GREATEST OF ALL TIME | Week 1 | Sermon

know, back when I was a kid, I had this dog. Loved this dog. It was great. And it loved walks, and it would pull really hard. So one day I just thought, you know what? I'm gonna wear my roller skates.

And then I can have fun in the process of walking the dog. And it was fun. It was great. As the dude gets going, I'm like, mush. You know, I'm just rolling around. Didn't have to do any work. It was great until the one of the days we went around the corner and as we rounded the corner, the mailman was delivering the mail to one of the houses, one of my neighbors.

And and and the reality is we all know that the mailman is the natural enemy of dogs because dogs have a trait. This is the way they're wired, who they are. They they they they have loyalty and they get protective of their clan and their territory. And so when the mailman comes up, they see this intruder.

And and and you might not understand this here because you well, our mailbox is down the street. They're all in one spot or whatever. But back in the day, they used to come to individual houses.

And in our neighborhood, it wasn't even the mailbox out on the street. Our mailboxes hung on our house right near the front door. And next to our mailbox was our big bay window for the kitchen. So every day

my dog had a fight with that mailman named Hal because same mailman every day. That dude would come out there and see him and it'd be right there at the window like right where you like he's so mad he's actually biting him and attacking him in his heart even if he can't get through the window

and the mailman would look at him and go and then walk away like almost exasperating it like you lose again dog So when we see this, there's Hal out in the open, and my dog's like, today is the day of of of comeuppance.

I am gonna get you today. Takes off running. Now I'm like, and I'm like, slow down. Slow down. Slow down. And then I do the dumb thing because I don't understand physics or whatever. I try to pull back. All they did was pull me closer to the dog. And and and I mean, I can't stop it. And it's running. You're gonna attack the dog. And now I'm worried because if my dog actually bites the mailman,

the govern they'll come and they will put your dog to sleep because it attacked a government employee. It's like, it's getting the death penalty. And so I was like, oh, no. No. No. No. No. And then the dog realized, hey. It's faster to go through the grass.

And so it cut into the grass I hit with a roller skates with the grass now I'm airborne

and then I hit the ground and it's dragging me but that's what saved my dog's life is because as it dragged me I became an anchor and it slowed down. It couldn't pull me all the way through the glass. I dug it and I stopped. The dog stopped about three feet from howl. He's like, and

I go, I got him. I got him. He goes, alright. You better not let him go Cause he got mad and then he looks and then as he walks away, turns around. See you later, Buffy. He knew my dog's name. And he gets in. It's like my dog, foiled again.

So I go home and I tell my dad, I like, well, you're lucky you stopped the dog because they would have taken the dog. And then I go, Yeah. And he goes, But now you know the valuable lesson. What? He goes, Never walk a dog in roller skates. And I go, Why? Because dogs are gonna do what dogs do.

In other words, he knew that the inside, how a dog is wired, who it is, determines what it does. So when a dog gets protective, it is. So you could put it on a leash, you could put it inside, but in its heart, it wants to bite the mailman.

And the truth is what we're gonna see today as we start this series in Matthew called The Greatest of All Time. It's about the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon of all time that Jesus preaches.

What we're gonna see is in this first opening part is this big idea truth that even about us when it comes to how life is to be lived. And that is who we are determines what we do. You can try to put a leash on something. You could try to close the door behind it, but who you are ultimately determines what you do.

So it's Jesus when he preaches, he preaches and opens up this sermon. What we're gonna look at is the first 16 verses of Matthew five. And the Sermon on the Mount can be broken down into three sections. The first part is the person. Who am I to be if I know Jesus? It's called the beatitudes part.

Anyone heard of the beatitudes as opposed to the bad attitudes? This is really be attitudes. Be these attitudes, who we should be. And beatitude is defined as blessing. Blessing. And what we'll see is what that means. The second part is then that leads into the purpose. Then there's this, what are we supposed to do then?

And how Jesus is preaching this, he's saying, hey, this comes first. Character always before conduct. And this two sections that we're looking at today, the last part, the rest of the sermon is practical application. It's taking who we are to be, what we're supposed to do, and addresses certain issues.

But this first part is what caused the religious leaders of the day, many of the hyper religious people, to reject Jesus as the Messiah and even start thinking, we gotta stop him, that end up at the point that we're gonna kill him. Why? Because they were wired

in a way that said, what we do determines who we are. They thought of his sin as only external. So when they went into the rituals and did the laws and the rules and all of that, they felt they've dealt with sin

and now they are righteous before God. In other words, they felt self righteous. So when Jesus saying, no, that's not how it works. It's this way. He flipped the script and that infringed upon them and their pride and they got frustrated and they didn't say, this isn't the Messiah we're looking for because they they realized the way he's talking, he's also not gonna take care of all of our everyday problems and bring us the happiness we expect by getting rid of Rome. Change our government. That's gonna make us happy. And this is what we're gonna do. And when they realized that wasn't gonna happen,

they rejected him. And when we read this, you don't think, How is this so harsh? This is a really good throw punch. And I think a lot of us that come to church are actually wired that we think more like the Pharisees did. We think that our our relation with God is this external thing. I do, and then God loves.

I live for his love. Or technically what you think of his love is, I do this, then God will do that. And that's not true. Sin is not an external thing. It comes out externally, but it's in the heart. And so everything needs to work from the inside out.

And so what we're gonna look at is how does that work and what does it really mean? So we're gonna look at these two parts. The person who am I to be and then the purpose, what am I to do? So as we go in here, let's start in chapter five verse one. Read the first 12 verses.

It says, One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up to the mountainside and sat down. It's funny. Back in that day, the teacher sat down and everyone else stood up. I think we should go back to that.

His disciples gathered. He began to teach them. It says, God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. God blesses those who are who hunger and thirst for justice. That word justice actually means righteousness.

For they will be satisfied.

God blesses those who are merciful for they will be shown mercy. God blesses those whose hearts are pure for they will see God. God blesses those who work for peace for they will be called the children of God. God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers.

Be happy about it. Be glad for a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way. So there you go. He does this beatitudes, the blessed be. Some translations say happy is. Happy is. But here's the problem. When we read blessed or happy, we use the wrong definition.

And then we think these are all separate things like, okay. Some people are poor. Some people are persecuted. Some people are this. And then so it's saying all these characteristics is how you just God don't worry. God will make you happy. And when we define happiness or hear blessed what we usually see is is is I

feel good in this moment. We pursue this happy moment. This idea that I can feel good. The problem with the way we define happiness in our world in the in the in the not the kingdom. Because what Jesus is saying is there's two realms,

and you're either in one or the other. The realm, my realm, my kingdom, operates this way. The world's realm, which is against God and how we mainly see in the one we live in, sees it a different way. The world's realm, we run after happiness. And that is,

I wanna feel a certain way or have a certain thing or that it's my circumstances determine my happiness. The problem is when your happiness is controlled by your circumstances, it's very inconsistent and it's very short lived. It has no depth and it has no distance to it.

And then your life is always gonna be these moments and then you're running. And the problem is when you pursue happiness, oftentimes what you'll do is you'll do the in the moment, you'll make the decision that gets you past a feeling or towards something the quickest. And that might not be the right way to go.

And and and in desperation, we do that. This word beatitude, the Greek word, it it really talks of approval, but not approval like it means this is what it's meant to be, what God says. That we are approved by God, meaning this is how it is. And it really is a term that means large and lengthy and profoundly happy.

It's using this Greek word that goes beyond circumstances. It's what the Bible says that, hey, you will have a peace and a joy and a contentment and this peace that surpasses all understanding. It means you can have a happiness that's different. It's despite the circumstances.

And that's why it confounds us. Because like, man, there was a time when all this stuff happened around me. Would have just been fearful and read but I'm okay. I'm okay. And that's what we really long for and he says, hey, when you know me, you should have these attributes these attitudes

that will give you that kind of blessedness. So about this list, the beatitudes we've heard it taught, first of all, it is very counterintuitive to the way we think in this world. So when you live out this way and you have this character in your heart,

it's gonna that's why at the end it says it leads to persecution because people don't get it. People are gonna think you're stupid. And the second thing is you're either in one realm or the other.

The third thing you understand is when Jesus teaching this, there is no hierarchy. Lots of times you hear that, no goals, hashtag, maybe someday.

Or you think, well, that's really the people that gotta get that right are like the pastors and the religious leaders and all of that. That's the ones that have to get it right because they're they're they're called to this. There's only two

people, types of people in the kingdom of God. There's the king. There's only one of those. And then there's his children. So this is a kingdom that's filled with a king and princes and princesses. That's it. What God wants from you is the same thing he wants from me. The mission he wants us to go after,

you should embrace it the same as I do. Matter of fact, it says a pastor's job is to equip the other prince and princesses, the saints, to go do the mission. But we've distorted that in that I come, I might throw a little money in here, whatever, but for the most part, I just attend.

And the staff and the really committed people, they're the ones that do. No. If you are a believer, what Jesus is saying, here's what got throw punchy. This is what your heart character you will have all of these attributes in your life. And if you don't,

there's either something that you are listening to a twisted truth, you've dug in because of a fear, and you're just not moving forward in your faith, or this is the part that made people mad. You don't actually know God at all. And that's the part that made the because they caught what he was saying.

They were biblically literate enough to know what he would he was teaching his disciples, but he was talking to them. And and he basically said, you don't know God at all. But they're like, but we do all these religious things. We do all this stuff. So you can do what God said to do without having the heart,

without knowing God. But the flip is also true. If you do really know the Lord, you will develop these attributes. And then the mission, the purpose will just happen. So if you think that, Hey, I do have the attributes. I love the Lord deeply, but you're not gonna do the purpose he sent you to, you got a problem there too.

And that's why this was such a controversial kind of a throat punch. We hear, Oh, blessed it is, but oh, if I'm poor, then God's gonna take care it. Like, there are passages that talk about that. It ain't this one. It ain't that. This is why Matthew put this first

in Matthew, even though this wasn't the first discourse Jesus preached. This was the one that he drew the line and said, if you know me, this is what it means. So what do I mean by that? Let's look at this really quickly. As we go into this, I wanna sum up some of these sections by giving you a blessed is.

So this first of the all of these eight, there's eight of them. We're gonna put it up on the on the screen here. And if you look at it all, what it's really saying as a whole is blessed is the person that in life sees that the heart of the matter is a matter of the heart.

Meaning you really gotta deal with God's love and you're do you accept it? And where is the content and the character of your heart? Then comes the conduct because it should flow. And if it's not, there's a problem. Okay. So then what are these attitudes? What are they? There was eight of them in that list.

And so the first one and they all build together and they're really important, especially these first four say something that you might not think it says. First is poor blessed is those that are poor and realize their need for him. When people read the poor in spirit, you've heard it written that way before, you always think that means I'm I'm I'm financially broke.

Or and poor in spirit, I'm I'm I'm I feel like I'm down. I'm just defeated. I'm depressed. I'm worried. It probably because I'm financially broke. And and it's like, that's not what it's saying at all.

It's saying you finally come to the point that you're poor. You've come to the poverty of knowing I do not have the ability to do what I'm supposed to do. I can't be right before God. I know there's a holy God, and I know I ain't holy. And I know that I no matter how many good works, how many times I go to church, how many times it doesn't matter how many leashes and doors I hide behind, I still want to bite the mailman.

I can't do it. I can't not. And that's a realization that comes from the Holy Spirit revealing something to you. And now you're pouring that, and it makes you realize, I need God. Some of you like you you say you're a Christian. You come to church, and you've never even admitted you needed God.

You come here and think, I'm gonna make myself better. I'm gonna do these God things. I'm gonna learn about them. And, you know, and I'm gonna serve them. And when I serve them, God's gonna be so happy with me because look what I'm doing for him.

And we sometimes develop that attitude even without even meaning to. Like when you serve. And when we have served, it's like, hey, guys, if we're serving, can we park over there and not right here?

Because there's too many people coming. What do you mean? I've been to this church for a long time. Look at all the stuff I'm doing.

That's not what it's about.

And so we we we it says, I realize I can't do this. I need God, which then should lead to mourning. Blessed are those who mourn. Now there are plenty of scriptures that talk about how God is there for you when you're really sad. You lost a loved one. You had a disappointing moment. They're there.

This verse is not talking about that at all. It means when you realize you can't do it, you've come to that poverty moment that I'm spent. I can't make this work. It should make you realize you mourn over your sin. Basically, you own it. You accept the fact that you need a great savior because you are a great sinner.

And this is where a lot of the modern preaching has gone off because what they do is that people get mad when you keep telling them they're a bad sinner. And they go, I don't want hear that. Just tell me about the love of Christ. I go, but think about this logically.

If the love of Christ is only you only need it because you're a pretty good person and you've almost got it figured out and he's just helping you, then do you really see the depth of the love of Christ? If you think you just need a few tweaks, you're gonna miss the whole thing. We are all sinners.

And that's where these religious leaders got mad. And if you think, oh, yeah, boo, the religious leaders. But think some of us think like they do. They're like, how dare you say that?

You realize what Jesus was saying is those people out there, you think, oh, they do such evil things. They do all that. I'm better than them. No. You're just saved. That's all. The truth is we have the same amount of sin in our heart as any other human that's ever existed.

We put a level of what we say is evil. And yeah, you could do more obvious evil things like a Hitler or something like that. But in our hearts, we have rebelled against God just as much. Because the thing we forget as followers of God is sin is not just the bad things you do out there like they thought.

Sin is the good things that God's called you to do that you refuse to do. And the longer you've been a follower of God, you got to realize the sin you probably need to deal with and mourn over is all the things he's asked us to do as believers and we make excuses. We justify that we don't have to.

So if you realize that you can't do it and you need them, you start to actually own your sin. And then then you come to this moment that you need to be humble. And we think of humility as a feeling. No, the feeling is when you get humiliated, when you don't humble yourself.

The Bible says really clearly that humility is a choice. It's not a feeling. It's not a personality trait. It's a choice. And the funny thing is when you feel the most arrogant and you think, Well, I can back it. I can do it. I could be that's the moment you need to be the most humble.

You need to choose to humble yourself. And this is why this pattern, what he's trying to say is, when you realize you you you can't do it on your own and you start to realize the sin you do, if you don't get to humility, which is I'm gonna just start looking for the answer. I'm gonna trust God for what the answer is.

You will start to feel a weight. And this is what happens. Some of you are there already. You're already getting upset and you're getting frustrated and think, this is why I shouldn't live. This guy's just yelling at me. He's telling me I'm all wrong. He's telling me I'm stupid. And you're right. I am.

Because you are. Because I am too. We're all stupid. And we have a choice to make. Because if you just live there and you don't get to humble, you'll either power back up and say, forget it, and you're gonna leave or feel defeated because the problem is you're just like, I can't handle this feeling anymore.

Why do every time I had a guy leave the church all the because I'm tired of being yelled at and made to feel bad about myself.

I'm like, well, why? Well, because you're always talking about this stuff, I don't wanna do it. Well, then I go, you should feel bad about yourself. That's called conviction from the Holy Spirit.

Well, I don't wanna do it. Well, then you got a humility problem. You're saying, I think I need Jesus, but I think I know better than Jesus.

This isn't supposed to be you're supposed to get to this next step and choose humility. Go, what is God really doing here? I'm humble enough to trust him for the answer.

Because we all are dumb and we're stupid. I gotta admit. And they don't say like, I'm better than you. I'm just as dumb. I get this. You know what? I'm the chief offender of all this. I do this all the time. I just did it like before. Like, I'll sit there in a moment and when I'm mad at someone, I'm frustrated

and I'm like, I can't believe this. You are so dumb. I'm 100% right, and I don't understand how you don't see it this way. And then my wife gets really mad when I do that. And that may have happened on Friday night.

And then I gotta go back and go, Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Where's the character of Christ in all this? I need to choose humility, not just before God, but before others. Because then I'm ready. When I choose humility, I'm ready to look for the answer that God has. And that is hunger and thirst for righteousness.

That means I long to be righteous isn't perfect. It's saying I'm longing to be right with God, and I'm longing to get to the other side of this. I want to be more like Jesus. And it says when you ask for that, God gives it. So do you realize those first four just describe the process of becoming a Christian?

That's how you become born again. So this blessed is, he's walking to, Hey, you thought getting right with God is doing these things, doing this. No. What is right is realizing you can't, mourning that, being humble, and saying, God, what's the answer? And then believing him. That's how we get saved. Now, because

even though we are now a new person when we get the righteousness of Christ, we still got that dog in us. And that's why we're not perfect right away. So that process of realizing,

mourning, humbling yourself, and asking for God to give you the power and the righteousness aback is what we still call the process of repentance as we're believers. We have to continually do that. That needs to be the posture of our heart.

But if we're not humble, we'll hide it. If we're not humble, we'll get mad when I talk about it. There's some things that like, if this guy why does he keep if if there's something that you say, why does he keep talking about this? I guarantee it's because you won't do it.

It's time like when you buy a new car, all of sudden you go, Why did everybody buy my car? You don't notice it till you buy it. That's a psychological thing. It's proven in studies.

There's not all of a sudden that many more of your car. You just know that you care about it, you own it, you have it, you start noticing everybody else who does. So if you got a problem with something I keep saying, you're gonna think, why is he saying it all the time?

I'm not saying it any more than I used to. It's just the fact that you don't wanna do it. And you got to choose, what am I going to do? Did God really say this? And will I be humble and say, God has the answer, and I want him to help me be right with him?

In other words, let me sum up. Let me sum up in this section. These first four, if I give it titled one beatitude for these first four is this. Blessed is the person who realizes they need God, who faces their brokenness, knows they are loved, and is willing to be under God's authority.

Religious leaders didn't like that because they thought they were already lovable.

So they rejected it.

The rest of them now go into what does that new life look like. What are the attributes and attitudes in our heart that we need to have, and they should show up by the power of the Holy Spirit. And that is I'm gonna you know, I got the list up there. Right? Let's put the yeah. Go back to the list. Merciful.

So as we approach life now, we should have mercy towards others. Because guess what? We just realized how much mercy God has given to us So we don't become legalistic and go, well, you're worse than me because you did this, but I did that. No. We realize we need to have mercy.

Just like God gave mercy to us. So we approach even tough moments with a heart of mercy instead of instead of, you know, sometimes it's like I get even. Some of us now American, you know, we have this Rambo Christianity America. We're John Wick.

I don't just get even, I get ahead. You killed my puppy, I'm killing all of you. And by the way, I want my car back also. And that's not what we're called to be. We're called to have mercy. And then the next one is pure in heart. What does that mean? Is that being about perfect? No. It's being about transparent.

That word pure means unmixed.

Meaning as we grow in Christ, the attitude of our heart should stop having an unmixed heart. And really what usually gets mixed, divided is what that means. We need to it's unmixed. You're not having these two different things put together. Don't have this divided heart. And usually what happens is our will and our emotions will go two different ways.

And it can happen either way. Our will might say, okay, I will to serve. I will this. I want in my heart. I want to do what God wants me to do. I have that pureness, but my emotions keep getting in the way.

So, like, some of you here when we talk about what God's asked us to do, you're like, yeah. I I really wanna do it, but I can't

because of this or this or I'm afraid or or I've been church hurt, and I and they told me to do this before. Just because people are knuckleheaded doesn't mean you could just ignore the answer to church hurt is not to ignore what God said to do.

That's the lie of the enemy. He wants to keep you in limbo. Because if you stay in limbo long enough, you're gonna get frustrated enough, you're gonna walk away from the church. He wins.

The answer is to look at it honestly and say, Okay, my will wants this, but I got to deal with these emotions and where they're coming from so that you go back to hunger and thirst for rightness. God, what's going on? What's happening? And it can be the other way around. Your heart, your emotions might embrace,

but that old dog in you is really still in control. Your will is the other way. That happens a lot. At the end of this sermon,

there's gonna be something all that you'll be touched emotionally. You're gonna say, oh, yes. You're gonna get teary eyed. You're gonna wanna do it. You're gonna walk back out there, the dog's gonna take back over and start pulling you on roller skates.

And you're gonna be right back. You're just gonna ignore the moment.

Which one is it? And how do you even deal with this? The way you find out is you take a heart test. If you wanna know where your heart really is and how mixed it is, is just look at these three things. Look at your anxieties, your ambitions, and your activities. That'll

answer the question for you. Is if you want to know where your heart really is, is what do you worry about all the time? That'll reveal a lot about what you're really worried about. It reveals a lot of stuff.

The next thing is what are your ambitions? What are you always trying to get? Ambition is not bad. It's what we pointed at that's bad. And a lot of times, have a hard time really going all in with Lord because we're saying, I still have the ambitions of the dog. I still wanna bite the mailman, but I also wanna know the Lord,

which is usually when you have that division. That's why you worry all the time about certain things. And then what do you actually do? What am I doing with my time, my talent, my treasure? What am I doing with my life? Does that align with what Jesus called us to do? And it'll tell you where you're at. For example,

a lot of y'all worry about money all the time. You're always paranoid about it because you're not listening to God. And because of that,

your ambitions are always, I gotta get this. I gotta get that pay. I wanna have this. And that's usually what causes the worry over because your ambition is to go get stuff rather than honor God. So now you put yourself in a position that the reason you can't do both is because you can't do both.

It says you can't serve God and money at the same time. So now you're worried about it. Now you got anxiety. Now I'm saying it. And some of y'all get mad and walk out of here because I said it. I have to say it because that's what we fixate on.

And then your activities become, I'm gonna I'm gonna spend my money the way I want to and get mad at me for saying this is what God said to do. And you know what I'm really trying to do? The same thing God wanna do? I'm trying to help you to not be so anxious.

Because what you want to do with the money is you're chasing momentary happiness. So what happens to your whole life if you work for it and work for it and get what you want, and then something tragic happens with the economy? The Great Depression. Your life is done and you're jumping out of a window

and you're blaming God. And you go, No, I had a way. I had a way that would make you not worry, but you didn't want to take it.

God asked us to be generous, not because and I'm asking you, not because it's fundraising. It's faith raising. In our society, the number one way you will grow in your faith and your love for Jesus and understand how much he loves you is start honoring him with your money.

And I guarantee your faith will grow through the roof. And a lot of other anxieties will go away because you go, wow. God really took care of me in that. I'm not gonna worry about this. And if you're rejecting that and get mad at me and you say you're a Christian, your heart is mixed. And you will not be blessed.

You will not have the depth and distance of real happiness. You'll be stuck. You'll be stuck. Because then that leads to work for peace. Work for peace. Meaning, as we are going about what God's called us to do. We need to think of ourselves as peacemakers, not warmongers.

Like I said, we're not to be John Wick Christianity. I think we've mixed something in our society. We're like Rambo Christians also.

We're Rambos. Instead of working for peace, we get mad. We're like, Yo, I didn't draw first blood, you did. I didn't draw first blood, you did. So somebody in the world offends us and we go on the offense.

What we're really trying to do is make peace. And the primary piece, this isn't just stop wars. This isn't protesting wars that it's talking about. It's talking about we are trying to get people to see that God, they can have peace with God also. We're trying to bring

the distance. So what happens when we get really frustrated and and we get mad in the world? We start not being peacemakers and we yell at it all the time. What we do is we go from being called instead of pointing people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus was exactly what this is. This is how Jesus loved. We have the heart of Christ when we go about the mission. Instead of pointing people to Jesus,

we start pointing Jesus at people. And we think just, yeah, you're ridiculous. We write on a Facebook page. We say something, well, the Bible says, I just shot you with Jesus. And some of you don't understand what I'm saying. You think I'm pointing Jesus at you right now. I'm not.

I'm trying to get his freedom. Yeah, I'm rattling some cages right now. So you realize you're in one because the cages we're in open from the inside out. It's surrender to God, turn to His love, let Him change your heart, the cage will open, and all you gotta do is choose to step out of it. That's it.

But we want to stay in there. Peacemakers. And the thing about that is that leads Peacemaking leads right into the problem with this last one. Persecuted for doing what's right.

It's really clear what it's saying here. It's when you get persecuted because you actually live with these attributes, this character, and you're going after the purpose God gave you with this heart, and the world doesn't understand that, so they get mad at you. We think a lot of stuff is persecution that it's not.

There's three primary things I think we go down the road we say I'm being persecuted over. The first one is our personality. If you're weird or abrasive and you make people annoyed with you and then they get mean to you, you're not being persecuted. You're not.

Now they might be being mean. They that's unfair of them. They probably shouldn't be that way. And if they you're close friends, you should probably deal with it. And worst case scenario, maybe they can't be your bestie. Maybe you should remove yourself from that relationship.

But that's not persecution. Matter of fact, some of the things you're getting persecuted for in your personality is you can't just say, That's my personality. You've used that as a crutch to be abrasive, to be a jerk, to be mean. That ain't persecution.

The second thing is that's right close to that. Sometimes instead of just personality, you say it to a person, but it it steps over into your action just the way you you act personal stupidity is not another thing that you're getting persecuted over when you play stupid games and you win stupid prizes

that is not persecution. I can't believe this is happening. Are you kidding me? I can't believe me persecuted for my faith because you're pointing Jesus at people and yelling at them and telling them they're all going to hell and you're saying I'm better than you and you're stupid. And it's like that's not what we do

it's like it's it's like don't be stupid that's the answer stop being stupid for example you're like god why are you letting this happen why are you like why am I financially driving and god's like why why don't you listen to what I say to do with your money? This ain't me. It's you. I showed you the way

and you're being stupid. So the answer is just stopping stupid. And like I said before, I'm not pointing I'm saying stop being stupid. I'm the ringleader of stupidity. I should be that that guy out in front of the band. I don't even know what he does.

I'm well, look at how high you can throw his stupidity. And then I catch it and I go again. That's why we need a real community. We need people that know us that are around us that at this moment, they're not being stupid when you are.

And then they can look you in the face because you know them, they love you, you love them, they know it, and they say, Hey, for the love of Jesus, stop being stupid. But if we're not humble, we don't want that. We like the easy Christianity. The one that says, I just do these rules and I'm made right with God.

See, lot of people, if you've in church for while, you think, oh, man, those Pharisees, they made it so hard. They made, 700 rules. And we think that was making it hard. Do you realize that wasn't making it hard? That was making it easy. How do you mean?

Because they were supposed to honor the 10 commandments and have this kind of attributes in their life. They couldn't do it. So they say, well, when we do this rule, we don't do this on this time and do that. Now we've honored it. It's not about your heart. It's not about the way it really is supposed to go. It's about this.

You could do the 700 rules. It may be cumbersome and it is oppressive, but you could actually do that. The problem is it didn't make a difference. That's what Paul talked about. He says, When it come to being living the law, I was the best. What he meant is I kept all the rules and it didn't help.

So sometimes our personal stupidities is you make all these little rules that take you around God's word. You have all these justifications. Here's why I don't have to give. Here's why I don't have to do this. Here's why I did that. But I do this. And because I do this, I don't have to do this. And because I do that on You're just doing the same thing.

You're saying, I am justifying the dog attacking the mailman. And I'm actually calling that my mission.

Okay. You think that's bad. Here's the last one. It's not a political platform either. When we go out and now wait wait. Before I say it, let me preface this. Do not hear what I am not saying. We are called to be good citizens. And in our government, we are the government technically. And so we should let our biblical theology

drive our political ideology. We should be involved and we there are things that we want to stand for. And hey, there's some stuff that since we're a republic, if you say I want to vote this versus that, I will vote for the one that I think is more biblical.

The problem is when we think the war and the mission is in politics. When we think the government is gonna save us. We as Christians lose our minds over this. We think we're fighting the good fight by getting all the laws a certain way or getting our party because we want to have prosperity

and happiness, and we think this way will bring it better. I

have a view on how government should work that I think will make us all prosper and happy, and I'll fight over it. But that's not my faith. That's not their calling. That's not our mission. And sometimes we get so caught up that we replace the government with God because what the government does is it goes out at the world's way to try to give us happiness.

And we vote for happiness. And then we go out there and we do all. And then if we start pushing this agenda, pointing Jesus at people, guess what? People get mad and they yell at you.

That's not persecution. That's just called we live in a world that everyone likes to fight. That's not what it's talking about. Of course, we should have I have a lot of opinions. It's just not my job to preach them. We have people that'll leave because you're not talking political.

Or they'll be like, if you talk about politics or even mention what I should do with my money, no matter. Matter of fact, we had a they said it was in the way out. Couple got up right when I was at this point, walked out right from right right behind you guys. And I could tell by look on their face, I'm like, well, I hope they had somewhere else to go because sometimes you guys get out. I think if you had to go somewhere, you'd sit near the back, but people are not

personal stupidity. And and I could tell by look on their face and they kinda went off. And then before they came in, it's like, if he talks politics or talks if you say anything against my agenda, I'm out. Do you realize that's the kind of people that Jesus flipped tables over?

I'll talk about what politics how we should look at it. I'm not gonna tell you how to vote. That's your job. I'm gonna tell you what God says, and I hope that your faith will direct it. But the battle isn't there. See, we wanna go fight with people all the time. Our fight isn't with people, folks. It's for people.

We fight for people. The Bible even says, Our battle is not against flesh and blood, against the principalities, the rulers. There's a spiritual fight out there. That's the fight we're supposed to be in.

And if you spend more of your time listening to the the the talk show you like, the news pundits you like, fighting over that, arguing with your friends, they know more your political stance than the fact that you even know Jesus, and you spend more time listening to all that and not reading your bible and studying, being involved in the mission of God, there is something desperately wrong with your view

and your faith. Because here's the deal. Go read the Bible about what it says government's job is. Government will never save us. It'll never provide the blessing that it says here. It only provides momentary happiness. The real goal of government, why God created it, was because of our own personal stupidity, our lack of how all of us are sinners, and we won't admit it, that God says, I need a system that at least keeps us all from killing each other until I come back.

That's the super simple version Bill Bush reads, but that's exactly what he's saying. Government is the guardrail that just keeps us from falling off the cliff and annihilating each other. It's the leash. That's all it is. It's the leash on the dog so we can't go attack and we can't kill each other. But here's the problem. If you drive at a guardrail fast enough, if you pull hard enough, you can still go over the top, you can still attack.

And that's why government can implode on itself. But here's the thing. This country can collapse in on itself, and God is still doing what he wants to do.

It can totally crumble overnight. And if you know the Lord and you trust him, it won't matter. He will use your life. You will be loved, and you will have a purpose, and you will see that, and you will be able to have a peace and contentment. You'll worry a little bit, and it won't be pleasant.

God never said, He said, There'll be persecution. There'll be hard times. But the mission isn't to stop that. Now, I want to be a part of it. I prefer not to have it happen that way. But most of us lead out with that's more important than this. So what is the most important part?

When we have this kind of a heart, if this is who we are, it says then this is what we should be doing. And that's the next three verses. When it says, we are to be salt and light. That's what I'm to do. If this is what I'm supposed to be,

this is what I'm supposed to do. And this isn't just me. This isn't just an organization. This isn't just a church misstatement. This is every single one of us that knows Jesus Christ as Lord. This is what your main focus of your life needs to be, period.

And it's this. You are the salt of the earth, but what good is salt if it's lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It'll be thrown out and trampled underfoot. We're supposed to have saltiness instead we just get salty.

You are the light of the world like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all those to see that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Salt and light. This is important because this is critical in this time, especially the salt one. What does he mean by being salt? Well, salt was really important in this, Curt. Today, just think of it as it gives us high blood pressure.

But what it really does is it kills bacteria. It preserves food. They didn't have refrigeration. Didn't have Today, we just do that by shooting stuff up with hormones and killing ourselves in another way. But back then, salt would actually keep it like you can keep food longer. So starvation went down

because food could last. It saved lives and it adds flavor. It made food taste better. We're called to save lives and make life taste better by pointing people to Jesus. And then the the second thing is light. Light is something that's revealing of a way. It reveals something. It shows truth.

Our lives and our deeds should show that truth. That's why we point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus, not by pointing Jesus at them, but by loving. Like, we are supposed to these beatitudes are the heart of Christ. We actually he's describing Jesus. We go about our life the way Jesus went about it.

But we are all in on this mission. That's the mission. So your whole life, we should go and live intentionally. Once we know and we know the Lord, we want to grow in community because I said we already need each other because we all can be stupid.

Then we're supposed to together help encourage each other to go and live intentionally. What's your ambition in life? You can have a great business and everybody can do it. God might use you to build up a great business that helps lives, gives people jobs. It adds flavor

to life. It helps. It's a good thing. But are you using what God has given you then to help them get to true life and point people to Jesus?

Do you really think that way?

Some of us, you don't have much money at all. And you're really busy and you think, I can't surrogate. But like I said, it's about what God wants to show you and trusting him with that. And you know what's crazy? Is he'll take that fish and that loaf that you can hand him, and he will multiply.

But some of you in here, you have so much more money than you think you do. They did a study and they said anybody that makes, you know, 300 to $400,000 still thinks they're not rich.

I know what the average salary is in this area in the world. There's some of y'all in this room that could give so much more

and change help change the world. God will use it. Why don't you? And the reason I challenge you is because that's the heart issue. I want your faith to grow in the Lord, and he's asked us to be part of a mission.

And that's why I talk about these things. Why is he talking about money in this? Because that's where we live life. Those are the things that enable the mission. They enable us to move forward.

I mean, we talk about the politics out there and stuff. I don't wanna talk about it. Wanna talk about how we can be on mission with the Lord. Because you know what I'd rather talk about? The 1,200 people that became Christians at Easter. That's a good thing to talk about, isn't it?

Then two weeks ago, we baptized 300 people. I mean, think this is the service that turned into absolute chaos because we baptized like 78 or something in one service. It was crazy.

That's the stuff we should be about. And if your heart is not there, then there's something wrong with your heart. Because what Jesus is saying is if you really embrace my love and these attributes are in your life, it's automatic that you'll be about this.

So my point is if you don't wanna do it, wanna first step is not force yourself. The first step is to ask yourself, why do I not want to? Take the heart test. And it's gonna be a lie, a fear, or a lack of humility. That's your answer.

And then you pray and ask God for the help me hunger and thirst. You know what that means? God, even if I don't want to, help me to want to want to, and then do it. Because in this passage, it's the first time that Matthew uses the phrase for God is father. He's the dad.

He uses it 45 times in the book. He's used in the Old Testament, but when he's trying to tie this together, this is not some king making harsh proclamations. This is a dad that's saying, you gotta trust me, son. You gotta trust me, daughter. And you are more than what you think you are. I love you, and I'm a king.

You are my son or my daughter. That makes you a prince or a princess. You are nobility in my eyes. You are loved, and I have given you a mission just like I have a mission to lead people in this kingdom. You do too. What is stopping you from embracing that? What is stopping you from listening to the voice of your father?

When I was first moved out here to start Rock Point,

two families lived in one little rental house where our houses were being built. There was 11 of us in a 1,600 square foot house. So the one family we let like, hey, they got the house and they did, they invited us to come stay with them for a while. So they had the master bedroom, they had their own bathroom. The other nine of us shared one bathroom. And

it was like, yeah, there was like a little over 100 square feet per person in this house, if you think about it that way. But

one day, the bathroom was full. Someone went back, Hey, there's someone in there. And then like ten minutes later, there's someone still in there. I'm like, wait. Who's who's in the bathroom? And then we look at head count. Where's my son, Jaden? He's, like, three and a half years old. So we're like, we lost track. There's too many bodies. So I went over and I hit the door. It's locked. And I knock on the door. I'm like, hey.

Jaden, are you in there? Nothing. Are you in there? And all of sudden, hear the water running. I'm like, hey, who's in there? And I hear, in a minute. I'm like, Jaden, open the door. In a minute.

And I'm like, you gotta unlock this door, son. It's dangerous. You can't be in there. Unlock the door in a minute. So finally, I'm like, I gotta get this door unlocked. We're looking around for little, like, those little metal key things, which you always can find them when you don't need to. Where are they we're looking around I'm like I don't know and then it got desperate because he's like in a minute I go son listen to your dad's voice

you might not understand but you understand this do what I'm asking you to do in a minute And then it got real desperate because as I was listening to the water run, I felt my feet getting wet. And now water is just pouring and going down the hallway and the the the drywall is acting like the sponge that it can be.

And like now this is bad. That is dangerous for him and it's destructive to the house. So it's destructive to my bank account. So this is gonna cost me and it could hurt him badly.

I wonder what was going on. Later on, I did find out what he was doing. He's went in there, he's playing around, having fun, dropping his little soldier in the toilet. Then he thought it'd be more fun to have play in the sink. He got the water on, stepped on his stool, and then he realized how he pulled up and he realized how to put the train thing in, and now it started flowing. Then he thought it was more fun when he had a waterfall to play in.

So now it's just pouring over and dumping in there. And I'm like, son, you gotta open this door right now. It's like, I'm now I'm thinking, should I should I just break the door down and cost more to my bank account or not? Because I'm like, my wife goes, I found one. I'm like, good, hurry up. Get over here. And I'm like, Son, you gotta open the door in a minute! I go give it to me! And I turn and then he finally opened the door.

He's standing there in his diaper, head's wet, he was underneath the waterfall, the tile lick it has fallen and hit his head. It's like so many things. So I was like, you know, I get he didn't understand the danger to him. And I get he didn't understand the destruction he was causing.

But what I know he understood is my voice. And he chose to say in a minute and not listen. He made a choice on that one. So I did what any good father would do. I picked him up and I stuck his head in the toilet, flushed a few times. No. I didn't do that. I grabbed him and I held him.

I said, Son, I you don't understand. That was dangerous and destructive and costly.

And you just need to trust your father's voice even when you don't understand it.

How about you?

Where in your life right now, God's voice is speaking on how he wants you to trust him. And you keep saying in a minute. What if this became that moment?

You might not understand why he wants you to do this. You might understand. And when you don't understand, you get mad at me when I say, here's what he's asking us to do as disciples. Here's what I'm inviting you to be a part of. This is what God wants us to be about.

And whatever your reason for holding back, you might not understand it, but can you listen to the Father's voice and just open the door?

No more in a minute. See what happens in your life if you say in this moment, I will. Father God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you for loving us. And my prayer is simple for me, everyone in this room, anyone watching online, is may we be people that develop these attributes, these beatitudes in our life. That we allow you

to give us these. And then we will follow your call to the purpose we've been called to. And if anyone here is struggling with that in a minute, in a minute, in a minute, I pray you give them the clarity and the courage to make that this moment, that that minute becomes now.

And I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Hey. Love you guys. Thanks for being here. Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way.

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