Sermon on the Mount | Getting to the Heart of the Matter | Matthew 5:21-26 | Week 4

It's my privilege to talk about a passage of Scripture today that isn't very pleasant, but, hopefully, we'll be able to join together and realize we're not alone as we go to this passage.  This is part of the Sermon on the Mount series that Ryan started a few weeks ago.  When Ryan talked to me about it, I was excited to take a sermon; then I took a look at the passage I'm going to be dealing with:  You have heard that it was said to those of old, "You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment."  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment... (Matt. 5:21-22a)  Liable to the same judgment as if you commit murder.  Whoa!  Anybody been angry this week?  Hopefully as we dig in we'll be able to understand this topic of anger, and hopefully, leave with some hope.  

I want to take a little bit of time with "Travels with Dan."  Many of you know that this past November, Kerry and I were able to go to the Holy Land.  We had a great time.  When Ryan approached me about preaching a sermon from the Sermon on the Mount, it immediately brought up some memories of a place called the Mount of Beatitudes.  {Shows pictures of view from location and a church.}  Any time you go to Israel, any place where there's even a rumor that Jesus might have stepped there, they're going to build a church.  Right there at the church was a Catholic Retreat Center.  We stayed there overnight.  It was not fancy, but it was quiet and restful.  Kerry and I arrived at the Retreat Center, after dark, after a full day of seeing things.  We were pretty exhausted; I had in mind to take a nap because we had 45 minutes before they served us supper.  Kerry had in mind to go see things.  We got our cardkey for our room and entered our room.  We tried to flip the switches and nothing worked.  I was thinking we blew a fuse.  I went to the office and I said, "We must have blown a fuse or something, nothing works."  He said, "Did you listen to my instructions?"  "Well, no."  "When you get in there you need to be looking for a slot that's around the door, slide it in there and all your electricity will come on.  When you take the key out all the electricity goes off."  I went back and demonstrated for Kerry and everything worked fine.  Lights and air conditioning came on.  We put our luggage on the floor and I proceeded to curl up on one of the twin beds.  I was out!  When I fell asleep, Kerry was reading some of the pamphlets, but eventually decided to go see some things.  Since we only had one cardkey, she grabbed it and left.  Five minutes later, I wake up in a sweat; it's dark and I didn't quite remember where I was.  I got my way out of the bed and start walking and try to figure out what's happening.  I ran into my suitcase, barefoot, so I had a good stubbed toe.  Then I hit the coffee table, so that was my knee.  Eventually, I got to the door to shed some light.  Needless to say, I was a little bit miffed.  I caught myself saying, "How could she have taken the key?!"...