Discipleship in Reconciliation
Sunday, May 8, 2022 – RECAP/Study Points with Pastor Dewayne & Min. Lisa Freeman
Pastor Dewayne: “When you enter this building, you have entered the Empowerment Zone. (Eccl. 5:1) This is where we enter to Learn. Those who will give their ear to learning always earn more than those who don’t.”
Min. Lisa: “Dr. DeeDee shared with us last week that we needed to bring our bibles because we cannot rely on technology.”
Pastor Dewayne: “Pastor Mike has been telling us that he is teaching to make teachers. In order for us to become teachers, we have to commit to becoming the lessons that are being taught. One way you can do this is to commit to memorizing and mutter the message to yourself. When you commit to memorizing the lessons, it paints a picture on the canvas of your imagination that will help you to live in the lessons and become them.”
Min. Lisa: “The Power to define is the power to fulfill; if you cannot define a thing, it will be impossible for you to fulfill it. You must know that it is very important that you understand what reconciliation or reconcile means.
Reconciliation or Reconcile- To change from an enemy to a friend, to be without God, to Being one with God; It involves a change in the relationship and or fellowship; it’s the bringing together of two or more people into unity, harmony, or relationship by agreeing to remove the thig that cause disharmony.”
Pastor Dewayne: “Reconciliation involves to or more people if you are going to fulfill it. You cannot reconcile with just one person; there have to be two or more people.
Please scan to view this week’s service again!
Pastor Mike taught us last week that there were three levels of “Reconciliation”
- God to Sinner Man (Romans 5:9-11)
- God’s Man to Sinner Man (2 Corinthians 5: 17-20)
- God’s Man to God’s Man (Matthew 5:23-24)
I was taught that you comprehend more when you write it down yourself. I don’t depend on Pastor Mike’s notes because I am taking my own notes as he is teaching. When I get his notes, I merge them with my notes, and Holy Spirit has an opportunity to reveal more to me. One of the first laws in communicating to others is to know your audience.
Case and point. When we see the three levels of Reconciliation we notice that they can be placed under two categories, which will help us when we are communicating or trying to get someone to be reconciled.”
The two categories are Relationship and Fellowship. Relationship: Adams sin
- God to Sinner Man (Romans 5:9-11)
- God’s Man to Sinner Man (2 Corinthians 5: 17-20)
Fellowship: Sins that we commit against each
- God’s Man to God’s Man (Matthew 5:23-24)
Min. Lisa: “If you don’t understand the difference between the categories of relationship and fellowship you will put them together, and you will miscommunicate. For example, you could be speaking with someone who needs to be born again but you’re telling them that they need to stop drinking, stop smoking, stop doing this and stop doing that, and all you should be communicating to them is how much God loves them and gave His Son for them and its important for them to accept Jesus.”
It’s important to understand that the sin that separates relationships is different than the sin that separates fellowship. The sin that separates relationships is the sin that Adam committed, but the sin that separates relationships are sins that we commit against each other.
My sister may do something to me, and we stop talking for years; however, our relationship is not broken the fellowship is broken not the relationship. No matter what she does, she will never stop being my sister; although we may not have fellowship, she will still be my sister.
Pastor Dewayne: “The difference between relationship and fellowship is that relationships are a matter of birth or adoption, and fellowship is a matter of choice.
You can have a marriage that is on the decline, and it’s not because they don’t love or care about each other it’s because they forgot about the element of fellowship, which is what causes relationships to flourish, when you remove fellowship it causes relationships to diminish.
The sin that caused the relationship of man to be separated from God was the sin that Adam committed. The sin that causes fellowship to be broken is the sin that we commit against each other. Therefore, in order to fix either of them, I need to make sure I know which one I am dealing with so that I may communicate the right message.”
Scripture references to help restore broken “Relationships”: (God to Sinner Man;
God’s Man to Sinner Man)
- John 1: 12
- Romans 10: 9-10
- 2 Corinthian 5:17
- John 16:8 (NKJV)
Scripture references to help restore “Fellowship”: (God’s Man to God’s Man)
- 1 John 1:6 (NKJV)
- 1 John 1:9 (NKJV)
- Matthew 18:15-16 (NKJV)
- James 5:16 (NKJV)
Pastor Dewayne: The word confession in James 5:16 means to acknowledge your part in a situation and do something about it. My niece Brittany was on this show, and they were discussing Confessing Your Faults. She shared that she would not be looking for forgiveness from the person that she may have wronged, and the reason is that that’s their part.
She shares that she was admitting the wrong that she had done and that she would take full responsibility and acknowledge the pain that she may have caused someone. This is a valuable statement because some people, when they apologize, are so busy being concerned about the other person’s part that they forget about being responsible for their part.
Again, broken fellowship does not mean a broken relationship. An example of this is the prodigal son (Luke 15:23-24). Although he had broken fellowship with his Dad, when he returned home, his Dad said, bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this, my son was dead and is alive again—notice he never stopped calling him son. The relationship was in tack, although the fellowship had been broken.
God needs our help in reconciling the world because He cannot do this by Himself (Acts 11:13=14). Angels and spirits have not been given the ministry of reconciliation; we have.
Reminder:
- You have been called to the ministry of reconciliation
- Study and meditate on the lessons so that you can become the lessons
- Pastor is teaching us to become teachers