Kingdom As Commonplace: Sermon on the Mount - Intersections

Labor Day weekend.

Cool terms people use these days.

My name is Kirk.

Just have the joy of being the pastor at this church here called Commonplace.

You're visiting with us.

So glad you're with us.

Yeah, what we do is we we just teach the Bible, we talk about Jesus, and um we try to just seek the scriptures and hear from God and just learn.

And uh this particular series we've been hearing directly from the words of God, directly the words of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount.

And we're gonna close this series out today.

Um hopefully no one's like rooting for that, but maybe, and I get it.

It's okay.

Uh, but here's what Jesus is gonna do as he closes uh out this um this passage here in this time.

Well, he's gonna he's gonna close it differently, I guess, than than maybe some other um declarations that have been made, right?

Because Jesus is making all these declarations for these past two chapters and to to those who in his audience, and and he's gonna leave them really with something different from maybe what we would expect.

And let me let me share what I mean.

Um, when you think about some sort of uh, let's say uh a declaration that's been made or a pronouncement of some sort, right?

There's usually like a directive forward.

Like here, here's what what you do.

Um think about um our uh declaration of independence, right, for our country.

And and think about, you know, there's there's a call towards that, right?

Towards freedom after that.

Think about um the words of um the great you know William Wallace's speech, right?

As he as he finishes, he says, They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom, right?

These are what we call concluding directives, okay?

And and we see that Jesus, he's gonna approach this conclusion a little bit differently.

He doesn't simply conclude by giving like this uh his listeners one firm direction, like this is it right here.

He concludes by doing this, by placing his listeners at a series of I'd like to call um intersections.

An intersection with choices.

Another term we often use is this term of crossroads.

I'm sure we're familiar with that.

Right?

Maybe uh in a job, there's a crossroads opportunity, right?

Do we stay with this job?

Do we find something else?

Maybe in a relationship, right?

There's there's these choices.

Do we uh continue with this person or do we not?

Like uh even some of us when it comes to like the idea of uh, this is a big one, the idea of choosing tacos outside of Tuesday, right?

That's a big choice that needs to be made.

Um but but Jesus, that was silly, sorry.

But Jesus, he leaves his uh listeners and us with the crossroad moments.

So that's what we're gonna see.

We're gonna see these kingdom crossroads this morning.

And these intersections really between a life lived for Jesus as King or a life lived as, well, enter, put either any one of our put our names in front of that, us as that role of authority, of king, right?

And he he invites us at the end of this this passage to make a decision.

Now, I just want to point out it's an invitation, right?

He doesn't demand it, right?

But he he does a really good job of declaring, well, there is a direction towards life here.

And there's a direction that will maybe not lead towards what we think it's gonna lead to.

And so Jesus, he opens his teaching, or he closes, sorry, his teaching with this invitation here.

He brings us to this intersection and he shows us these roads.

And these roads, he then invites us to decide, hey, which kingdom will direct my life?

Will it be his kingdom or will it be, you know, ours?

And and so here's what Jesus is gonna do through this time.

He's gonna do this through a series of what's called uh dichotomies, all right?

These are or maybe dualities, which really just simply means uh two options, okay?

It's two two uh area of two um duels here in this kingdom crossroads.

So here's what I'm gonna do.

I want to I want to walk us through these dichotomies.

There's there's four altogether throughout this conclusion.

We're gonna unpack these and I want to explain, of course, the context and the two options, but here's what I want to do.

From this space, I also want to um give us something that goes beyond the Sermon on the Mount.

Okay?

Uh for a lot of our time this morning, we're gonna kind of be jumping back and forth in the regards to the beginning of creation, to God's created order.

And and and I wanna, I think this really is incredible.

It shows Jesus' genius as he's gonna intertwine the Sermon on the Mount with the fullness of the narrative of God's God's redemptive plan for salvation.

We're gonna see it's it's it's incredible, right?

It's Jesus is Jesus is Jesus, right?

But here's how he ties together this passage with the gospel.

So let's look at these kingdom crossers, okay?

And like I said, we're gonna we're gonna jump a little bit all over the place today, so bear with me, but but just trust me, it's it's it's uh it's good stuff, okay?

So uh Jesus starts in verse 13 and 14 with this image of two gates, all right?

Two gates.

Now, before we break down the paths that go behind these gates, just acknowledge the purpose.

Well, what's the purpose of a gate?

Like conceptually, what does a gate do?

Well, it it it's it divides, right?

It it makes uh maybe marks maybe a point of entry, or uh depending on the direction you're going, maybe a point of exit.

But a gate has two purposes.

Uh am I entering through the gate, or am I passing through?

Am I passing out of it, right?

Now let's get like a little nerdy for a moment, okay?

Jesus, he uses imagery here that would have been uh deeply familiar with the Jewish wisdom tradition.

Here's what I mean: this idea of two ways, okay?

Uh, if you think about Psalm chapter one, opens with these uh two ways of living, right?

The way of the righteous and the way of the wicked.

We see in Deuteronomy there's there's uh repeated moments of Israel with these alternatives of life and then death, blessing and of curse, right?

Jeremiah speaks of the way of life and the way of death.

And so this is a familiar framework that Jesus is gonna use for his audience.

And and here's what's just really incredible.

When we talk about the image of the gate itself, right?

It's something that does it allows entrance or closes, but it also brings us back to one of the most early, well, to the earliest story in the Bible.

Right?

Look at this.

I want us to go back to Genesis.

Adam and Eve, they're walking in communion with God.

There is perfect peace.

The word there is shalom.

And humanity is living in the presence of God.

There's nothing like this, right?

Just exactly as creation was intended to be.

Now, if you know the story, sadly, through the deception of the enemy of Satan and the choice of the humanity to sin, that shalom is shattered.

Here's what takes place after that.

You remember?

It says, So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had taken.

After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to the guard the way of the tree of life.

So, because of disobedience, because of sin, here's what happens Adam and Eve are forced to leave the garden.

They exit.

As they they do it, God places them there.

He places as they get out of there, God places something there.

He tells Genesis tells us that the cherubim, they're placed at that entrance.

They're guarding the way of the tree of life.

It's it's a divide, which in reality is what?

It's a gateway, it's a gateway between God and man.

Now listen, is this a literal place, a gate with cherubim standing guard, right?

Well, I if if you want to go search like Garden of Eden, you know, like Indiana Jillan style, you can, but maybe you'll find the landmark.

But that's not the point, right?

The point isn't the location.

The point is what this moment represents.

It's that humanity, through its choice to disobey, to disobey God, is forced out of this place of intimacy, out of connection with God.

It's forced out of this place of peace, right?

So so the and the way back, right, to initially design is now it's now guarded, right?

If we want to go back to that place of peace, it's guarded.

And really, because of the presence of man's sin, there's this barrier now between God and man.

And so now, how does this connect to Jesus' teaching here?

Right?

I told you we're gonna kind of go over the place, but here's here's what we recognize.

Think who is Jesus, right?

He's called, yes, Emmanuel, God with us, but he's also called what the Prince of Peace.

And so here's what the Prince of Peace has come to do he's come to restore what has been shattered, he's come to this rescue us, right?

He's this rescuer, this redeemer kinsman.

He offers humanity a pathway, it's a pathway that leads to life.

And so when Jesus speaks about these gates, about these paths, right?

He's speaking of himself and this way towards what was originally created by God, the original tension and intention.

And and think about the directions that are offered here, okay?

At the fall of humanity, or the fall of man, sorry, humanity, they already experienced some sort of way, and is a way that was separated from by of God and man.

And that was caused right by sin all the way back in Genesis.

But now Jesus comes around and he pronounces another way.

He another way is this it's a way that leads back to life.

But what does he note about this way?

This is important.

He says that path is what?

It's narrow.

He says it's a narrow path.

So here's the reality, right?

It's this narrow path that does what?

It it's it leads to restoration.

That narrow path leads back to peace, it leads back to this renewed relationship between God and humanity.

So what the question, why why narrow?

Well, it's narrow because uh the path does this, it puts all other distractions in our lives aside, and it turns its devotion and it clings close to Jesus.

It's this path surrendered to his lordship.

It's it's clinging tightly to him as Lord, as savior, redeemer, as friend.

Clinging gives us this way towards to think about this narrowness of the path, okay?

When you think about um this idea of uh there's not much room to go elsewhere, right?

When we're when we're clinging, when we're devotion, devoted to someone, right?

And of course, there's this danger of the the wide road.

And the the wide path, we we open ourselves up to things like distractions of this world, idols, sin, the desires that want to pull us away from our relationship with God.

That's the that's the the wide path.

But Jesus calls us to this narrow one.

The narrow one is the one towards peace.

It's it's the clinging that he calls to.

And I want us to just take a moment, this word for a moment, this idea of clinging, right?

Usually that term uh is pretty negative connotation in our in our culture, if you think about it, right?

When someone's like in a relationship and they they never give the other person space, right?

They're always around, always checking in, right?

We call them a clinger.

True, right?

It's a term.

But can you imagine, right, if it what our faith journeys would look like if we became these what's called like Christ clingers, right?

Always around him, always seeking him, always wanting to hear from him, always desiring to be in his presence, right?

Because listen, Jesus doesn't require space from us.

In fact, he desires the opposite.

He desires every space in our lives where we'd be willing to surrender to him.

Think about how amazing it would be, right?

Uh if people outside of commonplace church, they they just simply they they looked and and they observed our lives, they looked at the relationshi interactions, and they just walked away thinking like, man, those people are clingers, right?

They just can't get enough of this Jesus guy, right?

Give them some space, people, right?

You're smothering him.

But but listen, Jesus isn't worried about being smothered by our devotion.

The closer we are to him, the more connected we are to him, the more our lives are directed along a path that is leading to peace, that is leading to life.

Now, now here's the thing Jesus says this path though is not easy.

Why does he state that?

Well, because following Jesus does this, it continually calls us to choose him.

To choose him when people around us who surround us are choosing things like just comfort and sin and self and choosing the temporary desires of this world.

Because sometimes it feels it feels hard because we have this tendency towards like a very um worldly phenomena of like FOMO, right?

You know what that is, fear of missing out, right?

The the fear that by choosing the narrow path with Jesus, somehow we're missing out on everything happening on the wide path, right?

And then that the things that we decide maybe we're gonna abstain from, or maybe just only keep in the created context, and yet while others indulge and they attempt to present like some sort of joy or satisfaction through it.

But but here's what we have to ask Do those wide paths actually lead towards life?

Do they ultimately lead towards peace?

I'd say they do this.

I'd say they just keep trying to pull us in so many different directions, right?

Pull us all over, just all over the the areas, right?

Pull us in and trying to keep us from like just being on the narrow path.

They'd rather just keep us changing lanes and moving towards desired fulfillment and satisfaction.

But Jesus, he offers one path, himself, and and humanity, right?

Of course, is is restored being restored through that path.

This this path that before that's needed because of the separation that happened because of sin.

But it's it's it's narrow and and and it's not easy.

But here's the thing about that path Jesus promises that it leads to life, right?

Following Jesus is this is following the way to our Father.

And of course, right?

Yes, that wide path that looks enticing.

I get it, right?

But that but that's the trap.

See, we we have an enemy who wants to get us just onto the wide road, right?

This road filled with so many lanes.

And why?

Well, because if we're on that, he knows that it's filled with detour after detour, right?

And we need to just remember the enemy has no interest in restoring the relationship that humanity once experienced with God, has zero interest, right?

He was there at the beginning working towards the destruction of that relationship.

So if that's true, why wouldn't why wouldn't he want us to take this road that looks easy and enticing us right to this road that ultimately just does this, it just keeps us distracted.

It just continues to put us on detours, and we're we're rerouted from the destination that so God so desperately desires for us to go towards, right?

Returning to the shalom that was between that once was between God and humanity.

And so that's the first kingdom crossroad, this idea of these two gates, these two paths, two roads, two destinations.

And and Jesus invites each one of us to consider how tightly am I clinging to Jesus?

Right?

How narrow is that road?

Right?

If we're following Jesus, these are questions that we want to consider.

Listen, we maybe we're not, we're just kind of checking everything out here.

The question is saying, is this road, is this road worth it?

Right?

And so here's where we go next.

Jesus talks about these gates and this path, but the next offering is this it's an offering of two trees, okay?

And now I want us to think back of examples within the biblical narrative, right, of trees.

And any particular uh examples stick out in our minds, right?

Maybe the one from the beginning of the whole story of humanity.

Any trees in the Garden of Eden?

Of course.

And so let's unpack that, right?

Now, as we do, it's it's important to be reminded of this that at creation, okay, God created everything, uh, Tove, okay?

Tov is the is a Hebrew word for good.

And and everything including this tree of knowledge of good and evil.

But that leaves us to the question.

If everything is good, tov, right?

Including a tree, well, how how does that good thing produce a product that was that was bad?

Right?

That caused that caused harm.

And that's that's a great question that people, you know, explore in the faith.

That's a great question that skeptics maybe have, right?

Maybe even those who just trying to figure things out wrestle with.

And so I think it's important for us to try to just give it an answer.

And so here's here's here's my thought.

In the garden, it wasn't that God created something bad.

I I believe rather it was that God was protecting his creation from accessing something they were never intended to eat, they were never designed to eat.

And as creator, God, he knew his creation better than anyone.

And in his sovereignty, he knew that eating from that tree would not bring goodness, it would not bring life to his creation.

In fact, if allowed to be eaten, that would introduce something humanity never was intended to experience.

Death.

Death.

And so the issue in the garden wasn't simply some sort of bad tree, the issue became this now temptation of this antagonist, the enemy, Satan, who's enticing God's image-bearers by doing this, by distorting the words of God.

Now, how does this tie into the Sermon on the Mount, right?

You're like, where are we going here, right?

Here's where Jesus is referencing, referencing the voices that speak of God, but don't speak necessarily for God.

Okay?

It functions very similarly to what Jesus warns about with these false prophets.

Think about the history of God's people, the idea of what a prophet is.

See, a prophet was someone sent by God to speak the words of God.

Okay?

But but here we have in the beginning of the garden, we have the serpent.

He enters the garden and he begins doing this, speaking about God, but not for him.

That's very different.

And here's the problem Adam and Eve, they listen to his voice.

They do so without discerning whether what was being offered actually aligns with the character of the God that they knew.

So, in other words, they allow the voice to reinterpret the voice of God.

They allowed that voice.

And look what this deceptive voice, Satan adversary offers.

He says, You will not certainly die, serpent said to the woman, for God knows what when you eat from it, your eyes will be open, you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Just look how deceptive here the Satan is in shifting the truth.

Because here's what God has already said to Adam and Eve previously.

He says, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

For when you eat from it, you will certainly die.

Look at this distortion that that enemy brings.

He says, He says, God, God says, God tells us, you certainly die.

If the serpent said, You won't die, right?

He takes the words and distorts them.

That's the craftiness of this deceptive voice.

It doesn't completely ignore the words of God, right?

It just does this, it distorts them.

It distorts God's word.

But God loves his creative beings enough to do this, to not hide the truth from us, to not hide the truth from them, or not to bend it, but to actually declare it.

And essentially, right, this this tree, he's saying this tree is good, but he's saying, but it's just not meant for your good.

That's what it is.

Right?

And then the serpent, though, comes along and says, Nah, it's good for you.

God's just withholding from you.

And and eating that fruit certainly, certainly isn't gonna kill you.

It's almost like in this moment you have this like false prophet origin story, right?

Satan, he isn't just show up claiming that God doesn't exist.

In fact, he's talking about God, he's referencing what God said to, but but he's just not representing God accurately.

He's not representing him fully.

And Jesus in Matthew 7, he's giving his disciples direction for discerning the difference between this, between someone who truly has been entrusted with the words of God, and just someone who speaks about God.

Someone who even maybe claims to speak from God, but actually misrepresents that God.

And so Jesus, he brings an image of a tree and he brings it into the conversation, and he gives us direction over this discerning what we are taught, what we're handed, what we're offered.

When we what we hear from people who claim to speak for God, and it leaves us with this question when we hear the voices connected to our faith, those that speak, right?

How do we discern who they're actually?

Speaking for?

Is this from God?

Or is it just from themselves?

Right?

And Jesus says this.

He says, Well, look at the fruit, right?

The fruit will reveal the tree.

It's kind of like that saying, Well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, right?

It fits pretty well.

Because if someone is actually speaking from God, listen, over time, their life, it should increasingly reflect the truth that they're declaring.

Now, listen, of course, Jesus knows this won't be done perfectly.

He knows that if he's going to use human beings to share his truth, the only options he has are sinners, okay?

There's no other options.

So Jesus isn't saying that good fruit means perfection.

He's speaking, though, about character, he's speaking about trajectory, right?

If someone continually lives a life that's completely opposed to the truth that they're declaring, right, then we should probably pay attention to that fruit.

But that's different from some someone who follows Jesus and falls short.

Because here's another way to recognize good fruit.

In those moments, well, what happens when that person falls, right?

When they fall into sin.

Do they hide it, defend it, excuse it?

They blame somebody else?

Or do they do this?

Do they return to the root?

Right?

Repentance.

Right?

Returning to the Lord to cleanse, to restore, to forgive, to redirect.

Now, if you think about the garden, right, go back when Adam and Eve disobeyed, what was their immediate response?

It was shame.

It was guilt.

They were hiding, right?

They were running from the presence of God.

But here's what we have to recognize.

Good fruit, it doesn't mean we're gonna never encounter something that might be rotten within ourselves, right?

Good fruit reveals that what we do with that.

And here's what we gotta make clear, right?

The voice of the authority in our faith, do they bring us towards God?

Do they tell us to return towards God?

Or do they point us further from Him, right?

Do they point us in the way of the enemy of hiding and shame and running further from the Lord?

Right?

These voices should do this.

They should point us towards returning, should point us towards repentance, right?

They should point us back to the root.

Tell us things like the truth of the scripture that says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Or there therefore is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

See, the truth is this false teachers tend to want to follow the same method as the original deceptive voice.

They desire to enslave God's people through things like shame.

They want to do whatever they can to keep God's people from God.

They want to block the relationship.

And this can happen through things like uh legalism, penance, performance, right?

This idea that somehow we have to work our way back into the presence of God.

And yet the gospel declares something so different.

Jesus has already made a way, a way back to God.

And it's not through our work, it's through his work on the cross.

And because of Jesus, we have access to God.

That's what Hebrews talks about, this powerful verse says, then let us approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help those in our time of need.

So do we hear that direction there?

This is from the Word of God.

It says, approach, draw near.

What it's saying is don't do this, don't hide, don't run, right?

Don't believe that your failure means you have to somehow earn your way back into the presence of God.

Now listen, that doesn't mean that if there's that we can't have, we shouldn't have voices speaking into our lives that will never confront us or challenge us or expose sin within us, right?

That should happen.

But at this crossroads, there's a question that we should be asked.

With those who do speak into our lives in our faith journey, where does that voice direct once sin has been exposed?

Does it trap you in shame and condemnation?

Does that voice tell you to perform your way back to God's favor, right?

Sadly, does it make it, in some situations, does it make you just dependent on some sort of teacher, that leader, or that system, right?

They're the only ones who get it right.

They have the full truth, right?

Or does it do this?

Does it point you toward repentance and back towards Christ?

Back towards the throne of grace, back towards the one who rescues, the one who redeems, the one who restores, the one who reconciles.

And so when it comes to this kingdom crossroads, Jesus gives us the opportunity to consider voices, the voices we're allowing to speak into our lives.

Because if a voice continually attempts to keep you from drawing near to God, rather than showing you how Christ has made a way, well, we should we should examine that fruit.

We should trace that fruit even back to the root of it.

Is this actually from God?

And interesting enough, that leads us directly into this next dichotomy that Jesus gives: this idea of knowing being the knowing about Jesus or being known by him.

Because Jesus says it's possible for teachers, prophets, preachers, even people doing incredible things to speak about God and even do things in the name of God while still leaving us with this uh unsettled question of they might claim to know God, but are they actually known by God?

And that's what Jesus is talking about in these verses 21 through 23.

Now listen, these verses can feel very uh weighty, okay?

For some people, they can feel scary, like I get it, right?

Like I don't know, like I've been a Christian for a long time.

I've done things in Jesus' name, I've talked to people about him.

Like, how do I know when judgment day comes, he's not gonna utter the same words of like, you know, never knew you.

And you're just kind of like, no, you know, Jesus is me, right?

You're your boy, right?

And Jesus is kind of Godfather, is like, you know, get him out of here.

Like, I don't know this guy, right?

I I know that sounds crazy, but these verses can stir up fear.

The fear of having those words of Jesus, I never knew you.

So what do we what do we do with that?

Um, I think these verses, as much as they're they're so loaded, it's important just to strip the back for a moment and draw out some of the main themes.

And the theme of that we see in here is is this idea of being known.

What does it mean to truly know someone?

Because knowing someone is more than just knowing facts about them.

Right?

We can know an incredible amount of information about someone or something through research or studying, right?

And we could be a fanatic.

Think about this scenario.

Like, think about this idea of music and and and sports and and these two worlds when they collided between uh Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey.

Okay, now there were Swifties who know everything about Taylor, right?

They know her story, they know her music, her albums, right?

Everything, her tour, they know Tay Tay.

Then you got like the Chiefs fans who know everything about you know number 87.

And both groups, they'll defend their person, they'll cheer for them, they'll argue in their name, right?

I know, I know a lot about them, right?

But but but here's the thing this is important.

Well, when it came to one of the most intimate events you could ever attend in someone's life, a wedding, how many of those fans who knew all the the Taylor facts, the Travis stats, how many received the invitation?

Maybe got lost in the mail?

I don't know.

Right?

No, no, because knowing of someone and knowing about someone, it it doesn't necessarily mean you you actually know that person, right?

Not relationally, and that's what Jesus is getting here.

He's confronting the possibility that somehow can even know the language, they can know the name, they know the right things to say, even claim to have done incredible things in his name, and yet never actually knew Jesus relationally.

It's the Jesus fan, right?

It's it's Jesus becomes this mascot for maybe my agenda, right?

I know the information, I know the vocabulary, I know the stats, but but that that version of Jesus honestly is just like a good book report, Jesus.

Right?

You stand in front of the class and recite as much information about Christ as we are able to retain, right?

And Jesus says, that's not the same thing as knowing me.

Like these people say, Lord, didn't we do this?

Didn't we do that?

Didn't we do these things in your name?

But listen, look where their confidence is placed.

Look at what we did.

Look at what we did, right?

But Jesus' response isn't like uh about their resume, it's it's this relationship of saying, I I didn't I didn't know you, right?

Because, well, how do you truly get to know someone?

All right, and how how how are you truly known by God, right?

You through relationship.

That's how we get to know, and that's the kingdom cross where Jesus places here.

It's being known by Jesus versus just merely knowing about Jesus.

And so for some of us, yeah, maybe we like the idea of Jesus, maybe we know a lot about him.

Maybe we've even been around church long enough to know the language, know the stories, songs, and when to stand up, when to sit down, right?

We know Jesus' facts, we know stats, but maybe we've never moved toward actually knowing or being known by him.

This relational reality of who Jesus is.

And that's where we find ourselves, maybe in this kingdom crossroads.

And this kingdom crossroads, it isn't intended to leave us terrified.

Here's what it is it's intended to be an invitation.

It's an invitation to get to know Jesus, to spend time with him, to delight in the reality that he desires to spend time with you.

Yes, read the word of God, right?

Absolutely, but don't don't just read the Bible because you you have upcoming Bible trivia night, right?

It's it's cool to know facts, but it's it's vital to know things like Jesus' love.

And once again, that brings us back to the garden.

Adam and Eve knew God, they walked with God.

And what does the enemy attempt to do?

He wants to distort their understanding of God by isolating just one fact about what God had said.

Yes, God told them not to eat from the tree, but the enemy distorted the why.

Remember, he turns God's protection into something like they're being deprived, and that God's goodness is is is he's withholding, right?

That God is is he's warning this about uh death, but but the enemy's he's distorting that.

And and so what happens in those moments is we separate the facts we know about God with the character of God.

And and we're invited to truly know God.

We we know him, we're invited through Christ, and and and that's what we get to see here.

And and I think what people get tripped up as well, and I have this well, is the moments of, well, is Jesus just trying to have this exclusive club, right?

Just trying to keep people out.

That's hard to reconcile when you have the same Jesus who says something like this, like, um, my father has many rooms.

If that were not so, would I have not told you I'm going to prepare a place for you?

Right?

This is the same Jesus.

So the kingdom of heaven, it doesn't have a capacity issue.

It's not exclusive that Jesus is trying to keep people out, right?

The issue isn't on Jesus' end.

It's found in those who never make capacity for Jesus in their life to actually know him, to take this language Jesus uses, right, uh back to his father's house, home, to actually dwell with Christ.

And this is a beautiful word, this idea of dwelling, because humanity is invited back to where we were originally created for, which is the dwelling presence of God.

And that brings to this final kingdom crossroad, which just simply asks us where are we going to build our lives?

It's this choice of dwelling place.

And Jesus, he leaves his disciples with a parable, right?

That's this typical Jesus.

Two men build two houses.

And the first man, the one Jesus calls wise, he hears the words of Jesus and puts them into practice.

Now, Jesus is speaking to this audience who was hearing these words, right?

So just don't lose sight of that, but he's also speaking to us.

And what are these words, right?

It's the words we see all throughout the sermon and now.

And Jesus is declaring that those who hear these words about life in the kingdom and then actually build their lives upon them have what?

Have a secure foundation.

Why?

Because his words are true, they're solid, they don't shift underneath us.

And now, listen, Jesus isn't promising that building on him that things like storms won't come, that we won't experience, you know, uh rain, winds, trials, tragedies, suffering, right?

That's true, those will be there.

But what Jesus is saying is that the foundation holds up.

And here's what I love about that, right?

The house doesn't remain standing because the builder was incredible about building houses.

The house stays standing because of what it was built upon.

You see, the security isn't ultimately in the builder, it's in the foundation.

And then Jesus, he gives the second option.

He says, You've heard all these words of mine, and your response then, I guess, is I don't know, just like, hey, cool story, Jesus, right?

Like, appreciate you saying some things, but uh, now let me get back to building my own kingdom.

And Jesus says there's a problem with that.

It's not a secure foundation.

Because a life built upon ourselves is being built upon something that, because we're fallen, is is is it's crooked at its core.

And so Jesus, he's actually incredibly kind here with this invitation.

He says, Hear my words and then build your life upon them.

And he's kind enough to tell us the truth, though, of what happens when we we don't, when we build it somewhere else.

Because that's what love does.

Love doesn't hide the instability of the ground underneath our feet, right?

And once once again, maybe this brings us back to the beginning, back to the garden, back to the humanity dwelling with God, back to when creation, where the ground wasn't cursed, where labor existed without things like thorn and thistle and turmoil and toil, right?

Where humanity experienced life in the presence of God.

And now Jesus stands before humanity, once again, inviting, inviting us back to what we were created for.

Not for necessarily a geographical garden, but back to life with God, back to dwelling in his presence, back to building a foundation that cannot be shaken.

And that's this final portion here, the Sermon on the Mount, right?

It's this call to come home.

It's a return to what is originally intended.

And that that return doesn't happen through anything we can accomplish, no religious acts, feats, no working our way back, right?

It's all by grace through faith, because of the love that God has for his creation.

Because God loved us enough that in spite of humanity's decision to disobey, to stray, to choose our own way, he still carried out his promise.

And that promise of redemption is so incredible.

It comes immediately, even after humanity destroys the whole relationship.

Look what God says to the serpent, says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers.

He will crush your head, you will strike his heel.

That's what's called traditionally the proto-evangelium.

It's the first announcement of the gospel.

And it happens right after humanity's fall.

We get this glimpse of God's plan.

He wants to restore.

It's this promise of the one who's gonna do that, a Messiah, a savior, the one God promised, and he has his name, his name is Jesus, and he's the hero of this whole story of humanity.

And and yes, here in the Sermon Mount, he's declaring the life in his kingdom and practices of life that become uh lead us to this life of abundance and fullness, but ultimately he's declaring the reality that apart from him, we will never know life as it's intended to be.

Apart from him, we'll only know life that's just entangled in sin, life outside of its original design, life outside of the garden.

And so here's the invitation Jesus leaves his audience with, and I think he leaves us with come home.

Come home.

Return to relationship.

And look, God's not, he's not making us jump through hoops, he's not asking us to solve some spiritual riddle to get there, right?

He's just calling us to trust him.

Trust what God has declared about Jesus is true.

Trust that Jesus has accomplished and is enough what he has done on our behalf.

It's calling us to be reminded that, listen, at creation, before everything fell apart, God loved first.

And even after sin enters, that love continued through his rescue and redemption offered through Jesus.

Right?

It's just this reminder of the incredible thing.

Before, yeah, we hear a lot about original sin, but before original sin, there was original love.

That's that's Genesis, that's chronology of Genesis.

Genesis 1 and 2, they come before Genesis 3.

Before the rebellion, there was relationship.

Before the hiding, there was communion, before the curse, there was blessing.

Before humanity ran from God, humanity walked with God.

And so the invitation is to return to the love of God.

And yes, that calls us to repent and turn from sin.

It calls us to turn back towards God, but it realizes that Christ has paved the path, paved the way home.

His blood paid the price.

His death dealt with our sin.

His resurrection then defeated death.

And so through Jesus, the way has been opened for all of us, all humanity who chooses to once again dwell in the presence of God.

Because that's where this entire story of humanity is going.

Revelation tells us that one day the whole thing will conclude this way.

Look, God's dwelling place is now among his people.

He will dwell with them.

They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

Did we hear this?

This idea of dwelling, right?

God and humanity together again.

And once again, you look at even further in Revelation 22, we're given this incredible picture that sounds strangely familiar.

It's there's a river, there's a tree of life, right?

There's there's no longer, though, any curse, right?

But there's life and presence, there's God and humanity together.

See, the Bible begins with garden, the God with a garden, with God dwelling with creation.

And once again, that's where the whole thing is headed.

And Jesus, he brings us to this crossroad of our own lives and asks, how do we desire to live until then?

Do we want to live for him?

Or do we want to live for ourselves?

It's almost like Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount with offering like a garden redo, right?

Another crossroads, another opportunity to trust the words of God, another invitation to walk with him.

And he invites each one of us to live in that now as we anticipate what's to come and to relive in that relationship with God here and now, to know our Creator, to be known by Him.

And that's only possible through the gospel, through the good news that Jesus came to save sinners.

Jesus did what we can never do through the cross.

He dealt with my sin, he dealt with your sin.

He dealt with anyone who desires to be forgiven.

He offers new life.

So as we conclude this series, this time of looking through the Sermon on the Mount, this invitation to Jesus is just simple.

It's just come home.

Wherever you are, whatever road you've been walking, whatever voices you've been listening to, whatever you built your life upon, come home.

Come home.

Jesus is calling you home.

And then this crossroads moment doesn't last forever.

Eventually there is a direction that will be chosen.

But while it is today, take that step.

Move towards Him.

Trust Him.

Follow Him.

Come home.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your invitation to return, Lord.

Return to the relationship that you created us for, that you intended, that you designed, Lord, that sadly we chose a different way.

And yet we thank you for the love of Jesus that invites us to return, invites us to come home.

And God, I just pray this morning, Lord, for just anyone who's just been wondering what that looks like, wondering what a following you looks like, Lord.

And all I can say is it's it's it's it's good.

And Lord, that you you desire to know each one of us because you created us and you love us.

And Jesus, you made a way.

And I just pray this morning, God, that um we would just take those steps to just cling closer to you, even even just in a even if that's a new relationship today, God.

Just take that step because you're good, because you love us.

Thank you so much.

Pray in your name, Jesus.

Amen.