March 15, 2019

On March 24th I’m going to preach the sermon from Matthew 5:21-26. With these verses Jesus is teaching that malicious anger against another person is just as sinful as committing murder. Now we have far too many examples of murders being committed on a daily basis. Just today 49 were killed in Christchurch, New Zealand. That man has been captured and is unable to commit any other murders, but what about the other 80+ people that he left injured. The intent of his heart was to kill as many as possible. The sin goes beyond 49 murders. His sin includes all those that he put in his crosshairs and yet were not killed. But his sin goes even beyond that. For even those he wanted to shoot-those he wanted to kill. The intentions of his heart are, in and of themselves, the sin of murder. It’s not so difficult to realize the atrocious sinful actions became manifest out of atrocious sinful anger. They are in fact one and the same. Bringing this closer to home, let’s consider for a moment the connection between murder and thoughts of anger. We might assume that because we have not committed murder, we are therefore ok. But, in light of Jesus’ teaching, how close have we gotten to committing murderous sin in our dealings with fellow man? Have we ever been riddled with such anger that we’ve wanted someone to die? Have we ever wanted to hurt someone so badly that we’re callous to the effects of our anger toward another? Does a situation of road rage rise to this level in your life?  Do you have such struggles in your professional life that strife with co workers or even supervisors leaves one or more parties deeply injured? Do family rifts cut so deeply that you’ve stopped trying? Have you ever withheld the love of Jesus because of how they might have hurt you or someone you love?
The intention of the heart does matter. Has Jesus ever convicted you of such sin? Isn’t forgiveness awesome? Let me hear from you.

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