Today at The Gathering I gave the 6th installment of my current series, “31 Words That Will Save Your Life,” with the message entitled “What to Say After Stupid”.
I opened by illustrating the point of how we’re all capable of doing such great things, and then turning right around and doing such stupid things. I described a map that we all use sometimes to take a trip to Stupidville, and the nine steps that get us to a place of isolation and side-choosing, rather than forgiveness and reconciliation.
We talked about why it’s so hard to say, “I’m sorry.” I gave three practical reasons; one being that we forget what we owe by fixating on what we’re owed. As a follower of Jesus I have to understand that I am constantly living on the good graces of God. Everything I have I’ve been given. I am a debtor, a debtor to love, and I live to pay this loving debt.
We also talked about how the greatest commandment is to loving God, and the second greatest commandment is loving the people God loves. The greatest sin would be not loving God by not loving the people he loves. So love is not only a debt, it’s a command.
I also talked about how to say you’re sorry and make it stick, beyond just something we say and really don’t back up with our actions. I used the word SORRY as an acrostic and memory tool:
“S” is seek to understand.
“O” is offer honest confession.
“R” is re-state my love in concrete terms.
“R” is resist quick-fix language.
“Y” is yield your rights.
To understand more, you can subscribe to my podcast, or go to thegatheringnashville.com web site.
Next week we’ll continue this series “31 Words,” with the 6th sound, the sound of Loyalty.
2 Comments
What wonderful teaching today. I needed the reminders about anger, loving people. . . . I was especially glad you mentioned how we are so divided on “everything”! It continually disturbs me that Christians seem to be so angry at each other over their differences of opinion politcally. Everybody needs to “lighten up”, and love their brothers & sisters (Democrat or Republican). We weren’t necessarily meant to agree on everything all the time.
Thank you for your words of enlightenment Sunday August 12. My husband felt like you were speaking directly to us. We have been having some marital problems centering around his friendship with another woman. When I found out about his relationship with this woman, he felt I was over reacting. We have talked about it, but I don’t think he realized how much he had hurt me until Sunday. You helped him “see the light”. I am so happy we found you again. We were members at BCC. Thank you again. We will definitely be back.
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