Matthew 5:21-26

Speaker 1: Hey, man, thank you for that, Miss Terry. I feel like that is. Kind of a

Speaker 8: theme of things going on right now.

Speaker 1: You may look at your life and say, Look what I've done. Look what I've made myself. Look what I've

Speaker 8: accomplished. But if you're a child of God, then all of us need to be saying, Look what he's done. But he is done and we

Speaker 1: acknowledge our need for him

Speaker 4: for salvation. But then a lot of times we think, All right, Lord, you've done your part

Speaker 1: just back away, and I'll take it from here. But when it comes to living the Christian life, it is impossible

Speaker 8: for us to to just live the sermon on the Mount without him

Speaker 1: operating within us and having his Holy

Speaker 8: Spirit filling

Speaker 1: us and leading us in the path that we should go. Today is a very exciting day, and here in a little bit after the message, we're going to be having a baptism and Adi Flannery is going to get baptized. And so a lot of her family and friends are here with us today, and we're so glad to have you all with us and hope that the service will be a blessing to everyone that is here. I take your Bibles if you have them and turns the book of Matthew Matthew chapter number five

Speaker 8: is where we're going to be this morning. Matthew Chapter five verse number twenty one. And as you

Speaker 1: find your place, if you wouldn't mind, join me in standing in honor of reading God's

Speaker 8: word. Matthew Chapter number five. Verse number twenty one.

Speaker 4: The Bible says you have heard that it was said by them of old time. Thou shalt not

Speaker 8: kill, whosoever

Speaker 4: shall kill shall be in danger

Speaker 8: of the judgment. But I say unto you,

Speaker 4: whosoever is angry with his brother

Speaker 8: without cause, a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Rocca

Speaker 4: shall be in danger of the counsel.

Speaker 8: Whosoever shall say, thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire. Therefore, I'll bring that gift to the altar.

Speaker 1: Their remembrance that thy brother hath fought against me.

Speaker 4: Leave their thy

Speaker 1: gift before

Speaker 8: the altar. Go thy way.

Speaker 4: First, be reconciled to

Speaker 8: thy brother and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with an adversary quickly while

Speaker 1: thou art in the way

Speaker 4: with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver them to the judge and the judge deliver thee to the

Speaker 8: officer will be cast into prison. Verily, I say under the thou shalt

Speaker 4: by no means come out thence

Speaker 8: till thou hast paid the utmost farthing. Let's pray, Lord, I

Speaker 1: ask that you would help us now as we look into your word. I pray that you would give me the words. You would have me to say. You would help the folks that are here to listen

Speaker 8: and apply, to hear to their lives in

Speaker 1: Jesus name that I ask these

Speaker 8: things. Amen. Thank you. May be seated.

Speaker 1: Hesitant, hesitant to ask this, so.

Speaker 8: I'll just say this, though, raise your hand, but just pretend, pretend I asked you how many of you have ever murdered someone? How many hands do you think would go up? Afraid somebody might say, yeah,

Speaker 1: that was me. Especially these junior high boys up here.

Speaker 4: Now, imagine if I asked you this, how many of you have ever been

Speaker 8: angry at someone without a cause? How many more

Speaker 1: hands do you think would

Speaker 8: go up? Probably a lot more.

Speaker 4: What if I asked you this? How many of you have ever spoken ill of someone else in an

Speaker 1: attempt to ruin

Speaker 8: their reputation? Probably a lot of hands would go up.

Speaker 1: Then what if I said this? How many of you have ever made

Speaker 8: fun of someone else before? Probably even more hands would go up? The Jesus

Speaker 1: is dealing with what he called in our previous message

Speaker 8: the least of the commandments. Now what we're going to look

Speaker 4: at would seem to be some of the greatest

Speaker 8: commandments, but we

Speaker 1: already know what the greatest commandment is, don't we?

Speaker 8: What is it? Thou shalt love the Lord that God.

Speaker 4: And the second is like unto it,

Speaker 8: and that's a love thy neighbor as thyself.

Speaker 4: See if you got those things down these lease commandments, they won't be an issue, but Jesus is going to deal with these least commandments because these in particular had been taken by the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders and had been twisted. Well, let's

Speaker 1: not just twisted. How about we say this?

Speaker 4: They had been defanged. Their teeth had been removed. They had watered it down the law. So much so that it could be, you

Speaker 8: know, kept.

Speaker 4: I can keep the law if I water it down enough, I won't be guilty of breaking God's law if I can just make it say something a little bit

Speaker 1: less than what it originally was intended to say.

Speaker 8: Jesus pulls

Speaker 1: out one of these commandments and verse number twenty

Speaker 4: one when he says, you have heard that it was said by them of old time. Thou shalt not kill

Speaker 8: the law in the

Speaker 4: prophets both taught in the Old Testament that you were not supposed to kill. And so the Jews over the years had whittled away

Speaker 1: at God's command regarding killing

Speaker 4: until it applied, only

Speaker 8: to murder. The Jewish

Speaker 4: leaders would have said, Thou shalt not commit

Speaker 8: murder. That's not what the law says.

Speaker 4: Is it the Ten Commandments? What did he say? Thou shalt not

Speaker 8: kill.

Speaker 4: There. There's a lot more going on with that word kill than just murder. But the judgment that the Pharisees held over the heads of would be murderers. It wasn't just watered down, but they had absolutely removed God from the situation. Notice that says whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. The judgment there is referring to a specific group of men man based judges who would pass judgment over a

Speaker 1: murderer and extend the

Speaker 8: punishment to the Jews over the

Speaker 1: years. As I said, making this solely about murder

Speaker 4: had justified other aspects of hatred.

Speaker 8: You can hate, you can malign,

Speaker 4: you can slander. You can speak ill of someone just as long as you didn't murder them, then you wouldn't have to face the judgment. You see, God was intended to be the Avenger of the law. And when a person broke the law, the most dreadful offense was not to their Jewish brothers, but to God. Really, when you broke the law, it wasn't that you were thumbing your nose at human government. It was you were thumbing your nose at God's government.

Speaker 8: And so when you

Speaker 1: put these two things together, a man based accountability system and a lack of depth to the command of thou shalt

Speaker 4: now not kill, then you'll see how the Jews had watered

Speaker 1: down this

Speaker 4: command. The Jews had made the law solely about the actions of life. And they had disregarded the contents of the heart. And so what Jesus is trying to do is he's trying to refocus their attention on what God originally meant for the law to deal with. And that was

Speaker 8: what's going on in here. You see,

Speaker 4: when he said, thou

Speaker 1: shalt not kill. He wasn't just talking about the

Speaker 8: physical body Jesus

Speaker 1: details in the coming verses three degrees of hatred

Speaker 4: that fall short of

Speaker 8: murder, but are equally reprehensible. The first thing

Speaker 1: that we see in verse number twenty two

Speaker 4: is that Jesus says whosoever is

Speaker 1: angry with his

Speaker 8: brother without a cause shall be

Speaker 1: in danger of the

Speaker 8: judgment.

Speaker 4: Angry without a cause, unjustifiable anger. If there is such

Speaker 1: thing as unjustifiable anger that makes me think that there must be such thing

Speaker 8: as what? Justifiable anger.

Speaker 4: Is there a right time to be angry? Is there a right time to be angry with a brother?

Speaker 8: What do you think? I'll tell you this, dad, you go and cheat on your wife. You got a bunch of kids at home.

Speaker 4: You destroy your your family. I'm going to be angry with you.

Speaker 8: Rightfully so. You choose yourself

Speaker 4: over the good of your wife and children.

Speaker 8: Yeah, that's justifiable anger.

Speaker 4: You look at something going on in a country where there is inhumanity, you see these ethnic cleansing, these people that are targeted for atrocities. That makes me angry.

Speaker 8: Injustice, that's justifiable anger.

Speaker 4: There is such a thing as justifiable anger. God gets angry. I mean, God told us to be angry and say not. So it's not that we can't be angry about what's going on. We're not supposed to be these people with our fingers up. Our nose is going. Everything's great. Everything's not great. There's a lot of injustice in the world, isn't there? And it is right for us to be angry over it. Anger is an emotion God has given us. Anger is an emotion that God displays, but what Jesus is saying is.

Speaker 8: Be careful about this unjust anger,

Speaker 4: the same punishment that you would apply to murder is what

Speaker 8: I'm telling you would be applied to unjust anger. You're going to face the judgment. Is the

Speaker 1: unjustified anger

Speaker 8: between you and a brother?

Speaker 4: It may not kill the person,

Speaker 8: but it'll definitely

Speaker 1: kill the relationship with that person.

Speaker 4: Thou shalt not kill.

Speaker 8: Well, I didn't, I didn't

Speaker 1: in their life. No, but you're unjustified. Anger ended that

Speaker 8: relationship. You burned the bridge because you were

Speaker 4: unjustly

Speaker 1: anger angry

Speaker 8: with your brother. The second thing we see is this, he says, whosoever shall say to his brother, Rocca shall be in danger of the council.

Speaker 1: I know Rocca is a very common word in your vocabulary. You don't need me to tell you what it means. I didn't. I know I've heard it before, but I couldn't remember, so I had to look it up to attack someone with the word Raqqa

Speaker 4: is to accuse them of being

Speaker 8: worthless. You are good for nothing. You are. Has anybody ever said that to you? Your mom, boys are good for nothing. Now, using

Speaker 1: the word Rocca, accusing someone of being worthless

Speaker 4: may or may not have been done to their face. But Rocca calling someone worthless is an attempt to destroy or harm someone's reputation. You start to belittle someone's value to their face or to others. And you are trying to erode their

Speaker 1: influence in other

Speaker 4: people's lives. You're trying to take away their standing and their their good name.

Speaker 1: So Iraq may not kill

Speaker 8: the person, but Raqqah kills their reputation.

Speaker 4: You see, we don't have to just go after killing someone's physical body to be guilty of killing. I can kill my relationship with you

Speaker 1: through my unjustified anger.

Speaker 4: I can kill your reputation by spreading rumors

Speaker 1: about you being a

Speaker 8: worthless person. Then thirdly, Jesus says this. This is the whosoever shall say, thou fool. She'll be in danger of hellfire. This one's a. So it's interesting

Speaker 4: when I talk about unjustified anger,

Speaker 8: some of you will say, you know what, that's

Speaker 4: a serious being unjustly angry at someone. Yeah, I mean, that's a big deal. And some of you may even say, you know, Oh, man, spreading lies and gossiping about someone and tearing them down.

Speaker 8: Yeah, that's a big deal.

Speaker 1: You should, definitely should. I can see where the connection to murder and all of that is.

Speaker 8: But this one. On the surface,

Speaker 4: it doesn't seem like that big a deal.

Speaker 8: I've told the story before about one

Speaker 1: of our teen parents, she was pulling out of the church parking lot and her junior high son is chasing after their

Speaker 8: minivan.

Speaker 1: He's running because he's afraid he's going to get left behind. His dad was still in the church. He wasn't yet

Speaker 4: left, but so he's running to the parking lot and there's all these cars going everywhere. Well, she finally stops. She sees him in the rearview mirror and he runs up to the door, and everyone in the parking lot can hear her say.

Speaker 8: She calls his name and she says, You are foolish. Let's call them the Fool. I mean, Proverbs is full of labor throwing that accusation to people, you're a fool.

Speaker 4: This mean

Speaker 1: that if you sell your son or your daughter when they're acting foolish that they're a fool, does that mean you're in danger

Speaker 4: of hellfire?

Speaker 8: No, that's not what this is talking about.

Speaker 4: Well, this is talking about is that that that reviling that mocking which displays or presents itself because of a bitterness and cynicism that exists within our heart? This is the the response, the outpouring towards a person or about a person from a heart that is eaten up with bitterness and cynicism so that any time this person is presented before you, whether you're approaching them at a at a gathering or you see them in the neighborhood or you have to sit with them in a meeting at work or you come across, they're their social media account. You look at them and you just say. This guy's a fool.

Speaker 8: I would say

Speaker 1: we don't see that very much, but you can come up with your own names that you would call them

Speaker 8: in

Speaker 4: your mind or to your to your spouse, to your friends or maybe even to their face. But you make

Speaker 8: them, you make fun of them. I was talking to somebody there and I

Speaker 1: I was just thinking about, you know, what I used to work at at Hobby Lobby, in the warehouse. And you know, you get a bunch of Bible college students working at a warehouse. They're going to stand out. You know, it's one hundred and something degrees in the warehouse, and we're not allowed to wear shorts because we're Bible college. And so, you know, everybody

Speaker 4: else is, you know, dressed for the occasion and we're

Speaker 1: still dressed, not for the occasion, you know?

Speaker 4: And so they're looking at, you know, like what's

Speaker 8: up with these church boys? So they call it the church kids. I'm not a kid. I'm in college.

Speaker 4: And sometimes

Speaker 1: that was said in a nice way, hey, you're one of those church kids, I got a question about

Speaker 8: the Bible. Sometimes it wasn't said very kindly,

Speaker 1: especially on Wednesday nights when they let us leave to go to church and everybody else had to work. They didn't like us then.

Speaker 8: The thing about

Speaker 1: mocking someone or revealing them is a lot of times it's done behind their back. The person to whom it is directed

Speaker 4: oftentimes doesn't hear it and doesn't even know what's happening. And so when we look at this issue of reviling someone

Speaker 1: referring to them as a fool, mocking them,

Speaker 4: then we see that this situation is much more dangerous for the person who is engaged in it than the person

Speaker 1: who to whom it is directed.

Speaker 4: You see, if you are unjustifiably angry at me, I'm probably going to pick up on it. If you're going around trying to to assassinate my character with other people, it's only a matter of time before I'm going to find out about it. But it's possible that you could revile and mocked me in your heart, and I will never know.

Speaker 8: See, this reveals a

Speaker 1: lot more about

Speaker 8: you than it does about me. It reveals a wounded spirit

Speaker 1: that is crying out for

Speaker 8: something. Trying to

Speaker 1: justify your own behavior, you're trying

Speaker 4: to gain attention

Speaker 1: by who you're

Speaker 4: mocking the person to. You want validation about your own life choices. Mocking someone else, though, will never fill the emptiness within ourselves.

Speaker 8: I mean, we

Speaker 1: talked to our teenagers about it, and yet they're making fun of you, that just means they've got

Speaker 8: problems. But let me tell you guys, don't you know,

Speaker 1: adults deal with this just

Speaker 8: as much as you do.

Speaker 4: I mean, we do. And we can't handle it. And we think, how dare they? Do you realize

Speaker 1: that the person who's mocking you is just revealing the condition of their own heart?

Speaker 8: Mocking someone. May not kill the person. But it will kill your spirit.

Speaker 4: You see you see how this this matter of

Speaker 8: killing cannot be relegated to just murder.

Speaker 4: She says, you think you're keeping the law because you've never

Speaker 8: murdered someone, but you hate your brother without cause

Speaker 4: you try to, you try to belittle him to everyone else. Any chance in your heart, you're mocking and reviling him. You go home and you make fun of him.

Speaker 8: All of this is just as serious. As murder. He continues on here in verse 23. Dealing with this issue about a gift.

Speaker 4: I'm going to call it.

Speaker 8: A self

Speaker 4: justifying

Speaker 8: act of service.

Speaker 4: It's one of those times where you know, you feel guilty.

Speaker 8: It's like, you know what, I need to do

Speaker 1: something nice

Speaker 8: for somebody else, so I'll feel better about me. You know, you're convicted

Speaker 4: about what you've been involved in, what you've said, how you've acted toward someone. So you're like, you know, well, oh, I'll make myself feel better by going out and doing something kind for someone else

Speaker 1: that'll help things. I may even do something nice for God.

Speaker 8: You know. Here in their

Speaker 1: society and their culture, the command to Thou Shalt

Speaker 8: Not Kill had become solely about murder.

Speaker 4: What do they do then with the conviction that comes from

Speaker 8: hating a brother? I mean, it's like when God asked Cain, Where's your brother, Abel? No accusations. This is I don't know. What am I, my brother's keeper? You know, we know we

Speaker 4: have a conscience. If you're if you're a child of God, you have the Holy Spirit living inside you.

Speaker 8: You know you're wrong. So you've got to make yourself feel better. You haven't committed murder, but you have certainly offended.

Speaker 4: And so you go to to make a gift, a gift of service, maybe to God, maybe to someone else. And as you are offering your gift.

Speaker 8: You're pricked in your mind. Holy Spirit, your conscience

Speaker 1: reminds you of the offense that you have caused, and

Speaker 4: no amount

Speaker 1: of self justifying acts of service can remove the conviction that you

Speaker 8: feel.

Speaker 1: This is where Jesus transitions from negative statements to positive ones.

Speaker 8: I mean, he's been saying,

Speaker 4: don't don't, don't

Speaker 1: don't. And now he says, Hey, do.

Speaker 8: What does he say to do? Says leave there thy

Speaker 1: gift before the altar and

Speaker 8: go thy way first, be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift. The action that they need to take is

Speaker 4: to go to the one that they have offended. What are they to do once they face their brother? The Bible says they are to be

Speaker 8: reconciled and before I tell you

Speaker 1: what it looks like to be reconciled.

Speaker 8: Perhaps you are thinking. Yes. But who is my brother? I think we've heard

Speaker 1: something like that asked before in the Bible, Who is

Speaker 8: my neighbor? Maybe like, who

Speaker 4: is my brother? Who? Who am I obligated to make right with? Well, that's a good question.

Speaker 1: I mean, to Jesus's original audience, we would say

Speaker 4: it was a fellow Jew. If you have offended a fellow Jew, they have cause to be offended by your actions. Then go to that person and reconcile.

Speaker 8: OK. What about us? I mean, we're not Jewish. Most of us aren't of Jewish heritage.

Speaker 4: Can we say that it's a fellow Christian? If you have offended a fellow Christian? Go to that brother, go to that sister and reconcile.

Speaker 8: Is that a viable interpretation? Could we broaden it even further? So that really. This needs to be extended to all of humanity. If we don't extend this

Speaker 1: to all of humanity, then what we're saying is that there are people out there who we can treat like

Speaker 8: trash, and it doesn't matter. Was there, not my brother? We are all God's creation. We all

Speaker 4: redeemed or unredeemed there the image

Speaker 8: of God, don't we? So if I find another human. And it is my responsibility to go to that person and seek reconciliation. Now, this is where it gets really cool.

Speaker 1: Reconciliation.

Speaker 8: You've got people in your life. People in my life that have hurt us, don't you? If you don't in your life. Must have been pretty easy. We're sinful people who live among other sinful people. Or somebody

Speaker 1: that has hurt someone that has offended you, someone that has been unjustly

Speaker 4: angry towards you.

Speaker 1: They have. They have trashed your reputation.

Speaker 4: They have sought to to mock you and make fun of you.

Speaker 8: OK.

Speaker 4: A person comes seeking reconciliation.

Speaker 8: Reconciliation means this. Are you ready? I've been trying to build suspense. You're not seeing very suspended.

Speaker 1: All reconciliation means is a laying down of arms.

Speaker 8: I don't have my gut

Speaker 1: on me today. That'd be weird if I pulled a gun out anyways, you probably wouldn't like that

Speaker 4: but pretend I had

Speaker 8: a gun on.

Speaker 4: You and me are at battle. I'm going to lay down my arms.

Speaker 1: We're going to be reconciled. I'm going to lay my gun down.

Speaker 8: You lay your gun down. We are no longer at war with each other. Is that it? That's it. We choose to stop by. We choose to cease our our battles and our war with one another. And no, no pastor, there's got to be more. There's got more. We've got to hug it out. I got to have them over

Speaker 4: for for a meal. I mean, we need to start like sending each other love notes, because now we're buddy buddy.

Speaker 8: That's not what the word means.

Speaker 1: Jesus isn't saying you have

Speaker 4: to be best friends.

Speaker 8: But you need to reconcile, you need to drop your weapons. Is that a little bit free?

Speaker 4: I don't I got to love them because they're they're God's creation. If it's a Christian brother, I got to love them because they're in God's family. But this isn't saying that we got to be bosom buddies now.

Speaker 8: We're just not going to be at war with each other anymore.

Speaker 4: I'm going to be able to see you at work in the meeting. I'm going be able to see you at church. I'm gonna be able to see you wherever I may be. And we can be

Speaker 8: courteous, cordial, Christian to one another. And. Who load off my chest? I don't agree with your interpretation. That's fine. You don't have to.

Speaker 1: It's what the word means. But if you don't like it, come up with your own definition, write your own Bible dictionary and maybe we'll use that.

Speaker 4: Can you think of another person that we've been reconciled to? Jesus. Jesus. A laying down of arms.

Speaker 1: Does that mean when you and I have been reconciled to Jesus that automatically we enjoy an intimate, close personal relationship with him? Or is it possible for a person who has been reconciled to God still be distant from him?

Speaker 8: If we can do that to God,

Speaker 4: he's no longer at war with us, we say we're not at war with him, but the relationship

Speaker 1: just really isn't that

Speaker 8: close.

Speaker 1: I thinking sometimes that happens in human relationships as well. Listen, we cannot assuage our guilt with service or gifts to God. Jesus is more interested in us making things right with our brother are a

Speaker 4: ceasing of fighting. And so for the sake of our relationship with him, but also for a very practical reason that we're to look at here in a moment. We have to be ready to

Speaker 8: lay down arms. Stop the battle. So what's that practical reason you just spoke of well versed number twenty

Speaker 1: five, we see that personal offenses,

Speaker 8: personal attacks can escalate into lawsuits.

Speaker 1: The adversary that is mentioned here in verse number twenty five, where he says agree with thine adversary quickly.

Speaker 8: I believe

Speaker 1: is the same as the brother in

Speaker 8: verse twenty three.

Speaker 4: It's not it's not there's no names. There's no character building here, but we're seeing a a digression of a relationship that started with one brother offending the other through unjustified anger, character assassination, making fun of them. And so because reconciliation didn't take place, that brother has now become an adversary. And I don't know if maybe Jesus

Speaker 1: had an actual situation in mind. Maybe this is all just hypothetical.

Speaker 4: But this this digression has led to

Speaker 8: a court battle.

Speaker 1: That doesn't happen, oh, yes, it does.

Speaker 8: She says agree with an adversary quickly, even if

Speaker 4: the former brothers are on the way to the

Speaker 8: judge.

Speaker 1: There is still a chance to make things right. Jesus commands his disciples to agree quickly while there is still a chance,

Speaker 4: agree that they are in the fault. If an offense has taken place and you're the one that made that made the offense be the bigger person. Take responsibility, bear the weight of being the one who gets blamed for it.

Speaker 8: Do whatever needs to be done? You may think you are justified,

Speaker 4: but if you continue on this path, the matter will be taken out of your

Speaker 8: hands. See if it goes to court. You are found guilty. There is no mercy. Not like the game we used to play, you know, say Mercy. I was homeschooled and I know about that game. Surely, you all know. Once judgment has been

Speaker 1: passed, you will have to face the consequences of killing your relationship, killing their testimony or killing your own spirit, and if that means you're in prison or fined, then you will have to pay your debt. Jesus wants his true disciples to understand

Speaker 8: the full spirit of the command. Thou shalt not kill. It goes beyond a command not to murder. Applies to our anger. It applies to our words and it applies to our attitudes. The consequences for these things. Jesus wants us to see them as being just as real as if we were to

Speaker 1: actually

Speaker 8: murder someone. So what is the answer? You go back to reconciliation. How does this affect us? I hope. I mean, really,

Speaker 1: this is my prayer for every message that the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart as we look at God's

Speaker 8: word. I hope as we've gone through this.

Speaker 1: You have experienced what I experienced in my office while I was writing these things. I mean, are you sitting there thinking about how hard it is to

Speaker 8: control your anger? Oh, Pastor,

Speaker 1: you just don't understand I was I was born with

Speaker 8: a temper. I've always had a

Speaker 1: very short Fuze. I just can't control it.

Speaker 8: Are you thinking about how hard it is to control your words?

Speaker 4: Pastor, I just didn't give me a very

Speaker 1: strong filter when I was born, whatever I think just comes out, I say, what's on the inside?

Speaker 8: Maybe you

Speaker 1: think about how hard it is to control your

Speaker 8: attitudes?

Speaker 1: Teenagers.

Speaker 8: Again, it's not just you guys. We got attitude issues to.

Speaker 1: Perhaps at times you've even struggled with that whole

Speaker 8: don't murder someone part. Thinking what?

Speaker 1: Barely keeping myself clean

Speaker 4: with the don't kill somebody part, now you're you're going to make me go and have to worry about all this other stuff.

Speaker 1: Maybe you're sitting there and saying to yourself, you know what, this just isn't possible.

Speaker 4: It's not possible. There's no way that I can control my anger, control my words, control my attitudes. This is just too much. This is what Jesus requires for a true disciple. And you know what? I can't

Speaker 8: do it.

Speaker 4: If you're sitting there thinking, I can't do it. You got it. You're right. You can't. That's the whole point. You can't do it if you look at your life and the anger and bitterness that you've harbored. And you say, I can't do this anymore. I can't maintain this

Speaker 8: and I'd have to say, You know what? You are well on your way

Speaker 4: to understanding the whole point of Jesus message. You see, when you look at your life and the anger and bitterness that you have harbored, I don't know it. Your spouse may not know what your friends don't know, but you and God know what goes on in your heart, what you say behind closed doors, or what has happened in the past. You look at that and it makes you mourn.

Speaker 8: What did it say in the Beatitudes? Blessed, are they that more why for they shall be. Comforted.

Speaker 4: Remember, it's talking about our sin. If you are faced with the reality of your sin, no, you've never killed anybody, but you're guilty of these other things and you say, Oh Lord, you're right, I agree with you about my sin and I am. I am torn up over it, I am repentant of it, God,

Speaker 8: I need help. I says I will help you. See, it's hard not to be

Speaker 1: convinced of

Speaker 8: our poverty of spirit

Speaker 1: with Jesus actually details what it means to

Speaker 4: sin, what it means to break the law. It's not just don't murder, it has to do with your words and your attitudes and your and your and your anger, your temper. And so what Jesus is trying to help us see is the same thing that the law was meant to show us. The law was never meant to make us righteous. It was meant to show us our unrighteousness. And the Jews had made the law so watered down that they thought we're righteous. We're keeping the law. And Jesus, have you been unjustly angry?

Speaker 8: You broke the law.

Speaker 4: Have you mocked your your your brother?

Speaker 8: You broke the law. If you look at this

Speaker 1: passage and you say, you know, I am guilty of all of this,

Speaker 8: then you've got it.

Speaker 4: You are understanding what Jesus has said. You say, well, what do I do now? I agree I'm guilty of this. What do I

Speaker 8: do? A couple of things. Number one, we've already started it to God confess, just means

Speaker 1: agree with the

Speaker 8: Lord that what you've done is wrong. Then go and reconcile with your brother. You can acknowledge

Speaker 1: to God that you are wrong, you can acknowledge to your brother

Speaker 8: that you are wrong. And relationship

Speaker 1: may not return to what it was before, but you can lay

Speaker 8: down arms. I choose not to do battle with you anymore. Agree with them

Speaker 1: about the offense.

Speaker 4: But I was in the right

Speaker 8: now, I agree with an adversary quickly. Agree with him.

Speaker 1: And then take that hunger and thirst for righteousness. You're sitting here in your like, I don't wanna be an angry person.

Speaker 4: I don't want to be a person who goes around pulling other people down. I don't want to harbor bitterness in my heart. I want to be righteous. I have a hunger and a thirst for righteousness.

Speaker 8: What did Jesus say he would do? What did he say he will do? We fill you his righteousness. You see, this is not. A buckle down message. This is not a you need to try harder.

Speaker 1: Message. This is a message about

Speaker 8: how we can't do it. We need his help. Will we ever go wrong

Speaker 1: acknowledging our inability and his

Speaker 8: sufficiency? Will we know? Especially not in this area.

Speaker 1: We cannot observe these things in our own strength.

Speaker 4: But Jesus

Speaker 1: can and wants to change

Speaker 4: us, and if we desire for him to, and we will allow him to work in

Speaker 8: our hearts.

Speaker 1: Jesus is saying I can make you my disciple.

Speaker 8: I can change your anger.

Speaker 1: I can change your temper. I can change the words that come out of your mouth. I can change your attitude

Speaker 8: towards your brother or your sister. It all starts with us acknowledging that we need to change. I look. I know that when we start the invitation, no one's going to want to move. Someone's going to say, look at that murderer going forward.

Speaker 4: Look at that angry, bitter person.

Speaker 8: I know you can pray to God right there in your seat. You can get

Speaker 1: a hold of him just as easily there

Speaker 8: as you can hear. So however you choose to

Speaker 4: respond, I hope you won't let

Speaker 8: your pride come between you getting right with the Lord.

Speaker 1: Let's pray differently, father. We thank you for this day.

Speaker 8: Thank you for your words and Lord for the. Really just powerful

Speaker 1: application that they make to our lives.

Speaker 8: Or do you know

Speaker 1: that I've been guilty of

Speaker 8: all of these things? I've been

Speaker 1: unjustifiably angry

Speaker 8: with the people that I

Speaker 1: even love

Speaker 8: most. You know, Lord, that I have torn down

Speaker 1: other people's reputations,

Speaker 8: trying to make myself look better. Lord, you know how

Speaker 1: easily easy it is for me to make fun of and mock others.

Speaker 8: And I pray that you would. Forgive me.

Speaker 1: Or that you would help me to reconcile with those that I need to reconcile with.

Speaker 8: God, that you would use your Holy

Speaker 1: Spirit to change

Speaker 8: my heart.

Speaker 1: She would fashion me more into the image of your son.

Speaker 8: Or that I would not. Be guilty of. Killing. Or it should work in our hearts here this morning. And there be many who. There are their seats or here at this altar. Talk to you. They agree with you about what they've done. Lord, would we

Speaker 1: be serious

Speaker 8: about finding the ones we've offended? Reconciling with them, Jesus name that I asked these things? Amen

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