Sermon: Kingdom Seekers Keep First Thing First

Jesus tells them that if they come across someone who will not accept them, “brush the dust off your feet.” Notice Jesus was referring to those willing to hear but will not accept you. Rejection is painful, but Jesus is not meaning that we simply shrug it off and say, well we don’t care, no he is saying don’t hold a grudge or allow rejection to sour your spirit. The dust of rejection has a way of sticking to all of us easier than we care to admit. Don’t go carrying around the mud on your shoes of grudge bearing, Carry too much of that and you will become so caked in mud you will not be able to walk. On top of settling issue with those we encounter, Jesus says you must sort out issues that you have with fellows in the congregation.

In Matthew 18 – Jesus outlines the process we should follow if a brother has wronged us. He not only said sort out your issues with those we encounter, don’t carry a grudge, but he also gave us a process we should follow to handle disputes among the brethren.

Nowhere in that scripture does it say we need to chat about it with others. Nowhere in that scripture does it say we need to gossip about it. Nowhere in that process does it say we should let everyone else know about it before we have spoken to our brother. Jesus knows how tempting this would be because when we get hurt, we want everyone to know it.

Look around you. Tomorrow you may be called to sacrifice for a brother or sister who has wounded you and needs assistance. In the time of the end we will face difficulty, look around you and start accepting that these are the faces that will carry you, love you and keep you. They are not perfect. They are just fellow travelers on this journey of life with you. They need you and you need them. Stop finding fault, stop bickering and let us love each other. We must love God above all and love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Also, Allow God’s Kingdom Righteousness to Administer Judgment. God alone is the righteous Judge, and we are not. Our vision is too limited. Our knowledge is too finite. John 8:7 reminds us of this fact by saying, “So when they continued asking him (Jesus), he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

Yes, the woman was caught in adultery, she was guilty. Yet, every man in the crowd vision was flawed by their own sin. They judge the woman with harsh judgment, while judging themselves with mercy and leniency. So, in Matthew 7:5 Jesus cautions every “want to-be judge” by saying, “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

Sometimes, we judge in others what we can’t get right in ourselves. Judging others, like pointing a finger, is the easiest thing in the world to do. Categorizing people or sitting on the seat of judgement condemning others is something that we can easily do, but no authority to do.

Jesus hates it. Jesus gets riled by it. Jesus cannot stand it. Make up your mind to stop it, drop it and put it out of your mind, then we will experience the peace and love that Jesus desire in our hearts, in our churches and that kindness will even flow to the world.