Getting Away with Murder - Part B

It's the attitude, and I know you've seen it before. It's the attitude that says, okay, I'll forgive you, but I'll never forget.

Oh please, spare me the words then. That's a grudge. Do we commit murder? By this definition we do. Anybody who harbors a grudge, says spiteful gossiping things to tear down another person deep in the heart is because murder exists. Now think about it. Rarely, if ever, would we think about combining somebody who's angry at another person like this, as described, and murder and say it's the same thing.

Jesus says it is. One begins the other. The attitude begins the action. The psychologists have been wrong. That may surprise you, but after years of encouraging people to express their anger and let it all out, scientists and psychologists have discovered it's actually harmful.

That's right, expressing your anger is actually very satisfying to our brains, but once we begin, we tend to keep on, with bigger and louder expressions of our wrath. Now today here on Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, Skip Heitzig reminds us that while anger is part of our emotional makeup, it can lead to murder in the long run. God's Top Ten is our latest weekend teaching series. In it, Skip takes a look at the Ten Commandments and helps us see how they work for us today. And before we begin today, we want to invite you to add Skip Heitzig to your social media for regular updates, photos, encouragement, and more.

You can like him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, or add him to your Instagram feed. Now this update from our Connect with Skip Resource Center. I've enjoyed watching the growth and the ministry of my friend Levi Lusko. This month's Connect with Skip Resource, Take Back Your Life, the new book by Levi Lusko.

Here's Levi to tell you about it. It's all around this idea of taking back your life. It's a 40-day interactive journey to thinking right so you can live right. And it's going to be really powerful and special, I think, for people to have this.

Not only is it in hardcover, which just makes me happy because I've never had a book released in hardcover, but it has a ribbon. So you'll be able to keep track of your progress through these 40 days. It would be an incredible gift to someone who is looking to grow in their faith or for any of us who want to maybe kind of do an oil change for your heart, a checkup on your wellness, on where you're at.

It'll deal with internal difficulties and help you deal better with external circumstances that are challenging as we explore how we can get to the very best version of ourselves that we are meant to be. Get the book Take Back Your Life with a donation of $35 to connect with Skip. Call 1-800-922-1888 or online at connectwithskip.com. This hardcover book by Levi Lusko will help you take back your life. It's a 40-day interactive journey to thinking right so you can live right.

1-800-922-1888. And after today's teaching, Skip and Lenya are in studio to share with us, so I hope you stay tuned. And if you have a Bible close at hand, turn to Exodus chapter 20, verse 13.

Here's Skip Heitzig. Let me give you an example how our view of life can determine how we view death. I'll never forget being in India for the first time, and I spoke to a Christian leader who told me what had happened in India the week I was there. There was a bus driver. Now picture the dilemma. He's driving down the street, true story, and first of all, in India, if there are any traffic laws, nobody knows them. This bus driver is going down the street and there's a cow crossing the street, a lot of animals out on the streets, cows, camels, and a man crossing the street. And by the time the bus driver has the presence of mind to make a decision, and he had to make one, he's going to have to veer one direction to the other. Running into the man or into the cow. You have to go one direction or the other.

What should he choose? He ran right into the man, killing him instantly. Because in Hindu philosophy and theology, a cow is a higher level of life than a human being. A person's view of life determines how they view death. You say, well, that's so backwards and so wrong. You're right. Isn't it odd how in our country human life is being devalued and animals get more rights than anybody else?

Anything else? Now would you turn with me to Matthew chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to end here. Matthew chapter 5. We've looked at the premise of this commandment, which is life is sacred. We've looked at the problem with this commandment, and that is that man is sinful or defiled. Now let's look at the passion that is against or opposed to this commandment. Now you're going to notice in Matthew chapter 5 that Jesus brings some clarity to this very commandment we're reading. Verse 21, Matthew chapter 5.

I know some of you are going, I'm glad. I never said that. But whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hell fire.

Wow. Jesus certainly widens the definition of murder, doesn't he? And the consequences of murder here. He is saying it's more than a civil issue. I'm telling you it's a spiritual issue. You think it's simply an action that begins in the hands. I'm telling you it's an attitude that begins in the heart. What happens in the heart will be seen in the hands. What you believe about another person may be shown by what you do, but it all begins, whether acted on or not, in the heart. I got to think that when Jesus said this, that crowd was blown away. I mean if up to that point they're going, oh right, we get to hear Jesus. Now they suddenly realize he just accused all of us of being murderers.

Because it says if you're angry with your brother without a cause, and it's true, to slander somebody made in God's image is to slander God. Hear about the eight-year-old boy? Mom picked him up from school in the afternoon driving him home. The little boy on the way home said, hey mom, where's all the idiots?

She said, I beg your pardon, what do you mean all the idiots? He goes, yeah, on the way to school today dad saw eight of them. Eight times in one day that little eight-year-old boy got a lesson from his father of how he views other people, how he views life, what he thinks and is willing to say about other people who are on the road. Now Jesus speaks about anger. He says, verse 22, I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause.

Indulge me for just a moment. I want to give you just a little language lesson. The Greek language, the typical word for anger would be the word thumos. It's a very common word, thumos. We get the term thermal from it.

Think of a volcano where it heats up and then erupts. That's a typical Greek word, thumos. It means to have a flare up, a rage, an emotional outburst. But that is not the word that is used here.

It is not thumos. It is not an eruption or a rage. It is the word orgizo.

And this is what the word means. A brooding, seething, nurtured anger. A brooding, seething, nurtured anger. We would translate that a grudge against someone. It's the attitude and I know you've seen it before. It's the attitude that says, OK, I'll forgive you, but I'll never forget.

Oh, please, spare me the words then. That's a grudge. Do we commit murder? By this definition we do. Anybody who harbors a grudge says spiteful gossiping things to tear down another person deep in the heart is because murder exists. Now think about it. Rarely, if ever, would we think about combining somebody who's angry at another person like this, as described, and murder and say it's the same thing? Jesus says it is. One begins the other. The attitude begins the action.

We say, well, I can't believe it. I'm not a murderer. But ever in your life, have you ever even thought, I hate that person? Or I wish they were dead. Maybe you have even said that. Now you didn't go out and kill them.

Maybe you were afraid of consequences or you lack the opportunity. But it doesn't let you off the hook. Still guilty. It's interesting, too, how we justify our grudges. We justify our hatred. And I've discovered something about murderers.

They do that, too. Even the worst murderers have reasons for why they did it. Adolf Hitler had what he thought were rational reasons why he would kill six million Jewish people. And he convinced a whole slew of people with those reasons. The people who dispatched the Crusaders toward Jerusalem to also commit that kind of genocide had their rationale.

Every jihadist today has a reason why they would strap dynamite on and blow up themselves and innocent children and women. And it's this kind of self-deceit that Jesus is coming against anger in the heart. Let's finish up today. Let's come to a conclusion by finishing also with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's just go on in verse 23.

Here now is the remedy. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. Go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly while you're on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge.

The judge hand you over to the officer and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the last penny. I'm going to call this active forgiveness. That's the remedy, active forgiveness. Jesus said, and if you're angry without a cause, you're guilty.

Therefore, and then he tells us, what do you do about it? Active forgiveness as opposed to passive forgiveness. Passive forgiveness, somebody hurts you or you hurt them, whatever, whatever.

It's almost like you just don't want to deal with it. You got to deal with it three ways, three steps to active forgiveness. Number one, admit it. Admit it.

If you don't admit there's a problem, you'll never fix it. So here's the idea. There's a guy. He's at the altar in Jerusalem. His hands are raised. He's singing, I love you, Lord. He's bringing his lamb to be sacrificed. And suddenly he remembers. A thought comes to his mind. There's somebody out there really mad at me, angry with me.

I've stumbled him and I know about it. So you have to, as you remember it, that's the first step, admit it. You know, it's funny how many people even in counseling don't admit there's a problem. Here's a typical scenario. Man and woman come to counseling office.

Here's man's posture. Well, I'm glad you guys came in. What is the problem? I don't have a problem, but she does. Wait a minute.

Last time I checked, the two shall become one flesh, i.e. if she has a problem, you have a problem. You both have a problem. Admit it. When you admit it, then you can fix it. So that's step number one, admit it. Step number two, correct it. Notice Jesus says, go your way.

Interesting. Somebody's coming to worship and God says, go away. Go away?

I'm here to worship. Yeah, but there's a problem you have with another person. Oh, Lord, you see my heart. Forgive me. Uh-uh. Go away. First be reconciled.

Then come and offer your gift. You remember this in school. Your math teacher taught you the shortest distance between two points is a? It's not true. It's not true. It's true in math. It's not true in theology. Sometimes the shortest distance between you and God is another person.

You can't just say, I don't want to deal with that other person. Oh, but, Lord, you know my heart. Oh, but, Lord, I love you. God says, go away.

Get it right. You want to come closer to me, then you come to me through that reconciliation with another person. Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes the best things to enhance a worship service isn't better music or better preaching, though we could have maybe better preaching. However, you want to enhance worship? Get better relationships. Get better relationships. When you have better relationships with other people and you're free, as Paul said, from the blood of all men, your worship is sweet. You've done all that you can do to bring reconciliation.

There's no heavier weight that you can carry around than a pack of grudges. A story about Leonardo da Vinci. He was painting his most famous work, The Last Supper, and he was having an argument with somebody in town. It was a flare up. I mean, he lost his temper and words were exchanged. He was angry. And he went back to painting The Last Supper. Well, he happened to be painting the most delicate part of the whole picture, which was the face of Jesus Christ. And he discovered he couldn't do it. He couldn't do it. He'd pick up a brush and he'd start the fine lines. He wanted it to be perfect. And he thought, I don't have the freedom to paint the Lord Jesus face.

Put down his brushes, went and found the person, talked it out, reconciled. Then he felt, I've corrected it. I can do the Lord's work. Admit it. Correct it. Here's the third step to active forgiveness. Expedite it. Notice what it says.

You're to go and do it quickly, quickly or urgently. Don't allow bitterness or anger to develop and seethe and boil up and give you more reasons why you should nurture that. Hold on to it. What did Paul say in Ephesians 4? Be angry and sin not. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath were his words. Don't let a day go by, Paul would say loosely translated, where you're going to let that anger build up yet again. Or as Phyllis Diller would spin it, never go to bed mad, stay up and fight. You know, there's some wisdom in that.

Better to be honest and confront the problem and deal with it and come to an understanding than go to bed and keep it to yourself. Undealt with. Admit it. Correct it.

Expedite it. So we have learned today that murder is a sin because we're created by God and we're created in the image of God. Thus to murder is to defy God's purpose. We've learned that there's no problem with the commandment or the standard, but there is a problem with mankind who has frequently incessantly throughout history as a legacy broken that. We've also learned that it's more than just an act. It's an attitude and the attitude always precedes the act. And finally, we have learned that any time we by words or anger tear down or destroy another person, it's serious.

And we must deal with it. In fact, no one gets away with murder. Even if you've never committed it, but you've hated that person, you'll never get away with it because it'll destroy you.

You're the one that'll get hurt the worst as it just eats away at your spiritual life. There was a very creative teacher at a college, Christian college. In front of the classroom, the teacher put up a big target. And the teacher said to each student, today I want you to draw a picture of somebody you don't like, you're angry at, you're mad at them. Draw their picture. And there was a whole bunch of darts on a table at the front of the classroom. They were to draw pictures and one girl drew a picture of another girl that stole her boyfriend. One young student drew a picture of his younger brother.

Some put great detail into their drawings. The teacher had them all stand up. They put the pictures on top of the bull's eye and said, now throw darts at those people you're angry at.

Go ahead, get mad at them. Well, the students thought this was terrific. I mean, they were launching those darts, some violently, ripping to shreds the target. Laughing as they went, ha ha ha, poom, ha ha ha, poom. They were all done.

They sat down. The teacher took the darts out, took the drawings off, took the target off, and underneath the target was a huge picture of the face of Jesus Christ. The students sat down and the classroom fell into a hush as they looked at the mangled face of Jesus that they had created. And the teacher, the last thing he did at that class was write up on the chalkboard the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, in as much as you have done it to one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it to me. So, murder is a sin.

We know that. The anger that perpetuates that murder is sinful, hurts the body of Christ, hurts the cause of Christ, and will eat us alive. Forgiveness and reconciliation are vital to overcoming the anger that lives in us.

We find those in our relationship with Jesus. I hope you'll take time to explore the love and forgiveness that He has for you today. Well, I'm so glad you were able to tune in today for Connect with Skip Weekend Edition. The teaching you heard today was part two of Getting Away with Murder. And Skip and Lenya have a few more things they'd like to share with us today. So let's go in studio now.

Lenya? This is a really interesting topic, Thou Shalt Not Murder, and you talk about how some people kind of get away with murder in this lesson. Because the New Testament sheds some extra light on where murder begins, and it begins in the heart. You know, it says if a man should hate someone in their heart, it's as though they committed murder. And so, forgiveness for some of our audience, for some of us from time to time, is a really difficult topic to deal with.

So, do you have some recommendations on where to start? Yeah, well, you know, Jesus said, love your enemies. And that's a tall order, because I remember somebody coming to me and talking about her husband who divorced her. And she looked back, and she said, he's not my husband, and he's not this, and he's not that. And she said, he's my enemy. And I said, well, you know Jesus did say, love your enemies.

And she looked puzzled, and she said, well, how do I do that? I said, well, I'm glad you asked, because he said right after that, to pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. And I said, I'll guarantee you, if you put your ex-husband on your prayer list every day, the feelings that you have for him, maybe not today, but eventually they'll change. You won't be able to bring that before your Lord and still be bitter at him. You're going to be sympathetic toward him, you're going to be more understanding. But just bring him in prayer before the Lord, just commit that you'll do that, and then watch how those feelings will change.

It's pretty amazing. I think that a lot of us think feelings just happen, and they don't. Our feelings come from what we're thinking.

And so she was thinking all these things, which made her feel very adverse, which just has horrible impact on you in so many ways. And if you can change the way you think, be transformed by renewing your mind, which is what you're asking her to do. But I think sometimes we can do that with our mouths. It says bless those who curse you and curse not. I love the idea that if you can exercise that self-control in the Lord, and someone does something untoward, and you bless them, or say something kind, or let someone cut in, or can I pray for you? It takes them so unaware that it turns the table quickly. A soft answer turns away wrath, Proverbs 15. It's such a huge paradigm shift that most people are used to tit for tat or a tug of war. But if you can respond to the opposite spirit and give blessing instead of curse, it's amazing what that does to a dynamic. It is powerful.

It does change the dynamic. Well, thanks, Skip and Lenya, for those thoughts on this very important topic and part of our latest series, God's Top Ten. You can add this series to your audio library right now. Get all 17 teachings bundled as an audio CD package for only $39 plus shipping. Or if you prefer to get each teaching individually, you can also do that from connectwithskip.com.

Well, murder is wrong, but is there a time to kill? That's the topic coming up next time here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, a connection, a connection. Connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.