When a person is in conflict, they will frequently seek out others to provide counsel and guidance. If someone in conflict comes to you, then you will be getting one side of the story and it is easy to get drawn into the corner of the person you are speaking with.

But, peacemakers are not in one person's corner or the other, but rather in God's corner which is the corner advocating for a healthy resolution of the conflict. So, it is important to be a wise counsel, understand that you are only getting one side of the story, and remain impartial.

The truth of God is immense. If truth were the size of the Sun, God has revealed truth to humanity that is about the size of a pea. I've received some of this truth and I'm still receiving it.

God seems to progressively reveal truth to us, and each nugget of truth that is received is powerful and disrupts our course of life. So, how are we to deliver truth to others, particularly when it seems their life could use it? We are peacemakers, and we deliver truth in peaceful ways to people who are hungry for truth. (Forcing truth down someone's throat, or insisting that they obey, is not peaceful).

Just about everyone is a fan of peace, so long as peace is on their terms. Is it God's will that we only accept people if they are totally agreeing and practicing what we think is correct? No. Just as Jesus welcomes us and is with us despite our failures, peacemakers welcome others as they are, and not as we wish them to be.

If you are serious about spiritual growth, then you will be serious about loving others. Love always means getting closer to others who we'll find are different and sometimes challenging. Conflict will happen. Though strenuous, it needn't be overwhelming or exhausting.

How will you respond? Most of us have a natural tendency to address conflict in a particularly unhelpful way, so it is important to avoid 3 attitudes that ultimately hurt your growth: "I don't have the energy", "I'm right", and "Change now".

Many of us may think that gossip is a small thing, but it isn't thought of that way in Scripture. Gossip is likely the very reason that people of a church want to stay private, or superficial, or seeming as if they have no struggles. This opening message is intended to shine a light on the problem with gossip, not only helping us to understand how the Bible describes it, but also why the Bible implies that it is corrosive to people and relationships.

The parable of the sower describes a farmer distributing seeds on four types of soil: hard, rocky, weedy, and good. Only one of the soils is successful. We could tend to use this parable to judge others and their response to the Gospel, but do you really think Jesus intends this parable to help us feel spiritually superior to others? No. It is a parable intended to help us realize unsuccessful responses to Jesus that we might be mired in. If anyone of us is not producing tremendous fruit for the Kingdom of God, then here is some truth: our soil may be bad and our soil may need to be changed.

Two of the shortest parables about the Kingdom of God describe a man searching and finding a treasure of such value that he sells everything to acquire it. Jesus described the elements of these parables elsewhere in places like Matthew 6:21, Matthew 19:21, and Luke 12:33. Three simple questions arise from these parables: Are you looking for the treasure? Do you really expect to find something of such immense value? Are you making the exchange?

Let's say that you are one of those who are at The Party described in Luke 14:15-24. Now what? There are several parables Jesus told that seem to indicate that the party could last a long time. And, though we might be tempted to fall asleep, or go off and do our own thing, that isn't what God has in mind. As Uncle Ben in Spiderman famously says, "With great power comes great responsibility."

The Party is a parable that describes a banquet or celebration in which the invited guests come up with excuses to not attend. Upset, the host of the celebration tells his servants to go out and bring in anyone they can find. This message includes a modernized depiction of the story. While you are listening, remember that a party is never about the invitation ... it is about who will be there.

Judas is widely thought of as the disciple who was a mistake - he was the one that betrayed Jesus. Did Jesus somehow not know this when he appointed Judas as one of the twelve? Was he selected intentionally to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 11:12-13? Or was it something else?

Scripture has just a few things to say about Judas, but they all seem to suggest that Judas loved money more than Jesus, and that ultimately led to his horror. Such misplaced love is still among us.