Going Deeper One Love (Week #3) Navigating Conflicts Pastor John May 25, 2025
May 28, 2025

One Love (Week #3) Navigating Conflicts
Pastor John ~ May 25, 2025

*Open with prayer.

Unity takes work. Eph. 2:4-6 (Review May 11 Going Deeper.) Check the dictionary definition of unity.

2. The devil wants to divide. Matt. 7:15-20, Matt. 12:25, Luke 12:51-53, Rom. 16:17-18, Eph. 6:10-18, James 4:1-2, I Thes. 2:1-4, I Peter 5:8 Religious conflict often comes from a personal inner battle to satisfy self-need, being right, making a point, and the desire to get one’s way. While being blind to the fact that God loves those on the other side of the
conflict as well, possibly to the point of dehumanizing them.

  1. Conflict is a part of relationships. Rom. 12:18
    A. Describe the conflict in the Church related in Acts 4.

    B. List some ways God can use conflict to strengthen our bonds of unity, oneness, and love. (See May 25 sermon notes.).

    C. Gossip is stolen goods. Prov. 10:18, Prov. 11:13, Prov. 15:1, Prov. 16:28, Prov. 18:8, Prov. 26:20-22, Ex. 23:1, Lev. 19:16, II Cor. 12:20, Eph. 4:15, Eph. 4:29-31, I Tim. 5:13-14, James 1:26

  2. Managing conflict well is key to remaining unified. Prov. 15:18, Prov. 19:11,
    Prov. 20:3, Eccl. 7:9, Rom. 12:2, Eph. 4:26-27

  3. Matthew 18, method to resolve conflict…

    A. Go to the person with whom you have a conflict. (Rather than complaining or gossiping to others about the conflict which often makes things worse) Matt. 18;15-17, Prov. 16:28 - Do more listening than talking. I remember being told that’s why God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth. Prov. 17:14, Prov. 18:13, Eph. 4:32, Col. 3:13-14, James 1:19-20

    B. Invite a moderator. Matt. 5:9 & Matt. 18:16 Can you describe a time that you used a moderator, or saw someone else use a moderator, to solve a conflict?

    C. Take it to the church. Matt. 18:17, James 5:16 Have you ever seen someone take a conflict to the church? If so, are you willing to share?

    D. It may be time to find another church. (For instance, if conflict cannot be resolved or if unity within the church is being disrupted.). Can you think of any other reasons?

  4. Read these secular quotations and compare them to scriptural insights.

    A. “The quality of our lives depends not on whether we have conflicts, but on how we respond to them.” Thomas Crum

    B. “Cooperation its not the absence of conflict, but the means of managing it.” Deborah Tanner

    C. “ In case of dissension, never dare to judge till you’ve heard the other side.” Euripides

    D. “Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” Benjamin Franklin

    E. “For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate.” Margaret Heffernan