Sermon on the Mount: Our Hearts Reordered Toward Heaven, Pt. 1: Anger, Lust & Divorce (Matthew 5:21-32)

Hello, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning into Newsung Churches Podcast.

We're a gospel centered church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

This is the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.

But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment.

Whoever insults his brother or sister will be subject to the court.

Whoever says, You fool, will be subject to hellfire.

So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.

First, go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.

Reach a settlement quickly with your adversary while you are on the way with him to the court, or your adversary will hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you'll be thrown into prison.

Truly, I tell you, you will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny.

You have heard that it was said, do not commit adultery.

But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.

For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

It was also said, whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce.

But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in a case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery.

And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Gracious Lord, we come to you this morning, sinners as we are, broken as we are, because we need to hear you speak to us.

And so, Lord, I pray that as you teach us your law, so too would you draw us nearer to yourself as our hope, as our good news, as our Savior and as our friend.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be always pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Years ago, I attended a talk, uh, and the subject of the talk was uh what is Christianity?

And this was a talk given by someone who's admittedly younger than I am now.

Uh a talk given by someone who's not a Christian themselves and primarily addressing folks who weren't a Christian, so weren't Christians.

So I was kind of I was quite intrigued because I hang out with Christians a lot, you know, and I'm kind of thinking, like, I'm interested to hear what someone on the outside, speaking to people on the outside of Christianity, has to say about Christianity.

And, you know, the the bottom line, I think the big takeaway from this talk was this Christians are concerned about being saved.

Christians are saved by following the Ten Commandments.

Period.

Now, some of that's right, isn't it?

Which is not altogether wrong.

We are concerned about what it means to be saved and about salvation.

And the Ten Commandments are of crucial importance in how we live the Christian life, along with all of God's commandments, right?

But there's something missing.

And that's what I walked away from the talk thinking, there's something missing here.

What is it?

And I wonder if it's something like this.

What's missing is the transforming work of God's word in our hearts.

Not just in our actions, not just in our conduct, not just in what we do, but in who we are.

That's what it means to be a Christian.

God's word and Holy Spirit renews us from the inside out.

It's not just behavior modification, is it?

It's a whole new heart.

So we've been going through the Sermon on the Mount together these last number of weeks.

We're learning to live life according to Jesus.

And here's what we've discovered so far that God's kingdom is breaking into our world.

Jesus is inaugurating it.

Jesus is bringing it with him.

When we come near to Jesus, we are drawing near to God's kingdom.

And when God's kingdom breaks into earth, it reorders life toward heaven on earth as it is in heaven, right?

That's been true for Christian character.

We read the Beatitudes together.

That's been true for the purpose of the Christian life, being salt and light rubbed into the fiber of the communities into which we belong.

And now, as we continue into the Sermon on the Mount, we want to raise some specific questions about what that inside-out kind of transformation looks like in specific areas of life.

Specific areas of controversy in Jesus' day, things that were being debated back and forth, but things that are perhaps surprisingly relevant to our day as well.

Here's what we discover.

This is the main idea, I think, for the next three weeks as we walk from one topic to the next to the next.

Here's what we discover.

When God's kingdom breaks into earth, it reorders our hearts first, from the inside out.

That's different than saying God's kingdom reorders society and then benefits the individual.

That's a different thing, isn't it?

God's kingdom, Jesus says, breaks into our hearts first and then goes from the inside out, into the communities, into the society in which we live.

So Jesus is not addressing society at large.

He's not saying those people need to get it.

He's saying, will you get this?

Will we get this as Christians, as disciples?

God's kingdom reorders our hearts first from the inside out.

That's true in the three areas of life that Jesus raises in today's text: anger, lust, and divorce.

It's also true in things that we will raise in the coming weeks: honesty and empathy, generosity and self-denial.

But I want us to zoom in on these three specific areas of life where God's kingdom reorders our hearts.

Now, I'm very conscious of the fact that there is no one in this room for whom all three of these areas affect us very deeply and very personally.

There is none of us who are not unaffected by this.

Jesus knows this.

He knows our hearts better than we do.

And so when Jesus speaks to us, it is not with the a callous and uncaring heart, it is with the heart of a loving surgeon who wants our very best and our greatest health.

So, yes, this is deeply personal stuff.

And surely in my meager sermon this morning, I will not even begin to touch on every question that we could raise.

That's what long coffees with Bibles open are for.

And I would invite that, and I'd invite you to reach out to a trusted brother and sister to explore together in more depth.

But I do want us to catch something of Jesus' logic, something of his ordering, something of his pace this morning as we raise these three important areas of life: anger and lust and divorce.

You know, three light, easy subjects for Vestry Sunday, right?

But I think we can do this with confidence.

Confidence because Jesus' word is good.

And it is life-giving.

And if we're willing to go where Jesus leads us, I think we will discover what is for our good and what gives us life this morning and every day.

So let's open this up together.

Let's discover how God's kingdom reorders our hearts first.

If you've got your order of service, if you've got your Bible, open it up to Matthew 5, beginning at verse 21.

God's kingdom reorders our hearts first.

It reorders our anger.

Jesus says, verse 21, You've heard it said to our ancestors, do not murder.

And whoever murders will be subject to judgment.

But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment.

Whoever insults his brother or sister will be subject to the court, and whoever says, you fool will be subject to hellfire.

Okay, so what's Jesus saying here?

He's reiterating the popular teaching of his day, religious teachers who very rightly quoted from the Ten Commandments as indicative of the whole of God's commandments, the whole of God's law, particularly what murder.

Murder's bad, by the way, don't do it.

Do not murder is what, pardon me, not do not murder, do not murder.

Whoever murders will be subject to judgment.

Jesus is not obliterating that.

Yes, Jesus is affirming that, but it's almost as though, and this is the move Jesus makes each time, he says, this is true, but we have yet to locate the real problem.

Yes, murder is a sin.

Yes, murder contradicts God's life-giving will, but if we only go so far as to say, as long as you're not murdering other people, then you're good to go, we haven't gone far enough.

What's the real problem, Jesus?

He's going to identify it for us.

Everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment.

It's almost as though he says, you know, whoever murders will be subject to judgment, you know, in kind of a civil sense, like you'll be rightly prosecuted and perhaps put in a prison.

But I tell you, if you're angry with your brother or sister, you'll be subject to judgment.

What kind of judgment is that?

I think it's God's judgment.

God who judges the heart.

So the real problem here is not that we would consider taking another life necessarily.

The problem is that we harbor murderous rage and furiousness against our brothers and sisters.

Anger is the murderous attitude of the heart that wants to crush the other person for my own gain.

So let's think about what Jesus is saying here.

Whoever insults his brother or sister will be subject to the court.

Whoever says, you fool will be subject to hellfire.

Why so extreme?

Could it be this?

That if we harbor anger against someone, resentment, bitterness, furiousness against someone, are we not acting as their judges and condemning them as though we ourselves will not be judged?

Are we not ourselves considering them unworthy of forgiveness, of reconciliation, and instead holding this against them?

I mean, in a real way, I wonder, you'll have to pardon my language, I don't mean to be offensive, but I just want us to go where Jesus is going this morning.

If we were to point the finger at a brother and sister and say, go to hell, are we our we gotta be careful, Jesus is saying, that we ourselves are not at risk of taking a step towards hell itself.

If we were to point the finger, whether in our words or whether in our hearts, towards a brother or sister, and forgive my language, say something like, God damn you, are we ourselves not at risk of being condemned by God Himself?

Who, by the way, has forgiven us.

I mean, this is a real spiritual cancer that Jesus is trying to uproot from our hearts because it is so easy to just conceal it there, isn't it?

It is so easy to conceal it and just say, well, as long as I don't do anything, you know, actively murderous, then I'm good to go.

No, this is the spiritual cancer that disorders our hearts and leads us away from the heavenly kingdom and towards hellfire itself.

God's kingdom reorders an angry heart towards what?

Towards reconciliation, towards the restoration of peace.

Doesn't mean that we're never angry, by the way.

We see Jesus get angry, we see teaching about anger in the New Testament.

There is a righteous sort of anger, being angry about the right things in the right way.

Yes, we can get angry at the injustice we see in the world, and that can motivate us to love and to serve in order to bring about God's kingdom in a better world.

But we can also harbor anger in a poisonous way, can't we?

And we have to be careful.

God's kingdom reorders an angry heart towards a heart of reconciliation.

That's just as true, Jesus says, in the church as it is in society at large, because he gives two examples, doesn't he?

Verses 23 to 26.

He talks about going into worship, leaving a gift at the altar.

And if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, you've wronged them in some way.

What takes priority?

The nice pious worship that you're doing, or the fact that you need restoration in your relationship with your brother or sister?

Jesus is saying there is no honoring God without first honoring your brother or sister in Christ.

In fact, the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, anger is always an attack on the brother's life, for it refuses to let him live and aims at his destruction.

He says the angry word is a blow struck at our brother, stabbed at his heart.

It seeks to hit, to hurt, to destroy.

But here's what he says: God will not be separated from our brother, brother or sister.

He wants no honor for himself so long as our brother is dishonored.

So seriously does God take the commission to live at peace to the best of our ability with our brothers and sisters in Christ here in the church, but in society at large.

Jesus gives a second illustration of being on your way to the court.

Do whatever you can, Jesus says, to restore peace, to act towards reconciliation.

Take whatever initiative you can to see that happen.

That doesn't necessarily mean that reconciliation occurs every time.

But the initiative is on us as Christians.

The initiative is on us to say, what can I do, Lord, to take a step towards peace.

God's kingdom reorders an otherwise angry heart, a murderous, furious, harboring heart towards reconciliation, restoration, and peace inside out.

But God's kingdom reorders not just an angry heart, it reorders a lustful heart as well.

Verse 27, you have heard it said, Jesus says, do not commit adultery.

But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Again, Jesus is quoting the Ten Commandments as indicative of all of God's commandments.

And he is engaging with once again, Jesus is highlighting the fact that if we're content to live at a level that says, as long as I'm not cheating on my spouse, or as long as I'm not sleeping with anyone else's spouse, then I'm good to go.

Jesus is saying we have not gone far enough to locate that spiritual cancer.

What's the real problem here?

Jesus says the real problem is not adultery, the real problem is lust.

Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Here's one definition of lust that I've just found really helpful over the years.

Lust is an attitude demanding that a natural instinct serve unnatural desires.

That can be broad.

We can lust after consumer goods, we can lust after the newest car, what have you.

But sexual lust follows that same pattern.

An attitude demanding that a natural instinct, like sex, serves unnatural, inordinate desires.

It is not what God desires for us, it is not what God has designed for us.

And if that definition holds up, then I think it suggests at least a couple of things.

It suggests that natural sexual desire is not itself evil, but sex is a good gift that God has given us.

However, there is no part of life that is left uncorrupted by sin.

And that operates at the level of our desires as well.

The real problem, Jesus says, is not just your outside actions, whether or not you commit adultery.

The real cancer exists in the heart.

Lustfully looking at a woman.

And by the way, that can be just as well men and as women he's addressing here.

But the attitude of lust that disorders our affections towards unnatural ends.

And friends, I can't help but wonder if Jesus' words here take on a special significance in our moment where the where pornography is just utterly ubiquitous, isn't it?

I mean, let's be honest.

If you've got a smartphone in your pocket right now, you could access pornography in the next five to ten seconds, right, if you wanted to.

It is utterly ubiquitous.

Let me share some statistics.

70% of men report having viewed porn at least once this past month, while 11% of women report having viewed porn on a regular basis.

30% of internet traffic is related to porn.

30%.

Three out of ten Google searches.

And Pornhub, the world's largest pornography website, their estimated daily revenue is$4.4 million.

That's$1.6 billion with a B annually.

So despite the narrative of empowerment and sexual liberation, the porn industry is inherently linked to human trafficking, violence, and child exploitation, while porn itself, porn use, corresponds to higher rates of relationship dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, and poor mental health.

The feminist author Louise Perry observes porn trains the mind to regard sex as a spectator sport, to be enjoyed alone in front of a screen.

It removes love and mutuality from sex, turning human beings into body parts.

Friends, pornography, if nothing else, is premised on lust, isn't it?

Premised on, it might not be adultery, but it's just looking.

And friends, I can't help but wonder if Jesus' words here take on a special significance in a moment where the access to pornography and the ability to indulge our lust is so available.

God's kingdom enters into our hearts to reorder an otherwise lustful heart towards what?

Towards purity, towards holiness in every area of our life, including our sex life.

Reordering our words, our thoughts, and deeds towards self-control and a greater freedom and liberation than we would have otherwise, because that's the narrative, isn't it?

The narrative of pornography is you'll be more sexually liberated the more you consume.

The opposite proves to be true.

It is the road to bondage and to addiction and to Jesus offers us a better way.

Jesus offers us a way of freedom, reordering a heart that would otherwise lust after another towards purity and freedom.

And what's the Prescription that Jesus gives us, what's the action that a heart ordered towards purity takes?

It is a sort of radical amputation, dealing ruthlessly with the sour the source of our temptation.

Verse 29, if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out, throw it away.

It's better for you to lose one of your parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Likewise, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away.

Same principle.

Now, we need to be very careful, unlike some figures in the history of the church, not to take Jesus' words overly literally here.

If we took them out overly literally, we might be blind, we might be limbless, and still discover that we lust all the same.

Right?

What's Jesus saying here?

Jesus is not above a good hyperbole when it makes his point.

Jesus is saying deal ruthlessly with the source of your temptation, because the consequences are eternal.

I've had the privilege of walking with a number of guys, short-term, long term, through working through pornography, recovery from lust and pornography and addiction of those sorts.

And I've seen some remarkable things.

I've seen guys choose to cut out unfiltered, unaccountable access to the internet by downloading uh software filters like Covenant Eyes.

I've seen them decide that my smartphone is just too great a temptation.

I'm choosing to get a dumb phone, one of those Nokia brick phones, because I know that'll cut out temptation.

I'm choosing to cut out certain forms of media because they just provoke too much lust and I can't handle them.

I've seen some choose to develop accountability partner relationships.

I've seen others decide what I need to do is cut out time in my busy schedule and in my priorities and commit myself to a 12-step program.

All of these are opportunities to radically amputate that source of temptation.

To say this is too important for me to put off, and Jesus' call to holiness is too great for me to ignore.

God's kingdom reorders our lustful heart towards a purity, a holiness, a freedom, a joy that is greater than we otherwise could ever have.

Jesus' kingdom finally reorders our life, our pardon me, our heart, our heart first from divorce.

That's not the way I want to phrase it, but I'm tired.

Let's have a look here.

It was also said, whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce.

But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in the case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Whoever divorces his wife is what Jesus is quoting.

Just give her a written notice of divorce.

This is a debate in Jesus' time in Deuteronomy chapter 24, where instruction is being given to the people of Israel that govern behavior around divorce and marriage.

Deuteronomy 24 · chapter mention

This is how the full passage reads.

Let's just have a quick look here.

If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then the first husband who divorced her is not allowed to marry her again until, pardon me, marry her again after she has been defiled, that is, married a second time.

So, the point of this passage is to discourage husbands from divorcing their wives on a whim.

That's the essential takeaway here.

And the real debate around this passage is what do we mean by this word, what's meant by this word indecent?

That might mean adultery to some, that might mean your wife burns your toast at breakfast to others.

Because seriously, there were teachers at the time saying you could make that argument.

Divorce can be as quick and as easy as men, and yes, it was men in Jesus' days, wanted to make it.

The point of this passage is don't divorce quickly.

Don't do it on a whim.

But take marriage seriously.

And notice this, by the way, that we are talking not about a command to divorce, but we are talking about a concession to divorce.

He writes her a certificate of divorce.

That is not a command to do so.

We're dealing with a concession.

So Jesus is picking up this debate.

What does it mean to uh what are the grounds, what are the qualifiers for divorce?

Jesus elsewhere touches on this in Matthew chapter 19, and I think offers words that help to give a little bit, flesh this out a little bit more.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

He echoes his teaching here in chapter 5 and then elaborates it even further.

Matthew 19, verse 3.

Matthew 19:3

Some Pharisees approach Jesus to test him.

They asked, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?

Right?

So, what gives us permission to divorce our wife, Jesus?

Jesus says, This.

Here's what's really interesting to me.

The question is about permission to divorce.

Jesus answers instead about the purpose of marriage.

Verse 4.

Haven't you read, Jesus replied, that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female?

And he also said, For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother to be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.

Why then, they asked him, did Moses command us to give divorce papers and send her away?

That's interesting.

They assume it's a command.

Jesus told them, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives.

Why?

Because of the hardness of your hearts.

It is a concession, not a command.

But it was not like that in the beginning, Jesus says, I tell you, whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery.

So what's Jesus' point here?

Jesus' point is, number one, divorce is never God's design for marriage.

It's never his best will for it.

But frankly, it's never ours either, is it?

No one on their wedding day thinks, I can't wait to get divorced in 10, 15, 20 years.

No one has ever thought that.

It is not God's design for marriage, it's not our design for marriage.

It is a tragedy, it's heartbreaking when it takes place.

It is a reality that God's word engages with.

But second, Jesus directs our attention away from divorce and towards the purpose of marriage as a lifelong covenant of loyalty and union between one man and one woman.

It's interesting to me that in the marriage controversy of Jesus' day, he points back to God's creation as the unchanging standard of what marriage is.

If he can do that in the controversy of marriage in his day, I think we, the church in our day, need to do the same.

Marriage is a lifelong union of loyalty between husband and wife.

And therefore, on that basis, Jesus challenges the attitudes of selfishness and self-centeredness and callousness that goes behind the Pharisees' request for divorce.

That's the real issue.

Again, the spiritual cancer is found in the heart, in those self-serving, self-interested attitudes.

And yes, Jesus acknowledges there comes a, there perhaps comes a breaking point in marriage, like sexual immorality that breaks apart its integrity.

But Jesus wants us to know that divorce is a concession, not a divine command.

And he would have us remember the purpose of marriage itself as lifelong loyalty and union.

See, God's kingdom enters into the heart to reorder our otherwise callous or selfish or self-serving desires towards loyalty, towards fidelity, towards faithfulness.

When we say our Anglican wedding vows, we talk about for richer, for poorer, for sickness and in health, in the good in life and in the bad in life.

Now, I want to speak to at least three groups of people as we kind of conclude here.

At least three in this room.

One would be married, one would be divorced or dealing with divorced, and the other would be single.

For those of us who are married, if we want to apply what Jesus is saying here, I think we would apply this principle wisely to guard ourselves against callous, selfish, or self-serving attitudes towards our spouse.

Loyalty often requires humility, doesn't it?

Denying ourselves and putting the good of the other before ourselves.

Guard yourself against selfishness and self-serving attitudes.

For those who are divorced, who have been through divorce, perhaps are working through divorce right now, I'm so glad that you're listening here, by the way, for sticking in.

But I think while Jesus calls us to a high standard of moral holiness, and we should not seek to lower that standard, we should also remember important gospel truths alongside that.

That because we of our faith in Christ, we are justified in Him and have peace with God through Christ, that there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Christ Jesus enters into our world, into our broken and fallen and sinful human worlds, to take the consequence of that sin upon himself.

He knows very well the brokenness of the world in which we live.

And I say all of this to say that as you are working this through and as you are processing what needs to be processed, run toward Jesus and not away from him.

Jesus does not meet those who put their faith in him with condemnation, he meets them with love and understanding.

And yes, Jesus will challenge the attitudes of our hearts sometimes.

Yes, Jesus will challenge us to be obedient to his word, but our Lord Jesus will not forsake us.

So run to him and not away from him.

And if you are single today, because when we talk about marriage or divorce, it's, you know, well, often we fail to speak to the singles, I suppose.

When Jesus gives his teaching in Matthew 19 on marriage, I find it really interesting what comes next.

He calls marriage a standard of lifelong loyalty and union, and his disciples have this to say to him in response.

If that's really true, it's probably better not to marry.

And here's what Jesus says.

Jesus doesn't say, no.

Let me rephrase that.

Actually, Jesus says this.

Not everyone can accept the saying, but only those to whom it has been given.

For there are eunuchs who have been born that way from their mother's womb, there's eunuchs who are made by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way because of the kingdom of heaven.

The one who is able to accept it should accept it.

Now I'll state the obvious and say that being a single person and being a eunuch are not the same thing.

But the principle still stands, doesn't it?

There are some who are called to marriage, there are others who are not called to marriage.

And for those who are not called to marriage, Jesus affirms your status.

Jesus affirms your vocation.

You are no less beloved, you are no less valuable to God's kingdom, you are no less valuable to God's church if you are single than if you are married.

The church doesn't always do a good job at communicating that.

So we need each other, married and singles together.

See, when God's kingdom breaks in, it reorders the heart first, doesn't it?

It goes inside out.

Anger, lust, divorce reordered towards reconciliation and purity and loyalty.

The practice here is to wholehearted obedience.

The call is to wholehearted obedience because it's easy to compartmentalize our hearts and say, Jesus, you can have this morning on Sunday, but not the rest of my week, not the rest of my heart.

And the call is to withhold nothing, to be a fully obedient and surrendered disciple of Jesus, confessing our sins when we fail, trusting in Him to be the one who fulfills the law and prophets, who satisfies all righteousness on our behalf.

And to rest in this reality, the reality that the kingdom reorders our hearts, not to become acceptable to God, but reorders our hearts in accordance with God's heart towards us.

Here's what I mean.

God's kingdom reorders our heart from anger to reconciliation.

Well, God was in the world reconciling himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them.

2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

God's kingdom reorders our heart from lust to purity.

And everyone, 1 John chapter 3, who has this hope in him that we are God's children, purifies himself just as he, the Father, is pure.

1 John 3 · chapter mention

God's kingdom reorders a selfish, callous heart behind divorce towards loyalty.

And we're reminded in 2 Timothy chapter 2 that if we are faithless, he remains faithful.

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

He cannot deny himself.

Do you see what's happening here?

When God's kingdom breaks into our hearts, it is not saying the bar is that much higher, you better jump further.

It's saying you are invited to know God's heart more deeply, more fully, more completely than ever before in Christ.

God's heart of reconciliation, purity, and loyalty is for you and not against you.

So, friends, I hope that as we continue in the Sermon on the Mount, we will see what God's transforming love can do in our hearts.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.

If you live in the Port Perry area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

Newsong's ministry is entirely funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.

If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.