Salt, Light, Heart

We are in a series of messages that we started last week on the Sermon on the Mount, and that's Matthew 5 through 7.

So if you have your Bibles, you can open up and go there.

And I'm going to open us up in prayer and then we'll get into it.

Lord, we come to you in Jesus' name.

God, I thank you for the power of your word.

I thank you, God, for the way that you speak to us, Lord, in these moments.

And to just think about the reality that the same spirit that provoked people to write down your holy word is the same spirit that connects the dots for us in terms of application and what you would say to us here and now.

So we just open ourselves up and make ourselves receptive to what you would have to say to us today.

We thank you and love you in Jesus' name.

Everybody said amen.

Amen.

Okay, last week when I started talking about this, I referenced a movie from the 80s.

The movie was called The Princess Bride.

And in the movie, there's it's a basically a story about a storyteller telling a story to his grandson.

And then the story is this epic story about, you know, Wesley and Buttercup and Andre the Giant.

And if you haven't seen it, it's awesome.

Go watch it.

But really, the reason I brought that movie up is because the movie opens with a grandfather telling his grandson this story.

So you've got two simultaneous stories going, storylines, so to speak, going on.

And that's true anytime you read your Bible.

So if you open up the book of Matthew, okay, it's like the grandfather telling the grandson a story.

Matthew's telling a story to first century uh Jewish Christian audience, but he's telling a story about Jesus.

And the more we can understand about Matthew and who he's talking to, and we can understand about Jesus and who he's talking to, then we can get all the dots connected and probably get an even better interpretation, which will lead to better application.

Alright?

So that's what we're gonna we're gonna do today.

I want to um take you back to Matthew 4.

So this is like, this is basically um helping us understand who Jesus was talking to on the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 4, 24.

It says news about him spread as far as Syria, and people soon began bringing to him all who were sick.

Okay?

So Jesus is healing people, and so now he has a massive following, a group of people who have an infirmity, who are sick.

And it said, whatever their sickness or disease, it didn't matter what it was, whether they were demon-possessed, epileptic, paralyzed, he healed them all.

Large crowds followed him wherever he went.

People from Galilee, the ten towns, or some of your Bibles say the decapolis, Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River.

Alright, so what do we know about this crowd?

We know that everybody that's there was either sick or they brought somebody who was sick.

They had a need that they needed Jesus to meet.

So it was a needy, sick, hurting, broken group of people.

But then there's the next part that it mentions where these people are from, and to us, it just sounds like a bunch of cities.

It just sounds like Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, whatever.

Okay, cool.

I know where they're from.

Great.

What does that have to do with anything?

Well, to Matthew's audience, so to the grandson listening to the story, when you name these cities, they would have understood that this was a very diverse group of people in terms of how they saw the world, in terms of their ideologies.

It's like if I started naming certain cities, um, uh maybe around where you grew up, or even cities within our own country, you would know that with that city comes generally this mindset.

And to better understand what this means, okay, uh let me do a little bit of teaching.

So I'm gonna go a bit academic here because um I think the more I do this, the more again we'll we'll be able to understand and apply and even see how this isn't just a 2,000-year-old story.

It really is a story that applies to us.

Okay, so to fully understand who these people are, we gotta do a look a little bit at the intertestamental period.

The intertestamental period is the 400 years of silence between the end of the book of Malachi, which is the end of the Old Testament, and the beginning of the book of Matthew, 400 years.

What happened in that 400 years?

Well, that's during the time of um uh Alexander the Great.

And Alexander the Great was a huge proponent or evangelist for uh Hellenism, basically taking Greco-Roman culture and spreading it to the ends of the earth.

In fact, we know uh Alexander the Great had a military, so his actions were military, but what he didn't do was go in and subjugate people and um force labor.

What they did was they introduced a culture of Hellenism that they would put in front of people, and people would go, you know, this ain't so bad, actually.

What is Hellenism?

Okay, Hellenism is really has kind of four main components to it.

The first is education.

And so Alexander the Great knew that if if we can control what people are taught in school, and and he introduced the gymnasium or essentially university, higher ed, okay, the more we can educate, if we can innovate and improve the education system, control it, then ultimately we control what people think.

And so so they created the best, most robust educational system any anywhere in the world, and they would take that everywhere they went.

The second was um health care, and so uh meeting people's needs, understanding the human body better better than ever, um, medicine, hospitals, and again, back to human health.

It's a it's a it's a core need that we have, and so they they improved healthcare.

The third thing was entertainment, the theater.

And he understood that if you can create great storylines, you capture the imagination of people.

And just like again, stories and movies and books have a way of shifting culture and directing people and and and shaping thought in the world, um, they used theater and and came up with elaborate plays and many, many theaters.

And then the fourth was athletics and sport.

What happens with athletics and sport?

Well, a few things.

One, you tap into a sense of tribalism that people have, um, and then also a sense of competition.

You tap into that sort of primal competitive spirit.

And if you grew up playing sports, you know this to be true.

That that if you're on my team, if you're with me, we're like brothers or we're like sisters, like we're together.

This is us against the world.

And so it does have a sense of loyalty and tribalism, and then you learn as a child, if you played sports, you learned how to compete.

And compete and compete and compete.

And it doesn't matter if we're if if there's a ball or no ball, whatever, it doesn't matter.

And you put me anywhere, any arena, if we're doing deals, okay, if we're selling uh products, whatever we're doing, you know how to compete.

So competition, okay, and tribalism was a part.

So what is he?

He does these four things, and that's Hellenism.

With that also came innovations of all kinds.

And so instead of having to force labor, they introduced this better education, better theater, better sport, okay, uh, better health care, and often people would just go, hey, this is sweet, this is good, and they would accept Hellenism.

Well, with the nation of Israel, okay, they're caught right up in the middle of this in those 400 years, and toward the end of it, okay, for the most part, they they sort of embraced Hellenism until it got really bad for them with the Seleucids and the whole story of Hanukkah, where you have the Maccabean revolt because they made it illegal to practice their religion, to practice Judaism.

And so they eventually, this whole like guerrilla warfare movement, they take back the temple, they kick out um, you know, the false gods, and they rule themselves, but eventually, again, the Greco-Roman world comes back in, the the priesthood was corrupt, and now we are subject to the Roman Empire.

Again, Hellenism is ruling and reigning.

So, first century BC Jewish people had really five different schools of thought in terms of how they responded to or reacted to Hellenism, how they behaved around Hellenism.

And these five factions or these five groups of people represent not only like parties of people, but really ways of thinking.

Okay?

So here it is.

Go ahead and bring these up.

And these are gonna help you read your Bible better because you'll see some of this.

The first two are the Sadducees and the Herodians.

The Sadducees and the Herodians.

The Sadducees were where you would hear like chief priests.

Remember that when Jesus is being uh standing trial and the chief priest, the chief priest would have been a Sadducee.

The unique thing about the Sadducees is that they were the religious elite, but they were totally embracing Hellenism.

So they had relationship, deep relationship with the Greco-Roman government and the Roman government.

So, how did the chief priest become the chief priest?

Well, it was offered to the highest bidder.

And so you have the this mentality that some would say, Well, these priests are corrupt, but they would say, the power structure is what it is.

I'm not gonna hide from it.

I'm gonna embrace Rome, I'm gonna embrace Hellenism.

So for them, they would go, I go to the arena, I go to the theater, okay?

I I'm going to the gymnasium to hear the incredible um lecture.

I'm into Hellenism, but I can love Yahweh and love Hellenism, and I can do both.

And so these are the religious leaders.

The second are the Herodians, who were basically the exact same mentality.

They just weren't religious leaders.

They were just uh again people within the community who would fully embrace both.

The next group, next two groups, are the Pharisees and the Zealots.

And the Pharisees and the Zealots were were part of a group called the Hasidim, which was basically this the pious ones, the holy ones.

And so they said, anybody who embraces Hellenism is a sellout, has compromised.

You guys have gone and intertwined yourself with all this new fangled Hellenistic stuff.

I'm not going to the theater, I'm not going to the arena, I'm not doing any of that.

We are going to separate ourselves.

And but they took two different approaches.

So the zealots, their approach was with the sword.

They literally were violent.

They're like, look, we've been taken over, we're going to fight our way back.

The posters on their wall was uh Judas Maccabeas, Judas the Hammer, the glory days.

We're going to go in and we will we we we will put our dukes up, we will get our swords out, and we will rebel until we get our freedom.

The Pharisees were like, hey, we're not doing that.

We're not gonna fight Rome, but we're not gonna intertwine with Rome at all.

We don't want anything to do with Hellenism.

What we're gonna do is totally double down on obedience to God.

Obedience and devotion to God.

Anything that looks like, talks like, walks like, or smells like Hellenism, we want nothing to do with.

And we believe if we'll just be really, really obedient and strict in our commitment to God, Yahweh will deal with Rome in his time.

Then you have the fifth group of people, which are the Essenes.

And the Essenes basically were like, this whole thing is it's irreparable damage.

It's there's corrupt in the temple, there's corrupt in the government, the Pharisees and the Sadducees are corrupt, everybody's corrupt except us.

So we're going out and creating a compound out near the Dead Sea.

So you remember if you've heard about in the 1940s and 50s the Dead Sea scrolls that were discovered, that was the work of the Essenes who created their own compound.

They would be like of the mindset, like this world's messed up, so I'm gonna go get a little house in the woods.

And I'm gonna live off the land, and I'm gonna make friends with deer, and I'm gonna have a BFF that's a squirrel, and I I don't want an internet, okay?

I don't want I don't want no internet, I don't want no social media.

I I don't want any, I'm I'm friends with, I'm gonna live off the land, all right?

I don't want anything to do with this messed up stuff.

And and when it all goes to hell in a handbasket, don't come knocking on my little house door, okay?

I'm gonna be up in a tree.

So, okay, that would have been the Essenes.

We're gonna we're gonna flight, we're gonna remove ourselves and create our own little community called Qumran.

So this is what Jesus shows up into.

And the mindset around this is frankly not that different from how do we react to the world around us?

You've got progressive on one side, which is look, innovation is innovation.

I mean, come on, you're you're gonna become so traditional, you won't embrace any part of Hellenism.

Like they have plumbing.

It's pretty awesome.

Have you seen these aqueducts?

They're kind of great.

Like there's something, like, go ahead and embrace innovation, embrace what's new.

And then the others were like, you know what?

You start doing that, you open up Pandora's box, the corruption.

You know, I'm gonna power wash all the gunk off of the Torah, and and and I want to add, you know, even layers of holiness.

So you can see where the Pharisees are coming from, you can see where the Sadducees were coming from, and you can see where the Essenes are coming from and all of it.

I can see where the zealots are coming from.

You know what?

We gotta fight back.

I get it.

Chances are, when I was explaining this, there may have been one or two of these that you're like, I can get with that.

I understand where they're coming from.

Yeah, I in fact, some of you, when I was talking about the Essenes, and uh some of you are went on Zillow and started looking for a little house with no address in the woods, all right?

I mean, that's what you're so we get it.

Jesus shows up, by the way, and they are trying to figure out from him whose ideology do you buy into?

Who are you into?

Who do you agree with?

In fact, I'll show I'll show show you this verse real quick.

This is gonna cause stuff to make a lot more sense.

Matthew 22, so this is way later.

Matthew 22, verse 15, it said when the Pharisees met together to plot how to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested.

Matthew 22:15

By the way, the Pharisees were part of the Sanhedrin, which the Sanhedrin was basically the judicial, religious judicial system, but the Pharisees did not have the power to arrest Jesus.

You knew who had the power to arrest Jesus?

The Sadducees.

Why?

Because they were connected to Rome.

Rome had given them that power.

They paid for it, literally.

And so the Pharisees and Sadducees, a lot of times we read them together.

The Pharisees and Sadducees, we think they're like best buddies.

They're not.

They're not.

They don't like each other.

But the one thing they were unified about was they didn't like Jesus.

So the Pharisees realized we can't arrest Jesus.

We need some help from some other people.

So it says in verse 16, they sent some of their disciples along with the supporters of Herod to meet with him.

Okay, you getting this?

Who would the supporters of Herod have been?

Either Sadducees or Herodians.

So they they team up and they go to him and they say to him in verse 16, Teacher, they said, We know how honest you are.

You teach the way of God truthfully.

They're gassing him up here.

You're impartial and you don't play favorites.

In other words, we know you'll shoot straight.

We know you'll stand on business.

Verse 17.

Now tell us what you think about this.

Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

Are you getting this?

Thank you.

Okay, I see you, girl.

I like you.

She's like, move on, my man, we got you.

Um what's going on here is the Pharisees are, what are they hoping Jesus will say?

Hey, should we pay taxes to Caesar?

They're hoping he'll say no to incite the Herodians and the Sadducees to go, oh, he's anti-Herod, or he's anti-Rome, and so you're anti-Caesar, and so should we pay Caesar or not?

And Jesus knew their evil motives.

You hypocrites, he said.

Why are you trying to trap me?

Here, show me the coin using uh for tax.

They handed him a Roman coin and he asked, Whose picture?

Whose picture and title are stamped on it?

Caesar's, they said.

Well then, he said, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give to God what belongs to God.

And his reply amazed them, and they went away.

You know, he got them, he got them, you know.

But what's he saying, right?

Ultimately he's going, it's just money.

Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar's.

He wouldn't take a side.

And they knew that if they could get him to take a side, it would incite the Sadducees or the and the Herodians to kill him.

So this is what's going on.

Now, let's go back real quick, Matthew 4.

When it says in verse 25, large crowds followed him, and we know that they were sick and they needed healed and they had a problem they couldn't solve.

When it says the people were from Galilee, the ten towns of the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and east of the Jordan River, to the grandpa telling the grandson the story, to Matthew telling first century Jews this story, when they heard these cities' names, they understood the diversity of the ideologies.

People from Galilee and people from Judea didn't like each other.

The people from Galilee were from the rural areas, they were from the sticks.

They had more of a roughneck type of mentality, kind of a fringe.

People from Judea, highly educated, more refined, pinky up when they sip, you know, their tea.

Okay, they were tea drinkers.

No, that's not real, but you get the idea.

People tea drinkers are very stuck up.

You know that.

You know that.

This isn't new information.

You offer someone coffee and they're like, I drink tea.

Like, oh, okay.

That's what the Judeans, they were tea drinkers, is what they were.

And so so when he says these different names, he's not just talking, he's talking about not just the the formal groups of Herodians and Sadducees and Pharisees and Zealots.

Okay, what he's talking about is in these regions, these are where these people settled.

This is the mindset that's here.

So think about how beautiful this is, by the way.

That the fact that they had a problem they couldn't solve, somebody's sick.

Because you you can hang on real tight to your Sadduceism or your Phariseeism or your Zealotism or your Herodianism or your Essenism until your son gets sick.

I won't stand next to you unless my son can't get off the mat, then I'll go stand in any healing line.

I'll go stand wherever I've got to go.

I'll go intermix because the solution is here.

And so Jesus, by the way, now look at the Beatitudes.

Blessed are the merciful.

Blessed are the peacemaker.

He starts out in the beginning and he's he's describing an internal feeling, an internal state connected to the world.

Blessed are those who mourn.

Okay?

Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, whose feel like it's all falling apart.

And then he goes into talking about blessed are those who try to meet that brokenness and minister to it.

Blessed are those who try to bring people together.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who hunger and thirst for justice, who look and see people not treating each other well.

Blessed are those who say, Hey, Sadducee, I see your point.

Hey, Pharisee, I see your point and try to bring them together.

Blessed are those who try to bring unity.

And then he said, By the way, don't be surprised when you're persecuted.

Don't be surprised when they come after you.

So the Beatitudes make even more sense when we understand that it wasn't just sick hurting people, it was people from all over, we'll call it the political spectrum.

How they saw the, how they thought about Hellenism.

And you know what?

We have our Hellenism and we have our world and we have our reactions to things that make us uncomfortable.

And some of us like to live on the cutting edge and tend to, you know, go more progressive.

And others are like, you know what, that's a slippery slope and that's dangerous.

You start adding that in, and it's bad.

And so so we go, you know, I'm gonna draw a hard line and I'm gonna power wash the thing, and I'm gonna go back even to legalism.

And what and what Jesus never does is pick a side.

He doesn't do it.

He stinking doesn't do it.

And I know it makes you uncomfortable, and it makes me uncomfortable.

And part of us is like, why don't you just go in and say, everybody.

Should be an Essene.

Why don't you go in and just pick a step?

But he doesn't because, frankly, let's be honest, you could go any one of those ideologies, and you could go, I understand it.

It's not totally wrong.

We can't stick our head in the sand.

We do have to embrace some new things.

We have to embrace some progress, but we could cross the line.

It's also not wrong to hold to tradition.

But what's Jesus saying to the Pharisees?

He says, guys, you're holding, you are the best at obedience and devotion, but you lack compassion.

Therefore, all of your obedience and what you're intending to serve God with is causing you to become judgmental.

You're pushing people away.

In fact, you're adding to his law with more oral law and people that don't follow that.

You're like, if you're not with me, you're against me.

You're creating more division.

So there's some of it you're doing really good, and there's some of it you're not doing good.

But here's the reality.

Let's just assume good intent.

That there was at least in every one of these factions people with good intent.

What are they trying to do?

They're trying to be on God's side.

Trying to be on God's side.

That's what the Pharisees were trying to do.

That's what the Sadducees were trying to do.

And yet Jesus shows up and he says, Look, being on God's side isn't about having your ideology perfect and being able to point fingers at everything they're doing wrong.

What he does is he drags the conversation really deep.

And here's how he does it.

He instead of giving them answers that they were looking for, he gives them essentially questions to wrestle with.

I have to think in a dynamic fashion.

I have to take this to the Lord and go, Lord, what what does this mean?

Let me show you.

Let me give you an example of what he does here.

The next part of the Sermon on the Mount is Matthew 5, uh, 13 through 16.

After the Beatitudes, he says this, you were the salt of the earth.

What good is salt if it's lost its flavor?

Can you make it salty again?

It'll be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.

In other words, he's saying if you're the salt of the earth, he's saying that you you should be affecting, you should be an agent of change.

You should be a catalyst.

It's like salt.

You put salt on food, absolutely, you can taste it.

It it changes the taste of food.

And so he's saying, you know, don't hide out.

You do need to engage with the culture.

If all you do is you're right, but you build up a fortress with the world, then all of that rightness and all of that accurate theology doesn't go into dark places.

It doesn't change the taste of the world.

So the world shouldn't be changing the taste of you and taking the taste out of your soul.

But you should be, you should be making change.

You should be an agent of change.

You you should be right in the middle of it.

So, in a sense, right, the the Herodians and anybody that was of a Herodian mindset would be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But then he says, Yeah, here's another one.

You're the light of the world.

Like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.

No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket.

Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, look at this.

Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

He's saying, Look, when you do good, do good big.

Do it big, do it bright, do it loud, go up on a hill, okay?

Shine your light bright and make sure everybody knows so that they'll glorify your father in heaven.

To which the Herodians and the Sadducees would be like, Exactly.

That's why we've gone and joined with Hellenism.

That's why we've gone and we've intertwined ourselves with the Roman government.

You're not gonna be against them.

We're gonna go and make change from the inside.

Thank you, Jesus.

And then you get to Matthew 6, 1, and he says, Watch out though.

Don't do your good deeds publicly to be admired by others.

For you'll lose your reward from your father in heaven.

When you give to someone in need, don't do as the hypocrites do, blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets and drawing attention to your acts of charity.

I tell you the truth, they've received all the reward they'll ever get.

And when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Give your gifts in private, and your father who sees everything will reward you.

To which they're sitting there going, I'm a little confused, Jesus.

Because like a few minutes ago, you said that when I do something, I'm supposed to be big and loud with it.

You said to be bright.

You want me to be bright, like in dark places, like when you fly into Columbus and you're flying in and you go over a bunch of cornfields and it's dark for a long time, and then you see Columbus, and it's lit up, and you're like, home, sweet home, here it is.

I'm finally about to arrive.

He's painting that picture in that place, a city on a hill that's lit up, that's a place of safety and security, and and it's a beacon of hope.

So he said, Let your light so shine that that amidst all the bad headlines and all the bad news and all the reasons for pessimism and all the reasons for discouragement, that people would look and see your example and the way you're shining a light, and he they would glorify your father in heaven.

And you're like, Yeah, and then he's like, but don't let the right hand know what the left hand's doing.

And when you're doing things, do them in private so no one sees it, which leads to tremendous, like could be confusion.

Like, what so then what do I do?

And what's Jesus doing?

He's not giving you a question, he's giving you an He's not giving you an answer, he's giving you a question.

He's saying, I want you to wrestle with this.

You're dynamic, your situation is dynamic.

There may be something you started out doing for the glory of God, and it's become about you, and you need to go do it in private, or you need to quit doing it.

He goes to motive.

Why would you do this so bright to glorify your father in heaven?

Okay, cool.

So you've intertwined with Rome and you've embraced Hellenism, and you've got all the reasons why you're right and the Pharisees and the Zealots are wrong.

But the question is, are you really doing this to glorify God, or are you just doing it because it's more luxury and leisure and more affirmation to you as it become about you?

You might have started doing it for the right reason and started doing it for the wrong reason, and at some point you gotta check yourself because you you now have your comeback, you have your comeback to the pushback, but have you actually opened up your heart to your motive and allowed the Lord to show you?

Because it's not right or wrong to be a Pharisee, it's not right or wrong to be an Essene.

The question is, what's going on in here?

Jesus drives it much, much deeper.

Because there's a time to do something for everyone to see, and there's a time to do something that no one ever sees, and that's never attributed to you, and does nothing to open doors for you.

I was thinking about this, you know.

I try to do my best in these messages to open myself up.

I don't want to just be delivering.

I'm like, Lord, what are you saying to me?

And I started thinking about I start thinking about um a scenario like this.

Uh, every once in a while I'll get kind of tired and I need a break and I got a lot going on and I'm feeling the pressure and I'm feeling the weight.

And Sunday just always rolling around.

So Sunday, a Sunday shows up.

And let's say it's a Sunday, and I've been in a busy season.

I'm trying to get the building right, I'm trying to get the staff working together, and I'm trying to be a good pastor, and I'm trying to be a good husband, I'm trying to be a good father, I'm trying to be a good human being, and I'm trying to get okay, I'm trying to get it all right, and and I'm on my way to church, and Shaylin and I got in an argument the night before, and okay, and that didn't happen today.

I'm just telling you, I'm just, it has happened in the past, but it didn't happen today.

We get in an argument the night before, and so I'm kind of in defensive energy.

I'm in a bad mood.

I wake up.

I didn't sleep good.

I get up, okay.

The coffee's not doing what it's supposed to do.

I'm driving into church, and as I'm driving in, my flesh is like, I don't even want to come today.

I don't even want to be here today.

I need a break.

I need to, I need to take a week or a couple weeks off.

I need a break, and I'm driving in and I'm numb.

I don't want to see anybody, and I don't want to do anything, and I don't even want to preach.

I don't want to hear any worship music.

I just want to be left alone.

And I'm driving in, but it's Sunday and I got a job to do and I got a responsibility.

So I pull in the parking lot and I open the door and I start seeing folks.

Well, what do I do?

I don't go, you know, Shaylin, let me tell you what she said last night.

Okay, I don't do that.

I don't get in a bat, you know what I do is I put a smile on my face and I greet folks.

Hey, good to see you.

Whatever.

Connect, how you doing?

Hey, follow up.

I'm walking in, I get, I, I, I, I come in and then I meet, and every Sunday I get here, and I and when I get here, I I run through my message front to back to somebody just one-on-one, and they give me feedback because I don't want first service feeling like they're getting the rough draft or whatever, you know what I'm saying?

So I run through it and they give me feedback, so I'll square away, I'll do that.

I come in, worship might be playing.

I'm trying to enter in, I'm trying to connect with it.

I can't, I feel numb.

I get up here, I begin to preach, and I give you my absolute best.

I give you my best.

I try to get lost in what I'm talking about.

I try to get outside of my feelings and be faithful, and I give you my best and I give God my best.

And then I leave and I walk out, I get to my car, and I adjust my rearview mirror and I catch my reflection.

What do I see?

I look at myself and I go, Greg, you're a good dude.

I mean, you're a good dude.

You didn't get your feelings today.

You did what great leaders do.

You squared away, you were responsible.

You went in there and did your job.

You served God well, you serve people well, you're a human being, you're not always gonna be feeling it, and regardless of how you felt, you did a good job.

Well done.

Or do I look at myself and go, you stinking hypocrite.

You're so fake.

You fake, you put on a mask, you hid behind a smile, you played a character today.

And you might have fooled the folks.

Man looks at the outward appearance, they didn't know about your fight, they didn't know you were numb, but God looks at the heart and he knows how fake you are.

Which one's true?

Don't answer that.

Faker! The right answer is that the question is the right question.

That's the right answer.

The right answer is what's the right question?

The right question is what's wrong with me and what's right with me?

Because the mistake would be for me to settle into this.

Oh, it's just what great leaders do.

Great leaders know how to operate outside of their feelings.

Great leaders are disciplined to be able to do this.

Yeah, sometimes you know this as a mom, dad, business owner, manager, teacher, coach, whatever you do, you know sometimes you're not feeling it and you gotta fake it till you make it.

It's just you got to do that sometimes.

It's part of discipline, it's part of being a professional.

You can't just go in there and wear your feelings on your sleeve.

But if all I do is default to that, I'm right there, and instead of taking that and bringing it to the Lord and go, God, I feel like I'm somewhere between a hypocrite and a great leader.

And I don't know where I'm at on the spectrum, but I know that's the right question.

I'm gonna lay it at your feet and I'm gonna ask you to open up my heart and to search me and let me know where I'm at because today I might be a great leader, but tomorrow I might be a hypocrite.

I I might, I might have squared away and been disciplined, or I might be starting to learn how to be a character.

And if I can fake my way through this, what else could I fake my way through?

I mean, if I can fool all of you up here and do this, what else could I do?

And what it would do, and what it could do, is open up a door of temptation to say, oh, you're good at manipulation.

Oh, you're good at pretending.

So if all I do is I've got my soundbite, I've got my comeback, no, it's what great leaders do.

No, the point is, it's not right or wrong.

It's me bringing it to the Lord and going, what's happening to this thing right here?

What changes do I need to make?

This is what Jesus does.

He's like, I don't care if you're a Pharisee, a Sadducee, a Herodian, an Essene, or a zealot.

Or if you line up to all that, you all have points and you all have blind spots.

You all have a logical reason why you do what you do, and you all have things you can't see.

You are devoted and obedient to God's law, but you have no heart for the people whose weight, you're you're you're dumping weight on these people, you're crushing them, and you do nothing to help them.

And you've you you you've grown close to your ideology and you've lost the heart of God.

And so, what is it?

What is it?

Do I let my light shine or do I do my good deed in private?

Lord, what do you have for me?

Lord, what show me.

Show me my heart, show me my motive.

Am I doing this to exploit somebody?

He says, when you're giving to someone in need, don't make a big deal out of it.

Because what are you doing?

You're you're you're putting yourself up.

Why would I let my light shine?

But to glorify God.

The moment I start putting myself up, I've done the right thing for the wrong reason.

How would I know that?

Unless I open up my heart to God, unless I respond to the accountability, unless I let him show me the thing in my heart that's hidden.

And so today, that's what we have in the Sermon on the Mount.

By the way, that's what you're gonna keep seeing.

Jesus is gonna say, You've heard it said this, but I say this.

You've heard it said this, but I say this.

You've been believing this, but take it deeper, and he's gonna give them a whole different view.

We're gonna see this over and over and over again.

Let's take a moment right now.

In just a minute or two, we're gonna baptize.

But I want to take a moment to allow the Lord maybe to show us each something.

What is something in your life that maybe was okay for you then but is not okay for you now?

What is something that's okay for you now but may not be okay for you in six months?

What is an area in the dynamic nature of who you are that's been something that's been bright that now needs to not let the right hand know what the left hand's doing?

What is something that's shifted and changed?

Something that you have an open and shut response for why you're right, and yet God wants to show you the contents of your heart.

Lord, we come to you in Jesus' name.

We ask you today to search us, to show us what's wrong, and to show us what's right.

Lord, maybe there are areas in our lives that we have given ourselves a false positive around what we want to be true, and maybe we're only allowing ourselves to see what we want to see.

In the same way that there was this stalemate among these mindsets and these factions 2,000 years ago, Lord, we have that within our own communities, within our own churches, within the body of Christ.

So, Lord, I pray that you would help us, God, to maybe see things that have been hidden right in front of us.

Help us to ask the right question to you in prayer.

And we thank you, Lord, that you're faithful and that you show us when we ask, seek, and knock.

In Jesus' name.

Everybody said amen.