Sunday Message (2nd service) - Pastor Brad Neuschwander (April 19, 2026) | Life Bible Church

Welcome to the Life Bible Church podcast. We

want to thank you for joining us today and we

hope you find today's sermon impacting as you

listen to it wherever you are in your daily walk.

To find service times and watch messages online,

see our website at lifebiblechurch .org. Now,

enjoy this week's message. I want you to turn

in your Bibles to the book of Matthew. We are

going to get to, and this is... where I'd like

you to turn to Matthew 9, Matthew chapter 9.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

We're going to get there. We've been talking

about last weekend, we did our fire over the

altar weekend, and that's our special once a

quarter, Saturday night service, and then one

Sunday service. And we talked about the Holy

Spirit. We talked about the ministry of the Holy

Spirit and he comes to fill and he comes to baptize

and he comes to, and we talked a little bit about

who he is and the greatness of how Jesus sent

the Holy Spirit as he is the baptizer of the

Holy Spirit. This morning, as I was in the prayer

room and as I was praying with all the early

service prayer people, there was a theme that

I think you guys need to know about here in second

service that was over and over and over. I was

studying, God was dropping some thoughts for

my message today in addition to what we had.

And the theme was this, that God had been sending

the rain in the spirit, sending the rain of his

peace and his grace to this house to prepare

us for the wind and the fire. Now, that can mean

a lot of different things, but to me, I knew

exactly, I knew what the Lord was speaking in

that meaning. There is a... confidence that has

to come as you enter into times of pressing and

you enter into times of trial, which we've been

in, come on, with this riverbank and corporately,

and we've been in just in your own individual

lives. There has been, even in the midst of the

trial and the pressure, there has been a significance

of the Lord trying to put our hearts at rest

in the midst of a storm. That's what he's trying

to work on, right? From my heart to your heart

is what does it mean to put your faith and your

whole trust in God? You didn't stop asking. You

didn't stop pulling on the rope of heaven, so

to speak, but your level of trust. In him has

now found a rest that you believe him and there's

not a struggle between the back and forth between

fear and faith. The goal is to get you to move

into that rest or that completeness of you completely

trust how God has got this. While keeping slack.

out of the rope and keeping the rope of faith

tight, right? And so the whole goal is to send,

if you will, the rain of his presence, the atmosphere

of the Holy Spirit to water our hearts with peace

because part of the rest of faith has a peace

to it. But then the Lord was saying this morning

as everybody was just cluing in on it, God is

wanting to bring a holy fire and a cleansing

fire to prepare us for the harvest. And as soon

as I heard that said, I thought, well, Lord,

that's exactly what you showed me last week.

And I didn't really spend much time on it at

Fire on the Altar. I mentioned it, but John the

Baptist really talked about it. He said, I baptize

you now in water, but one who comes after me

is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I'm not

even worthy to untie. I baptize in fire, but

he who comes after me has a winnowing fork in

his hand and his baptism will be with fire. Now,

that's a significant thing that Jesus was talking

about, that John was saying, when Jesus comes,

he's gonna bring a baptism of fire. He takes,

that full scripture talks about, he has the winnowing

fork in his hand. He comes to clean his threshing

floor and gather the wheat into his barn. That's

the fullness of the scripture. And you have to

get a, before I bring you into our kingdom, add

a part, whatever part we're in right now, add

this too. I want you to get this picture. Have

you ever seen the old picture of the farmer?

and his wife just standing there with a pitchfork.

Okay, you need to understand something. That's

not the pitchfork that Jesus uses to winnow and

to gather in the wheat. But you do, often we

picture Jesus kind of with the shepherd's crook.

Well, in this particular passage, John was saying

Jesus is coming with the baptism of fire, but

he comes with his winnowing fork in his hand

to clear his threshing floor and to gather wheat

into his barn. There is such a thing called a

winnowing fork. And a winnowing fork doesn't

have... a bunch of metal tips like you would

have for the hay or the manure. It has more of

a wooden tip and it looks more like a fan. And

as it comes out from the shaft, the wood rake

type thing is meant to stick into the grain,

whether it's barley or whether it's wheat or

whether it's corn. And there's several instruments

that is used when you thresh. Now today, in our

great Western culture, we don't have threshing

floors. We don't have... winnowing piles. Fact

is, those great big things called combines do

it for you. That's all the shakers and the sieves

in the middle of the combine and wind machine

that comes up through there. It does it all in

one thing. It harvests, it shakes out the chaff,

it blows wind up through the sieves, and it separates

the seed from the chaff and the straw. But that

isn't how it was back in Jesus' day. Fact is,

that's only changed. in the last 150 years of

having even threshing machines that have even

moved through. The classic definition was you

found a place where there was air tunnels. Fact

is, there's places here in the valley, we don't

call them air tunnels, but they were places that

currents of air would normally go. And sometimes

it comes down through a valley, up through a

ravine. And there's more wind that typically

blows on certain areas. So what would the people

of God do? They'd take their grain and they would

bring that grain to a threshing floor. Then they

would take out whatever threshing. tool they

needed to use. Sometimes the seed that they would

use, like mint and dill or cumin, sometimes some

of those spices and seeds, if they were harvesting

that crop, needed to have a wagon cart rolled

over the top to actually break the husk from

the seed. But most of the time, they would use

what they would call a threshing sledge. And

a threshing sledge would be used by hand, just

like a little bit of a mallet or a sledgehammer,

but it would have teeth on it and it would break

up the husk of the wheat and the barley and the

corn to get to the kernel. And then they would

pile it up on the threshing floor and they would

take that winnowing fork and they would stick

that fork into the pile and they would lift that

fork and throw that grain From one pile into

another pile. And as they threw that grain, the

current of air would come because they put it

on a place where the air and the wind would move

and it would blow the chaff from the grain and

the grain would begin to settle back down. Now

you need to understand something. That was the

picture that John told his whole crowd as he

was the forerunner. I come to baptize you in

water. Why was that so important? He came to

baptize with a baptism of repentance, but his

message was, I'm one crying out in the wilderness.

When the Pharisees asked, who are you? Are you

a prophet? No. Who are you? I'm the voice of

one crying out, prepare the way of the Lord.

So John's whole message and John's whole ministry

was what? Prepare people to encounter the king.

But to encounter the king, Most people don't

understand the king that we serve, that king

desires a clean, pure heart. Now he'll take you

as you are, right? Billy Graham's song at the

altar, just as I am without one plea, right?

But he doesn't say just stay as you are. The

reaping of your life by the message of the gospel

always brings you to the threshing floor. Let's

turn to somebody and just say he's preaching

to you right now. He's preaching to you. Why?

Because he moves you from the place of where

he pulled you from the field and he brings you

before he puts you in your barn he brings you

to a place To a place where he can remove from

you the things that need to get out of your life

so that he can actually put you in the barn.

So what does that mean? It doesn't mean eternal

security. It means that he can put you in the

barn to use your life to touch others and feed

others. The whole point of the barn is not security.

The barn was distribution. Turn to somebody and

say, okay. Folks, don't make me come out here

because we're going to get really vocal. The

whole point of a barn was to get that grain ready

to be released and sold or sent somewhere else

for others to eat. It meant that God wanted to

do something on, I'm gonna use you, Daniel, here.

God wanted to do something on the inside to remove

the chaff and the stuff on the inside that came

with the grain that was harvested. All of us

come to the Lord with stuff. Now here's what

chaff is. Chaff can look like. Little pieces

of straw, right? When you take that threshing

sledge and you begin to thresh through a pile

of grain, you're gonna have husks of the, like

you take wheat, for example. Let's just take

wheat. You can run wheat like this ahead of grain

in your hand, and what happens? You'll see the

kernels that get shucked out, but you'll also

see all of the little whisks. that held that

grain, you'll see all of the straw that's there

and there'll be a pile of, and so what do you

do? You kind of just hold that grain, you go,

and now all of a sudden you can take that grain

and it's ready to eat right out of your hand

if you're eating at least soft white wheat. If

you're eating red hard wheat, you might crack

a tooth. But the reality is, the whole point

was, chaff can look like straw, but the more

deceitful chaff is the chaff that actually looks

like seed. Now, especially in the grass seed

industry, what we have here, there's a lot of

times where we call, it looks like seed, but

it has no weight. And a shriveled seed or an

empty seed actually gets blown out with the chaff.

It's a seed that refuses to receive the weight.

Of what it was designed to be. Let me say that

again. Mature seed that develops. Receives the

destiny. And gets weight to it on the inside.

Because that's what it carries. Is other crop

in its future. The seed that will not receive

the weight. of the nature of who it is, stays

shriveled and gets blown out at the threshing

floor. Now listen, if it was just about the Holy

Spirit being wind, please hear me say this. Jesus

didn't say, my winnowing fork is in my hand and

I baptize in the wind. Notice what he says. The

winnowing fork is in my hand and he has a baptism

of fire. Why is this so important? Because wind

and fire belong together. The Holy Spirit always

comes as wind and fire. Why? Because God is not

content for the chaff just to stay next to the

wheat. The chaff has been destined to burn. God

never leaves chaff to blow. Why? Because in the

wind, if it's not destroyed, there are certain

powers of weed seeds that are in that chaff.

There are seeds that aren't of the original,

what he's looking for, that will spread. And

so what does he do? He always brings the chaff

to the fire. And that's why he has a baptism

of fire. It brings a cleansing wind, a sorting

wind, a... They renew a wind, but it always comes

with the fire of the Holy Spirit. That's why

when you see in the book of Acts, what did they

see? They heard and felt the sound of the mighty

rushing wind. And they saw, and notice how it

says it in the Greek, as it were, they saw, as

it were, divided tongues of fire on each one.

The divided tongues of fire was a seeing thing,

but the experiencing thing was the wind that

the fire was highlighting. Now, what does that

have to do with Matthew 9? Well, let me try to

get you there. When we're talking about the something

more church, And we're talking about what Jesus

is actually asking his church to do. I'll build

my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail.

I'll give you the keys of the kingdom. Whatever

you bind shall be bound. Whatever is loosed,

you shall loose. Now listen, Jesus operated in

that not as a king, but as a servant. picking

up where we left this off a couple weeks ago,

because Jesus modeling what it means to be a

servant and live as a servant is key to releasing

the something more church. The key of releasing

the gifts of the Spirit and operating out of

the very nature of what propels the Spirit, which

is love and humility, has to be the hallmark

of God's people. Are you there? Now, Jesus, let

me just... Quickly remind us where we said. We

said last, two weeks ago, Jesus never bypassed

the little day -to -day encounters only to live

for big cross moments. It was the little day

-to -day stuff that led him to the big cross

moment. Number two, Jesus purposely, and you

can put this on the screen, Jesus purposely chose

the path of humility. He embraced it. He was

willingly born in a manger in Nowheresville and

grew up in Nazareth in Nowheresville. He did

not grow up strategically in Jerusalem or in

some major metropolitan city. He lived outside

the ring of the big and the influential. He moved

with the bigness of his heart into the small

areas of most all the surrounding villages. That

was the nature. If you read Matthew, Mark, Luke,

and John, it's not that Jesus never encountered

the celebrities or the rulers, but that was the

least of his ministry. Jesus really discipled

only a few people prospectively out of all the

people that heard him. And they were not persons

of great. influence. He didn't go after celebrities.

He didn't go after influential people, worldly

leaders, but instead the majority of his ministry,

Jesus sided with people without power and without

status, right? Isn't that what the gospel or

what it brings us to in Corinthians? First Corinthians,

I think it's chapter one. It says, and God called

the weak and the foolish of this world to confound

the wise. Not many of you wise, not many of you

wealthy, not many of you. He starts going all

the way and you shuck it down and read that first

chapter. You go, wow, we were really a bunch

of idiots that God is using. Why? Because he

wasn't looking for people who'd already been

self -made. Fact is the self -made people were

the ones that had the most difficult time. with

who Jesus wanted to actually use and change.

Come on, somebody. So Jesus constantly moved

around the lowest rungs of society. So that's

why we now lead into Matthew 9. I told you we'd

get here. It just took me a little bit to get

here. Matthew 9. I want you to see this for a

second. Matthew 9, verse 9 through 13. As Jesus

Matthew 9:9–13

passed on from there, Jesus saw a man. called

Matthew sitting at a tax booth and he said, follow

me. And Matthew rose and followed Jesus. And

as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold,

many tax collectors and sinners came and were

reclining with Jesus and his disciples. Now,

I just want to ask you this question. How many

people have... really close friends with people

that are IRS agents or Oregon internal revenue

or external federal revenue agents. Okay, just

one person. Okay, why is that? There you go,

there you go. I mean, I'm not saying that to

you, but for the most of us, we don't gravitate

toward people that can levy taxes. or send us

to jail if we do anything wrong with them. Right?

The point is, in the Jewish mindset, for Matthew,

that name representing who he was, to take a

Roman job of tax collecting was considered great

betrayal on behalf of the Jewish people. because

Rome was looking for people who would know their

people, know their trades, know their lifestyle,

and so then they would pay a better wage to have

somebody do that, to take taxes from their own

people. And the taxes of their own people, that

power allowed them, just like we see with certain

things that have been going on in our government

all along, is that when you have access to other

people's money, there's a chance that you might

take a little more than what you were legally

supposed to do. And Rome wasn't gonna say anything.

So now it became a person, not only am I taking

from my own countrymen and brother, but I might

be exacting a little bit more to pad my pocket

and pay for that new SUV that's sitting in the

driveway. Whatever it was, maybe it was a new

borough back in the day. But whatever it was,

the reality was, tax collectors became one of

the most despised occupations among the Jewish

people. So when Jesus comes along and taps Matthew

and says, come follow me, there was like, oh

my. And so Jesus goes to a house with his disciples,

Matthew's in tow, and Matthew is like, This was

big news. He invites other tax collectors with

him. And now there is an entourage going to this

house for a lunch with multiple tax collectors.

Let's just say, when you have three or more tax

collectors in your lunch party, it's dangerous.

He's got tax collectors, and then the Bible says,

the Pharisee says, and sinners. And sinners,

for the sake of just defining it, means anyone

that lived a lifestyle that was not in accordance

to what was written under the law of Moses in

honoring God. So that meant you had potentially

prostitutes, tax collectors, drunkards, thieves.

a smattering of people at this personal lunch

that Jesus was having with his disciples. Now,

the Pharisees asked Jesus, well, let's set the

text up here because it's very interesting how

this goes. It said, and when the Pharisees saw

this, they said, they said to his disciples,

why does your teacher eat with tax collectors

and sinners? Now, you've got to get this. Have

you ever, Garrett, has this ever happened to

you where you're engaged with a conversation

with somebody and then across the room, maybe

one of your kids is talking to somebody. You

knew they were over there, but you weren't paying

much attention until they said a word. And all

of a sudden, your conversation, just your ears.

just shut down here. And all of a sudden this

was like, and you could hear them across the

room. That's exactly what's happened. Jesus was

having a full conversation here. The Pharisees

were on the outside and they're asking the disciples,

why is your teacher eating with tax collectors?

And Jesus just right in the middle of everything,

just announced, just kind of dropped this terrible

on them, kind of like a. proverb -esque type

parable. He says, without even addressing the

Pharisees proper or the disciples, he didn't

say, Levi, come here. What were you guys talking

about? He didn't do it. He just, he heard it,

and he said, those who are well, you can just

see Jesus kind of reclining at the table, probably

sits up a little bit. He says, those that are

well have no need of a physician, but those who

are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire

mercy and not sacrifice. I came not to the righteous

but to sinners. Now, we would look at that and

go, okay, we know what that means. I don't know

if we really do. Because Jesus was doing something

so marvelous in this text that most of us just

skip over it. He was actually quoting scripture

to the Pharisees as a point to actually, in love,

trying to get them to woo themselves back to

the Father and get a primary principle of what

the Father really wanted from their lives. See,

most of the time, You and I have heard messages

all through our life that Jesus was angry with

the Pharisees all the time. Well, he did get

angry with the Pharisees. I mean, Matthew 23,

between the scribes and the Pharisees, I mean,

it's seven statements of scathing. I mean, each

one of them is a bullwhip to the hind end. All

right? But the reality is, Jesus was not... mad

at the Pharisees all of the time or a righteous

anger. Fact is in this passage in Matthew 9,

I hope to prove to you this morning that it was

actually one of his greatest forms of love reaching

out to them and actually offering them the key

that would unlock them from their perspective.

You see, when you understand when Jesus says,

I want you to go and learn, that phrase was only

a phrase that could be said by somebody that

had the authority to actually tell them to go

do that. And you go, well, he was the son of

God. No, but they didn't believe he was the son

of God. So what would have been, you see, for

you and I, we read the end of the story, we go,

he's the written word of God. He's the word made

flesh. I mean, he has the authority to say what

the word should represent. He was Jesus. They

didn't think he was the Messiah. They didn't

think he was the one to come. They were still

grappling with whether or not he was even a prophet

sent by God. They still were convinced that Jesus

operated under the power of Beelzebub. Are you

there? Just in a few chapters, you're going to

read their thought process on he casts out demons

by the ruler of demons, Beelzebub. They were

so far from understanding who this was in their

midst. So when he said, go and learn what this

means, he was speaking on the reality of being

a master teacher rabbi. a master teacher rabbi.

We're going to talk about that in just a little

bit. It was what they called the shmika. In the

Jewish custom, in the Jewish way, and I haven't,

there's whole books written on this, but in my

research, the reality of boiling a shmika down

is this. Shmika means that you have proven on

the teaching ship of the calling of God in, the

law of Moses or the Torah, that signs, wonders

have followed your teaching and you now have

the ability to explain and interpret what God

meant in certain texts and that was only given

to a Shemekah rabbi. It was where some of the

schools of knowledge and understanding actually

went to. It would be like today, like Cambridge

or Oxford. It would be Yale or Harvard or maybe

Brown where you actually became a professor.

understood the subject you were teaching, and

that teaching now became the standard in which

everybody that followed used that revelation

and understanding to have further instruction

in the things of God. Jesus was operating in

a shmika rabbi. Why? That's why he could say

all the time in his teaching, if you don't believe

me, believe the works, for the works themselves

testify of me. The works of what was done by

the master rabbi constantly validated his life

as the master teacher and why they would call

him rabbi. Are you there? And now Jesus takes

in this phrase, go learn what this means. Go

learn. And then he takes, are you ready? Hosea

6, 1 Samuel 15. and Micah 6, and he wraps them

up in a package because the Bible says what?

On the mouth of two or three witnesses, maybe

turn me down just a little bit. On the mouth

of two or three witnesses, let everything be

established. So what did Jesus do? Jesus took

three Old Testament passages taught by prophets,

Hosea, Micah. And what was said in 1 Samuel by

the prophet of prophet Samuel, and he wrapped

this thing, and here it is, I desire mercy and

not sacrifice. Now, what was he saying to the

Pharisees? I wish I had time to go into the context,

but I don't have each of these verses. I'll just

give you a little bit of it. It says in Hosea

6, 6, for I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice.

For the knowledge of God is greater than burnt

offerings. First Samuel 15, 22 says, has the

Lord great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as opposed to obeying the voice of the Lord?

For behold, to obey is better than sacrifice

and to heed is better than the fat of rams. And

then again in Micah 6, 6 through 8, what shall

I come before the Lord? To bow myself before

the Lord on high. Shall I come to him with burnt

offerings and calves of a year old? Will the

Lord be pleased with a thousand rams or 10 ,000

rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn in transgression

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

And then the answer from the Lord is this. The

Lord has told you, oh man, what is good and what

does the Lord require of you? But to do justice,

to love kindness and to walk humbly for God.

So let me just bring this down here and Jenny,

wherever you're at, you can come up and play

if you would. Or you are? Okay, good. Daughter

number two, Jessica, come on up. The passing

of the mantle today, hallelujah. All right, so

why was that such a big deal? Because only a

seasoned master teacher could actually tell scholars

and religious people what they needed to do to

be able to get God's perspective. And so he now

quoted three prophets that they would have had

in their Torah. Three prophets in the fullness

of the Old Testament that they would reveal.

He boiled it down and he said, I want you to

go and learn, I desire mercy. and not sacrifice.

Folks, that was God's love for the Pharisees.

Why? Let me just take it off of Pharisees and

let's put it onto you and I. That's God's love

for us who have been Christians any amount of

time. You know why? Because it's easy to get

into the routine of worship and prayer and being

in the house of the Lord. And it becomes rote

if it doesn't actually, your heart isn't held

in his hand. The thing that actually stumbled

the Pharisees was that they knew way more about

God than they actually knew God personally. And

fact is, If I just go to 1 Samuel 15, 22, and

I have a whole 10 pages on this, maybe we'll

get to it in time. But the reality is Saul's

indictment was this. God gave Saul a clear command.

He said, I want you to go do something and do

it thoroughly. And Saul did what? He didn't do

it thoroughly. He brought back some of the stuff

that he was supposed to not. touch or bring back

and he argued with the prophet representing a

type of the Holy Spirit he argued with God that

he had obeyed God yet right beside him was all

the evidence of disobedience and in that evidence

he thought that by disobeying God he could bring

more honor To God in worship in front of the

people than honoring God where nobody else saw

it and just simply obeying and honoring from

the heart. And that's where that statement comes

from. To obey is better than sacrifice. And to

heed is better than any form of outward manipulation

of your lips or your worship. What's he driving

at? He's getting to the inside of us. Do you

realize it is highly offensive to the Holy Spirit,

Chris? It is highly offensive to be able to know

what God has actually spoken over your life through

his declared word in the scripture. And I'm going

to say this carefully. And if he's actually spoken

over your word. with confirmed prophetic words,

not just one, multiple, multiple times to actually

disobey what God says is the premium for your

life and his perfect will for you to malign it

and come up and give God something else that

says, but this is better. Do you know how many

people I know? that have had and sat under the

prophetic counsel of God, had clear words, had

prophets come in, had teams of ministry come

in that did not know them from Adam, spoke the

word of the Lord that they would say, and I'll

use you Trent, spoke the word of the Lord that

they would know without a shadow of a doubt God

was calling them to, only that they would turn

and decide to say, yeah, but I think the Lord

could do that word over here. When the parameters

of the word were very clear in where the fruitfulness

was supposed to be and what God said. Now does

God love them enough to grace them and to keep

them in his love? Yes, he does. But many times

the prophetic word never comes to pass. Why?

Because we tried to manipulate God. with sacrifice

and with worship and saying we're all in where

our heart said, but I don't want to obey that

the way it was said. I want to obey it the way

I want it. That's close to blasphemy. Remember

what the Bible says? To him to know to do what

is good, if he doesn't do it, to him it's sin.

You see, That's the power of the soul. That's

the power that had locked up the Pharisees. The

Pharisees had taken God's word and they had viewed

it one way. And Jesus was actually saying to

them, now go and learn again. Why? Because you

missed a core tenet and the way that you're ending

up. is actually offensive to God because you

can't even see that I, your God, am standing

right in front of you. Now listen, listen to

what this word go means. Go, I mean, we know,

okay, go. But he's actually saying it this way.

Go is take leave and depart. How do I say this?

Depart on a journey, not physically, but mentally,

and get yourself ready to move from the place

that you thought you've anchored in. And as you

prepare your heart, you prepare it to find something

new, deeper, and richer, which will cause you

to inherit something more precious than what

you have. The word learn means, means to hear

and learn. In the Greek, it means to increase

one's understanding of knowledge. But more than

that, it means to what? Develop a new habit that

is, this is the kicker, that is based on new

insight and revelation of the light that God

shows you. Do you understand that that's Jesus's

mercy to the Pharisees? At the table with sinners,

which they didn't see themselves as, but they

actually included them. They were included in

that. With the table with the IRS or the Jerusalem

Revenue Service people. Okay, the JRS and everyone

else there in category and the disciples. Jesus

did not stand and say, he didn't do what John

the Baptist did. You brood of vipers, who warned

you to flee from the wrath to come? Okay, John

was kind of just shucked it down to the cob,

pretty straight prophet. But Jesus actually in

his rabbi, teaching master teacher scenario said,

I desire mercy and sacrifice. Go and learn. He

directed them back to who? God's word, God's

context, God's heart. And if they would actually

learn that he wanted mercy instead of external

sacrifice, it would do what? It would unlock

the shackles over their eyes and over their understanding.

I love, I love what Jesus said. You say, well,

how do you, what does this shemika mean? And

I'll close it here with this. Jesus demonstrated

shemika. We don't even, we don't even, it's not

mentioned in the, in the Greek, but it would

be mentioned in Jewish custom and culture. Here's

evidence of shemika. You ready? When a rabbi

would actually give, and in this case, our rabbi,

Jesus Christ, would actually give intent of God's

scripture to bring new light. You ready? You

might remember some of these. Matthew 5, 21.

You've heard it said, to those of old, you shall

not murder, and whoever murders will be liable

of the judgment. That's quoting directly out

of the scriptures of Deuteronomy, right? But

I say to you, There's Shemekah. That everyone

who's angry with his brother will be liable to

judgment. And whoever insults his brother will

be liable to the council. How about Matthew 5,

33 again? Again, you've heard it said, of those

you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform

to the Lord what you've sworn. But I say to you,

there's a Shemekah rabbi again. I say. Do not

take an oath at all, either by heaven or by its

throne or by earth, for it is his footstool,

or by Jerusalem, it is the city of the king.

Do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot

make one hair white or black, or just hair, period.

Let what you say be a simple yes or no. Anything

else that comes is evil. Every time you hear

Jesus say, you've heard it said of old, But I

say, he wasn't quoting some old person. He was

quoting that which was originally given. And

every time he stood and say, you've heard it

said, he's saying, you've heard the heart of

God, but I'm telling you as the Shemekah rabbi,

and we know him as the living word of God, this

is the heart of what the father was after. What

he's after this morning, Pastor Trent comes and

gets ready to close us shortly. Is this. He chooses.

Yes, he loves your worship. He loves your prayer.

He loves to develop and get with you and develop

a routine of meeting with him. Reading your Bible.

Being in community with the saints of God. Being

encouraged. Taught. Listening to the apostles

doctrine. breaking bread, having the community.

He loves all of that. But if all of that is only

a way for you to prove to God that on the inside

of your heart, you're still wanting to do what

you want to do, you need a revelatory moment

to break you out of that. You need the key of

understanding. I desire mercy. Meaning what?

I desire mercy and love. The greatest thing he

wants to do. is to be the very essence of your

life, to love the Lord with all your heart, all

your mind, all your strength. And the second

is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself.

As we heard a great story today, and they're

not just stories, they're true accounts about

Ethiopia, Nigeria, and the need for lost, lost

people that need to know Jesus. Jesus is desperately

looking for us here in the Western culture of

the world to not be so preoccupied with ourselves

and keep manipulating the core. It's time to

fall in love with the King and to bring everything

in our hearts in alignment with him and say,

Lord, we love you above the way we love our lives.

We love you above every convenience. We love

you above all of the things that we have so easily

and so wonderfully have at our fingertips. Will

you give us a love for the lost? And will you

give us a love to obey your voice that when you

speak to us, we wouldn't try to manipulate it.

We wouldn't try to redefine it. We would submit

to your voice, to your counsel. Yes, it needs

to be checked. Yes, it needs to be validated.

Yes, it needs to be approved, but we won't try

to shift it to what we want. We'll shift our

lives because it's what you want. Would you bow

your head and close your eyes for a moment? Father,

even now, in Jesus' name, Lord, I'm asking that

you You are bringing your wind and your fire

before the great harvest of the wheat. And I'm

asking now, Lord, that we would prepare our heart

in rest and in faith that the wind and the fire

is coming, not just to burn something up that

we love, Lord, but to prepare us to be sent,

used. and to be vessels in your hand to help

feed, strengthen, and be hope and strength to

others. Lord, help us make the shift. Help us

not be people of outer works only, but that our

inner and our outer would match. We love you,

Jesus. And we ask that you would do this great

work inside of each one here today. In Jesus

name I pray, amen. Thank you for taking the time

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