Matthew 5:21 What If God Posted Everything You Said?

Anger can feel amazing for a moment and then cost you everything. The chemical rush of outrage, the false sense of control it gives, and the quiet way it turns into bitterness that hardens your soul and damages your closest relationships.

 Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:21-26 from the Sermon on the Mount, refuses to let us stop at “I didn’t murder anyone.” He goes straight for the heart and the mouth: anger, contempt, insults, and the way we label people as “empty” when we’re frustrated. We also get painfully practical about gossip, venting, and the stuff we say in texts and side conversations, because what we say about people who aren’t in the room reveals what’s happening inside of us.

We all wrestle with one of Jesus's hardest teachings: worship and reconciliation are connected. If there’s conflict you’ve helped create, Jesus pushes you toward repair, not performance. The reality of church life in a multi-ethnic, multi-socioeconomic community, where misunderstandings are real and forgiveness is heavy lifting, but unity becomes a living apologetic that Jesus is bigger than our differences.

If you’re tired of constant rage, tired of the fallout from harsh words, or unsure how to pursue peace without pretending harm didn’t happen, this conversation will challenge you and give you a next step. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review with one question you’re still wrestling with.

Transcript

Sermon On The Mount Invitation

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Jesus gathered his disciples and walked to a high spot as a crowd swelled the students. Curious onlookers and possible enemies wanting to hear this religious leader who seemed different. Could it be the Messiah they have been waiting for to save them from their enemies? Could the old kingdoms of this world be passing away? Was this Jesus finally ushering in the kingdom of God? And then he spoke a verbal attack on unrighteousness and self-righteousness, an assault on I'ma get me and mine. And it was a message for the broken. Blessed are the poor spirit, the spiritually bankrupt, those who recognize desperate need for God. And starting with this deep truth, he dispensed world-changing, life-rearranging understanding. Love your enemies, be generous to everyone. Come on. For real?

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You will never be good enough by working harder. Pray this way. You are the light of the world. Do not worry about your life.

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Be realistic, Jesus.

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Ask, seek, knock. Stop performing. Enter the clear. Enter through the narrow gate. Feeling the foundation upon something that lasts.

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Today, many likers of Jesus listen to these words and they say, He probably didn't mean that, but if we truly assume Jesus meant what he said, a better kingdom would shine brighter in a darker world. Together we can look to the Savior on the mountaintop and soak in the teachings of life. Join us for uncommon sense, joyfully living out the challenges of Jesus' sermon on the mount.

Matthew 5 And Free Bibles

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Good morning, church. Good to be with you today. Today we're going to be in Matthew 5, 21. We have study Bibles available for you. If you don't have a good Bible, like a nice Bible to put your name on, we would love to give you one. We have them on both sides of the room. If you have 10 bucks to pay for part of it, drop it in. If you have no bucks, take it anyway. If you don't have a good Bible, we want to give one to you.

The Endorphin Rush Of Anger

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That being angry feels kind of good sometimes. Can we agree on that? Being angry can feel kind of good. Like God gave us anger as a survival mechanism, but sometimes we misuse it. Being angry causes your body to release endorphins. Quasi-righteous anger feels real good. Now many of the religious men who were surrounding Jesus at the moment that he's preaching this sermon believe that they had a right to look down on everyone else. Everyone. But Jesus called these hyper religious men whitewashed tomb, painted on the outside, death on the inside. Clean on the outside and full of bitterness on the inside. Now, these religious dudes, they loved being seen as better than everyone else. And they loved them some fake righteous anger. The kind of anger at sinners that made them feel good about themselves. Now we need to all be honest. We are usually more like them than Jesus. Can we be clear about that? Like there is a side of us that actually kind of likes terrible things happening because we get to feel justified in our anger. So here's the thing it gives us a rush, just like when we're looking at a car accident on the side of the road. It does. Some of us get so worked up about what Donald Trump or Gavin Newsom are doing that we feel fine sitting in constant rage. Now I've been in prayer meetings with pastors who will be praying against certain politicians, and they'll just like in prayer be like, God, I just want you to destroy that demon, and then they'll talk about a human being that way. In prayer with us politically. I've been with other believers who were happy that someone shot Donald Trump or Charlie Kirk. Guys, this is a problem. That ain't Christian. When we meet God face to face, He is not going to talk to us about everybody else's sins. He is not. He's not going to tell us how it was totally okay that we got enraged and made up lies and made fun of someone for the way they looked. Now, studies from the United Kingdom Mental Health Foundation, this is what they say. They say when you get angry, your body begins to prepare for a fight or flight response. And so it floods your body with an intoxicating, energizing high that can trick the brain into feeling temporarily powerful and in control. And guys, God did that to help us. It's survival. Now, anger protects you from being vulnerable or helpless, which can be good sometimes. Guys, if you can be mad at someone else, you feel strong. You feel in control. Also, anger helps you to feel confident in yourself. Things get black and white more quickly. Um, is that a bear? You start thinking, do I punch it in the nose or do I run? Do not punch a bear in the nose. Is that a knife? Do I try to grab the knife? Like your body immediately prepares for a fight. But quickly this turns into, I think that person is against me, so I'm angry. That person failed me, so I rage. Now here's what Barbara Brown Taylor says. She says, Staying angry with you is how I protect myself from you. Refusing to forgive you is not only how I punish you, it is also how I keep you from getting close enough to hurt me again. And nine times out of ten, it works. Only there is one serious side effect. It is called bitterness. And I can do terrible and it can do terrible things to the human body and soul. Friends, there is a nuance to the kingdom of God. People are messy. You are surrounded by redeemed sinners. You are a sinner. Your pastor is a sinner. Things are not black and white, and things are not simple. Reconciling, apologizing, those things take work, a lot of work, hard work. And you know what? If you do it right, it's not always satisfying either, is it? If I exercise, though, what I've read is it takes about 20 to 45 minutes of solid exercise for good feelings or like those endorphins to start kicking in to help me with my exercise. Or I could sit on my butt on my couch, eating Cheetos, read a phone, and my brain will also release endorphins if I just get angry. One is easy, one is difficult. Often when I apologize, and even after doing the right thing, I'm still gonna be disliked. And the person is going to remind me of all the things that I did wrong a lot of times. Like when I reconcile with someone who hurt me, a lot of times I don't get to enjoy feeling mad about it anymore, which is a bummer too, right? Like, I want to justify my need to be angry. I want to justify my desire to look down on people. But Jesus wrote the law about this. Only he knew how to interpret it perfectly, and only he could live it out perfectly in actions. And here's the big one that we're gonna talk about a lot today. In his heart, not in Columbia, sorry. In his heart. So let's look at our text, okay? Are you with me in uh Matthew 5.21? Does anyone have a Bible with them that is bound? Because I just think they're beautiful. I love seeing them. Oh, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I love you, Race. Every time, phone. All right, Matthew 5.21 through 26.

Jesus Links Anger To Judgment

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This is the word of Jesus. You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister will be subject to the court. Whoever says, You fool will be subject to hellfire. So, if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. By the way, remember, brother and sister usually means your not your actual brother and sister, but your brother and sister in faith. Verse 25, reach a settlement quickly with your adversary while you're on the way with him to the court, or your adversary will hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you'll be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny. Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on verse 25 and 26. Let me just cover it very quickly. Um, I'm gonna mostly focus on the first two sections, but I want to first address Jesus' other point. Reconciliation is good for your pocketbook. Reconciliation is good for your safety. Reconciliation is good for your family. Be careful not to make enemies in anger. You may need friends one day. This feels more like common sense that Jesus is throwing down here, okay? Like, don't allow your anger to make enemies with people you may need or people that may sue you. Friends, I want to hold our police accountable for their actions. I do. But I also want them to know I care for them. I'm not picking. I hate it when people show up to a police stop in my neighborhood saying what they did with the police officer's mom last night. Because you may need that police officer later. And if you talk to them that way, which is how I see people speaking to them, then there's going to be a problem later down the road. Now, you may never know when you need someone, friends. Stand up for what is right, yes. Speak truth to power, godly truth, but we don't make enemies where we don't need to. God has made us peacemakers, redeemers, reconcilers, hope bringers. So um that was God's word.

Prayers For Grief And Nations

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Let's pray. Father, we thank you for bringing us here this morning. But we acknowledge it's not easy for others today. Those who suffer today, those who are grieving, and we grieve over the devastation of the earthquake in Venezuela, and then we we ask that you would use your church to be the hands and feet to care for the vulnerable and hurting of that nation. Father, we continue to pray your protection over our Haitian and Syrian friends. Also, Father, we want to say we are gathered here today for you. This isn't this isn't should not be for us, it's for you. We gather and we remember your deep love for us, and we remind each other, and we acknowledge that we have no goodness apart from you. We are we are corrupt. Help us to understand our need for you, convict us, sharpen us, fill us with your grace. Please shape and teach us by your Holy Spirit and by the words of your Son Jesus this morning. May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts be pleasing to you. We pray this all in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen.

Juneteenth Story And Fedora Lesson

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Now I don't know about you guys, but when I first moved back to San Diego in 2015, I did not know what Juneteenth was. Like I had heard of Juneteenth, it was a thing, but I didn't really know anything else about Juneteenth. But in 2015, when I got here, like Juneteenth in Southeast San Diego was the best. Like the best. Um, like let me just say what Juneteenth is very quickly for those of you. Um June 19th, 1865, after the Civil War had already ended, news had yet to reach those who had been enslaved in Texas. And so it was finally told to those people that they were free men and women now. Um and so, in many ways, while a lot of people celebrate July 4th, many other people say we're not going to celebrate until it was everyone. And so that's why they celebrate June 19th, 1865, as the time that everyone was free in our country. Now, they weren't free to vote, they weren't free to drink water from certain water fountains, but things started to change. And so Juneteenth is a beautiful celebration, and I don't think there's any more beautiful place than celebrating it here in Southeast San Diego. And if you've ever been to a Juneteenth on Imperial, like especially back in the day, it was beautiful. Now, I will say there's one sad, little sad thing of more people knowing about Juneteenth, it's that now every area of San Diego has Juneteenth festivals. So you got Juneteenth in La Jolla, you got Juneteenth in Point Loma, La Mesa, El Cahone, and everyone is spread out now. But there was a time when like there was a ton of stuff happening right here on Imperial in Southeast San Diego, and it was an awesome festival. You had great music. One of the things that I love about our community too is that they had a lot of churches involved. So you had churches doing awesome music that glorified God. You had, okay, so not gonna lie to you, I wasn't raised in the church, and I wasn't raised in the black church. I don't know if you knew that. Um, but they had my ministry, and and and they would do my ministry stuff, and I the my ministry made me cry. Like it was so beautiful the way people would tell stories as a mime. I always just thought it was the the the glass, you know. No, no, no, it was beautiful. So Juneteenth, we had beautiful uh my ministry going on, and then at the same time, um, we had food, and the food, dang, was so good at Juneteenth. Like, I just love the food, and it was amazing, but also they had vendors. And the thing about the vendors is um let me just say, uh, at least early on when I would attend the Juneteenth festival, there was not a lot of like people with less melanin in their skin, okay? And so there was a lot of a lot of style and stuff that didn't fit me. Like, I'm not gonna suddenly be like a Rastaf Rastafarian looking kind of guy or anything like that. But there was one place that had hats for sale, okay? And um, I always wanted these hats. And I and I looked at this this hat place and I went up and I just saw this super cool fedora hat. And if you guys don't know what a fedora is, there's one on the side over there. I was gonna put it on for you, but um I think it would be a problem. Oh, thank you. So they had these fedoras, and uh, I remember trying on a fedora with my wife right there. I put that mug on my on my head, and my wife, she just took her hand. No, honey, no, no, and I'm like, what do you mean? What do you mean? Like, I look cool in this, right? Like, this is kind of old school, and she's like, No, you just look, you look like a goofy white boy, is what she said to me. The audacity. I mean, um, just be just because you know I looked like one didn't mean that she should well, okay. But here's the thing they had lots of hats, you know, and so I was like, okay, well, there was a really cool black one with like stripes, like pinstripes. I was like, this is the one. You know, I put it on and she says, you just need to stop. Just stop. Don't, don't. It doesn't look good on you. Now I I have learned that Filipino look Filipino people, they look cool in fedoras. Black people look cool, not everyone, I guess. Uh black people can look cool in fedoras, Mexican people can look cool in fedoras, Pacific Islander people can look cool in fedoras, maybe some other white people look cool in fedoras, but I did not look cool in a fedora. Jason Moraz, now he's more like got his hat like that all the time. Did he change? I don't know. Um, but at this point, my wife had just already said, like, let's walk away. Well, walk away. Um, she let me know I did not look good in that hat, and I was not going to look good in any of the hats that that vendor offered. Now the question is, was she being a jerk? No. Why? She wanted to save me the pain of walking around in a fedora with nobody willing to tell me that I look terrible in it, but everybody thinking that I look terrible in it. No, no, no, no. That's like, you know, you walk around with your fly down, you walk down, you walk around with food on your face. Someone who loves you is gonna tell you, right? Um, but like what often happens is nobody tells you. No one wants the pain of telling someone else something embarrassing or maybe that might conflict with them,

Jesus Hurts Us To Heal

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okay? So here's the thing today, Jesus is telling us something much like this, something painful. Jesus is upsetting us today. But it's funny how Jesus upsets people, it's how he does it. It's not by being a jerk. Because um, Jesus always upsets people. We know this, but like we know that like he wants us to do hard work, he wants us to do the painful work of reconciliation and he wants us to do it in kindness. Um, these things are difficult though. Can we all just agree, though, that Jesus is not a jerk? Yes, amen. Thank you. Jesus is not a jerk, but what he does is he picks at our wounds that cannot heal without his intervention because he wants to see us healed. He's a good doctor. If his words don't hurt you a little bit today, well, you're not listening. You're not. These words should challenge you. They challenged me all dang week. It was frustrating to me because I consistently found myself falling into these old patterns. You see, Jesus wants us to understand a few things. He wants us to understand that a heart that is consumed by anger, it festers and it oozes a bitter poison that spreads to others and it leads to death. But when we seek active peace in our relationships, well then Jesus brings life and health and healing.

Insults And Gossip Poison The Heart

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So today I'm gonna give you two lessons from Jesus to protect ourselves from anger. Two lessons from Jesus to protect ourselves from anger. And my first one is this insults from unchecked anger ruins relationships. Insults from unchecked anger ruin relationships. Now, this ruins relationships with other people, we know this, but it ruins our relationship with God too. And that, I mean, really, that's mostly the main point of today. That's most pointed today. It's like what's happening in your heart, this anger, it can ruin our relationship with God and with each other. So, verse 21, you have heard that it was said to our ancestors, do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, and you're gonna hear that a lot uh coming up in the next several sermons, he's gonna say, You heard this, but this is what I say. Everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. So we just have to stop for one second here. Does Jesus think anger and murder are the same thing? No. But do they both separate us from others? Do they both separate us from God? Jesus would say, Yes. He goes on to say, whoever insults his brother or sister will be subject to the court. Whoever says you fool will be subject to hellfire. Now Jesus said, Whoever says you fool, now we might call you stupid, but the the actual text is raka, okay? Um anyone who says to their brother, Raka, will be subject to hell fire. Um, what is the direct translation for rakah? It's empty. Okay? Empty, as in your head is empty. There's nothing between your two ears, right? You are empty-headed. That is what he's talking about, okay? Now you may be beefing with somebody right now, you may have resentment and anger towards them right now. They might have genuinely done you wrong, okay? But when you speak poorly about them, when you say their brain is empty, you insult the maker of their brain, you insult their maker. Anger and insults are very much serious sins to God. And without Jesus, they disqualify us from the kingdom of God. God cares about the words you speak, your words against others, made in his image, they destroy your relationship with him. Now, professor at a biblical seminary of the Philippines, Philippines, Samson Utanlet, he says this. He says, Hatred is not only expressed in taking another person's life, but also in disregarding the other person's dignity. See, these words would have been a scandal to those religious leaders at this moment, right? Like those people who said, I'm good enough already, I don't need anything else. They would have been a scandal to them. They were already good. We are the good ones. They saw themselves as above others because they didn't do those obvious sins. But God cares about a lot of things. God cares about violence, absolutely, but not just violence that leads to death. It's not even violent or hateful words. He cares about the violence in your heart first, hatred in your heart first. Remember as kids when people would say sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. That is so wrong, right? Like we have learned that words are often more powerful than sticks and stones, aren't they? They can destroy you for so much longer. Somebody in this room right now is thinking about something your second grade teacher said to you. You know what I'm saying? It still hurts you. That's the power of words. Sometimes they insult, uh, they incite actual violence, but other times they just emotionally tear us up on the inside, right? Now, Jesus continued to reveal that actions are only part of the puzzle. So much of this is about what's happening in your heart. Now, Pastor David Guzick, he said that Jesus exposed the hypocrisy of the religious leaders when he said to them the law was really only a matter of external performance, never the heart. But Jesus brings the law back to matters of the heart. Guys, a heart consumed by anger, it festers and it oozes a bitter poison that spreads to others and it leads to death. The goal is not only to stop from saying bad things. Jesus wants us to see people with the same compassion that he has for us. Now, there is a baseball player, and I tried to tell the story without really like saying who he was, but it doesn't work that well, so I apologize in advance. Um, I told it last service, and by the time everybody, yeah. Okay, so there's a baseball player for the Dodgers, and he's a rookie, and he's on a team I don't particularly love. Okay. Now, when his really good team lost two games in a row to a bad team, he said that something fishy was up, as if the bad team, the Rockies, were cheating. He also, in other particular plays, looked like he was trying to injure another player multiple times. He saw another player. Player got injured once and he said some real bad words about them right in front of a microphone. A guy who was on the ground hurt. Then, this is what he did this week. He vocally challenged the very best player on his team, who also happens to be the best player in all of baseball. He was acting like he knew better than this dude. And so me and my friends, I got some friends, one of them is a Dodger fan, the other one's in Florida, and we will send each other, you know, some like memes and gifts about sports or whatever. And and we were making fun of him while I was working on this sermon. And we laughed at how stupid this guy is. I'm like, guy, you need to listen to Shohei Otani. He's the best ever. Like, stay away, just do the do do what he says. And I'm working on the sermon and I'm laughing at him with my friends. And then I see video of him in the dugout where multiple players go to him and they put their arm around him and they're like, hey man, let me just help you. And then after the game, he did an interview. And you know what he said in this interview? He basically said, I'm paraphrasing, I'm so embarrassed because I shouldn't ever need help. I shouldn't have any weakness. And I'm like, oh my gosh, who taught him this? This poor guy has been taught his whole life he's not allowed to have weakness. This poor guy has been taught his whole life that he's not allowed to show weakness and that he doesn't have anything to learn. Don't you feel bad for this guy? I know I do. And then it came one more thing came out, and it was video of him in the dugout, and he was hitting himself in the head, and I was like, I've sinned against God the way I've treated this guy. I don't know him personally. I don't know him personally, and I like I don't want to hang out with him. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. I sinned against him. His actions shouldn't be able to stop me from only speaking kind words of other people. His actions shouldn't stop me from thinking kindness and mercy towards other people. Everyone out there, friends, is fighting a battle. Jesus wants our words to bring life. And it should come out of the overflow of what's happening in our heart. His actions shouldn't stop me from thinking kindness about others. What are you saying about someone who's not in the room today, friends? Christians, we must assume the best of our brothers and sisters in Christ. It's time we build them up rather than tear them down. They are not your enemy, they are co-heirs with Jesus. See, Jesus raised the bar, didn't he? It was like, don't murder, and you're like, okay, cool, thanks. I know not everyone here can say that, but it's okay. Like, then he says, don't speak murder. But only when our hearts aligned with Jesus can we really get to where he wants us, which is we don't feel murder towards people. We don't feel hatred towards people. That's only with Jesus. With his help, we need to feel Jesus' understanding of others. Now, I don't have enough compassion for the people who hurt me. I don't have enough compassion for the people who've hurt me and others. I have a kiddie pool of compassion for people. I have a thimble of compassion for people. And if I if I need compassion, we have to be drawing from the well of sympathy and love that reaches to the depths of the earth, and that is only through Jesus. Jesus has kindness to spare. And if if I would only go back to him again and again and again, this is where we will find ourselves with a kind heart. Because a heart consumed by anger, it oozes a bitter poison that only leads to death. Now Jesus says this in Luke 6, he says, For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs aren't gathered from thorn bushes or grapes picked from a bramble. A good person produces good good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil of the evil stored up in his heart, for out of the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. So the question becomes, how are we talking about others? Others who aren't even present. How are we thinking about them? Because honestly, even the talking is just coming from this, from thinking. But Ephesians 4 says, Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. James 3. The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, straining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. See, God wants us to use our tongues and our voices to affirm the goodness of people. Does that mean you stay in abuse? No. You have good boundaries, and if you are in abuse, you get out. I'm not telling you to go back and be abused. Never. You're never gonna hear that from me. But it also doesn't mean we talk about people as if they have empty heads. God gave them a brain, He created it. But also they have trauma and they have an upbringing with abuse that may have broken parts in them, but they're still made in God's image. When I talk poorly about people not in the room, when I insult them and when I call them stupid, I am sinning. And if you are talking trash about others with someone you think is safe, I just want to tell you this, I want to give you a warning. Um, the type of person that will do that with you, who allows you to dump on others, they're not safe. They're gonna tell someone about what you talked about. Your words are going to get out and they're going to do damage. Also, if someone is smack talking about somebody else with you, let me give you this too. They will be talking about you later. As soon as you're out of the room, they're gonna talk about you. So if you feel safe in that, you're wrong. You're wrong. Friends, um, don't listen or speak gossip. Don't even listen to it. Change the subject, leave the conversation, but don't be in that. And I have people that hate me that won't speak to me for not denigrating somebody else. I refuse. Now, let me just tell you obviously I still got some work to do because I just told you about that baseball player this week. You know, like I'm what I'm learning, right? But friends, we don't even listen to it. Now, Ecclesiastes 10 says not to curse someone, even from your bedroom. For a bird of the sky may carry the message, and a winged creature may report the matter. And I think it's funny because it feels like it's prophecy about Twitter. Like, don't do this or someone's gonna tweet it out. You know what I'm saying? Um, friends, whatever you text will be screenshotted. It will one day be revealed. Whatever you say in the church parking lot will one day be revealed. Whatever you speak in dark corners of the room is gonna be revealed. Wouldn't it be awesome if you said wonderful things about everyone? Even the people that hurt you, if you said all the positives, no lies, no lies, just positives. Uh I would call that a positive gossip in the past. I'm trying to think of new terms. I was thinking like gospel gossiper or good news gossiper or something like that. Wouldn't it be cool if God though had published everything you said this upcoming week? Let's talk about it. Now, at the last service, I said, what if, what if everything you said about other people was published online by God the next week? A lot of people were like, oh no, that's what they said at the last service, and and and I'm I'm trying to put it in a different way. Wouldn't it be amazing? Wouldn't it be amazing if next week all of your things were published and it was all words that brought life? Wouldn't it be amazing if you all of a sudden your phone like was like ringing off the hook, you were getting all these text messages and emails and Facebook messages or Instagram messages, there were people like, I can't believe you said that good thing about me. Like, yes, if if that happened, it could be really bad for some of us. But what if by the power of God's spirit in us, everybody was so blessed by the words that we said about them behind their backs? Be a gospel, gossip. Um, while murder and trash talk are serious problems, they're only a symptom of what Jesus is really attacking. And so, like in some way, you want to go beyond that. But remember, a heart consumed by anger, what does it do? It festers, it oozes bitter poison that spreads to others and it leads to death. Jesus wants to heal our hearts, even if you have been a professional trash talker for a long time. Like that's all you know how to do. There is hope. He can make you into a gospel, gospel. But even further, I think we want to be made into thankful thinkers, even thanking God for those people, even thanking God for the way that they were created, even thanking God for the way that He's even redeeming them now. Jesus offers that forgiveness that leads to healing in us and them. Now, while our tongues are described as wildfire, they can burn down a whole building, the word of Jesus can bring even more massive healing. It doesn't mean you won't have consequences for the things you've said, for your actions and for your words, but you can be forgiven. And there can be a lot of healing in your relationship with others and Jesus. I cannot tell you how often, though, that I've had to go to someone and apologize. It is only after repentance happens in my heart first. It is only after that that the healing can come. But not only my relationship with them, it's my relationship with God that depends

Reconcile First, Then Bring Worship

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on it. The way we treat others is directly involved in our relationship with God. And that's our second lesson from Jesus to protect us from anger. Vertical reconciliation, that's up and down, goes hand in hand with horizontal reconciliation. So our relationship with God is directly tied into our relationship with others. Our relationship with others is directly tied into our relationship with God. Verse 23. So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come offer your gift. See, God desires worship with a true heart. If we have ill will towards others, we must be reconciled with them, but Him for Him to Excuse me, for them to God to accept our worship. See, Zambian pastor Joe Coppolo, he said, Jesus insists that we deal with our anger by seeking complete reconciliation. Those with burning anger in their heart cannot offer true worship, the anger will destroy their moral fiber. See, this happens in churches all the dang time. Let me tell you, there are some really good reasons to leave a church, okay? Number one, they teach like what we would call heresy, right? Like, I'm not talking like some little thing, I'm talking big things, okay? Number two, you move to a new city. That's a good reason. You know, you don't live if you move to Nevada, I don't want you coming here, okay? Like the third reason is abuse. You should not stay in a church where you're intentionally being abused by a leader. But friends, people are going to hurt you. That's gonna happen. And your church is going to get things wrong, even if it's a good church. And and we're gonna be open to learning, and that's gonna happen. But I'm pretty sure your church is going to consistently have to be working to grow in the way we show mercy to each other. We're gonna have to learn how to do that. See, mercy and forgiveness, they can take one person, but reconciliation takes more than one party, it takes two, always at least. But when we seek active peace in our relationships, Jesus brings life, health, and healing. God cares about your relationships, friends. He loves the people around you as much as he loves you. The Father sent his son to die for them. The his spirit rests on all believers, even the ones that you struggle with. Did you know that? And so there is no such thing as me and Jesus. There's no such thing. There is no such thing as just a personal relationship with Jesus. It's a communal relationship with Jesus and the people around you. It's a communal, so like when anytime someone's like, Yeah, I just attend bedside baptists, I'm like, that's not how Jesus works. You can't just be by yourself. We do this together, and Jesus wants us being with these broken people, seeing them being reconciled with us, them seeing us being reconciled with others. Like, this is the way it works. We can't do this alone. Guys, when my kids fight each other, it hurts me and my wife. Like parents, you know this. When your kids don't share with each other, it hurts you. When they mean mug each other at the table, it hurts you. How does that make for your peace when they when they got hatred for each other at the dinner table? It doesn't, it ruins your peace. How can you say that you love me when you are treating one of my children, the people I love at my dinner table so poorly? You know I hate this, kids. Now, remember what Jesus calls his church though, his bride, his co-heirs, that meaning like siblings, his body. So how can you love me and make fun of how fat or ugly I am? Yeah, then you don't show me love by calling me fat and ugly all the time. You could tell me I look goofy in a hat, but when you start saying, Man, you're ugly, every time I see you, you're not showing me love. That's not love. How can you love me and say that you hate my wife? You come over to my house, you eat my cooking, and you say that you hate my wife, we're gonna have issues. How about my siblings? My siblings are not perfect, but if you just tell me all the time you can't stand my siblings, you can't be around my siblings, we're gonna have a problem, okay? No matter how bad they are sometimes. They're not bad, sorry. Oh, good, we're not on live, so we're okay. Guys, but this is what I inevitably hear once a month. About once a month. I just can't be in a church with that person anymore. Friends, when you do that, you show a couple things to me. Number one, you show your immaturity and what you tell me is that we've done a bad job at discipling you. We have failed you. Your church has failed you, your leaders, we have failed you if we have not taught you that you need to be reconciled to others. You show that Jesus is not enough for you. That is the problem. You show that you are not taking Jesus seriously enough in the areas of reconciliation, which is what he came to do. This is his job. Reconcile us with each other and reconcile us with the Father. So here's what happens you have a beef with somebody, you don't squash it right away, so it festers, gets worse and worse. And you know what happens? You just say, Hey, can I serve a little bit less? And then what happens? You say, Hey, um, I'm not I'm I'm gonna take a break from serving. Then the next thing that happens is you're gonna be like, hey, I'm I'm I'm a little tired, I'm not gonna go to city group. And then you start going to your city group once a month, and then you kind of stop going to city group, and then you're only going to church services once a month, and then we have a talk, and this is what the talk is. Pastor, God has called me away from the church. And I'm like, really? That's that's really interesting. Are you sure that you don't have a relationship that needs to be worked on, that's festering, that's a problem? I mean, sometimes people are just like, man, I just want this other speaker, I just want this other thing. But there's so many times that I've seen beef that's not squashed that needs to go to the altar of Jesus and get fixed with him and cleaned out with him. That's the problem. It's hard work though. It's difficult. God wants us doing the hard work of reconciliation, he makes us agents of reconciliation, being self-righteous and moving on, man, that feels so good. Not only do you get the endorphin rush of judging those weirdos with your anger, but you get the adventure of moving on to new people who are gonna hurt you in totally new ways. But if you don't allow God to teach you reconciliation, you're gonna do it again and again and again, and no one will ever know you. Nobody, you'll never be fully known. But God feels the same way about his creation. Like you know your neighbor that that parks in front of your house that you cannot stand. God died for that person. He loves that person, he wants you reconciled with that person. How about that dude that tags your wall? God loves that person. How about that couple that constantly smokes in their apartment right just outside to where it goes right into your apartment every time? I've heard like from ten of you that have couples like that. Well, okay, yeah, a little lot, yep. Or how about that relative who seems to constantly be in everybody's business? God died for that person and desires to reconcile you to that person. He's pursuing that person. He might even want to pursue them with your hands and feet, but when we mistreat them, when we even think poorly about them in our hearts, we are failing to see the image of God in those people. They were made to bring God glory. And when we fail to love others, when we fail to care for others, God says he stops listening to our prayers. Amos 5 21. The people of Israel, people of Judah, were actually hurting others. They were oppressing others, and there came a point where in their worship God said this: I hate, I despise your feasts. I can't stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. Even if you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. I'm done. I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings or your fattened cattle. Take away from me the noise of your songs, I will not listen to the music of your harps. He's not like, I'm not listening to your prayers. He's like, I your music, I'm not even listening to your music. Headphones on. No, not listening. That's a problem. When your hands are lifted high in worship, but you are unwilling to reconcile yourself with someone else. Jesus says, You need to lower your hands and instead go to them and apologize for your sin. I can point at myself. Now, William Barclay, he says in his old English way, but it's pretty awesome, he says, We sometimes wonder why there is a barrier between us and God. We sometimes wonder why our prayers seem unavailing. The reason may be that we ourselves has erected have erected that barrier through being at variance with our fellow men, or because we have wronged someone and have done nothing to put things right. And friends, we can do all the right things and they can still hate us. I'm just telling you, you can do all the right things and they'll still hate you. But we are responsible for what we do, not how they respond. There are plenty of people who have done terrible things to me in my family, and I will go to them and I will apologize for the things I've done wrong. And I just want to tell you, I would really like to get that apology. It's not coming. But I must recognize I'm not better than them. I am poor in spirit. I am spiritually bankrupt. I have nothing to offer Jesus. But reconciliation means we show people love and kindness whether they do or not. And we not only show it, we ask God to help our hearts believe the love for them. That's the difference. Not only do we show reconciliation to them, we ask God to help us feel reconciliation towards them. That's much more difficult, right? Because we don't know about their abuse. We don't know about their hurts and their pain. We may never see them hitting themselves in the head in their in their bedroom. It's not going to be on national TV like that one dude. No, their self-hatred is invisible to us a lot of the time. And even if they messed up big, if I must compare myself to anyone, it ain't them. It's Jesus. My sin has done Jesus more harm than anyone else on this earth has ever done to me. My sin has done Jesus more harm than anyone else on this planet has done to me. I know that he had to spill his blood to rescue me. I must stand on nothing but the blood of Jesus. That is the beauty of the gospel. We didn't earn it, did we? No. That he saw us when we belong to the enemy, when we belong to the army of darkness. Us sinners, us broken people that that are like sharp shards of glass, just cracking on each other, hurting each other, pain, blood, everything. And Jesus was willing to come to this earth, live a perfect life on our behalf, and die for us because he loved us. He thought we were worth rescuing. Just like he thinks they are as well. Guys, when we seek active peace in our relationships between us and God and the people around us, Jesus brings life, health, and healing. And here's the best news is when he rose again on the third day, he showed he was good to his word, his redeeming word. Once we are reconciled, though, now we get to tell people about this reconciliation. We get to tell people about Jesus. We show kindness to people who tease us. We show love to people who hurt us. Your forgiveness to people, the people who hurt you, that says so much about who Jesus is. Now you don't have to tell people how great your life is to tell people about Jesus. Like you don't have to be like, look at me, look at me, happy, I'm so happy, fake smile all the time. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about true joy in Jesus that transcends happiness, true joy in Jesus that reconciles not because people deserve it. This is the stuff the Holy Spirit does in us that we cannot do. We have to rely upon Him for it. Because our forgiveness is what will talk to people about Jesus.

Church Unity Shows Jesus To World

SPEAKER_01 43:07

Multi-ethnic, multi-socioeconomic church is what we are. And I just tell you, there are so many misunderstandings that happen in this place. Here's why. Because we all come from different backgrounds, all different hurts, all different cultures. We have all these different languages. Some people be kissing on the lips, and I'm like, oh, my wife doesn't like that. You know, like it's just different. We're different from each other, okay? And sometimes people who come from money, they got different things than people who don't have money. And we hurt each other, but we seek to understand each other too. And when we do, this tells the world that Jesus is bigger than our differences. Dr. King said that 11 o'clock on Sunday was the most segregated hour of the week. And it's still true because you still go to work and it's it's totally multicultural. You go to a Padre game, man, you got everybody there. But you come to a church service in the United States, it's segregated often. This is why we do the hard work of gathering together, being different, loving each other, forgiving each other, because it says something about our Jesus. It says something about our Jesus. I love that we have a bulletin board out there that is falling off. Long story, a lady keeps trying to sleep on it, and so she pulls down the bulletin board and we'll have to get a new one. But I love that there's a sign on that bulletin board that says all the church services in the neighborhood. Why? Because our unity tells the world that Jesus is bigger than our differences. That is our apologetic. That is that is that and our reconciliation with each other, with the church across the street, with the people across the aisle. It takes work though to be a constant reconciler, doesn't it? It is heavy lifting. But as we learn to trust the Spirit of God, it will get easier. Now you can, you can sit on your butt and you can be mad about the things that you see on your phone. And that will always be easier, I promise you. But God can also make you stronger to handle more later. But you have to get up, be reconciled, and work at it. And you have to trust his spirit to help you get through it. Now, Indian pastor Brian Wintel, he once said, if we are truly concerned about dealing with anger and hatred, we should be concerned about ensuring that we are not the cause of others getting angry. If we have given them reason for anger, we ought to be prepared to do whatever is necessary to defuse the situation and bring reconciliation. And then Dr. Tony Evans uh he says it, uh he sums this all up by copying what I have to say. He says, in order to have a healthy vertical relationship, intimacy, and fellowship with God, you must maintain your horizontal relationships with others. He didn't really copy me, but uh I wrote it down before I read it, so I kept it.

Final Charge: Seek Active Peace

SPEAKER_01 45:45

Friends, let me close with this City Life Church and guess. A heart consumed by anger festers, and it oozes a bitter poison that can only be spread to others and ultimately lead to death. And let me just say, it's hurting you. It's not hurting them. If Jesus, though, left us alone in the swamp of our despair, man, we would be done. We would be sunk, it would be over, but he didn't. Instead, he chased after us, he made a way for us, he died, and he rose again. Now, when we seek that active peace that he wants for us in our relationships, we can grow stronger and Jesus can bring life, health, and healing. Let's pray.