Summer in the Sermon - Pt6 Counter Culture Ambition
Notes
Transcript
OPENING Prayer–
Father we come to you this morning in the practical gift of prayer. A gift that you have given all people to be able to connect with you and with your heart. Father we openly declare that you are the creator of all things, of this world and of all things in it and you do not dwell in temples made with Hands and you are not served by your creation as if you need anything since you yourself give all people life and breath and all things.
Father from one man you made every people group in the earth to live and you have determined our appointed our times and the boundaries of our habitation so that we would seek you and that we would find you because you are not far from each one of us for IN YOU we live and move and we exist and have our meaning.
You have overlooked our times of ignorance, and you have declared to us that all of us should turn our whole life over to you completely in an act you call repentance; because you have fixed a Day when you will judge all of us in righteousness through Jesus whom you appointed having proved His appointment as returning Judge by raising Him from the Dead.
You sent Jesus to give us NEW life - A new and Abundant life - Abundant NOW and in eternity. Life changing, culture transforming, eternally focused life Now calling us Salt and Light. Forgive us for rejecting that life you would have us live NOW - Move us by the sharpness of the sword of your word and the power of your Spirit to live differently, to live counter culturally, to life as the Salt and Light of the world you have called us to be so that you may do more through us that we can imagine or even ask and so you would get the Glory in the church and through all generations both now and forever.
AS we continue in worship through the declaration of your word.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight today Father. I pray all of this In the mighty and holy and abundant Name of Jesus. - and all God’s children said?
If I have not had a chance to meet you;
My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.
If you have a copy of the Bible in either electronic version or the actual book kind -
Open it to Matthew 6 today as we continue The Summer in the Sermon series as we continue to walk together through Matthew 5,6,7 what is commonly known as Jesus’s sermon on the mount!
NOW If you don’t have a bible or simply would like a new one!
Here in person on the connection tables there are new Bibles as our gift or you. If your on our live stream and would like a new one - or you would like one to give to someone who you believe needs one - Drop us your address in the comment section and we will send one to you this week.
The Bible App that we use and recommend to every one is called You Version - you can Go to the Apple App Store or the Game Store for Android and Down Load the “You Version” app. We use this app to create weekly events that you can open and follow along in the scripture that we are walking through together as well as events and our FBook check in partners for the month.
Engagement –
I want to take a moment and address a question that we get alot of and I think were going to place this up on the website - The question is what kind of preaching or teaching do you guys do - Its it topical preaching or expository preaching -
Let me answer it this way -1 There is not a passage of text in the Bible that is prescriptive - In other words that gives is a prescription on how to walk things out that isn't dealing with a Topic and most that are descriptive are dealing with a topic as well. 2 - Expository preaching is the Idea of Taking the position that God takes on any given topic that is spoken of in the text and lifting that position up and exposing Gods position.
So when we blend the Two together we have Expo-topical preaching or Teaching -
We take the topics of any passage of text and Expose the position that God takes on the Subject and we lift that position up for all to see and hear. With that Let me begin with a question!
What is the Goal of you Life? What do you set your mind on achieving? What do you wish to accomplish before you take your last breath?
I know that as we grow and age our desires and our goals in life change and move.
For Some people, as we graduated High school and went on to college, we set our minds on marriage and possibly children and career building. Finding our identity in what we did or who we were in relationship with. As those goals in life are achieved we have a tenancy to move on to questions of impact or influence.
Who’s life can I positively impact, or how can I have a positive influence on those around me?
All the while building nest eggs, retirement accounts, equity in our homes, college funds that in some cases turn into rehab funds for our kids.
Possibly building a business that more than provides for the basic needs of my family but actually provides for the needs of other families who work for my company as well.
We may find ourselves investing in stocks, bonds, real estate rentals or other types of passive income all building our financial security for our tomorrows.
TENSION
There is this Teaching that Has come Extremely prevalent in the Western Church and It comes out of a movement called the “Word of Faith” movement - The Teaching that would come out of that movement teaches that God, in Direct correlation to the type and kind of Faith that we have, His Blessing us is measured by the amount of our comfort, our accumulation of wealth, our health and well being. It Teaches that We can be the Davids in our own life and We can concur the Goliath in our life by simply putting stones of faith in our sling shots and killing those giants, we are the ones, who by faith, can facilitate Victory over our suffering and money problems in our life. This is commonly called the Prosperity Gospel. in the Simplest form means that Following Jesus and doing what the Bible says will at some level lead to a more successful life, a healthier life, a more comfortable life, a more secure life, and over all more happiness.
Let me just say that I believe that this is one of the most dangerous and deadly false teachings that has stripped the Gospel of its Power, and this teaching has infiltrated the church and every aspect of western church life.
I am against it in every way, but also let me say it is difficult to declare the truth of scripture completely void of its influence.
You very well may say AMEN this morning: but I promise if you were to look at your ambition and your desires and your prayers and what you consider blessing in your life, you to have been influence by the prosperity Gospel.
This then brings the question: If our desires for financial security and comfort are influenced by corrupt teaching, than what is to be our desire? What is to be our goal in life? What is our ambition?
With That question let us look at the Text.
TRUTH
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20 “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.
23 “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?
27 “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?
28 “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,
29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.
30 “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!
31 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’
32 “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
BACKGROUND
It bears repeating, to set the backdrop of this conversation, Jesus is more than likely teaching through a series of questions and answers that a group of people are engaging with Him?
Someone asks “What is the secret to finding true joy and meaning in this life?
Jesus answers with the Beatitudes and the Salt and Light description
Someone else asks “What about the Law? are you giving a new set of Commands from GOd?
Jesus answers by Saying “Im not Here to undo the Law I am here to fill in the Gaps for you in what you understand the law to say”
Someone Else Asks “This is a New Understanding of the Law and the Prophets How will we know if were doing well? Do we follow the Scribes and Pharacies? Do we Do like the Gentiles do? No One that we know of Lives this way? Who will we model our lives after?
Jesus Replies - Do not do Good thing, DO not Pray and Do not Fast like the Actors, The Hypocrites and the Gentiles, who are all performing these things for the Audience of Men - But do ALL these things for the Audience of ONE -
Someone Else then Asks - IF we do all this for the Audience of One How will we know Him and How do we Speak to Him the priests tell us that they are the only ones who can talk and hear from God?
Jesus Answers - “Pray then this way”
AS the conversations moves away from prayer and Jesus emphasizes doing things for the Audience of ONE - We can almost hear the conversation begin to shift from the spiritual inward to the outward and the practice.
Someone Says - IF all of life is about God, and His Law is about our hearts, and all of our prayers are about Him and all of our religious duty is about Him and All we get to ask for is our Daily Bread, Forgiveness and deliverance from Evil? HOW WILL WE LIVE? What about out security, what about our possessions? What about OUR LIFE and the life of our families? If we life the way you are telling us we will have nothing for our self! Our Families will have Nothing? How are we supposed to Get ahead in this culture? The Government is corrupt and all the leaders are about serving their own interests. The Culture around us is selfish and self serving and morally bankrupt. The merchants who are selling things to people are only out for their own profit! The people we go to work for are self serving and exploit workers and there is a growing in equality in the haves and have nots. WHAT About US? What about What we need? HOW DO I get ahead? What about my dreams and my ambition?
UNPACKING
Jesus Answers and He begins to speak some of the most difficult principles to live by in all the Bible - This is where most of us try to weaken what Jesus says and where we try to do the impossible which jesus will tell us the impossible: in verses 19-34 by laying down three gigantic forks in the Road if you will - 3 Don’ts” But here is the beauty of Jesus - Jesus came to give us new life. And What Jesus is and has been saying in this teaching form the mount is -
The Don’ts are the old life that I have rescued you out of - Here is how to live the new life”
and in vs 19 Jesus begins to address the outward needs that each of us have - Up until this point Jesus has been addressing the inner problems - He Has been addressing the issues of our broken relationship God and How it affects the Inner relationship we have with ourselves.
In VS 19 - Jesus begins to address the outer relationship with have with the world around us and address how our broken relationship with God effects our relationship with Others.
Jesus Begins - VS 19-21 addressing material possessions - Not having them but accumulating them - Stacking them up for ourselves - Jesus Says =
DO NOT STORE UP for your selves - Treasures on earth - Do not Store up for your selves things that valuable here on earth for your self - Jesus uses the Moth and Rust and thieves illustration to Tell us that Everything Here on earth is Temporary - Nothing here on this earth that we perceive as valuable will last - It is all temporary and it will all be destroyed.
Jesus says “DO store up for your selves treasures in Heaven” Store up things that are valuable in heaven - Store up for your self things that Are eternal, things that last, those are the things to Store up for your self - What are the things that are valuable in heaven that Jesus says Store up for ourselves.
What are those things - Jesus says in Matthew 19 and Like chapter 123 that one way our treasure is built up in heaven is to sell our possessions and give the money to the poor! -’
Paul tells Timothy in His first letter that Living a life of extravagant generosity, ready to share with those less fortunate is a way that we take Hold of true life, and we build a foundation for the eternal future.
Taking the Gospel to people in not Just words but in word and in deed is the way that we store up for ourselves treasures in heaven but Jesus says you cant do both.
Jesus says Do not store up for your self treasures here on earth - DO Not DO it. Do NOT STORE up things that are valuable for your self - There is no way around this - Jesus says Don’t DO it.
Here is the reason - Having an abundance of possession, Having an accumulation for your self - Diminishes the Light of the Gospel in your heart and Mind - vs 22 You eyes are the lamp to your Body - If your eyes are focused on earthly things that are temporary and have no eternal value than your whole body will be full of darkness - and great that darkness will be.
I cannot begin to tell you the amount of stress and anxiety and darkness that people have when it comes to their earthly possessions -
Look - This is something that I struggle with - We live in Texas and we live in a country where we celebrate the protection of our possessions with Guns -
And the Conflict that I really have is “do we really take another human beings life - Another image bearer of God who is stealing our TV or our Car or our Lawn mower? Is That Darkness? That we value the 65” hanging on our wall more than we value the life that God has given to another person? It is a conflict that is in my heart and it is not resolved.
But if your eyes are clear, and there is clarity in your life of the things that are eternally important - Light will fill your body and you will be filled with the Light of God.
VS 24 Jesus then says what is Impossible - The reality is a person cannot serve Two masters - A person cannot Ride Two horses as they say out west - Jesu says Yuo cannot serve God and Serve the accumulation of wealth!According to Jesus these are totally and competently exclusive.
This is the Single Biggest AREA that the Prosperity Gospel has completely undermined and Ignored the words of Jesus - This is also the area that most of us have made our biggest compromises when it comes to living out our faith.
Most of us - We do not serve God with our income and with our money - We serve our self first then we give to God by giving to others - We build our own kingdoms and security and our own kingdoms and we give to God’s kingdom what were comfortable giving - After all God loves a cheerful giver. I don’t believe there is a single passage of scripture that had been more miss applied than that one in all of the history of the church.
SOme of you may Say - Well Scott Proverbs Says - Consider the Aunt and his storing up - Some of you may say “ Scott if I fail to provide for my own family I am worse than an unbeliever. To Which I will say - I’m not the one that said these things Jesus is - Argue with Him - I am just taking the position that Jesus takes on the subject and exposing what Jesus is saying -
it collides with me as well - I struggle with how this works out and guess what it not a new problem - We can all hear it in the crowd someone says “well how will we eat and live and what will we wear if were not to accumulate for ourselves?
Jesus begins to answer in vs 25 - For this reason - For what reason? Because we as humans do not have the ability to serve God and Money = Because knows our hearts and how easily we are wooed away from our father who loves us and from jesus the one who died for us - We are so easily wood away because of the worries of this world and culture and the deceitfulness of wealth thinking that it will satisfy and that it will be a legacy that lasts.
Jesus says for this reason , because you don't have the ability to serve wealth which is self and God which is not - Then do not worry about your life. Do not worry about what you will wear - What you will eat or drink - Don’t worry about your body as to what you will put on - Life is ore than food and the body is more that clothing.
Jesus then gives the Value of every human that God has for all of us.
Don’t worry about Food - The Birds of the air - They don’t Sow they don’t reap - they don’t gather and accumulate and The father Takes care of them.
Don’t worry about Clothing - Lillie's of the field - No toil, No Spinning, yet in all of His glory Solomon the richest man who ever lived wasn’t as beautiful as these lillies -
Jesus then Spends verse 30-32 giving us the Eternal reason why we should not serve money, accumulate to our selves and there fore be driven to worry -
Jesus then compares the Unbelieving world being the ones that seek the things - These are the people in the world that seek clothing, food, accumulation and other wordly things - Jesus is talking about the sense of striving and struggling and toiling for these things!
Jesus says Look the father knows that you need all these things -
In verse 33 Jesus tell us all how to receive all of the things that we need -
Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness and ALL OF THE THINGS THAT YOU NEED WILL BE ADDED TO YOU. -
In the New Testament there are to ways the word FIRST is used - One is the idea of order - The first among many - do this first and then go do this - The Second way the word First is used in the new testament is the Idea of ABOVE ALL THINGS, ABOVE ALL!
Jesus is saying - Seek - Strive after Toil after above all other things there are to toil about. The Kingdom of God - His kingdom - the things that He values! and His Righteousness - Again righteousness - Being made Right with God and additionally in this verse doing what is right.
Jesus says When These things are the things you strive for the things you toil for then everything else you need will be added.
IMAGINE and INSPIRATION
I want you to imagine with me the peace we would have Knowing that we are Striving and toiling for the eternal things of God and not for the temporary tings of this world!
I want you to imagine with me what sense of purpose meaning and value you would have knowing that all your strength and focus is dealing with things that are eternal and will last literally for ever.
What peace would overcome you if your reduced to Daily, Trusted God and had years of looking back and God ha provided Everything along the way and you knew every moment that HE not only needed to show up for you to make it but was faithful to show up.
Let the Gospel of Jesus overwhelm you and begin to live the new life!
How does our appetite change from striving for the things of this earth that are temporary to the things that are eternal - The Gospel - The historical narrative of Jesus saving work.
Every time the church gathers it is our desire that we explicitly and clearly declare the Gospel.
we do this for three very important reasons - 1st and foremost that there would be an opportunity for those who have not yet responded to the Call of God in faith to do so.-
2nd so that all of us through hearing it and being a part of reciting it here up front would develop a working knowledge so that we might go forth and interact with the narrative in conversations with others and we would be used by God to build His kingdom as He saved others.
Here now is the Gospel - for those of us who are hearing this message and asking why do we need the appetites of our life to change? let me share with you that in the beginning...
The GOSPEL
The Gospel
In the beginning when this entire thing called life got started, many years ago, God created all things and He created man in His own image. God and man were in perfect relationship with one another. God gave man one boundary that they should not eat the fruit of a particular tree. But man looked at the fruit and saw that it looked like it would taste good and was told that it would make man like God. The instructions from God started to not make sense to the man and he made a choice independent of God to begin to live a life that made sense to man and took a bite of the fruit of the tree. In doing this he rebelled against God. When he rebelled against God his relationship with God was broken and with this rebellion came death. The Bible calls this rebellion sin.
Each one of us is born into this same broken state. Because of this we naturally rebel against God and because of our own rebellion against God we are broken and our relationship with God is broken. This brokenness overflows into every area of our life. This brokenness has broken our ability to have a relationship with God: our ability to have a healthy relationship with each other is broken. Our ability to have a healthy relationship with the created world around us is broken; Even our ability to have a healthy relationship with ourselves is broken. Because we all are naturally in rebellion against God, everything and everyone is broken and in desperate need of having this brokenness repaired and put back into right relationship with God our creator. The Only one capable of repairing this degree of Brokenness is God.
The Gospel, the Good news is that God is putting all things back into right relationship with Himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ. God restores people back into a right relationship with Himself by calling all men to faith and He restores, recovers, redeems and reconciles back into right relationship with HIM, those people who turn their whole life to Him in a living faith. Faith in what? Faith in the historical facts that God, in His loving kindness, provided all of mankind an open door of being back into right relationship with Him by taking on flesh and dwelling among us as a man named Jesus. Jesus, who was fully God and fully man, lived a morally perfect life, never rebelling against God, as a completely innocent person freely accepted the sentence of death on a roman cross. Faith in the fact that when Jesus’s blood was being poured out on the cross and He died; Faith that He, as God, paid the price for our rebellion and satisfied the Wrath of God and in doing so all of our sin and rebellion against God is completely forgiven. Faith in the historical event that three days after His death God raised Jesus from the dead by the same power that created all things and in those two acts of dying and being raised from the dead, Jesus defeated Sin and Death once and forever for all for those who believe.