Levi Lusko - Fresh Life Church
Word for the week : EGO
Face your failures and learn from your mistakes.
The biggest hurdle in apologies : pride!
The presence of pride will poison your apology.
Humility is the best friend to the apology.
We're looking at a parable.
Backstory:
Jesus & the disciples are there.
There were people that trusted in themselves that thought they were righteous.
They thought people who weren't as 'holy' as they were didn't matter at all.
God wanted to convict who he was talking to about their own pride.
In a roundabout way Jesus liked to take your sin and put it on someone else so you could see what it looks like.
Looking at two men : a Pharisee and Tax Collector
The Tax Collector : "O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner."
God calls us to love God & love others.
Why was one man's apology good & the other's not?
1. Half-apologies only make things worse.
"If you're going to bow, bow low." Chinese proverb
If it's worth doing at all, it's worth doing with all your heart!
If you're going to apologize, apologize fully.
Proverbs 30:12 "They are pure in their own eyes, but they are filthy and unwashed."
2. Pride is poison.
The only way to be fixed, is to be broken.
Mercy is where God gives you what you don't deserve.
I wish You would make a way where there is no way.
Psalm 51
He who humbles himself will be exalted.
Humility is the lifeblood of the apology.
You can't bow low if you're stuck up.
3. Body language matters.
65% of communication is body language
Prepare your body language.
For the pharisee his body language revealed he thought he deserved greatness and thought he was righteous.
4. Don't make your apology all about you.
The apologies heart beats for the offended.
Sympathy can become an enemy of your apology.
The point is for the offender to be clear whose pain matters.
Little things make big differences.
5. Focusing on yourself leads to despair.
A man full of pride & it lead to nothing good.
The man who focused on God went home forgiven.
An apology without an apology can't be accepted.
The difference between Judas and Peter's apologies :
Judas was sorry - he tried to give the money back. But then he was so full of pride and despair that he hung himself.
Peter was sorry - he wept bitterly. Then in John 21 : Peter was out fishing. "Cast your nets on the right side of the boat." John says to Peter, "That's Jesus." So Peter puts on his coat (doesn't even make sense, but that's okay his focus was Jesus), jumps out of the boat and swims to shore (the boat beat him there - but that's okay, because his focus was Jesus and only Jesus).
Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
Lean into Jesus' forgiveness and thank Him for it.
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