Judgment

Series: The Sermon on the Mount
August 15, 2021 - Mark Buckley

Well, good morning, Living Streams. It’s a blessing and a privilege for me to be with you today. David and the guys are at the men's retreat. And if you sent somebody to the men's retreat, make sure you ask them, “What did the Lord do in your life?” Because some significant things are happening up there with the guys.

Speaking of significant, Friday night I was trying to go to sleep and there was like rumbles and rumbles and rumbles. And I went out and opened our front door and there was lightning flashes one after another after the other. And I'm like, “I've never seen this before.” I mean, it went on for over an hour. That's not like Phoenix, Arizona. And it reminded me that the Lord can still surprise us. He can still do things that we never experienced before. I actually had a couple of those things this week. If I get to one of the other ones as well. 

But this message is going to be about judgment, passing judgment. And a significant number of reasons. Because if we get our relationships right, if we know how to love one another, if we know how to relate in a healthy way, then we have the potential to have a rich and full life, a flourishing church, and to demonstrate to people that Jesus is alive. If we don't get them right, then all kinds of dysfunction happens in our church, in our family, in our personal life. 

So this message is not out of context. It is in the context of the whole Sermon on the Mount, which is one of my favorite passages. We named our first son Matthew because I loved the Sermon on the Mount. It shows me that Matthew the Apostle was really close to Jesus, and there's something precious about it. The context of the Sermon on the Mount is about, it starts with “Blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the meek.They will inherit the earth, the pure in heart will see God. It goes on to talking about responding to persecution and being blessed by God, being salt and light in the world, not being angry at your brother and incurring judgment on yourself, being able to give, being able to forgive, being able to pray in secret and fast In secret, and seek first the kingdom of God. 

And then when we get to Matthew 7:1, he says, “Do not judge or you too will be judged.” And in the context, it’s "Don't try and categorize everybody else and how they're doing with the Lord,” okay? “Do not go there because you're going to get it wrong. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” 

Let's pray: 

Father, God help me to get this right and to speak in a way that your Holy Spirit can illuminate to the church what you want us to know. Let the truth set us free. In Jesus’ name. 

So, you know, we're in a time in our American history that has been very divided. We got Democrats and Republicans judging each other, sometimes people within their own parties judging each other. We've got people judging the CDC and the medical community and vaccers and anti-vaccers. And everybody knows what they believe. And you know that you're right in the middle. There's the extremes on all sides. But you're right in the middle, right? You know the truth. If only they would listen to people like you and me, we could solve everything. 

I was preparing this message a few weeks ago, after David asked me to give it, and I was doing a video presentation for another church. I spotted a guy on it and I said, “Hey, can we take your picture?” And some of you are going to recognize this picture. I asked him a question. And first of all, the man in the picture, you can see certain things about this guy just from this picture. If you could see his dreds, you'd know they'd go below his waist.

And when guys are like that, you know they've got a history, right? And I said, “Well, how many times have you smoked weed? How many times have you used psychedelic drugs? What have you done with with taking care of your brain or whatever? How many times?” 

And he gave me an answer. And it might surprise you. There's a zero there. Because, usually guys that are dressed like Bob Marley have got a certain lifestyle, a certain approach to drugs, to women.

And I knew this guy had traveled around the country, traveled around the world, been in many different nations. And I said, “Well, if it isn't drugs, maybe it's women. How many different women have you been intimately involved with throughout the course of your entire life?”

And he gave me a number. And the number is one — his wife, Colleen, who's on our worship team. Because this guy is a man of God. He doesn't dress like a typical man of God. He doesn't act like a typical pastor. But in some ways, he's more brilliant than most pastors you’re ever going to meet ,or more people you're ever going to meet. Because he's lived a dedicated life to Jesus Christ almost his entire life. And the pure in heart see God and to know God and communicate his grace in very special ways.

But he told me a story that I wanted to relate to you. Alec Seekins did. He was on a youth group trip and he was an overseer and they were in Guatemala about to fly back to the United States. And so he had gathered the youth as best he could. And then he spotted somebody across the terminal that looked sort of nefarious, looked sort of dangerous, and he wanted to to really guard the kids. 

So as soon as he got the kids settled down, he walks through the terminal, gets to the far side and spots the guy. And actually, he was looking in a full length mirror. He had seen his own image across the terminal and he knew the guy was dangerous. 

I thought that was such a great story. 

When I was pastoring in California, we had a young church. Most of the people were getting saved in the church. We had young families, not a lot of money, but the people were having a lot of babies. We decided to start a Christian school. And in those days, most of our people, their lives revolved around the church. They went to Sunday morning, many of them Sunday night. We had Bible studies. During the week, we had prayer meetings. We had evangelistic outreaches. 

This guy made an appointment to see me. And he wasn't the kind of guy that would show up at all the meetings. He came on Sunday. He had a wife and kids. He managed a bike store, and I didn't know what he wanted to talk about. So I said, “Jeff, what's up, man? What do you want to talk about?” 

And he goes, “I want to talk about the Christian school that we're going to start.” And he said, “I know you're having trouble funding it.” 

I said, “Well, that's going to be a challenge.” 

And he said, “Well, I've got an idea. How about if we have everybody double their tithe?” 

I looked at him and I was sort of shocked, because I didn't think he was that committed, because I was judging our people on the basis of how many meetings are you showing up at. And this guy, who was taking care of his family, managing the bike store, barely making it financially, already giving 10 percent of his income to the church, was proposing that his family and everybody else start giving 20 percent.

And for just a moment, I was tempted. Then I said, “Nope, we're not doing that, Jeff, but I really appreciate your commitment. I really appreciate your heart.” 

It was one of many illustrations that I've had over the years that I cannot judge people's, you know, their spirituality, their commitment, their love for Jesus on the basis of what meetings they attend, on the basis of what their haircut looks like, on the basis of whether or not they've got whatever hanging from their body or etched into themselves. And neither can you, most likely. So Jesus said don't do it. Don't go there. 

Verse 3, 

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Now, one of the things I love about Jesus is that he rewards us by giving us insight, by giving us wisdom, by giving us understanding so that we can help people, so that we can make a difference. And sometimes our temptation is to be hunting for the problems in people's lives to our own detriment. It's easy to spot a problem sometimes. It's really hard to find the solution for that problem. 

One of the premises I want to live by is to look for the treasure and not for the flaw. I wrote a little newsletter this week that some of you received, Reflections. And I told a story: 

It was our forty-eighth wedding anniversary, so this is a story about my dear wife. We were up in the mountains and I had grabbed my fishing pole before we left on the trip, or I actually grabbed Kristina's fishing rod, fly fishing rod, because I was in a hurry. And we we went up for a couple of days. I caught some beautiful trout on her fly rod.

We’re driving home and I'm just sort of reminiscing. I said, “This has been the greatest trip. I've really enjoyed this time. I hadn't caught any fish like that in a couple of years. And I'm really thankful for the the rod that Jim got for both me and you.” 

And she goes, “Well that rod came from Steve.

And I said, “No, no, that was from Jim. About 20 years ago, he gave us both fly rods. And I know it was from Jim because it even has “To Kristina, God bless you,” stenciled in it. 

And she goes, “Yeah, that was from Steve when I used to work with him at Blue Mule Outfitters.”

And I I'm getting a little frustrated, you know what I mean? That she doesn't believe me. So I know I'll fix it. I'll call Jim. I get Jim, call him up on the phone, put it on speakerphone. She's driving and and she can listen to the conversation.

I said, “Jim, I've been thinking about you this weekend. I just got some beautiful trout on the fly rod that you gave us and wanted to thank you.” And we're chatting back and forth and talk about life a little bit. And then I hang up, smiled at my wife. 

She looks at me. “That was from Steve.” 

Now I'm sort of losing my joy on this trip, you know what I mean? I had been feeling really good. So I know I got an idea how to get it back. I said, “I'll bet you. I'll bet you a hundred dollars that that Rod came from Jim.” 

And she said, “Okay,”

So now I'm at peace because I got something to look forward to when I get home. I start reading the newspaper. We get home. I'm unpacking all our stuff. She disappears while I'm in the kitchen putting stuff in the refrigerator. 

She shows back up with two fly rods. From Jim. The one from Steve — that I'd been fishing with — was on the table. And I realize she's right. I'm wrong.

So I go into the the office, I get an envelope, I write out a note. “Dear Kristina, You were right, I was wrong. Please forgive me. I'm sorry. I love you.” 

And then I know where she stashes her money, so I went and got two fifty dollar bills out of her stash spot, put it in the envelope and give it to her. And a little while later, she comes up to me and she has a big smile and she says, “You can keep the money. I love you. It's all about winning to me.” 

And it just reminded me why I have this philosophy: Focus on the treasure, not on the flaw.

Because sometimes if people focus on my flaws, I'm sunk. You know what I mean? Because I've got them. And sometimes I'm absolutely 100 percent convinced I'm right. I will bet in the old days and actually I'm done. I'm done. Don't ever do that. It's evil if you do that. 

Now, in verse six, Jesus says this:

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”

Jesus had just been talking about not judging and now he's calling some people dogs and others pigs. What's up with that? Spiritually speaking, dogs are narcissistic, immoral, spiritual beings. He’s not a cat lover, but it's a description. Other people are like pigs. Their behavior is totally self-centered. Their behavior does not take into consideration anybody else's feelings. 

We're not to be going around judging people casually and making decisions about their whole life on the basis of one event. But on the basis of multiple experiences with people, on the basis of obvious behavior, there are times when this verse applies. 

So Jesus is not telling us in this whole Sermon on the Mount that we're to be ignorant, naive people that get trampled on by everybody. He's telling us to protect ourselves in a way and ina little bit we'll get in a few verses on false prophets. False prophets are people who distort the image of God, distort what relationships are supposed to be all about, distort love. God is love, but love is not just making people feel good right, now all the time, no matter what. 

Now, how do we figure these things out? In verse seven Jesus says:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Spiritually speaking, we want discernment. In First Corinthians 12, discernment is one of the gifts that the Lord releases through the Holy Spirit when we want to help people. Sometimes we're not sure if their problem is a natural problem, or a consequence of physiological imbalance in their life, or if it's a spiritually rooted problem that is a consequence of dark and demonic forces that are operating in their life, or if it's some kind of a chemical imbalance. We need the gift of discernment. 

So Jesus says, “Ask, seek, knock,” because sometimes, just like God buries gold in the earth and you've got to dig for it, he buries wisdom and understanding in ways that when you dig, when you ask, when you seek a new knock, it opens up.

Some friends and I fasted one time for three days. We were pastors, we were working in northern California where a lot of the people had come out of drug backgrounds, some of them had been involved in occult backgrounds, they came from dysfunctional families. And when they came to us for ministry, we wanted to get it right. 

One of the the guys that I remember having to make a decision about was in jail. And I had gone to northern California for a visit, and there's this guy, his friends came up to me and said, “We think he's innocent. He's in jail for child molesting and we think he's innocent. And we want you to go talk to him and pray for him and help him get out.” And I’m, like — that’s really not what I would consider a fun thing to do, if you know what I mean. That's not something that I'm looking forward to do, but because I love the people that were asking me, I went ahead and accepted the offer. 

So I go there to the Marin County jail in San Rafael. And I'm talking with the guy, and he is not convincing me that he's innocent, but I'm not sure. I don't know what really happened. And then he decides to do something. He says, “I don't have any money to pay you to help me, but I'm going to help you out. I'm going to give you a map to the Lost Dutchman's gold mine.” 

And I'm in my heart saying, Thank you very much for showing me that I can't trust you for an inch, man. Because that is the typical fraud thing to give somebody is a map to the Lost Dutchman gold mine. There's been thousands of them sold and secretively handed off. And nobody's ever found that gold yet. It's probably out there, but it's not going to be from a map that somebody in jail gives you as a payoff for getting them out.

When Jesus talks about these same verses in Luke 11, here's what he says. Well, first, Matthew 7:11:

“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

Jesus explained that the good gift is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us the grace to discern between right and wrong, between truth and error. The Holy Spirit can give us the key to unlock the needs in people's hearts. That's what he wants to equip us with. 

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

How do we navigate these challenging relationships in life? We navigate them by treating the people in front of us just like we want to be treated. Exactly. 

I had one of the pastors come up to me after our first service this morning, and he said, “Do you want some help with your message?”

And I said, (gulp), “Yes.” 

He gave me an idea or two about leaving out a story that confused some people. And I said, “Thank you very much,” because I want people to tell me the truth. I want real feedback from my life. I know that I don't always see it like I should. 

And so that's how I treat people. And it takes courage to tell somebody what you really think. It takes love to love some of them enough so that you will overcome the fear of being rejected. But a wise person will thank you. A scoffer will hate you if you bring him correction. A wise person appreciates it. And we want to reap what we sew. We want to reap wisdom and encouragement and understanding. 

Also because I need forgiveness for my sins, I also try and give forgiveness no matter how painful it is. I was talking to a friend recently who left the church and we didn't want to get into a lot of depth about the reasons why he left the church. I just wanted to make sure that he knew that I loved him. And he said to me, “Sometimes relationships are too painful.” 

And I responded to him and said this, “Jesus hasn’t asked me and you to go to Africa to live. He hasn't asked us to give our testimonies in Iran or Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan, even though there are believers in those places that are suffering, especially right now in Afghanistan. It's a very dangerous place for them to be. He hasn't asked us to suffer that way. But he might ask us to pick up our cross and suffer in our relationships right here, right in this fellowship, even, because every church, just like every family, has some painful and difficult relationships to navigate and to get it right. To learn how to love one another, to process through the pain of life and come out the other side brings a great reward.” 

Here's how Jesus describes it. 

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

He's not talking here about going to heaven when you die. He's talking about navigating the relationships of life in such a way that they will lead to life — a narrow road, a small gate that gets us to a place where it opens up into the kingdom of God. 

Sometimes people focus on the road. They focus on the gate. I had a friend. His name is Ben Burt, and he invited me to Skywalker Ranch. That's where his magnificent ranch that George Lucas, spent hundreds of millions of dollars building for his animation and for his production studios in San Rafael, California. To get the Skywalker Ranch, you go down Lucas Valley Road — which was not named after him — it's one lane in each direction from Highway 101 heading west towards the coast. And you wind around for 10 or 12 miles and go up past Big Rock and down the other side. And about, I think a mile and a half or so past Big Rock, there's a little road and you take that second right under that road and it leads to a guard gate. And that's how you get there. You can't get there any other way. You can come east or you can come west. But it's a two lane road and it's a narrow guard gate for everybody. 

And when you get to the guard gate, you’ve got to know somebody and they've got to be expecting you in order to get through. But once you get through, then it opens up into vineyards and a lake and Olympic swimming pool and horseback riding and organic gardens and gymnasiums and and châteaux built to look like a Tuscan winery, and it's the most phenomenal place.

Inside they have artifacts like Luke Skywalker’s original light saber and Darth Vader's mask and all of the original stuff. It's really a geek's paradise. And even as a non-geek, I appreciated being there and seeing it. 

But the real magnificence is not the road and it's not the gate. The road and the gate are essential. But it's what opens up in this vast valley that, even though I had spent the first thirty-four years of my life hiking those hills and living nearby, I'd never been in that valley before.

And the kingdom of God is a vast kingdom, it's a mighty spectacular, magnificent place. Don't get too hung up on the road. You’ve got to get there on the road. You’ve got to go through the gate. And Jesus is the gatekeeper. But don't get too hung up on the road and the gate, because that's just the beginning of what it means to experience the kingdom of God. 

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”

They're there to take advantage of you. And again, if we were to never judge anybody or anything, we could never call anybody a false prophet. But a false prophet is somebody who distorts the image of God, distorts what love is all about for their own gain and to their own demise.

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

Now I have a ministry to pastors and leaders. I was talking to a pastor the other day and he said to me, “I feel like a failure.”

I listened to his heart and it made me sad. Then I said this to him, I said, "It's too late for you to be a failure. I've known you for over 30 years. You've been a blessing to me all those years. You've been faithful to your wife. You've raised beautiful kids. You've been faithful in your congregations. Yeah, I get it that your ministry hasn't been as big as you wanted it to be. I get it. Neither of us are famous and we're not going to be famous. I get all of that. But you are not a failure if you abide in Christ.” 

As a matter of fact. If you abide in Christ, you can't fail, because “Every branch,” Jesus said, “that abides in me will bear much fruit.” It may be down line. It may be your kids or your grandkids, naturally or spiritually. It may be people you don't even know who you've made an impact on. But if you abide in Christ and you keep his word like he tells you to, it's going to open up the kingdom of God to you and to those who follow in your footsteps. 

Now, in closing, I want to talk a little bit about judgment from 1 Corinthians 2:14-15. 

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 

In Matthew 7, Jesus says there's a good gift the father wants to give you. That good gift is the Spirit. Without the spirit none of this really makes sense. 

 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 

We judge all things. We judge is there value or is there harm? It doesn't matter if we're watching a Netflix, or we're choosing to read a book, or we're reading an article about a certain theory or a form of government, or whatever. We make value judgments because we've got the Spirit of God and we have the mind of Christ and the Spirit of God. The mind of Christ, which comes to us through the word of God, gives us the ability to discern the value or lack thereof in all kinds of things.

1 Corinthians 5 says this: 

But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

Now, over the years at Living Streams, we've had to remove a couple of swindlers because they were financially taking advantage of people through lies and deception. We've had to remove a couple of immoral people, not because they made a slip or made a mistake or did something they were sorry for, but because they were preying on somebody or somebodies in our congregation in an ongoing way that is contrary to the word of God.

And at such times, the Church, not as an individual pastor, leader or any, but the Church collectively in the leadership will make a judgment that, if somebody is practicing ongoing immorality, swindling or whatever these things Jesus is mentioning through 1 Corinthians 5, then we make a judgment that that person needs to be removed until such time as they're willing to follow Jesus the way we're all supposed to follow Jesus, which is in honesty and truth and humility.

Our final scripture, 2 Corinthians 5:10, says this: 

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

In just a moment, we're going to take communion, so if you're at home and watching this, you can grab some bread and and some a cup of wine or juice or whatever you want. 

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. It specifically says in 1 Corinthians 11 that when we receive communion, that we're to judge ourselves. And when I judge myself, I know I fall short. So I'm always asking for forgiveness. I specifically ask forgiveness when I am beginning to evaluate myself in terms of other people and exalting myself and putting them down, because everybody in Christ has a treasure. Everybody in Christ has a value. He has children. And his children are all really, really important to him, every single one of us. So we're going to be held accountable someday for how we've lived our life, what we've done.

And I want to ask you if you want your reward in this world or in the world to come. 

In this world, we may have suffering. In this world, we may have pain. In this world we have challenges, each and every one of us. 

In the world to come, by his grace, there will be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more suffering. 

In this world we can overcome those things by the grace that he gives us, by the power of his Holy Spirit. We can navigate our relationships, because he gives us wisdom, because he delights in us. He said, “I've overcome the world and so will you.” 

And this bread and this cup helps us in that regard. Jesus said, “this is my body. Which is broken for you.”

Lord, thank you that you were willing to let your body be broken so that we could be made whole, so we could be part of your family, so we could have a place in your kingdom. Thank you, Jesus.

He said, “Take and eat. This is my body which is broken for you. As often as you do so do so in remembrance of me.” 

Jesus said, "This cop is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you.”

Jesus, we need your blood. We need your forgiveness. We ask you to heal our hearts. We ask you to heal our church. We ask you to heal our nation. You've got the power to do it. Help us, Lord, receive this forgiveness and renew this covenant with you.

Take and drink. This is the new covenant in his blood. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. 

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Worry, Anxiety and Over-Concern

Series: The Sermon on the Mount
August 8, 2021 - David Stockton

If you want to grab a Bible and turn to Matthew Chapter six. That's what we're going to be today. Jesus has been talking to us for a little while. We've been on the Sermon in the Mount for the last four months. Basically, it's been all red letters. Everything that we've been studying and reading — our culture today is trying to tell us what is righteousness, what is justice — and we want to be about righteousness and justice, but we just really want to hear what God has to say, more so than our pundits and and all of those things. 

So we've been really focusing on that all year of vision for the righteousness of God. We want to look to the Bible to teach us that, because the Bible has been there, done that through many generations, through many cultures, through many ideologies. The Bible has proven itself time and time again to be trustworthy and true and a good guide for the human soul, even the hard things.

 And so that's that's what we've been doing. And it is we're in Matthew Chapter six. We're in our 15th teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. We've only got a few more. But if you want to read with me in Matthew, chapter six, verse twenty five, the words of Jesus: 

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life…

Everybody good there?

what you will eat or drink or about your body. What you will wear is not life more than food and the body more than clothes.…

And as my favorite song writer, John Forman says, when he was younger and what married lives more than girls.

…Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? …

Weak faith. Blurry faith.

…So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well… 

What things? The food and drink and the clothes.

…Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

So this is the word of the Lord. And more specifically, this is the words of Jesus when he was incarnate as God in the flesh, walking around this planet in a place called Israel.

And it's interesting because Jesus is doing this thing that we call the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew gives it to us in Matthew chapters five, six and seven. Also this this is similar sermon. It's called the Sermon on the Plain when when Luke writes it. It's basically all the same material. Matthew has more than Luke does, but a lot of the same material in these two different gospel accounts, which makes us think that this is probably Jesus’ “stump speech” in some ways. This is what Jesus, when he would go from town to town to town around Galilee and then kind of made broader concentric circles as he was doing his ministry, he would go around preaching about the kingdom of heaven. And this is basically what he would say almost every time to the people that he would gather as he would heal them, and he would meet their needs and that type of stuff. 

And so, Matthew records it a little differently than Luke. And we haven't really got much into that. But you can check that out if you want. Luke was a doctor, and so he's recording some of those things. He actually talks a little bit more about the healings that Jesus did in those times. Interestingly enough, he was a doctor, whereas Matthew was not a doctor. 

What was Matthew? He was a tax collector. He's the money man. And what he does is he talks a lot about what Jesus taught on money in his sermons. So, interestingly enough, that's kind of what was brought out in all of this. And so when Matthew was writing this — and this was just kind of really important as we were going to jump in and Jesus is talking about not worrying about some of these practical needs — Matthew was someone that was intricately aware of what was going on in the socio economic climate of that day. As a tax collector, he was he was Jewish, but he worked for the Romans, and the Romans were the oppressors. 

And what his job was to do was to go and get the taxes from the people, the Jewish people, and give it to the Romans. And in the process, what was very common in that day was the Romans would have a set tax, but then they would always ask for a little bit more. They'd kind of extort the people and get a little extra. But then they gave the Jewish employee of theirs the right to extort whatever he wanted or whatever he could get, as well. 

So it was basically, “Here's the tax plus what I'm stealing from you, plus what Rome’s stealing from you.” And ultimately, it all feels like stealing because Rome is a foreign empire that's ruling us. 

But as they would come to him, Matthew would be intricately involved with people's stories. “Matthew, I can't pay taxes because I've got no food for my family.” “Matthew, I can't pay taxes because I can't even get clothes for my family.” “Matthew…” so Matthew was aware of all of the challenge for all of the poor people and their taxes. He was aware of all of the rich people and maybe how they were getting out of taxes, I don't know. 

But had a very specific, intricate look into all of that challenge that people were going through. And so when Jesus said, “Don't worry about those things,” for Matthew, that stuck out as something extremely significant and maybe even something that was very, very hard to grasp. And maybe even he felt wasn't safe. “Jesus, you don't know. You don't know what I know. Jesus, how can you say this? Because there are some people out there that I mean, they need to worry." 

And yet he records this for us, not just when Jesus said it first time. Remember Jesus said it over and over and over again as they walked with him. But he records this for us years after Jesus has died on a cross, risen from the dead. When this actually began to really get circulated was probably about 60 or 70 A.D. So Jesus was gone around 33-ish, you know, so we've got about a 30 years before this really is kind of a preserved teaching. But Matthew made sure that this was part that really made it in there. Because what happened in Matthew's life, as he heard Jesus teach this — and it was very hard to receive — but as he watched Jesus live, he saw the father provide. Not just for Jesus and them, but but the people that Jesus was working with, as well. He saw what Jesus was saying was true. “You don't need to worry because God will add what you need when you need it.” 

And he not only saw all of that, but he also saw it in his own life after Jesus left. He began to not worry and see God show up in his life. And so he teaches us, he preserves this part of this teaching of Jesus for us to know. Because he saw it realized and he knew it was the truth, not just a shocking, hard teaching. 

And so we're going to unpack this a little bit as we go into this. It's all kind of connected in the sermon. It's not just a random thought, but it actually is connected to what's before here. I want to talk a little bit about what worry is. I mean, obviously, most of us are probably pretty clear on what worry is. We have this word today that is used a lot: anxiety. Anxiety. We’re a very anxious society. Some of you, when I say the word anxiety, you get anxiety. Or some of you, when I say the word anxiety, you’re, like, already there. 

And so we are trying to understand a little bit of what worry is. To start out and we’ve got to, you know, always look at the translations here. And so in the original language, Timothy Lane brings this out. But do not worry — the Greek word is merimnaó. I said that exactly the way it's supposed to be said, just so you know. No, I don't know how to say it, but merimnaó. It literally means a distracted mind or a double mind. 

Track with me here for just a second and we'll visit this again. But every once in a while, I go with one of my daughters, to go see Dr. Michael Johnson. Dr. Michael Johnson's a friend of mine, a super cool guy, but he's also an eye doctor. And so we go to his office and we go in there and and he, you know, puts my daughter in this thing and was like flipping through things. And he’s like, “Does it look good, does that look good?”  And he's telling us all kinds of cool stories while he's doing it, too. And the last time I went, he was like, “Hey, do you want to see what your daughter sees without glasses?” 

And I was like, “Yeah, that sounds cool.” And so he put the thing on me and he totally jacked up my vision — which was not a great doctor thing, but he was just showing you what she sees. And I was like, “Wow, like, there it is. This is what she sees without glasses.” And it was blurry. Everything is just blurry. 

But she goes without her glasses all the time because it's good enough for her. She's like, “I can see what’s happening." We’re watching shows and I'm just like, “I know what you see now and it's not that great.” But she she's just like, “Whatever.” She gets it, you know, and she's more about the words and the story and the character. I don't know. Something, 

But it was just kind of fascinating to see that. And and and I think this is a little bit of the connotation of what this word is getting at. Because when things get blurry, you get more disconcerted. Right? Let's say, not just in your vision, but let's say in your life things get blurry. Something happens and now you can't really see why or how. It could be something small like, you know, needs and practical needs. How is this going to work out? I don't know how this is going to work out. Everything seems blurry and confused. Or it could be something massive, like a loved one who dies in a freak accident. There's lots of different things that can all of a sudden cause us and our worlds to become blurry. And it's in those situations that we can become disconcerted. 

And that's exactly what this word is connotating. It's like, hey, do not worry when things get blurry in some ways. Sorry. I t rhymes. I don't want it to. It sounds horrible when you say it that way. But that's a little bit of what this word is connotating. The blurring, the disconcertion that comes from things all of a sudden not looking right.

I think of some of those movies where it's like these people are in a vulnerable situation and they got good guys and they got bad guys — and think Star Wars or something — and yet way off in the horizon, there's something like coming towards them and they're not sure, “Is this going to be somebody who's for us or somebody who's the enemy?”

And it just gets clearer and clearer as it comes what the situation is. And that's that sense of anxiety. That's that sense of worry that that can happen. And in a Psychology Today article, they were talking about trying to understand worry against anxiety. Worry, they said, tends to be experienced more in our heads. And anxiety is a little bit more like everywhere else. It's more of a feeling. It's more of a gut, like you can have worry in your thoughts, but then at some point, it just kind of settles in and you just feel worried or anxious.

Worry tends to be a temporary state, but anxiety is more persistent and lingering. Again, some of you I'm describing you right now in a big way, and I understand that. Worry tends to be more specific while anxiety is more general. To differentiate, worry would be like, “I'm worried we're going to be late for my flight.” Anxiety would be more like, “I'm worried about travel.” Like, “I am worried that I'm going to miss my flight. But there's about forty seven thousand things leading up to that and then a hundred thousand things after that that I'm worried about.” That's that sense of anxiety. It's more general in that regard. 

Johnny Cash. This is what he says about worry. The songwriter. He's not a theologian. He says:

The place I go to draw my pay,
close the door on me today,
told me just to stay away
and then don't come back again.
I told my mama,
‘Baby, you don't cry.
I'll get a job before the day go by.’
I don't know where.
And that is why
I'm a worried man.
Worried man, worried man.
I'm a very worried man.
Hungry babies don't understand.
Papa is a worried man. 

I sing that to my kids all the time, that chorus. They don't understand at all. And I don't know if I do either, but it makes me feel better.
All right. How about Olivia, Roderigo? I was on a road trip with my family. Everybody gets a turn. But I think she does understand worry or anxieties. She says:

I see everyone getting all the things I want
and I'm happy for them. But then again, I'm not
Just cool vintage clothes and vacation photos.
I can't stand it. Oh, I sound crazy.
Their win is not my loss.
I know it's true, but I can't help get caught up in it all.
Comparison is killing me slowly.
I think I think too much about kids who don't know me.
I'm so sick of myself.
I'd rather be rather be anyone, anyone else. 

Jealousy. Another source of anxiety these days is basically online. Well, what we're projecting ourselves online and we're having to manage whether or not our projection online is acceptable or not. It's hard enough to manage this, let alone trying to project something that I have to manage. It's a challenging world. And some of you older people are like, “Oh, yeah, those stupid kids over there.” That's fine, you know, except for some of you I know are trying to be cool and hip. And I see you on there sometimes. But but for everybody, let's say 30 and under, I mean, this is true. This is a reality. This is a source of anxiety. And I like what she says that, “I think I think too much about people who don't even know me.”And that's really a true source of anxiety and worry. 

Rich Mullins, who's somebody I would recommend a lot more than these other two. I think it says a lot. This is basically like if I was going to do a movie on the Sermon on the Mount, which I'm not, by the way. Oh and I know like the Chosen did it all over that, so. But this would be like a good soundtrack, because I feel like he just captures so many different nuggets of the Sermon on the Mount in this poetic song that he writes. He says:

There’s more that dances on the prairie
than the wind,
more that pulses in the ocean
than the tide.
There's a love that is fiercer
than the love between friends.
More gentle than a mother’s
when her baby's at her side.
And there's a loyalty that's deeper
than mere sentiments
And a music higher than the songs
that I can sing,
the stuff of Earth competes
for the allegiance
I owe only to the Giver
of all good things.
So if I stand, let me stand on the promise
that you will pull me through.
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace
that first brought me to you,
and if I sing, let me sing for the joy
that has borne in me these songs
And if I weep, let it be as a man
who's longing for his home. 

Sermon on the Mount. Right there. Heaven over earth. Right there. Do not worry. There is more than what you can see right now. It's blurry for you, but it's not for Jesus. And you can stand on the promises that he gives here in this passage. 

A couple of other things about worry real quick. This guy, Colin Hanson, who's actually Vice President of the Gospel Coalition, which is basically an online resource for people who want to know more about what the Bible says about anything. I highly recommend it. It's not perfect. It's helpful. It can be helpful. 

But he says:

We have to understand that the goal of Twitter is to worry us to death. 

So much of life is solved in that statement. 

We spend a lot of time worrying about things we can't control, like a tanker stuck in the Suez Canal and spreading that anxiety through means guaranteed to make no difference. During this past year, I'm convinced that we flipped our primary orientation from physical to digital.

That might not be true of you, but that is true of society. 

Now we are first. What we project ourselves to be online and pixels, and only second who we are in flesh and blood. We constantly are worried about how we're portrayed and regarded online. 

Here's the biggest challenge, all of that. God did not does not care about, Jesus did not die for the online version of you. He will not meet you there. He will only meet with you and who he knows you to be. He loves to meet you there. Don't lose yourself. 

Not only that, but he said:

Today, worrying seems to be the universal sign that we care about the world. 

Let that sink in for a second, the more worried you are about things, the more woke you are — is kind of the way things are. The more worried you are about things, the more you care about justice. 

Now I'm not saying there aren't things that we need to wake up to, there aren't things that we should get involved in, and we should be caring about in all of those things. But I am trying to teach you what Jesus said to his followers who are living in very challenging times as well. “Do not worry about yourself and your life.”

And then, lastly, just to throw this in there, because I'm on a little bit of a rant here. A few years ago, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said of Netflix that their greatest competition is sleep. Are you scared? The greatest competition is sleep. And the lack of sleep can definitely cause us to be more anxious. So whatever there. 

All right, so now let's jump into what the Bible says about worry and what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples. I think this is a cohesive argument that Jesus is laying out. And what we're going to do is basically look at this word therefore. Twenty-five starts with the word therefore. In biblical studies, it's real good whenever you see the word therefore, you've got to look and see what it's there for, you know.

So what led up to that moment? Because it's almost like, “Now I'm making my closing argument. All of this evidence presenting, all of these arguments that I've said is all leading up to this closing statement argument,” whatever it is. So I want to look at what Jesus teaches us, where anxiety comes from, because ultimately then we know we can do the opposite. 

So first, before the therefore, anxiety happens when we don't understand the blessing of the low and cross like life. If you don't know what I'm talking, we're harkening back to our first teaching on this sermon where Jesus is unpacking the Beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Come again? “Blessed are those who are persecuted.” Huh? 

There is a blurriness to our understanding of those things. But if we will be the ones who continue to walk with Jesus, even into those spaces, we will eventually find that there is a blessing in the low and Christlike life that Jesus himself walked and calls us to follow in his footsteps. If we can't understand that, we will be anxious. No doubt about it. 

Anxiety happens when we try to create external forms of righteousness with our hearts, far from God. Sum this up: hypocrisy, hypocrisy. If you are being hypocritical, if you are living two different lives, you are going to be anxious — not because God's mad at you. Because you're creating that, and this is so true. This is so true. You think you might be fooling people. You're not fooling anybody. Definitely not fooling God. 

Most of the time, the people who have a little too much of Jesus in them to enjoy the world are miserable and miserable to be with. And then you have the people who have too much world in them to really enjoy Jesus — miserable, miserable to be with. So you're miserable. Everyone knows you're miserable. It's not fun to be around you. It's miserable. So please stop. It's not it's not working. 

So that's what causes anxiety. When you're trying to live out external forms of righteousness, when your heart is far from God. 

Anxiety happens when we diminish the fact that God is our heavenly Father. And we talked about this last week. Transcendent Abba, the one who holds all of the cosmos together and yet wants you to call him Daddy when you talk to him. That's what Jesus taught. And whenever we get that focus, whenever we start to forget that Jesus wants us to call God ‘Daddy,’ we're going to get more anxious. Did anybody call Jesus Daddy when they prayed last week? That was our assignment, America. Like America's Funniest Home Videos. One person? I'm not raising my hand either, by the way. I forgot to do it too, thought about it one time, but yeah, that's what we're supposed to do.

Anxiety happens when we store up treasures in this life. This is just super hard teaching. Because Jesus said, if you store up treasures in this life, then you got to worry about them because moths and thieves can take them and destroy them. And rust. And so basically, I mean, you think about your bank account right now and if you've got a lot of stored up treasure, however it is or whatever it is, you have to have a conversation with God about this.

I'm not necessarily saying it's wrong to have those things, but Jesus said don't store up treasure in this life. And so you just got to kind of walk that out with him. And maybe you are using it in the right way, maybe or not. I do know that when Jesus met a rich young ruler who was saying, “OK, what should I do?” Jesus told him, “I want you to go sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and come follow me.”

And I think there are those times in our life where Jesus wants us to sell out and know what it feels like to have only him as our security. And if you have never done that, have a conversation with Jesus. And if you need to get rid of all of your massive wealth and possessions, we can take it here, you know? Well, we'll use it in a good way, you know. But if says give it to the poor, then you can just do that too. Just do what he says. 

Anxiety will happen when we seek more than one thing. This is the part where Jesus talks about if you have a healthy eye, you'll be full of light. If you have an unhealthy eye, you'll be full of darkness. 

The healthy eye is so confusing, but I finally feel like I'm getting it. The word healthy there is singular. You have to have a singular eye. And I think this whole blurry vision thing is really what Jesus is getting at. If you are seeing the kingdom of of of Earth overlaid and prioritized over the kingdom of heaven, everything is going to be blurry and you will be filled with darkness and not know what to do. But if you can get to a place where the kingdom of heaven becomes the priority and overlays the kingdom of this earth, you will have light — a healthy eye. You will have singular vision. You won't be double-minded, like James says, and unstable in all your ways. 

Kierkegaard said it this way:

Purity of heart is to will one thing. 

And to finally always come back to that place where the whole reason that you have a beat in your heart and breath in your lungs, is so that you could know God and glorify him. If anything else becomes more important to you, here comes the anxiety train. Choo Choo. It doesn't sound like that. It’s like CHOO CHOO! You know, it's much more intense than that or some sort of like grading and chalkboard noise or something.

Anxiety happens when we try and serve something other than God. This is what Jesus said. You cannot serve God and mammon. Again, mammon is money. You know this. And again, Matthew is using all of these illustrations because it's important to him. But mamman is anything you treasure in this life, basically. And the way that that is saying is “You will hate the one and you'll love the other.” So if you think you're pulling it off, you're wrong. If there is anything else that you are seeking above God, you are despising and hating God. You can only serve one master. And if you try and serve anything other than God, anxiety, anxiety, anxiety. So that's all what happens before the “therefore.”

Now, after the “therefore,” closing arguments. Jesus says anxiety happens when we care about temporal things more than eternal things. This is where he talks about what you eat, what you drink, what you wear. Those are things that that God knows we have need of, like a father knows you have need of that. But he also knows that some of the things you want aren't in your best interest. And he has the wisdom to withhold those things. It's very frustrating sometimes. 

Anxiety also happens when we forget to see how much God cares for us and knows our needs. This is what Jesus says. Look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. And he's basically saying, “Look, God cares for them and God doesn't care about them nearly as much as he cares about you.” There is a truth to that. We are the Imago Dei. Made in the image of God. God put his breath in our lungs, not in any other aspect of creation. And he cares deeply for our needs. 

He knows exactly what you need today and tomorrow. And he taught us to pray, “Give us today our daily bread.” Don't worry about tomorrow. He knows and he cares 

Anxiety happens when we forget that if we take care of God's business, he will take care of ours. And this is the great summation of this whole passage. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added unto you.” 

Actually, there's one more. Anxiety happens when we start to worry about tomorrow and not stay present in today. 

But that whole summation to “seek first God's righteousness and and his kingdom and all these things will be added to you," — that right there, I mean, it’s everything. And there's a phrase that came out of that that continues to like just stick with me through all my years of walking with Jesus, that if you take care of his business, he'll take care of your business. Who do you want taking care of your business, right? You want the God of the universe taking care of your business. And it's true. This is a promise that Jesus has given: if you will, take care of his business, he will take care of your business. 

And basically, the way that came to me as a 17-year-old young man, when I was first deciding what to do with my life, I felt like the Spirit of God visited me and said, “Hey, you want to do life your way? Or do you want to see what I have in store?” 

And what was interesting is, I remember in that moment, it wasn't like God was saying like, orthe preacher saying, “If you if you go your way, you will kill everyone and be a murderer or something.” It was basically like, “If you go your way and do things your way, it'll be fine. But do you want to see what I have in store?” 

And at that point that's really why I decided I was going to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. I was going to do my best to see what he had in store. And let him take care of everything else. And I can tell you, no doubt about it, in my life, 17 years old, basically like I was aiming at the North Pole, and where I am today, sitting in front of you as a preacher is South Pole. Like I am as far away from where I wanted to b,e thought I should be. 

I remember in my senior class having to give a five-minute presentation in front of 12 people. And I, I literally thought I was going to die. And I gave them everything I had and it was like three minutes long. And I thought it was seven hours. Nothing like this, this sounded horrible.  Still today. It was funny. I was saying this in first service. I don't know when I first started really being excited about being a pastor because I don't think it's ever happened. I still, when people call me pastor, I'm like, “eww.” Something just like in the back of my neck just squishes. But I can tell you that this is the direction that God was leading me and has led me.

I've literally worked at a church ever since I was 17 years old and never wanted to. I think I can honestly say that. But this is the direction. But when I think of what has been added to me because of the direction that the Lord has led me, I wouldn't trade anything for the world. The places that the Lord has allowed me to go, the people I've met, the seasons. I hate that the good ones end, but they give way to other good ones. 

And I'm so thankful to my my daddy in heaven who has allowed me to pretend I'm really taking care of his business. And all the while, he's been taking care of my business. And it doesn't mean everything's been rosy. There's been times where it's been real blurry and I've been mad at my daddy. But if I keep going, eventually clarity comes. And I say, “Oh. I like that. I'm glad you gave me what you wanted, not what I wanted.” 

And with all of that together, Jesus comes to us and says, “Hey, little children. Hey, friends, don't worry. Don't be anxious when that stuff comes. Remember all these other things? Remember how close your daddy is? How badly he knows everything you want? How badly he wants to give it to you?”

The way that Romans 8:32, Paul says it:

If he is willing to sacrifice his only son for you, how much more would he will he not freely give you all good things? 

That's the kind of love we're dealing with. That he was willing to sacrifice his own son to give you what you needed, that you didn't even know you needed. How will he not give you every good thing? In time, in the right way, in the right form. But he'll give you every good thing. 

I'm being haunted by this other phrase by William Carey, who was a missionary who did some crazy things. And he says: 

Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. 

And I am one of the people who, I've had enough pain in my life that it is really scary for me to have expectations. Like I'm scared of hope these days. But I love that William Carey was saying, “No, we need to expect great things from God.” And this is not some prosperity gospel: you’re going to get whatever you want. But you can, based on what Jesus taught us here, you can expect great things from God. You might have to hang on for a long time, but you can absolutely, without a doubt, have full assurance of common good if you're following Christ. I dare you to hope. 

And lastly, just practically, if you're feeling anxious, if you're feeling worried, this is what Philippians 4:6-7 says: 

Don't be anxious about anything…

Echoing Jesus's words.

…but in every situation…

 where you feel the worry or the anxiety coming 

…through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 

That's our part. Through prayer, petition. Remember, prayer is a lot of listening, not just talking. But petition. Tell him what you're going through. But also thanksgiving for all that he's done. If you go through that process, then what the promise is is that the peace of God, which transcends understanding, will come and it will guard your hearts and minds in Christ.

I love that promise — that if we will walk in these steps, if we’ll cast our cares on him, if we’ll through thanksgiving and through petition and through listening, will present this anxiety and worry to the Lord, then what he's going to do is he's going to send his peace to transcend. It's not even going to stop here. It's just going to go straight past our understanding and set up a defense for our hearts and for our minds, so that the anxious world around us can't get in, and we can become like Jesus, these non-anxious presences.

Every single where we go in our own homes, in our workplaces, and it will be such a bizarre, foreign thing to the people around you when you're able to pass on to them something besides worry and anxiety as a believer in Christ, who holds to his promises. 

Let's pray. And just so you know, you don't have to wait for me to say anything after I say, “Let's pray.” That's full freedom for you to begin to listen to your Father in heaven — your daddy — to call him Daddy, to present your petitions. But also remember to thank him. 

And Lord, as we present our petitions and needs and couple it with thanksgiving, I do pray that, supernaturally, your Spirit right now would impart peace — your perfect peace, your powerful peace to come right now and chase away any anxiousness or any worry and to set up a beautiful defense over our hearts and minds. I pray for those who've been anxious every day of their life, that right now, Lord, your Spirit would do a work, that they would wake up tomorrow and they would live their first day anxiety-free.

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You Have Heard It Said

Series: The Sermon on the Mount
May 2, 2021 - David Stockton

How’s everybody? Yeah? We doing okay? We’ve got the month of May now, which is fun. You heard new service times for the summer. Woo? You don’t have to woo it. It’s just business. Yeah, for the summer we’re going to do 9 and 10:30, so you right here will have to split. Somehow figure out what you’re going to do. The 8 am is easy, they’ll just come at 9 am. The 11 am it’s easy, 10:30. But you guys have the big decision. Which way you gonna go? 

But, we’re doing that not next week. We’re doing it the week after because next week is Mother’s Day. And Mother’s Day is the day we’re expecting the mothers to use all the power of Mother’s Day to bring their families together for church next week. And I mean that jokingly, but I also mean that sincerely because I know there’s a lot of division within families, there are a lot of people who have decided different things over topics last year. I know the heart of a mother is to see everybody join together. I really do encourage you to have them join together and come to church, whether they like it or not. You’ve got power. Be bold. Be courageous and use that power wisely to bring your family together and we’ll have a good time next Sunday. Then the following Sunday we’ll get down to two services for the summer and see how that goes.

Thanks for everybody tuning in online. You do whatever you want to do. You can go to both services, you can do one service. You can just watch it later, too. No problem there.

We’re going to be in the Sermon on the Mount again today. This is our fourth message on the Sermon on the Most. If you want to grab a Bible and turn to Matthew chapter 5. You’ve got Bibles in the pew in front of you or you could use your phone app Bible if you want, as well. Matthew chapter 5. We’re going to be talking about murder and adultery today. Woohoo! Yeah!

This has been a real fun message for me to get all prepared for. Yeah. So let me read the words of Jesus. Don’t get mad at me. If you’re going to get mad, get mad at Jesus, it’s his words. Just sharing his words. But yeah, here we go. Jesus is teaching on murder and adultery. Ready for it?

"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago…

Think Moses’ day, bringing the Ten Commandments…

 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother [or sister] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca, ' 

Anybody done that recently? It means ‘idiot’ or ‘moron.’ “You idiot!” “Oh, they’re just such idiots!” They didn’t have cars back then. “Idiot!” You know? Yeah.

is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

And continuing about adultery…

"It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Yeah. How’s everybody doing? Yeah? Are we done? Are we done already? 

So, a couple of things before we start to unpack this a little bit, that I think it’s important for us to remember. First of all, that Jesus just said prior to this section, “I have not come to abolish the law.” Now, if you spent time with Jesus, if you listened to the teachings of Jesus, you probably would start to think because he’s not like the Pharisees, because he doesn’t teach like the Pharisees and teachers of the law at that time, that he doesn’t even care about the law of God.

But Jesus is saying, “Hold on a minute. I have not come to abolish the law. I’ve come to fulfill it.” Because Jesus’ understanding about the law of God given through Moses was that it was good and it was right and it was true and it was helpful. And he’s later on said this little passage that many of us have heard, that it’s the truth that sets us free. So Jesus is making sure that his disciples understood, “I am not messing with the truth. I am not diluting the truth. I am not changing the truth. I’m not giving you a new truth. It is the truth that sets you free and I don’t want to give you anything but the truth because I really want to see you free.”

In our world today, we’ve talked about this much, we are wanting to minimize the truth or dilute the truth, or because the truth that comes through God’s word is hard, we want to decrease it a little bit. But what we need to understand is, if you mess with the truth, you mess with your freedom. If you decrease the truth, you decrease your freedom. 

And what Jesus says is that those who want to relax on God’s law and teach others to do that, they are the least in the kingdom of heaven. But those who hold on tight and teach exactly what Jesus taught, they’ll be the greatest in the kingdom. 

And then you have the Pharisees, who are teaching about God’s law in a way that’s going to keep them out of God’s kingdom. Some big time words, where Jesus is really trying to teach that the righteousness of God, the righteousness that is taught in the Law, the way of God taught by the Law is good and right and helpful for us learning about righteousness and living in righteousness. 

So that’s the first point. The truth is important. So even though emotionally or culturally we want to shrink the truth a little bit, or be a little bit sheepish about the truth, then we’re really just shrinking people’s freedom and being sheepish about the freedom. If you want someone to get healed of a disease, you give them the full medicine and treatment. And you tell them to take that treatment even after they feel better, right? Finish that antibiotic round. You don’t lighten it up, because you really to see them whole.

So that’s what Jesus is doing here. He’s trying to really help people understand the truth and get the truth in them. That’s the first thing we need to understand.

The second thing we need to understand is that Matthew 7:28 is the verse that comes after the Sermon on the Mount. Don’t ever forget this. If you don’t get anything out of this whole series, just remember this, Matthew 7:28 says that, after the people heard the words of Jesus, they heard the sermon, it says they were amazed at his words, that he didn’t sound like the Pharisees who always made them feel bad and far away from God. Instead, his words were substantial and actually gave them hope that maybe, just maybe they could be close to God. 

So we have to remember that. After we read through some of these things, we’re going to be like, “Ugh, that’s heavy. Whoa. I don’t know if I should be here anymore. I think it’s time to leave or check out, because he’s describing me right now, but it’s not the good way, it’s the bad way.”

But that’s not the way these people heard the words of Jesus because of the smile on his face and the tone of voice that he talked with. They heard Jesus teach these things and they thought, I think he’s teaching us because he thinks we can actually get it right. Which, for these people, no one had ever done before.

Now think about this: Jesus is on the side of a mountain and he’s talking about the Law of God. He’s teaching those who are gathered to him as disciples. Matthew’s made a really big deal of talking about the genealogy of Jesus and how he’s a king. He’s talked about Jesus actually going to Egypt and coming out of Egypt into his ministry. So Matthew is really trying to connect Jesus to Moses. And Moses, if you remember, when he was talking about the Law and he was interpreting God’s Law for the people and sat in judgment, he continued to tell the people about this One that would come and help them know fully what God was talking about when he gave us the Law. 

It’s called that prophet. There’s kind of this theology of that prophet. There’s this prophecy, this promise given way back when that there would come One who would be that prophet. And he would come and he would make clear what are the ways of God.

So Jesus, on the side of this mountain, who has come out of Egypt, is teaching his disciples in a very Mosaic type way. Jesus is stepping into his role as the Master Rabbi, the actual authority on the way of God, who’s now coming as that prophet, fulfilling that scripture, to help make it clear what is the way of God for people.

And in that moment, Jesus is doing something really special. And the people he’s talking to are — I was trying to figure out the best way to describe these people. Anybody here ever been to Gila Bend? Why are you laughing? There are people who live in Gila Bend and you’re laughing because I said Gila Bend. No, I get it. They’ve got the Space Age Lodge there. Right? Which has been there forever. And the Space Age Lodge, believe it or not, I know a guy who took his wife there honeymoon night and they’re still married. The Space Age Lodge. Too much? 

Gila Bend is about — we’re starting to get to a little bit of who Jesus is talking to. These are not people from the big city of Jerusalem. These are people kind of from the outskirts, back woods, hillbillies, who, all their life under Roman oppression have had nothing but extensive taxation and poverty. Their souls have been beaten down. Any time they do anything good it’s ripped right from them by Roman oppression. And, not only that, but any kind of hope they’ve had to be right in God’s eyes have been completely stripped away from them by  a Pharisaical hierarchy of religious system. And they’re just out there, completely impoverished.

And remember, Jesus was talking about “Blessed are the poor in spirit”? These people were poor in every way imaginable, including spirit. And Jesus talked about those who are hungry for justice. These are the people who have experienced nonstop injustice for generations. And he comes to them and he teaches them about the Beatitudes, basically saying, “Hey, just so you know. God’s really paying attention to you. And you’re a lot closer to the kingdom of heaven than you think.”

And then he starts to teach them and give them time, give them attention. The way he’s teaching them is making them think, He’s telling us to come closer. He’s calling disciples to follow him and if they follow him then he’s going to lead them into God’s kingdom. Us? Gila Benders, Bendites, Gila Bendonians, I don’t know what you call them. 

Again, when they heard this they were amazed. “No one has ever talked to us like this before. Every time the Pharisees come out we just feel like we get a whooping. But when Jesus talks to us, it’s still truth, and actually even more intense, but it makes me believe. It fills me with hope that maybe, just maybe no matter how broken or messed up I am, if I stay close to Jesus, I might end up in the right spot.”

That’s the way we have to hear this. Even the intensity of what’s being said today. Really, Jesus is trying to give us the difference between the true righteousness that God desires, the lesser righteousness, and then the actual fake righteousness of the Pharisees. So he kind of gives us that little teaching in verse 17 through 21, Kenny talked about that last week, and now we’re going to get examples of what he’s talking about.

The fake righteousness, or the lesser righteousness is that which is external. You’ve heard it said if you don’t murder, you’re righteous. That’s great. But I want to talk to you about something much more. So I’m going to tell us a few things about the true righteousness. Five things, actually.

True righteousness, first of all, if you’re taking notes, is internal over external. It’s the inside out kingdom, remember? 

The second thing is true righteousness doesn’t delay. There’s an urgency to it. 

The third thing is true righteousness seeks rewards in the next life over the now life, which is really hard for us, especially living in America and the prosperity that we have. 

Someone texted me after first service. I’m saying it because I should have said it in the first service, but I didn’t think of it. He said it. So now I’m saying it to you and maybe you’ll think, Wow, that guy is so smart. But it actually came from somebody else who texted me because my message didn’t have it in it. It’s the concept that we, as Americans, in right desire we seek for our children that they’ll be successful, they’ll be powerful, they’ll be safe. But really, what God is interested in is making us holy and righteous. And there’s a reason for all of that. But seek rewards in the next life over this life.

Then true righteousness brings peace. We’re going to see that in a really special way.

And true righteousness comes from staying close to Jesus. 

1: True righteousness is internal over external. We have Jesus’  examples here. It’s very simple. He says, “You’ve heard it said that if you don’t kill someone, if you don’t murder someone, then you’re righteous.” And Jesus is like, “Well, that’s a lesser kind of righteousness.” He’s not saying that it’s okay to kill people. He’s saying that’s not the whole deal. The true righteousness, the kind of righteousness that God is wanting to produce from our lives and see from our lives is an internal righteousness.

And so he goes on to say, “Hey, if you have anger in your heart toward a brother or sister, in God’s eyes, you’re committing murder. If you’ve lashed out at someone and called them an idiot, in God’s eyes, you’re guilty of murder. If you in your anger have lashed out and called someone a fool, you now have the judgment of God on you as a murderer.”

I’m just saying what Jesus is saying here. And there’s a reason for this intensity, because God really does want us to be holy. In just a bit, Jesus is going to say, “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” So we can’t go lightly on this stuff. We can’t say, “Well, it’s not that big a deal that I have this,” or whatever. No. Jesus is going after your heart because he wants you free.

Right now in our culture of virtue signaling, where if I wear the shirt or if I post the post, or something like that, I’m somehow accomplishing the righteousness of God or justice. The Pharisees were the best at that. And Jesus is saying it’s a real empty righteousness. God’s coming for your heart.

2: True righteousness doesn’t delay. Here he says, “Don’t wait.” When he talks about if you’ve found yourself with some of that trouble with the neighbor, an adversary that wants to take you to court. “Do it while you’re still with them on the way.” Don’t wait. Don’t delay until you get to the court. Don’t wait for the judge to tell you what’s righteous. You know what’s righteous. Go ahead and do that right now. And if you wait, it’s not going to go good. It’s not going to be right. You need to do it now.

When I think of this kind of urgency to this, I think a little bit of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I don’t know if you know his story. He grew up as a contemporary of Adolf Hitler in a lot of ways. And he grew up and kind of was watching what Adolf Hitler was teaching and he was watching the church and their response to it and realizing that none of that was good. He came over to America because he was brilliant and he was teaching ethics here in America, and really talking about the right way and what is good and what is pleasing to the Lord, and all these different things. The whole time he was hearing reports about what was happening to the Jews and what Hitler was up to and what the church was not doing in Germany. He eventually decided, “I can’t stay here. I can’t stay here in this place. I need to go back.” 

So he left and went back to Germany. And it ended up costing him his life. But he came back and was trying to wake up the church to the urgency of the matter at hand, that evil had come and they needed to rise up and stand against it. 

I think also Martin Luther King, Jr., if you ever read the letters from the Birmingham prison, they are so incredible, not only what he does with words and the literary excellence of it; but, basically what was happening was the pastors around him were saying, “Just chill out, Martin. Chill out. You’re in too much of a hurry.”

His response was so beautiful. “How long are we supposed to wait? Don’t you know that the righteousness of God has an urgency to it? It demands that we act. We don’t wait until it’s convenient. We don’t wait until it’s comfortable. We don’t wait until we can figure out how to make it come out to our good. We do it and we do it now to see that justice come.” There’s an urgency to it. That was true of Jesus, as well.

3: True righteousness seeks rewards in the next life over the now life. This is where we go to the part that’s so fun about it’s better for you to lose part of your body now than for your whole body to miss out on what’s next. Even gouging your eyes out or cutting your hand off. Whoa. I see everybody’s got two eyes in here today, so you haven’t really taken this verse literally Everybody got their hands, you know? Maybe not everybody. I have both of mine, just so you know. I have both eyes, both hands. 

But what Jesus is getting at here is just really trying to help us shift our priorities. There are things in this life that you should go without because it will affect your next life. And you should have an intensity to this. I mean, obviously — I have to be very careful here — the Holy Spirit will make you understand what it is he’s wanting you to rid yourself of. But obviously you could think of things like Netflix. Maybe Netflix is something that does cause you to stumble. It causes you to kind of have some thoughts or some feelings that you don’t want or shouldn’t have. Just cancel it. I don’t have stock in Netflix. Just kidding. Just cancel it. It might be your phone. Maybe your phone. It’s like it’s so convenient to have your phone and all these things, and to put all those different blocks and all those things are so inconvenient. A little inconvenience in this life could have great impact in the next life. 

Jesus is saying you need to be serious enough about this stuff, intense enough, that it would almost be like you would cut out your own eye to try and help out; so that you don’t stand before God every day as an adulterer.

There are things that we need to cut out of our lives to help us in our pursuit of righteousness. No doubt about it. Jesus is teaching that. We don’t hear the story of his disciples going and cutting out their eyes or cutting off their hands. So, obviously there’s more to it than just that. But there needs to be an intensity to this. There needs to be an evaluation of what’s in the next life over this life. Because that life is more real than this life. Remember we talked about the rope? This seventy years is just a blip on the radar compared to everlasting life. So we do lose things in this life to gain things in that life. That’s true of the righteousness of God.

4: True righteousness brings peace. Here again, Jesus is talking about the anger in your heart. He says that if you have this anger in your heart toward your brother or sister, you need to make it right. If you’ve been calling people idiots, if you’ve been calling people fools, you need to deal with that. Even if you’re not killing them. Even if they don’t know about it. God does. The true righteousness that he wants to see in the world and produce in your own soul is something that really does resist and fight against those things so that you can be free of those things. 

When I think about this, I think about how easy it has been this last year to foster contempt for “the other.” Whatever the other might be. The other could be the other side of the aisle. You continue to watch certain news or listen to certain podcasts and it just breeds more and more “Raca!” You fool! They’re so stupid! They’re idiots!

I’m not saying there isn’t right and wrong. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be passionate about those things. I think there is. But we just can never do it motivated from anger. Paul the Apostle was a guy who was very zealous for the Law, zealous for the Lord. And Jesus came and slapped him in the face one day and said, “Your zeal is driven by your murderous anger in your heart, not from the Spirit of God.” And we’ve got to watch that.

Now, again, there is right and wrong. So when you’re persecuted for righteousness’ sake and that stirs up anger and frustration, that’s different than if you’re doing something wrong to somebody and it’s causing you the frustration. So the Beatitudes give us that little caveat. Blessed are you when you’re persecuted for righteousness. So if someone has something against you, but it’s not because you’ve done anything, and you have no anger in your heart, that doesn’t mean you have to go make it right. Instead, you can rejoice with a quiet confidence that God is with you in that moment. Then you have to keep watching out that your heart doesn’t pick up anger, contempt or bitterness or pride in that.

Here’s what the scriptures say about the righteousness of God. In Isaiah 48, it says:

Thus says the Lord,

    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God,

    who teaches you to profit,

    who leads you in the way you should go.

Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!

    Then your peace would have been like a river,

    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea”

The righteousness of God produces peace in our lives and through our lives like a river. 

Isaiah 32:17

And the effect of righteousness will be peace,
   and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.

And then, lastly, from Hebrews 1:9 (ESV):

You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.

The true righteousness of God produces peace in the face of anger and adversaries, and joyful, quiet confidence in the face of lust and unwanted desires. That’s the righteousness of God.

As I’ve said things, I think all of us are feeling a little more unrighteous maybe than we came in with. That’s okay. We’re face to face with Jesus. And everybody in the Bible who comes face to face with Jesus, you know what they do? They fall on the ground and they say, “I’m an unclean person with unclean lips.” And it’s not a bad thing for us to have that. Our hearts get pricked and feel the need for repentance, when face to face with the true righteousness. How far we are from it. 

But remember, these people, after Jesus was done, did not feel like they had no options. Did not feel like they were stuck in their unrighteousness. Did not feel like Jesus was telling them, “There’s no shot for you.” Instead, somehow what they heard from Jesus was, “Okay. He sees me. He knows me. He’s not playing games. I can’t trick him. He knows what’s really going on in my heart. He knows that I have anger and lust there that I’ve been trying to get rid of on my own and haven’t been able to do it. He knows that stuff is there, and yet, he’s still spending the time with me. He’s still talking to me. He still has that look in his eyes and that tone in his voice that makes me think if I stick around him long enough, maybe I’ll be able to see myself the way he sees me.”

The reason that Jesus was able to feel that was because Jesus knew what was going on. Jesus knew he had to teach them about the true righteousness. But Jesus also knew that he was going to make a way for them to become true righteousness. 

Now, remember, we’re on this side of Jesus. We’re looking back to the life of Jesus, so we have the New Testament perspective. We have the cross. We have the resurrection perspective. So Jesus is teaching this message. It’s heavy, but Jesus had this hope in his voice that caused these people, especially the twelve, maybe seventy, maybe one hundred and twenty, that were disciples gathered around him that were saying, “Hey, we’re going to try and follow him and spend time with him.” 

Because Jesus knew that he was going to do something to make righteousness possible for them. He knew that he wasn’t going to be dependent on them getting it right. He wasn’t dependent on their energy, or effort, or wisdom, or smarts, or skill, or self-control to produce that righteousness. He said, “I haven’t come to abolish the law. I’ve come to fulfill it.” And here’s how Jesus makes you and I accomplish the righteousness of God. You ready for it?

First of all, we are made righteous by the work Jesus did in his daily life of fulfilling the Law. So first of all he came and walked it out so we could know what it looks like. So we could know and understand the righteousness of God. It’s important for us to learn the Law of God, the commands of God, the decrees of God. It’s important for us to rejoice in all of those things so we can better fully understand the righteousness of God, especially when everyone is telling us what the righteousness is, what the high moral ground is these days. We really need to see Jesus and walk with Jesus so we can know the righteousness of God.

But secondly — please don’t miss this — we are made righteous by his death on the cross where he paid for all of our unrighteousness. This is a really big deal. Jesus was talking to these people, teaching them the way of God, teaching them about righteousness, not so they would never get there. But he knew there was coming a day where he will have fulfilled all righteousness and was going to lay down his life as a payment for all of their unrighteousness and ours as well.

The way the New Testament says it is, He who knew no sin became sin, dying on that cross so that you and I could become the righteousness of God. So, somehow, because of what Jesus did on the cross, all of our unrighteousness is forgiven, it’s washed away, it’s cleansed, it’s gone, it’s removed forevermore. Actually, “Your sin and iniquity I will remember no more,” God says. He doesn’t even remember it. This is the good news of the cross. This is why Jesus could share with these people in a way that invited them in closer. Because he was going to pay the price for all their unrighteousness past, present and future.

So, first we’ve got to learn and understand the righteousness of Jesus. And when we do, we all fall short and we all go, “Oh, no.” But then we’ve got to understand that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, which gives us a fresh start every single day, to walk out in his righteousness. But he didn’t stop there. He rose from the dead.  He rose from the dead and he poured out his Spirit on anyone that would come to him.

What his Spirit does is his Spirit comes into our lives and continues to teach us the way, continues to remind us of our forgiveness and then gives us the power to get it right sometimes. He gives us the power to overcome our sinful nature and disordered desires. 

So, ultimately, Jesus has done everything we need. So here’s the really complicated thing for you and me. How do we walk in this? How do we navigate this? How is it hopeful for us? If you’ll just stay close to Jesus, he’ll make something beautiful out of your life. That’s what these people heard. 

“I don’t get exactly all he’s talking about. Am I supposed to cut my hand off now?” They didn’t get all the intricacies of all Jesus was saying bout the Law. These were unlearned and ignorant people in some ways. But what they got from the Sermon on the Mount was, “This guy knows what he’s talking about. If I stay close to him, maybe, just maybe I’m going to find the kingdom of God.”

And, sure enough, at least twelve of them did. Eleven of them. Sorry. And those eleven “Gila Benders”, they literally turned the world upside down. You and I are in this church building today talking about Jesus, seeking Jesus because of those “Gila Benders.” Not because they mustered their own strength, not because they finally figured it out. No. It’s because they stayed close to Jesus and for them it got a little weird. Right? They stayed close to Jesus in person, in the flesh. But then Jesus died, rose again, showed up in this new form. And they received the Spirit of God, Acts 2. And they stayed close to Jesus by walking in the Spirit.

Walking in the Spirit, which is what we are trying to learn how to do. We don’t get the opportunity to be with Jesus in the flesh like they did, but we get to walk with Jesus in the Spirit, which Jesus and the disciples all attested to that it was better. It’s better what we have because God is with us everywhere we go. And he can produce in us a heart of righteousness. And our world so desperately needs people who are living out true righteousness. Not the fake or the lesser kind. We got a lot of that last year and it didn’t bring any peace. Stay close to Jesus and you’ll find the true righteousness.

Let’s pray. Again, just a reminder that, when we say “let’s pray,” it doesn’t always mean “Let’s talk.” A lot of times it’s a lot more listening than it is talk. Right now it’s important for us to listen, to listen to see what the Spirit might say. Those of you who know Christ and have the Spirit living inside of you, maybe he’ll bring up the name of someone, a brother or a sister, or maybe even an adversary that you’ve got some anger or contempt or bitterness for. He’s wanting to meet you there, wanting to give you his righteousness and help you walk in it to overcome the unrighteousness. 

Maybe you’ve got a lot of lust in your heart and you’re losing the battle in your mind. Please hear what Jesus says. He’s not saying therefore you’re an adulterer and there’s no hope for you. He’s saying, yes, it’s true, and it’s going to lead you to less freedom, less flourishing and destruction. But if you take his hand, you’ll find his wisdom, you’ll find his forgiveness, and you’ll find his power to live a different way when you stay close to him.

Maybe some of you don’t even have the Spirit of God in you. You’re kind of new to this thing. Well, today would be a great day for you to say: Jesus, come into my life. I need your help. You can whisper that prayer even now and know that he hears and loves to take that which is unrighteous and make it righteous, that which is broken and make it beautiful.

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