Get in your lane. (Feelings or Facts)

The Text…

(NLT) — 9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him. 10 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. 11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” 12 When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” 13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Its funny the balancing act between what is a fact and what is an opinion…

Some things are undisputed facts and other things are opinions…

Fact: You need to eat in order to survive. Opinion: This (Mexican, Italian, burgers, etc) food is the best.

Fact: Basketball is a sport. Opinion: Basketball is the best sport.

Fact: Fortnite is a game for the xbox. Opinion: Fortnite is the biggest waist of time ever.

Fact: You need to be involved in church to be in God’s will. Opinion: CrossFire is the best youth group in the whole entire world!

POINT- Don’t get into a habit of confusing facts and opinions.

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POINT- One of the most dangerous things for a believer is to be more concerned with how they feel about something than the facts of God’s word. God’s facts matter more than your feelings.

Feelings are fable, one moment they are saying one thing and the next they say something different…

One moment you are in love and the next you are not.

One moment you feel confident and the next you feel insecure.

…

ILLUSTRATION- One day I was driving on a road trip and my gps told me to go a different way, but I felt like I knew the best rout… Turned out that my route had an additional 2 hours of traffic on it and the other way avoided all the traffic.

So many have limited their potential because they have operated from opinions…

KEY- If you operate from opinions you will constantly be under the control of others.

You will be able to do what others think you are cable of.

You will feel how the voice in your head tells you to feel.

You will be bound to the words of others.

POINT- You want to have a limitless potential??? Pursue God’s plan not your opinions. Pursue God’s plan not your preferences.

KEY POINT- The Pharisees had a feeling about Matthew and the tax collectors that wasn’t in line with the facts of the word of God.

POINT- The Pharisees had feelings Jesus had facts.

Jesus quotes to them from the word of God in

(NLT) — 6 I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.

Jesus is our example of using the word.

KEY- Jesus uses the word of God…

Think about this, Jesus uses the word of God above his own words… And Jesus was the word…

(NLT) — 1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.

If Jesus who spoke the word as the word itself decides to use what had already been written as the word of God what makes you think that your opinion, your word, your validation, your thoughts can even hold a candle next to the infallible word of God almighty.

KEY- Jesus is our example of the power and authority that is in God’s word.

ILLUSTRATION- Making a foolish decision because you ignored the wisdom of someone who knew what they were talking about…

CHALLENGE- Stop putting more weight on the words of others than what God says… — This use to be a real challenge for me, my insecurity was reinforced by the criticism of others…

Stop putting more weight to the feelings you have than you do on God’s word.

KEY POINT- God’s word is the highest authority…

if you build your life upon it you will prosper, if you get behind it and follow it closely you won’t fall, if you let it light your path you won’t stumble, if you declare it you’ll have power, if you speak it you’ll be comforted, if you trust it mountains will move out of your way…

KEY- Jesus looks at the Pharisees and says, “now go and learn the meaning of this scripture:...”

DEFINE- The phrase, “Now Go” in the greek means to move away from a place into a different direction.

I’m challenging someone here tonight to get a passion for what God’s word says…

KEY- When Jesus said “Now Go” what he was saying was its time to get in your lane.

Get out of the lane of emotions, get out of the lane of opinions, get out of the lane of judgement, and get in the lane of faith in the infallible word of God…

MAIN POINT- There will be times in your life when you will want to drift out of the lane of God’s word and get into a lane of opinions, of judgements, of things that are less than facts… After you have an encounter with Jesus he sets you in the right lane, now you need to stay in that lane. You need to always stay in the lane of faith in God’s word.

The elements that keep you in your own lane.

1. Persuasion to God’s word

(NLT) — 23 So a time was set, and on that day a large number of people came to Paul’s lodging. He explained and testified about the Kingdom of God and tried to persuade them about Jesus from the Scriptures. Using the law of Moses and the books of the prophets, he spoke to them from morning until evening. 24 Some were persuaded by the things he said, but others did not believe.

ILLUSTRATION- One of the things that kept me from pursuing ventriloquism earlier in my life is I thought that the ventriloquist was typing really really fast in the back of a robot and then it spoke.

KEY- Some of you have not done great things because you are not persuaded you can.

CHALLENGE- Are you persuaded that God’s word has the power that it has? — If you are some of you are not acting like it.

I am convinced that something happened in Matthew when he met Jesus.

(NLT) — 9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.

KEY- The bible says that Matthew left everything.

He was willing to leave his position because he was Persuaded to God’s word…

He was willing to leave his popularity among the powerful people because he was Persuaded to God’s word…

He was willing to pursue the unknown because he was Persuaded to God’s word…

(NLT) — 22 But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.

POINT- Understand however there is a big difference between confessed faith and demonstrated faith.

You will only stay in your lane to God’s word and not sub-come to the control of emotions if you practice your faith…

If our churches have half the faith we claim we have we would see the lame walk the mute talk and the dead jump…

KEY POINT- Your faith is only as good as your level of demonstration.

ILLUSTRATION- Being in the grocery store when God said go pray for that man with the limp.

POINT- I don’t wait for faith to grow and then go do what he told me to do, I do what he told me to do then my faith will grow.

2. Perspective to God’s Plan

(NLT) — 10 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. 11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”

It amazes me how subjective so many things are… One person sees something beautiful and another sees something ugly…

KEY- Think about what an extreme the Pharisees got…

“Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”

DEFINE- The phrase, “such scum” has a very fascinating interpretation… The greek word is “harmartolos” which actually means a person who has disobeyed any divine command or neglected any duty (Whether intentionally or unintentionally)

KEY POINT- The Pharisees described the people Jesus was eating with properly, they also described me, they also described you, they also described themselves.

KEY- There perspective had them so much higher than everyone else that they couldn’t see their own hearts.

(NLT) — 6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

KEY POINT- What this means is if the people Jesus was with were unworthy of being with Jesus neither were the Pharisees.

POINT- Sometimes your perspective needs adjustment.

ILLUSTRATION- Driving around trying to see the blood moon.

POINT- Its amazing what a change of perspective can do.

Some of you are stuck in one spot and Christ is telling you its time to move lanes so you can see what I am truly doing.

KEY- The truth of what Jesus was doing was already written, but they couldn’t see it. How often is God trying to show you something, but because of how you see you can’t see it, its time for a new perspective.

CHALLENGE- Look at everything through the perspective of the cross!

When you feel weak…

(NLT) — 18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.

When you feel such shame you think you can’t come back…

(NLT) — 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

When you feel unloved…

(NLT) — 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

When you feel guilty…

(NLT) — 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

When you feel dead…

(NLT) — 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

3. Pain in the change

(NLT) — 12 When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.”

KEY POINT- God’s word changes us. If you stay the same despite it being declared you are in the wrong lane.

POINT- Comfort and change are enemies and never coexist together.

(NLT) — 19 For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

Those who do great things for God also struggle…

Sometimes we think that those who made an impact in the kingdom of God never struggled with anything…

The difference is those who do great things for God know how to put their feelings behind their faith.

KEY- When Jesus called Matthew he did it in Matthew’s booth.

The booth represented his whole life

POINT- Jesus will come into your booth, into your life, into your school and change everything and there will at times be pain in the change, but thats how you know you are in the lane of faith in his word.

I’m not going to chase what is comfortable, I’m going to chase his commands, I’m going to chase that real change.

POINT- His intentions are never to hurt you or cause you discomfort, but when you stay in the lane of God’s word your pride will take a beating, your desires will take a beating…

KEY- When Jesus says “go and learn the scriptures” he is using a phrase the Pharisees would use to teach those who knew less and that followed them. It could have been taken as a serious jab to the prides of the Pharisees when Jesus says this.

4. Purpose in the moment

(NLT) — 13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Those who do great things for God also struggle…

KEY- When you pursue your God given purpose you will have no choice but to get out of the lane of emotions and get into the lane of God’s word.

Sometimes we think that those who made an impact in the kingdom of God never struggled with anything…

Its funny how some things that are nothing don’t require instructions…

The difference is those who do great things for God know how to put their feelings behind their faith.

You’ve probably never needed instructions to NOT do something… Putting together Ikea furniture…

You probably don’t need instructions to watch netflix…

POINT- The Pharisees had feelings Jesus had facts.

POINT- You will need real instructions to pursue your purpose and your emotions won’t cut it.

ILLUSTRATION- Days I get up to preach and I’m just not feeling it.

Emotions will only allow you to do something great when you are feeling great, but when you are in the lane of faith in God’s word, every moment is a moment to wake the dead.

Conclusion…

Its time to switch lanes!!

NOW GO AND LEARN THE MANING OF THIS SCRIPTURE

KEY POINT- Its not enough to just be saved and be powerless to pursue the plans of God… Get in the word.