Gospel-less Religion (Matthew 15:1-20)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet virtually this week.
Transcript
Well good morning it's good to see you guys this morning and for those of you who are joining with us online we're glad that you are with us as well my name is Matt Freeman I'm one of the pastor's here with Mill City Church of KC happy fourth of July weekend I hope you got to indulge and maybe some of your favorite fourth of July things maybe that's eating hotdogs and watching the Nathan's hot dog eating competition is anybody's favorite maybe it's blowing things up in the sky with some fireworks maybe it's just some socially distant activities with family and friends.
But I hope you have had a good fourth of July weekend and that this gets to be a part of that it's interesting because not for a long time have we lived in such an overly politicized environment where celebrating love of country or patriotism can can be a thing where people want to argue against or something like that but we as a Church we are thankful for our country we are thankful for the fact that we get to celebrate we are thankful.
For the freedoms that we have we have freedom of religion where we can practice our faith how God leads us to we have freedom of speech where we can stand and openly declare what we believe to be true and so we're grateful for our country and just like all things there are things that we want to work on and want to grow but we're thankful for our country we're also thankful for men and women who have given their lives to make that possible that those men and women.
For hundreds of years have knowingly or unknowingly followed in the example of Jesus of sacrifice of self for others and some of those men and women are even in this room can we just give them a hand for those that have served for our country and so we're grateful because that sacrifice is a picture of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us Jesus gave His life so that we could have freedom that we could be his and belong to him and that's the reason that we've gathered here this morning.
So we're grateful and thankful for our country but we actually get to come here together today and worship and focus on Jesus and so we're grateful that you are with us or have joined with us online just a couple of housekeeping things it's exciting to see some kids in the room with us today worshiping together as a family we did want you to know that our kid City classrooms are available they are outfitted with the livestream they've got chairs down there that are socially distance and a few toys they're just hard surface that can be wiped down.
So if at any point your kids get a little antsy or want to move around or want to do anything feel free to take them down there and watch the livestream that is available to you and then for our new mothers in the room if you haven't noticed up the small stairwell we have a new nursing room for mothers so that you can go at any point during our service and utilize that for our Church family we're not passing an offering plate or even putting our computer up right.
Now for giving but if you would like to give the way you can do that is if you see in the front to the front walls up here there's small rectangle wooden boxes where you can give cash or cheque and if you're wanting to give with a debit card or a credit card or do that online you'll have to do that from home and if you're watching from home you can just go to Mill City KC comm and click on the give icon and as a Church we want to walk out our faiths together.
So if you're new here just checking things out we we practice our faith together daily weekly in our community groups and we want you to be a part of those so we've got a QR code look how fancy that thing is you can just take out your phone and pull that up and it'll take you to our website where you can fill out just a little bit of information and find out more information about our community groups so again we're grateful that you're here with us this morning I've asked dr.
Ken to come and just lead us in a prayer of Thanksgiving think thankfulness for our country and for what we get to celebrate and then to focus our hearts on Jesus this morning so doctor can you come good morning it sure is good to be back here with you and worship this morning it's been seem like it's been a long time but it's a good it's great just to be here and to be a part of this and as we do that I would like to.
First of all lead us in a prayer so if you would bear with me please for prayer Heavenly Father we praise you for being the eternal God the creator of all the giver of life the author of Liberty father we thank you that through Jesus we can approach her throne of grace today one want to thank you for the ways in which you have blessed our nation we thank you that you let our founding fathers to establish our nation on Christian principles we thank you that you've preserved us from eternal external and internal threats you've given us great freedoms freedom of speech freedom of religion the right to peaceably assemble freedom of the press.
Many others you've graded us Abunda prosperity father we thank you today for those who have defended these freedoms down through the years we thank you for those who are continuing to do so today we thank you all so far there for those who have worked to expand our freedoms to all of our citizens and for those who are still doing so father we confess we're not worthy of all the ways you have blessed us as a nation we have turned from you in our pride we have become self-dependent we are selfless selfish we are self-centered we're greedy lustful committing minion justices we pray.
For your forgiveness and for your cleansing we pray that you would be merciful to us as a nation save us from violence injustice and disunity save us from ourselves helped us to accept each other as fellow Americans grant our leaders in every level of government your wisdom and your guidance and lead them to depend upon you give us a spirit of true community father we pray that you would help us as your people help us to be salt and light and our communities and we pray Heavenly.
Father that you would help us to humble ourselves to turn from our own sins and to pray earnestly for our nation that it might experience a turning back to you and we pray these things in Jesus name Amen I called worship this morning is from Hebrews chapter 4 verses 14 through 16 since then we have a great high priest who is pass through the heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our confession where do we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.
But one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need would you guys stand we're gonna see together before the throne of God above have a strong this man can see behold him there perfect spot is righteous live the rate of change the kid worried themself my soul is purchased by gizmo my life is here my sample shows - they're gone our reading this morning comes from Psalm 40 please read the underlined portions with me I waited patiently.
For the Lord he inclined to me and heard my cry he drew me up from the pit of destruction out of the miry bog and set my feet upon a rock making my steps secure he put a new song in my mouth a song of praise to our God many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust who does not turn to the proud to those who go astray after a lie you have multiplied.
Lord my God your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us none can compare with you I will proclaim and tell of them yet they are more than can be told in sacrifice and offering you have not delighted but you have given me an open ear burnt offering and sin offering you have not required I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation as.
For you O Lord you will not restrain your mercy for me your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me for evils have encompassed me beyond number my iniquities have overtaken me and I cannot see they are more than the hairs of my head my heart feels me but may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you may those who love your salvation say continually great is the Lord let's continue to praise God this morning together for God's holy war ciao three persons I.
See perfect all I work shall praise thy name for Oh No God we have nothing to claim before you accept the work of Jesus and said this morning we thank you for the cross we thank you for the empty tomb it's by those that we can come into your presence and live lives of worship before you ask people who have been made clean who have not earned anything but have been given grace so this morning God we pray that you would remind us of that good news that it would sink deeply into our hearts that we might walk in that grace in.
Jesus name Amen you guys can be seated for those of you that didn't hear anything online you could have fill in the rest it was great all right so got some internet memes I want to show you this is the first one so the whole gist of this is ours today years old when I realized that candy corn if you stack it up it looks like corn on the cob so I don't know if you knew that maybe you just learned a thing.
But if you put candy corn together it looks like Aang show another picture because this one's not blurry there you go so you learn to think it's not just the semi ok snack that you get Halloween it actually has a function of purpose let me show you another one this other one is I was today years old when I realized that the Amazon logo the check mark goes from A to Z and the point of that is is that they sell everything from A to Z or you know their company culture which is will shut down every small business from A to Z all right give it two more I was.
Today years old when I realized that there's an iPhone hack that if you put your finger on and you hold it on the spacebar that you can easily navigate and drag the cursor to fix text messages which is something that's very helpful via fat thumbs like me and a little screen it's very helpful and I know that some of your Android users you're like y'all we've had this for years awesome y'all win your phones are better what you want to do here also go back check this this week in teaching team he realized this and he started playing on his phone he was really excited about it or he was just simulating what happens.
When people watch this from home all right last one I was today years old when I realized that you can clean the glass in between the oven and the outside it used to be that my understanding was is that if grease kind of fell in there there was no way to actually fix it it just stayed there but at least on this oven are in theory some other ones you can take a brush and you can clean the inside of it.
So that's that's the gist of these things there are things that you are familiar with right yeah but you don't actually fully understand you don't other full-function and that's funny in trivial things but that also seems to be true in all of life that there are there are people that you can be around your entire life and never fully understand them or maybe you felt that way that there are people that you know people that are in your life that regularly.
See you that live life with you but don't fully understand you that you can sit under sermons and teaching for years and never fully understand them to no fault of the person who's preaching it just doesn't quite sink in and that's what we're going to see a little bit today the disciples have been around Jesus for seemingly at years at this point and it's ministry and there's still an aspect of the kingdom of heaven that isn't sinking in it hasn't penetrated their hearts.
So we're gonna walk through this today and as we walk through it I don't want us to there's there's a habit sometimes we read the Gospels to look at the disciples and be like man I can't believe you did this I can't believe you didn't understand this but what I want us to do is to have a little bit posture of humility and to look at this reflectively and maybe realize that there's aspects about the kingdom of heaven there's aspects about the Gospel that we don't quite understand and fully believe either.
So let me pray and they will walk through this together father thank you so much that you've given us your word and you've give us these stories and you've given us Christ who reveals our hearts got a pray today that you would help us understand your Gospel in a new way I pray that you would help us listen so Lord speak to us we ask this in Jesus name Amen all right so starting on verse 1 then the Pharisees and scribes came to.
Jesus from Jerusalem and said why do your disciples break the tradition of the but they do not wash their hands when they eat all right so I want to picture this for you the Pharisees were in Jerusalem and at some point they huddled up together you see they're trying to take Jesus down we've seen that so far in the Gospel of Matthew and they thought what is a way that we can take him down somebody pops up and says I think they don't wash their hands and someone said alright Zedekiah you nailed it pack your bags boys we're going to Galilee.
Now Galilee is a few days walk okay so they for hand-washing for something that they wanted to call Jesus out on they decide they're going to go on a few days walk journey to call him out this is similar to sometimes my my daughter my oldest she just turned five and she's amazing and one of the things that she does it's so helpful in her house as she helps take care of her younger siblings specifically our little one who I'm convinced that.
If I one of my greatest accomplishments in life will be keeping him alive until he's 18 and she helps with that she helps monitor him and sometimes she'll come running down the stairs yelling and it you have to take that seriously because there's no telling what he's done it could be very serious she comes down and she's all worked out and What's Wrong sweetheart and she goes well Bridgers he's not he's not he's not playing the game but I want him to play in the way that I want to play it I'm the mom he's supposed to be the dad and he's not playing and I'm like wait you came running and screaming all the.
Way downstairs to tell me that your brother is not playing the game the way that you want to play the game that's not how we respond here that's quite the overreaction that's a little what's happening here they heard about hand-washing and they said no we're going to go to Galilee we're going to confront Jesus on this for the sake of being fair is hand-washing the idea that you need to wash your hands and or not to make the food defiled and unclean that you're going to eat is that buried somewhere in the Old Testament law is it like five chapters deep in numbers and maybe they just missed it.
Because the Book of Numbers is difficult no it is nowhere in the Old Testament law you see this tradition comes from an O tradition of the law known as the Holika all right so the Pharisees and the religious leaders have a few different oral traditions few different basically running common series of the Old Testament and their traditions that they want to help explain the law but as we've seen early on in the Gospel of Matthew they completely misunderstand the heart of.
God and the purpose of the law they did this with the Sabbath they got all excited like Jesus and His disciples are breaking the Sabbath let's call him out and they thought you know what that didn't work let's try hand-washing and you could imagine how the rest of this story goes it doesn't go well for the Pharisees and the scribes so pick up in verse three says he answered them and why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition.
For God commanded or honor your father and your mother and over a vow father or mother must surely die but you say if anyone tells his father or his mother what would you have gained from me is given to God he need not honor his father so for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God you hypocrites now that seems like quite an interesting response to them accusing the disciples of not washing their hands it almost seems like a bit of a dodge right I say you're not washing your hands.
Jesus comes back says oh yeah well you're not honoring your momma's now what and it seems like it's a little bit of a way he decides that this that's not what happened all right he just did classic Jesus Jedi mind-trick he's going deeper into this and he's about to explain something and call out the Pharisees and the scribes all no 1 clip so what is he doing here he references one of the 10 commandments honor your mother and your father and he says you are breaking this.
Because of your tradition so what tradition are they using to break one of the Ten Commandments well it's you have to catch this it's it's subtle but in verse 5 he says what you would have gained from me is given to God now Mark's Gospel his version of this one word that helps us understand even clearer more clearly what he just said Mark's Gospel adds a word Corbin so if your name is Corbin you got a family room whose name is Corbin you're about to learn a thing Corbin and the Hebrew means devoted to.
God so what is happening here is he is talking about a Corbin offering this would be any extra offering that you could get to the temple any extra offering that you could give that's devoted to God so what was happening is that it was it's permissible the expectation is you're supposed to honor your mother and father there's a reason it's one the top 10 commandments it's very serious especially and their religion and in their culture but what you could do if you wanted to take part of your inheritance or part of your money as your parents are aging.
And if you didn't want to use all of that or a good bulk of that take care of your parents you need to be taken care of you could devote some of that to the temple you could bypass that it was a way of saying I'm extra holy I'm extra giving I'm gonna give what was supposed to be used to take care of my parents but I'm gonna give that to the temple now here's where this gets really messed up the Pharisees and the scribes and the religious leadership you can.
Look at at a Jewish writing at the time and tell this they had a tradition of taking the Corbin offering and using it to give the temple this is we need to understand who benefits the benefits from the offerings that are given to the temple the religious leadership so if you wanted nicer living quarters if you wanted nicer things you could in essence take what you should be used to take care of your parents your parents who brought you into this world your parents who raised you your parents you sent you off to Jewish seminary.
So that you can be in the priesthood instead of taking care of their parents they're saying oh look at this we're giving extra money extra inheritance here's our Corbin offering for everyone to see and they're benefitting themselves and their own comfort wicked that is evil even in our culture if if my parents needed taken care of when they got older and I said you know I I'm not gonna take care of my parents I'm going to give more to no City Church and behind-the-scene.
So I'm looking holy and giving more to the Church I'm actually restructuring the budget and getting nicer vehicles and nicer things we would say that's corrupt in our culture it's an extra level in theirs that you would honor you do a dishonor your parents like this is wicked there's a reason why in the Old Testament law that you could be put to death for dishonouring your parents you did not do this in this culture and Jesus exposes all of that right here in this moment right here in front of all the crowds to watch.
And then he keeps going he references Isaiah to make this point even more clear verse 8 well did Isaiah prophesied of you when he said this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me in vain do they worship Me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men he says Isaiah called it you'll honor God with your lips you you honor God with your teachings but here's the deal your heart is far from me in vain do you teach the law in vain do you teach the commandments you.
See your foundation is crumbling and all you're presenting is these holy actions that hide it about a month ago I was showing a house which if you don't know I'm a Bob occasional pastor I also do real estate you know showing a house and there's a lot of times that she'll show to a house and the pictures that you see online they're not reflective of the true house which is fine that's the point of being a real estate agent you want to get them in the house you take the best pictures you hire professional photographer you make sure it looks very good.
But every now and then every now and then the pictures really really really don't capture what's happening so we showed up this house they bought it for ninety they they were flipping it for 150 and I walked in and I was furious I was like this house is a disaster literally the only thing they have done is they have painted the walls you can look around and the rest of the house was completely falling apart it was completely fake and that's the Pharisees its outward actions showing how good we are.
But inside they are rotten to their core all of their teaching is hypocrisy and Jesus calls us out and I love it because he keeps going verse 10 and he called the people to him remember these are the Pharisees the religious leaders that everyone in the nation looked up to right and they're they're seeing all this happen and they said come in I'm gonna teach you a thing about what just happened he called the people to him and said to them hear and understand it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person.
But what comes out of the mouth this defiles a person so he's continued to teach off of this idea that you have to clean your hands in order to eat food that might not be clean or unclean so here's a few different layers of what he's doing here one of the things that he's doing here is he's tipping his hand what he is and March Gospel version of this makes this even more clear that what is coming is a day where the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament are no longer followed all right.
So that's good news for all of us this weekend that enjoyed ribs are some form of pork right we don't keep kosher anymore so this is tipping the hand a little bit that the ceremonial law is keeping kosher all of this is going to be is going to be fulfilled in Christ and the book of Acts is will become even more clear so it's pointing forward a little bit but also he is revealing a bit a major critique of the religion the Gospel is religion of the Pharisees and scribes it is about the heart and they missed this it's about the heart it's about what comes out of your heart it's not what you do.
And your actions outwardly it's about your heart and connected to those actions it's all about the heart they added commands and traditions and traditions on to the law to show outward holiness they're obsessed with it and they've missed it they've completely missed the point their hearts are unclean they are far from God their foundation is crumbling and they've missed it so Jesus continues or the passage continues in verse 12 since then the disciples came and said to him do you know that the Pharisees were offended.
When they heard this saying he answered them never plant that my Heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up let them alone that your blind guides and if the blind lead the blind both will fall into a pit but Peter said to him explain to us this parable explain this parable to us and he said are you still without understanding so they see all this happen they come to Jesus and they say Jesus did you have Pharisees were offended by what you said geez like word are you serious they were offended he's like no you you you're missing it he says.
If God didn't didn't plant them this is similar language to the parable of the weeds if God didn't plant them they're gonna be uprooted this is judgment language they are the blind leading the blind which if you know that English phrase comes from the Bible the blind leading the blind then and then Peter comes in says so Jesus can you explain that parable to us and Jesus responds here the Peter is so telling he says are you still without understanding you got to.
Remember the disciples have been with Jesus for seemingly years at this point they've heard all the teachings they've gotten to sit under his feet in private moments where Jesus is unpacking the kingdom of God they've gotten to hear the sermon amount and other big sermons where Jesus is preaching about the kingdom of heaven and it's not sinking in it's not penetrating their hearts to when they see what just happened the Pharisees and the scribes travel days to come call Jesus on washing hands their gut response is don't you know you offended them which this is conjecture.
Okay this is don't don't take as a solid interpretation but mine I have a suspicion that because the disciples expected that when Jesus came into Jerusalem he was going to establish a political revolution ever throw the Roman government there there was this expectation that the Messiah was going to come and restart everything politically I have this suspicion that maybe just maybe the disciples were a little bit concerned with your offending the people in power that we're gonna need but there is this concern initially that says you've offended them.
And then when they asked what they found will explain the parable and he says are you still without understanding but he's gracious and he continues and explains what he was coming from verse 17 so do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and has expelled but whatever comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart and this defiles a person for out of the heart come evil thoughts murder adultery sexual immorality theft false witness slander these are what defile a person.
But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone so he makes a pretty explicit point it's not about what you put into your body don't you realize that will be expelled it's about what flows from your heart your heart is what matter out of your heart flows he says evil thoughts murder adultery sexual immorality theft false witness slander those are what will defile you so the Pharisees didn't get it's about the heart and what's unique about this list is you can almost apply all of these to the Pharisees that they are.
So concerned with outward holiness that they will travel days to call out Jesus when in reality the reason they're traveling is because their hearts are consumed with evil thoughts they are actively seeking to destroy the Lord this becomes abundantly clear at his trial where they seek to have him murdered where they lie and slander against him as they present him to Pontius Pilate it is clear from their actions that they would other steal inheritance that should be used to take care of their parents in order to build their own comfort what flows out of the heart matters it's all about the heart Jesus's message over and over again in the Kingdom of Heaven it's about.
The heart your heart reveals whether you believe this or not whether you understand the message of his kingdom or whether you don't that's how the story plays out and as we read this it's very easy to distance ourselves and say I can't believe the disciples haven't figured this out instead of actually doing this with a humble posture that says what about us should we examine our own hearts in light of this so I just have a few questions to have you tease this out a little bit are we more focused on the actions or the heart behind them I'm more focused on the actions that we do are the heart behind them we.
See how this plays out Bible reading prayer showing up to community group showing up or tuning in on Sunday mornings right these are these are good things but they can be used I mean they can be used as a justification look at all the things I'm doing Lord I'm reading my Bible I'm praying I show up every Sunday I show up the community group every week I'm involved I'm doing good things there can be this justification that if I check off the boxes.
If I do these things then I'll be right with God then I'll earn his favor that is the Gospel as' religion of the Pharisees that's legalism that's not the Gospel it's about the heart our heart should be I'm so thankful for my Savior I'm so in love with him I want to read the word I want to find intimacy in prayer I want to be around the Christians on Sunday in a community group to draw near to him those are two different hearts and you have to examine your own heart determine where you are on this and they ask you a.
Second question are we quicker to look at the faults of others than our own or we push that a different direction how do we look at the faults of others we try this plays out maybe there's someone your group and they come and they confess some sin for like the 10th time this year I just want to confess guys that I looked at pornography this week ladies I just want to confess I've just I've been so anxious about coronavirus been so anxious about my kids I've been.
So anxious about all these different things I'm just struggling with anxiety when you hear that in that moment when you receive that from one of your brothers and sisters who confess this what is your heart do you get frustrated impatient eyebrow are you serious again you fell to this again you're saying this in your own heart we have to talk about this again girl you come and you talk about this all the time are we serious there's this moralistic superiority that that creeps up in us this seems just like what the Pharisees and the scribes do the instead of a posture that.
Jesus teaches when you receive sin like that look at the plank that is in your eye examine your own heart then turn and look at your brother and sister who is struggling maybe in those moments when someone confesses sin that you're quick to jump in and correct here are the things you've got to do as opposed to looking at your own heart examining your own heart and then saying all right how can I present the Gospel to you good news before good advice is the language that we use in community groups this also can show up and maybe you're just silent which spoiler.
If someone bares their soul in a community group setting or just maybe over coffee and you're just silent it's not good it's just bare my soul and everyone looked at me like I was crazy I'm gonna do this again yes maybe you're solid maybe something cuz you don't know what to say maybe you're silent because you actually really are distracted and you don't care there's a difference between the Gospel is religion of the Pharisees that deals in a very twisted form of morality and the heart of the Gospel and they came in the feminine.
Let me give you one more question to help work this out when you see this checklist checklist of sins that Jesus just walked through he says verse 19 for out of the heart come evil thoughts murder adultery sexual immorality theft false witness slander when you hear that what do you feel you feel shame you feel defeated do you feel downcast or are you able to remember that in Christ the wool was sent as one and this victory is finished but you don't have to actually earn his favor by your perfect struggle with sin we read another list another list of sins that shows that this shows up in.
First Corinthians Paul is addressing the Church he says or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality nor fees nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God and you hear that and maybe you immediately run to shame and you immediately run to I don't know how there's overwhelming sense of guilt and then he says and such were some of you.
But you were washed you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God and what he just stated was is an eternal reality that if you've placed your faith in Jesus if your hope is bound up in him there's this mysteriously eternal reality outside of time that there's this future justification where the perfect spotless righteous record of Christ stands for you and God doesn't look at you and see the worst of you.
See your sin he sees the perfection of Christ and running to shame and guilt as opposed to the hope of Christ those are two different realities one is the Gospel this religion of the Pharisees and scribes of one is the Gospel of Christ so we got some work to do in examining this because Jesus looks at Peter and he says are you still without understanding do you still not get it they've around them for years and you may have been around churches.
For years he's around our Church for years this may sound familiar but are you actually believing this are you applying the Gospel to your heart where are you failing to believe the Gospel has it fully sunk in to your heart or maybe your heart is showing that there's some hidden actions that are revealed behind all of this maybe we're not applying this at all or for some of you maybe you've ever never actually listened to this you've never actually understood this and you've never actually fully believed this.
Because there's a deal you can spend your entire life around this message you can spend your entire life around the Church and never actually believe this I was reading this book once and they referenced this story of a pastor who had was sitting in on a children's lesson someone was explaining the Gospel to children and his Church and in that moment something clicked he realized in that moment that this message that he had talked about for years had never actually penetrated his heart and in that moment in listening to this teacher teach kids about the Gospel called him to faith he placed his faith in.
Jesus and you might be thinking how is that possible how is it possible for someone to be around the Church's entire life how is it possible for him to go to seminary how is it possible for him to preach the Gospel weekend week out and that never actually sink in and penetrate his heart is because proximity that Jesus does not equal following Jesus I say that again proximity to Christ does not mean following Christ this pandemic has shook us at the regular rhythms of worship the regular rhythms of gather together in community groups and I want to ask what is this pandemic revealed about your heart what is this pandemic revealed about following.
Jesus is it checking boxes is it legalism is that this moralistic comparison to others is it this consistent pattern of being clothed and shame as opposed to being clothes and the righteousness of Christ has this pandemic for some of you giving you the cover that you need to walk in sin and not actually walk in the light with other brothers and sisters this pandemic is revealing what is in our hearts and I want to ask you a question I want you sit in this question.
For a few seconds of silence what has this pandemic what does this season revealed where is your heart I'm gonna ask the band to come up but I want you to sit in that question and I want you to ask the Lord where is my heart does it belong to you have I applied the Gospel is it taking root now once you hear some good news she just looks at Peter he says are you still without understanding and guess what he was he did not the reason I can say that it's.
Because you can fast forward to thee to the night where he has betrayed the night he's not trial in Jesus that nice Peter denied Jesus three times said oh I don't know him I don't know I didn't but here's the good news of the Gospel when Jesus goes to the cross and his blood is poured out for our sins and when he rises on the third day and he conquers the grip of death instead it is an abandoned Peter it doesn't say you missed it you're out.
Now he shows up he confronts all the disciples who abandoned all the disciples who denied him it catches their hearts for 40 days he sits with them and he teaches them the mysteries and the beauty of the Gospel and he claims that a heart and he seals them with the Holy Spirit and he sends them out and the world is never the same and that's the hope of the Gospel for us we need to have the courage to actually reflectively examine our own hearts and this and ask the tough questions do we believe in a Gospel is religion we believe in the Gospel that brings hope this saves centers that redeems us and makes us.
New maybe we sit in that question right now as we close out Mershon that we sit in that question and our groups this week and my hope is that we would respond in faith God I pray right now in a season where there's so much happening where there's so many things to concern is that right now we wouldn't forget the most important thing we can reflect on the most important message is the hope of the Gospel that is an eternal reality and eternal hope got to pray right.
Now for those of us that are struggling for those of us that are not believing the Gospel may you confront us in our hearts and we repent in ways we have not believed gotta pray there's anyone here and if they're honest to themselves they've never actually believed this message never actually plays faith in you right now you would confront them and you would win them over and you would claim them and they would have a new heart that only comes about your powers.
When you go to work on this method in Jesus name Amen would you all stand with us and sing the song of response I say Oh whoa No alright I'll walk up here and the mic works it's amazing y'all we do check these things before him alright so a couple announces before we get out of here today as we said before if if you want to give we have giving and the slots right here we also have giving online so you can you can give online Mill City kc.com also you can check out some more information about groups online.
So if you would like to know more about our community groups our community groups are smaller groups of our Church family that live life together that have conversations about the Gospel like we just talked about they're going to walk that together as a Church family have community groups that meet and different parts the city and different days of the week and if you're new here I would encourage you to check one out and you can go on our website you can scan that QR code.
If it works for your phone if not you go to our Mill City KC comm to our community herbs page you can fill out some info we can follow up with you but we'd love to connect to you with a group this is how we walk out the Gospel together as a Church family alright so I want to close with a benediction which is a word from second Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 16 through 17 now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself in.
God our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace comfort your hearts and established them in every good work in word amen you guys have a great day.