a great, great awareness that every Christian, every child of God is an evangelist, is a servant, is an intercessor, can be a teacher, can be a psalmist, can be a child caretaker, a youth teacher. God has a calling for your life, God has a purpose for your life. Prepare to serve the Lord.

When your pastors need someone to send to a hospital, to a house that has a marital problem, to a school where young people need to be cared for, have people prepared, full of the Holy Spirit and full of God's wisdom to attend to those things. . God wants a church where everyone is a deacon in a sense.

Do you know where the word deacon comes from? It is from the Greek, deacons means servant or minister. And every Christian is a servant of God. God wants to use you, God wants you to be a problem solver so to speak. Churches have problems because there are many people who are not doing their part, but we are committed to preparing God's people so that they can solve problems, so that they can be there where they are needed.

God willing, brothers, that we can always be a church of harmony, a church where problems are discussed, where problems are aired, that we be families of healthy communication. Make a commitment to God to be a good listener and also to be a person who communicates the truth in the love of Jesus Christ. We are not afraid of problems. We welcome you and resolve them and God will allow through that resolution more blessings to come to our home. Let's be people of dynamism, people of process and let's be a church of transparency, of preferring one another and of treating each other with great, great respect, great care.

Thank the Lord for all that he is doing and may these blessings continue each day coming to our Congregation. So, Father, this afternoon we ask that your spirit, Lord, your spirit of harmony, your spirit of communication, Lord, and problem solving, be a reality in this Congregation, both the families and the ministries of the church, The cells, the family groups, each ministry, Lord, be a place where there is good communication, there is transparency, there are practical and concrete solutions in accordance with the values of the Gospel, Father. Where there is respect for diversity, Lord, and there is justice in the way we treat one another. Thank you for everything you have given us, Lord, through this beautiful service, and we ask that you continue, Lord, manifesting yourself more and more, manifesting yourself more and more, Lord, in our meetings. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen.