Reconciliation in the Kingdom
Kingdom Living

Transcript

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

But on this particular Sunday, they heard that one that many thought was the Messiah was supposed to appear in Jerusalem. Then, they heard He was coming from Bethany, coming down the Mount of Olives, riding on a donkey. So, great crowds gathered, took palm branches and began to wave them. They threw their cloaks on the ground and welcomed Him as the king. This is the fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9 (NIV), “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

We see this in the Gospel of John, who writes about it. He says, John 12:12-13 (ESV) 12 “The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” So on a Sunday, the crowds welcomed Him as king. But by Friday of that same week, a different crowd stood before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, and they cried out, “Crucify Him.”

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

But as Pastor SM Lockridge famously preached, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’!” By that next Sunday, resurrection Sunday, our King was risen, reigning and returning. We're talking about King Jesus and as we go through the Sermon on the Mount, what we're really seeing here is the proclamation of a King who speaks on His own authority, the authority given to Him by the Father to speak to us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are continuing now with part four of our series in chapter five, verses 21 through 26, which is where we'll be today.
Jesus confronted His hearers with the deeper intent of the Law by exposing the seriousness of unresolved anger and urging them to pursue reconciliation as true citizens of God’s kingdom. We can understand how pursuing reconciliation is essential for life in God’s kingdom. Why is pursuing reconciliation essential for life in the Kingdom? The text gives three compelling reasons why pursuing reconciliation is essential for life in the Kingdom. Let's dig in, starting at verse 21 of chapter 5.

Matthew 5:21-26 (ESV) 21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go.

First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.” This is God's word. Amen.

We're looking for three compelling reasons why pursuing reconciliation is essential for kingdom living. Here's the first reason:

1. Because it reflects our new Christlike character.

Jesus speaks of the heart attitude behind murder. He identifies it at the root as an attitude of anger and He calls His followers to a higher standard. He had told us earlier, as we were reading last week, He did not come to abolish or destroy the law. Instead, He came to fulfill it.

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

He begins in verse 21 with a kind of a pattern that He's going to follow for a few verses. Verse 21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old,” He's going to quote what the Pharisees and the scribes are well known for. The people know about it.

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

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

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

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

He says in Matthew 5:20, "For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven". Now, He's going to tell us the righteousness He's talking about is not just external, but it's from the heart. He quotes the sixth commandment. It's part of “God's top 10;” it's number six, “Thou shalt not murder.”

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

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

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

It's a rebellion against God. It's this anger in our heart that just burns towards Him and towards others. Do you have trouble with anger? Watch what He says here. Let's just “unpack” it.

He says, 21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ He uses this word, “liable,” several times here in the text. He says that you're in danger of judgment

and we know what that judgment is. We find it in (ESV), “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death.”
Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, life for a life. The Latins called it the “ex talonis.”

It's the rule that we followed up until very recent days. He says, this is what you know, “you've heard this said,” but here's what I say. This is the third time He has said this.

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

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

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

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

He warns that it's the root. It's the root, it's the attitude that precursors. It's the precursor of a murderous heart. Then, He takes it to another level. He says, in verse 22, “...whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council;”

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

I'm not going to repeat them, but you're thinking of the kinds of words that you call another person when you're accusing them of having no intellect. “Empty head;” “raka.” It was a well known Hebraic Aramaic word. Jesus said, ‘If you call your brother “raka,” you're in danger of the council. You're liable to the council.’.

Now here's what He says “underneath” here in the original. He says, ‘You're liable to the Sanhedrin.’ It's translated as “counsel.” That's good. Here's what He says.

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

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

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

If you call him that, you're in danger of the hell of fire. Literally here he uses a Hebrew word for hell. He says gehenna of fire. Gehenna of fire.

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

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

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

So, no longer are we that have heard Jesus speak to us as king able to say, ‘At least I've not killed anyone,’ because many of you have “murdered” people. On the way to church today, when the light turned green and they didn't pull out quick enough or they cut you off and you're trying to get to church on time. So, you called your neighbor “raka.” Now, what I do is what's called “Christian cussing:”

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

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

I'd say, “Thank you, Holy Spirit, speaking through my wife.” I'm making light of it here, but Jesus doesn't, does He? He says that anger is the root and if you're part of My kingdom, you'll have a new character trait - you're a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19 (ESV) 17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

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

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

you would put on a suit of new clothing. Colossians 3:12-15 (ESV) 12 “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another…” Another way of saying that is “putting up with one another.” “...and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.”

I've looked that word up in Greek before. That word, “rule,” could be translated as “umpire, let him say, that's out of bounds.” You need to think like this - “that's a strike, that's a ball.”

You need to think like this, so He gets your heart; so the love of Christ rules your heart and it roots out inappropriate, unresolved anger because you've been called to be one body. Have you heard about this? It's kind of gone viral on

social media. It's a little reel called “The Cookie Challenge.” Have you seen this? “The Cookie Challenge.” There's several parents that have done this. There's three plates laid out

and they have a cover over them, a piece of paper or a napkin, something like that. A father, a toddler, and a mother are seated. The father uncovers his plate and he's got one cookie. Then the toddler uncovers her little plate and she's got two cookies and then, the mother uncovers her plate and she has no cookies.

The mother sticks her lower lip out. Then, the dad says, “Oh no Sally, Mommy didn't get a cookie. What are we going to do?” You'll see little Sally, she'll look at daddy's cookie and look at Mommy's empty plate and she'll take one of her cookies and put it on her plate. Then Mommy hugs little Sally; Sally has a generous little heart.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why should we pursue reconciliation? Well, because it reflects our new Christlike character as kingdom citizens. Here's the second reason. The second compelling reason why we should pursue reconciliation:

2. Because it recognizes how discord hinders our worship.

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

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

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

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

This is what He's saying as we're singing about how Jesus is the best name of all or as we see the children down here waving and they are singing, “Hosanna,” which in Hebrew means “God's salvation,” “God saves.”

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

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

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

He's going to talk to us. He's not saying don't go to church. He's not saying don't worship. He's saying, ‘Get right with your fellow man. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.’

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

If you are offering your gift at the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, it's not that you have something against him. It's that they have something against you. You might be thinking, ‘Well, I don't think I did that much wrong. I mean,

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

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

Maybe I shouldn't have told her at all. Maybe it wasn't my place. Even if it's 5% your fault, you're still a child of the King and you're called to reconciliation.

Take the initiative.

He says, this is Jesus speaking, this is not Gary speaking, 24 “leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” The Greek word for “first” there is “prōton.” It's where we get words like “priority,”

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

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

but Jesus will have none of it.”

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

This is a little portion of that. Here's what David writes, Psalm 51:16-17 (NLV) 16 “For You are not happy with a gift given on the altar in worship, or I would give it. You are not pleased with burnt gifts. 17 The gifts on an altar that God wants are a broken spirit.

O God, You will not hate a broken heart and a heart with no pride.”
An unreconciled relationship should break your heart because you have a new heart. In Ephesians, chapter four, it tells us that it grieves the Holy Spirit when we're not right with one another. It's like he feels like something died and you'll feel that when He lives inside of you, you'll feel the grief of the Spirit.

It'll hinder your worship. It'll hinder your prayers. Peter makes it really personal, he says, 1 Peter 3:7 (ESV) “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”
It'll hinder your prayers if you're not treating your spouse well, if you're not reconciled.

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

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

because it hinders your prayers, it hinders your worship if you're holding unreconciliation. How can you worship? Jesus is challenging us with this. I want you to picture a married couple having a huge argument on the way to church. (picture on screen) Now, I know you're looking around at each other.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus says to leave and go; be reconciled. Then come back and sing, shout, give and remember. It's essential. Here's the third compelling reason why pursuing reconciliation is essential for kingdom life:

3. Because it responds quickly before things escalate.

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

He warns that we're still to be reconcilers, even there with them. He uses the word, “quickly,” in verse 25, “Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.” Come to terms quickly with your accuser. Make a settlement. Come to terms.

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

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

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

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

Or, as the King James version says, “your last farthing,” the last little part of a penny. You'll see in verse 26, it’s the fourth time in the sermon that He says, “I say to you” and here He “Amens” Himself again, “Truly, I say to you.” Remember, the word, “truly” in the original is “Amen.” “Amen” I say to you. I've not heard any
“Amens” this morning so far.

I don't think anybody was “Amening” Jesus either, so He “Amened” Himself. “Amen,” I say to you, you won't get out until you pay the last penny.

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

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

but if it's at all possible, try to settle matters yourself. Here's what it says in Ephesians 4:25-27 (NLV) 25 “So stop lying to each other. Tell the truth to your neighbor. We all belong to the same body.

26 If you are angry, do not let it become sin. Get over your anger before the day is finished. 27 Do not let the devil start working in your life.”

That's from the New Living or the New Life version, rather.

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

Don’t let uncontrolled anger escalate. We see in James 1:19-20 (NLT) 19 “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. 20 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.”

So, we're trying to work it out. Calm down, work it out. Don't let it escalate. In the last while, we've seen forest fires on the West and the East Coast. We're used to seeing them out West, aren't we?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You came in need of God and far from God. You've never given your life to God. You've never bent your knee in surrender to King Jesus. You can do that right now. It begins by admitting that ‘I've broken Your law.

I'm a sinner.

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

Come into my life. Forgive me of my sin. Adopt me into Your family. I want to be a child of God. I want to follow You as my Lord, my Savior and my King, all the days of my life.”

If you're praying that prayer of faith,believing, He'll save you. Others are here and you're a follower of Jesus. He's your King, but you have a secret.

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

Give me the courage to go and be reconciled. To pursue reconciliation with them. May it be so, in Jesus’ name, Amen.”