Justice Control
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Justice Control
Justice Control
How many of you watch action movies?
Here’s the general premis for these movies
Some person is just minding their own business
Someone else does something bad… kills the heroes family, destroys thier home planet, slaps their sister… you know something
The good guys spends the majority of the movie trying to find ways to pay the person back
Usually you see the good guy loosing till the very moment when he overcomes and John McClains the other person off a building or whatever
The hero defeats the bad guys and the whole time we route for the good guy!
We’re all like Yeah! Get Him!
These movies are cathartic for us
Someone say cathartic
That’s a $2 word that means something that helps you experience and express your emotions through someone else and feeling a sense of release because of it
Movies like this appeal to our desire for Justice
How many of you feel a strong desire for Justice?
I mean that you really hate with the little guy gets picked on, you don’t like people to be taken advantage of, You want there to be a balance to everything
it’s not a bad thing
As human beings we usually have a keen sense of justice. Unless you’re a sociopath or something along those lines… most people have a sense that there should be Justice in this world
Or at least that there should be justice for those who look like me and who I like! Right?
Is there justice in this world?
Somewhat? Right?
But not ultimately
Coorperations are corrupt, government systems take advantage of the poor, bullying happens…
Justice in this world is a fickle and fleeting thing
So what do we do when we feel like the justice that is deserved in a situation isn’t served?
What do we do as broken people when we feel like the week are being oppressed or the person who keeps being terrible to other people is living high on the hog
That’s an old country saying that just means that they are doing well… they’re not recieving the punishment for what they’ve done
It’s time for us to ride
You said what to my friend?
You did what to my brother or sister?
You did what to my kids or my parents?
LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!!
Why is that?
Because we seek to control Justice
Our understanding of the world… the things that have been told to us from birth… is that when you do bad you get bad and when you do good you get good
When we don’t see that play out in real life it causes a desire in our lives to control the outcome of the situation
We step in and we start to execute our control over a situation by manipulation.
Bad mouth someone
Slander someone
Give dirty looks
Fight
Scratch
We want our sense of Justice to be fulfilled
What does Jesus say about Justice?
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Jesus tells us that we are supposed to not only forgive… but to love those who have wronged us
He not only says that we are going to be wronged but that we have to completely relenquish our right to punish the person
Our Job is to love the other person
Some of you are thinking that’s totally unfair! That upsets my sense of justice!
You are right!
BUt here’s the thing… as much as we say we want justice we don’t
Justice says that when you transgress you get punished to the degree that you desereve
God our father and creator says that his demand for entry into his presence is perfection
Any transgression against him is deserved of Death
That means the second you sinned the first time you were imperfect… Justice demands that you pay for that crime with death
How many of you love that idea of justice?
No we don’t want that we want Grace
We want God to be gracious to us and to grant us salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross
We want to be able to enter in through Jesus
But we want justice for others but grace for ourselves
We want other people to have to pay for every little transgression in that instant but when we mess up we want to explain and be the exception… we want Grace
When we are fighting for control of justice we are fighting for the authority to punish others and that authority belongs to God and God alone
He didn’t say that vengeance is his the Lord!
Listen everything the Lord does is Good
He didn’t say that vengeance is his because he loves to see injustice
He said it because he knows that we are broken. Our wills and our desires are not to be trusted
If vengeance were for us to repay then we would not be able to do it perfectly
But God is the only one who can judge perfecty and therefore is the one who repays what needs to be repayd
Also God takes vengeance as his own because it actually does damage to us
In a study they proved that revenge makes you feel worse
We think that if we could just do to others some of the bad stuff they did to us we would feel better
Studies tell us that when people take revenge on another they end up feeling worse about the whole transaction
When you seek to control Justice you actually do damage
Ultimately you have to trust that Jesus cares about you and therefore he will rightly judge and rightly work in the lives of those who have wronged you
Jesus will bring about whatever situations are needed for his justice to be satisfied
The Lord will not be frustrated
Do you trust him
Have you trusted him in your life
“You don’t know all the bad that’s happened to me!” I can’t forgive
Jesus was being murdered and asked that his murderers be forgiven
It was our sin that held him there… .until it was accomplished
Every sin that you would ever commit is hanging on Christ on the cross… it is because of your sin nature that Christ chose to die
Are you saying that the sin that someone did agaisnt you is greater than what you have done that needs atonement through the blood of God’s only son
Are you saying that what someone did to you is greater than your sin?
You have to trust that you have been forgiven and then live loved
Live as though you have been given this gift of grace and then choose to share that
Not because others deserve your forgiveness… but because you didn’t deserve Christ’s and yet he gave that to you freely