Heart Matters: Anger, Reconciliation, and True Worship

1) "So at this point, this comes a little bit after where he's basically expanding upon the scriptures where he says, you have heard, but I say unto you. So at this point, Jesus says, there's a couple of chapters, a couple of verses prior in verse 17, that I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. He's communicating that he has authority over scripture. And in that authority, he is communicating the deeper meanings of what the text actually is speaking to, not just the acts of the flesh, but the condition of the heart. In the first one, he starts with his anger. And in this part, he goes in and expands upon the concept of anger, just saying, because he says to you, if you think that you've just murdered your libel for judgment, but I say unto you, that any whoever is angry with you, this brother is liable for judgment. So we see something here where Jesus is equating the emotion of anger to murder. That's heavy. It's heavy for a reason. And that's not something we should take lightly." [45:12] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "The way that we talk, the way that we act, the way that we move, those things matter. And they matter very much. Because, as it says in Matthew 12, 33 and 37, specifically verse 36, he says, I tell you, on the day of judgment, you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter. For by your words, you will be justified and by your words, you will be condemned. So saying that to say the words that you use, matter. And this anger we're talking about is an anger that leads to a sinful action. So keep that in mind. In your anger, if you haul out and insult somebody, regardless if you insult somebody, period, you are liable for judgment. The same type of judgment where if you committed murder, you would be liable." [47:14] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "God cares so much about how we treat each other that it directly impacts your relationship with him. He won't even accept worship from you if you are in error with your brother. He's telling you right here, controversial, I know, because some of us tend to be like, well, the praise is always worthy. Not always. Not always. Especially if you read Emma's chapter five, where he literally says, I hate your feasts. I hate your gatherings. I hate your celebrations. Because earlier in that chapter, you're selling each other for silver. You're throwing the poor in jail. You're treating each other foul. So this stuff is worthless to me. So on top of that, there's a whole idea of, in that context, when you're offering up your worship to God, but you're dogging somebody out on the sidelines, God is like, yo, what are you doing? That's not even from me." [55:14] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "So the first point is, that your words matter. Your words matter. moving on, keeping in mind, when the Bible says, be angry, but sin not, in Ephesians chapter 4, 26, there's, like, it's just, I got to remember, y'all, there's an emotion you can have, but you have to be careful with that emotion. There's a feeling that can lead to a sinful action, not necessarily one and the same. So then he keeps talking, and then he says in verse 23, so if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother and sister are not going to be angry, but they are going to be angry, and 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." [53:56] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "God cares about Christian unity. It's a priority because his kingdom work is to be done through the church. And I'll get to that a little bit later on too. But he, he also knows in Matthew 12, 25, a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. So if the world is going to do that and tear each other apart, that's fine. But y'all, y'all got to move differently. Y'all got to be unified. Y'all got to make that work. You can't be beefing out with each other. Come in here, offer praises to me. It's insulting to me. It's insulting to me. And pay attention to what he says. He says, you remember. That's the level of responsibility you have as a believer in Christ. You don't just wait for somebody to come to you and tell you the offense. You have to take personal responsibility, inventory of your own life, and have the humility necessary to recognize, hey, somebody might have something against me." [57:35] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "We as christians should be the best apologizers and reconcilers because that is how we came to faith the gospel message is literally a message of reconciliation sinful man reconciled to sinless god to have relationship with him reconciliation is the only reason why all of us are here right now the only reason why i'm even reading this book and the reason why i lost my mind because we and keep in mind on top of that god cares so much about reconciliation he didn't even give us the burden of responsibility to do what we had to do to make it right he just took it for us the cross of christ is a perfect example of yo you can't do this and i am a person of reconciliation so i'm going to care about this enough that even when you were my enemy i took time out of my day to lay up on that cross for six plus hours willingly by the way that's something that i just discovered recently jesus said i nobody takes my life i give it up so jesus willingly endured six hours on the cross willingly he could he could have let himself go at any moment when it's too painful but he didn't because that was the price that needed to be paid so that we could be right with him so that we could be right with god" [01:11:09] (74 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "So peacemaker the word make there implies there's an active process that we have to participate in in order to make peace it also implies something else you can't make peace if you don't make peace if you don't make peace if you don't make peace where there is peace already so that means that in our lives if there's chaos dissension issue whatever the obligation is on us to try and make that right as much as possible because then we will be called sons of god it's an affirmation of our identity with him and not just called internally but people will recognize oh snap that person's moving a little bit different he's taking responsibility for something that even i would say he was justified in but because he's accountable to god he prioritizes that over his own flesh oh yeah that's definitely a christian right there and it's a blessed thing to be able to affirm the redemptive work of christ done in your heart to be willing to do that for another especially in the body of christ because like i said before we both got the holy spirit so if we can't reconcile somebody's not listening to god that's not a good place to be in especially for us who got disciplines faithfully so it's a willingness to do what it takes as much as it depends upon you because look sometimes you know people ain't going to forgive and that's something that they got to deal with but romans 12 18 says as much as it depends upon you live at peace with all so regardless you have a responsibility to do everything on your part to make that right even if they don't reciprocate and receive it in kind you did what you had to do to make sure that you're right with god" [01:15:00] (96 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)