You don’t need to live for very long before you begin to face conflict. Even young children begin to face conflict at home, school, or with their friends. But as we get older our conflicts tend to get more complex and complicated. Conflict can lead to damaged friendships, broken marriages, and tense working environments. But just because we face conflict doesn’t mean we have to deal with conflict in average ways. In today’s message Pastor Sean unpacks the issue of conflict in our lives and helps us to see what the Bible says about handling conflict in above average ways.

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MESSAGE NOTES

Four Causes of Conflict

1. Poor Communication

Psalm 141:3 Take control of what I say, O Lordand guard my lips.

2. Unfulfilled Expectations

James 4:1-2 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.

3. Despising Differences

4. Sin Nature

Matthew 7:5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

Two Average Responses To Conflict

1. My Way

  • Using our position or influence to get our way.
  • Not considering the concerns or points of view of others.

2. Your Way

  • Motivated by fear of losing the other person
  • Short term patch for a long term problem.

Four Not Your Average responses To Conflict

1. I will act, not react

2. I will focus on the good in you

3. I will share God’s grace with you

4. I will remember God’s grace to me