Matthew 6:1-4

The Right Side up Life / Matthew 6:1–4

This morning we see a passage where we are called to “practice our righteousness” and in this case, giving to the poor. But it is not just that we do it, it is how we do it. That we are not called to announce what we are doing to the world but to give in secret so that God, who is our audience, sees and responds.

Matthew 6:1 ESV

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

The only way we know how to make sense of the world is by telling stories. That is the way we are created and the way it has always been.

What kinds of stories do you like to tell others about yourself?

Our stories are played out in our day to day lives. Each action represents something bigger than us.

We have faith, but we have to work it out in our lives. We practice it by the way that we engage with our neighbor and co worker.

2 Corinthians 5:18–21 ESV

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

how have you seen others practicing righteousness in your life?

Matthew 6:2–4 ESV

“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus is telling us not only to practice our righteousness but how to do it. He uses the example of giving to the needy. And He tells us that when we do that we are not supposed to “sound the trumpet” and let people know.

This is hard for us to engage with because we like the accolade, we like others seeing us. This is the true act of righteousness. Not that we do it, but that we do it for the other, not for us.

Tell about a time where you were tempted to story sell instead of story tell

We are called this morning to Be very careful about what role you are playing.

Your Story in Christ is always the best story

› We are left w a choice. We either have to continue to compete for the attention we think we deserve or we need to receive the attention we have already been given by God

How has God invited you to engage with Him directly lately? How is He calling you back to Himself?

Matt 5:43-48

The Right Side up Life / Matthew 5:43–48

Matthew six passage on loving your enemies is one of my favorite in the sermon on the mountain. One because it is incredibly challenging. But that too is what makes it beautiful. It is the particularity of this passage that marks Christianity apart from any other organization or any other Form of religion in the known world right now. The Christians are to be a people who love their enemies. And not only that who pray for those who persecute us.

Matthew 5:43–44 ESV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Hatred feels easier

Hatred, at its core is a rejection of another person, a resistance of them. So to hate someone you are creating a sort of friction between you and the other person and whatever it is they are associated with. And what does friction do? It utilizes more energy. If there is friction between two objects, it will take much more energy to move one of the objects. Anger is friction. Some of us are living with a lot of friction between others and we are called, as Christians, to release that hatred and love others.

English Standard Version Chapter 5:45

45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

Love looks like God

This is an interesting turn of phrase Jesus gives us. Love your enemy so that you may be sons (and daughters) of heaven. There is a direct connection that is made between how we love and our understanding of being a child of God. That when we love our enemy, not that we become God’s children, but rather, that we look like God’s children. We reflect His nature.

English Standard Version Chapter 5:45

For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46

What we are forced to look at here it’s not what God can do or how God exactly works through precipitation, but rather and much more importantly, what is God like. What we have to contend with that is much more important than what God can do is what kind of God do we have?

Matthew 5:46–47 ESV

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

To do so is the invitation into a better kingdom. It is the invitation into something more and better.

Be Perfect

Matthew 5:48 ESV

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The church must be the more peculiar ones in this culture. That we do become more and more unconditional as the world becomes more conditional. That we show grace and we show love unconditionally. That we grapple with why it is we have enemies in the first place.

The church is Called to love her enemies. No one else is. But that means that we have to go first. We have got to cross lines first. That we have to embrace first, welcome first, invite in first.

When we feel lost, or slighted, or defensive, we often feel like we have to fight for some part of lost ground. Or grapple with something that we don’t have. But for the Christian, we cannot be lost, we have everything that we could need in Christ. If you have everything you need, and there’s no need to fight for anything. If you can’t get lost, then you don’t have to grapple with someone in order to feel found.

The church is in the perfect place to love her enemy. Because the church has been given everything that the human condition needs to not have to fight any longer.

Matthew 5:31-32

The Right Side up Life / Matthew 5:31–32

Introduction

We have to remember that some things are still incredibly important. And the church has to go back to remembering what it is that we find most important. That is the work of the sermon on the mount. It shows us what leads to flourishing in Christ. What, not just a life is, but what a good life looks like.

So in order to understand that we have to go back to those things that Christ called important. And for this morning He calls marriage important.

So we are going to look at what marriage does

And then what divorce does

And in both cases we will be led to the same conclusion, we are in desperate need of grace in our lives.

What does marriage do?

Genesis 2:19–25 ESV

Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man.”

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Let’s look at Ephesians 5:25–30 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.”

This is a direct line between how we act in marriage and how Christ treats the church. That is why, for the Christian, marriage matters.

That is why, for the Christian, we are not called to treat it lightly or glibly.

Matthew 5:31–32 ““It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

We stop paying attention to all the foundational institutions in society. We walk away from marriages, we walk away from commitments.

The reason divorce matters is because marriage matters. We have approached things far too glibly and we are paying the prices for it.

What do we do from here?

I am going to be borrowing from your friend and mine, Augustine,

We must never despair of anyone ever.

Patience is required in marriage

And Patience is how Christ deals with us

2 Peter 3:8–9 ESV

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Our work as the church is to call important what Christ calls important. Marriage, and from that relationships, are of high importance. In order to do well in our marriage, to live reconciled lives, it will be needed to not despair of anyone ever. And when we can’t uphold that, turn to Christ who can.

Matthew 5:27-30

The Right Side up Life / Matthew 5:27–32

Jesus is getting specific here because while this may be one part of human life and flourishing it is an important part. It may not be all of human life but it is an important one. And it is necessary to get some areas correct in order for the entire system to work out.

Our relationships often ask for more than we want to give. Christ offers us more than we can possibly take.

› Lust can only take, it never gives.

Let’s begin by looking at the heart.

Matthew 5:27–28 ESV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Definition of lust

Love is when we understand and desire something for what it is and for how good it is or can be. It has meaning regardless of what we think about it.

Lust is when we desire something for what it can do for us. It has meaning only based on what we can get out of it. It is purely transactional. And any relationship based on transaction automatically throws love out the window.

The church has to first return to the message that

We are more than whatever lust offers.

CS Lewis in the Four loves tells us that the voice of Eros (a love that is passion and selfish) yells and sounds like the voice of agape but it is not.

Eros, sexual desire takes the voice of a God in its confidence and commitment to its goal. But it doesn’t point to anywhere beyond satisfying that goal.

“It is in the grandeur of Eros that the seeds of danger are concealed. He has spoken like a god. His total commitment, his reckless disregard of happiness, his transcendence of self-regard, sound like a message from the eternal world.”

Let’s look at action.

Matthew 5:29 ESV

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Jesus is stating that the Gospel is more than sufficient for normal functioning. That God’s goodness has come into the world to fix our broken condition through the death and resurrection of Christ is so worthwhile that it is more essential to your right eye or hand.

It is also a statement on how powerful acting on lust can be. So much so that it would be better to be without essential means of navigating your world than to continue on with the ability to act on lust.

That is how detrimental it can be.

we have a chance to remove what is rotting. Get off social media or off the internet. Get out of that relationship.

Wherever there is rust there is rot. And once we arrive here, sin has taken hold.

We have a chance to deal with it at this level, if we don’t, repetitive action becomes habit. Lust becomes normative. This is precisely where we are as a culture.

Every lustful intent is inhuman.

In this case, since we are talking about sexuality, we have to talk about the lustful inhumanity of sexuality.

When we practice actions over and over we get habit.

And I know Ive mentioned this before but practice doesn’t make perfect.

Practice makes permanent.

So whatever actions you have picked up as habits are not perfection they are becoming permanent, they are concreted into your life.

That’s why love and lust must be two different things. Because Christ came with love to win us back. The love of Christ that gives and does not take restores.

But you have to go all the way back to the heart and give him those desires. surrender to Him. He will support you. He will use the church to do so. The goal is not shame it is support. It is to return to love

Matthew 5:27-32

John

The Right Side up Life / Matthew 5:27–32

Our relationships often ask for more than we want to give. Christ offers us more than we can possibly take.

› Lust can only take, it never gives.

Let’s begin by looking at the heart.

Matthew 5:27–28 ESV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Definition of lust

Love is when we understand and desire something for what it is and for how good it is or can be. It has meaning regardless of what we think about it.

The church has to first return to the message that

We are more than whatever lust offers.

CS Lewis in the Four loves tells us that the voice of Eros (a love that is passion and selfish) yells and sounds like the voice of agape but it is not.

Eros, sexual desire takes the voice of a God in its confidence and commitment to its goal. But it doesn’t point to anywhere beyond satisfying that goal.

Let’s look at action.

Matthew 5:29 ESV

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

That is how detrimental it can be.

we have a chance to remove what is rotting. Get off social media or off the internet. Get out of that relationship.

Wherever there is rust there is rot. And once we arrive here, sin has taken hold.

We have a chance to deal with it at this level, if we don’t, repetitive action becomes habit. Lust becomes normative. This is precisely where we are as a culture.

Every lustful intent is inhuman.

In this case, since we are talking about sexuality, we have to talk about the lustful inhumanity of sexuality.

When we practice actions over and over we get habit.

And I know Ive mentioned this before but practice doesn’t make perfect.

Practice makes permanent.

So whatever actions you have picked up as habits are not perfection they are becoming permanent, they are concreted into your life.

That’s why love and lust must be two different things. Because Christ came with love to win us back. The love of Christ that gives and does not take restores.

Anger

The Right Side up Life / Matthew 5:21–27

Intro

Jesus words to us int The Sotm forced you to ask questions and causes you to face our own issues. No one else will ask you to deal with your internal conversations. Jesus will

If you call yourself a Christian this morning, you cannot get away with, I just needed to blow off some steam. Our passage today doesn’t let us.

Anger itself is not sin. Jesus was angry and did not sin. But, anger makes it really easy to sin.

Because of two connected ideas

Anger points at something

Anger constricts everything

Anger constricts. Reconciliation expands. Jesus offers a better way.

Matthew 5:21–22 ESV

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

When we hear the words, “I say to you,” one we should probably pay attention. And, Jesus is not changing the law, He is showing us what righteousness looks like in Him.

But Jesus is looking for perfection, for wholeheartedness. He knows that the internal drives the external actions. It is one thing to have not murdered. But honestly that is a pretty low bar.

And His Commands test the durability of our hearts. What are they made of. Great that you haven’t murdered anyone,

But how have you spoken about your neighbor?

About your co worker?

About that family member that is particularly difficult

That person who votes for who know who

Or even, you know who.

Anger constricts. That is all it can do

Anger constricts because it is a focusing agent. Not all anger is bad or sin. Anger is necessary for human action. There should be some things that anger us.

Anger constricts worship

When anger takes the center stage, really the only one we end up worshiping, because it is constricting, is ourselves. We may be angry about something but when we exhibit anger and it constricts, the focus ends up on us. And we shout and yell at others because they have gotten in our way.

Matthew 5:23–24 ESV

Reconciliation Expands.

There is no limit to what it can do. Reconciliation brings back what was broken. Reconciliation is the superglue of human relationships. It doesn’t just put the pieces together. It actually binds us back. It builds back relationships when we let God reconcile

Reconciliation is the cornerstone of worship.

And without the act of reconciliation we would not be able to worship. Primarily because God has reconciled Himself to us in Christ. But also reconciling with one another restores worship to God. Reconciliation matters so much that this passage focuses entirely on the haste of it. Jesus tells us if you are going to be hasty, don’t be hasty toward anger. Be hasty toward reconciliation.

Run, don’t walk, toward reconciliation

Matthew 5:25–26 ESV

Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Come to terms quickly.

Ephesians 2:4–7 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Anger will always want to take more than is offered. Reconciliation will always offer more than has been taken.

So today, to deal with your anger.

First, bring it to God. If you are angry, tell Him. Place it before the cross.

Second, tell someone else. Talk through your anger with someone who is safe.

Third. Run to reconcile. Don’t walk, run. Come to terms.

Matt 5:13-16. Salt and Light

The Right Side up Life / Matthew 5:13–16

Introduction

Up until this point we can say Jesus is talking about someone else, even something else. Up until this point it is a helpful story

Salt: Drawn into His Promises

Matthew 5:13 ESV

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

We don’t want to rush ahead with what the Scriptures are saying. We do this quickly and too easily in the Bible and every other place. We hear a phrase or picture or image and we know what it means. We think we do.

The images salt and light mean something specific about the way God interacts with His people.

Numbers 18:19 ESV

All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.”

The salt reminds us that we are sustained by God’s promises in Christ.

› Salt is what we experience by knowing we are kept in Christ.

Sent through His Power

Matthew 5:14–16 ESV

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Genesis 1:3 ESV

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Exodus 3:2 ESV

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

Exodus 13:21–22 ESV

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

John 1:4–5 ESV

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

SO then as soon as we see light used in this passage we understand that God is breaking into the world.

But how?

Through the church. Through those devoted to Christ and His life. That is light as well. The way we navigate through the world as Christians is what Jesus Himself calls light.

› We are called to act as light in the world.

The church, according to Jesus, is the necessary voice in the culture. That God is still working, still moving, still acting, always reconciling.

Beatitudes pt 3

The Right Side up Life / Matthew 5:9–11

Conflict is normal.

The way out is what is abnormal

We are called to be peacemakers. Which means, with all the effort that we have, we are called to make peace with others.

Colossians 1:21–22 ESV

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

Glorifying God

Getting the Log out

Matthew 7:3–5 ESV

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

This is a normative posture because it is the place where Christ lifts our burdens. It is not the place of shame or heaviness, it is the posture of freedom.

This is how we understand that conflict can give glory to God. We go to the place where we need restoration.

We are always waiting for the other person. Christ didn’t. We don’t either.

Because it is in getting the log out that we can understand restoration

Restore and be reconciled

Matthew 5:23–26 ESV

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

We are called to be experts in it. What does it mean to be a Christian in the world? What does it mean to act like Christ in the world?

2 Corinthians 5:19 ESV

that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

To be a peacemaker is to respond to Christ making peace in our own lives.

Matthew 5:10–11 ESV

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Matthew 5:9 ESV

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

And then immediately after he says, people will misunderstand you because they misunderstand Christ and they will utter all kinds of evil.

And that connection may be the most important of all

Because we love justifying the idea of treating people the way they treat us. Jesus doesn’t say be kind to people only as long as they are kind to you. He says make peace even when, especially when, people utter all kinds of evil against you.

Beatitudes pt 2

The Right Side up Life / Matthew 5:6–8

Luke 4:18–19 ESV

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

This is the crux of His ministry

Because of what He came to do it changes our posture of what kind of life we are called to do.

The Position of the Blessed life

We are given the position of the life Jesus calls us to,

Now we are going to look at the posture of the blessed life

The Posture of the Blessed life

Three postures

The posture of the kingdom of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who show mercy and those who are pure of heart.

Matthew 5:6 ESV

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Again this is on purpose because Jesus isn’t setting forth unattainable goals. He is using hunger and thirst as the most basic form of understanding how we desire.

Righteousness. Jesus doesn’t define for what so we can assume all things. Righteousness means right standing or right relationships.

Living righteously does not mean that everyone agrees with us or that we say things that everyone agrees with. It means we take stands on issues that would misform righteousness. We agree with Christ’s move to reconcile all things to Himself, which means that righteousness is moving toward one direction: Jesus.

Matthew 5:7 ESV

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

The concept of mercy can be a strange animal. Because we often struggle to show it but we love more than anything receiving it.

Why is mercy important? Because mercy offers the space in another’s life to choose differently.

We know that because if you are in Christ this morning you have been shown mercy.

We all want mercy, and that is part of the flourishing life, but real and true life is found in being merciful.

Matthew 5:8 ESV

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

This is the call and reminder that we are not just called to be morally better. This list is not just about things to do, though the sotm will fill a lifetime on what it means to follow Christ well in the world.

Again Jesus is telling us, this is how life works. If you want to see what flourishing looks like, it looks like this. If you want to see God, it will mean a purity in heart. A whole heartedness.

The concept of paying attention is necessary in the sermon on the mount. Because to pay attention means that we are able to focus in ourselves for that which Christ is doing.

Culture makes massive demands on your attention. They are coming for all of it. News networks make massive demands on your attention. Social media makes massive demands on your attention. All of them promise a form of the flourishing life.

Beatitudes pt 1

The Right Side up Life / Matthew 5:1–5

Jesus is going to show us how the most difficult places are the places where the Kingdom of God thrives.

Matthew 5:3–5 ESV

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

This is a strange starting point. We start from a broken condition, a less than position.

That is displayed at the cross. We can trust Christ’s words that life comes from loss because of His display at the cross.

› The flourishing life does not come a full tank. It comes from recieving what Christ offers. And that means recognizing where we are.

This is the position that everyone seems to want to run from. Why? Because it is the place that everyone has been. Everyone has experienced the discomfort of poor in spirit and mourning.

› If you are poor in spirit, if you grieve, if you are meek, you are in good shape. Because you are in the condition to recieve.

Christ came to take what is ugliest in us and call it the place of mercy.

The beginning of the flourishing life is to cut through the illusion of the our delusion.

We have been and are poor in spirit. There are times when we still mourn. And we haven’t figured out that meekness thing to well yet.

Don’t make anything up. Don’t cover anything up.

But trust Christ enough to be honest with Him this morning.

That is condition for being happy because God does something about that. He not only speaks into that. He changes the conditions entirely.

We are not just poor in spirit, we have the kingdom of heaven.

We are not just those who mourn, we are those who have recieved mercy

We are not the meek, we have the security found in the inheriting the earth.

And we remember that life comes from loss when we participate in communion.

Page . Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:50 AM June 8, 2024.

Sermon On The Mount intro

The Right Side up Life

Introduction to series

But by far, the best way to understand life is to have someone personally guide us through it.

there’s not a single person in the world who has not struggled in how to live in that intersection. Of how to live well. What we will see is what God desires for us, what He desires from us and how He calls us to do that.

That is actually the upside down life. It is not life giving, it is life taking.

Christ is inviting us into the right side up life

John 14:6–7 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

We are looking at what Scot McKnight says is “bringing God’s future to bear on the present.” The SOTM is not example, not principle, it is obedience for now. It is a picture of what life looks like now in the frame of divine grace.

Matthew 7:24–27 ESV

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

The words we will look at this morning in terms of introduction are

blessed and perfect.

These are words used throughout the Sotm

We see Jesus talking all the time about the blessed life.

And then He calls us to be perfect as your father in Heaven is perfect

Let’s look at these words in turn. They will help to prepare us for the rest of the Sotm.

What is God desiring for us?

We have different ways of understanding blessed so we first have to look at the way Jesus uses it.

Because his usage is strange. Look at the first time He says it

Matthew 5:3 ESV

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Remember that Jesus is not just downloading new information from Heaven. If HE did that no one would understand Him. He is Jewish, and coming from a specific Jewish background with ideas of blessedness.

Jesus is looking for the meaning from the OT.

Look at Psalm 1:1-3

Psalm 1:1–3 ESV

Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

Matthew 5:3 ESV

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus is saying, this is the blessed, the fortunate, the happy life. Even though it doesn’t look like blessedness, we can trust Jesus interpretation of it.

He’s not dreaming with us to say what things could be like, he is walking around the city center, showing us all the buildings in the sites

This is what he means by blessed, showing us the concrete way that we are called to flourish in the divine grace of Jesus.

What is God desiring from us?

Matthew 5:48 ESV

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

JEsus is using, not the word, Holy, as we like to think, but He is using the word that means complete or without fragments.

› It means that who understands their purpose, means and end. It means that which is complete, inside and outside. That is why Jesus makes this inner outer connection all the time.

› This is not perfection or acting perfect. No one lives that way. No one here, anyhow. We are imperfect with a picture of a better life and everything we need to live that out.

As we’ll see in the sermon in the amount, the idea is not that we would be perfect as we understand it, but rather that as we live wholeheartedly devoted to God, we understand the places in which we are not complete or hole hole, the imperfect parts of us. And we understand that we take those to God we bring those before him and he reconciles he redeems he restores. Hole Hearted devoted people take their imperfect parts because they recognize that much better job with him than we do. whole hearted devotion does not fear imperfection because it knows where to go with it and that God can do a much better job with it than we can.

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