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lence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."
We need to remember what we forget and we need to forget what we keep remembering (angers, resentments, grudges).  God forgets our sin so we can be forgiven. We need to do the same.  Unlike a bank account in your mind "account" the more you withdraw from it, the more you increase.  Let go and let God.  It is our decision to make whether to forget and not dwell on it.  ******When you do this, you become more like Christ.  And we are to grow into the mind of Christ!

It's easy to dwell on wrong things - to feel self-righteous in respect to other persons.  Forget it.  Withdraw it.  To bring back a present influence from a past act - what if Christ did that?  But he doesn't.  And neither will we if we want to grow into Christ.

What we have to deal with a person who won't forget/withdraw the remembrance from their mind, but holds on to the past and their resentments? 
Don't do it! 
1. Don't sit and complain.  1 Corinthians 10:10 "And do not complain as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer."  The Devil will keep you sitting and complaining!  It is the opening of the floodgates of hell!  Jesus leaves us an example.  Peter said that Jesus kept on persevering even in the worst times to give us an example to follow in his footsteps.  Like a child learning writing on the first grade sheets where the words are already in dotted fashion superimposed on the paper and the child traces it. Over and over again…Jesus gave us his life for us to trace it with our life over and over again.  Grumbling destroys the culture of relationship.
2.  Don't develop an Absalom spirit.  Absalom encouraged the people of his father's kingdom (King David) to share their complaints with him about his father.  Then he would tell them that he would fix things for them.  Bring me your complaints and I/we will organize all our complaints together so we can get what we want from the King.  Don't fight the leader for it will destroy the culture of relationship.  It will not only affect your church to decline, but it will infect other parts of your life to…work, friendships and your marriage.
3.  Rebellion  A reformer rejoices when change takes place.  Congratulates and applauds.  Rebellion, Samuel says, is as the sin of witchcraft.  The rebel sees the need for change, but is never satisfied when change happens.  Nothing pleases them.  They will share a complaint about your behavior with them.  You will seek to try to meet their comment, but then there is something else that they will find wrong and tell you you need to change also.
A. Learn to appeal to those in authority.  Get a good "lay of the land."  Get the facts of what really happened before you do anything.  Stay committed to do God's best in your life.  Present your comments in a way that does not condemn the other person.  Be willing to be part of the resolution instead of harping on your complaints.
B. As a leader, don't allow people to come to you and dump their problem in your lap or to leave the room "scot-free."  Help them to learn how to resolve the problem they brought into the room.  Don't accept people dumping their problem on you.  Help them to gain wisdom to deal with it themselves.  When they leave you can say in some fashion "Don't forget to take this back with you."
C.  As a leader, you don't have to fix everything.  On the reefs when you canoe you have to be careful with the tide is low.  You may run your canoe into an unseen reef just below the surface.  But when the tide is high, you have a lot of room to go over it.  For some persistent problems and people, raise the "tide" of the culture over it.  The tide of your spirit, culture, trust, potential, encouragement can get higher for those things you can't fix or reach.  Two different reactions to the same problem:  person 1 "It's the end of the world!"  person 2 " We can deal with it."  Raise the tide of your spirit!
D.  Be careful about "shouldering" offenses.  Don't encourage other people's resentment.  Don't fan the flames of other people's complaints and then take it on as your resentment towards the person they are complaining about.  Don't use other people's bitterness as your own.  When you do that you cut off grace from God because it isn't your issue.  The person whose issue it is can go to God and seek forgiveness and then go to the person to reconcile.  But if you shoulder their resentment, you can't do that because it isn't yours in the first place.
E. The ultimate restoration may not happen between two people in conflict, but I still pray for the other person's restoration with Jesus.  Maybe you and I won't reconcile horizontally, but pray for the other person's restoration vertically with God.  No bloodletting if you separate.  "Bear one another's burdens."  I can't fix or save, but still bear it to your cross that you have taken up to follow Christ  Then leave it there!  It's often easier to preach the cross to others than to bear it ourselves.  There will be times of crying and sorrow.  Take it to the cross!  Remember it no more.  Withdraw it from your memory.  Now you have the potential of a future that you can begin to look to.

1^st Talk


In Numbers early in the Exodus, Moses sent 12 to spy out the land.  Only Joshua and Caleb said it was possible.  10 gave an "evil" report.  Moses went with the "majority".  Joshua and Caleb had a "different spirit".  10 said they can't do it.  God said they would die outside the promised land as was their assessment of the possibility of not being able to enter the promised land because the "enemy" appeared to be so great.

We need to develop a different spirit.  "It can be done" is the starting point.  Not just reach the land, but inhabit it. 

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