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July 5 & 6 1997 Ray Jones  |
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 Jesus was always a life-giver and He
challenges you and I to do the same. In Matthew 5:21, 22,
He makes this statement, "You have heard it said to
our people long ago, you must not murder anyone. For
anyone who murders another will be judged, but I tell you
if you are angry with anyone you will be judged."I. Life - Takers |
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| Matthew 5:21-22 21: You have heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.' 22: But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire. |
Now what made Jesus say
that? He was redefining murder in our understandings.
Jesus knew that inside all of us we have this tendency to
be life-takers to be murderers rather than life-givers.
And as was His pattern, Jesus starts blowing away
peoples' paradigm of what it meant to murder. You know
you and I work real hard at keeping outward appearances.
That day when Jesus spoke those words, He was speaking to
a group of religious people who thought that what they
were doing was right spiritually and socially. But Jesus
knew that they had some hidden parts in their life. He
knew that in our lives there are some places that we
really don't let people see often. A couple years ago the movie
"The Mask" came out starring Jim Carrey. The
movie was all about a mask that had ancient powers and
this mask would reveal the truth about what was inside a
person. In fact, it literally would exaggerate our
innermost passions. Jesus becomes a mask for you and me,
because He has this ability to look deep inside our
hearts and to see what we really are like in our
innermost being. And when we act out of this hidden side
of our life, we become a life-taker. We don't give life.
We literally become a walking gun. In fact, many of us
may be lethal weapons. So what does it mean to be a
life-taker? Who are these life-takers? They are people
who will look you in the eye and give you an evil glare.
They are people who will literally rip your head off with
a slip of their tongue. They are people who will smack
you in the eyes with a slam of a door. The scary thing is
you and I don't even realize we do it. We do it and we
don't even understand we have done it. I do this a lot
and I am ashamed of it. Guys you know what this is like,
you and your wife go out to dinner and you are sitting
there with a bunch of your friends. Suddenly you just
feel this urge to tell one of your wife's most
embarrassing moments. You get about two sentences into
the story, your wife gives you this look. You know that
look. That look that says, 'if looks could kill you would
be dead' and 'where are you sleeping tonight?' |
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