Sermon on the Mount Week 4

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Sermon on the Mount Week 4

Matthew 5:27-32

February 14, 2021 • Matthew 5:27–32

Audio Transcript:

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Good morning, welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic along with Pastor Shane, and Pastor Andy, and if you're new, or visiting, we'd love to connect with you. We do that either through a connection card in the worship guide that you received on the way in, or the virtual connection card in the app, or on our website. If you fill it out, we'll get in touch with you over the course of the week.

Would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Word. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a good God, and a good Father. And we thank you, Lord that you, before the foundation of the world, you imagined us into existence. That we are a product of your imagination, that in your heart, you foresaw who we would be and you made us so.

And we thank you that you created us in your image with an imagination, and you have given us this imagination so that we use it for good to imagine realities of how we can serve people, and do good, and further the common good instead, Lord we've sinned. And so often our imaginations are used as a weapon for evil and sin.

And Lord, we thank you that you did not leave us in our sin, but you sent Jesus Christ, the perfect image of the invisible God. We thank you Jesus, that you lived the perfect life, that you never sinned against anyone, and not God, not people. You love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and your imagination. And you love neighbor as self. You never treated anyone as an object, and you never dehumanized anyone with sin.

And you went to the cross and Lord, you bore the weight that we deserve, the punishment that we deserve. You experienced hell being forsaken by God, so that we would not have to be. And we thank you. Holy Spirit, that you give us access to the gospel by grace, through faith. And I pray today Lord, give us a deep faith for your Word, that when you say something is sin and that something leads to pain and depravity, and shame, let us believe it.

And when you say that we can be free of sin because where the Spirit is, here freedom is. Let us believe it and act upon that faith. Bless our time in the Holy Scriptures, we love you, and we pray all this in Christ's name, amen. Happy Valentine's Day, everybody. Perfect, perfect day for a nice sermon on lust. And that's what we're talking about today. The title of the sermon is Lust and Imagination.

As we're going through a Sermon on the Mount, the context is that Jesus Christ is King, and he says, "The kingdom of God is at hand. The way that you enter into the kingdom of God is by repentance through faith." And once he gathers his disciples who have repented of sin, he explains to them this new order of life. It's a manifesto he's given us of the christian life of how we as Christians are to live. And he's given us the same standard that God gave in the very beginning.

And just a word here on theology to set a meta narrative of what we're talking about, the theology of creations that God created everything by the power of his word. And he created us humans in his image, and he created us to enjoy him primarily, him first and foremost, secondarily creation. He gives us good gifts in creation to be used according to his guidelines, according to his laws.

And he created us in such a way that the more we live according to his will, the more we glorify him, the more satisfaction we experience. Augustine said, "Our hearts are restless until they find the rest in you." It's like there's a missing piece in our hearts, and that missing pieces is Jesus, it's worshiping God, is being in trance with him. It's adoring him, loving him, being captivated by him with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind.

It's like those security websites. When you get on some of these financial websites, and they show you the puzzle, and there's a puzzle piece that you need to move into the empty spot. And on a daily basis, God is saying, "Jesus is that piece that we need to be filled with satisfaction." So God created us with a need for him. And the other thing I want to connect that with as he created us in his image and were a product of his imagination.

So he imagined us, and created us in his image. So the fact that we're in his image is we have an imagination. It's an incredible gift from God to have an imagination, and that imagination... And if you just think about how much of life you live in your imagination, two thirds, more? As you're sitting, especially if you get good at your job, you could be all day without even thinking about your job. You're just doing your job, and you were imagining realities. Every time you think about the past, and memories, that's imagination at work. Anytime you think about a better reality here, anytime you think about future realities, it's imagination at work.

And one of the things that scripture teaches is that every single part of our person has been marred. The image of God in us has been marred by sin, and therefore imagination has been marred by sin. So that imagination which was created to do good and think of better reality, that imagination is sinful. So this is what Jesus Christ is talking about today, and he talks about lust, and he talks about this deep desire, he's talking about the capacity to imagine good things and act upon them, or imagine bad things and act upon.

And this is a very relevant sermon for everybody. The latest statistics say that 95% of people struggle with lust. The other 5% struggle with lying. It's everybody, every single one of us. As my wife says, "Everybody have dirty mind, everybody." We all need Jesus. We all need cleansing. We're all on level playing field there. So that's the context with it. And we'll look at this text from the perspective of, is your imagination captivated by God? And that's the only place you'll find satisfaction. If not, there's things we have to do by grace through faith, with repentance, fighting those areas in order to be faithful to the Lord.

With that said, would you look at the text with me? We're in Matthew 5:27-32, "You have heard that it was said, 'you shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away for it is better that you lose one of your members then that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away for it's better that you lose one of your members then that your whole body go into hell. It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except on the ground of sexual morality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."

This is the reading of God's Holy and fallible authoritative Word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Four points to frame up our time. First, what's the big deal with lust? Second, lust is never satisfied just physically. Third, fighting lust with faith, and forth, we'll talk about marriage and divorce. So first of all, what's the big deal with lust? And I asked this because from our cultural perspective where you, and this is a secular humanist worldview, where humanity, humans, people are at the center of the universe and there is nothing above them. So, whatever you do, as long as you're not harming anybody that's good.

So, why the radical language that Jesus is using. First in verse 27, I'll point out that Jesus emphasizes the heart. Verse 28. "But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in heart." It's the heart. We see in the 10th commandment "Thou shall not envy. Thou shall not desire your neighbor's spouse." We see the desire there in commandment number 10.

Jesus here goes into commandment number seven and says, that's the same thing. "Thou shall not commit adultery." It begins in the heart. The other thing I want to point out here is that from the perspective of Jesus. Jesus, primarily talking to his disciples, primarily talking to men. Men, you need to listen. You need to heed this commandment. And obviously it doesn't apply just to men, but he's talking to his disciples, so it applies to everybody.

The assumption here is behind this commandment, behind this call to purity command to purity of the heart is the assumption is that sex is a lot more powerful than you know. It's mysterious, it's an untamable power. That's the assumption here from God's perspective. That's why Jesus uses such strong language and giving a prescription of how to deal with it. How to deal with it. This is verse 29. "If your right eye causes you sin, tear it out, throw it away for it's better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell."

And he uses the same language with the hand. "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away for it's better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell." Jesus, why are you bringing hell into this? We're talking about lust, we're talking about adultery and Jesus says the consequence for this is hell. It's being forsaken by God forever. Why such strong language? Why this importance, this gravitas of lust. And partially other times I've preached this sermon and I'm like, look at the wisdom behind God's commandment. God cares about the individual. And God also cares about other individuals. And God cares about the family and God cares about society. So there is divine wisdom and fighting lust then leads to more blessing.

That's not how I'm dealing with it today. Basically what Jesus is saying is, "I'm God, and I'm telling you how to live. And if you do not obey my Word, there are consequences, you are liable to judgment." That's how Jesus talks about. Back when I started my ministry, when people come to me, and say, "I'm struggling with lust and Pastor Jan, can you help me?" And I would give them like practical things to do. "Hey, put some filter on your computer. And if it's your phone, that's causing you to sin, get a flip phone, and get an accountability partner, and all that." Now, whenever anyone comes to me and says, "I'm struggling with sin." I say, "Pluck out your eye. Cut off your hand," because it is that serious. Obviously Jesus isn't talking about doing this physically literally, it's a hyperbole.

But it's hyperbole, in a very arresting language, in a very extreme language. Hyperbole to say this radical measure is an index of how radical, and dangerous this sin is. In order for you to overcome this sin, you need to first understand that God hates it, and that there are dire consequences over it. And God is a God not just over your actions, but over your desires. God is a God over your imagination. That God has jurisdiction over the realities that you imagine, over your fantasies. And here he brings in the word hell, and it's Gehenna.

And Gehenna was the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem where the fire would just keep burning. And he says, "That's a metaphor for what hell is." He's not saying that's exactly what hell, it's a metaphor. And whenever God uses a metaphor to describe hell, sometimes it's darkness, sometimes it's this fire that can't be quenched. The reality is always worse than the metaphor.

So what are you saying is the reality is of this lust. If it keeps burning, and if you don't deal with this now, and then you die, and we are eternal beings. Well, if you have been forsaken by God in this world, then you will be forsaken in the next world and this fire just keeps on growing. And the assumption is that sex isn't just an appetite, that it is powerful, it's like a fire. And the right context in marriage to one man, one woman in covenant for a lifetime. It can lead to goodness, and a blessing from God. In the wrong context, can lead to devastation, just like a fire in a fireplace leads to light an ambiance, warmth, wrong contest, devastation.

And that's the problem with our culture. We have mishandled this. We have absolutely mishandled this because we assume it's just an appetite, and we don't take God at his Word because we think it's just an appetite. Well God says, "No, it's not just physical, it has all kinds of spiritual manifestations, and consequences." And Satan's temptation here is the same temptation that he brought in the very beginning. The temptation is even as you're listening right now, even as I read the text the temptation is, is it really that bad? Is this sin really that bad? Did God really say? Did God really say that if you eat of it, you will die. Did God really say that?

And what Satan did with Eve the very beginning, by tempting her to eat the forbidden fruit, he does today in terms of lust, and sex. Did God really say, and does God really have jurisdiction of this area of your life? And basically what Satan is doing is it's a power play. You don't have to submit to God. You can be your own god, and you decide what's good, and evil. You decide what's blessing, and what's cursing.

He comes in and he attacks the imagination. Just imagine a world without God. Imagine a reality without God, with no consequences for your actions. This is John Lennon's signature song. Imagine a world without God. Imagine a world without God, without religion. Imagine that above is only sky. If we imagine such a world, one lacking country's, possessions, when we imagine all the people living in peace, unity, happiness. I think what John Lennon did was trying to create this flower power paradise that has no basis in reality.

Nietzsche was more right. "If there is no God, and people do whatever they want, it leads to absolute chaos, and nihilism, and just abyss." But this is what seeing does is imagine. Imagine a world without God. Well, okay. Let's imagine that world without God. Most people live as if there is no God, and how's that going? Look at the consequences of sexual sin in our culture. I want to flip that around, and say, imagine a world where people obey this. Imagine a world where people will obey the sexual ethic of Christianity, of the gospel, of Scripture.

Imagine a world where people understood the power of sexuality. Imagine a world of people would fight lust, and not have sex unless it's in a committed relationship of a husband and a wife. The greatest pandemic in the world today is not COVID. The greatest pandemic is fatherlessness where men do not submit to God, do whatever they want, and now everyone bears the consequences of that. You know this cliche, when a man has a daughter, and he's like, "Oh, now I understand. Now I understand that I've been objectifying women my whole life. Now I'm going to protect my daughter. And I will protect my daughters. I got four of them. If anyone ever tries to objectify my daughters, I've got guns my left, and my right. And I have a permit to carry those. I will absolutely obliterate everyone in Jesus name."

No, but imagine viewing every single person, the way God intended you to view each other, as image bearers of God, not just an object of gratification. And that's what Satan comes in and he perverts our eyes where now we view people as objects instead of image bearers of God. The other objection is to the sexual ethic and lust is, if I don't express myself sexually, then I'm not being true to myself, and understand that if self is all there is, that's a fair objection, but self is not all there is. There is a God and you are not central, he is. And if there is a God and his Word is true, then being true to yourself is actually a terrible idea because what does it mean to be true to yourself, to act on every single impulse from the inside that's false.

Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately seek who can understand it." Their sin inside, and we can't act upon single inclination that we have. Genesis 6:5. This is the text right before the flood. God says this, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually." Intention of the thoughts is an imagination of the thoughts. That sin starts in the heart, and it captivates the imagination. And if it's not dealt with here, it leads to all kinds of brokenness.

The other objection I hear from young people when it comes to lust and sexuality is, "I just need to get this out of my system. While I'm young, I need to get this out of my system." That's false, that's like pouring gasoline on fire. You're just jacking up your system, and that you're creating memories that can never be removed and heartache that you're going to deal with for years to come. The other objection is, "I'm not harming anyone." Well, that's false, there is a God. And when you break his commandments, you're not just harming yourself, you're harming others, and you're breaking the heart of God.

Lust adulterates you, it adulterates the people around us. So that's what's the big deal because God says it's a big deal. So second, lust is never satisfied just physically. Let's define our terms. What is lust? It's the Greek word, (speaking in foreign language). It's used 62 times in the New Testament, only twice it's used for sex. What does it mean? It means not just desire, but inordinate desire. It's desire out of control. It's when you take a physical thing and try to get from it, transcendence or spiritual satisfaction. You take a good thing, and you try to get from it only what you can get from God.

So in this sense lust is more than just in the context of sexuality. If sex is your ultimate desire, you'll never have sex enough. If money is the ultimate desire or fame, or acceptance, or things, or attention, or food, or cars, or drink, or success, security, beauty, you will never have enough if this is the ultimate thing. And how do you know you're making something the ultimate thing? It's when you look at the commandments of God, and say. "No, getting this is more important than obedience to God."

Now it becomes an idol, and it begins to control us. The more you try to satisfy lust, the more this desire grows. And if you try to quench lust with sex only, it'll just continue being unsatisfied, and grow. And this is why there's rehab centers for sexual addiction. And you go to these rehab centers, and ask people, how did this start? You don't wake up addicted to illicit sex. It starts little, by little, by little, and the fire keeps growing, and growing, and growing and all.

The other thing I want to point out is, on the one hand our culture says, "Sex is no big deal, have a good time." On the other hand, we know that the consequences are grave. We know that there's shame and a regret. We know that people do things that should not be done. We know this. We know when people get caught on Zoom for doing things that they should not be doing. Our culture condemns that. Why do we do that? Because we understand it's written on our heart that this is wrong. There's a lot wrong with it.

Lust is a black hole that's never filled with just sex, or things. And this is why we need the gospel of Jesus Christ. What we're desperately longing for isn't just a physical experience. We're longing for intimacy, we're longing for a true love, we're longing to be filled deep inside, and only God can do that. That's why the gospel of Jesus Christ is so powerful. When you look at Jesus Christ who never committed a sin with his eye, or his hand, and never lusted in his heart. And then he goes to the cross, and on the cross, he dies for our sin.

He bears the penalty as if he had lusted. As if he had committed adultery, and he's dying on the cross. And he says, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" What's he talking about? He's going through hell. He's experiencing God forsakingness. And which is hell, why does he do that if he was perfect, he's not dying for his sin. He's dying for our sin, and when you realize that this is how much you're loved, that despite all of your sin, despite lust, despite everything, you are still loved, and God died on the cross for your sins, you accept forgiveness. Now you have access to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills us, and now we have the power to overcome the sin. And now we have the power to take every single one of our imaginations and take them captive.

Okay, real quick imagination audit. We're going to do a little imagination audit. How's your imagination? How are you doing with... And am looking at less from the perspective of imagination to show you that it's a lot wider. The scope is a lot wider than just looking at porn. Porn's included, but it's a lot wider. It's when we fantasize realities, and create these realities that are forbidden by God.

So imagination audit, what are you feeding your imagination on a daily basis? And are those things leading to satisfaction of the soul, or are they creating a dissatisfaction, and a fire that's pulling you away from God? What are you looking at? What are you listening to? What are you reading? And the visual input is really important. Jesus connects lust here, it starts with the heart. And then he says that it leads to adultery in the heart. Lust in the heart, adultery in the heart. And then you look.

The looking is a third part. What he is connecting is less than the imagination with images. And there is this deep connection. So as Christian, we need to be very careful at what are you looking at? What do you spend your time looking at in TV shows? This is movies. This is social media accounts, and content. What are you feeding? And I will tell you, the smarter you are, the more careful you got to be with that stuff. The better memory you have, the more you gotta be careful with that. So what are you listening to in terms of podcasts, in terms of music, how much of pop culture and pop music is built around inflaming people's lust?

And then it goes deeper than that. It goes deeper than the stuff we consume on a daily basis. What about memories? What memories, dreams, or mental pictures have been particularly vivid in your mind that you keep going back to, and you know you shouldn't be. How have they been impacting you? How did they make you feel? And which of these mental pictures have been encouraging, and life-giving, and how do these mental pictures stack up against God's Word?

When you're daydreaming about the future, are you daydreaming in a way where your God is in those daydreams? God is in those fantasies. Is God in those realities? Or are you doing this in order to escape God, escape obedience, escape God's Word. And it has to do with people, not just realities. It has to be dreaming about doing things with other people. Do you find yourself daydreaming about a person, or interactions you wish to have with that person that you shouldn't? Do you reach out with hopes of getting specific response? Would you be embarrassed if that person knew about your fantasies, or imaginations about them? Would you be embarrassed if the people closest to you knew the things that you were imagining?

Are you building up expectations about how things are going to turn out? Are you spending a lot of time analyzing past interactions, and to the point where it's idolatrous. And the big idea here is that once you become a Christian, you come to the cross of Christ, you repent of sin, you got to make it a practice of putting off old imaginations, and putting on the new. We need to practice fighting back against evil imaginations. And just real quick, the easiest way to do that is the very second you have a fantasy, or imagination that you know you shouldn't, an image pops up, you need to repent of that, and ask for the Lord's forgiveness, and ask for the Lord to purify the heart.

And Scripture says that those who are pure in heart, they see God. How do we see God? With our minds eye, with our imagination. Third point is, how do we do this practically fighting lust with faith? When you believe in Jesus Christ, you believe in way that captivates your whole being, that's true faith. It's not cerebral in the mind. We are called to believe with all of our being. And when we come to the Lord, we repent of all of our sin. The Lord justifies us and the Lord justifies us and says, "You're acquitted and you're not guilty, you are forgiven of all sin." And if you are a true Christian, you have a desire to fight sin.

So justifying faith is lust fighting faith, where you want God above all else. And this is how the gospel redeems our imagination. Romans 6:14, "For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace." So when you come to God, you realize that he loves you so much, that he gave his son. He fills your heart with a great love. Once you experience the Holy Spirit, once you experience the cleansing power of the blood of Christ, once you experience all of that, you want to do everything you can to stay as close to him as possible.

This why lust is so dangerous because it pulls us away from God. But once you've experienced that, he's re-calibrated the taste buds of your soul, and you want to do everything you can to be as close to him as possible. It's like when you know real food, when you know delicious food and you know exactly where I'm going with this, when you have a steak, a delicious ribeye with asparagus, if you'd like. When you have like this is real food you have that, it's not that easy to go back to junk. Yesterday we took our girl, Tanya, took our girls to just walk around Beacon Hill, and we walk them by Upper Crust. And my daughter Milan, my youngest one, she stops and she goes.

She's got my nose, which I'm really sorry about. And the flaps go and it's just so cute. And then we're like, "No, we're not having pizza. We're going to be good." My wife made Borscht at home, because that's what we do she's Ukrainian. So my daughter's like, "Oh, no." So then we keep walking, and we go to the Boston Common, and then we're walking by the McDonald's. And then my third daughter stops, and she goes, and I knew at that moment we're going to McDonald's.

And when you go to McDonald's, you know what you're doing. You know like you are sinning, you are breaking all kinds of commandments. And as you eat, it is so good. Then you're like, "Ah, yeah." And then you know you're going to hate yourself as you doing it. You're going to hate yourself five minutes later. And then five minutes later goes by, and you're like, "I just consume like 4,000 calories. I still feel a little hungry, and I hate myself." That, that right there.

So something like that happens on the spiritual level. When you taste God, taste, and see that he is good. That's love for God, that fills your heart, and that gives you power to fight lust. You know where this is going to lead, plus it's going to pull you away from God. You know it's not going to satisfy. So your heart is filled with love for God. And that gives you power to fight lust, and not love that lust. That's why Jesus in verse 28, he emphasis on the heart. "But I say that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Then progression is heart then adultery. Then the look, then the action.

You're loving something more than God. So how do you fight that? You fight that desire with a greater desire, you fight that fire with a greater fire. You fight the lust with the love. One of my favorite quotes on this topic is, Thomas Chalmers, the 1840s, and the famous sermon called the Expulsive Power of a New Affection. He says, "The only way to break the hold of a beautiful object on the soul is to show an object even more beautiful."

So true change for lust doesn't come from the outside. That's not where it starts. It doesn't start with self-discipline. It starts from the inside, repentance, and faith and God fills your heart with love, and then on the outside. So, it's a clean heart that leads to clean eyes, and clean hands. The other thing that you got to believe God's Word, you got to believe that his Word is true about the importance of fighting it.

The other thing you have to believe is that you can be free. I mean, so many Christians, when I counsel them on this topic, they're like, "It's impossible to be free of lust. It's possible to have victory over the sin." And that right there, that faithlessness always leads to defeat. Do you even believe that you can be victorious over this lust? Do you have this vision for your life? In the imagination, can you right now imagine being free of lust today? Let's string the wings together. Can you imagine having freedom from lust tomorrow? Do you have that? Can you imagine that? And as you imagine that, ask for the Lord's help, and fight the good fight, and be free of lust tomorrow. Can you imagine being free for a week?

Can you imagine being free for 21 days? And that's what they say. It takes 21 days to break any addiction in 30 days, whatever it is. Can you imagine this new reality for yourself? Do we do it perfectly? Of course not. But it's got to be like we look at the charts of the stock market, stocks always keep going up. You go up, up, up, up, down, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, and you keep going. A year goes by five years, ten. It just keeps going up. That's what growth, and righteousness must look like for every true Christian.

One of my favorite illustrations of this topic is Augustine of Hippo, struggled with one of the greatest minds that ever existed, struggled with lust as a young man. And then one time after his conversion walks by, he's walking through town, walks by a former sexual partner, and he doesn't acknowledge her. And then she turns, and calls out, "Augustine it is I." And he turns and responds. "Yes, I know, but it is no longer I. The transformation at the core, that changes your identity. Once you're baptized into the faith, by the Holy Spirit, and baptized with water, there is a baptism of the imagination that needs to happen.

Scripture says, "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind." And Augustine writes about his conversion so poetically, he says this, "Late have I loved you, O Beauty..." He's talking about God. "so ancient, and so new, late have I loved you! You were within me and I was outside and I sought you outside and in my loneliness fell upon those things that you have made. But you called to me, and cried to me and broke my deafness. And you sent forth your beams and shone upon me and chased away my blindness, you breathe your fragrance upon me, and I drew in my breath and now I pant for you. I tasted you. And now I hunger, and thirst for you."

Like that true relationship with God. That true spiritual connection with God through prayer, through meditation, upon Scripture, through silence, through solitude, through fasting, that's where the victory begins. Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." So that's where you start love for God. I believe in you, I love you. He fills your heart with that love. And you want to honor him and delight him as you delight in him. But you can't, that's not just where it stops.

There are things you got to do in terms of mortifying the flesh. Love for God, and mortification of flesh are the one-two combination of knocking out lust in your life. And the mortification of the flesh means, you have to take physical actions. As Jesus says, like it was a hyperbolic, "Pluck out your eye and cut off your..."

But you have to take radical actions where you know that the things are causing you to sin, and stoking up lust in your life, igniting that. You need to cut that out of your life. And you see the one-two combination, Colossians 3:1-5, verse five, "Put to death therefore, what is earthly in you." But it starts with filling your imagination with God, Colossians 3:1, "If then you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds."

And this is what he's saying, imagine, "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." That's the imagination. That's your heart filled with, you're in trance with God, and then "Put to death therefore." So you will stop there. "Therefore." Based on all of that, "put to death therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual morality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." Put it to death.

He's not saying incrementally choke the life out of it. He's using this language of crucify the sin in your life. Galatians 5:16, "But I say walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." To feed the Spirit weakens the flesh. The other really just practical point is make no provision for the flesh. Make no provision. Don't put yourself in places that stoke the flesh, and lust and put yourself in places that draw you near to God, and give you a desire for purity. This is Romans 13:13-14.

And by the way, I've said it before, oh 2020, 2021, our present day. This is the hardest time to ever be sexually pure, and fighting lust and et cetera, et cetera. I don't think that's true in the Roman Empire, Saint Paul is writing things like this, "Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness." It's not talking about 2020, he's talking about the year like '70. So this has always been an issue, "Not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual morality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires."

So simply he's saying, don't put yourself in a place where you will be tempted, simply stay away. The father in Proverbs 5 tells the son to not go near the door of temptress, because she can't tempt you, if you can't see her. She can't tempt you if you're not in a place where you can be tempted. You know yourself, and you know the situations that cause you to lust, stay away from those situations, and pursue righteousness. Job says in 31:1, he says, "I've made a covenant." Meaning I made a decision. Ironclad decision. "I made a covenant with my eyes. How could I gaze at a Virgin?" Another translation says, "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl." And later in the same chapter, Job admits that God would judge him if he had given in to the temptation, Job 31:7-9.

"If my step has turned aside from the way, and my heart has gone after my eyes." So sometimes your eyes go after your heart, and sometimes your heart goes after your eyes "If any spot has stuck to my hands then let me sow, and another eat and let what grows for me be rooted out. If my heart has been enticed toward a woman and I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door." So he's saying the sexual sin has to be cut out, stamped out before the temptation can take a foothold in the mind.

The other way that Scripture talks about dealing with lust is this language of putting it to sleep, and awakening it. Meaning we have control over this, Song of Solomon. "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases." That you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. So there things that we do with our imagination that awakens things that should not be awakened. Speaking of imagination, Satan attacks our imagination by showing us the worm of whatever the action is. And the way that we can fight that is by imagining the consequences. So Satan definitely wraps the stain of sin, with a tasty worm. The wiser prudent Christian can see through the worm. And this takes a little practice. You can see through the worm to see the hook where you know...

Think about the consequences, think about how this is going to hurt you. Think about how this is going to potentially become a new rhythm. Think about how it might impact the people in your life. Either people who are close around you now, or people who will be in your life in the future. James 1:13-15, "Let no one say when he's tempted, 'I'm being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it's conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown, brings forth death."

The emphasis there of responsibility is not on someone else. O someone else caused me to sin, or someone else tempted me. No, it's from the heart. Therefore, we bear responsibility, and when God tells us to not sin, and put to death, he's telling us we have power to do it by the power of the Spirit. The famous illustration in Holy Scripture of this is King David. King David doesn't go to war with... When he was supposed to go to war, he's on his roof of his palace. And he sees Bathsheba bathing. And the issue there wasn't that he saw that. Scripture says that he gazed on her. "She was beautiful to behold." He saw and he continued to see, and that led to all kinds of brokenness.

So, the question isn't like, "Are we going to see content that's going to create lust in us?" The question is, are you going to gaze? Or are you going to fight it? We have control of our eyes. We have control of our ears, what we hear, what are you going to focus on? And finally here in this just practically, Christians are good at repenting of sin. We run to Jesus after we sin. We also got to learn to run to Jesus before we sin.

When you're tempted, as soon as you're tempted run to God, and ask for forgiveness, and ask for cleansing of the Spirit, and the power of the Spirit. Finally, marriage and divorce. The reason why Jesus talks about lust and adultery in this text, and then he connects to the marriage is because it's all intertwined. That's important to note. And then Matthew 5:31-32, "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual morality, makes her commit adultery. Whoever marries a divorced woman, commits adultery."

What's Jesus talking about? He said that you have heard it that it was said, he's not talking about Scripture, which is what he would have said. "You have read what is written." And he's talking about the interpretation of the rabbis, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the lacks interpretation of the law when it comes to faithfulness, and loyalty in marriage. According to the rabbis, a man could divorce his wife for basically anything. If you look at the Mishnah, if you liked another woman better, if his wife spoiled the dinner or if she was barren, and if he consider her lazy, if he didn't like her looks, basically at any point, he just divorced her if he choose to. Now, that was the interpretation of the rabbis.

And what happened was... And basically that's how marriage, and divorce works in our day. We fell out of love, and that's it. And the rabbis took the biblical understanding of marriage and flipped it on its head. The Bible understanding of marriage is a covenant. It is a covenant between one man and one woman for life. And they turned into a contract and in a contract, here's your terms, you're going to meet your terms. Here's my terms, if you don't meet your side of the bargain, where out, there's no more contract. And within covenant, you do what God does with us. God made a new covenant with us, and he says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." And that's the intention of marriage to be a picture of God's love for us.

And this is exactly what the rabbis did. They flipped it into a contract. Whenever I officiate a wedding, I say the same thing every time, "Dearly beloved we're gathered here today in the sight of God on this face of this company, et cetera, et cetera." And then I say, "What we are witnessing here today is a miracle. We're gathered to witness a miracle. And the miracle isn't a confession of past love, and it's not a profession of current love. It's a promise of future love, no matter what, until death do us part." That's the miracle of marriage and that's God's intention for marriage.

And the rabbis came in and they realized that that's impossible. God's standard of marriage is impossible. So we need to lessen the law. And the clarification of this text happens in Matthew 19:3-9. "The Pharisees came to him and tested him by asking, 'Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?' And he answered, 'Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning, made them male and female and said, 'Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. And the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.'

And they said to him, 'Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce to send her away?' And he said, 'Because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning, it was not so, and I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual morality and marries another commits adultery.'" So it was the rabbis looked at the law and like to become one for life? Ah, we can't do that. They lessen the law, and Jesus comes in and says, "No, this is the standard. Divorce isn't allowed." And the reason why people divorced because of hardness of heart, and this is as real as it gets. And if you're married, you know exactly this hardness that comes. You got to deal with it.

And the way that we deal with it is through the gospel. You audit your heart. Is there bitterness or hardness of heart toward my spouse? Go to the gospel, receive grace and mercy and that softens the heart. In terms of divorce, the reasons for divorce that are permissible in Scriptures, death, then you're separated from the spouse and so you can remarry. Adultery or sexual morality and desertion, that's 1 Corinthians 7. So in these cases, divorce from a biblical perspective is permitted though it's not desired. Reconciliation is to be saw instead, but it's permitted.

Why such a high standard of marriage? Because it's sacred from God's perspective. If anyone remarries for any reason, other than sexual morality or desertion or death, that sin, however, our God is gracious and forgiving and whoever repents and confess his sin is forgiven immediately. So if someone remarries, or divorces and remarries for any other reason other than these three, the new marriage is initially adulterous, but not perpetually if there is repentance and if people seek repentance. And then if someone does remarry and seeks repentance, and you're like, "Oh, I shouldn't have remarried. I'm going to go back to my former spouse." No, once you're married, that's God's will for you.

Finally, I'll close with this. In terms of imagination, in terms of what we're imagining about our past and present and future, one of my favorite texts is Philippians 4:8-9. It says this, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you."

Don't just think about and imagine whatever, instead think and imagine about whatever's good and true and beautiful so that we can live lives that are good and true and beautiful and image forth the glory of God, amen. Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for this Word that you've given us. Lord and Jesus, we thank you for you are King and that you are King over every single square inch of our lives that you call us to faithfulness and fidelity in the same way that you are faithful to us. Lord, we pause right now to ask for forgiveness, if there's any hardness of heart in us, and if there's any place in our life where our imaginations have been captivated by things that they should not be captivated by, and we pray, forgive us and cleanse us. And by the power of the Spirit, ignite our imagination to think about you and love you and think about how we can do good work and how we can further the common good for your glory and our joy. And we pray this in Christ's Holy name, amen.

Sermon on the Mount Week 10

March 28, 2021 • Shane Sikkema • Matthew 7:13–29

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome again to Mosaic. It's good to see you this morning. If you're new, welcome, my name is Shane. I am one of the pastors here at Mosaic, and so glad to have you with us. As we mentioned earlier, we would love to connect with you. The way we do that is through a little connection card. You should have gotten one of those with your worship guide on the way in. If you fill that out for us, you can just drop it in the little white box back there at the back of the room on your way out this morning, and we'd love to follow up with you this week and just send a small gift to you in the mail to thank you for being with us. You can also fill that out online or in our app as well. Before we start, happy Palm Sunday to everyone. This is the first day, the beginning of a holy week. We have a couple of special service times coming up just to remind you of before we jump into the sermon. First of all, this Friday we're having a good Friday service at 6:00 PM here at the temple. Childcare will be provided for kids up through fifth grade, and so if you have kids that want to participate in that, just jump on our website and fill out the little registration form, that way we can know how many children to prepare for, but looking forward to that. We'd love to see you back here Friday night for that service. Then Easter Sunday, this is really important. We're having three services, and as we've mentioned in the last couple of weeks, they're all going to be at different times than usual. Our first service is going to be at 8:30. We're going to have a full-blown mini-Mosaic program and Mosaic teens at this service, so families with kids, this will be a great option for you. Second service is going to be at 10:15. This service is also going to have childcare mini-Mosaic up through fifth grade. We're anticipating this is going to be our largest, most popular service. If you're planning to come on this one, you might want to come early to make sure that you get a seat. Really, the reason we're expanding to three services, we just really want to make sure that with all the distancing requirements, that we don't run out of space next week. But our final service is going to be at 12 o'clock noon. Go get brunch, come and join us at 12 o'clock if you want to join us for that third service. Really, whatever service you're able to attend is great and just look forward to celebrating with you next Sunday morning. But with that being said, let's pray before we start the sermon this morning. God, we thank you for this amazing section of scripture and the time that we've been able to spend in the sermon on the mount over the last several weeks, and Lord, we thank you that you have spoken to us through your son, the living word, and Jesus Christ, and you've also spoken to us through your scriptures, the written word. As we look into your word again today, Lord, we ask that you would humble us and give us ears to hear what you have to say, our minds and hearts that are open that are humble to you. God, your word is good, it is perfect, it is without air, and it is authoritative, but also beautiful and beneficial. It is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, and so Holy Spirit, we ask that you would come and illuminate this path for us, so that we can stay on this narrow way that leads to life, following after Christ, following that path that he has blazed on before us. We pray all this in his name, amen. Today we're wrapping up our sermon series on the sermon on the mount. We're going to be looking at Jesus conclusion to the sermon on the mount. If you've ever studied homiletics, if you've ever studied public speaking, you know the importance of your introduction and your conclusion. These are the two most important parts of any address that you make. They're kind of like the takeoff and the landing. In your introduction, really, you're earning the right to be heard by your audience. Right now, you're here. You're about to sit down and hear me talk for the next 40 minutes or so, but I understand that just because you can hear my voice doesn't mean you're actually listening to what I have to say. I got to earn that right to keep your attention. It helps a lot, if in your introduction, you can give people some kind of hook that's going to show them that what you're about to say is worthy of that time and attention. Even before I start preparing for a sermon, I like to keep this phrase in mind, don't preach because you have to say something, preach because you have something to say. A good introduction, it lets people know that you're about to say something that's worth saying, something that is worth hearing. In Jesus' introduction, he gives us this little hook. It's like a bombshell of a statement. You remember what He said when He starts the sermon, He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." It's really unexpected, and yet, it's powerful, it's intriguing. It's maybe even a little bit perplexing, but all right, Jesus, you got my attention. I want to see like where you're going to go with this. Not only is it a really good hook, it's really relevant to everything else that he has to say. It's almost like this is the key that unlocks the rest of the sermon on the mount. Now, if you understand what Jesus is saying here, you're going to get the rest of the sermon, but if you don't, a lot of what Jesus is going to say that follows is going to be puzzling. Jesus had a great take off. What about his conclusion? Well, how does Jesus land the plane? That's what we're looking at today. It lands like ... You've probably heard sermons that nose dive and crash and burn on the landing. Not here at mosaic, but at other churches perhaps. Jesus lands, it's like an atomic bomb, just boom explosion, fire everywhere. He walks down the mountain like an action hero. Doesn't even look back at all the minds that he just blew behind him. How does he do this? He does this by turning to his listeners, turning to us, and asking us, how are you going to land the plane? How are you going to land, not the plane of the sermon, how are you going to land the plane of your life? Every single one of us, from the moment we're born, we are on our descent, and we're flying through the turbulence of life, and the runway of death is coming closer and closer with every moment. This is what we need to consider. This is what we need to ponder. When the rubber hits the road, are you going to make a smooth, peaceful landing, or are you about to crash and burn? How much time do you spend thinking about eternity? What do we expect to find on the other side of death? Where do we go when we die? These might sound like cliche questions, but these are the most important questions that anyone could ask, and these are the questions that Jesus wants us to consider today in the conclusion to a sermon. If you have your Bibles, open up to Matthew 7, I'm going to be looking at verses 13 through 29, the end of Jesus' sermon. As we work through this text today, I want us to focus on these three points that Jesus drives home here in His conclusion. First of all, there are only two paths. There are only two directions. Then thirdly, there are only two destinations. Read along with me. If you don't have a Bible, you can follow along and the words will be up here on the screen as well. This is Matthew 7 beginning in verse 13. Jesus says, "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the disease tree bears bad fruit. Healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a disease tree bear good fruit." "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?" And I will declare to them, "I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness." Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock." "The rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock, and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell, and great was the fall of it." When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. For he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes." This is the reading of God's Holy word for us this morning. Point number one is that there are only two paths, and Jesus begins by telling us, you need to enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. There are two identical Proverbs in the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 14:12, and 16:25, and they both say this, "That there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." What are these two paths that Jesus is talking about? Well, let's start out by what is the path that leads to life? What is Jesus talking about there? If you were here last Sunday night at our prayer service, one of our members, Nathan Young, he brought a great message on this from John 14:6, where Jesus tells His disciples that, "I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me. Peter and John preached this in Acts 4. They said that, "This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone," in verse 12, "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved." Jesus is the narrow gate. He is the only path to salvation. What that means is that the broad road to destruction, that is anything and everything else, and we hear that and we say, that's so exclusive, and it is. Jesus acknowledges that. Jesus says the gate is narrow. But before we can begin to object, we have to first ask, what are the alternatives? Romans 3:23 tells us that, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 6:23 says that, "The wages of the sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord, that Jesus being the only way, it sounds exclusive, it is exclusive, but the alternative is that there is no way. No way at all. That we are all sinners, we are all guilty and we are all incapable of saving ourselves. We have all sinned again and infinitely just, and Holy God. The chasm that we need to cross is infinite. Think about this, only Jesus, in his complete perfection and full divinity was worthy and able to pay the penalty that our sin and rebellion deserved, and yet only Jesus, because of his full humanity could stand in humanity's place to be that atoning substitution. There could be no other way. It had to be Jesus. For Jesus to say, I am the way, I am the only way. I'm the truth. I am the life. I am the narrow gate. It excludes any other means of salvation, and yet, at the same time, it is more inclusive of any other alternative because the gate is narrow. But entering through this gate is open to all. It's free. That the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, offered to all, to any who would repent and put their faith in Him and cry out to Christ for salvation. This is what scripture says. We know this, John 3:16, one of the most famous verses in scripture, "That God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." Romans 10:11, the scripture say, "Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." You don't have to be born into a certain ethnicity. You don't have to have a spiritual, a pedigree. You don't have to go and achieve self-actualization or enlightenment. You don't have to climb to the peak of some holy mountain to offer sacrifice or maintain a life of perfection to be saved. You simply call on the name of Jesus and you will be saved. Believe, confess, cry out to Christ and say, no matter where you are, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, you will be saved. Look at verse 14 again. It says that, "The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." This is important to understand. Jesus acknowledges the gate is narrow, and yes, it is free to enter by that gate, but the road that follows is not going to be easy. Jesus says, it's going to be hard, that the Christian life is hard. If it's not hard, then perhaps you're not actually on the path that you think that you're on. We've heard this phrase, that salvation costs us nothing, and yet discipleship costs us everything. This is Christianity 101, that we are justified freely by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, and yet, the lifelong work of sanctification of putting our flesh to death, it's hard. The lifelong work of engaging and carrying out the mission of God and living our lives as witnesses to the gospel and the kingdom of God, it costs us a lot. Following Jesus comes with trouble, tribulation, persecution. It takes perseverance. It takes patience. It is not a broad easy road. It's a road of self-denial. It's a road of self-discipline. It's a road of laying down your life and picking up your cross daily and following after Jesus. It is all of those things, but it's also worth it. It is the road that leads to life and there is no other way. What this means is that, if we are walking this path as Christians, we should stand out and seem very distinct from the rest of the world around us, as if we are walking in a complete opposite direction against the flow of everything that surrounds us. We live in a world that follows this cultural mantra of like, you only live once, and so have a good time all the time, get the most out of life while you can. In scripture would put it like this, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. We say things, we hear things like, life is about the journey, not the destination. To go with pastor Jan, false. That's a false statement. Not true. If it is true, if life is really only about the journey, then yeah, go spend your life on yourself, get the most out of this life while you can, because this is all you'll ever get. You can do this in a number of ways. You can do this through living a life of rebellion and sin of just seeking self-gratification and earthly pleasure. Or you can do this the way the Pharisees did this through practicing your righteousness before people. Not because you love God, but to be honored and respected by others, that they'll look and say, oh, look at that person. They're so virtuous. They're so right. Jesus would say, to either of these approaches like, great, but you've received your reward in full, that whatever satisfaction you got out of that is all you will ever get, and your best days will now forever be in the past. Jesus calls us, as his followers, to a different kind of journey, a journey that doesn't begin with discovering ourselves, with finding ourselves, but with losing ourselves. It begins with humility. It begins with repentance and faith, and acknowledging that Jesus paid it all. So, all to him I owe. I am not my own, but I belong body and soul to God and to my savior, Jesus Christ, and therefore, my life, my time, my talents, my treasures, these are not mine to be spent on myself in this life. These are mine given as a steward from God to be invested for the sake of the next. Knowing that in Christ, the best is always yet to come. Now, we heard this a few weeks ago. Jesus put it like this in Matthew 6:19. He says, "Don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal." Now, if we live this way, apart from faith, this kind of investing in eternity, it doesn't make sense. It seems foolish. Right, you're denying yourself something right now and you're betting your life on something that you can't even see. From the perspective of the world, it seems like folly. Jesus talks about it like this, that the kingdom of God, it is like a treasure, but it's like a treasure that's buried in a field, and not everybody can see it, but once you discover it, once you see what's there, you're willing to go and sell everything you have to acquire that field, because you know what's inside it, and everyone else might look at you and think you're crazy for the price that you're willing to pay, but you know the return on that investment. Imagine like this. Imagine I had a time machine right here and I was willing to sell you a ticket, but it came with some strings attached. First of all, you could only use it to go backwards in time. Secondly, you could only stay there for five minutes. Third, it's only capable of bringing you maximum like 10 years into the past. Then finally, this ticket is going to cost you everything that you have, every penny to your name. You would probably think, well, that sounds very novel, but it's probably not a good investment. Not worth the cost of that. But let me remind you, 10 years ago, you could convince your former self to buy Bitcoin, which was like less than a dollar at the time. If you could scrounge $10,000 $15,000 to go, you would be a billionaire today, and so yes, of course I would make that investment, but this is what I'm getting at, that the kingdom of God is a better investment than that. This is not financial advice. I'm not your financial advisor, but this is spiritual advice. I am a spiritual advisor of sorts. Jesus is talking about eternal stocks here. Don't miss this opportunity to invest in eternity, is a sure bet, and it's hard. It's going to be costly. It may cost everything you have, but you're investing in something that will never tarnish, that will never fail. This is why 2 Corinthians 4:16 sells us that we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day, for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to think things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are seen are eternal. There are only two paths. Point number two, there are only two directions. Jesus continues in verse 15. He tells us, "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You'll recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the disease tree bears bad fruit." "A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a disease tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?" And I will declare to them, "I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness." In this passage, we see that these two paths results in two very different destinations, and so therefore, Jesus, here in the middle, wants us to be careful that we not lose our sense of direction, that we make sure that we know where we're going, to not only know what the right path is, but to know how to know when we are on that right path. Some of you might be too young to remember this, but way back in the day, before smartphones, before Google Maps, before big tech was tracking our every move, if you were going on a road trip with your friends or something, like you had to have a physical map made out of paper in order to figure out where you were going. What you would do is you'd go to the gas station or something, you would buy a map of whatever area you were trying to travel to, and you'd jump on the back of your Brontosaurus and you'd take off on your journey. It was great. The map could show you what was there, but the map could not show you where you were in relation to what was there. The map could not tell you what road you were on or what direction you were going. You had to figure that out for yourself. What that meant is you had to like look out at the road and look for the signs along the way that say, this is the road that you're on, and this is the direction that you're going, North, South, East or West. What that meant is there would be these times, it's never happened to me, but maybe it happened to some of you, where you would be on the right road. You thought, I'm on I-80. I'm good to go. I set the cruise control. I can kick back and relax. Then like an hour later, you notice, hey, that sign says there's an I-80 with a little E on it. I was supposed to be on I-80 with a little W after it. I've just driven a sixth of the way across the country in the wrong direction. If it wasn't for the sign, I wouldn't have known that I'm actually lost. How do you know when you're on the right path? That's what Jesus' wanting us to get at here. What are the signs to look for? We're going to talk about that in a minute, but first, Jesus warns us that, if that's not bad enough, there's false signs out there pointing in the wrong direction. He says, "Beware of false prophets." There are people trying to lead you astray, telling you that this is the way to go and actually pointing you in a way that is the opposite. This was a problem back then, this is a major problem today. We live in a day and age where, because of things like social media, anybody and everybody can have a platform and gather a following. On the one hand, this means there's a lot of good, useful content out there, Christian teaching available online. It also means there's a lot of horrible, deceptive, false content out there, false prophets, people who are claiming to present the truth with authority, and yet they are leading people in the wrong direction. Some of these people, they can be religious. Some of these people are irreligious. Churches used to worry a lot about the false teachers that people would see on TV, the televangelist, the snake oil salesmen, the charlatans preaching their prosperity gospel. That's something we need to be concerned of and discerning about and look out for as Christians. But today, we don't honestly see many people being deceived by the cookies, people that we see on Christian television. Instead, what we see is there's a lot of people are being led astray in other ways, the political causes, activists, personalities, celebrities, talk show hosts, influencers, even teachers and professors, and Jesus warns us that it's not always going to be obvious who these people are. Don't assume that you know what they're going to look like, because they're going to look like sheep on the outside. When you look up a little closer, you see that they're actually ferocious wolves. He's warning us, you need to be cautious, you need to be careful who you follow. You need to be wise and discerning so that you can tell the difference. Now, you're going to need community around you to help you with this. You're going to need to know God's word and filter everything through that. We have a great example of this in Acts 17. Acts 17:10 tells us that, "The brothers sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now, these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so." On the one hand, they're open, they're teachable, they're eager to learn, and that the other hand, they're discerning. They're taking everything they hear from Paul and Silas, and they're filtering it through God's word to see if these things are so. We need to do that as Christians with everything that we hear. Galatians 1 gives us this warning in verse six, and Paul tells the church, "I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be cursed." Colossians 2:8 says, "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of this world and not according to Christ." Jesus says, watch out for false prophets, don't be fooled by false teachers. But secondly, He's also telling us, don't even be fooled by yourself. Don't be self-deceived. This is where things get kind of scary. Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven. Not everyone who calls me Lord or even does ministry in my name is actually a Christian." Some people are going to go through their life self-deceived thinking that they are serving Christ, and when they stand before him in the judgment, He's going to say, "I never knew you and depart from me." This is sobering. This should cause us to examine ourselves. Now, as Christians, this doesn't mean that we should live in doubt of our salvation, but the alternative is not to have this carefree, blind assumption that we are saved either. What are we to do? Scripture doesn't want us to assume our salvation, but what it wants us to do is to seek assurance of our salvation. What does that mean? How can we have a surety that we are truly saved? That's what Jesus is getting at here. He says, you want to know the tree? You got to look at its fruit. If there's evidence of the Holy Spirit's work in your life, that's a pretty good sign that you've been truly born again, that God has saved you, that you are a new creation. Now, if you don't see that, if these signs aren't here, maybe you're saved, maybe you're not. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're not saved, but it doesn't mean that you lack assurance of your salvation. How do we find this? What are we looking for here? A couple of passages of scriptures to help us out, 2 Peter 3, 2 Peter 1:5-10, and Peter says this, "That for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ." "For whoever lacks these qualities is so near-sighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fail." When you identify this trajectory of growth in your life, that's a good sign that you're heading in right direction, that you're confirming your calling and election. Galatians 5:16-24, the apostle Paul talking of the fruit of the spirit. He says, "I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you're led by the spirit, you're not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these, I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the Lord with its passions and desires." Are you growing in the fruit of the spirit? Notice, he doesn't say fruits of the spirit, plural, this is not like an a la carte, pick and choose which ones you want to grow, and this is an all or nothing. You don't have to be accrued in order to have a bit of self-control or to show a bit of kindness. One or two of these things does not give us assurance of our salvation in and of themselves. Our assurance grows when we see that all of these things, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, they are growing in tandem, not because of our own willpower, or the work of the flesh, but because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The big idea here is that Jesus doesn't want us to be doubting, but he does want us to be discerning, because we can be deceived by others. We can even deceive ourselves, but God is not deceived. He knows the state of our heart. Galatians 6:7-8 says, "Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows that he will also reap. For the one who sows to his on flesh will, from the flesh, reap corruption." "But the one who sows to the spirit will, from the spirit, reap eternal life." 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us, "To examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith." Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves? That Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test." If Christ is not in you, then that's where you need to start, right? You don't start by trying to tuck healthy looking fruit onto a dying tree. Instead, you start by calling out to Jesus and asking him to make you a new tree, to change you from the inside out to give you a new one heart and a new desire by the power of his Holy Spirit. Now, if you examine yourself and you do see this, you see the Holy spirit at work in your heart, you take heart because of that, know that you are on the right path, and that, even if that path is very difficult at times, it doesn't mean that Christ is not there with you. He is with you and he's ensuring that you will arrive at your destination. We see this in Philippians 2:12. It tells us, "To work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." A chapter earlier, in chapter verse six, Paul wrote that, "I am sure of this, that he who began and a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." There are only two paths, there are only two directions, and point number three, there are only two destinations. Jesus concludes in verse 24 with this, says, "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock, and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came and the wind blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes." Many of you know I was born and raised in Illinois, and in the Midwest, thunderstorms are like a very real thing. They're very long, they're very loud, they're very violent, and they always came with this looming threat of tornadoes. As a kid, I was simultaneously fascinated and completely utterly terrified of tornadoes the entire time growing up. You'd hear those sirens go off in your neighborhood, and everybody knew you had to stop what you're doing and you had to get to shelter. You had to find someplace stable, someplace safe, and that usually meant you need to get down into the basement, into the foundation of your home for safety. Notice that Jesus doesn't say that, if you hear these words of mine and you do them, that you will therefore avoid all of the storms of life. No, he says the storms are coming, they're coming for everyone, and that they come in many forms. A family member gets sick, a job gets lost, the economy tanks, or relationship falls apart. Even if we dodge these smaller storms of life, there's always that one storm looming on the horizon. Now, the biggest storm is the storm of death. It's one that none of us can escape. It's coming and it's getting closer with every breath. How are we going to weather that storm? Jesus says, it doesn't matter what you build. The only thing that matters is where you build, what you build on. He says, if you're building your life on me and on my teaching, you're like a wise person who's building on an unshakeable foundation. I hope you understand this. As Christians, we have this piece. It's like an anchor for our soul. It transcends the circumstances of life and death, because we know that, even if the very worst were to come true, our worst fears were to be actualized, if everything was lost and death was at our doorstep, even then, our hope is not in this life. Our hope is in the next. Our soul is standing on a foundation that can't be shaken, that can't be moved, that will not give way. We know this because Jesus proved this through the cross. On the cross, Jesus faced our biggest, our darkest storm. Not a storm of life, not even a storm of physical death, but of total death. The fierce storm of God's wrath toward rebellion and sin was poured out and absorbed by Jesus on the cross. The scripture tells us, the sky grew dark, that the earth quaked on the day that our savior died, but it was through this, his death, that we were granted eternal life. It was through this storm that he faced, that we are able to weather the storm ourselves, because through his death, Jesus defeated Satan, sin, and death. That God, the father, three days later, raised him up in victory and just vindicated him from the grave, glorified him at his right hand, and in doing so, he proved that he can and he will do the same for us, for all those who build on this foundation. Well, where does this lead us? Jesus is calling us to make a decision, decisive action. There are only two options. There are only two paths. There are only two destinations. This is what he's saying, you're either going to build on me, on this foundation, or you're going to continue trusting in the sandy shores of self-righteousness of worldly pleasures of living for yourself. Sermon on the mount, in the very beginning, in Matthew 5:1, we're told that, "Jesus saw the crowds and he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them." Then here at the very end of this section, we're told that, "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes." Perhaps you have been standing in the crowd, observing Jesus from a distance. Right now you realize that it's time to leave the crowd and to draw near to Christ as one of his disciples. Jesus had a lot of fans in the crowd. He was never interested in fans. Fans come and go. We're reminded of this a bit today because today is Palm Sunday, and we can't prove this, but it's easy to imagine that the probability, that there were some in the crowd on Palm Sunday crying out Hosanna, who later that week were in the crowd on Good Friday crying out, crucify him. There's a fickleness to the fans that ... Jesus wasn't after that. He doesn't want people who are self-deceived. He's looking, not for fans, he's looking for followers. He's looking for people who are ready to enter through that narrow gate, to take up their cross and to follow him down that hard path, but to follow him knowing that it is the path that leads to life. If you're here today and you're ready to become a follower of Jesus, the way you enter through that narrow gate is simply to repent, to put your faith in Jesus Christ. You can do that right now. If you do, we would love to talk to you, we'd love to pray with you after the service and talk more about what this decision means. If you are a follower of Jesus, understand, hopefully you understand this, that you can't walk this path alone. You need people around you to help you, to encourage you along this way. If you're in a community group, be faithful to that community group, invest in those relationships. If you're not, we would love to help you get plugged into a community group today. It's one of the best ways where you can do this for one another and go on this journey of following Jesus together. If you're interested in that, just mark that on the back of your connection card. or stop by the welcome center, we'd love to help you find a community group today. Then finally, one more thing before we close, next Sunday, Easter Sunday, and so who do you know that maybe needs to come and stand in the crowd with the hopes that they hear the teaching of Jesus, and they see that He is one who taught with authority and they themselves lead the crowd and become a disciple as well? We're going to be praying for those people this week. If you have opportunities to invite them and bring them along next Sunday, we'd love to see them here worshiping with us on Easter Sunday. With that being said, would you please join me in prayer? And then we'll continue and worship together. Jesus, we thank you for giving us this sure foundation for being our solid rock. Lord, we thank you for this week, where we are reminded that you did conquer Satan, sin and death, that you took our sin upon yourself on that cross, and then you Rose in victory on Sunday morning. I thank you for this good news that we have because of you and what you've done for us. Father, I pray that you would make us wise, that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit, that you'd give us the strength to faithfully continue down this hard narrow path of discipleship, to keep our eyes focused on Christ, the founder, the perfector, the trailblazer, the pioneer of our faith, and to fervently pursue him until that day where we stand before you in judgment. Not to hear those words, depart from me, I never knew you, but to hear those words, well, done, my good and faithful servant. Come, enter into the joy of your master. We long for that day, and we pray, until we get there, that you would, by the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to be faithful witnesses to you. We love you, we praise you, and we give you all glory, in the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and savior, amen.

Sermon on the Mount 9

March 21, 2021 • Matthew 7:1–12

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning, welcome to Mosaic. My name is John I'm with the pastors here, along pastor Shane and pastor Andy. If you're new or if you're visiting, we'd love to connect with you. Do that through the connection card in the worship guide, either the physical one or the virtual one in the app or on the website, you fill it out and then get it to us. We'll get in touch with you over the course of the week. Quick announcement; April 2nd is good Friday, we have a service here at 6:00 PM. Easter, we have three services, 8:30, 10:15, and noon. Just keep that on your calendar. Then also, plan to invite some friends to one of, or all services. They'll be tremendous, by God's grace. Also, we have another prayer service tonight, the second of three. Tonight and then next week, that is at 5:00 PM. Love to see you at that as well. That said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word? Heavenly father, we thank you that you though being a holy God, did not leave us in our sins, though that's what we deserved. That you could have damned us for all of eternity. You could have sent us on our way. That's where we were headed, to spend eternity apart from you in a place called hell. That's what we deserve. We recognize that, we own that. We sense that that's the bad news. It's terrible news. But we thank you for Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank you that you came, you lived a perfect life. You lived that perfect life, so that we would not have to bear condemnation. Because you did that on the cross for us, you were condemned, you were damned, you were canceled. And you did that in order to cancel the record of our indebtedness to God. We thank you for grace. We thank you that we can be saved. We thank you that we can be forgiven. We thank you that we can be redeemed no matter what we've done. There is always hope for redemption while our heart is beating. We thank you for that. I pray that you make us a people who receive that grace and extend that grace, that graciousness. You are a God who is loving and you're slow to anger. You are patient and you're steadfast, in your loving kindness. We thank you for that. Make us the people who receive it and extend it in the same way that Jesus extends it to us. We pray this in Christ's Holy name. Amen. If you're new, we are in the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher who ever preached, that's Jesus Christ himself, the son of God, son of man. He doesn't just give us wisdom, he doesn't just teach us how to live, he also extends grace to us and the Holy Spirit that empowers us to live this brand new life. A life that is to the full, a life of loving kindness, a life of discernment and a life of grace. Today, we are in Matthew 7:1-12. Next week, we'll finish off this sermon series. The title of my sermon is, Don't Cancel People. We live in a censorious culture, people getting canceled left and right. JK Rowling, Gina Carano, Mike Lindell, Goya, Mr. Potato Head, Dr. Seuss and Jemima, Uncle Ben, cancel, cancel, cancel. Donald Trump, canceled. Four years' president, disappears. You can't even say his name, without feeling uncomfortable in the room. Cancel, cancel, cancel. How do we respond to the cancel culture? The natural response is, "You cancel me, I'm going to cancel you twice as hard." That's the natural response. What's the Christian response? The Christian response goes like this, "We recognize we all deserve to be canceled. We all deserve to be damned. We all deserve to be condemned, forever. But thanks be to Jesus Christ who came to uncancel us." Jesus called canceled people his friends. The people who were ostracized by society, written off. You are dead to society, if you were a prostitute or an adulterer or tax collector or a pagan. Jesus befriends these people. His closest circle of friends included the worst of the worst, the guiltiest of the guilty. He befriends them, he forgives the outcast, the misfit, the leper, the liar, the adulterer. He refused to dismiss the dismissed. He refused to reject the rejected. He accepted them. He forgave the denounced. He pardoned. He gave grace. Jesus Christ, how did he do that? How can God, a Holy God, just forgive? He can't just forgive. Because he's just. Jesus Christ comes and on the cross, he says, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Why did God, the father, forsake God, the son. Because God, the son, took our condemnation upon himself. God, the son, was canceled on the cross, in order to cancel the record of our indebtedness against God. He's taken away, nailing it to the cross. It's from that perspective, that we look at Matthew 7, where Jesus gives us some of the most famous verses from all of scripture. But it's from that perspective, that he tells us to be careful in how we judge. Today we're in Matthew 7:1-12, would you look at the text with me. "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounced, you will be judged. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye," when there is the log in your own eye. You hypocrite. First, take the log out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." "Do not give dogs what is holy, do not throw your pearls before the pigs. Lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives and the one who seeks, finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened." "For which one of you, if his son asks him for bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a serpent. If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children? How much more will your father who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him? Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this as the law and the prophets." This is the reading of God's holy, infallible, authoritative word. May write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame over time. Christian judging, Christian asking, Christian loving. First, is Christian judging. Jesus goes from addressing our attitudes toward money and possessions, that's the past two pericopes, the paragraphs. Now, he transitions to talking about our attitudes toward people. "Judge not, lest you be judged." What does that mean? Does that means we get rid of teachers? Does that mean we can get rid of grades, coaches, umpires, referees, cops, judges, courts, accountability, responsibility? Is that what he's saying? Can't be. Because even in this text he says, "You're hypocrites." That's a judgment call. Call some people pigs and dogs. Judgment call. Jesus had very choice words for the religious elites and for politicians. Herod, he calls him the fox. Pharisees, whitewashed tombs, brood of Vipers. Those are all judgment calls. He had very hard words for hard hearted people, to wake them up to the reality. He's obviously not saying don't make judgment calls. He's not saying don't practice this sermon because there's no way around it. Even if someone comes to you and says, "Hey, you're in sin," and your response is, "Don't judge me." That person at that second, is judging, your judging of them. You can't get around it. He's not saying, "Don't judge." 1 Corinthians 10:15 says, "I speak to you as sensible people, judge for yourselves, what I say." We are to judge. We are to make judgment calls. He doesn't say, "Do not judge ever," in terms of discernment. Here we get into linguistic analysis. What does judge mean? It's a Greek word, krino, has two definitions. The first one is condemnation, to condemn. The second one is, to discern. He's not saying, don't discern, he's saying do not condemn. Condemnation without the hope of redemption. That's what he's saying. Matthew 7:6, "Do not give dogs what is holy. Do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you." Dogs here are not pets, dogs here, he's talking about wild, unclean, filthy animals. And the priests who go into the temple and part of the sacrifice he'll present to God, that's the holy part and part the priests would eat. The Holy part is that which is given to God. You don't take that and give it to a wild dog, because that would be an abomination. That would be desecration. Same thing with the pig. The pig, you don't throw a Pearl to a pig, because the pig does not sense its value. The dog does not sense the value of the holy part. Jesus here is talking about animals that don't sense the realities, other than the physical. They're only driven by appetites. They don't see the beauty. They don't treasure the treasure. Jesus in other parts of scripture tells the disciples, "Go preach the gospel. If you go to villages where people just reject you, they don't want to hear the message of redemption, because they don't sense a need for being forgiven, because of self-righteousness, because of pride." He says, "In those cases, shake off the dust from your feet of that village." Meaning, those people who have had ample opportunity to hear, receive the good news and have decisively, even defiantly rejected it, we need to have a discernment of when pushing the gospel on people, isn't really helpful. It's discernment, some spiritual sensitivity. We are to be discerning. Matthew 7:15-20, few verses below our text, Jesus says, "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You'll recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits." We are to be discerning. We are to know the truth, know the scriptures, know the gospel and have a spiritual sixth sense, so to speak, that goes off when we hear lies, and when we see that the fruit isn't a fruit of the spirit. Hebrews 5:14 says, "But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." We have to grow, we have to train our discernment. Scripture talks often about judging that's lawful and that's required in the word of God. There's ecclesiastical or in the church, judging. Matthew 18, if a brother or sister sinned against you, you go to them, you have a conversation with them. You call out their sin. "Hey, you've sinned against me. Let's have a conversation. Ecclesiastical judging. The civil government judges, Romans 13 talks about that. Private judging, where in family and relationships, you help one another fight the good fight, by calling out sin, speaking, truth and love. There are times to judge. What's Jesus talking about here, when he says, "Do not judge, let's do be judged?" The word hypocrite is used. Do not do it hypocritically. That's really the whole context of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus over and over and over and over and over says there's two paths. There's the authentic, spiritual, gracious, humble walk with the Lord, and there's the prideful, lies and hypocritical, inauthentic, mask-wearing. Matthew 5:24, "I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Jesus, in his mind, he has a group of people, the Pharisees. The Pharisees who have taken God's law and they turn it upside down, instead of loving God and loving people, they've loved self and used God and people. Matthew 21:26, he says, "Do not get angry, like the hypocrites, but love like Jesus." The next text, "Do not lust like the hypocrites, but be pure in heart, like Jesus." Then he says, "Do not divorce like the hypocrites, but be faithful to your spouse, like Jesus. Do not lie like the hypocrites, but always be truthful, like Jesus. Do not retaliate like the hypocrites, but seek reconciliation, like Jesus. Do not hate your enemies, like a hypocrite, but be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Do not practice your righteousness like the hypocrites, but be righteous, like Jesus. Do not give to be seen like the hypocrites, but give to meet needs like Jesus. Do not pray like the hypocrites, do not fast like the hypocrites, do not lay treasures up like the hypocrites. Do not be anxious, like the hypocrites." Then we get to text, "Do not judge like the hypocrites, that you be not judged, like the hypocrites." The Pharisees, thought highly of themselves. They held utter contempt for those on the outside, for those who weren't as righteous as they were, for those who weren't as virtuous as they were. They judged, not to help people seek redemption, but in order to demean. There's a parable that Jesus gives of the Pharisee and the tax collector. They come into church together. And the Pharisee prays out loud and says, "God, I thank you that I'm not like that guy. I thank you, that I fast twice a week and I tithe and I am a good person. Thank you for that. I'm not extortioners, unjust, adulterous or even like this tax collector." The tax collector comes in and he can't even look up and be judged. "Condemn not," see there it's clarified. "Condemn not and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven." John 7:24, "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment." John 8:15, "You judge, according to the flesh, I judge no one." Then we're told don't do it hypocritically and don't judge from a position of God, where you cast this person out as if you're God. God is merciful, God is gracious. While we're still alive, there's still room for redemption. Romans 14:4, "Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls and he will be upheld. For the Lord is able to make him stand." We're not to judge in the position of God, we're not to judge hastily or rashly. We're to give people the benefit of the doubt. They're sinners, we're sinners. Proverbs 18:13, "If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame." This discernment that we need, we need to gather the information, before jumping to conclusions. Really, the emphasis is on the hypocrisy. Romans 2:1, "Therefore, you have no excuse oh man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself." Because you would the judge, practice the very same things. That's the issue. We're sinners. Before dealing with our own sin, we start sinning others, that's what he's getting at. Francis Schaeffer, a great apologist of the 20th century, he said, "All God needs to condemn us 1,000 times over, is to hang a tape recorder around our neck and judge us with the same standard that we have for other people." We do have standards for other people. We judge all the time. Our culture, it's promoting judging. There's ratings and reviews for absolutely everything. We've got a one star review. Our church got a one-star review two weeks ago. I know the person that gave it, because I just had a conversation with that person. I go home and I get an email from Google that we got a one star review from that person. If you gave us, I'd really appreciate a conversation. Please retract it. Because now we're at 4.9. For the rest of you, do a very simple evangelistic work today and go on Google and give us a five star review, please, and leave a little paragraph and things like that. Everyone's just out to judge. It's the hypocritical judging that he's getting at. What happened to David and Nathan, David commits adultery with Bathsheba, murders her husband. A year passes, and he's just so blinded by his own sin. Then Nathan, the prophet, comes to him. Tells them a story, about a rich man who had lots of sheep. He goes to the poor man, steals his sheep in order to entertain his friends. Nathan comes to David, tells him that story. David's anger is kindled. He says, "That man will pay four times. Four-fold for his sin." 2 Samuel 12:5-7, says, "Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man." He said to Nathan, "As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and because he had no pity." Nathan said to David, "You are the man." You are that guy. This is what Jesus is getting at. He doesn't say we can't discern. He doesn't say we can't have judgment calls. No. There's no way around that. But Matthew 7:3-5, this is what he's getting at. "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye and do not notice the log that is in your own eye." This is an illustration from a carpenter's workshop. The spec is just the sawdust and the plank or the log. This is a beam. Meaning like a weight bearing beam, load bearing beam. It's like a telephone pole. You're saying you want to help someone who's got a little speck in his eye, when you've got a big, massive log coming out of your own eye? What's that spec? How can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your own eye, when there's a logging and your own. You hypocrite, first take out the log that is in your own eye, then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." What is the spec? We understand that's a sin. Every single one of us, we have specks in our eyes. That's sin. And Jesus says, "But be careful, that you do not have a log." What's the log? Separate from the spec, the log here is the thing that keeps you from seeing reality as it truly is. In the context of about pigs and dogs, the log is what makes the spiritual, imperceptible. The log is what makes you relegate it to just physical appetites. What is this log? This log is the only sin that God cannot forgive. What is this log? What is the sin that God cannot forgive? It's the sin of pride, self-Righteousness, where you think you're better than others, and that's why you judge. "You're not as good as I am. No redemption for you because I don't need to be redeemed, because I have done enough good." That's the log that's in the eye of every single person. And the more good things you do, the bigger that log is. It's your resume of virtues. The more you do apart from God, the bigger it gets and the more you judge other people, because they're just not as good as you. Self-righteousness, that's what's at the root of canceling people, literal condemnation. "You're worthless. I'm through with you. You are dead to me." It's self-righteousness. There's no grace, because you don't see your own need for grace. Matthew 7:24, "With the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you." There's two options here. Two options in this text. Option number one is, you say, no one can possibly live up to the standards of Jesus, therefore, let's get rid of them. The other option is, no one can live up to the standards of Jesus, I need to repent of my sin, where I do not live up to the standards of Jesus. I need to ask Jesus to take out the log from my eye, the plank from my eye. I do that by recognizing, it's that plank of pride and self righteous. It's those two planks that Jesus Christ was crucified upon, to take out the plank from my eye. When I realized that, now, I'm in a position where, there is hope for redemption. There is forgiveness, there is mercy, there is grace, and I can change. Instead of changing God instead of changing his rules, because I can't live up to them, instead of throwing them out and writing our own rules and trying to create heaven on earth, without God. Instead of doing that, I recognize his standard is holy. He is righteous. I can't change God. He's immutable. I need to ask for forgiveness. The standard is still the standard. I do my best on a daily basis, receiving grace by the power of the spirit to live up to the standard. I never do it perfectly. Driving the car yesterday, my wife was talking about my oldest daughter. My oldest daughter is 12. I got a 12 year old at my house. That's challenging. Our 12 year old is at the point where she has a tremendous memory. When we say things that she should do, and we don't do those things, she has a record of all the things that we don't do. She called mom a hypocrite. I was like, "Oh, that's fascinating. You're a 12 year old. You wouldn't even be here, if it wasn't for us." Then she said, "How about you, dad, are you a hypocrite?" I said, "100%. I'm barely a Christian. I'm a by accident, Christian. I look at myself, I'm like, I can't believe God saved me." There's other people I look at, I'm like, "I could see that God of the universe had died for you." For me, "I wouldn't die for me. I can't believe it." We're all hypocrites. We're all unrighteous. We're all self-righteous. That's what Jesus is saying in Matthew 7:5, "You hypocrite." You're like, "Ah, that doesn't feel very good." But it's true. It's absolutely true. You're a hypocrite, I'm a hypocrite. We're all hypocrites. "First take out the log out of your own eye, then you will see clearly take the speck out of your brother's eye." He says, you do it. You take out the log. This is what Christianity says, is you do it. As you try to do it, you realize just how painstaking this, and you can do it and you need Jesus. Ever got something in your eye? It's the worst feeling ever. The smallest thing, the worst thing. You can do everything you possibly can and you can't get it out. Then who do you allow to do it, someone you really trust. That's really what becoming a Christian is. It's, "Lord, please take this out." Then that's justification. Sanctification is, when we on a daily basis, look at our own life, is there a log? Is there a spec? You apply the judgment that you apply to other people. What he's saying is, the way that you judge other people, apply that same standard to yourself, 100 times more meticulously, then you'll begin to understand what he's saying here. The way that we do it is, we can be brutally honest with ourselves about our own faults. We can be brutally honest because, there's always grace. There there's always redemption. We don't have to hide it from Jesus Christ. This is what the gospel is. We haven't met the standard, Jesus has. He gives us grace for our sin. We're all dogs, and wild pigs in of ourselves. We don't sense the beauty of spirituality. We don't sense the beauty of God in of ourselves. We have cold, hard hearts and we're just focused and preoccupied with physical appetites. We're all pigs. Jesus is the pearl. When we look to the cross and we realize that Jesus Christ was thrown to the pigs, he was thrown to dogs, he was crucified on our behalf. He did that for us, that's when we begin to see the value of Christ, that he was crucified on our planks and our beams, in order to save us. We love the concept of forgiveness. We love the concept of grace. We love that. But the concept of forgiveness assumes judgment. And what our culture has done, we've tried to get rid of the moral code, although it's still written on our hearts. We try to get rid of that. There's no standard, there's no judgment, but there's only grace and forgiveness. I know you can't have forgiveness without the standard. God offers us the forgiveness, but first we need to realize, that we have sinned and we have the spiritual cancer. If you have cancer and you go to the doctor and the doctor says you have cancer, is he judging you? No, he's not. He's diagnosing you. That's what the gospel does. That's what Jesus does. When you realize that's what he does for us in order to heal us in order to forgive us, we receive the grace and now, we can help others do the same, from a position of humility. "I'm not better than you." Every single one of us, we are wicked sinners, deserving hell, but Jesus saved me. You know what? I think he could save you. You got to repent of your sin, of your self-righteousness. Practical applications here, in terms of judgment, first, we got to check yourself, you got to check your own spiritual eye for a plank, for a speck. 1 Corinthians 11:28, talking about communion, "Let a person examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup." Examine. Self-examination. What sins in my life are just... They're there. They're lodged in my eye. I need to repent and to leave that sin. James 4:16, "Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power, as it's working." We need to confess our sins to God and sometimes it's helpful to confess them to others, when it's just lodged in their habitual sin, "I can't get rid of it." Find a brother and sister whom you trust and share it and confess and fight the good fight together. Also, we need to learn how to take judgment. As Christians, as brothers and sisters, we need to learn how to receive truth. We're to speak truth with grace. We are also to receive it and not be like a dog biting back or a pig on the attack, when people come to us and they point out a sin in our lives. What's the first reaction? Is it defensive? Putting a guard, "Who are you to judge me?" Or, is it from a position of, "I am a sinner. Thanks for pointing that out. Let me think about that. That's really important. Psalm 141:5, "Let a righteous man strike me, it is a kindness. Let him rebuke me, It is oil for my head. Let my head not refuse it yet. Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds." Proverbs 9:8, "Do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you. Reprove a wise man and he will love you." Proverbs 27:6, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy." Proverbs 25:12, "Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold, is a wise reprove to a listening ear." Also we are to learn, to give truth to people with grace. It's truth with grace. When you do that, there is a potential for you to be canceled, dear Christian. When you take a stance for Christ, for truth, you will be persecuted and more and more so in our culture that is growing more and more godless. We aren't to be surprised by that, at all. We need to expect it. That's what Jesus said, "I have been hated, you will be hated as well on my account by some. But others will hear it and will be regenerated by the Holy Spirit." Because of our witness, eternally changed for that person. That's why it's worth it. It's worth it. We'll take the hate. We'll take the persecution. But there are some who will be drawn to Christ and it's worth it, 100%. Second is Christian asking, Matthew 7:7-11, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For anyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks, finds and to the one who knocks, it will be opened." Ask before we seek. It assumes humility. Instead of first pursuing whatever it is you want, you need to ask. Lord, is this good? Is this right? Is this is from you? There is growth. Ask, before we seek, seek before we know. Then he says, "Which of you, if his son asks him for bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father was in heaven, give good gifts to those who ask?" This is an argument from the less to the greater. If a human father, who is sinful and selfish as we all are, we are. I used to think I was a selfless person before I got married and then realized how selfish I was. Then just progress with every kid. I thought I was a selfless person. Then I had a kid. Here's the thing about having a kid? You have the kid, so cute, but you just give up all of your naps forever. You will never have another nap. It's gone. But even with our sinful, selfish natures, we care for our children's needs. That's what he's saying. If sinful, human fathers do, how much more will a perfect and infinitely loving father, provide for our needs, give us what we need? Not necessarily we always ask for, because how terrible the thing would it be if God always gave us what we ask for? It's fascinating how Jesus just slips in, in this context of like, "Do not judge," he calls us hypocrites and calls some people dogs and pigs. Then he also calls us evil here. He just slips that in. Because he's the king of the universe. He brings in, "You are evil," slips that in as the most obvious and incontestable fact. We're all evil, even at our best. Humans are at their best when they're providing for children. Even at our best, we are evil. We are dogs, we are pigs. We deserve nothing by condemnation. We can't stand before God on our rights, on our moral record, on our virtues, on the basis of anything. We're unfit for blessing. From this perspective, we can now begin to understand blessings. It absolutely changes your life. When you understand that you deserve nothing but hell and condemnation, everything else in life is icing on the cake. I'm alive today. I'm breathing. Had some coffee. I'm going to have lunch later. Incredible blessings. It just changes your perspective. I get to live in Boston and share the gospel with people. They're going to bite. They're going to kick. They're going to fight back. Well, I deserve nothing... It changes absolutely everything. God is gracious to us. Instead of getting offended, that Jesus called me a hypocrite, instead of getting offended that I'm evil, instead of getting offended, that I got a big log in my eye, instead of getting offended that I'm a dog or a pig, instead, take that as grace from God to wake you up, to change you from the inside out. There's a story in Matthew 15:21-28, a very controversial story, where Jesus calls a woman a dog. And here's the story. "Jesus went away from there and withdrew the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, "Have mercy on me O Lord, son of God. My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." This is a mother at her best, saying that her child is being possessed, is suffering under demonic possession. Comes to Jesus asking for help. But he did not answer her a word. His disciples came and begged him saying, "Send her away, for she's crying out after us." We see the persistence. He answered to her, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord. Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." Then Jesus answered her, "Oh woman, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly. I saw this TikTok, I'm old enough for that to be funny. I saw this TikTok of a pastor. Apparently this pastor is on TikTok. Certain kind of pastors are on TikTok. This guy read this text and he said, "Jesus is a racist." Jesus sees a woman of another race and he's being racist to her. Then she points out the work that he needs to do to fight his racism, like internal work, and then Jesus repents and he changes and now he's no longer a racist. False. False. That's false. Jesus is never sin. Perfect son of God. He's not a racist. You can't read scripture through these lenses of you judging God. It's not going to end well. Jesus here, what's going on? It's not about race here, it's not about pedigree. Because Jesus said, "What makes a person unclean is the heart." We're not dogs because of race, that's not what's going on. We're all sinners. We're all dogs. She doesn't assert her rights. She doesn't come to Jesus demanding, "Jesus, you owe me. You owe me." Even on the basis of her suffering. A lot of people come to God on the basis of their suffering. "God, you owe me." God doesn't owe us anything. We are degenerate sinners. We deserve nothing but hell. She comes to them and she acknowledges, humbly. "I am a dog. I'm not a child. I have sinned. I have allowed evil into my life. I deserve nothing." And she doesn't walk away, discouraged, and she's hanging her head. She recognized, "I am unworthy and you're merciful. I am unworthy, but there's enough bread on that table, even for me. I don't deserve a crumb, but I know who you are. You're a gracious God." And she gets what she desired. "Be it done for you, as you desire." This text is not just about our prayer life, that's part of it. But it's about our posture before God. That we are to come to God with humility. "God, I don't deserve anything. God, I am a rebel. I'm not a child. But because of Jesus Christ, I can be adopted into the family of God and I can come to you and I can pray, persistently." Scripture talks about praying with impudence, shamelessness, unblushing persistence, relentlessly, audaciously, tenaciously asking God. And God honors that persistence. My daughter Milana, she's three, almost four. She's born with this persistence. Whenever she wants something... By the way, our family has four kids. Wherever we go, it's a crowd. To get your voice heard, you need to persist. Whenever our families get together, my sister has four kids, my other sister has two kids. I have four siblings. Whenever we get together as a family, it's the persistent and the loudest person that gets heard. My daughter Milana, she learned that. She learned that cheat code to our family. And she will nag you and persist. She has the same forehead and eyebrow thing that I do, where she gives you all of her emotions with her face and she's like, "Papa, papa, papa, I need this thing." I'm like, "Fine. Take it. Just get away from me. Leave me alone." That's kind of how God says that we should pray, nag him, persistent in prayer. He honors that persistence and the expectancy. "I expect you to answer. I expect that you will give me what I need. Not necessarily what I want. I expect." So prayer is more than just asking for stuff. It's asking for more of the presence of God, because when you persist, when you keep at it, you're getting more of God. Jeremiah 29, 11-14: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "Plans for welfare, not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you and you will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you," declares the Lord. Our most fervent prayers should be not just to God, but for God. "God, I want more of you." That's what Luke 11:13, the parallel passage, that's what it ends with. "If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children? How much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" What's the greatest thing that God can give us? It's more of himself. A greater measure of himself. More of his presence, more of his face. When we ask, when we seek, when we knock, as we do, we are to ask and seek and knock, for more of the Holy Spirit. Three, is Christian loving, Matthew 7:12. "Whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them for this is the law and the prophets." This is all of Christian ethics, all of Christian morality, in one verse. By the way, this is how Jesus ends the ethical section of the whole Sermon on the Mount. After this text, he talks about a saving relationship with God. Here, he ends all of ethics, all of the ethical stuff, with saying, "Whatever you wish that others would do to you do also for them." This is the greater righteousness that Jesus expects from his disciples. The statement, in its negative form, is found in lots of ancient writings. This is why if you study Christianity and world religions in high school and college, this is what they say, "Oh, Jesus didn't really say anything unique. All other religions have it." They have it in the negative form. The negative form is, do not do to others what you wouldn't want to be done for you." We see this from Athenian philosophers, the Jewish rabbi, rabbi Hillel said, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow creatures." It's found in the teachings of Confucius. And so, in human beings, we're creating the image of God. The moral code is written on our hearts. We know what is required of us, in the negative form. And the negative form, you don't want to get robbed, don't Rob someone. You don't want to get cussed out, don't cuss out other people. You don't want to be hated, don't hate other people. We know that. What is unnatural to us, is the positive form. It's absolutely unnatural. It's supernatural. It's higher, it's more proactive. If you enjoy being loved, love others. If you enjoy being encouraged and appreciated, encourage and appreciate others. If you enjoy generosity, then give to others. It's really an elaboration of Leviticus, 19:18, it says, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." It's unselfish love to others, to strangers. Bishop Ryle said this, "It settles 100 difficult points, which in a world like this, are continually arising between people. It prevents the necessity of laying down, endless little rules for our conduct and specific cases. It sweeps the whole debatable ground, with one mighty principle. This is the operating principle and it should be for every situation of life. For marriage, it's the key, it's the secret to marriage. If you want a back rub, if you enjoy back rubs, give your spouse a back rub. Scratch hard with the nails, like that. Do that. With children, raise your children, do onto them as you would have them do onto you. It changes every situation in life. At work, on the T, on the highway, on the street, it changes dating, it changes marriage, it changes parenting, friendship, church membership. And it changes judging. That's why he starts with that and he ends with that. Think about how you want to be treated, how you want to be judged when you need correction, then treat others the same way. It takes a certain wisdom. It's not natural. It takes wisdom. A lot of people talk them about nowadays emotional intelligence. All emotional intelligence really is, is pretending you're the other person. Putting yourself in their shoes, recognizing, understanding, sympathizing, empathizing with their situation. "How would I want to be treated?" And treat them the same way? Anyone who's really tried to live like this, knows how punishingly difficult it is. Because we are all vain and proud and selfish and self-centered. How much time did you think about yourself this morning? All the time. You spent all the time thinking about yourself. Thinking about what you're going to eat and thinking about how you need to fix your hair, thinking about whatever. And being able to put yourself in the position, that's what he's saying. We can't do it on our own. How can we become more selfless and more humble and more sincere, through the gospel, recognizing that the only person who's really done this completely, of putting themselves in my place, the only one that's really done that, is Jesus Christ. He 100% put himself in your place on the cross. When you realize that, "On the cross, Jesus put himself in my place in order to forgive me and change me," that's selflessness. Now, we begin to understand, I can now put myself in another person's place. Then how else? Through prayer. By asking, seeking and knocking, for the more important blessings. Not just physical stuff, of God to change our hearts and change our characters. The golden rule can only be understood in this context. We pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors. Forgive us as we forgive others. You've forgiven us, now I can forgive others." It's generous judgment. When we see people in sin, when we see people who were trying to cancel us, there's a generous discernment and judgment where we leave the door open for redemption. Redemption that was given to us. Kanye West once said, "I've been canceled before they had canceled culture." Cancel culture goes back much further than Kanye West. Cancel culture goes back all the way back to when Jesus Christ stood before Pilate. And Pilate, after looking at all the facts, he says, "I've found no fault in this man. I've examined him in your presence. I found no fault in him. He's done nothing deserving of death." And the mob, what did they cry out? "Crucify him! Crucify him!." Cancel him. He is dead to us. They did that to the greatest person who ever lived. And Jesus allowed it to happen. Why did he allow this to happen? Why did he allow evil to triumph? Because this is the only way for him to triumph over evil. This was the only way for Jesus to forgive us of our evil. This is the only way of Jesus not condemning us, by taking our condemnation upon himself. Psalm 22, written centuries before crucifixion was even invented as a means of execution. Psalm 22:16, "For dogs encompass me, a company of evil doers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divided my garments among them and for my clothing, they cast lots. But you all Lord, do not be far off. Oh, you might help come quickly to my aid. Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs." Dogs who didn't see the treasure that was before them crucifying him. And Jesus cries out and he says, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." They're still guilty, even if they don't know what they're doing, but forgive them. Jesus Christ was canceled by our sin, to cancel our sin. He was canceled by our guilt, to cancel our guilt. He was canceled by our condemnation, to cancel our condemnation. He was canceling the power of death to give us life. If you're not a Christian, we today invite you to become a Christian by repenting of your sin and turning to Christ. Leave your sins and leave your self-righteousness at the cross of Christ. Receive his grace. As Christians, may you know the joy of sin forgiven by the Lord, Jesus Christ, amen. Lord Jesus, we thank you for being a great God and a gracious God. We thank you that you never look at us and say, "You are absolutely hopeless." While we're alive, there is hope. I pray that every single person who's heard my voice, I pray that they become your adopted children. In of ourselves, we are evil and we are hypocrites and we are dogs and we are pigs, but you welcome us into your family as adopted children. Thanks be to Christ for that, in whose name we pray, amen.

Sermon on the Mount 8

March 14, 2021 • Matthew 6:25–34

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. This is the time that we find out who the faithful Christians of Mosaic are. Anyone who shows up when we lose an hour of sleep, halleluiah, you got extra reward in heaven. Your spiritual Venmo just went cha-ching, welcome. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card, either the physical one that you can get in the back or the virtual one that you can get in our app or on our website. One quick announcement. For the next three weeks starting today, we have prayer nights, 5:00 PM today and the next two Sundays. The structure will be we'll have prayer in the beginning. We'll have some worship. And then we'll have a 20-minute sermon or so from a brother in the congregation who's discerning the call to full-time vocational ministry. And then we'll have some more prayer as a congregation. Why are we doing this? Primarily to set our hearts on Lent, to prepare ourselves for Good Friday. That's April 2nd. And then also Easter, which is April 4th. Easter, we will be having three services. All the information you can get online or I think it's in the worship guide. Easter is one of the best times of the year to invite friends to church, friends who perhaps had some exposure to Christianity and then walked away or friends who just haven't been in church for a while or friends who don't know much about Christianity, but you say, "Hey, this is part of my tradition. If you respect me and my faith, you should come to church with me. We will just preach the gospel and pray for people to get saved." So, plan on inviting friends and praying about that. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy Word? Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a good God. You are a good father. You are perfect, Father. You're a father who is great and you're a father who is good. Great in that you are all powerful and good in that you enjoy to give us good gifts. You enjoy to meet our needs. You enjoy to provide for us so that we glorify you, to satisfy us so that we are satisfied in you. Lord, we thank you for Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank you that you came and you met our greatest need. You lived the perfect life that we would not, could not live. You went to the cross to die of the death that we deserve. You died in our place in order to reconcile us with the God of universe. Therefore, meeting our greatest need, that of reconciling us with God, that of forgiveness, that of justification, that of imputed righteousness. We thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are real, that you are with us, that you are a person, that you love us and you long to fill us and lead us and seal us. I pray, Holy Spirit, come to this place, lead us, prepare our hearts, enlighten our minds, illuminate our hearts, our souls, and feed us from the Holy Scriptures, and teach us that we as the children of God have nothing to worry about. Our eternity is secure. Every single detail of our lives is under the control of a sovereign God, who is great and who is good. We love you, Lord, and we thank you for that. Deepen our trust in your faith, in our obedience and allegiance to you. Take away any burdens that we are carrying that we should not be. We cast them upon you, because you are God who cares. We pray that you bless our time with the Holy Scriptures and pray this in Christ's holy name, Amen. If you're new, we're going through the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher to ever preach, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the son of man. He came to show us that there's nothing that we can do to be saved. There's no righteousness that we can do. There's no path that we can follow in order to make ourselves right before God, just before God. Therefore, we need to repent of our sin. We need to acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy. We need to believe in Christ. The very moment that we repent and believe, we become children of God. At that moment, we go from just being creation, just being image bearers of God who are sinful and broken and ostracized from God, we now become his children. As his children, he wants us to live with the richness of the title of a child of the God of the universe. Last week, Jesus commands us and shows us that we are not to store or hoard treasures here on Earth. Instead, we are to have an eternal perspective on this life, on material things, on money, on everything that we have. Instead, we have to lay up treasures in heaven. What that does is sets our priorities that God is first, heaven is first, eternity is first. Everything else that God gives us here is for our stewardship. We had to steward it well for his glory and to serve our neighbor. A failure to view riches or possessions from proper perspective promotes anxiety. That's what God wants us to meditate upon today. My wife and I, we've been here for about 11 years, I think, coming up on 12. Our second apartment was in Cleveland Circle on Lanark Road. It was a one-way street. We're on the second floor. We love that place. One of the things that we loved about that place is the magnolia tree outside of our window. If you know anything about weather in Boston, spring lasts about three days. It goes winter, spring for about three days, and then it's summer. Fall is nice. But every spring, we would look forward to the magnolia tree blooming outside our window. The flowers were white and purple. It was glorious. If you know anything about weather in Boston, it could be spring one day, and the next day, it snows. So, don't get too happy about the weather. It was like 70 this week. We might still get a snowstorm. Who knows? So, the magnolia tree blooms. And then it snowed. It was winter, nasty, heavy, wet snow. It just covered this magnolia tree and the branch is just drooping, just cracking. They started breaking under the pressure of this snow. So, I went outside. If you know anything about Boston driving, you got to have a shovel in your car. You always have to. In the trunk of your car, you have to have a shovel. So, I got my shovel, I go outside, and I started cleaning off the tree. As the snow fell, you saw just the tree almost sigh a breath of relief, just breathe a breath of relief. The weight is gone. The burden is gone. Well, I like that image to show that's how we look when we are burdened by anxiety. In this past year, it's been a year of the pandemic. This past year, you've seen just the physical effect of stress and anxiety on people as if they're just walking around with concrete blocks on their shoulders of stress, anxiety, worried, thick with anxiety, worrying about what? What are you worried about? What have you been worried about for this past season? Perhaps it's your health. Perhaps it's the economy, where's it going, politics. Perhaps it's school grades, GPA, loans, job, career, your looks, weight, your hair, your clothes, school, grade, et cetera, succeeding, doing something that's actually meaningful or valuable or meeting someone, relationships, meeting the one, marriage or having a family, providing for your family, raising children that love Jesus in a world where it seems like everything is against that. All of that can be summarized with fear of the future. We don't know what's coming. So, we fear the unknown. Someone said that "Worry is a conversation you have with yourself about things you cannot change." That's what Jesus wants us to focus on today. He delineates between concern, things that we can actually change and work on and worry, things we can't and things that we don't give up into the hands of God. We all fear and the root of anxiety is fear. The most frequently uttered commandment in Scripture is, "Fear not." The way that we fight fear of the future is with faith in a God, who is your Father. Through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we have adoption as children of God. We can become sons and daughters of God by grace through faith. Therefore, we can trust him to provide for all of our needs. So, today, we're Matthew 6:25 through 34. Would you look at the text with me? "Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." This is the reading God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time, do not be anxious; second, focus on your father; and three, seek after the kingdom. "Do not be anxious," he says that in verse 25 and then repeats that at the end of the pericope. He says, "Therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life." First thing I want to point out is there's different kinds of anxieties. Some of them God-given, some of them are not. There's a God-given emotional anxiety, given as a response when we are in danger, the flight or fight response, when we are in danger perhaps at night, when we're in danger perhaps you're in the woods, when you're in danger on the mean streets of Brookline. As Pastor Shane once said, "When you're getting chased by a turkey, they're mean. Stay away from them. Even in your car, they will attack your car." There's an anxiety that comes or there's a natural anxiety that mother feels or father feels when an infant is sick or an infant needs to be fed. Those are God-given. Disordered physiological response, a clinical anxiety, which is a chronic condition that perhaps soldiers get or first responders or victims of abuse, that's not what Jesus is talking about here. Sometimes there's also natural consequences of sin. If you rack up gambling debt through sin and folly, you should be anxious about paying that off, et cetera. When we bear the consequences of the sin in our life and our body. Today, Jesus is talking about different kinds of anxieties. He's talking about the sinful response to physical things in our life in terms of God's providential care. When we do not trust him to provide for our needs, that's what Jesus Christ is talking about here. He isn't saying to not work. He isn't saying not to provide for yourself and for those around you and not to have enough to be generous with us. That's not what he's talking about. God expects us, his people, to work hard and be amongst the hardest workers and to be responsible. Some Christians have taken these words of do not be anxious and used that as an excuse to justify laziness or irresponsible behavior. I had an uncle who would rack up credit card debt and any debt he could. He wouldn't pay it off, because he said, "Jesus is coming back soon. Don't worry about it. Also, Jesus said, do not be anxious about anything." That's not what Jesus is talking about. You got to interpret Scripture through other Scripture. We do need to be responsible. You do need to wear a seatbelt. There are examples like that where you do need to care for yourself or your family or others. Jesus isn't saying don't plan, because we have the parable of the tower where Jesus says, "Do not be like the foolish builder, who starts a project. He didn't sit down to the very beginning before the project to figure out, "How much do I need to have in my account before I embark on a project like this?" There's the parable of the general. You don't go into war if you don't have enough firepower, manpower to take on the other army. Jesus isn't forbidding sowing and planning. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the difference between proper caring and concern and fixation on physical things on those matters. He's not saying, "Don't worry about your job. Stay at home. God will take care of your food. He'll send you Uber Eats." That's not what he's talking about. What he's talking about is don't be fixated on the material things of life, the food, the clothing, the housing, et cetera. James talks about, "Hey, when a hungry person or person in need comes into your community, you can't just tell that person, 'Oh, be warmed and filled. Go therefore and be blessed.'" That would be sinful for us not to do what we can to provide for people's needs. You can't just tell that person, "Do not be anxious about food," when they're hungry. We are to care. He's not saying, "Don't worry, because there's an absence of problems in life." No, there's not an absence of problems in life. He's not saying that your life can be free from problems. He's saying that your life can be free from worry despite problems. Your life can be free from anxiety despite the problems of life. There's a difference between anxiety and concern. Concern is when you can do something about it, you're concerned about it, then do something about it. Anxiety is when you can't do anything about it and you don't want to leave it up to God. Robert Frost said that more people die from worry than from work because more people worry than work. That's what he's getting at here is focus on this anxiety that's paralyzing. Jesus' concern here is with our priorities and what flows out of that. He uses the phrase "Do not be anxious" as an imperative twice in this text. He used the word 'anxious' or 'anxiety' six times in this text. Marimnao is the verb. Merimna is the noun. Other places in Scripture, God talks about being careful to not let physical concerns pull us away from the more important concerns, which are the spiritual ones. Matthew 13:22, the parable of the sower, "For what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares..." That's the noun, merimna. "... of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves on fruitful." It's all about priorities. He's saying, "When you seek first the physical things of life at the expense of the spiritual things of life, the Word of God bears unfruitful." Luke 21:34, this is talking about the second coming of Christ. "Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down by the dissipation and drunkenness and cares..." Again, merimna. "... of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap." If you look at seven blocks of a city and you see fog come down, the fog can be 100 feet thick. But if you take all of that fog and you put it and you turn into water, it'll fill just one glass. So, from God's perspective, that's what our worries look. They fog up our sight. They fog up everything around us. But God says, "Hold on, hold on, view these things from an eternal perspective." Do not be anxious is a commandment from the Lord. Therefore, anxiety about material things can be a sin. Worry can be a sin. Therefore, we need to repent of that sin. Worry's foolish on many levels. Worry never solved the problem, never dried a tear and never lifted a burden and never removed an obstacle and never made bad things good and never made good things better. It's foolish. Philippians 4:5 and 6 says, "The Lord is at hand. Because he's at hand, because he's with us, therefore, do not be anxious about anything." Worry kills joy. Worry causes stress. When we assume the position of God, we say, "God, you're not doing your job. I'm going to do your job better than you're doing your job. I can control things better than you do," and we assume that it's never productive. So, instead of that anxiety, instead of being anxious, he says "Don't be anxious. Instead focus on your Father." Any parent knows this, when a child has an object that they're fixated on that will cause them harm like a knife, if a child grabs a knife, you can just take the object away, but then there's a meltdown. The wise parent is prudent, understands two steps ahead, four dimensional chess. If you're on baby number four, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You know what happens right after you take the object away, there's a meltdown. So, what you got to do is take the object and replace it with something else. And then you sell it to them. You got to market to them. Oh, look at this wonderful thing. And then you get rid of the other object. This is the trick that got Jesus. Don't be anxious, but there's a vacuum. You can't leave it in the vacuum because then you're going to get anxious about not getting anxious and getting worried about not getting worried. So, you got to fill it with something else. What he's talking about is perspective. Don't be focused on these things. Be focused on these things. So, focus on your Father. God is your heavenly Father. God will take care of your food as a believer. That's Matthew 6:25. "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on." Don't be anxious. The present is imperative. It's constant and continuous. You got to fight this on a daily basis. You got to tell your heart, "Oh, so, why are you restless. Heart, why are you restless? Why are you worried? Why are you stressful?" You got to preach to yourself. You got to ask questions like Jesus is asking some rhetorical question, "Isn't life more than food?" Of course, it is. You need food for life, but life is so much more than these things. And then he goes, "Hey, look, if I don't worry about the physical things of life, who will?" Tremendous question. Jesus says, "Your Father, your heavenly Father." Matthew 6:26, "Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" I love this verse for many reasons, particularly because we get a theology of ecology or environmentalism from one verse. In our world today, there's a worldview that's being pushed that humans are equally valuable with animals and with the planet. From Jesus' perspective, that's just not so. Birds are great. They're industrious. They care for themselves in many ways, but they don't feed themselves. They don't plant crops. They don't harvest. They don't store them. It's God that feeds them. Jesus emphasized them that it's not in their heavenly Father. God isn't father of birds. He's not father of dogs. He's not father of cats. He's not father of animals. He's God over them. He's creator over them. He doesn't say, "Their heavenly Father." He says, "Your heavenly Father." Meaning you are special. Humans are special. So, in terms of caring for the environments, we should, et cetera, it's God's creation, but there's priorities that humans are infinitely more valuable than animals or even creation itself. We're created in the image of God, your heavenly Father. You're created through Jesus Christ, and then God has bought you dear Christian through the blood of Jesus Christ. So, you are doubly his and doubly precious, infinite and value worth to your heavenly Father. Food here, he talks about food. He starts with food. Food is a wonderful servant to sustain life. It's a terrible, debilitating idol, that we are not to be consumed with what we consume, with food. Particularly, Jesus did teach us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," but only on a daily basis. God does meet those needs. The other thing I just want to point out here since we're talking about the environment, talking about becoming children of God, this only applies to Christians. If you are not a Christian, you are not a child of God. You're a creation of God. You are not yet a child of God. In and of ourselves, we are so rebellious and wicked and sinful that in and of ourselves, we are not children of God. We are rebels. God needs to send his Son, his ultimate Son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life that we would not live and to die the death that we deserve. We deserve that death for our wickedness, our disobedience, our preoccupation with material things, our idolatry. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, so that we could be adopted into the family of God. On the one hand, that sounds so exclusive. It is exclusive. If there were another way, God would provide another way. There was no other way. We're so sinful that that's what it took, the Son of God to die on the cross, but he's so loving that he was willing to take it. It is exclusive, but it's the most inclusive, exclusive truth in the history of the world. Everyone can become a child of God. So, if you, today, you're not sure, am I a child of God? You should be worried. If you're on the fence, you're not sure, you should be worried. Jesus here is saying, "Don't sweat the small stuff," but he's not saying don't sweat the soul stuff. You got to know where your soul is. Are you reconciled with God? Are you saved by grace through faith in Christ? Are you a child of God? If so, do not be anxious and focus on the Father. If not, repent of your sin, become a Christian today, a child of God by receiving God's gift of salvation, becoming adopted into his family. He goes on. He says, "Oh, as a child of God, God will take care of your life." That's verse 27. "And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" In the original, in the Greek, it's talking about, "Can you add a single qubit to your height?" Obviously, you can't. It's a metaphor for life. Can you add a single minute? Can you add a single second to life? The point is that worrying is fruitless. It's foolish. It's pointless. It can't lengthen your life. It could actually shorten your life. Doctors tell us this all the time that stress has all kinds of physical implications. Worry effects not just the length of life, but also the quality of life. Here, we get into the sovereignty of God and his deep theological waters, but hang with me because I know you can, because you came to the early service when we lost an hour of sleep. We're going to talk about it real quick about the sovereignty of God over every single minute of our life real quick. God is sovereign, over everything, over every single detail of life, including the very second that we are conceived, including the very second that we are born, including the very second that we die. It's all predestined by a great sovereign God. Job 14:5, "Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass." You have appointed his limits that he cannot pass. I'll never forget I was at a funeral of a family member and I heard a sermon on this text. They were saying, "There's nothing you can do to add a second, pass the second that God has allotted for you." He knows the very beginning. He knows the very end, limits that he cannot pass. Psalm 139:60, "Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." Every single day of your life is determined by God. This is something that you need to meditate on. But I'm telling you, once you do, once you realize that God is in charge over every single moment, every single second of your life, there's a freedom that fills your soul. Fear of death is absolutely removed. There's a fearlessness not in a responsibility, not a recklessness, but a fearlessness in that God has appointed for me a purpose in life. He's designed me in such a way to fulfill that purpose. He will give me the talents and the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill that purpose. But the very second that I'm done fulfilling his purpose, he's taking me home. So, if you're still here, you have a job. You have a purpose to do. You have something to accomplish for God. So, he's saying this in the perspective. You can't lengthen your life. So, why worry? Worry is a sign that you don't adequately know the sovereign God. You don't adequately trust him. You haven't yielded to him. We are in the hand of God the Father. As Jesus says in the Gospel of John, "There's nothing to pull us out of his hand," but we try to. We try to pull ourselves out of his hand. We try to take the wheel from God into our own hands. He says, "Don't do that." He also said, "God will take care of your clothing." Matthew 6:28 through 30, "And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" How often you think about clothing? Well, you thought about clothing today or you made a conscious decision about what you're wearing today. In my household, my wife and I, we don't just have to think about what we wear. We also have four little human beings, female human beings, little girls. We think about what they wear the night before, put all their clothing. They plan out their outfits. It's all very sweet. My daughter Elizabeth asked me today, "What are you preaching?" I said, "Not to worry about your outfits." We know, we think about this all the time. We think about clothing all the time. We're programmed that way. We're programmed that way through marketing. How big is the clothing apparel industry in the US? $368 billion. What's the size of the secondhand resale market? $28 billion, that's people getting rid of their stuff. What's the size of storage in the US? This is my favorite, $90 billion dollars, $90 billion when people don't have room in their place and then they go and rent space for their junk and they pay money for on a monthly basis, which doesn't make any financial sense to me. Take that, go put in a secondhand store, and then buy new stuff. We're worried. We're worried. Jesus says, "Don't be worried about the clothing. Look at the flowers, they don't work. They don't buy or earn in terms of their beauty. They just grow. They grow and God blesses them." Jesus brings in King Solomon. Even in the time of Christ, Solomon's royal regal opulence was proverbial. Everyone knew that he dressed well. Will he not much more clothe you? Of course, he will. He provide for us. Here, Jesus brings them in. This is the punchline. This is how he lands things, "O you of little faith?" This same phrase is used four other times in Matthew, little faith. Once where Jesus with the disciples in a boat on the Sea of Galilee and storm comes and they're freaking out as he's taking a nap. He gets up and he said to them, "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm. He also told Peter when Peter wants to walk on water. He's going great. As he's focused on Jesus, he stops focusing on Jesus. He starts staring at the winds and the waves. He panicked. Jesus said, "O you of little faith." Jesus provided miraculously in terms of bread. He drove out demon of a little boy. Every time he's saying, "you of little faith, you of little faith." So, worry is fed by a little faith. So, meaning that the opposite of worry isn't just tranquility. The opposite of worry isn't just optimism that things will work out. The opposite of worry is faith. Faith on this side, the opposite of faith is worry, anxiety. Faith, lack of faith. So, actually worry, anxiety is equal to a lack of faith. It's practical atheism. At that very moment, you're practically not trusting that God exists. Or it's deism that God can't do anything. He's there, but he doesn't care. Or a finite theism, he doesn't have the power to be counted on. Jesus says here, "You're little in faith." You need to grow that faith. That's what he's getting at. The reason that you worry or you're anxious about material things is because your faith is little. It's there. That's great. As a child of God, God gives you the gift of faith. Now, we as children of God, we need to exercise that faith. We need to put pressure on that faith. We need to test that faith. It's like a muscle. You need to grow it by exercise, by using it with weight and reps. So, here, the question is, you got to ask, "Do I believe in God? God, do I believe in you? Do I believe that God is great and that he is good? Do I believe that God is greater than my greatest problem? Do you believe that God is bigger than your biggest problem?" Some of us, we have big faith, but because of a wrongheaded theology, we believe in a small God who's not sovereign, who isn't great and who isn't good. Big faith in a small God leads to anxiety. I'd rather have small faith in a big God. That small faith when exercised becomes a big faith. George Mueller, the great prayer warrior and minister of God said, "The beginning of worry is the end of faith. The beginning of faith is the end of worry." Mark 5:36, "Do not fear, only believe. God will take care of your needs." Matthew 6:31 through 32, "Therefore do not be anxious, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all." Again, do not be anxious. He puts anxiety on the level of being a pagan, a non-believer in Christ. Pagans, people don't trust in God, don't believe in God. They got a laser beam focused on the physical things of life, of having enough, of storing up, of making more. What he's saying is that these believers, the pagans, they're actually believers in that they have misplaced faith. They don't believe in God. They believe in something else. They believe in themselves perhaps, or they believe in having enough money, or they believe in having a correct career. In this sense, Jesus is saying that we are all believers, every single one. You can't but believe. You can't live life without exercising your faith. Every single one of us do. If you don't believe in God as ultimate, then you will believe in other things. You will believe in government. You will believe in politicians. You will believe in what the government tells you, what the CDC tells you, what the who tells you, what the people in authority in your company tell you. We believe these. You can't live without faith. Every time you get into an Uber, you trust that person. Every time you get in an airplane, you trust the pilot. Every time you go to a restaurant, you trust whoever prepared that food. That's faith. He's saying in this case, the pagans, they trust in themselves to provide for themselves. In a sense, they're living as orphans. Jesus is saying, "Stop, stop living as an orphan. Stop thinking, craving, desiring like the world. Don't seek after these things. Instead, seek after your Father. Stop living beneath the privilege of being a child of God. Stop living beneath the privilege of being a child of the King of the universe." I'm not saying the privilege is the financial stuff. I'm saying the privilege is greater than that. The joy, the freedom, the satisfaction that is ours in Christ Jesus, we experience royal freedom. There's two ways that you can ask a question about God and help. You can ask, "Will God help?" or you can ask, "How will he help?" If you ask, "Will God help?", you know that question. We've asked that question. That's a question riddled with anxiety and frustration... God, where are you? Do you even care? ... with despair. But when you are a child of God and you know that God is good and God is great, he will provide for you. You say, "How will he help?" I'm excited. It's filled with anticipation, confidence, eagerness, gladness. I can't wait to see how God will help. It completely changes the way that you live on a daily basis. So, look to God the Father. Third, seek after the kingdom. So, this is how Jesus really lands a whole section. This is Matthew 6:33, but contrast that with everything else, worrying about stuff, "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." It's about priority. What are we seeking first? Are we seeking material things and then secondarily spiritual things, or are we seeking first God, this kingdom and his righteousness? This is a question of living by faith or by sight. That's why he said, "O you of little faith, increase your faith." If you increase your faith, now, you begin to see life as you should, from internal perspective, spiritual perspective. Physical isn't all there is. Faith knows that worldly possessions and pleasure are temporary. Faith knows that worldly possessions and pleasures, they crowd out love and service to God. Faith knows that you need not worry about having enough for life because God our heavenly Father always cares. And then the other thing that he's use doing here is he's saying there's two ways to live. That's why he says, "They seek after stuff. You seek after spiritual things, God." There's only two ways to live either for your kingdom or for God's kingdom. So, we as God's children, we have to seek his role and his reign in our life. God, where am I not submitting to you? First thing in the morning, God, how can I serve you today? How can I honor you today? How can I further your kingdom today? Stop worrying about your little kingdom. Start seeking God's big kingdom. The word 'seek' here is zeteo in the Greek. It's a word that's used for a hunter, a hunter that's not hunting for sport, hunting for food. It's a hunter that every single one of his sense is on alert, focused, always on the lookout, bow and arrow ready. He's saying, "In the same way, Christians should be thinking, seeking." God, how can I further your kingdom? God, what can I do today to honor you as a servant of your kingdom? How do we overcome love of the seen with a love for the unseen God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Trinity? How do we do that? How do we get away from seeking stuff to seeking God's kingdom and trust God for taking care of all of other stuff in terms of priorities? How can we get rid of that? We get rid of that through the gospel. Whenever you see that in your heart, priorities are out of whack, you look to the gospel and you look to the cross of Jesus Christ. You say, "What's happening at the cross?" What's happening at the cross is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is meeting your greatest need. You don't have a greater need than to have your sins forgiven. You don't have a greater need than to have the debt of your sin forgiven. You don't have a greater need than the wrath of God being absorbed in the Son of God, so that you don't have to bear that wrath for all of eternity. When you look to the cross and you see what Christ did for you, because he loves you, will he not with that give you all things? Of course, he will. If he cares that much about your greatest need, he obviously cares about your lesser needs as well. This is what allowed the first century church to grow as it did. A lot of people look at Christianity and they're like, "Prove to me that Christianity is actually work of God. Prove to me that it's true." I just point to the growth of Christianity despite persecution. Islam grew the way it did by the sword. Christianity grew the way it did despite the sword. The early Christian, every single one of the disciples of Jesus Christ, except for John, who was exiled to Patmos, every single one of them, they went to the death, because they knew this is true. They knew that Jesus Christ did rise from the dead. They saw him with their own eyes and that they were willing to testify to the death. The early church was persecuted by Nero and by Caesars, et cetera. Despite the persecution, the early church grew by 40% per decade. So much so that by the fourth century, when Constantine's in power, he says, "How do I solidify? How do I consolidate my power? I'm going to pretend that I'm a Christian." No one really knows if he's a Christian. I think his wife became a Christian. But Christianity grew despite persecution. Why? Because they knew this was true. First of all, the eyewitnesses and then Christians later experienced the work of the Spirit in their heart. They knew that there was a treasure beyond the treasures in this life. Look at Hebrews 10:32-34. "But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened," after you became Christians, "you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. What's going on in that text? That means people who persecuted them for the faith said, "We are going to take everything you have unless you recant, unless you turn from Christ." They joyfully gave it up, because they had a treasure that was greater than that stuff. What in the world could do that in your hearts? The gospel of Jesus Christ, where you understand that no treasure is greater than of Christ. So, devote yourself to the gospel, which now begins to transform you. That's how we seek the kingdom and his righteousness, folks, in the Gospel. Love the gospel. Recognize what God has done for you through the gospel. We do that through Scripture. We do that by abiding with Christ by reading Scripture and prayer on a daily basis. Seek first. Before you do anything else on a daily basis, seek first the kingdom of God. You wake up. First thing you do, seek first the kingdom of God. Before coffee, with coffee, with coffee. We're not extremists here, with coffee. With coffee, you grab your Bible, you pray, you meditate, you worship God, you meditate upon God. Luke 10:41 through 42, this is Mary and Martha. "The Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious,'" marimnao, "'and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.'" I bring this as an illustration because there's two concerns here. There's two anxieties here. There's two worries here. There's two seekings here. Martha is anxious and seeking about the physical things. It's a good thing. She wants to meet the needs of Christ and his disciples. Mary is concerned about the spiritual things. Jesus, teach me. Jesus, I want to set at your feet. Jesus, what do you have to say to me? I say that to set up the next text. This is Second Corinthians 11:24 through 28. This is St. Paul, who tells us in Philippians, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, present your requests to God." That same guy who says do not be anxious about anything, that same guy in Second Corinthians 11:24 through 28, he shows us every single thing that he's worried about, all of his persecutions that he experienced. He says, "Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false prophets; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from all the other things..." That phrase is a set up. This is my greatest challenge. "... there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety," merimna, same word, "for all the churches." So, a guy that tells us, "Do not be anxious about anything," is telling us that he's anxious about the churches. This is what it looks like to seek first the kingdom of God. You care more about God and his cause and his kingdom and his churches, because that's how the gospel goes out that this is God's plan of reaching the world, to plant churches. You care about that more than physical things. Churches and planting churches, et cetera, serving other Christians that you know that you're committed to. I say that 1 Corinthians 12:21 through 26, this text is perfect. If anyone is wondering why churches practice church membership, why does Mosaic practice church membership? Read 1 Corinthians 12. "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members," of the local church, of the body, of the local body, "may have the same care," marimnao, same word, "for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together." Part of seeking the kingdom and seeking the righteousness of God is also seeking, "How can I meet the needs of my brothers and sisters?" This happens in Mosaic naturally through community groups. We do our best to cultivate and we pray that God continues to do it, but this is something we need to ask ourselves on a daily basis, "Whom can I serve in my family? Whom can I serve in my local church family on daily basis?" Philippians 2:19 through 21, testament about Timothy, "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned," marimnao, "for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ." Timothy's seeking the interests of Jesus Christ. How? By seeking the practical interests of the believers in Philippi. I want to serve you. Jesus, I want to serve you. Jesus, I want to honor you. Jesus, I want to love you. Jesus, I want to care for you. Jesus says, "What have you done for the least of the least?" That's what's going on in that text. He says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added on to you." That's fascinating. It's fascinating because if you compare that to the teaching of Buddha, Buddha said, "Seek first the kingdom and you will need none of these things." Jesus says, "No." Jesus is realistic. He understands that we need physical things. We need food. We need clothing. We need a place to live. He knows these things. These things will be added on to you by the Father. If you care about the Father's priorities, the Father will take care of your needs. If you care about the Father's glory, he'll take care of your satisfaction, and not just your needs. This is fascinating, because in Philippians, it says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, present your request to God, present your requests." The Psalmist says, "Delight yourself in the Lord. He will give you the desires of your heart." We have desires, unmet desires. Delight yourself in God. Seek first God. God's like, "I want to meet a desire. I want to meet a request," not a need, a request every once in a while. Sometimes he says no. The mother of James and John, Mrs. Zebedee comes to Jesus and says, "I request. I want you to meet this request before I tell you what the request is." Give me a blank check. He says, "What do you want?" She says, "I want my sons to sit at the right and the left of you in your kingdom." He said, "You know what you're asking? Can they suffer the way I suffer?" She says, "Yes, they can." "Okay, they will," he said, "but it's not it's not for me to..." He doesn't give her that. But then I think about Cana in Galilee where Mary comes to Jesus and they're at a wedding. She's like, "They're out of wine." Tell me, is wine a need at a wedding? Only if there's dancing involved, then wine is definitely a need. You can't have a dry wedding and dancing. You can't do that. It's either both or nothing. Is it a need? It's not a need. It's not a need. Just have some more water. Jesus is like, "Okay, here you go, a miracle." Every once in a while, but the point is that God is a good father. He'll provide what we need, not necessarily luxuries. But every once in a while, he blesses us beyond. Matthew 6:34, "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." This is fascinating, because he doesn't say there's no trouble ever. He's saying this trouble today. He recognizes. He recognized that today, there's unavoidable worry. He recognizes this. Today, there are things that you are concerned about. You should be concerned about, that you're responsible for. You should work to take care of those things. What he's saying is by saying, "Sufficient for the day is its own trouble," let's limit the concern and the worry for today. We only live in today. Stop being so focused on tomorrow, because we never live in tomorrow. When tomorrow comes again, it's today. Let's focus on today. That's what he's saying. Be responsible for today. By the way, this is a life hack. If you do what you need to do today, if you focus on taking care of everything you need to focus on today and you wake up and you say, "Today, I'm going to focus," and you just keep going, that leads to a very productive life for Christ. Let your requests be known to God. I thought he already knows them. Of course, he does. Prayer isn't about informing God. He already knows. Prayer is about releasing, releasing our burdens, casting them upon him. 1 Peter 5:6 and 7, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." So, do you have anxiety? Do not turn to diversions. Do not turn to diversions. Instead turn and direct yourself to God, your burdens to God. The way to fight anxiety is with the promises of God. Romans 8:31-32, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" I'll give you some promises from Scripture that you can use to fight anxiety. When you worry about what people might do to you, look to Romans 8:31, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" When you worry about being too weak, recall 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." When you worry about future decisions, recall Psalm 32:8, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you." When you worry about whether God will fulfill his promises to you, recall Hebrews 6:8, where it says, "It's impossible for God to lie." When you worry about your loved ones, recall Matthew 7:11, "How much more will the Father give what is good to those who ask?" When you worry about physical sickness, recall Psalm 103:3, "He heals all your diseases." When you worry about getting old, recall Isaiah 46:4, "Even to your old age, I shall be the same, and even to your grain years, I shall bear you." When you worry about failing and falling, recall Philippians 1:6, "For I'm confident of this very thing that he will begin a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Amen. Let's pray. God, we thank you that you are a great God and a good God. I pray that you strengthen our vision, our understanding of your greatness, of your sovereignty. As we look to a big God, I pray that you take our little faith and you expand it, that you make it more robust, that you solidify it. So, we become a people who never question your sovereignty, never question your character, never question your power, never question your love. You prove to us both your power and your love on the cross of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Jesus, for that. Because you met our greatest need, we thank you in advance for meeting the rest of our needs. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.