Transcript

We call it Palm Sunday because 2,000 years ago, Jewish crowds gathered from all over the Roman Empire in Jerusalem to come to the Temple for Passover. And so that was the practice every year. They would come from all around. And the practice on that, that Sunday, that first day of the week, was to cut palm branches. It was something they already had a tradition of doing.

But on this particular Sunday, they heard that one that many thought was the Messiah was supposed to appear in Jerusalem. And then they heard he was coming from Bethany, coming down the Mount of Olives riding on a donkey. And so great crowds gathered and they took palm branches and they began to wave them, and they threw their cloaks on the ground and they welcomed him as the king. The fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9. One king coming in on the back of a donkey.

And we see this in the Gospel of John, who writes about it. He 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 and 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 on a Sunday, the crowds welcomed him as king. But by Friday of that same week, week, a different crowd stood before the governor, the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, and they cried out, crucify him.

What a change of affairs. In one week. Many received him as king, but the vast majority rejected him. What seemed like a triumphal entry ended the week with what many would say was a tragic exit. Because before that Friday was finished, he was tried, he was crucified, and he was buried.

But as Pastor S.M. lockridge famously preached, it's Friday, but Sunday's a coming. And so by that next Sunday, resurrection Sunday, our king was risen, reigning and returning. We're talking about King Jesus. And as we go through the Sermon on the Mount, what we're really seeing here is the proclamation of a king who speaks on his own authority, the authority given to him by the Father to speak to us.

And so we've called this series Kingdom Living. And we're in part four today as we go through chapter five, six, and seven, what many have called the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher who ever lived. We're unpacking this together as Jesus calls us as king, to live according to his rule, according to his reign, as kingdom citizens. Now, in our sermon last week, we closed with him saying, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven. And so he hit us with this startling reality about righteousness.

He says, unless you have greater righteousness than the religious experts, you'll never be saved. And so now he's going to continue this conversation by explaining to us what he means by this righteousness that is greater than the righteousness of the religious people. He says it's a gift to those who are poor in spirit. It's a blessing to those who are pure in heart and who hunger and thirst after it. And he begins to say, it's not the rigid rule following legalism of the Scribes and Pharisees.

No, it's something deeper. It's not external, it's aimed at the heart. And I think he begins to pull at the thread of one of those blessings when he said, blessed are the peacemakers. And now he's going to start talking about the ministry of reconciliation. That is really one of the marks of Kingdom citizens.

I wonder, do you have this blessed mark, this mark of reconciliation in your life? Are you a reconciler or are you a troublemaker? Those that are Kingdom citizens will carry this character trait of being a reconciler. Are you one who pursues that in all your relationships? We live in a world today with division, uncontrolled anger, broken relationships, whether it's in families, communities, workplaces.

Unresolved conflict is everywhere. It's a barrier to peace in our lives. We're hearing of fathers and sons at odds over politics on who they voted for. We see mothers and daughters who are in discord over gender identity and what pronoun to be called by. We see and hear of neighbors ripping up yard signs and pulling down flags and keying one another's cars.

This is what we see on the news today. Maybe we should turn down the news and turn up the good news, because Jesus speaks to his Kingdom people about unity and peace and reconciliation. And we don't just have to look in the world, we don't just have to watch the news. Even in the church, we struggle with unresolved conflict that disrupts our unity. People leave their community groups.

They. They check out of their youth groups. They even leave the church and try to find another church. Or maybe they leave the church altogether because they've never learned how to reconcile. They've never learned how to make up and get along with one another.

And rather than learning this, they run away. They leave. Yet Jesus calls us to pursue reconciliation. He says it's the mark of those who are Kingdom citizens, those who live in his kingdom and call King Him. King, I wonder today, are you reconciled with God?

Are you right with God? And are you right with your neighbor, your spouse, your parents, your children, your neighbors, your work associates? Or as you're thinking about where we're going today, are you unreconciled? I want to pray because this is a sermon, as I promised last week, for those of you that were brave enough to come back. I've already had several of you say, I ain't afraid as you took your seat today.

Well, you should be, because Jesus is going to get real and I'm just going to get out of the way. And the best way I know to do that is just ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us. Let me pray. Lord, help me to do that. Help me to get out of the way so people hear Jesus and not me, so that I hear your Spirit.

And help us to think about those relationships that we need to mend that as much as it is on us, because we can't control how the other responds. But we want to know that we're, by the power of the Holy Spirit, trying our best to be right with one another, that we want to be ambassadors of reconciliation. So I pray for healed marriages, heal relationships between parents and children, with neighbors and work associates. Lord, brothers and sisters, speak to us now from your word in Jesus name, Amen. Jesus calls us to pursue reconciliation as we look at Matthew, chapter five.

Continuing now with part four of our series in chapter five, verses 21 through 26, which is where we'll be today, Jesus confronted his hearers with the deeper intent of the law by exposing the seriousness of unresolved anger and urging them to pursue reconciliation as true citizens of God. And we can understand how pursuing reconciliation is an essential to kingdom life. How is this possible? Well, as we look, we'll see three compelling reasons why pursuing reconciliation is essential for life in the kingdom. Let's dig in, starting at verse 21 of chapter 5.

You've 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 counsel, and whoever says, you fool, will be liable to the hell 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 God's word. Amen.

We're looking for three compelling reasons why pursuing reconciliation is essential for kingdom living. Here's the first reason. Because it reflects our new Christlike character. It reflects our new Christlike character. Jesus speaks of the heart attitude behind murder.

He. He identifies it at the root, an attitude of anger. And he calls his followers to a higher standard. He had told us earlier, as we were reading last week, he did not come to abolish or destroy the law. Instead, he came to fulfill it.

And so now he's going to show us what he means by that. He didn't come to destroy it. He came to deepen it, to drive it from the external to the inside to the heart. He's going to take every part of the Mosaic Law, and he's going to show us the attitude behind the action. And the attitude will require us to have a new heart in order to experience it.

He Begins in verse 21 with a kind of a pattern that he's going to follow for a few verses. You've heard it said, you've heard of old. And what he's going to quote is. He's going to quote what the Pharisees and the scribes are well known for. The people know about it.

He's going to quote what some have called six antitheses. He's going to talk about murder here. That's what we'll study today, and, and what he means by the spirit that we need. He's gonna talk about divorce. He's gonna talk about adultery.

He's gonna talk about swearing retribution and response to our enemies. So there are six of them. And if you consider what Jesus is doing here, and Matthew in particular wants to present to us that this Jesus came as the King of the Jews, truly, and not only of the Jews, but king of the whole world, the new world, the new kingdom that he's inaugurating. And he presents him who. Who reenacts much of and fulfills much of the Old Testament.

The waters of the Jordan are parted by his baptism. He goes out into the wilderness, not for 40 years, but for 40 days and nights. And he resists the temptations of the devil. And then he climbs up on the mountain, as Moses climbed up on. On the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments.

He climbs up on the mountain and tells them what the ten Commandments really mean he's the true king. He's the one who actually was behind everything that was written back here. He's the fulfillment. And now he's going to deepen it. We're reminded, as I said earlier, what we heard in verse 20, right before we got into this.

He says, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now he's going to tell us the righteousness he's talking about is not just external, but it's from the heart. And he quotes the sixth commandment. It's part of God's top 10. It's number six, Thou shalt not murder.

And he quotes it, and then he takes it up three notches. He. He makes it so that none of us can keep it. You know, sometimes when I'm witnessing to someone and I talk to them about sin, especially in this generation today, people resist being called sinners. They say, well, I'm as good as the next guy.

And then they'll say something like this, well, I feel like, you know, I'm pretty good. You know, I've never killed anyone. As if that were some standard of goodness. I've never killed anyone. Well, Jesus is about to show us how every one of us here have an attitude and a heart apart from God of murder.

He's going to make it so that we've broken every one of the ten Commandments. That's where he's headed, right here. Because he's going to say it all starts in the heart. And he begins to set his axe upon the root cause of this. And he says, it's unresolved anger.

It's rebellion against God. It's this anger in our heart that just burns towards him and towards others. You have trouble with anger? Watch what he says here. Let's just unpack it.

He goes, you've heard, and he quotes you, shall not murder. And then he reminds the people there something they know. Whoever murders will be liable to judgment. He uses this word, liable several times here in the text. He, he says, you're in danger of judgment.

And we know what that judgment is. We find it in Leviticus 24:17. Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life. The Latins called it the ex talonis.

It's the rule that we followed up until very recent days. He says, you know, this, this is what you know, you've heard this said. But here's what I say. And there's that. This is the third time he said this.

This is what I say in the Sermon on the Mount. He's going to say it twice in our reading today. He goes, you've heard this. But here's what I say about it. He's going to take it deeper.

He's not going to destroy it. He's going, quite the opposite. He's going to take it deeper. And he gives us kind of three surprising statements here. I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

In other words, you'll be liable to the human court system in his view, because anger is the root of murder.

You know, someone has uncontrolled anger, they make excuses about it.

He warns that it's the root. It's the root, it's the attitude that pre curses. It's the precursor of a murderous heart. And then he takes it another level. He goes, and whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council.

Ooh, makes it even deeper. Here there's an Aramaic word underneath insult. Here it's the Aramaic word raqa, which means empty head. It's an insult that you can think of all kind of words right now. You're thinking of them, aren't you?

I'm not going to repeat them, but you're thinking of the kind of words that you call other, another person when you're accusing them of having no intellect. Empty head, Raca. It's a well known. It was a well known Hebraic Aramaic word, the people, when Jesus said it, he goes, if you call your brother Raca, you're in danger of the council. You're liable to the council.

Now here's what he says underneath here in the original. He goes, you're liable to the Sanhedrin. It's translated counsel. That's good. Here's what he says.

You're liable to the Supreme Court. They're like, I thought I'd kept that sixth commandment. Now he says, if I'm angry, I'm liable to the court system. If I insult somebody, I'm liable to the Supreme Court. Where's this going?

Well, get ready. Because then he says, if you've called your brother fool, if you've said you fool, you'll be liable to the hell of fire. Oh, now you've moved past the supreme court. You've moved to the heavenly court. You'll be liable before the judge of all peoples for breaking God's law.

There'll be no way out. And this idea of calling someone a fool is more than just saying empty head. It's not just intellectual slowness, but moral foolishness. In fact, the Greek word for fool here is moros, which is where we get the word moron.

Call him that. You're in danger of the hell of fire. Literally here he uses a Hebrew word for hell. He says gehenna of fire. Gehenna of fire.

You know, Jesus talks more about hell in the New Testament than anywhere in the Bible. There's more from the mouth of Jesus about hell than any other prophet or apostle. He calls it gehenna fire. It literally in the Hebrew means valley of Hinnom, which was the valley just south of the Temple Mount of Jerusalem. You would pass through the Dung gate, which was the southern gate.

They called it the Dung Gate because that's where they would empty the sewage and the manure that would accumulate in the streets because they had animals and so forth, and they would carry it out the dung gate and dump it into Gehenna, into the valley of Hinnom. It became the place of waste, of human and animal waste, and a place where you throw dead things in garbage because of what had happened there a few centuries prior by kings Ahaz and Manasseh, who offered child sacrifices there in the valley of Hinnom to the God Molech. And then a following king declared the area unclean and demolished all the altars there and turned it into a dump. And so from then on, the people used it as such. It was a place where the fire is not quenched and the worm dieth not gehenna of fire.

A place of unquenchable and eternal punishment before God. And so is true for those who cannot keep God's holiness unless they have righteousness given to them and received by them from the only one who kept the whole law and fulfilled the whole law, Jesus.

So no longer are we that have heard Jesus speak to us as king able to say, at least I've not killed anyone, because many of you murdered people. On the way to church today when the light turned green and they didn't pull out quick enough or they cut you off. You're trying to be to church on time. So you called your neighbor Raca or you did What I try to do. I try to, you know, I do what's called Christian cussing, what I call it.

Well, God bless you. You must be in a hurry. Glory Hallelujah. I hope you get there well, praise God. I wish you'd pull out when it turns green.

You know, I'm a preacher. I try to Cuss. As a Christian, my wife sometimes hears me say these things because I don't say them on the inside. They come out of my mouth. And she'll say, gary, I don't believe you meant that from your heart.

And I'll go, thank you, Holy Spirit, speaking through my wife, I'm making light of it here. But Jesus doesn't, does he? He says, anger is the root. And he says, if you're part of my kingdom, you'll have a new character trait. You're a new creation.

Second Corinthians says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who, through Christ, reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ. God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

He's reconciled us to the Father, and now he's put within us as ambassadors of reconciliation, a ministry of declaring to people the good news. You can be right with God. You could be right with one another through Jesus.

We're not to be troublemakers. We're to be peacemakers. That's our calling. That's the character trait of those who call Jesus king. And we're to put on his character like.

Like you would put on a suit of new clothing. Colossians says, put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience bearing with one another. Another way of saying that is putting up with one another. And. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.

And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony, and let the peace of Christ rule.

I've looked that word up in the Greek before. That word rule could be translated. Umpire, let him say, that's out of bounds. You need to think like this. This is, you know, that's a strike, that's a ball.

You need to think like this. And so he gets your heart. So the love of Christ rules your heart. And it roots out inappropriate, unresolved anger because you've been called to be one body. Now, if you heard of this, it's kind of gone viral on the social.

On social media. And it's a little reel called the Cookie Challenge. Have you seen this? The Cookie Challenge. And so the thing is, and there's several parents that have done this, and so there's three plates Laid out.

And they have a cover over it, a piece of paper or a napkin, something like that. And they've got a father, a toddler, and a mother seated appropriately like that. And so the father, he uncovers his plate, he's got one cookie. And then the toddler uncovers her little plate and she's got two cookies. And then the mother uncovers her, she's got no cookies.

And she goes like that, sticks her lower lip out. And then the dad says, oh, no, Sally, Mommy didn't get a cookie. What are we going to do? And sometimes in some of the videos, you'll see little Sally, she'll look at daddy's cookie and look at Mommy's empty plate, and she'll take one of her cookies and put it over there. And then Mommy just hugs little Sally like, you got a great, you know, generous little heart.

But sometimes it's little Bobby, and little Bobby looks and goes, he looks at Daddy's and he gets daddy's cookie and puts it over there on the plate.

Because the truth is, our children pick up family traits.

They pick up our character. Sorry about that, parents. Just true. They pick up to the best of us and the worst of us. Sometimes it seems like they're mostly getting the worst of us.

Sometimes we keep trying as parents, don't we? But if you're a child of King Jesus, if you are a citizen of his kingdom, you'll take on family traits. And reconciliation is one of our family traits. Ask yourself this. Does my response to conflict look more like Christ or more like the world?

How do I respond to conflict? Do you struggle with uncontrolled anger?

Have you been guilty of murdering someone by ugly name calling? How could you put on the character of Jesus this week and be reconciled to that person that the Holy Spirit is putting on your mind right now?

Why should we pursue reconciliation? Well, because it reflects our new Christlike character as kingdom citizens. Here's the second reason. The second compelling reason why we should pursue reconciliation is because it recognizes how discord hinders our worship. Discord hinders our worship.

Jesus explains this. Now we're in verses 23 and 24, how he basically says this. I'm just going to get your attention to the way he got their attention. He goes, if it comes to your mind that you're not reconciled to your brother or sister, leave the church and go get right with him and then come back to church. That's basically what he says.

Let's look at it. Verse 23. So if you are offering your gift at the altar, you're offering your gift, your offering. Or maybe you came forward and you're taking the Lord's Supper and you're feeling pretty good about yourself. You're like, you know, I came to church today.

You know, I woke up this morning, I didn't feel like going to church. But, you know, I knew it was the right thing to do. So I got up, took a shower and got ready, got the kids ready, got over here. I'm feeling pretty good. I get to check off the box.

This week I came to church, I feel pretty good. And you're coming down here, and I'm saved. I love the Lord Jesus. And then right when you get here, you remember, and I believe the Holy Spirit does this. He brings to your mind somebody that you're not right with.

And so this is what he's saying as you come here, or as you're out there and we're singing about how Jesus is the best name of all. Or as we see the children down here waving and we're going Hosanna, which in Hebrew means God's salvation. God saves. God saves. God saves.

And we're singing, but it's only lip service, because in our heart we're still angry at somebody. He says, if you remember that. I don't care anything about your singing. I don't want your offering, I don't want your tithe. I don't want you doing any of this.

I want you to leave the church and go get right with that brother or sister, because I can see your heart. And your heart is not full of true worship. Your heart is full of unreconciled anger, unreconciled forgiveness.

I told you not to come back this week. I told you. I warned you. Jesus is going to get real. He's going to stay like this.

He's going to talk to us about before you bring your worship. He's not saying don't go to church. He's not saying don't worship. He's saying, get right with your fellow man. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

Then when your worship comes, it'll come true. It'll come righteous. It'll be the way he wants it. Otherwise, it hinders our worship. Notice what he says.

If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there, remember that your brother has something against you. It's not that you have something against him. It's that they got something against you. And you might be thinking, well, I don't think I did that much wrong. I mean, he just.

He's easy to offend. She's always. She just wears her heart on her sleeve. I just told her the truth. That's all I did.

Like that, you know, trying to help her like that. And here's what I would say to you. If it's 90% her fault and it's only 10% your fault, that's how you're thinking. Well, you know, I probably could have not said it in front of everybody. Maybe I should have told her privately.

Maybe I shouldn't have told her at all. Maybe it wasn't my place. Like, if it's 10%, you're still. And the Holy Spirit's kind of. If it's 5% your fault, you're still a child of the king and you're called to reconciliation.

Take the initiative.

He says, this is Jesus speaking. This is not Gary speaking. Leave your gift there and go right, first, be reconciled. Greek word for first there is proton. It's where we get words like priority.

Make it a priority. First in time or place, first in rank or priority before you bring your worship, be right with one another.

Be reconciled, be renewed. Dr. Carson says, forget the worship service and be reconciled to your brother and sister. And only then worship God. Men love to substitute ceremony for integrity, purity and love.

But Jesus will have none of it.

When David was brought face to face with his sin by the prophet Nathan, his sin was that he had committed adultery with another man's wife, a woman named Bathsheba. And when he found out she was pregnant, he tried to cover it up by having her husband, Uriah the Hittite, murdered. And then Nathan the prophet came and said, God saw that. God knows what you've done. He wrote Psalm 51 as his expression of repentance to God.

This is a little portion of that. Here's what David writes. He goes for you are not happy with a gift given on the altar in worship, or I would give it. You're not pleased with burnt offerings, 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. An unreconciled relationship should break your heart because you have a new heart. And Ephesians, chapter four tells us that it grieves the Holy Spirit when we're not right with one another. It's like he feels like something died. And you'll feel that when he lives inside of you, you'll feel the grief of the Spirit.

And it'll hinder your worship. It'll hinder your prayers. Peter Makes it real personal, he says. 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 your prayers may not be hindered. It'll hinder your prayers if you're not treating your spouse well, if you're not reconciled.

Have you ever tried to pray with your spouse right after you had a fight? You just can't do it because there's something about. There's something very transparent and authentic about praying to God that makes you like, it's hard to hold hands with your wife and pray if you're angry at her. Now, my wife and I pray at bedtime every night. We've done this for years.

It's a habit it took us a while to develop. So I'm not bragging. I'm just saying it's a habit we finally were able to have in our life. It's a nice habit because seven days a week, 365 days a year, we got to fight it out before we can go to sleep. We got to be right with each other before we can pray.

Because it hinders your prayers, it hinders your worship. If you're holding unreconciliation, how can you worship? This is what Jesus is challenging us with. I want you to picture a married couple having a huge argument on the way to church. Now, I know you're looking around at each other.

You can stop looking. These people don't go to our church.

Now, we do have cameras outside the building. We could have used some of your pictures, but we chose not to imagine. They had this fight in their car on the way to church. Some of you are going, I don't have to imagine that. And they walk in immediately and they go.

And they begin to smile at the greeters. They begin to sing the worship songs while still seething inside. The disconnect is obvious. How can we pour out praise to God when we still have venom in our heart?

Because praise and worship come from the heart. And if there's anger and unforgiveness and discord there, then the worship is hypocritical. This is what Jesus is saying. Leave the church, leave the offering, Run to your brother and sister and get right. Then come back and boy, watch the revival now.

Watch. Watch the worship now. Watch the city get turned upside down now because we are truly living as kingdom people. Ask yourself, have I come to worship today with an unreconciled heart? Before you sing or serve, make peace.

Don't just worship with your lips, worship with a clean heart.

Jesus says, leave and go, be reconciled, then come back, Sing and shout and give and remember. It's an essential. Here's the third compelling reason why pursuing reconciliation is a essential for kingdom life. It's because it responds quickly before things escalate. It responds quickly before things escalate.

We're in verses 25 and 26. He shifts. I want you to notice that Jesus shifts from talking about how you treat your brother, which I believe is a reference to someone within the faith community, a brother or sister. They're in the kingdom with you. And now to an accuser, one outside the faith community.

He warns that we're still to be reconcilers, even there with them. And he uses the word quickly in verse 25. Come to terms quickly with your accuser. Make settlement. Come to terms.

It means to settle with. Settle matters quickly with your accuser, with those that are accusing you. Come to terms. Come to an agreement. Try to do it without using the court system.

Take the initiative to settle out of court. That's what he's saying. Because you're to be known as a peacemaker, not a troublemaker. And then he warns you, if you turn it over to the human justice system, this guy turns you over to the judge. Now it's too late.

It's too late to settle it quickly. Now the scales of justice and the gears of justice, they're going to grind in their own kind of slow, ponderous kind of method, and you won't have any control over the process. Now he says he'll hand you over to the judge, and then the judge going to hand you over to the guard. Then the guard's going to throw you in prison. He's just described the human justice system.

We need the human justice system. It's God ordained, but it's broken, broken because we're broken. The world system is not even a close resemblance to God's perfect justice. He says, be careful. You allow yourself to get caught up in the human justice system, you might end up never getting out until you've paid your last penny.

Or as the King James, your King James says, your last farthing, the last little part of a penny. You'll see in verse 26, the fourth time in the sermon that he says, I say to you. And here he amens himself again. Truly, I say to you, remember, the word truly in the original is Amen. I say to you, because I'm sure as I've not heard any amens this morning so far.

I don't think anybody was amening Jesus either, so he amened himself. Amen. I say to you, you won't get out until you pay the last penny.

Some of you are trying to catch up now. Thank you.

We're to deal in truth. We're not to lie. We're to try to make up one on one. If we can, not everyone will let you. And sometimes you have to take advantage of the human court system.

But if it's at all possible, try to settle matters yourself. Here's what it says in Ephesians. 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 from the new living or the new life version, rather.

Another version says, don't let the sun go down on your anger and don't give the devil a foothold. It's kind of like a used car salesman or some door to door vacuum cleaner salesman. If he gets his foot in your door, you can't get rid of him. And if you let the devil get a foothold, he'll turn it into a stronghold. And so don't let the sun go down on your anger and don't give the devil a foothold.

Uncontrolled anger, don't let it escalate. And then we see in James. Understand this, dear brothers and sisters. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

And so we're to try to work it out. You know, calm down, work it out. Don't let it escalate. In the last while, we've seen forest fires on the west and the East Coast. We're used to seeing them out west, aren't we?

We hear about and they had horrific forest fires in California. And we thought, well, you know, we've got hurricanes and they're horrible. But at least we didn't have forest fires. Well, now we got those. And so even some of the people who went through the horrible hurricane now lost huge swaths of their forest due to these forest fires in South Carolina and North Carolina.

And what we found out is just a little smoldering spark can burn down acres and acres. It's the same way with anger. It's like a little spark, a little smoldering, and you let it go and you don't put it out. It can burn down acres and acres of your life. You just let it.

What started out as hurt feelings, and you're like, you know, I'm tired. I don't feel like dealing with her right now. It'll keep to next week. I'll talk to her next time. I'll send her a text.

That way I don't have to, you know, like that. And so you let it smolder, and then she tells one of her friends how you hurt her, and then her friend tells somebody else. Except the version she tells is not quite the way it was. She makes it bigger because it's not a good story if it's not bigger. And then it gets bigger.

And then before you know it, you've got a forest fire in your relationships that you could have put out when it was just a little spark if you'd have just applied some water to it. And water's an emblem throughout the Bible for the Holy Spirit. If you'd just be empowered by the Spirit. And it's to be a troublemaker, be a firefighter, whenever there's a little spark. You got to be quick.

Don't let it escalate. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to becoming. Don't give the devil a foothold. He'll turn it into a stronghold. Ask yourself this.

Am I waiting too long to deal with a conflict? Am I letting it fester? Don't give anger the upper hand. Don't assume that time will heal all wounds. It won't.

It just gets a big old callus over, often makes things worse. Pursuing reconciliation is an essential for kingdom living. It's not about avoiding outward sin. It's about pursuing inward transformation so that in our hearts we become humble and willing. Why?

Because it reflects our new Christlike character. Why? Because it recognizes how discord hinders our worship. Why? Because it responds quickly before things escalate.

Now, let's be honest. Reconciliation is hard. It's difficult. It requires humility, courage, grace. And it doesn't guarantee that the other person will be reconciled to you.

You can't control that. That's up to them and God. But you can control what you do, and you can pursue reconciliation. You can do this how? Laying down your pride and trusting Jesus to empower you, Even if it's only 5 or 10% your fault, that should be enough to move you to seek reconciliation.

So today, is there someone that the Lord is bringing to your remembrance that you need to forgive or to seek forgiveness? Don't delay by faith. Take the first step. Trust Christ to give you the strength to reconcile. Because when you do.

When we do, we not only restore broken relationships, we reflect the heart of King Jesus himself. Let's pray. Lord, I pray for the one that's here this morning. And you're not right with God and you know it. You came in today on a thread.

You came in needing God, far from God. But you've never given your life to God. You've never bent your knee in surrender to King Jesus. You can do that right now. It begins by admitting I've broken your law.

I'm a sinner.

I need a savior. Just pray that right now I'm a sinner. Lord, I believe you died on the cross for me, Jesus. And that you were raised from the grave and that you live today. I believe that.

Come into my life. Forgive me of my sin. Adopt me into your family. I want to be a child of God. I want to follow you as my Lord, my Savior, my king, all the days of my life.

If you're praying that prayer, faith believing he'll save you, others are here and you're a follower of Jesus. He's your king. But you have a secret.

You have a festering relationship that you've been letting go. And you keep on thinking that you don't have to address it, but right now, the Spirit's drawing it to your attention. Lord, I pray right now that Holy Spirit, you'd be moving in our midst, that you'd cause us to say, lord, I surrender. I hear you. Give me the power now.

Give me the courage to go and be reconciled, to pursue reconciliation with them. May it be so. In Jesus name, amen.