Introduction:
How Do You Stop Hatred from Growing in Your Heart? (Matthew 5:21–26)
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By putting it to Death when it First Appears. (Matthew 5:21–22a)
1 John 3:15 – Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
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By refusing to Kill others with Destructive words. (Matthew 5:22b)
Ephesians 4:29 – 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.
- By seeking after Immediate Reconciliation. (Matthew 5:23–24)
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By remembering what’s At Stake. (Matthew 5:25–26)
1 Corinthians 6:10 – ...nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:35
To turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 through 26 Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 through 26 You know, we live in a culture that is absolutely obsessed with murder There are dozens and dozens of true crime podcasts that delve into the nitty-gritty details of the worst crimes Imaginable who has ever listened to a true crime podcast? No shame. Just asking There are seemingly thousands and thousands of TV shows that are centered around murder investigations.
00:35-00:37
Let me just list a few.
00:38-00:50
Blue Bloods, Only Murders in the Building, Criminal Minds, Chicago PD, Sherlock, Bones, Castle, The Rookie, Longmire, Columbo, Psych, Monk, Murder, She Wrote, Diagnosis, Murder.
00:50-00:56
Then there are the franchises that have spun out an endless amount of added-on shows, right?
00:56-01:26
Law & Order, Law & Order Special Victims Unit, Law & Order Criminal Intent, Law & Order LA, Law & Order Trial by Jury, Law & Order True Crime, Law & Order Organized Crime, NCIS, NCIS Origins, NCIS Los Angeles, NCIS Hawaii, NCIS New Orleans, NCIS Sydney, CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, CSI Los Angeles, CSI Vegas, CSI Cyber, CSI Sheboygan, CSI Wexford.
01:27-01:27
Oh, okay, wait.
01:28-01:28
(audience laughing)
01:28-01:33
Those last two don't actually exist, but the amount they're, at the rate they're pumping out these spin-offs, you never really know.
01:34-01:42
But millions of people tune into these kind of shows every single week to watch fictional murderers face justice.
01:43-01:50
And on top of these podcasts and TV shows, we even play a board game with children that is all about murder.
01:51-01:55
And that board game is, who has ever played Clue at some point in their lives?
01:55-01:57
Okay, I don't want you to explain the basic premise, right?
01:58-02:04
Okay, three to six players, you're all trapped in a mansion and one of you murdered Mr. Bodie who owned the mansion.
02:04-02:11
Was it Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock, or Professor Plum?
02:11-02:21
The whole purpose of the game is to figure out who is the murderer, what is the murderer weapon, and what is the location of the killing.
02:21-02:23
Again, this is a game for children.
02:24-02:31
But the game can end with an accusation like this, Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with a candlestick.
02:32-02:42
Maybe you loved playing this game growing up because you like to solve the mystery, assign the blame for murder, and point the finger at made-up characters.
02:43-02:50
But what if I were to tell you that every single person in this room is guilty of murder.
02:52-02:57
This isn't my opinion, it's not a suspicion, a hunch, or an unfounded accusation.
02:58-03:01
This is a clear and simple fact from the mouth of our Lord.
03:02-03:07
According to Jesus Christ, we are all Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with a candlestick.
03:09-03:15
And you may be thinking, "Taylor, I don't know about the person next to me, but I have certainly never murdered anyone in cold blood.
03:16-03:28
Well, you may be innocent of physically murdering, but there is no wiggling out of the reality that you are guilty of spiritually murdering in your heart by hating others.
03:29-03:33
And again, I know that some of you may be resisting what I'm saying already.
03:34-03:36
You think to yourself, I don't hate anyone.
03:37-03:39
I am pleasant with everyone.
03:40-03:43
I mean, sure, there are some people I intensely dislike.
03:43-03:46
There are some people I vent about constantly.
03:47-03:52
There are some people I avoid at all costs, and if I saw them in the grocery store, I would run in the opposite direction.
03:52-03:53
But hey, that's different.
03:55-03:56
Is it different?
03:58-04:05
Maybe you are dressing up your hatred to make it look nice and acceptable, when it is actually cruel and dishonoring to the Lord.
04:07-04:12
No matter who you are, how nice you may appear, you are not exempt from hatred.
04:14-04:20
'Cause you have to understand that murder is not just an action, it is a state of heart and mind.
04:21-04:28
We have been studying the Sermon on the Mount since February and we are in the second section of our study, the heart of the law.
04:29-04:39
Last week, Pastor Jeff taught that Jesus Christ didn't come to abolish the law, but to perfectly fulfill it through his life, death, and resurrection.
04:39-04:44
And throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus demonstrates that the law is not skin deep.
04:44-04:49
It actually drills down deep within you to your heart.
04:50-04:53
Jesus cares about who you are on the inside.
04:54-04:59
He is far more interested in the internal than the external.
04:59-05:15
In Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 through 26, Jesus exposes your greatest desires, fears, and innermost feelings which you try to keep hidden away from others.
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Jesus pulls your anger into the light to show you how truly ugly, subtle, and destructive it actually is.
05:23-05:26
Jesus doesn't do this to humiliate you.
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He does this to help you.
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Jesus doesn't do this to condemn you, but to change you from the inside out.
05:34-05:37
Because hatred cannot be allowed to fester.
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It will hollow you out on the inside and it will hurt everyone around you.
05:43-05:47
So how do you stop hatred from growing in your heart?
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Well our passage for this morning offers four methods of extermination that will keep the infection from spreading.
05:55-06:05
Before we cover those, let's go to the Lord Please pray for me that I will faithfully proclaim God's word, and I will pray for you that you will joyfully receive God's word.
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Father, we thank you for this most important appointment of the week.
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We gather together as your people to worship you, to encourage one another, and to sit under the proclamation of your word.
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Lord, I thank you that you watch over your word to perform it and that your word accomplishes every purpose for which you send it out.
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I pray this morning that you would do your work in our hearts and lives.
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We ask all this in Jesus' name, amen.
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All right, so how do you stop hatred from growing in your heart?
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The first method of extermination, by putting it to death when it first appears.
06:47-06:51
By putting it to death when it first appears.
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Let's read verses 21 through 22.
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Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said "to those of old, you shall not murder, "and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.
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"But I say to you that everyone who is angry "with his brother will be liable to judgment." So Jesus kicks off a pattern that we see six times in Matthew chapter five.
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You have heard that it was said, but I say to you.
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And at first glance, it may look like Jesus is changing one of the six commandments.
07:27-07:32
It may look like he is erasing the original meaning and coming up with something brand new.
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But as Pastor Jeff said last week, Jesus came not to lessen the law, but to elevate it.
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Jesus is not changing the sixth commandment, he is simply revealing something that has always been within it, but has been ignored.
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He is not contradicting God's word, He is contradicting the Pharisee and scribe's incomplete interpretation of God's word.
07:59-08:10
The religious leaders of Jesus' day thought and taught that the sixth commandment of you shall not murder only applied to the physical acts of homicide and manslaughter.
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They put this commandment into a box and ignored its deeper meaning.
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And here is the heart of the sixth commandment.
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Do not give yourself over to unrighteous anger, which leads to the act of unjustly ending someone's life.
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Anger is the first domino in that chain reaction.
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The religious leaders limited the scope of God's command and the process they limited its impact.
08:39-08:45
By viewing the sixth commandment in this way, a religious leader could look at himself and say, "Hey, I am perfectly keeping this commandment.
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"I have never clubbed someone over the head.
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I never pushed my neighbor off a tall building in a fit of rage.
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God must be so proud of me.
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But internally they are killing people by despising them.
08:57-09:01
Despising tax collectors, sinners, and Gentiles.
09:03-09:12
In this passage, Jesus corrects the massive oversight of the men who should know the law better than anyone else, but have missed the entire point.
09:12-09:14
They have missed the heart.
09:15-09:20
Jesus is saying, don't think you're safe and sound because you have no bodies buried in your backyard.
09:21-09:32
You are on the hook for a serious crime and heading for serious consequences if you have hatred and anger and bitterness buried in your heart.
09:34-09:39
It's especially egregious to be angry with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
09:40-09:41
Why is that?
09:42-09:47
You know, as a dad, it pains me to watch or read news stories about kids being bullied.
09:49-09:54
But do you know what would be worse than watching strangers be mistreated?
09:56-09:59
Finding out that one of my own kids is being bullied.
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Do you know what would be the worst of all?
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Discovering that one of my kids hates and actively tries to hurt his or her sibling.
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It grieves the heart of God to watch his children despise and attack one another.
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And John talks about this in his first epistle.
10:20-10:24
He says, "Everyone who hates his brother is a what?
10:25-10:40
"A murderer, and you know that no murderer "has eternal life abiding in him." At this point, you may be frustrated, thinking, wait, so you're saying I can never be angry with anybody, especially if he or she is a Christian.
10:40-10:41
How is that possible?
10:42-10:47
To be clear, Jesus isn't saying that anger is always sinful.
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God gets angry.
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God hates sin and what it causes.
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Jesus got angry throughout the Gospels.
10:56-11:05
As a human, it is impossible for you to not feel feelings of betrayal, of annoyance and frustration.
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Jesus isn't condemning anger in general, he is condemning a very specific kind of anger.
11:14-11:17
In this passage, the word for anger in the Greek is orgizo.
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And this is a fuming, a boiling anger that is nurtured and intensified like a pot of water on a stove.
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You keep dialing up the temperature, keep dialing up the intensity until it overflows and scalds people.
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This kind of anger twists your heart.
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It distorts how you view other people.
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You may even daydream about bad things happening to this person.
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You may want this person to get what's coming, to get what they deserve, to be publicly humiliated, and to feel the same exact pain that you feel.
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When you hate someone, You are communicating this message to the Lord.
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Lord, I don't care if that person dies, and I want them out of my life for good.
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Now you would never say that out loud, but that's what you're feeling in your heart when you harbor bitterness.
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Because that person is dead to you when you never ever want to see him or her ever again.
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In your book, it's like they've been wiped out of existence.
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It's like they've fallen off the face of this earth.
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That kind of anger is a spark.
12:42-12:46
That can be snuffed out or fanned into flame.
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It's challenging to put to death in its infancy, but it's way harder to kill once it's fully grown and is out of control.
12:56-13:00
And this principle holds true in every other area of life.
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If you had gone to the dentist when you first noticed that tooth pain, you could have avoided the unpleasant and very expensive root canal.
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That small leak in your attic would have been much more manageable whenever it was a small drip.
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But now every single time that it rained, it's like a waterfall in your attic.
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Taking care of your yard would have been much easier You pulled weeds as they popped up, but after months and months and years of neglect, there are weeds everywhere.
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In those moments, you noticed a problem, but you did nothing about it.
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You stuffed it down instead of honestly addressing the issue.
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Never turn a blind eye to your sin, especially when it comes to unrighteous anger when you see that root of bitterness pop up, be relentless in pulling it out and throwing it away instead of giving it room to breathe and to grow.
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When that urge to mentally curse someone out in your mind pops up, don't entertain it.
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Don't go down that ungodly route.
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Instead, choke out those thoughts with the word of God.
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If that person is a believer, pray for their sanctification.
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If that person is not a Christian, pray for their salvation.
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When a family member or friend fails you, and trust me, they will fail you, don't stew on the offense and tally up all the ways that person has let you down in the past.
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Instead, run to the only one who has never and will never let you down.
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Go to God the Father so that you can choose patience and gentleness.
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instead of pettiness and retaliation.
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When the desire to believe the worst about someone in this church enters your mind, willingly decide to believe the best until proven wrong.
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Turn down the stove of your anger before it hurts you and everyone around you.
15:19-15:21
How do you stop hatred from growing in your heart?
15:21-15:27
second method of extermination, by refusing to kill others with destructive words.
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By refusing to kill others with destructive words.
15:35-15:41
So Jesus moves on from what's in your heart to what comes out of your mouth at the end of verse 22.
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He says this, "Whoever insults his brother "will be liable to the council, "and whoever says you fool will be liable the hell of fire.
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Maybe this seems over the top to you.
15:55-16:03
You may be thinking, really Jesus, going before the Supreme Court and being thrown into hell for insulting and slander, isn't that a bit severe?
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Well, maybe you won't think that if you understand what these insults actually mean.
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That word for insult in the Greek is raka, which means empty-headed or worthless.
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And that word for fool is moros, from which we get which English word do you think?
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Moron.
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That's not just a cute, funny word.
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The New Testament uses that word to describe those who are outside the kingdom of God.
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So by labeling someone as raka and moros, you are saying you are a worthless and stupid waste of space with nothing of value to offer anyone so you can go straight to hell for all I care.
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True Christians cannot lose their salvation by using their mouths for evil.
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But a person whose life is marked by this kind of vile speech should question the genuineness of his or her faith and status in the family of God.
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How can you flip people off in traffic throughout the week and then passionately raise your arms in worship on Sunday?
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How can you unapologetically scream at your wife and your kids and then use that same mouth to pray to a heavenly father who you are nothing like.
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How can you day after day at work belittle your colleagues, your coworkers, your employees, and then go to small group and claim that you're a bold witness for Christ?
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How can you ruin the reputation of others with slander and then describe your reputation as above reproach in God honoring?
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You cannot habitually kill others with your words and claim to love Jesus with your whole heart.
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Your words say way more about you than the person you are speaking against.
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Please do not underestimate the impact and influence of your words.
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You can use your mouth to point someone to Christ or away from Christ, to smash them into a million pieces are to help put them back together again.
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You can use your mouth to give someone hope or to take away the little hope that someone has.
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Listen to what the Apostle Paul has to say about how you should and shouldn't speak in Ephesians 4.29.
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"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, "but only such as good for building up, "as fits the occasion that it may give grace "to those who hear." No corrupting talk.
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Corrupting brings the mental picture of something that is rotten and moldy.
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Imagine every single time you use your words in a negative way that this gross odor ekes out of your mouth and grosses out everyone around you.
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When my wife and I were first married, we lived in a garage apartment above the house of a very nice Christian couple and their son.
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We have almost no complaints about them.
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great family, very kind to us, but we had one small complaint. Once or twice a week they would make a meal that smelled horrible.
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And the smell would go from the kitchen into the vents and finally into our apartment. I can't tell you how many candles we lit, how many balls of Febreze we sprayed to try to fight off this odor. And somehow those defenses make it worse, doesn't it? The smells kind of mixed together to create a horrible uber smell.
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And it's been 11 years, I swear to you, I can still smell this meal in my house sometimes.
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I know that's not possible, and my wife tells me I'm imagining it, but that smell so offended my nose that it haunts me in every season of life.
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You may be thinking, okay, what's the point of this random gross story?
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Your corrupting words have the power to linger and haunt people for the rest of their lives.
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If I passed around a mic this morning and asked everyone to share the most hurtful things that have been said to or about you, there wouldn't be a dry eye in this room.
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Now I want you to think about some of the most hurtful things you've ever said to or about someone.
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Was it worth it?
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Do you stand by what you said?
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Or do you regret it?
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If given a do over, would you say it all again?
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Or would you keep your mouth shut?
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Remember your answers to those questions when you were tempted to lash out at others with your words.
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Recognize that you can never take your words back no matter how much you wish that you could.
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How do you stop hatred from growing in your heart?
21:08-21:12
Third method of extermination, by seeking after immediate reconciliation.
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By seeking after immediate reconciliation.
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So in verses 23 through 24, Jesus switches gears to focus on how you should address the anger of others when you are at fault.
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Let's see what he has to say about next steps.
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Verse 23, so if you were 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.
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First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.
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Jesus places a high premium on resolving relational issues quickly and pursuing after reconciliation as soon as possible.
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He even puts it above sacrifice, which to Jews in the first century would have been unthinkable.
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Making sacrifices is expected and commanded by God, but Jesus says it's more important to be at peace with others around you.
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He's saying, if you're making your sacrifice, leave it there, leave, go put this issue to bed and then come back to finish your sacrifice.
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This would be similar to us hearing, Listen, if you're shopping at Giant Eagle, leave your cart at the register and get out of there.
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If you're pumping gas, jump into your car and speed away and don't worry if the gas nozzle's dragging on the road behind you.
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If you're worshiping a church on Sunday, stop singing and track that person down.
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Resolve that unfinished business.
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Do you have unfinished business right now?
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Do you need to ask for forgiveness?
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Maybe you need to step out, make that call, send that text, or even speed out of the parking lot.
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If that's you, do it right now.
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Maybe you don't want to.
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Sadly, so many of us demand apologies from others, but we're so bad at apologizing when we're wrong.
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Why is that?
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because apologizing requires humility.
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You have to make yourself small and put yourself at the mercy of someone else.
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Do we naturally want to do that?
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None of us do, but it's commanded by our God and it is expected.
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It's way easier to cut ties and run than it is to admit your faults.
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That's why there are so many marriages that end in divorce.
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That's why there are so many friendships are broken. That's why so many professing Christians leave their current church to go to another church down the street. Well time for a fresh start. No one at this new church knows my dirty laundry or my history. Yet not yet. Give it a few weeks or months you'll be looking for a new church yet again. It is far more appealing to the flesh to be totally unknown and completely unconfronted than than it is to be fully known and lovingly confronted.
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Please stop pretending because Jesus is not fooled.
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Stop running away from those you've hurt because your problems will just follow you wherever you end up.
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Do not be lazy and passive about reconciliation.
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Don't just think, yeah, yeah, I'll put that on my to-do list and get to it at some point.
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No, Jesus is saying, rip up your to-do list because nothing else matters.
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Do whatever is necessary to attempt to stifle that anger that is between you and the other person.
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How do you stop hatred from growing in your heart?
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Final method of extermination, by remembering what's at stake.
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By remembering what's at stake.
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Maybe you're still unmoved by Jesus' call to crush hatred and pursue after restoration.
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You know what God is calling you to do, but you just don't want to do it.
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You don't have any plans to make any changes or say sorry anytime soon.
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Well, thankfully, Jesus knows how stubborn you are.
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He knows how stubborn I am.
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So he follows up his command with a very stern warning.
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In verses 25 to 26, he says this.
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"Come to terms quickly with your accuser "while you were going with him to court, "lest your accuser hands you over to the judge "and the judge to the guard and you be put in prison.
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"Truly I say to you, you will never get out "until you have paid the last penny." Let me bring this first century illustration into the 21st century.
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Imagine that you and your neighbor are fighting over a property line dispute.
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And during one argument, you get so angry that you viciously attack him.
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You are 100% guilty and there are witnesses to back up your neighbor's testimony.
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Your neighbor threatens to call the cops, to press charges, and sue you if you do not apologize.
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But in that moment, you don't want to apologize.
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You wanna defend yourself, you wanna fight against your neighbor.
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You don't want him or her to have the satisfaction of beating you.
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But let's follow that to its logical conclusion.
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Cops come, you're arrested, you're put on trial, and you have to go to prison and stay there until you are let out.
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And even then, you still have a lot of legal fees and you still have to pay out the lawsuit.
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Let me ask you, is there any upside to that option, option A?
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What do we think?
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No, it's all horrible.
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But thankfully, there's an option B.
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Throw yourself at the mercy of your neighbor.
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Ask for their forgiveness and seek after an agreeable solution.
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If you do that, your future is no longer filled with orange jumpsuits and public showers.
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You may be thinking, well, thanks for the random legal advice, I guess, but what does this have to do with me?
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Well, here's the point.
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Hatred is a prison that you willingly lock yourself into.
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Hatred is a prison that you willingly lock yourself into.
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If you give yourself over to it, if you refuse to repent, there will be consequences in this life.
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You will become very lonely and unpleasant to be around.
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You'll be known as the cranky guy or lady at church that everyone wants to love but doesn't know how to.
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You'll be viewed as the human cactus.
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Everyone tries to hug you and bring you closer, but you just push them away and hurt them with jabs.
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You will be trapped in a loveless marriage.
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Your children will wither away under your harshness and constant criticism.
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And you'll wonder one day why they don't visit anymore or call you to check in.
28:34-28:42
Your friends will drop away like flies, one by one by one, because they're tired of you picking fights and refusing to apologize.
28:42-28:46
Let me ask you, is that the direction you want your life to take?
28:47-28:49
Is that where you want to end up?
28:52-29:00
In these final two verses, Jesus is focusing on the penalties you will face right now if you wrong others and never seek forgiveness.
29:02-29:15
But over this past week, I couldn't help but consider the eternal penalty for unrepentant hatred and a continual refusal to seek after the forgiveness of Christ.
29:17-29:24
Paul is crystal clear in 1 Corinthians 6.10 that revilers, slanderers will not inherit the kingdom of God.
29:26-29:31
As I said earlier, some of you need to do some serious self-examination.
29:31-29:44
If you relentlessly feed this anger in your heart and it pours out from your mouth and through your actions, you may need to answer this really difficult question, am I truly saved?
29:46-29:49
Because true Christians choose to love instead of hate.
29:50-29:56
A true follower of Christ wants to repent of sin, not wallow in sin.
29:57-30:03
Someone who has experienced the forgiveness of Christ wants to extend that to others instead of withhold it.
30:03-30:23
Those who have been changed from the inside out say, "I'm sorry, will you forgive me?" Not, "I'm sorry, but," or "I didn't do anything wrong." Listen, none of us are perfect in any of these areas, but you should be making progress day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year.
30:24-30:30
Are you kinder, more loving, more forgiving now than when you first came to Christ?
30:32-30:37
And if the answer is no, maybe you never truly came to Christ in the first place.
30:39-30:48
If your honest answer to the question of am I truly saved is no, then your future is far more terrifying than any earthly jail or prison.
30:50-30:56
You are looking down the barrel of an eternity of being sentenced to a prison that is inescapable once you are there.
30:57-31:00
In hell, no one is released early or given visitation rights.
31:03-31:04
But I have great news this morning.
31:04-31:08
You don't have to be sentenced to that kind of eternity.
31:08-31:11
There is still time to trust in Christ today.
31:12-31:15
You don't need to carry that hatred or bitterness any longer.
31:16-31:20
Those burdens will sink you both now and forever if you let them.
31:20-31:37
Give those burdens over to Christ, who was hated by the crowd that you could be loved by his Father, who was rejected on the cross that you could be accepted, who bore the angry wrath that you deserve so you could be declared innocent.
31:38-31:41
Jesus Christ has open arms this morning.
31:43-31:44
He's calling you to run to him.
31:46-31:47
He is ready and willing.
31:49-31:54
Are you ready and willing to run to him and accept all that he has to offer?
31:56-32:06
Let nothing hold you back from Christ because he will withhold nothing from you once you come to him with a sincere faith and genuine repentance.
32:09-32:21
If your honest answer to the question of "Am I saved?" is yes, but you still wrestle with holding on to resentment and burning with anger, I have a few final words of encouragement for you.
32:22-32:26
You may have dug yourself into a pit of your own making.
32:27-32:34
You keep digging and digging and digging with obsessive thoughts, unkind words, and stubbornness.
32:35-32:40
But please listen to me, you only need to stay in that hole as long as you want to.
32:41-32:44
Nothing and no one is keeping you there besides yourself.
32:45-32:52
If you want to get to a better place, Get over yourself and admit your neediness.
32:52-32:55
Admit that you need God's help.
32:57-33:00
Remind yourself of the truth instead of buying into your own lies.
33:01-33:06
You should hold no grudges because God holds no grudges against you.
33:07-33:11
You have nothing to prove to anyone because Jesus Christ already approves of you.
33:12-33:48
You have no reason to repay evil for evil because the Bible says that vengeance belongs to the Lord. You have no defense for your hatred because you have received the greatest love imaginable. Let's spend some time with the Lord in prayer. Please close your eyes and bow your heads. Use this time to confess your sin to the Lord, to acknowledge how much you need Him to change.
33:50-33:51
Stop putting on a show.
33:52-33:55
Be honest with your Father, because He already knows what you're struggling with.
33:58-34:02
The first step in finding a solution to your problem is admitting that you even have a problem.
34:04-34:06
Don't worry about what's for lunch.
34:06-34:10
Don't worry about your busy day tomorrow, how your kids are doing in the back.
34:11-34:12
Do business with God.
34:21-34:25
Father, we come before you to confess our sin.
34:30-34:36
Lord, all of us struggle with this in some way, at some level, whether we want to admit it or not.
34:38-34:59
Lord, if there is someone in this room doesn't know you, Lord, I pray that today would be the day of salvation. Today would be the day where they run to you and ask for forgiveness for the very first time. For the rest of us, Lord, Lord, help us to recognize that we are already forgiven of our hatred. That the eternal penalty for our sin has been taken away.
35:02-35:13
But Lord, we are called to love you so much that we must hate our sin. Lord, help Help us to hate how we sin against you, rather than hate others.
35:14-35:19
Where we ask for your power, we ask for your strength to grow, to mature.
35:20-35:26
I pray that we'd walk out of this room as lighter people after giving you the burden of our hatred and anger.
35:27-35:29
I ask all this in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:21-26
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Are you struggling with anger/hatred? How can you deal with it right now before it gets out of control?
Read Ephesians 4:29 - What are some practical ways to control your mouth and keep corruption from spreading to others?
Why is it so hard to admit your faults and ask for forgiveness?
What are the consequences of giving yourself over to hatred and unforgiveness?
Breakout
Pray for one another.