Feb 27, 2022 Sunday Worship Service

Amen.

With Jesus and his well with our souls. And we're so happy that you here this morning to be with us as we continue, worshiping God together and spirit and Truth. Appreciate the presence of everyone here this morning. Just want to remind you that tonight. We're not going to have a regular Worship Hour or Bible study hour, but we will be singing. So we'll have a song service tonight beginning at 5 p.m. So our song leader, go go home. Go take a nap after a good meal and they'll come up with some songs for us to sing and and then we'll look forward to that.

They might not come back because of the meal.

Or anyone else for that matter. Within reason also, I just wanted to point out that I had some good news this week and we're thankful for that that it wasn't a terrible thing for his health concern. The only other thing that the doctor said is that he's very ugly. So pray for him in that regard. But other than that, he's doing pretty well. We're thankful for you brother. Who

Also. I don't know if I'll get to that just a second. But as we think about what we were talking about, for the past several weeks, and talking about, and we've gone from the birth of Christ up until now to The Sermon on the Mount. And as we think about The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is talking about what it's going to take to become a citizen of his kingdom. And we read this morning about the Beatitudes and we're not going to get into all of those at this point and you know, them rather. Well, I'm sure you've done the reading and I'm thankful that you're doing your reading and keeping up because it is important to keep up with the reading to keep up with our study. But, as we think about what Jesus is talking about in the Beatitudes, what he's really getting at is the fact that well, we all have, we all have automobiles, trucks or cars and, and every now and then or cars or trucks seems to break down on us right there, but not purring like kittens anymore. They're, they're coughing like someone, who's who's got the monia. And so when that happens we have to bring it in to get it fixed now, just suppose, just for just a second car is not running right? And you keep smiling and it keeps breaking down until you bring it in and the mechanic comes out how to fix it and it comes back out with a can of Turtle Wax. Bright and a clock. This is why I'm going to give it a nice shot. And so he goes out and he and you're thinking of yourself wanting to do, but you're not a mechanic. So maybe he's got something else in mind. So you let him to the car and brings out the car. And here it is nice and shiny. How do you try to drive away and you still can't drive it away. And so he says,

New tires. I don't think the car run. They got brand new tires on, but you still can't drive the car properly. Write a nice chrome. Bumpers in The Shining in the sun. Beautiful.

And so, the whole point that were making here, is the fact that Jesus is talking about the heart of the individual, we can read about some of the Jews, especially the leaders of the Jews, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, and the scribes, all of these leaders of the Jews. They like to do things for show. I like to go out before the people and say, look at me where in the best clothes I can talk really, really really good, right? I can talk gooder than you. They might say. Panda. And so they like to think that they could pray better and they could teach better and do all these things better, but do so in the side of people. They like to show the outside like to show the external I'm how righteous they were. But Jesus expose them on several occasions for their hip-hop receipt. And what he was pointing out to them was that. Oh, yeah, you try to. Project yourself as being nice and shiny like them, shining bumpers. But the engine inside you is corroded. The engine is broken down and doesn't work and other words, the heart was the problem, the heart was the issue it. So if you ever had a car you understand what I'm talking about. How do you ever heard of the car? That's named Tesla? Tesla, the new car, right? Tesla. You says, did you hear that? That all the new Teslas, do not come with a new car smell? They come with Elon Musk.

I want to see it here in just a love that joke. You got to know who Elon Musk, Elon Musk owns, Tesla and Bill's, Tesla, and musk is also a perfume. So I'm explaining that to, to Our Song leader here. So

I didn't know, I didn't know the president in a brand new Lamborghini and one of the employees walks up and says, wow, what an amazing car and the president responded to him says, well, if you work hard and you put extra hours in working overtime and you strive for excellence. I might just get another one next year.

So we'll see how that works. It's so when you think about having this ridiculous mechanic come out and say I'll fix your car by fixing the outside. The Jesus is saying that won't do you have to fix the engine. You have to fix the heart. It's about up, until this very moment. The Jesus was baptized read about that. In a few chapter 3. He's tempted by the devil. Read about that in chapter 4. He preaches repentance to everybody in Matthew chapter 4. He calls for fishermen. To become his disciples in Matthew chapter 4 hasn't called all the 12. Yeah, he's called four of them. He preaches the gospel of the kingdom, and Matthew chapter 4, and he works miracles in Matthew chapter 4, on the map, Sherman on the map. And it, it says, it says that he saw the multitude. Tell me what up on the mountain and he sat down and sold. The idea. There is this whenever I was to sit down and met that he was going to start teaching. Resident State up in the Pulpit like we do today in our Western culture, what they would sit down and do begin. I'd prefer sitting down. Actually somebody, the word of God is that he's showing his disciples who are going to be with him, showing his decide before the public. He's letting the people get to see who is following him at this point. And then the crowd started to gather around. And of course, he began teaching with the Beatitudes and as we think about this sermon again, the Beatitudes are just the first portion attitudes that we all need to have. But The Sermon on the Mount covers chapter 5, chapter 6 and chapter 7, so we'll be spending a few weeks on this particular serving the greatest of all-time as we read. Now. These are the words of Jesus and the recorded for us. So he's our King. And we actually have his words that we can read. Look at and applied that come from his heart and his mind to your heart and to your mind is. So it's important that we understand the significance of the sermon. The author of the book was talking about, you know, some of the periphery issues that come along with our study. And what is was just a complete sermon or is this a summary of? Well, we don't know for sure, but it sure sounds like a complete. If you thought I was up here, reading three chapters to you, and that would be a complete sermon and would be a lot longer than you would expect. Because I normally go off just a little bit. All right, I'll go for a long time. So if I were to read the three chapters, that would go for a long time. It's okay. I think it happens to be a whole sermon whether it is, or it's not is immaterial has nothing to do with My Soul. God doesn't want us to know they're in the first place. They wanted us to know about it. Right? So when I speculate about the things like that, and of course there's another occasion in the Book of Luke talks about the another Sermon on the Mount whether or not this is the same one, don't know, don't care.

It's if it's either one, it doesn't matter to me. You know, I've preached many sermons the same, right? I might preach a sermon about the church 21, troop of people. I might preach the same service to another group of people. Well, I might change it up a little bit to fit the audience. And so I might be talking about the leadership of the church. I might be talking about the head of the church and so forth. But anyways, I be talking about the church and I might say a lot of similar things and I said, so it may or may not be the same server, but either way, it doesn't matter. So, as we think about this particular servant, I think about the words of Jesus Christ, the foundation of the messages, this check under the hood. That's what we were talking about. We need to check under the Bible tells us that the heart is deceitful among all. And then he says,

Who can understand my deceitful heart? That tells me I can just see myself but it also tells me I can deceive you. I can deceive others. All right. So the heart is something that's tricky. The Bible also tells us that a hard can condemn has.

In fact, it can condemn us even if we are condemned, but it can condemn us if we're not condemned and that's what John was talking about. He was talking about some Christians, that felt so miserable miserable about their last that their heart, condemn them. And John says, but Jesus knows the heart, he knows if it's condemned or not and end. So we might feel that way at times, but it may not be the case. Remember, there is such a thing called perception vs reality, which is a tricky thing, you know, we perceive something about someone or something else. But our perception is often wrong because we don't have all the information or we have mixed information. All right, so perceptions one thing, the reality of it. So we need to be careful about judging people and things based upon perception because we don't always have the right information. Jesus said, you forgot to judge judge with a, what, a righteous judgement. You didn't do it properly. You, make sure you have all the right information. Make sure, you know what you're talkin about, which is good for us because often we don't know what we're talkin about. So he said, shut up, keep your mouth. Shut. If you're not going to have all the information when you don't know, all that matters concerning that particular person. What we're talking about in the background of the streaming is that Jesus of dealing with a group of people who felt that their religion was all about the external all about show. And often times. We feel that way, you know, we come into the building, the building's not to church, but we coming to the building and we, in a single kind of like, I can't wait to get out of here. I got things to do all of that. Let me ask you a question. Cuz that worshipping God with all your heart, with all your soul. With all your mind with all your strength, obviously, not a rhetorical question. There is such a thing as vein worship. Such a thing is true. Worship the true worship. Always always. Includes the heart. It includes the mind and includes remember, it's not this flesh outside. That's really me. It's what's inside. It's called the Inner Man of the inward, man. That's the part. That's the mind. It's the seat of emotion. It's my thinker. It's my reasoning skills. It's all of that together my conscience. And if you show up and we act, as if he doesn't exist or he's not important enough to pay attention to the think about that, think about that worship because it can be worship. That is insane. What you do think. They tell you one thing then do another but then they act as if they're all righteous and they weren't And they weren't sold out. Jesus saying, listen, if you want to enter into the kingdom, that I'm bringing in. I'm bringing in a new way. I'm bringing in this Kingdom and you've got to be certain to be a part of the kingdom. And it's not like it used to be. Not like it used to be. It's not like this phony. Go through the motions, kind of deal with what he's going to start with the heart because if the heart's not in it, Then it's useless. That's what he said if the heart isn't into serving others. What good is the service if your heart is not in it, when you someone needs help, and I've done this, I'm guilty of this. I'm guilty. I'll let you know. Someone had called and they said could you come and get me? And I looked at my wife and I said, the Cowboys are on.

They want me to come. Get the game is on. But you know when you had to sit down and think about it, I was wrong and I said, you know Lord, I need to have the opposite of that. I need to have a better attitude if someone's in need of help. So I need to put my priorities out of the way and focus upon them because isn't that what Paul tells us consider others? Better than yourself. Wow. We like to think we're better than everyone else, but we're not but you consider others better than yourself.

It's like serving the master. They become your Masters in a way because you think of them as Superior, you think of them as better, you think of them as as in need of service and deserving of the service. And when you think of it that way and helps us understand what Jesus was talking about when it comes to service. We need to check under the hood our hearts. because,

Here it is. The heart of the matter is, the matter of the heart. That it is with Christianity because we can be baptized into Christ. We can sing. Acapella, we can pray, we can do all these things and still not have a good heart. I'm still not have a good heart. It's interesting that the parable of the sower Jesus is talking about the harpy says here's the word of God, the seed and then he have these different levels of Hearts, right? You have this one heart, that hears the word and balls away. Then you have another heart, that hears the word last a little bit longer Falls away. And then he have another heart, that heart hears, the word, all excited. I love Jesus. They're always there and then nothing happens. Anime.

Jesus talks about the 4th hard soil. He says, but the good and honest heart. So there's the contrast, the good and honest, or Noble, heart hears, the word and continues in it. Continuing to bear fruit keeps on going just like the Energizer Bunny. That's what happened to some people. Write Jesus is the motivation for it. Jesus is the motivation? Not me having to do something right? Jesus. Why am I going to church because Jesus wants me to Swallow, it matters, right? I can try to explain to you see a logical e. Y, we need to worship, but the bottom line is, we need to worship because Jesus wants you to write. Is there any other reason why other than Jesus, Wanting You Jesus worship. Jesus read his Bible. He studied his Bible reading about that in a young child. He did. So when he was in Jesus worship study, just Bible, who am I? He's my example. I need to do what Jesus said to do, but also do what Jesus did as my example. So just deal with the matter of the heart, the heart. Tells us a lot about an individual and we can tell a lot about a person's heart by what they do and by what they do not do. EXO. People get a little crazy about this, but it is true that attendance at worship is a barometer of the heart. Oh, yes, we all get sick. And even sometimes we just don't feel like going. That's one thing. But the Bible says, but those who make it a habit. That's a different story now. Right. He says find yourselves assembling together or not. It's coming together as is the habit of some. So, there are those that tells you something, if you're not here. There's a red flag. If you're not here a couple times there, still a red flag. But if you're not here awful lot, there's an issue. There's a problem and it has nothing really to do with the chairs with the building, with the weather and has something to do here, right? Because what you're saying is, God and Jesus, who died for me, here. We just weed we just said, yes to Jesus. Right here. We just said, yes, he died for me and I am devoted to him. But if I don't care about that, I'm not going to come and buy not. Come and guess what? That shows. It's really not that important to me. Really not teleport. I hate to say I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it has to be said, brother. I don't want to be the one up. There is always talking negative. I don't want to be the preacher that says, I'm always negative. But you have to be negative sometimes. And so he's talking about this Kingdom Proclamation. I wanted to say Manifesto, but it was too close to Russia in the USSR. So they mean the same thing, but I didn't want to use that work in. So

Have you think about the sermon noticed? Here's the theme of the sermon. Lot of people don't capture this because they look at other things. But this really is the theme of the sermon. Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of a Who, Pharisees and who scribes? We might say the scribes and Pharisees. So there is a thing. I so Jesus is saying, here's some blessings, trying to get their attention. This is the easy. This is a good. It's not a draw. Your your, your attention to motivate you to enter into the kingdom. It's always says, here's some blessing this. Here's some happiness for you. This is how you could be happy. This is how you can be blessed. The word Mercurial means blessing, but it also means happiness or to be happy. But has that idea behind it? And so, the whole point is that, if you're blessed by God, you're happy, right? You're happy. And that's what he's talking about when he says, blessed are those who are poor in spirit? Right. What's are those who are Castaways of society? Blessed? Are they? And so it is right here that we need to understand that were seeking after doing that which Christ wants us to do. Because at the end of the sermon, what does Jesus preach about in Jefferson beginning of verse 21, does anybody remember?

Not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but who, but he who does my father's, will, who is in heaven, and then he starts talking about an illustration. And the illustration is about some guy who built his house upon the sand, some guy built, his house upon the rock. Which Foundation held up the house? It was The Rock. He was talking about being obedient to the master is what held up the house. And so that's what he's talking about when we're talking about the sermon on the map. We have all this stuff in our society. Today. We have advancement of medicine. We have all the technology in the world and make our lives easier and more convenient, and we have just everything for convenience sake. That is beyond the mines in the thinking of those in the first century to whom Jesus has a dressing. That we think about them and possibly pavement two, thousand years ago, right there just uncouth people or not, you know, they're not very smart. They're just people walking around as if they can't think for themselves and but we hear the 21st century. We're just we have it all and we can thank and and we're much better than all those people. Now maybe when it comes to medicine and maybe when it comes to technology, that could be true. But what about the heart, you know, with all the changes? There are things that still remain the same. What is the human heart? The others God. Right. I am a lord. God. I do not change. Jesus is said to be talking about Jesus. He is he was and is and forever. More is He doesn't change, God's word, doesn't change till God's word is relative to us today, not because of the technology and our advancements in life, but because of the human heart, still, the same.

We all have to deal with Trials of sin and the pressures of life just like they did. Maybe different kinds of pressures that affect us, but none, the less pressures. And so we don't understand the necessity of what it means to have a good heart. So Jesus is going to tell them how they are going to become citizens of this Kingdom. So blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus talked about this and bible class. Jesus is really not talking about those who are having a bad day. All right, he's talking about a group of people who are called. Adam W in Hebrew, and the word means. And is applied to those who were taken captive. No one, the Jews were taken captive. They were taken, captive, twice, once by the Assyrians at the other, by the Babylonians. And when those armies people captive, they didn't take everybody, right? They took all the people that they wanted to take. They took the smart people and took the good looking people. You have to worry about that Harold. Other worry about that now. Can they might take him because he's a good-looking, dude, but Harold you earlier, but they will take the smart. They take the elite. Delete. Those rules have potential. And they would leave behind the anawar. The worthless. That's what it means. Not worthy to be taken.

And so Jesus is pointing out that this kingdom is even for you. This kingdom is for the outcasts. That's something the Pharisees and the Sadducees did not want. And it would draw the line about doing that you're in themselves, but Jesus saying, God draws the line. Not any man. And God has included, even those who are considered worthless. In need of Salvation. In need of Jesus Christ. I need to learn to become this way because it doesn't happen overnight. Write some of us are still learning to be poor in spirit to be meek. Right. Turn on Words study. It's an odd word application. It's onward and continuing because we often fail at some of the things that Jesus wants us to do it. So we back up and we start again, but Jesus wants us to keep on going. Right. That's what it means. When he says, keep on keeping the word, keep on producing the fruit. He's not saying well by keeping the word, you're going to be perfect. I didn't say that. I didn't say by keeping the word. You're not going to say, you didn't say that. He said you keep on keeping the world even when you do send. That's what John tells us. The first John, chapter 1, walking in the light and then he says a state right afterwards. He says, if we say we have most of our selves and the truth, as well as we walk, we stumble, but we get up and we continue walking. You know, it's just like we got this instead of a war here, would Ukraine. And you could turn to people of the past that gave us confidence and hope. One thing and Jesus, another being Winston, Churchill and Winston Churchill during World War II was giving the commencement speech at Cambridge. Which was the high intellectual University. He already said he got up there and he said, never give up, never give up, never give up. And he went and sat down. That was a speech because that's what the people needed. They needed to hear that. And this is what Jesus is us. This is what you need to be. You can do it. You can become this if you want to, but it's all prepared for you. You just got to take that knife. Take that for work, and start digging in. That's what you need to do. But a lot of people lot of Christians, their practical atheists practically Theus, what's that? They believe in God, but behave like he doesn't exist.

That's a practical atheist. That's what to do. So what makes you any different than that? We have to ask ourselves. That's right. That's why you hear me. Repeat from what Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 13:5, examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith. To see if you're in the gospel. See if you're in the world. To see if you're moving by the teachings of Jesus Christ. That's what it means. But you just brings a new leg Demands, a new heart and a new heart means a change of heart. Jesus was talking earlier. He says, you can't pour new wine into old wineskins. The old wineskins, he was saying is the Old Law. The new one is the new way. The new teachings, the New Covenant, and what she's bringing in. And so we coming to Matthew 5:6, he's as blessed, are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled?

What is the hunger? We need to First? How about you? Are you doing that? Hungering, and thirsting for writing? You want to hunger? You know, what righteousness is right doing doing what is right? That's how it is. Mainly used throughout the Bible other than talking about the attributes of Jesus Christ or God. God is righteousness, cuz he always does, right? Right. We're not always right just, but we're right, just because of Jesus Christ. But we still have to do righteousness. We still have to do truth. And yet we still stumble, but we're still made righteous by Christ blood. If we continue on, see how that works. And so, he says, part of the continuing nature of things is that you're hungering and thirsting for righteousness. People think wants to become a Christian. I really don't have to do anything. Really? Well, that's a faulty understanding unfortunately, but we have to have it. This is the attitude. He's talking about. He's not, he's not saying anything that you need to do. Really necessarily. He's saying, this is what you need to be in your heart. You need to say, you know what? I'm going to church today walk because I want to I want to I'm hungry and thirsty for God's word. I want to learn about God. I want to learn about Jesus. I want to know all about his grace, why I want to know it for my heart for myself, but I want to share with others. That's what it means. So as we consider The Sermon on the Mount, think about the fact that God loves you so much. He sent his son to die for you to take away your sins. And here's the remedy. He says here's how it all works together. How you can be saved, become a child of God, and continue hungry, and thirsting for righteousness. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. Very simple. He says, you believe that you can do that. If you believe that today you can do that today. And you can be assured of Salvation. You can be assured of your relationship with Jesus Christ. Perhaps, you've done that. Perhaps you've Fallen away perhaps. He's not walked in, right? Just past, but an unrighteous past. Jesus still says, change of heart, change your mind. We call that repentance. If you're subject to that imitation today of Jesus Christ, want to come forward as Together. We Stand and sing.