Your first deposit

I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

I am so excited about this new series.

In fact, I have been studying and working on this series since actually July, when we took our month off as I've been doing the last couple of years, and it's been a blessing.

But it's a month where I do nothing but just get up in the mornings, pray and read, pray and read, pray and read, read, which I do that most mornings, but with no schedule, nothing but just God refresh my heart, refresh my mind, refresh my vision for what you have for our ministry here at CCW.

And uh it's so exciting to see that it's unbelievable, really, to see what God's done here in eight short, well, actually nine short years.

But this new series, when God got a hold of my heart about investing in eternity, why do we do what we do?

We do what we do because we are investing in eternity as Christians.

And in Matthew chapter 5, one of the greatest, one of the greatest, I think, passages of scriptures that teach us how to invest in eternity is the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

And if you notice, for the last month of August, I have been preaching out of Matthew 6 and 7, because basically the Sermon on the Mount starts in Matthew 5 and goes through 7.

So I have been really getting us ready and doing the foundation for this series that will basically be in chapter 5 as we look through the Beatitudes.

And what we see here in Matthew chapter 5, everybody have an outline.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Everybody got their outline.

Okay, good.

So what we see right here in Matthew chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been speaking of two things basically.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

He's been talking about and teaching about a life of blessedness.

I mean, a life that's blessed, and secondly, a life that is useful.

In other words, he's saying that we as Christians ought to be living a life of blessedness as well as usefulness for God.

And he says, and then he confronts the listeners with, in order to have a life that is blessed, in order to have a life that is useful for God, then guess what?

He confronts them and he says, your life has to be underwritten by a life of righteousness.

And that's the key, really.

A life of righteousness is what produces that blessedness and that usefulness.

And so today we're gonna look at starting this series, our title of the first message, and boy, is it I've been so ready to preach this, is your first deposit.

If you're gonna invest in something, guess what?

You have to make a deposit.

And so today, what we're gonna be looking at, if you and I are gonna be investing in eternity, then our life, we've got to make a deposit in our life and commit our life to living a life of righteousness.

And when we do, when we give our lives and our hearts to Christ, and then we begin to grow in the likeness of Christ, then we begin to take step by step in maturing in that life of righteousness.

So that's what we're gonna be looking at this morning.

We're gonna be looking at how do we live that life of righteousness.

In other words, first of all, we give our lives to Jesus.

Amen.

I mean, you cannot live a life of righteousness if you do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

So it's very important that that's your first step.

And your first step is accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

And then you follow the Lord in believers' baptism, which is coming up, and that is next weekend.

We will be baptizing.

So if you need to be baptized, you've been saved, you haven't followed the Lord in believers' baptism, we would invite you to call the office, let Joe know, so you'll be able, and it's exciting because somebody said, Where are we gonna do our baptismal service?

Well, we're gonna get a little creative because we could bring it in and do it right here, but we want to do it a little different.

We're gonna go outside under the new owning and out there and kind of make it an outside event.

So it's gonna be exciting.

So you don't want to miss that baptismal service.

And if you need to follow the Lord in believers' baptism, if you if you were saved, I mean if you were baptized and then got saved after your baptism really got saved, then you still need to follow the Lord in believers' baptism.

We'd love for you to again follow the Lord in believers' baptism with us next Sunday.

So if you need to be baptized, please call the office.

I think we've got four or five right now at least, so it's gonna be an exciting time.

But what we also see then right here with the Sermon on the Mount, he is reminding us and he's given us that underlining foundation that we've got to live a life of righteousness, and then not only will we be blessed, but we'll be useful for the kingdom of God.

And let me tell you what I have, after 45 plus years of ministry, have seen that breaks my heart.

I see a lot of people that I really believe truly get saved, but that's about it.

They don't do anything after that.

They just stay baby Christians.

They stay baby Christians and they never experience that blessed life and that useful life that God has intended and hey, wants us to live.

So this morning, let's look at how we can invest in that life of righteousness.

Number one, in your outline.

First of all, a purposeful commitment to the word of righteousness.

We've got to have a purposeful commitment to the word of righteousness.

Look at verse 17 and 18.

And Jesus said, Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets.

I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

For as surely as I say to you, now that's a powerful word when he says, For as surely I say unto you, here's what that means.

That means you can bank on it.

That means you can count it, I meant, as already happened.

It is for sure.

He says, For I say unto you, and you'll see how important that is in a little bit, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, one tittle, will and by no means pass from the law till all be fulfilled.

Now, the statement here reveals something of the Lord's total commitment to the will of God.

In fact, it is, and I really believe this, as recorded in the law and the prophets, Jesus was committed to fulfilling what God the Father had sent him to do, and that was to fulfill the law and hey, the prophet's predictions.

That's why Jesus came.

And in like manner, we know that he says, Jesus said in John chapter 4, verse 34, My food is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work.

John 4:34

So I got to thinking about that.

And I thought, yes, is that not our goal?

It should be as a Christian, is to finish, hey, the will that God, hey, for our life has given to us?

Absolutely.

And Paul says that in Acts 24.

He says, Let me finish my course with joy, and let nothing hinder me from completing what God has called me to do.

So we see how important that is.

In fact, I love what David said in Psalms 48.

I delight to do thy will, O my God.

Now watch what he says.

I delight to do thy will, oh my God.

Thy law is within my heart.

In other words, that word of righteousness is within my heart.

And that's one of the ways that we fulfill God's will for our lives and walk in the way of righteousness is by keeping the word of God in our life.

Hearts, in our lives, guiding and directing us toward the will of God.

Because that's how we find out the will of God.

How do I know that?

Ready?

What's this?

John 7, 17.

He says, If you are going to do my will, Jesus said, you've got to know the doctrine of the Father.

You've got to know the word of the Father.

You got to know the Word of God.

So we see how important that is.

Now let me give you a couple of things.

Look at A.

The word of righteousness is comprehensive in its relevance.

In fact, look at verse 17.

Listen to what Jesus said again.

I do not think that, hey, he says, do not think that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets.

See, there was a tendency and a rumor going around even back in Jesus' day, but especially today, in the life of the church today, there is this kind of ideology running around that the Old Testament is not for today.

Okay?

In other words, that's the old covenant.

And they go and even back in Jesus' times, see, they thought Jesus was demeaning the law and the commandments because he was doing stuff that they thought, now you gotta, I'm talking about the religious folk, the scribes and the Pharisees, they saw Jesus doing things that they thought he was relaxing the commands and the demands of the Word of God, the commandments, the Old Testament, the law.

Because, for example, they said that he was doing things in his authority.

Well, guess what?

See, he wasn't doing things according to man's authority, but he was doing things under the authority of God.

In fact, listen to what he says in Matthew 7, 29.

He taught them, hey, as one having authority, not as the scribes.

See, the scribes and Pharisees thought they had all the authority.

In fact, they did.

They had man's authority.

But Jesus had God's authority.

And then secondly, hey, hey, his activity.

The Bible says that he healed people on the Sabbath.

And they thought that was a that was voodoo.

You can't heal any, you can't do anything on the Sabbath.

You can't, hey, you can't lead anybody to Christ, you can't heal anybody, you can't do anything but rest.

So that got him very upset.

And the third thing, his associations seemed contrary to the law.

He was friends, can you imagine this?

With the publicans and sinners.

Oh, can you imagine?

Oh, he's just hanging out with the sinners.

Huh.

Amazing what Jesus said in Luke 5.30 to the scribes and Pharisees as they were murmuring about him.

Do you see him?

Look at him.

He's having lunch with the sinners.

Thank God.

Hey, thank God he saw fit to have lunch with me because I'm a sinner.

That's why we have, God gave the vision to this church to bring people onto this campus.

Let me let you in on a secret.

Are you ready?

Now you're gonna, for some of you, real religious folks, you're gonna get upset.

Maybe even watching.

You may not watch this anymore.

We want sinners to come on to this campus.

Hello?

Do you get that?

That's why we are doing what we're doing.

You say, oh, I just don't think that's biblical, preacher.

Oh, I'm glad you said that.

Because listen to what Jesus said to those same mummers.

Oh, we're not, oh, we can we're not hanging around the sinners.

They may rub off on us.

Huh.

Huh.

The scribes and Pharisees were murmuring and complaining.

Jesus said in Luke 5.31, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

Hi, verse 32, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Thank God I'm not a righteous person.

I'm a sinner saved by God's grace.

Amen.

So man, it's amazing.

It's amazing.

So again, but the Lord just nailed them.

To him, the Old Testament scriptures, consisting of the law and prophets, were very comprehensive in their relevance.

In fact, Paul put it this way: whatsoever things were written aforetime, they were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Folks, our hope is in the Word of God.

Our hope is in the prophets and the law that Jesus not only, hey, believed in it, but he came to fulfill it.

That's how much he believed in it.

Oh, you can go through the whole Old Testament.

Uh in fact, he made no less than 66 direct references to the Pentateuch, 40 to Isaiah, 36 to the Psalms, and 22 to the book of Daniel.

And then on that unbelievable memorial walk to Emmaus in Luke 24, 27, he started at Moses and he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Can I get an amen?

So we see that like the blessed man of Psalms 1, and I, if you do my little Saturday morning word for the week, the word for the week this week was how to be a blessed man or woman.

And I use Psalms 1: Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.

But now watch verse 2.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And then because of that, he says in verse 3, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that shall bring forth his fruit, and his leaf shall never wither.

In other words, he's promised you success.

Can I get an amen?

He's promised you that blessed life.

He's promised you that useful life.

Joshua 1.8, the book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that's written therein.

Then shall I make the way prosperous, and then shall you have good success?

Do you realize that's the only place in the Bible?

The word and the promise of being successful is used, and it's in direct relationship.

Man, I get so excited thinking about this.

In the word of God.

Can I get an amen?

Is that not exciting?

Wow, it's so exciting.

It really is.

In fact, in my research on this message, I got a I was researching Paul and some of his statements.

And he says in Ephesians 6 that the word of God is the Spirit, is the sword of the Spirit.

And then this Scottish pastor and writer, Thomas Guthrie, a very old timey back in the 1800s, made this statement about the sword being, the word of God being the sword of the spirit.

He said, the Bible, now listen, is an armory of heavenly weapons, a laboratory of infallible medicines, a mind of exhaustless wealth.

It is a guidebook for every road, a chart for every sea, a medicine for every malady, and a bomb for every wound.

And then he goes on and he said, Rob us of our Bible, and our sky has lost its son.

Wow.

Is that not true?

So, so true.

Jesus made it real clear that he had come to honor the law and help God's people do three things.

One, love it, learn it, live it.

Can I get an amen?

Can we say that about the word?

Let's say.

Well, whether you got it on your I'm actually, I've gotten to the point now.

I've used mine a lot too.

But your Bible, hold your Bible up.

Whether it's on your phone, whether it's in your hand, and I still like mine too.

I use them both.

All right.

Say, this is my Bible.

This is my Bible.

I love it, I learn it, and I live it.

And that's the purpose of our lives together.

It's to, hey, learn it.

First of all, love it, learn it, live it.

Amen?

Because it is what God's, I call it God's love letter to us, and how beautiful it really is.

That's why wana is so important here.

And Joe's doing a great job with our wanna program.

We feed our kids.

That's why we got children's church up there, and it's growing.

And we feed them the word of God.

Study to show thyself to prove it unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

My kids grew up in the wana program.

Benji grew up in the wanna program.

And to this day, my kids are all involved in dynamic Christian service because of the word of God.

They'll tell you right now, they quote scriptures right now that they learned back in Cubbies.

Thank God for a church that believes in training up children in the way that they shall go at a young age.

And that's why we have sports.

Sports is one of the greatest tools to draw kids in to hear the gospel and to grow in the things of God.

So number one, a purposeful commitment to the word of righteousness.

The word of righteousness is comprehensive in its relevance.

Number two, the word of righteousness is commanding in its influence.

Oh, yes.

Listen to what he said.

Verse 18.

Remember, I said that phrase, surely I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, which it expresses the unchangeable influence of the divine word of God.

It's unchangeable.

When he spoke of that one jot, you know what the one jot means there?

It's the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet.

And then he went on, he says, or one tittle.

You know what he was describing there?

The eye, I mean, excuse me, the dot over an eye in our English language or in our writing language.

How small is a little dot over an eye?

What he was saying, that's how important the truth of the word of God.

He was saying, in effect, that the law and the prophets, down to the smallest little dot, would last to the end of time.

Oh, listen to me.

Listen to me.

Heaven and earth shall pass away.

But Jesus said, My word shall never pass away.

Amen.

Amen.

And he said, Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

Psalms 119, 89.

Matthew 24, 35.

Oh, the B-I-B-L-E, say it with me.

That's about 10 of you.

Some of y'all need to sign up for a wana.

We're going to put some adults in a wana.

You need to learn to book.

Amen.

Approve.

Workmen are not ashamed.

That's what it stands for.

I wana.

Study.

Study.

You know what we did?

Let me help you, parents.

You know what you need to do with the wana program?

You need to take those little booklets like we did.

Susan and I did all those years, and we had our family time with the Iwana books.

We would memorize scripture with our children.

We would, hey, go through the stories with our children.

It was fun.

We made it fun.

We memorized the scripture with our children.

And I'm telling you, that's what kept our family together in one accord through the word of God.

And then because of all that training and family time, do you realize what we do when they would when they got into teenage years?

Some of you parents are there now.

Oh, God help you.

But you know, you know, you know what helped us?

The Word of God.

We can reflect back and revert back to some of those same scriptures they had learned all those five or six, seven years in Iwana and saying, remember what that word said?

Do you know what that means?

So let's apply that to this circumstance, to this situation.

I always answered and dealt with problems with our children and with my young son as he became a young man and both of my girls as they became beautiful young ladies.

I dealt with the word of God.

I showed them the word of God and what it meant and how to apply it to their lives.

But it all started in cubbies.

That's why there's nothing more important.

Now, for some of you, it's real important for them to play sports.

I get that.

You're looking at a guy that was all American in three sports in high school.

I played college ball.

I understand that.

My for a long time, I'm gonna be honest with you, sports was my God.

Amen?

It really was my God.

And sports can be a tremendous tool, platform to share the gospel, as long as you keep sports.

By the way, I love to go and watch Alabama.

Well, I don't love to go to the games as much as I did once.

I like to watch them in my recliner because I can rerun it and say that was a bad call.

But but uh but I enjoy, I enjoy sports.

But sports has to be second place or third place to God.

Amen.

In other words, it's God, it's your family, then your hobbies.

Can I get an amen?

If you keep that in perspective, and if you teach your children, see what happens, we teach our children, and we don't even get Satan's so has encompassed this whole worldly system that you we don't even understand what's happening when it's happening.

Because we all need time off, we need to relax, we need this, we need all that, and so we allow these worldly things to creep in and become the most important thing.

Can we say an O me together?

So, what I'm trying to say is, folks, we've got to get back to what the basics are.

We want to listen, we've got a problem in America.

We got a problem in the world.

Somebody said, How are you gonna solve the problem in America?

I can tell you right there with these two young teenagers right here and the children up there, these next two generations have got to stand up, stand in the gap for the glory of God and take the word of God and love it, learn it, live it, and don't compromise.

Now that's what we gotta do to change this country.

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.

But when the wicked bear through, the people mourn.

That's where we are.

We got wicked people, hey, ruling.

That's our problem.

Very simple.

Very simple.

It's not hard to understand.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

Psalms 33, 12.

That was a rabbit, but it needed chasing.

Amen.

But this we see it has a commanding effect on our lives.

Therefore, men and women, regardless of our circumstances, if we bring our lives into line with the commanding influence of the word of God, oh friends, yes.

Number two, not only do we have a purposeful commitment to the word of righteousness, but number two, we need a personal involvement in the way of righteousness.

Look at what he says in verse 19.

Whoever therefore breaks one of these least of these commandments and teaches men so.

In other words, not only if we don't keep it and we don't do it, but we kind of lead people with us not to do it.

All right, parrots, listen to me.

Train up a child in the way he shall go, and he'll not depart from it.

Proverbs 22, 6.

Teach them diligently when you lie down, when you rise up, when you sit down, when you eat.

Teach them diligently the things of God.

Deuteronomy 6.

Deuteronomy 6.

And not only will God bless you and your children, but he'll bless your grandchildren and their children.

I'm seeing that right now.

I'm actually living that out right now in my life.

Christy, you're living that out right now in your life.

When we had them, and we had them as little ones and training them.

And we we believed in what the Bible said.

Now, did it go smoothly the whole way?

Absolutely not.

And if you think that is a prescription for divine healing with your children, you're wrong.

Hello?

You okay out there?

Satan is at war to destroy your children.

He wants to destroy every one of these young teenagers right here.

That's his goal.

You say, now, why do you want to say that?

I'm just gonna tell you what Scripture said.

John 10, 10.

Satan has come to steal, kill, and destroy.

But on that same verse, the last part, Jesus said, But I've come to give you life and give it more abundantly.

I'm glad he was on the back side.

Amen.

But Satan's after us.

He's trying to destroy this nation.

He's right now, Satan is doing everything he can to destroy the church.

He's coming out, but guess what?

He did it back then, too.

In fact, every one of the disciples, but two were horribly murdered.

So we we see how important it is.

The way of righteousness must be practiced.

Amen.

It must be practiced because an Orthodox appreciation of the Bible leads to more, hey, nothing more than barren formalism and hypocritical professionalism.

We've got a lot of professional Christians.

Hello?

And formal Christians.

The scribes and the Pharisees, that's what they were.

Very, very, very formal.

But if, number one, the way of righteousness must be practiced.

Look at what he said.

Oh, by the way, no, I was gonna read that to you.

Let me read this to you.

Matthew 23, verses 25 through 28.

Matthew 23:25–28

This is so appropriate for this passage.

Listen to what Jesus said to those professional Christians, I call them.

Okay?

Here's what he said.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

Uh-oh.

Uh-oh.

Now I didn't call them hypocrites.

Jesus did.

For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the saucer, but within they are full of extortion and hey, fill with excess of extortion and dirtiness.

That's another synonym.

Thou blind Pharisees, clean first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

Wow.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto the white sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones.

Oh my goodness.

Oh my goodness.

And of all uncleanness.

And then verse 28.

Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

Wow.

Ooh.

You say, whoo, whoo, that's not positive thinking.

Nope.

Sorry.

That's truth preaching.

Because that's what we are.

Can I say something?

We can put on a beautiful outward appearance.

But the question is, what is inside?

The Lord sees that as man sees.

Man looks on the outward appearance.

But now watch this.

But God looks on the heart.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Folks, listen to me.

You can act like you're real, but if you're not real, it will be, hey, it will come to the surface very quickly.

Yeah.

Amen.

Amen.

Very quickly.

It really will.

And especially for those who love you and know you the best.

You know my toughest thing out of 45 years plus now.

Ooh, I'm getting old.

Hey, by the way, I just had another blood work physical yet.

The best I've had in four years.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

Was standing in this pulpit preaching principles.

That at home, if I were not living them, my kids would say, my dad's a hypocrite.

That was the hardest thing for me in my whole life.

To live what I preached totally, absolutely, completely.

Not that I didn't mess up and I messed up a bunch.

But at least I knew when God convicted me to sit them down and say, Your dad was wrong.

I should not have done that.

I am so sorry.

Will you please give me?

Because the last thing I wanted was on Sunday morning when I'm standing up and they heard their dad preach thousands of messages, is to say, Yeah, preach it, Dad.

That's not real.

How many times do you say, Don't do as I do, just do as I say.

Well, let me just tell you what that is.

That's a hypocrite.

You ought not to have to say anything.

You ought to just be living it in front of them.

Amen.

Same way with church folk.

When we offend each other, we need to make it right.

And if I've offended you and I hadn't come to you to make it right, it's because I do not know I've offended you.

But if you come to me, I will promise you I'll make it right.

Amen.

Because I can't stand up here and preach within the power of the Holy Spirit of God if my heart's not real and clean.

And I love you.

And the last thing I'll ever want to be is a false prophet or a false witness to anybody after 45 years.

The one thing I want on my tombstone.

Well, there's two.

One's got to be Jesus is awesome.

Amen.

Jesus.

Second, my dad lived what he preached.

My dad lived what he preached.

That's what I want.

Do you know the responsibility and accountability that brings on you as a parent or as a preacher?

Oh my goodness.

Oh my goodness.

Number one, the way of righteousness must be practiced.

Look at what he said.

Whoever does these commandments, ha ha, hey, do you know you can hear the truth, understand the truth, intelligently know the truth, and do nothing about it?

God help us.

Oh, that's what James meant.

Listen to what James said.

He was burdened for this.

Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.

And again, he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work.

This one will be blessed.

There's that word.

And what he does.

He'll be blessed.

There's that blessed life, the useful life.

And centuries earlier, Samuel reminded Saul, who didn't live it, but he reminded, he did for a while.

He said, to obey is better than sacrifice.

Amen.

There's an old hymn, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Number two, the way of righteousness must be published, must be preached.

Listen to what he says in verse 19.

Whoever teaches the commandments, the proof that a man is living out the principles of righteousness is confirmed by his desire to communicate the secret of his life to others.

I've had people literally ask me, Pastor Denny, why are you so happy?

Why are you so crazy?

I'm gonna fill you in on something.

This will be.

Yeah, you can have all you want.

It's free.

You don't even have to pay for it.

It's free.

It really is.

For the joy of the Lord is my strength.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's what he's talking about here.

Hey, he's literally saying, Oh my goodness, he's saying, be filled with the Spirit.

And when you are filled with the Spirit, you have the Cain hepits.

Acts 4.20, hey, Peter had the cane hepets.

He can't help but speak the things that he's seen and heard from the word of God.

Folks, I I was I was almost uh, I was, I've given so many, I've had about 10 bracelets in my car.

And this week I've been witnessing.

I was in Huntsville, I was back in Chattanooga, I was witnessing everything that moved.

And I was using my bracelet.

And every time, can I have one of those?

The lady, when she started drawing my blood for my blood work, I had my, I always put it.

And now, when you got your bracelet on, when you get ready to do something, make sure Jesus' awesome is right there.

There's a way to do this now.

Amen.

So she gets there and she does this and she does this.

She says, I like your bracelet.

My son plays in the band and he's a Christian.

I gotta get him a bracelet.

I thought to myself, okay, this is yours.

But she was about ready to stick me, so I didn't want to mess up her thinking why she's fixing to stick me.

Well, guess what?

She stuck me, Deedra.

Deedra's getting good with giving shots.

She loved first.

I think I was the first one you gave a shot to.

Arm hurt for four weeks.

No, I'm joking.

I'm joking.

I'm joking.

No, but you ought to, you should have seen her smiling when she went.

I went, oh, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

No.

But hey, she stuck me, deeper.

No blood was came out.

She said, uh-oh.

I'm sitting there.

Mm-hmm.

But I can't say anything.

Because I'm trying to witness to her, and she's uh, Lord, I need some blood, please.

She took it back out.

She felt, oh, you got a your veins moving.

She said, I'll get it this time.

So she held it and got the blood.

So when she got through the blood, I said, here.

You can have this if you won't stick me anymore.

But no, I'm telling you, folks, you can't help but share Jesus wherever you go.

If he's so real in your life and you're in the word, you're praying to him as we've been preaching and look, having that attitude and consciousness of him, you can't help it.

You can't help it.

Amen.

So the way of righteousness must be preached, must be practiced.

And the last thing, number three, a practical assessment of the work of righteousness.

Look at what he says.

For I say unto you, verse 20, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Oh my goodness.

See, the scribes were known as religious activists.

But the Pharisees were famous for their religious separation.

But they both lack reality in their lives.

They had an outward righteousness without an inward holiness.

That's a good one-liner right there, Adam.

They had an outward righteousness without an inward holiness.

But to please God, we must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

Let me give you three things.

And we're through.

One, we must exceed professional righteousness.

We must exceed professional righteousness.

Listen to what Paul said.

They, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

Romans 10, 3.

They had not learned the lesson which Isaiah had taught hundreds of years before.

We are all like an unclean thing, all our righteousness is filthy rags.

In other words, they were trying to live a righteousness outwardly with their works.

Won't work.

Not by works of righteousness we've done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.

Number two, we must exceed pretentious righteousness.

Oh boy, this is a good one.

In fact, let me go ahead and add the other one with it.

Number three, we must exceed proud-hearted righteousness.

What do you mean by that, Pastor?

Oh, they were great about being proud of all that they had.

Hey, they learned they were the writers of the scriptures, they were the preachers of the scriptures, they wore flak trees around their head on their arms, they wrote robes with different kinds of uh uh symbols that tried to show how righteous and and and how smart they were in the uh Torah and the law and the scriptures.

They fasted and prayed and Tithe and they told everybody.

They wanted everybody to think that they were the super spiritual Christians.

Can I say something?

We have people like that today.

We really do.

And usually those are the ones that are the judgers.

Amen.

They're the ones that judge us.

And they judge us harshly.

But that's okay.

Because I've got good news.

And I love this.

Here's what Paul said Romans 8, 3 and 4.

What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin.

He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Can I get an amen?

So here we see the appreciation and application of the word of righteousness, which leads us to appropriation of the word of righteousness as revealed and realized in Christ Jesus.

I got to thinking about this.

And I couldn't help but start writing some things down.

Christ came and fulfilled the law and the prophets.

He fulfilled it.

He fulfilled it.

I mean 333, listen to me.

333 prophecies were predicted in the Old Testament and were to the jot and tittle fulfilled in the New Testament through Jesus Christ.

Can you believe that?

Tell me, that's why we know the Word of God's infallible.

He is our complete and total joy.

Can I get an amen?

And let me show you.

I started thinking to the artist, he's the one altogether lovely.

To the astronomer, he's the son of righteousness.

To the baker, he's the living bread.

To the biologist, he is true life.

To the builder, he's the sure foundation.

To the carpenter, he's the door.

To the educator, he's the great teacher.

To the engineer, he's the new and living way.

To the farmer, he's the store.

And the Lord of the harvest.

To the florist, he's the rose of Sheridan and the lily of the valley.

To the geologist, he's the rock of all ages.

To the judge, he's the righteous judge.

To the juror, he is the faithful and true witness to the jeweler.

He is the pearl of great price to the lawyer.

He's the counselor, the lawgiver, the advocate, to the news man.

He's the good tidings of great joy.

To the philosopher, he's the wisdom of God.

To the preacher, he's the word of God.

To the sculptor, he's the living stone.

To the servant, he's the good master, to the statesman, he's the desire of all nations, to the student, he's the incarnate truth, and to the theologian, he's the author and finisher of our faith.

Wow.

And you ask me why I serve him?

Why I trust him?

Folks, we're living in some trying times right now.

But can I tell you something?

Let me help you.

This is Yeah, that's what that's what I want us to say.

I got to thinking, Lord, can it get any worse?

You know what the Holy Spirit told me?

He said, Have you been crucified upside down yet?

Peter was crucified upside down.

In fact, when they got ready to crucify him.

You know what he said?

I didn't fall.

You know what he said?

I'm not worthy to be crucified as my Lord and Savior.

Crucify me upside down.

Said, no, sir.

Hadn't gotten that bad yet.

He said, have Christians in your church been taken out and thrown to the lines for a sporting event?

No, sir.

It hadn't gotten that badge yet.

He said, have people been dragged out of the house because they claim to be a Christian and beheaded?

Like they're being done right now in Afghanistan?

I said, no, sir.

It hasn't gotten bad that yet.

So folks, listen to me.

It can and it may get that bad right here.

But our only hope is what I just preached.

For us living a life of righteousness, because I do believe with all my heart, if we're living a life of righteousness, it won't matter.

We will be willing, whatever it takes, to stand in the gap.

May cost us our life.

But you know what?

And I'm not just saying this.

I'm ready.

I really am.

I got a lot of friends on the other side.

And I know they're up there encouraging us right now to stand.

I know they are.

And the last thing we can do is let them down.

Can I get an amen?

Father, we love you this morning.