Transcript

Good morning, church. So thankful you're here today. I'm so thankful to be with you on Palm Sunday. I want to take just a moment and celebrate with you a couple of things, if you'll pop up this first image for me. We had a big work day this week, and so many of you, almost all of you, were there helping us do some tasks.

And some of them were tedious, like putting backs on 150 chairs at the new facility. Y'all did a good job. I've already put them out. They're pretty level. So good stuff there.

People were working all over the building. We're so thankful for you. This past Friday, we closed on the building. So give the Lord a hand. Amazing.

All of this is him. This miraculous journey is all the Lord Jesus. And so very thankful for that. Happy Palm Sunday to all of you. I'm so.

The kids did great just now. Some of them knew the song, but I don't think they'd been working on it. So that was really great, anyway, that they knew any of it. So Palm Sunday comes. The idea of Palm Sunday comes straight out of the Bible.

This is why we celebrate this. Year in, year out. Palm Sunday is this moment where large crowds were gathered in Jerusalem, waving palm branches just like our children, casting them at the feet of Jesus and crying out, hosanna. Hosanna in the highest. And so that's what we just sang together as Jesus, in this day, rode in on the back of a donkey into the city of Jerusalem like a king.

And that's recorded in the Book of John. I think several gospels have it. But John 12, it says, the next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees, went out to meet him, crying out, hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.

And so that's why we celebrate every year, right? The week before Easter, the triumphal entry, Palm Sunday. But the crazy thing about this story is just less than a week later, some of those same people, perhaps in those same large crowds before Pontius Pilate, shouted. Instead of Hosanna, they shouted out, crucify him. It's kind of a wild thing to consider that just mere days later, from the triumphal entry, we get what seemed to be a tragic exit where Jesus is crucified and buried.

We call that Good Friday. The reason we call it Good Friday, as famously, Pastor Lockridge preached. He preached a sermon that said, it's Friday, but Sunday's Coming. And that's what we're going to celebrate together next week at the new building. God is so good.

I can't wait to celebrate Easter there with you. And early Sunday morning, Jesus Christ was risen. Today, however, we're going to continue in our sermon series. I will go ahead and let you know. We're going to take a one week break next week.

It is Easter Sunday. I'm going to preach some kind of crazy resurrection gospel sermon. Bring your friends, bring your family. We want to give them an opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus. And so please bring others so that they can hear the good news.

But today we're going to continue in the Sermon on the Mount. We've entitled this series Kingdom Living. And this is Christ's Sermon on the Mount. A call by King Jesus to live under his rule, live under his reign. That's why we called it Kingdom Living.

He is describing what it means to be kingdom citizens. He's bringing heaven on earth, if you will, what it looks like, what it will look like perfectly one day in heaven. In our last text that we covered last week, we heard right at the close something rather difficult. Jesus said, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. And that's a hard saying unless you understand what Christ is on about there.

He's saying that your righteousness needs to exceed the religious experts, but it has to go beyond some kind of legalism, some kind of rule following, which is what they were proficient in. They didn't understand the heart behind the law. They were just practicing it outwardly. And so instead he's bringing us a new system, a new way of thinking about the law that is heartfelt and not external. We cannot obtain this kind of righteousness on our own.

It doesn't come from human works. It comes from grace and faith and the mercy of God. This is why he's began this whole sermon saying, blessed are those who are poor in spirit humble. Not like so many of the Pharisees and scribes of that day that would pray on street corners and say, look how great I am. Poor in spirit, pure in heart, not rigid legalistic, but righteousness by grace.

Now in our text this week, he's going to go further on this note. He's already told us about the blessed mark of being a peacemaker. I think this sermon is meant to specifically dig in on that, what it means to have this blessed mark, to pursue reconciliation in a powerful way, to pursue reconciliation with God and with One another. Now, I would ask you this. This is something that perhaps you could answer for yourself or turn to your neighbor, someone close to you, maybe your spouse would know this better even than you would know this of yourself.

Do I have the mark of a peacemaker? Am I a reconciler? Am I someone who pursues reconciliation in my relationships? We live in a world, it's very obvious, a world filled with division. It maybe is more obvious than ever before.

There's uncontrolled anger, there's broken relationships, whether it's in family, it's in community, it's in your workplace, it's on the news, it's everywhere you look. You will see divisive language and people at odds with each other. This is common. It's even common perhaps in your own family. Families arguing over who they voted for and father and son disagreeing on these issues.

Neighbors going around. I've been seeing various reels and things of neighbors going around ripping up yard signs and pulling down flags and keying people's cars next door. Neighbors, wild people. I saw this one clip somebody had put like a phyto shock one of those dog shockers on his yard sign just to shock people trying to pull his sign up, which is funny to watch, I'll say. But it happens even in the church.

Even in the church. Some would argue more in the church. We struggle with unresolved conflict that disrupts our unity. And then people begin to pull away. They pull away from their community groups, they pull away from the church rather than learn to reconcile.

The outside world expects more out of us. We should be honest about that. They often will say the church is filled with hypocrites. Perhaps the reason they say that is because of our lack of reconciliation. I don't think it's that anybody expects people to be perfect, but they certainly expect us to act a little bit more like Jesus.

And anything they do know about him, they expect more from us. But it's going to take us falling on our faces before him and saying, I'm not good. I'm a mess. I have people I'm angry with. God help me to forgive and to reconcile.

So we're going to dig into this text today. The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, verses 21 through 26. Jesus is confronting his hearers with a deepening, a deeper understanding of really the sixth commandment, this murder idea, this anger that leads to murder idea. He's exposing the seriousness of unresolved anger and what will happen among the brotherhood, among the church. He urges them here to pursue Reconciliation.

I believe we can understand these principles. We can understand them. The text is going to give us three compelling reasons why pursuing reconciliation is essential in the kingdom of God. Don't miss that. You want to be a part of the kingdom of heaven and the true church of Christ, you have to pursue reconciliation.

So here we go. Chapter 5, verse 21:26. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says, you fool will be liable to the hail of fire.

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you. Leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

This is the word of God. Amen. I pray that this would challenge you, but also encourage you. I know this is. This is a difficult saying for anybody, even if you've lived very peacefully in this life.

It's a difficult saying, but I think he's showing Christ Jesus is showing why reconciliation is essential. First reason being because it reflects our new Christlike character. The Bible says you're a new creation. There's something new about you and it begins right here in forgiveness. You have been forgiven much, so you ought to be able to forgive, forgive much.

You have a new Christlike character. He's speaking to this heart attitude. Look, the law. I want you to understand something. Jesus has already said.

I came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. I might would argue what he's even doing further than that. He's come not to destroy the law, but to deepen it. He's making it even more heartfelt. It's moving beyond an external action.

We look at the thesis sixth Commandment, for instance, and we say, all right, Jesus or the Lord has said here, thou shalt not murder. But now Christ is saying, but murder begins in here. You've got a murder problem before you ever act on it. Okay, Whoa. So our new Christ like character starts to move the heart.

Verse 21 is really going to show us the way that Christ is going to deal with almost every One of these sections, he begins with these antithesis, these six times. He'll say, you have heard, you have heard, you've heard the Commandments. Perhaps he's talking about or other laws. Primarily he's looking at the Ten Commandments. And he begins here with murder.

But he's going to cover murder, adultery, divorce, swearing retribution, and how to respond to enemies. He's going to say, you have heard it said. But I say, but I say. And so now he's come to deepen our understanding, to move it from external to internal. Matthew 5.

In fact, we read this last week. He says, I tell you, unless the righteousness, your righteousness, exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. What he's talking about there is the fact that everything they're doing is external, but it's not changed their heart at all. You're going to have to learn that this thing swells up from inside, that the spirit of God in you now is causing you to live new. So verse 21, he says, you've heard it said, those who murder will be liable to judgment.

Well, we understand this word murder. King James, in fact, in Exodus 20, it says, Thou shalt not kill. And he says, you will be liable for judgment. The judgment in that day would have been an eye for an eye. They had all kinds of systems too, about how to deal with this, like if it was manslaughter versus intended, or they had a lot of God had done a very diligent work in helping instruct them how to deal with murder.

And so he says, you'll be liable for judgment. And the people go, well, duh, yeah, we've heard that said. Of course, even us, you know, we don't have the Judeo system, but a lot of our documents are from Judeo Christian worldview. And so, yeah, okay, you kill, you're in trouble. Leviticus 24, it says, Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death.

So that's the way of the land. He says, you've heard that said. People are going, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. But I say, look at verse 22. And this is going to be his habit.

You've heard it said. But I say, and he's not going to relinquish, he's going to deepen. And that should make you do this. It should make you go, I was already having trouble. Now I don't even know what to do.

In a few weeks he's going to say stuff about if you look at a man Or a woman. If you look at a woman with lust, you've already committed adultery, and every man in the room is going to go boogers. And there's all these kinds of phrases where all of a sudden he starts deepening the understanding. He says, I say. I say what?

That if you are angry with your brother, you're liable for that judgment. Anybody in the room ever been angry with somebody? Some of you didn't raise your hands. And there's some other things in the Bible for you for the lies you just told. I mean, I don't even know my children.

I mean, my children are angry. I don't know. I didn't try this, but they'll be angry with me. And they'll start at like 2 or 3. Like, they're probably earlier, before even able to talk.

They were probably angry. Like, if they could have exposed that, they would. Yeah, I'm pretty sick that you made me sit in this poopy diaper for a while. We start being angry with our brothers and sisters and our parents and our neighbors. We just.

We have this stuff built in. It's part of our sin nature. Now. He's speaking here of wrathfulness. King James Version, in fact, adds the words without a cause so that you're angry without reason, without good reason.

You're just angry with them. Now I will say, because this comes up sometimes. People will ask me, is anger a sin? No, it isn't. Jesus gets angry.

He gets angry several times. Anger itself is not a sin. But I gotta admit something. Man's anger usually is mankind. We're normally.

We're gonna move anger into something sinful. It doesn't take us long either. And anger, I would argue, is perhaps the main reason for murder. In fact, it might be the only reason. Like, just think about every situation.

Oh, I was depressed. Why were you depressed? Because I was angry. You know, whatever leads people to kill, it's probably almost always unresolved anger. Jesus is saying, there's a heart problem right here that will lead you to do the wrong thing.

But even before that, God, he's been saying this for a long time. He says, man looks on the external, but God looks inside. He says that of David back in First Samuel. God knows what's going on in here, my friends. You understand this, right?

Oh, I didn't do anything. I didn't say that out loud. Yeah, but he heard that. He knows what's going on in there. He knows the movement of your heart.

He says, if you're angry with your brother, you're Liable for the same judgment if you insult them. Not going to make you raise your hands again. But you know you've done it. You've done insults. Some of us young men in the room, we grew up.

That's how we showed up one another. Affection was insults. And we still do that. You know, a lot of us men in the room, I don't know about ladies. Ladies don't seem to take this as well.

It's what I've observed. I'm not going to say that stereotypically, but it seems to me when y'all insult each other, you go, whoa, whoa, whoa. We're not friends. I hate you forever. You know, men, we might call one another awful names, and it's because we love each other.

But I got to say something to you. Christ is calling us to be encouraging, to no longer be insulting. He says, you're liable to the council going before the Sanhedrin, the people that tried Jesus and crucified him. He says, you're liable for that when you insult. Now he's talking about a true angry insult of others.

Some of you use various fingers to show these things. I think it's included. I have no doubt. What does that mean? We know that means the F word, so you might as well have just said it.

So, insults. Oh, is this a stranger? He cut me off. Well, God saw it. Liable to the council.

I used to say this to my brother because he would say awful things to me when we were little kids. In this Bible verse right here in verse 22, it seems kind of. Kind of light. He says, if you call somebody a fool, I'm like, that's pretty mellow, to be honest. You know, I've been called a lot worse.

If you call him a fool, you're gonna. You're gonna be liable for the hell of fire. My brother would call me names. I'd say, don't call your brother raca, because the word here is raca. That's PK kind of foolishness going on.

All right. When you've heard that many sermons. Oh, don't call me raca, which means empty head.

The word here for fool, in fact, is the word moros. Probably can make the connection there. Says, you'll be liable for hell of fire. It's funny, but Jesus ain't playing, and he's talking. He says, your brother.

I like what one commentator writes on this. He says, Jesus primarily has in mind interpersonal relationships within the community of faith rather than the broader social ethic. Now, certainly you should and could apply this to every relationship. But he is primarily speaking to how Christians treat each other. And it's a real shame when we call each other morons.

It's a real shame when we're angry with each other without trying to resolve it. The outside world looks at that and goes, we're doing that already. We don't need to do what you're doing. We can sleep in on Sundays. If you are going to live like we live, it ought to be different in this place.

Christ Jesus has started a new economy. The hell of fire. Here is the word Gehenna to paras. Gehenna is a place, he's saying, literally, this dung heap. Gehenna comes from the valley of Hinnom, a valley south of Jerusalem where King Ahaz and Manasseh offered child sacrifices to the pagan God Molech.

It's a terrible place. It became a place to burn refuse and dispose of corpses. It is a place of unquenchable fire and eternal punishment. He says, you call each other morons in the church. That's where you belong.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, jonathan, that is very, very much void of any grace and mercy. Well, Jesus isn't really applying a whole lot of that right here. Your grace and mercy you have received in salvation. Now the expectation has gone. Here you are new in Christ Jesus.

No longer can you just decide, well, I want to live like the world. You're not of the world anymore. You have made a step towards Christ Jesus. You are new in him. And so when you treat each other like the world treats each other, it makes no sense.

It's not who you are anymore. Reconcile no more unresolved anger. I heard a speaker recently talking about this, talking about the idea of what it means to be a Christian. And Christians will at times get frustrated that they just can't do all the things that everyone else is doing. They can't go out and be drunk on the weekends, and they can't be just running their mouths in the way that they used to.

And he. He was making this really big point that, you know what, but we gave all of that stuff up because there was something better. Didn't we believe that when we said yes to Jesus? I don't know what your gospel story was, but some of you came out of darkness and have come into light. Why then do you want to go back to darkness?

It doesn't make any sense. Now. Some of us in the room got saved very young, like myself. And I think those are the ones of us who struggle a little bit. Like I Never really tasted that world.

So the rest of you that did, will you please let the rest of those people go? Let them know, hey, it's not great. We ran away from that for a reason. And so now in our interpersonal relationships, why do we bring darkness there? We are children of light in Christ Jesus.

Now we have been made new. This is what it Sundays. In fact, Second Corinthians 5, one of my favorite scriptures in all of the Bible. It's 5:17. It says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Now look where he goes next. This isn't accidental. All of this is from God, who, through Christ, reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ.

Jesus was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. This isn't for pastors. This isn't for elders and deacons. This is for Christians. You call yourself a faithful father of the Lord Jesus.

You have been given the ministry and the message of reconciliation, which means anger, insults, fools. The way you treat people, it should be about the ministry of reconciliation. This means at times people will treat you ill. Maybe it's happening a lot to you. But like Christ says, this is, I think, how you apply, turn the other cheek.

And we're going to get to that, too. What you could, what would be just, you might think to yourself, when someone calls me a fool, a moron, when someone is flicking me off, when someone is treating me, terrible retribution would be me giving them the same. That's an eye for an eye, right, Jonathan? Yeah, okay, but that's. Jesus says it's a new economy.

Now. I have saved you for much. I've forgiven you from everything. I have shown you grace and mercy enough to free you from a life of sin. So now you got to take the L every once in a while.

That's, I think, what Jesus says by turning the other cheek. When someone calls you these horrible things, you go, sorry you feel that way.

How can I help you? Some of you, I don't know if any of you, I don't think anybody in here is working in like a fast food restaurant or something, but maybe I think there might be one or two. But like some people are going to come through there and their food just didn't come on time, right? Some of you are in restaurants, various. Maybe some of you are working in places where just people are in a hurry and they're Ticked at you.

You didn't do it. You didn't do it. Whatever it was they're ticked about, you didn't do it. And you're the one that's going to get it, though. And it might be you're getting it because you're the one that doesn't look like you've died inside.

I used to work in pharmacy for a while. I could tell you, people go into that place and act like you just killed them. Like, my prescription's not ready. Oh, my goodness. I mean.

And I used to work in a restaurant. Like, there's so many places like this in life where you get the opportunity to be scolded. What an opportunity, right? The opportunity by perfect strangers to call you the horriblest things. Some of you are from the North.

I think this is just how you communicate up there, right? Cause y'all bring that junk down here, we can tell. Yankees like that down here, we see it. And some of you are saved by grace. And you're changing.

The Lord's working on your heart. Well, we're messed up down here, too. We just say it different. Bless your heart and stuff like that. It's a cuss word.

We're changed in Christ Jesus, though. We have a ministry of reconciliation. Here's what we have to do. Church, Christian in the room. Here's what you have to ask yourself.

This person's treating me terrible. But what's underneath this? What's underneath this? I have an opportunity to share grace and love and mercy. I can take what I'm hearing and just let it pass out, pass through one ear and out the other, and just say, lord, can you help me see what's going on with this person so that I can be a minister?

You're getting the opportunity to share reconciliation every day, unlike I'm getting. God has strategically placed you in the place that you work so that you can be a reconciler. I'll never get to go to those places. But you do. It's not accidental.

Paul writes to the Colossians. He says this. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, what?

Put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. I want to be a part of that kind of church. That's what I want to Be a part of now. I wonder this.

I've been seeing this thing going around. Have y'all seen the cookie challenge yet? Have y'all been seeing this pop up on reels and various things? They put a toddler in the room with the two parents, right? And there's something uncovered and they pull these bowls away and the kid has two cookies, and one of the parents has a cookie and the other one doesn't.

And you get to learn a lot about your little toddler if you do an exercise like this. You'll learn if they have any empathy in them at all. Or you may learn that they have a favorite parent. I saw one of them, in fact, where the kid kept the two cookies, took one from this parent and gave it to the other, like, oh, I see where I'm at in this. Some of the kids, though.

In fact, one of the kids, I think it might be that right image. I don't know. I saw one of them where the kid. As soon as they uncovered it, the mom and dad said, aw, mommy doesn't have a cookie, or whatever. And the kid just started boohooing.

So he had a lot of empathy. He took his cookie and gave it to mom. I could tell you what some of my kids would do. It wouldn't even be surprising. Like, Kenzie, I guarantee you would throw both of her cookies in her mouth and maybe take the other one.

I mean, I'm just saying I've got one of those. And it's an opportunity, though. It's a cool exercise to find out what will a child do to reconcile a situation. Kind of a cool exercise, but made me think we're. This is going to be a really loose illustration, but we're the child, right?

We're the children of God. And God has given us so much right in salvation because of the cross of Christ. He has given us so much. In fact, we've been given way more than two cookies. We've been given an endless wealth of reconciliation.

And some people, here's the thing, church. Some people, we decide to just let it pour out to. I don't know what it is about some people that they mistreat you, but for some reason you just feel a heart for them and you'll pour some love their way. And then other people who treat you not even that bad, you give none. I get it.

Some people you just don't connect with. You don't see eye to eye, and you're just like, I want to avoid this person with all of my being. And so you decide to give some some of the reconciliation and others forget you. I think Christ has called us to the ministry of reconciliation. So that person you want to walk away from, that's an opportunity, I think, for you to talk to the Lord a little more, say, I don't know what it is about them, God, but I don't care much for them.

But I know you do. Help me, guide me, help me to do the things you've called me to here. Because you say, it's not even about external murder. It's. It's about what's going on inside of your heart.

So ask yourself, does my response to others conflict with what Christ is teaching, or does it look more like Jesus? Do I struggle with uncontrolled anger? Have I been guilty of murdering people with name calling and insults and my unresolved anger? Here's the second reason. The second reason is because it recognizes how discord hinders our worship.

You've probably not even considered this part, but Jesus is getting right into it. Jesus explains that anger and discord, unresolved reconciliation hinders our offering. It hinders our worship. He says in verse 23 and 24, he says, if you're bringing your gift and remember you've got a problem with somebody, pause and go, make it right. Go make it right.

Be reconciled. This idea of be reconciled is to change your mind, to renew a friendship. Da Carson, when writing on this, he says, forget the worship service for a second. Some of us are so type A. We're like, I gotta get through the process.

No, no, no. Jesus is saying, pause. You might have to step out and call your dad. You might have to step out of the building for a minute and call somebody. We're not right.

I want to talk to you more about this. Just know that I care for you. We need to talk more. I'm sure it might be somebody in this room. You might have to just go sit down next to them while you're thinking.

I've come here to do worship and do my offering and do the Lord's Supper. I've come here to do these things. No, you've come here to be reconciled to God and to others. He's done all the work in reconciling you to himself. Have you received it?

But then are you being reconciled with one another? He says, paul's right here, Da Carson, just to continue on that, he says, forget the worship service and be reconciled to your brother. Only then can you even worship God. Men love to substitute ceremony for integrity, purity and love. But Jesus will have none of it.

He's right about this. Worship that doesn't come from the heart is not acceptable to God. This is one place where God speaks of this. Psalm 51. You are not happy with a gift given on the altar in worship, or I would give it.

You are not pleased with burnt gifts. The gifts on an altar that God wants are a broken spirit. O God, you will not hate a broken heart and a heart with no pride. He's about the heart. This is why he says, I'm looking for righteousness that exceeds the Pharisees, because the Pharisees have not given me their heart.

I want you who you really are. We're not reconciled. In fact, the Bible says that our prayers will be hindered. This is what it says in your marital relationship. Some of you haven't even considered this.

This is What Peter writes, first Peter 3. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life. So that don't miss it. Your prayers may not be hindered. Now, I have to admit something to y'all church.

I have felt this many times. I have felt this not just in my marital relationship, but in relationships with some of you where I have a hard time praying when there's something exposed. I've had plenty of fights with my wife. I hate to say. I'm sure y'all would be like, man, the pastor's probably got that all worked out.

We work some of it out, but new stuff comes up. Sometimes I think we've gotten better at how we have heated discussions.

Kids bring new equations to the table that will sometimes cause you to bicker. And life is chaotic, and there's never enough money. Does anybody have enough? I don't know. I guess it can happen, but it never seems to quite all work out.

And so you fight about all the same things everybody fights about, and you argue about these things, and hopefully you get better about how to do it in a Christlike manner. But I've felt this many times where I'm like, why is it that. Why is it that I feel disconnected with you right now? God, what is going on with me and you? And it might be that.

And he loves me enough, in fact, I think, to sometimes just kind of dig and just say, hey, you know what you said to your wife last night? I'm not good with it. Like, yeah, I don't really want to talk about that. God, I don't really want to talk about that. Because she Definitely deserved that.

You know? She did. No, she didn't. Ah, fine. And I always feel like I'm the guy that has to apologize now.

You can talk to her later. I'm not going to out her on this. She didn't really grow up in a family that did a lot of apologizing. Some of you are this way. You didn't grow up having your parents say, say, I'm sorry.

I did. My parents are like, now you say you're sorry, and I'd say, I'm sorry. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Say exactly what you're sorry for. I'm sorry that I smacked you.

You didn't mean that. Try that again. Golly. Now kiss her on the cheek.

Gross. That's how I grew up. My wife didn't grow up like that. So I've thought at times that it was my job to help her apologize, but. And she needs to apologize sometimes.

Guess what, wives, I don't know if you're under some impression that you never mess up. You mess up. You sin. Just like men. We both sin sometimes.

You need to say, I'm sorry. But it's not our jobs, men or women, to help the other be reconciled to God. But if we're in the wrong, we should reconcile. And so these are these moments where I have to. I have to apologize.

But also, I'm hoping to help lead my family. Well, like, okay, I said this, and I shouldn't have said that. I'm so sorry. But we really didn't work this out correctly either. So let's continue to figure this out.

Otherwise, I can't pray. God won't let me talk because I got to deal with this. And it's not just my wife. Sometimes it's interpersonal relationships with church members or various people. I just can't.

I can't sleep sometimes. And that's the Holy Spirit of God, I believe. Ask yourself, have you come here to worship today and you're feeling like something's off? I just can't really sing today. I don't know.

I feel disconnected from the church. Maybe it is. There's somebody in your life you need to say, I'm sorry, and see what happens when you finally listen to the word of God. Maybe your worship will start making sense again. Maybe you'll feel more connected to the body of believers.

Here's the third reason. Because it responds quickly before things escalate. I don't know if y'all are under the impression that things just naturally get better. I've observed that is never the case. Everything.

In fact, I think it's one of the laws of thermodynamics, is that things just break down over time. But it's the same with relationships now. If you've got great friends, you know, you can be away from great friends for a while. And it's like when you get back together, it's like you just picked up right where you left off. That's a good friend, that's a true friend.

But if you left someone off with anger and unresolved bitterness, guess what that does grows. They'll begin to think, you'll begin to think, you'll begin to say things that never even happened. But the problem has just swelled until eventually that person is actually the devil. I can't reconcile with them. They're the worst human that's ever been humaned.

I mean, it all stemmed from something that could have been handled, but you let it escalate. This is what Christ is on about here. Verses 25 and 26, he moves now from brothers to accusers. This situation was not handled well. Now people are going to court.

Brothers and sisters should not be taking one another to court. The problem has escalated. He says, no, you better come to terms. Verse 25 he says, Come to terms quickly. That means reconcile speedily without delay.

Don't let the sun go down on your anger. These are the principles. Stop waiting. It's not going to get better. But Jonathan, I just don't want to confront the problem.

Maybe, you know, maybe I just misunderstand. No, you didn't misunderstand. Deal with it. I know, I got you. I'm a middle kid too.

If any of you are middle kids in the room, you know very well most of us are non confrontational. We don't want to deal with it. We don't create a lot of problems either, but we like to avoid problems. I'm a problem avoider and I'm a confrontational avoider. And God called me to be a pastor, which I find hilarious because confrontation finds me every day.

He says, come to terms quickly. And then 25 he says, Lest your accuser, your brother has now moved into the accuser role. And then he talks about the process. Then you're going to be brought before the judge, then the guard, then you're thrown in jail and then you have to pay bail, then you've got to pay. And he says, you're going to have to pay every last dimension.

Because at this point this person has moved from being close to you to being your enemy. Your problems Swell when unhandled. They don't shrink. You learned this yet? They don't shrink.

They swell. But in Christ Jesus, you can handle anything. In Christ Jesus, the most difficult conversation that you could possibly imagine, and it's coming to your mind right now. Some of you had a terrible childhood. Perhaps.

I would imagine that's probably one of the hardest things to forgive is an angry or abusive parent or a neglectful parent. I imagine that's one of the hardest things to forgive. Or a spouse that did you wrong and there's divorce and there's all this mess. I imagine those are incredible things to reconcile. I'm going to give you a hard piece, just a hard word from the Lord Jesus today.

I don't see any exclusions. I just don't see them.

Yeah, he did you wrong. Yeah, they're all at fault. But guess what you have to do or you're never going to be well. Forgive. You're just going to get more bitter.

Your problem will swell. You'll be more and more bitter. And guess this sad thing might happen to you. And it happens so much. You may treat the next person as you were treated because of the bitterness that's welled up in you.

Don't let these things escalate. Deal in truth. Paul writes to the Ephesians. He says, stop lying to each other. Tell the truth to your neighbor.

We all belong to the same body. If you're angry, do not let it become sin. Get over your anger before the day is finished. Do not let the devil start working in your life. That's the new living version.

I kind of like how it puts that. Get to it quickly. Be quick to listen, quick to reconcile. The book of James. James writes chapter one.

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters. You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. We've had an interesting year already, just with the forest fires. Have y'all been observing?

I never remember hearing about these in the Carolinas, but we've had a crazy one this month already in the Carolinas. They happen in California all the time. There's a lot of reasons for that. I'm not going to get into that. But this one, this one is interesting.

I looked up, there was a forest fire in South Carolina somewhere near, like, Columbus. It hit, like, 13,000 acres. And they figured out who did it. This is so dumb. It was some hikers that didn't properly put out their cigarettes.

Isn't that wild? I read that and went this is a crazy world we live in. 13,000 acres burned up, all because of. I mean, a couple things about that size. Couple things about like that.

That was a great illustration. That one just came. That one just came naturally to me. All right. That all it took was this to destroy 13,000 acres of fire.

You know, your anger is this. You're a little. There's no way. This isn't going to feel good. I know.

In a world where everybody is just the most special, wonderful person that has ever existed. It's not true, though. The truth is you're very, very small. But God cares a whole lot about you. In spite of that, you're very, very insignificant.

But God loves you and died for you, and that makes you significant. And your anger is really. You know, some of us are running around and we're mad at everybody. Your anger is just not that impressive. But you let that stick around for a while towards somebody, and it swells and it swells and it becomes a fire such that.

Guess what? Guess how churches are destroyed. Guess how communities of believers get destroyed. Somebody had that. Oh, I don't like the way the carpet looks.

Oh, I don't like what she said to me. I don't like the way they worship. I'm just not into it. There's a lot of different churches in town. Like, go do that.

You know, we're trying to reach people. There's a reason we're doing things. But you just. I first came here and, you know, I was pretty cool with it. But then he said this.

And he said this. This is how churches fail. The devil has no power. The evil has no power in the place of God. But the people can destroy it.

Every great nation, in fact, this is how they were destroyed. Rome didn't collapse from external, it collapsed from within. The US will probably collapse from within, not from without. The great nations and certainly the church, it collapses because the people decide to let a small little spark become a forest fire of resentment, of gossip, of division, of broken relationships. So what is the goal here?

What is Christ on about? Handle this stuff swiftly before it becomes accuser. Court judge. If you got problems with people in the room, handle them swiftly before it blows way out of proportion. Ask yourself this, Am I dealing quickly with conflict?

Am I letting it go, or am I dealing with it fast? Am I letting it fester? Don't give anger the upper hand. In fact, James says this gives the devil a foothold. Don't assume time will heal all wounds.

Time won't heal wounds.

It makes them worse. If left unattended, pursue reconciliation. So I pray, as we're about to get into prayer together, that my main prayer for us is church. That the Lord has provided some incredible opportunities for us, that there's big things coming that we couldn't have planned. And God did a lot of things and he always has and he always will.

But we can really mess this up if we don't be the church he's called us to be. If we aren't the reconciling, the loving, the merciful, the turn the other cheeks, the slow to angers, the quick to hears, we have to be those things. That's what Christ has entrusted to us. Be ministers of reconciliation. And it starts in this place.

Let's just see church. Let's just. Let's experiment. If we can just be good to each other, if we can do that, maybe, just maybe, we can be good to some people outside. But if we can't figure out how to do it in here, where we both believe in Jesus, we're going to have real trouble out there where people are far from God.

Pursue reconciliation because it reflects Christ's character. It recognizes that this discord could hinder your worship. And lastly, respond quickly before it escalates. Let's pray now together. Church.

Heavenly Father, we ask that you would so be with us powerfully in this. We are. We are a broken people. We mess up all the time. We think things we should not think, we say things we shouldn't say.

We do things we shouldn't do. So much of the way that we tear down our relationships comes from a heart of anger. When we read this scripture today, Lord Jesus, we have to admit this one is really, really hard because we start dealing with anger from our earliest memories. We've been angry with people at times our whole lives right now, Lord, if we just paused for a minute, we might think of some people we're angry with right now. God, I pray for myself and for your church that you would bring those people to mind right now and that we would first lay them at your feet.

Say, God, I dealt poorly with this person. I've held unresolved anger towards this person. God, would you remove that? Would you give me a heart of forgiveness towards that person or those people? Would you start to work on that in me first, God?

Because I want so badly. I want so badly to hang on to that anger. It's comfort somehow to me, God, to stay angry with them because they hurt me. But you don't give us that exclusion here. Lord Jesus, would you help us to forgive, help us to let go so that first we can be at peace.

Because we're not at peace right now. As long as we hold that and let that fester and let that burn and swell, we're not at peace. God help us in this. To understand these words and to do them. God, I recognize that someone has come into this place today and this is all very, very far fetched.

To them it sounds beyond understanding because at this point, they've not believed in the cross of Christ. The idea of reconciling in this way, it is impossible for us to do. As mere humans, we have to have the power of Christ in us to even try to do things like this, where we let anger go and forgive others quickly. If that's you, my friend, you've come today and you're like, I'd like to understand how to have that kind of forgiveness and peace, but I haven't yet received Jesus. If that's you, my friend, this is an opportunity today.

There's no reason to wait. What a happy day, a Palm Sunday, a beautiful day to say yes to the Lord Jesus. Whether you say yes to him or not, he's still the Lord and Savior. The choice is yours whether or not you will agree with that truth or not. I pray today that you would agree, as Romans chapter 10 says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

We believe that wholeheartedly as a church friend. If you've come today and you're ready to receive that, pray simply with me. Jesus, I believe that you are Lord and Savior. I believe that you died on the cross for my sin and that you rose from the grave to conquer death and the grave for me. I stake my faith in that now, Lord Jesus, and I'm asking that you would guide me in a new way.

I do have a lot of bitterness in my heart. I do have a lot of unresolved anger. There are just a train of broken relationships in my past where I have just not been the man I desired or woman that I desired to be. God, would you now guide me in a new way where I can be a peacemaker, a reconciler? Dear friend, welcome to the family of God.

If you prayed that prayer with me just now, and we're praying right alongside you because we need it too. This is a test every single day to say, all right, God, I want to be blessed as a peacemaker. I want the ministry of reconciliation. I don't want to run from it. God, make me a reconciler in my workplace.

Some of my co workers are a real mess. God, help me to help me to be a voice of reason, a reconciler in that place and not to be just another destroyer who's just tearing people down and insulting one another. Help me in my family. God, we've got a bad system right now. We're hard on each other.

We say things we shouldn't say. There's a lot of anger in my home. God, would you help us? Help me first start with me, Lord, I am willing. Help me to be a peacemaker, a reconciler in my house.

Help us as a church. Lord Jesus, I pray that Eastgate Church would be known in this city as a place of peace. A place that gives easily and readily gives out grace. A place that loves one another and that loves a lost people. A place filled with peacemakers.

But God, we can't do this on our own. Give us the grace. Give us the power to do this in the way you envisioned it, as you preached it. We pray all of these things in Jesus name, Amen.