Matthew Chapter 5, if you have your Bible today, we are continuing a series entitled The Greatest Sermon Ever. Now, I want to say up front, if this is your first week of the sermon, this sermon that you're going to hear in this place here today, this is not going to be the greatest sermon that you have ever heard. This sermon series is actually on Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount, what everyone considers his greatest sermon.
He's the greatest teacher ever and so we are working through week by week just the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5 through Matthew Chapter 7. Jesus, he went up into a mountain and he sat down and he began to teach his apostles and there were many critics in the crowd and as he gathered them together, he began to speak and to teach them on what the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven would look like. In fact, he begins to talk about the kingdom of heaven and the fact that that kingdom can be lived out here on this earth. It could be lived out here on this earth and here's what it looks like and so he starts off this sermon with what we call the Beatitudes.
Remember kind of those things that we can experience blessing, we can experience happiness as a result of very specific things and then last week when we were together, we get to experience his kingdom here on this earth when we, like Pastor David reminded us of, live out as the salt of the earth and live out of being the light of the world. And then here he begins to talk about the law and the Old Testament law. When we talk about the law, it's talking about the Old Testament, the first five books of the Bible and he begins to talk about some things that they had heard in the law that everyone would resonate with them and he begins to talk about anger. Now, he begins to talk about anger and the hatred that we have. Now, when I came to this passage of scripture, I was thinking, I was like, you know what, we could probably skip this because nobody at Union Grove gets angry, right?
Am I right on that? How many of you get angry from time to time? Raise your hand, okay? We all get angry. How many of you are angry because the person next to you didn't raise their hand when they should have? Okay, and we all get angry from time to time and I know, listen, I want to be very real and transparent with you.
As Christians, we sometimes think just the idea, like I raised my hand so I'm guilty, so I need to come to an altar and make things right. We think like, so we try to claim we don't get angry, right? We use Christian terminology, like I don't get angry, I just get frustrated, right? You ever said that to people and made yourself feel better?
Listen, let's call it what it is. We all get angry and we're all built differently, but every single one of you gets angry, myself included. In fact, like, I mean, it takes a little bit for me, my family might disagree with this, but it takes a little bit for me to get angry. And it does take, I mean, I'm pretty chill.
I feel like my personality is fairly relaxed and so it's going to take a while to get me hot. But there are some times when I just lose my mind, and one of the times that that happens is when we're in the car. And sometimes I lose my mind with other drivers.
And I apologize if I've ever lost my mind with you because you don't know how to drive, but I'm trying to teach you how to drive. But last year, Abby and I were traveling to Charleston and we were going away on our anniversary. So it's just the two of us.
We're super excited. So we're driving and we're going to South Carolina. And so we are on 77 and so we're traveling there and I'm driving. And I mean, I drive pretty fast.
You know, I've had my share of tickets and stuff like that. So I'm kind of booking it, you know, and I'm going and I feel like I'm going as fast as anybody else around me where I'm driving. There's some traffic. And so I get in the far left lane and I'm trying to get around everybody. And there's this there's this this man that is behind me. I don't remember what kind of vehicle he had, but he just comes flying up behind me in the fast lane. And and then when he has to break, because there are people in front of me, I could do nothing with this or whatever. He started just throwing up his hands. I could see him in my rear view mirror, just throwing up his hands. He's all mad, you know, at this car. And so I'm watching him kind of in my rear view mirror. And and I'm like, man, I can't do anything anything with this, you know? And so I asked Abby to roll down her window and say, we can't do anything, sir, but she refused.
And and so he's just mad and I mean, he's losing his mind behind us and and he's going nuts. And finally, you know, I I get to the point where where I could get around and get a lane over. And when I did, he like flew past me. And as he went past me, like looked at me and just threw his hands up like this.
Like what on earth am I doing? And I'm pretty chill. And we're going away for our anniversary.
You would think I would say, hey, come visit us at Union Grove if you're ever. And so I was hot. I was mad. Abby could care less. You know, most of the time it's just like typical women.
They're oblivious to anything around them when they're driving. And so. Oh, man. Oh, that just. Wow. OK. Should not have said that. OK.
I'll hear about that at the lunch table here in a little while. But so she's just like, let it go. And I'm mad. I'm like, no, I can't let this go.
I need that guy to now know that I'm mad at him. So I speed up. And I'm flying like he's going a very not safe speed. And I'm like risking her life because I am booking. I'm going so fast. And she's like, Josh, what are you going to do?
And, you know, she goes to the extreme. He's probably got a gun and all this kind of stuff. And I'm like, no, I just want to look at him. I just want to look at. I want him to see me. And so I got as fast as I could and I just got next to him and I just looked.
I showed him that day. Here's what I want you to know is like we all get get angry from time to time. You know, and many of you think you don't get mad and and and things like that very often. But we all get angry. We all get get angry from time to time. And in this sermon, Jesus Sermon on the Mount, he begins to talk about and address the anger that we that we have in our hearts. The anger and the hatred that we have in our hearts. I'll say up front before we jump into scripture, there is a righteous anger. I want you to understand this, that that there is a righteous anger.
There are some things that we should be angry about. In fact, Jesus, when he's the one teaching here in Matthew Chapter five, we know the story in Matthew Chapter twenty one when he went into the temple and he saw religious leaders taking advantage of those that were poor there in the temple. And what did Jesus do? Jesus came in and he was hot. He came in and he knocked over the tables.
He went outside. He got a whip and he drove them out with a with a whip. And so I want you to know there are some things that we should fight for. There are some things that that should make us angry.
But here's what I want you to understand. Most of the things that you're getting angry about are not that. OK, so what Jesus is going to address, he's talking about your relationships with one another.
Perhaps your relationship with your spouse, your relationship with your kids, your relationship with the person who ever sitting next to you, your relationship with with your friends, your relationship with your classmates, your relationship with the person on I-77 when you're driving your relationship. What he's talking about is those kind of scenarios when we get hot and when we get angry. And he begins to address that and how we should respond to that.
The first thing he talks about is the source of where anger comes from, the source of the anger that is within us. Look at Matthew Chapter five. And we ended our message last week in verse 16. And and really, Jesus, he talks about so many different things.
That's why we're kind of outlining this together. And in verse number 17, he kind of sets up when he's going to talk about anger. Verse 17 says, Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.
I'm not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. He begins to talk about the law.
Now, any time, just a little history lesson in case you're new to church. Any time he talks about the law, he's talking about the first five books of the Old Testament. Remember when Moses went up into Mount Sinai and God gave him all of the law that they were supposed to live by. All these different commandments and different things.
And so he's referencing that. And that was one of the knocks that a lot of Pharisees and scribes and religious leaders, they didn't like about Jesus is because they claimed that he came to just abolish the law. That he came just to get rid of the law or he came to say I'm better than law or whatever and things like this. And here's what Jesus is saying. Remember, he's setting us up to talk about anger and the hate that we have in our hearts.
And so he says, Listen, I want you to know up front the law, the Old Testament law. I've not come to get rid of it. I've not come to, you know, to abolish it. I've came to fulfill it.
In other words, what he's saying is this. I've come to help you be free from the law. You see, Jesus is not in opposition to the Old Testament law. He came to bring to fruition to that which the law was pointing to. You see, in the New Testament, we find this about the law.
All the Old Testament, not a single person in here, not a single person that has ever lived can keep the Old Testament law in its entirety. There's not one of you in here. You might try really hard. You might think that you're the most moral person on the face of the planet.
You might think you're the most obedient person on the planet. But here's what I'll tell you. If I took you through the Old Testament law, you're going to fall short. I'm going to fall short.
All of us are going to fall short. So the law in and of itself, because everybody's fallen short, the law cannot save us. The law cannot save us. We need a savior to free us from the law. So Jesus is saying, I've come to be the savior. Verse number 19. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. You shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. So he brings up the law.
He understands because everybody's sitting there. They knew the law. In fact, if you were Jewish, you had to memorize the law.
It was a part of your life. And so they knew everything about what the law said, what the law commanded, what the law required. So Jesus' audience there in the mountain in which he was teaching this sermon, they knew this. And so now when he relates to them, he begins to say in verse 21, he says, okay, you understand the law?
Ye've heard, verse 21, ye have heard that it was said by them of old time. In other words, the law. Thou shalt not kill. Right?
We've learned this. The sixth commandment. Right? You remember you got the Ten Commandments and the sixth one was thou shalt not kill. That's very simple. And by the way, in their audience, they're probably thinking, oh, yeah, I can I can tune the rest of this part of Jesus' sermon off because I'm not a murderer.
Right? Any murderers in the house. Okay. If you raise your hand, security needs to pay attention, pay close attention to anyone that raised their hand. Okay.
But here's what I want you to understand. It's like when we hear thou shalt not kill, we think I'm good. I've not I don't have a problem with that. I've never gone out and and done that. I've never committed such a such a crime.
I'm good. And based on the law, like I've kept that commandment and I am good. And that's exactly how the majority of Jesus's audience would have received something like thou shalt not kill.
They would have received it the same way that you did. But he goes on and says and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. Yes. Well, you would agree with that, right? If you go out and you kill somebody, you're going to be judged for that and you're going to pay the consequence for that. Does everybody agree?
Right. Everybody believes that that's something that should be done. You should be judged.
Murders should be judged. Yes, Jesus, we got that. But Jesus takes it a step further. Look at what he says in verse 22. He says, But I say unto you, remember, he's talking about the kingdom of heaven. He's talking about what his kingdom looks like. Remember, his kingdom looks nothing like your kingdom. His kingdom is greater than your kingdom.
His kingdom. It's in contrast to our kingdom. It's in contrast to how you think.
It's in contrast to how I think. He says this. I say unto you, whosoever is angry with his brother, without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Rocca, shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say, thou fool.
In other words, the word Rocca, it's a Latin term that is really talking about it's almost like a stronger way of what Jesus says right there. Thou fool. It is this strong, strong statement.
And he says, thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. Jesus, listen, Jesus regularly taught that our actions and our behaviors on the outside are a reflection on what is on the inside. Right.
You guys know that. That Jesus, when he came, he's always saying that the way that we act is a reflection of what is in here. So if you see someone and by the way, let's don't judge the someone.
Let's look at ourselves. If your life is spiraling out of control on the outside, it's a reflection on what's in here. Does everybody understand that? And that's what Jesus is teaching was all about.
We see that in Matthew chapter 12 in verse number 34. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. You have a problem with your tongue. It's not because of the people around you.
The problem is what is inside of you. OK. And so that's what what do you say? Proverbs twenty three seven. So a man thinketh in his heart. So is he. And so Jesus is talking specifically in verses twenty one and twenty two.
He's talking about anger and he says thou shalt not kill. Everybody's like, got it. Very good. Very good.
Let's move on to the next point, because we're good. The ones you should be talking to, Jesus, the murderers, they're already experiencing judgment down in the in the prison and and things like that. They're not going to be sitting out in our audience, Jesus. And so he says no in his kingdom. Here's what he wanted them to know is those that have hate and those that have anger in their heart. It's just as guilty as the one that goes out and kills somebody. In other words, Jesus is saying this thinking angry thoughts. Is as evil as murdering someone. Now, let me ask you this.
How many of you have had an angry thought about somebody else? Let's just be real. OK. My hands raised. OK. So let me ask you this.
According to Jesus, how many of us in this place are murderers? You're a little scared to raise your hand. You're like, man, is this on live stream?
I don't want my boss to see this. Right. We're we're afraid. But what Jesus is saying is he's making this correlation that how we think in our in our heart and what is being produced down deep in our heart is going to come out. And he's saying it's equal. So if we are committing these angry thoughts inside of us and and we have anger towards other people around us, he's saying that we are just as guilty and that we should have the judgment, just like if somebody was to commit an act of of murder. In James Chapter four, James, the brother of Jesus, he asked this question. And and he says this in James for one. He says, from whence or where do wars and fighting come among us?
In other words, what he's saying is this. James is asking this question like, where do these fights come from? Like, like how do we get in a fight with other people? Like, you know, where does all that those kind of feelings of anger and those feelings of hatred?
Where do those things come from? And I'll be honest with you. We like to point our fingers at certain things because of our anger, don't we?
Like like you can read James for one. And here's what you're probably thinking. Oh, yeah. When this happens at work, that's where it comes from.
Yeah. When or better yet, why don't we say it this way? Maybe James should have said when he asked this question of where or what makes us angry. For some of you, you're thinking it's not aware. It's not a what?
It's a who. Right. You're thinking that, man, I know exactly where fighting comes from. I know where anger comes from because she.
Or probably more accurate statement, because he. Because they. Because my boss, when he does this, I get mad. When my spouse does this, I get angry. When she does this, I get mad.
When my kids don't do something that I ask, I lose my mind and I spiral out of control. James is saying this. He's asking this question. Where do those feelings come from? Is it come from the people around us? Is it come from the environment? Does it come from the rules of the road on I-77?
No. You know where all those anger and those hateful thoughts are coming from? James says this. He says they come from our own internal lust when we are drawn away from our relationship with God. In other words, the people around us are not the ones that make us angry. What makes you angry is what is happening deep down in your soul.
You see, our lust, it's not getting what we want. When you don't feel like you are being respected by that person, you get angry. When you don't feel like you're being heard by somebody, you get angry. You see, the reason why we get angry and the reason why we have the outburst is because it is happening deep down in our soul.
And we are not getting something that we want and something that we are worth fighting for. James is saying it's not because of anybody else. And that's what Jesus is saying. He's saying that we have to purify our heart because our heart and what is inside of us is just as guilty as what is happening on the outside. Have you ever said this?
You make me this way. Have you ever said that? Like you get around somebody, man, I would not be angry if that person wasn't around.
Right? Here's what James would say and Jesus would say the same. He's like, no, no, no, they're not the ones that make us angry. It's not your kids. It's not your spouse.
It's not your boss. The reason why we get angry is because of what is happening on the inside of us. So we have to stop blaming others for our angry outburst. He goes on in verses 23 and 24 and he gives us the cure.
The cure for anger is simply reconciliation. He goes on. Look what he says in verse number 23. You guys still with me? You know, say amen or something.
You guys, you guys aren't angry with me, are you? Verse 23. He says this. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar. So he's talking about worship. He's talking about your relationship with the Lord and how we bring our gifts to God and we offer sacrifice to him and things like that.
Just like you. You've come in here today and you're offering a sacrifice of praise to him. He says, therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, worship, and then remember that thy brother hath ought against you.
In other words, paint the picture. You come in here, you're ready to worship and it hits you in the middle of a worship service that somebody in here or somebody out there, you have ought against or you have hateful thoughts against or you have conflict with. And then he says, verse 24, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift. Like, is Jesus really suggesting that we think, listen, I want you to get this. Don't miss this.
This is so important. And this is why Jesus wasn't afraid to really speak against culture. He says this, that you can't just come in and sit and offer sacrifice and sit here and expect to worship.
If you don't go out and deal with the conflict that you have with other people. Wow. I think we should park there for a minute, shouldn't we? Because here's what I want you to understand, and this is true of my life, too. It's not just you. He's saying that our worship will be affected with unresolved anger in our life. Perhaps, listen, you might come into church and you come in here. You ever been here where you come and you're ready to worship and you're wanting to experience God, maybe in the way that you've heard other people experience God and things like that, and you come and you do everything right and you're here early and you're trying. And then when the songs are sung and you're sitting there and the message is preached and you're just sitting there like, man, I'm not really getting this the way that somebody else got it or the way somebody else experienced it. Perhaps the reason is, is because you have unresolved tension and anger in your heart.
What Jesus is saying is you're better off instead of you come in here, you want to worship. Hey, you know what we should do first? Go and reconcile with other people before you come back in here. That's strong because that's not the way that we like to deal with anger, is it? How do we like to deal with it? Let's bury it. Find another church. Right. Or in this case, we'll find another section of the auditorium to sit on.
Find another person to hang out with. What we like to do is we run from angry thoughts, from conflict. We go the other way or we bury it. We're not going to talk about it.
And I'm going to come and I'm going to try to put on my face and I'm going to smile and I'm going to shake their hand. But deep down, I can't stand that person. Right. That's what we we do.
We try to bury it. And Jesus is saying, no, no, no, no, no. Unresolved anger in your life will affect your worship before you come to God and expect to offer a sacrifice of praise. Your next step is to go to people that you have ought with.
Make that right. Reconcile that relationship before you come back in here. Here's the principle. My relationship with others should be more important to me than trying to prove that I'm right to them. You want to know why we are angry all the time? It's because we like to prove that we're right.
That's where like we like to be right. How many of you love being wrong? Anybody? Nobody? Really? Like, I'm surprised.
I thought I'd have a lot of hands raised there. No, we hate being wrong. We love being right. And some of us will fight tooth and nail till we're right. Like that's true of marriage. Like you get in an argument with your spouse and what happens?
Like, like it's like going on. You've been arguing for hours. You've moved on. But you're still kind of upset at each other. You ever kind of get there and you haven't really reconciled things because you're not willing to admit you're right. So maybe you go to bed and and it's kind of like you're still not happy with the person. You're mad. You pull the covers and stuff like that.
Anybody does that? Or you don't want your toes to touch their toes or anything. You're kind of like you're upset. You're like, I'm staying on my side of the bed. I'm I'm mad. I'm angry, whatever.
I'm not made right. And here's the thing. The reason why we stay in conflict for that long.
And by the way, that's kind of a funny thing about marriage. But I'll tell you this. There's some people, especially in a church like ours, there's people that are holding on to things from like 10 plus years ago.
Why? Because we are not going to sacrifice our will to be right. Listen, what Jesus is saying is your relationship with other people should be way more important than you proving something to somebody.
That's what he's saying. So he's saying before you come in and worship, make things right. Make things right. Reconcile your relationships with other people.
That should be the ultimate goal in your relationship is reconciliation. He mentions the third thing, the danger of unresolved. So we see where it comes from. It's within us. It's not other people. Our anger and tension is inside of us.
And that's just as guilty and worthy of judgment than the person going out and killing people. So that's where it comes from. Then he talks about the cure for anger. What's the cure? You want to stop being mad? Go to the person and make it right.
I was talking to somebody about this today. What an incredible thing that would be is if the next step response today is conflict that happens in our church. You say, hey, listen, we're not going to go another moment. I'm going to go to that person. We're going to make it right. We're going to reconcile that relationship.
What an incredible testimony and application of Matthew chapter five that would be. But then he says the danger. What's the danger of unresolved anger? Here's what it is. Imprisonment.
Imprisonment. Look what he says in verse twenty five. Jesus continues his his dialog about his outline about anger. He says, agree with thine adversary. What's the next word?
I didn't want to say it either. Like, let's try that again. Agree with thine adversary. What's the next word? Quickly. Quickly.
Really? Jesus, you want us to be quick to reconcile? You don't know what they did. You don't know what they said about me. You don't know what they posted about me on Facebook. They didn't invite me. I'm mad.
I didn't get asked to do this in the church. And so and so did. And now I'm mad. I'm angry. You know what Jesus is saying?
Hey, listen, you're going to have thoughts like that because we're humans. Here's how we respond to that. Agree with thine adversary quickly.
Fast. Be quick to reconcile. Whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou has paid the uttermost for thee. In other words, what Jesus is doing is, remember, the greatest teacher ever. And he's talking about conflict and anger and these bad thoughts about people.
And he says this. He uses the illustration of like a courtroom setting. And when you can't, you know, have when somebody has not made things right and their debt has not been paid, where are they going to spend most of their time?
Prison. In fact, in this culture, if you owed somebody something, you could be put in prison until that debt has been paid back. So Jesus is speaking directly about that.
And he says, you guys know this, right? Is that that when you owe somebody something and you don't pay it, you're going to find yourself in prison. So make sure that you go out and you pay that back quickly.
Reconcile that relationship fast. Here's what he's saying is that those of you who have anger or all in your heart towards somebody else, possibly in this room, here's what he's saying. The danger for you is just like if you have a debt that's not been paid, you're going to find yourself in prison is if you refuse to make that right. Here's what's going to happen to your life. It's like you're bound up in prison. You're bound up in prison, the prison of your soul. And you cannot move on. You cannot have have peace.
You cannot find happiness. You ever met somebody that's holding on to something from years and years ago? Maybe something that happened in their church experience years and years ago.
And it's been like 20 plus years. And you ask them like why they won't go to church today. And it's because they point something way, way back that they're still holding on. Here's what I want you to know. With respect, they're in prison. They're in prison. You see, the danger of unresolved anger in our life is that you find yourself in prison. I've used this illustration before and I just want to be real because sometimes you think when you're sitting here, and I used to be this way before I came to pastor, I used to think that everything the person up here said to the people, he's just perfect at it, right?
I used to think that. And then I became a pastor, realized how imperfect I really am. But I'll tell you a story and maybe this will resonate and help you a little bit because it speaks to what Jesus is trying to teach us. My very first church, this church I grew up in, when I graduated college in 2007, I got asked to go back to my home church and work.
And in a perfect world, that's a great scenario. It's the church you grew up in. You already have relational equity that's been built up, relationship with you.
So if you're terrible at your job, there's a long lease that I have, right? So I was thinking this is a perfect opportunity. So I go back there and I've been there my whole childhood. So I get back there and through a series of events, I'm not going to mention everything, but our church, my pastor passed away within the first year of me getting there. And he was my childhood pastor. So we went through the whole search process. We get a new pastor in and he was great and the whole nine yards. And when he got there, we began to have conflict, him and I, him and the church and different things like that. And it just was not working.
It's not working. It was one of those scenarios. I know in church, like that's kind of your experience.
You come here, think of it like this. If a new boss at your job, your place of employment got hired and you couldn't stand going to work. So every day you showed up at work and you're just like, I don't even want to pass by him.
I want to slip into my office, maybe not even that he knows I'm there. That's kind of where it got for me. I didn't like going to church. I didn't like going to work. I didn't like anything about that, you know. And yes, I was a pastor at the time.
Isn't that good? And so I had all these terrible thoughts, you know, but I was too prideful to ever go to him and make anything right. So I kept them and I thought I could just deal with it. What eventually got to the point where it was not going to be dealt with and it came to a screeching halt. It was one of those terrible scenarios. In fact, many of you have been a part of churches.
For some reason, this happens a lot in Baptist churches. We got we got into one of those business meetings. How many of you ever been in a business meeting where it got ugly? Any of you?
OK. Some of you old timers probably have. And it got it got to that moment. It was terrible.
Some things were said. It was awful. It was embarrassing.
It was a complete just terrible situation. So I left and we had to sell our home. I lost my whole. This was my life. My job. I had to find a new place of employment. The whole deal.
And here's what I thought the whole time. I can deal with this on my own. I can handle it. I'm a pastor.
I can deal with it. So I left and I came here 2010. And so I came here and I'm speaking to students and our youth group every single week. I'm preaching. I'm leading. Life is good. And for a lot of people that looked at our ministry, they would think, wow, what a healthy ministry that really is. Josh is great. It's doing a good job. Everybody felt that way.
And then it was about a year removed from the situation. I'm sitting in my office across the street. I'm sitting there. I'm writing a sermon to a bunch of teenagers. And it was happened to be on forgiveness. OK, so I'm writing this and I sit in my office and I am thinking I can't preach this. Because there is problems in my heart towards somebody else. And here's what I want you to know.
I want to be very specific because I want this might help some of you in here. My problems internally were like this. When I drove through Aspero, which is where I grew up, and I looked at that church, kid you not. And I was a full time pastor. You guys employed me. So I blame you for some of this.
Here's what I want you to know. I drive by the church and here's what I would feel. I'd never say it out loud because this sounds terrible. I would say, I hope that church is falling apart. I would have feelings like, man, I hope no teenagers are showing up to youth group. I hope that they're struggling to pay staff. I hope that they can't pay the bills. I hope that nobody's coming.
I hope people continue to leave. So that, and here's why. So that they would understand that I was right and they were wrong.
I had some bad thoughts about them. So I'm sitting in my office. You're removed. And I'm sitting there. I can't preach this message. So I didn't know what to do. So I reached out to the church, to the pastor, and we reconciled that. And I've never felt this like that.
But this is the power of the gospel. I reached out and I didn't have his number. I deleted it and I hoped I'd never see him again. I reached out to that pastor in an email and just sent him this long email apologizing, making it right. And then I went to lunch. And like a good pastor, I was gone to lunch for a couple of hours and I come back.
And remember, Asperol's not too far. That pastor had drove, when he got my email, he got in the car and drove over here. He's sitting out there and I'm thinking, we're either going to fight or we're going to make this right.
We made everything right in that moment. And here's what's amazing. It's like because I stopped being in prison and I said, this is not the way I'm intended to live.
These are not the thoughts that I should be having. And so because I said, you know what? I value him. I value the cause of Christ.
I value my relationship with him more than I do me proving that I'm right or me proving that it was their fault or anything like that. I said, I am going to reconcile. And here's what's amazing. And this is the power of the gospel in your life, is that the power of the gospel. You know what? When I drive through there, you know what I do now? I don't think bad thoughts.
You know what I do? I stop in. Like the place that I vowed I would never ever step foot on. Now I'm wanting to go. Now I'm wanting to see people.
What? Like that would have never happened because I hated the people there. You see the power of the gospel when you humble yourself and you stop trying to to deal with the problems of your life and realize that you trying to deal with things without reconciling things. It only leaves you in prison. It only leaves you bound to the sin of the anger and hatred that is born in your heart. When you release that over and you are quick to reconcile the power of the gospel can change how you feel about anybody.
Because it didn't mind. You see the apostle Paul, he kind of speaks about this in Ephesians chapter 4. It's a very familiar passage of scripture.
And here's what he said. He said, he's talking about anger, saying don't be angry, or he says be angry, sin not, stuff like that. And he goes on to say that when we allow anger to stay unresolved in our hearts, here's what happens. The scripture says in Ephesians 4, it says we give place to the devil, to the enemy. So for some of you, if you refuse to go to whoever it is, maybe it's a family member, maybe it's a church member, maybe it's somebody at your job, if you refuse to go to them and make it right, here's what you're doing. You're giving like a place to the devil, a foothold to the devil.
Let me tell you what that is and I'll be done. We have two kids and so, you know, the kids, they kind of, let's just call it what it is. They don't get along, man.
They just don't. And so my son is two years younger than my daughter and here's what he loves to do. He loves to annoy her. And he loves to annoy her to the point where she loses her mind and breaks. How many of you have kids like that, that just love that?
Right? They push the button and push the button and push the button until they eventually break. So here's my daughter. She's a teenager and so she doesn't like when Cameron goes into her room.
It's just one of those things. She hates it and she doesn't like him to come in there because he causes problems and he's only in there. So because she doesn't like for him to come in to her room, he does it anyway.
And he does it over and over. He'll go in there, he'll take something of hers, he'll go in there and just lay on her bed and things like that. Because she just doesn't want him in there and so the fact that he'll go in there and he'll lay on her bed and make her mad. And he does it until she gets to the point where she is furious and done and he's going to pay the punishment for it. And I wish I could say that the punishment was I'm going to go to mom and dad and they're going to handle this in a peaceful way.
That's not really what she kind of sees fit in the moment all the time. And so here's what he did or he does, goes in there and she yells, get out of my room. He'll go out.
He's laughing. A few minutes later, he comes back in. Get out of my room.
I said, get out of my room. He leaves. He's like, man, I got her exactly where I want her. Comes back in, does it over and finally she's like, that's it. She follows him. He runs across the hall to his room and he begins to slam the door. But here's what Lindley understands.
If Lindley can get one foot in the door. If she can just get one foot in that door, she can kind of weasel her way into his room and get back at him. Here's what I want you to know about unresolved anger. When you have anger in your heart and hatred in your heart and it is unresolved and you're not willing to make it right with somebody, here's what you're doing. You're allowing the enemy just to get a foot in the door.
And just like my daughter can when she has a foot in, she can weasel her way into his room. The enemy, when he gets a foot in your life, he can weasel his whole way right inside of your life. That is what unresolved anger and tension will do in your life. At the end of this sermon, Matthew chapter seven, I mention this every week. Jesus, he says, as he's wrapping everything up at the end of Matthew chapter seven, he says, those who take my words and practice them are going to be like a man that builds his house upon a rock. But those that don't practice what I've taught are going to be like the ones that put their house on the sand.
And when the storm comes, and by the way, the storm's always coming, when the storm shows up in your life, those who have been quick to reconcile, those who have been quick to make things right, your life will become a stable and secure foundation that cannot be shaken. But those that sit back and say, nope, you don't know what they did. You don't know how they made me feel. You don't know what they took from me.
You don't know what they did that affected my relationship with somebody else. You don't know the half of it. And I admit, I don't.
But here's what I want you to know. Jesus says, be quick to reconcile. Here's what your next step is, is that for some of you, if you're in here today and you're struggling with this, here's what I want you to know.
You need to ask yourself, look to yourself and say, do I know Jesus as my Savior? Because reconciliation is just a byproduct of what Jesus has done in our hearts. You see, every single one of us, every person in here, we have one thing in common. We were born into this world as sinners. We were born into the sinning family. And there's nothing that we could do to ever get ourselves out of it. Every one of us were equally sinful, equally guilty, equally broken.
Every one of you, myself included. In our relationship with God, the Scripture says we were enemies with Him. We were a hostile relationship with God. We didn't have a good relationship. We didn't have a peaceful relationship.
It wasn't good. We had enmity between us. We had problems between us. So God said, you know what, I love, put in your name there, my case, I love Josh so much that even though he has wronged me, he has wronged me.
I am going to send my beloved son to die and pay for all of the wrong that Josh has done against me. And when he died for us, he paved the way so that you and I could be reconciled to the Father. And now our relationship with God goes from a hostile relationship to a peaceful relationship because of what he did. He reconciled us. And it's out of that, listen, when I look at what Christ has done for me and how he reconciled to me, how foolish am I not to be quick to reconcile with anybody. It doesn't matter what they've done to me.
It doesn't matter how they made me feel. I need to be quick to reconcile because that is the way that Jesus has done for me. For some of you, the reason why you can't reconcile there is because you've never been reconciled there.
That's the first step. For some of you, the reason why you're harboring so much bitterness and anger, I'm not asking if you've been in church your whole life. Some of you might have been in church for 40 years.
That does not matter. If you can't get over anger and problems in your heart, it could be because your heart has never been reconciled with the Heavenly Father. And your next step is, let's get it right there and when we're right with him, that's when we can be right with one another. And then for some of you that are Christians, be quick to reconcile. Don't delay.
Go find him. It could be during the invitation time. It could be right after church or on the phone or you're texting or you're calling or you're doing something.
Be quick to reconcile with other people. Can you bow your heads with me? Let's all stand, heads bowed, hearts lifted in prayer. How many of you would say, and I mean this is kind of scary, isn't it?
He's going to ask us some questions. How many of you would say, Pastor, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I'm a Christian today and I'm going to raise my hand in testimony of that. How many of you would say that?
Would you slip up your hand? Praise God. My hand's raised.
If you weren't able to raise your hand, listen, let me tell you this. The greatest example of reconciliation that I could ever give you isn't my story. It's the story of the Bible, the story of what God did for you. The story of what God did for us. That's the greatest example of reconciliation that we could ever talk about, that we could ever celebrate.
He's done that for you. If you don't know Jesus as your Savior, in a moment I'm going to pray and this altar is going to be open. I would love, we have pastors down front that could show you. And listen, no one's going to judge you. In fact, we're going to celebrate with you.
And that's what we would love to invite you to do. But Christians, you know, our hands went up. Listen, I've been in a part of church my whole life. We have problems with people, don't we, from time to time. We have ought with people. We have moments when they walk into the room that we feel a certain way.
And we have hatred. And we never say these thoughts out loud because they're terrible and it sounds bad, but they're inside of us. Here's what Jesus is saying, is that your thoughts inside of you are just as guilty as the actions that we do on the outside. What I want you to do in a moment is I'm just going to pray and this altar is going to be open.
If you have anything in your heart that's not right, listen, nobody's going to judge you. We are not a church to condemn you. We are a church to tell you about the greatest rescue story on the face of the planet.
Don't live in prison, but instead be free with what Jesus has done for you. Father, Lord, I love reconciliation. Thank you for sending your son to die for us, to reconcile us. And Father, as I shared my story where I had to make things right, it took humility, it took courage. God, we need courage. We need humility in this place to make things right in this room. I pray, Father, that we would do that in this moment. We love you. Speak to our hearts, for it's in your name.
Listen, as Sarah Grace plays, this altar's open. Perhaps you need to make things right. Nobody's going to judge you.
Nobody's going to wonder why you're coming down front. Jesus is going to speak directly to those people later in his sermon. But listen, I just want you to make things right.
Maybe perhaps you need to sit down, send a text to somebody in this moment. Be quick. Remember, your worship in this place is going to be effective.
You can't worship in spirit and in truth and have alt in your heart. That's what Jesus is saying. Make it right. Be quick. And by the way, don't just be looking around saying, I hope so and so makes it right. No, no, no. This is about us. This is about our response. I'm going to give you just a couple of moments.
