The Narrow Gate
Transcript
Well, good morning. As Christians, we celebrate two major holidays. We celebrate Christmas, which is where we remember that Jesus Christ was born, that he became a human, that he was God who was infinite and glorious and has existed for all time and that he became a tiny little useless infant. And then we celebrate Easter, which is that he grew up, that he lived perfectly, that he loved the way he was supposed to, that he cared about humans the way he was supposed to, that he worshipped God the way he was supposed to, and that he then ultimately was crushed for our sins, that he was crucified, that he was murdered, that he breathed his last breath, that his heart stopped beating, and that he was wrapped up, laid in a tomb, and left.
And that three days later, he rose again from the dead, fulfilling all the promises he had made, fulfilling all the promises Scripture had made, that the Bible says that all of God's promises find their yes in Jesus, that he is the ultimate fulfillment of everything God promised to do. And that's what we celebrate at Easter, that ultimately Jesus has accomplished for us what we could never accomplish on our own. He has fulfilled the law for us. He has been moral enough and good enough for us, and that by faith in him, we can have life. We can be forgiven of our sins through his grace, and we can have eternal life through Jesus.
That's what we believe. That's what we're celebrating. And we've been walking together as a church family through the Sermon on the Mount, which is one of Jesus' first long sections of Scripture that he teaches through. And we're going to pick right back up there today. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 7. If you have one of the white Bibles on the road, we'll be on page 474 in Matthew chapter 7.
And here's what we're doing. It may not feel Easter-y at first, because we're walking, continually walking through just what Jesus has been teaching. But the crucifixion, the burial, the resurrection didn't come out of nowhere. Jesus had been telling us all along about what he was here to do, what he was here to accomplish. He's been teaching us from the very beginning what he was going to do. And I think it's very helpful for us as we continue to walk through the Sermon on the Mount to see how clearly what he says today is a call to us as we remember and celebrate Easter that Jesus Christ rose from the grave, that this is a call to us about the vast importance of why he had to do that and how we ought to respond.
See, what we want to see today as we look at what Jesus is saying here in the Sermon on the Mount is why he had to go to the cross and how we ought to respond. I'm going to pray and we'll begin kind of walking through this this morning. Lord, we pray that's the power of your Holy Spirit. We would be changed. That we would see some spiritual reality clearly today, that you would grab our hearts and make us yours. And that for those in the room who are seeking, who aren't sure if you're real, aren't sure that you love, aren't sure that you exist, aren't sure that this is true.
We pray that you'd give them clarity, that you would show them your love and give us all wisdom as we try to follow you and learn a little more this morning. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I like adventure stories, like really well told, good adventure stories. They do.
They just kind of captivate me. They draw me in in a way that other things don't. And I recently, about a year ago, year and a half ago, decided that I should probably start reading books. Um, I would read like leadership books or whatever, but I started like, no, I need to start reading some fiction. And so I started doing that. Um, and I read, uh, the Hobbit and I read the Lord of the Rings.
And can I just say something? Some of you right now, I just said, I wanted to start reading books. And some of you are book people. And immediately you were like in your little soul. You were like, yes, books books. And some of you were like, that sounds terrible.
Why would you read a book? That's what my wife is like. The other day I was laying in bed. I had my little, a little clip light on a book and she started telling me I look like I was at summer camp. I don't even know what that means. I've never been to summer camp, but I could tell it was derogatory and I should have felt shame.
But, but book people, can I help you out? Um, if you're talking to someone and you say, I really liked the Lord of the Rings and their response is movie or book. Is that a movie person or a book person? That's a book person. Yeah. Uh, and you'll say, oh, movie.
And they'll go, oh, okay. Can I, nobody wants to join your team. Stop. That doesn't help books. Like being smug about books isn't helping books. So book people just, just tone it down a notch.
You like books, but don't, don't be rude to other people who, who, and also watching all three of those movies is about as long as it takes to read a book. Those movies are long. But anyway, in, in, as I read through the Hobbit and, and through the Lord of the Rings, I just got kind of sucked in and I, I like action movies. I like adventure movies, but the problem with them is it's, it's a really passive experience and they're over so quickly. Unless it's like Braveheart and that was four and a half hours long or whatever. Most of them kind of, they go, they end, you're done reading this book.
Cause I'm kind of a slow reader and I'm trying to learn this thing, uh, took a really long time. And so it was like, I was in this adventure for, for a long time, especially since it's three books and each of them's like 300 and something pages. Like I really, I got into it and here's what they do though. Good adventure stories call you into, uh, remembering that you want to be a part of something that matters. You want to be a part of something real. It's like, as I was reading through the Lord of the Rings, it was like, I want to be a part of something that, that actually has weight to it.
That actually like, I want my life story to have a little more gravity to it. And I think that's what a good adventure story does. But I also, one of the things that was kind of captivating to me about the Lord on the Lord of the Rings is that the main characters are hobbits. Now, if you're not familiar with hobbits, they are very small. I'll describe them to you. They're, they're made up.
So don't go looking for them. They're small. Um, they're about like the half of the size of a human. They live in a place called the Shire, which is beautiful. It's got like rolling green grass and all they do. They sit around all day long with good tobacco, good drink, good food, good friends, having a good time.
And as I read the beginning of these books, I was like, I want to be a hobbit. Like I do. When I do hobbity things now, like eat supper twice, my wife fusses at me. I want this to be celebrated at my house. And there was something about it that, and, and there's, there's a beginning of both of the books where this, this wizard Gandalf shows up and yeah, I'm completely nerding out. Some of y'all excited.
The other of you just track with me. Keep going. Uh, there's a wizard. He shows up and he basically calls the hobbits. He says, do you want to go on adventure? At the beginning of one of the books, the hobbit responds, uh, adventures are nasty, uncomfortable things that make you late for dinner.
But he basically shows up and calls them into something more. And I will be honest with you. We would not know about these books if they turned that down. If the rest of the book was how their conversations went, what type of tea they drank, uh, which barrel of wine they opened, how gardening was going, we would have stopped. See, what's good about them is that this is common, small creature that gets called into something so magnificent, something more, more powerful, bigger than themselves. And in the Lord of the Rings, what happens is, basically Gandalf says to Frodo, and Frodo's the little hobbit guy, he says, you don't know this because it hasn't reached your hometown yet, but the rest of the world is growing dark and destruction is headed towards your door.
You don't know this, but eventually you can't just sit here without this coming to your very doorstep. And what he says is to not act is to act because eventually it's going to reach here. And he says, you've got to get up and do something. Now you've got to join this. Now you've got to move now into something that's hard and uncomfortable and difficult, but it's really your only good choice.
Because if you don't, even though it's comfortable now, destruction shows up. And here's what's interesting. As we get to this section in the Sermon on the Mount, I believe that Jesus has said the exact same thing. That in so many ways, Jesus has walked to us and as he's taught through the Sermon on the Mount, he's coming to a close. He's kind of beginning his ending here. We're going to finish the Sermon on the Mount next week.
And he's coming to an end and he basically is saying the same thing. You have to act. Because not to act is to already make a decision. That destruction is on its way and we have to respond. And so what we're going to see as we go through this is why Jesus had to go to the cross and how we ought to respond. So pick up in verse 13.
We're going to look at two verses today. And then we'll look at a few other places in scripture that'll be on the screen to help us kind of understand this a little more clearly. But we're just going to read two verses in the Sermon on the Mount. Now in the Sermon on the Mount, he's coming to an end. And what we've heard so far in the Sermon on the Mount, this is where Jesus starts off with the Beatitudes, where he says things like, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. This is where some of Jesus's most famous sayings. He goes from there into teaching us how to act and how we ought to respond to our anger, how we ought to love one another, how we ought to act in marriage and relationships and act towards lust. Then he starts telling us to be generous and to trust him, that God is our father and he'll care for us. This is where we get turn the other cheek and love your enemies. This is where Jesus teaches us the golden rule that we should treat others the way we want to be treated.
This is where so much of what Jesus teaches that we've heard over and over again in life is explained. And then he kind of comes to the end of this after he's explained that the church is salt and light and that they're going to be sent out into the world and what they're supposed to look like and what kind of people he's making. He comes to the end of this and he says, okay, it's decision time. He starts making a few things really clearly as he closes out and we're picking up in verse 13. He starts off with a command. Enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are few.
I'm going to read that one more time. Enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few. This is Jesus talking. He's speaking out of love and he's calling us to respond. Now, immediately when he says this to them, they would have pictured a city because all of their cities had gates and most of their cities had different gates.
So you would have the main gate or you might have a couple of main gates if maybe a big road ran through it. And then you would have smaller gates that people used for specific purposes, but you kind of had to have a reason to go to the main gate. Now, we don't have cities like that. I've never like ridden up to a city. It's not like you're going to Charlotte and you show up and there's gates around Charlotte. Like that doesn't really happen.
So the only thing I was thinking of like maybe theme parks would help you picture this or the fair. I think it's a fair example. My bad guys. It's not on purpose. I don't know whether to be proud or ashamed of myself. But here's what happens at the fair.
You drive your car. You pay for parking or you don't pay for parking because you're willing to risk it. You're like, I can park here. We'll see if my vehicle is still here when I get back. And you get out. And then what do you do?
You look. If you've never been before, you see where everyone else is walking. You think that person's going to the fair and you just walk with them. Eventually, the crowd grows and grows. And then you're all just, you're not even having to think. You're just walking with everybody else.
And eventually you show up and there are the gates and you go in. That's how it works. And that's what he's saying. There's a wide gate that everyone's going into. There's a wide gate that as you get closer to the city, you begin to see more people. And eventually you're just in a nice, easy path.
It's the main gate. It's paved. It's smooth. It's nice. And everybody's going in through that gate. And then he says, but there's another gate that's narrow.
The path to it is narrow. It's a hard path. It's difficult. And this is one of the things I think is very interesting in this text. When he's talking about the wide gate, he says those who enter by it are many. And when he's talking about the narrow gate, he says those who find it.
It's easy to just walk into the wide gate. He says there's actually some work that has to be done to find the narrow gate. And then once you find it, it's hard. But he says at the beginning of this, enter by the narrow gate. That's his call to us. Now, this should scare us a little bit.
Because what he just said was, there's a really wide gate with a really smooth path. Those who enter by it are many. And it leads to destruction. I can tell you something very clearly. The many that are entering by it don't know it leads to destruction. Because they wouldn't enter by it.
Like if they knew, if we knew that gate entered into destruction. Like if you could see, as soon as people walked through, like a monster ate them. We wouldn't go. You wouldn't be able to talk us into it. You wouldn't be like, hey, let's go there. And I'd be like, hey, let's go there.
And you'd be like, no, there's a monster. And I'd be like, yeah, I know there's a monster. Look how big the doors are. You'd be like, what does that have to do? Well, it just seems like you wouldn't even have to duck when you go in. There's a monster.
Yeah, but it's so smooth. We could squirt some dawn on this. Throw a little water and just slide right in there, bad boy. You wouldn't go. But he says many enter by this.
And it leads to destruction. That's scary. And what Jesus is saying is that this is life. That every person in this room, if you believe what Jesus is saying, if you think he's trustworthy, every person in this room is headed towards the wide gate or the narrow gate. And I think it's fair to say that if you have not made an active, intentional search, you can just assume you're walking with the many. Because he says those who find it, that there's taken effort, that it's difficult, that it's hard to find the narrow gate.
And for everybody else, they're just walking together towards the destruction. That's scary. If it's just been an easy process, if there hasn't been much work, if he hadn't thought about it, if it wasn't an anguished over decision, he's saying there's a really good chance. You don't know it. But you're walking towards the destruction.
And this actually makes sense with what much of the Bible teaches. See, the Bible makes really clear in Genesis that there's a good God who's existed for eternity. We find out as we read the Bible that he existed for eternity in relationship, that it's a Trinitarian God, that there's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that forever they have loved one another and cherished one another and celebrated one another. And it was out of that love and out of that goodness that it overflowed into creation. That God didn't make people because he was bored or needy.
He made people because he was relational and loving and good. And that God created everything good and set at the top of his creation humans. And we know that. We know that implicitly. Like when a lion eats a zebra, we just film it, watch it, teach kids about it. Nobody arrests the lion.
Why? Because they're animals. But when a human is harmed, murdered, or hurt, we automatically know this is on a different level. This is, we're above creation in a way. That God made us good and that God designed humanity to love him and to love each other. That we were designed to exist in a relationship with God the same way that children are supposed to exist in a relationship with their parents.
That that's what's best for them. That we know that. That for a child to have parents is the best route. That's why every Disney movie starts off with the parents dying. Because that automatically throws a wrench in the gears. That's why it automatically messes things up.
We know now there's going to be some drama, some difficulty. And what happened was humanity rebelled. You see, one of the gifts that God had given them and us is ourselves. Themselves. Have you ever thought about that? That you're a gift to you from God.
Your intelligence, your looks, your abilities. Everything you have, every breath you've taken in, every breath you've exhaled was a gift to you. That all of you that you've enjoyed was a gift. And see, when God gave humanity themselves, what happened was they chose to honor themselves, to love themselves, to pursue themselves more than God. We swapped God out. That's why Christians will often refer to the world as broken.
Or refer to humans as broken. It's because something's broken when it doesn't accomplish its intended purpose. We were supposed to love God supremely, to see Him as beautiful and good, and to love each other out of that. But we don't. We don't hold God up as supreme. So, for some of you, maybe you don't believe this.
Or maybe one of the things you've had the hardest time with with Christianity. And I've talked with people with this. My cousin's kind of like this. Where basically it's like, okay, I'm really, who is God that He would make people and then give a bunch of rules and then say, you failed the rules and then punish us? What is that? But see, the Bible says the biggest issue with us relating to God is not that we broke His rules.
But that we've completely distorted the way the world was supposed to work. That God, who is God, which makes Him the most lovely, the most holy, the most worthy, the most good, the highest of all, we've placed something else there. We've taken something else and we've said, this is worthy, this is beautiful, this is high and holy. The Bible calls that blasphemy or idolatry, where we've looked at something else and said, I love you more. I believe in you more. You're more worth serving and chasing and spending my life for.
In the book of Romans, Paul says it this way, it's going to be on screen. He says, For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. And then in Romans 1.25, he kind of sums it up this way. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie.
And worshipped, that means believed, was most holy, most worthy. And served, that means spent their life for. Their energy, their time for. They worshipped, they said, you matter the most and I will spend my time for you. The creature, that means anything that's not God. Rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
Amen. And this is where I think Jesus' illustration of a wide gate makes so much sense to me. Because I feel like in life, I kind of am tempted to do what I do when I'm going to the fair. Which is get out, see where everybody else is headed, and go with them. That's what we've done, right? We've gotten out, we've started to grow up and we've said, okay, what matters the most?
Money? Money's really nice. That's a good one. And so we've begun to put that as highest and said, this is what's most worth serving. So that our time, our energy, our effort goes to that.
Some of us said, no, no, no, no. It's not money, it's relationships. Or it's sex. Most worth serving. Some of us said, no, it's actually to have people like us. It's to have some status, some power, some love from other people.
Some of us said, no, no, it's actually comfort. It's being able to rest. It's living life like a hobbit. That's the most valuable thing I could ever spend my time doing. But in all of that, we've taken God, we've set him to the side, we've said, this is more beautiful, more lovely, more worth worshiping, and more worth serving than you are.
And what Jesus says is, that's normal, that's natural, and it leads to destruction. That one day, as humans, we will stand before God, having swapped him out for something else. And that's going to be a terrible day for us. That this leads to purposelessness. That we spend our lives bored. Lacking.
Longing. Empty. Because the thing we were designed to do, we're not doing. The one thing that was going to set us right, worshiping God and relating to him, we've swapped it out for something else. And we spend our life feeling like this isn't correct. You ever tried to do a job and you don't have the right tools?
So that you're using the back of a screwdriver like a hammer? If that's all you ever did with your screwdriver, and if your screwdriver was sentient, it would think, this doesn't feel right. It seems to me like something is missing. That this is not what I was designed to do. And the reason we feel that somewhere deep as an undercurrent in our souls, that what we're chasing is always going to turn up empty. That even at our highest, it's so fleeting.
It's as if it was at the tips of our fingers and then it just disappeared. It's because we're broken. The thing that was going to set us right has been removed and we place something else there that will never satisfy. But Jesus says, there's another way. Now I want you to hear his sales pitch.
I used to be in sales. I want you to hear his sales pitch. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few.
If you're just looking at the gates and the paths, the narrow one sounds worse. So we don't know what's at the end of these gates. Like we said earlier, they don't understand the many that are walking into destruction don't understand that they're headed to destruction. Let's say we're walking along and all of a sudden there's a guy standing on the end of the path. And accidentally we make eye contact and he's like... But now we're like locked in, we feel rude, so we just kind of come over there and he goes, hey.
You want to go down a different path? Um, probably not. Wait, wait, wait, you didn't let me finish. You know how you like steep hills? No? Well, you see this path, how easy and nice it is?
Yes? I've got one that's way worse. It's got rocks. What? You know how fun it is to be chased by a bear? Like, we would not take this path.
Hey, you see all that stuff you've got with you? Yeah, you've got to put it down. Leave it right here. It won't fit. But if you come this way, it's going to be hard.
It's going to be difficult. It's going to be narrow. You're going to have to leave everyone else with you. If they won't come, you've got to come and leave them. It's a single file path. The only way we're taking that path is if we trust them enough to believe what's at the end of it.
You see, Jesus says there's destruction at the end of this one. But there's a narrow way that leads to life. It's narrow and it's hard, but it leads to life. And the wide and easy one leads to destruction. So the question put before us is, do we trust Jesus?
Do we trust him? Do we believe that what he's saying is true? See, he's called you to act. He says enter by the narrow gate. The question is, do you trust him? Do you trust him?
Do you trust him? Jesus goes to the cross because he believed this was true. You see, Jesus goes to the cross to open up the narrow way for us because he is the narrow way. I heard one time when a pastor was teaching this section, he said that we can follow the narrow way because there's one that goes before us. And I actually think that we've got to realize that the only way the narrow way was opened for us is that Jesus went to destruction for us. That he went to a cross for us.
That he paid the penalty for us. That what was going to be owed us when we walked through that gate and stood before God and said, measure me, judge me based off of my work. That the condemnation and the destruction that was going to be owed us. Jesus walked before God. When we read earlier where it says that the sky was dark, that the world was dark for three hours and then Jesus says, God, why have you forsaken me? You see, every time Jesus prays in the gospels, he says, Father, except for there.
There he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You see, Jesus walked before God and said, judge me, measure me, condemn me based off of their work, not mine. So that we can walk before God and say, judge me, measure me, condemn me based off of his work, not mine. See, Jesus in John 10, 9 says this. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved.
That means that you get to walk through Jesus, that you get to go through Jesus. The Bible says he's clothed us in his righteousness. That we get to enter by Jesus. We get to go stand and say, it is only by Christ that I'm able to stand before you. And my hope and my faith is only in him. Because he went to the cross and he died for my sin and he rose from the grave and he conquered it for me.
And I can come to you because my sin was laid in the grave with him and it didn't walk out of the tomb when he did. Jesus says it this way in John 14, 6. Jesus said to them, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is the narrow way that we can be saved. He's narrow.
It's just Jesus. Just through the name of Jesus. There is no other name under heaven or on earth or anywhere by which we may be saved. There is no other name. It is only through Jesus that we can be saved. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
And no one is going to get to the Father but by him. He's our hope. He is the resurrection. He has died for our sins and risen to give us a living hope. You are more sinful than you could possibly imagine. But we are more loved than we would ever understand.
That Jesus Christ has died in our place for our sin to give us life. And what Jesus says is there are two paths. There is a wide one that leads to destruction. And many are going to enter by it because it's easy and it's wide and they don't understand where it leads. But there is a narrow path.
And those who find it are few. And that way is hard. You have to give things up. You have to leave people behind. You have to accept a call into a life that does not make sense here. But if you find it, it leads to life.
I think we're like Frodo. I'm going to be honest with you. America is pretty nice. We get to watch on video and on our newsreels. Bombings. Chaos.
Destruction. We get to read about it in our feeds. We get to put our iPhone, Android in our pocket. And then go eat frozen yogurt. And forget all about it. We get to eat dinner twice.
But Jesus has walked to our door. And he says, if you aren't careful. You will ease your way to destruction. You will slide your way to destruction. Or you'll sit on your couch and destruction will come to you. And you won't even know it happened.
Get up. Start searching. There's a more difficult path. It's a lot harder to walk. But at the end of it, there's life.
And Jesus Christ is that for us. That he walked first this difficult path. That he went to the cross. That he took the destruction we deserve. And that in him there is hope and life for eternity. Don't hesitate.
Don't hesitate. Don't delay. Don't wait. Don't sit and ease your way to destruction. And Christians in the room. Who believe with everything that you have.
That you have found Christ. And that you will enter by him. And that you will be on the narrow way to kingdom. And joy. And hope. And life.
And glory. Do not be content with the many that sit near you. At your offices. That sleep near you. In your neighborhoods. In your apartments.
That are easing their way to what Jesus Christ says is destruction. We have a risen king. We will one day have all pleasures forevermore. All the goodness. Everything good on earth right now. Is only good because it reminds us of him.
And points to that place. Take the hard path. Give some things up. Spend some time for something that matters. Accept the adventure. And follow Jesus into life.
Pray with me if you will. Pray with me if you will. Father we ask. That you would help us not be okay. With simple and small and comfortable. But that we would join you in the everyday mission.
That you have called us into. God we pray that you would help us to clearly see. That wide and easy. Is the path that leads to destruction. And narrow and hard leads to life. Awaken our hearts.
Let people who have never placed their faith in you do so today. In Jesus name. Amen. The band is going to come back up. We are about to get to celebrate baptism. Baptism is the celebration for Christians.
Where when someone has placed their faith in Christ. We get to gather. We get to gather. We get to openly and publicly profess. Jesus is good. I'm not.
He is holy. I'm not. He is moral. I'm not. And I needed a savior. That we get to celebrate.
And re-embody. The death. Burial. And resurrection of Jesus. That's what baptism is. And in just a second.
There will be a young lady who is going to get in these waters. Is going to be baptized. And we are going to celebrate. As another child. Has entered the kingdom. Belongs to Jesus.
And has publicly declared. I'm going to spend my life on a narrow and difficult path. Because I believe that Jesus is good. That he's better than ultimately anything I can find anywhere else. And I'm going to follow him to life.
Where Good Comes From
Transcript
All right, we're in Matthew chapter 7 today. It's on page 474. If you have one of these white Bibles, my name's Chet. If this is your first time hanging out with us, I want to tell you a little bit about what we do, what we believe, who we are. We believe that the Bible is trustworthy, that it is true. We believe that the God that we meet in that Bible is loving and good.
And so we get together, we open the Bible, and we study it. We spend a good bit of time every Sunday. We just take the time to read what it says, to study it. We believe that it's true, so we then try to seek to apply it to our lives. And so that's what we're about to do now. We've been walking verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount, which is probably the most famous sermon in the world.
Jesus preaches for three chapters, chapters 5, 6, and 7 in Matthew. And so we've just been going through chapters 5, 6, and 7, verse by verse, trying to understand what he's saying, what his point is, and how that looks for us to actually try to apply that in life. So we're going to be in Matthew chapter 7 today. We're going to pick up where we left off last week in verse 7. And I think we're in a bit of a danger today, just in our time this morning. And so we're going to read.
I think it will be most helpful for us to read the whole passage that we're going to look at this morning. And then I want to tell you what I think is a danger to us, what we actually need to be aware of as we study this this morning. So let's read it together. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives. And the one who seeks, finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
So, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. That passage is so nice. It's so nice. It's like a warm blanket out of the dryer. Like, by the time we get here in the Sermon on the Mount, like, this is just, it feels like your soul just got home from a hard day of work, opened the door, and your house smells like fresh-baked cookies.
Like, that's how nice that passage is. That, oh, you ask and you'll be answered. Seek and you'll find. Knock and the door will be opened. God is like a good Father who gives good gifts to his children. So, treat others the way you want to be treated.
Like, if you have, like, the old school flowy Jesus voice in your head, this is where he gets most Jesus-y sounding. Like, you can almost see him penning a lamb where he's just, everything is said. So soft. And so smooth. Like, but the problem, the danger that I think we're in today, is that we've all heard this 1,000 times. We know this.
Like, even if you're not a part of a church, even if you've never studied the Bible, maybe when we just read, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, or treat people the way you want to be treated, you were surprised that that was in the Bible. You've heard that your whole life. You know that's the golden rule. You just didn't know Jesus said it. Or, you've heard even people who don't believe in anything, or just believe that there's a God, will tell you that he's a father, and that he's good. Like, that's mainline stuff.
So here's the deal. We'll read this. We're in danger of reading this section, that God's a good father, that he answers prayer, that he loves you, that he gives good gifts, and that you should treat others the way you want to be treated. And we'll all go, mmm, yes. When's lunch? And we'll move right on.
And here's the truth. As I've studied this this week, and I've thought about my life, and I know y'all, I've thought about y'all, I don't think we believe this, and I don't think we do it. This is such a beautiful passage, that it gets cross-stitched on little lacy pillows, and I actually don't think we believe it, and I don't think we do it, so let's cross-stitch that on a lacy pillow. Just put nuh-uh under it, I guess. Psych. Thanks, but no thanks.
That'll be on the backside of the pillow. So, here's what I want to do. I want us to see what he's saying, then I want to show you why I believe we don't believe it, and then, after we've done that, I want to show us how I think we can believe it, and how it can actually help us. Is that fair? Can we do that? Doesn't matter.
I'm going to. Let's pray, and then we'll start studying. God, we ask for your help this morning. As we approach some of the most, I think, warming, helpful, beautiful teaching that you give us in the Sermon on the Mount, I pray that we would not shoot past it, or convince ourselves that we believe it, because we know it, because we could repeat it, because we've heard it a thousand times. I pray that you'd help us to see with new eyes today, and evaluate ourselves well. We ask this in your son's name.
Amen. Okay, so, there is a difference between knowing something and believing it. There's a difference between having information in your head, and actually having it, it seep into your heart, and so that's what I, I think we all have this information in our heads, and I think it hasn't necessarily seeped into our hearts. So let's start looking at what he says. I just want to spend some time saying, this is what he says, and what it means, and then I want to say, here's why I don't think we believe it, and then we'll talk about how we actually can. So let's look at the first section first, verses 7 through 11.
Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks, finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? So Jesus sets this up as ask, seek, and knock towards God. So you want to ask God, you want to seek God, you want to knock on God's door. That's what he's saying. That's why he ends and says, how much more will your Father in heaven?
So he's calling us, commanding us, he gives three commands here, towards prayer, towards pursuit of God, knowledge of God. So this would include reading your Bible, this would include serving, giving, this would include any pursuit that helps you believe in, trust, and know God, that you would ask him, that you would seek him, that you would knock on his door, and that he would respond. So he gives three commands and six promises. Ask, and it will be given. Anyone who asks, receives. Seek, it's a command, and you will find.
Anyone who seeks, finds. Knock, and the door will be opened. To the one who knocks, it is opened. So he tells us to do something three times, and then he gives six promises that pair with those. And it's actually really encouraging. If you're praying, if you're seeking, if you're the type of person that you're here today because you're just checking this thing out, you don't know how you feel about Jesus, maybe you think he was an okay guy, maybe you think he was a prophet, maybe you kind of grew up around people who you believe, genuinely believe this stuff, but you don't know where you stand, this is an encouragement to you.
Start asking your questions. Start seeking the truth. Start knocking on Jesus' door. Start trying to talk to him. Start trying to understand what's going on, and he promises he'll respond. And then I love the illustration he gives.
He says, which one of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? It's a rhetorical question. People are like, no, I wouldn't do that. Like, I said to my kid the other day, he's two. He wanted some fish for dinner, so I stuck a snake on his plate and gave it to him.
It was hilarious. Nobody would do that. Like, y'all should call the cops. That is terrible. That's the point. He's like, this sounds ridiculous because no one would do this.
And then he says, you who are evil know how to give good gifts. He looks at them, looks at us, and says, y'all know you're messed up, right? Yes. You know you do pretty terrible stuff. Yes. Right.
But you wouldn't do this to a kid, would you? No. That's the point. That your God, your Father in Heaven, loves you so much more. How much more is he going to give good things to those who ask him? He's saying, nobody comes back empty handed.
You get to go to God and make your request. You get to go to God seeking and searching and he responds. But he actually tells us something that I think makes this so much better. He says, verse 11, if you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in Heaven give good things to those who ask him? You know why that makes that so much nicer? He doesn't give you the thing you ask for.
He gives you good things. Sometimes what you ask for is a good thing. Sometimes it wasn't. He's not a genie. And I think a lot of us think it would be really nice if he was. But let's think about that for just a second.
If God just answered all of our prayers. First of all, that would mean all of our prayers, not just yours. So you may think my prayers are great. It's like, right. But if he's just going to answer everybody's prayers, your neighbor's an idiot.
No? Y'all's neighbors are great. The guy lives two doors down. Like, if he answers everybody's prayers. And you know how afraid you'd have to be about asking for the exact right thing? All right.
Let me give you an example of God not being a genie. When I was in middle school, I think in sixth grade, I was reading my Bible. That may be weird. I used to read my Bible. I'd read two chapters a day starting when I was about 12. I was reading my Bible and I would come across stuff where it said, if you have faith, anything would happen.
Like, God can answer prayers. If you have faith, you have faith. So I started trying to test this out. And what I would pray for before I would go to sleep, and I must have done this for a couple of months, was that I would wake up with a full beard. This is a legit, real prayer I had when I was in sixth grade. And I would wake up and think, I must not have enough faith.
I'd keep reading my Bible. I'd try it again the next night. And I kept thinking, maybe one day it's just going to happen. Here's the thing. You know how terrible that would have been if I'd have woken up in sixth grade with a full beard? My parents would have had to have taken me to the doctor because that would have been like a really scary thing to have happened.
I would have been like, no, I prayed for it. And they'd be like, no kid, like we got to go get you tested. Something wrong here. Also, like I'm really glad I didn't have to shave constantly through middle school. Some of you did. I'm sorry.
God didn't answer your prayer, I guess. I don't know. I didn't have to shave all the way through middle school. But eventually, and I don't think, I don't know if this has anything to do with that consistent amount of prayer in seventh grade, but I am the only one of my two brothers, there's three of us, who can actually grow a full beard. So they should have started praying in middle school.
They might have worked out. One of them can grow an amazing mustache and he cannot ever not grow that because when he shaves it it immediately pops back out, but that's about it. And the other one can grow a really awesome, like Fu Manchu, but that's it. That's why he rocks a Fu Manchu. He's one of our group leaders and you don't ever see him do anything else. They can, though, to make it fair, God evened it out, they can get a tan.
My skin just turns red and then falls off. So maybe he gave me a beard to protect my face. Here's the thing. God's not a genie. He gives good gifts. I have a two-year-old son.
He, when he turned two, was like, I'm going to start talking now. So that's been pretty cool. When he wakes up in the morning, he and I get to eat breakfast together a couple days a week because we both get up early and we'll eat breakfast before I go to work and I'll fix him breakfast. And on a very consistent basis, at least a couple times a week, he will say no to all the breakfast options. No eggs, no cereal, no Pop-It, which is how he says Pop-Tart, which is basically candy. But his mom is still asleep so I can feed him what I want.
But then he will, he'll go, because he's thinking about the options of things and he'll go, candy, chocolate, Pep-It, which means peppermints, which would be a terrible thing to eat for breakfast. He just likes them. And I will say, no, you're not eating candy for breakfast. Like, that's just not going to be good for him. If he ate it that morning, he would think it was delicious. He would think this was the best thing that ever happened.
But, it actually, he wouldn't understand the consequences later in the day when he didn't have any energy and he was frustrated. He wouldn't understand if we did this over time, like if I always let him eat candy every time he wanted to or if I always let him stay awake at night when I tell him it's bedtime and he says no sleep, I was just like, well, you know your body, bud. If you don't want to go to sleep, I'm cool with it. Like, that would be terrible for him. If he just ate candy and slept on his schedule, it wouldn't be good. So, I'm a father.
I care about him. So, I'd say no. Like, I'm slowly teaching him that bacon is better. That's what I'm doing. And here's the promise that Jesus makes here is that you get to go to God and ask. You get to walk to him every day and say, God, candy, chocolate, and peppermints.
And he, because he's a good father, gets to go, no, but I am slowly going to show you that bacon is better. Like, that's the promise here. That he's good. That he gives good gifts so that we get to ask him, but then we get to trust him. We get to ask. We get to seek.
We get to knock. But then we get to trust that he's going to take care of us, provide for us, and give us actual good gifts. I think that's the first thing Jesus is teaching here. Now, I want to show us, if I can, quickly, why I actually don't think we believe this. I'll start by kind of giving us an illustration, help us picture this. When I was growing up, my dad, I mention him periodically because he's a big figure in my life, and I'm really blessed to have the dad that I have, but he is a very intense man, and I slept so soundly in my house when I was growing up.
Because if you broke in my house when I was growing up, good luck. My dad is the equivalent of an angry bear in some ways. And so I just, I'd hear a noise and I'd be like, if that's a bad guy, good luck, buddy. I'd just go back to sleep. I didn't care. I wasn't afraid.
I wasn't scared. My dad would walk around the house at night. He would check things out. Like, I was never worried about this. I've had him before tell me that if, like, I was in a situation when I was in T-ball, and a coach was yelling at me, and I told my dad, like, I was kind of worried because there's a grown man yelling at me, and he was like, look, as long as he yells, it's okay, but if he touches you, you let me know, and I'll break every bone in his body. And my dad was serious.
Like, he'll go to the penitentiary for me. I didn't even bat an eye at that. I was like, all right, sounds good. So, a coach would yell at me, and I just wouldn't even flinch. Like, I, and that was how I slept. Like, my whole life, I just, I just knew that was the person who lived in my house, and I was going to be okay, and I could just rest because I knew if something went down, he would handle it.
He had our back. He was going to protect us. He would take care of us. I knew that. Like, I, there was never even a question in my mind. Fast forward to the time that I get married.
I get married, and my ability to sleep soundly disappeared. Every little noise. Like, there was something in my house, it would be like, like, it was like a cricket sneezed, and I'd be like, because suddenly, my dad wasn't there anymore. I had to do this. And my wife, who weighs about 100 pounds, it's never her turn. Like, we don't have a schedule of like, if someone breaks in on Tuesday, that's your turn, or I got the last one.
It's never like, hey, babe, you're up. Like, that's always my job. And so she would say, that's nothing, go to sleep. And I'd be like, yeah, you can say that, because if they come in the door, it's suddenly my problem, not yours. I'm going to go walk around and check. And so on a consistent basis, a couple of times a month, ever since I've gotten married, maybe a couple of times a week, just depending, sometimes a couple of times a night, I'm walking around my house looking for stuff because I heard some sort of phantom noise, and I won't be able to go to sleep until I find the person and attack them.
I also have it mapped out in my house which rooms I'm checking first and how I'm doing it, because, you know, I've got to pay attention to people getting behind me and stuff. I know what's up. Here's the thing. Here's why I think we don't believe this. Much of our lives, much of my life, is spent not in the peaceful, restful sleep of someone who knows their father is good and there and can handle it, but is in the restless, wakeful, tense, worry of is this going to work out is in the state of I have to make this work. I'm the one responsible.
So when it comes to work, when it comes to family, when it comes to children, when it comes to relationships, we're not living our lives as people who are at rest because their father is good and there. We're living our lives as people who have to be in control and make everything work out. You see, he says your father's good and good things come from him and you can trust him and you can ask of him and you can seek him and you can knock at his door and you can know that he'll give good gifts, but I think we spend so much time worrying about our ability to make this work that I just don't think we truly believe that. And I think it's not just our worries, our fears, our anxieties, our nightmares that betray us.
I also think it's our hopes, our dreams, our ambitions, and the thing that we'll get on our grind for because what he says here is that good things come from God and I think for many of us, if you were going to say good things come from, you wouldn't end the sentence with God. You wouldn't end the sentence with Jesus. You wouldn't end the sentence with a heavenly father. You'd end the sentence with something like good things come from popularity, good things come from having a lot of friends. Good things come from being able to rest and vacation. Good things come from money and we know this when we're looking at our bank accounts that we've tied our hearts to it.
We know this when we're paying attention to our children. All the things that we put so much weight and pressure on, I just believe that we don't spend our life in the restful peace that this offers and so I think we don't actually believe it. We could say it. You could quote it to somebody. You would tell somebody in your community group that. God's a good father.
He's got you. I just want you to know they're sitting on the other side going it doesn't feel like that and I can't trust that right now. I really need my finances to work out. And you're going no, he's a good father. He's got you. But five months later when you're looking like you might lose your job and they're saying God's a good father.
He's got you. You're going it doesn't feel like that and I don't see that and I really need my job to work out. And I just think we don't truly believe this. It hasn't really sunk into our heart yet. Let's look at verse 12.
We're going to do the same thing. We're going to see what it says. I'm going to try to show you why I think we don't really believe this. We don't really practice this. So whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them for this is the law and the prophets.
So he's kind of coming to a conclusion here in the Sermon on the Mount the next couple of weeks as we go into Easter and the week after we're going to be finishing up and Jesus is going to kind of he's going to basically have said everything he's going to say and then he's going to kind of conclude it with let me be really clear about a few things. So this is kind of the end. He's actually tagging back to verse 5 chapter 5 verse 17 where he talks about the law and the prophets and he says so it's kind of in conclusion treat others the way you want to be treated. Do also whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them.
Where he talks about the law and the prophets and he says so it's kind of in conclusion treat others the way you want to be treated. Do also whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them. This is the law and the prophets. There's a book I heard about recently by a guy named Robert Fulham it says all I really need to know I learned in kindergarten I want to read y'all a little bit from the first chapter of that book
He says all I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten these are the things I learned share everything play fair don't hit people put things back where you found them clean up your own mess don't take things that aren't yours say you're sorry when you hurt somebody wash your hands before you eat flush warm cookies and cold milk are good for you
Take a nap every day when you go out into the world watch out for traffic hold hands and stick together he says everything you need to know is in there somewhere the golden rule that's this that's Matthew 7 verse 12 to do unto others as you have them do unto you or treat people the way you want to be treated he says it's in there the golden rule and love and basic sanitation ecology politics
Equality and sane living what he says is if you took any of those concepts and extrapolate them out into adult terms we'd be great things would work out fine if countries would put things back where they found them and clean up their own messes if everybody just followed the rules that you learned in kindergarten we'd be fine and here's the thing I don't think there's anything on that list we would disagree with some of you might disagree with naps and we'll begin the church discipline process soon
I don't think there's anything on there that we would disagree with but we also don't do that in life we just don't like treat others the way you want to be treated if we were in high school and you forgot you had a presentation today but it was on that you could show up to class be reminded you had the presentation walk up and wing it and you'd do fine because you can make arguments for that everybody can make an argument for why treating others the way you want to be treated makes life better we just could
But we don't do it we don't actually practice that that just means that in life you would think in every situation how do I wish they would act towards me and then you would use that as your framework for everything he says this is the law and the prophets this is what all the Old Testament was getting at in so many ways was just trying to get you to treat people the way you want to be treated but let's look at this if you're buying a house how honest should the seller be about the house's
Issues quality things that have happened things they've just fixed how honest okay thank you if you're selling a house 65% honest is okay mostly honest like I was pretty honest plus I kind of fixed that thing and you can't really see it unless you knew that it happened and looked in that corner with this type of lighting alright you hear a really good secret really good piece of information about someone it's like crazy interesting
And you know that other people want to hear it someone hears something like that about you how do you want them to respond I think I'd like for them to say something like that doesn't really sound all that true plus if we told people about it I don't think it would be that helpful maybe we should go talk to him and sort it out now that's how I'd like for them to respond but I can tell that I don't do that by how annoyed I would be
If a person said that to me after I told them something really interesting I don't think that's actually very helpful to spread around I think we should go talk to them and maybe you should apologize for telling people their information about their personal lives I would be like I hate you right now you just made that secret not fun at all and I would be actively fighting against people doing unto others like I'm glad I would love for people to do that towards me but I don't want to do it
Towards other people like that's a very difficult thing to do when the trash can's full or the sink is full how do you want people to treat you how about your neighbors or your waiter if you were a waiter or a waitress and you are just really having a rough day life's been going really poorly you have more people in your set you got scheduled because people had called out and so you were the one person who showed up because a couple people were sick and so you're handling
More tables than you can handle right now and you're not doing a great job because you had some stuff going on in life and you're a little bit frustrated that you're there and so you actually aren't the best waiter or waitress that day how do you want the people eating meals to treat you I want them to be pretty forgiving and gracious and to just assume I'm having a bad day and to tip me better because of it but if I'm sitting at the table
You've been sitting at a table and you're like frustrated about the service and you say something and a person at your table says they may just be having a really bad day how annoyed are you with them it's like maybe they're a terrible waiter it's possible he's having a bad day because he's a moron no just me come on this is what I'm saying like we know how honest do we want people to be how forgiving
How gracious how generous we can answer that question easily I can answer how I'd like to be treated so easily and then if you walk through my life and say let me show you how you treated this person let me show you how you spoke to them let me show you how you responded let me show you how you responded to their anger like for the most part I think my rubric is treat people how they're treating me if you're really nice there's a good chance
I'll be nice if you're rude I'll be rude if you've already done something to me if you've been spreading rumors about me and I suddenly get the chance to do that like there's a there's a chance I'm gonna go let's do this and that's the opposite every single one of us could stand up here and tell how beautiful the world would be if we just did this but we don't do it see I don't think
We truly believe that God's good and that he's our father and I don't think we actually practice this even though we would argue for it even though it would not automatically pop out of our mouths if we were dealing with a child where somebody would do something we go hey is that how you'd want to be treated I just don't think we believe it I don't think we do it here's why well let's look at this here
I think Jesus gives us a clue in the text as to how we can actually treat others how we can actually live out the golden rule I think he gives us a clue in the text I want to show it to you it's at the very beginning of verse 12 so I'll read that again in case I lost you so it's a two letter word it begins the sentence here's what it means in light of what I've already said that's what it means so like
You've been using the word so since first grade you use it all the time in normal language it's a concluding word you say stuff like I'm really hungry so I could eat anywhere somebody's like where should we go to lunch you say something like I don't have any money so I'll go with you wherever because I'm not going to be eating I'm going to be watching you like you take a bit of information you say so and now you have a conclusion and so it's weird to me because
Jesus says so whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them for this is the law and the prophets he says it as a concluding statement to some stuff that doesn't seem real connected to me he just got done saying that God's a good father who give you good gifts and then he says so treat others the way you want to be treated and it feels a little bit like he went A B green and thought we were supposed to catch that like it's just it feels a little weird
I don't know why he jumped to this but actually as I got to thinking about it it seems to make a lot of sense I think the primary reason that we don't treat others the way we want to be treated is that we don't want to lose if you treat others the way you want to be treated if you actually sit and spend any time thinking about this you're suddenly going to go wait I'm the only one who ever cleans up every time I see the sink is full I fill it up when a co-worker has been spreading rumors about me and then the boss comes and asks me
How I feel about them I'm suddenly supposed to think how do I wish they would treat me and even though I don't really like them try to find something gracious to say and maybe highlight some of their good qualities rather than just dogging them as best I can here's the problem with that I won't get a promotion how honest would I like someone to be if I was interviewing them real honest but I don't think I'd get a job if I just sat down and was completely honest with every question they asked
If I didn't put a little bit of spin on it some of you just thought yeah no you can't be honest in an interview that's my point like we don't believe the reason we don't do this is we don't want to lose we don't want to come in last we feel like there's so much pressure for us to make it work out for us to get it for us to accomplish it for us to make this work so that when Jesus says your God's a good father and good things come from him so treat others the way you want to be treated what he's saying is
You'll quit looking to others and to the world for all your good things so you'll actually be free to just treat them well you see when we spend all of our time looking at everybody else and needing them to fill us up and to make us okay that we believe that our good things are out there at our jobs and in our relationships and in our friendships and in our money when we believe all the good exists out there we can't treat people the way we want to be treated but once we believe
And fully know that God is good and our good comes from him then we're free then you're free to actually love people the way you want to be loved you're free to treat people the way you want to be treated see the reason I'm anxious and the reason I'm worried is because I feel like I'm going to lose I feel like I'm going to I'm going to mess this up I'm going to come and last other people are going to get ahead of me I'm going to fall behind so I can't treat people the way I want to be treated because I've got to get an edge I can't always just be serving and showing up early
And leaving late and filling in everybody's schedule every time they don't show up for work I can't be the only person who fills in slots for people who are sick that can't be just me but that's because we're not fully believing that our good comes from him we believe our good comes somewhere else we're actually asking and seeking and knocking in so many other places trying to find the good in life and we've forgotten that he's a good father who gives us our good things let's think about it this way if we're in a river and we're drowning
Just a couple of us if you're being washed down a river and you're drowning you're trying to keep yourself up the only way to keep yourself up if you've got other people around you is to grab them and pull them down it's the best way to get your head out of water is to grab somebody and pull them down if that's all you have around you is to grab something and pull them down but if it's just people if it's just the people around you all you can do is drown them a little bit so you can get some air but if as we're floating along someone's able to grab a hold
Of a root or a big tree limb or even the trunk of a very small tree suddenly they can pull themselves out and then they can help everybody else out in the river not because they're strong or amazing but because the tree is I think that's what Jesus is saying that as long as we believe that good is out there at work and in relationships and friendships as long as I believe that the good of my life will come from my wife do you know what will happen? at best I'll drown her I'll spend my life trying to get all the good
Out of her I can get and she won't be able to handle it she'll be the reason I'm happy and I'm okay and fulfilled and satisfied and I'll drown her or I'll drown if you're looking to your job and that's where good comes from if you're looking to your finances and that's where good comes from if you're looking to relationships or marriage or future marriage and that's where good comes from the best thing that can happen is you can either drown somebody else or you can drown see we're running around asking seeking and knocking so many other doors
And so many other places we're searching in so many places and asking so many people and so many entities and jobs and everything trying to get it to find our good and what he says is once you realize he's a good father and good things come from him then you're anchored then you get to be like the person standing on the riverbed holding on to a tree who can just give and it's not a problem to give because you know where all the good stuff comes from where all the strength comes from you've got a firm grip on him and his roots are dug deep and you are anchored
That's why he says you have a good father who'll give you good gifts so treat others the way you want to be treated but until we know that he's a good father and until we know that he gives good gifts we won't actually ever be able to do that now for some people in the room you're saying okay I've asked I've sought I've knocked that's a lie I begged I pleaded I searched I dug I read I prayed I wept I was banging on his door and cancer won
They still left it was a train wreck and that's a lie if you're going to stand up there and tell me that that was a good gift from a good God I'm out I don't want to tell you that if Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7 is all Jesus did this was all he did was walk around and teach things like this I'd be with you if all he did was maybe teach stuff like this and then heal some people if all he did was teach stuff like this and then maybe he fed 5,000 people and maybe he walked on water if that was all he did I'm with you I think that's a lie because I've stood next to people
In our church family and people I loved and I've watched things that I could not in any way say that's a good gift that I could only sit with them and cry and say I have no clue how a good God is even going to make anything of this this looks terrible and evil and broken and I am so sorry and if this was all we could hang it up we could walk away and I'd go with you but today is Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is in the Christian calendar it's the celebration that Jesus rode into Jerusalem
And he had people yelling Hosanna in the highest they were proclaiming his name they were worshipping him they were waving palm branches it was beautiful and they were celebrating that he was a good teacher and a good prophet who could feed 5,000 people and who could heal the sick and make the blind see they were celebrating all of that about Jesus and if it was just Palm Sunday I'd leave if it was just he said stuff like this that God's good and he's a good father and he's going to take care of you some of you are saying I was asking for bread and he gave me a stone
But you see Palm Sunday is a week out from Easter you see this Thursday we get a picture of Jesus Matthew's story isn't done here we get a picture of Jesus in a garden sweating drops of blood dripping out of his head as he begs his father if this cup can pass from me let it he's asking his father if I cannot have to go to the cross if there's another way let that happen and then he ends his prayer with not my will but yours and his father said no there's not another way
But this is the only way I'm going to be able to give good gifts and this is the only way I'm going to be able to bring good about you see the primary thing that on Good Friday that happens is that Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross that he was massacred that God's greatest gift he ever gave was an execution that his wrath was poured out on Jesus in our place and that it was in the midst of that pain and fear and upheaval and chaos that he was turning the world on its head
So that we could actually have good gifts so that he could actually pursue us and redeem us and set us free from sin and give us himself and if it was just this if Jesus just taught and did some miracles I'd walk away with you but because he didn't we get to stand with each other and say I don't know how this is good I think it's a train wreck I know that sin's at work here but I trust that Jesus is good and I know that he's trustworthy because of the cross God definitively made this true when he when Jesus was nailed to a cross when he gave his son for us
He definitively guaranteed that he is good and he is for our good because he loves us enough to give his son for us Romans 8 verse 32 says he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also with him graciously give all things give us up give all things give us all things see the promise we have in the cross is that God's not withholding from you he's not going to give you a stone he's not going to give you
A serpent he is good and he definitively proved it on the cross now your circumstances may not work out the way you want them to what you're praying for may not be what you get but you can trust definitively and forever that he is good and he is for your good because he gave us his son and how much more will he not give us all things how much more is he not using that to redeem us and to make us okay some people say I trusted God and he failed me
The truth was we trusted him to fulfill our plan and our wisdom and he didn't but because of the cross we can know that he's trustworthy so that we can continue to trust him when it doesn't work out the way we want to that's the promise we have in the cross and that's the king that we have and that we follow in a few minutes when we get done here there's going to be about 30 children running laps in this room it's going to be a lot
It's a lot to take in if you don't have kids I'm sorry I have to try to like I got one he's running around I have to pay attention because every once in a while he just scoots out the door and it's like I really don't want him running out in the parking lot but there's just a pile of kids running around here and one of the coolest thing to see about children is when something happens that scares them or if they just suddenly realize that they don't see their parents anymore have you ever seen a kid do this so they're running around playing
And it's like ah ah ah and all of a sudden they'll go ah like they just they lose it my son says mama are you mama are you that's what he does he runs around he'll like he'll freak out there's one little boy in our church his dad and I were talking the other day and his dad kept trying to put him down and his son was fine but as soon as he would do this he would go ah ah
And grab him he's like I'm not going anywhere you've lost your mind you think you're setting me down here with all these other kids running around it's something bad going to happen I ain't going to trust these people it's built into them that protection and safety and goodness comes from their parents and we as a church have to have it soul level bedrock deep built into us that all of our good
Comes from God or we'll never be free we have to be so fixated on the cross so changed by his love for us so overwhelmed by the grace that was given to us that we don't have to be good or moral or perfect or fix ourselves or clean ourselves up but that he died for us so that we could be clean that he loves us so much that he gave his own son for us that we can be welcomed into the family and it's got to be our natural reaction
That when things in life aren't going well that we're just grabbing onto our father and saying okay I'm alright if you're here I can trust because you're here you see so many times we get shipwrecked because the thing that we were holding on to to tell us we were okay was a relationship and it just can't keep you afloat the thing that we had grabbed onto to tell us we were going to be fine was money
And it just can't keep you afloat and we have to train ourselves that when anything happens our head snaps around we run to God and that we're already just nestled in the crook of his arm holding tightly to him and knowing that all my good comes from here so I'm actually now free to love people the way I'm supposed to I'm free to give free to care because I'm firmly fixed in Christ and what he's done for me and in the father
Who's good who gives good gifts I do want to say this he says ask seek knock those are action commands us being firmly rooted in this good God involves us pursuing him so that we actually know how good he is so this means praying this means reading our bibles this means taking time to really be
Devoted to our community group some of you are kind of in a group but it's optional for you because you have a lot of other things that you're asking seeking and knocking and wanting to have fill you up and fix you this takes actually saying no this is this matters because it's one of the ways that I tether myself to the cross tether myself
To God's people some of us this is money you'll make you'll set aside money for anything you care about so one of the bible tells us is what Jesus said earlier that our monies are our monies our money is tied to our hearts and some of us just need to start giving need to start setting aside money to just try to move your heart a little bit to begin
To trust and believe some of this is serving it's an action that needs to be taken so I just want you to think if you just need to say okay I can set aside time for my favorite tv show I actually work my whole schedule around it or it's not uncommon for me to binge on Netflix but it's hard for you to pray for more than
Three minutes maybe you're asking seeking and knocking is just saying I'm going to set aside time every day I'm going to pray for at least 15 minutes I'm at least going to stay in the chair even if my mind wanders one of the things I do if someone's like I have ADD I can't pray I set a phone alarm for three
Minutes I'll only be distracted for three minutes then it beeps and I restart it and remember I was supposed to be praying some of you it's bible reading you say well I don't really read you know all the stats for your favorite sports team maybe you watch that on ESPN but they're also bible apps that
Will read to you so I really have very little like we have way more opportunity to get to the bible than anybody else ever has in history but he says ask seek knock and then he promises you won't miss out it won't be a waste of time I will respond I'll open the door I'll answer you'll find it's worth it so I would just challenge us as we
Try to begin to fully not just know but believe that he is a good father so that we can actually be free to love people the way we want to the way we're supposed to that we would actually act on that not just not alone and go home and go right back to what we were doing and miss out on what was so beautifully promised to us by the by Jesus who
Loved us so much that he gave his life for us let's pray God we ask that you would give us the courage the determination and the discipline to ask seek and knock that you would help us to see all the places that we're running to right now believing that good things come from there all the doors we're knocking
On all the things we're seeking all the all the questions we're asking that ultimately just lead to our own destruction and our own failure Lord show us where we're drowning and drowning others so that we might begin to actually pursue you and to begin to realize where all the good things really come from
We love you we praise you in Jesus name amen
Judgement
Transcript
Well, I am really excited this morning. In just a minute, I'm going to have the privilege of calling Spencer Carey up here. He is going to be walking us through the next section of the Sermon on the Mount this morning. I just wanted to kind of tell you a little bit about him and what's going on. A little over a year ago, I got a call from him. I went to school with him at Presbyterian College.
He just said that he felt called to plant a church in Lexington, South Carolina, and was planning on being down here and just wanted to grab coffee. So we got together and talked. Then this past June, he and some of the Antioch guys started being around, and Spencer actually started hanging out in the office. We basically just said, we want your church plant to be good, and we want to be your friend, so come hang out. He kind of came in with this idea of, I'll hang out, learn what I can. Probably half of what they do is dumb, and I think he found it's only about 15%, and I think he was really excited.
We brought him in, and we just kind of, one of the things we do in our meetings, we said you can be involved in all of this, but we have in our meetings, we have view seats, voice seats, and vote seats. So a view is, you're welcome to be in here, but you're just looking. You're not talking. And a voice seat is, you're a full-fledged member of the meeting. You can say everything you want, and at the end of all the things you said, the vote seat people will then decide what we're going to do, so that you get to say all of your words, and then vote team gets to be like, good. And then we get to make a decision.
And so we kind of said, look, you're a view seat, and we put him in in a couple of our meetings, just kind of hanging out, watching, and then we would kind of go around, everybody would talk, and then we'd be like, okay, Spencer, do you have any thoughts? And then he would say his thoughts. And we did that for about two weeks, and we started realizing that all of the things Spencer had said were pretty good. And so about two weeks later, we said, hey, just be a voice seat. Just say your words when you think them, because it's been really good. And so we've been blessed to have him around, to have the Antioch church family around.
They've been hanging out kind of on this back row, and they have a community group. We actually get to celebrate with them in baptism on Easter. And so it's just been a beautiful, encouraging thing, and we want to actively help plant more churches. And you may be thinking to yourself, or you may have had conversations with people when they find out you're a part of a church plant, and they say something along the lines of, don't we have enough churches? My answer to that is, nope. We want the world crawling with churches, with people actively trying to follow Jesus and be his people and see more people welcomed in.
And we think we've been specifically designed to reach certain groups of people and to pursue them. And we want as many churches as possible that are faithfully following Christ and trying to see people become disciples of him, that help make more disciples of him. And so we want to forever be planting churches. And so we're excited to be able to partner with Spencer. Spencer, if you want to come on up. We're excited that he's here this morning and going to be able to teach from the word for us.
And so we have him come up here. I'm going to pray for you, buddy, and then I'll get out your way and let you open the Bible and let you start. So y'all pray with us. Father, we thank you that your Holy Spirit is still working to call people to use them to expand your mission. And whatever role that is, we praise you where you empower people and use them. And we thank you that we got to be a small part in the story of Antioch Church as they begin to pursue the people of Lexington.
We pray that we would continue to have a role to serve them, to love them, to be generous towards them in however you have you see fit. Pray, Lord, that you would speak through Spencer this morning and use him to teach us and to help us grow in our love for you. In Jesus' name, amen. All right. Good morning. I know how Chad feels now when he says that.
Yeah. So like you said, my name is Spencer Carey. We moved back in June to start the work of planting Antioch Church on the other side of Lexington, the Lexington side, going towards Gilbert. And we decided to call this church Antioch. It is a city in the New Testament in the book of Acts where the gospel explodes. The gospel moves there.
The city is changed. And then Paul and Barnabas, they come and they spend a year there. And then they are commissioned out on the first missionary journey of Paul. And it changes Europe. It changes the whole world from that city. And we want to be that.
We want to be a church that impacts Lexington well with the gospel. We want to see people changed by Jesus. And then we want to be a sending force down the road that can send people to change the rest of North America and the rest of the world. So, yeah, we moved here in June. Didn't really know what this would be with you guys. We know we needed a sponsor church if we wanted to get money.
So we're like, all right, well, let's let's I know Chet and Matt. We went to college together. Let's start this conversation. And it started with a conversation. It has blossomed into a friendship and a partnership that we never expected. Your church family is loving and caring.
And that isn't normal in church planning. It should be. But it's not. And we are so thankful for you guys. And I'm thankful that I get to open up the world with you this morning. I feel like as Matt and Chet were thinking through, what's a text that I can preach?
Since some of you don't know me that well. What's a text that I can preach that's easy? It's not confrontational or controversial. So they said, give him judgment. And that's where we are. Matthew 7 verses 1 through 6 this morning.
We're going to be walking through one of the most misunderstood passages in the New Testament. It's one of the more popular ones. People that have never really read the Bible in our culture can at least reference, didn't Jesus say, don't judge? Tupac had a song. I didn't even realize this until this week. He had a song called Only God Can Judge Me.
That Only God Can Judge Me phrase shaped our generation in ways that I didn't even realize. It was kind of my anthem. Throughout my teenage years, I wasn't a Christian. I was in rebellion. One of the guys that I used to get high with back in the day, we're all at Wendy's. He says, dude, I'm getting a tattoo.
I was like, tell me more. He's like, I'm getting a tattoo that says Only God Can Judge Me on my back. I was like, that's really cool. I want that. When I turn 18, I'm getting that too. Praise God, I did not.
I became a Christian at 17. If you have that tattoo, that is fine. That is just not my taste. But that was my justification for why I could live the way I wanted to live. And I feel like our culture is symptomatic of our culture. We live in a postmodern culture.
And to boil that down for our purposes, that means that I can live my life on my terms. It's my truth. And you don't get to speak into it. And that was my life. It shaped much of how I acted. I didn't think I had consequences for my actions.
But here's the deal. The idea that God would judge me should have never been comforting. I wasn't a Christian. I wasn't changed by the gospel. It should not have been a comfort. And I feel like so many people have a very similar story to me.
They had this Tupac philosophy blended with Matthew 7 that justifies the way that we want to live. So, this morning, we're going to walk through this passage. I want to see how the New Testament uses the word judge. I want to see how it's being used here. And I want us to see how this shapes our view of others. So, I'm going to pray real quick and we'll dive in.
God, thank you for your word. Lord, I pray that you would block out any distractions that we may have this morning. You would speak to us that we receive tough teaching like this. You'd open our hearts for it. In Jesus' name, amen. All right.
So, we'll do the first two verses of chapter 7. Judge not that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. And with the measure you use it, we'll be measured to you. All right.
So, in order to understand this text, we have to see how the word judge is being used. Like I said earlier, I think our culture has a ranging view of this word. But I think if you had to define how it uses this word, it's making any kind of statement about anyone's actions or character or anything of that sort. So, if that's kind of your running definition, here's my question for you. Does that definition really hold up? Does that narrow definition of judge hold up?
Like if I say that if you like Pepsi more than Coke, you're crazy. Is that crossing the line? Because like when I go to a restaurant and I order a Coke and someone says, is Pepsi okay? I look at them funny. Because Coke is objectively better than Pepsi. How about if you say, I love Nickelback.
And I say, I don't think you have good taste in music. Is that okay? Am I crossing the line with that statement? Can a pastor who maybe preached here last week, stand up in the pulpit and make the ridiculous claim that a Moe's burrito is better than a Chipotle burrito? Now, we're not talking about chips and queso. All right?
We're not talking about cost. I'm saying just the burrito itself. Can a pastor make that absurd claim? They can. Is that crossing the line? How about if you have a neighbor that has a dog and it's the middle of July and it's melting here because we're in Columbia.
And they leave a dog chained out to a tree with no water all day long. Is it okay to say, that guy doesn't deserve to have a pet? Is it okay to call the authorities? Is it okay to make that judgment? What if you have a neighbor that's beating his kid? Is it okay to say, they don't deserve kids?
I'm calling the police. Is it okay for us in our culture to look at other cultures that mistreat women so badly, that treat them as property, that rape and do all kinds of terrible things? Is it okay for us to say, that's not okay? Can we make judgment calls like that? So at this point, I hope you see that our culture has a really fuzzy and unhelpful definition of judge.
And it's unhelpful as it is unbiblical. So I want to walk through some passages real quick to give us a New Testament, a biblical definition of what judge looks like. The first one comes from 1 Corinthians 5.12. It says this, For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? All right, so context for this.
At the beginning of chapter 5, Paul highlights a case of sexual morality. It's actually incest. A man is sleeping with his father's wife. And they haven't done anything about it. They haven't addressed it. So Paul in verse 11 before this says, Don't associate it with them.
Don't eat with them. After this verse in 13, he says, Purge the unrepentant man from the congregation. He practices church discipline. Get him out. So the way that we see judgment used here is accountability.
Paul wants accountability for the church. So he commands them to judge those inside the church. So judgment holds the idea of accountability. That's one positive definition of it. A second one is discernment, which is determining through good judgment. So later in Matthew 7, we'll get to this in about a month or a couple weeks, Jesus talks about discerning false teachers by their fruit.
And what he means is you have to judge them by the way they live. Our culture looks at that and like, that's crazy. But Jesus did this all the time. I mean, he calls the Pharisees, the religious leaders at the time in Jewish culture, he calls them whitewashed tombs. He says, you look clean on the outside, but you are dead on the inside. Jesus and John the Baptist call the Pharisees a brood of vipers, which is kind of a creative insult.
That he says, you are a viper. You are venomous. You are the offspring of snakes. So he makes that discerning call that we see later in Matthew 7. So those are some positive uses, discernment, accountability.
Then we get to this, verses 1 and 2, and this is definitely a negative use. So what is Jesus trying to say here? First, we have to look at who his audience is. He's got the crowds. He's got the disciples. In the middle of all that, he has this group, the Pharisees.
This teaching, verses 1 and 2, is an indictment on them. He's calling them out. This group was known for being very cold and condemning towards anyone who wasn't holy like them. That was their MO. And in these two verses, man, Jesus is fighting against some righteousness and hypocrisy that is so prevalent amongst these religious leaders. So the way that judge is being used here leans towards meaning condemnation.
So we've got three different uses. We've got accountability and discerning. These are two positive uses. And we've got cold condemnation, which is the negative use. I think one of the clearest examples of this comes from Luke 18. Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector.
And he says in Luke 18, Pharisees must have been fun at parties. I mean, they... This is the kind of stuff that Jesus was dealing with. This pride and self-righteousness. That's who he's calling out. So I think it would be most helpful if we looked at verse 1 and 2 and it was read like this.
This is the kind of thing that Jesus was dealing with. Don't give condemning judgment toward others or you will get the condemnation you deserve. For with the condemning judgment that you practice will be given right back to you. With the same measure you dish it out, it will come right back. That should scare the pants off of us. I mean, it should because the condemnation that he's talking about that you'll get if you dish it out is hell.
And when we hear teachings like this, I think what we do is we distance ourselves from the Pharisees. We're like, well, at least we're not the Pharisees. We're not... I'm not prideful or self-righteous. That's... I'm not condemning.
That's not me. And I think we fail to see that we have that embedded in our flesh. That we've got a little Pharisee that lives inside of us. I'll give you a few examples. It's tax season. If you did not know that, you should do your taxes because tax day is coming.
And when you do your taxes, maybe you don't report all of your cash earnings. Maybe you shave the Numbers a little bit. And when you're doing that, you may be thinking, I'm just doing... This isn't a big deal. I mean, I'm not Bernie Madoff. I'm not Wall Street.
That's not me. And you've compared yourself and condemned a group of people to justify yourself. Do the same thing with sexual sin. It's just a little bit of pornography. It's just a little bit of explicit content. At least I'm not the porn star.
At least I'm not the stripper. At least I'm not the man running around on his wife. And you've condemned other people to justify yourself. Maybe you have somebody in your community group who is always coming and confessing the same sin over and over again. And if you're not in a community group here, maybe it's somebody in your family or friends that makes the same mistake over and over again. And when they do, your first reaction is, well, of course.
It's cynicism. Well, of course they would. That's who they are. That's what they do. And you're not led to compassion. How about another scenario?
What are the thoughts that go through your head when you were standing at the checkout line in the grocery store? And you see somebody that has their snap card, which is food stamps back in the day. Their snap card in one hand and they got an iPhone in the other hand. What are the thoughts that go through your head? Well, I'm just being discerning. I mean, if he or she's got a snap card, she shouldn't have an iPhone.
She shouldn't be able to pay for that data plan. You don't know them. You don't know them. They may need that iPhone for their job. And they also might have three or four kids that they need to feed. You don't know them.
And you are quick to condemn others with your thoughts. We do the same thing with if you own a business or you're a waiter and somebody from a different race or a different socioeconomic class comes in. And you've already sized them up based off of stereotypes before you even talk to them. We do the same thing when we're in downtown Columbia. And we're walking and somebody who's homeless comes up and says, can I have some money? What are your first thoughts?
Drugs? Alcohol? I mean, we do this all the time. And about a month ago, we walked through this. There is a helpful way to help others. But what we're looking at here is we're diagnosing the heart.
And we do it all the time with simple things. That church doesn't do church like us. That couple doesn't do finances. I wish they could just live in a budget like we do. I wish that this couple that has marital problems would just listen to us. And they would have a marriage like us.
I wish that this family would discipline their kids like us. And we position ourselves in a prideful way and we condemn others. And we have thoughts like this that happen all the time. And here's the deal. We as Christians, we don't let those thoughts go unexamined. That's not our play.
We are called to diagnose those things. To see where they're coming from. And ask Jesus to go to work on those parts of our heart. And as Paul says, to crucify that sin, that flesh, and put it to death. That's our calling. Because self-righteousness is a cancer.
Self-righteousness is a cancer that affects so much of our judgment and discernment. So Jesus, he wants us to check ourselves before checking others. And that's what we get in verses 3 through 5. We get a pretty extreme example. He says this in verse 3. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but you don't notice the log that is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your own eye when there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite. First, take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. So in college, I studied abroad. I did something called semester at sea. And we spent a semester traveling on a ship around the world.
It was a really tough semester. And I made a friend on that ship as we were traveling that, there's no way to say it, he had really, really bad breath. Like, could have been halitosis, I don't know. And we would talk, and he would be getting closer to talking to you, and you'd just be like leaning back, like, yeah, okay. And you, I mean, because you didn't want to get too close to his face. And I remember thinking the whole time, like, do I say something?
Has anybody said anything to him? Like, has his family said something? Have his friends said anything? I mean, he's got a girlfriend back home. She has to know. Like, I'm thinking, what, should I say something?
And the whole trip, I didn't say a word. Like, I was a terrible friend. Fast forward six months. Six months later, it's Christmas. I've got a stocking. Typically in my stocking, I get fruit, some candy, some toiletries, stuff like that.
And I pull out of the stocking a bag of mints. And then a second bag of mints. And then mint-flavored gum. And as I pull all this stuff out, as Chet would say, it was an aggressive amount of mints and mint-flavored gum. And I was like, and I'm not Columbo. Like, I'm not really quick.
Like, we watch movies with my wife, and I'm not quick to figure out the ending. But I read into it. I was like, you know, I feel like my mom is trying to say something. So I was like, Mom, what's the deal? It's a lot of mints. It's a lot of gum.
What are you trying to say? And she said, well, once you got to college, you started drinking coffee, which is fine. But afterwards, your breath is really bad. You should keep these on you throughout the day in your car, in your dorm. It'll be helpful. And I was like, no.
There's no, that's, you know, I push back because I'm argumentative sometimes. And then my sister jumps in and says, no, no, no, it's terrible. You need to do something about this. We're in the teaching team this week, and someone, I can't remember who said it, someone said, what if it was you on the ship just talking to him and it was coming off his face? I never thought of that. I was like, no.
That was not the case. That was not the case. But that's a helpful story that explains this. And Jesus, he gives a really hyperbolic exaggeration in this story. He compares a tiny little splinter to an entire beam. Now, I want you to visualize the absurdity of that, like how crazy that looks.
Like somebody's got a four by four beam sticking out of their eye. And they see somebody with a splinter, and they're like, I got it. I mean, just they're, I hit them in the face, and they don't know what's going on. And they're just reaching awkwardly to grab it. It's a silly picture. It looks ridiculous.
And I think what Jesus is saying here is when you're blind to sin, and you're trying to correct others, you look silly. You look ineffective. What Jesus wants is humility-soaked accountability. That's what he's calling for here. Humility-soaked accountability. Not the cold condemnation that the Pharisees dished out.
But here's the thing in this teaching. I feel like people miss this. If they're big on the hypocrisy part, and they miss what he's saying, he still wants accountability. That's what he's calling for. He says, then you will see clearly to take out the splinter. So we have to see that.
As a Christian, we are called to hold others accountable. We're just called to work through our own junk before we deal with others. So this passage, it has a two-part command for really people on both ends of the accountability spectrum. All right? On one end of the spectrum, we've got people that are quick to confront and slow to reflect. And on the other end of the spectrum, we've got people that just hate confrontation.
All right? So if you're on this end, people might say you're blunt. All right? If you're quick to confront, you're slow to reflect like you have good company. King David from the Old Testament, one of the biggest figures in the Bible, he was quick to confront. One of my favorite stories from the Old Testament is when David, he sins.
He has an affair with a woman named Bathsheba. She conceives to cover it all up. He has her husband killed, one of his soldiers killed by sending him to the front lines. And then he looks all great because he says, well, I'll take her as my wife so that she doesn't have to remain a widow. Here's the thing. God does not let sin remain hidden amongst his people.
The New Testament says that he disciplines those whom he loves. And that's exactly what he does. He sends his prophet Nathan. Nathan comes to David. David is the king, which means he's also a judge in the land. And he comes to David and he says, David, there's a man in the land who had many sheep.
And then there was another man that had one sheep. And the man that had many saw the man that had one. And he saw that sheep and he said, I'll have it. And he took it by force. And as David's hearing this story, he's steaming mad. And he says, I want to find that man.
I want justice to be done. And Nathan, in the middle of his anger, says, David, you're the man. You're the one that took Uriah's wife. You're the one that slept with her. And he's got a four by four beam sticking out of his eye. And he's trying to point out a splinter.
So if you're on this end of the spectrum, if you're like David, if you're quick to confront and you're slow to reflect, you have to start a new pattern of confrontation. You have to be slow. You have to, maybe it's hard for you to see things. Maybe you invite somebody from your community group or a trusted brother or sister to help you point out stuff. But here's the thing.
If you are this, if you're quick to confront and slow to reflect, like you need to change. You need to repent of that. Start this new pattern of confrontation. Maybe when you see sin in somebody else, you take a few days to pray, to ask God if that's going on in your heart. Bring others into it. Address it.
And then examine others. So that's one of the spectrum. If you're on the other end and you just hate confrontation, like maybe you're completely content to just let people live their own lives, make their own mistakes, make their own decisions. And as we talk about accountability, you're like, well, I guess I'm supposed to. And maybe there's somebody in your community group that is blind to a sin. And you're like, well, somebody else would take care of it.
Like we have other people in our community group. We have community group leaders. Like isn't that a pastor's Job? You might be thinking, but if I talk to them, like I might lose them as a friend. Like it's going to make it weird. They're going to get really, really angry at me.
And what you've done in those moments is you've placed your comfort, your need for friendship or approval over their sanctification, over them knowing more of who Jesus is. And if I'm honest, like that's kind of where I land on this spectrum. Like I don't hate confrontation. That's not me. Like I'm willing to confront people. I've done it before.
It's not like I'm not scared of it. If I'm honest, I just get lazy. Like it's a lot of work to do this because I know if I see someone else who's blind to something, that means I got to stare at my own junk. And I know I got a lot of my own junk. And that's not fun. And then I got to wade through that.
I got to pray. And then I know that I'm called to walk in the light. So I got to bring others into this. And then we got to address this together. And then I have to go and confront them. And it's a whole long process.
And if I'm honest, I don't want to do it. It takes a lot of energy. And I'm a pastor. That's just, I don't want to do it. I say, I'll put it off until next week. Or maybe sin will resolve itself since that's how sin works.
And I put it off. If you are like this, this kind of selfishness is terrible for biblical community. It's terrible for your community groups. Because when sin doesn't get confronted, it destroys lives. It wrecks marriages and families. It spreads like a cancer.
God calls us to do the tough work of confronting one another in love. That's our calling. And it's hard. It is hard. Living out the gospel in community, it's difficult. Confronting others, it's hard.
And sometimes, sometimes it doesn't go well. There was a time my wife and I, we moved to Louisville, Kentucky. We're from here, but we moved to Louisville. We spent five years in Louisville at our sending church, sojourn, community church, and in seminary. And the first couple friend we met, we got to know, they were kind of our best friends for about a year and a half. So we got to know them, and I started to recognize a pattern in the husband.
We started seminary at the same time. He had a job. He worked for a computer company. And then he also was at a church. A few months later, he leaves that job and that church, and he goes to a new church to be a worship pastor for a season. For about a few months of that, he leaves that job at that church, goes to a new church, starts a new job.
Then he starts another Job. Then he quits seminary. Then he moves to our church. Then he says, well, we're going to move to Chicago. Then he says, we're not moving to Chicago.
And then a few months later, he says, we're leaving sojourn in our church. And they didn't really give a lot of good reasons. So I said, man, let's get coffee. Let's talk about this. I sat down. I was like, man, I pointed all this out.
I was like, I feel like you make a lot of really quick decisions. You don't really pray through it all. You don't really think through that dragging your family like this, this pattern of life is not sustainable. And I tried to point it out. And then that was the last conversation we ever had. This is one of our best friends.
The last conversation we ever had. A few months later, I realized we hadn't spoken. And I texted them. And I was like, hey, man, I've been a bad friend. Let's get coffee.
Let's connect. And he texted back. He said, let's call this what it is. We've grown separate ways. Have a nice life. What do you text back to that?
I was like, all right, take care. And I fought over that conversation like a hundred times since then. Like, what did I say? What could I have said differently? How did I approach this? Like, what happened?
And I could take that instance and say, you know what? That's a reason why I don't have. That's why you don't confront people. Because you lose friends. And it's not worth it. And I could believe that.
But I don't. Because here's the thing. First, I was being faithful to the teaching that Jesus teaches here. I was being loving towards my friend by calling that out. And I've had dozens of conversations before them and since then where I've confronted somebody in love. They have confronted me in love.
And yeah, it's not always gone perfect. It's not always been pretty. But what came out of that is both of us knowing more of Christ. And as 1 John 1.7 says, you have true fellowship when you walk in the light together. Meaning, we grew closer as friends. So I do it all over again.
Because in God's kingdom, he wants his people to check our hearts for sin and self-righteousness and whatever before we check others. Like, no matter the cost, that is our calling. So the first five verses here. Jesus, he fights against that cold condemnation. Then he lays out why we do biblical accountability.
And then we get to verse 6. Walking through the Sermon on the Mount is heavy. Like, if you've been here for the past couple of months, like, this is weighty stuff. And sometimes Jesus says things. Like, I feel when the disciples go, what? Because every now and then he says something where I'm just like, what did you say?
And that's kind of what he says here in verse 6. In verse 6 he says, do not give dogs what is holy. And do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. I mean, you read that and you're like, what did you say? All right, so firstly, that picture, it's connected to what we just said, to judgment and accountability.
So we've got to take it in its context. Now he doesn't fully explain what he says. He just keeps teaching. And there have been a lot of pastors and a lot of theologians who love Jesus deeply, who have studied this, and they've come to different conclusions. So with our brief time left, like, I don't want to nail down, like, one interpretation for us.
I want to really give one helpful application that I think is faithful to the teaching here. So given the immediate context, which is correction, correcting your brothers and sisters, I think what he's saying here is don't spend your time correcting those who don't believe. Don't hold unbelievers accountable. They're outside of our faith. So Jesus' context, he's speaking to a Jewish audience.
Jews did not, dogs and pigs were considered unclean. That may be difficult for you to see this because some of you have dogs that are like children. They've got ten sweaters and they sleep with you. We can't import our view onto this. Dogs were like the vultures of the ground in their time. They cleaned up after everyone else.
They're considered unclean. And when you read this, what he's doing is he's making a comparison between dogs and pigs to unbelievers. And as you study that, you're like, wow, like that. Really, Jesus? Like, that's a heavy comparison. Here's the deal.
I don't think from the text and from the context, I don't think that what Jesus is saying here is he's making a statement of value. I don't think he's making a statement of value. I think he's simply saying, like, you wouldn't have your dog eat off of fine china. We have a dog. We have a little dachshund. He looks cute.
He's actually a really bad dog. But we love him sometimes. And after I've eaten a meal on our regular dinner plates that we've had for the past, since we got married about almost six years ago, I set the plate outside and he cleans it up. We just now got fine china and we use that. He ain't touching those plates. So you wouldn't have your dog eat off of fine china and you wouldn't throw your pearls before pigs.
So don't focus your effort on holding unbelievers to values that we find precious. Morality doesn't save people. Only belief in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and the empty tube saves people. So if you're the kind of person that holds your family or friends or coworkers to values and morals that we find precious, I think what Jesus is saying here is stop. Stop doing it. I do.
I'm a church planner, but I'm a bivocational church planner. I do real estate as well. And every now and then in real estate, you'll walk into a house where you first walk in and you're like, wow, this house looks really good. They painted the walls. They've changed out the flooring. And then as you dig into it, you see there's major problems with the house.
It has termites that have eaten through the walls. The foundation is crumbling and falling apart. The house is a mess. And C.S. Lewis, he has a metaphor like this. He says when God comes in to change our lives, he doesn't come into our house and basically just paint and change some things.
He completely remodels the house, rips out everything, replaces everything to a brand new creation. And if you're the kind of person that is trying to force morals on those who don't believe, you're trying to put paint on the walls. And what you need to see is that they don't need paint on the walls. They need an entire new house. So stop forcing morality on those who aren't ready to receive it, who aren't ready to receive what is precious.
Like love them, share the gospel with them, but don't force morality on them. All right, so that's verses one through six. Here's something you don't hear in the church very often. Tupac got it half right. He got it half right. God is our ultimate and final judge.
The gospel teaches that we deserve judgment, that we've incurred wrath, and that we deserve punishment. It teaches us that one day Jesus is going to return. He's going to make all things new. But when he does, there will be a day of judgment. And a lot of pastors and theologians disagree on how that's going down, because when you read Revelation, you're like, huh? But there's one thing we can all agree on.
It's a terrifying picture. Judgment is coming. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus came to rescue us by taking that judgment that we deserve on the cross. Colossians 2.13-14 says, And you who are dead in your sins and the sinful nature of your flesh, God made alive together with Christ, having forgiven us of all our trespasses. Hear this. By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this he set aside, nailing it to a cross.
Like, see that picture. All the record of debt. Past, present, future sins, all placed on Jesus. And the judgment we deserve was death. This he set aside, nailing it to a cross. What a beautiful picture of the gospel that we have in Jesus.
So here's the deal. Like, we all have self-righteousness. We all have pride in our hearts. Like, we have hearts that constantly condemn. So Jesus took that condemnation for us on the cross.
We have four by four logs that are jammed in our eyes. So Jesus was nailed to a log so that we might be a community that holds others accountable. So we're being transformed as a community into those that don't condemn, that love and hold each other accountable. That's for us as those who believe. But here's the deal.
If you've never placed your faith solely in Christ, like the gospel has not changed you. Paul has a picture of an old creation and a new creation. In 1 Corinthians. If that picture for you isn't true, this passage cannot be a comfort anymore. Like, you can't use it as a comfort. It's a warning.
This passage cannot be your excuse to live your life on your terms. Tupac, he got it right. You will be judged. We just hope that you will be judged in Christ.
True Treasure
Transcript
Good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We've been walking verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount, so we'll be in Matthew chapter 6. If you want to grab one of the Bibles on the row, or if you brought your Bible with you. If you don't own a Bible, this is our gift to you.
Go ahead and take this one home. We want everyone to own a Bible. We'll be in Matthew chapter 6. We'll pick up in verse 19 today. There's a TV show. It's a game show.
I don't know actually if it's still on, but it's called Let's Make a Deal. And I never watched the old one. I did watch the one with Wayne Brady. And in that show, everybody, for some reason, I don't think it has much to do with the show at all. Everybody dresses up in a costume, which makes it slightly more interesting. But everybody's dressed up.
It's like a big Halloween party. And then basically in Let's Make a Deal, you play some random games, kind of like in Prices Right. It just doesn't have anything to do with prices. But you play random games, and then you win something. And then what they do is they'll say, okay, you have $50. I'll trade you one of these two boxes for that.
So they kind of let you pick something, and then you'll trade. Or at any point, you can just say, no, I got the $50. I got $1,000. I got two watches. I'm just going to quit. I can walk away with what I have.
And then by the end, when they make it to, like, the main thing, they'll actually have a couple of curtains or doors with Numbers. And you can trade what you won for what's behind curtain number one. Or you can trade what you won for something behind curtain number one or curtain number two. So, like, there'll be a time where maybe you won a Vespa. Like, I actually watched one where a guy, that's just a fancy moped. That's what a Vespa is.
Had won that, and they basically were like, all right, you want to keep that, because you're going to look great riding around on it. Or do you want what's behind the curtain? And, like, the guy kind of debated for a little while, and I actually watched one where they said, okay, I want what's behind the curtain, because behind the curtain, you don't know. It could be a boat. It could be a car. It could be two Vespas.
You just don't know. You don't know what's going to be behind the curtain. So the guy took it, and what they do in that game is if they have actual prizes, and then they have zonks. And so I was watching in the break room at work one day, and they opened it up, and it was a zonk. It was, like, piles of trash and some goats. Now, I'm from Edgefield, so I know some people who'd be like, I get to keep them goats.
But no, you didn't get to keep the goats. It's a zonk. You lose. He trades in his Vespa. He gets nothing. And what they don't do in that game is they don't give you a lifeline.
They don't let you, when you get to the end, go, okay, I want to do my lifeline. I want to call my friend up from the crowd. I want him to go look behind the curtain, and then I want him to come back out and tell me if I should take the curtain or not. Like, they don't have that in that game. There is nobody who gets to go see what's behind door number one or door number two or door number three. They don't have any kind of thing in that game because it would ruin the point of the game.
But what we're going to see today in the Sermon on the Mount is that Jesus is saying he got to peek behind the curtain. He's coming and coaching us up, and he's saying, I've seen what's behind the curtain, and I'm going to tell you the trade to make. That's what we're reading today. That's what we're going to see where Jesus gets to this point in the Sermon on the Mount. He's saying, I know both what you have in front of you and what's behind the curtain, and I'm going to tell you the trade to make. So we're going to pray, and then we're going to begin to study this this morning.
God, we thank you for your love and your grace and your pursuit of us in the midst of our sin. We pray specifically today that as we study this section of the Sermon on the Mount, that you would help us see clearly. And once we have seen clearly, once we clearly understand what you say, what you teach, and how we ought to view this, I pray that you would change our hearts so that we can believe it. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Chapter 6, verse 19, it'll be on page 473 if you're in a white Bible.
This is Jesus teaching his disciples. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So Jesus looks at his disciples and he says, don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. But do lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust don't destroy and where thieves don't break in and steal.
That's the premise of what we're looking at. And then he says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Now, I think it's easy for us as Americans to read this and go, okay, don't lay up for yourself treasures on earth. I get the concept. It's very difficult for us to actually believe it. Actually put this into practice.
Because this is our American system. This is the American dream. Dream. This is what we, this is, this, we've bought into this hook, line, and sinker. That the goal of life is accumulation. Stuff.
We have TV channels devoted to this. So what HGTV is, is here's how to make things better and nicer. Here's how to lay up treasures on earth. I watch the, uh, the show Shark Tank. I enjoy it. Um, it's, it's, uh, basically people come in front of investors and they do a business pitch.
And I like it. I have a business degree. Probably would have done some sort of business stuff if I hadn't been felt called to do what we're doing now. And, uh, but the underlying premise of that show is get rich. That's the dream. That's the goal.
That's the hope. That's the stuff that we celebrate. They'll come in and they'll be like, this lady, stay at home mom, began making mayonnaise in her garage. But now her mayonnaise is on all the shelves and it's like, oh, the mayonnaise dream. But it's not just what she did.
It's the fact that it makes her rich. It brought in money. Now we know she's happy. That's the story we're told. Now we know she's okay.
She has money, you guys. That's why when they, they, people come in and they have this really dumb idea and the investors are like, you're stupid. And then they make them leave. They walk out and they cry and they're like, I'm not stupid. I'm going to make my dreams come true. Why?
What's the dream? I'm going to make money off of this stupid idea. And then I'll be okay. It's what we bought into. I know, one of the ways I see this in my wife and I, and I know that it's like, it's sunk into our heart. So this has become the, the way we think about the world, the way we progress, the way we grow is some sort of accumulation.
Exactly the opposite of what Jesus just said. Don't lay up treasures for yourself on earth. And we go, okay, Jesus sounds good, but it's actually seeped into us. This is the air we breathe as Americans. One of the ways I see this is the way that my wife, Anna and I speak to each other. Because we've been married for going on eight years now and we just kind of dream about the future.
We'll just talk about future us. Future us. And here's the thing I've noticed about future us. Future us always has more disposable income than current us. Future us goes to Disney World. Future us goes to visit New York.
Future us goes to Europe. Future us maybe has jet skis and hangs out on the lake, you know, for mission. Like for the opportunity to invite people in. Now we can tell them about Jesus. Future us always has, oh, future us has some, a little bit of land. So a little bit of, you know, some acreage.
Future us has a, a, a little bit larger house. Future us. I don't know if y'all met future us. Future us is doing pretty well, actually. We don't, we don't brag about it. We're very generous, but we're generous because of all that extra disposable income we have.
We have never once had a conversation where I was like, you know what I was just thinking about? You know, in a couple of years, we have a couple more kids. And you and I are more financially strapped than we have ever imagined. You know what I was just getting excited about? You know, right now I'm counting calories, but I'm pumped that in the future I won't have to do that because I just won't have enough money to buy food to eat. Never once have we had that conversation.
First of all, because that's a sad conversation. Second of all, because we've bought into the idea that the way you progress in life, the way we know that we're growing and doing better, how do, how do we, how do we measure that? When you ask, am I further along now than it was a year ago, then five years ago, then 10 years ago? So often the question is, what kind of car am I driving? What kind of house am I living in? Where am I at financially?
Where am I at business-wise? And here's the thing. This hunt, this treasure-seeking never stops. There is not an end to it. It does not stop. Because, and the way I know this, I know it so clearly in me, and I just want you to take a second and think about you.
There are things that you have currently that you told yourself five years ago if I could just have that, then I'd be okay. There are things that you have currently that you told yourself a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago, if I can just get my own place, if I can just own my own house, if I can just get a car, if I can just get a nicer car, if I could just get a new job, if I could just get my degree, if I could just get my other degree, if I could just get a better Job, if I could just be promoted. There are so many things that if we were able to walk back to you five years ago, you would have tell us so clearly, so bright-eyed, so hopeful, if I could just make 10% more, then I'd really be doing it. And you are now.
And what's happened is we just swapped it out for something else. It does not stop. This treasure hunt that we are on does not stop. And Jesus steps up, looks at us as clearly as he can, as much as he can try to get us to make eye contact with him. And he says, don't. Don't lay up for yourself treasures on earth.
They rust. They get eaten. They get stolen. They do not last. It is not worth it. That's what Jesus is saying.
That's what he's begun to tell us here. And here's the thing. I think he uses treasure for a reason. First of all, he is very much speaking to financial treasure. He is talking about your money. He is talking about your wallet.
He is talking about your bank account. But because he uses treasure, he's also helping us see that it's not just the money. It's where we place value. It's earthly treasure. Things that will just end on earth. The enjoyment will just end on earth.
That's what he says. Don't lay up treasure on earth. Don't gather things where the sole goal, where the end point for it, the most you can enjoy it, is earth. So for some of you, you're going, oh, I'm not that worried about money. Maybe not. Maybe you don't need a lot of money.
Maybe you're not one of these lavish people. Maybe for you, the goal is just comfort. That your earthly treasure is just comfort to be insulated from the world. You don't need a big house. You just need a really soft couch. You don't have to have a boat.
That's crazy. But you have to have what? What is it that you've begun to say, this is what my money exists for? Some of you could care less about money, but you do care about rank. You do need to be promoted. You do need to be the supervisor.
You do need to be the site manager. You do need to be the regional manager. You do need to be the vice president. Like, you've got to be promoted. And here's what he says. That labor, that work, that effort only works out for a short amount of time.
And then it falls apart. Then it rusts. Then it's eaten. Then it's gone. And the most you got out of it was some earthly treasure. Some of you, it's just status.
You're chasing after degree, after degree, after degree. You don't care about money, but you do want people to look at you and approve of you based off of how intelligent you are and how many random letters and Numbers you have in front and behind your name. It's earth treasure. A lot of it has to do with what's the goal. What are we trying to get out of it? I was walking around with my son at the zoo the other day.
And we have a zoo pass and we like it because it's better to take him to the zoo, set him down and follow him around the zoo than watch him burn a hole in our carpet running circles in my living room. And that's actually why Future Us has a few acres because we're going to get a runner across a tree and hook him to a harness. And then I'll just be able to look out the window and see he's okay every once in a while while he runs back and forth and tears up that part of the grass, but that's okay. It's in our backyard. Also so that people can't see him from the road. So anyway, we're at the zoo.
He's running around and one of the things I saw was a couple of little girls ran by and they had face paint. And this is brilliant. So this is a good, if you want a business idea and you're on Shark Tank, this is a great way to make money and to live the dream and be happy is to become a face painter because every kid that you face paint becomes a walking billboard. So that they run off with their face paint and some other kid sees them and goes, oh my goodness, I want my face painted. I want to look like Elsa. Which by the way, is the biggest scam.
They tell these little girls they're going to make them look like Elsa and then they put blue swirls all over their face. Have the kids even seen the movie? She never looks like that. At no point does she get blue swirl face. But anyway, my favorite one is the Spider-Man face.
They put on little boys or they do like Tiger or whatever. But anyway, kids get face paint and that's great. And they're so excited. And this is the best decision they've ever made in their entire life. And parents do it. They let the kid get face paint.
Why not? None of those parents are going to let their children get that same thing tattooed on their face. They're not going to. Why? Because as an adult, you can see further down the road than a six-year-old can. And what is going to be the best, most amazing decision they've ever made is going to be absolutely ridiculous.
And you'll look at them if they wanted it to get permanent. Like if they were doing this and the face painter person was like, just so you know, this will last 10 to 40 years. You immediately would like attack them. Are you crazy? You can't put something on their face that's going to last that long. Why?
Because it's going to be awesome for second grade. This amount of time in their life. That's why it lasts a week. They cry when it's gone. Good. Last two days, you scrub it off that night because they've got to go be around other humans later and they can't keep looking like a half-weirdo version of Spider-Man.
But it would be awesome. If they got a tattoo, it would be awesome. They'd be the coolest kid in second grade. But you know that life goes beyond second grade and you're going to say something to them along the lines of, this will be great in second grade, maybe half a third grade. It's going to be really troublesome when you're trying to get a date for prom. But let's look beyond prom.
You're going to need to go on Job interviews later. You'll be memorable. But nobody's hiring Spider-Man guy. That's what Jesus is saying. He stepped in and said, you're chasing after earth treasure and that's going to be amazing for 50 years. That's going to be the best for 50 years.
That title, that success, that name, that house, that car, those cars, that amount of wealth, that bank account is going to be so wonderful for something as small and as trivial as half a century. See, Jesus has walked out from behind the curtain. He says, he sees into eternity and he says, don't do it. Don't buy into it. Don't make that decision. It's a terrible trade.
He says, hand in the Vespa, take what's behind the curtain. That's what he's saying. Because he sees further than we do. He knows more than we do. And what seems like such a great idea now actually isn't in light of eternity. And if we're Christians, if we actually believe this, we're people of eternity.
We live forever. That's what Jesus gave us was eternal life. Eternal. Forever. And we're making decisions that only make sense for 50 years. Not for 100.
Not for 150. Not for 250. Not for 1,000. Not for 10,000. Not for 10 billion. That's how long we're going to live.
We're making decisions that make sense for 50. And so Jesus is trying to help us. And he's saying, stop. It's a bad trade. So what's he say?
Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth and rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Do you know what he's assuming about you? You know, he's assuming about me. We want treasure.
Treasure. He does not say, do not lay up treasure. Treasure is bad. Do not value anything. Valuing things is bad. What's he say?
He says, go for the better treasure. Go for the more long-lasting treasure. Make the best treasure hunter decision. When we were created by God, we were designed in some ways to be treasure hunters. What I mean by that was, we were designed to see value. To make correct, appropriate, intelligent valuations of things.
This is better than that. We do this naturally all the time. You go eat somewhere and you'll think, this is a really good burger. But it's not as good a burger as that burger. And it costs $2 more. We have this argument all the time around the office about people going to Chipotle and Moe's and then trying to decide which one's better.
But we're designed to do that. That's why people get so amped up about that argument. Because they like Chipotle and they're wrong and other people try to graciously point it out and they won't repent. It costs more. The chips aren't free and no one greets you. Plus it stinks of hipster.
We're supposed to make valuations of what is good and bad and right and wrong. We're designed to. But here's what happened. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, made the wrong choice and they messed up our value system. They made it to where our hearts chased the wrong treasure. When they were supposed to supremely value God as the ultimate treasure and then everything else would make sense.
We would love our spouses. We would love other people. We would love and value life and all the things that God designed to be good and enjoyable would have fallen in line because God was in His right place. What Paul says in Romans is that that got messed up. That when they chose to value something else themselves higher than God, our whole value system got messed up. And so when we look at earth and say this is what is valuable, this is what is to be treasured, the only way that's going to get reoriented or changed is by Jesus fixing that.
So we're going to live in a broken world where we're tricked constantly by money and cars and relationships and Chipotle. Our value system is going to be off. And Jesus is stepping in right here to try to reorient it for us, to try to fix it for us. In some ways, what's happening and especially so ridiculous and silly in the church, when we gather together on Sundays and say, our treasure is in heaven. There's probably a song that says that, that we would all stand up and sing. Our treasure is in heaven.
Yeah, that's right. You're wondering why I don't sing more often. We sing, take the world, but give me Jesus. We sing that song. And it would be like if all of us living over here in South Carolina in the gold rush era heard that there was gold in California. And we said, we're going to go seek the treasure.
We're going to go to California and we're going to get the gold. And we started going. And every time we stopped, we were going to camp out a little while. I went into the woods and started cutting down trees. And you said, why are you doing that? And I said, I'm going to build a house.
And you said, buddy, we're leaving tomorrow. Stop. Or if every time we stopped, I went and gathered really neat pine cones or pretty rocks. And so we're only a little way in and I'm already loading up our caravans with stupid stuff. You're like, hey man, first of all, as soon as we get to California, we're going to dump all your stupid rocks out and fill these bags with gold, which are better than rocks. Secondly, quit.
We don't need these. And every time we stop, I start building a house. Eventually, you would be like, I hope you get dysentery. I am so sick of you being on this team. But we're Christians.
And we're saying, our gold's in heaven, our treasure's in heaven, what we value's in heaven. And then we're running around and living the opposite. And Jesus, because he loves us, because he loves his disciples, is looking at us and saying, stop it. It is a bad trade. You're going to build this house, you're going to labor over this, and then we're moving. You're going to work really hard for this, and then we're going to throw it out.
When we get to California, we're throwing all your rocks away. They're not going to matter. And he's looking at us and saying, when you meet the king, when you step into eternity, everything you labored for and everything you toiled for and everything you worked for is going to be gone. And it is not going to matter. But there are going to be some things that we can labor for now, work for now, that make sense in light of eternity.
There are treasures. There are rewards. He just got done in the beginning of chapter 6 saying, don't practice your righteousness so that other people can see it. That's earth treasure. That's what he's talking about. Don't practice your righteousness.
Don't be really holy and really good and really devout and pray really well and read your Bible and practice your Bible verses in order that other people can know. Look at how good they pray and how much they know about their Bible and how nice they are and how well behaved. Don't do it. That's earth treasure. That's them valuing you here. What he says is, do it in secret.
Do it privately so that you'll be rewarded by your Father who sees in secret. Give in secret so that you'll be rewarded by your Father who sees in secret. You see, there's ways for us to now begin to lay up treasure in heaven. Begin to make decisions that make sense in light of heaven. Some of the ones he gave us just then were praying, fasting, giving. In other places in the Bible, he's going to say, give to the poor.
Sell your possessions, give to the poor and buy for yourself money bags that don't grow old. Or he's going to say, Paul's going to say for us in 1 Timothy, he says, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty. That means arrogant. Nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. So he doesn't say it's wrong to be rich.
What he says is, tell the rich people to be really generous and to not place their hope in money. To do good, to do good works, to pay for people, to provide for people, to feed people. Thus storing up treasure for themselves is a good foundation for the future so they may take hold of that which is truly life. In Matthew chapter 25, he looks at people and he says, y'all fed me when I was hungry. You clothed me when I was naked. You visited me when I was in prison.
He begins to lay out for them, here's why you're rewarded. Here's what I noticed. Here's what you cared about. We're told over and over again that we should live our lives for the mission to see people come to know Jesus, that we should make intentional, tactical decisions with our time and our money and our jobs and our income and our wealth and our intelligence so that we can see more people come to know Christ because at the end of our lives, our short little 50 year blip that we're here, all that's going to matter is what we did for Christ and what was for his kingdom and everything else is going to be burned up and gone.
So Jesus says this, let's pick up in verse 22. In the middle of this section on money and he's going to get back to money, he's going to get back to treasure, he says, the eye is the lamp of the body. Now he's speaking in a kind of an idiom they would have understood. They believe mostly that your eye actually projected light into the world and that your eye was connected to your heart. So he's already talking about the heart, where your treasure is, there your heart will be and so now when he starts talking about your eye, they immediately connect that to heart as well.
We don't connect it in the same way. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? So what he's saying is if you don't see this, if your view on this is wrong, if your understanding of this, your vision here is short-sighted, you're going to live your life in the dark.
And how dark is it going to be? But if you see this, if it's well lit, if you understand what the implications of what he's talking about, then everything makes sense. Everything's lit up. Some of you are kind of clumsy. So periodically, you bump into things in a well-lit room.
Most of the time, you don't. But if you have to walk through a room in the dark, one of the things that happens at my house is I will be getting ready for bed, Anna will be in bed, I'll cut the light off and I'll have to walk around our bed. And I think probably 40% of the time, I hit something on the way. And I don't hit things gently. It's not like I'm tiptoeing through this room. You'd think I would learn by now.
But there are times where I hit the bed and the whole thing slams against the wall and shakes. And she's like, what's wrong with you? And I was like, well, who hid a bed in here? And Jesus is saying, you're going to walk around in the dark. You're going to make terrible decisions. Decisions you wouldn't make if you saw this clearly, you're going to look like a fool.
My family used to play a game called Blind Man's Bluff. We'd take one of my dad's dress socks, clean one, and tie it around our face like a blindfold. And then we would all be in one room on the carpet and then there was like linoleum or whatever. And the game was, whoever had the blindfold had to get everybody else out. Starts off fairly simple because the room's kind of small. You can't see.
They can. And then you'd tag everybody and get them out. And once you got everybody, game was over. Or once it got down to the last person they had won or something like that. For years, when it was my mom's turn, my dad would let her tag him out first. He would get off to the side.
Then he would signal to his three sons to join him quietly. And then we would all stand and watch as my mom jumped around in the room trying to tag people who didn't exist. And my dad would go, right behind you. And she would like jump backwards and he'd go, oh, you just missed him. And then eventually, he would send us all back out there to get tagged so that she didn't know this had happened. She listens to the sermon periodically.
This may be the moment she finds out. I'm not sure we ever told her. Everybody in the room saw clearly but her and knew exactly what was going on. That was the point of the joke. She looked kind of foolish. We got to enjoy it.
Jesus says, this one isn't funny. You look foolish and no one's going to be laughing. You're missing it if you don't see this clearly. You're in utter darkness and how great is that darkness. And American Christians, we've bought it. We've bought it.
We are supremely good, maybe above all else, all the other churches in the world at laying up earthly treasures. And Jesus says, it's going to work here and it's going to be gone. And we need to live our lives for heavenly ones. Let's keep reading. No one can serve two masters. This is verse 24.
No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. What you do on earth will have two places that it terminates. You will either live a life on earth where all of your work, your energy, everything that you do terminates, ends on earth. Or, your life on earth will terminate and end never because it's sent forward into eternity. That's where he talks about being generous, being good, living your life with, I understand that eternity matters so I've got to make decisions in light of that.
I know all of y'all huge country music fans. Tim McGraw has a song called Live Like You Were Dying and people lost their mind when that song came out so that it got way, way overplayed. They should have played it on the radio like twice and we could have just moved on. They played it way too much. Jesus is saying, live like you weren't dying. Make decisions that only make sense in light of an eternity.
If I've died for you and rescued you and redeemed you and given you eternal life, start making investment decisions that last beyond 30, 40, 50, 80 years because you cannot serve both which is so helpful and so terrifying but it means that your decisions, your effort tomorrow, your life this week, your business decisions, your life goals and decisions for the next 10 years or 15 years or 20 years, they will either go towards earth or heaven. That's it. Pretty clean cut. The things you buy, the way you spend your time, how you interact with people will either go towards earth enjoyment or heaven enjoyment.
Will either go towards you believing that your treasure is here or you believing that your treasure is in eternity. And so that's why Jesus calls us to live lives as if we understand eternity exists. So this means that you should sacrifice. You should throw parties just to invite other people in, just to build friendships. You should spend the money you would have spent on something else to welcome people into your home and to build relationships. You should stay in the neighborhood you're in even though you have the opportunity to move to a nicer one so that you continue to build relationships with the people around you.
You should stay in the job you're in even though you have the opportunity to transfer and make more money because of the relationships you've built. You should say, Jesus, I'm sacrificing. I'm going to do this with my life so that I can see people come to know you. You should take a job in your field that involves serving people and connecting with people and working towards the good of others rather than your good, your benefit, your bottom line. You should get up early to pray. You should get up early to serve and give up some sleep.
You should give up time to help others study the Bible and learn how to study the Bible. There should be time where you give up your nice evening where you were going to enjoy yourself to go sit next to someone else and let them cry and you join them in crying and mourning and hurting when you didn't have to. You see, middle class Americans can insulate themselves for the world. We don't have to be around homeless people. We don't have to be around people that are hurting and broken. We don't have to be around people who are messy and make terrible decision after terrible decision after terrible decision and continually harm their lives.
We can be insulated from that and what Jesus is saying, no, uninsulate yourself for the sake of an eternal decision that makes way more sense. That's what he's calling us into. So, you'll either spend your life for earthly goods or heavenly ones. You'll spend your life for earthly gain or heavenly gain. what's the purpose of your savings account? What's the purpose of your job? What is the goal of your time?
What do you dream about and long for? If Jesus went back right now and over the past month answered everything you had prayed for and everything that in conversations you had said, I hope this happens. I wish this would work out. This is really what I'm shooting for. If he walks back right now over the past month, gathered all of that information and said, done. Let me ask you a question.
Would that go on into eternity or would it stop 50 years from now? Would all the things you're dreaming and hoping and longing for and begging Jesus to work on, are those going to be heavenly kingdom treasures? Are those going to be things that one day you'll stand in front of him and be excited that he answered and be so proud and happy that you got to be a part of it? Or is it going to be one day when you walk in front of him and you realize that everything you've built up and everything that you've piled around you and everything that you've lived your life and energy and sweat and tears and heart and longed for is going to be gone?
What are we serving? Is it going to be eaten, stolen, and rusty? Or is it going to enter into the kingdom where the heavenly king reigns and everything stays forever? Okay. So Jesus says this, you can't serve God and money and immediately he knows our response.
And so he goes from, I think, being really kind of intense to being really gracious and pastoral. You can't serve God and money and what we want to say is, okay, even if I hypothetically agree with you, quit my job? Because if I go to work, serving money, right? Quit my job? Don't feed my kids? Starve and be naked.
It's the rebuttal, right? 25. Therefore, I tell you, so because of all this, because you can't serve God and money, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not more of more value than they? Of which of you being anxious can add a single hour to a span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon, that was the great king in Israel's past, in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, he will not much more clothe you, O you of little faith.
So our response is, I would die, I would starve, I would be naked, and he says, no. If you're living your life for serving God, how much more is he going to take care of you? Is he going to provide for you? And then he takes two things that are so easy to see. He says, look at flowers. You ever just been caught up looking at flowers?
You're just walking along and seeing a bunch of flowers are in a field and it's like you almost wrecked your car because for some reason this entire field just turned yellow and you're just like, wow. Places that are well manicured, you're just like, this is so, like maybe my neighbor's yard, not my yard, but other people's yards where they have like flowers and stuff. It's so beautiful. He says, listen to the birds. It's about to be spring. We're about to get to see flowers and birds and here's what he says.
God's paying attention to each one of those, clothing them and feeding them. You'll be fine. Now, I wouldn't argue. We talk about this all the time. I would not say, everyone in here, quit your jobs. That's serving money.
What I would say to some of you, quit your job. You need to go do something else. Maybe you're supposed to go to the mission field. Maybe you're supposed to go to some hard to reach place, spend your life sweating and toiling and then eventually be beheaded and go meet the king. Living a life that only made sense in eternity. For many of you, I would say, don't quit your job but begin to serve God in your job.
Use your money to serve God and use your time at work to serve God because he's intentionally placed a missionary in a place where there are no other Christians. That most annoying co-worker of yours that drives you crazy, that is bitter and angry and hateful, yeah, Jesus put you there for them. To begin praying for them, to begin intentionally inviting them to things, to welcome them into your home, to share meals with them, to confide in them, let them confide in you, to love them and care for them so that they might come to know Christ. Why don't you start living your life in your job as if you believed eternity existed and mattered?
That's what he's going to say. Here's what I love about this illustration because it's so simple that he gives us. He says, consider the birds, consider the flowers, how much more value do you have than them? I grew up watching some Batman movies and cartoons and stuff. Here's one of the things that would happen often in Batman movies or cartoons. Batman would find the Joker or any other criminal villain but we're going to go with Joker.
This was back when Batman used to talk like a normal kind of, maybe intense person but like a normal person before Batman talked like this all the time. So that, you know, he can't be Bruce Wayne normally because he's so hoarse from yelling at criminals. This was a normal Batman where he would just like talk like he cared about justice. That Batman. And he would come to the point with Joker and Joker would have Robin, the boy wonder and he'd have him like dangling over a pit with sharks or something and then he would have like whatever girl Batman tended to be interested in or Commissioner Gordon hanging over here and he would basically pitch it as like you can only save one of them.
And so here's what's happening in this scenario. Batman comes to meet the Joker and the Joker says, welcome Batman. I'm so happy you're here. I'm going to do an impression the whole time. I don't even know this sounds like a Joker. I'm doing it.
I'm so glad you're here. You can only save your friend Robin, the boy wonder. I see dangles over this pit filled with sharks. Ha ha ha ha ha. Or you can save, you won't have enough time, this beautiful bouquet of lilies dangling over this pit of acid. Which will you save?
And Batman's like, wait, Robin or lilies? Beautiful perennials. Yeah, I'm just going to, can I just start walking towards Robin? You can press the button whenever you want to. What about the lilies? Yep, put them in the lava.
Acid, sure, don't care. Lilies, we will make more. That's what Jesus just said. He said, no one even hesitates on this. You were birds. You.
You were flowers. You. God's taking care of flowers. He's taking care of birds. You. He's not going to leave you hanging.
And, here's the beautiful promise that we have in scripture. That in the moments when the world would gather around and say, yeah, they went on that mission trip and they were killed. They went to that mission field and they were beheaded. Didn't God leave them hanging? The Bible's going to step in and say, no, he did them a great honor. They got so much more eternal treasure in that moment than I may ever get in my entire life.
God said, you're going to live your life for me. You're going to spend your time for me, your money for me. Have I got great reward for you? This is going to be a train wreck here. Oh, but it's going to be so beautiful. You're going to see such glory and such honor and such magnitude of reward that your father has been watching and caring for you.
Your parents aren't going to understand, your friends aren't going to understand. This is going to make no sense here. But let me tell you something. Second grade's really short. There's so much more to come. And then he promises in that, I'm going to provide.
You'll eat. You'll wear pants. He does not promise jet skis. But he promises rewards so far beyond we could imagine. See, one of the things he talks about is we get heathered treasure or money bags that don't grow old. I think one of the reasons the Bible isn't really clear on the treasure is because we wouldn't understand it.
We don't understand the value of the eternal treasure. We don't have a concept for it. So what he just says is it's going to be better. He's asking us to trust him. And here's the thing that Jesus came to do for us. He came because he really believes this.
That's why he lived his life sold out for one purpose, for the kingdom, for the glory of God, for his name. That's why he went to a cross to die at a very young age to rescue and redeem us because he understands the trade was worth it. That's why Hebrews said that for the joy set before him he endured the cross because he's invited us into an eternal kingdom. That's what he's come. He put his money where his mouth is. He believes this and through the cross we can have an eternal life.
We can be brought to him. Verse 31 Therefore do not be anxious saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for the Gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them. For many of you in the room maybe that is your primary anxiety and concern. I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills. I don't know how I'm going to feed myself. I don't know how I'm going to feed my kids.
And the promise here is so beautiful. Trust him. You worry about his kingdom. You worry about people needing to know him and he'll take care of you. But for most of us as Americans our anxiety when it comes to money and clothes and food is not am I going to starve and am I going to be naked?
No, it has way more to do with brand names and am I going to look good? So he says the Gentiles are chasing after all these things. This is what they worry about. See it used to be there was a guy who lived in your town and he cobbled shoes. He was a cobbler. And he would make basically the amount of shoes for feet that were in the town.
You might own two pairs of shoes dress pair like your Sunday pair and your regular other pair and then most of the time you didn't wear shoes because they just couldn't. When they made robots that make shoes and we got you know production lines in gear they have to sell us way more shoes than we have feet so that's where advertisement comes in. They've got to sell you not just you need shoes. Have you seen advertisements that are like you need shoes? No. They sell you on an identity.
They sell you on value system. This is the difference between Hanes and Abercrombie. Hanes is selling you a shirt. That's why they tell you stuff like it doesn't have a tag it'll stay tucked in. Why? Because it's just a white t-shirt.
They've got to sell you on the shirt. Abercrombie sells clothes but they're not selling you on the shirt they're selling you on style. If you see an Abercrombie a bag at the mall the guy on the bag doesn't have a shirt on. Buy our shirts and you cannot wear a shirt and be cool like this guy. And I see that and I'm like I want to be cool like that guy. Maybe if I buy a shirt I can have abs.
Like that's it's a trick. I won't get abs and I'll look weird in the shirt. That's why I bought Hanes Stay Tuck shirts. Like that's that's the ad pitch that's working on me. But we're being sold.
We're worried about all these other things. And here's the thing. It's not going to matter. Jesus is stepping in saying let me explain something to you. Browning Glock LuLaRoe all the cool things you saw on Pinterest Ford not going to make it. They're not going to make it.
There is going to be stuff that does none of those are. And I know some of y'all thought LuLaRoe's going to make it. Not going to make it. We're being sold a lot. And we're going to spend our lives chasing after things that are going to matter for a year two years three years four years Apple not making it. Some of y'all like Android might not not going to make it.
I know the texting thing is cooler not coming. 33 seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Remember all these things are food and clothing. Care about his kingdom his righteousness care about people meeting Jesus care about God's holiness on earth care about people being fed and his justice and care about him at work and everything else will take care of itself. That's the promise. And as much as he can he's trying to make eye contact with us.
He's trying to say do you see this? Do you hear me? Eventually this is all that's going to matter. And he proves it when he goes to the cross to redeem us and to buy for us in eternity by trading in his life. And he calls us to the same. To live our life for his kingdom and his glory and his name because that's ultimately all that's going to matter.
There's a poem by C.T. Studd who was a missionary who spent his life in Africa and China. The refrain in it is only life only one life which will soon be passed only what's done for Christ will last. Only one life which will soon be passed only what's done for Christ will last. Verse 34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Worry about his kingdom worry about his glory and don't worry about anything else. He'll provide he'll care he'll tend there is no choice for him it's a no brainer when it comes to flowers and birds and us. He's got you. The band's going to come back up here and here's the question for us all your life right now if your goals came true if your hopes and dreams everything you've been talking about everything you've been laying in bed thinking about everything you daydream about if it all came true is it done in 50 years? Do you have a really nice comfortable retirement? And that's it?
Do you drive really nice cars your whole life? And that's it? That was the trade you made? Some of us are sitting down right now at the face tattoo station and Jesus is saying get up stop this is silly you see he's you could take everything all the cool stuff you saw on Pinterest all the ways to trick out a bathroom you learned about from HGTV the house the jet skis the cars the status the title the manager position the master's degree you could take it all and pile it up they could lay out before you everything you would ever achieve or earn in your life that would be put in your obituary that people would read and say he's accomplished so much and you could pile it up and if it wasn't done for Christ it's going to be gone and Jesus is walking out from behind the curtain and he sees your life and he sees every ounce of potential you have and every bit of work you'll ever put forth and all the amount of intelligence and effort and time you've got on earth and he looks at you and he looks at that pile of stuff and he says take what's behind the curtain so I suggest we start opening up our wallets we start opening up our homes we start opening up our time our schedule we start opening up our hearts to love people who are hard to love and we begin to live as if we realize one day this is done and there's an eternity to come with a high king who's worth it and reward that we can't even understand or fathom right now that'll make all the silly decisions we made right here so blatantly obvious and every time we invested in something that mattered so epically worth it let's pray God I ask that right now through your Holy Spirit you would change our hearts God we need you to reorient our hearts to value what matters don't let us fumble around in the dark but help us to see clearly your eternity that you bought for us through your blood and your sacrifice on the cross may we place faith in you for an eternal life and then may we live as if we actually believe that life is to come God I pray that our church will be filled with people making decisions that only make sense in light of eternity and I pray that you would give us through the power of your Holy Spirit faithfulness to stay there may we invest in heavenly treasure and laugh at everything else along the way in Jesus name we pray Amen because spices come to rise and HAR
Small Talk and God
Transcript
Well, all right, how we doing this morning? All right. Grab your Bibles, go to Matthew chapter 6. Maybe that'll wake you up. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 6. We've been walking through verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount.
We're just spending a couple times, a couple, spending some time and several weeks in this section of text where Jesus is teaching his followers what it's going to look like for them to follow him, what it looks like to be his people. We spent last time we were together, we talked through a section where Jesus is basically saying not to practice your righteousness in front of other people, not to to pray or to give or to be generous or to serve for the purpose of having other people see you and think, wow, look at how they pray, give and serve like to not have people look at you and think, what a wonderful person. And he says, if you do that, if that's your purpose, if that's your goal, if you stand up and pray and you pray so eloquently that it was like you poured honey in everyone's ears and it was so beautiful and they thought, man, I'll never be able to pray like that. What he says is, if that was your goal, goal accomplished, everyone thinks you're great at praying.
They can listen to it. I'm not going to. That's basically what he's saying. If your goal is to serve in a way that shows everyone how well you serve and how, how sacrificial you are and how generous you are. And that was your goal was so that everyone could see how great you are. You did it.
Well done. Everyone saw how great you were. Everyone saw how sacrificial you are. It doesn't actually count. Like I'm not rewarding that. And so he says to do all of these things in secret.
And then he rewards them. And in the middle of that section, he says, here's how you ought to pray. And so we just kind of moved past it last time. We're actually focusing in on it today. And we're just going to talk about how do we pray? How basically he's going to talk about what makes prayer effective and how do we do it?
Like, what do we say? And those are the two things we'll spend our time looking at today. So let's before we talk about prayer, let's pray. It just feels right. So let's do that.
Lord, we pray that you'd bless this time we have this morning, that you'd help us to grow in what it means to pray, understanding prayer, and that this would be a people that prays, that we would be a church that prays for your kingdom and your glory in this city. In Jesus' name, amen. So let's pick up in verse 5. We're going to look at Jesus is saying, don't do this, but do this. And we're going to kind of see what he's hinting at here, what he's teaching us here. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.
Now, a hypocrite is someone who pretends to be something on the outside, but is actually something different on the inside. So he says, don't be like them, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. So that's what we were just talking about. He's saying if your point of your prayer is to be seen, well done, you did it. That's all you get, though.
So, verse 6. But you, when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And so as he begins, he's basically saying prayer is about you and God. Prayer is about you and the Father. That's it.
So that's why he says go into your room, close the door, pray in secret. The point of prayer is for you to communicate, speak to, relate to God. That essentially prayer is a conversation with God. It's listening to him and talking to him. That's what prayer is. Now for some of us, when you hear that, that prayer is a conversation, maybe you get a little uncomfortable.
I know that we have, increasingly I've had people tell me they have social anxiety. I think it's just because we've labeled something, people now know what to call it. What they mean is when they get around people, they get uncomfortable. And there's a lot of people I know that just like having small talk is very awkward and difficult. I'm not the best at it. I do have this in my favor.
I don't feel uncomfortable when things get uncomfortable. So I've been in conversations and thought, oh, this has gotten awkward. But there's part of me that just kind of enjoys that. I just look around at the people who are like really struggling with the fact. So it makes me not the best person to have small talk with because you may be sweating bullets and feeling terrible.
And I'm like, this is interesting. Like this just, sorry, that happens. But I do know there are a couple of things I've worked on to try to be better at talking to people. Because when we started a church, one of the things you do as a pastor is you have to talk to people. And I wasn't the best at it. So I've worked on a few things.
And I can tell you a few things I've worked on. One of the things I was told, I was told that it's better in a conversation to be interested rather than to be interesting. And so they just said, just ask questions. So I do this. And I remember I met one of the guys who's in our community group now. I met him when we were working at Sears together.
And after we'd been talking for a little while, he goes, dude, are you like in school to be a cop or something? And I was like, well, why? And he goes, you just asked me 20 questions in a row. Like that's enough. And I was like, oh. This guy named Quincy brought one of his friends to our community group a couple weeks ago.
And I was talking to him. And legitimately he looked at me and said, okay, that's too many questions. I'm done. Stop asking me questions. And I was like, I'm overdoing this, I guess. But what I thought was being interested has turned into an interrogation.
And this is also part of the problem that I have is that this is my listening face. So if you're talking to me and I'm interested in what you have to say, this is how I'm going to be looking. And if it gets more interesting, there's a good chance, like if we're at a table or something, I may just start leaning in. So I've been in conversations with people where they start getting uncomfortable because they think I'm disagreeing or I'm upset by what they're saying. And with just cause, did y'all just see my face? And so they start being like, well, maybe, maybe it's not quite that.
And like, like you start trying to retract some of what they're saying. And when they do that, I get more interested in like, what are they, what are they talking about now? And so there's times where people get uncomfortable and I do this. And I start looking at them like, what, what, why did you stop talking? What are you, you know? And then I realized, oh, I look like a crazy person.
And so I've tried to work on this, but it makes it worse. I'll go. Raise my eyebrow, smile a little bit. And I do that some of the people who know I'm working on this. So they'll be talking to me and I'm going, and they're gonna do this worse.
You really got to quit that. But for some of us, when you hear, uh, it's a conversation immediately, you go, oh, I'm terrible at conversations. Like I, I don't know how to carry on a conversation. And it feels like if prayer is a conversation that makes it even more difficult. I'd love for prayer to be something that I, I recite. I'd love for prayer to be something that I memorize.
When Jesus says, this is the model prayer. And he says, this is how you ought to pray. I'd much rather just memorize that and say it. But no, what he's saying is it's a conversation. It's you talking to God, but he's going to give us some help there. So he says in verse seven, when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do.
Gentiles were non-Jewish people. Um, so that'd have been the Greeks or Romans that were around them for, they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask him. So the two things that Jesus is going to help us with today, it's going to tell us what makes prayer effective, what actually makes it work. And then how do we do it? And in this section right here in verse seven and eight, he's answering what makes it effective because that's the, that's the thing he's addressing.
He says, the Gentiles think that they'll be heard for their many phrases. I think they'll be heard because they talk so much because of their presentation. And I think that's what some of us think that if I'm going to have to talk to God, my presentation has to be good. I have to say the right words and in the right way. And I have to kind of know how to pray. And sometimes you'll hear someone else pray and you'll think, well, that's how you're supposed to pray.
I can't do any of that because we begin to believe that it's how we present it, what we say, the words we use, the phrases we use. And that's what he's saying. He's saying that Gentiles think this is how you have to do it in order to be heard. And their tactic, their method was to just say things over and over again. And he's saying it's not that. It's not your presentation.
Because imagine if you got to go in front of Congress to lobby for something or to make an argument for something, something you deeply care about. We would be very concerned with our presentation. What do we look like? What are we saying? What are we asking for? Are we going to have charts?
Are we going to use PowerPoint? Are we going to have some sort of well-crafted argument? And he's saying that there's a temptation for people to believe that when I pray, I have to present it well. I have to pray correctly. And he just says, no, that's not what makes it effective. And he tells us in 8 what makes it effective.
Do not be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. And then he says, pray like this. So he says, what makes it effective is not your presentation. What makes it effective is that God is your father. That he knows you.
He knows what you need. He's intimately related to you. He cares about you. He's paying attention to you. That image of a father is a beautiful imagery. I recently became a dad.
We celebrated my son's two-year birthday. Two-year-old birthday. His second birthday. There we go. We celebrated his second birthday. I don't know.
St. Patrick's Day. Two days ago. And being a dad, I get this picture a little more now. And I understand what he's saying. And he's like, I am supremely interested in my son.
Like, if we're in a group of other children and I hear them, like one of them crying. I'll go, oh, is that? And I'll look. And if it's not my kid, I suddenly don't care anymore. It's like, not mine. Doing great.
Rock and roll. Like, you get to where you can tell the difference between your kid crying. I've been in rooms with dads and we have a kid in the other room. And they'll go, whose is that? And I'll be like, no, it's not mine. That's not what he cries like.
That you get, you care. I have never been that interested in children. They come over and tell you stuff. And I'm just like, uh-huh, that's great. Yeah, mm-hmm, all right. But my son, when he wants to tell me something, like I sit on the floor and just listen to him babble.
He doesn't even know how to use words right yet. And I think everything he says is really interesting. It's not even English. He's learning a little bit. We did ask him the other day how old he was. And he said, come on.
I don't know. And I was like, I am so proud of you. Most parents would be proud if you knew how old you were. I'm proud of this answer right here. But I'm very, like, and that's what he's saying.
God's saying, I'm your father. So with my son, I've held him until he fell asleep. I went and laid him in his crib. I've taken his shoes off so he'd sleep better. I've watched over him. I've disciplined him because I care about him.
One of the things that we talk a lot about, my wife and I, is like, how do we raise him? How do we care for him? How do we discipline him? One of the things that's implemented at our house is if he's throwing a fit, if he's crying, he doesn't get anything. Except for maybe spanked. Because we don't want to train him that the only way to be happy is to be miserable.
The only way to get what you want is to throw a fit first. So if he throws a fit, he doesn't get anything. I'll say, look, you're not getting anything from me like that. You better stop crying unless you want to get spanked. And he's beginning to learn crying and throwing a fit isn't the best way to be happy. It's a good way to get spanked.
But I've disciplined him because I care about him. I want him to be well adjusted and have joy. And when Jesus says, your father knows you, he knows what you need. He's interment related. He's saying the same thing. God's looking and saying, I've watched over you while you slept.
I've cleaned up your messes. I've disciplined you because I care about you. I've walked with you through life. And I'm interested in you and what you have to say. I'm interested in what's going on with you. And this promise is not fully realized or is only fully realized through the gospel.
You see, Jesus is talking to his disciples and he's saying, this is what my people are going to look like. And when he says, he's your father, Jesus actually purchases that right for us. For those who have placed faith in Christ, he purchases that right for us on the cross. I'm going to read a few sections. Galatians 4 says this. Ephesians 1 says this.
I'm going to read something from Romans 8. But it says, for all those who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into the fear. But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs.
Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. He's saying that through Christ we've been adopted into the family that the Holy Spirit's come into us. And it's not that God is like our father. If you are a Christian, God is your father. That you've been adopted into the family. Later in Romans he says this.
For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. In order that he, that's Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brothers. That Jesus is the eldest brother in God's family. And that all those who place faith in him have been adopted and are children and heirs. When he says he's your father, he doesn't mean, here's an image. He's saying this is the reality.
For those who will follow me. For those who will belong to me. For those who are mine. When you pray, you're praying to your father. And he loves you. And he cares about you.
And he knows you. And that's what makes prayer effective. You don't have to do it well. You don't have to craft good arguments. You don't have to pray eloquently. One of the things I've noticed by having my son who doesn't, cannot articulate what he wants.
Is that I'm trying to figure it out. When he comes to me and says, I don't go, look at here boy, unless you learn to enunciate clearly, you will never get anything in this household. And then push him. I don't do that. I don't. I go, pat pat.
What the heck is a pat pat? I try to figure it out. And that's what he's saying. When you come to your father, you don't have to come to him with eloquence. Or the right words. Or a perfect formulated argument.
You don't have to flatter him or butter him up. You just get to come to him because he cares about you. That's what makes prayer effective. Is that God, if you are in Christ, has redeemed you, adopted you, has made you his own. And his love is for you and over you. And he is your father.
He's not like your father. He is your father. Prayer gets to be that when we speak to him. But then Jesus does help us with the second question, which is, okay, that's the tone. That's the attitude. That's the posture of the conversation.
But how? How do we actually pray? And I think when we're asking that question, what we really mean is what do we pray? So I remember being in middle school and asking my dad, how do you talk to girls? That was a legitimate question I had. Hey, like, how do you talk to them?
And I knew English, how to formulate sentences. What I really didn't mean was how. What I meant was what on earth do you talk to a girl about? How do you begin this? What are the topics? What do you say?
Like, what's the appropriate? How do you pray about? How do you pray about? Like, that's what I think Jesus is answering when he says, pray like this. I think he's answering us. What do you pray about?
What do we need to talk to God about? What are the things that should be on our prayer list? And so here's my hope. As we walk through this, we're going to kind of just go through and say, here's what he's talking about. And my hope is for us as Christians, not only that we would be praying, but that as we walk through this today, if you see anything and you think, oh, I don't ever pray about that. That you'd put it on like it would become a normal way for you to pray.
Normal topic for you to pray about. Because I think that's what he's helping us with here. So let's pick up in verse 9. Pray then like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. So remember, he's saying our Father.
To remember who you're speaking to, he's our Father, but he's also our Father in heaven. So he's vast and massive and glorious and good. And then he says, hallowed be your name. Some of you maybe have different translations. You may have translations you may have. May your name be honored as holy.
That's a good translation. We don't really use the name hallowed. But it means may you be above everything else. May you be honored, respected, revered, glorified. So when he says this, when you begin to pray, some of what we pray about needs to be just praising God for who he is, for his gloriousness, for his goodness.
And this isn't flattery. This isn't me in high school talking to one of the cafeteria workers and slightly flirting with her to try to get an extra cookie. That's not it. It's not when you talk to God, you've got to butter him up first with like, oh, God, you're so special. And then secretly bring out the thing you really want. No, this is the appropriate way that we would begin praying.
That we would acknowledge how good he is. And this is what we do naturally for all things that are good and massive and glorious. So, like, let's say you ran into, it's always been interesting to me, when people meet someone famous, they spend the first little bit usually telling the person who they are and why they're famous. You're Michael Jordan. You're the greatest basketball player who's ever lived. And Michael Jordan's thinking, I'm so glad you told me that because I did not know.
You're Aaron Rodgers. Like, you know, like we would just, you're Neff Campbell. Like, I don't know. You just be popping off with like, you tell them who they are. That's like one of the ways that we would react. The other thing that we do when we see something glorious, we were watching a sunset last night, hanging out with my family.
And we're talking and we would just all stop and be like, look at that. And then you say things like, it's so orange. And the person next to you goes, yeah. He's saying that's one of the ways we ought to begin praying is by coming to God and saying, God, you're glorious. You're honorable. You're beautiful.
You're loving. Not only does it, is it the appropriate response for us when we see someone so good and so glorious, but it also puts us in the right frame of mind to who we're speaking to and what we're talking about. I think the other thing that we need to see here when we say and begin praise with, hallowed be your name. May you be above all else. We're also praying, God, help me to love you more than I love money because I'm so tempted to think that it is above all else. Help me to love you more than I love romance and relationships because I'm so tempted to believe that they're above all else.
Help me to love you more than I love success and approval and having everyone clap and pat me on the back and tell me I'm great because I'm so tempted to believe that that's above everything else. God, may you be above everything else. So do we pray like that? Is that part of your normal praying to praise God, to glorify him? Verse 10. He says, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So God's kingdom and Matthew talks a lot about it or Jesus talks a lot about it in Matthew's gospel. God's kingdom is his rule and reign on earth. It's his righteous rule and reign on earth. And it's it's also the advance of the gospel. All of those who believe in him and faithfully follow him. That's his kingdom.
And it's it's his justice and his equity and his righteousness and his care for the poor. It's that's his kingdom as it moves forward. It's all the good things that come along with those who've been changed by the gospel and their work on earth. And so one of the ways we ought to be praying is that God's kingdom would advance. That's us praying for justice. That's us praying for fairness, for truth.
That people who commit crimes would be caught and convicted and people who did not commit crimes would would not be convicted. That that would be handled well. That we would we pray for God's right rule that people wouldn't take bribes. That that there would be fairness and equity and love. But it's also us praying that people would meet Jesus.
That for many of us and many of our friends and for the majority of the people in the city, they're facing a Christless eternity. That there will be a day when they stand before the king and all that will matter is that Jesus pay for your sin or are you going to. And that we would care and pray and say, God, this would be lists of names for us. God, be at work. Let your kingdom advance at my job in school. Let your kingdom advance over my neighborhood and begin asking specific people that God would save, that his kingdom would advance in.
I think when he says your will be done, I think we also have the freedom to any time we really have no clue what should happen or how something should work out. We just get to say, God, let your will be done. Let the way this should look in heaven look here. The way I should respond if I was a perfectly heavenly creature, let me respond that way. Empower me to do that. I think we also get to pray that his kingdom would advance in our hearts, that we would love truth and justice and honesty and all the good heavenly qualities of Jesus so they would be at work in us to change us.
So do you pray about those things? Is that a normal way for you to pray? Is that on your prayer list? If not, it should be. Because these are the things that Jesus is saying we ought to pray about. Verse 11.
Give us this day our daily bread. Um, this is just you get to pray for provision and normal daily stuff, small stuff that he would. This is where you get to say, God, I have a light bill. Could you help us pay that? I've got doctor's appointments coming up and I'm gonna have to be able to pay a copay or I've got insurance debt. Oh, that we just begin to pray for normal stuff.
Will you feed us? Will you care for us? I also want to point out that this is a daily prayer. He says, will you give us this day our daily bread? Meaning that he assumes you'll be praying to God daily and about these things on a very regular daily basis. Um, all the things that he's given us here.
This is normal stuff. I've heard some people before. For some of us it seems like there are some people in this room who maybe never pray prayers in this category. I've had someone tell me before, like, their shoulder was hurting and I was like, well, I'll pray about that. And they said, no, don't bother God with trivial stuff. And it's like, first of all, he's outside of time.
So he's okay. Like, he, he's good. He's not busy. He can handle it. Second of all, he's your father and he cares about you. So he cares that your shoulders hurt.
He may not fix it, but we can pray about it. Like, we, you can pray about all the normal stuff. For a lot of us in this room, this may be the only stuff you pray about. That it's only, uh, stuff that's coming up, stuff that's on your schedule, stuff that's going on. And that's, that's good. We ought to pray about that.
We ought to pray about our bills. We ought to pray about our life situations. We ought to pray about the things we need. He says he knows what you need. Go ahead and ask him. He cares.
But that shouldn't be all that we pray about. But this is the area where we would be praying about paying bills, getting a job, got a test coming up. I remember when I was in school, I always prayed, Lord, help me remember everything I studied and help me guess well. That was my test prayer. Everything I actually studied, let me remember that so that I didn't waste that time. And also, let me just, just work some, some of your grace on this test.
But that's, we get to pray about those things. The last, the last section we're going to look at here, it kind of shifts, I think. But still things that we ought to be praying about regularly. So he says, and forgive us our debts. This is verse 12. And forgive us our debts as we also forgive, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. I think we're familiar with the term debt. It means that we owe something. So some of us have school debt or credit card debt or house debt or car debt or debt, debt, debt, debt. And when he says this, he's talking about not just, not financial debt, but actually a sin debt. So that's why some versions will say, forgive us our sins or forgive us our trespasses, where we've stepped over the line, where we've missed the Mark, where we've harmed someone or we've sinned against you or others.
And he says, forgive us as we've forgiven those who've sinned against us, meaning that when we sin, we have debt with God and debt with others. So that there's a human debt from sin and a debt with God, a cosmic, eternal debt of sin. And so he says it's a normal daily thing for his followers who are speaking to the father to repent of sin, to ask for forgiveness. And here's what I want us to see here. This is actually a beautiful invitation into some freedom and joy and grace that I don't want us to miss out on. So I've heard some people before say that when you become a Christian, Jesus pays for all of your sin, past, present and future.
And that is true. All of your sin is covered, that you stand clothed in righteousness because of Christ. And so then they'll follow that up with, so Christians don't actually have to repent anymore. They don't have to acknowledge their sin anymore. It's already paid for. So you should not ever be as a Christian.
Just don't worry about it. Go, you're free. And I've also heard people say, no, you've got to repent of everything. And you've got to think about it and you've really got to figure out what it was. And you've got to know exactly. And you've got to take that to God.
And if there's anything going on, you better repent, repent, repent, repent. And really what Jesus is saying is that, first of all, can I just point out? Jesus, who's training his followers what it looks like to be his people, goes ahead and assumes they're going to daily have some things to repent about. Now, if Mill City Church doesn't say amen about anything, I think we say amen about that. We're going to have some stuff to repent about. There's going to be some things that we mess up, that we fail in, that we hurt each other and hurt God and rebel.
Like he just assumes. He's talking to his disciples, the 12 guys who he's training. He says, look, guys, when y'all talk to God, go ahead and know you've got some stuff to talk about. That's so freeing to me. And what he's saying is you're invited to have your debt forgiven. That you ought to acknowledge your sin on a regular basis and repent.
But that repentance is a celebration of the fact that my debt is paid. You get to go to him and say, forgive it. Forgive this debt. If there was going to be a place set up in downtown Columbia where all you had to do was show up and get debt forgiven, how long is that line? How long is that line? How amazing is that store or government program?
Where just your debt's wiped away. And that's what he's saying is you get to come to God and say, thank you. This is a celebration of the cross that Jesus paid our debt. And so we get to ask for forgiveness. So if you're a Christian, it should be a normal thing for you to repent.
For you to acknowledge sin where you've sinned against people in your community group or people in your family. And you repent. You go to God and say, forgive me. Wipe this debt clean. And you go to them and talk to them about it and ask for and repent there as well. So it's a good mixture of both.
We should acknowledge our sin. But when we acknowledge it, it's not grovelly fear based. It's celebration. Jesus, be at work in me. Continue to forgive me. Help me to walk in the forgiveness you've bought.
It's joy. He clarifies, though, because he says a statement here that I think he says, give us. No, sorry. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. So he either means kind of at the same time as we or in the same manner.
And so then in 14, I think he clarifies for us. So jump down to verse 14 because he's going to kind of answer what he was saying there. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. I think it's easy to not like those two verses, not because they're confusing, but because they aren't. What he said there was pretty clear.
Your forgiving of others is how you will be forgiven. If you forgive others, you're forgiven. If you don't forgive others, you're not forgiven. Now, Paul and Jesus later are going to flip this and say it as if you're truly forgiven, you will forgive. So Paul says we must forgive as we have been forgiven.
So he's saying that our action comes from the forgiveness we've received. Jesus here makes it sound like your forgiveness comes from how forgiving you are. Here's the thing. They're tied together. And here's why this matters immensely. And here's why this matters immensely.
If you genuinely understand the sin debt that was between you and God and the bridge that had to be, the chasm that had to be bridged by Christ on the cross and the amount of sin that was forgiven you, you are enabled to, by the gospel, forgive others. You're able to. You will. That's the way this is laid out in scripture, that you will forgive. So Jesus here says if you're not forgiving, you aren't forgiven.
If you don't forgive, you won't be forgiven. And here's one of the issues I think we have. When we say I'm a Christian, which means I believe that God has forgiven my debt. And then we look at someone and say, but I could never forgive them for what they've done to me. Because what they've done is real. Actually harmful.
Actually damaging. And you say I could never forgive them. Here's what you have articulated. I am bigger, more glorious, and any crime committed against me is more heinous than crimes committed against God. And that is not true. And that is not the gospel.
Our sin debt committed against God is so heinous, wicked, despicable because he is so glorious and so good that once he forgives that, we're able to forgive everyone else. I do want to help us out here. Forgiveness does not mean that you feel good inside or that it is not difficult. I have people say to me before, it's like I want to forgive him and I choose to forgive him, but I'm still angry or I still hurt and I'm still trying to process this and I'm still. And it's like, yeah, our model for forgiveness is a cross. It is not easy or comfortable.
Jesus chose to go to the cross in order to forgive us and we choose to forgive because we believe that he did that for us. And so Jesus is saying that as we forgive, it may be a process, it may be painful, it may hurt. We're choosing to absorb the pain ourselves rather than put it on them. So Jesus says, as we pray, repent and acknowledge our need to forgive others. Verse 13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So he says, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us or forgive us our debts as we've forgiven our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So lead us not into temptation. The Bible kind of lays out that we have three enemies. The flesh, the world, and the devil.
That we actually are your own worst enemy in some ways. You've lied to yourself more. You've tricked yourself more. You've harmed yourself more than anyone else has. That you actively choose to rebel against God. That you're at war with yourself.
So that's the flesh. The world is that the systems that exist around us that help us sin, that help us rebel. Well, so maybe you have a hard time controlling your eating habits. And you're battling yourself. But then, you know, snowballs just opened back up.
And they've opened one on every corner. Krispy Kreme exists. And so do buffets. And it's like it's just so difficult. Maybe you have lust issues. That you struggle with pornography and lust in every television show ever.
That's one of their goals. And they've made the internet have free, accessible pornography. That's our flesh and the world. That temptation exists around us. And then the Bible says that we actually have a real spiritual enemy. The same way that we have a real spiritual God and a real spiritual savior.
Who joined us in humanity and died on our behalf. That there are spiritual beings and we have a real enemy. That is actively waging war to keep us from Christ and to send us to hell. We have three enemies. Jesus says it's normal daily for Christians to pray about all three. The flesh, the world, the devil.
That we would pray, forgive me of my sin. Keep me from temptation. And deliver us from evil. There's some translations that will even say the evil one. Being as explicit as possible. So deliver me from temptation means we get to pray.
God, these are the things I struggle with. Help them not show up. Keep me far from them. When temptation comes, help me get away. It's not a sin to be tempted. It's a sin to sin.
Jesus was tempted. When Satan came to him and gave him temptations to sin. They were actually tempting. That's what a temptation is. It's not just a band. It's something that tempts you to sin.
So when Satan looked at Jesus and said, I'll let you be king of everything without a cross. I'll let you go straight to a throne without a cross. That was actually tempting. But Jesus resisted. He was delivered from temptation. This also can be basically us praying.
So if you have a little kid and you're walking through a store, you may intentionally skip an aisle. Because you just don't want to have to argue with them about they're not getting the things on that aisle. This is saying, hey, God, drive the cart far away from the aisle. Or if you're southern, keep my buggy out of that aisle. Whichever you'd rather say. But that's the prayer.
Keep me from temptation. And then deliver me from evil. That we as Christians would actively be aware that we don't just wage war against the flesh. But that we have an enemy that we can't see. And that we should be praying that his works and efforts would be thwarted. And that God would keep us far from him.
Keep him far from us. And that we would be delivered. It seems to me that people often will pray, maybe one or two of those, that maybe you're one of the people that notices your own sin very clearly. And that when things happen, you are always very quick to say, I'm sinful. I'm to blame. Some people will more quickly notice that the world tricked you.
That your friends are tempting you. Or that the world is tempting you. So you'll pray about this. Other people may be more willing to acknowledge that Satan is at work and blame things on him. And Jesus says yes to all three. So pray about all three.
Don't just acknowledge your flesh. Don't just acknowledge your world and your terrible friends that try to tempt you. And don't just acknowledge that you have an enemy. Acknowledge and pray about all three. Okay. We have a good father who cares about us.
Who intimately knows us, loves us, and has adopted us into his family at the cost of his own son. That Christ came to pay for our sin and to bring us to the Father to open up a seat at the table for us. So we get to pray. Three practical points on prayer. Set aside time. Jesus says go into your room, close the door.
Do that. Some people say, well, I pray, you know, just small times throughout the day. Or I pray, you know, when I'm riding. I pray when I'm driving. Or I pray when I'm in the shower or something. And it's like that's great.
And I think we should be praying. But I also think he says have an intentional time where you get away from everything. You close the door and you pray. And so I would just say for us as a church as we're going to pray, make some time. We make time for the things we care about. Make time to pray.
To spend some time talking to the Father. Secondly, just talk. You get to speak to a Father that cares about you. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to be well planned out. Just talk.
Just pray. Just speak. Converse. It can be really awkward. That's fine. He knows you're awkward.
This isn't a first date. He knows you. You're not tricking him. If you show up, if you went into this room and wrote out a beautiful, eloquent prayer and then came into this room, he just saw you. Just talk to him. You're okay.
It doesn't have to be pretty or special. Just pray. Talk to him about the things you care about. Talk to things about worrying you. Talk about nothing. Just tell him he's great for five minutes.
That's fine. That'll help you. Pray. Thirdly, to help you learn how to pray and what to pray about, I would encourage you to do two things. Open your Bible and read it as a conversation. So let's say we're reading through the Sermon on the Mount.
You're reading through it at home. You're in your room. You've intentionally set this time aside to pray. And you come across something where he says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. You may need to stop right there and say, God, I don't believe that. And I have such a hard time being meek.
The only times I felt like I inherited anything, I fought for it. And I have such a hard time believing that. Help me to believe that. Help me to understand that. Treat it like a conversation. When you hit something, you realize you need to repent.
When you hit something, it's just like, God, that's so beautiful. Because I'm mourning right now. And you say you're going to comfort me. Thank you for being the God who comforts those who mourn. Just use it as a conversation to teach you how to pray. Secondly, you can pray Psalms or epistles.
So you can pray Psalms or there are sections in Paul's letters where he says, this is what I'm praying for you. So you can just steal. I'm going to pray that for my group for a week. I'm going to pray that we would all understand the height and depth and length and breadth of God's love for us. That's my prayer for us right now. So you can just pray sections of scripture.
The same way that a child learns how to speak by having someone else speak to them. There's a reason my son said, come on. He didn't get that, make it up on his own. He got that because that's what has been spoken to him. So have God speak to you.
Use the scriptures to teach you how to pray. I also just want to point out that at the back end of that prayer, there's a section where Jesus is basically saying it's normal for Christians to pray. Keep me. Protect me. Defend me. Keep me from sin.
Keep me from falling. Keep me from running. Keep me close to you. And that ought to be a way that we pray. We praise God for his gloriousness. We pray for his kingdom to advance.
We talk to him about all the normal things going on. We acknowledge our sin. And then we say, God, keep me close to you. Keep me with you. Help me make it to the end. Band's going to come back up.
And we're going to sing. And praise God for his goodness. And celebrate that this is how we get to pray. Let's pray together. Father, you're glorious. You're holy.
And I pray that we would revere you and honor you and love you above all else. We ask, Lord, that your kingdom would come. That you would use our community groups to advance your kingdom on earth. That there would be more joy and more family and more love and more grace and more forgiveness and more justice and righteousness and equity. And more and more and more people who have been saved by the grace and the forgiveness that are found only in Christ. We pray that your kingdom would come through our community groups.
We pray that your kingdom would come in our community groups. That we would repent of sin. That we would acknowledge your holiness. That we would learn to obey. That we would learn to agree with your word and submit to it. We ask, Lord, that your will would be done.
In all the situations going on right now that we don't know how they should end up. We don't understand fully where you're at work. We can't even see beyond the next two steps in life. We pray that your will would be done. That it would look the way it ought to look. That it would look as if heaven for a moment touched the earth.
We ask that in your name. We pray, Lord, that you would provide for us. That you'd help us to pay bills. That you'd work in our health. That you would help us to do well in school and at work. That you'd help us to raise our children.
Or to grow up and to treat our parents well. We ask that you would daily take care of us. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to see our sin clearly. That we would repent often and celebrate in the grace and the joy that's offered to us. That repentance is a privilege that we have. That we don't carry debt because you paid for it.
And God, we ask that you would so free us up in the forgiveness and the payment of debt that you've given to us. That we would forgive everyone who sins against us. That those who've been holding on to bitterness would see your glorious grace for them. And that they would be empowered to forgive. God, keep us far from temptation. And keep us far from the enemy.
That his works would not be present here or active here. That we would walk in the full conquering freedom of Christ the King. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Y'all stand listening.
Righteousness: Before God or Others?
Transcript
Good morning. So over the Christmas holidays, I had a little bit of downtime, and when I just kind of want to relax and chill, I'm a TV person. So I just decided I would pull up Netflix on my phone and just kind of start trying to find a TV show to watch, just something kind of mind-numbing. And my go-to is always comedies. So I'm an office person, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, for obvious reasons.
But I had caught wind of a particular show I used to watch with my dad. I caught wind that it was on Facebook, and so I was just kind of scrolling, on Netflix, and so I was just kind of scrolling through, trying to find it, trying to find it, and then there it was, The West Wing. I could tell by your, like, judgy smirks and laughter. Some of you don't share my excitement. For the two of you that do, you're welcome. West Wing's on Netflix.
But I did. I used to watch that show with my dad, and for some reason, I've always been interested in politics. I'm not a super political person, per se, but just politics in general has always kind of interested me. So, like, why do people run for the offices they run for? How do they kind of choose their platforms? How do they raise money?
How do they do all this stuff? And as you're looking at elections or even watching some of these TV shows, there's this perception, this theme that kind of runs through them about the question of kind of the motivation for why politicians are running. So, you look at politicians and you think to yourself, like, are they running? Like, are what we're seeing on the outside, so the speeches, the handshaking, the sacrifice, the service, like, is that coming from a genuine heart of American patriotism, or do they have other motivations? So, are they running for the good of the public or for the good of themselves?
Or maybe the more basic question is, what's their motivation? And I think the reason that politicians are such an easy target for this question is because of how public their platform is. There's something to having every aspect of your life kind of lived under the microscope or being in the spotlight, being visible to others, your life kind of being portrayed on the news that makes you begin to wonder about the motivation behind why people do the things that they do. And up until this point in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been talking about what citizens in his kingdom should look like.
What should they look like? What should their perception be? How do they stand out from the culture around them? And Jesus has used language like, we should be light. So, in essence, it's going to be visible. And he's been talking about his followers being kind of held to a higher standard.
So, things that they would say would be, not just don't murder, don't hate or be angry. Not just don't commit adultery, don't even lust. Not just love your neighbor, but your enemy also. There's been a heart level theme to everything that Jesus has been talking about, not just the external. And we're going to see that continue today as Jesus begins to press in on what's our motivation behind the things that we do. Why do we do them?
And here's the deal. In this section, Jesus is going to lead off with kind of the main idea. And then he's going to give us three examples to illustrate it. And very rarely does Jesus do this in his teaching or in his parables. And I think the reason that he does it is to give the main idea and to show how all the other three things that he's going to talk about next are connected to it. The three things he's going to use as an example are giving, praying, and fasting.
These are three actions that devout Jews, faithful Jews would have already been doing. But Jesus is going to go deeper than just the action. He's actually going to take the emphasis off of that and begin to ask the question, what's the motivation? Is it genuine, heart level love for God, following God, or is it something else? And so what we're going to see is that Jesus actually cares as much about our reasons, our motivation for doing things, as he does about the actions themselves. So I'm going to pray for us and then we'll hop into the text.
God, I'm thankful that your word is clear. I'm thankful that we have it so that we can learn and study and grow. God, what we're talking about today is difficult to see and we need your Holy Spirit to expose it in us so that we have the ability to respond appropriately. God, this is your word. I pray that you would teach it this morning. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would fill me and speak through me.
In Jesus' name, amen. All right, grab a Bible. If you don't have a Bible, just grab one of the white ones that we have in the seats and go to page 473. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 6 today, beginning in verse 1. I will say this. If you don't have a Bible, take this one with you.
We want everyone to have a Bible. So just take it with you when you go. And again, the way Jesus begins is he starts off with the main point. So really, we could just throw the main point up on the screen and talk about it from there. And that's what Jesus does. He starts with what's the motivation.
So chapter 6, verse 1. It says this. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. I'll read it again. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.
For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. So once again, Jesus leads with the point. What's the motivation? He says, beware, be on your guard, fight against any urge or temptation to practice your righteousness in front of other people to be seen by them. And so when he says practice your righteousness, basically what Jesus is getting at is any action or activity that anyone would do in following God or as worship to God. So basically, anything that we have in the Bible is what Jesus is going after here.
And the three examples that he's going to use are praying, giving, and fasting. But he goes beyond just the action and he qualifies it. He says, doing righteous deeds is what people should do just to beware of doing it in front of people so that they'll take notice. Jesus understands that by nature, these actions at times are going to be done in front of people. In fact, Jesus, in the next section, he's going to pray in front of people. His point is this.
You're going to do these things in front of other people. He just says, don't do them just to be seen. That's not the point. Jesus says, be on your watch that any action that you're doing to ultimately bring glory to God, or that's an act of worship or an act of obedience or following him, isn't done so that other people will see it. Because if that's the case, the way he ends the verse is, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. And here's why I think it's so important that Jesus leads with this idea, both for his original hearers and for us today.
For most of us, we're unaware that this is even happening, much less a problem. It's just kind of sneaky. For most of us, you don't walk around questioning your motivation for why you do the things you do all the time. We just don't. That's not natural for us. For the most part, when we're doing good things, or even like when we're doing something specifically that the Bible tells us to do, we don't question our motivation because we're just trying to be obedient.
Like we're just trying to follow and do what the Bible says, but Jesus is pointing out that there's a danger when we're following him, when we're trying to be obedient, that we'll begin to slip into thinking more about what other people think about it than we do the original intention of the action to begin with. And it's sneaky. Again, we don't question our motivation all the time. And so what he's basically getting them to do is look at these three examples and ask, am I doing this because I genuinely appreciate love, want to follow God, or is it something else? Or is it so that other people will notice?
And again, he's assuming that they're already going to be doing these actions. He's just saying, check your motivations. So verse 2 is where we get our first example. Pick it up there. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Notice that he says, when you give to the needy, not if you give to the needy. Remember, Jesus is already assuming that people would be doing these things. He's just beginning to question their motivation. He's taking the emphasis off of the action itself and going more towards the motivation.
The Bible's clear in teaching that Christians should be generous. We should give. We should specifically look for people who are in need and try to meet those needs. The Bible tells us that basically everything we have has been given to us by God and it belongs to him and we're just his money managers. The part of the way we know the gospel has actually begun to affect our hearts is if it has begun to affect our wallets. But again, here, Jesus is putting the emphasis on their motivation rather than the action.
You see, giving to the needy in Jesus' day would have been a fairly public action. So whether you were going to the temple itself or going to a synagogue, there would be an alms box placed in kind of a public location and you would go and you would take your offering and you would put it in that box. In fact, in Mark 12, we see Jesus and his disciples, they're sitting in the temple watching people give when a widow walks up and she gives a very small amount but Jesus praises her because she didn't have very much but she gave out of her poverty. She gave all that she had. So it was this public thing.
And I had the opportunity to go to Cleveland, Ohio last year on a mission trip and that Sunday morning that we were there, we got the chance to worship with another church and it was kind of a charismatic church. I mean, the music was awesome. The preaching was awesome. It was just an awesome time. Like, I mean, people dancing, clapping. I mean, I was in it.
And the way the service ended was that they got everybody back up and we started singing. And everybody's dancing, they're kind of clapping. And I mean, I'm loving it, okay? But as I'm dancing and singing, I start to notice that people are leaving. But it's not like everyone's mass leaving.
It's just kind of like by rows almost. And I turn and look over my shoulder and the one exit to the room, there are ushers on either side with buckets and they're getting it too. That was how that church did their offering. So the one door that everyone funneled through was the door that you gave. Ain't nobody forgetting their checkbook in that church. There was no like shimmy and bye or like I left my checkbook in the car because those ushers were like, just like closer and closer to you on the way out.
But I just, I thought that was crazy. We're, you know, we're a little more low key. We kind of put our box and our computer to the side and we just remind you about it. Nobody's in your face, giving you the old shoulder shimmy. But it was visible.
So giving in Jesus' day was visible. And even if you were just giving to somebody on the street who is needy, who is begging, someone who's in that position is going to go to the most high traffic area so that they can attract attention so that hopefully somebody will see them and give to them. It was a visible thing. And Jesus is not saying, never give money publicly. He's saying, don't let your motivation for giving be about the people who are watching. It's not about that.
He literally says in verse 2, and it's my favorite, he basically says, don't toot your own horn. Don't sound a trumpet before yourself as you go to give. It's not about the people who are watching. And Jesus does give us a picture of what faithful giving looks like. He says, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that it's in secret. And you guys understand that it's nearly impossible for your left hand to be doing something that your right hand doesn't know about.
Try it when you get home. You'll be amazed. Your brain controls both hands. So Jesus is using exaggeration. It's hyperbole. He's saying that the posture in us giving shouldn't be about who sees it.
Shouldn't be about who knows about it. Whether it's the mount or the person we give to or the situation. He's saying that our response as we give should be, our response should be responding to what Jesus has already done for us. It should be the gifts that we've already been given. That's our reason for giving. So, should we give?
Yes. And is it going to be public or visible sometimes? Yes. Jesus' point here is that when we give, it doesn't have to become a Facebook status where we put hashtag blessed to bless. He's saying that maybe if we're going to give, maybe we show up early before a gathering and put our money in the give box or use the computer so that nobody sees it. He's saying that if our neighbor has a need and they don't have gas money, that the next conversation at our community group isn't all about how we help this one person.
He's saying that our heart and our attitude needs to be in worship to Him. Not about the other people who know. And that's sneaky. Again, we don't question our motivations all the time. But I think if we would begin to, we would say, maybe they're not as righteous as they should be.
And he continues on in verse 5. And this is going to be a little bit bigger section. But this is the section on prayer. And as we get to the back half of it, you're going to see that it's going to be familiar to most of you. It's what's known as the Lord's Prayer. Next week, we are going to specifically teach through the Lord's Prayer.
So I want most of our attention to be spent on the first part. What is Jesus saying about the nature of us praying when it's going to be visible? Verse number 5. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them. For your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
Pray then like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. So again, we're going to focus on the first little part of that. So my question becomes, does this prohibit all public prayer? Goodness, I hope not because like 15 minutes ago I just prayed in front of y'all and I don't want y'all analyzing the fact that I just prayed in public. That's not what He's getting at. It's obviously not the point because Jesus prays in front of people.
Right here in Jewish culture just to give us a little bit of a background what He's talking about. In Jewish culture there were specific times throughout the day that it was just known that people would stop and pray morning, midday, in the evening. And what He's saying is there were some people who would kind of go off by themselves and pray quietly, maybe not even out loud, maybe just whispering to themselves. but then there were others who would kind of go out into the more open areas and raise their voices and with eloquent speech begin their prayers so that others could hear them. His original hearers would have known exactly what He was talking about.
And what Jesus is saying is that there are those who love to stand and pray and let everyone hear their prayers so that the people around them start looking and going, dude, my elbow and the person beside him is praying. That's a prayer. You listen to this? Oh, what perfect theology. Did He just say propitiation? I don't even know what that means.
Do you know what that means? Jesus is saying there's a temptation when we're praying out loud to begin to think about what others around us are thinking. Like, are they taking notice? Do they, are they impressed by the words that I'm saying? He also says don't pile up empty words or phrases to impress others or for that matter to impress God. God's attentiveness to your prayer is not based off of how many theologians you can quote or how many sections of scripture you can recite or how long you can go without taking a breath.
That's, that's not the point. He says pray simply. If you look at the prayer that Jesus prays, it is a short, simple, direct, heartfelt, genuine prayer. He says, don't do it so that others can see it and don't heap up all these phrases and empty words. When I was in middle school and high school, they would have this event once a year. It's kind of across the nation.
It was called See You at the Pole. And so there's this one day of the year that all the Christians were supposed to, before school, you would go out to the flagpole and you would circle around the flagpole and you would pray. I've got concerns about the fact that we were around the flagpole and praying. But, anyways, so you would get out of your car and you would walk out there and everyone's already in a circle. You know, sometimes they were holding hands at which point I'm always scoping out for the cutest girl like, where do I, where do I break into the circle? Here.
I'm sorry, I need to hold your hand. And so you're in this circle and basically you're praying about all kinds of things. You're praying for your school, you're praying for your country, all kinds of different stuff. And the way it would work is you would kind of say a short prayer and if you didn't want to pray, you just squeeze the person's hand next to you. So, a couple sentence prayer, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, next person would pray. And we're all in a circle, everyone's heads are bowed and their eyes are closed and all of a sudden into the bright morning sky.
Father God, Father God, we thank you, Father God, for this day, Father God, because you are Father God, Father God. And like my head, like I just, immediately head shot up because I was like, who is this person? And they prayed for five minutes and all I can remember from middle school is that they said, Father God, 84,000 times. Now, I do not know what the heart level motivation was going on inside of the man that was praying that. What I do know is it looked like it was very showy, it was very loud, he said, Father God, to the point, I can't remember anything else that he prayed about and what Jesus is saying is that when our prayer begins to be more about the people who are watching or listening than it is about communication with God, we've messed up.
We've missed the point. And let me give us an example of kind of how this can show up in our lives, okay? So imagine, imagine you're hanging out with a group of Christians or you're hanging out with your community group and you're wrapping things up and someone looks at you and says, hey, will you pray to close us out? Sure. So you pray out loud as your group meeting times kind of come into a close.
No big deal. Well, the next week you show up, there's a period where you need to pray and someone looks at you and says, hey, hey, will you pray? You're really good at it. Okay, sure, I'll pray. And so you start praying but now the whole time you're inside your head. You're thinking, wait, I'm good at it.
What does that mean? Is that, okay, all right, so I'm praying. Then you're so inside your head that now every time when your group gets together and there's an opportunity to pray, you say, well, I'll pray because now you've, you know, you're the good prayer so you need to make sure that you're the one that's praying for your group or you're in a group setting and you're going around in a circle and everyone's praying and rather than praying alongside of the people who are around the circle, you're actually sitting there thinking, okay, what am I going to say when I pray? What are the words that I'm going to use?
I don't, you know, I don't want to mumble. No stumbling. It needs to be perfect. And that didn't even cross your mind weeks ago. It can slip in that easily and I think all of us have a little bit of apprehension when it comes to praying out loud in front of people because we go, I don't want to sound, I don't want to sound silly. I don't want to say something silly.
I don't want to sound like a third grader. But Jesus is saying that there are times when our prayers are going to be public. And if the point of our prayer is so that other people notice and pay attention, then basically, basically, Jesus is saying if it's for them, then good. They can listen to it because I'm not going to. It's missing the point of what prayer is supposed to be. So let me just give us a couple of questions to consider specifically about prayer.
Okay? Do you volunteer to pray when your group gets together because in your group you're kind of good at praying? Do you only pray when you're around people so that it seems like you've got a deep prayer life? So what I mean by that is like do you, when you're by yourself, you don't pray a whole lot but if there's a chance to pray in front of people, you're up for it. When people have situations going on, do you tell them that you'll be praying for them? And if you do that, do you actually go away and pray for them or did you just tell them that so that they thought you would do that?
When you have a good quiet time or devotion time, you've been reading your Bible and praying, do you take your phone out and take a picture of your Bible and your coffee cup and run it through that best Instagram filter and then put it online because you have, I mean, it's not about you. You just want people to know. And here's the deal. The reason it's so easy for me to ask these questions is because that's what God's been dealing with me for the last couple of weeks. Guilty. All those things.
All of them. And it can be so subtle that it sneaks in that rather than prayer being communication with God, it becomes about who's watching, who will take notice, what are other people thinking. So, God's been dealing with me about this. But Jesus does lay out what correct posture and prayer should look like. He says, go into your room, shut the door. Prayer is meant to be communion with the eternal God, so let's make it about that, not about what other people are thinking or hearing.
And here's the deal. There's a way to actually do that. There's a way to talk to God like that when you're in front of other people. It's just thinking, believing, realizing that it really is just you and He talking. And listen, that takes work. It takes work to not be thinking about what everyone else is thinking as you're praying.
Jesus says, we've got to begin to check our motivations and let prayer simply be the part of our relationship where we get to have communication. And then He moves on to the third example to kind of illustrate this point in verse 16. Pick it back up with me. It says this, And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret.
Okay, let me just say this. Of the three examples that Jesus gives, this is probably the one that is most foreign to us. And maybe we just don't emphasize it or talk about it as much as we do praying and giving. And so I want to take just a little bit of time to kind of camp out here and talk about it. We've actually never really talked about fasting at length in a sermon. So if you're a definition person or a note taker, here's kind of our working definition of fasting.
Fasting is abstaining from eating food for the purpose of pursuing God. Fasting is abstaining from eating food for the purpose of pursuing God. And even as I was preparing for this message, there are a lot of wonderful reasons why you should fast. But really the one that I find most compelling is that as your hunger begins to grow, the more easily you can see your own weakness and dependence on God. So in the same way that you get hungry or if you're like me, you get hangry, your body needs, craves food.
When you go without food for the purpose of pursuing God, it shows you how weak and frail and dependent you actually are. And in the same way that the body craves, needs food to survive and thrive, we need that kind of relationship with God to survive and thrive as well. And so when you look in the Bible at the times that people were fasting, they would fast to go along with their prayers. There were times where they fasted at different festivals or feasts. They would fast at times of repenting and mourning. And even as you move into the New Testament, you would see people fasting as personal devotion or they would fast before they were going to make big, wise decisions.
Jesus looks at his disciples in a situation. He's talking. He says, they're going to fast when I'm gone. So Jesus had the expectation that his followers were going to fast when he was gone. So fasting was and is a part of the New Testament church.
And part of what Jesus is trying to emphasize here, specifically in this situation, is that there were people when they would fast, he says, don't be like the hypocrites and look gloomy or disfigure your face. Sometimes when people would fast, they would put on what's called sackcloth. So just imagine like wearing a burlap shirt. Awful. Okay, so they would put on sackcloth and then sometimes they would put ashes on top of their heads as well as kind of like a sign of mourning. And basically what would happen is these people really weren't bathing during their time of fasting and I don't know if you all know this but the Middle East is kind of hot and so the ashes would kind of drip down over their faces and onto their sackcloth.
As well as kind of like a sign of mourning. And basically what would happen is these people really weren't bathing during their time of fasting and I don't know if you all know this but the Middle East is kind of hot and so the ashes would kind of drip down over their faces and onto their sackcloth. So when it says they disfigured their faces, it's not like if you were eating like a sour warhead
Or something like that. it's more like their appearance just they look disheveled and Jesus is saying that there were people who were fasting and they were going through this process so that people would see them as devout and holy so that they could get approval from other people just for their willingness to go without food and again Jesus says they've received their reward.
If that's the reason that they're fasting is just so that other people will see it then they've gotten their reward which is other people will take notice but Jesus keeps going and he says when you fast again not if you fast when you fast Jesus' expectation is that people would be fasting and this continues down through the New Testament to us today he just says wash your face
And anoint your head in other words it shouldn't be visible to other people by your appearance or by your words this is something that is between you and God when I was in high school I remember I got to class one day I sat down in my seat nobody was really in there yet just a couple of us I was early go figure and as I was sitting there there was a guy a couple of seats away and I'm just sitting there minding my own business I don't even remember
What I was doing but all of a sudden I hear oh man what's going on over here so obviously I took the bait and I just I just turned and said hey man you alright yeah oh man I'm just I'm super hungry okay and I'm I'm pretty sure I can't remember this I'm pretty sure we had just left lunch
So I just asked I was like dude did you did you not eat lunch he said nah nah man I didn't eat lunch just took the bait my next question why and he goes oh man you know me and some of the kids in my youth group you know we're fasting right now so you know we're not eating and man it's just it's just so tough and you know
I'm just I'm doing it I'm in I'm sold out I'm not going to give up it's really sarcastic I was like okay I just turned back in my seat and again I don't know what his heart level motivation was in that moment but the amount of grunting and sighing to then draw my attention I had to question like was he was he just trying to get my attention that's what Jesus is saying here
When our motivation for any amount of righteous action begins to be so that other people will notice we've missed the point and there is no reward from our father who is in heaven and here's the deal with fasting specifically I get it this is kind of weird for us you're basically depriving yourself of food so that you grow closer to God but here's
What I believe when you go away and try this you will be surprised at how close and how connected you feel to God I promise you that it's this time of just reminding yourself of your need and your dependence on him the times that I have fasted have been very very helpful for me and here's here's how fasting works okay the time that you would have spent eating you're going to abstain from food and you're actually
Going to spend that time with God whether it's praying or reading your Bible or singing worship songs like however you best connect with God and in those moments when the pains of hunger begin to to gnaw at you you're going to get to remember how much you need God that you actually need and depend on God more than you ever do on food and I will tell you one of the most
Helpful thing about fasting for me is it reminds me that food is not God food is just food that is so so helpful for me and let me say this if you're hypoglycemic or you're worried about any health concerns or health risks I would just caution you to use wisdom in terms of your specific needs if you want to have a conversation
About that when we're done I would love to but I believe that all of us fasting would be good for all of us and I would encourage you to do it and biblically fasting is abstaining from food but I think you can take that principle and really kind of apply it to abstaining from anything for the purpose of knowing God more so for some of us I think abstaining from TV
Would be a really good thing or maybe abstaining from coffee try that one boy that's fun for some of us maybe abstaining from playing video games for a time maybe abstaining from social media for a while and specifically with social media here's what's so dangerous for us in this day and time in the world when it comes to social media the point of social media
Is for you to put something up whether it's your thoughts or feelings or pictures or whatever for the purpose of other people seeing it that's actually the point of putting it up on social media so I think we've got to be careful as Christians to think like what's the motivation behind why I'm using
Social media or putting something up I think it would be very helpful for us to begin to question that but at the end of this fasting section I actually left off the last part of verse 18 so I want to go back let's actually pick it up we'll go all the way back to 17 it says this but when you fast anoint your head and wash your face that your fasting
May not be seen by others but by your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you your father who sees in secret will reward you in fact this is Jesus includes this phrase in all three of the examples that he says your father who sees in secret who sees your righteous deeds done with pure motivation will reward you
So we've already seen Jesus clearly lays out what it looks like when our motivations are off that the reward for that is just that other people will notice that they're going to see it but he says that there actually is a genuine reward when it's done with the right motivation so the question becomes what's the reward if there actually
Is a reward what is it so is it is it circumstantial is it based off of whatever the action is so like if I give and I'm generous is it that God's going to bless me and give to me Bible says some stuff like that is it is it if I pray that God's going to answer whatever prayer I pray
No we know that's not that's not it is if I fast and sacrifice that God's going to make my he's going to bless my life and it's I'm not going to have any other hardship other than when I'm fasting we know that's not true either it can't
Be the gift has actually got to be bigger and better than that even a lot of the answers that I just gave that are wrong those just terminate on us they're temporary there's got to be a reward that the creator of the universe the king
Of kings and the Lord of lords would give to his creation that is worthy of being something he would call a reward so the question becomes what gift would God give that he would think this is the best gift
For my creation himself the reward that God gives us is himself and so if just now you kind of thought to yourself okay saw that one coming and it doesn't actually stir your affections for him I think you've just
Gotten used to smaller gifts to the approval to the clapping of tiny hands to the watching of tiny eyes rather than the good reward that God gives us which is himself and here's the way that works here's how
That's possible Jesus willingly came to this earth and lived a perfect life that we couldn't live he died on the cross the death that we deserve to pay for our sin the punishment that we deserve and then he
Rose from the grave so that we could have new life in him and could be made into a new creation now and if that's true then the reward that we get is God himself relationship with God has been made
Possible so that we can repent of our sin and place faith in him which means this if that's true that means that every bit of your action and activity and obedience here on this earth isn't to earn God's favor
Or to merit his wrath for those who are in Jesus it means that your action gets to be a response of gratefulness and thankfulness for what God's done because Jesus died for you you get
The relationship with God which then means that praying and giving and fasting and reading your Bible and any other righteous action that the Bible calls us to gets to be simply to enjoy God
That it's not about it's not about what others think or what others see it's not even to earn something from God it's a response so when the Bible calls us to give and to pray what it is going after is communion with God you
Get you get the one who holds the universe in the palm of his hand and he wants to have an intimate relationship with you so that all of those actions get to be just to
Enjoy him there were some theologians in the 1600s that got together and they wrote what's called the Westminster Shorter Catechism and I think it helps sum up what Jesus is getting at here so well
I want to say this here's what they wrote man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever we'll say that again man's chief end is to glorify God
And to enjoy him forever the point of all of our action gets to be because we get God and we want more of him and that through these things we get to
Enjoy him now and forever more so my question for us this morning and really the question that Jesus raises through this entire teaching is what's what's our motivation is our
Motivation for the things that we do to honor him to know him more or is it something else so that others might see and here's what I want you to do I want you to actually ask right now
Holy Spirit where where am I doing this because it's sneaky some of you as we went through you immediately it immediately started going off but some of you may need to ask
Where am I doing this where's my motivation so that others will notice versus relationship with God is it my social media account is it conversations inside of my community group where am
I just doing stuff so that other people will notice even further than this where am I not doing stuff because of what other people would think
If I did so where's my obedience just motivated by what my wife would say if I did that or what my group would
Think if I did that it's sneaky guys and God's faithful God's faithful to lead us in repentance and so I want our response this morning to be twofold
As we repent repenting means turning away from sin and turning to God I want us to repent of where our motivations are off so the first question
Is this that I want you to ask where are my motivations where am I motivated by what others think versus communion with God sit
And ask that like right now if you don't know if God hasn't shown you yet just sit and pray ask him to show you
Where you're selling yourself short because of the cross you actually get to repent of where your heart is off and the second part
Of that repentance is where do my actions need to change to actually match that repentance so that if my heart is changing what
Needs to change about what I'm doing you're going to have a chance to respond here in just a minute some of you may just
Need to sit and pray and weep and think about where your heart has been chasing after smaller gifts rather than the gift of
God himself and who cares what people think if that's what you need to sit and do some of you need to stand and
Sing and praise God and raise your hands and thank him for the goodness of the gospel and it's not about what people think
Sing at the top of your lungs if you want to raise your hands if you want to some of you may want to
Give you've been convicted about giving you may want to do that go for it but don't let it be so that other people would
Notice church you're free we're free for those who are in Christ our relationship has been purchased by Jesus which means that all of
Our actions get to be to enjoy him a good loving holy God band is going to come back up in a second we're
Going to stand and sing I just want you for a second imagine if we as a church followed Jesus from a place of
Pure motivation rather than being worried about what others think of us all the time imagine imagine how free we would be how much
Joy we would have think about the genuine types of relationships we would have both with God and with each other so let's let go
Of the approval of others and enjoy the reward for our actions done with pure motivation which gets to be genuine fellowship with God and
With each other let's pray God I pray that all across the room right now your Holy Spirit would be working and moving God that you would lead us to
Repentance God I know that you expose sin in us we need you to expose the sin in us and I thank you for the
Joy that repenting is because it means we get to turn away from something that is ultimately destructive that will not satisfy us to
A good loving God that we get to continue to pursue righteous living and following you in obedience but we get to do it
From a place where we're not earning anything we're actually just getting to enjoy our relationship with you so God all across this room
I pray that you would do work as we respond to you we pray in Jesus name amenxurl --app my-app auth oauth2 zachpippin
Enemy Love
Transcript
All right, how are we doing this morning? All right, I don't know how to take that. We'll be in Matthew chapter 5. Hopefully we'll get better, wake up a little bit. We're in Matthew chapter 5. We're walking verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount.
We're spending a good bit of time this spring just walking through, studying what Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount, how we can apply it to our lives, how we can begin to live as if we know this, trust this, believe this. So we're just spending some time in these three chapters in Matthew. So Jesus kind of begins the Sermon on the Mount by saying he's building a culture. But he begins by proclaiming a message that's going to change the culture of the people who are going to follow him. He's beginning to say, I'm starting a kingdom, and this is what we're going to be like. This is what my people are going to be like.
And it's any of you who have ever gone from one culture to another, have gone even just in the U.S. You can go from southern culture to kind of the northeast or the west coast, and you'll see that there's just some differences in how people think and how they act, how they treat one another. If you ever go overseas, there's just some different cultural things that happen. And that's what Jesus is saying is he's building a culture. I remember in college I got the opportunity to go to Romania on a mission trip, and we were just serving with some churches that were already there, and we were traveling around and getting to preach in different churches.
And preaching in Romania was interesting because everything took twice as long because you would say it, and then your translator would translate it. And it's interesting, too, because you don't know, like, I like to cut up jokes and stuff, and I think that's probably even worse. When I was in college and preaching, like, that was like half of what I did. And that you just don't know the Romanian churches. It's like, I don't know what to do. So I remember the very first time I was going to preach in a Romanian church, I was thinking, I kind of hope I had something to kind of break the ice a little bit, try to get people on board with what we're doing.
And I walked up, and I stand in front of everybody. It's a small church. There was an aisle right down the middle, and there was just two little sections of pews, and one section had only men, and then there was a section of only ladies, except for my two brothers, who had sat on the ladies' side. Because we didn't know. We didn't know there was a men's section and a ladies' section, and that was a cultural thing for them. That's not really, like, not taught in the Bible as a way to do this, but it was just how they were expressing their culture.
And I remember walking up and being like, jackpot, I got a way to start this off. And my brothers didn't realize it until I pointed it out, that they were sitting in the ladies' section, and both of them were like, you could see them tense up like, should we move? What have we done? But they were real gracious towards us, not knowing what to do. But there's just something about, there's these different cultures where this isn't okay.
You stand out if you act this way. This is the way we're going to behave. And that's what Jesus is doing in the Sermon on the Mount. He's saying, this is what my people are going to look like, and if you say you're a Christian, if you say you're a part of the kingdom, this is how you behave, and you should stand out. It should be odd in two ways. If you are a Christian in normal human society culture of the world, Christians should stand out.
He says, as a city on a hill, that there should shine, that there should be something different about us. And if you say you are a Christian and do not behave this way, if this isn't your posture, you should stand out among Christians. You should look weird. The church should have its own distinct, this is how we respond. This is how we act. This is our culture.
The reason I say that is because what we're going to look at today, Jesus says three very difficult, very hard sayings here that are difficult to apply, difficult to live with. And I know our attitude when reading the Sermon on the Mount a lot of times is to make it law. It's to immediately start saying, okay, well, what are the rules? Where does that apply? How far does that go? When Jesus is working to say this is what people are going to be like, this is the culture we're going to have, not to say here's rule number one, here's rule number two, here's rule number three.
He's painting a picture for a type of people. And that means that as we approach it, we're asking what's our posture, what's our attitude, how in general are we going to act? These are examples of that, not here's this rule and you just perfectly apply it and you're okay. And if you can kind of figure a way around it, that's okay because he's giving rules. He's not, he's giving a way of life. That means that as we walk through life, there are going to be things that aren't covered here, but then we're going to say, okay, well, how does that apply given the posture we're supposed to have as Christians?
If you don't get that, this is going to be really confusing. So does that make sense? We're on page where he's building a culture, he's making a type of people. Okay, cool. Let's pray.
And then we'll jump into the text. Lord, we ask for your help. We pray that you would bless the proclamation of your word. We pray that you would bless the healing of it. That we might receive it. That it might change us.
And God, we ask that you would bless the healing of it. That we would live this way as we follow you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We're going to pick up in verse 33.
So Jesus is continuing to teach. Here's kind of what we're going to look like. Here's how my culture, this is the group of people I'm making. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old. So he's been quoting the law, the Old Testament law, and how people have been teaching it.
And then he's been kind of correcting and saying, you've been following it like it's law. What I'm saying is follow the heart behind it, the culture behind it, the pattern, the posture behind it. So you heard it said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. That rule in the Old Testament was, if you promise God you're going to do something, do it. That was the rule. Don't swear falsely.
If you promise God, if you make a vow to God, follow through you. And he says this. But I say to you, verse 34, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair black, white, or black. And I know that we can now, by boxing, or beating up your head, especially with my church, but it doesn't stay that way. Let what you say be simply yes or no.
Anything more than this comes from evil. So this is the first difficult thing we're going to look at today that Jesus calls us to. And he's calling us to integrity, to honesty, to when you say yes, mean yes. And when you say no, mean no, don't have some sort of secret thing behind it. And when he talks about taking oaths, what they were doing is they would say, I swear by heaven. I swear by Jerusalem.
I swear by the earth or by my head. And then when they kind of weaseled out of the oath they had taken, they were like, well, I didn't make a vow to God. Had I made a vow to God, I would have followed through with it. But I just promised by Jerusalem. And so what Jesus says is, hey, all of it belongs to God. Heaven's his, the earth's his, Jerusalem's his, your head is his.
Stop it. Like he's in all of it. Not just when you say, I swear to God, does it shoot a flare up and he goes, oh, what was this about? Let me write that one down. No, he's paying attention to us on all levels when we're speaking. And he's saying, have integrity, be honest.
Quit trying to get away with things. So, here's what this means. Very, very straightforward. Tell the truth. You say something, it should be true. That's the point.
Be honest. Don't have to live a life. He says anything else comes from evil. The reason he says that is if sin hadn't entered into the world, we wouldn't need to have an extra special yes. Yes would be yes, no would be no. We wouldn't be tricking each other.
An oath is just, I double promise yes. This is an extra special yes. This one's a yesy yes. That's what an oath is. So when somebody tells you a story and you go, promise?
You're just saying, like, you swear? This really happened? Is this an extra special yes? Or is this one of those yeses that actually isn't a yes at all? That's what that is. That's why he's saying everything else comes from evil.
Like, the only way we had to start doing this was the lies in the world. This is when you say, I swear my mom is great. Or just you tell somebody something and they say, that's a lie and you say, that's money. It's the same thing. It's this. This one's for real.
They say, no, just when you speak. Yes or no. That's it. Quit all this other stuff. Let me give you an example of how this plays out. So when I was growing up, we used to do tactical misrepresentations of the facts.
The tactical misrepresentation of the facts, which is you represent facts. Like, it's true. And then you let them draw the conclusions they would like to do. I'll give you an example. In high school, I went to a bathroom. Took my shoe off.
Put it up in the air. Took my wallet out. Tossed it up in the air. I took my keys out of my pocket. Tossed it up in the air. And I walked to the nurse's office.
And I said, I'd like to go home. I was just in the bathroom throwing things up. Both of those statements were true. I would like to go home. I was in the bathroom throwing things up. Had the nurse asked what, I would have said, my shoe, my keys, and my wallet.
I'm going to head back to class. Or when I tried to play it off, it's like I had a really bad diet. Like, I just eat terrible things. She let me go home. It was excused. That's deception and is outside of what Jesus is calling us to here.
Technically, I did not lie. But in a way more real sense, yes, I did. So Jesus is saying, have integrity. I'll show you another way that this plays out practically in life. I go to my wife. I said, hey, the guys in my group, we're having a poker night on Friday.
Is it cool if I go to that? She says, yeah, that's fine. I mean, it's my one evening off, and I'll just stay home and watch Archer. And I say, you sure? She says, yes, fine. Do whatever.
That'll be okay. I said, okay. Then I go. And then when I come home. Yes, y'all, you're aware of what I'm talking about. So I walk in the house.
I'm also in the future. You walk in the house, and then she's sitting up. Archer's already in bed, and she's like, I cannot even know. I'm smart, so I'm like, what on earth are you talking about? You should have known. Like, I can't believe.
And it's like, you know what I'm saying? She said, it's fine. But secretly, it was a love test. And here's what happens as we begin to do this in life, where we let integrity kind of break down, is you can't even pick a restaurant when this begins to happen in a relationship. Hey, you want to go? Do you want to go to this burger place?
Yeah, that's fine. Oh, it's fine? So it's not fine. No, I'm okay with that. No, you know, whatever. You want tacos.
You always want tacos. Let's go eat tacos. You can just have 15 tacos and be happy in your little heart. It's like you cease to be able to even talk to each other. So if your spouse is just coaching on how to apply this, your spouse says, I want to go to this thing, and you think, I don't want you to go to that thing, don't say, sure, go to that thing with this secret.
I don't want you to go. I don't want you to go. Have a real conversation. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. This is one of the things we teach in premarital counseling all the time. Say what you mean.
Don't mean it. And then if you do this, here's how we handle this in my house. I'm sorry. Right. Um. But you said that you don't.
So it's not fine. No, I'm okay with that. No, you know, whatever. You want tacos. You always want tacos. Let's go eat tacos. You can just have 15 tacos and be happy in your little heart. It's like you cease to be able to even talk to each other. So if your spouse is just coaching on how to apply this, your spouse says, I want to go to this thing, and you think, I don't want you to go to that thing, don't say, sure, go to that thing with this secret. I don't want you to go. I don't want you to go. Have a real conversation. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. This is one of the things we teach in premarital counseling all the time. Say what you mean. Don't mean it. And then if you do this, here's how we handle this in my house. I'm sorry. Right. Um. But you said that you don't. So next time, don't say that.
And just make sure that you're not going to click the line. That'd be fine. it's not quite approached that way but it's close um here's the thing like be honest be be truthful uh and don't expect people to be able to figure out what you what you're doing here and don't intentionally deceive people Jesus is saying stop that just be honest for some of you in the room practically this is going to be very difficult because you have made a practice of deceiving maybe it's in small things maybe it's it's uh you just kind of some of you you feel like this is the only way you can do your job there's no way I could do my job as a salesperson if I just was completely honest there's no way I could do my job as a mechanic if I was just completely honest like this some people act like this well this is just how our our industry works that's not true there is a distinct way to be a christian in every industry you're in some of you just life is like this with your spouse you just kind of lie a decent amount um maybe even over small things the beginning for you because stopping yourself from lying when you really practiced in it is hard the beginning for you will be coming back and saying what I just said I know I said it this way I actually said it that way on purpose of you to believe this uh and not a need to be honest one of the some of some of us in life have met someone have known someone maybe in our family maybe we weren't here and we were too much just honest when I said yes and yes and said no and no and that was refreshing beautiful and helpful
Okay so if that was difficult I have good news it gets worse um go to verse 38 you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth that is old testament law it is in three different places but I say to you do not resist the one who is evil but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also and if anyone would sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak as well and if anyone forces you to go one mile go with him two miles give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you this is one of the most well-known uh passages uh that in the bible one of the most well-known sayings that Jesus has that we would turn the other cheek that we would go the extra mile we still use these terms uh here here's what he's getting at and I think it's helpful to understand the eye for an eye tooth for a tooth law that was given in the old testament was given as a way for Judges to judge properly it was not an interpersonal way to interact it was for Judges to make right judgment and it was to um limit excessive punishment as well as to a smaller degree keep from having a major issue happen and then someone gets a slap on the wrist but mostly it was it was saying payback isn't double you knock my out I don't get both of yours I just get one that's what an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth was was a no excessive punishment it led the punishment to crime and it was given to Judges to make wise judgment but they have begun to use it the same way we use it
So something happens to us someone at work lies about us makes it hard for us to get a promotion and we say well which means here it comes the bible's given me free reign to retaliate that I get to do to you what you did to me someone lies about you someone uh offends you someone harms you and we we quote it as well I get to retaliate I get to make it even I get to get even and Jesus says no that's not that's not our culture that's not what we look like um that's not how we're going to act I do think when you read by itself
Verse 39 but I say to you do not resist the one who is evil if you read that by itself it becomes you immediately want to say okay I have like a thousand questions I think two of the main ones that pop up are we're not allowed to stop hitler that side of the argument or the if someone breaks into my house I'm not allowed to defend myself I think that that those two questions are helped by the context because everything Jesus gives after this when he says don't resist the one who's evil because he talks about personal the personal implications of this so being slapped having someone take your property
Having someone impose upon your time and then having people ask to walk he's not talking about nations military laws this rule was actually given to Judges that's assumed that there would be Judges and rulings and laws but he's just saying quit applying this personally as I can retaliate against you the bible has other places where it talks about the rightness of an army the rightness of a military that he's going to never put his force so I think it's wrong to take this and push it into every aspect of life and say make sure they don't have cost
I don't think that's ever so appropriate in understanding the context of what he's talking about so he says in your personal life when it has to deal with your person you here's how we respond and so I want us to to look at what he is saying because I think it is very difficult if someone slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also he does not say attacks you although I do think if someone were to to strike you not just open hand slap you but to to uh punch you or attack you
That there is room for christians to hold this with some uh tension and say I think we've got to at least wrestle with the implications of Jesus so for the person who says I have a family and if someone breaks into my home I believe I'm called to defend myself I would say I think you have warrant there in scripture to pay attention to that to hold that view I also think you need to consider how to respond in a way that is in line with this that has some sort of a posture here so that when someone says
Uh they have their concealed weapons permit and they act like I hope somebody starts on with me I don't think that's in line with the culture Jesus is talking about I think that would be something that you would need to consider think about way out for someone who says I don't have wife kids if someone breaks in my house my main goal is just to get out of my house I don't want to harm them I believe that when he says that if they sue you and take your clothes that'll include being robbed and I'll just do what I can to get out of this situation even though
In south carolina I have the castle doctrine which means that I can uh kill that person and then walk away but I believe that I'm a christian I've been called to a different culture I think that's fair I think that's within this I do think Jesus knows he's mostly speaking to being slapped and being slapped is not a major physical injury it hurts your pride it is degrading let me give you an example you're at a restaurant you see a couple and it's tense and then one of them
Let's say the lady just to help you she jumps across the table and starts trying to like call the guy's eyes out and choke him I would think look at this situation this is a hot mess both of these people have serious problems like there's there's something that's happened in this relationship to cause this now let's say she splashes water on him and open hand slaps him and walks out I don't think what a terrible lady I think I want to look back at him does that make sense an open hand slap
When he's talking about being struck it is a you are beneath me you it is an affront of pride and character this is the same as if someone lies about you who undercuts your character I can tell you right now that if if another grown man comes at me and punches me I'm gonna be angry I'm gonna have a hard time handling that if he open hand slaps me I'm gonna come real close to me and here's why he punches me he thought I better do a good shot on the first one because this is about to get serious if he open hand slaps me his thought process was I'm gonna learn whatever I want
This guy is a weak, weak, small and I'm telling you the logical implications of me being an open hand slap are gonna be so much harder to deal with than someone just attacking you that's what Jesus is talking about he is addressing when someone comes after you your name when someone comes after you you're right when someone comes after you're self-warned you don't get to retaliate that's not the posture that we have they lied about me I'm gonna lie about this they kept me from getting a promotion I'm gonna keep them from getting a promotion or they got the promotion over me because they lied I'm gonna do everything I possibly can to get them fired
And he said no that's not our culture it's not what we're gonna lie he keeps going so personal pride personal insult and he says if anyone would sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak as well you see Jesus is teaching that his people that the church and the people who follow him and his kingdom are not going to walk around demanding their rights that our goal as christians is not to say well this is my legal justification and this is my legal right but that we're gonna hold that with an open hand
That we're not going to demand and impose ourselves on others but that in situations where someone's wrongfully suing us or rightfully suing us we're gonna hold very weighty how do we respond when I'm talking about you and how do I show the praise when someone is evil and insulting me when someone is imposing upon me how do I show the praise how do I model the way that Jesus is responding up to see Jesus says if he sue you for your tunic that's your inner garment give him your outer garment as well he says respond
Not the way they would assume you would respond I'm gonna sue you and take your tunic man I'll give you I'll give you both right now and I'll make this right right now I'll see you in court no you won't let's handle it right now what you need what's restitution how can I be gracious right now he's saying these people are gonna look for if anyone forces you to go one mile go with them two miles you see what Jesus just did in these three instances he says if they attack your pride in your name
Your self worth if they attack your stuff or if they attack your time all christians are gonna hold down with another how many of you how many of us would say well I'll give some time but I won't give my stuff or how many of you say well I'll give my stuff but I'm not giving any time how many how many of us have said things like I can't be friends with that person they're just too many they just need too much for me I can't be friends with them they take up too much of my time I can't
I can't be around them anymore all they ever do is ask me for stuff and Jesus is saying his people are ready for that have an open hand because they have an open heart 42 give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow you the christians are supposed to be the people who follow Jesus who are his people and his kingdom are supposed to be open handed when someone asks
For something when someone asks to borrow something even though they haven't even given back the other thing they borrowed he says our response is yeah it's just stuff yeah it's just my time oh yeah it's just part of my reputation that's what his people are I want to specifically take a second on this one
The borrowing give to anybody who asks if you because of our location we live near columbia some of you live in columbia there is a decent amount of hand handling that happens and so one of the immediate responses to this is anybody comes over and asks for ten bucks as a christian I'm supposed to just give
Ten bucks that's one of my fun choices one of the things I've wrestled with in the parking lot and someone comes over and I have a really good inclination with the people that are telling me some story about having to get back to orange bird or their mamas and get enthrined and they've got to catch
Them like am I supposed to just hand them 20 bucks I want to say a few things on that real quick one is if you come to the conclusion yes yes Jesus says give to those who beg beg beggars that's what they're doing give to beggars yes I will give you the ten bucks
I'm not going to give them the ten bucks and let Jesus sort it out I'm going to respond faithfully to what he's called me to and just be open handed and give to beggars and let him sort out how they respond to that we're going to do you think that the people who are homeless in our city in those situations in our city are in those situations for a
Reason if we lived I grew up in edgefield if we lived in edgefield I think I would approach this passage differently we don't live in edgefield we live in columbia there are multiple homeless shelters in downtown that will help people get out of homeless situations so the way that my wife and I handle
This is we've had this discussion I've told her my wife said and I said and I said and I said and I said and I said and I said just give to those who borrow and her response was okay somebody walks over and says I want your truck appropriate christian responses here
I like my truck so I was like hold on a second uh move out of your house here are the keys this is your question it looks like again I think if someone said I think that's what Jesus called me
To and I'm going to just do this in faith I think there's some room for I don't know how I would say you're wrong although I'm not sure that's what he's getting at here's here's the way we handle this our yes is on the table someone comes and asks us for help if someone comes and asks us
For money if someone comes our yes is on the table although we will slowly over time define what that yes looks like giving you ten dollars a day so that you can stay on the street and keep a habit going is not us loving you that harms you so we put our yes on the table and then we say here's what we'll do we're actually
Going to invest more time we're going to invest more energy because we're going to try to help you get off the street rather than just doing this one time thing and then at times as we have done that as we have said we're not going to keep giving you ten dollars a day but here's what we will hope you do we'll hope you
Get in the same business we'll hope you get in the same business and we'll have other programs and we'll have people then tell us yes because there's a reason why they're doing this and at that point I feel like we have done it and we can do to say yes to actually give to those new people
So what I think people do this is what I'm just why I'm explaining this and trying to help I think what people do is say well giving that person ten dollars isn't going to help them they're just going to use it to further their habit and so they use not harming people with giving money to just say no and what I think we need to do is have a
Qualified yes that's what our church does we help people our goal is to put significant amount of money towards getting people off the street getting people jobs getting people in we don't just help them by maintaining the lifestyle they have help them by saying yes here's how we're doing it and I think that's what
Jesus told us that our stuff our turn and our reputation is made the ones that are okay here's how I do think at times we try to respond to this and I think Jesus covers it but I want to point it out we say okay yeah but they're ungrateful yeah I did that but they're a jerk
About it yeah okay okay I did I did go you know I was trying to do this but they're they're rude or they they waste it and that's why I think Jesus begins by saying do not resist the one who is evil because I think anything we could put in the yeah but there category
Eventually we'll just fit on the category I think Jesus covers that today at the beginning of the set right this is how we can do come on that's that's that's hard I think it's 42 43 this is our third difficult
Teaching that gives us respect you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy that's not in the law love your neighbor is but then people took it to the they kind of said well that's true and this has true so our response
The way we're supposed to live is to love our neighbors and hate our enemies he says but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you here's what happens as soon as God says love your neighbor our response is who's my neighbor we even see that in the in the gospels
Where somebody comes to Jesus and ask him that who's my neighbor and so Jesus says love your neighbor and love your enemies and now you shouldn't have any follow-up questions who's my neighbor love them all the way over to who's my enemy love them okay what Jesus
Just said was love people and he's going to tell us how to love our enemies but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you persecute means they are actively trying to tear you down destroy you destroy your
Way of life take you out remove you from the picture they are persecuting you they are actively that may be a co-worker that may be a neighbor that may be someone who just Acts like you don't exist they're doing things actively
To harm you and he says pray for them and don't pray things like God get them you may pray God change them God help me to love them but pray for them so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he makes his son rise on the evil and the good and sends his rain on the just
And the unjust so he says that God does this this is how he treats evil people the sun rises on them it sets on them rain falls on their crops just like it falls on good people's crops that God is gracious in creation
To all of them and that our response should be the same so here's let's think about this for a second we have enemies ISIS for example Al-Qaeda all the other number of people out there in the world who are actively trying to harm we have real enemies I believe that
That includes them so when Christians say I think we should just carpet bomb the Middle East and start over I want to respond no I don't think we can arguably we solve some problems but we can't that's not appropriate that's not
Our posture that's not like we can't do that we're supposed to love them we're supposed to pray for them pray for their hearts to change pray for us to be able to interact with them well pray for I think one of the ways you pray for someone who
Is actively seeking evil is that their plans wouldn't work out so that they have less to stand before God and be judged to her God help that to fall through be gracious on them let them change let their plans be terrible and not work but pray
For them but I also think this applies to normal everyday life and most of us will not interact with people from ISIS so those will and again if you are in military or desire to be in military I'd love to speak with you about that because I don't believe that's exactly
What Jesus is talking about here and I think there is some room for conflict inside of nations on nations we don't have time for it but for most of us who will not be facing an enemy on a battlefield I want to help
Us see something our culture we've gotten tribal it just means each one of us has begun to say this is the people I belong to my uncle my uncle Abel is from Nigeria when he was born
They cut tribal marks into his face and packed it with dirt and salt so that his entire life he is marked by which tribe he is he sees anyone whose face looks like that he can immediately begin to talk to
Him because he never was from my grandmother was on an airplane saw a guy with the same tribal marks as my uncle immediately was like she immediately knew you're from you're from Obamachal Nigeria like immediately because he
Marked himself he did but he finished him he was one of the last they kind of stopped this he's one of the last guys to have this done that last generation but we do this to ourselves we kind of announce which tribe we're a part by how we dress
By if you're ever in a meeting and everybody pulls out a computer you can kind of see which tribe you're a part of are these all PCs are these all Macs if you've ever met a person who uses a Mac and you open a PC
Around them you'll know they're a Mac person by how they go I said to someone the other day man my computer's slow he just walked off I was like well what the heck like this is the thing we've marked ourselves you can
Walk into a high school cafeteria and you can see people who've labeled themselves it's made easier by the fact that they're all together in chunks but you can tell is it a white guy with pink shorts he's announcing things about
Himself they made fun of us because when we ordained a pastor all of us had beards and we were wearing plaid we've marked ourselves we've done this in the way we dress in the way we speak we we've become tribal but see it's it's beyond
That get on facebook sometimes and you begin to see who belongs which tribe are they a part of and here's what happens we have grown increasingly unable to get all more people in office how many have been flipping to facebook
And told somebody to repost something from fox news limbaugh wire federalist I think that's what you know I think that's what you immediately thought okay I get it someone post something for
Black lives matter or reposted some article about how clinton should have won or somebody's posting stuff about make america great again and you immediately thought okay good to know who's your enemy who's the person who's destroying america
Who's the person who's ruining the family who's the enemy of progress you see we might would say this includes the refugees and this includes isis but then if we see somebody who is a part of an organization in the
U.s we think well I don't ever have to talk to them I don't have to be their friend you could do this during election time and see who had signs in their yard for bernie or for trump and you immediately
Could know well they're part of that group so they're my enemy I'm against them and Jesus says no love them pray for them care about them get to know them now this is hard how do you as a christian relate to someone who
You fundamentally want their plans to not work out how do you how do you relate to people who absolutely you disagree with on so many levels that's a good question and I think we'll figure it out as we try but I think we've gotten really really good at hanging out with our tribe and demonizing
Everybody else this happens in theological circles we're the only people who read the bible right God have grace on the idiots don't know how to study the bible like I mean this happens we do this and Jesus is saying love them get to know them care about them
Now you may not feel warm and fuzzy inside that's not the word he uses he uses a word that's an unconditional love for all the times you don't feel warm and fuzzy for the people who are very difficult this means that this is your neighbor who always parks in front of your house when you talk to him about
Him this is the co-worker if this kind of thing bothers you drinks out of your mug or actively will always ask you for help but will never help anybody help this is your boss who means you in front of other people there's some people in your life
Who have made themselves you in front of your your life who have you in front of your your life who have you in front of your your life who have you in front of your your life very good I think this is helpful for us to think about I was watching some of those animal planet
Like dog shows this was a while back but they catch a dog they rescue them from a terrible situation they set them down put a ball in front of them and then they reach down and snatch it have you all seen this like right when the dog is about to eat and if the dog tries to bite
Them they think oh it's violent put it down have you all seen that they do this I remember watching that thinking are you kidding me I would try to bite you if you snatched my plate away from me like and this dog just came out of a terrible situation how is it ever going to not act like that unless
People get around that care about it and change it and I think that's part of what we've got to understand as we say this person is toxic right but how do they get un-toxic they have some people who are unwilling to they have some people who sit them down and say hey we've got to talk this can't be how our relationship works I love you
I care about you I want the best for you but this isn't how we're talking to you I love you I care about you I'm not going anywhere but you got to be honest with me I love you I care about you I'm not going anywhere but we can't have it to where when you want attention you throw a fit or you set your house on fire figuratively to get people to come pay attention to you we've got to work on this
It's the only way they grow having a two-year-old has helped me with this the only way he'll act like a normal human in society is if there are some people around him who keep loving him through the fact that he has no clue how to do that and that's the way it is for some people that's what God's called us to who's your enemy and how do you begin to love them okay he says this verse 46 for if you love
Those who love you what reward do you have do not even the tax collectors do the same and if you greet only your brothers what more are you doing than others do not even Gentiles do the same you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect so what he just said was if you love the good and the bad the evil the just and the unjust those who are easy to love and those who are really hard to love you'll start looking like sons of your father
And then he says if you only love those who are easy to love but you get away from those who are hard to love everybody does that that's not what my people look like my people like a group of people who hold their reputation their finances their material their time their energy with an open hand and love all the people who are hard to love that's my people that's my church this is impossible without Jesus you cannot do this without Jesus some of you who are
Going to try to make this a long go okay I'm a white knuckle and love all the unlovable people it's not gonna happen and some people will break themselves over this rule and say well I'm done I can't I can't be like this is how it's supposed to work this is ridiculous to call me this you cannot do this without Jesus Disney's remaking Beauty and the Beast this will be a live action one this will be a real piece which you're seeing in the story
Line there's an 11 year old prince so she curses him until he turns 21 if he can find somebody to fall in love with him he won't have to see him she was a little heavy and they don't love you they don't okay then's the breaks kid so this is the story that unless he can find someone to love him
He will remain at peace and I love this story because I think we all so badly want that to be true but we know that through our decisions and our attitudes and actions we are thinking to learn but many of us are very aware of that and the hope that someone can do the wrong and love us and love us I think that's not that easy
And that's what happens in the gospel unless you see that Jesus has already done this for you he has no hope to live this unless you see that Jesus fulfilled all the promises of God and was perfectly honest and had perfect integrity on this world on your behalf you'll never be able to have it in any kind of real way
In life unless you see that when evil people imposed themselves on Jesus he actually did turn the other cheek he actually did allow them to take every bit of clothing that he had off of his back that he actually did carry a Roman cross up a hill that he actually did have everything robbed of him stripped of him that he actually
Was able to stop it as the son of God had all of the rights in the universe to stand and say this will not happen but laid them all down on our behalf and that he did that to pray for and care about and love his enemies whenever he ends until you see clearly that Jesus has done this for you and that's the only way you were saved in the first of your life and that was the
Only way to change from a thing so they're loving them because they're loving them and they're loving them and they're loving them and they're loving them only for Christ and I hope you're saved and I hope you're saved and I hope you're saved and I hope you're saved
And I hope you're saved and I hope I want to tell you two practical ways things that we can meditate on think about that I think will help us actually carry this out in life have you ever seen an adult argue with a child to the point that they both look like children have you ever seen this like it turns into like I can already tell like I've got a
Two year old he can barely talk I got so frustrated with him the other day I had to like set in his crib and leave the room and I know I should be like a well adjusted adult but it's difficult and I can tell you there's going to be a time where I'm with a four year old in Walmart and he's going to be like well I hate you I hate you yeah and look like another four year old like have you ever
Seen this like there are these moments where you want to look and be like hey unless you act like an adult that kid doesn't have a chance unless you see more clearly than the kid can this isn't going to work out and I think as Christians that's one of the positions we get to take in the world is that we get to see some things we're privy to some things
That other people aren't so we get to act differently and it's going to be really easy to act in the sense two things that I think we get to hold in our minds because of the truth of the gospel that will help us apply this one is the eternal ramifications of the mission that God has through Christ reconciled the world to himself and he has given us the ministry of reconciliation meaning that as Christians
We have a responsibility for the eternity of the world that they will one day stand in judgment before God and we all will and as Christians we believe we'll stand in judgment before God and say my hope is in Christ as that Psalm said earlier I'm clothed in his righteousness alone like the only thing I have is what Jesus has done for me and so what Jesus calls us to to be the father
To be imposed upon to love those who are harming us if we can remember that most likely we'll go into a Christless eternity and my interaction with them may be one of the only times that you can see the grace of life in the face of evil which is the relationship I have to Jesus grace in the face of evil I think it will help us we pray for the last Holy Spirit help me care about this person's soul
More than I care about my stuff help me care about this person's eternity more than I care about my time that they've asked for the second one is I think the eternal ramifications of God's blessing the truth is if you are a Christian your hope is eternal you have an inheritance that is undefiled unperishing and unfaded kept in heaven for you people can take all your stuff they haven't taken anything from you people can take
All your time that's a drop in the bucket of eternity people can take your life and they've just shot you into an eternity of true life and real life before the king I think if we'll remember the eternal ramifications of the mission and the eternal ramifications of the full and free blessings that we have in Christ we actually can live with a culture that Jesus calls us to we can actually begin to know
What we've done this kingdom and I want you to remember you saved sinners and pray for Jesus about good for those of us who have messed this up in the past who are terrible at this right now the absolute thing that we need to repent up I think the best I want you to know that we can and use the saved sinners and hope that we're there and we have an eternity to follow this morning God we thank you
For your grace thank you that you saved sinners that you loved us enough to die for the enemies that you loved us and that you called us to love so that we have a model for it and we also have to be about to do and the power to actually protect us I pray that you would help us to look like this that as years go by that this would be a good description of our church family that we would look
Like we belong help us to not retaliate help us not help us not
Marriage and Divorce
Transcript
Good morning. Grab your Bibles. Go to Matthew chapter 5. It'll be on page 473 if your Bible looks like this. Here's what we're doing. We're taking, we're just kind of walking through every week.
We're walking through the Sermon on the Mount. So that's Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. And we're walking through and just kind of taking it as we come, seeing what Jesus says, trying to understand what his point is and what we can learn from what he says. We're kind of in a section, and we've been in it for the past couple of weeks, where Jesus is, in his teaching, he's pointing out our approach to the law and our general tendency, their approach, our approach to take God's rules and then try to figure out, okay, how do I work around these? To kind of approach with, am I just doing exactly what it says, then I'm okay.
And Jesus is basically running through a hit list and intentionally picking some fights, intentionally using as examples some very tense subjects to try to point out how we like to say, am I living the right way, am I doing the right action, and disregarding what the point of it was in the first place. That our hearts matter as well as our actions. And so Jesus talks about anger. He talks about how we treat people we dislike. He talks about lust. He talks about marriage.
Like, he just kind of goes through a list of hot button issues and just presses all of them, and then he keeps moving. So thanks for doing that. And so that's kind of, that's what he's doing. He's trying to show us how we approach the law. And basically, our general tendency is, what's the rule? Where's the line?
How close can I get to the line? How much can I try to wiggle around this? Is that exactly what was said? My granddad told me this story one time when he was growing up. It was in like the 1930s, and he used to just eat butter. Now, I don't know if that's a thing you do, and I don't know if it is, if anyone's ever told you that's weird, but it is.
So like every time I've been at a fair and seen that they have fried butter, I've just thought, gross. And I guess my granddad, when he saw that, was like, dear diary, jackpot. Like, he just would eat butter. And so to the point that his mom was going somewhere, now butter, then, like he had like, they had like a mound of butter on a plate in their, I guess like whatever kept stuff cold. Ice, chest, freezer, refrigerator thing, whatever they had in the 1930s. I know that butter was different because they weren't buying like sticks.
They had like a mound on a plate. She told him before she left, it was such an issue that she's leaving. She has to tell him not to eat the butter. So she's going somewhere, and she looks at him and says, do not lay a finger on the butter. And he says, yes, ma'am. She leaves.
He opens the refrigerator. Puts his hands behind his back. He leans in and bites a large chunk out of the top of their butter. Closes the door. Walks off. Just pleased in his heart.
She gets home, sees what happened, sees that it's clearly just he bit it. And he doesn't even get in trouble. She was like, well played. I did say finger. I would have tore him up. Jesus' point as he's going through the section is that's what we do with any kind of rules we're given.
That's the natural inclination of the human heart is to say what exactly is the rule. What words exactly were used. And then try to figure out how to get what we want in and around the rules. That's our goal when it comes to rules. And so he's pushing back on that and saying, you've missed the point. Like my granddad missed the point.
The point was don't eat the butter. He missed it because he just focused on, he knew the point. But he figured out a way to get around it. And that's our goal. So whenever we come to the Bible and we say, what exactly does it say?
Jesus is going through this and saying, no, you've missed the point. That's not how this was supposed to be approached. So as we study the Bible, we try to understand what was the point he was making. What's the point in the context we're given? We don't want to just take a verse and say, here's what these words are without understanding the greater context. But as we've been studying this passage, we also believe that we can put weight on the actual words here and bear down on it.
And so what we did was the first week we talked, we said, here's the big picture. Here's what he's saying about the law. Here's what he's saying about how we fail and how we approach the law. And then we've gone back through and we're just saying, okay, what exactly is he saying and what can we learn from it? And so today we are going to spend time on the Christian sexual ethic, what the Bible teaches and how Jesus approaches human sexuality and marriage, what the overall Christian sexual ethic is. And I've got a quote here from C.S.
Lewis. He's a theologian from the 1900s. And he says this when talking about Christian sexual ethic. He calls it chastity, which is just Christianity's approach to sexuality. He says chastity is the most unpopular of the Christian virtues. There is no getting away from it.
The Christian rule is either marriage with complete faithfulness to your partner or else total abstinence. And so we would even have to amend that now because when he was speaking, there was no gay marriage. But Christians actually have to step in now and make it even more unpopular by saying we actually believe the Bible says that it's heterosexual marriage with complete faithfulness or else total abstinence. And he's right. He says this is the most unpopular thing Christians say. This is the worst virtue we have.
And he keeps going. He says now this is so difficult and so contrary to our instincts that obviously either Christianity is wrong or our sexual instinct is wrong. Or our sexual instinct as it is now has gone wrong. One or the other. And he says of course being a Christian I think the instinct has gone wrong. I want to quote another well-known theologian Scarlett Johansson.
I read this in the Huff Post this week. Scarlett Johansson is an actress. If that just threw you off you don't know who she is. She's talking about monogamy and she says that she appreciates it. She appreciates monogamy appreciates marriage but that it's so hard and so difficult not only for her but for everyone else that it's unnatural. She believes it's unnatural for us to be monogamous.
To have one person that you devote all of your romance and love to. And C.S. Lewis is noticing the same issue. This is so against how we think and feel and want to approach. It's so contrary to our nature that something has had to go wrong. Either Christianity is wrong or we're wrong.
And that's what Scarlett Johansson is pointing out. She's saying it's unnatural. Natural it's just so difficult that it cannot be what it was what it's supposed to be. This can't be what we're made for. And so here's what we're going to do is we look at what Jesus says today. We're going to look at the words he says which Jesus kind of just throws a one-two punch and keeps moving.
He says very harsh things very Just kind of brings the hammer down and then keeps going. So what we're going to do is we're going to look at what he says and then as best we can we're going to try to understand what the big picture Christian teaching is. We're going to look at a couple other passages in the Bible to help us get our our head around this approach to human sexuality. And I think today is just going to be a little hard. I think it's going to be it's going to be hard. We're going to have to keep fighting our own intuition our own instincts as we try to understand what the Bible is saying.
For many of us as we look at specifically divorce it's just going to be painful. It's just going to be a hard morning. That for some of us who come from families where divorce has played a big issue for some of us who have been divorced some of us who are maybe going through a divorce currently or some of us who are considering divorce and thinking that is our our current best option today's just going to be it's just going to be painful as we try to understand this but hopefully by the end we'll get to see why the Bible says what it says and why ultimately Jesus is better. But let's let's we've agonized over this in preparation and it's going to take us a while to kind of say what we feel like needs to be said this morning.
But let's pray pray for us pray for our hearts pray for the people around you this morning that the Lord would help us to listen. God we thank you that as painful as it is you don't leave us alone when it comes to difficult situations and difficult issues that when we've made a mess of things you step in you step in by teaching us you step in by addressing us and speaking to us but ultimately Lord you step in by taking our sin our pain our brokenness and dying on a cross for it that you step in by joining us in the midst of it so God I just ask that you'd help us to listen that you'd help us to to find words to speak to you with to pray as we wrestle through this and ultimately we ask that you'd help us to believe to believe that you are better that you are good
Even when we can't see that and we ask for your help in Jesus name Amen We said early on as we started the Sermon on the Mount that Christians are designed to look different and that this is one of the areas where Jesus just kind of talks about church being salt and light that we're supposed to stand out in culture and that sexuality and our approach to marriage is one of the areas where Christians are just going to look different you're just going to look weird you're going to stand out in how we think about this and how we approach this you're going to have people around you say are you kidding me and we're going to have to say no I'm not and here's ultimately why I think it works out even though I have some of the same difficulties
And reservations that you have but culturally we're kind of all over the place when it comes to marriage this is this is I don't know if y'all have noticed this if you're watching any movie that has to do with like romance and relationships if the main characters start off not married the movie ends with magical they got together they're going to get married wedding stuff how many cartoons are like it's a wedding and they just ride off like I was I've got a little kid now and I'm watching more Disney cartoons and my wife likes them
So we watch Cinderella and I'm pretty sure this is the one where they like no Snow White they meet in the woods and just sing to each other it's really weird and then then they get married and then at Cinderella they meet at a dance dance with each other and then her foot fits in the shoe boom they get married they ride off in a carriage and then it says the curtains close and it says I lived happily ever after and I'm like do you know how awkward
That carriage ride is? these cats haven't even talked to each other like he doesn't even know she's got the most annoying laugh in the world like this is going to be so difficult for them but that's how movies work so like Hitch or whatever the end credits is like a wedding and they're like dancing around or whatever and that's it we've reached it magic happy land but if the movie starts off with the couple married the marriage is the problem like if it's a relationship romance movie and it starts out like
There's conflict and there's drama and there's tension and there should be because that's what makes a good movie conflict and drama and tension if you watch a movie that doesn't have tension it's a bad movie but those are our two competing messages that we get marriage is the route to happiness and to fulfillment romance is how you know who you are sexuality is who you are and it's the route to becoming a complete person and because we believe so much that romance
And sexuality are the route to happiness we treat a lot of marriages like marriage is the problem marriage is actually what's hindering me from being full from being fulfilled from being complete and so it's Jesus is speaking into that when we listen today that's how we have to hear and here's the thing as Christians we're going to look crazy I saw this stat recently I thought it was very interesting the National Center for Biotechnical Information did a study and their website is a.gov website
I'm not quite sure where they fall in our government structure but they do testing on stuff they did a study and they just got a bunch of TV shows and they coded them and 82% of them had sexual content some form of relationship marriage sex some 82% of the shows they got they said that American youth and I couldn't figure out how they were defining that American youth
See 14,000 depictions of sex a year on television 14,000 so I had seen that statistic I thought it was really interesting and I was thinking I know this has to affect how we think about it like this amount of exposure to sex and sexuality and marriage and like the messages we're being told like I know that's got to affect how we're thinking about it and then I read this in a book called Switch
Talking about it's kind of a psychology book sociology book about how to get people to make decisions and it said in the 1980s a Harvard professor named Jay Winston heard about designated drivers from Scandinavian countries he heard that Scandinavian countries had this concept of a designated driver where when you went out drinking one person wouldn't drink so they could drive and he knew that they were having seeing good results
That people were being safer there was less fatalities and road incidents incidents so he wanted to bring that to the US he's a Harvard professor he wanted to create out of nowhere a social norm did not exist in the US as far as he knew he's one of the only people who'd heard of it that they were doing this in other countries so he decided that the best way to do it was just to expose
People to it even if it was fictional didn't actually exist in real life if it was fictional so what they did was they got 160 television shows primetime TV shows to give it 5 seconds 160 television shows to give the concept 5 seconds they got The Cosby Show Mr. Belvedere Cheers Who's the Boss LA Law if you recognize some of those shows you just dated yourself they started in 1989
1988 By 1991 3 years later they got 160 shows to give it 5 seconds 3 years later 9 out of 10 Americans had heard about designated drivers 37% of all Americans including infants had actually been a designated driver now the infants weren't but they included all of them in their study 54% of frequent drinkers had been driven home by one they made it up and just stuck it in cheers did it 160 times
In 3 years everybody knew about it 40% Americans had actually been one youth including us with our adult we get to watch all the shows we want a mature show I can watch whatever I want my mom ain't telling me what to watch youth see 14,000 depictions of sex a year how much are we seeing and if you are going to tell me that does not affect how we think about it I'm going to be very inclined
To disagree with you if you're going to tell me that the amount that we see depictions of relationships how to communicate to each other how we ought to think about marriage how we ought to think about love how we ought to think about lust how we ought to think about sex we're going to see thousands of these hundreds a week if 160 depictions of a designated driver can change an entire nation in 3 years how many years
Have you been watching TV it's absolutely having an effect on us and Christians are going to look crazy if we stick to what the Bible says so let's read let's read what Jesus says it's going to be difficult to read and let's begin to walk through how we're supposed to understand this and think about it pick up in verse 27 you have heard that it was said you shall not
Commit adultery so Jesus again is kind of saying this is what the law is this is what the rule is but I'm trying to explain to you what the intent was and the fact that your heart matters not just your actions but I say to you verse 28 that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart if your right eye
Causes you to sin tear it out and throw it away for it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell and if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away it's better for you that you lose one of your members than your whole body go into hell it was also said whoever divorces his wife let him give her a certificate of divorce
But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except for on the ground of sexual immorality makes her commit adultery and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery Jesus uses harsh language to talk about very sensitive subjects and ties it to the concept of absolute eternal weight when he says that this needs
To happen otherwise hell hangs in the balance and in a culture where romance and relationships and sexuality and marriage is held up as the way to find fulfillment and the way to define yourself this is just hard to take in a second we're going to walk through and kind of just say here's what he says here here's what
He says here here's what he says here before we do that I want to take one quick zoomed out view at the bible's approach to marriage to help us understand why Jesus says this as harshly as he does God designed male and female brought them
Together in Genesis it was the first wedding he kind of presided over it the goal was that there would be monogamy one man one woman together devoted to each other as husband and wife they would leave their parents they would cleave to one another they would
Be one flesh God intentionally in the beginning of the bible took a naked man a naked woman brought them together and said y'all gonna go be one flesh and that's the first
Marriage so he tied marriage with sexuality sin enters the picture and it gets really messed up and if you want to read a lot of graphic depictions of terrible sexual Acts you need to look
No further than the old testament where it doesn't mince words and talks about a whole lot of sexual deviance that happens it is kind of weird when you're reading the bible and you feel like this is inappropriate
That's an odd experience to have when you're reading the bible but that's what happens in Ephesians 5 paul says and we're gonna look a little bit more at it later but paul says that the secret to marriage the mystery about it is that
It was originally intended to point us to the gospel that when God presided over the first marriage he meant for it to point us to the gospel which is Jesus's love for his people Jesus's love for
The church Jesus's love for his bride that's what the church is called Jesus's bride that marriage is meant to point us there that's why christians believe that marriage is a paint by Numbers meaning that all of us should get the same
Picture that husband wife together for life is meant to be pointing us to a bigger more real to a true reality of Jesus's love for the church that's the secret behind marriage that was the point
Originally that's why christians are very rigid about what we believe about marriage and sexuality because we believe sexuality sex and romance were designed for marriage and that marriage was designed to paint one picture and point us to the gospel my wife and I went to johnston south carolina
Yesterday which you may not have ever heard of because it barely exists a friend of mine works kind of around the state and he called one time and said I just left the middle of absolute nowhere he said I thought kind of columbia was nowhere this is like you got to get lost in nowhere
To find this place and I was like what and he said johnston I was like that's where my wife's from that's where my high school was and you are correct it is in the middle of absolute nowhere we're coming back from there last night riding down highway one and
It's kind of you know highway one just kind of weaves its way through south carolina and every once while we'd see a sign that would say gilbert and point that way or lexington columbia and point that way and they'd have these little Numbers on them that meant this is how far
You are away these are the mile markers this is how far you're gonna go we'd ride for a little while in that direction we'd see another one that said lexington columbia and the Numbers had gotten smaller they want to on them the reason
Is it's pointing to an actual place it's got to point a direction it's got to have an actual number that corresponds to something because you're going to a real place christians believe the same thing about marriage and the gospel that marriage is meant
To point towards Jesus it's meant to point towards his love for the church it's meant to point towards and so that's why we get very rigid and specific about it's got to look like this it's got to be this way all husbands should act
Like this all wives should act like this like we christianity steps in and is very concrete about it because we believe it points to one clear picture sex designed for marriage it has two major functions recreation and procreation that means
It's fun and it makes children it's the way God designed it intentionally designed to be enjoyable intentionally designed in healthy adults to make children when everything is working properly there should be children I saw something
Recently that said that the reason there was an argument for easy access abortion and contraceptives that said pregnancy is just too great a cost for something as small and simple as sex and as a christian my response to that
Is there's a reason why sex causes pregnancy like it was meant to happen inside of a marriage where there was a male and a female there to raise a child like that's how it's supposed to work it kind
Of feels like if someone argued that they needed to lower the penalty for accidentally shooting someone with a gun because the penalty of you know killing someone and having to go to jail for it is just too great a cost for something as fun as pistols and my immediate response would
Be pistols were designed to harm people and you say no no I just use it for fun and it's like yeah but that we still have to have some regulations around this there's got to be some rules because that's what it was made for it feels the same
It feels like that's the argument it's like no it was designed for a purpose now I think immediately especially if you haven't been around the church much hadn't read your bible when someone walks up here opens a bible says hi I'm a pastor let's talk about sex there's this immediate like oh here we go women cover yourselves up hide
Sex is dirty wrong and bad save it for your spouse there's some sort of we just got liberated we just got free we just got to use our sexuality to give us power and now immediately it's like no get it out of here it's terrible it's gonna ruin society bible treats sex the way
It does because it believes it has greater value than you do it believes it's more powerful than you think it is there's a reason why you don't have to get a license to drive a moped if you hit someone on a moped you get hurt your moped
Isn't hurting anything like you run into my truck with your moped I'm hopping out hopping back in that's it like that's how it works like there's a reason why you have to get a license for a car and the reason why you have to get a bigger more intense license for an 18 wheeler
Because they're powerful they have more capability there's more to them there's a reason why the bible steps in and draws real clear distinct lines around sexuality and marriage because God designed it to be potent to be powerful it's because it's lifted up as it matters when Christianity
Says that you should dress modestly it's not because we have a low view of your sexuality it's because we have a high view of it I believe it belongs to you and to your spouse and you should like that's why like if you came to me and said oh you're so ashamed of your money with your safety deposit box I'm not ashamed
Of it I like it I don't want you to have it oh you got a safe you're ashamed of your money it doesn't make any sense and that's that's the same way Christianity treats it that it matters it's valuable so as we read through this I want you to just as as much as you can let's try to
Listen and see what Jesus is saying we're going to move to another passage in a minute to try to help us understand it more because they also disagreed with it both the Pharisees and his disciples there has to be greater clarification and we get
That later in Matthew so verse 27 you've heard that you should not commit adultery I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart Jesus ties lust which is a sexual
Desire that's carried out visually as adultery I do not think so adultery specifically means you've kind of cheated on your spouse you've broken that relationship with your spouse that's what the word adultery means he's
Saying that lust is the same thing going on in your heart he's pointing out that you've got to stop sin while it's in your head before it gets to your heart before
It makes it into action he's saying it's the same issue I don't think he means to say that if you lust outside of being married so a non-married person lusting free and clear I don't
Think when he uses the word adultery he meant to say that lusting outside of marriage is fine I think it's possible he actually means all lust is actually an offense against your spouse whether you have one right now or not
Because all sexual desire was meant for a spouse and nowhere else that's the rightful place for it then he says if your right eye causes you to sin tear it out throw it away it's better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off throw it away it's better for you
To lose one of your members than your whole body go into hell we spent all our time on that last week talking about the graveness of sin the seriousness of sin and how much more serious Jesus takes it than we do it was also said whoever divorces his wife let him give a certificate of divorce he's quoting Deuteronomy 24 there and he's speaking into a situation where they said
The rule says give her a certificate and so there was consistent amount of write a certificate hand it off like you could just anytime your wife was disagreeable to you you could get a divorce and so Jesus is speaking and saying you think you're accomplishing this by following the letter of the law but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except on the ground of sexual
Immorality and that's a different Greek word than he's used so far he means active sexual sin so that would be for them it would also include like if you married someone who had told you they were a virgin prior to getting married and then you found out they weren't because that was a grave issue in their culture it would include that it would include sexual
Sin while married with another person any kind of sexual action so adultery he's saying unless there's this going on unless they've already broken the sexual relationship you make her commit adultery whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery and so what Jesus said was there is no route from
Divorce outside of them already committing adultery outside of them already breaking the covenant through sexual sin there's no route that does not lead to greater sin greater brokenness he teaches this on a regular basis he teaches it here in Matthew 6 he teaches
It in Mark he teaches it in Luke it seems like it was something that he taught on a semi-regular basis so jump over to Matthew 19 because Jesus has taught this so much this very
Kind of aggressive controversial idea that you can't just get a divorce and be fine you can't just say well we filed the paperwork we're good that he actually has religious leaders show up to question him about
It Matthew 19 verse 1 now when Jesus had finished these sayings he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond
The Jordan and large crowds followed him and he healed them there and Pharisees those are religious leaders came up to him and tested
Him by asking is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause he answered have you not read that he who created them from
The beginning made them male and female and said therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife
And the two shall become one flesh so they are no longer two but one flesh what therefore God has joined together let not
Man separate so his response to can't we just get a divorce when we want to his response to that marriage is a sacrament meaning that
It belongs to the church it doesn't it belongs to humanity God designed it from creation and gave it to humanity that's what Jesus
Goes back and says no this is a creation ordinance it's given to humanity therefore and then he ties sex to it he says they'll become one flesh that's
Specifically talking about sex he says that they'll become one flesh and let not anybody tear that apart is never the goal of marriage to get
A divorce and so they have an issue with this they respond and they said to him what I think we want to say
Then why did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away what they just said was Deuteronomy says
Write a certificate Bible boy he says haven't you read they said you read it was a tree and that's hard to take but
His point when he responds to them was he says the hardness of your heart what he says is Moses was riding into a
Very messed up situation where this had gotten out of control and because of people's hard hearts marriages were a train wreck and because
Of people's hard hearts they weren't going to fix them and so Moses had to decide a system for how are we going to
Handle this but that was not God's intention that's Jesus' answer and that sexuality was designed for marriage so that sex outside of that
Covenantal relationship in marriage leads to sin and once you have covenanted with someone the only thing that works to break that effectively is sex with
Someone else adultery and I'm so thankful for the disciples in this passage verse 10 the disciples said to him if such is the
Case of a man with his wife it is better not to marry I have struggled immensely with this section of the Bible and
With what Jesus teaches about marriage and when I read the disciples I just say thank y'all for saying that to him I have
Struggled with what I want Jesus to say about marriage and what I think he actually does say about marriage and the disciples step
In and they say hold on a second the only way to end a marriage is a sin train wreck that's it no this
Person was bad you're okay he says no the thing that destroys marriage is sin and ultimately when there is a broken marriage if people move
On and remarry there's adultery he says that in Matthew Mark Luke that if so in what he said in Matthew 5 if your husband divorces
You and she remarries she commits adultery do you know how hard that is to take if you actually think about that what if
She had nothing to do with the divorce what if he just sent her off and he said no what happens is when they
Get remarried there's sin that's how they start their marriage now he does call it a marriage he doesn't say they're never married again
Or that one doesn't count but he I stand with the disciples some where I'm looking at what Jesus says and I go hold
A second what about this type of marriage you're telling me there's no way to get out of that outside of it being broken down by sin
There's no what about this lady whose husband is like this husband whose wife is like this like I want to bring to him
Pastoral situations that I'm aware of so here's what he responds with and I think I think it's helpful it helps win me over
I think it's refreshing I'm not completely won over by his response but Paul helps us later and we're going to Ephesians 5 to
Read what he says but here's how Jesus responds not everyone can receive this saying but only those to whom it is given I've
Heard people read that before and go oh okay good so not everyone has to stay married just the people who receive what he
Just said but Jesus keeps talking that's not what he means not everyone who receives this saying but only those to whom it is
Given for there are eunuchs who have been so from birth and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men and there
Are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven without going into too much detail about eunuchs they
Were sexually abstinent he's saying that you can be sexually abstinent for receive it Jesus backs up what the bible says which is some
People are going to receive marriage and they need to stay married some people can't receive that they're not given to marriage some people
Are going to be abstinent abstain completely from sexual activity and that's fine and if that's what you want to receive receive that so
The disciples say hold a second you mean to tell me there's no way out of my marriage and it'd be better off to
Not get married and Jesus says yeah that's fine and let me just say for single people in the room Jesus says yeah that's fine
You don't have to be married to be a complete human you don't have to have sex to be a complete human that's not
The path to fulfillment that's not the path to happiness that's what we believe as Christians he's not married he never has sex this
Seems so crazy to our culture who are so sex crazy that we made the da Vinci code which is like obviously he had to
Have a secret girlfriend nobody's that happy without a girl or some sort of love interest we have all these kind of like and
Jesus says no I'm a full complete perfect human for the next person who says this in the Bible and says it more forcefully
Is Paul he says that in first Corinthians chapter seven he like doubles down on it he says I wish all of y'all would not
Get married and then you could focus more on Jesus mission he says the guys who are worried about making their wife happy the
Wives are worried about making their husband happy he says I'm just trying to do what Jesus wants I got all the free time
In the world people are like I gotta get home my wife is cooking dinner he like I ain't gonna get home I'm working for
Jesus that's what Paul says I wish y'all could not get married but if you want to that's fine that's what Paul says not
Exactly like that I paraphrase a little bit but that was his point you can be a full complete human and never get married
But he says if you do get married the point of marriage is to stay married that's the goal that's that's Jesus' stance on
This I want to take a second before I kind of got down to I figured out as I was working through this my
Biggest argument against this and that's where I want us to end this morning but before we get there I want to take a
Second and just kind of with what we've said so far I want to sum up a few things if you are single I want
To take a second and speak to single married if you are single some of you are going to get married that's good the
Bible says marriage is good some of you are not going to be married Christianity is the first group people who came along and said
You can be a full complete human and never be married that's great it's celebrated some of you are going to get married some
Of you aren't that's fine for those of your goal as you follow Jesus is to abstain sexually until you get married that will not
Make all of your married sexual activity magical and amazing I don't I think that's been told to people in the church like if
You save yourself for sex it's going to be the most amazing thing no sex is designed for marriage it's designed to be good
Saving yourself sexually for marriage is designed because you are supposed to devote yourself to your spouse and covenant with them and say everything that belongs
To me belongs to you that's what sex is supposed to be marriage is not going to save you it is not how you level up
As a person some of you are thinking I've got problems but when I get married it'll fix me I'm lonely and sad but when I get married
It'll fix me if I can just get married then I'll know I'm cared about then I'll know I'm complete then I'll know I'm whole
That is not going to happen and if you would like to know whether I'm telling the truth ask a married person if getting
Married fixed them or made them whole and complete and utterly satisfied it doesn't work that way wasn't designed to the Bible never points
To marriage as the you're fine so if you're not married you're single in the room marriage is fine it's good don't believe it's going
To fix you it's not how you level up as a human it's not how you become a whole person it's not true if
You're not married in the room and you do not you're not going to get married you're not supposed to God has laid that
Out for you that's not how life is going to work for you you're fine you're a full complete human I do want to
Talk to the married people in regards to single people married people stop stop acting like marriage is the thing that has to happen
To your single friends stop acting like they don't count as a person until they are married stop asking them who they are dating
Stop watching them have a conversation with a friend and walking over and going stop it just stop if you have a single friend
Who is trying to date people and want you to set them up go for it if you have a single friend who has
Not asked you to do that stop marriage did not complete you did not fulfill you did not magically make you an amazing person
It did married people we have to if we believe this if the church actually believes this if we are going to stand with
Any amount of credibility and look at a person who has been divorced and say that we believe that you should not get remarried
If we stand with any amount of credibility and look at someone who struggles the same gender attraction and say that you should live
Your entire life not married if we're going to stand with any amount of credibility and look at someone who says I just don't
Think I'm supposed to get married and we're going to say we agree with the apostle Paul that that's beautiful and you should spend
Your life for Jesus mission if we're going to say that with any amount of credibility we have to open our homes on holidays we have
To open our homes on random Thursdays we've been taught that the route to life the time to have a roommate if you're a
Certain age we've over sexualized everything we've got to open our homes Anna and I struggle with this because we're both friendly kind of introvert
People we struggle at times with wanting our house to just be the place where we sit and don't think or interact with people
And we struggle with that being how we interact with each other we have to work on that but we struggle with not wanting
People but we've got to we've got to open our homes we can't just say oh that's great be alone forever we've got to have
People over for Christmas and Thanksgiving and we've got to have them over random nights of the week to help us raise our kids
And to help us love well and serve well also and this one's going to sound weird and it's weird to me and I've
Been working on it and it's still weird we're going to have to physically touch single people in non-sexual ways super weird to say all
Right got it out there this means put your arm around somebody we have acted like if you were single and you need physically
To be touched get a cat or a dog if you're single and you want someone to act like they like you get a
Dog if you want someone you have to pursue and they hide from you and act like they don't care about you get a
Cat we should be able to sit down put arm around somebody sit close to them share a couch hug somebody for longer than
Two seconds guys that's super weird for me I don't like touching people I'm working on it I got some people that I'm intentionally trying to be like
Hey good to see you and like keep my hand there like longer than I want to which was beyond the first time I
Touched them so but I believe it's important also we've got to quit stealing the word love from the Bible and making it only
Mean romance how many times have heard first Corinthians 13 read at a wedding that's the one that says love never fails love never gives
Up love never ends like I'm not quoting it perfectly but I think I actually started singing some sort of a pop song in
The middle of that but you know which one I'm talking about the word there Paul's writing to a church not a couple he's
Writing to his people writing to the church and saying this is our love for each other we've acted like if you're not in
A relationship you don't get the real full meaning of love that's not true the reason that's good to read at weddings is because
It's meant to be single people you get to live a full robust real life people who are not single who are married have deep
Meaningful friendships with people where you share intimate details about your life with single people let them do the same it makes what Jesus
Says tenable we have to follow up our actions with what we say we believe okay married couples in the room take divorce off the
Table don't bring it up in arguments don't hold it over top of each other don't think about it that's not the intent I say
This to people periodically even if your goal is just happiness on earth best shot at that is the spouse you're married to that's
The way the Bible lays it out best shot is the spouse of your youth that's the best shot you got at it divorce
Is painful and traumatic harmful every person that you're married to is a sinner and broken there's no shame in struggling there's no shame
In getting counseling we do counseling there's a recovery program we'll help if you're in our church family we'll help pay for marriage counseling we
Think it's perfectly fine at times to say we've had the same argument 1300 dimes we only know how to run this track we need
Somebody else to talk to that's fine all good marriages that last have seasons where they could have just hung it up you talk
To any marriage that's last any couple that's lasted they have seasons where they say yeah we could have just walked away this five
Years was terrible if you are married in the room and this is not your first marriage I have a couple the answer to
That is quite possibly with as strongly as Jesus says it quite possibly and the next question is so what do I do how
Does that work there's a story in John chapter 8 where they catch a lady who is in committing adultery at that moment they
Bring her to Jesus and they say we just caught her adultery what are you going to do the law says we should kill
Her and Jesus says whichever one of y'all is sinless throw the first stone the rest of us will follow you one by one the
Bible tells us starting with the oldest to the youngest so young people in the room who think you're sinless pay attention to the
Old people who put their stones down and walked away Jesus looks at her and she says am I not condemned he says they haven't condemned
You and neither do I go and sin no more there's forgiveness in Jesus and your marriage counts your marriage is real every time it's
Talked about Jesus treats it like a marriage stay married repent where you need to repent and move forward in the freedom that Jesus
Doesn't condemn you you get to move on don't make it worse fight for this marriage make this marriage good and beautiful make it
Point to the gospel you're free and forgiven there's hope if you are divorced and single your marriage was not meant to end that way and I'm sorry
Marriage is painful divorce is painful I'm going to talk about that on the ride home divorce is painful in some ways it's more painful than a death there's a lot of regret and shame and despair and guilt and I want
You to know Jesus pays for our guilt he takes our shame where there's regret he's a redeemer meaning he steps into broken messes cleans them up makes them more beautiful than they ever were where there's despair
He's our hope the bible never holds up marriage as the thing that's going to fix us it never holds up romance is the thing that's going to fix us or make us whole it always only singularly solely
And forever points to Jesus to do that there's hope for you given the circumstances of your divorce you may not be supposed to get remarried we would love to talk with you about that struggle with you over that
Wrestle through the scriptures together on that and then walk with you in life whichever way that plays out romance is not essential to our happiness and fullness and that was the biggest complaint
I had as I was reading what Jesus had to say about marriage and divorce is that I feel like when Jesus says if you get a divorce you should not get remarried or when he looks at single people and says some of you should just be single
Forever I have been indoctrinated to believe that marriage is one of the primary ways if not the primary way that romance is the primary way sexuality is the primary way to define who you are and to
Find fulfillment and happiness and the Bible never even comes close to saying that so when the Bible looks at anyone and says you shouldn't get married it does not think it just robbed you of happiness although I would have a hard time saying that
Because there's a part of me that believes I am if I have to counsel a divorcee and say I believe the Bible tells you that you should not get married again there's part of me that thinks there went happiness but Jesus never thinks
That the Bible never says that it never holds marriage up that way it never looks at romance that way it only always points to Jesus singularly and solely for our joy and hope and delight and satisfaction and fulfillment and it even
Does it in the midst of when it's talking about marriage go to Ephesians 5 as we finish up this is what wins me over this is what makes me go okay I trust you even though I don't like some of this even though I would have tried to lay it out differently in my own
Wisdom and even though I know that that time is very lacking verse 25 Paul's talking to husbands and wives he's talking beginning in 22 to wives we're going to pick up in 25 as he paints a beautiful picture of what a husband's supposed to look like and he's going to tell us why he says it
That way so page 569 if you have one of the white bibles in the rows chapter 5 verse 25 husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her so he says here's how you ought to love he's pointing to Jesus this is the picture of
Love that we have that Jesus loves the church and he gave himself up for her the church is everyone who's placed their faith in Jesus that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot
Or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish in the same way husbands love their wives as their own bodies he who loves his wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes it and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we are
Members of his body therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh this mystery and that that word's also secret this mystery is profound and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church however even though it refers to
Christ and the church let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband Paul says the secret behind marriage the mystery behind marriage is that it ultimately points us to the really good husband it ultimately points us to the true
Husband Jesus who loves pursues and gave himself up for the church marriage is not the fulfillment completion road to happiness Jesus is marriage is only ever meant to point us to Jesus so if you're married
That's how you ought to love that's how you ought to serve if you're not married that's how Jesus loves and serves that's the way it works all of it ultimately is pointed to Jesus and his love for
The church and his love for his people only he can ever fulfill us make us whole mend our souls love us the way that a good husband ought to love English theologian J.I. Packer
Explains it this way it says through setting his love on human beings God has voluntarily bound up his own final happiness with theirs it's not for nothing that the Bible habitually speaks of God as a loving
Father and husband of his people God was happy before they were made he would have continued happy had he simply destroyed them after they had sinned but as
It is he has set his love upon particular sinners and this means that by his own free voluntary choice he will not know perfect and unmixed happiness again until he
Has brought every one of them to heaven he has in effect resolved that from now on and for all eternity his happiness shall be conditioned upon theirs a good husband a good father has their happiness
Wrapped up in their children in their spouse can't be fully and unmixed happy without the other being happy and fulfilled and complete and what
It says is that Jesus looked at the church and says I'm tying my happiness to yours when we want to respond that this is
Against our happiness and we want to use a trump card do whatever makes you happy Jesus has said I love you and therefore I've
Tied my happiness to yours and I'm also worked up some questions that we get frequently asked when we talk about this we're going
To do some Q&A here in a second I'm going to pray for us Raz is going to come up here and we're going to
Walk through a few questions but let's pray God we thank you for your word we thank you for your help we pray that
You'd help us to trust you to believe in you to follow you even in places where we don't understand where we don't know
Why things are working the way they're working or why your word says what it says pray that you'd help us to look to
The cross to know that you are for our good that you have joined yourself with us both in our despair and in your
Happiness in Jesus name we pray amen we do this from time to time where we do some Q&A we usually try to open it up
For people to send in questions this time specifically we also had some questions that we just know get asked on a regular basis
When we talk about this topic we answer a few questions and then we hope that this kind of Q&A is just the beginning
Of it we are wide open about any of this so this is Raz he's one of our pastors I'm going to read out questions we're
Going to tackle them pretty quickly give a biblical answer rather than a case by case kind of answer because there's a million hypothetical situations that
Everyone can dream up when each question comes up on the screen so let's look at the first one okay the first question is when
Is it okay to get a divorce let me start by saying that that's pretty similar to the question that the Pharisees asked the Pharisees came and said
Is it okay to get a divorce for any reason so to ask the question when is it okay to get a divorce or really to
Ask any question that presupposes that divorce is an option is going to be difficult to answer because it's kind of the wrong question if
Divorce is presupposed as an option then the Bible is going to say stay married the answer is marriage is not supposed to end in divorce and so this is one of those questions that
Is saying I'm looking for a divorce what are my options here and the Bible's immediate response is going to be marriage is good you're married you should stay married divorce
Is not an option unless it really has to be now that opens the door for when does it really have to be and that
Makes this question become actually a whole lot more serious because if it's asked in an inquisitive way then it's missing the point but if there's some
Serious sin issues going on in someone's life it really has to be a more targeted question about which how bad does the sin
Have to be how frequent is the sin can it be resolved is staying married no longer an option and I think typically we
Get our intentions in asking this question are typically off that that haven't been said the two kind of most common cited specific instances
Are the ones we read today in Matthew 5 and 19 where Jesus says except for sexual immorality which would be active sexual sin in the marriage in their
Culture would also have included sexual sin prior to the marriage because they would have said that that broke the covenant you had lied about being
Sexually pure it's a little bit different in our culture and usually people know what they're getting into when they get married sexual immorality also Paul in
1 Corinthians 7 has to address a different situation because when Jesus talks the church hadn't begun yet fully when Paul is writing two churches and saying if
You are a Christian you got married you and your spouse are married everything is fine but you became a Christian and suddenly your
Whole life view has now changed about what is okay what is not okay and your spouse says I don't want to be married
To you anymore and they just leave they're not a Christian but they just say I'm kind of done with this because I can't
Handle you being a Christian and our life being this way Paul says you're free which there is some argument over whether or not that
Means free to not chase them down or that means free to get remarried ultimately all of the situations that lead to divorce are
A mess and they're painful and we want to walk shoulder to shoulder with you through it be as helpful as possible help fight
For your marriage to last and to get past this stuff but we want to have any of those conversations we can I think
Also because the Bible doesn't say this the next follow up question is what about abuse so our response to that first of all
Is if that is you and you are in this room we want you to come talk to us Paul says this in 1
Corinthians that I think helps us with that if I can find it I I am going to read it out loud to the
Married I give this charge not I but the Lord this is verse 10 the wife should not separate from her husband but if
She does she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband and the husband should not divorce his wife I think that helps
Us out where it's like you shouldn't do this this isn't the goal but if you have to leave leave but with the goal
Being reconciliation not moving on and so to get out of an abusive situation to get out of a broken situation is actually okay
You should do that we want to help we have some full grown men that want to talk to your husband and but the
Goal should be reconciliation that your husband would repent that you can work this out or that you would stay unmarried because of how
Messed up it's gotten so what kind of like Paul lays that up let's go to the next question does being a new creation in christ mean
That a marriage that happened before you became a christian does it mean that that marriage doesn't count because you're not a new creation yeah
Sure does being a new creation in christ mean that a marriage that happened before you became a christian doesn't count okay so new creation in
Christ that's a quote from Galatians and more specifically probably second corinthians five um that's kind of taken out of context I have heard that and I've heard pastors say
That I've heard people say you know once you become a christian whatever happened in the past doesn't count I think when Jesus says bases it off of
Creation and just applies it across the board to all marriages I don't think that's actually true I think you're taking that out of context and
Applying it to something that that it's not meant to apply to what he's saying is you are made new all of your old
Sins pass away the same way that all of us are free not condemned from all of our sins we are a new creation
But that does not change some of the consequences of what's happened in our past and how we ought to move forward in faithfulness
And obedience so no I don't think so I think if that were true then we would have seen Jesus telling people once they
Become a christian they have to get remarried and there is that never ever happens if people are not it is never considered invalid
And even when he talks to the woman at the well he refers to all of her marriages as marriages all of them are
Considered treated as if they were all actual marriages does the bible ever clearly say what sexual immorality is first of all we do
We usually I only want to ever make the bible define a word when I kind of want to disagree with what I think it means
So that may not be you that is me also just when I'm going to I'm going to help show y'all what I do whenever I
See something in the bible and I really want to know what it means Raz what's that word mean in Greek he does Greek
I did that a bunch for this sermon is that a real question yeah sure okay so the Greek word that is translated into
English is sexual immorality is a word in Greek it's pornea and pornea used to be translated to fornication back when people used to say that word in English but they don't say that
Word anymore so it doesn't make sense to kind of cram into the biblical vocabulary so sexual immorality is the word that they the
Phrase that they used to translate pornea and what pornea means in Greek is any sexual act that occurs outside of a heterosexual monogamous for life
Marriage so a lot of people say what does that mean though what does that include that includes a bunch of things anything that is outside anything that is sexual and physical outside marriage is included
In that that's prostitution incest that is sex before marriage that is it covers a lot of things and I think what Chet was saying is that we want to argue with definitions that's only ever a thing when we want to get away with something when we want
To say what I'm doing doesn't count nobody hears you shouldn't murder and says yeah but let's define murder see what the Greek word said let's see what 10 different translators translated as oh they all said murder I wonder if it counts
If it was an accident I wonder if it counts if I did it to 50 people at once nobody makes arguments trying to justify things nobody questions the definition of a word until they're trying to justify something at least that's the most often time I want to maybe you're just curious
But that doesn't usually happen question they didn't have this at least not in the form that we have it does that apply to pornography that's a good question we have taught from this platform in the past that sexual immorality that pornography and
Sorry for the language masturbation falls under sexual immorality as a result of Che was saying just during the sermon that we sweated this passage a lot in the past week we kind of went Pharisee on it and tried to define terms and understand it like to the letter of the law
So that we could teach clearly on this which I think at times we were missing the point but this question came up for us today we were missing the point today no no no not today during the week sorry during the week when
We were trying to dissect this passage and find out what does it actually say we were pulling a Pharisee move and saying yeah but does it actually mean this and sure Jesus was saying stay married the question was does pornography count there are there are
Three terms that we used from the Matthew passage in Greek it doesn't matter what they were in Greek in English they are lust adultery and sexual immorality through discussions this week and research and trying to dig into the Greek text I think most likely now it
Doesn't really matter at the end of the day but most likely pornography fits more into the lust category and less into the sexual immorality category at the end of the day Jesus just said any man who looks at a woman lustfully has committed adultery in their heart and that's a big deal and we're not saying no longer an issue
You guys just go ahead and deal with like no it's still in the same category we still have sin issues when it comes to pornography and masturbation and stuff but it's probably not one of the categories that Jesus has just said you can get divorced over this it's I think it's ripped out of that category because if if somebody's struggling with
A pornography addiction we wouldn't say your next step is to get divorced that's just I think that misreads the text even if someone was struggling with sexual immorality we wouldn't say that and that's not what Jesus would say either the goal is to reconcile to repent
And to move forward okay yeah let's go to another question what if someone gets married and then they realize realizes and then realizes they made a mistake our third question answerer also I would be inclined to agree with him that
That there and this is what this is what this is what the conversation I get to have with people when they ask I'm just not sure if the person I'm married to is the one because we've pumped that idea into the world that you have a soulmate
Or whatever one true soulmate which by the way comes from Greek mythology where souls used to be have like two heads four arms four legs and the gods cut you in half and you have one true soulmate that idea does not come from scripture
It comes from some weird soul cut nonsense stuff from mythology here's our answer to that and here's the Bible's answer to that are you married to them they're the one I have good news for all you married people it's the
One you found them that's how it works stay married fight for the marriage you have you're married to the one keep it going make it work and yes in some ways you're going to realize you made a mistake
Because you're going to think I thought this was going to fix me and be magical and they're terrible and also I've learned I'm way more terrible than I thought and so yeah fight for it make it good and seek counsel where you need it
But yeah you're married to the one so go make it work that's the last question if you have more questions hang out with the community group this week talk about it as a group I think that would be a really good way to handle
I would suggest probably don't come up with hypotheticals because as soon as you come up with hypotheticals you're probably asking the wrong question also if something was unclear today from what was said because periodically things are just come over talking to me I'll be hanging out right here to make sure that that it's clear and if
You're gonna be upset I at least want to make sure you're upset for the right thing not something I should have said better all right you wanna pray for us and we'll get sure let's pray God we thank you for Jesus and the power that he has to reconcile us to you even though we're fallen even though we're sinful I pray for the
People in our church family who are dealing with some of the mess that occurs when when sin enters into a marriage and starts destroying things and I pray that they will seek you that they will seek what it is that you're calling them to and I pray that as a church family we can rally around those people and encourage them to seek Jesus in all things pray for a church family in general that we would hold marriage tightly with a
Biblical standard that we would hold sexuality tightly with a biblical standard and that we would constantly pursue you with our lives in all of it it's in Jesus name
Relationships in the Kingdom
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in Matthew chapter 5. We have been walking through the Sermon on the Mount. We're in our fourth week.
We'll be in Matthew chapter 5. It's on page 473. If you have one of the white Bibles, it's in the row. So in this section, we actually kind of walked through this part last week. We looked at Jesus' big point through this overall section where he's basically saying, you've heard the rules, you've heard the law, but I'm saying it's actually more than that. It's greater than that.
It's deeper than that. It's not just about your behavior, but it's also about your heart. And so we said that we were kind of looking at that idea and that we were going to spend a couple of weeks looking specifically at the topics he covers as he goes through that. And so he says, again, it's not just the rules, but it's about what's going on inside of you that matters. And so specifically as we kind of look at this, we have, I think, an advantage over the disciples who were hearing it for the first time. Because here's how this works.
We know about the cross. If this is your first time ever hanging out with a church, you still most likely know that Jesus died on a cross. If you ask people about Jesus, they'll say he died for our sins. Whether or not they believe that or not, whether or not they really know what that means, they've heard it. Most likely. We get to look back at everything we read, everything Jesus teaches, all of Scripture.
We get to look back at it through the cross. We get to understand the full implications of it because we know the whole story. See, the Bible is, from beginning to end, it's telling a one cohesive story. From where it begins in Genesis to where it ends in Revelation, it's one cohesive story that God is telling that he's unfolding throughout time. So, the disciples would have heard what Jesus taught, and then continued to go with him and walk with him, and they wouldn't have known the full extent of his meaning until after he rose from the dead. And then they would have to go, Oh, that's why he said, Like, I feel like they had these conversations, like, You remember that time where he said this, and we were all like, I have no clue what he's talking about?
I now know what he was talking about. Like, they got to do that. Like, if you, let me give you an example of this. There are some movies that you can never watch the same way twice. The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects, Like, you can't watch them, and then watch them again, and something, like, The Sixth Sense does such a good job that if you watch it, when it's over, you're like, I'm gonna need to watch that again. Because you almost, like, want to argue with, they didn't trick you that well.
And you watch it again, you're like, this all makes sense. Like, does that make sense? Like, you see what I'm, like, I've said sense so many times right now, because of the name of the movie. The Sixth Sense, We can't watch it the same way twice, and that's the way it is for us with the gospel. We can't look back at what Jesus is doing. We can't look back at the Old Testament without seeing it through the lens of the gospel.
So when Proverbs tells us how much God cares about the poor, we get to go, Yeah, but not just cares about them, but comes one of them. When the Bible tells us how close he is to the brokenhearted, we get to say, Yes, he's not just close to them, he becomes, he joins us. When the Bible says how much he hates sin, but also how much he loves us, that fully gets unraveled, that picture gets made crystal clear in the cross, where he hates sin so much he dies for, but loves us so much he was willing to die gladly for us. So as we read this text today, we're going to read it as Christians. We're going to continually look back through the cross to help us understand fully what Jesus means here, the greatest extent of what he's trying to say.
So we're going to be talking about anger and reconciliation. So anger and then our broken relationships and how we need to mend those. So today is going to be a lot of fun. I'm going to pray for us, and then we're going to start reading the text. God, we thank you for your grace. Thank you for the gospel that we get to stand before you, being made holy and blameless and above reproach because you died for us, because you actively came to reconcile us to yourself.
I pray that today specifically your Holy Spirit would be at work in us to help us to see, see our hearts, see our anger, see our relationships the way you see them, that you would lay us bare, that you would expose us before you and before your word, that you would graciously and in your kindness lead us to repentance. In Jesus' name, amen. We're going to pick up in verse 21. Chapter 5, verse 21. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.
Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. So Jesus says, you've heard not to murder. He doesn't disagree with that, but he says, you've heard if you murder, you'll be liable to judgment. What I'm saying is that if you're angry with your brother, you'll be liable to judgment. He says it's not just your actions, it's not just this major big sin. You ever notice that in our community groups or when you're talking in the Christian circles and you'll say stuff like, I know I have sin, it's not like I've murdered anybody.
And Jesus is saying that actually isn't really coherent. What's going on in your heart? Are you angry? Are you holding on to anger? Like he sees everything and it all matters. It's not just your actions or your big bad sins.
It's actually what's going on internally. Now, we spent a good bit of time on this in our Killjoy series where we talked about anger and kind of how it's killing us and robbing us of joy. We did a little more time than we can today on kind of a theology of anger. Here's the thing. The Bible tells us that God gets angry. It also tells us that we should, in certain circumstances, be angry.
Romans actually says, be angry and do not sin. So anger is an emotion. It also is an appropriate response to brokenness and sin and legitimate harm that has been caused. Like there are certain things we should be angry about. But the question is, what are we doing with our anger?
How are we responding in our anger? And so Jesus says that when you are angry at someone, realize that that's to be questioned. That's to be examined. That God is going to look at our hearts. That we are liable for judgment in our anger against each other. And specifically here, I think because he's going to use the word brother throughout, that he's specifically helping them see deep, meaningful Christian relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ, but also just relationships with those we're around, that we know personally.
He's going to go further later and talk about loving our enemies, but mostly today it's going to be about our relationships with those in front of us. Okay, let me help you see a picture of this and what Jesus is getting at. Let's read back through this and kind of help us see what he says and then I want to give us a few examples. But I say to you, this is verse 22, I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. So that's an internal anger.
Then he says, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. So he's increased the judgment, not just judgment, now it's the council, you're going to face more people, but it's, you've acted on it now. You've said something, you've flown off the handle or you've been talking behind someone's back, so it's, you've insulted them. Then he says, whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. So it seems there that he's either just gotten more specific, so you're angry and then more specifically a type of anger is insult and more specifically a type of insult is saying you fool.
I think he's also saying that that's internal, it's what you've acted on and then we'll see in a minute that fool, in a lot of ways, kind of has to do with your attitude towards them, your contempt of them. All right. Hopefully in your life, you have known some grandmothers. I want you to think back to, hopefully, hopefully you had your own grandmothers, but also hopefully your life was enriched by other people's grandmothers or other grandmotherly type ladies just kind of making you one of their grandkids. I hope that's happened. It's wonderful when it does.
I hope that you've been invited to as many loving, grandmothery type relationships in your life as possible. I want you to think about the fact that maybe it's your grandmother, maybe it's just some lady that lives on your street. I want you to picture for a minute a sweet, gentle, I mean, makes a mean pecan pie grandmother. We'll still let you eat it if you pronounce it pecan. Like she's sweet, loving, here's what I think, here's what I think we need to see and what I think Jesus is pushing on us a little bit. If you got to know her and got to talking with her, you might find over time that there's a certain group of people that she would never attack, never go out of her way to harm, never murder, but there's a certain group of people that she doesn't have much nice to say about them, isn't really going to give them much time in her life, isn't really going to care about them.
Maybe she draws that line straight across racial lines. Maybe it's not that well defined, maybe it just has to do with skin tone, but those people don't have much value to her. She's maybe not going to pop off with a lot of racist things, but maybe you just, as you get to know her, you realize there's a whole segment of people that she just isn't going to have anything to do with. Maybe it's not that at all. Maybe there's just a few individuals in her life that you found out you're not even really allowed to talk about in front of her. She'll say stuff like, we don't mention Clara Jones in this house.
That's all I have to say about that. Because there's something that's happened, there's some sort of a relationship, there's something that's broken down. Maybe it's just a type of person. Lazy. Those people with, those people who, every once in a while this stuff just comes out, and here's the thing. All of us know intrinsically, feel the weight of, I'm going to be held accountable for my actions, that all of those who have murdered, every time you watch one of these shows about murders and they talk to the family and stuff, they'll often say, I know one day he's going to meet his maker.
I know one day she's going to have to be held accountable for this. We know that intrinsically. But what Jesus just said was, every murderer on death row is going to have to stand before God and be liable for judgment. But so is every little old lady. She's going to have to walk up and lay her heart bare before God. Every single one of us is going to have to lay our heart in front of him, depending on our attitudes and our anger and our contempt for others.
There's a person you went to school with, very quiet. You don't remember him. You vaguely do. If someone showed you a picture, you might kind of remember. That's just quiet. It was not warm, but friendly, cordial.
Some of you work with this guy now. Like he went to school with some of you and now he's at some of your jobs. Like you, kind, not going to cause any problems. Not going to show up and disrupt anything. It's just, yeah, there, doing his homework, doing his job. but inside, seething with anger towards teachers, friends, boss, family, just eating away at. Not going to hurt anybody.
This person isn't going to show up with a weapon. You knock everything out of their hand. They're almost like going to apologize to you and pile it all back up, but there's something inside of them at work. That's what Jesus is talking about. That little old ladies and kind gentlemen, he's looking at our hearts. He's looking on the inside to see what's going on.
So, let me ask a few questions. Help us see this a little better. But I say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Okay, so some of you are like a match. Your anger fires up, fires off, blazes up, and then it's gone. That's it.
You knock the thing over and then you're like, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have acted like that. You, maybe, you just, you, and then you, like you can't, but there's like, he says every time there's anger going on, like that's questionable. Some of you aren't a match. You're like a smoldering coal. Nobody even knows you're on fire. But you're just, inside, you're smoldering.
Every once in a while it flares up. I know, like I have a fire pit in my backyard and sometimes I'll have a fire and then I'll hose it down and I'll go inside and it'll be completely out and I'll come back later and it's caught on fire again because there was stuff still down there smoldering. Some of you, that's the type of anger, that it's a long-term burning anger. So, who do you have bitterness towards? Who do you have anger towards? Whose name makes you just kind of go, who is it you don't want mentioned around you?
Who, what situations and circumstances are you most likely to be set off? Jesus says all that deserves to be questioned, looked at, repented of. He says, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. Okay, some of you are good at insults. Some of you aren't good but you give it the old college try and you get in an argument and you're just gonna, you're just gonna say something. You're just gonna take a shot.
Some of you know how to completely destroy someone. The closer you get to them the better you are at it. Some of you, you're not insulting anyone to their face. You just have a whole lot to say about them when they're not around. And he says, that's an issue. That's, don't just think, well I haven't done this big action.
I haven't just actively harmed them. He says, no like, insulting someone. Be liable to the council. And then he says, whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. So as I was reading about this, that could just be an example.
He could just be giving you an example. He is not specifically, some of you maybe have heard, don't ever call somebody a fool. Call whatever else you want. But Jesus said, don't say you fool. That's not, like it's either just an example of an insult. One of the commentaries I read said it actually means empty headed person and that it in some ways is more of a tone or a posture than a specific insult.
So really it has to do more with contempt than anything. It's people that you've written off. So can I, let me just tell you how this works for me. Let me be a little honest with you here. Um, so I'm kind of, uh, self-righteous, religious, meaning that I think I can follow rules and do a good job. I'm not overly rebellious.
It's just kind of my, my MO. So, um, when I read the Bible, I'm mostly, other than, by God's grace, realize that he justifies me. I try to justify myself as I read. So, as I was reading through this, uh, whoever murders, okay, I haven't. So, it's like, cool. Uh, but I say to everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable for judgment.
And when I really got to thinking about that, I don't have a very short temper. I used to, um, and I would get angry and punch people. I don't do that, um, as much anymore. Uh, by God's grace, I'm not, I don't have a short of temper. I was thinking about it recently. I thought like maybe I've grown.
It also may just be that I'm not on playgrounds anymore. So nobody's putting their hands on me. Um, so I don't know if we went into the lobby and you started pushing me how I would handle it. But for the most part, in normal adult society, I don't have a big temper. I don't really throw stuff or cuss or anything like that. Uh, sorry, that's, yep, I can't, I don't cuss when I'm angry.
Um, then it says, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. I, I mostly kind of take myself off the hook there because it's like, well, I only sarcastically insult people, but those are my friends. I don't really use words as weapons and arguments. Like I'm, that's not really my thing. Mostly because when I get angry, I don't talk well. Um, so that's not really, I, I don't, I try not to say stuff behind people's backs.
So, so far in this list, I'm kind of like, I'm okay. Uh, and then it says, whoever says you fool. And that I really think is contempt. It's just writing someone off. And this is where Jesus just flays me. Let me, let me give you some phrases from my vocabulary.
He's an idiot. And the way, when that comes out is you're telling me a story about someone who's done something that was what I think an idiot would do. And I do my hand like this to mean you don't have to acknowledge them. He's an idiot. Uh, I, I, this is in my vocabulary. I can't stand him or I can't stand people who, or, and it makes me sick when contempt is the belief that because of our actions, attitude, intelligence, life, circumstances, we're better than someone else.
Now, I don't know where Jesus called you out. That's where he called me out. I don't know if for some of you, you've, you're really good at holding a grudge. I'm not. I don't think that's any particular, I'm not bragging. I don't, I actually think it says that my memory's not that good.
Some of you are very good at holding a grudge. Some of you fly off the handle all the time. Maybe you're quick to repent. Some of you, maybe you're, you, you use words as ballistic missiles. I don't know, but I, I feel like every single one of us at some point on here, there's something as Jesus begins to unfold our heart that begins to show up. But it keeps going.
So, okay, so he starts this sentence with so, meaning in light of the fact that all of this makes you liable for judgment, in light of the fact that if your attitude of anger continues, you stand held accountable for it, in light of that, so, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother and then come offer your gift. So what he's saying is if you're, if you're bringing your gift to the altar and these were Jewish people he was talking to, so they would have gone to the temple and they would have brought first fruits from there, if they had fields, they would have brought fruit, they would have brought, they could bring wine as an offering, they could bring grain as an offering, most often they were bringing an animal for a sacrifice. They'd bring a goat or depending on their wealth status they would bring like a small bird.
Here's why they were bringing it. If they're bringing a sacrifice they're bringing it to the altar to say, God I have sinned and I need to be forgiven. So he says, if you're going to the altar and you're going to worship, you're going to repent, you're going to stand before God and say, I need you to forgive me because I have fallen short. He says, but if you're doing that and you haven't tried to make restitution with your brother or if you're doing that for some other reason but you realize there's someone who has something against me, he says, go, leave it, stop. God doesn't want it right now, you need to go talk to your brother.
Later in Matthew he's going to say, if you have something against someone else, you need to go to them. So just so you know, if you've sinned against someone, you know they're mad at you or you just know somebody's frustrated with you or if you're frustrated with somebody, the responsibility is on you to start the conversation. As a Christian, we're supposed to go to the people that we have broken relationships with and try to work them out. Go to the people that we know have been hurt by us, go to the people that we've been hurt by and talk to them. You see, Jesus is saying that your relationships with others matter in your relationship with Him.
Indicate your relationship to Him. That you can't say, I repent of this thing but actually not try to make restitution. That God, I want you to forgive me for what I said and you're just praying but you're not actually talking to them. Practically for us, we don't take goats to places. Nobody brings a burden here for us to sacrifice it. One of the ways I think this applies to us is that you've sinned against someone and you asked Jesus to forgive you but you don't ever talk to them about forgiving you.
So you're going to pray, God, I shouldn't have said that. Forgive me. And He's going to say, why didn't you talk to your wife? Why didn't you talk to your friend? Why don't you go reconcile with them? Why don't you go ask them for forgiveness before you come sit with me and talk about forgiveness?
I think that's what Jesus is getting at there. To realize that we can't go to God in repentance without also going to our brother in repentance that we've wronged. To realize that true repentance shows up in the way we live our life. And here's why. I said earlier we were going to look back through the cross. Here's why.
I'm going to show you this is in Colossians. For in Him, this is Colossians 1, 19 through 22, for in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. That's Jesus who is God with us. And through Him to reconcile to Himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of His cross. And you, that's the church, those are Christians who were once alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds. He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him.
As Christians, we believe this. We believe that we were alienated from God, that we were enemies of God, that we had actively rebelled against God and harmed God and completely deserved destruction and wrath, but that God became a man and went to the cross on our behalf to reconcile us, to bridge the gap, to buy us back, to redeem us, to cover all the wrongs that we have done. That's what we say we believe as Christians. That's the centerpiece of our faith. And that's why I think Jesus takes reconciliation so seriously because it's the task He is here to accomplish. He's coming to redeem us and reconcile us back to God.
When I was growing up, I have two brothers. I still do. But I have two brothers. I have an older brother and a younger brother. Now, if you are a middle sibling, don't come up to me after this and say, oh, isn't it worse to be in the middle? You are wrong.
It's great to be in the middle. Being the middle kid is the best. You are confused. I don't know why. Have you ever talked to middle siblings? They're like, oh, being in the middle.
It's like, no, it is amazing. There's so many great things about being in the middle sibling. All right, so my older brother, like if you're the oldest, a couple of things that are problems with that. One is, when do you get to start being free and leaving the house? When you turn 16 or when you are able to get a car or a friend who's also 16 and your parents are like, but if you're the middle, when do you get to leave? When your older sibling turns 16 because your parents do this.
They're going somewhere and you're like, I want to go. And they're like, no, you can't go. And then you go to parents and you're like, he won't take me. And then they look at him and say, take your brother with you. And you think, thanks, my parents are going to bat for me. Do you know what it is?
They want both of you out of the house. It's not that they care about y'all's relationship. They care about some quiet. But like, that's, when I was growing up, I got to hang out with my older brother. Like when I was 13, like just picture this, I get to hang out with my older brother who's driving and go do older brother stuff. Like I did, I was allowed to hang out with him as long as I didn't talk and I was cool with that.
And so he was like, just keep your mouth shut. That's one of the ways I developed my sense of humor, which still I wish sometimes my older brother was with me. Because here's what would happen. We'd go out somewhere and I would just like mumble a joke to him and then he'd be like, shut up. I'd be like, okay. And then I would mumble a joke and he'd go, that's pretty good, say it out loud.
And then I would say it out loud and people would laugh. And he helped me develop a filter. And there are days when I wish he still stood next to me so I could whisper the thing I just thought and him go, please never say that out loud. But then I could come home and my younger brother was like nine and I could immediately go from hanging out with like high school kids and keeping my mouth shut to playing Legos and it just meant I was a good older brother. I could grow up quicker and slower. It was great.
Also, when my older brother did anything, my parents were like, oh my goodness, our first kids are driving. Oh, he's mowing the lawn. Like there's pictures of everything. When he went to college, they were like, he's going to college. And then like, I just, nobody noticed me. I just started driving.
They were like, here are the keys. Go get milk. When I went to college, they were like, bye. Like my parents, like my mom cried when they dropped Logan off at school. My parents were there for like 15 minutes with me. They were like, here's your room.
All right. Here's five bucks. Bye. Bye. When my younger brother left, it was like, our baby's leaving. We're going to be all alone.
They freaked out about everything that he did. I just got to skate. Now, if you want like pictures of your childhood, sure, being in the middle is terrible. I get that. We really, like my older brother's a thousand videos of them just filming him when he's like an infant and they're like poking him and making faces and laughing. We have a video.
I kid you not, my mom pans the camera over to me. This is Chet. He's about nine months old. This is all he does. And then immediately goes back to Logan and is like, tell me a story. And they follow him around for like an hour.
And then there's a thousand videos of my younger brother because he was at home while we were at school. And so if you want like your history to be documented, don't be in the middle. But otherwise, I don't want to hear it because it's great. But here's one of the issues I have being a middle brother. My older brother would pick on me, you know, older brother stuff, smack you because they could get away with it, trick you into eating food, like sawdust. He put sawdust in salt one time and told me it was flavoring.
It was not. It was sawdust. Hold you down and like do the like, see how long they can make their spit go and suck it up before it hits you in the face. You know, good older brother things. And so when my dad would like fuss at my older brother, he would take his time on any amount of him picking on us. He would like try to explain to him how bad it was and how I felt or whatever.
But then when I did it to my younger brother, my dad would look at me and go, don't you know better? He would look at me like, how on earth are you doing this to your younger brother with as many times as if I had to have the conversation with your older brother about doing this to you? And I honestly feel that is the response we deserve when we in the church have broken relationship after broken relationship where we are unwilling to reconcile. That it honestly, it's like God's looking at us going, do you actually believe what you say you believe? Do we? You see, when I say, too much has happened or we're just too different or have you seen what they did or what they said, like it's, the gap between us is just too far.
We can't be reconciled. We can't have a good relationship now. What we're saying, if you are a Christian, is that somehow this gap between you and an individual is further than the gap between you and the God of the universe? The sins that they have committed against you are greater and more heinous than the sins you committed against the creator of everything? That the distance that has to be traveled, that the time that's like, is greater than us and God? You see, if we actually believe that Jesus Christ forgave us of our sins and reconciled us to the creator of the universe, then we can be reconciled with anyone.
That he can actively go to work because the gap between us and other humans is minuscule compared to the gap of infinity between us and God that he bridged through the cross. Here's what I think is happening and two major issues when it comes to this. Here's something I think maybe we argue with. We'll say, yeah, but he was legitimately wrong. Like, the sin is real. And here's what I want you to see.
As Christians, we are more set up than anybody to specifically call out sin, to address it fully, and to forgive. Most of you, your families, if they weren't Christians, operated on one of two systems. Your friends operate on one of two systems. You do something actually wrong or someone does something actually wrong and the system is we acknowledge that it was wrong and we punish because we don't have any other way to acknowledge. Or we acknowledge that it was wrong and we cut ties. They lied.
They actively harmed our relationship. Like, you legitimately acknowledge it. But then what do you do from there? Punish for an amount of time maybe through silent treatment or punish for an amount of time until you feel better or feel like you're over it or just completely write somebody off. The other option is we don't talk about it. We just cover it up, sweep it under the rug because there's no way to handle it.
Christians, we get to walk into every situation and just pull the rug back. Fully and freely address the actual sin that is present knowing we have a broom and a trash can. That Jesus Christ redeems us from sin. Forgave us. We are fully equipped to forgive. To acknowledge sin.
That's what Jesus is doing on the cross. That's what God is doing on the cross. To fully acknowledge it and pay for it. 1 John 4.20 says this. If anyone says I love God and hates his brother he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
John is not mincing words. He was there when Jesus said this on the mountain. He was there when Jesus died on the cross. He was there when Jesus rose again. And John writes a letter to a church and says if anybody says I love God but he hates his brother that's a liar. I want to help us see why.
2 Corinthians 5.17-21 says this. Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away behold the new has come. All of this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That ministry of reconciliation in small picture is how we relate to one another but the big picture is that we help other people be reconciled to God. That we actually believe that everyone you know and work with can be redeemed of their sin and reconciled back to God.
He's given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses that sin against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ meaning we represent him on earth. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him that's Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus reconciled us to himself gives us the ministry of reconciliation and here are two major issues I think that have gone to work that we need to realize when it comes to our relationships with others when we're not willing to reconcile. First one is this we've let some other story become our main story. You see for Christians this should be the story. This is our main story. This is the framework we build our life around that there is a God who we were meant to relate to perfectly that we have rebelled that our sin has broken that but that Jesus has redeemed us and forgiven us and we get to spend an eternity with him and we've been given a ministry of reconciliation seeing other people come to knowing that wherever we work wherever we play wherever we live that we're active in the part of trying to reconcile people to God because this is what God's given to the church.
But some of you some of us we have such anger over politics because we've allowed the American story to outweigh the gospel story. We have such anger we've completely have contempt for other races because we've begun to believe that our family history our genealogy our skin tone has become a bigger story than the gospel story. Some of us have broken relationships with individuals because our personal happiness has become bigger than the gospel. We're actually supposed to understand that reconciliation is one of the primary tasks we're called to both that people would be reconciled to God big picture and in small picture we'd be reconciled back to people.
But when we're unwilling to forgive and unwilling to reconcile it's because we've begun to believe that something else is bigger and more important. And here's the biggest issue with this. If a Christian is not willing to reconcile is not actively trying to reconcile we are lying about the gospel. We're the group of people that stand and say you can be forgiven of anything and you can relate back to God but I'm unwilling to forgive this person and I'm unwilling to have a conversation with them. We are a liar. And we stand lying about the gospel.
That Jesus redeems sinners and welcomes people back to himself and that all of us can be forgiven. Our behavior means that we actually don't believe that. That's what John is saying. That we can't say I hate this person and I love God because that's not how it works. That God actually goes to work in our heart to change us. I think one of the ways this works is not that our forgiveness of others and our relationship status with others saves us.
The Bible would never say that. But it does say things like you'll be forgiven the way you forgive and you'll get the measure with which you measure out and as he keeps going in this passage in Matthew 5 he says this verse 24 leave your gift there at the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to the court lest your accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. I think that's practical advice about how to not go to court with people and try to reconcile quickly.
About how to not go to court with people and try to reconcile quickly. I also think that in the bigger scope of what he's saying here it's an image of do not face the king do not face the true judge when you haven't been actively seeking to reconcile and to work out your relationships don't have a line of accusers
That stand and point to you as a liar who said you believed the gospel but didn't actively try to practice it. And here's what I think it is as the Bible addresses this and on a regular basis we'll be talking about because we forgive the way Jesus forgave
And we reconcile the way he reconciled and we get to join him in this I think it's like income verification so when you go to get a car and they're like no credit check or you go to apply for a house and they say it's no credit check
A lot of times they want income verification some of you went to get a mortgage and you had to give income verification what you were showing them was that this money is in my account and will be continually put in my account
You weren't working you weren't proving it you were just bringing them some pay stubs you were just bringing them some let me show you how it comes in I think that's the way forgiveness it's just proof of how much grace and forgiveness and love
And peace and joy have already been applied to our account by Jesus it just shows it it's just a paper trail if you begin to see somebody who has a life of continually being at peace with those around them forgiving reconciling pursuing
It's just a paper trail it's not earning them anything it's just showing what's in their account that's why it matters that's what it is is that we're showing that infinite grace and infinite forgiveness and infinite joy
Have been applied to me have been given freely to me and so I actually have a well that never runs dry that I can pull from when it comes to loving and relating and forgiving okay let me show you a practical way this
Shows up and then we'll wrap it up for the day as we kind of walk through this we live in the south there are a lot of churches on a decent regular basis I get to talk to people who are just kind of visiting and they'll say yeah we're here we're just
Checking this out and we've got some other ones kind of on our list to check out and here's the truth I have I know a good bit of pastors in the area I have like five to ten churches that I could immediately recommend to people that I think are healthy
Biblical pursuing Jesus pursuing the gospel trying to see people come to know Christ like I'll help you make that list that's the conversation I actually have with people when they say they're visiting and they're going to keep checking out other churches
I'll usually say okay two pieces of advice check some of these out make your search quicker these are ones that I appreciate secondly don't do that forever because you get in this weird shopper mode with church and you're showing up trying to
Figure out does this meet my needs and it's weird it's not good for your heart that's not the way Christians were intended to work but here's what I know to be true because there are so many churches around here and because I know how people work
If you hang out with our church long enough we will offend you and not just the like American version of offend where we hear a thing and go I'm offended I'm talking like legitimate sin against you we were wrong offend you or and or you will offend us
Sin against us you were wrong offense we will harm you or you will be harmed by us wait that's the same thing we will harm you or you will harm us we sometimes jokingly say that's our mill city guarantee
Like that's how that's going to work we're a group of sinners and let me tell you what's going to happen you're going to have two options when you become have a relationship breaking down when you have frustration between you and someone else
Or someone in your group is really just making it hard for you to even show up because you're so frustrated with them mad at them they continually pop off with offensive things they say stuff that maybe they don't know is offensive sometimes they do
It on purpose sometimes they've actively gone to work to seem to harm you here's what's going to happen or you've done the same and you don't know how to get leave or grow leave go to
Another church they'll show up do you know how excited they'll be if you just show up to another church next week they'll smile at you they'll say how are you doing it's nice to meet you what's your name they'll say come do
This thing come join in this thing like it'll be so easy you can leave or you can grow you can begin to do what the bible actually says christians ought to do and if you leave
And stick with another church it'll be another year maybe two years maybe six months here sometimes it's like two months it didn't take as long you'll have
The same opportunity you can leave or you can actually begin to look like the bible says christians look like which is to have really tough conversations to
Actively have to forgive someone to have to repent of sin some of you I don't know you it's your first second Sunday hanging
Out with us you're here because you chose leave from your other church and as lovingly as graciously I can say this to you I would vote that
You go back and grow and if you need help trying to think through that some of you maybe that was the situation and
You've been here for six months now you're in a group you've been here for a year now here's what I want to tell
You next opportunity you get grow choose grow choose repent choose look like Jesus says we ought to look like so here's what we're
Going to do because we want to look like Christians here's what we're doing today we're going to practice this by practice I mean
We're going to do this first if you are in here and you are not a Christian I want to join Paul in saying
We appeal to you we plead with you we implore you is what Paul says to be reconciled to God I want you to
Know that your sin can be forgiven I want you to know that Jesus does love you he does want a genuine actual personal
Relationship with you I want to implore you repent of your sin and be reconciled to God if you haven't done that yet I
Would love to talk to you about how to do that how to place faith in Jesus how to begin to follow him if
You are in here and you say I am a Christian here's what we're more than we understand that there's going to be pain
There's going to be death before there's resurrection we understand there's going to be death before there's life that we have to acknowledge our
Sin that we have to work it out before we get to be freed from it so we're going to have some conversations in a
Second we're going to start playing some music and we're actually going to We're going to repent of an attitude of contempt where we just wrote somebody off, where there's somebody sitting on the other side of the room here that you just won't talk to anymore because you read something on Facebook and learned that they were an idiot, so you don't have to listen to them anymore. We're going to repent. We're going to ask for forgiveness. We're going to go to people who have hurt us and we never told them. So, some of you, this is going to be, you're going to have to talk to your dad, you're going to have to talk to your kids, you're going to have to talk to your spouse. I've got a few kind of guidelines for us and things I want to address before we do this. First, I want everybody to begin by praying and asking the Holy Spirit,
When we get started here in a minute, I want you to just bow your head and pray and say, Holy Spirit, if there's somebody I need to reconcile with, if there's somebody I have pain with, if there's someone I need to talk to, I need you to tell me. Some of you already know. Some of you don't. Some of you have attitudes towards people that have grown up over time and you don't even realize anymore. I used to work on swimming pools from the time I was like 13 until I was coming out of college. Even beyond that, I worked on them some when I moved here. I would go to people's houses all the time. I would have to go around behind their house and work on stuff. And here's the thing, I am aware that dogs bite people, but I'm not overly afraid of them. So I would go to people's houses, dogs would come out. I'd just kind of, you know, stare them down, make sure they knew I would fight them if they came at me and, you know, could get to work.
Except for Cocker Spaniels. If I walked into someone's backyard and saw a Cocker Spaniel, I would like start sweating. My heart rate would start beating and I would be like. And if y'all don't know what Cocker Spaniels look like, they're small and like curly haired, cute, fuzzy little kind of dogs. And I was like, like had something going on. Like I could, like I don't. And it took me a while to remember that when I was growing up, my neighbor had a Cocker Spaniel that used to bite me every time it saw me. I apparently had like bottled that up and forgotten about it. Because I remember leaving someone's house and being like, why did that dog scare me? And then she'd be like, oh well. And then later saw another Cocker Spaniel and was like. And it was like, what is wrong with me? The reason I say that is some of us are going to need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal something to us that has grown up.
And we haven't, we don't know. Some of you, that's going to be your spouse. You're getting along really well. You actually in some ways are flourishing. But there's something that happened that y'all never really talked out. That you never really forgave. And it's begun to change how you relate to one another. Some of you, that's going to be a sibling. Some of that's going to be your children. That you're holding some sort of frustration over something that you never really talked about. And it just affects how you relate a little bit. It's just a misstep every once in a while. But it needs to be spoken about, forgiven, confronted, confessed. So we want to ask the Holy Spirit to show us. We want to listen. If you pray and say, Holy Spirit, who do I need to talk to? And a name comes to your mind. Don't think no. No, I don't. Ask why. Ask how.
Ask what about.
We're going to go to people who have hurt us and we never told them. So, some of you, this is going to be, you're going to have to talk to your dad, you're going to have to talk to your kids, you're going to have to talk to your spouse. I've got a few kind of guidelines for us and things I want to address before we do this. First, I want everybody to begin by praying and asking the Holy Spirit, when we get started here in a minute, I want you to just bow your head and pray and say, Holy Spirit, if there's somebody I need to reconcile with, if there's somebody I have pain with, if there's someone I need to talk to, I need you to tell me.
Some of you already know. Some of you don't. Some of you have attitudes towards people that have grown up over time and you don't even realize anymore. I used to work on swimming pools from the time I was like 13 until I was coming out of college. Even beyond that, I worked on them some when I moved here. I would go to people's houses all the time.
I would have to go around behind their house and work on stuff. And here's the thing, I am aware that dogs bite people, but I'm not overly afraid of them. So I would go to people's houses, dogs would come out. I'd just kind of, you know, stare them down, make sure they knew I would fight them if they came at me and, you know, could get to work. Except for Cocker Spaniels. If I walked into someone's backyard and saw a Cocker Spaniel, I would like start sweating.
My heart rate would start beating and I would be like. And if y'all don't know what Cocker Spaniels look like, they're small and like curly haired, cute, fuzzy little kind of dogs. And I was like, like had something going on. Like I could, like I don't. And it took me a while to remember that when I was growing up, my neighbor had a Cocker Spaniel that used to bite me every time it saw me. I apparently had like bottled that up and forgotten about it.
Because I remember leaving someone's house and being like, why did that dog scare me? And then she'd be like, oh well. And then later saw another Cocker Spaniel and was like. And it was like, what is wrong with me? The reason I say that is some of us are going to need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal something to us that has grown up. And we haven't, we don't know.
Some of you, that's going to be your spouse. You're getting along really well. You actually in some ways are flourishing. But there's something that happened that y'all never really talked out. That you never really forgave. And it's begun to change how you relate to one another.
Some of you, that's going to be a sibling. Some of that's going to be your children. That you're holding some sort of frustration over something that you never really talked about. And it just affects how you relate a little bit. It's just a misstep every once in a while. But it needs to be spoken about, forgiven, confronted, confessed.
So we want to ask the Holy Spirit to show us. We want to listen. If you pray and say, Holy Spirit, who do I need to talk to? And a name comes to your mind. Don't think no. No, I don't.
Ask why. Ask how. Ask what about.
Religion vs The Gospel
Transcript
Hi, good morning. Like I said earlier, my name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are walking through the Sermon on the Mount, some of Jesus' best-known, most-heard teaching that he has. It's the longest section of him just straight teaching in the gospel. So we're going to be in Matthew chapter 5.
And what we're doing today is we're going to kind of take a big-picture look at a large section of this. And then over the next couple of weeks, we're going to come back and look at the specific things that he says as he's walking through. But I want us to kind of zoom over it a little bit today and look at his major point that he makes. And then the next couple of weeks, we'll spend some time looking at the individual parts and exactly how we try to apply some of that as Christians. Jesus is teaching his disciples. He's begun to train them what it's going to look like to be his followers, what it's going to look like in his kingdom that he's setting up.
And they were thinking really small. They were thinking he's setting up an earthly kingdom. Jesus is going to set up an eternal kingdom. But he's beginning to teach, here's what my people are going to look like. Here's how you're going to act. Here's how you're going to be.
And today he's going to say some stuff that I think is very helpful for us. Before we get started this morning, I have a question for us, something to think about. What does God want from you? What does he expect? So if you're...
I think it's a fair question for most people that believe that there is a God. I think it's a fair question to say, well, what does he want? What does he want me to do? How does he want me to act? If Jesus is making a group of people, they're going to be called Christians, Christians, what does he want them to be described as? If we took a poll in the United States and said, what are Christians like?
People just had to write down what they thought. What would God actually want them to write? What do you want them to say? What does he want? Well, I think that most of us, or the most often heard answer you'll hear will be, God wants us to be good people. He wants us to be good.
And then I think it's fair to ask, okay, well, what does that mean? Does that mean following the rules? God's got rules. Learn the rules. Follow the rules. Learn your rules.
You've got to learn your rules. Is that it? Is that the point there? Have you ever met a person, you don't have to look at them right now if they're here with you, that cares, cares so deeply inside their little heart and soul about the rules? Have you met this person? Maybe you know one of them that is pleasant.
I don't know if I've ever met one that was overly concerned. Like that was the purpose of their life was to know the rules and obey the rules and follow the rules and learn the rules. And you've got to know the rules. And when they enter into any situation, what are the rules? Their following of God was, I've got to behave. I've got to know the rules.
It does something to a person. And it's not pretty. Those people don't turn out to be gracious, loving, helpful people. Like it hurts their little soul. I don't know. Like they're not pleasant.
Later you find out if you know them long enough. They actually aren't that good at following the rules. They just over time got good at pretending like they were. So if you were to say that God really just wants us to follow the rules, I would argue he at least wants us to not turn out like that. To do that well. So some people are going to reject that.
They're going to say, no, it's not. It can't just be about the rules. They're going to say, no, being a good person, it's about your heart. It's about being happy. Some people tell you, God just wants you to be happy. God just wants you to love.
It's about your attitude way more than it's about your ability to follow rules. It's really more about your intentions. That sounds really nice. It feels very flimsy though. Kind of like it falls apart if you think about it for a while. That you're really going to argue with me that all God wants from people is this like happy, floaty, if you felt good inside, then you did it.
It's like no rules. Doesn't care at all. There's no guidelines. And then people will start adding in, okay, well, this guideline and this guideline. And you'll find if you get to people that really say, no, God just really wants us to be happy. They still have a set of rules that they will aggressively adhere to.
They may have spread the boundaries out, but they're going to say, no, okay, this type of happy person. Not that type of happy person. This type of person whose intentions are okay. Not sociopathic people whose intentions they thought were okay. There's still going to be some sort of fencing in. And so I think it's helpful for us to ask, what do you want?
What are we supposed to look like? How is this supposed to play out in life? Jesus is going to answer that today. Okay. And I think it'll be helpful for us to see it. I know that the disciples, they had to have this question.
As they're trying to figure out what it's going to look like to follow Jesus, they had to have this question. See, they're Jewish. Jesus was Jewish. They had the Old Testament. What we have is the Old Testament. That was their Jewish law.
And Jesus is coming along and he's saying stuff that has to do with it. He's some sort of a religious teacher, but he didn't go through the normal route to become one. And so they have to have some serious questions about what are we going for here? How much are you going to follow after the Old Testament? How much are you going to, which they would have just, I guess, just called it the Testament. How much are you going to follow after that?
And how much are you going to, like, what are we changing here? And so Jesus begins to answer that. In Matthew 5, verse 17, I'm going to pray before we start reading the text. God, we thank you for your word. Pray that it would train us and change us. God, we ask that you would help every person in this room today clearly see their own heart as it stands before you.
We ask that because you love us and you're good to us and you're gracious. In Jesus' name, amen. Matthew 5, verse 17, you'll be on page 473 if your Bible looks like mine. Do not think, this is Jesus speaking, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. Okay, so that's our Old Testament. The law is the first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and then the prophets is going to include everybody else.
We kind of have divided them differently. We'll have history books and we have the wisdom literature and the prophets. But Jesus is just saying, don't think I've come to abolish all that you've been taught, all that you've been trained, everything you've studied, every Sabbath. Don't think I've come to abolish that. Don't think I've come to get rid of it. They had to have that question in their mind.
Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. So Jesus just said the entire Old Testament law, the prophets, every time a prophet stood up and said, this is what God is like, this is what he cares about, this is how you ought to act, this is how you ought to care about injustice, this is how you ought to care about the poor, this is how you ought to handle your money. Every time a prophet did that, in our pages of the Old Testament, that's in force.
That applies. He's not coming to get rid of that. Every law in the Old Testament that says this is how to live, this is how to act, this is how to treat your neighbor, all of it is in force. It still applies. That's what he just told them. He said, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass until it's all accomplished.
Okay, so an iota or a dot, that would be the same in English as saying, those are just two really small marks in their writing, that would be the same as saying, not a dash on a T or a dot on an I. Not the cross of a T or a dot of an I will pass away from it until all is accomplished. And he says, until heaven and earth pass away. Now, I don't know how heaven's doing. I'm pretty sure earth is still here. So let me just throw this out there.
The law is in force for all of your lives because when the earth passes away, I'm pretty sure you're not going to be doing so well. Now, some of you are like, I'm getting on a spaceship. Best of luck to you. The rest of us are not going to be doing well. The law is in force. That's what Jesus just said, until it is accomplished.
Let's keep reading. Therefore, because that's true, because the law is in force, therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness, that's your morality, your goodness, your standing before God. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. He just brought the hammer down and it's completely lost on us.
He said, unless your righteousness exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees and all these Jewish men just went. And we were like, who? That doesn't mean a whole lot to me. Scribes were the people who studied and memorized the Old Testament. They were the lawyers. See, their law, their Old Testament law applied to their civil laws, their ceremonial laws, their religious laws, their moral laws, and their laws relating them to each other.
And scribes are the people that knew them in and out. If you had a question, you went to a scribe. And what they said was binding on you. They would say, this is how you have to apply that. So the scribes were constantly getting together and riding up and saying, this is how we apply this now.
Here's how we apply this now. Here's how this looks now. Here's how you do this now. Now, the Pharisees were the leading religious party of the Jewish people that were the most strict. To the point that Jesus at one point when he's talking with them, he says, you strain out a gnat. Because that was an unclean animal.
They couldn't drink it. So if a little bug got in their drink, which all of y'all were like, I would get it out too. Sure. But they didn't get it out because they didn't want to drink a bug. They got it out because that bug was unclean. They cared so much about following the rules.
They were the best rule followers. And what Jesus just said was, your righteousness, your rule followingness has to exceed those who've made it their life practice. Has to exceed those who've, this is what they've built their entire life around. See, the Jewish people looked up to the scribes. They looked up to the Pharisees. They thought they were the ones crushing it.
They were the ones that God loved. They were the ones that were doing it well. It would be like if he looked at you and said, you have to out follow God. You have to out perform, out righteous the Pope. And it's like, bro, this is his whole Job. That's all he does.
And he wakes up in the morning and thinks, don't mess up being the Pope. That's what scribes and Pharisees did. Like, he says that's what you have to do. You have to exceed them. And he begins to explain his argument before he even says that. What he said was, anybody who relaxes any part of the law will be called least.
But those who enforce all of it will be called great. You see, what the Pharisees were really good at was saying, this part of the law doesn't matter as much as this part of the law. They followed the ritualistic ceremonial law to a T. But Jesus is going to argue with them consistently that they forgot about justice. That they forgot about mercy. That they forgot about love.
He says, you're doing great over here. You've missed weightier things. And so Jesus is going to say, all of it matters. All of it. And then he's going to, over the next section while he's teaching, he's going to begin to show you, not just the rule part, but the heart as well. Not just the external actions, but what's going on inside of you as well.
So if you don't mind, because Jesus was teaching this, they were just going to hear it. I am going to just read some of the sections he's going to hit in a second where he begins to show you not just this, but this. It's going to be hard to follow along if you're trying to read as well because I'm going to skip around and I'm going to pay no notice to how well you're keeping up. I'm just going to read through some of this to help you see it. So I would just encourage you to listen because they would have heard it this way.
Jesus is going to just kind of say, not this, but this, and I'm going to walk through this fairly quickly. You see, Jesus is going to, as he's teaching this, he's going to say, it's not just the rules. It's also the heart, but it's actually, it's both. For the people who say, it's just our intentions and whether or not we're loving, he's going to say, no, rules matter. And for the person who says, yes, up top, Jesus, rules matter, he's going to say, you're kind of a jerk and your heart needs to change. It's not, it's not picket signs.
It's not peace signs. It's both. And I don't mean like a picket sign with a peace sign on it. I just mean both have to be in play. So here's what Jesus is saying as he begins to teach.
You've heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who's angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says fool will be liable to a hell of fire. You've heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Again, you've heard that it was said to those of old, you should not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth, for it is a footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath on your head, for your head cannot, you cannot make your hair white or black. Let what you say simply be yes or no. Anything else comes from evil.
You've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the cheek, turn the other to them also. You've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
See, what Jesus just went through and said is your righteousness, your goodness has to exceed the scribes and Pharisees. It can't just be, I behave well. I've never murdered anybody. He says, no, are you angry though? Do you look down on people? Do you have relationship issues?
Do you have people that you're holding bitterness towards that you haven't reconciled with? Some of you are saying, I've never cheated on my wife. I've never cheated on my husband. I'm perfectly chaste when it comes to hearing. He goes, yeah, but how's your heart? You see, Jesus begins to go through and say, it's not just your actions, but it's your intentions.
It's both. It can't just be, oh, my intentions were good. He says, no, the rules matter. But it can't just be, I follow the rules well. He says, no, your heart matters. And then he says something that's terrifying.
We're going to put it on the screen. It's in your Bibles. Verse 48. As he finishes this up, he says, you, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.
He means it. It's not hyperbole. It's not exaggeration for effect. You see, earlier when we said, what does God want from us? And I think if we had handed out index cards and everybody had written something down and we passed them up here, sat up here for a little while and just read them, I doubt that anyone would have written perfection, nothing less. I think all of us would give room for effort, intention.
What Jesus just said was, he walks through and says that God is paying attention to what you do on the outside. And that the God of the universe is paying attention to what's going on on the inside. And his standard is perfection. Now, remember your English class. Just for a second, picture yourself in English class. Teacher gets up.
Says, I've got an assignment for you. It's a 25-page paper. Immediately, you die a little inside. They begin to go through the rules on, you know, MLA or Turabian or what kind of citing you're going to give, what kind of bibliography you need, how many sources you need, what the regulations are on how many spaces and on your footnotes and how they want the title page. They begin to go through all of this. And then they say, teacher looks at you and says, now, here's how this paper is going to work.
It's 25 pages. Using this rubric, this guidelines. I'm going to proofread these. I'm going to have a friend of mine who proofreads for a national publication proofread it. I'm going to run it through a computer program to proofread it. We're looking for every English grammar rule that has ever been made.
All of them. We're going to be keeping up with compound possession errors and alternate subject and verb agreements and punctuation and spelling and everything. And if you make a mistake, we will stop grading. You will receive a zero. And this is 100% of your grade in my class. I say we revolt immediately.
Complete anarchy. Do you know how much, how many people would be, if this is middle school or high school, how many moms and dads are showing up and being like, you've got to be kidding me. How many of them are like, I want her to write a 25 page paper and I'm going to grade it. And she gets fired. Like how many people would be showing up? Like how many, how many crying 19 year olds are in the dean's office?
Do you know Jesus just stood Jesus. And looked at those who were going to follow him. And, and by looking at them was looking at us and said, all of it matters. All of it applies externally and internally. And the rule, the system is perfection. Now, as best I can, I want to explain a few things to help us get to this point.
Because I think for some of us, we're immediately going, either he has to be exaggerating or I'm done. Part of the problem is if he's telling the truth and if he speaks on behalf of God, you can't drop this class. You live on earth. You belong to him. You don't get to exempt. You don't get to, you don't get to, there's no add drop to being a human.
You stand before a holy God. But let me explain to you kind of how we got here. Here's what the Bible says. The God of the universe is good. And out of his own goodness. Out of his own beauty.
Out of his own truthfulness. Out of his own grace and love. He created the earth. He created it because he was loving. Not so that he could have something to love. But because his love overflows.
He created it because he was good. He created the earth good. That the earth existed. He made humans specifically to mirror him. To image him and to exist in a relationship with him. The Bible says very quickly that humans, because they existed, because they had personhood, they could then choose between worshiping God or trying to exalt themselves.
If you hadn't read it, spoiler alert, we chose ourselves. We chose ourselves. I want to be most important. I want to be most highly honored. I want to chase after the things that I think will make me happy. That's what humans did.
That's where hatred and racism and genocide and theft and murder come from. That we broke the good world that God had made. Here's what the Bible says. God made this world good. It rebelled against him. And that God, the God, the creator God, is a good judge.
He's a good judge. So I'm explaining what that means. Good Judges condemn the guilty and release the innocent. That's what a good judge does. For example, I say there's a doctor. Great doctor.
Amazing doctor. He's like Dr. House from the show, but likable. Like Dr. House and that other doctor that hangs around with him. Like if you mixed them together and he was as good as Dr.
House, but like friendly and kind of like a good person. He works at a hospital where they bring him the toughest cases, not only from that hospital, but from around the U.S., around the globe. He figures them out and he does it with friendliness and a smile. He cures you of your random disease and then gives you a cookie. Like he is amazing. He goes on trial because it turns out.
This is hypothetical. Don't get stressed out. Turns out he's also a serial killer. Yeah, right. A little messed up. He, he, like three people a year.
Not patients. Just, you know, random people. His lawyer is not going to stand before the judge and say, judge, I motion that we just throw this case out. And here, here's why. Math. My client last year saved 100 lives.
That's close to two a week. That would have died otherwise. We've got affidavits signing. This guy said, I was going to die, but then I didn't. 100 of them. And he only killed three people.
100 Minus three. He's at a plus 97 for the year, judge. How many people did you, how many lives did you save last year? The judge is not going to say, good point. The judge is going to say, guilty. Because when the question of perfection comes in, the question is not, what's the good stuff you've done?
The question is, have you ever done something wrong? Has he broken the law? You see, Jesus just looked at his followers and said, all of it matters. All of it's in force. And when you stand before the judge of the universe, the question is not, are you mostly good? The question is, where and when and how have you failed?
And he's a good judge who doesn't acquit the guilty. He's a good judge who doesn't let you walk. Now, for some of us, we're going to, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I get your little scenario. I understand how that works. Can't be like 51% good and 49% bad or whatever.
That I don't get to erase my bad deeds with good ones. I get that. But you're going to tell me that the God of the universe, not just with murderers, not just with heinous people, not just with genocide, but that he's going to look at someone like, I'm going to go to jail for life over unpaid parking tickets. That's it. That's how God works. If I've lied once, if I've broken the rules once, if I've stepped out of line once, if I, sure, okay, I've lied.
I've broken some relationships. I've got some people I'm still mad at I won't talk to. Yeah, I've intentionally said things in my life to hurt someone's feelings, went out of my way to do it. Yeah. But the God of the universe is going to make me walk in front of him and then he's going to declare me guilty over small stuff like that?
I understand that argument. I understand that feeling because I feel it. Let me explain the problem with that. Let's think about art for a second. I like to draw. I like to paint.
My mom for Christmas gave me some oil paints. So I've been watching Bob Ross on Netflix. And painting. Little Bob, like happy trees and happy clouds and all that kind of stuff. They're not that great, you guys. To be honest with you, I'm trying to learn.
Bob Ross is way better than me. But I put some energy into him, put some effort into him. But I'm not, I mean, like most of us aren't like, you don't know much about fine art. Maybe you do. But we've heard of people like Michelangelo, Van Gogh.
We know about the Mona Lisa. We know about the Sistine Chapel ceiling. So let's say you messed up one of my paintings. Let's say you did it on purpose. You were mad at me. I did something to hurt your feelings.
So you were like, I'm going to hurt his painting. And then you feel bad about it. So you come to me and you say something along the lines of, look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have poured paint all over your painting. It's not that big a deal.
I hope you can forgive me. And you really wouldn't think it was that big a deal. And here's why. I'm not that good of a painter. It's not that good of a painting. You're like, I'll buy you some more paints.
I'll get you another canvas. Let's call this one a wash. I'm sorry. But if you walked into the Sistine Chapel and threw a paint-filled water balloon at the ceiling, or if you walked into the Louvre and you threw ink or paint on the Mona Lisa, there's no getting that back. You've messed up something that's priceless. Michelangelo can't step back in and do another one.
And here's the problem, the massive problem with us when we look at the God of the universe and say, seriously? I lied seriously? I intentionally said something to hurt someone's feelings? Seriously? I broke a relationship and you're going to hold that against me? You're going to declare me guilty for eternity?
Seriously? Seriously, what we're saying to the God of the universe who created truth and beauty and love, he painted them as on a tapestry that he wove them into the world so that love actually exists. It's real. We feel it so that truth is actually beautiful and glorious because he's beautiful and glorious because he poured himself into these. When we look at him and say, seriously? I just lied.
What we've done is we took the beauty that was truth and we intentionally marred it and we intentionally broke it. When we say, look, it's just a relationship. It's just unforgiveness. What we did was we took love and we intentionally harmed it maybe again and again and again. And we've looked at God and said, you're really small and your glory doesn't matter that much. Can't you just let this one slide?
It's not that big a deal because what we believe is that he's not that big a deal. That he's not very glorious. He's not eternal. He's not beautiful. That love and truth aren't actually as beautiful as he says they are. You see, the reason a lie works is because truth exists.
The reason it snuck past somebody, the reason you're still getting away with it is because somebody's actually believing that it's truth where you've counterfeited it and then you've begun to look at God and say, you need to cut me some slack. It's not that big a deal. I think you're getting a little carried away. I think you think a little too highly of yourself. Do you know how arrogant we are? That we would look at the God of the universe who demands that we be perfect to be in his presence and say, you've got to be kidding me.
Do you know how small we are? Do you know how much we've intentionally destroyed all the beauty and the glory that God has woven into the world? And do you know how little we care? You see, Jesus stood and said, perfection is the standard. And we want to argue because we actually don't believe God's that perfect or the truth is that glorious or the justice matters that much or the mercy or the love really are as beautiful as we say they are, as he says they are. We believe God's really small.
So what do we do? If that really is God's standard, if Jesus really does speak on behalf of God, if that really is the condition that all of humanity finds itself in, that we're going to, it's not just a 25-page paper, it's your life, and the standard is perfection, what do we do that one day we're going to stand before a good judge and we are going to bring with us all of our sin, that we're going to walk before him with everywhere we've ever failed, what do we do? Go back to verse 17. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. You see, Jesus stood before his followers and he's going to press into them how much their sin matters and how much perfection is real and how much in order to walk before God you have to be blameless. But he said as he began, I've come to fulfill it and I've come to accomplish it. And Jesus uses the term accomplished a couple of times in the New Testament. And I want to show you three of them because I think it helps us understand what he's talking about here. This is from Luke 12.
I have a baptism to be baptized with and how great is my distress until it is accomplished. He's talking about what is going to happen at the end of his life, which is the cross. That's his baptism that he has to be baptized with. In Luke 18, he says it this way. He takes the 12 aside. See, we are going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the Son of Man, that's himself, by the prophets, will be accomplished.
You see, Jesus said he's going to fulfill the law and the prophets. John 17, this is right before he's going to the cross the next day. I glorified you on earth. He's praying. He's talking to God. Having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
You see, what stands at the center of Christianity is not that we're supposed to be perfect. What stands at the center of Christianity is a cross and an empty tomb. You see, if this is where it ended, with God sending Jesus to declare to us be perfect, then this would stand at the center of Christianity or some teaching that Jesus had. But Jesus' teachings are pale in comparison to the cross. Because what Jesus came to accomplish was the cross, where he came to fulfill the law and accomplish what it said was going to be accomplished in the prophets. So Jesus stepped in, lived a perfect, sinless life on our behalf, and died on the cross for us.
I want to read a section of Isaiah 53. I'm going to run through it kind of quickly. But I want to show you how he fulfills the prophets. This is Isaiah. Who has believed what he's heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he, that's Jesus, grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he's borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, that's Jesus, my servant, make many to be accounted righteousness. He shall bear their iniquities. You see what the Old Testament promised over and over again was that God was a good judge.
He was not going to acquit the guilty. But then prophets began to say there's going to come someone who's going to carry the guilt for us. There's going to come someone who's going to bear our transgressions, bear our iniquity, bear our sin. Who's going to take all the times that you stepped out of line in your heart or in your actions. And he's going to place them on himself and he's going to die for them. You see Jesus lived perfectly.
And he fulfilled the law. He loved perfectly. He obeyed perfectly. He fulfilled the law. That he could walk before God blameless. That he could stand before the Father and say test me, try me, weigh me.
And God would have to accept him. So he didn't deserve death. He didn't deserve punishment. He didn't deserve wrath. He was holy and blameless. But he not only fulfills the law, he fulfills the prophets.
Which says there's going to be one who's holy and blameless. There's going to be one who's righteous. And he's going to take the sin of us. He's going to take our guilt, our pain, our punishment. And he's going to die for it. And by his righteousness, many will be accounted righteous.
He's going to pay our debt so that on our debt it says zero. Jesus means it when he says perfection is the standard. But see what the Bible says is that Jesus is our perfection. And that we get to be clothed in his righteousness. And we get to walk before the Father blameless and pure and holy. So Colossians says that he's going to make us holy and blameless and above reproach.
Corinthians says that he who knew no sin became sin for us so that we could be made into the righteousness of God. I think we often have the question how? How does that work? How does placing faith in Jesus, how does me trusting in Jesus transfer all my sin to him so that when he died that God punishes him for me. And then takes his love and his grace and his redemption, his righteousness, puts it on me and then loves me. How does that work?
The Bible doesn't really answer that question very clearly. But the Bible tells us very clearly that it works. That Jesus' death on the cross in our place works to give us his righteousness to take away our sin if we place our faith in him. So Jesus says in John, he says, the work is to believe on him whom you've sent. That we're to believe in Jesus and our sin can be taken away. That's the gospel.
That Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets and that those who place faith in him are made perfect. If you are in Christ, you are perfect. Your sin is gone. When you walk before God, he's not going to have anything to weigh against you. He already condemned Jesus for it. You can't be condemned.
I want to take just a second. You see, we have to go from saying the law is my righteousness or my behavior is my righteousness or my intentions are my righteousness. How do you answer the question when I meet God, what will I say he needs to equip me on account of? What am I going to say I tried? Am I going to say I was mostly good? What the Bible says is we get to stand and say Jesus is my righteousness.
If I get to walk before God and say I'm made holy and righteous and blameless because of Jesus, not because of anything I've done. Jesus is my righteousness. Christ is my righteousness. He's what makes me perfect. He's what makes me okay. So I want to take just a second to help you see how this begins to show up.
You see, if we believe that our work, our intentions, our ability to behave, if we believe that that's what makes us okay, it does something to us. It hardens our hearts. If you believe that your effort is what makes you okay before God and he's going to weigh you based off your actions and your intentions, it doesn't soften you. It doesn't grow you in love towards him. It hardens you. He becomes like a boss or a landlord, not a father.
If you had a father who looked at you and said, in order to be my child today, here's what you have to do. And then you can be my child. And then you can share my table. You wouldn't grow in love towards that father. Your heart would harden towards him. You see, but Jesus says our heart has to change and our actions have to change and that he's ultimately going to fulfill this for us.
So I just want us to show when it comes to acceptance, if you believe that it's based off of your work or if you believe it's based off of Jesus' work, that's what we're going to talk about as we finish up our time this morning. I just want to help you identify this in your heart because some of you may be sitting here and saying, yeah, I believe that. That's basic. That's Christianity 101. I get it. Jesus made me okay.
Y'all talk about this every week. I've been here a couple of weeks. This is all y'all talk about. Some of y'all, you're saying that. That's cool. Come back next week.
We're going to talk about the same thing. Jesus is awesome. We're going to talk about him every week. But some of you say you believe that, but then you actually live as if you still think it's based off of you. Some of you are going to say, no, I believe the gospel. I believe that Jesus died for sinners.
But then you're going to live your life. You're going to practically walk as if you think he's going to weigh you at the end of your life and not base it off of Jesus. And I want to help us identify this a little bit. Acceptance. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to call one religion because that just religion says I'm going to do my work and this is what's going to make me okay.
So we're going to call this religion just any amount of my effort, my works, and then we're going to call the other one gospel. Is that fair? Doesn't matter. I'm doing it anyway. Acceptance. Religion says I obey, therefore I'm accepted.
The gospel says I'm accepted, therefore I obey. One of the ways that begins to show up is what's your acceptance of others? How open to you? Do you have standards they have to meet in order to be okay? Do you have standards they have to meet in order to be able to be a good member of your community group? You may actually believe that you have standards that you have to meet for God.
Motivation. Why you do what you do. Religion says, religion's motivation is based off of fear and insecurity. I have to put in work to be okay. The gospel's motivated by grateful joy. Jesus is good.
He's glorious. He's a king. He loves me. I get to follow. I get to live. I get to pursue.
I get to be generous. Obedience. Religion says I obey God in order to get things from God. I obey him so that he owes me. The gospel says I obey God to get God. I delight in him.
I delight to resemble him. One of the ways this shows up in your community group, if somebody's struggling with something, what's your go-to? Here are the rules you need to follow. Here's how you messed yourself up. It's because you're sinning. Or is it, let me tell you how Jesus is good.
You see, those who believe in the grace of God will go grace first and still care about the rules. They understand that the rules still, obedience still matters, but they know that Jesus pays for our disobedience. So we get to say, hey, let me tell you the good news right now. You're not going to be punished for your sin because Jesus was. If you're in Christ, you're okay. Now, let's repent.
Let's change. Let's own our sin and let's move on. Here's how the difference is in how you handle circumstances. Religion says, when circumstances in my life go wrong, I'm either angry at God or myself. Because religion believes if you're good, you deserve a good life. So when your circumstances go bad, you're either mad at yourself because you must have been bad, you must have done something wrong, or you're mad at God because he owes you.
I did true love weights. Where's my husband? Those of you who grew up in youth groups. I'm not watching those kind of movies. I've been really generous. I've how on earth can you do this to me?
Or if you haven't been behaving well recently, God's punishing me. But see, the gospel, circumstances in life go wrong. I struggle. But I know my punishment fell on Jesus. That while God may allow this for my training, he's going to exercise fatherly love. He's not punishing me.
He's not mad at me. I'm not being, he's not looking at a particular sin and saying, I'm bringing the hammer down. He's saying, I love you. I'm going to train you. I'm going to be with you. If you believe that God punishes us for our circumstances, you have a lot less grace for people in bad circumstances.
You may not realize you do that with yourself, but if someone around you is struggling, how much are you going, yeah, but I bet they did something. They really brought it on themselves. How they handle criticism. When you're religious and you're criticized, it crushes you because your life is based off of your perception of yourself. I have to be good. I have to be okay.
I have to be well-liked. Criticism destroys you. If you believe the gospel, criticism is unpleasant. It's not going to get nice. But it doesn't destroy you.
You realize that your value isn't based off of how much people like you or how well you do at things. You get to rest in the grace of Christ. The other thing that happens is if you're religious, you actually become way more critical because you need other people to be bad so that you can be seen as good. Here's a difference in prayer. I forgot to say this. Tim Keller made this list.
He's a pastor in New York. He's really smart. I did download it from the internet. Here's what happens in prayer. Religion says my prayer life consists largely of petition and it only heats up when I'm in a time of need. The main purpose in prayer is to control your environment.
Prayer, when you believe the gospel, consists of generous stretches of praise and adoration. The main purpose of prayer is to fellowship with God, to appreciate and enjoy Him. Here's how confidence works. Religion, your self-view swings between two poles. You're either living up to the standards and so you're prideful and confident or you're failing miserably and you're depressed. That's the only way religion works.
Either you're doing a good job and you got swagger or you don't want to see anybody. If you're religious, when you sin or life gets hard, you disappear. We'll see you again in a couple weeks when you get it back together. Because you can't be around people unless it's going well. You're depressed. You can't talk.
You can't answer your phone. You can't let people know you're having problems. Your confidence just bottoms out because it's based off of you. And let me explain to you. If you're religious, your confidence is going to bottom out because it's based off of you. But in your gospel, people who believe the gospel have humble confidence.
You know that you're terrible. You know that you're a sinner. You know that you have nothing to offer God. You know that if you stood before Him on your own account, you would not be labeled perfect. We can't even do the 25-page paper thing. I don't even know all the Old Testament laws.
I'm so grateful that Jesus fulfilled them. I know I'm a sinner. You know that. But also, you know that you get to walk before God because of grace, because of Jesus' work. It can't be taken away from you. His effort, His achievement.
You get to walk before God because of Jesus. You get to walk before God with Him looking at you the way He looks at Jesus. You have absolute humility and absolute confidence. Last one, identity. In religion, your identity and self-worth are based mainly on how hard you work, how moral you are. And so you look down on those you perceive as lazy or immoral.
Your identity is tied to your effort. In the gospel, your identity and self-worth are centered on the one who died for you. You're saved by grace. So you don't look down on those who practice something different. Because you know that only by grace you are what you are. And you can rest.
Knowing that they're not taking away Jesus' good work. Your sin does not out-sin His grace. Your rebellion can't crush the cross that we get to be repentant. We get to place faith in Jesus. The band's going to come back up. We're going to sing.
We're going to sing. That's the gospel. That's our hope. That God's standards for us are immensely high. But that He loves us so much that He achieved them for us.
That nothing less than perfection will do. But He loves us enough to accomplish it, to rescue us, to redeem us, to make us His. If you're in the room and you are not a Christian, you can be. Because Jesus did all of the work. If you've ever looked at the church and said, what a group of messed up people. They're such hypocrites.
Right. We're the first people who raised our hand and said, I messed up. I can't do this on my own. The people who are still religious and are trying their hardest to be perfect, they look way better than us. The people who followed Jesus around were the people who said, I have no chance to attain perfection. And Jesus says, yes, but I attained it for you.
You just get to trust Him. You get to push all your weight onto Him. You get to stand before the God of the universe one day and walk confidently before Him. That you know He'll welcome you as a father welcomes a son. Because Jesus has gone before you to take your guilt and your punishment. That you have no fear walking into that courtroom to face that judge.
Because He's not a judge, He's a father. That for those of us in Christ, one day we will be greeted and welcomed and given a seat at the table. And not a person there will say, look at what I've done. Every person there will say, look at Jesus and what He's accomplished for me. That my sin does not follow me. My sin does not scar me.
My sin does not stay with me. I love the fact that when Jesus rose from the grave, He could still show the scars in His hand and the hole in His side. The only person marked by our sin in heaven is Jesus, not us. And there's not a soul who will boast in anything but Christ in that kingdom. So if you have something to boast about, and it has to do with your effort, your work, your intelligence, your ability, you will not be in that kingdom.
When you walk before the king, when you stand before the judge, and you say, weigh me and try me, you will be found at fault. You will be declared guilty. You will be condemned. But when you walk before the king and say, Jesus was condemned for me, and I stand on grace and grace alone, that there was a Christ who came, who fulfilled the law, who fulfilled the prophets, and I trust in Him with all my heart, and I believe in Him, and everything that I have, and that He alone is my righteousness, and He alone is my hope, and He alone is my life, you're welcomed. Because that's the perfection that we get to attain through Christ.
If you don't know Jesus, I beg you to place your faith in Him. Because one day we all stand before the king, and He'll either be a judge or a father. You'll either be held accountable for your sins, or Jesus will. You'll either stand on your own righteousness or His. Let's pray.
God, I pray that with perfect clarity through your Holy Spirit, we would all see our standing before you. That we would see in our hearts clearly how we would stand before you without Christ. And that we would see in our hearts clearly how we can stand before you with Christ. And for those of us who placed our faith in you, I pray, Lord, that we would rejoice, that we would rest, that we would worship, that we would boast in you. And that for those in the room that have not yet placed their faith in you, who are still trying to prove themselves, who are still trying to work it out, who are still trying to stand before you and say, here's why I need to be welcomed, or here's why you're wrong, and this system is broken.
God, I pray that through your grace you would humble them, that you would rescue them, that you would make them yours. That right now they'd make a conscious decision to follow you. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
The Cultural Apologetic
Jan 22
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We're in our second week studying through the Sermon on the Mount. We'll be in Matthew chapter 5. We'll be on page 472.
If you have one of the white Bibles in the rows. If you don't have one of these, we'll be in Matthew chapter 5. There's a New Testament scholar and he's a professor at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. And he wrote a short book. His name is Larry Hurtado. He wrote a short book entitled, Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries?
So it's a short book with a long title. Why on earth did anyone become a Christian in the first three centuries? And here's his basic point. He said, if you're a historian and you're kind of honest about history, we have to ask this question. We have to look at history and ask, why would anybody become a Christian? Because when Christianity began in the Roman Empire, it was aggressively, widespread, vastly persecuted.
It was the most hated religion that existed. If you became a Christian, if you associated with Christians, if you said, I'm a Christian, declared yourself a Christian, there was social pressure. You could be kicked out of your home. You could be kicked out of your friendships. There was financial pressure for a lot of Christians weren't allowed to be in the guild. So let's say you were a blacksmith and you became a Christian.
There was a good chance they would just say, well, you can't be a blacksmith anymore. There was actual physical, like you could be arrested or murdered. And so he actually says, nothing like the repeated and increasingly hostile stance taken by the Romans towards Christians existed. Like there's, we've never seen anything like it. How increasingly hostile and how aggressive they were towards Christianity. So you have that on the one hand, that Christians are aggressively hated.
And it grew. It grew so fast that three centuries later, it was the majority of the Roman Empire. That Christianity grew so quickly. And he basically says, you look at history and you've got to ask why. He says, you know, like if you look at the first three centuries of Islam, Islam grew in its first three centuries. But they did it by conquest.
He said they did it on a horse with a sword. But Christianity grew at the other end of that sword. It grew through persuasion. It grew through relationships. It grew through talking people into, hey, jail guard. Would you like to also be arrested?
Like, like it grew that way. It grew in crazy ways where Christianity flourishes while being persecuted. And he says, why? And as we begin to look at the Sermon on the Mount again today, as we pick up where we left off, we're going to see that Jesus actually begins to build in this dynamic into his very earliest followers. That you're going to stand out and be disliked, but also it's going to be very compelling and beautiful. So people are going to hate you, but I'm going to work in that.
That's kind of Jesus begins to build that into his followers. And so if you'll look in Matthew chapter 5, we'll pick up in verse 1. I'm just going to kind of summarize the first 10 verses. That's where we spent our time last week. It's online if you weren't able to be here with us last week. The first 10 verses, Jesus is doing what we call the Beatitudes, which is basically the blessedness, the beautifulness.
Here's what flourishing looks like. Here's what the good life is. And he starts to say, here's what my people are going to be like. So he starts talking about characteristics of the people that are going to follow him. And he uses this kind of like all of those who type language. So everyone who, and it's kind of, we said last week, it's like at your first day of basic where the drill sergeant, well, maybe he comes out.
I've never been, so I'm just making stuff up. I also can't talk the way drill sergeants talk because I'm pretty sure I'd get fired. But go with me here. First day of basic, drill sergeant comes up and says, for everyone who's mean as a rattlesnake, who's never had any fear, who doesn't know how to quit, and kind of goes through this big thing and says, you'll do fine, welcome to the army or something. And like, that's kind of what Jesus is doing. He's saying for all those who, he's painting this picture of this is the type of person we're going to be.
And if you were in basic and you were standing in formation and you were listening to the drill sergeant, you'd be soaking up everything he said because you knew this is what I'm going to have to be. This is the type of person I'm going to have to be like. That's what Jesus is doing. And he just got done in Matthew chapter four, healing people, traveling around. It says he would heal paralytics and people that had never walked. He would just tell them to get up and walk.
It says he had rule over spiritual forces. Those who were under demonic oppression, he was just commanded to leave and it would. And so now he goes up on this mountain and he starts teaching his followers. It says he's talking to his disciples and they're hanging on every word he says. Because he's in control of everything. He's shown his power.
And now he's saying, here's the type of people we're going to be. Here's the type of people I'm going to make. And so what he says is those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. He begins to lay out. This is the type of person he begins to say, if you're like this, this is the blessing that God answers this, that God responds to this. This is the type of people we're going to be.
And so in verse 10, he says this, he's finishing this up. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And then he turns in verse 11, he says, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you. So he, he turns from all those and now he's beginning to directly address his followers. And that's, we're going to pick up today. I want to pray before we jump too far into this, um, as we, as we try to see what, what it looks like, uh, as Jesus shifts and begins to specifically train them, what it looks like for us today.
So let's pray. God, we thank you for this opportunity that we have to study your word, uh, to gather, uh, and to spend devoted time to learning, uh, so that we might spend the rest of our time to living, um, that we might actively walk as people who have been changed by you. We pray Lord that you would bless this time that we have, and that you'd help us to look more and more, uh, like your son in Jesus name. Amen. So he takes this, this, all those who language.
And then he begins to specifically start training. He says, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and other, all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. So rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So, uh, Jesus is, he's been the whole time saying stuff that's completely backwards from what we think blessedness looks like. What, what the good life looks like.
So he said, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. And he says, blessed are you when you're persecuted. And, and immediately it's like, no, like that's the stuff I don't like, but he's saying, no, this is actually good. It's good when people make fun of you, revile you, misrepresent you. Persecution just means to be subjected to something that's bad, to be subjected to something that's uncomfortable.
So, uh, we, we mostly use the term for very aggressive, uh, beatings for people to be, uh, murdered or put in jail. So Christians in America can be persecuted because it just means for a purpose, because of your identity, because of your, your, uh, claiming to be a Christian, that someone subjects you to something uncomfortable. I just want to say though, as all the Christians in this room, as we are Americans, let's not use the term persecuted when it comes to someone in our office, disliking us. I realize you may be subjected to some discomfort, but you just sound silly given what's going on in other parts of the country, other parts of the world.
So we can be reviled. You can technically be persecuted, but don't say that. I don't sound being, just say they don't like me. They're misrepresenting me. I think this happens all the time. Misrepresentation is one of the biggest ones I see in our culture.
And we're blessed for it. You ever watch a TV show and then they introduce a Christian character? And if you've been a Christian for a while, uh, as soon as they introduce a Christian character, I'm like, crud, because I know they're not going to be likable. Like I know how we're viewed in culture. They're going to be, uh, aggressively, um, judge, judgmental, aggressively hypocritical. They're going to be one of the characters that says all this stuff and then Acts a completely different way.
Other than Ned Flanders, most of them are very hypocritical. Ned Flanders is just goofy. Now I know that you may have met Christians like that. Super judgmental. I would say they are also misrepresenting Christianity, but Jesus says, this is what's going to happen. People are going to say things about you that aren't true.
They're going to misrepresent you. They're going to straw man you. They're going to argue against you. They're going to call your names. And that's blessed. And here's what he says.
And I don't think this would have been lost on his original hearers. And I think it's huge for us today. Verse 11, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. So just remember that, that what we get to do as Christians, when we're called names, when we're misrepresented, when we're cussed, when we're called narrow and bigoted, and all the things that are going to be thrown at us, he says, just be happy.
Because you get rewarded for that. But then he says this, your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. What he just said was, this group of people I'm making comes in the line of the prophets. Now that's huge. And I don't think it was, I don't think the disciples missed what he just said there. Let me explain what a prophet was.
In the Old Testament, we have prophets. Your book, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, like these people were prophets and they spoke on behalf of God. They were humans that stood in and said, this is what God is like. This is what God cares about. So Jesus just stands in front of his followers and says, I'm making you into this type of people.
And then he says, and rejoice, because they've done this to all the prophets. Meaning that, this is what you get to do. This is the role and the office and the position that you get to fill. That the church that Jesus is building has a prophetic role in culture. That the church is the group of people that get to say, this is what God is like. And this is what God cares about.
Now, that should get your blood pumping. That's exciting. That's weighty. And it's kind of terrifying. Because how's the church doing on that? Are we able to say, look at the church in the U.S.
Look at the church around the world. That's what God's like. That's what God cares about. But that's what Jesus is saying. This is the role that my people are going to fill. Now he's going to tell us how.
So he told us, like, the way we're going to exist, the type of personalities we're going to have, the characteristics we're going to have. Then he tells us the office you're going to fill, the following a prophetic office. And now he's going to start talking about what that looks like. So verse 13. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? So I've heard sermons, and I think it's worth thinking through and spending some time meditating on all the different characteristics of salt. I don't know if that's his main point, but let's just, for just a second, talk about salt just so that we're all thinking about the same stuff. Salt is in the white shaker on your table. It's the one that has fewer holes because it comes out faster if they're the same color. Like, you've got to look at the top and try to figure out which one's which.
It's the one that has fewer holes. That's the salt shaker. If yours has more holes, you did that wrong. If you get home, you've got that backwards. All right.
Salt was common. It was used to flavor things. So if you add salt to chicken and to green beans, it doesn't make them both taste like salt. It makes the chicken more chickeny and the green beans more green beany. If it starts taking like salt, you added too much. Salt was also used to cure meat.
It still is, but they had to do it a lot more because they didn't have refrigerators. So salt was used, if you were going to eat meat, you either ate it right now or you salt cured it or you died. Like you got botulism or something. You had only three options. You couldn't wait and eat it without salt curing it. So they would salt cure meat.
It would preserve. But see, I'm not sure that's Jesus' main point. I want to make one observation that I think immediately should stand out to us. He did not say, I'm building a people and you're the gold of the earth. He didn't say, I'm building a people and you're the diamonds in the rough. No, He said, you're salt, which is common and cheap.
Its value actually outweighs its cost. It's very useful. It just doesn't cost much. There are salt mines all over the place. He says, you're salt. You're going to be everywhere.
But His main point that I think He's making because it's what He actually says is you are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? So He just got done talking about persecution. So He says, you're going to be disliked, but be excited about that. You're the salt of the earth, but if you lose your saltiness, you're useless. What He's saying is when you're persecuted, don't stop. Don't stop doing the stuff that people dislike.
Don't start shaving off the rough edges of Christianity. You're going to stand out. You're going to be disliked, but you can't just say, well, let's just get rid of all the stuff people don't like. That's heard repeatedly, culturally right now. That's said repeatedly to the church from culture and from other people in the church saying if we would just get rid of this thing, then everyone would like us. If we would just get rid of this, I've heard, if we would just get rid of the cross.
Like, I mean, it's okay to kind of, like, I know it's in there, but we talk about it too much. It's too bloody. It's too gory. It makes God sound crazy. I've read these articles. If we would just get rid of that, then people wouldn't have a problem.
It sounds so archaic. Let's not talk about God's judgment. Let's just talk about His love. It's like, yeah, I'm for talking about God's love, but the Bible talks about both. It's actually His love that makes Him hate sin so much. He's not indifferent to us.
He loves us. So He hates sin. I've heard, if we would just give up on this social issue, if we would just change our stance on this political issue. We're so backwards. We're behind the times. We're getting left by history.
If we would just get rid of this, then we'd be fine. But let me explain what happens. Because this has happened in churches, in our culture, in the U.S. Now, if you came to my house and I said, you should add some salt to that dish. And you said, oh, I don't want salt. I don't want to change the flavor of this.
I want it. And I said, oh, no, no, no. My salt actually quit being salty a long time ago. It doesn't do anything. It's the same flavor as what you have because it tastes like nothing. Go ahead and add it.
Your immediate response would be, why should I add it if it's exactly the same flavor? That's what's happening in the church. When we actually get rid of all the things culture doesn't like and we say, we look just like you guys, the immediate response is, then why do I have to wake up early on a Sunday? Why do I need to come to your thing? Why do I have to be a part of your little community group? Why on earth would I give y'all money if you look exactly like I do?
I'm already crushing it. I already look exactly like me. I don't need to be at your thing. See, the church can't do that. That's what Jesus is saying. When we give in to cultural pressure, we lose our saltiness and we're useless.
Jesus just looked at his disciples and said, stay salty, my friends. That's what he said. Keep it. Even though people are going to like it. Even though they're going to tell you to stop. Stay salty.
That's what Jesus is telling us. Then he keeps going. That's him pointing to the you're going to be disliked part. You're going to stand out. You're going to be all over the place. You're going to be calm.
And this is one of the reasons why we talk about everyday church, everyday discipleship when we say normal everyday life or the everyday stuff of life or in your normal rhythms of life. We say this all the time. If you read anything, we write that phrase way too much. Normal everyday life. The everyday stuff of life. In your normal rhythms of life.
Where you work. Where you play. Where you go to school. We say this all the time but that's because salt is supposed to be everywhere. We're not supposed to be distinct and separate. We're supposed to be distinct and then in every single dish.
You're supposed to be at the school you're at. You're supposed to be in the job you're at. You're supposed to be in the neighborhood you're at. We're not supposed to all start communes and go live on a mountain. Jesus said this on a mountain but then he made them all leave. They didn't get to stay.
That's what salt gets to be everywhere. Flavoring everywhere. Preserving everywhere and being all up in the middle of everything. That's what the church gets to do and being disliked for it. Welcome to the club. That's what Jesus is telling them.
You're going to be hated but it's okay. You hold a prophetic office. This is how it's always worked. Verse 13. Nope. That's where we just were.
Verse 14. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way let your light shine before others so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. So Jesus looked at his disciples and said you're going to fulfill a prophetic office.
You're going to be disliked. You're going to be salt. Salt. Don't lose your saltiness. You're also going to be a light in darkness. People don't light a lamp and then cover it.
Like you've never been to someone's house and they have a lamp. You say it's really dark in here and they go oh I've got a lamp it's lit but it's under that really big blanket. Nobody does that. You wouldn't light a lamp and then put a giant shade over it that kept it from being bright. There's no point. That's what he's saying.
Like I'm lighting a light and the goal is for it to be seen. A city on a hill can't be hidden. Now we live in this area and it's Columbia like lights everything up and there's also street lights everywhere. I don't know where y'all come from if you're familiar with what it's like to be in the middle of nowhere and it be really dark. I didn't know the difference until I moved here. I used to live in Edgefield.
There's nothing in Edgefield. I mean there's some people there and they have like a school and like a hospital but if you get hurt and you can make it to another hospital maybe you should do that. Like there's not a whole lot going on in Edgefield. I remember my cousin coming to visit us one time and he got all lost trying to find our house and then he was like why is it so daggum dark out there? Y'all can't afford some street lights? And I remember thinking what?
Like I've never even noticed that. And then I went home for Christmas this year and I'm riding down the road that leads to my parents' house and I was like it's really dark. I'm glad I know where it is because it's aggressively dark out here because I've gotten used to street lights and I felt a little bad. I was like the little redneck inside of me is dying a little bit. But I've gotten used to street lights and I remember thinking it's really dark and that's what he's saying because in their culture they didn't have street lights.
You had lights but you'd put them out at night and the only things that would still be lit up were cities. I actually looked this up this morning because I remember them talking about it in school but I couldn't remember the exact distance but they did a study out in the middle of the desert they had people get up on top of mountains so that they were higher up and the curve of the earth didn't mess them up and they lit candles and they measured how far a human can see one candle. 30 miles when there's nothing else in the way. When it's pitch black you can light a candle 30 miles away. That actually said that that's due to the curve of the earth that humans could probably see it up to about 100 miles but we're not really able to test that because we don't have tall enough stuff.
What Jesus just said was is the church is a city on a hill that you can see from miles that you can't hide it. The church is supposed to be not only like salt in the middle of everything but like a city on the hill shining drawing people in beckoning people. So if you lived in this time and Jerusalem was up on a hill and if you were able to see clearly to it in the middle of the night and you saw it 30 miles away that meant that if you were walking you were still a day and a half away if you walked all day long. Most likely three days if you were like us and took some breaks. Military troops when they walk all day long can make about 20 miles.
I was like seven need a nap. I'm going to need some of that salt cured meat I brought with me. Like that's what he's saying that you could see it so far away and it drew you in that that's the church. So the church is a prophetic office that is both salty and disliked and yet attractive and beautiful that it draws people in. That's what Hurtado was talking about when he wrote why on earth did anybody become a Christian in the first three centuries. What he was saying was the church was so hated but people kept coming.
And I want to say why why this matters before we get into some of the other stuff Jesus is going to talk about and how I think we can think about it. Verse 16 In the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Now in the Greek they have a different word for you and you plural. So they're much like Southerners who have you and y'all. This is y'all. That's what he's talking to.
In the same way let y'all's light shine before others so that they may see y'all's good work and give glory to y'all's Father who is in heaven. That's what he's saying. So he's talking about the church collectively has good works that stand out in culture. We have viewpoints viewpoints and opinions and cultural changes about us that make us stand out in a negative way and we also have good works that make us stand out like a city on a hill. That Jesus is creating a group of people that are going to stand out for him. I think it's important for us to see that he's talking specifically to y'all because later in the Sermon on the Mount he's going to say do all of your good works in secret.
But here he says do it like a giant city on a hill. And here's what he means and here's one of the best ways I think I can explain this is the church collectively is supposed to have good works. You individually are supposed to just be lumped in with the group. So we do a give series every year at the end of the year. We raise money. This past year we raised money for Samaritans as well.
We're actually in the process of getting that furniture that we're going to buy for them. We're going to be taking it over there towards the end of the month or the beginning of next month. We're actually going to rally everybody to kind of get together help load this in help clean it up. If you're not able to do that we'll try to take some pictures. But here's the thing with our give project.
We're showing up in the name of the church in the name of Jesus. We're not walking over there and saying hey we just want to give you a list of all the individuals and how much they gave. That's not the point. We're not going to stand up here and talk about how much we collectively gave our collective generosity us as Jesus followers collectively not individuals how much people gave. That's what he's talking about. Like you individually should do some good works but you should do them in a way that it clumps up together with what Christ looks like what his bride looks like on earth what the church looks like.
In a way that it clumps up together with what Christ looks like what his bride looks like on earth what the church looks like. So here's I mean we've done the same stuff with stuff we do here at Glen Forest stuff we've done at Hope Bridge stuff we've done at Gentle Pines we've had groups and our church family has gone over on a regular basis to Gentle Pines which is an apartment complex over here. One of the best stories I heard this past year
When we were doing Thanksgiving stuff was people who came over and said I just moved here and I was talking to one of my neighbors and said I was a little bit worried that my family wasn't going to be able to do a Thanksgiving meal and they said oh no no no there's a church that comes over here every Thanksgiving you're good you'll get to have a Thanksgiving meal with your family and that's so cool and that's collective church
Getting to point to the Father and here's why that matters the church should have good works that are seen so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who's in Heaven not to y'all but to your Father see that's that's what Jesus came to do Jesus came to have have all of his works point us to the Father that he that he would die for us
That he would rise again conquering death and sin for us that he came to redeem us to bring us back to the Father to give us back to the God who is infinitely valuable infinitely worth worship and glory so that the church everything we do good works wise is infinitely worth it because we point to a God
Who's infinitely worth it that's the reason why this matters the church stands in a prophetic office where we're supposed to stand out and people are going to dislike us but also it's going to be beautiful it's going to draw people in and it's going to point them to the Father because it's going to say here's what God does among a group of people not just
Oh I have a neighbor and he's really nice but actually no let me come invite you to hang out with my group let me show you what a group of people look like let me invite you to a city where everybody's different that's the point this is actually why membership matters why we took the time last year to say this is what membership means this is why church discipline matters because the church collectively holds a prophetic office that's why it matters that we police each other
That's why Paul writes stuff like if someone in your if someone he said I don't judge the world I'm not talking about people who aren't in the church people who are in the church if they claim to be a Christian and they're actively pursuing sexual morality don't even eat with them don't have anything to do with them follow the processes of church discipline with them aggressively pursue
Them changing their hearts because the church stands in a prophetic office we say this is what God is like and this is what he cares about so we have to care about how each other follow Jesus and pursue Jesus together that's why we want to be in community groups where you're knowing people and they're confessing sin and we're growing together because we're
All standing and saying that collectively we represent God that matters it's weighty okay to try to help us see this I want to spend the rest of our time there's tons of these where we get to be salty and gracious where we get to have the characteristics that he talks about being poor in spirit and mourning and humble so some of y'all some of you I know y'all some of y'all
Heard be salty and you got so excited because you're like everybody already doesn't like me and I'm super annoying at work you didn't think that you don't think you're annoying you think you're standing up for the truth I don't know why you sound like a redneck when I'm making fun of you but I know some of y'all some of y'all saltiness is easier the aggressive kind of
I'm not backing down stance church stance I get that but he says to do it as those who are meek those who mourn those who are poor in spirit those who are peacemakers like the characteristics the way we hold vehemently to what we believe in has to be gracious and loving and welcoming and kind compassionate now some of y'all you're great at that you're great at being humble and meek
If it means quiet but when it comes to actually standing firm in some beliefs and not just cowing down to what everyone else around you you struggle with that we're called to do both to be salty but graciously humbly now Jesus as he continues the sermon on the mount is going to walk through several different areas where I just have as I've been reading this was just thinking that these are good examples because he keeps pushing this this is all one big message
He gives it's not separate little ideas he keeps pulling this idea all the way through and this is areas where we get to be prophetic in our culture that they got to be prophetic that they got to stand out as salt and light and we get to also and so I just want to point out three areas that Jesus is going to get to in the sermon on the mount that I think we have a distinct opportunity as the church in the United States to absolutely be outlandish crazy subversive
Frustrating and attractive beautiful like I think there's a couple of places where we get to do that in our culture that Jesus gets to and that I just want to point out as we think through this to try to help us understand more fully how to do this the first one is enemy love so Jesus says don't pray for those who persecute you bless those who curse you love your enemies
If someone strikes your cheek give them the other also if they take your cloak give them your other one like he he goes aggressively against retaliation and enemy hatred now American culture has shifted aggressively to being very no matter what the issue partisan very much here's the line these people are okay and these people aren't because it's easy to pick on this I want to talk about red states and blue states
Democrats and republicans because it's all fresh in our minds even from this past week where there's inauguration but also protest here's one of the things that has begun to break down our culture has lost the ability to disagree graciously we've lost the ability to do that you see that was one of the things that the early church was so beautiful that stood out so so crazily they were in a culture that valued power
That valued honor it was a shame and honor culture so that when someone disrespected you you disrespected them back you had to keep your honor they were they were into a culture where they were persecuted and hated and what did they do they loved their enemies they prayed for them they were gracious and humble they looked outlandish subversive to what everybody valued but it was also beautiful they forgave those
Who had harmed them but see our cultures American cultures lost that y'all watch nightly news we could play this would be like a sobriety drinking game watch the nightly news and take a shot every time one of them says that was a really good point I just changed my mind you don't even have to buy alcohol it's not going to happen they don't have discussions where one of them goes that was really valid I've never thought about that before they don't have discussions they just wait for the other person to try to catch their breath so they can shout something else
And then the person who's hosting always gets to go they always have the last word because they have like the button that shuts that person's screen down sometimes if you listen to talk radio they'll cut the person off and then just get to talk about whatever they want to you can tell that the person on the phone is no longer on the phone anymore they got to say about two sentences they cut them off and then they just start it'd be great like I would like to get one of those for my marriage but we've lost the ability we've lost the ability
To disagree we've lost the ability to humbly be able to listen to somebody I have to fight for this whenever I get in arguments with my wife I had to do this the other day where because when she says good points I don't want to acknowledge that they're good I want to win that's the point of the argument I had to stop myself and go no you're right about that I'm wrong but see Christians are in a distinct position so if you if you hang out with really blue people or if you hang out
With really red people you know what I'm talking about so if you're in a really democrat circle or really republican circle I want you to do something because this is where we get to be really salty next time they're just blasting someone I want you to go out of your way to say something nice about the other side yeah but I really appreciate how they hold this position I think they do this better than we do and watch them look at you like because here's the truth only Christians don't have our value based off of our position
In response to other people's position see if I place my value in being a republican or being a democrat then I actually need the other side to be wrong I need them to be terrible people I need them to be the people who are ruining our country so that I can be okay if you're in school you're in high school and you're in the cool group you actually need people to not be cool they have to be not cool people so that you can still be cool there has to be
Someone on that if you're in the not cool group you're edgy everything y'all y'all are into is super weird nobody gets what y'all are talking about because it's all alternate and you have to like spend an hour on the internet just to find this thing and even when you watch it no one understands what the point was if that's you you need really basic mainstream people who don't get it you need people who point out how weird your clothes are
Right you need them they have to exist and they have to be weird they have to be so different from you if you're cool you have to have uncool people but Christians don't need that we know we're poor in spirit we're meek we're humble we know that our only value comes from Jesus that's it we don't bring anything to the table that makes us good or smart or right or the best we get Jesus
So guess what whichever group you're in whichever side of the aisle you're on Christians get to be the leaders in saying that was a really good point they do that better than us let's open our table up to everybody you're welcome to sit here you're welcome among me I'm going to try to understand you I'm going to start having events where the church gets to be the leaders and pulling a bunch of people around the table that don't think like them don't look like them and they don't have to
Demonize them or make them the bad guy this will make you stand out be disliked if you're in the cool group and you make a non-cool friend and you bring them to the cool group you have now made all of your friends less cool but it's beautiful and the reason the church is in a position to do this is because our God who was our enemy tore heaven and earth apart to make his enemies
His brothers that's what the cross is that's who his people are they didn't understand that when he was saying it but they were going to get to see it later how much he would go how far to the ends of the earth God would go to love his enemies so the church is in a distinct position in our culture in their culture and in our culture to hold this to be salty but attractive second one that Jesus is going to get to later and we'll spend more time on is the Christian sexual ethic what Christians say
About sex in their culture was crazy it was crazy Christians so in their culture if you were married probably the wife shouldn't sleep around but the husband was expected to anyone that was below his kind of level if he slept around with someone on the same level that was looked down on but anyone who was below slaves prostitutes just whatever you were supposed to it was normal
It was accepted Christians came along and said oh and it was also accepted that you would sleep around a lot before you got married and Christians came along and said no one man one woman monogamous forever relationship that's the only place that sex exists Jesus was even going to say like lust isn't okay which is just so far a step beyond what they were even thinking about like he like so
They just came along and said no and they seemed it was subversive it was outlandish and they stuck to it it was crazy fast forward 2000 something years Christians haven't started seeming more normal when it comes to sex I don't know if y'all have picked up on that we're holding to the same stuff and we're very much disliked for it we're narrow minded we're bigoted we're crazy you're made fun of if someone finds out that you are waiting till marriage
To have sex they have like a thousand questions why this is the first one what what it's probably the second one after you've answered why we just look backwards here because we believe Christians believe that marriage points to the gospel that it's actually a picture of Jesus' love for the church so that all marriages on earth are supposed to be a paint by Numbers they should all look the same because we're all trying to point to the same picture and they should be forever
All of life because that's Jesus' love for the church doesn't change his continued pursuit his continued love it doesn't change we believe that that sex exists as a covenantal renewal so it only happens in marriage and that humans are fine if they never get married and never have sex that's the other thing that seems crazy to our culture you've got to be married to become a complete person to level up to move to the next stage if you live your whole life not married what are you doing? and if you're not married
And not sleeping around you're insane at least American culture says you are church Christian culture says no it's fine because we believe wholly different things about marriage we believe that it images God's love for us that Jesus' pursuit of us his continued love for us like y'all see this where we get to stay salty but also be winsome and attractive and gracious in our opinions and the way we hold it
And the way we pursue it and the way we love people in our church family who are single and are going to remain single for life the way we invite them over to holidays the way we treat them like family the way we expand what Jesus says family looks like we get to to look differently in the way we rally around couples that are hurting and people that have gone through divorce and how we love and how we serve and how we pursue and how we remind them what matters
And what's true Jesus is going to get to that the third issue that I think is helpful for us to see this picture of us being salt and light is how the church is supposed to love the poor see Jesus starts talking to them about love for the poor and giving to the poor and relating to the poor and mourning and being poor in spirit and that's completely backwards from their culture that was one of the things that stood out so starkly against the Roman Empire that people were even writing letters
And saying we got a bunch of Christians in our area and not only do they take care of their poor but they're taking care of our poor not only are they taking care of their sick but they're taking care of our sick also the way Christians went out of their way to adopt children and to rally around those who were hurting and sick and diseased you see we're set apart even now to do this distinctly to outpace our culture and how generous we are to outpace our culture and how much we love the poor
You see our culture American culture is fine with love for the poor but your family is going to think you're weird if you start giving up on the American dream to mourn with those who mourn if you start giving up on the idea that happiness and wealth are tied together and that happiness is the point of life and you start embracing mourning and poverty you're going to have people start saying wait what are you doing that's
You know they're poor for a reason right they've caused that themselves they're all crazy they're on drugs and we get to say yeah sure maybe okay but I've been blessed I have a God who was beyond rich who became broken and poor and humble for me I have a God who's beyond powerful who took on the ultimate position of meekness for me
I have a mansion in the sky you talk about sounding crazy I have a hope that bank accounts can't touch I have a wealth that makes America look pathetic and China who owns all of America's money also look pathetic I have a security that is well beyond the $100,000 backed up by the US government I got more gold than Fort Knox I got a hope and an eternity that is so secure
And a promise that every time a dollar walks out the door it's sent to eternity it's not lost Jim Elliot who ended up dying for his faith as a missionary I love this quote he wrote it in his journal he says he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose and the church is in a distinct position to say who's hurting who's hurting
Because Jesus chases who's hurting that was the point of the cross and we get to stand shoulder to shoulder and we get to walk money out the door I hope and pray that as our church family that every year at about this time when you start looking at your tax returns and you start I hope everybody gets to hit the charitable giving Numbers that lets you start doing the tax deductions on that I hope every single one of us see that number
Rise every year I hope every one of us has a lower standard of living I'd love to have a church where nobody had cable or direct TV except for one person so we could throw some Super Bowl parties but I'd love for us to have a church where so much money walked out the door where so many people were not just given a hand not just given but actually we're just like I'm going to hold your hand until we get there I'm not just going
To give you a hand up I'm going to give you a hand like I'm going to be with you this whole time I'm going to help you have money in your savings account part of my money in my savings account isn't even designated for me it's for you like that the church gets to be so radically distinct there because we have such great promises that we get to be salty that people get to think you're crazy that you get to look weird
And you get to say yeah I know but we get to be so beautiful and what happens and why that matters and why we actually have to live this see our apologetic has to move beyond being able to prove to somebody that the tomb was empty I think that's helpful being able to prove to somebody that it makes more sense that God created the world I've watched some of that stuff it's very helpful for me I believe that stuff is true but our apologetic
Has to start being a lived out church culture one where we get to say no no no let me show you a group of people let me invite you to my community group where you get to see a people whose view on relationships whose view on finances whose view on people who they disagree with is so radically different that you're going to be uncomfortable but it's going to draw you in we have to live this we have to be able to point to the church in the U.S. and say that's what
God's like and that's what he cares about that was Jesus' point that's the prophetic office that he's called the church into the band's going to come back up I have a few questions for us are you doing this are we doing this do our community groups look like we believe that we have an eternal hope and an eternal husband we have a God who broke the divide between heaven and earth
To rescue his enemies to take their pain as his to die their death do we look like that? see it's not it's not just big stuff it's simple stuff where we get to love our enemies where we get to be generous it's not just politics it's your neighbor who's in the homeowners association who is the just the most frustrating person who's ever existed who gets out of their car and measures your grass with a tape measure and you think you're at my house I think
What's the law I can kill you and I don't get in trouble like and you throw a party and you invite them and your neighbors are like why is that guy here? or if they don't come and your neighbors start talking about them you step in and say hey guys I don't think this is helpful I don't think this is appropriate for us to talk about this person like we get to love our enemies and so at lunch tables in break rooms we get to we get to be generous to the poor
Every month as we set our budget that we get to start setting aside money that's not going to be ours and we just start praying Jesus this money belongs to you all this money belongs to you so help me start setting my budget like I believe that and help me start seeing needs that I hadn't seen before and help me be willing to hand money to people who are ungrateful and don't deserve it so that I'll understand how ungrateful
And undeserving I am help me to actually live so that I could look at my bank account and say yeah she believes in eternity he believes in eternity they have a hope and a kingdom and they can't be touched they have unfading treasure come in to be salt and help us to collectively as a church shine are we doing this this is what our groups look like if not let's start let's start looking like a group of people that can say this is what God's like and this is what he cares about if you're not in a community group
And you're not a Christian my invitation to you is get into a community group we eat a meal we talk about Jesus you don't have to talk you can just eat you don't have to eat there's a lot of carbohydrates in most of our groups so if you're on a diet bring some salad but come be around a group of people that get to try to live like this is what Jesus is like this is what God's like this is what he cares about that gets to repent of sin that gets to care about what our actions look like that get to care about what each other's actions look like because we hold a prophetic office
But get to do that with meekness humility peacemaking if you're a Christian and you're not in a group get in a group so we can begin to collectively live this out in more practical daily ways so that your group can start serving your group can start giving ultimately let's all begin to pray that our group would be filled with generous humble people who go out of their way for the hurting who care about people enough to start awkward conversations we get to live this we get to point to it
That's our call that's the office we hold as a church we get to hustle until one day we get to meet our king and enter into the kingdom that he's prepared let's pray God we thank you that all of this is in response to your cross that all of this is in response to your love that all of this is in response to what you've already done for us the way you've already loved your enemies the way you've already pursued those
Who had nothing to offer God I pray that we would look in our community groups in our church that your church in this country in this city in this state that we'd begin to be able to point and say that's what God's like and that's what he cares about that when we when we pointed to what we believe and what we do the immediate response would be oh yeah that makes sense I see that if you believe that of course you'd act
This way God we thank you and we love you and we ask for your Holy Spirit to help us in Jesus name Amen
Upside Down Kingdom
Transcript
Good morning. Grab your Bibles. Let's go to Matthew chapter 4. We are starting a series in the Sermon on the Mount today. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here.
Very excited to be able to start this series. We're going to spend a good bit of time in the spring just walking through the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is the largest section of Jesus speaking. So if you have a red letter Bible, so some Bibles will have what Jesus says in red letters. You've got a couple of pages that are just bright red. That's the Sermon on the Mount.
So this section of teaching is included in Luke. And there's some variations between them. And it seems like Jesus would have taught these concepts on a regular basis. So if you're going to be in one spot and teach on a regular basis to the same group of people, you teach different things. But if you're going to travel around, you're going to teach a lot of the same stuff over and over and over and over again.
And so Jesus had this one primary message about the kingdom, about what he had come to accomplish. And so we get in Luke and in Matthew some highlights from it, some different writing down of it as what he would have taught as he kind of traveled around. And here's the thing. There are only a few teachers that make it to us through history. So we've got Socrates.
We've got Aristotle. We've got a couple of people that just really kind of defined thought for us and defined teaching for us. And Jesus is one of those teachers that makes it to us through history that even now we consider a good teacher. Not many people will argue with that. Most people are okay with Jesus and they're okay with the things he taught. And they'll say, yeah, Jesus taught great stuff.
Like if we all could do a little bit more like what Jesus said, we'd be better off. There aren't a whole lot of people that are just out and out mad at the person Jesus. And most people would agree he was a good teacher. The problem is our culture wants to say that's just what he was, that he was just a good teacher. And so as we start this long section of Jesus' teaching, I don't want us to divorce it from what comes right before it. So Matthew, who's writing this gospel, tells us some stuff at the end of chapter 4 before he goes into this whole discourse that Jesus is going to give that does not allow us to just say, Jesus was a good teacher who said some good stuff.
So let's read chapter 4 as we get started this morning. We're going to run through it fairly quickly, but it's to help us understand who's talking, who's speaking to us in the Sermon on the Mount. So chapter 4, verse 23 is where we'll pick up. So, and he, that's Jesus, went throughout all Galilee. That's an area in Israel that's up above Jerusalem, teaching in their synagogues. That's where Jewish people met on their Sabbath, which was Saturday, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease.
So he would proclaim the gospel. He would tell them what he was coming to accomplish. He would tell them the good news about God's kingdom that was being ushered in. And then he would heal people. Heal. I'm trying to not sound like a redneck, but I have a hard time.
All right. And healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria. And they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures and paralytics. And he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.
So Jesus has massive crowds coming to him everywhere he goes because he heals people. Not only does he proclaim good news about the kingdom, but anyone who's sick, anyone who's hurting, anyone who's in pain can come to him. So, of course, he has massive crowds because they were on the same medical system as my uncle was telling me about earlier where they break a chicken leg. Like they they were trying to figure it out as best they could, but they didn't have the best system for having to handle medical issues. And so if there was someone there was an outside chance that someone could just make things go away, of course, you were taking time off and you were getting to them as best you could.
You were taking friends to them as best you could. You were finding ways to go be healed. And so Jesus had massive crowds. And I love that what it includes here because it includes such amazing things. It says every disease and affliction in here includes those who are sick. Those are afflicted with various diseases, oppressed by demons, having seizures and paralytics.
So people who had never walked before or who had been in an accident and no longer had the use of their legs, Jesus would just command them to get up and they'd be fine. People who had seizures. But I love that snuck into the middle of this list. It says and various pains. So people were coming to him and be like, I don't know.
It just hurts when I chew. I'm not sure. Can you look at it? It's red and it itches like they were just bringing him things. Just whatever it was. And he would heal them.
And he would heal from minute things to to massive things. And so when Matthew begins in chapter five to give us this Jesus teaching, it's not just a good teacher. But he's speaking with the authority of the person who can tell cancer to leave. And it does. Who has rule over the over human health, over the physical realm, over a spiritual realm. It says that he cast out demons, people who had spiritual affliction.
He can command that to leave. And it does. And so when Jesus begins to teach, the people that are listening to him have seen him do this. And they're hanging on every word because everything he says has absolute authority as he's just traveled around commanding people who've never walked before to stand up and walk home. So that's that's who's speaking to us.
He's not just a good teacher. And Matthew doesn't let us just sit on that. So as we begin the Sermon on the Mount, I want to set the stage for us just a little bit and explain kind of what we're looking at today. And then we got a good bit of work to do. So Matthew chapter five.
It's on page 472 in the white Bibles. You should already be there because it comes right after what we just read. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And when he sat down, his disciples came to him. So it seems like Jesus just kind of wandered off by himself.
He sits down and his disciples come to him. Now, those are the people who are intentionally trying to follow Jesus. Now, he only has a handful at this point. There's four we know of that he said, hey, follow me. There's probably more, maybe four to let's say 25. I'm just guessing.
I know that in a couple of chapters he has to he prays and picks 12 in particular. So there had to be more than 12. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had to pray that long about it, I don't guess. Or maybe he could have just gotten four. Like, I don't know. But he's got, let's say, 20 people.
I'm making that up. A handful of people come to him out of a big crowd because he snuck off and they find him. OK, that's how this begins. And then Jesus speaks for three whole chapters. And then at the end, it says the crowds were amazed at what he taught. So what that means is he started off with just a few people.
And then slowly it grew and grew and grew and grew the longer he spoke. But he's specifically and directly and intentionally speaking to those who are actively trying to follow him. So that's where we are. He's talking to his disciples and saying, this is what we're going to be like. This is us. The section we're going to read today, if most of your Bibles will say the Beatitudes over top of it.
That word just comes from the Latin Vulgate, which was one of the earliest translations of the Bible. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. New Testament was written in Greek. So Latin was a widely used language. One of the first translations was the Latin Vulgate. And it uses the word, that word Beatitude comes from the Latin word for happiness.
Because every one of these eight sentences Jesus is about to say, start with the word blessed. And it really means happy. Blessed are those, happy are those. Like he's going to go through this whole section where he says this. And so that's why they're called the Beatitudes. So if that's ever confused you, there you go.
That may not be helpful for you in life, but now you know it. So you're welcome. Let's take a second to pray as we begin to read this this morning. And try to understand what Jesus is teaching us here in the Beatitudes. God, we thank you that someone wrote down what you said. Thank you that you authored that, that you oversaw that process and that it's made it to us.
As the most well-preserved document in history. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us today to hear you speak in a fresh way. That you might go to work in our hearts to change us and to make us more like you. That we would, as a church family, begin to look like the people you describe here. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. So let's read the first ten verses together and then talk a little bit about what Jesus did.
And then we'll go back through verse by verse. And he opened his mouth and he taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And then his next sentence starts with blessed, but he changes his tone. And he's done something in these first eight sentences that he says that's called an inclusio, where the first sentence and the last sentence mirror one another, which means that's a complete thought. His hearers would have recognized this.
It's similar to where we have an acrostic, where we put a word down the side, and then we write a little poem. So maybe your word was like happiness. And your first, if you know how to do this right, your first word is always the same word that goes down the left. Happiness. And then you did your A. Always joyful.
Like, you know what I'm talking about? Like, they have these pride posters all over the school. Everywhere you go, there's a pride poster. And we immediately recognize what's happening here. So when you wrote a poem in school, they would have understood what he just did here.
So he's got this one thought here. And it's very interesting because his first statement is a present tense statement. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And his last statement is a present tense statement. And then every single one, the six in the middle are, here's how they are now. And here's what's going to happen for them in the future.
And what Jesus is doing is he begins the Sermon on the Mount as he's saying, this is what my people are like. This is what my kingdom looks like. And he does it in all of those. Those whom. That's kind of how he says it. And then everything else he says in the Sermon on the Mount is you.
You, you, you. Here's why. It's kind of like you're in, you're in, it's your first day of class. You're sitting around. Y'all are cutting up. You're talking.
Teacher walks in. Everybody quiets down a little bit. But they start messing with stuff at their desk. So you're still kind of cutting up. But it's gotten a little quieter.
And then as soon as they kind of walk to the front of the class, everybody quiets down because you're not trying to start off on a bad note on the first day. And your teacher says, for those of you who show up on time to every class, pay attention, take notes, and study hard. You'll do just fine. The rest of you are going to have a very hard time. That's what Jesus does here. Those who.
He begins to paint this picture of who the type of person is. And you understand as you're listening to it, as these disciples are sitting there, they're realizing what he's doing. He's painting a picture for them of who they're going to be. Of what they have to be in order to follow him, in order to make it. So he's saying, here's those who follow me.
Here's what my people are going to look like. Here's who we're going to be. So they've already said, I'm committed. I'm going to follow you. They followed him around as he's been teaching people that the kingdom's coming. And he's been healing people.
And now he takes them up on a mountain. And he says, okay, here's what the kingdom looks like. And here's what I want us to do as we read through it today. As if you are a Christian, if you say, I follow Jesus. And I want you to know he's speaking directly to you. Because that's who he was originally talking to.
Were those who have said, I'm following Jesus. And what I want us to do is I want us to weigh ourselves against everything he says. Because I know if I was sitting in class, and the teacher went through that, immediately I'd be going, show up on time. Or what else? Be here every time. Okay.
Take notes. I can do that. Study hard. Like you're weighing yourself. And then he says, you're not going to do well. It's like, okay, maybe I need to change a little bit.
Maybe I need to step my game up. Let's say there's the beginning of basic training. And the drill sergeant walks out. You're hanging on every word. And let's say the drill sergeant says, for all of you who have guts, who've never backed down. Who've never done anything cowardly in your life.
Who wouldn't mind being stabbed or electrocuted and can hold your breath for seven minutes. Like I was tracking a little bit, and then it was like stabbed and electrocuted. Hold my breath for seven minutes? Bro, that's called drowning. Like, is there like a bell I can ring? When do I get to leave?
Like, I'm not going to make it on this team. That's what would happen. And so I just want us today, as we read it, for some reason, because Jesus is saying, it's like our eyes glaze over, or we take it as some sort of pithy, nice, let's crochet that on a pillow, but we don't have to actually do it. Like, if we walked out of, if we walked out of our first drill sergeant stuff, and we were setting up in the barracks, and I looked at you, and you were like, man, this is going to be terrible. And I was like, I think it was like, you know, an analogy. I think he meant it, you know, it's a theoretical, just to kind of, it's not going to be that bad.
You'd be like, okay, I don't want to be near you, because you're going to die, and you're probably going to kill me. Like, this is terrible. I don't want us to do that with Jesus. I don't want me to just think, oh, it's a metaphor. No, he's saying, this is what my people are going to look like. So as Christians today, Christians in the room, I want us to weigh ourselves.
I want us to hold ourselves up and say, is this me? Is this what I look like? Do I look like a citizen of Jesus's kingdom? So, we're going to walk through each one of these. I'm going to do my best to try to give us a brief explanation of them, and then a little bit of like, how do we know we're doing this? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Okay, so Matthew says poor in spirit. Luke, when he records this, just says poor. Now again, this was the idea that Jesus was going around and preaching this on a regular basis, and so I think that we have to hold poor and poor in spirit together, and understand that they're trying to communicate the same thing. I think they're kin to one another. That he means, those of us who live in our relationship to God and others, like we're poor, regardless of your bank account.
Now I do think he specifically is saying something very gracious and loving to those on earth who don't have a nice bank account, who are poor, who have lived in poverty, or live in poverty. I think this is a very hopeful thing that he's saying, but when he includes poor in spirit, in Matthew, I think he's pressing against everyone else who has money in a bank account, and saying this has to be your attitude, and your approach in life. That you're poor in spirit. So for many of us, I think we have a hard time with this one, because we're very middle class in spirit. Because for many of us, we're pretty middle class in wallet.
Let me explain to you how being middle class in spirit works. Here's the basic idea behind being middle class. I've worked really hard for what I have, and I'm working really hard to make it better for those who come after me. I'm making it better for my children, so they don't have to work as hard as me. But I've worked really hard for everything I have.
I've earned everything I have, and I'm self-sufficient. That's the goal of being middle class. To be self-sufficient. To not owe anyone anything. That's why we have all those books on debt management, and debt consolidation, and here's how to handle your budget, and here's how to continue to gain, and grow your net worth, because it's, I've earned everything I have, and here's the thing about being middle class in wallet, and then trying to be poor in spirit. Middle class in wallet people miss something that people who are just poor understand.
Poor people understand that much of what you have in life was just grace, just blessing. You might would use the word luck. My uncle who's from Nigeria, I talked to him one time, and he said that if people could choose in Nigeria between going to heaven, or going to America, they would all choose America. I thought it was weird to us. I was like, why? And he said, they know America exists, and they've heard what it's like.
But here's the thing that people in Nigeria understand. They had nothing whatsoever to do with being born in Nigeria. And the people who were born in America have nothing whatsoever to do with being born in America. They're just blessed. They've just received grace. See, for many people in middle class situations, you were born on second base, but we live our life like we hit a double.
And what happens when we're middle class in wallet and try to be poor in spirit is that we actually approach Jesus with a very middle class spirit, which is, tell me what I'm supposed to do, and I'll do it. I'll be self-sufficient. Tell me what I need to accomplish. Tell me what the rules are. Some of you are so excited because we're going to read the Sermon on the Mount because you want to know what the rules are. What am I supposed to do?
Who am I supposed to be? I'll do it because I work hard for everything I have. What Jesus says is, no, blessed are those who realize they have nothing to offer and anything good they receive is purely by grace. That's why the gospel spreads so quickly among people in areas of poverty because you show up to middle class people and wealthy people and say, you can't earn anything. You can't achieve anything. God doesn't want anything from you.
He's died to save you and give you pure grace that you can't earn or keep. He has to do all of it for you and middle class people go, I don't know. I kind of like the rituals. I kind of like the rules. I kind of like knowing where I stand all the time based off of what I'm doing. I kind of like being able to have a checklist that I follow.
It's middle class. But you go in areas where there's absolute poverty and you say you have nothing to offer, but Jesus offers you everything and it's received so much more clearly and easily and seen so much more clearly because they understand they've lived in a world where they have nothing to offer to the world. That's true poverty is that you have nothing that the world values. That's poverty. You have nothing that the world values. And so when Jesus shows up and says, I'll give you grace, I'll give you value, it makes so much more sense.
It's hard to be poor in spirit when you're rich in wallet. But so we have to approach God with empty hands knowing that we bring him nothing. Here's what Jesus is saying. If you approach him with empty hands, you'll walk away full. Your hands will be filled. If you approach him with stuff in your hands, you'll walk away empty.
If you come to him and say, here's what I've got, here's what I've done, here's how I'm good, here's how I'm special, here's why you should love me, here's how I've earned it, that's what doesn't work. So how do we know we're poor in spirit? How do we know that we're lowly and humble and approaching God? How do I know? Do you look down on those who don't try as hard as you? Do you feel pride over our church because we're doing it right?
That's real bad in church plans. We're the ones who, we've got it. We know what's right. All the other churches around here, they don't know what's up. We're crushing it. Community groups, nailed it up top.
Are you frustrated with the people in your community group because you're the only one who's got it together? You're the only one who shares the gospel well. You're the only one who is actively on mission. Are you frustrated with the people in your group because they don't understand, they don't read their Bibles like you do? See, that's being spiritually wealthy over and above someone who's spiritually poor. But here's what Jesus says, he's come to rescue the spiritually poor.
And sure, we should read our Bibles. We're going to get to that. I think it's on the list. But, that doesn't make us special and it doesn't give us something to hold in our hands to offer to God. See, that's middle class spirituality. I'm the only one who's on mission with my neighbor.
I'm the only one who's contributing. I'm the only one who brings food every time. I'm middle class. Look at all these poor people in my group. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. I want us to understand as he reads through this and he says blessed and blessed and blessed and blessed and blessed that's not really a word we use very often.
Here's what he's saying. Here's the good life. Here's what it looks like to have blessing and blessedness. Here's the good life. And what he said so far is absolutely crazy to us. His first two are blessed are the poor and blessed are those who mourn and nobody in America is celebrating either one of those because it sounds like nonsense.
How many wonderful movies have you watched that were our true riches to rags story? How many of those have we circulated? How many times have they held up someone and said, see this guy over here who has nothing? Let me tell you the story about how he lost it all. And you're like, oh, I'll watch that on repeat. No, we don't do that.
We don't have those stories. Those who mourn, we have gone out of our way so drastically in our country to never have to be sad. We're told that if anybody's difficult, just get rid of them out of your life. They're holding you back. They're haters. We're told that we should go out of our way to be...
This is even promoted in the church and so I love that Jesus steps in in his second form of blessedness and says, blessed are those who mourn. People in the church and they mean well and I understand what they're talking about when they say things like, I don't want to have a funeral. I want to have a party because I've gone to be with Jesus. I get that and the Bible says that we should mourn as those who have hope but we should mourn. That death is brokenness. That pain is brokenness.
That this isn't how it's supposed to be. That Jesus in the Bible actually weeps at the tomb of a friend and then raises him from the grave. He knew he was going to but he still weeps because there's some blessedness in mourning and seeing what's wrong in the world and hurting over it. That's those who mourn. Mourning is sadness with a purpose. He doesn't say blessed is it to be depressed.
He says blessed is it to mourn. To hurt over something that matters and that has value. To see what's wrong in the world and have it affect you. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. See, now he's begun to say here's what they are now. Here's the alreadyness of my kingdom and here's what's not yet come.
See, that's Jesus' point as he goes through. He's saying my kingdom is now and in the future. They're going to look like this now but there's a future aspect of my kingdom. And that's how the kingdom works. That it's an already kingdom. We're already saved.
We're already changed. Jesus is already at work in us but we're not yet fully receiving everything he's going to accomplish and give to us. That's one of the things that I love in our church family. We have a lot of new Christians and one of the things that's most frustrating about being a new Christian is that you're still a sinner and you thought that was going to go away. Sweet, Jesus saves me from a sin. I'm about to be awesome.
And six months later they'll come and talk to you and they're like, man, I'm still messing everything up. And he's like, yeah, you're not going to outgrow your need for Jesus. You're not going to outpace him. You're not going to outgrow your need for the gospel. You're already saved from your sin but you're not yet fully saved. And so what he's saying is that my people are mourning now.
They're hurting now but they will be comforted. So how do we know if we mourn? Do you notice and hate sin? When was the last time you spent hurting with those who hurt? The homeless, the oppressed, the voiceless, the marginalized. When was the last time you stayed up at night to pray or got up early in the morning to pray over the injustice that's going on around us?
When was the last time you spent praying for Christians in other parts of the world? When was the last time you hurt over brokenness in your family or in your city? How much have you just said, ah, I don't need to think about that. I need to push that out of my mind. I need to stay positive. And Jesus is saying, no, my people are going to weep.
My people are going to hurt. My people are going to hate sin so much that it crawls inside of them and they feel it. My people are going to notice what's wrong with the world and then they're going to be comforted. When someone complains about injustice, when someone comes and says, this isn't fair, this is what's going on in my life right now, you don't understand what it's like to be me or for my type of people, do you listen? Do you empathize? Or do you try to make excuses?
Or do you just not care because you don't look like that or come from there? See, Jesus says, my people are going to mourn. My people are going to hurt. And then they'll be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. So here's the deal.
In this list, this is my least favorite one. Okay, I take that back. I like it for y'all. I don't appreciate it personally. And I have done a lot and I think the Christian church in America, look, can I just say most of the stuff in this list Americans don't like, period. We have things like meekness.
Yeah, come get my gun out of my cold, dead, frozen fingers. Right? Meekness, I've always said stuff like, well, meekness is weakness, but it's humility inside of strength. And that's true. But most of the time I'll argue things like, yeah, okay, but you don't want to be, like he means meek.
And then I'll start making arguments where I just chip away at it and chip away at it and chip away at it and chip away at it until meekness doesn't exist anymore. It's kind of a theoretical idea, but you don't actually have to employ it in this situation or this situation or this situation. So here's what I'm like. My wife is a very meek person most of the time. Y'all will only meet the meek version. If you meet the other version, Lord help you.
But she mostly is a very meek person. That's her general attitude, disposition in life. And so I get very frustrated. Let me give you an example. Whenever she works at a place and they have to do vacation calendars, she, when it comes to vacation, she just becomes the most accommodating person the world has ever seen. She'd be like, oh yeah, we were going to go on that, but they wanted that day.
I was like, yeah, but you've been there for like five years longer than that person. Yeah, no, but they asked for it. It's like, yeah, but you get the vacation calendar before them. Just write it in. Well, they said they wanted that day out loud. That's not how y'all's vacation planning works.
That's why they pass around a calendar. She has one lady, she's like, well, she really wants to celebrate this thing. And I'm like, I want to celebrate stuff. I have offered, I have offered, she didn't take me up on this. I've offered to go to work and help work out the vacation calendar myself. And I will tell you, it was not to employ meekness.
But here's what Jesus says. Here's the thing about earth. The meek do not rule the earth. They don't. Jesus says they will. The meek do not rule the earth.
But Jesus says the meek inherit the earth. They're going to get it. Those who are in the back of the line right now and who every time you walk up go, oh, you can get in front of me. And you think, sucker. Maybe you don't. I do.
They get bumped to the front of the line. That's what Jesus is saying here that his people are going to be very accommodating. They're not going to demand their rights. So what he looked at in a culture, in a Jewish culture that valued wealth, happiness, power. Jewish people, you could argue, value power over a lot of other things. And are seeking Jesus to accomplish that.
And from the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount when he's teaching them what we're going to look like, he says it's not going to look at all like what you think it's going to look like. And this is what his group of people now, his church, are supposed to look like in the world. Meekness means, sorry, means you're quiet, gentle, submissive, easily imposed upon. Others get their way around you. You often don't speak up. You often don't press your advantage.
That's meekness. None of that is celebrated in our culture. So here's the question. Are you meek? Do you have to have power? Do you have to be in charge?
Do you have to have a say? Do you have to win? Do you have to prove to everyone that you're right, or strong, or smart, or brave? You care a lot about what's right and fair, but only when it pertains to you. Do you let others win? Are you happy when they win?
Are you excited for the times you get to lose because someone else got to celebrate? And I know that's very un-American, but it's very Jesus-like. Do others get their way around you? And not just, I'll let them have this one, and I'll let them have this one, and I'll let them have this one so that I can have the thing I really want. That's not meekness. That's sneaky power play.
Nonsense. Let's look at the next one. Verse 6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. That if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you'll be filled up. They're going to hunger and thirst for righteousness here.
Eventually, they're going to be satisfied. Luke's gospel just says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst. Again, Luke is going to be more in line with just worldly poverty and worldly hunger and thirst. But Matthew's going to say, it's also just hunger and thirst for righteousness that you long for. Now, here's the deal. I think we read this and we think, okay, righteousness means goodness, what's right, what's just.
So, I think it means both in ourselves, holiness, that I would look the way I'm supposed to, that I would act the way I'm supposed to, that I would have integrity and be honest, that I would be righteous. righteous and in the world around me, that I would care about our, how policing works, that I would care about how our criminal justice system works, that I would care about all those in other nations who are dealing with poverty and pain and brokenness and starvation, that I would care about righteousness spreading around the world. And when it says hunger and thirst, I think we like to replace that with the idea of just long for. And in some ways, when we replace it with that, we kind of just disassociate ourselves from it. But here's the thing I know about me when I hunger and thirst.
I don't hunger and thirst long. I make a plan and I fix that. Some of you right now are hungering and thirsting and you're already thinking through, what time do you reckon this cat's going to wrap it up? And you're thinking through the restaurants that are near. And if you weren't, you are now and I'm sorry I did that. But what he says is that they hunger and thirst for righteousness, that they care about what's right and good and just, what matters, makes it into their lives.
I think that as we look at these last three and as we're celebrating Martin Luther King Day on Monday, I think we have a very good example in the United States of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, of meekness, of mourning in Martin Luther King. I think he's one of the, one of the Christian examples that we should hold up, that we should all be happy to say I'm on his team. Like I'm on Jesus' team and he's on Jesus' team. Like this is what we're supposed to look like. That as they fought for what was just and right, they did it in a humble and meek way, a non-violent way. That they mourned over what was broken.
I watched, I watched, I think, it's a CNN documentary, it's called The 60s on Netflix and I watched some of the end of it. They had actually filmed the Selma March where they're walking up towards that bridge and there's all these police officers on horses. Now, I'm not anti-police. I love police. I think their job is very difficult. My brother's a cop.
But there's all these police officers on horses and they're marching up and they're going to cross this bridge and they just ride in and start beating people with sticks, throwing tear gas. And I just watched them as they didn't fight back. And it's this picture of that's what Jesus' kingdom is supposed to look like. It's going to advance. It's going to care about injustice. It's going to care about righteousness, but it's going to do it with meekness and mourning and embracing the pain of what looks like the cross rather than the throne.
So how do you know if you hunger and thirst for righteousness? Do you notice sin in your own life? When you do, do you repent? Are you reading the Bible? Because if you said, I'm really hungry and I'm really thirsty, I would say, let's eat something. And for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they consume the Bible.
They actively go out of their way to see what God says and what their life's supposed to look like and how they're supposed to change. Do you care about injustice in the world? The poor, the marginalized, the weak, the voiceless? Do you care about those who are hurting but don't have the exposure or the financial means to fix it? I think that's what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Are you actively seeking change in yourself and in the world around you?
And here's the thing, if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, Jesus says you will be satisfied. Verse 7, blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Okay, so I think I always thought about mercy as I was going to do something bad to you or I have it in my power to do something bad to you but then I didn't, kind of like if you've watched the movie Gladiator and River, no, River Phoenix, but the other, Joaquin Phoenix, he's Commodus and he does some crazy stuff at the end but then he just kind of says, I'm not going to kill you and then he yells, Am I not merciful? And it's like, that was terrible.
Like you were just, I'm not going to kill you so that makes you merciful? And that's kind of what I always thought it was but Jesus actually tells a story in Luke's Gospel about the good Samaritan and what he says is there's a guy who's been beaten up and robbed and a priest comes by and he just kind of moves to the other side and walks past him which is, it's what I would do outside of the Holy Spirit helping me. If I see somebody bloody and beaten up it's like, probably deserved it or, I mean, maybe the people who did it are still here or maybe that's a trick and he's going to get me. So picture, like, car broke down on the side of the road.
That's what he's talking about. Passes over to the other side and goes, a Levite does it and he passes over to the other side and goes and he says, a Samaritan comes by, picks him up, binds his wounds, takes him to a hotel and gives the guy basically his debit card and says, whatever charges you need, put it on that. He didn't have debit cards to them but he just says, I'll pay you back when I get back here. And Jesus says, who was his neighbor? And the answer was, the guy who showed him mercy. You see, mercy is to be in a position of a power over someone and do them good.
That's mercy. The position of power doesn't mean you have to be the manager or the boss or it could just be that you're in a place where you have a little more seniority or you're in a place where you could exert your rights on someone. You could make them pay you back but you don't. Where you could press charges but you don't. You could be in a situation where your car is working and theirs isn't. Where you have a little bit of room in your wallet and a little bit of room in your budget or you actually can pull something out of your budget to pull this out and give it to somebody.
That's mercy. And Jesus says, blessed are the merciful because they will receive mercy. Those who went out of their way to help people around them, to serve people around them, will be served and helped. Those who didn't punish others for their sins against them will not be punished for theirs. When you have the ability to serve others, do you? Do you do good to those who can't repay you?
When was the last time your money went to someone else? More specifically, when was the last time your money went to someone else who wasn't going to be grateful or appreciative or you feel like really didn't deserve it? Who do you go out of your way to serve or to help? When was the last time your time went towards someone else? I think that's what merciful means. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Pure means clean or blameless or unstained. It means you have genuine motives. It means you're focused. If I gave you water, if you bought water and it said 85% pure on the side, I'd be like, what? You'd be looking at the back like, wait, what got in this? It's like one of those where it's like 100% this plus other flavors.
It's like, wait, hold a second. That's not how math works. You know what I'm talking about? So pure is 100%. It's focused. It's unadulterated.
You have soul allegiance. You look to God and God alone. John Piper, who's a pastor in the Midwest, he says it this way. He says, purity of heart is to will one thing, namely, God's truth and God's value in everything we do. The aim of the pure in heart is to align itself with the truth of God and to magnify the worth of God. If you want to be a pure in heart, pursue God with utter singleness of mind.
Purity of heart is to will that one thing. So as the Bible explains purity, it's basically saying the pure in heart are those who only seek after God and God's will and God's name and God's glory. And so really, I only have one question here that I think helps us ask the question, weigh ourselves, am I pure in heart, is this. Is your life about following Jesus with everything else thrown in? Or is your life about something else with Jesus thrown in? Is following Jesus one of the things you do?
Is church family one of the things you do? But really your goal is financial success or the perfect white picket fence 2.5 kids family? Or is your life about following Jesus and finances and work and friendships and everything else? Marriage gets thrown in along the way as you follow Him and becomes a means by which you follow Him. That's being pure in heart. And those who are pure in heart see God.
Something that no one was allowed to do in the Old Testament because sin would make God destroy you. But Jesus steps in and says if you're pure in heart you actually get to see God. You get to look at Him with your own eyes. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. For those who make peace on earth they shall be called sons of God. Now peacemaking is not avoiding conflict.
Sometimes peacemaking is wading into conflict. So for many of us our household when we grew up or when we get back around there's so much drama and conflict between people but nobody ever talks about it. You have that family where you know of a thousand things that they should talk about and then you show up to Thanksgiving and it's how's the kids? How's school? Good, good, good. And it's like y'all haven't even seen each other for a year because you're mad at each other.
Pass the gravy. Like you have like you start to bring something up and you're the bad guy. Why are you causing drama? No, no, no, no, no, no. The drama already exists. I'm talking about it.
It's not causing it. What you said last year caused it. So here's the deal. The peacemaker that you know the peacemaker in our world may not be the person who's always trying to sweep everything under the rug. It's actually more likely the person who's pulling the rug back and saying hey there's a lot of dirt under here. But let's clean it up.
Not to be inflammatory. Not because that's the most entertaining thing to do when you're hanging out with your family. Not so you can film it and put it on Instagram. I have a vine of someone throwing a turkey on Infinite Loop. So one of the most peacemaking things we do in our church family is we have if someone comes to you and complains about something we have the basic question of what did they say when you talk to them.
So if you come to me and say this person's really frustrating or they did this my go-to response should be what did they say when you talk to them. That's peacemaking. That's I'm going to make you talk to them. If you say well I didn't talk to them my next response is oh I have their number. They're in our group. We'll see them tomorrow.
Like that's peacemaking. That we're going to make people sit down. I was talking to a local church leader here and we were talking about some conflict that was going on and we were talking about how we were trying to walk through it and he goes yeah what do you do you can't make them get in a room with each other. I was like we make them get in a room with each other. And a lot of times beforehand when there's some significant conflict we get like a list. I've mediated these things before my only goal is to make sure we talk about everything.
And those are terrible two hours. Just can I tell y'all like I've been in those where it's like two and a half hours of just it's awful. The last 20-30 minutes is great y'all. People start hugging remembering the gospel growing together. We've had people in our church family who had to do that with somebody and then later had another conflict and they were like oh let's do this thing because they knew what happened. They were like I got my list let's go.
That's peacemaking. And Jesus says the peacemakers will be called sons of God. So do you avoid conflict or are you willing to weigh in to reconcile? Are there people right now that you're mad at or that you have something against or they have something against you and you've just really grown okay with that? You're just not going to talk to that person or you're just going to wait until everything falls it's kind of forgotten or are you waiting in for the sake of a real relationship? Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Forgotten or are you waiting in for the sake of a real relationship? Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now I believe so this is the last statement where he says the same thing for theirs is the kingdom of heaven so he's saying this is my people this is what they look like
And he ends with blessed are those who are persecuted for what is right for what matters persecuted for something that's valuable for righteousness sake now I believe that in our culture we're going to move more towards that where Christians are going to be persecuted I know that every year we say they're out to kill Christmas or
Whatever can I just say our culture is not trying to kill Christmas that's how our culture makes money Black Friday is when all of the businesses go into the black they've moved Christmas to September y'all not trying to get rid of it they don't care much about Jesus which makes sense they don't
Know him we should care about Jesus but can I tell you this in 2016 not in the United States Christianity was the most persecuted religion people were lined up against walls and shot people were lined up and told to take knees and beheaded people were run out of towns said you got
A little bit of time but we're coming all the Christians need to flee blessed are those who are persecuted for what matters and what's good and what's right theirs is the kingdom it belongs to those so Jesus begins the sermon on the mount the rest of everything he says is going
To be directed to you because here's what he's saying all of those who all of those who all of those who this is what my people are going to look like and then he's going to tell us how to do it he's going to tell us how that begins to play out in different aspects of life but this is the church this is Jesus's
Followers they're poor in spirit they're humble they mourn they're meek they're not demanding their rights or their way they're standing up for others but not for themselves they hunger and thirst for righteousness they're categorized they're noticed by how much they care about what matters what's right in themselves
And in others and in the world they're merciful the church is marked by a group of people who go around doing good for everyone around them they're pure in heart singularly focused on the king they make peace and they're hated for it that's Jesus's people that's what we're supposed to look like that's our characteristics
So church family do we know we have nothing to offer God do we approach him with empty hands and utter humility knowing that everything we've received is by grace or do we look down on those who aren't trying as hard as we are who haven't learned like we have do we hurt
Over the brokenness in the world do we weep do we care about injustice and what's wrong when's the last time we got on our knees and shed some tears over sin in the world over homelessness or joblessness
Or poverty or human trafficking do we submit to others do they get their way do we celebrate when we lose because others get to win do we not always press our rights or our advantage but do
We intentionally not even go to court so that someone else can take advantage of us because Jesus' people are meek it's one of the things Paul says in one of his letters he says you gladly accepted
The plundering of your property because Jesus' people are meek do we thirst for righteousness do we hunger for what's right and good in the world do we read our bibles do we pray are we
On our knees do we care about our sin and hate it do we help others do we go out of our way to serve them does our money leave
Our pockets for others or does every bit of our personal wealth go to raise our personal standard of living how often are we helping those
Who don't look like us think like us act like us are we solely focused on Jesus or is he just one of the things that takes up
When we have enough time do we step into relational drama and bitterness or do we avoid it because we don't care about real peace and real
Reconciliation and real relationships do people hate us for how much we love Jesus see I I think it's helpful for us as we read through this to
Weigh ourselves and say is this me do we look like this does my group look like this and I think it's healthy and
Okay for you to say actually I'm okay there I think I think for the most part can't get too prideful that'll mess us up on
The first one being poor in spirit but I think you can say I do that one alright but I think if you come out of this into
This list and you go crushing it Jesus just could have wrote my name down I think you've missed something I don't think you're paying attention
To it and I think you've missed the first one definitely where you're supposed to realize you have nothing to offer but here's the
Thing Jesus doesn't just teach this he lives it he isn't just going to say this is what you're supposed to be like but
He actually lives this for us the perfect example of the beatitudes is Christ he lived this good life he's the ultimate riches to rag
Story that he left heaven to be born in a stable to be born to a poor family where he lives his life in a working class family who eventually travels
Around homeless is nailed on a cross the only thing that was over the brokenness in the world and the sin in the world that he he just moved to action that he
Leaves to fix it that he cares for it he's meek the God of the universe let little dirty weak frail ignorant humans nailing to a cross
So that he could redeem and so that he could save them so he could go to work on their behalf he hungered and thirsted for righteousness not just for himself but for us for his church for his people that he
Would he would die and take pain so that he could make many righteous he is ultimately merciful because he was in the ultimate position of power and
He laid it all down to take on weakness to benefit those who didn't deserve it he had singular focus and thought purity of heart
As he pursued the will of the father and he was truly persecuted for righteousness sake not only for his own righteousness but for the sake of
Those who would follow him that his righteousness would be given to us through the work he accomplished on the cross you see Jesus lived
This for us he doesn't just call us to it but he accomplished it for us so that all those who place faith in Jesus because Jesus
Takes our sin he stands in this has already accomplished it for us that we can stand before God and be made right that every
Blessing in the beatitudes can be given to the church that the church gets the kingdom that the church is comforted and inherits the earth that those
Of us who belong to Jesus will be satisfied and will receive mercy and will see God and will be called sons of God because
We're invited into the kingdom because of the work Jesus has accomplished and here's the thing when Jesus begins this and he says this
Is who my people are and we're going to spend the next several weeks walking through what he says it's going to look like he
Doesn't just want to give this to you doesn't want to do it for you but he wants to do it in you so
That we are actually supposed to look more and more and more and more and more and more like this until the day he calls
Us home that he's accomplished it for us and these blessings are already ours because of Christ but that we should be growing in meekness and
Mourning and hungering and thirsting for righteousness all the days of our lives that this is what his people will look like because Jesus is
At work in us to make us look like this the band is going to come back up we're going to celebrate that Jesus has
A kingdom that he's making us into these people that this is what the church gets to look like by the grace of God
As he works in us we have nothing to offer him nothing to bring to him nothing that gives us value or worth we're
Not going to accomplish this so that we'll be accepted that Jesus has already accepted us through the cross and that through his power
He's going to continue to work this in us and continue to change us and God I pray that through your Holy Spirit you
Would be at work in us to believe in your name and to believe in your son to celebrate that he didn't just call
Us to this and walk away but that he accomplished it for us that we do get to approach you as poor in spirit
Trusting solely in your work and not ours and God I pray that our church that your church in this city in this state
In the world would look like this as backwards as it is from all the things we want to celebrate I pray that you
Would help us to reorient our lives to believe in your upside down kingdom that we ought to be poor we ought to mourn
We ought to be meek that we're blessed when we're persecuted that we're blessed when we hunger and thirst for what's right and what
Matters we ask for your grace we praise you for your love in Jesus name amen
Ordination Sunday
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name's Chet. If this is your first time hanging out with us today, we're glad you're here. Things are going to be a little bit different than usual, so I want to start off by saying that. If you have been around a while, you'll realize that as we get going, but if it's your first time, I wanted you to know you kind of stepped into a different situation. Here's what we're doing this morning.
We're actually going to be ordaining Raz Bradley as an elder in our church. I'm very excited about that. It means a lot for our church family. And so we, in some ways, we're treating this a little bit like we treat weddings, which is here's what marriage is, here's what the gospel is, and then we spend some time talking kind of to the couple. And so this morning we're going to say here's what eldership is, kind of here's our story as a church, here's what eldership is. Let me let you get to know Raz a little bit, and then we'll spend some time kind of talking to Raz.
We'll talk to church family as well, but we're going to be talking to him some about what the Bible says, the role of a pastor, the role of an elder is. And so this is a big day for us. And I want to kind of tell you a little bit of history of our church family so you can see this. So Matt Freeman and I, Matt was up here, he was playing the guitar. He and I were roommates in college and both kind of felt called into ministry at the same time. I remember in college I really started, I grew up in a Christian home, and so I really started reading the Bible in college with one basic question.
Do I actually believe this? Do I actually believe that the Bible is God's word, that it's true, that it matters? Is this real? See, I grew up in a Christian home. My grandparents were Baptist missionaries to Nigeria. On my other side, Bob Jones, graduate, independent Baptist pastor and wife.
If I became a Christian, I got it honest. Like it comes family line to me. And so when I got to college, my question was, do I just believe this because my mama did? Or is this real? And so I really just started reading the Bible and asking that question, and I came to the conclusion that I believe it. I think the Bible answers some very fundamental questions for me, and it answers them kind of quickly in Scripture.
One of the things that you'll hear sometimes kind of arguments against Christianity is that it takes a really messed up world. It looks at the world which we know is chaotic and destructive and painful, and it says, no, there's hope and joy and happiness and magic. Like people will argue that Christianity doesn't have a realistic view of the world. But people will also argue that the world is beautiful and wonderful and amazing, and Christianity comes along and tries to spoil it for everybody and tell everybody it's terrible and horrible, and they should all feel bad about themselves. And the truth is Christianity steps into the middle of that argument and says, yes.
And it says that in the first three chapters of the Bible. It says that the world was created by a good God who made things wonderful, and that humans rebelled and brought sin into the world, and that messed everything up. Like if you tried to convince me inside of 30 minutes that the world was a wonderful place, I would believe you. You'd be like, look, rainbows. Like, yeah, rainbows, that's crazy. You'd be like puppies and babies and friendship and love and fried chicken, and I would be on board.
I'd be like, what a glorious land. But then if you immediately took 30 minutes to say, look at how terrible this is. Look at racism and hatred and genocide and natural disasters. The world just at times tries to kill us. What is that? Volcanoes.
It's like a beautiful mountain that spits fire out. And I would be like, you're right, this place is terrible. And Christianity steps in and says, yes, it was created by a wonderful God who made it beautiful and made it amazing, and that sin marred it. Not just us, but all of creation. That creation is an open rebellion against God. But it goes further than that.
It says this is actually a personal problem as well. That this issue of the world being amazing and being rebellious is going on inside of you. And when I read that in scriptures, I'm like, yes, I feel that. Because I think I'm wonderful. I'm special. When my parents told me I was a snowflake, I was like, you're darn right I'm a snowflake.
I was one of those kids. I was cutting snowflake construction paper in school, and they were like, see how your snowflake's different from all the other snowflakes? I was like, I do see that. And they're like, that's what you're like. And I was like, teacher, that's so true. Like, I know that.
I know that humans have value and worth. I see that. I believe it. It's like, I know it without having to be taught that. But then I also see all the stuff in me that is completely messed up.
Selfish. Hateful. Like, if we just said, hey, we're going to project your thoughts from the last week up here, I wouldn't show up. I'd just be like, no, we're not doing that. Because I know what I'm like. Because I have a wonderful wife.
I have a two-year-old son. I'm close. I don't do the months thing. And I care deeply about them. But there are times I'm at my house, and my wife's like, hey, could you help with this?
And my first response is, no. I don't say that. I fight that. But I know what I'm like. I know she's like, hey, could you get up? And my response is like, no, you get up.
He's your son, too. And then we get in the argument about, like, who had to give birth and stuff. And it just kind of breaks down. But I see in me this desire, this kind of this war of both. There's goodness. And there's also just open rebellion.
And the Bible steps in and says, yes. And so as I saw that clearly and that clicked so, so beautifully in my head, I began to ask, okay, so is what the Bible says true? That it's not God doesn't just sit up in heaven and say, now you need to be moral and you need to be good. But he actually looks and says, none of you are going to be able to do this. That all of you have rebelled. All of you have sinned.
All of you have fallen short. And he loves us so much. We're so valuable and yet so broken. That he steps onto earth, that he becomes a human himself and he steps into the brokenness. And that the cross is the celebration that our God both loved us and had given us worth and value. But also knew and hated so much the sin that was in us and the sin that was rampant in the world.
See, I see that if there's a good God, he can't be okay with sin. But if there's a good God, he can't just crush everybody, right? Like there's this balance of does he love us or does he not? And the cross says, yes, he loves us, but he hates our sin and he hates the brokenness in the world so much so that he'll take it onto himself. So in college, I came to the full conclusion that, yes, I do believe this.
And then I asked the question, so what's that mean? And I came to the conclusion that if I actually believe that, that humans were built for an eternity, that at some point we're going to stand before God and either we are going to say, I trust Jesus to be good on my behalf, to have died for my sin and to give me his righteousness, or I trust myself to be good enough. And the Bible says we all fall short in that people will be either saved by Jesus or condemned based on their own rebellion. If I actually believe that we're supposed to exist for an eternity, then everything mattered. Everything I did with my time, my co-workers, the guys I was playing football with currently, everybody in my dorm, like it mattered because eternity matters.
And God loved us enough to join us. And so we planted a church in 2013. I remember feeling specifically like we were supposed to start a church while I was in college. Matt showed back up to the room. And if you all know Matt, he's like just overly positive, aggressively happy. Like that's kind of his nature.
And I'm not that. And people periodically ask how we're friends. And it's like, I don't know, we balance each other out. But he came in the room and I said, Matt, I feel like I'm supposed to build a church. And he was like, oh, it's great. I mean, it's awesome.
Like with bricks and stuff. Like he was immediately happy but had no clue what I was talking about. And I was like, oh, no, but probably should find a different word. Like just with people and the gospel, like I think we should start one. And in 2013 we did with eight people sitting around my kitchen table with one basic simple idea. We think that Christians should be Christians in normal everyday life.
That everything matters. All the everyday stuff, your budget, your time, where you work, it matters. Because your co-workers matter. Your neighbors matter. That if this is true, that if God actually made a world that's rebelled against him and that everyone we know is dealing with the effects of sin, but only Jesus brings hope, then it matters. And there are a whole lot of people, the majority of people in our city, have no desire to be here this morning.
Christians. Christians. Y'all know what we do on Sundays is weird, right? Have you been a Christian so long you've forgotten that? Maybe you grew up in it. I know a lot of people in our church family just became Christians.
They know it's weird. Ask them. What we do is weird. Okay. You're going to tell people who aren't Christians they need to show up early in the morning on Sunday on a day they could sleep in. Most people immediately say no to that because it sounds terrible.
Hey, you remember how you were going to sleep? You know how it's cold outside? You know how your blankets are warm? Yeah. Okay. Get out of your blankets and come outside.
No. Then when we get here, we're going to sing songs to a Jewish guy who lived 2,000 years ago, but we say died. They're tracking so far. Came back to life. People don't do that. And then went into heaven alive in bodily form and later is going to come back to earth to judge it riding a horse.
We believe that. We're going to sing songs to him. Then we're going to open a book and talk out of it for 40 minutes. And then we're going to go try to do it. And I know some of y'all were just like, wait, did he say 40 minutes? Welcome to Mill City Church.
We're glad you're here this morning. I'm glad you came and joined us. It makes perfect sense if you're a Christian, if you actually believe what we believe. But if you don't, this is weird. And so what we believe is that Christians are supposed to be Christians 24-7 outside the doors in relationships with people at jobs that have nothing to do with Christianity. We're not all supposed to go take a full-time job being a pastor or teach at a Christian school.
Those are beautiful vocations and you should do that. But most of us should build doors at a factory. Most of us should work at CarMax. Most of us should go be a teacher at a public school where we can actually begin to love and serve and live like Christians. That we should move into neighborhoods and when we get a pay raise, we should stay in that neighborhood because of the neighbors we've built relationships with. That's what we started with, that simple idea that if we actually believe this, then everything matters.
So we had one community group in 2013. We said Christians should help other people become Christians. Group leaders should train other group leaders. Pastors should train other pastors. And churches should start more churches. So we multiplied, became two groups.
Then we became four. Then we started getting together on Sundays. The reason we got together on Sundays was because we wanted to be able to talk to everybody at once. And then we just kept training up leaders in our groups and multiplying leaders. And then we said that we wanted to raise up pastors locally because it doesn't have much to do with a resume. That the qualifications for a pastor, for an elder, are character qualifications.
And so we actually began the pastor and training process with Raz two years ago in 2015. And it was open-ended. Well, we started it in like 2014. And then we came back and said, this was too early. We don't want to do this. And he was like, okay.
And then in 2015, he had a great attitude about it. But he acted kind of like we were dumb and we agreed. And then in 2015, we were like, okay, we're for real this time. And he's like, all right, sounds good. And then he actually has been in pastor and training for two years. Some of y'all are like, wait, he's becoming a pastor.
I thought he was. Right. He's been doing this stuff for a while, serving in our church for a while. So let me tell you a little bit about Raz. And then we're going to actually look at what the Bible says about how elders should work and what pastors are supposed to do. So this is Raz and his wife, Christina.
If y'all don't know them, Raz is on the right. So Raymond Bradley, and I hope some of y'all just learned his real name is Raymond. And Raymond Bradley was born in Sydney, Australia, raised in Sydney, Australia. His wife is from South Carolina. And her name is Christina. She helps run our host team.
But Raz grew up in Sydney, not in a Christian home, not with a lot of Christian influences. He did go to a Christian high school, but that's just because it was a good high school in his area. His parents weren't ever like anti-Christian, but they were mostly like do whatever makes you happy. So they're not, they're for what he's doing now because they believe it makes him happy. But they're not Christians.
He didn't grow up in that environment. When he was 16, his mom had been diagnosed with cancer. And he began to really struggle with the idea of how does a good God allow suffering. And when he was 16, he placed his faith in Jesus. The following year, his mother passed away. And I remember talking with him and he said that he kind of felt like when that happened, he was standing kind of at a crossroads.
And there was this, this draw to, to just go chase after everything that makes you temporarily feel good. Come, come just do everything that kind of drowns the pain. And then there was this draw from Jesus that said, just said, come follow me. And he said, he really felt like he was kind of deciding, am I actually going to believe this? Am I actually going to be a Christian? And by God's grace in that moment, he decided, no, I'm going to follow Jesus.
I'm going to double down and I'm going to spend my life chasing after him. When he graduated high school, he was an electrician for a little while in Australia, which we periodically try to get him to do electrical work. But he argues that everything's 220 in Australia, so it doesn't work the same. Plus, he's on the other side of the globe, so his ladders disorient him because of the way gravity works. But he was an electrician for a little while.
Then he served with his church there as an Anglican church. And then he decided to come to the United States to get a master's degree at CIU. So he's been at Columbia International University for the past four years. He got his Master's of Divinity this past December, which we're very excited and proud of him for that. He's transitioned well into being an American. I've got a picture of him here with what I can only assume is one of his childhood heroes.
But he's transitioned well. He's learned how to fit in here. If you'll show the next one, it kind of proves that to you. There you go. He came here. He's like, I need to grow a mullet.
I need to run around with an American flag. I need to make fireworks happen a lot. So there you go. But he recently got his Master's of Divinity. For a while, he was a camp counselor at Bethel Christian Camp and is now on their board of directors. He works at the South Carolina Baptist Convention now.
And all of that is great. And I think his resume is probably really impressive. And I'm sure when you sit down with him to do an interview, his Australian accent makes him stick out in your mind. And so you remember him better. But that matters little when it comes to becoming a pastor.
Biblically, the qualifications aren't what do they look like on paper, but the qualifications are what's their character. And that's why we've walked through this process with him for the past two years. And continually did follow up on here are areas you need to grow, here's where you need to repent. Because it's character-based qualifications. And don't get me wrong. And we're excited that we'll have a pastor who can read Greek.
But we believe in raising up local pastors, local elders, so that we can actually know what they're like. And so we're excited today as our church gets to do something we haven't ever done before, which is take somebody who's been around for a while and have them become an elder here. To tell you just a few more things quickly about Raz. Raz is the type of guy, if you don't know him, he's the type of guy who is good at everything. So kind of the type of person you've hated most of your entire life.
He's the kind of guy that you spend a couple months trying to learn how to play a song on a guitar. And then he goes, what is this, a gore-tar? And he takes it from you, and then he plays it better than you. And he's like, that's neat. And you're like, oh, you know how to play the guitar? And he's like, that's the first time I've touched one.
That kind of guy, like you learn a game, and you're like, I'll teach this to Raz, and I'll be better at him than it. And then he's immediately like, once he learns the rules, he beats you in it. This is a perfect example. He decided, he and his wife decided they were going to knit hats. And when he told us that, when he told me that, I was like, that's cute. That's precious.
No, I love that you're going to knit. That's great. And then like a week later, he sends this picture. That he knit that. And it's like, I don't even know how we're friends. What on earth?
How do you knit that? And then I don't even think he knits anymore, because he defeated it. He won knitting. Y'all didn't even know it was competitive. He won. So here, this is just, as one of your pastors, if you're part of our church family, and even if you're just here today, you're one of Raz's friends, I want to make a request.
There are two things I have learned that Raz is not good at. One of them is putt-putt. Y'all don't know how happy that made me. Because he just melted down every hole. The second one, the second thing Raz is not good at is losing. Because he's been good at everything his entire life.
So here's what I need you to do. Because we compete in things periodically, and our church family hangs out all the time. If you are on Raz's team, I need you to intentionally be terrible. For his sanctification. For his growth. For his growth in humility.
Don't make it super obvious. But be terrible. I just, I'm just asking. I just appreciate that. That's just a rule to apply for the rest of your life. So here's what we get to do today.
We're going to talk a little bit about what it means to be an elder. What eldership is. And then we're going to actually bring Raz up here, and we're going to pray over him. And he'll be an elder in our church family. And so, if you will, turn to 1 Peter chapter 5. If you have one of the white Bibles, it'll be on page 590.
This was a letter written by the apostle Peter. The disciple of Jesus is written to a group of churches. So he's writing to multiple churches at once, and they're supposed to just kind of disseminate this letter around and read it in their churches. And in this section, in chapter 5, where we're going to pick up and look at the first four verses, he's talking specifically to elders about eldership. What eldering is supposed to look like. So let me just define some terms as we get started.
The Bible uses that word elder. It comes from the word presbyteros, which is a Greek word. That's where we get Presbyterian from. That's where we get the word elder from. The Bible also uses the word overseer, which is where we get the word bishop from. And Episcopalian, we get that word from the word that they use the word overseer.
It's translated in a lot of versions. It also uses the word shepherd, which is where we get the word pastor. So, in general, when we talk about it, elder is the office. The actual position, the title. And then oversee, shepherd are things that you do. But we just use the terms pastor and elder interchangeably because we think that the office is actually elder.
But most people say pastor around here. So that's why we're using the terms the way we are. And we believe that biblically there should be multiple elders, multiple pastors in local churches. We like that model. We don't think necessarily that everybody's wrong if they do that differently. But we see that in Scripture when it talks to elders, it's always plural unless it's talking about one specific person.
It'll say this person is an elder, but otherwise it's elders in churches. And so when Raz is ordained today, which is just a fancy word that means becomes a pastor, he'll be as much a pastor as I am, as much a pastor as Matt is. We take this very seriously because in some ways when we lay hands on Raz and ordain him this morning, he's our boss as much as we are his so that we mutually agree, mutually submit to one another and try to serve together as a team in our church family. So that's kind of how that works. Let me pray real quick and then we'll start reading the text. God, we thank you for your grace.
And we thank you for the weightiness of what we're getting to do today and that we get to celebrate this together as a church family. Pray that as we read your word, you would train us, teach us, change us, that we might look more like you. In Jesus' name, amen. 1 Peter 5, starting in verse 1. So I exhort the elders among you.
Exhort means urge or strongly encourage. I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Okay, so he begins to say, I'm exhorting you, I'm encouraging you, and then he gives his three qualifications for doing so. Here's why you should listen to me. And the first two make sense to me and the third one sounded really weird. And it took me a minute.
I had to kind of sit with it for a while to try to understand why he included it. So the first one is, I'm also an elder. I exhort you as a fellow elder. The second one is, as a witness of the sufferings of Christ. Meaning, I was there when Jesus died on the cross. I was one of his earliest followers.
I'm a disciple. Both of those sound like, yeah, okay, those are good qualifications for why I should listen to you. And then the third one is, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. And so I was like, okay, he ended the list with this, and he included it on par with, I'm also an elder, and I was there when Jesus died on the cross. I'm a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. And I think a short way to say that is, I'm going to heaven also.
I'm also going to be with Jesus for eternity. And so it's like, that sounds great, but so are all Christians who place faith in Jesus for their salvation. Like, that's what he does, is he brings us into his glory. He brings us into eternity with him. And it's like, so why is that in the list? It's because that's common to all Christians, but I think the reason Peter includes this is because it is absolutely uncommon to humanity.
That this is weighty, that Christians will partake in glory with Jesus. That we've been called into an eternity to not only just be there, but to reign with him. And so as I read that, I realized how beautiful it is that Peter includes it, because he's saying, I'm going to spend eternity with Jesus. I'm going to partake in his glory. I'm going to be a part of him being elevated and honored and declared worthy for all time. That's why Paul, at one point, when the Corinthian church is having an argument and they're about to take something to court, he says, don't y'all know you're going to judge angels?
Y'all can't even handle simple human matters? What he's saying is we're called into an eternity forever with Jesus. We should see the weightiness of that. And so Peter includes it in this list. And I just kind of wish that as Christians, we would grow out of just giving each other advice, but realizing that we hold weight because Jesus has redeemed us and called us into eternity. So that when you're with your community group and they're asking for like, I'm struggling with this idea, that we wouldn't just be silent, but we wouldn't just also just pop off with the first thing that pops into our head, but that we would actually carry and understand the weight of we've been redeemed and we're going to reign with Jesus.
And when we speak, there's weight to it because we're Christians. So that's why he includes it in that list. And then here are his instructions as to what an elder ought to do and then how an elder should do that. And then why an elder should do that. So he's going to start off with what he's going to say, how he's going to say, why?
What shepherd, the flock of God that is among you exercising oversight. So shepherd, the flock of God that is among you exercising oversight. We we use that word shepherd. The Bible uses that word shepherd a lot to give us this picture of a shepherd with sheep as Americans. I don't think we're very familiar with that picture. I'm not.
I think Americans are mostly familiar with cattle. If we're familiar with anything, we're familiar with cows. I used to actually help a friend work on a cattle farm like a cow. He had heifers and we helped them get fat. That was the job. Here's the thing about cows.
You don't get emotionally attached to them because you're going to eat them soon. That was the point of the cows. So we were going to help them eat to help others eat. That was the point. And so we didn't name them. We didn't become their friends.
You might become a friend with a dairy cow because you're going to see it a lot and it's going to hang around for a while. But beef cows, you don't. But with shepherds and sheep, there was a much closer relationship. That a shepherd would know his sheep, would care for them, would be with them, would sleep where they slept, would lead them where they were going to be. That when one of them got lost, he would leave the ones that weren't and go find the one that was. That he would, if a predator came along, a bear or a wolf, he would fight it, defend it.
So that a shepherd both feeds sheep and kills wolves. And that's the picture that we're given here where he says, shepherd the flock of God that is among you. I want to point out two things, Raz, as we look at this. The flock is God's. It belongs to Jesus. These are his people, his church.
Paul says it this way when he's talking to elders in Acts chapter 20. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. To care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. That the church belongs to Jesus, that he purchased by his blood, that he loves and cherishes and cares for. And that he's called certain people to step up and to shepherd and care for them as well. But ultimately it's his flock.
It's his people. It's his church. It also says, shepherd the flock of God that is among you. Meaning that pastors, elders should be a part of the church. Normal, everyday Christians. Like, I'm a Christian first before I get to be a pastor.
Raz, you get to be a Christian first before you get to be a pastor. I think it's been damaging and unhelpful. And I've heard in a lot of pastoral circles where pastors say stuff like, I really just need some people that I can be honest with. So I have to seek accountability and relationships outside of my church. I had a pastor one time tell me, he was moving to be a pastor somewhere else. And he said, I learned my lesson with my last church because I lived right near the building.
And I would like run into people that were a part of my church at the grocery store and stuff. And so this time I actually moved 30 minutes away so that that wouldn't happen. And that just hurt me inside. Because as a pastor, you get to be a part of the church. You get to be a normal Christian. You get to struggle with sin.
Like my community group that I get to be a part of is not impressed with me. They don't think I'm special. They had reservations about that snowflake speech I gave earlier. Like I get to be a normal sinner in love with Jesus. Following him in normal life. So you shepherd the church that you're among, that you're a part of, that you relate to in normal life.
Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight. Oversight means lead. Make decisions for. Care about. Shepherd. Care about.
Defend. Protect. Love. Chase it down. And exercise oversight, which means lead. Make some decisions.
Be unpopular at times for what's best. One of the things I will tell you all about Raz is that he does love this church. And he does love Jesus. And he cares a lot about whether or not this church is actively seeking to follow and love Jesus. I have probably over the course of our church life existence from 2013 on, I have argued more with Raz than with anybody else in our church family. Maybe my wife.
She's in our church family. We argue from time to time. But Anna, then Raz. He cares. He cares a lot when he's come to a conclusion on something and he believes that this is the best course of action. We argue.
We butt heads because we both care. We both want to see things be good. I remember Raz went to work because he works at South Carolina Baptist Convention. He was working all day. He came to meet us when he got off work for us to argue for two hours about how membership ought to be done. Because we did that this past year where we said this is what it means to be committed to this church family to say, I follow Jesus, but I'm actually going to buy in here and serve here and give here and fight for health here.
And Raz and I argued for two hours about how to do that. And thankfully Matt showed up and tried to help. He made it a little bit worse, but it was good. And then Raz went to go play kickball with some people in his apartment complex. And I just remember texting him that night and I was like, man, I hope we get to argue a lot more in the future. And he sent back anytime.
And I knew he meant it. But you care and you fight for what matters. You seek to lead. That's the calling. That's what pastors should do. Shepherd and oversee.
Jesus is people. But then he tells them how. He says, he's going to say, not this, but this. Like, not in this way, but this way. So he says, not under compulsion, but willingly.
You shouldn't become a pastor because you feel like you have to, but you should actually desire it. You should want to. Being a pastor is hard enough. If you don't want to do it, I think it would be terrible. Like, you should desire to lead, to serve, to take on this position, to lay your life down on behalf of others. So he says, not under compulsion, but willingly.
Don't get into it because your parents want you to. Don't get into it because you think you have to, but get into it because you have a desire for it. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly. So that people shouldn't become pastors. I think shameful gain is a couple of things. I think that can be, I want the title.
I want the honor that comes along with it. I think some of that's passing away. I don't think people care about pastors as much as they used to. Like, if you grew up in the South, people, it was like a more honored position than it is now. And some of that's okay. And some of it's probably good.
But I think people could get into it as like, I want a respectable, I want to prove to my dad. I want to like, it's a bad reason to do it. Shameful gain could also be monetary. It can be. I know of pastors who are wealthy. I don't know any personally.
But I've seen them on TV. And I've seen them on the internet. And I know that that's a thing in the U.S. That you can actually become a pastor to make money. If that is Raz's plan, just so you all know. He's done that very poorly.
He chose our church. He's not getting paid. So he's going to come on and eagerly. I actually believe that he models this well for us because he's continuing his job, his full-time job elsewhere. But coming on and taking on extra work and extra responsibilities here to serve in this capacity.
I also know that if he was not becoming an elder today, he'd be doing the same thing he's been doing. He'd be doing the same thing we're about to ask of him and wouldn't care. So I'm excited that everybody in our church family who is a pastor, myself, Matt, and now Raz, will have done what we're doing for free prior to getting paid for it. And would still be doing it if we weren't getting paid for it. So it says, Not for shameful gain, but eagerly.
Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. So that you lead by example, not by position or title or forcefulness or volume. That the pastorate isn't a place for bullies. But for humility and servanthood. I remember when I first, first time I sat down with Raz, he was first coming around and was wanting to hop in a group. And he'd been a part of Midtown and he was coming to talk.
Just give a cab coffee with me and ask like, what would it look like if I came and just hopped in with y'all and help start this church? I remember talking with him and I came back and I called Matt on the way home and I said, Hey, this guy named Raz wants to come hang out. He's probably going to hop in my group. He seems really smart. He seems really driven. He seems very knowledgeable.
He ultimately wants to be a pastor or missionary. I think he should hop in and I think we should not let him do anything. He can take out the trash. He can do some real service roles that no one will see him or know who he is. I think he's really probably would be great at almost anything. So let's not let him do anything.
And Matt was like, sounds great. So Raz hopped in and for a long time, we just kind of put our hand on top of his head and didn't let him do anything other than background cleaning. He's done a lot of stuff in our church family that nobody ever knows he did. And he didn't keep saying, hey, guys, I'm really smart. I'm important. I can read Greek.
Y'all need to let me do something else. He just did what we asked of him with a great attitude. And so then we kept asking more and more and more of it. That's what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 20, that he didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And that whoever would be first among you must be your servant. Whoever would be chief among you must be your slave.
Even as the son of man came to give his life. He says that. And so we believe that Christian leadership isn't climbing a ladder, but it's descending one. And it goes from service slavery to death. So if you can't take out the trash and if you can't clean up after everybody's gone and if you can't show up earlier and help everything set up.
And if you can't open your wallet and give money and not have anybody know about it, then you can't lead in the church. Because it only gets worse from there. The more people see you and the more you get elevated, the more you're called to slavery and to death and to giving up your life for them. Raz, realize that as you become an elder today, that's the call. Service, slavery, and death. Not domineering over those in your charge, but being an example to the flock.
The role of a pastor is to not be right or to prove to everyone that you are right, but to set an example, to serve them, to love them, to sit with people and cry, to listen and to listen and to listen and then to speak. And then he's going to say, why? So he says, what? Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight. He says, how? Not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you.
Not for shameful gain, but eagerly. Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And now he's going to say, why? And when the chief shepherd appears, that's Jesus, he will receive the unfading crown, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Jesus is the chief shepherd. On our order chart, Jesus is at the top.
We don't have a senior pastor that's here. We have a senior pastor in Jesus. That's what chief shepherd means. And it says, when he appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Raz, I believe that in that sentence, we have as pastors, both something that should keep us up at night and that should wake us up in the morning. He says that when the chief shepherd appears, meaning that Jesus is coming back, we won't get to shepherd and be pastors forever without the chief shepherd coming back.
He's going to come back. There's going to be a day when we stand face to face with him. Hebrews 13 says it this way. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Leap that up for just a minute.
There's going to be a day when every pastor stands before Jesus and gives an account for souls. For some of you who've grown up in church or have been a part of a church where the pastorate did not look like Peter just described it. It was domineering. It was for shameful gain. It was under compulsion. It was mishandled and misused.
Can I make you a promise? There will be a day when every person who shepherded one of Jesus's churches will stand before the chief shepherd and will be held accountable for souls. And Raz, I think that ought to keep us up at night. I think that ought to drive us to our knees. I think that ought to drive us to prayer and for mercy and for grace and for Jesus to be at work at us through His Holy Spirit that we would handle the care of souls of people who He died for to make His. That when we give an account we can say, Jesus, I trust in Your grace for me.
I trust in Your payment for me on the cross. And I trust that I tried to do as best I could. But I do have good news. Peter does not include that in this list to scare us. Although I do think it is kind of scary. Peter does not include it there for that reason.
Oh, can I say one thing, church family, real quick? From this passage since we read it that I think is, that also scares me. Can I just tell you all things I'm afraid of? It says, obey your leaders and submit to them. I think that word obey and submit is very terrifying for me as a pastor who's going to give an account for souls. That's one of the reasons why we want multiple pastors so that we can come to conclusions prayerfully together that the Holy Spirit can give us unity.
We don't do a whole lot of voting. We actually come to it like we, if one of us is saying, I have issues over this, we pray about it. We try to, we say, okay, well let's keep talking about it. Let's keep arguing about it. Let's, let's, so that when, because church family, it's one of the reasons we did membership this past year for you to say, this is where I'm plugged in. This is where I'm going to serve.
This is where I'm going to connect. This is where I'm going to give. This is where I'm going to labor because you're called to obey and submit in a local church. And I know as Americans, those words are cuss words. Liberty or death. I don't obey and submit to nobody.
Right? On the, on the other end of a gun, maybe. My cold dead hands, you know, like we're Americans, we say these things. Christians are called to obey and submit. And I kind of, as a pastor, I really just wish the author of Hebrews had said, consider the things they say. Think about, hold with some weight, but then at the end of the day, you're ultimately responsible for this.
Honestly, I think that actually means that there are house rules in churches. Here's what I mean. I got a two-year-old. Matt and Katie have a two-year-old. As they grow up together, there are certain things that we're called to that all Christian families should do that Matt and I are both supposed to do in our houses that are, this is what it looks like. And then there are house rules.
So when I was growing up, up until the time I left my dad's house, I was 18, I had to be in bed at nine o'clock. My older brother went to college, came back, was living at our house. My dad would say, if you're going to work for me, you're going to be in bed at nine o'clock. He was like 22. He had a bedtime and an early one. That stuck with me my whole life.
At about 9.30, I'm like, I better be getting to sleep. I can't be, I'm not a party animal. Like, when I met my wife, she didn't even have a curfew. I was like, what time do you need to get home? She's like, I don't have a curfew. And my first thought was your parents hate you.
Because my parents were so intense. It just turns out she never did anything real bad, so they didn't really police her that much. We needed a nine o'clock bedtime. So, those are house rules. As Emmy grows older, she may have to be in bed at seven. I don't know.
I may let my kids stay up late. Just kidding, it's nine o'clock. Or if you get loud or annoying before that, that indicates your sleepiness. If you're bothering me at 8.30, it's bedtime. Those are house rules. If I tell my kids to be in bed at 8.30 and they're up at nine, they are actually rebelling against their father, they are sinning, the Bible has told them to obey their parents, that's a house rule.
The Bible doesn't say children should be in bed at nine o'clock. Does that make sense? I think this means that in churches, whoop, I think this means that in churches there are house rules. I'm going to keep pointing like y'all know it's up there. Remember it, what it looked like. I think that in churches there are elders who actually have responsibility of making decisions and that the local church says, I'm a part of this.
And here's what he says though. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be no advantage to you. Church family, Raz is going to become an elder today. And by God's grace he'll get to do that for 20, 40, 60 years. And I hope that our church that at the end of the day he can say it was a joy that I got to serve that church. It was a joy that I got to shepherd and oversee those people.
When they had a problem, they talked to me, they didn't just leave. When they disagreed, we had heated debate because we both cared and we both wanted to do what mattered in the church. When there was something that was outside of, the Bible kind of gave us some guardrails, but we made a decision. They said, we're on this team. We're going to fight for it. We're going to lead in it.
We're going to, I pray that our church makes it a joy to be a pastor here. And can I just say, so far, I know Matt and I are blessed to be able to lead here. It's been a joy. I appreciate our church family. And I know how difficult those first two words are to obey and to submit. And I appreciate how much y'all care and fight and stay.
Thank y'all. And I really mean that. And I pray that we get to continue to do this, continue to pursue the city, continue to fight together. But Raz, as I was saying earlier, Peter doesn't include that to scare us. He includes it not to keep us up at night, but to wake us up in the morning. Because he says, when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
You're supposed to live your life as a pastor, serving, putting yourself last, taking phone calls at random times in the day and night that go get with people, go connect with people, go listen to people, go fight for things that matter when people don't care, go sit down with someone who's actively trying to run away from Jesus and do everything you possibly can to say everything you possibly can so that they won't. And what Peter is saying is do this humbly, continually, eagerly, and willingly. And one day, Jesus comes back and the king of the universe is going to honor you for your struggle and your fight for however long you did it. There's going to be a moment when the God of the universe who deserves all glory and all honor and is ultimately sovereign eternally, eternally, and infinitely worthy is going to pause for a moment and look at pastors and say, well done.
Thank you for hustling. Thank you for loving. Thank you for caring for my church. Peter says that so that you would always have a reason to wake up and fight because there's going to be a day when you stand before the chief shepherd and he pauses and honors you. The one, the one being, the one person in all the world that it matters to be honored by. So Raz, it's my hope and prayer that we get to do this a long time together.
We get to be really old, that we get to pastor well beyond our usefulness. I hope we get to do it while we're bad at it and can't even remember anything. Like, I can't remember stuff now. I hope it gets worse and I'm like 80. People are like, you should step down and I'm like, make me. Just kidding.
Raz is shaking his head because all of that was incorrect. But I hope we do get to do this a long time together. Serve alongside one another together. And I hope we get to raise up more pastors in our church family. I hope we get to send out more churches from our church family. And I hope we get to celebrate together all along the way as we chase after Jesus and his fame and his glory and his work here on earth.
Raz, will you come up here? Matt, will you come up here? Here's what we're going to do. We're going to lay hands on Raz, pray over him. Matt and I are and then we'll have a chance to do that as a church family. Raz, pastors are supposed to willingly, eagerly shepherd and oversee God's church until ultimately the Holy Spirit calls you to step down or Jesus comes back.
You get to meet him. By God's grace, are you willing to take on this role and responsibility in our church? Yeah. Okay. Let's step over here.
We're going to pray. Matt's going to pray and then I'm going to pray and then we'll have an opportunity to all pray together. Amen. God, I thank you so much for Raz. I thank you that in your divine sovereign plan that there was a friend that he went to school with that shared the gospel with him. Your Holy Spirit convicted Raz of the sin and he turned from the sin and he placed his faith in you and he's never looked back.
That every bit of Raz's life has mattered since that time. God, you brought him here to the States. You brought him to Columbia International. You brought him to Bethel Christian Camp. You brought him to the South Carolina Baptist Convention. You brought him to Midtown and to be a part of Mill City Church.
God, your hand has been on Raz every step of the way until the time where two of his friends get to stand on his side and pray over him as he becomes an elder of this church and Jesus, we praise you. We praise you for your work in his life. Lord, I thank you for the gifts and the talents and the abilities that you've given him but more than anything, God, I thank you for his heart. I thank you for how much he loves you and how much he loves his wife and how much he loves this church family and how much he loves seeing people come to know you and to worship you and follow you. I thank you for the people that he's been able to share the gospel with.
I thank you for the groups that he's been able to lead as a part of our church family. I thank you for the ministries that he's overseen and God, as he takes a step into being an elder in our church, I pray that you would help him continue to serve faithfully and humbly for many, many years. God, I pray that the three of us would look to you as our chief shepherd that you are the leader of our church and we submit and follow you and that we get to get after it for many, many years here in this city to see more people come to know the love of Jesus and to follow him in the normal, everyday life. God, in the name of Jesus, we commend Raz to you that by your grace you would empower him to keep him from stumbling, to keep him faithful, to help him to grow daily more in love with you, to see your people and the city more the way you see them.
That God, as he steps into being an elder in our church, that you would give him wisdom and humility and patience, kindness and love, that he would sacrifice, that he would be an example to our church family as he follows you, that he would help us look more like Jesus. God, I pray that he would be kept far from sin. I pray that he would be quick to repent, that through your grace you would help him to own his sin quickly, to be honest with his community group, to be honest with our church family, to walk as a broken, weak sinner, saved by grace, changed by Jesus. We ask God that your blessing be on him, that your blessing be on our church, that you would use our church family to help others come to know you in this city.
In Jesus' name, amen. Raz, if you'll step down here and Christina, if you'll come up and stand with him. They're going to stand down here and if you will, church family, if you, if you, we're going to pray for them now, just kind of together, collectively asking God to bless them, to use them in our church family to work through them. If you know Raz or you're in his community group, you're part of our church family and y'all want to come up here and actually lay hands on them and pray around them, I'd ask you to go ahead and move, move, go ahead and move and do that this morning. And we're just going to pray kind of silently.
If you, if you don't know Raz as well, but you're part of our church family, why don't you pray where you are. So, but we're just going to take a minute to, to kind of quietly stand before God on their behalf and ask him to work. through them, to bless them, to guard them, to use them. And then, when we've prayed here for a minute, I'll pray out loud and then, we'll sing, sing a song and finish up today. Let's pray. Let's pray.
Let's pray. Let's go. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray, let's pray, let's pray, let's pray, let's pray, let's pray, Amen.
In the name of Jesus and by your spirit, we commend them to you, Lord, and we ask you that you would guard them, guard their marriage, bless their service, help them to grow in their love for you. We ask you to work mightily in our church family for your glory and your name. In Jesus' name, amen.
Christmas 2016
Transcript
Well, Merry Christmas. Turn to Matthew chapter 1. We will be spending our time there this morning. It's going to be on page 471 if you're in one of the white Bibles. If you don't own a Bible, don't have one at your house, Merry Christmas. That Bible that you're holding is a gift to you from us.
We want you to own a Bible. We want you to read it regularly. So we'd like for you to have one. So our goal today is pretty simple. We usually, when we talk about stuff, we talk about what God has done. We talk about what Jesus has accomplished for us, that the gospel is good news about what he's accomplished and that we respond.
And today we're not going to have so much of a here's what we need to go do. Here's how we're going to respond. We're just in our time this morning. We're trying to kind of do what Faye was just reading about, where the shepherds, I love that the shepherds look at each other and they say, let's go see this thing. Let's go see this thing that the angels just told us about.
And that's kind of what we want to do this morning. We just want to look at the Christmas story and we just kind of want to see it. We just want to take some time to consider this mind-shattering, world history-changing event where God becomes a human. We just want to take a minute to consider it. And then we want to respond maybe in the way that Mary does, where it says she just pondered these things in her heart. We really just want to take this and look at it as best we can, begin to see some of the realities of God becoming a human, some of the realities of what we get to celebrate at Christmas.
And then we just want to hold on to those as we go through the rest of this week. And it's going to be busy for many of us. You're going to have a lot going on that you have to try to get done and accomplish. And you can get so caught up in everything that's on your to-do list. And then Christmas will be here a week from today. And then it's almost like it's just over with.
And I just want to take a minute this morning for us to just pause, let's just see this thing, and then hopefully be able to kind of ponder it in our hearts throughout the rest of the week. And as we go into Christmas day next Sunday, and just kind of be able to reflect on and remember and roll around inside this truth that is actually a little bit too big to consider and too big to get into view. And we're going to spend some time looking at it this morning. So pray with me that we'll be able to do that. And then we're going to start reading some of the text. God, we thank you.
We thank you for what Christmas is and what it means. We pray that you'd be at work in us this morning, that we would be able to take it into view, that your Holy Spirit would be active as we read your word. We love you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Jump down to verse 18. We'll pick up there, Matthew 1, verse 18.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, okay, so she's going to marry a guy named Joseph. That's what betrothed means, they're engaged. But in this culture, in this society, they would have been fairly young. I read something this week that said Mary's probably no more than about 15 years old. And a betrothal worked similarly to marriage.
Basically, parents would be involved. They would say, okay, your child's going to marry my child. It was a very strict kind of agreement. And in order to break a betrothal, you had to actually go through a legal proceeding to get a divorce. It wasn't, so it was like an engagement, but it was more intense than our engagements. So she's betrothed to Joseph before they had come together.
So that means they're engaged, they're betrothed, but nothing's happened. They're not married yet. There's no consummation of anything. Before they had come together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Okay, so that's, we get more of her story in Luke chapter 1. An angel comes to her and says, oh, favored one.
And she's like, that's a weird way to talk to me. And she's kind of, I'm talking to an angel. She feels uncomfortable. He says, you're going to give birth to a child. And her response to him is, okay, how? Because she knew where babies come from.
I think sometimes when we read stuff that happened a long time ago, we just kind of arrogantly and maybe a little bit snobbishly assume that we're more intelligent. Like because it happened a long time ago, their IQs are lower. Like because I have Google and could drive a car and have electricity, I'm somehow smarter than them. But even if you looked at my Google history, you'd know it wasn't because of how many times Google had to say, did you mean this? Because I couldn't even spell the thing I was Googling. Were you trying to type this?
Yes, Google, I was. But for some reason, when I read something that happened in history, I just assume they were gullible. They believed everything that someone told them, that they all were just kind of dumber than me. And actually, I think that probably the amount of television I watched and the amount of time I spent on Google and how much I can ask Siri things and I don't have to remember anything actually means it's likely they were more intelligent than I am because they actually had to use their brain more. I don't know. But Google makes me seem way smarter.
You remember before Google existed when you thought, I wonder about this. And then you had no way. You're watching a movie and you thought, what else has that person been in? And then you had to think about it and remember. Maybe you had that one family member you could ask. And I was going to pause it.
That guy, what else was he in? And they knew. But otherwise, you couldn't figure it out. Like, we just assume because of the technology we have, we're more intelligent. But she basically, we're going to see that both Mary and Joseph kind of respond in a, okay, wait, how's this going to work?
So Mary says, how's that going to work? And he says, God's going to do it. Through his power, through the Holy Spirit, you're going to give birth to a son and he'll be the son of God. And Mary's response is, I'm your servant. Let it be that way. Since you're big and you're God and you're good, I'll just trust you.
It's not like she doesn't seem very excited, but she basically just says, okay, I'm your servant. So just think about this for a second. She's betrothed in a shame and honor culture to be married to a guy named Joseph. We don't know how well they know each other, but it's a small town. They probably knew each other. She's probably looking forward to her wedding day, to her life.
And she's thinking, I'm going to start my life with Joseph. We're going to begin to have, and an angel comes up and says, hey, God has decided to ruin this for you. You're going to get pregnant out of wedlock. Talk, people can do math. They know how long it takes for a baby to be. So even if he still agrees to marry you, they'll know when the baby was born and when y'all are married.
It's not going to work out well for you. Most likely, your betrothal is off. And she says, okay, I submit, I surrender, I'm Jesus, I'm God's servant, whatever he says. So here's what we get. Before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And I love that Matthew includes, it was from the Holy Spirit.
He says, she's found to be with child, but we know it's from the Holy Spirit. And her husband, Joseph, so he already calls her his husband, even though they haven't really been officially married. But that's how intense betrothal is. So she comes to Joseph and says, Joseph, I'm pregnant. He says, how did that happen? She says, it's God's baby.
He says, okay, we're not getting married. At best, you're lying. At worst, you're crazy. And it says he's a just man. He cares about her. He's not mad at her.
He's not trying to put her to shame. He's just going to as quietly as he can break this betrothal. It's a small town, not make a big deal out of it. But he also knows how children are made. And he says, no, no, God doesn't get, no, that's not how that works. So we're not, no, they're not getting married.
Can you imagine how much pain is involved in this story for Mary, for Joseph, what they thought life was going to look like? Jesus shows up and just derails it. How many tears are shed in that few verses we just read? How much they had to wrestle with God and his plans? But, verse 20, as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. For that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son. You should call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but he knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.
So Joseph does the same thing. He obeys what God says, even though he also realizes, okay, at best they'll think we kind of sinned together prior, so this child will be born in kind of a shame situation. At worst, the people who are close to me who already knew I was trying to work out a divorce, I'm going to have to go seem crazy too. I'm going to have to act like I actually believe what she said, that God is the father of this child, and they're going to either think that I'm crazy or just the most gullible fool they've ever met. But okay.
That's the situation that Jesus is born in. And then Matthew, as he's beginning to tell this story, he kind of gets to the point here and he says, okay, here's Jesus. Jesus is going to save his people from their sins, and he's going to be Emmanuel, God with us. So Matthew, right off the bat, says, here's the point of my story, here's where we're going. Christmas, Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. As Christians, we believe not that Jesus was just a really good guy, not that he was just a prophet.
We don't just believe that God's spirit was on him. We don't just believe that God worked through him or that he shows us kind of what divine status looks like. We don't just believe that he was a really good man who became a God. We believe that he is God who became a man. We believe that he's the eternal creator God who became a human, that God is with us. That's what we celebrate at Christmas.
That Jesus is God who became a man, that he's fully God and fully man. From the time he's born, that he's God with us. That's Christmas, that God became a baby. And so Matthew says it's Emmanuel, God with us, and that he's Jesus. He's going to save people from their sins. So Matthew, right off the bat, says, we're talking about Christmas and we're talking about Easter.
This is the point of the book he's writing, that Jesus is going to grow up. He's going to live a perfect, sinless life. He's going to die on a cross. He's going to atone for sin. He's going to be buried. He's going to rise again.
He's going to save his people from their sins. Now, if the point of the Bible was just you need to be a good person, it's just about morality, we wouldn't have Christmas. God wouldn't have to join us. If the point of the Bible was just that God loves everybody and he forgives everybody, we wouldn't have Christmas. God wouldn't have to join us. He wouldn't have to come in.
But see, it's a God of both morality and love that joins us at Christmas to save us from our sins. And I love that he's come to save us from our sins. You know, that could say, and I think people sometimes try to act like what this should say is that Jesus came to save his people from sinners. And that would be a really sad thing for it to say. He says he's going to be Jesus because he's going to save his people from their sins. But if it said he's going to save his people from sinners, that would mean there are good people and bad people.
And then we'd have to work really hard to try to figure out whether we were the good people or we were the bad people. But what does it say? He's going to save his people from their sins. Jesus is the hero who came to rescue the bad people. Now that's worth celebrating Christmas over.
I'll raise some eggnog to that. That sounds amazing. That Jesus is going to come save sinners. That's us. You see, at Christmas, we're kind of, we're almost bombarded with this over optimism. It's like collectively, culturally, we come together and say, we can do it, you guys.
If we just believe in belief, if we just open our hearts and our minds, we can love everybody and we can eradicate poverty and hatred. That's what the Christmas spirit is. If we just come together, everything can be beautiful and bright and work out well. And that is beautiful, but it's not the Christmas spirit. The Christmas spirit is we're in trouble. The world is dark.
There is no hope. Humanity cannot save itself. Humanity is the problem. So getting more of us together collectively just causes more of a problem. Christmas is the celebration that Jesus entered the world. That a savior came to rescue us.
And that he's ultimately going to live a perfect, sinless life and die to save us. That's the Christmas story. That's what Matthew's getting at. That's the point of the story he's about to tell. So he's going to tell us this epic, unbelievable, history-altering story.
That's what, he's got all this to write. He's got to tell us that God became a baby. And then he's got to tell us that he lived a perfect, sinless life. And that hope has entered the world. That where it was dark and bleak and sin reigned, God enters the world. And it's almost like a light, a little candle is lit in the dark.
So if it was pitch black and there's just one little candle, everybody's eyes come to this place and it says there's hope, there's light in darkness. That's Christmas. And then he's going to tell the story about how at Easter, after Jesus has healed blind people, has taken people who've never walked before and let them walk, how he's walked on water and fed 5,000 people and he's healed everywhere in towns he went. And he's proclaimed the good news that at Easter, that little candle is going to be snuffed out. It's going to be a few wisps of smoke and darkness. That death is going to defeat life.
Hatred is going to defeat love. Fear is going to win. And that this God that we celebrate who's going to be born is going to be a God that we mourn because he's going to die. But that three days later, of atonability, that candle lights itself again. And it doesn't just become a candle. It becomes what was just a hint of a dawn in Christmas becomes full noonday sun at Easter.
We get the full and complete picture of what God's come to do, that he's Emmanuel, God with us, and he's Jesus who saves us from our sins. That's the story Matthew's going to tell. And so Matthew has this epic, earth-shattering, world-changing story to tell. And he's got to put pen to paper. And you can almost feel like the ink is trying to jump out of his writing utensil here. He's got to write this down.
And what's the first thing he's going to put on paper? What's the first thing he needs us to see as he begins to tell this story? Matthew chapter 1, verse 1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac. And Isaac, the father of Jacob.
And Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. And Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. And Perez, the father of Hezron. And Hezron, the father of Ram. Ram, the father of Amminadab. And Amminadab, the father of nation.
Oh my goodness. He does this for 17 verses. He's got this epic, life-changing, earth-shattering story to tell us. And he starts off by the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. And it's almost, almost as if he wanted to bore us before he told us the good stuff. He's going to, at the end of the chapter, he's going to get into what Jesus came for and who he is.
But he starts off with 17 verses of this person was the father of this person, was the father of this person. Now, we're distant from this because we're Americans to a Jewish audience. This meant a lot. Because he's telling, he's telling them that he comes in the line of prophecy. He's telling them that he comes in the line of, but Luke includes this. He doesn't start with it.
It's important. Luke says, that's not the way you start a book, though. You ever been to a movie and they run the credits first? Like all of them? You'd be like, what the heck? Show me the movie.
That's what he's doing. He's showing you this. What's the point? Why does he do this? Why does he think this is so absolutely essential for us to get right off the bat? Do you know who has genealogies?
Humans. Real, live, flesh and blood humans have a family line. My wife and I, a couple years ago, learned we were going to have a son. So we got on Ancestry.com and we just started looking up our family. Some people in our family had done a lot of work to kind of fill out our history, family history, our lineage. So we just started doing work to find names.
There were a bunch. We wrote names in one color from my family, names in another color from her family. And our goal was to have one name from each family. And they were great. Like we had some winners in there. We had Garland.
Caskey. I was fighting pretty hard for Caskey. Bayless. That's probably coming back if we have another son. It might be a girl. But we like, it took us a while.
Like we had to try to find names that we ended up, we like Silas. I really like Silas. But I wear a lot of plaid and I have a beard most of the time. And I didn't want people to think I named him after Uncle Si off of Dunk Dynasty. I don't watch the show, but people assume things. And so we really went round and round on Silas and we're like, I don't know if we can do this.
The other thing you have to do, it's really hard to name a human. Those of you who have done it, I'm proud of y'all. It's difficult. I had to walk, like I walked around my house trying to say the name. Because you just, you just read it or you just say it. It's like you had to put it in context.
So I would walk around with names. So like, so we picked Bayless or whatever. And I'm trying to think, you know, you have to sing the banana manamofana song or whatever to try to see how inappropriate it gets at the end. Like there are certain names you gotta, you can't do. You have to try to think up what will first graders call them? Like what are bad nicknames here?
I would do stuff like I'd go, um, Caskey Bayless on the tackle. Like I would try to think through what would this sound like over a PA? Like if it was like, would Bayless Phillips please report to the principal's office? Like I have to realize, I know me. Look, I'm not, I'm not putting on airs. I gotta realize I've gotta shout this name in Walmart at some point.
I know I've gotta be like, Bayless, if you don't put that down, boy, you get over here. Like I know I've got, I had to practice this at my house. We ended up going with Archer O'Daniel. We actually was gonna be Archer Daniel, but he was gonna be born on the 20th of March. And I told my wife, I said, all right, how about deal? Daniel's an old last name that they Americanized.
It used to be O'Daniel because it came from Ireland. I said, if he's born on St. Patrick's Day. We go, O'Daniel. And I stuck my hand out. She said, okay.
So she shook hands on it. We found out on the 16th, he was gonna be, had to have a C-section the next day, which was St. Patrick's Day. We're on the way home. And she goes, I knew it. I said, what?
She said, I knew as soon as I shook your hand, he was gonna be born on St. Patrick's Day. I was like, then this is the breaks, girl. You just gotta deal with it. The reason we were able to do that is because our son's a real human who comes from real humans and a real genealogy, a real family line. The reason Matthew begins here is because he wants to make so absolutely crystal clear and concrete in our minds that Jesus is a real human born into real history in a real family line.
What he's about to tell us is going to seem insane. It's going to sound crazy. It's going to be unprecedented in human history. It's gonna baffle Jewish people who would not ever believe that God could become a human. This is outside of what they would have believed. He's going to begin to tell us that this Jesus is gonna be perfect and he's gonna die.
And when he dies, it's gonna be a vicarious death for all those who would place faith in him. That he's gonna be laid in a tomb and he's gonna rise again. And then later he's gonna ascend into heaven where he's gonna live eternally. And he's going to tell us this story. And he starts off by saying, I don't care if I bore you a little bit. You need to realize this is a real person born into real history in real time.
He does everything he can to set it on the bedrock of actual living history, family line, because he wants us to be certain as we continue to read Jesus stepped into real life. This is fact. As crazy as it's about to sound. And you know what's beautiful about that? The gospel of Matthew does not start once upon a time. It doesn't start with in a village far away.
Because when we hear those things, we hear once upon a time, when we hear there lived a man up in the mountains, we know what we're getting ourselves into. We know that we're gonna hear a story. Maybe it'll be entertaining. Maybe it'll have a point, like a moral thing we're supposed to take away from it. Maybe it'll be just a story about how we ought to live. We know when we get into a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, what kind of story we're getting into.
There's gonna be heroes. There's gonna be darkness and enemies. There's gonna be champions. There's gonna be light versus darkness. There's gonna be good triumphing over evil. Life is gonna defeat death.
Love is gonna defeat fear. We know the kind of stories we're getting into. But see, Matthew's about to tell that type of story. But he wants to make sure you know this one actually happened. This is a real story. And here's what's going on currently, kind of in our culture, and as we get older.
We say those stories are good stories, and we enjoy those stories, but they're for children. Those are children's stories. That the prince rides in and saves the princess. That somebody shows up and defeats the dragon. These are Disney movies. But real life, adulthood, it's not black and white.
They're shades of gray. Good doesn't always win. Evil does sometimes. Darkness defeats light sometimes. Death swallows up everybody, and we end up being just particles in the universe later. We're told that as soon as we can kind of wrap our minds around that, the better off we'll be.
And it's almost weak to believe in these magical stories where good always wins. That it's not realistic. But the beautiful thing about the gospel story and the Christmas story is that it's a historical story. That Matthew's gospel story and Christmas story are going to be a historical reality. So that the reason we love all these other stories is ultimately because they point us to Jesus.
We actually want Beauty and the Beast to be true. We want to believe that someone can come along and love us enough to save us from the monster we've turned ourselves into by our decisions. We want to believe that Sleeping Beauty is true. That there's a love that conquers our stupor, that brings us to life, and that someone does ride in and defeat the dragon. We want to believe that. And because this story is true, because the Christmas story and the gospel story are true, real life historical fact, when we believe these stories, when we tell these stories, we actually are just getting to point to a greater reality beyond them.
Tim Keller is a pastor in New York. He wrote a book called Hidden Christmas, and he talks about this idea. I want to read a quote from that book. I thought it was helpful. He says, Put another way, even though the fairy tales aren't factually true, the truth of Jesus means all the stories we love are not escapism at all. In a sense, they, or the supernatural realities to which they point, will come true in him.
The reason our hearts scream and cheer and celebrate when we tell these stories, the reason we love Harry Potter so much is that we somehow innately know and believe that there is some dark force out there, some evil out there that wants to rule through intimidation and fear. And we want to celebrate a story where a child is. And we want to celebrate with the fact that he dies at the end, only to burst forth back into life and to destroy evil forever and let the sun shine again. See, all these stories, because this story is true, point us ultimately, because the Christmas story is true and the gospel story is true.
We get to celebrate that all of this is true. We get to celebrate that all of this is true. We get to celebrate that all of this is true. We get to celebrate that all of this is true. What we celebrate at Christmas is the beginning of that story where joy dawns and hope dawns in the world. As Christ comes to save sinners, as God joins humanity to rescue us from our sin.
Matt and Bianca are going to come back up here. And I really just, there's not any real things we need to go do because this is true. I want us to grow in our faith. I want us to consider this reality. So here's really how we do get to respond today.
If you are a Christian, my hope really is that we would just ponder this in our hearts. That we would remember the true, real story of Jesus' work on our behalf. That we were saved from our sin. We're going to take communion here in a minute during this next song. And if you're a Christian, I just want you to take a minute. We're not going to have the words on the screen.
They're going to sing. We're going to pray. We're going to consider. We're going to think about what Jesus has done for us. And then I want you to take communion, which is a celebration of the broken body of Jesus and his shed blood on our behalf. I just want us to celebrate that we have a hero.
Stepped into real life to rescue his people from their sins. That when he died, your sin died with him. You died with him. And when he rose again, you have the promise and the hope of an eternal life with him. Because God did not leave humanity in its sin. But joined us at Christmas as Emmanuel, God with us, to save his people from their sins.
But if you're not a Christian, Christmas is an invitation to you. What Jesus does at Christmas is he joins us. God doesn't sit far away and tell us to figure it out. God doesn't sit far away and tell us to get our act together. God joins humanity in poverty, in weakness, in life, and in death. If you're not a Christian, the invitation is simple.
Jesus came to save his people from their sins. God joined us to rescue you from all the things that would keep you from him. You can acknowledge your sin. And you can be saved by Jesus. That his work on the cross can apply to you. And if you're in here today and you're not a Christian, but you want to be, this is an actual historical fact that happened on your behalf.
The only thing you do is believe it. Respond in faith to what he's done. It's not about being good. It's not about following a set of rules. It's not about accomplishing anything. The reason we take communion is we remind ourselves that it was his work, his body, his blood that rescued us.
So if you're in here today and you're not a Christian, you can become a Christian right now because it's not about what you do. It's about what he's done. You can go take communion for the first time. Maybe you grew up in the church and you've taken communion a lot, but you never really placed your faith in Jesus. You were actively living as if Jesus came to save his people from sinners and that you had to be a good person that he could save you away from all the bad people. You can repent and you can take communion for the first time for real this morning, celebrating that his death and his blood and his life and his resurrection on your behalf will apply to you.
Let's pray. God, we thank you that you joined us, that you didn't leave us on our own to figure this out, that you didn't leave us on our own to try to be good or to earn something from you, but that you joined us, that you were born in a manger, that you really lived and you really died on our behalf, that you really rose from the grave three days later. It's in a fairy tale. It's not a legend. It's not a myth. It's not a story to help us know how to live well or to love well, but it's a story about how you lived and loved us, how you actually joined humanity and died on our behalf.
I pray, God, that as we go into this next week, that we remember this. We wouldn't lose sight of what we actually get to celebrate, that all the work is done, that we've been given life and forgiveness and salvation. We thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Service, Slavery, Death
Transcript
It's good to see you all this morning. My name is Matt. I'm one of the pastors here with Mill City. And I'm excited to get to celebrate Christmas with you guys. As you can't tell, we kind of like Christmas around here. And I'm a Christmas person.
So don't get me wrong, I like the other holidays. Like I like Thanksgiving, the 3F celebration of family and football and food. But like I'm a Christmas person. Give me Christmas. The lights and the trees and the Christmas carols and everything like that. I just love it.
And the truth is I grew up in a family that was like that too. So it's kind of ingrained in me from the very beginning. We were the family that as soon as Thanksgiving was over and as soon as like the last leftover was tucked into the fridge, like the attic door just swung open on its own and all the Christmas decorations just came pouring out. And the rest of Thanksgiving Day was spent putting up Christmas decorations and they stayed up until after the new year, depending on when we wanted to take them down. But I love Christmas.
I mean, take a look at this little guy right here. I mean, that's jubilation. There's like sleigh bells going in the background. It's funny, people tell me, Oh, Emmy looks just like you. I'm like, only mostly. Only mostly she looks just like me.
But I'm a Christmas person. Our family kind of went crazy for Christmas. And the church that I grew up in was pretty crazy about Christmas too. In fact, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, our church would have this like very formal ceremonial service called the Hanging of the Greens, which literally meant we're going to decorate the church. I mean, it was like this big service where families would walk up together and they would hang wreaths and people would hold candles and we would sing songs by a candlelight. And if it sounds crazy, that's kind of because it was.
But really, that was just the tip of the iceberg to my church's crazy experiment with Christmas. We had children's plays. I don't know if you're familiar with children's plays, but you had to have a children's play and you had to have the costumes. You had to memorize your lines and you had to learn the songs and all this kind of stuff. You had to dress up. You always had to look really good.
And of course, I'm going to try to set the standard for when you're looking good. So obviously, a hand-me-down sweater because you can't even see my hands, rocking khakis, and a tie that's for some reason missing, like missing part of it. I don't, like they're supposed to go to a point. I don't know. But I tried to look good.
And every once in a while, we do like, we do Christmas plays that had a theme. It's like metaphorically to talk about Christmas. I mean, because you could do cowboy Christmas. And of course, you wanted to look the part if you were doing that. Even if you didn't have two front teeth. Like you just whistled the music out.
But you couldn't just do a children's Christmas thing. You had to have like an adult choir cantata. And if you don't know what a cantata is, you're one of the lucky ones. We're going to spare you. We're not even going to tell you what that is. But there was just all this stuff going on.
There were practices and dress rehearsals. And it was Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night. And then extra practices during the week. And you also had the Christmas card swap. And you had the candy cane tree. You had children's storybook Christmas.
And then you had the church Christmas party. And a lot of times you got to January and you were just kind of exhausted. And the truth is, I look back on all of those things that we did and I really enjoy them. Like some of my fondest memories are from some of those times. But I have to ask myself the question, like was all the time and energy we put into that stuff worth it?
Like were we actually celebrating Christmas as we were putting on those plays? Because the point of all the stuff we were doing was for our friends to like invite people to come. Like the people that were part of our church family to invite their friends to come and to maybe get plugged in with our church. And as I think back on that, I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if the energy and time we put into it allowed people to actually hop in with us. See, the church that I grew up in kind of had a come to us mentality at Christmas.
We'll put on these great plays or we'll have these parties if you'll just come. And as I think about Christmas, as I think about the fact that God came to us at Christmas, is the correct response to then get people to come to us? Or is Jesus came on a mission for us? Are we then to turn out and go on mission for others? Should we be going to them? And really all of this and more is why we as a church from the very beginning have done our give series at Christmas.
All we're doing is we're looking at our culture and say, no, no, let's flip what our culture values at Christmas and focus on what's really important. At a time of year where it's all about me and what I can get and that kind of stuff, we just want to remember what Christmas actually is all about. It's that Jesus came for us. And the way that we do that is that we're generous to people who are in need as we do our gift project. So when our culture says, you know, get all you can, get the new Samsung virtual reality goggles or maybe some new jewelry or the new PlayStation 8, we say as a church, no, no, no, give more away.
Be generous because he who is rich became poor so that we by his poverty might be rich. That at a time of year where it's all about what you can get and all about the memories and stuff you can make, we say let's make it about others. Let's put others' interests in front of our own. Let's sacrifice so that we can do that. And so today as we kind of tie a bow, so to speak, on our Give series, I just want to continue to echo that as we follow Jesus, what we're called to is sacrificing. What we're called to is to be generous.
And my hope is that by the end of this morning, we have a clearer picture of not only what that looks like at Christmastime, but hopefully what that looks like for all of our lives. So let me pray for us and we'll jump into the Bible. God, I'm so thankful that this time of the year we get the opportunity to just stop and press pause and remember what Christmas actually is all about. To not buy into what our culture says and to remember, to reflect, and then to actually get the opportunity to see change in our lives. So God, I pray that you would just encourage us this morning.
I pray that you would help us see the joy that it is to follow Jesus. God, that we would respond by being radically generous and sacrificial with our lives. I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Grab a Bible. Go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 20.
If you're grabbing one of the Bibles that we have on the seats, it's going to be on page 482. If you don't have a Bible, Merry Christmas. Take that one with you today. We want you to have it. If you're looking at it going, ooh, sweet, new white Bible to go with my collection of three blue and white Bibles at home, that one can just be your Glen Forest Bible. Just leave that one here.
But the passage that we're looking at today is not your stereotypical Christmas passage. There's no baby, no shepherds, no angels bursting into robust chorus. In fact, this passage is recorded in all the Gospels the week before Jesus would go to the cross and rise from the grave. And so this is really kind of at the end of everything. And here's what we're looking for. This is what I want us to see today.
What does it look like to follow Jesus in his kingdom? So if we're going to be kingdom people, if we've decided to follow Jesus, what does it look like for us to follow him with our lives? And how does his example motivate our actions? And ultimately, how does that even like change our entire approach to life? So what does it look like to follow Jesus in his kingdom?
So Matthew chapter 20, and we'll be starting in verse 20. It says this, Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons. And kneeling before him, she asked him for something. And he said to her, What do you want? She said to him, Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom. So just to kind of set the scene, James and John come with their mom and they bow before Jesus.
And apparently their mother basically says, Can I ask you a question? Can I make a request of you? And Jesus allows her to. And she says, Grant that these sons of mine can sit in the positions of power and authority in your coming kingdom. Let them sit at your right hand and at your left hand. And it's kind of funny because the Gospels are filled with stories about James and John.
I mean, they even have nicknames. Their nicknames in the Gospels are the sons of thunder. And so we kind of see it throughout. But this one's particularly funny to me because they got their mama to go ask Jesus if they could be at his right hand and left hand. I mean, sons of thunder, more like mama's boys. Like, this is, I mean, you've got to imagine how this played out, right?
Hey, James, you know, you know who Jesus really, Jesus says a lot of hard stuff, but you know who he doesn't say hard stuff to all the time? Older women. Like, what if we got our mom to go and talk to Jesus? I mean, for real, that's how that played, that's how it played out. And what we know from the other Gospels is this question didn't originate from James and John. They put their mom up to this.
But regardless, they come before Jesus and say, the mom says, grant that my sons can sit at your right hand and at your left hand in your coming kingdom because these were positions of power. Let them have power and authority and influence in the coming kingdom. Seeing an opportunity to rise up in the ranks and have some power, they jumped on it. An opportunity to kind of get to the top. And the truth is, regardless of motivation, we're all kind of doing this in our lives if you think about it. Whether it's the opportunity to get like a promotion at work or to get a raise or maybe to get a better car or to get a better house or live in a different neighborhood.
And again, those things aren't bad in and of themselves, but I think intrinsically all of us kind of want to keep moving forward, keep achieving, keep having success is one of the things that Chet mentioned earlier in the announcements. Like, I think that's intrinsic to us because we live in a society that highly values those things. That's kind of what capitalism actually is. It's all about. It's getting to the top. It's climb the ladder of success, make the most money you can, get into the best school and get the most sought after degrees.
And in a lot of cases, regardless of what you have to do to get there. And I think that's part of the mystique behind Donald Trump being elected president. I think there were a lot of people that looked at Donald Trump and said, if he can grow this huge company and have business ventures across the world and have a last name that's synonymous with wealth and status, then of course, he can run the greatest nation in the free world. Because they look at that and they see that as kind of the pinnacle of human existence. Like, he's made it to the top. And the truth is when it comes to looking at power and authority, another term that you can throw up there that goes right along with it is wealth.
A lot of times, power and authority just kind of follow the money. And you can see that on a big scale. You can see it in the macro. So if you look at this last political cycle, you've had lots of conversations about how Wall Street and politics kind of played out. Like, what were the relationships between CEOs and the people who were running for president? Any business, the waitstaff makes less money, has less authority than the shift manager, than the manager, than the owner, than the regional vice president, than someone who's on the board, than the CEO.
It just kind of, it's a, you follow the money and you kind of find where the power and authority are. And even, and even that can be true in our lives. Like, even on the small scale. So if you've, if you've got maybe a little bit more money and a little bit more standing, maybe you can live in a different neighborhood. Maybe you can get a better Job and have more authority. And so even, even on the small scale, you can see how that affords you a little bit more opportunity.
And while James and John live in a completely different culture than ours, their, their question is still at the, at the heart of what we're going after too. James and John seeing an opportunity to kind of rise up in the ranks, to, to move their way to the top, to have more authority, more influence, seeing that opportunity, they jumped on it. So let's, let's see how Jesus responds. Verse 22. Jesus answered, you do not know what you are asking. Which is, which is actually a very gracious response from Jesus because he, he does know what they're asking.
And he's simply just pointing out that they don't, they don't know. They don't know what he knows. That there's obviously a disconnect between what power and authority look like in Jesus's kingdom and what his disciples actually expect it to be. He continues on. He says, you don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?
And they said to him, we are able. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? Now that's not like a, a turn of phrase that we would use nowadays. So we have to unpack that just a little bit. All throughout the Bible, the cup is basically used to represent someone's like God-ordained destiny. What God had for their lives.
And so if you look in the Psalms, you'll see the cup representative of like blessing or salvation. And then other times you'll see it has more of a negative connotation where it's like God's wrath or disaster. And more often than not, the cup is going to have some connotation along with it that deals with like suffering and trial and hardship. And Jesus, Jesus asked him, he says, are you able to drink from the cup? And they said, they said we are. So regardless of what James and John know at this point, so regardless of, of, of what they understand the cup to be, they respond that they're able to.
That whatever it takes to get to the top, whatever it takes to be Jesus's right-hand men, James and John are saying, we're in, we'll do this. Whatever path we have to walk, whatever we have to do, we are in. Jesus responds to him, verse 23. He said to them, you will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father. He says to them, you will drink my cup. Whatever that cup means, you're going to drink that cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to decide.
My Father is going to decide that. And so, hang on to that little bit about James and John drinking the cup, but you've got to imagine at this point, they're disappointed. So they come with this expectation of, of maybe getting elevated to this position and it just doesn't work out for them. Jesus says that it's, it's not, it's not for them. It's not going to work out. It's not as they plan.
And then verse 24 adds to it, it says this, and when the 10 heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. The 10 being the other disciples. Okay, James and John were two of the 12 disciples and when the 10 heard it, it says they were indignant. These guys were ticked. And rightly so, I mean, think about this. Think about all that James and John and the rest of the disciples have gone through.
A lot of these guys even knew James and John before they became disciples. And so, I mean, they've walked with Jesus. They've, they've heard him teach. They've, they've gotten to be a part of these miracles and experiencing all this together. And now they're trying to jump ahead of them, trying to get to a place where even maybe they're ruling over the other 10 disciples. And they're ticked.
I mean, I would be, and I think there's a little bit of us when we read that, it's kind of like, for real? That's what you guys are doing? And the passage doesn't tell us like that they became friends immediately after that, like it wasn't all okay when Jesus stepped in. I mean, there's probably some time. But honestly, I hope, they made up.
But honestly, I hope that the disciples, the rest of the disciples never let them live that down. Like, never. James looks at Peter and says, where's Jesus off to? I don't know. Why don't you ask your mama? I mean, like, the appropriate amount of forgiveness and the appropriate level of mockery.
I feel like that probably embodies Mill City. Pretty good bit there. But regardless, Jesus saw an opportunity to teach. He saw an opportunity to correct an understanding of what it meant to be a disciple in his kingdom, what it meant to be a follower in his kingdom. And even more than that, what does it mean to be a leader and have power and authority in his kingdom? He says this in verse 25.
But Jesus called them to him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. Jesus says, you know, I.e. I don't really have to explain this to you. You know how the rulers treat the people who are underneath them. See, Israel was occupied by Rome at the time.
So whether it's governors or administrators or maybe it was people that were in charge of the Roman military, they constantly had their authority lorded over them. It was forced on them. Like it was for shameful gain. It was oppressive misuse. Most of the leaders were just trying to, again, climb the ladder of success or just make the person who's above them happy. And he said, it shall not be so among you.
And the truth is, in a lot of ways, our culture is like this too. That's why most of us are kind of wary of politicians or people who are in like places of authority and leadership and really don't want to do it. They say, because we've seen this all too regularly. We've seen deceit and manipulation and lies and corruption, which is why we're kind of wary of people who are in leadership. And what's interesting is, even though we know that's true, what we just admitted earlier is that all of us are trying to claw our way to the top to get there. To get to that place where we know that there's abuse and misuse of authority.
But Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no. It shall not be so among you. Jesus isn't against all types of authority and influence. He's just exposing what oppressive misuse looks like. And he says, no, no, there's another way. There's another way that my disciples are to act.
He's got a different definition of what it looks like. Pick it back up, beginning of verse 26. He says, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Here's what Jesus says. He says, greatness in his kingdom isn't measured by dollar bills or the number of people who call you boss.
He begins by saying it's about being a servant. servant. Not like a server at a restaurant. He says, servant of the servant class where your life is leveraged for whoever is above you. And to clarify, he takes it a step further. He says, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave. I mean, that's picturesque.
That's service and slavery. And if you're putting it in terms of their day, he's saying that authority and power in his kingdom look way more like working long hours in the field or washing a visitor's feet when they come in from a long journey. It's way more like taking garbage out to the dung heap or cleaning a cattle stall. And you've got to imagine at this point, James and John are listening to Jesus talk. They come to Jesus with this expectation of we want to be in power and authority. And they're kind of like raising their hands at this point going, um, excuse me, I, when, when we came to you and we're talking about this, we, we, we just thought that you would be on a really big cushy seat and we, we would, we would also get cushy seats, not as big as your cushy seat because you'd be in the middle, but we'd be on the right and left and maybe, maybe the things you're saying would be what people do for us.
And Jesus says, no, you've, you've got it backwards. It's as if he's looking at them and saying, hey guys, remember, remember when you were a fisherman? Before I called you, remember when you were a fisherman? Greatness in my kingdom doesn't look like the person who owns the boat, looks way more like the peon who carries the nets off the boat and then goes back and scrubs fish guts off the deck. See, here's the problem. It's the, it's the same problem for them as it is for us.
While we read this passage and see exactly what Jesus is talking about, while we understand that a life of serving others and putting others first is, is noble and it's good and it's what Jesus did for us, we're bombarded on a regular basis with thousands of other messages that say the complete opposite. Our, our culture says, you do you, do whatever makes you happy. Whoever you've got to push down to get to the top, do that. It's all about you. It's all about autonomy. That's what Chet was talking about just a little bit ago.
It's about self. We, we use this metaphor a lot and I think it's helpful here that if our culture and what our culture values is like a driving, pouring rain and you as a Christian have an umbrella, you can't help but get wet. There are going to be times when we're so overwhelmed by what our, our culture teaches that even though we understand what Jesus is saying that it's about others, it's about serving them and putting their interests first and sacrificing for them, we can't help but let this little bit just kind of trickle into our lives while we're all going, no, no, no, serve and give our lives for others. It can trickle in.
Let me give you an example of how it does this. If you're a part of a community group, I want you to think about your group for a second. Has the thought ever popped in your mind, I wish I was in another group or maybe this, I wish I was a part of my old group maybe something like this. I would go hang out with my group but they're just not really meeting my needs. I would be open and honest but that person monopolizes all the time with all the problems they have going on. It's subtle but deadly.
At the time that we're looking at what Jesus says about serving and putting others first and that's what Raz and Josh have articulated so well the last two weeks about putting others first. It can creep in. Even though we understand what Jesus is calling us to, it can creep in. So the question becomes, how do we do that? What's our motivation? How do we begin to approach life in the same way that Jesus does and what he's calling us to?
Verse 28. In fact, we'll back it all the way up to 26 and just read the whole chunk. He said, It shall not be so among you but whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you you must be your, you must, sorry, you must be your slave even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus said, Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus, the one who the disciples realized was worthy of all honor and all praise and all glory who would one day sit on a throne said he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom.
Like he sets the example. He puts others first. He is the one who is generous and he would do so by giving his life as a ransom for many. And in that statement, Jesus sets out and shows us what his mission has been from the very beginning. He didn't come to set up an earthly throne. He's going to have a throne but it's by way of a cross and it's an eternal throne.
It wasn't to be set up here. The reason that Jesus had to go to a cross is because we had a debt that we could not pay. That we could not overcome outside of his sacrifice for us. that when Jesus is talking about that cup in a couple of verses up, he's talking about the cup of God's wrath. When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, God, he said, Father, if this cup can be taken from me, let it be. But if not, your will be done and not mine.
Jesus went to the cross because he had put, he put us first. It was about sacrificing himself for us. And so when he says he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom, we're beginning to understand that Jesus is the king of an upside down kingdom where our culture says that moving up is where greatness is. Jesus says, no, no, no. Greatness is by moving down from service to slavery and even to death. Greatness, success, and wealth, and prominence isn't measured the same way.
It's not about sitting beside him but following behind him. And the essence of what Jesus is saying this morning, this is what I want us to walk away with and realize. We could not get to God. We couldn't. We could not get to God not by our morals, not by behaving, not by anything. We could not get to God so God came to us.
It was a rescue mission. That's what we're celebrating at Christmas is that God came to us. He came as a missionary. Think about that for a minute that Jesus who spoke everything that is into existence is now in the form of a baby staring at sheep and cows in a manger in the backwoods middle of nowhere. The king of the universe humbled himself and came but he didn't stay a baby forever. He would go to a cross where he would die.
He would die for us. He would die for our sins so that we could follow after him. So the question becomes how do you respond to that? Like how do you respond to what Jesus says in these verses? We follow after him. We respond by following after Jesus in the same way that he did for us because Jesus came on a mission for us we go on a mission for others.
That rather than buying into the it's all about me nonsense that we get from our culture especially at Christmas we get to make it about others. Jesus looked at James and John and he told them you are you're going to drink the cup that I'm going to and what we know that after Jesus ascends into heaven that James and John are some of the leaders of the early church and they went out they went out from Jerusalem pursuing people spreading the gospel and for the people that were followers of Jesus it didn't always go well there were persecutions and beatings and there was jail time and some of them ended up murdered. James would be murdered for his faith and John they tried to kill John church history tells us and it didn't work and so they exiled him to an island where he would die. Service slavery and death but what James and John realized is all that Jesus had done for them and so the rest of their lives got to be this humble grateful response to what Jesus had done.
Here's the deal I want you to think about this for a second. The reason that you're sitting here this morning is because Jesus came on a mission for us and then somebody responded to Jesus' call to be on mission for others. Think about the person who told you about Jesus. If you're not a Christian think about who has invited you to hang out with our church because Jesus came on a mission and others have responded to that mission since. That's why you're sitting in this room. That's what Christmas is all about is that God came for us because we could not get to him.
So our response is not to make it all about us but to turn our eyes outward and to go and to pursue others. Our response is to have the same posture as our king. And this is so freeing. This is so freeing when we don't have to buy into everything that our culture tells us. That rising to the top that having the most money or being successful that everything else that our culture tells us to chase after isn't going to isn't going to fill us up. Isn't going to bring us joy.
And if it brings us happiness it's only temporary. But Jesus calls you into a relationship with him where he served and sacrificed and died for you. And so our response gets to be that we approach life in the same way. We're all mission to see more and more people become Christians and we go to them. Which means that your entire approach to life changes. It means you're a missionary at work.
It means when your boss asks you to do something that's degrading or menial or below your pay grade you do it. Because you're just there to serve. That when you notice someone skipping work for the second day in a row you go to them and say hey can I treat you to lunch? And instead of going to McDonald's to the value menu like you take them to Moe's. Or if you're really rolling you take them to Chipotle where they can pay more and get worse food. But you treat them.
When you realize that a co-worker's been sick all week you leave work and you go get some soup and you drive it to their house. That's going to people. It means you're a missionary in your neighborhood. If you've got a crabby neighbor that always is yelling at you about your dog using the bathroom on their lawn even though your dog's in a fence and never comes out of the fence. Can't be your dog. If you look out the window on a Saturday and see them working on their shed it means that maybe you sacrifice some of your time and you go help them.
Maybe you realize that there's a lady that's in her late 80s who can't drive that's down the street but just needs someone to come sit and to talk with her. It means we give up some of our time and we go to them. It means we're missionaries in our city especially to those that are less fortunate than us because that's who Jesus went to. Jesus went to the people who needed help that were kind of outcasts from the society. That's why we spend time trying to help people that are often just kind of neglected and forgotten. That's why we spend time at Gentle Pines because it's a part of our city that has kind of just been forgotten and overlooked and we want to go in there and tell them that we love them and that Jesus loves them and that we want them to be a part of our family.
It's why we've partnered with Samaritans well this year. We want the women and the children there to know that we love them and care about them and Jesus loves them and we're willing to leverage time and resources so that they know that. I've been so encouraged. I've had two separate group leaders in the last couple of weeks tell me that they kind of want to be in line to partner with Samaritans well long term. That's so encouraging. Man, that is so encouraging to see our church family turning our eyes outward and looking at the people that God has placed us around.
But it's all of life, guys. It's every second of every day realizing that you exist for the benefit of others. That you don't have to find your worth and your joy and your value in meeting all of your needs and making it all about you because it's ultimately bankrupt and you have everything you will ever need in Jesus which means that we get to turn our eyes out and like everything we do as a church family we get to do it together. We get to do it with our community groups that our friends and our neighbors and our coworkers we're trying to reach them for Jesus and build relationships but we get to invite our community groups into that.
And so here's I've got two ways I want us to respond this morning. Two ways that we can respond to Jesus' call to go out and to see more people become Christians and as we do it to meet people's needs. Two ways we can do that. The first one is that we do. We actually meet people's physical needs. Jesus went and he healed the sick and he spent time with those who were in poverty like Jesus met real needs and so his church meets real needs.
You can meet real needs today by giving to Samaritan's Well. I've been so proud of our church family so far and I know that we can continue to give. We've got the envelope set up over there. You can write a check. You can put cash. You can drop it in the gift box.
The Sacrifice of Jesus
Transcript
Good morning. As Matt said, I am Josh Pabone. I am the current community group leader of our Seven Oaks group, and I'm glad I get to talk to you guys this morning. So we're in our annual give series. So each year around Christmas, we spend some time to intentionally look at generosity.
We want our Christmas to not only just be about what we get, but what we can give to others. So we take the time to look at Jesus' sacrifice for us and try to intentionally follow him in that sacrifice with generosity towards others. So this year, we're focusing on Samaritan's Well. It is a transition home for women and children in the Lexington area. They help them find jobs. They help them get housing, and they even help them pay off a little bit of their debt.
Last week, we had little stockings on a tree, and currently, we have $50 gift cards for the women and children at the shelter, so they get to kind of relax around Christmas and enjoy spending time with each other without worrying about being able to get gifts. So at the end of the sermon today, Chet's going to give us a... That was phase one. So at the end of the sermon today, Chet's going to give us a look at what phase two will be. So go ahead and grab your Bibles.
We're going to be in Philippians. If you don't have a Bible, grab one of the white ones around you. If you don't own a Bible, it's yours to keep. We'll be on page 570, and we're going to be in Philippians 2, 1 through 8. But before we get into the text, I want to take a couple minutes to talk about sacrifice.
Like, culturally, we love sacrifice. Like, we love to watch it play out in movies, we love to read it in books, and we just love to hear it in any sort of story. So it's kind of like Russell in Independence Day, who gave his life by flying that jet into the spaceship and blew it up. Or Tony Stark, Iron Man at the end of the first Avengers, who took that nuclear weapon that was set to destroy the city and flew it into that weird wormhole thing and blew it up and closed it, because apparently that's how science works. Or Noah in the notebook, who sacrificed his freedom. Who sacrificed his...
It's a great transition. Who sacrificed his freedom to be with his wife in a nursing home, because she had Alzheimer's. Or when people intentionally take time out of their holiday to serve others on Thanksgiving. Like, culturally, we just love it. We see worth and value in it. Whether it's true love, Acts of valor and courage, or the villain at the end of the movie who sees good is worth fighting for and gives his life to stop whatever doomsday device he has set.
Like, we eat it up. But only if it's not us. If my wife Nadine and I were in the never-let-go scene of Titanic, I would look at that door, I would grab her hands lovingly and gingerly, and I would look her in the eyes and I'd say, Baby, you're going to have to scoot over. Like, I love my wife dearly. I do. But I can only be so heroically sacrificial in freezing cold waters.
Like, maybe I could get behind it, and I could paddle you somewhere, and you could snatch up some other doors or debris. Like, maybe use one of these acceptable positions on the screen behind me. I don't know. Maybe we could figure out something. On one hand, we love sacrifice. We see that it is this selfless, for-the-greater-good thing.
That when someone else puts the needs of others before their own, we love it, we praise it, we worship it. We see that it's a value. But on the other hand, we're also told to do you. We're told to do what makes you happy and to achieve your goals no matter what. Like, we're told that we need to do what's best for us. Like, I love sacrifice, but the truth is I love when I don't have to do it.
Oh, well, you need something for me? No, I'm good. I don't think that's going to work out for me. It's just not in my best interest. No, I've got things to do. No thanks.
But when I see someone else sacrificing, wow, look how amazing they are. I wish I could be like that. You know, we're told by culture to both jump on a live hand grenade to save other people, while at the same time being told to do what's best for us. So today we're looking at sacrifice. We're going to spend some time seeing what Paul says about us, coming second and putting others first. Like, we're going to see a picture of how whether you or someone else is doing it, we're going to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of Jesus' sacrifice for us.
Like, we'll get to see that our capacity to even sacrifice comes from the much more massive sacrifice that Jesus made for us. So I'm going to pray. Thank you, God, for this time to talk about sacrifice. Thank you, God, for this time to talk about putting the needs of others before our own in a time where culture tells us that we need to put our needs first. God, I pray that your Holy Spirit move and give us hearts and minds to listen and just be willing to sacrifice for others. I thank you for everything you've given us, God.
In your name I pray. Amen. All right. We're going to be in verse 1. So Paul wrote the book of Philippians.
He was the most prolific missionary in the New Testament. He traveled all over. He was imprisoned. He was beaten. And he was even put to death for spreading the gospel. However, unlike some of his other letters in the New Testament where he's reacting to some form of crisis or some form of sin issue, Philippians is a bit different because he's talking about how much he appreciates them.
So in chapter 4, he talks about how they were the only church at one time to provide for him financially in his ministry. Or he also talks about how thankful he was that they provided for him multiple times in his ministry. So it's way less confrontational like some of his other letters and way more like encouraging. Verse 1. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in a full accord or official agreement, and of one mind.
Okay. Paul has a good relationship with his church. He's highlighting some of the wonderful things that they're doing while also saying, hey, do these things that I'm about to say and do it together. All right. Verse 3. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, which is excessive pride, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look to not only his interests, but also the interests of others. Okay. So Paul has two points here. The first is do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. One way to say this would be don't place your pride, your well-being, your ego, your comfort above others. Another way to say it is don't act like the world revolves around just you.
I think Jesus says it best in Matthew 22, 39, where he says, love your neighbor like you love yourself. But what he's not saying is that you shouldn't have ambitions. He's not saying that you shouldn't have goals. He's not saying that those are bad things. He's just saying that our goals don't end on us. So wanting a promotion at work, training to win a marathon, saving a certain amount of money in your bank account, or just finishing a whole pizza in one sitting.
Like goals aren't innately bad things. They're good things. He's just telling us that our ambitions and goals, they just don't end on us. So our bank accounts, like we don't save so we can get that sleek new car we've been eyeing. Like we save so we can help our coworker who's been biking five miles to work every day. He's saying that we work for that promotion to help someone pay their electric bill in the winter so they don't freeze.
He's saying that what drives you and pushes you shouldn't drive other people away, push them down, or just have them be left behind. All right. So that's what he said not to do. He said not to let your ambition center on you. So let's look at what he says to do.
Back in verse three. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others. So don't do anything from selfish ambition and conceit, but count others more significant. Don't look to just your interest. Look to the interests of others.
The second point here is in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. All right. So what are we supposed to do? Okay. We're supposed to count others more significant than ourselves. Okay.
How do we do that? In humility. And that is a beautiful thing. You see, humility is often equated to weakness or just being walked all over. But that's not real humility.
It is, however, the opposite of like arrogance, boastfulness, vanity, and aggressiveness. Like you're, you're also not like, Oh, woe is me. I'm just a big fat nobody. I'm the worst person in the world. Like you're not Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. Like you're just not focused on yourself.
You're not self-focused. You're not looking at your own interests. Rather than me first, humility allows us to say you first. It is the quality that lets us go more than halfway to meet the needs of others. And it allows us to sacrifice our comforts and desires in order to value others more. Okay.
So in humility, count others more significant, more significant than yourselves. Look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others. Now, if you're a parent, you're married, or you just have friends, you're kind of already doing this. Like most cases, it's much easier to love someone that you know than you don't. Like it's easier for me as a parent to count my kids more significant when it comes in terms of food and finances than it is the guy who's holding a cardboard sign at the Bush River Walmart. Like my kids are significant to me.
Their interests matter to me. My wife is significant to me. Her interests matter to me. And it's easier for me to approach my friends in humility than a person I've never met. It's easier because I actually care about them. And because of that, I approach them differently.
I approach their needs differently. Like somehow I deem them more worth it because they matter more to me. Like, yeah, man, I'll definitely help you pay your bills. I know you lost your job. I know you got laid off. I know you've been applying places.
I know no one's called you back. I'll help you buy groceries, man. Here's my money. Here's what I have. Take it. It's yours.
Like, for the most part, when people I know and care about are hurting, I tend to hurt alongside them. And I disarm my pride. I disarm my lack of desire. And I disarm any sort of pushback that I may have a lot easier with someone I care about than someone I don't. But Paul says to not just count the people that I care about or that I love or that I think matter more.
No, he says count anyone other than you. So anyone other than me, not just my family, not just my kids, not just my wife, not just my friends. It's anyone other than me. Jesus made similar statements. Love God with your whole heart and love others. Love your neighbor.
Love your enemy. Paul says count anyone other than you more significant. And when we're counting others more significant, like without pride or ego, we're not going to do things the same. Like, I just, I sit and wonder how that would look in our lives if we 100% believed this. And we 100% acted this out all the time. So I started thinking about this.
Like, what if I did this? What if I genuinely began to treat others like they mattered more to me? Like, what if I cared about their interests more than mine? I think that I would be looking at my budget a little bit differently. Like, I'd be looking at where my money went after all my bills were paid. Going out to eat one or two times a week.
I probably could not go out to eat one time and save that money and give it to someone who needed more. Or, I could use that meal that I was going to eat myself and pay for someone else to eat with me and get to build with them. Like, arguments all of a sudden wouldn't be about winning. They wouldn't be about proving that I was right. Like, heavy traffic would just get to be traffic. Like, I wouldn't be getting mad at the guy who waited the last second to merge in front of me.
I would let him in, and I wouldn't be wishing him bodily harm when I did it. Like, if I 100% believed that my wife mattered more to me, I think I would press pause more on video games, and I would mute the TV more. How much more would I do around the house? Like, if she came up to me and was like, hey, Josh, can you just do, insert whatever she asks here for me, that'd be great. I think I realized I'd say yes a lot more. Like, when she gets home late from work, I'd have the kids fed, and I'd have dinner ready for her, so she could sit down and relax.
I would treat her less like a parent picking up their kid from daycare, and more like someone else who's also had a long day, and needs to relax a little bit more than I do. Like, when I showed it to my group, and if I valued their interest more than mine, I'd bring food because I cared about them eating. I wouldn't have an attitude of imposition when I was asked to take someone home. Like, I wouldn't leave group in a bad mood, because I couldn't share something that was going on in my life, because we had to spend some time helping someone go through a struggle that they're going through. Like, I would put my phone down more.
When someone started talking, I would count them more significant than my Facebook account, or whatever random text message conversation I had. I'd be listening more. If someone comes up to me with a struggle, and we're sitting down talking, and it's just something that is sucking the life out of them, I wouldn't be counting down the minutes on the clock. I wouldn't be counting down the seconds. I'd actually be paying attention, be willing to give some of my time, some of my life, to help encourage them. I just, I really think a lot of things that I get frustrated about, hurt over, upset about, which is genuinely, stop making me upset and hurt.
Like, if I acted like I was less important more often, I believe my life would get better. So what if we did this? What if, what if this is what all Christians look like? What if you began to treat others like they were more important than you? Like, what if their interests began to matter more than yours? Like, somebody in your group has an unexpected medical emergency.
Like, people would be sacrificing time to watch kids, to make meals, maybe even give them money for gas to go back and forth to the hospital, or pick up some of their bills. Like, what if a part of the money in your savings account was set aside to give to someone else when in time of need? What if, what if Christians all across South Carolina who got government assistance for their food, used their snap and wick benefits to help someone? What if they shared a jug of milk, or, or some vegetables, or just part of a meal? Like, they would begin to do, be able to do so much. What if all employers knew that Christians were willing to kind of come in early, to sacrifice some time from Netflix, to sacrifice sleeping in, to come in early?
What if they knew that when they were asked, that they would stay late, or they would cover a shift? Okay. So, have you ever gone out somewhere, and been grabbing some lunch with some friends, and, and someone just starts talking to you from the next table over? Like, they're just, they're yelling at you, basically, trying to get into your conversation. Like, they're at another table, and they just intrude themselves into your conversation. Like, your first thought wouldn't be, wow, this person's super annoying.
I wish that they would just stop. No, you would realize that this person's probably lonely. Like, maybe this guy at the next table over, who did intrude into my conversation, maybe he got an invite at the table. Even though, I know that he will talk to the point that I wouldn't get a word in edgewise, and he'll probably talk up until the point that we have to leave. He gets his seat at the table, and he doesn't get brushed off, he wouldn't get ignored, he wouldn't be made fun of when he left, or when my friends and I had to leave. Like, instead of treating him like he was annoying, and an enemy, he'd be treated like a friend.
Like, we would be free from being held back, and thinking in terms of what we couldn't do, and actually be looking at what we could and would do. So this all seems nearly impossible to do, and honestly super uncomfortable to think about. So who are you not counting more significant? Like, in what areas of your life are you the most important person in the room? Like, anybody you know fit into this category? Spouse?
Parent? Child? Coworker? Neighbor? Guy you passed by on the street? Person behind you in the checkout line?
Single mother in front of you in the checkout line who got her car declined trying to buy food? Or maybe it's someone in our community group. See, I have a lot of pushback when it comes to this stuff, and it's because I naturally put myself first. Like, I matter more than anyone else, and the thought of someone cutting me off in traffic, in line at Chick-fil-A, or in mid-sentence, infuriates me, because my time, my desire to be first, and my ability to be heard matters more than anyone else's. Like, I matter more to me than anyone else on the planet. Like, I'm more significant to me because my interests matter more, and honestly, because I think they're better.
Like, like, seriously, you have no idea how highly I think of myself. Like, in my mind, I am pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. And if I'm being honest, I kind of rank sliced bread second. I'm just trying to look humble. Like, Paul says, don't act like this. He says to treat others like they matter more than me.
And truthfully, I can see how beautiful counting others more significant than me is, while at the same time, feel how impossible it can be to do this all the time. But the amazing thing is, it's not just left at that. Like, we're told not to make it happen. We're not told to make it happen on our own. Paul goes on, starting back in verse 5. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
Okay, have this mind among yourselves. What mind? So it's what we just talked about in verses 3 and 4. Which is yours in Christ Jesus. Okay, what does that look like? It's a mind where you're not motivated by selfish desire or pride.
It's one where you're elevating the values of others. While taking care of the responsibilities God has entrusted you, and also looking to see how you can be actively involved in helping others. Verse 6. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. That was a loaded sentence. So, okay, so to make this a little bit more digestible, we're going to walk right back through it.
Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Okay, so Jesus becomes a man. He doesn't demand his own way. He doesn't demand his own rights. He just doesn't. He humbles himself.
He's in the form of God, but he doesn't cling to it. He submits, and he lays down his rights. Like, we get a breathtaking example of humility and sacrifice, and we get to see what it looks like to place others above ourselves without conceit or selfish ambition. Like, Paul isn't saying that Jesus just emptied out a little bit of himself. He's not saying that he just poured out a little bit of his godness. He's not saying that.
His actual point is that Christ emptied himself by becoming something that he was not previously ever. He became something that required humility and ultimately his own humiliation. Like, Christ intentionally limited himself and left his throne to become a breathing, sweaty, physically dirty human being. He traded glory for grime. He was fully God and fully man. And in his decision to take the likeness of men, he did not look to his own position or status.
He did not count that position or status that is something he should protect and maintain, but instead he saw others lower than him. He saw us. He saw that in no way could we reach a right relationship with God without him. So he chose to lower himself to our status. Jesus emptied himself. Like, that's what we celebrate this time each year.
That's what we see when we see the precious moments nativity scenes where for some reason all the adults look like babies and we're like, oh, look how cute that is. But in all actuality we should be like, what? Jesus became that? Lord of all creation, king above kings became this? Jesus' humiliation gets to become a humble and joyful reminder of grace unfettered. It is less an ornament or display and more of a reminder of how Jesus' grace is boundless, matchless, and without limits.
Verse 8. In being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. This is what the gospel is. that in order to restore our relationship with God that we severed with sin, Jesus had to humble himself, humiliate himself, die on a cross for our sins, and rise from the dead three days later to show that he conquered sin and death on our behalf. Jesus did it for us because we can't do it on our own. We can't earn it and we don't achieve it. We never have and we never will.
Jesus was able to humble himself because he saw a need we had. He saw that our need required great cost to himself and he willfully paid it. And I think we take that for granted. Like I don't believe we realize the amount of humiliation he went through for us or how it was in response to our neediness. but he didn't focus on the cost for himself. He was focused on the need. He was focused on us.
And when we begin to focus on the needs of others above what it would cost us, we begin to have the same mind that Christ had. Because Jesus was not looking to hold or improve his position even though he was in a higher place of authority, power, and position than we were. He wasn't looking to improve that. Instead, he looked at our position of depravity without a sense of pride. Without a sense of, what's in it for me? And because he was able to look at us in humility, he was able to count us more significant than his position in glory.
He was able to look at our best interest, which was to be made right with God through himself to the point of death. Okay. So, a couple of weekends ago, I was going to get Chinese food for dinner. And the way the door is positioned, it's on a strip mall, and so there's a door here and there's a set of stairs right in front of the door, or right beside the door. And as I'm walking up, there's a man who appeared to be homeless with a crutch sitting on those steps. And I'm walking up and I look at him and say, hey, what's up, man?
And he goes, nothing much, what about you? I'm like, I'm good, I'm good, thanks. And I walk through the door and as it closes behind me, I think, you did a great high to that guy. I'm pretty sure no one else said hi to that guy. Look how selfless you are. Wow.
Gave myself one of these. And I kept going. There were two guys in front of me who were, over here in their conversation, were a part of a traveling gospel band. And so they were talking about the rigors of their schedule and how busy it was and how many shows they had to do in one night. And in front of them appeared to be a single mother and her child, and she was ordering her food. And as she's about to pay for it, one of the guys walks up and he takes out his card and he puts it and he hands it to the cashier.
And he says, no, you're good, I got this. And I thought, that was nice. Look at him. He did a great job. Like, I probably could have done that. I just didn't want to spend more money than I had to.
I didn't want to have to explain to Nadine why it was like $30 more than what it was supposed to be. I thought that. And so I ordered my food and then I sat down and I pulled out my little Nintendo DS and I started playing Pokemon and I was trying to catch them all and I started to think. That guy only did that because she was a single mom. Had that been anyone else, he would have done that. Had that been some old guy, he would not even care.
He would have made that man pay for his own meal. And as I'm smugly catching them all, I'm looking at this guy and he's looking at his phone and he goes, oh, and he walks to the door, opens it, looks at the man and says, hey, have you eaten today? And I was like, great. Way to prove me wrong, God. And overhearing their conversation, found out the man who was sitting out there hadn't eaten in two days. things. And I thought, this guy's going to run for his money.
He's going to look at that menu and he's just going to order everything he can get. Whatever form of prime rib and lobster tails is on a Chinese food restaurant, this guy's going to order like seven of them. And as I'm thinking this, the man crutches himself, that's a term, he crutches himself up into the counter and he orders a small wonton soup and a small pork lumi. He ordered the two cheapest things on the menu in the smallest quantity and I was crushed. Because in that moment, I realized something. I smugly judge people when they're being sacrificial.
I also realized that I didn't get it. because I was in the middle of writing this sermon about being sacrificial. I saw it happen before me. I judged it and I still didn't get it. That night, I got to see two things. One, I got to see how beautiful the church can actually be when we do this. I got to see it unfold before my eyes.
Not only was that man and that woman her child ministered to, who I was. I got to see how much the value of someone else eating mattered more than the value of a dollar sign. Like, I got a small picture of what it could be if Christians treated other people like they were more significant than themselves. themselves. I also got to see that I won't do this on my own and that I can't. That the most I get to bring to the table are a few empty words and a self-high five. Like, some false sense of humility and honestly, it's really all about me.
Because if I'm being truthful, I didn't say hi to that guy so he would feel better. Like, I said hi to that guy so I would feel better. that is my absolute best. That's what I bring. But Jesus had his interest in mind, Jesus had our interest in mind when he lowered himself to our level. He had our interest in mind when he went to the cross. Like, he gave up everything, sacrificed himself because he saw that we had a need that we couldn't fill, but he could.
Like, I got to understand that even though all I bring to the table are selfishness and false humility and self-high fives, that Jesus wipes the table clean and replaces it with his selflessness and his death and resurrection for me on the cross. So Paul says be like this. Think like this. See the world like this. Have this mind. Be this way.
And that's impossible except for the fact that that mind is already ours in Christ. Jesus took my place on the cross for the moments in life where I'm doing this exactly as Paul laid it out and for the moments when I'm barely even trying. He does it for us because he did it for us. And that's how we have this mind given to us. That is what this mind is. It's filling a need regardless of how thankful you think someone will be.
Like we get to be a people that knows when you're willing to put others before you their praise and adoration pales in comparison to the work of Jesus who came before us. It's like if you're a Christian you have this mind in Christ Jesus. And thank God he gives it to us because it is overwhelming. And it is so beautiful to see in practice. this is who we get to be. And this is us. Like it means that you count others more significant in your community group.
Like their interests are they become your interests. Like the way you see your spouse, your kids, the people in your neighborhood or the people in your apartment complex changes. Like the whole lens that we view life through changes. changes. And so as we have this mind among ourselves this year we get to take some of our time, some of our money, and we get to put in practice that those around us matter more than we do. We get to be a people who respond by treating the women of Samaritans well as more significant than ourselves because we have a God who treated us like we mattered more than he did.
So I'm going to pray and then Chet's going to come up and he's going to introduce us to what phase two looks like. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you that because of you, God, because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, because of Jesus' humility, that we get to be humble and we get to sacrifice for others. Thank you, God, that we are not told to do this on our own because left on our own we won't. Thank you for doing it for us. God, I pray that as we continue to talk about give, as we continue to talk about this series, Lord, that your Holy Spirit move in people to give to others around them, to not to look at their own needs for Christmas, God, but to intentionally look at others because of your sacrifice for them.
In your name I pray, God. Amen. Amen.
The Generosity of Jesus
Transcript
Well, it's Christmas season. I hope you're as excited as I am. And I'm not talking about just like the Hobby Lobby Christmas season, like 11 months of the year. I'm talking about actual post-Thanksgiving, none of that setting up early stuff, Christmas season. My favorite transition of the year, because more than anything else, pumpkin spice disappears and peppermint enters in. Can I get an amen?
For real. What is it that for you, when you think of the Christmas season, what is it for you that really kind of piques your interest? Is it cold weather, cozy nights by the fire? Or maybe it's Santa Claus and, you know, his Christmas cheer and the ho-ho-hos and all the little kids who get exactly what they want. Or maybe it's when you try to take a photo of your kids with Santa and everything falls apart. Maybe it's the stress of buying the perfect gift so that everyone's happy on Christmas.
That's kind of hard to represent in a photo, but I stole this from a segment from Jimmy Kimmel, where they deliberately give hopeless presents to their kids. And she got a half-eaten sandwich. And her brother turns to her and says, can't you just be thankful for what you got? And she was like, no. Maybe Christmas season is your opportunity to let people know exactly what you want, either subtly or not so subtly from a stage. Maybe drop a hint here and there.
Maybe you're the type of person who goes completely overboard with your decorations. That's not us. I found it on the Googles. I promise. Maybe you're the kind of person who navigates seasons based off of what Starbucks is selling at the time. So you will know that, of course, the pumpkin spice latte disappears and the peppermint mocha comes out, which is perfect because there's nothing better than peppermint and chocolate combined into one thing.
I love it. Maybe for you, it's all about getting your entire awkward family together, regardless of whether or not you get matching pajamas or matching shirts or whatever. I particularly like in this photo all the kids who are like, seriously, we have to do this again. Maybe for you, Christmas is all about nostalgia, getting nostalgic about your favorite movies, the old school ones, the comedies, the kids' movies. Maybe you're being paranoid about being left alone by your parents. Maybe you're one of the type who actually thinks Will Ferrell's funny and you like Elf.
Shame on you. Maybe your name is Chet Phillips. And the only thing you think of at Christmas is sugar cookie eggnog and how it's been discontinued since 2011. And you blame Walmart, you blame Kroger, you blame Hood, you blame everyone. It's the Grinch's fault, Chet. Maybe you love Christmas because it's the only time of year that you get to legitimately pull out your Mariah Carey CD.
There is no other time. You cannot do it. It's fun to sit up. I'm actually going to take this off. It's melting my head right now. It's fun to sit up here and make fun of Christmas.
And I think we all get it and we all think it's funny because part of us knows, right? Part of us knows that even though it's fun, even though it's funny, even though we do all these crazy things, we've kind of collectively lost our minds. What in the world is any of that stuff about? It's fun. Don't get me wrong. I buy into it.
I love Christmas. But seriously, how did all of those things develop? Where did they come from? And yet still, even though we know we're insane, we break out the ugly Christmas sweater, we pump up the Mariah Carey, we decorate our trees, and we stress over gifts for no reason. And hey, I buy into it. I buy into any season where I can be in a foreign country and they take off their red, white, and blue glasses and put on red, white, and green glasses and have fun for an entire month.
Excellent. But here's the thing. In all the hype, in all the Christmas cheer, it's pretty easy to miss the point. And I know that there's plenty of people who will go around, be it in real life, kind of like on the streets, and on Facebook, being the Facebook warriors that they are, who will remind you that Jesus is the reason for the season. And it's true, and we know that, but the reminder doesn't really help. It doesn't do anything tangible.
And so we have all these people who say, Jesus is the reason for the season, and they share passive things on their Facebook wall, like, you know, random a cappella covers of songs by pentatonics that they come out with every year, like, Mary, did you know? Yes, she did, by the way. Mary knew. An angel of God came to her while she was a virgin and said, you're going to have a baby. His name will be Emmanuel, and that is God with us. Mary knew.
So maybe the song, this is just a suggestion, maybe the song should be, Mary, do you remember what the angel said when she came to you as a virgin and told you that you were going to give birth to Emmanuel, which means God with us? It needs a little work. I haven't fixed the timing of it yet, but at least it's true, guys. Every year at Mill City, we take time during this season, and we try to cut through the white noise. Culture gives a whole lot of messages about, this is what you need to do, this is what Christmas is all about, this is what you need to achieve this Christmas, this is where you've got to shop, that kind of stuff.
And we try to focus on what actually matters. What can we, how can we, during the mayhem of Christmas, during all the craziness that goes on, actually point people towards the gospel in a tangible way? What can we do to love our friends, neighbors, and our city like Jesus did? How can we, rather than buying into the Christmastime cultural consumerism, instead buy into Christmas, the kingdom message of Christmas? That's where our Give series, that's where our Give series comes from. Because Jesus, who was in very nature God, humbled himself and was born as a human baby.
That's Philippians chapter 2. He was rich and for our sake he became poor. That's 2 Corinthians 8. He gave himself up for us to deliver us from sin. That's Galatians chapter 1. The king of the universe, he had everything that is.
He sacrificed that in order to become a poor human baby. That's what we celebrate at Christmas. So, during our annual Give series, we remind ourselves that the season doesn't have to be about bells, doesn't have to be about ornaments, isn't all I want for Christmas is you, but instead we align ourselves with Jesus and we sacrifice what we have to show kindness to others. That's what our Give series is all about. We want to replace the material expectation of the culture with open-handed generosity. Let's pray for that.
Amen. Amen. Amen. God, we pray this morning that you'll be showing, you'll be diagnosing in our hearts where we believe a cultural narrative about Christmas. That it's all about us, that it's all about gifts, that it's all about decorations and good cheer. God, I pray that throughout our Give series, you'll be showing us ways where we can be sacrificial like Jesus and that we can be seeking after Him in the way that we love each other and love our world.
It's in His name we pray. Amen. You can grab a Bible, open up to 2 Corinthians 8, chapter 9. If you're in one of the blue pew Bibles that we've got, that's going to be on page 628. We're going to be sticking mainly to 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9 today. It's going to be our main verse.
We're going to read all the way up into it, but just to kick us off, I'm going to read chapter 8, verse 9. It says, Throughout our entire Give series, we're going to talk about generosity. How do we be generous? How do we sacrifice? What is generosity in serving? And how can we use that for mission?
Today, though, we're really going to get at the core of why. Why be generous at all? What motivates our generosity? Now, I have a pretty rational brain. I tend to see the relationships between all of life's elements somewhat like equations, like A plus B equals C. I'm typically very black and white, and I don't have a lot of wiggle room for the gray areas, and that can get you in trouble.
But I think, for the most part, it helps me see clearly where relationships kind of occur. And I'm going to use that a little later on to point out a very clear relationship in this verse to explain our motivation for generosity. But first, let's take a look at the immediate context, everything that comes up immediately before that in this chapter so far. So we're going to jump up to chapter 8, verse 1, and make our way up to chapter 9. So let's read from 8, verse 1.
We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, and I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. Here's what's going on. Paul, the Apostle Paul, was taking up an offering for all of the churches, the poor churches down in Jerusalem. So if you've got the Mediterranean here, Israel's down here.
All the poor churches in Jerusalem down here really need some financial support. And all the way up around the coast is Macedonia. And the churches up here, who themselves are quite poor, answer the call and start funneling money through Paul down to the churches in Jerusalem. What's interesting is that he describes their giving as, he explains their state as being extremely poor. Out of their extreme poverty flowed a wealth of generosity on their part. They gave according to their means, and he says, beyond their means.
And they begged earnestly for the right to do it. And by generosity, notice also, just real quick, notice that he means money. It's talking about financial generosity. And even though they were poor, they gave over and above what anyone could possibly have expected from them. All the way to the point that Paul labels it as the grace of God that has been given among the church of Macedonia. That's huge.
He calls their extreme giving, out of their poverty, God's grace. There's a direct relationship between financial, generous financial giving and God's grace. Now oftentimes, and I'm guilty of this as well, oftentimes we convince ourselves, I'm just, I'm too poor to give money. Money is not a thing that I have a lot of, and so I'm going to give lots of time instead. Time is something that I'm rich in, so whether it's volunteer work or even if it's in the church, in ministry, that kind of thing, we tell ourselves, I don't have any money, so I can't give money, but I can give my time, so I'm going to give that instead.
And we kind of pat ourselves on the back and we think, I've done a good job of giving to the church. Notice that that's not really at all what's going on here, but I can understand it. In fact, I've been there and I've done that and every now and then I continue to do that as well. But when I first moved here, a lot of you will know I moved here from Australia just over four years ago. When I first moved here, I went jobless for three years. I was studying in seminary, no Job, no income, no anything, for three whole years, which meant that my ballot sheet was blood red for three years.
And you know what you make friends with, you know how to make friends at that time, you go to Walmart. Walmart became my best friend for three years. And you know what, guys? Walmart gets a hard time. But as a student from another country who's never seen anything like it, there is nothing better than doing your groceries while picking up a new pair of jeans and a microwave and a shower curtain and a pack of Sharpies at 4 a.m. in the morning.
Nowhere else in the world gives you that freedom. And America is all about freedom, right? Somehow, Walmart is both the best and the worst thing about America all combined into one thing. And I say that to say that I know what it means to be hurting financially and to kind of have to aim at that level of shopping. And for the longest time, I just, I couldn't give regularly. It wasn't a thing that I was able to do.
I literally had no income. And so all that time, I was serving in the church, this church, convincing myself that was enough. I'm doing the best I can. And what I didn't realize is that after what Paul says in verse 2, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. I was missing out on that abundance of joy. I was missing out on that because I'd convinced myself I need the money.
It's all mine. I couldn't, I couldn't give it away. An abundance of joy sounds pretty great to me. And yet, I robbed myself of it over money. Now I get it.
If you don't have a whole lot of money to spare, if you have already cut expenses where you think you can, if you're living kind of at the line, not below the line, but at the line already, and you're just doing what you can to keep the family safe and keep the family fed and that kind of stuff, giving financially is tough. It is. My guess though, is that there's probably some room, probably some room for all of us to cut something out, even if it's for a month or two, in order to make some room for generosity around Christmas. Now, there is a possibility that perhaps if you truly, truly are hurting, if you truly, truly cannot give, and in fact, you need the help yourself, I don't want you to hear from the message this morning that you need to give even though you need help.
Because actually, oops, actually, as the church, our response to people who need help is to help them. And so, in Acts chapter 2, which is kind of how we have designed our church, in Acts chapter 2, it talks about how they all sold their positions and distributed the money to those in need. And we still function like that as a church. So, if you're truly hurting, our response to you isn't, cut something out, give money away. Our response to you is, how can we help? So anyway, I don't know your circumstances.
I don't think anyone knows your circumstances except for you. But, I'm saying all of this to say, I don't want money. We don't want money to rob you of being God's grace to other people. Don't want your love of money and the ability to buy stuff for yourself to rob you of the ability of helping other people who need it. The church that Paul writes about, the churches of Macedonia, they gave more than they could really afford. But it also says that they begged for the privilege to do so.
That's kind of crazy. They wanted so badly to help others even when they couldn't really afford to. They didn't just scrape off the excess, they dug into their savings account. Now for us, I don't really know how to, it's hard to say what it would look like today, but it would be almost like if a homeless person gets $10, could probably get themselves food for two days if they chose wisely. But instead of doing that, they chose to take another homeless maid of theirs out and go get McDonald's and they share a meal together off of the $10 that he made rather than feeding himself for a couple days.
It's the family that literally survives on food stamps who invite their neighbor over to share a meal with them anyway, even though they need the food themselves. Now most of us, I think, are in a pretty different place to that, so I don't want to be a super downer, but most of us are in a pretty different place to that. And self-sacrifice is going to look different. It's not going to be so ambitious. But it can take some pretty obvious and easy steps.
Let's take just one pretty easy example and kind of walk down a ladder. Let's say you are the direct TV fully loaded package kind of family. Sacrifice for your family if you're already at that level may look like let's cut direct TV for a year and go to Time Warner Cable because it's cheaper even though the service is kind of lame. Let's just go down there. That way we save 30 or 40 bucks a month and we can set that aside and give that away. We're sacrificing as a family.
We're not going to deal with all that good stuff anymore. We're going to set that aside and go to something more basic. Maybe you're already at that second level and you think maybe we'll cut out our cable subscription and go to the internet only package pick up a Netflix account or something like that and just survive on that for a while. And then you can save another 30 bucks a month and distribute that however you feel is working for you. Maybe you're already at that level the Netflix level and you think maybe I should start reading my books that I've been saving for seven years and I don't know maybe learn to read again and just cut the Netflix subscription and then you've at least got what is it now nine dollars a month that can be given away to something.
Whatever it is for you we don't know your circumstances I don't know your circumstances I can't tell you what you should do or what's the right level of whatever whatever it is what does it look like for self-sacrifice to come for you because as Paul said in chapter 8 they did it out of their extreme poverty and an abundance of joy flowed out of it. Let's keep reading verse 5 he says and this when he says this he's talking about that abundance of joy coming from extreme poverty and sacrificially giving and this not as we expected but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Their primary allegiance was to God they were completely devoted to him and as a result through that relationship they were generous to the other churches just down the road who were struggling. Verse 6 Accordingly we urged Titus that as he had started so he should complete among you this act of grace but as you excel in everything in faith in speech in knowledge in all earnestness and in our love for you see that you excel in this act of grace also.
And in our love for you see that you excel in this act of grace also. Paul's saying good Job guys you're crushing it you've got this you've got the faith down you're excelling in faith you're excelling in speech you're excelling in knowledge you're saying good things you're doing good things you know some good stuff
Just don't forget to be a part of this act of grace as well. Don't forget to be a part of this sacrificial giving thing as well. and then look again at actually let's go to verse 8 he says I say this not as a command but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine Paul says
I'm not forcing you to give your money away nobody's telling you that this is a command and that you absolutely have to do it to earn God's favor you don't have to give your money away but when you do that sincere love reflects Jesus it shows how much you love Jesus
In your ability to give to others now let's look at today's verse which is verse 9 for you know by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich
Christ's grace that is the grace of Christ defines motivates and puts into perspective our generosity grace is an undeserved gift the gift that we did not deserve that he gave us anyway and Christ's grace to us is that
Even though we turned away from God even though we chose sin as our life direction even though we chose to reject a relationship with him he humbled himself to be born as a human baby so that we might pay attention to him
He became a human a perfect human one who was completely without fault so that in his death in his sacrifice he could atone for our sin that's the message of the gospel that while we were still sinners Christ died for us he took a step away from his
Throne came into our world and gave up his life in order to restore our relationship to the father that's what it's talking about when it says Christ's grace so let me say this again the grace of Christ defines motivates and puts
Into perspective a generosity that's a big statement that even though he was rich he became poor so that by us his poverty might become rich he had everything he gave up to be chilling in heaven where time space distance
Hunger pain none of that even exists and he gave up that completely full completely holy completely powerful he gave all of that up to become a human to be born as a baby which is
Basically a crying potato he gave up all of that to become a baby so that he could be bound to a place bound to a time feel pain feel hunger feel temptation to become
A traveling homeless unpopular preacher who would eventually be killed by the people that he was trying to save when he was killed he had one item of clothing that was worth fighting over that's all
That he had to his name was one item of clothing that people gambled over so they could have something that was left over from him and he did it all he did all of that left the throne came down
To earth born as a human baby so that we could know the father that's our God our God became a nobody so that nobodies could find God no other story talks about a God like that our God became a nobody so that
Nobodies could find God so I talked earlier about how I've got a logical brain I think this is where it kicks in as a result of what he said in chapter 8 verse 9 our generosity the way that we're open handed with our money our generosity is a reflexive response
To God's grace in our lives our generosity our giving sacrificially of ourselves is a response to what God has already done for us we don't give because we're good people we don't give because we're really into philanthropy we don't give because the Bible rule book tells me I
Have to in fact it says this is not a command we don't give because we're altruistic do-gooders we give as a response to God's grace so to put it in mathematical terms or physics terms God's grace is the action and our giving
Is the reaction God's grace is the action our giving is the reaction let me say that one more time God's grace is the action our giving is a reaction now the physics nerds in the room they're probably going to really like that because it
Sounds a whole lot like Newton's third law of motion and then you think about it a little harder and you remember that Newton's third law of motion says that for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction emphasis on equal for every action
There's an equal and opposite reaction meaning that if we apply it to what we just said God's grace is the action our giving is the equal reaction go ponder that one you physics nerds but seriously the point is that we give
Because he gave first and we give in reaction to what he's already given to us it's not about us it's never been about us in fact our generosity is an act of grace and we're doing it in order to glorify Jesus
Not ourselves Christians they don't give to glorify themselves we don't give so that others will see us we give because we've seen Jesus our motivation isn't selfish our motivation cannot
Be selfish our motivation is that Christ gave up a lot for me so I'm going to give up a lot for Christ so what does that actually mean for us I actually think that at Christmas time that actually
Becomes an easier question to answer mainly because we're really hyper exposed to materialism at Christmas time and everyone kind of knows it even outside of the church
Outside of believers everyone knows that Christmas time is a really materialistic time so I think it becomes an easier question to answer now the best
Answer is just to pass on the cultural narrative to pass on the cultural narrative that Christmas is all about the perfect gift the
Ornaments the decorating the cheer the happy family the mariah carey album the starbucks whatever it is or complaining about the starbucks cup or whatever
It is Christmas isn't about all of that now those things can be fun no problem with enjoying them they're just not the point
And I think that's where typically we get it twisted as a church we don't just say don't get involved in the cultural narrative
We actually try to redirect so it's not just don't get involved in the cultural mess we actually say here's something better to get
Involved in and that's why we have a give series because we say instead of getting involved in that open up your wallets and
Give financially to something that's actually going to make an Christmas time is a time when a lot of people in our city who are already
In need feel it the most they feel the need year round but there's a certain pressure that comes along with just the Christmas
Time to buy the perfect stuff to be the happy family to have it all together that sting of being unable to provide is
Particularly harsh at Christmas time so as a church every year around this time we get really excited to give away all of our money we
Commit to giving at Christmas we see Christmas for what it actually is which is a time when we remember that Christ has done a lot for us and
So we can do a lot for him at Christmas we thank Jesus for his generosity to us and we give generously as a response and
If you're new around here part of what we do every year is we host the give series and then we pick a give
Project throughout the years we pick a give project and collectively as a church we commit to funding pulling off whatever we've chosen as
A project throughout the years we've done a couple things we've grown as a church so it's kind of progressively gotten bigger each year
We started off with what we called love bombs which is where we picked particular families who were in need around the city and
Each of our community groups raised support for whatever that family needed the next year we did we bought presents for over 100 kids
Families they otherwise probably wouldn't have got Christmas presents that year and on either side of this stage we set up boards with all
Of their names and a little cutout and people swarmed up to grab a name so they could go home and buy gifts for
Those people last year we were involved in flood recovery both in financially supporting it and in actually pulling off the work involved in
Flood it's been pretty exciting throughout the years to be involved in all of these different gift projects and so we're incredibly excited this year
To be partnering with a sub ministry of Christ Central Ministries called Samaritan's Well it's actually in Lexington Samaritan's Well is a shelter and a transition home
For women often with children who have come out of a variety of rough situations be it abusive or neglectful or homelessness and it's
A ministry that tries to help these women in those tough situations get back on their feet now usually what happens as we introduce a
Give series is we'll talk about generosity giving financially and we'll introduce the series on week one and then we'll just start collecting money until the end and
Then we'll deal with the money kind of at the end of the end of the series we're not doing it like that this
Year at all in fact today there's going to be an opportunity to respond financially this year we're shaking it up and we're going to
Respond in phases so if you're a position where responding financially immediately is a thing you can do then today is a great day for you if
You're in a position where responding financially immediately isn't necessarily something you can do you there are currently six women and they're combined seven children
At Samaritan's Well as a church we want to provide the opportunity for these families to celebrate at Christmas so this week as a church we're going
To commit to these six women and seven children each down here on our little janky old school pallet Christmas tree you'll see that
There's 13 little stockings that look like this each one of those represents one of the women or one of the seven children we
Want to provide a $50 gift card for each and every one of those stockings each and every one of those women and children
At Samaritan's Well as a church that's a total commitment of $650 and given the support that we've raised for previous give series I'm pretty
Handled that now remember you actually I know it's over here and you guys have a long way to go but you don't have to
Fight over it because there is subsequent phases and series weeks we're also going to be collecting money for other things as well now here
Are the rules slash guidelines for this week's phase one of our give project which is for Samaritan's Well rule number one only commit
To this give project as a response to Jesus' generosity to you do not commit for any other reason we don't want your money
We want a generous heart in our church that's rule number one rule number two this is more of a guideline let's take guideline
Number two I'm gonna swap it up halfway through if fifty dollars is a huge commitment but you still want to give and you
Have permission to pick someone and organize as a two or three or four or five if you need to break out your phone
Or text someone who's not here because you really want to give and you can't afford the fifty but you want to split it
Some way you have permission go ahead team up organize ways to get the Job done in and amongst yourselves That's guideline number two. Guideline number three. Do not push each other to the ground in a mad frenzy to come and claim one.
I realize I shouldn't have to say that, but I've seen you all respond to give projects before. And when 120 names disappeared in 17 seconds flat a couple years ago, I figured that given there's only 13 things over there, we just might have to make an announcement on that. Remember, if you miss out today because you chose to sit all the way over here and you didn't know that the Give Project was going to have stuff down the front and you didn't realize that those things weren't just decorations and you really want to do it, but someone else beats you there, you can sit in this front row next week. It's always empty. Rule number four. Once you've claimed a gift card, once you've claimed a stocking and you've committed to getting a gift card, we want you to be prepared to bring that back next week. There's going to be a table set up somewhere over there.
There's a Give table. And we're going to collect all of those next week so that we can actually make some moves on this Give, on phase one of the Give Project. So if you're going to pick one up this week, be prepared to come back next week to deliver on that. We're suggesting for gift cards kind of like a Walmart or a Target or a Visa card, that kind of thing. That way our families have some flexibility on whether they want to get clothes or toys or that kind of thing. We kind of want them to have a good opportunity to get whatever they need. Let's steer away from restaurants and that kind of stuff because we really want them to be able to buy some stuff that they might need. Rule number five. In order to give some time for the people
Who need help getting together and grouping up and stuff, in order to give them some time, we're actually going to wait. We're not going to respond immediately. We're not going to jump up right now. We're going to wait until the gathering today is kind of concluded. There's going to be songs. Chet's going to give some announcements, that kind of stuff. We're going to wait until it's concluded and when everything's over, that's when we're going to make a move and grab a stocking and respond to it then. Those are the five rules. We really want to aim to have all of those stockings gone today. That's phase one of our gift project. We're going to raise $650 to support these women and their kids celebrating Christmas together and we want to get that done today.
Once all of these have been claimed, this is still tentative. This is not necessarily happening but we want our groups particularly to be open to the possibility that if and when these women and their kids need help to go out and get the shopping done, like they may not, we don't know all of their situations, if they need a ride, if they want to go out and get dinner, like maybe your group could sponsor to take them out to dinner and then go to Walmart or go to Target or whatever to help them out when it comes time to actually using the gift cards. That's a great opportunity for us if we can make it happen to not just be a faceless church that sponsors them but actually to invest in them personally,
To begin a relationship, to invite them into our groups, to invite them into our lives and to make sure that they're actually building hearing the gospel as well. We want to make ourselves available to them so that gospel conversations can happen as best we can. Guys, I think we are, I think we have an exciting and incredible opportunity today to serve these women and since Christ loved us first, we get to respond with glad, sincere, and generous hearts. Let's pray for that. God, I want to thank you for the generosity of the Macedonian church and how they can be an example thousands of years later to us of what it looks like
To sacrifice so that others can have their needs provided for. Thank you for the Christmas season and that it's a joyful time where friends and family can get together. But I pray that that we will keep our eyes focused on you, that we will respond, that we will respond to the Christmas season as those who have been saved by your grace. I pray that you will work through us in this season to not buy into the cultural consumerism, to not buy into the cultural narrative that tells us that Christmas is
All about us, all about joy, all about Santa, all about gifts, but instead that it's about making Jesus known. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.
I realize I shouldn't have to say that, but I've seen you all respond to give projects before. And when 120 names disappeared in 17 seconds flat a couple years ago, I figured that given there's only 13 things over there, we just might have to make an announcement on that. Remember, if you miss out today because you chose to sit all the way over here and you didn't know that the Give Project was going to have stuff down the front and you didn't realize that those things weren't just decorations and you really want to do it, but someone else beats you there, you can sit in this front row next week. It's always empty.
Rule number four. Once you've claimed a gift card, once you've claimed a stocking and you've committed to getting a gift card, we want you to be prepared to bring that back next week. There's going to be a table set up somewhere over there. There's a Give table. And we're going to collect all of those next week so that we can actually make some moves on this Give, on phase one of the Give Project. So if you're going to pick one up this week, be prepared to come back next week to deliver on that.
We're suggesting for gift cards kind of like a Walmart or a Target or a Visa card, that kind of thing. That way our families have some flexibility on whether they want to get clothes or toys or that kind of thing. We kind of want them to have a good opportunity to get whatever they need. Let's steer away from restaurants and that kind of stuff because we really want them to be able to buy some stuff that they might need. Rule number five. In order to give some time for the people who need help getting together and grouping up and stuff, in order to give them some time, we're actually going to wait.
We're not going to respond immediately. We're not going to jump up right now. We're going to wait until the gathering today is kind of concluded. There's going to be songs. Chet's going to give some announcements, that kind of stuff. We're going to wait until it's concluded and when everything's over, that's when we're going to make a move and grab a stocking and respond to it then.
Those are the five rules. We really want to aim to have all of those stockings gone today. That's phase one of our gift project. We're going to raise $650 to support these women and their kids celebrating Christmas together and we want to get that done today. Once all of these have been claimed, this is still tentative. This is not necessarily happening but we want our groups particularly to be open to the possibility that if and when these women and their kids need help to go out and get the shopping done, like they may not, we don't know all of their situations, if they need a ride, if they want to go out and get dinner, like maybe your group could sponsor to take them out to dinner and then go to Walmart or go to Target or whatever to help them out when it comes time to actually using the gift cards.
That's a great opportunity for us if we can make it happen to not just be a faceless church that sponsors them but actually to invest in them personally, to begin a relationship, to invite them into our groups, to invite them into our lives and to make sure that they're actually building hearing the gospel as well. We want to make ourselves available to them so that gospel conversations can happen as best we can. Guys, I think we are, I think we have an exciting and incredible opportunity today to serve these women and since Christ loved us first, we get to respond with glad, sincere, and generous hearts. Let's pray for that.
God, I want to thank you for the generosity of the Macedonian church and how they can be an example thousands of years later to us of what it looks like to sacrifice so that others can have their needs provided for. Thank you for the Christmas season and that it's a joyful time where friends and family can get together. But I pray that that we will keep our eyes focused on you, that we will respond, that we will respond to the Christmas season as those who have been saved by your grace. I pray that you will work through us in this season to not buy into the cultural consumerism, to not buy into the cultural narrative that tells us that Christmas is all about us, all about joy, all about Santa, all about gifts, but instead that it's about making Jesus known.
It's in his name that we pray. Amen.
Worry and Anxiety
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name's Jeff, one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles, let's go to Philippians chapter 4. We'll be in Philippians chapter 4. That's on page 637, if you have a blue and white Bible. Today is our last week of our Killjoy series where we've been spending some time taking, taking some time to look at different things in our lives that just rob us of joy.
As Christians, those who follow Jesus, we've been given joy, been given life in Christ, and we have just some things that kind of play with us that we've gotten used to. And so today we're going to be talking about worry and anxiety, and we've kind of flipped this morning, so we're going to spend a little bit of time, but we're going to come out and spend a little time praying and singing, and so we wanted to have time for that, so I'm getting started this morning. And so we're going to get to Philippians in a second, but it's going to take us a second to get there, because I want to kind of lay the framework for us so that we can all kind of approach it the same way and know exactly what we're talking about when we're talking about worry and anxiety. We're going to use those terms interchangeably today as we walk through, and I realize that there's four of us.
We have things to actually be worried about, actually to be anxious over. So let's say, you know, it starts off, maybe you're in high school, and so you begin to, should I go out for a sport? If I go out for a sport, will I make the team? If I make the team, will I actually get to play? If I get to play, will I be any good? Will we win?
Should I ask somebody to a date? Should I go to that party? What should I wear? How's my hair? Do I smell okay? Like there's things to be concerned about.
Maybe it's not just kind of the social stuff, but you're like, should I, when I graduate, should I go to school? Should I get a job? If I go to school, where should I go? How many schools, how many colleges should I apply to? Because I really want to apply to enough so that I get into one, but not so many that I have to apply a lot. Like I don't want to have to write a bunch of essays.
So how much do I do that? Am I going to graduate? When do I graduate? What am I going to do? Let's say you go to college.
You do get into a school. Let's say maybe a couple of schools told you you could come. So now it's like, okay, I've got to figure out which one to go to. But you pick one, you go to college, then it's like, okay, well, am I going to make any friends here? How's that going to go? Should I go to that party?
Should I invite someone to the party? Should I go to the party and try to find someone there to invite to something else? Should I date? How's my hair? Do I smell okay? Like there's, you go back through some of this stuff.
What, I've got to pick a major, and I have an exam this weekend, or the end of this week, and it's in chemistry. Maybe I'll wait until after that exam to pick a major because it might pick for me. Like if I fail that, not chemistry. I'll pick something else. If you begin to try to think, what am I going to do when I graduate? Am I here to get a degree and find a job?
Am I here to find someone to marry? Am I going to get married? Do I smell okay? Like there's going to be, like you continually kind of have things to worry about. Let's say you do start dating.
Let's say you do graduate. When I graduate, are we going to get married? Am I going to start a job? Where? What kind of Job? Am I going to make enough money?
Do I go to graduate school? No, I'm tired of school. So I'm going to start a job. Find one. Finally find one. Let's say you do decide to get married.
Let's say you're in that spot. So you go to get married. Now you've got all some other stuff to be concerned about. How did I move in with one other person and suddenly our expenses tripled? How did that happen? How is that how math works?
Are we going to be able to pay our bills? Is my job going to be good enough? Am I going to do a good enough Job? Am I going to get promoted to it? Can I stay in this job for a long time? Is this a career?
Is this a job? Maybe if you've been married for a while and this is kind of you start thinking of, should we have children? Can we have children? Will we be able to get pregnant? If we get pregnant, will that work out? If it does work out and we have a baby, will that work out?
Will we be able to keep a baby alive? If we do keep it alive, what happens when it becomes a teenager? Let's say you have a girl. What if she wants to date in the future? What if she wants to date a boy? What do I do?
Should I buy a gun or a shovel or both? Which is scarier? A machete or a shotgun? You have things to be concerned about. Then your kids are going to go to school.
They get in high school and you start thinking, are they going to go to college? It starts over. Am I going to retire? Will my health last? Will this sickness go away? And for people who have anxiety and worry, it gets a compound on itself.
So for people who are anxious, who are worriers, you begin to worry about, will I worry? Will I get anxious? When you're anxious and you're worrying, you begin to worry, will this go away? You see, all of us have some anxiety. All of us have some level of worry. And none of us like it.
For people who struggle with anxiety and worry, this is an issue that you have. You don't think, yeah, no, this is good for me. I love my anxiety. I love my worry. I love my stress. I love that I grind my teeth when I go to sleep, if I can fall asleep.
I love that I wake up in the morning and think, will I get through the day without being anxious? That all of us who struggle with anxiety and worry, we really have one major overarching question, I believe, which is, what do I do with this? I know that it's an issue. I don't have legitimate things to be anxious over. But what do I do in my anxiety?
What do I do in my worry? So as we get into this today, I want us to know a few things. There are, worry and anxiety are both a mental state and a feeling. There's some form of physicality to worry and anxiety. Here's what I mean. You can't be worried mentally, so you're thinking about what could happen, what might happen, what if this happens, what if this is how this happens.
There's just a mental state, kind of riding in circles in your brain, thinking through all the things that could go on. But there's also a feeling to it. There's a pressure. There's some people describing like a balloon fills up inside of them or like they're being squeezed. Maybe your blood pressure rises, your heart starts beating faster, and they can go together, and one of them can cause the other. So you want to have something that you're thinking about that causes all of the feelings, all the physical feelings.
Some of us actually begin the physical feelings first before we even begin to think about what on earth is worrying us. It's almost like, for some of you, it's almost like you're a little animal in a cartoon, and the background music changes. So what was like happy little, I'm not, I'm a musician, but something like that. Suddenly the background music changes to like a, like violence coming in, there's some sort of theory, and you don't know what's about to happen, but you know it's not good. And so maybe that's what your anxiety feels like. You don't know what's going on, but suddenly it's like the background music changed, and your body is telling you something bad is about to happen, but you can't even think about what it is.
And so this anxiety, this tightness, this stress, this pressure, this balloon inflating inside of you makes you begin to run in your head. What could it be? What's going to happen? How is this going to happen? I want us to know a few things as we go together this passage. We have to see a few things clearly to understand what's going on.
One, worry and anxiety are not simply circumstantial. Not simply circumstantial, meaning that some of you are worried or are worried, how am I going to pay for this? You don't have money, so you're worried. How are we going to pay all our bills? How are we going to keep our house? How are we going to?
And then here's what happens, though. You can talk to anybody who has money. Getting money doesn't take away the worry. You just begin to worry about other things. How am I going to keep what I have? How am I going to get more?
You begin to be concerned over your possessions now. Worry is not simply circumstantial. It's not like you can move to a different circumstance and it goes away. It does have circumstances tied to it, certainly. And there are, for some of us, we are worried about, well, this is a specific thing I'm worried about. Of course you are.
But worry and anxiety are not merely circumstantial. So if you took away the circumstances, you'd be fine. Worry also tells us some truth. Our anxiety is telling us some truth. Number one, it's telling us that the world is not how it should be. Alan Tipping, a pastor at Midtown Fellowship, he laid this out.
He said, the worry tells us some truth. I thought it was helpful. So one, it tells you the world's broken. It's not as it should be. There are actual things to be worried about. Actual bad things that can happen.
There's brokenness and pain and sickness and death. They exist. There are real things to be worried about. Secondly, our worry tells us that there are actual things to care about. Real things that we should be worried over. Real things to love and to value.
That our worry tells us the truth. It tells us that our world isn't as it should be. And that there are actual things worth loving. Worth being concerned for. And thirdly, our worry tells us that we're not in control. So not only is the world broken, not only are there things actually that we should care about, but thirdly, we at times have no control over any of that.
No control over health. No control over wealth. No control over happiness. No control over relationships. We have no control over it. That our worry is telling us some truth.
It's not telling us the whole truth, but it is telling us some truth. So that for us, worry is not in and of itself. And I'm going to clarify this as we keep going. But worry and anxiety, this feeling, is not by itself wrong or bad. It means that you have no faith and don't love Jesus. That there is a level of physicality to it.
There's a level of blood pressure and heartbreak and real things to be concerned about. The Bible's question is, what do we do with our worry, with our anxiety? I want to read this from Luke 12. It's going to be on screen, so you don't have to flip there. I just want you to see this. This is Jesus talking.
And he's talking about the cross. I have a baptism to be baptized with. That's the cross. That's a baptism he's going to go through. He refers to it at some point as a baptism of fire. He's going to the cross.
I have a baptism to be baptized with. And how great is my distress until it is accomplished. So this is Jesus looking forward to the cross and saying, I'm distressed. That word also means hard pressed or squeezed. I'm bound. I feel it.
I feel like someone is putting pressure on me. I'm distressed until it's accomplished. Now, Jesus was not a worrier. He was not anxious. But he felt this distress for a legitimate reason, a legitimate purpose.
We see him in the garden of Gethsemane. In Gethsemane, before he goes to the cross, the night before he goes to the cross, he is sweating drops of blood. He feels in himself anxiety that he's on his knees praying and pouring himself out to God. So for the person in the room who struggles with anxiety, for the person who at times has panic attacks or anxiety attacks or maybe you're on some medication, what I want you to hear is anxiety by itself is not immediately simple or wrong. The Bible's question is, what are you going to do with it? And so that's what we're going to spend our time on today is actually beginning to ask the question, what do we do with our anxiety?
How do we respond? Because for us, it does rob us of joy. It does, it can derail us for you. A month. And you may be, you're saying, I have legitimate things to be worried about. Yes.
But what do we do in those legitimate moments? And what do we do in the illegitimate moments? What do we do with our anxiety? The other thing we've talked about as we've gone through this series and we won't have as much time to spend on it today is that we have three enemies. The flesh, that's us. The world.
All of everything outside of us in the devil. And as Christians, we should pray about all three. So Jesus says the normal prayer is, forgive me my sins, that's flesh. Leave me not into temptation. That's the world. And deliver us from evil or the evil one.
That's the devil. So that's a normal way for all of us to pray. And I would encourage every person who struggles with anxiety as a, this is a part of life for me. I would encourage you to pray those three ways about your anxiety. God, if this is me causing undue anxiety, I pray that you'd forgive me. I pray that you'd help me.
If there are ways that you can help me avoid situations and circumstances that make me anxious, temptation should be anxious. I pray that you'd help me there, keep me from it. And if the enemy is involved in my anxiety, he doesn't get to me. So if he's jacking up my heart rate or making me feel this extra pressure just in the name of Jesus, I get to be free from that. So if you've listened to the majority of this series, that makes sense to you.
If you're new today, probably doesn't. I'd love to talk to you afterwards. We're just not going to spend a lot of time on that today. This morning. So anxiety is both a mental state and a feeling.
I'm going to pray and then we're going to start reading Philippians 4. God, we thank you that your word helps us in our anxiety. We're as anxious as a society as we have, as medicated as we are, as worried as we are. I'm so thankful that your word talks about this. That you talk to real humans where they are. You need us where we are.
You begin to help us. Let's pray that through your word today we begin to learn how we ought to respond to our anxiety. And that we will grow in our love for you and our trust in you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Philippians 4, verse 4.
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. That means celebrate. Be happy. Have joy in it. Overwhelming joy.
So you say, have joy in the Lord. Rejoice. I'll say it again. Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.
It means Jesus is prominent. He's coming back. He's here. Verse 6. Do not be anxious about anything. Well, there you go.
You're welcome. Paul says, do not be anxious about anything. And if you just stop there, that wouldn't be helpful. Some of you who struggle with anxiety. When I say Philippians 4, you knew where we were going. You're like, yeah, here we go.
Okay, Philippians 4. Somebody, you've memorized this. Maybe some well-meaning person in your life used it as a Bible bullet to shoot you with. Shoot you with. Shoot you with. Shoot you with.
So you were trying to be anxious. You're welcome. Let me help you out here. First of all, Paul doesn't stop here. He's telling the truth. What he's saying is right.
Don't be anxious about anything. But he's going to tell us how. And he's going to give us some help. For the person in the room who has an anxious spouse or an anxious sibling or parent or roommate or friend. The Bible does say, do not be anxious. But it says a lot behind that that helps us out.
Don't just say this to people. Really anxious about my test. Well, don't be. Thank you so much. You fixed me. Some of you, maybe your spouse is anxious at what you do.
But you just tell them the reason why they shouldn't be. You give them a reason. You're like, no. You don't have to worry about that. You don't have to be anxious about that. Even the Bible says, don't be anxious.
And then you get frustrated with them. You have a very. For those people who do not struggle with worry and anxiety. There are a few things that can be as frustrating as being in a close relationship to a person who struggles with worry and anxiety. No amens. No anybody.
But just that's a real thing. Because if you don't think about it. If you don't struggle. If you've never experienced it. You've never had a panic attack. You've never.
Like any of those things. When somebody's freaking out. And it seems like for no reason whatsoever. It is very hard when you go. Okay. You logically understand.
Like nothing's going to get you. Yes. I'm still freaking out. Well, stop. That'd be like walking up some stairs behind a person on crutches. And yelling, go faster.
Repeatedly. If they could. They would. The only benefit of being the person with crutches is they can hit you with them. The person who's anxious cannot make you be anxious too. So.
Yes. What Paul says here is true. Don't be anxious about anything. But it doesn't stop there. So we're not going to eat it.
It's going to help us here. Alright. Do not be anxious about anything. But in everything. By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God.
Okay. As I was studying this. I got more and more excited about what I think Paul's saying here. Don't be anxious about anything. Don't let anything cause you anxiety. Don't let anything stress you out or overwhelm you.
And then he says, but in everything. Pray. Don't be anxious about anything. Pray about everything. Here's what I think we need to see. Very clearly this morning.
Because anxiety is both a mental state and a physical feeling. Paul says the way to immediately counteract worry and anxiety. Is to begin praying. If you are praying. You are not worrying. And you're not being anxious.
That's really good news. And here's what I don't mean by that. And here's what I don't think he means by that. The feeling immediately goes away. So you're anxious.
You're stressed. Your heart's pounding out of your chest. Or you just have a lot of things to worry about. You're worried about your children. Maybe it's not a whole lot of anxiety. Maybe there's not a whole lot of physical feelings going on.
It's just a mental thing. What he says is no. Start praying. Start making your requests known to God. Start taking the things that you're running around in your head that you're concerned about. Start just praying about them.
It's kind of like this. If I have work to do and I don't do it, I'm lazy. The second I start working, I'm not lazy anymore. But my circumstances haven't changed. There's still all the work to be done. So what he's saying is circumstances aren't going to immediately change.
Maybe your feeling isn't going to immediately change. Your level of anxiety isn't going to change. But as soon as you start praying, it's no longer anxiety. It's no longer worry. Because we're in anxiety are godless. They are aimed nowhere or at yourself.
You begin to act like you're the person in charge of everything when you are worrying, when you're anxious. What Paul says is no. Start praying. And that immediately makes you not worry and anxiety, even though the circumstances are the same and the feeling is the same. I think that can be very free for those who struggle with worrying and anxiety to be able to know, if I'm praying, I'm doing what I'm supposed to. If I'm making my request known to God, I'm immediately doing what I'm called to do.
Here's the thing about worrying and anxiety. Worry and anxiety are a call to action with no action to take. Worry and anxiety make us want to change something. Change the situation. Change the circumstances. Fix something.
Make sure something doesn't happen in the future. And the reason we're in anxiety is because we can't do anything about it. We have zero control. Biblically, worry and anxiety are a call to action and there is an action to take. Prayer. You immediately get to pray.
And here's what I want you to know. Prayer works. You get to talk to the God who's absolutely faithful and in control of your circumstances. For those of you who feel like I'm a warrior and this won't go away, maybe you need to stop praying, Lord, take away my anxiety. And you need to just realize you've been called to pray about what it is you're anxious about. You get to spend some time praying about your children, praying about your parents, praying about your roommates, your school, your job.
You get to go before God and we get to make some requests. That's beautiful. And that's freeing. Because you say, well, I want my anxiety to go away. It might not. But it immediately is no longer anxiety when you're praying.
You can change the word. It's to be concerned. Because praying counteracts anxiety. Because anxiety is the name of nowhere. It's godless. And prayer is the name towards God.
And it's worshiping. So the way to not be anxious about anything is to pray about everything. So if you're a person who says, I'm really anxious, well, you don't have to be. Because you get to pray about everything. Not to say that it'll fix it. Not to say God will do what you ask him to.
Not to say that you feel different. But it's not anxiety if you're praying. So some of you have been praying and you feel like you're praying about something and you feel like, I'm still anxious. Not if you're praying. Not if you're praying. You may feel the same.
It's not anxiety. Okay. So you've been called to do something. Here's what I want you to see. So here's what I think for people who struggle with anxiety.
And especially when it's a legitimate, like I'm anxious over this relationship. I'm anxious over this child. I'm anxious over this thing that's going on in the life that's coming up. It causes anxiety. Maybe it causes you more than other people. So all of your other classmates are also taking exams.
But you're the one who can't sleep at night. I want to tell you a story that Jesus tells in Luke chapter 12. I think this is so helpful. He's talking about prayer. He's telling them to keep praying and not to give up. And here's what he says.
There's a widow who keeps going to a judge who doesn't love God. He doesn't fear people or God. And she keeps going to him day after day after day after day after day after day after day. And finally, he gives her justice. The judge does what he's supposed to because she kept bothering him. Now, why does she keep bothering him?
She had a legitimate thing to be concerned over. She had a legitimate thing that was weighing on her mind. So what did she do? She took it to the person who could do something about it. And Jesus says this is a model for prayer. When you have something legitimate weighing on your mind and concerning you and something that you're bothered by, that actually drives you to God.
So I actually don't think the Bible wants to eradicate all of our concern. For some of us who are anxious over things, I would just wish it would go away and I would stop thinking about this. But maybe God in your anxiety is calling you to prayer. Not to worry, but to him. That's beautiful. I hope we have a lot of people who can't sleep at night so that they get up and go get on their knees before Jesus.
That would be beautiful. I hope there's a lot of people that wake up with legitimate concerns for their children and their families and people in their community group and people in our city. So they spend time before Jesus and their anxiety still presses down on them and they run to the one who can help. That's beautiful. Because when we're praying, we're not anxious. We're putting it to work.
So Paul's going to give us... So that immediately counteracts the mental state. You may feel the same, but you're actually going to put your anxiety, you're going to put your worry to work. And then it's no longer anxiety, it's no longer worry. But Paul's also going to give us ways to pray that begin to help, I think, specifically counteract our needless worry or our worry that is too great.
So you have a legitimate thing to be worried about. So some of you, you've got an exam coming. And you should have some concern over it. Enough to study. Enough to care. To look at your syllabus.
To show up to the class on time. Some of your friends who never worry, miss the exam. And that might seem great that they don't worry, but they didn't look at their syllabus. They showed up two days late. They thought they were there on the exam day and they're handing out grace. There's some level of worry that's helpful.
Some of your friends are dumb. Okay. You have something to actually worry about. But then, you begin to add layers on top of that. What if I show up late? What if it still says this, but it's actually a different thing?
What if it changed today and I didn't see anything? What if I get there and it turns out all the stuff I studied isn't on the test? What if I show up to the wrong class? What if I end up taking that exam because I don't notice the wrong class? What if this is the one thing that I fail? What if it turns out that everything I studied, even though I have a decent grade point average Job, and this is what I can make if I fail, if I fail this class, and then I won't graduate, if I don't graduate, I'm going to end up not being able to get a job, I'm going to go live with my parents, and that would be terrible, so I'll run away.
Even though I'm an adult, I'm going to pack a bag and run away. Like, you add on layer after layer after layer after layer of what if, what if, what if, and you have a legitimate thing to be concerned about. Some of you use your children. Some of you use the health of someone you care about. You have a legitimate thing to be concerned about, and you begin adding layer after layer after layer. I think what Paul's going to say in the next section on how we pray helps free us up a little bit.
So he gives us three tools for prayer. Supplication, thanksgiving, and meditation. We're going to go through these, but supplication, thanksgiving, and meditation. So the first one, supplication. So he says this in verse 6.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, lay your request, be made known to God. Okay, so supplication means a humble request. What he's saying is, in the midst of your anxiety, realize that God is both big and good. You know how when you're little, maybe you learn how to pray, God is great, God is good. Great means big. Good means good.
So we also use great to mean good. That's confusing. It means God is big, God is good. That's what supplication is. It's actually, I believe he's big enough, and he cares about me. So when I was little, and I would misbehave with my mom, after a while, she stopped spanking us because it didn't work.
She wasn't good at it. My father was good at it. He had lots of practice, I guess. I don't know. He practiced when my older brother loved me. By the time he came to me, he was a master.
He was an art form. He was spanking. He was amazing. He knew what he was doing. He was a pro. And so my mom would look at us, and she would say, you can sit over there and wait until your dad gets home.
Because she knew when my dad showed up, he could handle it. And some of us, that's what supplication is. We need to look at our worries and say, sit over there and wait until God gets here. See, we're so focused on our worry, our anxiety, that it's as big as a mountain. But yeah, that's a miniscule compared to the God who holds the emotion in his hand.
Some of us need to look at our worry and say, sit over there. And then begin to turn and talk to God and ask him, because he's big and because he's good, to step down in the back. To humble ourselves. To know that we're not the ones who are going to fix this. We're not the ones who are in charge of this. We have no control over this.
Some of you think, if I have control over how my kids turn out, yeah, a little bit. But God has more. I have control over what happens at work. Yeah, a little bit. But God has more.
And so we get to begin to go to him and ask, be at work here. Help me here. I believe that you're big and I believe that you're good and I'm humbling myself to actually help. That's what supplication is. It's a humble request. And he says, make your request known to God.
You see, when he says supplication, thanksgiving, meditation, this is how the Psalms work. If you ever pray through the Psalms, you'll realize they pray some bad theology. I may mess with you a little bit. There are times where the psalmist says things like, God, kill my enemies. And Jesus says, love your enemies. But what he says, this is what I want.
You get to start making requests to God. He may not give them to you. But you get to talk to him. You get to be real. You don't have to clean it up for him. You get to go say, this is what's stressing me out.
This is what's bothering me. This is what's on my mind. And you get to just lay your requests out there. And he'll begin to draw you to himself. And he'll begin to change you. But you get to talk to him.
You get to be honest. You get to humble yourself and make requests. Two, thanksgiving. So he says, do not be anxious about anything, but it's everything by prayer and supplication. So that's humble request.
With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Here's what thanksgiving does. Thanksgiving is past-oriented or present-oriented. What you're doing in that moment is saying, here's what you've done before. Here's how you've been good before. Here's what's going on in my life right now that I can appreciate.
That I can be thankful for. So for those of you who struggle with worry and anxiety, you start off by praying. You start off by making humble requests. But then you can just start, you can pause that and start saying, God, thank you for how you answered in the past. Thank you for all the times that I've been anxious over something and you actually worked. I'm here.
For some of you who've struggled with anxiety for a long time, you've had years of anxious things and you're here. You made it. God has answered. He has worked. I know you've moved from anxiety to anxiety, but he's answered his words. You get to remember.
You get to recount what he's done. You get to say he answered here and he answered here and he answered here. Some of you that says, God, I thank you that I'm alive. I'm sucking oxygen today. I'm thankful for the cross. You died to rescue me.
I know you have my back. For those of you who are worried and anxious, have you tried praising him? Have you tried thanking him? Have you tried singing and remembering all that he's done, all that he is? Thanks again. So, supplication with thanksgiving.
So, you want to make humble requests, but you also want to be thankful. Seven. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Okay. Okay. Here's how I've heard this talk before, and I think that it is correct, but I think it works two ways.
I've heard it this way. Don't be anxious. Don't be anxious. Pray. And you'll feel great. Don't be anxious.
Pray. And then peace, magical super peace. Peace beyond all understanding. Right? It's this, don't be anxious. Pray.
And then suddenly, you will feel like you are in a cloud. Right? Right? You've heard that. I think that that is true. I think that that can happen.
That God can so wrap you up in a cloud that everything else melts away. But I also think that's not the only way this happens. Here's what it says. A peace, the peace of God. So an eternal, cosmic, massive and glorious peace.
It's God's peace, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. For some of you who struggle with worry and anxiety, I think what Paul is saying is get on your list. Begin to pray and trust that God's peace will guard your heart and your mind. That he will clamp down on you and he'll keep you. And that a year from now, two years from now, it will make no sense that you stayed. No sense that you were faithful.
No sense that you still loved him. It will surpass knowledge, but his peace will have clamped down on you. And kept you in the midst of something that should have torn you apart. It should have ruined your marriage. It should have ruined your family. It should have ruined you.
It should have had you walk away from the faith. And Jesus' peace will guard your heart and your mind. He will protect you in the midst of all the things that attack you. See, we think that, okay, there are many situations that keep going, but I'll feel fine. And I'm not sure that's the case. I think sometimes it means he'll grab ahold of you and you'll make it through.
For some of you, you have in your mind, in times of anxiety, you have all of this that's attacking you and say, Jesus doesn't love me. God isn't real. This isn't okay. I'm not going to make it. I don't know if I believe in the cross anymore. And at that same time, you're going, Jesus, help me.
Help me to believe. Help me to trust in you. If I'm going to have faith, it's going to be you doing it. And I believe that's that moment where the Holy Spirit, on some sort of subterranean level, has reached in and grabbed you and just said, I know you have no faith right now. And I know you have no way that you understand how this is going to work out. But you belong to me.
And I'm going to guard your heart and your mind. And there's going to be a peace that surpasses understanding so that you'll still be mine when this is over. Now, feel free to pray for the cloud. But ask him, let me feel good. But trust in those moments if you're a Christian, that he's going to give you a peace that you won't understand, that you won't be able to see, and he's going to hold you and guard your heart and your mind, and he's going to keep you for himself.
Because it's a God-level peace that's beyond all circumstances. The third tool he gives us. See that? Just verse 7, real quick. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. He keeps you in Christ.
Beyond anybody's ability to understand, he keeps you. Okay. Hey. Third thing he uses is meditation. And I'm going to read this, and then we'll talk about the difference between maybe your picture of meditation and Christian meditation. So, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Let me read that again. Okay. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Okay, so we talk about meditation. If you're familiar with most forms of meditation, Eastern meditation, it is the clearing of your mind. You want it to empty your mind.
That is not Christian meditation. Christian meditation is you want to fill your mind with the things of God. So, you want to meditate on a passage of Scripture. You want to meditate on what's true and right. You want to sit and just think about the cross. You want to sit and study a section of Scripture and memorize it.
That's Christian meditation. David says, I hide your word in my heart. Meaning, I'm so engulfed in it. I've spent so much time in it that it's inside of me. So, what Paul says is, whatever. Whatever is good.
Whatever is lovely. Whatever is just. Whatever is commendable. If there is anything that is praiseworthy, think about these things. You know that song? I don't know how it is a Christmas song, but you're about to start hearing it on the radio.
The few of my favorite things. When the dog bites with these things. Think about my favorite things. I think it's a Christmas song because it says brown paper package. It's not up the street. I think that's the only thing I can think of.
It's from the sound of music. It's the only thing I can think of. But she says, basically, when I'm feeling bad, think about my stuff. So, Paul says, take a minute in the midst of your worry. And one aspect of this is just think about things that are good. Look, when you're worried and concerned and you're anxious, guess what?
Puppies still exist. They're out there. They're still fuzzy. Beautiful landscapes. The Grand Canyon. Like, you get to sit and think about things that are lovely and good.
Think about cinnamon. It smells great. It makes everything taste better. Think about biscuits. Think about cinnamon biscuits. You get to just think about some things that are good.
Some things that you love, that you appreciate. Anything lovely. Anything praiseworthy. Anything excellent. It also means that for Christians, it is a practice for us. It's something that we regularly do to find the things that stir our affections for Jesus and do those things.
Find the things that help us love Jesus. That's why Jesus says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your in-chain. Like, what we're called to do is to love him and focusing on what's pure and just and excellent and lovely includes Jesus. He is the truth. He is what is excellent. He is what is praiseworthy.
And we need to find the things that stir our affections. So for some of you, that's walking in the woods. As you walk in the woods, it's like you come alive to God and his creation and what he's done. You need to praise him. Like, one of the reasons we gather on Sundays to study his word and to sing is because it's reminding us of his good. It's stirring our affections for him.
I leave on Sundays. Sometimes we sing songs and I think that's true. You did die for me. You did rescue me. And it's like it imprints it into my mind. It pushes it down into my heart.
It takes things I know and it makes them real. We've got to find ways to stir our affections. Some of you that's being alone. Some of you that's hanging out with a bunch of church family and just talking about how God's good. That that reminds you of his goodness. It reminds you that you're not by yourself.
Some of you this is singing songs to, what's it, Caleb? On the radio. Find what it is. Some of you, if I asked you right now, what is it that stirs your affections for Jesus? You would have no answer. And if you were a Christian, my suggestion to you is start finding some things.
Serving. Giving away some of your money. That stirs my affections for Jesus. When I have to give up some of my money, it reminds me that Jesus is good and that he matters more than my money. It's painful in the beginning and then it reminds me of the gospel. Being outside.
Sitting in a pure stand. I think about Jesus. Like, find what it is. Reading scripture. Studying scripture. Memorizing scripture.
Focus on those. Meditate. Spend time on them. Okay. Here's the thing when it comes to meditation. Look down at, when it comes to action to all of these.
Prayers, supplication, Thanksgiving, and meditation. Verse 9. Well, you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. So he's saying, look, we actually, you were in life with me. You know what I'm talking about. But you've learned and received and heard and seen in me.
Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. Okay. Practice these things. I love that he uses the word practice because it means two things. It means you're not going to be great at it and you get to continue to do this forever. It's a practice.
It's a normal part of life for you. So, any of y'all ever tried to learn a sport? Maybe you tried to play ping pong for the first time. Maybe that's low on your scale of sports, but I'm just trying to pick something here. Maybe the first time you ever played cornhole or pin jam or tried to do anything. Maybe some of y'all watched those videos online where people flipped a water bottle.
And you thought, that's easy. And then you tried. Okay. You weren't good at first. For those of you who struggle with anxiety and you think, I prayed, I'm not fixed. That's why it's a practice.
Keep doing it. Keep praying. Keep being thankful. Keep remembering what's good. And do it over and over and over again. You're not going to pray today and have your anxiety going.
You're going to pray today and tomorrow and the next day and all the days. Because it's a practice. It's what you continually have to do to remind yourself. You get to practice. This also means it takes time. The people who do anything well spend a lot of time on it.
There are very few people in the world who just are magically good at things. Most people who are here playing an instrument, you say. Did you practice? They'll look and you respond. Nope. I found the saxophone and I was good at it.
No. It's not what they say. It's not true. They'll say yes. Hours and hours. Hours and hours and hours.
Some of you should know the worry and anxiety. You need to start going to bed later. You need to start getting up earlier. You need to start finding some time. You need to work out something with your spouse. You need to watch kids.
Because you've got to close your computer. Get off of Facebook. Get off of Twitter. You need to have space and time to be unplugged without any kind of screen in your face slashing things at you. You need to take the time to meditate on God's word and his goodness. You need to take the time to pray.
Do you know how anxious our society is? I've tried to reasonably watch. I watched cartoons with my son. This is like one and a half or whatever. This is how cartoons are these days. It's like.
They're just. They're hyper. And then I tried to watch the old Mr. Rogers neighborhood. I almost died. I used to watch that growing up.
It was painful. He just like walks in. He's like. I'm going to take 25 seconds to take my shoes off. It's like. Who paid this cat for this?
Like. He's just stalling. This isn't television. We're so used to everything happening so quickly. We're so used to. If you're scrolling through Facebook.
Look. How many videos do you watch the first 10 seconds of? Like. You just can't. I'm not able to focus. I get on Twitter.
After I get off Twitter. I'm like. Everything is like 150 characters or something. I don't know. It's short. I just flip through.
I do that for 10 or 15 minutes. Afterwards. I'm just like. It's like. I just cranked my ADD up. Like.
We have. Yeah. When was the last time you sat? For 15 minutes. With nothing. Going on.
So we're sure you should have to propose. And it used to be when you waited for a bus. Or you waited in the doctor's office. And the best thing you could have is a magazine. Some of y'all. You're waiting.
Is now you watching Netflix on your phone? And then we wonder why we're hyper. And we have ADD. And we're anxious. We don't ever spend any time. Where it's quiet.
Where our brain gets to rest a little bit. Where we're doing something that's just creative. Or we're. Like. You've got to make time for. Practicing.
Supplication. Thanksgiving. And meditation. You have to have time. Anxiety and worry insert themselves into your life. Prayer and meditation do not.
You ever. You ever been riding to work. And suddenly just. You heard a pop. And now you had to meditate for an hour. No.
But you got a flat tire. You ever been to work. And it turns out someone was sick. So then you had two hours to break. No. But you had someone sick.
So you had to do twice as much work that day. Worry and anxiety are going to show up. Your child is going to run into your room. At two o'clock in the morning. And throw up on the floor. Prayer is not going to run into your room.
At two o'clock in the morning. And you're like. I'll spend some time. It's not going to happen. You have to make time for it. That's the one thing.
Like. In our anxiety. We've got to make some space. Which means you've got to say no to some things in your life. You've got to get your bummed down some. You've got to turn your computer off.
You've got to work out something with your spouse. Some sort of schedule. So that you can rest. So that you can sap it. So that you can have some time.
Because these work. And they'll go to work on us. But we've got to have time. Then you make some promise here at the end. Practice these things. And the God of peace will be with you.
That is the Christian promise. That is the promise we're given and kept in Jesus. Is that God is with us. He joined us. We don't have a God who's always stayed above the frame. We have a God that says I have a baptism to be baptized with.
And I'm distressed until it happens. We have a God that falls on his face before his father. And sweat pours off. And he prays. Lord help me. Take us away if you can.
And if not. Help me to be faithful. Your will be done. Romans 8. 32 says this. He who did not spare his own son.
But gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him. Graciously give us all things. You see. We have the Christian promise. Which is that God is with us.
That he joined us. That he went to the cross. That God gave up his own son. So that we can trust him infinitely. That in the midst of everything. We can lean into him.
And run into him. Because he loves us. If you're a Christian. The Holy Spirit dwells in you. God is actively with you. His peace is actively with you.
Jesus doesn't just say I'm going to send comfort. He says I'm going to send the comfort. I'm not just going to send you help. I'm going to send the helper. For those of us who are in Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells in us.
And works in us. And holds us. And guards us. And keeps us. And in the midst of anything you're going through. The God of peace will be with you.
That is the Christian promise. Confirmed and sealed. And forever ours on the cross. There's an indigent and fruit. There's a risen kingdom on the throne. And a helper and a comfort that dwells inside of us.
To keep us. And carry us on. That's what we have in Christ. So here's what we're going to do. Today's a little different. The band's going to come back up here.
We are going to spend the next bit of time that we have together practicing these practices. Because they're practices. So you have to do them. So rather than just talking about this. Talking about supplication and thanksgiving and meditation and living life. Go home and try to find a place to do that.
We figured you were already here. You'd already cleared your schedule. So let's begin to practice a little bit. Let's begin to go ahead and walk through some of what the opportunity we have is what Paul's called us into. So for the very first thing Paul says is to take your worry and take your anxiety.
Don't be anxious about them. But pray about anything. By supplication. So what we're going to do is we're going to take just a minute right where you are. And we're going to humbly ask God to work. You have things to be anxious over.
You have things to be worried about. We're not going to sit in our worry and our anxiety and have an ambulance. We're going to point it to Jesus in the midst of all the real concerns you have. You begin to just say, God, I need you. I need you to help me here. I need you to be at work here.
I need you to redeem here. I need you to step into this situation. I don't have any control of their health. I don't have any control of this relationship. I can't make them repent. I can't make them come back.
So right now where we are, I want you to just begin to take all the things you're concerned about. All the things you're worried about. Maybe short-term stuff that's happening this week. Stuff that's not going to happen. It's five years away. You can just ask God.
Move here. Work here. Let's do that now.
Whoops! We had some problems recording on Sunday. Unfortunately the best we've got is the recording from our iMac's internal microphone. Sorry for the sneezing!
Condemnation and Criticism
Transcript
All right, so we are in our fifth week of our Killjoy series. We've got this week and next week, and we're finishing it up. What we've been doing is we've been looking at there are certain things as Christians that do not have to be true for us, do not have to be normal for us, but that we've gotten used to, that have become normal for us. Today we're going to be talking about self-loathing. You can call that self-condemnation. Sometimes it goes under the name of low self-esteem, which I don't like.
I don't think that's helpful, but people use that term. We use self-loathing, self-condemnation, self-hatred. We're going to just talk a little bit about how that works and how it affects us and how it robs us of joy and what the Bible says about how we can be free from it. So I started playing football when I was like 11, and then I played through elementary school, middle school, high school, and some in college. And my sophomore year of high school, I sublexed my patella, which just means I dislocated my kneecap on my left knee. So I went to – actually, no, it was in my freshman year.
So my freshman year, starting in my freshman year, I got hit. My kneecap came out of place, and then every year after that, I had knee injuries. So over the course of the rest of my career from my freshman year onward, I dislocated this kneecap four times, strained in MCL, strained in LCL, tore fibers, and meniscus. I dislocated this kneecap three times, which I was at a doctor one time, and he goes, how many times have you dislocated? He's a doctor, so he probably said sublexed your patella. And I was like, this is the sixth one.
He goes, you know, it usually only happens to girls, right? I was like, bruh. I did not. I do now. Thank you. He was like, and just kept going.
Just gets to go about his day being a doctor, and I have some sort of girl knees. I don't know. No offense to all the ladies in here, but I took offense at that. But anyway, sublexed this one. Three times, strained in MCL, strained in PCL, strained in LCL, tore in ACL, and tore meniscus and fibers. I've gotten really good at taking naps in MRI machines.
My knees hurt. They started hurting when I was a freshman in high school. They continue to hurt. They still hurt. They make really terrible noises if I walk upstairs or carry things or walk forward. Went to a doctor recently.
I was like, it was just like a normal checkup because I'm getting older, and you have to start going to those. And so I was like, I don't need you to listen to my knees. And so I bent over, and he listened. And I was like, what do you think? And he was like, well, if you don't run a lot, if you don't go jogging or make that a thing. And I was like, doctor, I love you.
I just wanted to say. I always thought running was evil also. He's like, if you don't do that, you might be all right. So I was like, oh, okay. So if I don't make jogging a thing, I won't have to have surgery.
And he goes, oh, no. No, you're going to have to have surgery, but you could push it back by a couple years. I was like, well, great. My knees hurt. They hurt. They hurt.
They have gotten used to it. It's not like a really violent pain. It's a dull pain. They grind. They pop. It's normal for me.
It is normal for my knees to feel this way. So my wife's like, you should go ahead and get surgery. And I'm like, no, because that would feel like out of the normal type pain. Like, that's different. I'm used to this. I'm okay with this.
I want to keep my knees the way they are. Slight pain, but not continual aggressive throbbing pain or surgery pain. And for a lot of us, when it comes to self-loathing, when it comes to this internal dialogue, this internal monologue, we've gotten so used to it. We don't even notice it anymore. I don't pay attention to my knees hurting. That's normal for me.
That's my center of gravity for me. So for a lot of us in the room, you've gotten so used to speaking down to yourself because self-loathing in some ways is a voice. Your voice is somebody else's voice. It's kind of in your head as an internal dialogue. And so normal life looks to you like, I'm ugly. I'm fat.
I'm such an idiot. God, nobody really likes me. I made that conversation awkward. They don't really want to talk to me. These friends aren't really my friends. They just have to hang out with me so they're nice to me because they have to.
I'm going to ruin my marriage. I'm going to mess my kids up. I'm a terrible mother. I'm a terrible father. I'm a failure. I'm an idiot.
I'm horrible. I'm ugly. Nobody really likes me. I don't have any real friends. This is a normal thought process for you. So that when you go to do something and you mess up, you think, of course.
Of course I would mess up. That's what I'd do. When a relationship starts going poorly, you start going, yeah, of course. Because this is how all my relationships work. Because I'm such an idiot. I've been doing this my entire life.
I'm the one who derails everything. I'm the one who ruins everything. This has become a normal, everyday, for some of you it's a, I should just kill myself. I'm worthless. I'm a failure. Everyday.
It's not uncommon for these type of thoughts to be how you speak to yourself, how you think about things. And here's what we're looking at this morning. If you are a Christian, and if the gospel is true, then this internal dialogue, this internal monologue can't be. If the gospel is true, then these things that have begun to be normal in our heads can't be. Can't be true. That's what I want us to see this morning as we go into scripture.
And then I want us to, out of that, begin to know how do we respond. What do we do? So let's go to Colossians 1. We read this earlier. It's on page 638. If your Bible is a blue and white Bible, one of the ones in the rows.
If you don't own a Bible, this is our gift to you. Take it. But we'll be on page 638 looking in Colossians. This is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a church in Colossae. Teaching them about Jesus. Teaching them about how Christianity works.
We're going to pick up in verse 15. The first word is he. That's talking about Jesus. And it'll be talking about Jesus throughout. He is the image of the invisible God. Okay, so Jesus, God created the world.
He exists in a spiritual realm. We don't get to see him. But Jesus lets us see him. Jesus is what God would be like if he became a person. So he's the image of the invisible God.
The firstborn of all creation. Now firstborn, when it's used in the Bible, can mean two things. It can mean, in this section, it can be the firstborn of all creation. That can mean that he was created first. But firstborn is also used to mean has preeminence over, is dominant over, because of the way they did lineage.
So he's either created first or he has dominance over. The firstborn of all creation for, so it's explaining this, by him all things were created in heaven and on earth. Okay, it means has dominance over. It doesn't mean he was created first. Jesus has existed since eternity past as part of the Trinity. He was not created.
He has dominance over everything because he created everything. Okay, Jesus created everything. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. So all nations, all countries, all rulers, all thrones, all dominions, visible and invisible.
So spiritual as well. Spiritual dominions and authorities and rulers, all of them were created by Jesus, through Jesus, and for Jesus. And he is before all things. And in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. I know we don't usually do this, but can somebody say amen or praise Jesus? Isn't that good? That he is massive. He's created everything. Everything exists in him and for him and through him.
And then he went to a cross to reconcile everything back to himself. That's who Jesus is. Okay. 21. And you. And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds.
All right. Let's look at those terms real quick. Let's explain them. Especially for the person in here who has that sort of internal dialogue. Alienated. Outcast.
Alone. Alone. Isolated. Unwanted. Unloved. Separated.
That's what alienated means. Alienated. Hostile in mind. Means that you are an enemy. You are far from God. You are against God and God was against you.
And it says in mind, meaning that you are completely laid bare before him. He can see your thoughts. He can see everything you've ever done. That God looks at you and knows exactly what is going on with you. You have nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run.
You are laid bare. You are fully exposed in front of him. And it says doing evil deeds. Meaning that we were wicked. Sinful. Failures.
Sick. Twisted. Broken. Horrible. People. That's what that means.
That's what that means. But. It says who once were. That once was. If you are a Christian, that once was true for you. You once were alienated.
Hostile. Now. Wicked. Sinful. Failure. Who's an enemy of God.
You once were. What's it say? 22. He has now. Okay. Because of how English works.
Once were. He has now. This is change. This used to be true about you. You used to be alienated. You used to be hostile in mind.
You used to be doing evil, wicked deeds. You used to be broken and sinful. But because of Jesus. He has now. He has. Jesus has done something now that changes that.
He has now. This is verse 22. So you who once were. 22. He has now. Reconciled in his body of flesh.
By his death. Reconciled means he brought you back. You're not alienated anymore. You're reconciled. That Jesus did that through his death on the cross. That those of you who feel like I'm unwanted.
I'm unloved. Nobody cares about me. Nobody wants me. I ruin everything. Jesus went to the cross. To pursue you.
To reconcile you. To make you his. Because he cares about you. And he loves you. Jesus tells his disciples. There's no greater love than this.
Than that someone would give up their life for their friends. That's what he did. The greatest love with which you've ever been loved. Was shown to you on the cross. When Jesus went to the cross. While you were his enemy.
To make you his. He has now through the cross. Changed. The descriptors for us. Some of you. If we had to ask.
How would you describe yourself. And you were going to write it down. You'd write. Unwanted. Damaged goods. Failure.
Whore. You would. That would be how you would write it. And what this just said was. You once were. But now.
Jesus has. And he changes. Your descriptor. Here's what it says. And now Jesus has reconciled you. I mean he's brought you back.
To himself. In order. To present you. Holy. And blameless. And above reproach.
Before him. He rescued you. Died for you. To present you to himself. To present you. Holy and blameless.
And above reproach. Before him. We're going to come back to those terms. Let's keep reading. Because I want to. Finish this thought.
And then we'll come. We'll define those terms. Spend the. The remainder of our time there. If indeed. It's 23.
If indeed. You continue in the faith. Stable and steadfast. Not shifting from the hope. Of the gospel you heard. Which has been proclaimed.
In all creation. Under heaven. And of which I. Paul. Became a minister. Okay.
So now we have an issue. When we get to the text. He says. You were this. Jesus has now. Made you this.
Holy blameless. And above reproach. If. Okay. So that's a scary word.
If indeed. You remain. Stable and steadfast. And not shifting from the hope. Okay. So that can mean.
One of two things. That if. Can mean one of two things. It can mean. This will be true for you. If.
You keep it together. That if. Can also mean. If this is true for you. This is what will happen. So it can be.
This is true. If you keep it together. Or it can be. If this is true for you. You'll keep this. This is what will happen.
You'll make it to the end. So let me. Explain. Put this in a different category. To maybe help you think about it. All right.
So when I was. Going into my freshman year. Of high school. We were at a. I grew up in the church. I was in a youth group.
We were in a. I was in the youth choir. Anybody else in the youth choir. High quality stuff. We're going to get. We're going to get youth choir started here.
It's going to be awesome. We're going to wear white gloves. We're going to do interpretive dance. I got big plans for you guys. We're bringing handbells back. All right.
So anyway. I was in a youth choir. We went to Florida. To sing a song. To make a CD. Or something.
I don't remember. And there were some guys there. From another youth. Thing. That were. Running their mouths.
And telling people. They were going to fight them. And it. It got to this whole big. Thing. And.
There was a point. Where. These two guys. Were coming towards. Me. And a group of other people.
Telling us. They were going to beat us up. And so I thought. That sounded like a bad idea. Because I don't know. I don't like getting beat up.
So. Ninth grade Chet. Thought. You know. One of the best ways. To not get beat up.
Is to punch someone first. And so. While they were walking this way. I jumped up. And I punched a guy. Who was closest to me.
And there was another guy. Who was bigger. But this guy was closer. Okay. Tracking with the story. All right.
My brother Logan was there. And he's older than me. Now. Now. A good. Older brother.
Regardless of the circumstances. Will defend. Their younger brother. In a fight. I'm making that as a blanket statement. A good older brother.
Will defend. The younger brother. In a fight. Now. I punch this guy. Big guy grabs me.
Older brother. Punches the big guy. It's beautiful. Might actually be. Don't read too much in this. I'm not making theological statements.
At this point. I'm just telling you a story. So. A big guy grabs me. And then. He gets punched.
In the side of the head. Now. We can. Then begin to argue. Because. My brother Logan.
Punched him in the head. He is a good brother. Or. Because he is a good brother. He punched him. In the side of the head.
See how this works. That's the issue. We're facing. In this text. Do you make it. To the end.
Because you are a Christian. Or. If you make it. To the end. You are a Christian. When you take.
The totality. Of the rest. Of the scriptures. Where it's say. That Jesus is the author. And the finisher.
Of our faith. That he who began. A good work in you. Is faithful to complete it. Where Jude says. I commend you to Jesus.
Who's. Who's going to keep. The only person. Who can keep you. From stumbling. What this text means.
Is. Jesus. You used to be. Hostile. And wicked. And evil.
Used to be. A rebellious. You used to be. All these things. And Jesus has now. Through the cross.
Made you. Holy. And blameless. And above reproach. And because he has done that. You will.
Make it to the end. That all of those. Who make it to the end. Were. Rescued. Redeemed.
And made that way. And brought there. By Jesus. Not by themselves. That's very important. Especially for people.
Who struggle with self-loathing. Because you will try to. As best you can. Wiggle your way out of. Jesus being this ultimate hero. Who rescues and redeems you.
And the text means. You make it to the end. If you're a Christian. If this is true for you. You'll make it to the end. And those who don't make it to the end.
Weren't actually ever saved. That's. And we can talk more about that. But I just had to cover that. As we went through this real quick. So what I'm saying is.
Because my brother was a good brother. He punched the guy on the side of the head. All right. You can ask him about that later. He's one of our group leaders. Pray for him.
He's got anger issues. All right. Let's go back. You once were. He has now. Let's look at these phrases.
He has now. Reconciled in his body of flesh. By his death. In order to present you. Holy. Blameless.
And above reproach. What do those words mean? Holy means. Set apart. For God. Cleaned.
Lifted up. And set apart for God. Some of you think you are separated from God. What this actually says is. No. You are separated.
For God. That he separated you from everything else. For him. That he brought you to himself. He made you. Holy.
That they were. Consecrated. Set aside. Utensils. They used to use in the temple. They were consecrated.
Set aside. Holy places. And that because of Jesus. We've been made. Holy. Meaning we've been consecrated.
We've been set aside. We've been brought to him. Holy and blameless. You're not at fault. If you are in Christ. You have no blame.
If you went before a judge. They would have nothing against you. You are blameless. Now think about that for a second. How many of us does that actually get to be true for? On our own.
Raise your hand. We're going to punch you. If that's true for you on your own. Because you're a liar. Okay. None of us.
None of us. None of us get to be blameless. Jesus makes us blameless. And then it says. Above reproach. I want to read you all the definition of a reproach.
It says to address someone. In such a way as to express. Disapproval. And disappointment. Disappointment. Or.
An expression. Of disapproval. And disappointment. That's what. That's what reproach means. And we're above.
Reproach. Meaning there is no. Disapproval. There is no. Disappointment. For those who are in Christ.
You cannot be. An idiot. A failure. You cannot be. All these names you. Label yourself with.
Or that other people. Label you with. You can't be. Not if you're in Christ. You're above that. There is no disapproval.
There is no disappointment. You have not fallen short. You have not failed. You have not let people down. Like not in Christ. You're above reproach.
Nothing bad. Can be said about you. Romans 15. Three. Says it this way. For Christ did not please himself.
But as it is written. The reproaches of those who reproached you. Fell on me. Now that's a. Kind of a clunky sentence. But here's what it means.
Everything bad. If you were a Christian. Everything bad. That could be said about you. Lands on Jesus. That's what happened at the cross.
That's why Jesus died on the cross. He did not deserve to die on the cross. He deserved to be exalted. And worshipped. And held high. And loved.
And respected. And welcomed. And cared for. But he traded all of that in. To swap places with us. So that everything bad.
That anyone could possibly say. About us. Lands on Jesus. And Jesus takes it to the cross. We could line up. Every Christian in this room.
And we could walk up this ramp. And you could walk up to a microphone. And you could say out loud. Every bad thing. That you could think to say about yourself. That someone else could think to say about you.
That someone could drag out of your past. And if you are a Christian. None of that would stick to you. Because it all. Went to Jesus. And he took it to the cross.
All the things that could be said bad about you. Became true of Jesus. And all of his righteousness and holiness. Became true of us. So that in Christ.
We are holy and blameless. And above reproach. Remember when you were a little kid. And you'd be arguing with somebody. And you'd call them a name. And they'd be like.
I'm rubber. And you're glue. Everything you say. Bounce off me. And sticks on you. Maybe you don't remember that.
That's a thing. They got the people wrong. If you're a Christian. You're rubber. Jesus is glue. That's how that works.
Everything that could be said bad about you. Everything that could be levied against you. As a complaint. As disapproval. As disappointment. Bounces off of you.
And sticks on Jesus. That's the good news of the cross. That's the gospel. So if you follow yourself around. With an internal dialogue of. I'm terrible.
I'm the worst. I'm going to mess my children up. I'm going to fail. I'm going to ruin my marriage. I'm the one who did this. I'll never be clean.
I'll never be washed. I've always. Have this in my past. I'll never be. Any of the things I've set out to be. I'm always going to be a failure.
I'm always going to fall short. I'm always going to be an idiot. If that's you. All of that. If you are in Christ. Bounces off of you.
And sticks to Jesus. Because the reproaches. The complaints. The disapproval. The disappointment. That would have come to you.
Go to Jesus. And then Jesus took him to the cross. And all of his holiness. And blamelessness. And everything that made him above reproach. So that no one can say anything bad about Jesus.
Comes to you. That's the gospel. And that's why. If you. If the gospel is true for you. None of this other stuff can be.
If the gospel is true. If you've placed your faith in Jesus. And he's died for you. And reconciled you. And made you holy. And blameless.
And above reproach. To present to himself. None of this other stuff can be true. One of the reasons we read. Verses 15 through 20. To show you how massive Jesus is.
And how much in control he is. And how sovereign and eternal he is. Is because I want you to know. That if Jesus says you're holy. And blameless. And above reproach.
You are. And you don't have an option on that. If you've placed your faith in Jesus. And he says. I've made you holy. And blameless.
And above reproach. You are. And secondly. If that is seated in Christ. If it's wedged in him. If it belongs to him.
If he's the one who keeps it together. It's not going anywhere. If it was up to you. To keep together. To be holy. And blameless.
And above reproach. You'd have a problem. But because it's based in Jesus. It's eternal. If you've placed your faith in Jesus. You will forever be holy.
And blameless. And above reproach. Because of what Jesus has done for you. And that's good news. Okay. So where does this come from?
How do we begin to be free from it? Well we said when we started off this series. That we were going to talk about your three enemies. As we went through. We haven't spent much time on them in the past couple weeks. But we're bringing them back up today.
You've got three enemies. The flesh. The world. And the devil. So I'm going to give a brief explanation of these.
And then we'll talk about how they work. But the flesh is you. You choose to sin. You actively pursue sin. So it's possible.
In this scenario. That this is your own internal dialogue. Where you're beating yourself up constantly. Maybe you think it'll help. There's some reasons why you might do it. Some of you are trying to motivate yourself.
So you say things to yourself. Like don't be lazy. Don't be an idiot. If you don't figure this out. You'll be a failure your whole life. You're trying to motivate yourself.
By giving yourself some tough love. Some of you are trying to keep yourself from being disappointed. So you apply for a job. And then you. She's more qualified than I am. She'll get the job.
They don't even really like me. I should just be happy if I don't get fired. No one likes you. You're not going to get invited to the prom anyway. Everybody thinks you're ugly. You should just be happy if people let you come.
And if anybody will dance with you. You just set yourself up to not be disappointed. Some of you. You're always surprised if something good happens. And it's because you have an internal dialogue. That's consistently telling yourself.
Everything's going to fail. Everything's going to be terrible. Everything's the worst. I'm going to break it. So when anything good happens.
You get surprised. Some of you. You can see it because you apologize for everything. Somebody gets angry. Somebody gets sad around you. You apologize to them.
Because obviously it had to be your fault. Feeling gets tense or awkward. I'm sorry. People are consistently looking at you going. What are you sorry about? I just.
I am. Sorry. I'm sorry that I'm here. Don't stop looking at me. There's this need to. Because you've already conditioned yourself to feel like such a failure.
Some of you spend a lot of time being focused on the things you did wrong. The mistakes you made. Rather than things you got right. Some of you spend all your time comparing your bad qualities to the good qualities of others. It's possible that if you struggle with this. It is just a fleshly.
You have gotten in the pattern personally of beating yourself up. Of using this as a tool to manage your life. To motivate yourself or to keep you from being disappointed. But if you're a Christian. Those things you're saying can't be true. They're true of Jesus.
Can't be true of you. The world. So we said the flesh, the world, the devil. The world could be any kind of outside force. Any kind of outside anything. So some of you.
The internal self-loathing, self-hatred, self-condemnation voice. Is your dad's. Or it's your mom's. Some of you. Have a jury of middle schoolers that follow you around. You got out of middle school 20 years ago.
And you're still whipping yourself with stuff that 13 year olds said. Some of you it's your ex-spouse. Why are you such a screw up? You'll never be able to. You'll always. You mess everything up.
You're the reason this is broken. You're the reason this is wrong. For you a lot of the stuff you say to yourself isn't I. It's you. It's some other voice coming into your head. It's your dad saying something to you.
It's your mom saying something to you. You've been conditioned. It's gotten so normal to you. This is the way you grew up. And so since you've been. Six.
Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten years old. This is how you talk to yourself. You're an idiot.
You're a disappointment. You're a failure. You're a failure. Not if you're in Christ. You were. But he has now made you holy and blameless and above reproach.
Some of you today in the name of Jesus get to evict a chorus of 12 year olds from your head. That's good news. 12 year olds. 12 year olds are the worst. No offense. If there are 12 year olds in here.
You'll get better. The third one. And this one's weirder for us. But we've got to spend some time talking about it. The flesh. The world.
The devil. We actually have a spiritual enemy. The Bible is clear that spiritual reality exists. That there's a God who's good. Who has angels that are good. And that there are evil angels or rebellious angels.
That are called demons or evil spirits. That actually exist. That actually cause harm. If you just read through the New Testament. And I know as Westerners we're prone to just kind of gloss over those passages. But Jesus interacts with demons.
It's weird. I get that. Here's the thing. The Bible is clear. Demons exist. They are real.
They do affect people. They can harm you. Mentally, physically. Like we see that in the Bible. The Bible is never demon focused or evil spirit focused. It is always fully and forever Jesus focused.
But we have to as Christians be aware. That this is a reality. And take that into consideration. So there is a possibility. That if you have some sort of a negative voice in your head. That it is demonic.
That it's actually the accuser. So the Bible calls Satan the accuser. That he accuses us. That he attacks us. That he comes and condemns. He says you're a failure.
You're terrible. He points out your sin. But then he uses it to say. This is why you're unlovable. This is why you're wicked. This is why you'll never be forgiven.
This is why God can't save you. He keeps bringing up what you've done. Let me show you a couple of verses. And then we'll talk about a little more about how this works. But Ephesians 6.12 says this.
For we do not wrestle. And that word wrestle in the Greek means hand to hand combat to the death. Sitting friendly wrestling. This is you ran out of weapons. And now you're in a ditch with somebody. And one of you is coming out.
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood. But against the rulers. Against the authorities. Against the cosmic powers over this present darkness. Against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. That as Christians our main battle is not against political parties or nation states.
It's against spiritual forces of evil. At work in the world. Because there is a real eternity with a real heaven and a real hell. There is a reality beyond what we can see. Now for people who have grown up in the west.
Where we approach everything through reason, logic and science. Which there's nothing bad about any of those. All of those belong to God. Everything was created for him and through him. Reason, logic and science have their place. But there is something beyond what we can see.
The Bible is clear on that. And what it's saying is that a lot of our battle isn't against just flesh and blood. It isn't against our flesh or the flesh of others. There's actually spiritual reality going on. Now that's kind of terrifying.
To be honest with you. That you're in a hand-to-hand combat to the death with spiritual forces. And that would be absolutely cripplingly terrifying. If the Bible didn't say other things. So let's go back to Colossians 1.
It's going to be on the screen. Just to remind you. For by him, that's Jesus. All things were created in heaven and on earth. Visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
So it's specifically saying visible ones and spiritual ones. Keep going Colossians 2. So it's saying he created all spiritual things. For in him, that's Jesus. The whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. Meaning he's fully God.
And you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. So Jesus is seated over every cosmic power. And you've been filled up by him. And keeps going in Colossians and says this. God made. He's talking about you.
He says, God made alive together with him. Having forgiven us all our trespasses. By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside. Nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities.
And put them to open shame. By trumping over them in him. The thing that rulers and authorities. That the enemy has against you is your sin. He accuses you of your sin. When Jesus paid for your sin.
And when he nailed it to the cross. The enemy has been disarmed. He has nothing to accuse you of anymore. He can come back and remind you of it. He can say, here's how you failed. Here's how you're evil.
Here's how you're twisted. Here's how you're broken. But guess what happens? All of those reproaches fall on Jesus. They're not true for you anymore. But it is possible for some of us.
Who have this internal dialogue. For it to be some sort of demonic thing. Now. I'm fully want us to continue to talk about this. I want to give you a few more ways to think about this. And then we're open for any kind of questions.
I'll just hang out afterwards. If you have more specific questions about this. But we don't want to spend all our time on it this morning. But a couple of things to maybe help you think about this. Now. Accusation and condemnation come from Satan.
Some of you think. You struggle with this feeling of guilt and shame. And you think. I can't. I can't go to God. I can't go to church.
There's this idea that if you go to God or go to church. He's just going to make it worse. All God's going to do is say. Yeah. Here's how you failed. Here's how you're terrible.
Here's how you're an idiot. And judge you and condemn you. But biblically. That's not God that does that. That's not Jesus that does that. That's Satan.
You just describe Satan. When somebody says. All God's going to do is condemn you. It's like no you just describe Satan. That's what the Bible says he does. He accuses and condemns.
God convicts. Which points out your sin. And then he goes to the cross for it. And offers you forgiveness and reconciliation and love. So the Holy Spirit in you.
If you are a Christian. Is going to convict. But the Holy Spirit uses a scalpel. Not a sledgehammer. So the Holy Spirit.
If you're a Christian. And you're convicted. He comes and says. You said this. You shouldn't talk to your spouse that way. You did this.
Like he. He goes right to the issue. He cuts it out like a cancer. And he leads you. Through. Through surgery.
Which is painful. Through conviction and repentance. Which is painful. To life and freedom. Satan doesn't do that. He hits you with a hammer.
Or he throws a blanket over you. It's just. You're an idiot. You're a failure. He points to your sin. But he doesn't.
He doesn't call for hope. He calls for condemnation. Some. Some of you. In your life. Have had.
And some of you have. Terrible friends. Some of you are sitting next to your terrible friend. Don't look at them. You've had terrible friends. They followed you around.
They. They made you feel bad about yourself. They called you names. They made you feel uncomfortable. They. They tore you down.
Some of you had friends that. That they could talk you into doing really dumb things. And eventually. Some of you grew up. And you got rid of these terrible friends. You moved on.
You were like. No. I can't. I can't hang out with you anymore. Because you make me feel terrible about myself. You.
You beat me down. And then you talk me into dumb things. Like all I ever do with you is get in trouble. Like this is. This is not a good friendship. This is not a healthy place.
Some of you. Potentially. If this is you. Who have. Struggled with self-loathing. May have.
Some sort of a demonic thing going on. That actually functions. Just like a terrible friend. That you don't realize is following you around. So you don't get rid of it.
All it does. Call you names. Give you bad advice. Bad suggestions. And because you don't realize. That this.
Maybe just be demonic. You don't tell it to leave. Now again. That may be super weird. But what Ephesians 6 just said was.
We don't wrestle with flesh and blood. But with. Spiritual forces. So let me tell you. If you are a Christian. If you're not a Christian.
I fully expect. All of this just weirded you out. We believe other weird things. We believe that God became a person. Died on a cross for our sin. Was laid in a grave.
Three days later. He rose again. And eventually. He's coming back on a horse. It gets way weirder. We believe all that.
Now. I'd love to talk to you about it. It's. It's. It's good news. It may come across as weird to us.
Now. For Christians in the room. Who aren't weirded out yet. You got to realize. We are actually at war. With spiritual forces.
Let me explain to you. What happens. When Christians go. Wait a second. Spiritual forces. Whoa.
And get really terrified. It is like. You were drafted. Went to boot camp. Went to training. Got sent down field.
Down range. So you are. You go on your first patrol. In Iraq. Or Afghanistan. You come back.
You go. I need to speak to the commanding officer. Why? I need to speak to the commanding officer. Right now. And for some reason.
They are not mean to you. And they let you do it. And you walk into the commanding officer's. Office. And you say. They are shooting at us.
They hate us out there. And your commanding officer goes. What? Get out of my office. Before I shoot at you. That's what.
When Christians go. Hold on a second. We are at a war. There is an enemy. Yes. The Bible is so clear on that.
We have just Americanized it out. Absolutely. The enemy wants to tear you down. And mess up your marriage. And keep you from following Jesus. Some of you.
When you open the Bible. And you start reading scripture. You hear things like. Jesus is an idiot. Like. You hear swear words.
I wasn't going to say them. But I was going to use a letter. But I feel like that might be inappropriate from up here. You hear. You hear swear words. Of.
This is. This is nonsense. This is garbage. Some of you right now in your head are saying. This is dumb. This is a waste of time.
I shouldn't be here. Some of you. Every time you try to read the Bible. You're overwhelmed by. Condemnation. And conviction.
And you can't even. We have an enemy. That does not want you to find freedom. And joy in Jesus. Does not want you to be active. And sharing your faith.
Does not want you to have life. And hope in him. A real enemy. And. We have a real king. Who's disarmed our enemy.
By taking our sin. To the cross. And by having everything bad. That you could ever say about me. Falls on Jesus. So we're free.
So what do we do? If this is you. What do you do? How do we find freedom here? First thing. You need to preach a better sermon.
For those of you who don't know. This is a sermon. We open the Bible. We say things about Jesus. Some of you. You.
Just so you know. Not some of you. All of you. You preach to yourself more than anybody else does. You preach to yourself more than anybody else does. You tell yourself more about what is true about life.
What's true about you. What's true about Jesus. Than anybody else does. And some of you who are Christians. Are preaching. Very terrible sermons to yourself.
All the time. Y'all know our sermons don't get good on Sunday. Until we get to Jesus. It's not a good sermon. Until we get to the point. Where Jesus shows up.
And saves all of us. Where Jesus is the hero. Where Jesus sets us free. But some of you are following yourself around. And preaching sermons. That I would get fired for.
And rightfully so. Your sermon just covers the first half. You're a failure. You're a sinner. You're terrible. You're an idiot.
Let's pray. That's a terrible sermon. Get to Jesus. If that's. If you were preaching a sermon. If you were.
Like you're following yourself around. Telling yourself theological truths about yourself. And if you are a Christian. You've got to get to Jesus. I was terrible. I was a failure.
My sin did Mark me. It did own me. But. Jesus died for me. And I'm free. And I'm holy.
And I'm blameless. And I'm above reproach. Everybody say that with me right now. If you're a Christian. I'm holy. Who.
That's enthusiasm. Let's go. I'm holy. I'm blameless. And I'm above reproach. That's true.
If you're in Christ. And that's a good sermon. That's real. Some of you need to get some passages of scripture. And begin to repeat them to yourself. You need to wake up in the morning.
And the first thing you do is you pray. And you thank Jesus. And then you start reading some scripture. And you start saying. I'm holy. And blameless.
And above reproach. That he who knew no sin. Became sin for me. So that I could become the righteousness of God. And I'm the righteousness of God. I'm clothed in Jesus.
I'm free forever. When I stand before the king. I will be welcomed. And loved. None of my sin will follow me anywhere. My sin will forever Mark Jesus.
And I will forever celebrate and praise him. Because I've been set free. And I'm a child of the king. Some of you need to begin to preach better sermons. And you legitimately. You really need to make a list of Bible verses.
Or truths about the gospel. We have some we can give you. To help you begin to know what is true. Because you from the age. Maybe some of you who grew up in homes. That were verbally abusive.
From the age of. I don't know. Three. Two. Whenever you started understanding language. Till you got out of the house.
You've heard verbally. Over and over again. You're an idiot. You're a failure. Look at you. No one could love you.
No one could want you. Like this is what's been beat into your head. And you need to begin to say out loud. Some things that are true. About the God of the universe. Who loves you.
And died for you. And came to rescue you. We need to preach better sermons. You need a better savior. Here's the best thing our culture can give you. The best thing they can give you.
Is you need to love yourself more. You need. A higher self esteem. You need to know that you're special. You're a snowflake. You're a magical rainbow pony.
You are. Repeat that after me. Magical rainbow pony. Like this is the best they can give you. You need to have self esteem. You need to know that you're special.
You need to. You need to forgive yourself. You need to learn to love yourself. Boo. No thank you. Part of the problem is that we're only looking at ourselves anyway.
And you're correct. When you look at yourself. And you come to the conclusion. That I'm terrible. That I'm a sinner. That I'm broken.
That I failed. Yes. The Bible will agree with you. But then it's going to say. But. But Jesus.
Some of you have been so focused on yourself. You need to get to. But Jesus. You need a better savior. You need the God that shows up. Not you.
Not more self esteem. Not more love for yourself. You need a God who gives you his esteem. Who forgives you. You don't need to forgive yourself. You need to be forgiven by Jesus.
You need to be redeemed by Jesus. Made much of by Jesus. You need to humble yourself before him. And then be given the confidence that the cross can give. That you're holy and blameless and above reproach. Not because of you.
But because of Jesus. And because it's because of Jesus. You can't mess it up. Every time you feel like I've failed. Yes. But Jesus.
We have a better savior than you. And your self esteem. And the way you feel about yourself. You get to have a self esteem that doesn't come from you. That comes from him. And it's a God esteem.
Where he lifts you up. Where he exalts you. Where he goes to work for you. Because he was humbled for you. We need a better savior. Galatians 2.20-21 says this.
I have it on the screen. I got it right here. I have been crucified with Christ. Meaning when I died. When Christ died. I died with him.
It's no longer I who live. But Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God. Who loved me. And gave himself for me.
See Paul is writing this. And he knows I was loved by God. And he gave himself up for me. He loved me. Then he says I do not nullify.
Which means treat like it doesn't exist. The grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law. Meaning rules. If righteousness. If I could be made right.
Be okay. Through the law. Then Christ died for no reason. When we're following ourselves around. And saying these mean things to ourselves. These hateful things to ourselves.
We're holding ourselves up against the law. I should look like this. I should be like this. I should be smart like this. I should have handled this better. You're holding yourself up to a standard.
And what he's saying is. If the standard could save you. Jesus died for no reason. But because Jesus died. We don't nullify. Or act like grace doesn't exist.
We trust Jesus. And let him live through us. That we died with him. All our sin died with him. And that he's alive in us. His righteousness is alive in us.
That we believe in grace. Which means we get all the benefits. Without any of the work. That we get to be holy. And blameless. And above reproach.
Even though we didn't deserve it. Because Jesus worked on our behalf. Thirdly. You need a better way to pray. Okay. So Jesus says this.
In the model prayer. In Matthew 6. So he says. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts. Or forgive us our sins.
Or forgive us our trespasses. Depending on your version. Forgive us our sins. That's what he's talking about. As we have forgiven our debtors. So help us.
Forgive us of our sins. As we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation. And deliver us from evil. So he specifically says.
It's a normal daily way to pray. To pray about the flesh. The world. And the devil. That's forgive me my sins. That's the flesh.
Lead me not into temptation. That's the world. And deliver us from evil. That's the devil. That's a normal daily way to pray. Some of you.
Only blame things on the devil. And you need to spend some time. Repenting of your own sin. Some of you. Most of us. Know that we sin.
Try to repent of our sin. But never get to the point. Where we say. And deliver us from evil. If the enemy's involved. He doesn't get to be.
Because you're the head of all rule and authority. And I'm free in you. And in the name of Jesus. Any enemy involvement has to go. So here's what we're going to do today.
We're going to actually pray through those three things. This morning. If you're not a Christian. If you don't pray. I would invite you to pray. I would invite you to begin to pray.
And ask Jesus to reveal himself to you. But also. If you're not going to pray. That's cool. You're welcome to hang out. With us at any point.
And be someone who's just checking this thing out. Who's even a little bit antagonistic to it. You're not going to offend us. You can ask us any questions you want. But I would ask that right now.
As we pray through some of this. You just be quiet and respectful. We're going to pray a little bit. For those Christians in the room. Who specifically struggle with this self-loathing. If we've been talking to you this morning.
We're going to spend more time talking about it in our groups. And for some of you may not know. You have this. There's a list we have in our Killjoy book. To help you identify it. We're going to pray about those three things.
The flesh. The world. And the devil. And here's how we're going to do this. Let's pray about the flesh first.
In just a second. We're going to pray. And you get to repent. For actively any participation you've had. In telling yourself lies. In preaching a false gospel to yourself.
You get to repent for unbelief. And then you get to remind yourself in prayer. Of what's true. That you're holy. And blameless. And above reproach.
That you're free. Some of us in our prayer lives. Need to get to the point. Where all we do is talk about ourselves. We talk about our friends and family. We need to start talking about Jesus.
In our prayer. Thank you Jesus. That you saved me. That you redeemed me. That you're king. And that I'm free.
So we're going to pray about the flesh. So just for a minute. I want you to take a second. And I want you to. If this is you. I want you to take a moment.
And ask the Holy Spirit to help you. To actually repent of. Any participation you've had in. Applying this to yourself. Lying to yourself. And then I want you to take a minute.
To just celebrate that Jesus. Frees you. Okay can we do that now? O Amen. Amen. Amen.
Now we're going to take a second to pray. Where he says, deliver us from temptation. Keep us from temptation. We're going to pray about where we're tempted to believe more about what the world says about us than what Jesus says about us. Some of you believe what your dad said about you more than you believe what Jesus says about you. Some of you believe what middle schoolers or your mom or some sort of a jury you've made up in your mind.
What they say about you, what you think people would say about you more than what Jesus says, which is your holy, blameless, and above reproach. We're just going to take a minute to pray that through the Holy Spirit he would let us not believe that. We would trust him more. That he would deliver us from the temptation. Keep us from the temptation to believe what the world says. That he would send unto you a gospel.
They would then satu liaby. And I believe what the Lord says. Those fruits and понимаю. Amen. Amen. Now in this third one, here's what we're going to do.
We're going to specifically pray that in the name of Jesus, if there's anything that's messing with your thought pattern, affecting how you think about yourself, that in the name of Jesus, it would have to leave. That the enemy does not get to speak into what's true about you or have any dominion in your brain in the way you think that you're free. You don't have to be, it's not, this authority isn't based off of you, it's based off of Jesus, his work on the cross, what he's already accomplished, what's already true. So you just get to right now saying in the name of Jesus, and Jesus, I pray that in the name of Jesus, that anything that is affecting my thoughts, that's not me or the Holy Spirit has to go.
Has no place in my thinking anymore. Take a second and do that. Amen. Amen. We said when we started this series that we were going to treat it a little bit the way we treat counseling, that I wish that we could have done this across the table. And here's what we always say when we get to this point when we're talking with people through this.
And just so you know, there have been many people in our church family who have struggled with this. And specifically when they got to the point where they got to tell something to just leave them alone in the name of Jesus, they felt free and clear. And it's not weird. We have an enemy that hates us, that wants to lie to us. You get to have freedom. Some of you in the room right now may have just thought when we got to that point where we were going to tell something to leave in the name of Jesus, you may have just gotten frustrated, fearful.
You may have begun to think, this is dumb. This is a waste of time. I'm not going to do this. That's not the Holy Spirit. It's not the Holy Spirit talking. It may be you.
And if it's you right now getting really frustrated, you can repent. But it's possible that you're being continually pressed to not tell something to leave in the name of Jesus. And I just want to encourage you, do. Because the Holy Spirit doesn't mind you saying that. He's active and at work to set you free. So we're going to take one more second to just pray and say in the name of Jesus, everybody in the room, in the name of Jesus, nothing gets to mess with me.
I'm free. Because I'm holy and blameless and above reproach because of the cross. Nothing gets to mess with my thinking. So let's continue to pray that just for a second. Amen. Amen.
Jesus, we thank you that you're good. Amen. That you who were holy and blameless and above reproach took everything that could ever be said bad about us onto yourself. That you became our sin. You became the worst of all of us. You became everything we could ever be accused of that would be true.
Everything we've ever tried to hide, you became it. And you were nailed to a cross and laid in a grave. And that you rose again conquering it. That we died with you and we get to rise with you. That it's you alive in us. So that we are now holy and blameless and above reproach forever.
Because you've accomplished that on our behalf. And that we get to be reconciled to you and presented to you. That one day we will be presented before your throne as holy and blameless and above reproach. And it will be a beautiful testament to your work on our behalf. That it will be a moment where you receive so much glory because you saved such sinners. And we'll be overwhelmed and tears will shrink down our face and we'll praise you, our God, for eternity.
Because you became our sin. So that we can be free. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Some of you, you need to go home.
You need to make a list. Bible passages. We can help you with that. You can talk to your community group leader about it. Some of you are going to need to do some follow-up with your community group leader. You have some questions.
Some of you, maybe we need to do some pastoral follow-up. That's kind of outlined in the beginning of our Killjoy books. Some of you are just going to need to be real honest with your group this week. One of the reasons we get to confess out loud is because everything we can say out loud bad about ourselves goes to Jesus. And we're above reproach. We're above reproach.
Lust
Transcript
Well, good morning. We'll be in Proverbs chapter 5. That'll be on page 341. If your Bible looks like this, go ahead and get over to Proverbs chapter 5. We've got a good bit of work to do today. We're going to be talking about lust in our Killjoy series and about how our approach to sexuality and our approach to lust has begun to rob us of our ability to have joy, to have peace, to rest in God.
And so we've got a good bit to go through. I'm going to pray, and then we're going to hop in. God, we thank you that you're good. Lord, we thank you, Lord, that your word speaks about topics that we need to learn. That you don't leave us on our own to figure it out, but that you speak to us, that you lead us, that you give us wisdom that we would not have on our own. And so, God, we praise you.
We pray that we'd listen and we'd follow. In Jesus' name, amen. Verse 1 and 2, I love how this starts. It says, My son, be attentive to my wisdom. Incline your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. First little thing I just want to throw out there for us as we get started this morning.
This starts off, it's Solomon writing. So he was a king and he was very wise and he's writing to his son. Later he says, sons, for the parents in the room, you need to have some conversations about sex that start off with my son, my daughter. You've got to talk to your children about sex. I came across some statistics this week I want to share with you. This is from the National Center of Biotechnical Information.
I don't expect you to know what that is. I don't know what it is. It had a.gov website, so it's important. They do good things, I guess. They basically took television shows and it says they coded them. They tried to see what kind of material was in them.
So, for example, a recent content analysis found, this is a quote, that 82% of episodes coded contained sexual content. However, only 2.9% of episodes with sex, so 2.9% of that 82%, contained messages about sexual patience and 5.2% had messages about taking sexual precautions. So 82% of the episodes they looked at talked about sex and only a very small portion of those talked about any sort of waiting or at least taking precautions. It says the American youth, and I don't know what age group that is, it just says youth, see 14,000 references to sex per year. 14,000. That's like 38 a day.
One source I saw said that about 156 of those, so right at about 1%, will actually be references to sex inside of marriage. So 14,000 references to sex, the average age that an American youth engages with pornography for the first time is 11. That's sixth grade. That's the average age that someone first sees pornography. Parents, you've got to talk to your kids about sex. You've got to talk to them about sex the way that Solomon does, which is both here's what's dangerous about it and here's what's good about it.
And I do want to give you some encouragement. The number one impact that they've studied, children growing up or whatever, the number one thing that has impacted them is parental conversations. That has the biggest impact. It's the biggest assigning factor on how they're going to view sex. They are hearing about sex. They are learning about sex.
It's not like you can wait until they're older and then be like, oh, let me explain this to you. They already know. At this point, they might know things you don't know. Like, I don't know. I mean, they're handing out iPads to sixth graders. Praise Jesus they never handed me an iPad when I was in sixth grade and told me to do all my schoolwork on it.
Like, we've got to start having some conversations, but parental conversations actually impact them, have an effect. Now, is it going to be awkward? Certainly. If it's not awkward, you didn't do it right. Like, of course, talking to your kids about sex is going to be awkward. I remember my parents sat me and my two brothers down, and I was in the middle.
So one was older than me. One was younger than me. I was pretty young. I don't know how young I was. I mean, like, eight or ten or something. And they're like, all right, you're hearing about sex.
Let's talk about this. And so it was my mom and my dad. They drew pictures. Not stick with me. My mom was a nurse. So they drew, like, what happens inside.
So, like, there's nothing that takes the mystique out of sex like phrases like fallopian tube. But, like, they talked to us about how everything worked. And then when it got a little more intimate, I don't know. Like, my dad just, he was like, he took the back half of the conversation. He was like, let me explain how this works. And I remember he's telling us, like, this is how, you know, you learn the science.
Let me explain what it's going to, you know, you're not going to be thinking about fallopian tubes. Let me talk about, you know, the other stuff that happens. And he got done talking to his three sons, and I went, no, that can't be right. Like, that is not correct. And my older brother, Logan, who is one of our community group leaders, hit me and said, shut up. He knows what he's talking about.
He's done this three times. Here's the thing. I grew up in the United States. My parents did not do a whole lot of governing what we watched on television. I'm one of the people who has seen 14,000 references to sex a year, if not more. And I remember very distinctly the four or five conversations that my parents had with me about sex.
Parents, we've got to start having some conversations that start off with my son, my daughter. We need to talk about something. Sure, it'll be awkward, but it's going to be very, very good. Secondly, as we get started, I love that it starts off with my son. This is God who cares about us through the Holy Spirit authoring this, and this is the conversation he's having with us. He's saying, my son, my daughter, listen to me.
I care about you. He's not bringing the hammer down. He's not mad at you. He's sitting us down and saying, let's talk. Let's have a conversation about this.
Now, in our Killjoy series, we're going to approach this a little bit differently. Our culture, every time we talk about sex, we have to say so much because our culture has already said so much. When we start talking about, in a couple weeks, when we talk about worry and anxiety, and we're like, hey, worry and anxiety are bad. Like, we need to work on this. Everybody in the room is going. When we stand up and say, hey, sex outside of marriage is bad, we're like, hmm, I don't know.
Seems kind of great. We just have to do more. We have to say more to help explain what we're talking about here. So we did a series at the beginning of the year called The Theology of Sex. I would really encourage you to go back and listen to it if you have questions about where we stand on things. We talked about masculinity, femininity, gender, homosexuality.
Like, we tried to do as best we could for seven weeks. Open the Bible. Here's what it says. Today, specifically, we're going to do a little bit of work to just say, here's what the Bible says about sex, and here's how we as Christians who are trying to follow this can find some freedom and some joy in what God's called us to. So before we jump in, I think we've got to take just a second to talk about what the Bible says is the framework for sex, what the Bible says positively about sex.
So the Old Testament sex ethic and the New Testament sex ethic are the same, and here's how it works. No sex of any kind outside of a covenant, period. All right? Let's talk. What's a covenant? Do we have a modern equivalent word for that?
No. Here's how a covenant works. A covenant is a relationship with a commitment. So it's a relationship with a legal commitment so that the relationship is actually better, made stronger by the legal commitment. What we're most used to are relationships and contractual consumer relationships where both of them are based off of what am I getting out of this. A covenant is the opposite.
A covenant is where I say, here's what I'm going to do, period. It doesn't matter what you do. Here's what I'm going to do regardless of how you respond, how you act. That's what a marriage covenant is. It's where a man and a woman say, I covenant with you to give myself to you, everything I have to you forever. That is where sex belongs.
In the Bible, sex is a covenant good, meaning that sex only happens inside of a marriage covenant. Now, that sounds crazy to our culture. And for us who've grown up and even like we've listened to the 14,000 messages a year, we're going, yeah, okay, I know that the Bible says that. Let me tell you a few things really quickly just about us as a church and why we open this every week and spend so much time talking out of it. This has authority over us. If we come to this and we get to pick and choose what we like and what we don't like and what's in date and what's out of date, we're in charge.
This isn't. And let me explain something to you. If we get to do that, if I get to approach the Bible with I'm in charge, let me say what I like and let me skip what I don't like, what we're doing right now is a waste of time. If we get to be in charge of the Bible, studying it is a waste of time. If the Bible is in charge of us, then it's absolutely valuable, although sometimes frustrating and difficult. Okay?
Is that fair? We believe that Jesus is in charge, so we spend a lot of time studying his word. What the Bible says about sex makes us seem crazy. Now, if you're a Christian and you actually believe the Bible and you're trying to follow it, I have good news for you. Christians have always seemed crazy when it came to sex. Does that make you feel better?
That's how it started. The original Christian sex ethic seemed crazy to their culture. We actually have a letter that was written where somebody was trying to explain, okay, let me try to help you understand Christians because they're a phenomenon now. They're all over the place now. The whole Roman Empire is crawling with these people. Let me start explaining to you why they're weird.
One of the quotes from that is he says, one of the things that's weird about Christians is they have a common table but not a common bed, meaning they'll share their table with anybody. You can go over to their house. You can eat a meal, which was completely opposite from culture because eating a meal meant you and I are on the same level. And they said, but they don't have a common bed, meaning that they only sleep with the person they're married to. Isn't that weird? That was the point he was making because in their culture it was the opposite.
You could sleep with whomever, but you didn't share your table with everybody. And Christians showed up and said, no, anybody can come to my house. Anybody can eat with me. We're on the same plane with everybody, but you leave my bed alone. So I hope it makes you feel better.
We've been weird for thousands of years. Let's, as a church, continue that and find out what it's supposed to look like. Here's the thing. We're used to consumer relationships, meaning that whatever I get out of this relationship matters. My needs matter more than the relationship. So some of you iPhone people, we have iPhone people in here.
Like raise your hand. You can participate. You got iPhone people. Okay. Any Motorola. What is it?
Nokia. What is it? What's the other one? Android. Not Nokia. Android.
Man, I miss my Nokia phone, y'all. It's like a brick that made phone calls. It was amazing. Android people. Okay. So some of you, you had an iPhone.
They keep updating it. Eventually, they made a new one that bends when you put it in your pocket and doesn't have a headphone jack. Now, you weren't like, no, I'm committed to iPhone. I've got to stick with it. Some of y'all realize that Androids have that little thing where you don't have to pick up your thumb when you're texting. Have you seen Android users' text where they just go, and it's like magic, and your iPhone keeps auto-correcting words to nonsense so it doesn't make any sense?
And so you were like, I'm going to get an Android. I'm going to get a Samsung Galaxy. And then it turns out that those are flammable. You bought an expensive Molotov cocktail. You didn't stick with Samsung anymore. Like you went and traded that one in.
You were like, good, y'all fix it. This one isn't going to catch on fire. And they were like, well, eh. And that one's still calling fire. And so you moved back. You went to a different one.
Some of you saw the commercials where you were with Verizon, but with Sprint you can cut your bill in half. And we've moved because our needs matter more than the relationship. None of us are committed to Samsung so much that even though they're recalling their phones and their washing machines, you're like, I'm sticking with it, even though it's going to set my house on fire and somehow harm my children. Like you're not doing that. We're used to consumer relationships where whatever I want, whatever I'm getting out of this matters more than the relationship. And that is not a covenant.
A covenant is the relationship, the commitment matters more than what I get out of it. And that biblically is where sex was designed to take place. In the Bible, the guardrails for sex are high and narrow. But once you're on that road, it's the Audubon. Go for it. That's the biblical approach.
That's why later in this chapter it's going to get a little intense. So let's read a little bit about what this says here. Jump to verse 15 because I still want to show us the biblical picture for picture for where sex is supposed to happen. And then we'll walk back through and talk more about lust. So 15 drink water from your own cistern.
Flowing water from your own well. So this is in the context of sex. What he's saying is be married. He's going to later say the wife of your youth. He says be married, have a husband, have a wife. And that's where you drink water.
Flowing water. Morning water. Evening water. Afternoon water. Drink some water. Should your springs be scattered abroad?
Streams of water in the street. That's a rhetorical question. The answer is no. Your water at your own place. Not out in the streets. Let them be for yourself alone.
Not for strangers with you. So, is this person my spouse? This is my husband. Is this my wife? That's the sexual question. If this is your spouse, then yes.
Go for it. Any other people. Any other strangers. Any other anything. Isn't allowed in there. It's just you.
Sex was designed by God to be a sacrament in some ways. A sacrament is a physical act that reminds us of a spiritual reality. When we take communion, that's a sacrament. It's a physical act that reminds us of the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus. When we have baptism, that's a sacrament. That's a physical act that reminds us that we were buried with Jesus.
We rose again. When you have sex, it's meant to be a sacrament for your marriage. Which is a physical act that says, I give everything to you. My whole life. My finances. My economics.
My social standing. Everything. We share everything. I'm completely vulnerable with you. Everything I have. Everything I'll ever be.
Everything I ever was. I'm giving to you. I'm committing to you. That's what sex inside of a marriage was meant to be. A covenant renewal. All of me belongs to all of you.
C.S. Lewis says that sex outside of marriage is like chewing food and then spitting it out. Sex outside of a covenant is kind of like bulimia. In bulimia, you eat food, but then you make yourself throw up. So what you want is the flavor.
What you want is the taste. But you're not committed. You don't want the calories. You don't want the trans fat. That's sex outside of marriage. When somebody wants to sleep with you, but not commit to you, what they're saying is I want your flavor, but none of your baggage.
I don't want any of your trans fat. A philosopher, Immanuel Kant, he's a central figure in modern philosophy. He said it this way. Sexual love makes of the loved person an object of appetite. As soon as the appetite has been stilled, the person is cast aside as one casts away a lemon which has been sucked dry. But that was never meant to be how sex worked because sex is in the Bible a covenant good, not a consumer good.
It exists inside of a covenant, not a consumer relationship. Keep reading verse 18. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely dear, a graceful doe. I love that he says that. He says the wife of your youth, the person you married a long time ago, that's your wife forever. That's your husband forever.
Let me explain to you. If you're married, let me answer a few questions for you. A lot of times in our culture we ask the question, is this person the one? Are you married to them? They're the one. You found them.
Good Job, you guys. So proud of you. If you're married to them, that's the one. That's your one. Stick with them. That's it.
You got the one. You don't have to keep asking that question. And what's your type? Well, are you married? That's your type. When you started, your type was athletic.
Now your type watches sports. That's your type. Your type's gotten bigger. You like bigger. Your type went bald. You love bald.
You're into bald. Your type got old. Your type got wrinkly. Your type changes its hair color every month. You change your type every month. Sometimes you got to check.
I don't know. I might be in the blondes. I hadn't seen her. She went to the thing. I don't know what I'm going to be into when she gets home. But when she gets home, I'm going to be into something.
Mom, that's how that works. You enjoy the wife of your youth, the husband of your youth forever. Verse 19. A lovely dear, a graceful doe, let her breasts fill you at all times with delight. Be intoxicated always in her love. People give Christians a hard time and they'll periodically say, you take the Bible literally, sometimes it has its benefits.
Here's what it's saying. Nowhere else. Nowhere else do you enjoy sexual relationships. Nowhere else do you go to find any sort of sexual fulfillment in the covenant relationship with a real person that you've committed your life to. A real person that you've committed everything you have to them. The person that still like cries at every sappy movie even if they've seen it a hundred times.
The person that's still secretly into 90s boy bands. The person who has road rage issues. The person who at the end of a hard day sits next to you and knows exactly what to say. Or always knows how to make you laugh. Or the person that consistently sticks their foot in their mouth. That real person that's going to change throughout your life, that's the person you're committed to sexually forever.
A real person that you know that you've committed everything to. There's a John Legend song that says, Because all of me loves all of you. Love your curves and all your edges. All your perfect imperfections. Give your all to me. I'll give my all to you.
I don't know if he had covenant marriage in mind. That's what he just described. Everything I have belongs to you. And sex out of that context is saying, I want your flavor. I want some of you. But I'm keeping me back.
I don't belong to you. You don't really belong to me. I don't want any of your baggage. I just want to physically enjoy some of this. And it's holding back. It's not giving.
It's not free. 20. Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? So as we go back through this, we're going to start back up in verse 3. We're going to talk about the forbidden woman. And here's the forbidden woman biblically.
Here's what lust is. It is a desire sexually for anyone who is not your spouse. A desire sexually for anyone. A covetous desire sexually for anyone who is not your spouse. So the New Testament is going to use the term porneia, which is translated a lot as sexual immorality.
It just means all sexual anything outside of covenant marriage. Jesus is going to say, don't look at another woman lustfully who is not your spouse. So it means any sort of desire sexually for someone you're not married to. That is the line that the Bible draws. Sex is supposed to be, I do forever, not you'll do for now. That's the Bible's approach.
Now our culture wants it to be a consumer good. It wants it to be just a physical appetite. That's what we're told over and over again. Go to verse 3. We're going to start talking about our culture a little bit. Try to understand where we are.
What we've been told, for the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil. Okay, that's imagery. That's a picture. Do her lips actually drip honey? No. Does she actually squirt oil out of her mouth when she's talking?
No. He's giving imagery. He's saying this is what it seems like. What he's saying is the forbidden woman, the person that you're not married to, seems amazing, sweet, healthy, enjoyable. She drips honey. Have you ever wondered why all the other husbands are not idiots?
You ever wondered why they do such a good job parenting? Have you ever wondered why they treat their wife so well? Have you ever wondered why this guy seems so great? It's because it's a lie. You ever wondered why their wives never talk to them like this? You ever been up until 2 o'clock in the morning arguing?
You got mascara running down your face and then at some point you get on Facebook and you see these pictures of people on vacation and you see, look at how magic that is. It's a lie. Nobody's taking a selfie at 2 a.m. after an argument. Hashtag exhausted. Hashtag 2 a.m. life. Hashtag depressed.
Nobody's doing that. The person you're not with, the person you're not married to, the person, and if you're not married, anybody you're not married to, they drip honey. Smoother than oil. The way they talk is like Barry White. Hey, baby. Like it's smooth, seems great, but it's a lie.
That's the point he's making. It seems wonderful. See, we're told that sex is just physical, but that's not why we go to it. It's not why we chase after it. See, we're pursuing sex to be free, to be loved, to not be alone anymore. I'm not alone, at least not right now.
I'm wanted. I'm desired. I'm approved of. I'm cared about. You don't go back to porn over and over again just for some sort of physical pleasure. You've got to be comforted.
You've got to be in control. You've got to have someone desire you and long for you. See, we're on a soul-level pursuit when it comes to sex. That's why Fifty Shades of Grey was the fastest book ever to sell a million copies. How many people read that book or went to that movie with this question? Am I missing something?
Am I missing out? What am I missing? Because we've begun to believe that sex gives life, fulfillment, satisfaction, and that we have to have it. But it keeps going. Verse 3. For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil.
But in the end, she's bitter as wormwood. Wormwood is just a plant, a spice that's very bitter. Sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps follow the path to Sheol. That's the Old Testament word for the pit or the place of the dead.
So it's hell. He's saying her path goes to hell. She does not ponder the path of life. Her ways wander, and she does not know it. And I would argue that this is us in our culture when it comes to sexuality. We've been promised life.
We've been promised fulfillment. We've been promised honey and oil. And we're wandering off the path of life towards hell, and we don't even know it. We've been promised satisfaction and freedom. And we've wandered off, and we don't even realize it. There was a quote from a lady.
It's an article that went viral for a little while. It said her name is Jamie Varon. The article is called This Is How We Date Now. It starts off this way. They've always said there are so many fish in the sea, but never before has the sea of fish been right at our fingertips. On OkCupid, Tinder, Grindr, Dash, take your pick, we can order up a human being the same way we order up Pad Thai.
Those are dating websites or apps. I'm not saying those are wrong, but I am saying that our approach to dating has changed. That's the point she's making here, that we've begun to approach it as approaching a buffet. She says, if we commit, we are still one eye wandering at the options. We want the beautiful kind of filet mignon, but we're too busy eyeing the mediocre buffet because of choice. Our choices are killing us.
We think choice means something. We think opportunity is good. We think the more chances we have, the better, but it makes everything watered down. Never mind actually feeling satisfied. We don't even understand what satisfaction looks like, sounds like, feels like. We're one foot out the door because outside that door is more, more, more.
We don't see who's right in front of our eyes asking to be loved because no one is asking to be loved. We long for something that we still want to believe exists, yet we're looking for the next thrill, the next jolt of excitement, and the next instant gratification. Sex has offered us an endless buffet of satisfaction, and it's robbed us the ability to ever actually be satisfied because we've got one foot out the door, one eye on our options, and we've forgotten how to covenant. And we've taken sex out of a covenant relationship, put it in a consumer relationship, and it was never meant to be there.
The New York Times actually ran an article entitled The Downside of Cohabitating Before Marriage. They did some research, and they found that 20-somethings, half of 20-somethings agreed that they would not ever get married unless they had lived with someone first to see if they were compatible. And about two-thirds said that they believed moving in together before marriage was a good way to avoid divorce. And then the New York Times article goes on, and it's walking through this pretty well and trying to not get too far. It's New York Times. They've got to kind of thread the needle here.
But basically their point is that's not actually true. Cohabitating before marriage increases your negative statistics, increases the chance of divorce. And so they're basically looking at it and saying, okay, we know we have the cohabitating effect. That's what they call it. And they're like, why? What is living together before marriage?
How does that affect things? And here's one thing. This is a quote. One thing men and women do agree on, however, is that their standards for a live-in partner are lower than they are for a spouse. And that's because they're consumers. They've got one foot out the door, one eye on their options.
The lady interviewed said this, I felt like I was on this multi-year, never-ending audition to be his wife. They end the article with, a life built on top of maybe you'll do simply may not feel as dedicated as a life built on top of the we do commitment of marriage. See, sex in that kind of a relationship is marketing. It's a desire to keep someone focused on you. At best, it's you holding back while trying to take, but also trying to have enough sex so that you're on an audition. Sex has promised us security and love, and what it's given us is year-long auditions.
It's given us years of insecurity trying to keep someone when it was never meant to be in that relationship in the first place. Sex has promised us freedom. It drips. Honey, it's smoother than oil. It promises us freedom. But more and more scientists and neurosurgeons have come out, and they're looking at neuroscience, which is the study of the brain, and they've begun to understand about neuroplasticity, which means that your brain can change.
It can physically change. This is what happens in addiction. Your brain physically rewires itself throughout your life. One of the ways that it was explained in an article I read was if every time you hang out with your uncle, the first thing he does is give you a hug, and then he hands you an ice cream cone, and pretty soon your brain is going to rewire around my uncle is awesome. Because when you get a hug, your brain releases oxytocin. When you get ice cream, your brain releases dopamine, and your brain begins to set up, based on the circumstances, what caused this feeling, what caused this emotion.
When you have sex, your brain releases dopamine, oxytocin, vasopressin, endorphins, and it begins to rewire your brain. Oxytocin is a bonding chemical. Here's what that means. Here's what they're saying. Sex rewires your brain to be addicted. It works like a drug.
If you're in a covenant relationship, that's beautiful. That God designed sex to make you more and more addicted to your spouse. More and more addicted to them so that your brain actually rewires to where that's the person that I'm hooked on. That's beautiful. But if you take sex out of a covenant relationship, that's terrifying.
They actually said that sex becomes like taking a piece of duct tape and wrapping it around the hairy arm of a large man and then peeling it off. You get a lot of hair. You get a lot of skin flakes. Because sex was meant to bond. So it's like duct tape.
It's sticky. And then they said if you take it and wrap it around someone else's arm and then peel that off. This is in the book Hooked. It was written in 2008 by some neurosurgeons who were studying this. They said if you keep doing that, eventually the duct tape loses its stickiness. What they were arguing for is that brain science says – they're not Christians.
They're not arguing. They're just saying brain science says that sex with multiple partners actually makes you less sticky, makes sex work less the way it was supposed to. This is actually why pornography is so addictive. There's a website now called Fight the New Drug. They have a lot of really good statistics. Basically, pornography addiction works like a heroin addiction.
It changes your brain's chemistry so that pornography becomes the thing you're absolutely addicted to. It works with the same reward loops and the same addiction centers. Basically, what happens is your body during pornography and during sex releases a bunch of dopamine. So your dopamine receptors are overloaded. Eventually, if you keep doing this, your body takes away dopamine receptors. So you need more and different to continue to feel the same feeling.
That's how heroin works. That's how pornography works. You need more and different. And because your body has less dopamine receptors, your brain has less dopamine receptors, other things don't seem as good anymore. That's why pornography has become such a crippling issue. I saw a statistic that said one survey said that 50% of Christian men and 20% of Christian women reported feeling addicted to porn.
I want to say this. Pornography is not just a man problem. One of the issues we have in the church is that we have females who are addicted to pornography and they feel this extra layer of shame that I can't tell anybody because this is a man's issue. It's not. It's a human issue. It's a sin issue.
And Jesus saves sinners. We need to begin being able to talk about these things. Here's the thing. Sex was meant to be addicting. And inside of a covenant relationship, praise Jesus, that's beautiful. But when we move it from the right context to the wrong context, it breaks down and doesn't work the way it was supposed to.
We were promised freedom. And it's enslaved us. One of the articles I read, it was absolutely devastating because sex has promised so much for us. It's promised security and love and connection. One of the articles I read is called Sex Before Kissing. They interviewed 600 females from the age of 15 to 19.
This was from Australia. They're asking these females from age 15 to 19, what's it like living in a world where all the guys are addicted to porn? That's the question. How does this affect relationships? How does this affect dating? 15 to 19-year-old girls.
This is a quote. Some see sex only in terms of performance, where what counts most is the boy enjoying it. I asked a 15-year-old about her first sexual experience. She replied, I think my body looked okay. He seemed to enjoy it. Many girls seem cut off from their own sense of pleasure or intimacy.
The main market of a good sexual encounter is only if he enjoyed it. Girls and women are under a lot of pressure to give boys and men what they want, to become a real-life embodiment of what the boys have watched in porn, adopting exaggerated roles and behaviors and providing their bodies as mere sex aids. Growing up in today's porn culture, girls quickly learned that they are service stations for male gratification and pleasure. We're wandering towards hell. We've left life and joy and fulfillment and satisfaction and security and love. We're not there anymore.
We've started wandering towards hell and we don't even realize it. What was supposed to be freedom? What was supposed to be so good? What was supposed to end repression? Seventh-grade girls are asking questions about bondage and S&M. Many of them have seen Fifty Shades of Grey and wonder, if a boy wants to hit me, tie me up, and stalk me, does that mean he loves me?
Girls are tolerating demeaning and disrespectful behaviors and thereby internalizing pornography's message about their submissive role. Sexual conquest and domination are untempered by the bounds of respect, intimacy, and authentic human connection. Young people are not learning about intimacy, friendship, and love, but about cruelty and humiliation. One of the arguments for pornography is that it teaches sex education, and I would argue that it does, but it's a bad education. It teaches about aggression, dominance, and bad sex. No intimacy, no love, no kissing, no talking, no friendship.
Teens who have had sex, this is a different article, are three times more likely to be depressed than teens who haven't. Female teens are three times more likely to commit suicide, this is in the U.S. Males are eight times more likely. That's not causation, that may be correlation, but we've got to start asking some questions. We were promised love, we were promised security, we were promised freedom, and we've gotten everything but, because we've left the path of life and we've started wandering towards hell. That's what the Bible says about sex, that it was meant to be beautiful and addicting and good.
You can't argue that the Bible is anti-sex. You cannot make that argument. It begins with a God who creates a man and a woman naked, brings them to each other. The man begins to sing or just make up some poetry, which seems like an appropriate response. God brings a naked man, a naked woman, brings them together, and the first thing he says to him is, be fruitful and multiply. And that's just how the Bible starts.
There are sections in the Song of Solomon, which is about the enjoyment of married sex, that every time translators get to it, they kind of shy away because they're given some imagery that's really graphic. And so they tone it down as best they can. But if you can read Greek, which I can't, but I've been told, it makes people blush. But we've been lied to. We aren't secure. We've got one foot out the door.
We keep having to sell other people on our benefits. We're not satisfied. One of the pictures that the New Testament gives for hell is a place of unending thirst. And that's where we are in the U.S. when it comes to our sexual desires. We have an unending, eternal, unsatisfied thirst. One of the things, if you look at magazine covers, they used to say you need to be having more sex.
Now what do they say? You need to be having better sex. Why? They sold us on more sex. Are we satisfied? No, we must be doing it wrong.
Sex hasn't led us to heaven. It's led us towards an unending, unsatisfied thirst and longing, which the Bible says that's hell. We're not free. We've been enslaved. We aren't loved. We're used.
We aren't known. We're sucked to dry and thrown away. Chewed up and spit out. Our progressive, free, enlightened approach to sex has not delivered. It's dripping honey, but it's as bitter as wormwood. It promised life.
It's leading us towards death. It promised heaven. It's led us towards hell. My wife, when she was in high school, the first time she ever filled up her car, she had a big Ford Explorer, and the first time she ever filled it up, it was on E. She was all excited. She was going to fill it up.
She filled it up. She drove across the street, and her engine stalled out and died. So her dad had to come, and they were like, does it have gas? Yes. Is it overheating? Like, it took them forever to realize she had filled it up with diesel.
Ford's floors are big. They're not that big. The reason it didn't work was because she put diesel in a gasoline engine. That's what we've done with sex. We've taken a covenant good and put it in a consumer setup, and it's not going to work. It's not going to provide.
It's not going to do everything it promised. So what do we do? How do we respond? If we're caught up in lust, if we're caught up in pursuing the person we're not married to, if we've already done this, if we're addicted to pornography, some people in the church have been addicted to pornography for decades. Began when you were 15, 13. It's been decades of lust.
Decades of, well, this is normal. This is the way guys are supposed to be. Or this is, every woman does this. Or this is how it works. And we've been told over and over again, 14,000 messages a year about how sex is supposed to work. It's robbing us of joy.
It's not freedom. It's slavery. There's a pastor in New York. His name's Tim Keller. He says that whenever someone comes to him and they say, a young person unmarried, and they come to him and say, I'm not a Christian anymore. I'm leaving the church.
He says his first question is, who have you been sleeping with? Immediately they're like, what? What does that have to do with anything? And his response is, nine times out of ten, the reason they're leaving the church is because they've been caught up in sex, and willful disobedience to the Bible makes God's presence unnoticeable, imperceivable. Some of us would say, I am a Christian. I follow the Bible, but when it comes to sex, we've bought in hook, line, and sinker to every message we've heard in our culture.
The Bible's repressive. The Bible's outdated. I follow it in these areas, but not this one. And it makes following Jesus joyless and difficult. So what do we do?
Solomon gives us some help. Verse seven. First thing we've got to do. Listen to what the Bible says about sex. Verse seven. And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
A lot of churches don't talk about sex. We've talked about sex a decent amount this year. We've devoted eight sermons to it, but you'll hear 38 messages on sex today. Eight isn't a lot. It seems like we talk about it a good bit, but our culture is pounding us with the ideas of sex and how we ought to think about it. It's aggressively telling us what we've got to believe, and we've got to start opening our Bibles and reading and meditating on what God says about sex because otherwise we're going to believe what our culture is telling us.
He says, listen, don't depart. That sounds crazy. It sounds prudish. It sounds restrictive. Yes. Yes.
But true freedom is found inside the bounds of healthy restrictions. That's how that works. Birds can fly because they're restricted by little body weight and thin little bones and wings. Fish are most good and okay in underwater. They're restricted by that, but that's where they find freedom. That's how it works.
Great pianist has only become that by practicing hours a day. They become free on a piano because they've completely restricted themselves. That's how sex is supposed to work. We've got some restrictions, but that's what leads to freedom. Verse 8. First thing we've got to do is listen to what the Bible says about sex, which means some of us need to open our Bibles and begin reading, trying to find out.
Verse 8. Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house. We've got to take drastic steps. We've got to take drastic steps. Don't go near the door of her house. Keep far away from her.
The way Paul's going to say this in 1 Corinthians 6 is flee. The way Jesus says it, he says if you lust, pluck your eyeball out. That's crazy. He says cut your hand off. That sounds crazy, but he says it's better to have life and be maimed. It's better to have life and only one eye than to be led astray towards death and hell.
We have to take some drastic steps. Martin Luther says if your head's made of butter, stay away from the fire. We got a lot of butter heads in our church that are just sitting next to a fire and we need to make some good decisions here. Some of you, next week when you show up, you need to be showing off your new flip phone. Some of you need to save $9 a month and get rid of Netflix. When I counsel some of the guys in our church and they're struggling with pornography, one of the questions I've asked before is how many times, you got roommates?
Yeah. How many times have you looked at porn at your kitchen table? Zero. Good. That's where your computer stays from now on. On your kitchen table.
Some of you, your biggest temptations at night with your smartphone, put it out, put it out in the hall, sit on the table. Well, yeah, but I use it as an alarm clock. Walmart sells ones that just have red lights on them and they sound like this in the morning. Eh, eh, eh, eh. That will wake you up. Some of us need to take some drastic steps.
Some of you are in relationships. You need to break up. You need to move out. You need to leave their house at 8 o'clock at night. I heard one pastor say that he's got daughters and he tells them, don't believe anything a guy says after 8 that he doesn't say during the day. If he says it after 8 p.m. but he doesn't say it the rest of the day that it's not true.
Some of us just need to leave the house sitting up, watching a terrible show on Netflix until 2 o'clock in the morning that you're not really interested in next to your boo isn't staying far away from the door. Let me take some drastic steps. Now, that's not going to change your heart, but it can let you catch your breath enough to start trying to pursue Jesus. A couple of other drastic steps that need to be taken. Some of you, for the first time, need to tell your community group. You need to have someone in your group, some ladies in your group, some guys in your group that you say, I'm struggling with this.
You need to be honest. Sexual sin is sin, but it's just sin. And Jesus saves sinners. There's hope for us. 1 John 1, 6-9, we'll have it on the screen. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
That we can bring things into the light. Sin grows in the dark, so what you've been told over and over again is you can't tell anybody this. You've got to win it on your own. You've got to fight this on your own. What if they find out? What if they know?
Bring it into the light so that we can have fellowship with each other and then Jesus can cleanse us of all sin. There's not a single thing that you can bring into the light that He can't handle. There's not a single thing, groups, when y'all get together this week and somebody confesses this, don't look at them like a lobster just crawled out of their mouth. We're together because Jesus saves sinners. sinners. Yeah. People in your community group struggle with lust.
Absolutely. In our culture, if you don't struggle with lust, it's amazingly difficult and you're special if this isn't one of your issues. Praise Jesus, but we've been bombarded with message after message about sex and sexuality and lust. And we need freedom, but Jesus saves sinners. Keep going. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Some of us need to have conversations, bring some things into the light and find some freedom. Quickly, and we've got to keep moving. Some of you need some friends. Not just friends you confess your sin to. You need that.
Some of you need some friends of the opposite sex. C.S. Lewis says one of the quickest ways to get rid of lust is to get to know a person. It's hard to lust after a person you actually know. Some of you need some friends of the opposite sex. Now, there's some wisdom to be applied here.
I don't do counseling with females alone. There's some things that you need to be aware of, but one of the teachings that has happened at least throughout my life growing up in the church is guys, you can't be near girls. Can't be friends with them. Sex. Girls, stay away from guys. Can't be friends with them.
Okay. If one of our problems is that we treat the opposite sex like an object, running away from them and being absolutely afraid of them because if we get alone with them, sex will magically happen is a pornographic fantasy and it is also still treating them like an object. We need brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers. That's how Paul says to treat people in the church. If they're older than you, they're a mother. If they're older than you, they're a father.
If they're younger than you, brother or sister. You know what's beautiful about those relationships? Sex is completely off the table. If you are not married to them, they are a brother, a sister, a mother, or father. Dating relationships. If you are not married, brother or sister, mother or father.
If you need to know how that practically applies to your dating relationship, I'd love to talk with you about it. I'm serious. We can talk about it. We need some actual friends. We need some actual friendships with people of the opposite sex that we treat like a brother or a sister. brother. He keeps going.
He's going to say throughout 10 through 14, he keeps going back into, so he gives some advice, seven and eight, and then he keeps going back into some issues and struggles you're going to have. Get back to 15. We read this a minute ago. Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Third thing we need is we need a better well. We need a better well.
Tim Keller, I quoted him a second ago. He says this about covenantal marriage. He says that in covenantal marriage you're given three things that you can't find in any other type of relationship. One is you're given a zone of security. You do not have to continue to perform. If you actually have a covenantal relationship, you are not performing to keep somebody.
Two, when you've committed to someone beyond your feelings, deeper feelings grow. The only other relationship we have like this is parents to children. You know how this works, right? Like you have children. They bring nothing to the table. They're kind of the worst.
I've heard comedians say that having a child and a really drunk roommate is the same thing. That's pretty true. Then they keep getting older and they keep getting older and you keep sacrificing and you keep giving and you keep loving them regardless of your needs being met. They aren't meeting your needs as like the most special amazing children. You're not getting anything out of this relationship. You're giving and you're giving and you're giving and you're giving and then when they turn 14 you tell them a rule and you say you can't do this and you know what they say?
You hate me and I hate you and you've never done anything for me. And so you choke them but you keep giving and giving and giving and sacrificing and sacrificing and sacrificing and it's one of the most beautiful pictures of unending sacrificial love that we have because when you are in a relationship beyond what your needs are deeper feelings grow and that gets to happen in a covenant marriage and in having children and that's it. When you commit to someone regardless of what you're getting out of it and you say I'm here no matter whether you're sick or healthy, poor, or rich, nice, fun, not fun, mean, I'm here you actually get deeper feelings that get to grow. The third one he says he says if you're you actually get freedom in a covenant relationship because in all other relationships you're a slave you're a slave to your feelings.
You have to feel it to stay. And he says that makes you a slave because you're not in control of your feelings. Sleep habits what you've eaten your body chemistry your physiology have a lot to do with your feelings. He says if you want to be free from your feelings make a promise and you can actually be free. That happens inside of a covenant relationship. Married couples you need a better well meaning that the Bible's going to say repeatedly that married couples should have sex.
They should enjoy sex. They should continue to have sex. They should have conversations with each other be open about it. Some of the married couples in this room the way to apply this sermon is to go home have a conversation be open and honest with each other repent of sin and selfishness repent of fantasies and lust and then have sex. That is a good way to apply this message. You're welcome.
That's what the Bible says. We need a better well. Healthy marriages is not just a gift to the people inside of them. It is a gift to the church. We need healthy marriages of people that love one another serve one another are committed to one another in a covenant relationship and that help the single people in our church see what that's supposed to look like and know what how to walk in one of those in the future. It doesn't mean you need to be real graphic or open about your sex life.
I'm not saying that. You don't need to be talking bad about sex. You don't need to be mistreating your spouse. You need to be open and honest and inviting single people and dating couples into your home to share a meal have an open table have conversations and help them begin to see what marriage is supposed to look like because our culture is telling them a whole lot and we as a church have to begin to model what this is supposed to look like. But all of us need an even better well.
We can't I don't know if y'all know this we can't talk about sex without talking about Jesus. If you've been a part of our church for a while you knew that was true. If you're here for the first time surprise Jesus is better than sex. Sex is just a poor representation of what we can ultimately find in Jesus. Jeremiah 2.13 says this for my people have committed two evils they've forsaken me the fountain of living water and they've honed out cisterns broken cisterns that don't hold water. A cistern's a big well that catches rain water and what he says is I'm a fountain where all of life and fulfillment and joy and satisfaction come from and you've dug a hole and you're trying to drink out of it and it can't give you water.
Here's what we've done culturally as Americans we've said sex is the good life. It's where joy and satisfaction and freedom and hope and life come from and we've been told that over and over and over and over again. It's how you know a relationship is good. It's how you know your life is good. You're missing out if you're not having this. We've been told this over and over and over again and we haven't quenched our thirst yet.
We're continuing to drink from a cistern that will never satisfy us because it was never meant to. Jesus is better than sex and ultimate freedom is only found in him. He is a fountain of living water that fills us up. The Bible steps in and says something to us that I think is so helpful for us as a culture. You can have a full fulfilling and complete life and never have sex and never masturbate and never be addicted to porn. You can have a full fulfilling and complete life without sex.
You can have a full fulfilling and complete life and never have sex. The Bible tells us that repeatedly because fulfillment comes from Jesus. The only thing we can ever look at and say I have to have you to be okay is Jesus. Everything else is optional. Romance, relationships, sex, money, everything else is optional. The one thing we can look at and say I have to have you to be okay and to be fulfilled is Jesus.
As we've been talking this morning some of you have had shame and guilt welling up inside of you. When we talked about the duct tape analogy you began to ask is that me? When we talked about pornography you begin to feel overwhelmed and enslaved. Sometimes when you talk about sex people begin to ask the question am I lovable now? Am I damaged goods? Am I broken?
There's so much pain that goes along with sexual sin and here's the answer to that question. Yes you are loved. Yes you are wanted. Jesus loves you and desires you so much so that he went to a cross to die for you. To cleanse you and to make you his. That Jesus is the fountain that both cleanses us and satisfies us.
There's a song we sing periodically that says this. There's a fountain. This was written in the 1700s. It says there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Jesus is the fountain that pays for our sins that sets us free and that satisfies us completely. But until we're satisfied in Jesus we will forever be stuck trying to quench our thirst in sexual sin.
You can learn all the rules. You can take all the drastic steps you want. You can get all the blockers on your computer that you want. Until you're satisfied in Jesus you'll continue to be addicted. Until you begin to realize that Jesus is the only one that can set you free. The only one that can give you hope.
The only one who loved you so much that he died for you. That he was buried in a grave and that when he rose again he conquered your sin on your behalf. You are loved. You are wanted. You are pursued. You just need a better well.
You are not going to find in sex what was only ever meant to be found in Jesus. I've got one more quote because why not? I've had a thousand today. John Dunn wrote this poem. I think it's helpful. But I'm betrothed unto your enemies.
He's talking to Jesus. Divorce me. Untie or break that knot again. Break up this relationship. I'm chasing after your enemy. I'm running after sex and lust.
Break that up. Take me to you. Imprison me. For I except you enthrall me never shall be free nor ever chased. That means sexually pure. Except you ravish me.
He's talking to Jesus and he says unless I'm so overwhelmed by your love, unless I'm so engulfed in you, imprisoned by you, enthralled by you, I will forever believe this lie. Matt and Raz are going to come back up and here's what we're going to take just a second to pray together. We're going to pray that we'll begin to believe that what the Bible says about sex is true and that we'll be so overwhelmed by the genuine love of Jesus and his death on the cross for our behalf that we won't chase after anything else. We'll be so satisfied in him that we can actually begin to truly in our hearts believe that we can have a life without sex and be okay.
Let's pray. God, we thank you that you save sinners. God, we hate sexual sin, but we thank you that it's still sin and that your blood cleanses us from all sin, that we can be free. God, I pray that we would be a church that you bless with healthy marriages and people that believe what you say about sex, that it's good. It's just not ultimate. It won't satisfy.
It won't fix us. God, I pray that we would see the cross and the empty tomb and your glorious throne in such a way that we'd be satisfied in you. We'd be enthralled with you, imprisoned by you, overwhelmed by your love for us, your death on our behalf. God, I pray that you'd help us to, in our groups this week, be open, honest, bring some things in the light and find some freedom. Confess, have fellowship with one another, genuine, true love and connection based off of truth and not hiding, based off of knowing someone and caring about them. God, I pray that you'd help us to find freedom from our lust and that we as a church would begin to tell a better story about sex than our culture has to offer.
We love you in Jesus' name. Amen.