Ep 026 || God Makes Things Right

Well, what's up, Pando family? We are excited to be back with you this week. If you watched last week's episode, it was Brandon and Steven, and we tried to hold down the fort. I think we did. Okay. I think you guys probably did a great job. I know there was adequate. Yeah. There were a bunch of you all that watched last week and enjoyed that, and so Brandon, I'm sure it was a fantastic conversation. But if this is your very first week with us, welcome. We're glad you're here. We are part of our online team here at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville. If you found us from watching our weekly service, we are glad that you came to this podcast, this episode, because we're going to be discussing what you heard and what we've learned from that sermon the past week. My name is Derek. This is Brandon. We're on our online team, and we're grateful, again, that you decided to join us. And Brandon, we are in... Is it week three this week of journey? That sounds right. Yeah, week three, I think. Week three. We are walking through Genesis, the book of Genesis. It's the very first book of our Bibles. So we're going to be doing this kind of chapter by chapter as a church for the next, what? What is it? Like 13 to 15 weeks?

Yeah. Let's see. We had that first series. Yeah. So we still got about... Yeah. Because they said 20 weeks when we started, right? Yes. So we... Yeah. Somewhere in the first quarter of that. I took Bible college math. I don't... I can't help you there. Well, regardless of where we're at, I'm grateful that we're going to get to continue to go through this as a church, because I know that, gosh, so many times in my life where I read Scripture, things can be confusing as we read it, right? And it's like, man, what does this mean? How am I supposed to apply this to my life? And so for you that are watching right now, if you're in that same boat, then you're in the right place, because we're going to continue to have sermons that are going to be discussing Genesis over the next couple of months, Brandon. But today we're moving from... What were those chapters? Was it chapter 12, where this guy named Abram was called by God to go to a land that he would show him and took a lot of faith, a lot of courage, a lot of trust in the God that was calling him. And today we're going to discuss the next part of Abram's story. Yeah. Yeah, so last week we were in 12, where Abraham gets this...

We'll just call him Abraham, because it makes it simpler. Same guy. Same guy. He gets renamed in chapter 17, so we'll just... We'll pretend, we'll retroactive all that. But Genesis 12 begins this call in Abraham's life, because what we've seen is the story the Bible began with paradise in Genesis chapter 3 in the fall, and everything kind of goes sideways. But God gives this promise in Genesis 3.15, that one day this descendant of the woman is going to come and crush the head of the serpent. And so now we see, as we kind of talked about last week in Genesis 12, God is honing in on that plan. Like this is going to be the family from which God is going to bring that deliverer, and it's the family of Abraham, which is an interesting development, because at this point in time Abraham is an old man, and they don't have kids. They don't have a family yet. Right. What was he, 75? I believe so, yeah, yeah. So there's this idea that God is calling this person who has no family to be the family that is going to make the deliverer appear here on the scene. So in Genesis chapter 12, he gets this call to leave his homeland and go to Canaan, to the promised land. He has a little detour on the way there, but they end up making it to the promised land. And then in Genesis chapter 13, we see that as Abraham has settled there with his wife Sarai, with his nephew Lot, who he kind of took in after Abraham's brother died, he took his nephew into his house, they are in the promised land and everything is going well. Like the promises that God has given Abraham to bless them, to take care of them, they're coming to fruition. And you see that they are accumulating, well, they're accumulating wealth, basically, because

their flocks are growing, they're having more servants and more influence. So it's a time of tremendous blessing in Abraham's life, although interestingly, he still hasn't been blessed with the child that God says that he and his wife are going to have. So at any rate, the blessings increase and increase, and it finally comes to the point where both Lot and Abraham have too much stuff, right? There are too many herdsmen, and the Abraham's staff and Lot's staff start to argue with one another and they start having disagreements. And so Abraham sees, like, hey, we can't do this, like, let's not have this grow into a disagreement. Eventually it's going to get out of hand. Uh, we're, we're family. Like let's, let's just kind of go our separate ways. Not in a bad way, but let's, you know, I'll, you pick which direction you want to go and I'll go the opposite direction. We can both, uh, you know, use the resources of the land there. And that way we're not going to have this argument. It's not going to be a big disagreement between the two of us. So, uh, Abraham and Lot are kind of standing out, uh, basically in this field. We get this image of they're, they're looking out across the land and Abraham says, all right, listen, if you take the land to the left, I'll take the land to the right. If you want the land to the right, I'll take the land to the left. You just, you tell me what you want and I'll go from there. And as Kyle pointed out, that's, that's a great act of humility on Abraham's part, because he is, he's literally the patriarch of the family, right? He is, he is the older person. He, he under middle Eastern culture should have first, right. He'd write a first refusal or whatever, he should get to choose. He should have been the one that got to pick. Yes.

Yeah. And, and instead he, he defers to Lot and says, okay, you make the choice and I'll go the other way. And we're told in verse 10 that Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley in the direction of Zohar. The whole area was well-watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord or the beautiful land of Egypt. So it's a really great land. It looks great. And so Lot looks at that and thinks, yeah, that's what I want. Like this is, this is the land I want. I'm going to take the one that looks well-watered. That looks great. That looks prosperous. I'm going to go this way and I'll leave Abraham with whatever's left. And, and there's an interesting side note though, there in verse 10, uh, that will probably pay off a little bit later in one of the sermons, uh, but there's a little parenthetical note in the NLT that says this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Uh, okay. So what the text is already setting us up for is, you know, Sodom and Gomorrah are these famously, uh, wicked cities that God will ultimately destroy that Lot will have to flee for his life, uh, a little bit later on, but, but it's interesting and we can kind of pause here for a minute, I think, cause it's worth, it's worth thinking about. Uh, we're already set up with this idea that the land that looks so good is going to be trouble. And isn't that something that the writer of Genesis has already been like putting on our hearts, right? In Genesis chapter three, Eve looks at the forbidden fruit.

We think for an apple or whatever. She looks at the forbidden fruit and it looks good. It looks delicious. Pleasing to the eye. Pleasing to the eye. And we are already being set up throughout Genesis to understand like, Hey, the things we think look good. They're not always good. Right. Yeah. And I mean, I was even just in my own personal Bible study today, reading in, uh, the book of Isaiah in the old Testament and God was sharing that like, Hey, like my ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. And that's so true because we, a lot of times are guilty as humans of seeing things there's like, Oh, like, man, like that thing, that's going to be good. Right. And then when we get there and we're lots going to eventually find out, it's like, Oh wow, this is a bet. What did Kyle say? This is a bad neighborhood. This is not, this is not where you want to be. Um, but nonetheless, um, it's fascinating to think because a lot of sin is like that, where we think that this thing or that relationship or money or sex or pride or whatever it's going to be, or even maybe it's even, you know, um, for me, I think just for a lot of our folks, maybe for you right now watching this, that you're like, you know, like if I, if my like parole, like just went through, right. Or if that verdict was overturned or once I get out, like then things are going to change.

And I think, well, that may seem true on the surface that there's a lot of things that God wants to do right now, right? There's things that God wants to do. And that's why we have to rely on him and ask him, okay, what do you want my next step to be? And I think when we look at Abram or Abraham, he was willing to say, okay, God, I will go wherever you want me to go. Like I'll go wherever you want me to go. Not necessarily where my heart wants me to go. Um, and so today, uh, one of the things we're discussing is this concept of conflict that all of us have, right? It doesn't matter if you're incarcerated or not, like you have conflict in your life. And I was talking with my men's group earlier this week about this sermon, and I think every single person in there to a man was like, yep, every single one of these examples that Kyle listed that, hey, how do you struggle with conflict? I think every single one of us were like, yep, that's exactly how I struggle with it. Um, or that I see in my own life. And, but Brandon, when we look at scripture, it's interesting to me that like, again, like you mentioned that Abraham. Abraham's the uncle, and Lot's the nephew, and even today, like, golly, like, you know, my nephews aren't old enough to really even care about a thing like that, but I could imagine even looking at that for my uncles, I would never, right, be in a place to be like, hey, like, yeah, I'm gonna make the decision and then you get to go second. But there was something so unique about Abram, right, that he did not want to have this conflict, right? And even though that there probably was quarreling among them, I think we see that, the way he handled it was so good. But I'm curious, Brandon, for you, when we look at, I'm gonna dive in and get personal

here. Hopefully it doesn't lead to conflict. That'd be a great object lesson. Let's go for it. On the podcast. But there were a couple of things that Kyle talked about. The first one was this idea of choosing unity over winning, right? Choosing unity over winning. So for you growing up all the way until, you know, your age now, like, what has conflict looked like in your life? Has it been positive, negative, neutral? What's that been like for you? You know, I would say it's more generally been negative, just in the sense that, like, I don't like it. Yeah. And I don't want to deal with it. Kyle talked a lot about avoidance, and that is certainly, that's probably how I would operate most of the time when it comes to conflict. It's like, I just, I don't want to think about it. I don't want to deal with it. And you know, I'm just sit here and ignore it and hope, you know, nothing ever comes to it. It just goes away. It'll resolve itself on its own. But then I'll also say, like, if I get drug into a conflict, like, I am definitely going to choose winning. Right. Over unity. Oh, no doubt. I am, my wife and I comment all the time that we are two extremely competitive people and

our kids aren't competitive at all. It's the weirdest thing. It's like, we can't motivate them to be like, you guys need to be angry about this at any rate. You know, if I'm in conflict and I find myself in it, then it's absolutely like, no, like, I'm going to win. I want to win the argument. I want to be right about this. Even if I have realized I was wrong five minutes ago, I want to win. And so, like, I think it's kind of an interesting dichotomy, I guess, in my heart or in the way that I deal with it. Because, like, I don't want to get there, but if I get there, if you're going to make me do it, then I'm going to make it worth it. You know? Right. Oh, for sure. And that's probably not healthy. So. Well, you know, I'm grateful you shared that, because when I was talking to the guys in my men's group this week, that was a lot of the thing that they had shared, too, of like, golly, like, you know, with all the different things that we worry about or think about or things you have to do or all the other pressures, we either, again, either in prison, out of prison, whatever that looks like in our lives. Like, a lot of times, or pretty much every time, conflict comes when you really don't want it. Right. You know? Yeah. Like, there's never been a time in my life where it's like, man, I, like, this conflict, this conversation came at a perfect time.

Right. Like, it is always, always, it seems like it's at the time where I, like, I think I'm at the end of my day, I think I've just dealt with that thing, I'm just focused on what I'm doing, and this other group or this other person comes in and messes with what I'm doing or makes me frustrated or whatever it is, and then you have a choice of, like, how are you going to deal with it, right? Because I remember for me growing up, it's the same thing, like, I have, I'm very lucky to have really good relationships with my parents, for sure, but one of the things that I learned growing up is that, kind of like what you said, like, when you enter into conflict, like there is going to be a clear winner and a clear loser, and you better be the clear winner. Right. And like, not necessarily being taught that verbally, but seeing that and being like, oh, okay, gotcha. Right. And this is one of those topics that reminds me that as we follow Christ, this is one of those ways that we have to be different than the world. Yes. Right? We have to be different than the world, and even for us sitting here right now, I'm sure that as we're thinking about these things, it's like, golly, I remember that conversation and handled that well, didn't handle these five well, and probably could have done a better job with all of those. But it's trying to figure out, like, okay, like, there are some times following Jesus, it's like, okay, we're going to do the right thing, this may seem easy, but this one's hard. Right. Very hard. You know, so one of the questions I would have, Brandon, as I just think about this on my own is, why do you think handling conflict well is important to the Lord?

Oh, wow. That's... I don't know if there's one correct answer, but... Yeah. I'll answer that in a roundabout way, because I have an idea based on something else you said, but I think it's gonna apply to this. I think one of the reasons, I think why resolving it well would be valuable to our Lord is because there are problems that need to be solved, right? Yeah, that's true. There are issues we need to deal with, there are obstacles that we face in any relationship that we are eventually gonna have to overcome, that we're gonna have to grow through, I actually think conflict is how you grow in relationship. I mean, you think about it, most of your closest relationships are the people you have been in conflict with the most. So I think it's valuable to the Lord because he wants us to solve problems and not attack people, right? And I think to me, that's been the hardest lesson to learn, but the most valuable lesson to learn when it comes to conflict is that when I get into a conflict, I'm not attacking a person, I'm supposed to be attacking a problem. And so often what happens is we get ourselves into conflict and we start attacking the wrong thing, that we start going after the individual

rather than saying, hey, this is a common problem we need to solve. The reason why we're in conflict is because we have different ideas of how to solve it and we just need to come to some sort of consensus or some kind of idea about how we're going to deal with it. And I think the easiest picture for this is in marriage because when you're fighting with your spouse or whatever, you're not so much fighting them, you're not like, oh, I'm out to get them about this. It's there's something that you fundamentally disagree about that is affecting your household. We have to deal with this problem. And I think that goes a long way in helping us maintain a good and godly posture in conflict is recognizing like, hey, we both see this as a problem. We both see this as an issue. We are just at different places in how we solve it. So we need to sort that out. And I think that goes a tremendous way. I mean, think about how much of the dialogue in our country would be different if we recognize that. Because the thing is, like we all recognize the things that are problems. We're just yelling at each other because we disagree with how to solve those problems. And what you do then is the problem just continues to grow while you're yelling insults at the person across from you. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah, well, that's a good word, Brandon,

because yeah, like there are a lot of times where in conflict, like the unhealthy way to deal with something is to personally attack the other person. Like that will, I have never been in a conflict or even like witnessed a conversation happen where the person has personally attacked the other person verbally or physically, and it's worked out, right? Because- That's how my kids argue. You're an idiot. It's like, it's not gonna solve anything. But for adults, a lot of times we act that way. And I think it's just that sinful nature in each of us that like, oh, like it can be so frustrating that we want to get this thing solved or this problem figured out. And the thing we kind of revert to is attacking the other person. And the hard thing about this specifically is again, it's never gonna go away. We're always going to have situations in our life where conflict is necessary, right? And I would even say that conflict generally is healthy because like you said, like there are just going to be moments in our life where we need to have the conversation to be able to get to the other side of that thing. Yes, yeah. And a lot of times,

whether it's through some of Kyle's examples like avoidance or passive aggression or sowing discord with others, a lot of times we choose, and I put myself in that category too. I choose to do one of those three things if not all those three things because I don't want to take the risk of having that conversation, right? And the sad thing is is that, my goodness, all it may have taken was me sitting across from somebody and saying, hey, when this happened, it made me feel like this. And I'm not gonna assume what their intention was because I don't know what their intention was, but when I'm angry, I assume that their intention was bad, right? And to be able just to sit down and have a conversation, and I just, I sit back and look over at the course of my life, and it's like, man, how many times have I done either, have I gone through either avoiding someone or being passive aggressive or sowing discord like, hey, I've been talking bad about them and trying to get other people on my side when it was literally as simple as having a conversation. Right, yeah. No, I mean, let me just tell you, you asked earlier about conflict history and stuff like that. aggressive aggression. I love it. I mean, it's the most fun. It's the most fun thing,

right? Like a second language. You're standing there in front of the mirror brushing your teeth and you're like, Oh, I should have told him that. I just love it. It's just great. No, it's terrible. Yeah, don't do that. Don't do that. But yeah, I know I've lost where we were. But yeah, we we tend to think I guess that when we get in what I think what we're searching for, right is perfect community that we're searching for this idea like, oh, we'll be in a we'll be in a community where everything will always be right. And everybody will always agree on everything and da da da da da da. But ultimately, like conflict is the price of community, right? Because if I only have to face a problem by myself, I'm never going to be in conflict. Yeah, I'm gonna be like, Oh, this is how I think I should do that. But I'm also going to make bad decisions to like, like, I'm gonna, yes, I'm not gonna see what I'm not gonna see what that other person saw and know how to deal with it. Like, if we want to live in community, and we want to be with other people, then we're naturally going to become in conflict with one another. We're naturally going to because we all see things differently. We all have different experiences. We all have have different ways of handling, you know, things. So, you know, I think that, you know, part of living in community, part of the way that God refines us in community is through us learning how to navigate conflicts well. And you think about all of those like New Testament words that are used to describe how the Spirit moves and works in our life, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control, the fruit of the Spirit, you think about things like that. It's like, well, yeah, how do you develop those? You develop those in conflict with other people is like, when when do I need to be patient? I need to be patient when I disagree with someone. When do I need gentleness? Oh, I need I definitely need gentleness when I'm dealing with someone who I disagree with things on. And our problem is that we are not willing to put ourselves in those environments where we can allow those those things to grow, because they they grow and they flourish. And they shine brighter in those moments, I think, when we handle conflict well. That's a great thought. And I hadn't I really had never thought about that in this context with conflict, because it's so true. Like, golly, like, you want to grow in humility? You can. Sit there with someone that is telling you how you have hurt them, or how you have made them feel. Like, you want to grow in gentleness or patience? Sit there while someone

is sharing something that you may not necessarily agree with. And you just can't wait to respond with that, that next thing, the rebuttal you've been saying in your head ever since you were brushing your teeth in the mirror, and praying through and maybe even taking a deep breath before we speak, like Kyle talked about of like, okay, maybe this is not the thing to say next. But where I kind of want to land our conversation, Brandon, is what do we do when we are the one that has clearly made the mistake? Right? Like, what do we do when we are clearly the one that made the mistake? Because maybe this is the pride in me, if I'm being honest, when I initially hear this message, I think about having the confidence and courage to make sure that I go and share with someone else about how they've offended or hurt me. But my first inclination is not to think, hey, who are the people that I have hurt or offended or wronged? And that's difficult, right? Because, y'all, you could be watching this episode right now. And you're like, brother, like, yeah, I can point to several relationships in my life where I was the one that messed it up. Like I made the mistake. Like, it may be the reason why you're watching Panda right now, right? Is because you are incarcerated for something that you've done. And while I would say that, you know, right now, I am not, you know, incarcerated, I'm not in prison, but the way that we are the same is that we all make mistakes. We're all sinful. We all fall short of the glory of God, as Scripture would say. And we all have those moments in our life where we've messed up. And there's really no excuse for it. I know I've been there, Brandon, I'm sure there's times in your life you've been there. And it's hard. Because we don't always know what to do with that, right? We don't always know what to do with that. But it comes around this idea that I wanted to sit on here at the end. And it's something that Kyle said in his sermon. He said, our job is to do the right thing. It's God's job to make things right. That's good. Right? Our job is to do the right thing. It's God's job to make that right. So what, Brandon, what do we do with that? Yeah, you know, when you were talking about what do we do... when we realize we're the ones that have done the wrong thing, I mean, Jesus talked to us very clearly about dealing with that, right? In Matthew 5, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is talking about how we worship God and what we do when we're going

to worship and we realize that we have wronged someone else. In Matthew 5, 23-24 says, so if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the temple, like if you are there, if you are standing in the pew, singing a song, and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, so it's not that they've done something to you, it's that you've done something to them, and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar, go and be reconciled to that person, then come and offer your sacrifice to God. Jesus is talking about this idea that if we recognize that we have been the one in the wrong, then we need to go deal with it, or else it's going to hinder the way we worship, it's going to hinder the way we talk to God. I think it's Peter, in one of his epistles, would later talk about the fact that husbands need to treat their wives well so that they can pray more effectively. Sure. There's this idea that if our relationships are not right, if we have done something to cross up somebody else or get in their path, that we are putting ourselves in a position where we cannot worship effectively, and we need to go deal with that. I think, like you said, that's the hard thing to do, because when we put ourselves in that place, we start to wonder, well, what if... We get the what ifs, right? Like, well, what if they don't accept my apology, or what if the relationship isn't the same, or what if I look like an idiot, or what if my apology falls on deaf ears, or whatever. And like you're saying, our job isn't to control what happens after we make that step. Our job isn't to control how the person responds coming out of that conflict. Our job is to control what we can control, and that's our response, is am I doing what Jesus has called me to do? Am I being who the Spirit is calling me to be? Am I walking in a way that is seeking unity and reconciliation? And what is it Paul says elsewhere in one of his letters? Like, isn't as much as it depends on you live at peace with everyone? Like, it doesn't always depend completely on you. And all we can do in those moments is take those steps we can take and trust that God is going to make the situation right, or that He's going to make that person's heart right. That the same Spirit that's been working in me to take that step can work in their life to move them into the center too. No doubt. And so with this conversation, there's two sides of it, right? It's for us to not

be afraid to go and have the conversation. We've been the one that's hurting, right? We're the one that's been hurt, or we've been the one that's hurt someone else. That we need to have the courage to step into those moments with humility, that either to ask for forgiveness, to own our mistakes, to ask for forgiveness, or it's to step in and out of curiosity, ask questions and be honest with what's happened. And I recognize that for so many of you that may be watching this, that maybe you've never had someone ever model this well for you in your life. Like, I get that. I do. And maybe not fully, but I understand, and I know that that's hard, and this may seem like a foreign concept, Brandon, because it is. It is. It's a holy, biblical concept that is from the heart of God that we want to live and relate to other people, like you said, striving after this perfect community, and a lot of it is based out of how we handle conflict, just because it's gonna happen. And y'all, as you're watching this, our encouragement would be, again, to—let me pull this up so I don't mess this up. How about that? It says, our job is to do the right thing. It's God's job to make things right. And I would hope that that would give you a little bit of a sense of peace in the midst of your life, knowing that, number one, that if you've placed your faith in Jesus Christ, that there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ, that your sins are forgiven. Right? But at the same time, we know that as disciples of Jesus, as his children, that he expects us to enter into conflict in a healthy way. And for a lot of us, it may mean that when we make mistakes, that we do the right thing. thing by going to that person, fully accepting what we've done, owning our mistakes, apologizing, and let God do the rest. And I know for so many of you that may look different depending on the people in your life or the family, friends, acquaintances that you've had that maybe you've wronged. But our encouragement would be pray through, ask God, God how do you want me to make this right? And how can I trust you with the rest? What does that look like? Well, and you know, on the flip side of that too, you know, one of the things Kyle talked about on Sunday was, you know, being sure to keep the door open when you need space. Like, you know, like not now doesn't mean not ever. And I think if you may find yourself sitting in that position where you're the person who

was wronged, and I think the encouragement in that situation would just be to say, like, hey, maybe leave the door open for that person to apologize, to make right, to do the same thing you would hope someone would do for you, is to allow them to take that step to walk through that door if that's what the Spirit is motivating them towards. No doubt, and that's a great pickup right there, Brandon, that it's that reminder that we will always kind of be on one side or the other of that coin throughout the rest of our life. That, I mean, even Jesus here on earth ran into conflict throughout His life, and it's all about how we deal with it. And this is one of those things, as we wrap up, that our encouragement would be that this is not an easy thing. No. It's not an easy thing. So if you find yourself in a place right now where you're like, whew, I don't know if I can do that. Right. You know, I think if we were being completely honest, we'd probably feel a lot of the same way, of like, gosh, like, this is one of those things in order to follow Jesus that is really gonna take thought and intentionality and effort, and probably more than anything, courage. But yeah, that's what we got. That's what we got for today, y'all. But this is one of those things that is never easy, one of those things that we can continue to grow in, and one of those things that I'm grateful that we get to talk about as a church family together. But Brandon, I hope that we get to be back together next week. We might start a fight now. Yeah, I hope. Yeah. But guys, we're grateful for you. We're grateful that you watch us each and every week, and if it's your first time, welcome. We hope you come back, y'all. But have a great rest of your week, and we will see you next time.