It Starts in the Heart | Matthew 5: 21-26
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Good morning. Kobe didn't elaborate on it because it has to do with his celebration next Sunday. But next Sunday, after this worship service at 12, a team we're having a celebration for he and his family for being serving here for 10 years. And so the there'll be a meal. And it's kind of a surprise for Kobe, but it's good. You'll enjoy this catered meal. And I had some people ask if they could bring if they needed to bring anything for food. And I said, you can bring whatever you want. Bring, bring food, sure bring desserts, how are you going to, but we could have a meal for you. And it'll be a celebration. And so that'll be next Sunday after service. So write down the fellowship hall. So be looking forward to that. Well, this past Thursday, I believe, yes, Thursday. John David graduated here at 4k program here at First Baptist. There he is. There's a little rascal looks like he's standing right here, actually. And so we the graduates showcased all the things they learned this year there is with dad. And then I think we have another one with his little group. So he was sitting over here on the edge of the seat for some reason. And that's what his favorite things are. You can see his favorite color is red, its favorite food is cheese pizza, even though he likes to cheese off. And only child we've ever had do that. And then his favorite animal is a lion. And he wants to be a soldier when he grows up. So I'm trying to get him to go to the Citadel thing anyway, rather than just go into the military. But as an end, there's a college where they teach you how to do that. And he's all excited about that anyway. But they they the program, they showcase the graduates, they showed all they learned this year, they recited their ABCs. They said their days of the week. They said their months of the year, they counted in Spanish, really loudly. They sang some songs. And they recited some scripture. And it's wonderful to hear little children recite scripture, from their heart from memory. They memorized it, they know it. But knowing scripture is just the start. The reason our preschool and daycare train children to memorize Scripture is so that they have that knowledge. So they can hide it in their heart, God's word. And so that the knowledge they learn about Scripture can be something that ventually they don't just know, but that they believe in that may enter their heart. Because faith in God may enter through the head. But it's grown and starts in the heart. We're continuing to look at a section today called the Sermon on the Mount. And in this section, Jesus challenges the traditional teachings, the practices of the established Jewish religious leaders, which didn't always add up to the Bible, many times it was extra biblical. And Jesus is calling His followers to a fuller, a deeper, a truer understanding of the law. And the application of that his ultimate goal is to bring about true righteousness, not just external righteousness, but true righteousness, and heart change in his disciples, because life change starts in the heart. Matthew, chapter five, starting in verse 21. You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder, and whoever murderers will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, that everyone who's angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says You fool, will be liable to the Hill of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and they 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're 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. Heavenly Father, as we gathered here today and sing your praises, we come across this passage today that Lord Jesus you spoke. And then you've probably spoken many times, to those who are willing to hear. And so Lord, teach us something today about about these things you mentioned, about murder, anger, forgiveness, confession, reconciliation, all these things that you have, tightly bound up in this little passage. Give us a deeper understanding a deeper knowledge, so that we can make a hard change in our lives, so that we can take this knowledge and do something with it, and trust you with it, Lord, I pray that that my words reflect the intended meaning that you gave, I pray that you fill me with your Spirit and preaching, and that this body, this congregation receives your word. And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. I want to show you today three realities that we see in this passage about our hearts, three realities that we see about our hearts. First, guilt starts in the heart. Guilt. Now I could have used the word murder, or anger or sin even because this is what this is talking about. But this idea that we're guilty because of the sin that starts in our heart, guilty in God's court foot, so to speak, up verse 21, you've heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable. The judgment. So as Jesus taught his disciples, the Pharisees, the religious leaders, were always listening. They're always watching his every move, to see if he would say something that didn't match up with what they had taught, that didn't match up with their expectations. So one of the obstacles Jesus had to overcome in His teaching was to was to publicly explain, and then to decipher what God had said, versus what the people had heard from the rabbis, what they had been told, that had contradicted God's word, or been convoluting God's word, or had been perverting God's Word. Now, this phrase, here, you shall not murder is from the Word of God. But the consequence for murder, which they had learned is that if someone murders they'll just go to trial, which is actually not what God had prescribed. God said way back in Genesis nine, six this, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image, this command occurs years before the 10 commandments were given by Moses on Mount Sinai, hundreds of years, even this command was given to Noah, when Noah and his family opened the door of the ark and set foot on dry, maybe soggy land, and they exited the ark. They were charged to start a new civilization, new humanity. And he says, If there's murder, the consequence for that is the loss of the life of the murderer. We call that now in our day and age, capital punishment. And God gives this to let them know that murder was and is an extremely serious sin. Why why murder because it intentionally it selfishly takes the life of another person who that person is made also in the image of God. It's a very specific type of sin, that God holds very serious. But by the time of Jesus, the rabbi's and the Pharisees had kind of diluted the seriousness of that sin and that crime. So now if, if you've committed murder, you're you go to the courts. The Jesus has to take this group of people and go deeper with them. than just their tradition stated, than just their laws taught, and go back to the heart of God's Word, the true meaning of God's Word. And his point here by saying this is that being guilty of any kind of sin, even murder actually starts way before the actual action occurs at least guilty in God's eyes, verse 22, he says, as I say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother, will be liable to judgment. Now, even secular psychologists and sociologists agree, actually with Jesus on this point, they would say even that hatred brings a person closer to the act of murder than any other emotion. Because hatred is an extension of anger. Anger leads to hatred, hatred, leads to murder, and all these things start in the heart. Now, the Pharisees and scribes can never conceive themselves as capable of murder. But Jesus, here's letting them know that they're just a couple steps away from that, and they don't watch, Jesus adds us. And whoever insults his brother be liable to the council, whoever says, You fool, will be liable to the Hill, a fire, just merely calling a person and name in anger has the power. He says, to send that person to Hill, provided they are unrepentant that sin and don't place their faith in Jesus, murderers don't go to hell, sinners that Jesus go to hell. And even just in one angry comment has the power to do that. Guilt starts in the heart, and it has the power to bring us even down to hell. Look at this bottle of water. I've had a couple of sips of this one. The other one, I've drank more of that, you know, it's not too heavy, it's 16 ounces, I don't know. 12 ounces, 16.9 ounces, right? Now I can hold it for a few minutes. It's not too heavy, 16.9 ounces of water. But the longer I hold it, the more I'll feel it, the more I want to put it down. The heavier it gets, the more my hand gets tired more, my arm gets tired. And at some point, I'm going to be asking you Hey, hold this for me, I need a break. If I asked you to walk around for four hours holding this bottle of water, by the fourth hour, it would feel very, very heavy. I can't change hands you got to keep it in this hand, it would be heavy. So what happens when we hold on to anger? Hold on to bitterness that we have towards someone. It might not seem bad at first, but becomes a heavy burden that weighs us down and brings us down. The guilt of anger and sin we hold on to is very serious. And it can even lead us to hell if we don't let go. Because believers will let go. Christians we should let go. So it's something to make ourselves think do I know Jesus? Why am I holding on to this? Jesus says if you are sinfully angry with someone, you are just as guilty in God's eyes as a murderous criminal. Our guilt before a holy God doesn't start when we commit. The Act starts in the heart. And we all struggle with with anger, sinful anger, at least there's righteous anger but sinful anger. Some of us may be very emotional and get angry quickly, quick tempered. Some of this may let it simmer for a while and then the volcano blows up. Some of us kind of give the cold shoulder and we just kind of resent it. And we internalize it. It's all anger. And it's all sinful. And that's actually not a bad thing place to be sometimes because it means we care. If we didn't have any emotion at all, it means we didn't care didn't have a love interest there or whatever the issue is that we're having an issue with. But anger sinful anger is something that let us know something's not right. Where in your heart do you find yourselves? Finding yourself angry a lot? Do you let your emotions just control everything that you do? Do you let your anger damage your relationships? Bible says that we should be slow to anger, not quick to anger. But are you quick to anger? Are you slow to forgive? Jesus says we need to be careful with that. We may not think we're capable of murder, but we're all capable of anger. And anger leads to hatred, and hatred leads to murder. Guilt starts in our hearts and our thoughts and our motivations. Secondly, confession also starts in the heart. Confession starts in the heart of verse 23. 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. Jesus says He underscores here the importance of the attitude of the heart, as he then talks about what it's like when they come to worship, we're in here today. Do you right now. Have something on your mind? A person in your life that you have bitterness to towards? That you have anger, that you have hatred. You might say, Well, Pastor, I'm only human. I didn't say you want. I'm just telling you what Jesus is saying what Jesus says he says don't bring these murderous thoughts, these angry thoughts into worship. He says don't bring them in there. Now that's an excuse for you not to come anymore. Thanks excuse for you go to like next week. Well, Pastor said I can't bring my bitterness in here. So I'm going to the lake, or the beach. No, what he means is, use Sunday coming as an opportunity to deal with these things. Don't come into the house of God with bitterness, and resentment, or bad thoughts about people. Don't bring an offering in here without unconfessed sin. In your heart. He says this first, be reconciled to your brother. And then come offer your gift. Get your heart right. And then you can worship in peace. You can worship in freedom. Good First John one nine. John says If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. All we do is say Lord, forgive me for having these thoughts. From my heart, I asked you to forgive me. And the Bible says we're cleanse now, as Christians, why do we confess our sins? I mean, many people think of the practice of confession, I think of it that in the way of the Catholic tradition, that whenever we sin, we must confess our sins to God or else if we die, we would die in our sins and go to hell. And that's not the Baptist belief. Here's what we believe this means that our sins are forgiven the moment we receive the gift of salvation for Jesus Christ, we place our faith in him that that moment our sins are forgiven. Every sin we've ever committed, every sin we're committing now, or will commit has been nailed to the cross it is for given. So why then do we need to continually confess our sins that already forgiven? Judicial slavery and God's called they're forgiven? Why do we need to do it? We do it because it's a healthy practice, to admit to God that we know we've sinned. And it cleanses us in a way it cleanses us in a way that it clears our conscience and it helps bring us back into a closer and right relationship with God and it helps us leave the guilt of sin behind and move on with your life. Don't you want to move on with your life? You do. confession of sin starts in the heart. But it's also healthy though to confess our sins to each other when we know we've sinned against others. Look at James 516. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working harder being able to worship corporately is being able to confess our sin to one another. And to pray for that person who do you need to confess As you're saying you don't want the hardest things I have to do as a father is when I know I've sinned against my children to come to them and say, Hey, listen, and I know Forgive me or, or I was wrong, or it's all graffiti him do it because I feel like I've let them down as a father for sending them, it gets them in the first place. But they need to know that I know that I don't have it all together. And when I sin, they need to know I know I said. And it's like an any relationship. If you had a hard time praying for those that you've sinned against. You'd be amazed at how when you pray. It'll change your posture. We don't want to worship to be hindered. For preachers met that one day for a friendly gathering. And during the conversation, one preacher said this, he said, No, our people come to us all the time they pour out their hearts, they confess certain sins to us and needs and, and you know, they leave because confession is good for the soul. And so I think we should all do that the four of us together, we don't have anyone go to let's the four of us confess our sins to one another. And so they said, Okay, we can do that. So the first one said that he admitted salga first. Sometimes I like to go see some movies at night. And I like to go in church members don't know where I'm at. And so the movies aren't all that great, but I just kind of put my hood on and go in there and, and watch movies. Is it okay? Makes me feel better. I've confessed it to you. I don't need to do it anymore. Oh, great. The second one says, you know, sometimes I just like to go away and, and smoke a cigar. And I said, Okay, if there was said, you know, sometimes I like just to play guard to do little gambling, play cards and do a little gambling on the side. Now, I said, Okay, great. Confess that the fourth one came up and he just wouldn't confess. And they they finally said, No, now listen, we've confessed our sins, you need to confess. Just just just tell us what you struggle with. What is your, what is your sin? What do you been struggling with? And finally he said, Okay, I'll tell you. It's gossip. And I can hardly wait to get out of here. You know, that preacher down the street likes to smoke cigars. Can you imagine that? All kidding aside, confession of sin is good for the soul. It allows us the freedom to move on. And then we can experience proper worship. Look at Colossians 316. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, and in hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness, in your hearts to God. How can we let God's word richly dwell in us? How can we receive it? How can we sing along the songs with thankfulness to God if we have bitterness in our hearts? We can't. We've all been there. We've all sitting there in the pews. And the band is doing a great job leading us or the choir is doing a great job leading us and and all we can do is think about that person who almost hit us on the way to church. Think about that person that we had to deal with this weekend or whatever, and, and we can't get that person out. Or the preachers preaching even I'm preaching even now and you're just thinking about some other person's mother deal. And it's okay if you're thinking about what comes to anger, because I want you to think about that. But just some other issue unrelated right? But how can we do it if we have bitterness in our hearts, we can't Hebrews 1228 says this. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, not perfect, just acceptable, with reverence, and all. through confession, we humble ourselves before God. Through confession, we acknowledge our need for his forgiveness, through confession. We express our trust in Jesus that we need his help confessions allows us to be thankful and grateful and confession starts in the heart. And finally, number three, reconciliation starts in the heart. Reconciliation starts in the heart, verse 25. Jesus says, Then, come to terms quickly with your accuser. Why are you going with him to court? Lest you accuse your hands you ever the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you'd be put in prison like What's he talking about here? Jesus is talking about two people who are honorable made a court once the accuser once I guess, the defendant. Now the accuser in biblical times, this is not innocent till proven guilty. The local times the accuser has the power to hand over the other person to this judge, the judge then not the jury, the judge can pass the power to pass a harsh sentence, resulting in the accused being thrown in prison to the guard. This is a common practice the judge had ultimate authority to hand over a person to the to the to the prison, and the garbage take them there. This is a terrifying prospect. someone accuses you of something, you go right to the judge. Next is Phil even though our legal system in America is not perfect, it's a lot harder to get in prison than that. Jesus emphasizes the urgency of resolving conflicts quickly is on when you're on the way the court gullet, don't let the court decide this between two people, especially two brothers in Christ, resolve it together, don't go to this secular judge, resolve it on the way together, find a peaceful resolution. Jesus is saying here that we are to be proactive in resolving conflicts proactive in resolving conflicts. Now, we're all over the map when it comes to these kinds of things. Some of us are pretty pushy with this kind of thing. Me naturally, I just go away from that stuff. Alright, I'll deal with it later. It can be learned attribute when there's a conflict, and he's going to resolve it. As Christians, we're called to make peace make it you have to actually work at it make peace, strive for reconciliation, but then they'll let conflicts fester. Now to take responsibility for our actions, be be willing to reconcile with that accuser. By coming to terms quickly, we are giving grace and forgiveness to the person that has wronged us. So Jesus is saying it is important to resolve conflicts quickly and peacefully. Now, sometimes, reconciling a relationship is not possible. It takes two people to reconcile. You can't control the other person. It takes too. But we're called to do all we can to reconcile that relationship with the other person does is up to them. Jesus says though, if we don't, verse 26, you will never get out until you've paid the last penny. What he's saying here is this. We go to that person's prison in their head. And until we try to make a resolution with them resolve the conflict, they may never see us differently. Because we are in their prison. And they'll make us pay for it our entire life. So he says, You are the one to try to make peace. You are the one to try to make resolution. You are not the one that's murdering people with their hearts. Consider the case of Brian Howard, a disgruntled ex employee who in 2013 took matters into his own hands he worked for the FAA caught an FAA contractor that supplied and maintained communication systems that at at Air Traffic facilities and airports and things like this and, and different airlines out sourced them and that kind of thing. Well, he was told he was being transferred to Hawaii, not to me that sounds like a great transfer. He was unhappy about it. And so he had a fit of rage. And this IT guy hacked into the computer system of the company. He caused extensive damage. He deleted files he corrupted He disrupted the firm's operations. And in one day, over 2000 flights across the country were grounded because of what he had done. When he realized the scope of what he had done, after his anger subsided, and you realize he probably was no longer had a job and was probably going to prison. They found him in the closet somewhere in the airport, ready to take his own life. Why? Because of anger. Now you might say well, clearly pastor, you had a mental health issue. We don't know that. Maybe he just had anger and never dealt with it. Boiled and boiled and boiled in one day. You're transferred to Hawaii just he just lost it. You An anger issue that he never dealt with. Our anger has real consequences, not just in our lives, but in other people's lives. How'd you like to been one of the 2000 flights, people sitting there in Chicago O'Hare Airport wondering why you're not getting to where you want to go. Because one man had a bad day and was angry over something that went on in his life. See true. Righteousness is not just what we do. It begins with the attitude of the heart. Being a follower of Christ is not just about following a set of rules, doing the right thing. It's about having a transformed heart in that enabling us to do the right thing. Today, maybe you need to ask? Well, not maybe I know you do. But to what extent do you need to ask God's help in this area? There's some relationships you need to think about in your own life that needs reconciliation, needs forgiveness. You don't have to be best friends with them. But there might have to be a reconciliation, there might have to be a forgiveness. Are there other healthy relationships you have once that people you are in your life? The things that you need to talk about. This is why Christmas dinners are so awkward. This is why family reunions are a little difficult. Because there's things you haven't dealt with. There's there's something you need to do. So you don't stay in that person's prison. So they don't go into yours. Jesus says, Don't let anger send you to hell. Faster. I know Jesus. I didn't say that. But if you know Jesus, you're gonna be someone who has a desire for reconciliation, for forgiveness, a desire to not let anger control your life. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what you've done for us in Christ Jesus, as we close our time together today. I pray that you can give us the grace that we need to do what you've told us to do. And this passage, give us the strength and the courage to do the things you've told us here in Matthew chapter five. to swiftly and quickly do the things that we know we need to do. As the Lord leads us. Father, if there's one in here today that does not know you as Lord and Savior, they've never placed their faith in the work of Jesus Christ. His death is burial, his resurrection. Today, they would do so and you would save them and they would have eternal life and their sins will be forgiven. And they would have the abundant life that you want them to live in this world until you call them but we know that relationships are complicated. And most of us, Lord, you have unforgiveness or bitterness in our heart. Have them for legitimate reasons, reasons. The Lord, you still tell us don't let that hinder your life. Don't let that hinder your worship. And don't let that hinder your walk with you. Allah we thank you for the grace you give us every day, even when we don't obey you. Help us be better Christians that are followers of Christ. We ask these things in your name. Amen.
