Jesus Says What?! (Murder) Series

I’m going to ask you a couple of questions right now and what I want you to do is to see if any names come to mind right away when I ask the questions. The first question is this: Who in this church would say that you have wronged them? And number two: Who in this church do you need to forgive because they have wronged you? If a name comes to mind, then you have work to do this week. Cover it in prayer, but get it done because God’s heart is for reconciled, godly, relationships with one another, and as long as we’re content to settle for less we’re never going to be moving forward, or growing, as families or as a church.

In our Bible Study this week we watched a video clip by Pastor Chip Ingram. He used an illustration that I want to share with you. He used the image of a multi-tiered water fountain to illustrate how it is that our relationship with God is meant to flow into our relationships with one another. The top tier, the place where the water flows into first, represents our own lives. When that pool overflows, the water spills down into the next tier and so on down the line. If that flow is cut off anywhere along the way, the pools won’t fill as they are meant to. What we want to be doing is drinking so deeply from the Word of God and the life giving water of Jesus Christ, that it overflows into all of our other relationships. When that’s happening we’re going to be quick to seek to resolve conflict, to forgive hurts, to reconcile with those we’ve wronged.

And Jesus goes on to say, in verse 25, that we ought to settle matters quickly lest the end result be worse than the first. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, as it says. Be slow to anger and quick to forgive. I like the story told by a Mr. Holt, of Caldwell Idaho. Fighting rush hour traffic one day he witnessed a young lady dart “her compact car from a side street into the stream of traffic immediately in front of a driver just a few car lengths ahead of” him, forcing this other driver to brake sharply. He avoided hitting her by inches and was obviously furious. Within seconds, traffic stopped at a red light, and he watched as the man who had been cut off, pulled up behind the offender, leap from his car, and stride angrily toward hers. Clearly, he intended to give her a piece of his mind. Seeing him coming, the very attractive young lady jumped from her car and ran to meet him--a big smile on her face! Before he could say one word or know what was happening, she had thrown her arms around him, hugged him tightly, and planted a passionate kiss on his lips! Then she was back in her car and driving away, leaving her antagonist standing in the middle of the street still speechless and looking somewhat confused and embarrassed--but no longer angry! (Adapted from, ‘Jesus on Anger,’ by Jeffery Anselmi, www.sermoncentral.com)

That girl knew how to make friends quickly! Now, I’m not advocating her methods, but she did understand that it is better to resolve problems quickly before the judgement comes. In the book of Hebrews we are exhorted with these words … “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” (Hebrews 12:14–15, NIV)