Take your Bibles and turn to the book of Matthew, will you? The book of Matthew and the word of God. And as you're turning, all the children four years old up through third grade can be dismissed. All the children four years of age up through third grade, you can be dismissed for children's Bible time. Matthew chapter five. Would you turn to Matthew chapter five in the scripture? Matthew chapter 5 in the Word of God. Matthew chapter 5. I hope you'll be praying for those young people as they go out. God's working in their hearts. You know, there have been many times over the years that those young people have gotten saved or they've surrendered their heart to the Lord and to His will and to His call upon their life. So you pray as we're in here having these services. We're going to pray in just a moment. And I hope that you'll pray that God will do a special touch in their service with their songs and their singing and their missionary story. all that is entailed. You pray that God will do a great work in their hearts. Let's pray right now. Father, thank you for the privilege that you've given to us to open up the Bible, this precious book. How we thank you for it, each and every word, and how we want to say at the very outset of the message that we believe every single word in this book. to be true and every word to be pure just like you said it is and now Lord I pray that you'd quiet our hearts and remove from our minds any distractions and anything that would take us away and I pray Lord Jesus that you'd focus our attention upon you and your word and your goodness and we'll thank you Lord for what you accomplish and how you work because we ask this in the sweet and precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Is there anybody here that has ever heard of the Halifax Explosion? Anybody here ever heard of the Halifax Explosion? Well I had never heard of the Halifax Explosion either until this last May. We went up to Halifax and we got up there in May and we were able to preach in three churches in Nova Scotia. my what the Lord did in Nova Scotia and my what a beautiful place Nova Scotia is the first place we went to was Halifax we had driven all day on Saturday from Washington DC and I thought you know Washington DC that's that's over there on the East Coast that's not that far from from Halifax but actually it is we drove all day on Saturday and we got into Canada late at night and we stopped in St. John's and got a hotel and got up early on Sunday morning and drove the rest of the way. We got into Halifax and we were in three churches in Nova Scotia, one in Halifax, one over in Annandale and then one down in Cape Sable Island and oh my how the Lord did a work, just some mighty works. in Nova Scotia. Oh, how encouraged I was by the Christians. On Sunday night of our first day there in Nova Scotia, on Sunday night there were about 15 or 20 young people, teenagers, that gathered around the piano and they sang and sang and sang for about an hour and a half without anyone leading them and anyone directing them right out of the hymn book like they really love Jesus. It was really refreshing. And I was standing in the back And as I was standing in the back I was talking to a doctor that was there, he was a member of the church, and one of his daughters. And we got to talking and they asked if I'd ever been to Halifax before. I said, no, this is my first time. We were talking about other things and the doctor asked, have you ever heard of the Halifax explosion? I said, well no, I don't think I've ever heard of the Halifax explosion. And his daughter She raised her eyebrows and looked at me funny. She said, well, it's super important in Canadian history. And she said it was the second in the whole history of the world. It was up to that point the largest explosion in human history, man-made explosion, second only to the atomic bombs. She said, you really should look it up. I said well okay. Well what happened was in this whole situation was that in 1917 there was a ship that was coming from New York and it was on its way to France and there was another ship that was in Halifax and it was on its way as well to Europe but over into Belgium. Both of them were headed to Europe for the war. The Great War was on, World War I. And so both of them were on. One was on its way to bring supplies. One was on its way to bring supplies to Belgium and relief to Belgium. And the other was on its way to bring explosives. to France to fight against the Germans. Both were there to win the war effort against the Germans. One to bring relief, one to bring war supplies. And the one that was on its way with explosives was called the Mont Blanc. It was captained by a man named Emile LeMedic and it was captained by LeMedic as he brought it from New York up the coast and into the Halifax Harbor. The other was called the Emo. It was captained by a man named Fram. He was a Norwegian and he was notably a hothead. He wanted to get out of the Halifax Harbor and Lamedic wanted to get into the Halifax Harbor but neither of them could. And that was because Lamedic's ship was a little bit late in getting there and Fromm's ship was a little late in getting out. Fromm's ship, the Imo, was a little late in getting out because of some lagging coal supplies that were needed to get across the ocean. And so by the time either one wanted to get in or out of the harbor, the submarine nets had been drawn to keep the ships from coming in and from going out, to keep the submarines, particularly the German subs, from getting in the harbor. So on the morning of December 6, 1917, the ships now wanted to get in and out. If you can imagine right here driving along these roads, a three-lane road, with one traffic going one way, traffic going the other way, and basically a turn lane, only in the size and scope of ships you can kind of imagine the Halifax Harbor. The Halifax Harbor is very narrow, it's not a wide harbor. And so now the submarine nets have been drawn, they've been They've been released and now ship traffic begins. It's 7.30, 7.45 when this happens. And Emo, the Emo wants to get out. The Fromm, the captain of the Emo, was notably a hothead. A few weeks earlier he had cast some inspector off the ship. Just threw him off and started his engines and got out of there. And they had to come and they had to fine him for some infraction that he had. He was notably a hothead. He was impatient and wanted to get out. So he's moving up. the one side of the Halifax Harbor. And LeMedic wanted to bring his ship, the Mont Blanc, in. Now the Mont Blanc had explosives, all kinds of gun cotton, several tons of TNT, benzene, and all kinds of pitric acid were on the boat called the Mont Blanc. But it wasn't flying flags that it would normally fly, if it had this type of cargo because it didn't want to be detected by the German submarines and sunk. So it's moving into the harbor. Now, they're not moving fast. They're moving at about four or five knots, if that. Very slow. And they're coming into the harbor. Now, Lamedic has his ship, the Mont Blanc, on one side. And Fromm has his ship, the Imo, on the other. And two sailboat barges move the Imo into the center lane. Now they're still moving in basically the same direction as each other. and then another ship comes in the way of the Imo moving it into the Mont Blanc's lane. Now they're on a collision course. Again, they're not going very fast, but the captain of the Mont Blanc knows what is on his boat. And so he sounds two blasts of warning to the other ship, signaling it for it to move. What does the Imo do? Captain Fromm, all he had to do was turn the ship wheel like this. But he didn't. Do you know what he did? He sounded one long blast on his horn, which was signaling, no, I'm not moving. I'm done moving for the morning. Mont Blanc is the ship with all the explosives, and the captain is LeMedic. He knows what's on his ship, and he sounds another signal, signaling the other ship to move. And instead, the captain of the Imo, Captain Fromm, signals and digs down and says, no, I'm not moving. At the very last, both ships reversed their engines causing their bows to turn outward and they collided. Again, it wasn't a very fast speed but they collided and they couldn't get unhooked just easily. The collision itself is not what caused the sparks but it did knock a bunch of barrels of benzene all over the deck and spilled across the deck. It was a ticking time bomb. When they reversed their engines and the EMO got unhooked from the Mont Blanc, that's when the sparks came. And that very quickly and easily ignited the benzene. And now you have a ship in the harbor of Halifax that is aflame. The captain of the Mont Blanc knew how serious it was and so without hesitation he ordered abandon ship. And all of his men did. You know what this reminds me of? A verse in Matthew chapter 5 in the context of the greatest sermon ever preached. The Sermon on the Mount. And it was preached from the greatest preacher ever to walk on this earth. The Lord Jesus Christ. And in this Sermon on the Mount, he says in Matthew 5 and verse number 25, Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. Look at the first few words of verse 25. He says, agree with an adversary quickly. I wanna preach to you tonight on the subject, the ancient art of agreement. And I want to challenge you tonight to examine your life and your relationships to see if there are some relationships that are just about to explode. Or if there are some relationships that have collided. Or if there are some relationships that are near sparks and very volatile. Or if there are some relationships that seem so damaged they seem like an impossible situation. And I want to challenge you tonight to practice, to learn, and to understand, and to let God help you practice the ancient art of agreement so that these relationships can be salvaged and can become a trophy for good and for God. Agree with an adversary quickly. Now, this text. is right in the context of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus, after in Matthew 5, verses 1 through 12, gives the blessings. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn, and the meek, and they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness. He gives all the blessings, and then he speaks He speaks to the matter of their seasoning, and their content, and their makeup. He said, ye are the salt of the earth, and ye are the light of the world, verses 13 and 14. He says, if you're light, you shine forth. You don't hide under a bushel. You don't let the wind extinguish you. You burn, and you burn brightly. If you're salt, your salt is seasoning in this lost world. to say, I'm not come to destroy the law or the prophets, verse number 17, but I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. He's not saying, I'm going to destroy and replace and supplant the law and the prophets, but mark it down, Jesus Christ did come to cause great distress and disrupt the status quo of the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the religious leaders. Do you know why? Because they over time had put their tradition on top of God's Word so that you could no longer see God's Word or the Law and the Prophets. You could only see their tradition. And in some places it seemed to resemble it. They were emphasizing, if you will, the application of the Law And then he goes on to say several things. He says in verse number 20, What Jesus was saying was this, that you've got to have a righteousness that's bigger than yourself, that's bigger than your religion, that's bigger than the scribes and Pharisees, in order to get to heaven. You say, Preacher, how do I get to heaven? How do I get to heaven? How do I get to heaven? How do I get to heaven? How is that possible? Well, let me just stop and let you know what God thinks about your righteousness. Isaiah 64, 6, the prophet said, Now, we don't have a problem saying our bad is bad. Is there anybody here that has a problem saying our bad is bad? Our lying, cheating, stealing pride, our anger, our selfishness, our wickedness, our lust. No one has a problem. No one with any good sense has a problem acknowledging our bad is bad. Is there anybody here tonight that may need help with that? You said, preacher, I think my bad is good. Anyone? Alright, we can move on. We don't have a problem saying our bad is bad, but we do have a problem saying our good is bad. Because we think our good is good. We think we're decent human beings. We think we've followed a code of conduct set forth by this religion, or that religion, or this denomination, or that denomination, or this circle, or that group, or whatever. And so we kind of got our own little mental list, if not an actual list. And we follow that and we say, well, I do that and I don't do that, so I'm pretty good. But God doesn't measure you by that standard. And a lot of times when we do our good, we're doing it to be seen of men. or we're doing it to cover up our bad. And one is hypocrisy and the other is deception. And so our good is bad. God on his judgment scale doesn't put our bad on one side and our good on the other and hopefully we've done more good than bad. No, no. He puts our bad on one side as bad and then he puts our good on one side as bad. He says, our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Now what does that mean? Filthy rags were actually, excuse me, literal rags that were unwrapped from open wounds and pussing sores and thrown in a pile. Refuse! You know what Paul said, who was very, very meticulous as to his righteousness. He said in Philippians chapter 3, he said, Yea, doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. What was he counting loss? Just in context, he was counting his righteousness. He said, I was circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews is touching the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, I persecuted the church. Touching the righteousness which was in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to me, those I counted, loss for Christ. So Paul, under inspiration, says, my righteousness is loss. That means it's nothing. And then he went on to say, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, that I may be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is through faith in Jesus Christ. He went on to say in that same passage that he counted his righteousness as dung. Is there anybody here that needs explanation further as to what that means? I mean I could delve into the Greek and help us understand it but I think we all know he says our righteousness is filthy rags, he says our righteousness is loss, and then he says our righteousness is dung. So I want to say to you dear friend if you're counting on your righteousness it's not going to get you into heaven. You've got to have a righteousness that's bigger than that of your own. And you've got to come to the Lord at some point in your life and say, Lord Jesus, my righteousness is nothing more than filthy rags, lost and dung, and so I give you my righteous, self-righteous rags, which are nothing, and I need your robe of righteousness to get me into the marriage feast of the Lamb. Will you please give me your righteousness? I'm coming to you and trusting in you and your righteousness. You take my sin as you did on the cross and I'll take your righteousness by faith. And the moment you do that he saves you. So that's the context of Matthew chapter 5. Then he goes on and he says in verse number 21, you have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not kill. Now these are several statements that are similar. You've heard that have been said by them of old time, verse 21, thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that Jesus was not giving a contradictory statement. He was giving an enhancing statement. He was not giving a contradictory statement. He was giving a statement of further He said, You have heard that it has been said, Thou shalt not kill, but I say unto you, verse number 22, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raka, the idea is empty head, he shall be in danger of the council, but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. In other words, it's more than just being, more than just killing, it's the motive behind it. Look at what he says in verse 27. He said, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already with her in his heart. In verse number 28, he said, in verse number, excuse me, verse number, Verse 33, he says again, you have heard that it had been said that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her, that it is divorced, commiteth adultery. He goes on, he's enhancing again this statement, verse number 33, again you have heard that it had been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thy notes, but I say unto you, Swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth. Verse number 38, Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Verse 43, Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you. You know what he did with all of these? You have heard that it's been said, but I say unto you, he literally decimates the paradigm set up by the Pharisees. He says it's not just the act of sin that's wrong. He says it's the motive behind the sin that's wrong. You see it? He says it's not just the act of killing. It's the hatred and the anger that motivates that killing. Not just the act of lust or the act of adultery. It's the act of or the motive of lust. It's not just the act of speaking something evil. It's the act or the motive that is behind it over and over and over. He just completely obliterates it. You say, preacher, what's Jesus aiming at? Well, that's a good question. Look at verse number 48, and you'll find the answer. He says, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. This is not perfect as in mature, this is perfect as in perfect. You know what Jesus is saying? Jesus is saying, and by the way, this is a message to believers primarily. by and large. This is not a message to unbelievers to say, you get to heaven by being perfect, or you get to heaven by not being angry, or you get to heaven by not lusting. No, no. He's saying to believers, this is my expectation of you. Absolute perfection. A righteousness that begins at the cross, that begins through Jesus Christ, and carries on to perfection. So if that's Jesus' expectation for believers, then it's possible for us to be that. It's possible for us to live a life of purity. It's possible for us to live a life without sin. It's possible for us. And it's not only possible, it's probable. And when we yield to His Spirit living within us, it will happen. That's what He's saying. Alright, now watch. Right in the context of this, He says, agree with that adversary. Somebody tell me what Jesus is talking about when he's talking in that immediate moment. Verse number 23, after he tells them not to say raka or fool or be angry without cause, verse 23, verse 23 says, Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly. What's he talking about? Somebody tell me what, in a word or two, what's he talking about in that immediate context? Reconciliation. human relationships. This is what he's saying. He's saying to these believers who were familiar with temple worship, if you come to the temple and on your way up the steps to the temple with your he goat or your lamb or your bullock or your turtle dove or your wave offering or your thank offering or your drink offering, you remember, my brother has ought against me. There's a broken relationship in my life that I have done nothing about, that I have done nothing to repair, that I have allowed and tolerated and I'm okay because I didn't really like them in the first place and some people are better to know from a distance. And you say, I'm going to leave that the way it is and leave it in disrepair even though it's within my life and within my sphere of influence and even though I could do something to try to reconcile it. And you're coming up the steps into the outer court and then into the inner court and you see the brazen altar where you'd offer your sacrifice or where you'd offer your thank offering or your heave offering or your wave offering or your drink offering. This is what he says. Leave your gift at the altar. Leave it right there. Go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, then come and offer your gift. What's he saying? What's Jesus saying? He's saying that more important to God than your human worship, than your worship of Him, is your reconciling your human relationships. More important to God than you offering a song in our dispensation or age, or a gift in the offering plate, or a prayer, or a testimony, or even coming towards the altar at the end of the service and praying and committing something to the Lord. More important to God than all of that is you making your human relationships right. You doing your part. Now watch, you can't do for someone else. If you do your part to reconcile, to try to make it right, and there's not reciprocation, that's not on you. But if you don't do your part, that is 100% on you. If you're glad for there to be ought, and you should seek to make things right, and you should seek forgiveness, or you should seek to be forgiven, and you don't make it right, that's on you. You can't blame anybody but the man in the mirror. And it's in that context of reconciliation, which, by the way, according to 1st or 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5, He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Are you listening? He's given to us the ministry of reconciliation. He says, Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. In other words, we are to go all over this world and seek to win this whole world to Jesus. We're to reconcile men to God and say, be you reconciled to God. But if we try to do that and we're not practicing reconciliation at the most basic of places, what good is it? It's in that context that he says agree with an adversary. Quickly, I want to give you just a few points and draw this to a simple application. First of all, I want you to notice what the Bible says. I want you to notice the adversary defined. Who is the adversary? Well, in order to know who the adversary is, we need to know who the adversary isn't. Who can we say the adversary isn't? Well, it isn't the devil. We can all be on the same page tonight and be all in agreement that the adversary in this context, in this passage, and in your life, and in any other context, is never the devil. Young person, you are never to in any way agree with the devil. You shouldn't be in cahoots with the devil. You shouldn't be walking in the same direction with the devil. You shouldn't be okay with the devil. You should have a real problem with the devil and he should have a real problem with you. You understand? The Bible says be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, 1 Peter 5, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. You should be anti-devil. You should be against the devil. And let me just pause and say right there, you should not be involved in anything that would open a portal or the door to satanic influence in your life. Now if you're saved, the demons of hell cannot possess you. But you mark it down, they can influence and they can oppress and they can suppress and they can depress and they can cause all kinds of problems in your life. And they will if you give them a key. They will. Now they can't get into your heart. Because if you're saved, the Holy Spirit lives within and the Holy Spirit does not dwell with an evil spirit and will not allow an evil spirit. But boy, the old devil can come at you a myriad of ways. And if you are opening the door to him through wicked, rebellious rock music or any other kind of modern pop, rock, jazz, whatever, if you're opening the door to the devil through Ouija boards or through witchcraft or Dungeons and Dragons or video games that are satanic or Hollywood movies that are satanic, well then you've just kind of like, you've opened the door and you can close it, but I'll tell you, the devil will do everything he can to take advantage of that. You should not be in agreement with the devil And let me just say, parents, you ought to go home and cleanse and purge your house of anything that would in any way hint to the devil. It shouldn't be allowed. It shouldn't be tolerated in any way. The adversary is not the devil. We're not to be in agreement with the devil. We're not to be in agreement with his proxies, the world and the flesh. No, no, we shouldn't be in agreement with the world. The Bible says that love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, are not of the Father, but are of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. He's not telling you to love the world. Let me just say further. He's not telling you to love the flesh. The Bible says we're of those who put no confidence in the flesh. The Bible says the flesh lusteth against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary the one to the other. Now he's not talking about the flesh. Let me just put it out there even further. He's not talking about any enemy that would be a threat to you or your family or to your church. No, those enemies should be dispatched. They should be immediately restrained, if not put away. You should be in protect mode. Sir, it's not unrighteous for you to protect your wife and children. In fact, it's unrighteous for you not to protect your wife and children. You should be on guard. I heard of a preacher from the state I grew up in, in Minnesota, who said something publicly. I'm not really sure what I'd do if someone came in and tried to harm my wife or my daughter. What? What? Why would you even say something like that? I wonder what his wife thinks. I wonder what his daughter thinks. What a miserable wretch. I mean, if I were his wife, I wouldn't be feeding him anything he wanted the next month. I'd be like trying to drop some arsenic in there I think I mean really what in the world why would you ever make a statement like that and I want to go on public record and say I would never ever ever listen to a preacher anything that he ever has to say or write that would make a statement like that that doesn't know ahead of time what he would do if someone tried to harm his wife or daughter what a shameful man what an embarrassment to manhood and everything that's decent and good and right so this is not someone that would try to hurt you or your spouse or your family or your nation or your church family. Watch, this is not a pervert or predator. There's one thing that should be done to a pervert or predator that would destroy children and innocent life. There's one thing that should be done. They should be eliminated. They should be neutralized instantly. That's what should happen. We shouldn't be neutral. So are we in agreement as to who the adversary is not? Alright, then we must decide who the adversary is. The adversary is someone you should be getting along with. You should be walking in step with. The Bible said, how can two walk together except they be agreed? Well, we should be agreed with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We should be agreed with those that have right doctrine. We should be agreed with our preacher. We should be agreed with our spouse. We should be in agreement with our children and our children with us. We should be in agreement with our parents and with our siblings. We should be in agreement. There's plenty of people we should be in agreement with. You don't have to agree with everybody, but there are certain people you should be walking in agreement with. And if you're not in agreement with them, why? We need to figure out who this adversary is. The adversary defined this would be someone that you should be walking in agreement with and perhaps you're not. Maybe you had a blow up. Maybe you had an argument. Maybe there were words that were spoken on their side or on yours. Maybe they weren't said really and thought through. Maybe they weren't really meant but they were said. And since then there's been a rift. And sometimes people ask you about them and you change the subject. Or you just launch in and tell them how awful they are. And if you don't, you just think it in your heart. Whenever you see their Facebook posts or whenever you see their names still stored on your phone or whenever you think of them a hot flush of anger raises in your forehead and your ears turn red and your heart starts to beat faster. your brow furrows and you think, well, I'll tell you I'd like to give them a piece of my mind. Maybe it was a big blow up that really wasn't something to blow up about. Maybe it was a big blow up that really an argument and a disagreement should have been had and it was unavoidable but it could have been had in a lot more Christian and more gracious way. The adversary is someone that you should be in agreement with and we should be in agreement with our family and with the family of God. Who is the adversary? Someone that you should be agreeing with and you're not. He says agree with an adversary quickly. Quickly. While thou art in the way with him. What does that mean? There may be a time where you part paths. and he or you are going to knock on the door of the jailer because you've got and they've got ill intent. I want you to notice number one is the adversary defined, number two is the argument diffused. Now I know there's a place for righteous indignation but I'm not so sure that we should be at the level of indignation that we are as much as we are. I'm not so sure that that it was the intent of Almighty God when He made our emotional makeup and our physical makeup and our psychological makeup and our spiritual makeup. I'm not sure and I'm not convinced from Scripture that He intended us for us, He intended us to be as angry as we are as often as we are. But aren't we? And oh, we get mad. I mean, we watch Fox News for five seconds and we get mad. And we listen to a podcast or a talk radio show host. Have you ever walked away from a talk radio show saying, wow, that really made me, that made me closer to Jesus. I feel more full of the Spirit after the fact than I did before I started listening to that. Now, I'm not saying it's all bad and all wrong, but you just listen to news, just to one newscast, especially right now. You listen to one newscast and listen to how much of it is finger pointing. The problem with this person and the problem with that person, the problem with the other person. And then there's fires out in California, and they're blaming this person, and the governor, and that, and this, and that, and the other. It's blame, blame, blame. And if it isn't that, it's gloating on how wonderful we are. So if it isn't the pits of despair and anger that they all want us to be stirred up at constantly. And by the way, you study this physically and medically, it's not healthy for you to be angry all the time, every day. It's just not healthy. You say, well, what's the solution? Turn it off. Turn it off. You don't need it. It hasn't helped you grow. It hasn't been a better use of your time. Just turn it off. You say, well, I'm an older person and I need to know what's going on. Why? from people who 90% of the time lie to you. You're not even knowing what's going on anyway. Why? Why do you need that level of stress? Why do you need that? There needs to be some arguments diffused. And I think it creates a whole culture and has created a whole culture in our world of constantly mad and angry and upset and just raucous and hateful and mean-spirited and spit and fight at the drop of a hat and sometimes drop the hat just so we can fight. And we sometimes dub it as, well, I'm a fighting fundamentalist. Well, you know, I don't think that's pleasing to Jesus. You say, well, Jesus, He made a scourge. Well, yes, He did. And there was a time and a place. But I will assure you this, it wasn't as much as we think it was. And it wasn't, I will tell you this, it wasn't often in the way we think it should be. you think of this and just consider this right now here in Matthew he says agree with an adversary that means there is an argument diffused while thou art in the way with him he says there's a certain time that you have to shut this thing down to diffuse the bomb instead of ignite the bomb And how does this work when we're mad at everybody and mad at the boss and mad at the Democrats or mad at the Republicans or mad at the President or mad at the Congress and we come out of the car and slam the door and march up the steps and kick the dog and yell at the cat and scream at our wife and slam the door and sit down and the cakes in the oven it drops so you don't get much cake unless your wife chooses to multiply the frosting It's just a miserable, everything's awful, and then we come to church smiling and praising God, putting our hand in the air, all happy and pretending like everything's good. But at home, it's just a misery. Is that right? Is that God honoring? Does that please Jesus? Let's just agree with that adversary quickly. How about with your wife? Mad at her she looks at you funny or she doesn't do what you think she ought to do or she didn't put her shoes where you thought they should be and so you trip over them on the way out the door. You're mad at your husband because he doesn't ever clean his whiskers out of the sink and mad at him because you have to take care of his dirty clothes and mad at the kids and just mad mad angry upset fussing when God's called us to peace. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. I think if we're honest, we think that reads the fruit of the Spirit is frustration, anger and perturbed. But what? No, the works of the flesh are these. And so watch, he says here, agree with that. There needs to be an argument diffused. How good are you are diffused? Anybody can blow something up. I want to say we men kind of like that kind of thing, don't we men? I mean, just being honest. We like to tear things down and blow things up. We're just good at it, you know. We like boom, we like explosives, we like all that stuff. Anybody can light a fuse. I was out in Colorado a few years ago and the man in the church had a flamethrower. Well who doesn't want to see that? That is awesome. I got a picture out of it on my phone. I mean a flamethrower, that was really cool. And then they had cut off a, I'm teaching you men how to blow things up. They took an oxygen tank and they cut off the bottom and then they drilled a hole in the top and they took all the mechanics and they welded a ball there and then they turned it upside down so now it's a cannon. They got it on a bipod and they put black powder down in that bipod. put a wick in that hole and put a bowling ball down in. Light the wick, shot it out of sight. It was something. I mean something to behold. We did it two or three or four maybe ten or twelve. I don't know. We did it a bunch of times and boy we had a good time with it. I mean there's just something about it. Now you couldn't do it out here but out there it's the wide open prairie and there's lots of place to go. And one time we shot it up out of sight. Oh, man, you can't even see it. I want to say ISIS doesn't have anything on us rednecks. And so we shot it out of sight and we looked down and all of a sudden the whole prairie around us was on fire. We put a little too much black powder in. You know, we Baptists don't believe in dancing, but we went into a dance real quick. It was the Indian dance because the wind was blowing and that thing could have blown all the way to Nebraska and burned the prairie down. Oh, we went into a dance to put that thing out. You see, us men like to blow things up. It doesn't take anything to blow something up. But when you call the bomb squad, they're experts. They know which wire to clip, the red or the green wire. They know what kind of bomb this is, what kind of material this is. They know how to diffuse a situation. It takes someone of great character to bring peace to a very volatile circumstance. And young person, if I would advise you tonight, I would advise you under the inspiration of Almighty God, agree with an adversary quickly. There's no badge. You ask any adult here, there's no badge. And there's no trophy for winning an argument. If there were, we'd have a trophy case full of them. Daddy, what's that? What's that trophy for? Oh, that was when me and your mom got in a fight. It was 1984, and boy, I mean, I let her have it. Oh, wow. Who won? Well, I won! Who do you think won? I mean, look at that trophy. Wow. Daddy, what's this medal over here? Oh, that's when Mama won the fight. Oh, yeah. I had a black eye for three days after that. It wasn't real good. I needed some kind of stake to knock that thing out. Oh, there's no badge for that. but I will say there will be some people that will smirk your wisdom when you defuse an argument. I want you to notice an argument defused. I want you to think with me about this. I want you to notice number three, agreement displayed. Agreement displayed. Will you think about this? There needs to be some agreement. You're not always right. You're not always right. You're not always right. Somebody might have a different perspective and it might not be a matter of doctrine. We're not talking about giving way to false doctrine. We're not talking about agreeing with falsehood or erroneous doctrine. We're talking about standing for the truth but doing so graciously. But most of the time our fights in our Baptist churches have nothing to do with doctrine. Most of the time it's over the color of the carpet, it's over personality, it's over this person's on this side, their family is a wrong family and they're a bunch of no good, good for nothings and my family is right and lines are drawn and positions are taken and tug of wars are had and then a great big church split. And what was that church split over? Over nothing. I was in a church this last summer and I was headed out west and the church formed because the pastor of that former of the church they came out of had just dug in and said he was a Reformed Baptist. I said, that's like somebody that's a Democrat Republican. I said, that doesn't exist. And so they left. And I said, I just want to say how thankful I am. I'm so thankful to be in a Baptist church that started over a real reason. Now, I grew up in Baptist churches. I'll tell you one thing they can accuse us of, and it's not not knowing how to fight. We know how to fight. We know how to throw down. And one thing they can't accuse us of is not knowing how to plant churches. Most of them were planted, but not on purpose. It would be nice if we actually had something that was absolutely substantive. A fight amongst believers that was actually like real and something substantive and we actually sat down and talked about it and we gave our side and they gave their side. We showed scripture and then we made our decision based upon that. Instead of just a big knock down, drag out, two for all fist fight. I'm this close to starting a ministry called IFBMMA. And I think, Pastor, what I'm gonna do is on Saturday night show up at church and put a cage in the parking lot and put the people in the cage in the church that can't get along and can't ever get along, put them right there in the cage and they're not allowed out until one of them wins. And I think we could take up offerings and we could even have preaching and maybe we could even sell tickets and make a whole lot of money. Maybe even some people get saved over it. How shameful that we can't just figure out how to agree. You know who didn't agree in the Bible? Cain and Abel didn't. That didn't work out well for Cain or Abel. Sarah and Hagar couldn't agree. Jacob and Laban couldn't agree. Esau and Jacob seemed to appear to agree at a certain point, but then that fight was so deep and the bitterness so raucous and so wrong that it lasted from Genesis 37 all the way to the book of Obadiah until God had to settle the matter. That's good, you're right. Iodius and Syntyche in the church of Philippi couldn't agree. Alexander the coppersmith and Paul couldn't agree. Wouldn't it be better if we just obeyed what Jesus said in Matthew 5.25? There needs to be some agreement displayed. I was in Florida just last year and my son who is in Bible college said, Dad, didn't you say you wrote something about Philip the Evangelist and the Ethiopian eunuch? I said, yes. He said, could you send that to me? I'm writing a paper and I'm writing it about that. I'd like to see that. I said, okay. I said, we don't have good Wi-Fi here where we're parked this week. But I said, I'll go up to Wendy's after church see if I can do this. So after service I got my truck and I drove up to Wendy's and I realized, wow, it had been a long fellowship and it was late and I pulled into the parking lot and I thought, I bet they might be closed. It was 945. So I pulled up to the drive-thru window and I said, are you guys still open? And the manager did like this right here. She said, yeah, but we close at 10. I said, okay, okay. So I pulled into a parking lot, got out, walked in, and when I walked in, there was a young teenage girl. She was standing behind the counter, and she says, oh, she said, I just want to let you know that we're closing real soon. I looked back at the clock. I said, oh, but I got 15 minutes. Yeah, but we're closing real soon. She said, I just emptied all the trash, and we're closing real soon. And I kept walking towards the counter and I said, well, I have enough time to order something real quick and I just need to get a quick Wi-Fi signal and send something to my son. She went and rolled her eyes, kind of bothered by the whole thing. And in my mind, I'm rolling my eyes. I'm like, I'm the customer. Does she know who I am? I'm the customer. Is she treating me better than this? All trying to shut me down and I'm trying to look at what I'm going to get and I got my four for $400. How many of you like the Wendy's 4 for 4? I mean that's good, okay. And so I got my 4 for 4 and she gets a cup and she slams it down on the counter. And I grab it and walk over to the drink station and I'm mumbling to my son, I got my air pods in. These people don't know how to give good customer service. There's Wendy's, I'm going to report them to the better business bureau. I might even give the manager a piece of my mind. Just not really in good sorts, you know. And then she put the burger down and the nuggets and the fries. I grabbed the tray. I went over and sat down, sat down with my tray, got my computer open. I don't understand these people. They ought to give me better customer service. And my son Peter said, Dad, it's going to be all right. Calm down. I think it'll be all right. Trying to get the Wi-Fi. I was so disgusted I couldn't figure out how to get the Wi-Fi to work. And I was trying to figure it out, and it was just a simple click. And then she goes around, she wipes all the tables down just to let me know it's time for me to leave. And she wants to close up early. And then a bus pulled in the parking lot. And I said... You know what she did? She ran over and she deadbolted the one door and ran across and deadbolted the other door. And then she runs back and is high-fiving all her employee friends. Woo! And the manager. Woo! We love you. This is great. I'm like, what is wrong with these people? I bet that bus driver drove a long ways and he just needs a little bit of break. Wow! I had to go back and give her a piece of my mind and give that manager a piece of my mind. Who do they think they are? While I'm trying to figure out how Philip the Evangelist witnessed to the Ethiopian eunuch. What kind of people are these people? It's all going through in my mind, you know? And so then I went and I sat, I was so frustrated, I went through a drink already, went over and got a refill and came back and I thought, you know, I should calm down a little bit. So I reached in my pocket and I gave her a track. I said, hey, I'd love for you to come, I'd love for you to come to my house, I'd love for you to come to my house. I'd love for you to read this and I'd love for you to come." And she took it right here and she looked at it and she said, well, what is this? I said, well, this is an invitation to a church that I'm preaching at right around the corner. It's literally a mile away, maybe less. We have a service tomorrow night and the next night and I'd like for you to come and be my guest. She said, oh, okay. And I went and sat down and she's standing now about just 10 feet away. She said, I've got a question for you. I said, oh. She said, what do you think about trans? I said, well, now that's a really interesting question. I said, why would you ask that? Well, she said, I'm trans. And she said, I haven't had a real good experience with church people when I asked them that question. And I said, well, I said, sometimes we church folks aren't real good at wording what we think and sometimes we get a little heated. I said, but you know, All of us have a way bigger problem than that." And she said, well what's that? I said, it's our sin problem. And I said, our sin problem is way bigger and way worse than that. I said, the Bible says something about your question and answer to your question. By this time she's sitting right across from me. I said, but if that sin problem hasn't been dealt with the Bible way and there's only one solution for it, it's not gonna be a happy day on judgment day. I said, has anybody ever shared with you how you can have all your sin problems solved? And I said, by solved I mean complete forgiveness and complete victory and complete deliverance. She said, no. I said, well may I? She said, yes. So I took my Bible on my phone and I shared with her from the Bible how she could know she was going to heaven, how she could be forgiven. and she listened with bated breath I said the Bible talks about transgender and says it's sin talks about homosexuality and says that's sin along with a whole host of other things that are sin before Almighty God I said but if our sin problem all of it hasn't been dealt with through the blood of Jesus and we haven't by faith accepted Jesus as our Savior when we all die and stand before God it's not going to be a happy day I said, Would you like to accept Jesus? And right then her manager said, Hey, we need some help back here. And she stood up. She said, Hey, thank you. Thank you for explaining that to me. And she walked back away from where I was seated out in the lobby and she stepped behind the counter and she walked this way with the counter between me and her now. And she said to her manager this. She said, Hey, have you heard? I might be going back to church again. God's Holy Spirit smote my heart and said, well, well, Mr. Customer. How would it have been if you had gone up there and given her a piece of your mind and told her what for about how you were being mistreated? And how would it have been if you had given the manager a piece of your mind? You would have lost all opportunity to point them to Jesus while you're sending an email to your son about Philip the evangelist witnessing to the Ethiopian eunuch. You see, what are you saying? I'm saying we need to agree. I'm not saying we need to agree with people's sin, but I'm saying we need to be a lot more agreeable than we are. And maybe because we're such prickly pears, we haven't had a whole lot of fruit in recent years. And maybe because we're so staunch and so deliberate and so vocal and so vitriolic in our temperament, nobody's interested in getting all close to that. They have that at work. They have that in a broken marriage and a broken home. They've seen that with their mom and dad not getting along. They've seen that with all kinds of family fights and family feuds and they come to church and they get this or they go meet you out and so and so and ask you a simple question and you've already blown up at this person or that person that you work with or that you're around and why would they expect to have any kind of sensible reasonable answer from you on any kind of given situation or question they may have when there's little to no agreement. And look what the Bible says. It says, Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. You know what Jesus said? Almost the exact same words in Matthew chapter 18. when he gave the parable of the man who had been forgiven so much, 10,000 talents, and he would not forgive a man 100 pence, and he put him in jail. And so the king came to him and put him in jail. Now watch, in a perfect world, the man who has committed the offense goes to the man against whom he's committed the offense. And the man who has had the offense committed against him goes to the man who has committed the offense and they meet halfway. But whether that person meets you halfway or not, you're responsible to go to them. And you're responsible to either say, please forgive me or I forgive you. You say, Preacher, how do you agree? These are the ways you agree. You say, I was wrong. Let's all say that together. It may have been a long time for some of us. Are you ready? Let's say, I was wrong. Let's say it again together, shall we? I was wrong. Now, some of you are going to feel that in the morning. The exercise and some muscles that maybe you haven't used recently. I was wrong. Let's say, please forgive me, would you? Please forgive me. Would you say it again? Please forgive me. Let's say this, I forgive you. I forgive you. You know what that does? That brings some kind of agreement. That helps us realize at the cross that the ground is level and that I'm not more important than you and you don't have to come groveling to me and kiss my ring or my big toe or everything like that. No, I'll forgive you. Jesus is our example and when He hung on the cross He said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. And if we claim to follow the one who is the ultimate in forgiveness, then we better forgive. We better do our part to seek forgiveness or offer forgiveness. And if we don't, God says the only option ahead of us is prison time. A prison of our own making of unforgiveness or someone else's making of unforgiveness. What happened there in Halifax? Well remember I said the boats were hooked up and then they throttled their engines in reverse and unhooked and when they did sparks flew. Now all over the deck of the Mont Blanc is a fire. And people of course gather at the harbor to see the fire. And some boats immediately send rescue help to go put out the fire. But now you have some lifeboats with men that were once sailors on the Mont Blanc and they're moving towards the shore and screaming, Get away! Get away! There's explosions on that boat! Get away! Don't come near it! Most people were watching. Most people were gathering to see more. There was one man who was a train operator who took their warning seriously and he sent word to an incoming train and said, stop the train, there's a fire in the harbor, it could cause trouble. And in doing so, he saved hundreds of lives. There were people that were coming, getting their family ready for school that day and because Halifax is a harbor town, they were getting ready, watching down in the harbor, looking out their plate glass windows. getting their girls' hairs ready, hair ready, and getting their kids ready. And, mama, what's burning in the harbor? What's going on in the harbor? Everybody wants to see a fire burn. When the explosion took place and all the benzene, pitric acid, and TNT went up, instantly, every building within two miles was leveled. instantly over 1,700 people entered eternity. 9,000 people were injured. There were so many people blinded because of the explosions of the plate glass and other matters. There were so many people blinded that the country of Canada started the Canadian Society for the Blind. All because Someone would not agree. Do you know that Boston, Massachusetts heard word of this explosion and they were the first ones to send help. That's why every year since 1917, Halifax has sent a Christmas tree down to Boston. And when that Christmas tree is set up and lit, it's because of a relationship between Halifax and Boston. And I'm thankful for that act of gratitude. And I'm thankful that Boston sent help. But do you know all of that could have been avoided if instead of doing this, someone just decided to agree. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer. and thou be cast into prison. Thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. Would you bow with me in prayer? What I preach tonight will save your relationships. It could reconcile someone in this church so that it could save a relationship in this church. I wonder if there's someone here tonight that said, preacher, God has convicted me about my anger. It's too volatile. It's got too short of a fuse. It's too easily ignited. And I need to ask the Lord to give me victory and ask the Lord to help me see this thing through so that instead of me being one ticking time bomb, I'm marked by the characteristics Our Lord displays of patience and kindness and long-suffering and gentleness. You see, preacher, God has convicted my heart about my anger. Would you pray that I would put it beneath the blood and bring it to Jesus and let the Holy Spirit be in charge instead of me always being in charge? If that's you, would you slip up your hand right now? God bless you. God bless you. Good. Young and old. Thank you. Question number two. I want to ask how many of you would say, preacher, God's Holy Spirit has convicted my heart about either my need to seek forgiveness from or offer forgiveness to someone. I either need to seek forgiveness from or offer forgiveness to someone and I don't know exactly what that means but I know it needs to be done would you pray for me that I'd have the courage and the character to offer forgiveness to or seek forgiveness from if that's you would you slip your hand up right now preacher Would you pray for me? Thank you. God bless you. Amen. Is there anyone else, preacher? There's someone I'm not right with, either in this building or in my family or wherever. And you say, preacher, I need to seek forgiveness from or offer forgiveness to anyone at all, along with these. I want to say if your adversary tonight is God, you better agree with Him. And the only place you can agree with Him is at the cross. Jesus took in His body your own sins. And the way to agree with God is to believe on His Son, Jesus Christ, and receive His gift of eternal life. If you said, Preacher, I've done that, and I've accepted Christ, and I know I'm saved, would you slip your hand up high? I know, Preacher, that I'm saved on my way to heaven. Slip your hand up high. God bless you, you may put your hands down. Is there anybody here that said, Preacher, I don't know that. I have not settled that and I need to settle that. Would you pray for me? If that's you, would you slip your hand up high tonight? Anyone at all? Anyone at all? Alright, let's stand with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. Everyone standing. I'm gonna ask the pianist if she'd play The Altar's Open. You need to come? Come on right now. If there's someone you need to seek forgiveness from or offer forgiveness to, you come and bring that name before the Lord. And then if they're in this building and you can go to them tonight, you go to them tonight. But you need to settle it in the next 24 to 48 hours. You need to start the process of moving in their direction. Don't put it off. How about it? The altar's open. Maybe you need to grab the hand of your spouse, say, honey, come on. Maybe just make an altar right there. We could tell each other stories till midnight of unforgiveness. And there'd be tears, and there'd be furrowed brows, and there'd be heartbreak. But if we'd think much, we could tell a few stories of forgiveness. And there'd be raised eyebrows, and there'd be tears of joy, and there'd be amazement, because it's such a reflection of Jesus. you.