Anger
Sermon Transcript
0:00:14.0
Well, good morning, everyone. Let’s take our Bibles and turn to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. We are just beginning this study, and we’ve come to Matthew 5:21-16. If you follow along, I’ll read our text this morning. Matthew 5 beginning in verse 21. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.”
0:01:45.7
ABC News 20/20 in January of 2008 ran a story or a segment titled “Anger in America.” And I love the way the reporter got into the topic there. He says, “Anger is all the rage today.” That’s a nice turn of phrase, isn’t it? He says, “We express our anger about all kinds of things. Bad calls by the umpires…” I’ve done that a few times. “Drivers cutting us off, long lines at the grocery store, our boss expecting a report by the end of the day, AIG execs getting bailout money.” He says, “Our anger comes from seeing everyone else as out to get us or that we are not getting what we feel we deserve. Our spouse leaving a mess in the living room. Our kids leaving toys on the floor where we trip on them.” Now, I think the reporter for ABC News was kind of on to something here. I think he understood that there really is a very real and palpable anger among Americans today. And as the great recession deepens and more and more people lose their jobs and their fortunes, more and more people are becoming angry at circumstances that they feel like they cannot control. We’ve even seen the term “angry mob” tossed around the media today to describe people who show up at Tea Parties and town hall gatherings. And you’ve seen all of that on the news. I don’t need to elaborate on that any more.
0:03:19.4
But anger is our subject today. And as God would have it in the timing of our study of the Sermon on the Mount, we’ve come to Matthew 5:21-26 where Jesus addresses the subject of anger. There was a guy who came up to me last night before our Saturday night service. He says, “Pastor, what are you speaking on tonight?” And I said, “Anger.” And he goes, “Grrr!” And I promised him I wouldn’t get angry about anger. But it’s an important emotion for us to come to terms with, isn’t it? We’ve all been angry at one level or another. But we can all agree that anger is not a friendly topic. We’d rather have happy conversations full of warm sunshine. Anger seems negative. It seems too gloomy. It seems too dark. But that’s just the point, because there sometimes is anger in places in our heart that dark and unseen by people around us. But God certainly sees our anger.
0:04:19.4
It’s important for us to maybe say at the start here that not all anger is sin. Not all anger is even unhealthy. In fact, in some circumstances it is appropriate for us and even necessary for us to come to terms with our anger and even express our anger, for example, when we see evil and injustice in the world today. And if we don’t express our anger—and anger we might call righteous anger—then maybe there is something wrong with us. Maybe we don’t see things as God sees them. But when we see evil and injustice in the world today, it is appropriate, it is necessary for us to express what we might call righteous anger.
0:05:02.4
The Bible does say, “Be angry and do not sin.” Well, how do you do that? Well, again, there is a righteous kind of anger. And Jesus expressed it on occasion, didn’t He? Remember the time that He walked into the temple and He noticed the moneychangers having turned His Father’s house of prayer into a place of merchandise? And it stirred up His righteous anger so much so that He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and sent everybody scattering. And He looked at everybody, and He said, “My Father’s house is a house of prayer. Do not forget it.” His righteous anger.
0:05:38.7
If you’re a student of the scriptures and you’re a bit of a theologian, you know that the God who reveals Himself in the scriptures is not only a God of love and of grace and of mercy, but if we’re fair about our study of the scriptures we also have to acknowledge that He is a God of wrath, righteous wrath. And when God expresses His anger and expresses wrath, it is always in a righteous kind of way. We can’t just take that out of the scriptures and say, “No, we don’t want to deal with that.” As disturbing as it is, you know, we need to acknowledge that God is a God of righteous wrath.
0:06:18.3
But let’s be honest. Most of the anger inside of us cannot be categorized as righteous. Now, maybe yours can, but I’ll just be honest with you. Most of the anger inside of me that I detect from time to time cannot be categorized as righteous. In fact, I came to the conviction this week that we get angry at things we should tolerate, and we tolerate those things that really do deserve a righteous anger. And that most of the anger inside of us is not righteous. It is unhealthy, and it is toxic to our system and oftentimes spills out into relationships all around us in the family, in the church, in our neighborhood, our community and our workplace. And that’s the kind of anger we need to come to terms with and resolve as a spills over into unreconciled kinds of relationships.
0:07:17.0
Now, let’s take a closer look at Matthew 5:21-26. And let’s remember, last week we talked about how Jesus says, “I came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but I came to fulfill it.” We talked at length about what it means for Jesus to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. But I want to add another thought there to give you another way of looking at that word “fulfill.” And it really comes from rabbinic literature. In the rabbinic tradition, the word “fulfill” can mean “to interpret correctly.” And so what Jesus here, really beginning in verses 21 through the end of chapter 5, is He lands upon any number of commands found in the Law and the Prophets. Commands related to murder like we’ll look at today, a command related to adultery, one related to divorce and remarriage, another related to the taking of oaths, another one related to loving our neighbor. And He uses a bit of a rabbinic formula to introduce each thought. He says, “You have heard that it was said…but I say to you…” And what He’s doing here in the rabbinic tradition is He is fulfilling the Law and the Prophets in the sense that He is now interpreting these commands correctly. He is addressing the misinterpretations and the misapplications of these commands that were perhaps bubbling around in the 1st century and that maybe had much momentum from centuries before that.
0:08:46.4
For instance, He says, “You’ve heard that it was said that murder is the act of homicide, the act of taking another person’s life. But I say to you that if you have anger in your heart toward another person you’ve already committed murder.” He says, “You have heard that it was said that adultery is the act of sleeping with somebody who is not your spouse. But I say to you that if a man lusts in his heart toward another woman…”…or we could turn that around, if a woman lusts in her heart toward a man, that “that person has committed adultery.” And each time He does this, He raises the bar on righteousness again and again and again. And some of what we’re going to hear today and in the weeks to come we’re gonna say, “Whoa, wait a minute, Jesus. That’s raising the bar just a little too high.”
0:09:39.0
In fact, He does here in verses 21 and 22 is He basically tells us that unrighteous anger is murder. Listen to what He says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” In other words, He puts anger without a cause…and that phrase “without a cause” is not found in the best of manuscripts. But it’s good to have it in the text here because it helps us understand the broader teaching of scripture on anger and helps us to at least include room for what we call righteous anger. But we might say that unrighteous anger in the heart toward another person is equivalent in God’s eyes as having murdered that person. And that’s where we step back and say, “Wait a minute, Jesus. You’re raising the bar a little bit high. I’m not angry that You would consider me on the same level as a murderer just because I have anger in my heart toward another person.” Now, we can all agree that no homicide, no murder takes place, but that anger begins in the heart, okay, and that every murder is the result of anger that somebody has in the heart toward another person. And we might even agree that not every angry thought that I have in my heart toward another person actually results in murder. But remember what Jesus is doing here. He’s interpreting the law correctly. He’s saying that even anger in our heart toward another person is tantamount, it is equivalent to, in God’s eyes, the act of murder itself.
0:11:31.2
Now, think about murder for a moment here. Murder has become very commonplace in our society. It’s kind of sad, isn’t it? I think back to Genesis 4 and the first murder took place where Cain slew his brother Abel. And I think of the shock that rippled through the new creation at that time. They had never seen human blood shed. And yet we have seen it over and over and over and over to where it takes a pretty gruesome murder today to really get our attention. Otherwise, we watch it on the 6:00 news or we hear a story on the 11:00 clock news and we say it’s another day in the park. Murder has become a form of entertainment. Some of the most popular television shows today are murder mystery programs like CSI, okay. Or for some of you older folks, you may remember one called Murder, She Wrote. You remember that one? We are entertained by murder today. Can you ever have dreamed or imagined a day where murder becomes a form of entertainment for us? But Jesus wants us, I think, to be as shocked about the anger in our hearts as we would be if we were in Genesis 4 and we saw the first murder. It ought to arrest our soul and cause us to pause and to think twice about what’s going on in our hearts.
0:12:54.6
Now, He also kind of ratchets up the conversation here a little bit by suggesting that even insulting words are murderous. Look at it in the middle of verse 22. He says, “And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” The term “raca” there was an Aramaic term that was kind of a quasi-swear word in the 1st century. It means “empty-headed” or “idiot.” You ever called somebody kind of an empty-headed idiot or maybe a fool? The word “fool” here comes from the word moray (sp), which is where we get our word “moron.” That doesn’t seem all that offensive by today’s vulgar standards of insult and contemptuous talk that we kind of fire at one another. But in the 1st century if you called somebody an empty-headed moron, it might be an indication that you’re not a possessor of eternal life, that you’re in danger of hellfire, Jesus says.
0:13:57.9
And elsewhere in scripture in the New Testament Jesus even says what comes out of our mouths is a reflection of what’s in our hearts. And if we speak insulting, contemptuous words toward another person, it’s a reflection that there is murder in our heart. In 1 John 3:15 tells us, “Whoever hates his brother is a murder,” John says. “And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” So if we take this to the extreme, it’s possible that Jesus is saying here if these kinds of murderous words come out of our mouths, it may be a reflection of what’s in our heart, that murder is in our heart and that we may not actually be possessors of eternal life as we think we are. And this is where we say, “Wow, Jesus, You’ve really ratcheted up and raised the bar on righteousness here. You’ve put me in the same category as somebody who has committed the act of homicide.” Pretty sobering, isn’t it? But these are the words of Jesus.
0:15:08.4
Now, let’s hold our place here in Matthew and let’s turn to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians 4:31. And I want us to look at what I like to call the many faces of anger here. Ephesians 4:31, Paul addresses the subject of anger. In fact, there are a lot of places in the Bible where we could go because this is a common emotion and one that we must deal with. But Ephesians 4:31 the apostle Paul says these words. “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.” That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? And what’s interesting is verse 31 comes after verse 30 that talks about not “grieving the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” The implication is that bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking and malice in our heart towards other people grieves the Holy Spirit. It shuts down the work of the Holy Spirit in our life and in our midst.
0:16:14.5
Now, if you got to Colossians 3:8, you find a corollary to this where Paul says, “But now you yourselves are to put off all these.” And it’s the picture of taking of a piece of clothing, a jacket or something, and laying it aside. He says, “Put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.” Some of the same words that we find in Ephesians 4:31. But if we were to combine them into a little collage here with all these words on a screen and in front of us, we’d come up with what I like to call the many faces of anger. Let’s just explore this a little bit.
0:17:00.4
There are two primary words in the Greek New Testament translated anger, or wrath sometimes. One of them is the word thumos. And thumos is quick-tempered kind of anger. It’s explosive anger. It’s the kind of anger that is very visible. And as quickly as it arises it settles down. Think of the Incredible Hulk. When I was a kid growing up, the Incredible Hulk was one of my favorite shows to watch. And it had this guy named David Baxter who was just a regular guy like you and me. And he had a regular job, but he had this rage deep down inside of him. And just the little thing would tip him off, and he would then change into Lou Ferrigno. Remember the big body builder? This green, hulking, raging monster. And he would just destroy everything around him. That’s thumos, explosive kind of anger.
0:17:52.2
There is another word in the Greek New Testament. It’s the word orgé, sometimes translated “anger,” sometimes translated “wrath.” This is a quieter, kind of beneath-the-surface, simmering kind of anger. Orgé is longer than thumos. And because it’s beneath the surface, friends, I think it’s more dangerous. I can deal with the quick-tempered person who explodes and then settles down. But it’s hard to deal with the person who looks at you and smiles, but deep down inside he is angry towards you. This was the kind of anger that exploded in Genesis 4 when Cain slew his brother Abel. I think it’s also the kind of anger that exploded upon the scene at Columbine High School several years ago where nobody had really picked up on the anger that was inside those two teenage boys that brought those shotguns to school one day and slaughtered so many of their fellow students. Orgé, a (0:19:00.0) deep-seated kind of anger.
0:19:03.4
We also see the word “clamor” there. I love that word in the New King James there. It’s loud, quarreling, protesting kind of anger. We’ve seen some of that maybe at the Tea Parties and the town hall gatherings. It’s the kind of anger…well, it literally means “a raven’s cry.” You hear this kind of anger. It bubbles up and forms groups. And it’s a protesting kind of anger. There is also the word “malice” here. Malice is evil intent with…the plotting for revenge is malice. And we’re to put this off, scripture says. We’re not to have malice in our hearts toward another person. Romans 12:19 says, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for,” here it is, “the wrath of God.” (0:20:00.1) Why do we leave room for the wrath of God? Well, because He always expresses His anger in a righteous way, and we don’t. So don’t take your vengeance upon. He says, “‘Vengeance is mine. I will repay,’ says the Lord.”
0:20:12.5
And there is the word “bitterness” here. If thumos is explosive kind of anger, bitterness is, again, an internal, kind of implosive anger. It’s the carrying of a grudge toward another person. And you think that by being bitter towards another person or carrying that grudge that you’re hurting the other person. But as somebody said, bitterness is like drinking poison and expecting it to hurt somebody else. It only hurts you. It’s like a cancer that eats away on the inside of you. That’s why Hebrews 12:14-15 says, “Pursue peace with all people lest any root of bitterness,” listen to this, “springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.” Sometimes in an organization trouble can exist because somebody in that organization is bitter and angry and carrying a grudge. And that root of bitterness, it goes deep down inside a heart, springs up, causes trouble, and defiles many, many in the midst. It’s a very dangerous form of anger.
0:21:16.4
And then what you find in this list also are three parts of the many faces of anger that result in sins of the tongue. You see the word “blasphemy,” which is taking the Lord’s name in vain. You see the term “evil speaking.” And that’s when we’re angry at somebody and we speak evil about them. Slander and gossip and backbiting. We see the term “filthy language,” swear words. How easy it is when we get angry to not know how to express our anger. And we let words come out of our mouth that are dishonoring to God. But remember, those words are a reflection of the murderous intents in our heart. And we can all agree that murderous thoughts and murderous words never become, perhaps, the actual act of homicide. But God sees them in an equivalent kind of way. And, again, Jesus was interpreting the law correctly here. And so when He puts it on that par, we have to accept what He is saying there.
0:22:19.8
Well, so much for diagnosing anger. I don’t know about you. I don’t need more diagnoses in my spiritual life. I need some prescription. I need to know what to do with this. How do I resolve my anger? Because if you’re honest with yourself, this anger is probably eating away inside of you like a cancer, and you want to find a way to release it. But let’s go back to Matthew 5. And we’ll find in Matthew 5 a bit of a prescription in verses 23-26 that Jesus gives to us here.
0:22:51.9
And the first thing He says to us, I’ll just say it this way. Make reconciliation a priority. Notice what He says in verse 23. And the whole passage hinges on the word “therefore.” He says, in light of all this, “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you…” Now, let’s read that again. He doesn’t say, “When you bring your gift to the altar, and you remember that you’re angry toward another person.” No, He says, “If you’re there, and you remember that your brother has something against you.” By the way, in verses 23 and 24 He’s gonna talk about anger in the context of the church, let’s say. And then in 25 and 26 He’s gonna take anger outside the context of the church and out into the word. But here He is talking about a fractured relationship between you and somebody else in the body of Christ. And He says, “If you bring your gift to the altar.” Let’s put that in vernacular that we understand. If you’re coming to church, if you’re going to a Sunday school class, if you’re participating in a small group Bible study, if you’re packing your bags to go on a mission trip, if you're going down to the District to participate in a compassion project and you remember that somebody else in the body of Christ has something against you, stop what you’re doing. Verse 24, “Leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” The principle here being make reconciliation a priority. We get that idea from the word “first.” He says first things first. As a matter of the first order of business, before you participate in the ceremonial act of worship, for instance, if you know that somebody has something against you, stop what you’re doing, turn around and go make that relationship right.
0:25:06.1
John Stott, who is a theologian that I trust, says it this way. “If you’re in church in the middle of a worship service and you suddenly remember that your brother has a grievance against you, leave church at once and put it right.” Now, just stay where you’re seated. That’s all right. “Do not wait until the service has ended. Seek out your brother and ask his forgiveness. First go, then come. First go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your worship to God.” Why should reconciliation be a matter of priority to us? Because God is in the reconciliation business. And His highest priority is reconciliation. In fact, that’s what the gospel is all about. It’s what the cross is all about, friends, that God was in Christ, the Bible says, reconciling the world unto Himself. And, yes, God was angry at us because of our sin. His righteous wrath had to express itself somewhere. But the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ on the cross was God’s propitiation. It’s an interesting theological term. It means “satisfaction.” It means that God’s wrath was satisfied at the cross of Christ and that He is no longer angry at us. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. And as He reconciled the world to Himself and you and I become believers in Jesus Christ, we are then given, the scripture says, the ministry of reconciliation. God’s highest priority is reconciliation. Our highest priority ought to be reconciliation in terms of the relationships that we have with other brothers and sisters in Christ in the church.
0:26:54.9
Now, let’s talk about this outside of the church. Because there are times that relationships become fractured outside of the church. And Jesus gives another scenario here. He says in verse 25, “Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.” The principle here is to simply resolve your anger quickly. That doesn't need a whole lot of exegesis this morning. It just needs some application, doesn't it? Resolve your anger quickly. He says, “Agree with your adversary quickly.” Don’t delay. Don’t put it off to another day. But the reality is some of the most destructive anger we deal with is anger that we have stuffed deep down inside of our hearts for days, weeks, months, years, and sometimes even decades where we haven’t talked to a family member or a friend that we graduated from college or high school with. Or something happened way back here…maybe there is somebody over here in the church or over there in the church, a neighbor, somebody in the community, a coworker. And we’re just carrying around that anger rather than going quickly to resolve the issue and reconcile the relationship.
0:28:28.5
Now, this is similar to what Apostle Paul says again in Ephesians 4:26-27. He begins by saying “Be angry and sin not.” Okay. We talked about that righteous form of anger. But then Paul goes on to say, “And do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.” It’s kind of a creative way of saying do this quickly. Resolve the relationship quickly. Don’t even let the sun peek below the horizon at the end of the day before you move quickly to resolve the relationship. Why? Paul gives the rationale. Because if you don’t resolve it quickly, you give the devil an opportunity to slither into that situation and make it worse than it already is.
0:29:18.5
I want you to see a connection between Matthew 5:25-26 and Ephesians 4:26-27. Jesus places this scenario outside the church and kind of in a courtroom setting. And I don’t think His purpose is to give us, you know, sage advice on how to solve legal disputes, but He uses legal language here. And He says, “Agree with your adversary quickly.” I wonder if that was sort of a wink and a nod also to what happens in the spiritual realm. Remember, we have an Adversary, capital A Adversary, the devil, who prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And when we choose not to resolve our unreconciled relationships quickly and resolve our anger quickly, the Adversary gets an advantage with us, doesn’t he? The diabolos, that’s the word “devil” in Ephesians 4:26-27, the Adversary who is also a slanderer. You wait to resolve the anger in your heart, and what happens is the Adversary, the slanderer, begins to interpret the situation for you or interpret your situation to another person for them. And he always does that in a slanderous kind of way, complicating the anger and deepening the anger in your life or in somebody else’s life and complicating and making even more difficult reconciliation. So before the devil slithers into that relationship and whispers in your ear over here or whispers in an ear over here in a slanderous kind of way, beat him to the punch. Beat him to the door. Slam the door on his face by resolving the difference quickly, Jesus would say.
0:31:10.8
Now, there is another principle here. And I find this one in Ephesians 4:32. And this one simply says to forgive as Christ has forgiven you. Again, simple things this morning. So difficult to apply and to live out. But remember Ephesians 4:31? It said, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.” You know what verse follows that in verse 32? Listen to these words. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven you.” Aren’t those beautiful words? We go from something that’s kind of dark and negative and gloomy about all the many faces of anger to something to beautiful and full of warm sunshine. Be kind to one another. I love saying these words to couples who are standing at the marriage altar smiling at one another, just full of all kinds of dreams and expectations for the future, just young love and young married couples. But I always want to remind them. This is the oil that will lubricate that relationship and make for a lasting marriage. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
0:32:42.6
And He’s forgiven you so much. Remember that propitiation? That God’s righteous wrath was satisfied at the cross of Jesus Christ. Were it not for the love of God who sent His own son to the cross of Christ, His righteous wrath would be aimed at you, and it would be aimed at me. But “even as God in Christ has forgiven you.” Of all people, God’s people should be a people of forgiveness who make reconciliation a priority, who resolve their anger and their differences quickly and who forgive. It’s a beautiful word, isn’t it? I was thinking this week how forgiveness is really me giving up my right, maybe even my desire, to get even with another person. It’s giving that up. And it’s letting God do His work to reconcile the relationships.
0:33:38.0
Well, I received a card in the mail this week from a lady in our church. She says she’s been here for about 2+ years, all right. Came around the same time that I came, I guess. And she wrote to encourage me about the ministry here at Immanuel and how it was impacting her life and her family’s life. And then she went on to relate a story to me. And I think I can share it with you without anyone saying, “Oh, I think it’s that person or it’s that person.” But it happened right here in a worship service, she says, at Immanuel Bible Church. She says, “We came into the service late and sat near the back. And there was a family a couple of rows in front of us- father, mother and two teenage sons. From the body language,” she says, “it appeared all had a rough start to the day.” Well, that could be the Jones family, you know. She says, “The elder and younger sons were sitting next to each other, the elder with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. The father was casting glances at the two sons from time to time. Maybe there had been an argument?” she asks. “Your message that day was on offering forgiveness. It was a blessing to watch as the Word and your preaching began to have its effect.” She says, “The body language in the elder son relaxed. He glanced at his brother a few times, eventually uncrossing his arms. A hint of a smile?” she asks. “It was wonderful to watch. Thank You for faithfully bring the Word of God to us. A blessing on your week.”
0:35:11.4
That would really describe any one of us in this room. Arms cross, scowl in the face. Oh, it doesn’t even have to be the exterior physical expression of it, just that sense of anger that we disguise deep down in our hearts that we disguise with a smile here and a friendly handshake over there. But down inside there is murderous thoughts, maybe even some murderous words of contempt that have come out. And rather than going to this person and addressing it directly, we’re talking to this person over here about how angry we are with this person. And we just need to do what Jesus says here, and leave your gift and the altar and go get face to face with the person that you’re angry with and watch God do what only He can do in uncrossing the arms and un-scowling the face and melting the heart and replacing anger with forgiveness and grace and mercy. And I think when we do that as Christians, we become salt and light in the world in a world that is starving for some example, some authentic reality that knows how to reconcile relationships. And when we do that in the body of Christ, what happens is the beautiful, sweet fellowship of the body just comes up a notch. And it’s wonderful to be a part of the body of Christ where there are reconciled relationships. Let’s pray together.
0:36:56.1
Father, thank You so much for Your Word. And we thank You for even the tough passages found in this simple Sermon on the Mount. I pray for anyone here today who has never trusted Jesus Christ as his savior. I pray that that person or persons would understand that the God of the Bible is, yes, a God of love and a God of mercy and a God of grace, but He is also a God of righteous wrath. And He provided a way for that righteous wrath to be satisfied at the cross of Christ. But we, by faith, must receive it and appropriate it. I pray that today would be a day that some in our midst would not walk, but run to the cross of Christ and say, “God, I know that I’m a sinner. And my sin has made You angry, but I accept Your forgiveness through the cross and the blood of Jesus Christ today. Cleanse me. Make me a new creation in Christ. Thank You for the home in heaven and eternal life that You give me as well, a fresh start.”
0:38:06.3
And, Father, for my brothers and sisters in Christ here today who may say in an honest moment, “I’ve got some anger in my heart that I’ve got to deal with toward another brother or sister in Christ, toward a neighbor, somebody I work with, maybe a member of the extended family.” Oh, Father, help us to make reconciliation a priority. Help us to move quickly to do so, to trust that You are deeply honored when we do so and will walk with us in that process as we take those first steps. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
0:39:06.0