Sermon On The Mount: Jesus Fulfills the Law

Hello, my name is Eric Seegan, and I am one of the pastors at the Village Church.

The following podcast is a ministry of the Village Church.

We hope that it inspires you, that it draws you closer to Jesus, and it opens your eyes to the possibilities of living in the kingdom.

Enjoy and God bless.

Good morning, everybody.

How's everyone doing this morning?

Good?

Two thumbs up, thumbs sideways.

All right.

Sounds good.

I like it.

Oh man.

Well.

Let's take a deep breath together and go to God in prayer.

Jesus, thank you for today.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here together to worship you, to eat, to celebrate, to learn and grow.

I pray that you would bless us as we consider your word.

Would you give us hearts to know you better?

Um and to follow you more closely.

In your name I pray.

Amen.

Amen.

All right.

Well, we're gonna jump right into it.

One summer um in high school, I uh took a short-term mission group.

So I was a missionary kid, and I took a short term short-term missionary group down to our church camp at this ranch in Mexico.

And their task for the week was to create a walking trail for campers for for retreats, you know.

And it as a missionary kid, as the missionary kid who was there, I got to, I got to help them.

It went up and down some hills around like patches of you know, jumping choya, how it all grows together, right?

Uh through like the just the rocky and rough ground of the dry Sonoran Desert, right?

And uh we went through the path and we just dug up all of these giant rocks that were like the tripping hazards.

Um, and we we ended up what we would do is we'd take the rocks out and then we lined the trail so that not only was the trail smooth and but you also couldn't like wander off of it too far, right?

It was hot.

It was very hot.

And the walking trail is kind of out a little ways, so it wasn't near any of the shade, wasn't near any of the buildings, it wasn't near any of the water spigots, right?

And you know, you're just going along and you just get stuck by uh mesquit, and the the rocks are in the ground, and more than one person got uh a jumping choya in their feet or in their gloves or on their shirt.

It is pretty easily the least amount of fun I've had at the ranch.

Now, a few years later, I was at a retreat, and one of the pastors offered to lead uh a prayer walk in the morning, first morning before breakfast.

You can probably see where this is going, right?

We met at the chapel, and about 10 minutes later, we were walking down this path that I had worked so hard on a few years before.

And at first I'm walking down this path, and I just remember like the sting of like the thorns and the cactus and like the blisters on my hands.

But it was early morning and it was a cooler part time of the year, and that quickly kind of dissipated in my mind.

I picked my head up and walked out, and we went out to one of the overlooks that they had they had put this bench there, and I watched the sunrise as we prayed, and I was thankful.

I was thankful for all the people who had worked so hard on that path, not just me, and it wasn't just that group, it was a long path.

So, like we only did like a a chunk of it.

And all the people who had maintained it over the years and made sure that when it rained, that they went through and continued the work of making that path level.

I want to begin with thankfulness today.

Level paths and thankfulness.

I want to begin with thankfulness, partly because it's where we ended last week.

If you remember, Eric ended in Ephesians 5 and talked about reading Paul's lists backwards and starting with thankfulness.

And partly because thankfulness is just pivotal for understanding our text today.

We're in a series on the Sermon on the Mount, which you can find in the first uh in the chapters five through seven, right there, five through seven of the Gospel of Matthew.

And in the first four chapters, before we get to chapter five, in the first four chapters, we have this echo of the journey that the Israelites took when God established them as a people.

Right?

Eric talked about this two weeks ago.

Jesus as a child goes down to Egypt just as the Israelites were in Egypt in slavery, and then he's baptized in the water, just as the Israelites went through the water when God parted the Red Sea.

And then he goes out in the wilderness and is tempted, just as the Israelites wandered in the wilderness.

And finally he goes to the mountain and sits down to teach, just as the Israelites went to the mountain to listen to God and receive the law.

And this is important because what Matthew is doing is he's showing in his story how Jesus was the true Israelite.

He represents, as Matthew tells it, just the whole nation of Israel.

He represents Moses as the prophet communicating God's word, and he is God sitting on the mountain, teaching his people how to be in relationship with him.

He begins with the Beatitudes, which Eric talked about two weeks ago.

Jesus lays out who is blessed, who has favor with God, and what does it mean that God brings them relief.

So, in essence, the people of God, Jesus says, are the poor in spirit, and those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, and the falsely accused.

These are the people of God.

These are the people of God.

Then last week, we talked about what we talked about last week.

Jesus says that you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

He says, Be distinct, be seen.

He echoes what God had said all those years before, when they when they came out of Egypt, this nation of slaves and wanderers, just this rabble of people with without a God or a home.

And he says, You will be my people, and I will be your God.

He gives them identity.

Then, just like Moses on the mountain, Jesus begins to talk about the law, which brings us to our passage today.

Matthew 5, 17 to 42.

We read 17 to 20, but 17 to 42 is the whole text that we're going to look at today.

But before we get to that, I wanna, before we jump into the text, I want to remind us of our lens.

Our lens that we feel like God has called us to consider as we go through the Sermon on the Mount.

This lens comes out of Hebrews 12, 1 through 3 and 12 through 13.

It's all up there on the on the slot on the screen.

I'm just gonna read the uh italicized portion of it.

It says, Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

And verse 12, therefore strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees, make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

So our two lenses as a community and as individuals are to fix our eyes on Jesus and make level paths.

To fix our eyes on Jesus and to make level paths.

I want to hold on to these two things as we go through our passage today.

Matthew 5, 17 to 20.

We're gonna read it again.

This is what Jill read a few minutes ago.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, nor the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.

Therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

So this is our first section, and I want to spend a good portion of our time dedicated to this part of our text because it frames everything that comes after.

Jesus speaks of fulfilling the law here, and then he proceeds to teach on the law.

So everything we have to understand everything that comes after through the fulfillment of Jesus.

Then he offers the Pharisees and teachers of the law as examples precisely because of their attitudes towards the law.

So let's begin with three questions.

Three questions about the law.

First, what is the law?

The law was the rules that governed life for the Israelites.

It was given by God through Moses as part of the covenant agreement he makes with the people of Israel there at the mountain.

And if you want to read it, it's a lot, but if you really want to read it, uh, it is in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, which in your Bible, if you just started being at Genesis, and then you have Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

That's the law, along with some stories and things to go with the law.

The law very broadly consists of two types of rules.

The first type answers the questions, the question, how should the people of God act toward each other, towards God, and towards the world around them?

Think here about like the Ten Commandments, how we act towards God and towards each other.

They're the this is like the primary ethic of life, the fundamental law of the people of God is summed up in the Ten Commandments.

The second type of rule answers the question: how can the people of God be close to God when they fail at the first type?

So think here about the sacrifices and the cleanliness rules, right?

When the Israelites wandered in sin or just became unclean in the course of life, there were rules and sacrifices to bring them back into relationship with God.

So at one point, Jesus is with the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, the Sadducees and everybody, and an expert of the law asked Jesus, which is the greatest commandment.

And he responds, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.

This is the first and greatest commandment.

And the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself.

All the law and prophets hang on these two commands.

This is the law.

The law, as summed up by Jesus, love God and love your neighbor.

Alright.

Second question.

Why the law?

Why the law?

When the people of God were redeemed out of slavery in Egypt, God called them to be in the mountain, to be organized as this people.

They're called out of slavery, and in gratitude for what God had done, they're called to follow God's law.

And that piece is important.

The first type of law is given so that people can live close to God, their rescuer, in thankfulness.

And the second type is given so that they can return to him.

They have a path to return to him when they fall away.

These laws are a thankful response for people seeking closeness with God.

A thankful response for people seeking closeness with God.

And then as part of giving the law, there on the mountain, God also reminds them of the promise he made to Abraham, of the promised land.

And so now that they're in his people, he's going to bring them into the land.

And the result in that land of following the law is that the nations will see them following the law.

And Moses in Deuteronomy 4 says, Observe the law carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations.

They will hear about all these decrees and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?

Can you hear the echo of what we talked about last week with salt and light?

As they come into the land and they live according to the law, the nations will see and will say, What a wise and understanding people.

So third, our third question.

Fulfill how Jesus fulfills the law by removing the barrier of sin in our relationship with God.

By going to the cross, by offering himself as a sacrifice.

He cleanses us of our sin so that we can approach the throne with confidence.

So to sum up, the purpose of the law is to allow those whom God has redeemed to live in thankfulness and be near him.

Jesus fulfills the law by removing the barrier of sin for us so that we can be near to God, which in turn leads us into greater thankfulness.

Everything we do as followers of Jesus is in thankfulness for what he has done.

Everything we do as followers of Jesus is in thankfulness for what he has done.

But the Pharisees have this backwards.

The Pharisees lived as though strictly following the law would bring about the gift of God.

Right?

That if they lived it out perfectly, that they would receive the gift of God.

Forgetting, of course, that the gift of God had already been given.

The gift of God had already been given in redemption from slavery and in naming the people of Israel as God's people.

So picture it like this.

Here we go.

To live in God's promises is to receive the gift of God, right?

Redemption from slavery with an attitude of thankfulness, and then out of that thankfulness to follow the law, which generates closeness with God and results in wisdom and understanding.

Right?

This is what we just looked at.

To receive it with thankfulness, and out of that thankfulness to follow the law, to have closeness with God and resulting in wisdom and understanding.

The bottom row is the way of the Pharisees.

Follow the law perfectly to earn the gift of God.

And then, of course, they fail, and the people fail because they're broken, which generates these tears of community because different people can follow the law at different levels of perfectness, which results in self-righteousness and contempt.

If you strive to follow the law perfectly to earn the gift of God, then you will fail in your sin, create tears of community, and live in self-righteousness and contempt.

The result for the Pharisees and the Jews of the first century is that these is these tears of community, right?

These barriers to relationship with God a path that was fraught with hurdles and rocky places and tripping hazards.

And we tend to live in the same way.

We think that if I can just get it right, then I can earn God's favor.

If I do the right things, then I will be successful.

And we tend toward judgment of each other in that.

Am I getting it right becomes are you getting it right.

My self-righteous law becomes the law that you have to live by.

And the result is a community of fractious judgment, hidden sin, and contempt.

So let's go back to our lens because it'll help us with this problem.

If we are people who have our eyes fixed on Jesus, then we will be people who see first his love and sacrifice for us, we'll see that he has made a clear path for us to be near to God, and what's required of us is thankfulness, and in that thankfulness to be imitators of Jesus, as we talked about at the end of our sermon last week, which looks more like this for us.

To fix our eyes on Jesus is to receive the love and sacrifice of Jesus, and out of that love and sacrifice to be people of thankfulness, and out of that thankfulness to then be imitators of Jesus, making level paths, which generates closeness of God, closeness with God in our communities, and results in kingdom of heaven on earth.

That last box.

So we have to touch we have to address the kingdom of heaven before we move on.

The Gospel of Matthew mentions the kingdom of heaven 32 times, specifically, kingdom of heaven.

And it's more than that if you take in the places where he says heaven and earth.

And in other, in the other gospels, I think Mark uses the phrase kingdom of God, but it's it's present in all the gospels.

Matthew uses specifically the kingdom of heaven.

In fact, when Jesus begins his public ministry, it says, from that time on, Jesus began to preach, repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.

That's in Matthew 4 17.

A few verses ago, and verse 10, um, from a couple weeks ago, you know, blessed are the persecuted, right?

Blessed are the persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is not.

Kingdom of Heaven.

In the Lord's Prayer.

This is an example of it being used outside of the context specifically of Kingdom of Heaven.

But in the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, what do we pray?

Our Father in heaven.

What did we just pray?

Like twenty minutes ago, right?

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The work of Jesus is to inaugurate the kingdom of heaven and call us into it.

In the kingdom of heaven, we're called to live out the Beatitudes, to be salt and light, to live out the law as Jesus proclaims it.

Yet, in the coming proclamations about the law, Jesus sets a really high bar that sometimes we think of as sort of inaccessible and hyperbolic.

So how can we say that Jesus makes a clear path for us to the kingdom of heaven living?

Is it because we are not actually required to live it out?

Is Jesus simply offering hyperbole to show that no one can really live it out and therefore display our need of him?

Yes and no.

Yes and no.

We cannot live perfect lives.

We cannot live perfect lives, and striving to do so, as we've already seen, creates only division and more sin.

Right?

This is to live as a Pharisee and create those broken paths and tiered communities.

We need Jesus to fulfill the law, to be near to God.

If we begin in the place of thankfulness for the work of Jesus to remove the deadly impact of our sin, then we begin to see what being imitators of Jesus might look like.

How we might live on earth in the kingdom of heaven.

In each of the following sections, Jesus begins with some form of, you have heard that it was said, and then proceeds to build on the law.

Remember, as again, as we go through these, that we're not seeking to live perfect lives to earn something, but rather we are seeking to live in thankfulness for what Jesus has done and imitate him.

I also want you to keep in mind the beatitudes, the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, and the falsely accused.

As we work through the law, be curious about how these reflect the blessed kingdom of heaven, thankful people of God.

So I'm going to read this, and then we'll go through it.

Verse 21.

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.

Again, anyone who says to his brother Raka is answerable to the Sanhedrin.

But any anyone who says, You fool, will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you.

Leave your gift there in front of the altar.

First go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.

Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court.

Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison.

I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

You have heard that it was said, do not commit adultery, but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

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

It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go to hell.

It has been said, anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.

But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.

But I tell you, do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is God's throne, or by earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king.

And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.

Simply let your yes be yes and your no be no.

Anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

You have heard that it was said, eye for eye and tooth for tooth, but I tell you, do not resist an evil person.

If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Jesus begins with murder.

He begins with murder.

Verses twenty-one to twenty-six.

Jesus says that to hold on to anger in our hearts brings about the same judgment.

In the world, we're told to write people off.

That it's okay to cut them out in anger.

But to be a blessed, thankful kingdom of heaven, people of God, we must root out anger in our lives.

This is not to say that we will not be angry ever.

Right?

Jesus himself was angry several times in the Gospels.

We cannot condemn every expression of anger as murder, nor should we shut down the emotions in our lives.

But rather, we are not a people who hold on to anger and seek to punish.

Hate and contempt lead to judgment and death.

In our identity as peacemakers, we need to do the hard work of reconciliation.

Where is anger in your life justified?

Where are you holding on to that anger?

Where are you unwilling to reconcile or even to begin a conversation associated with reconciliation?

He continues with adultery, verses 27 to 30, saying that even when we lust after someone, we commit adultery in our hearts.

To be a blessed, thankful kingdom of heaven, people of God, we must tear up the sin of lust.

We know this sin well.

We live in a culture that celebrates it.

In movies and TV shows and ads and social media.

And I want to draw this out to the excess of our culture at large.

We are addicted to food, alcohol, drugs, phones, comfort, the pursuit of money and wealth, and so many other things.

We are a consuming people.

But rather than create acceptable vices, acceptable vices and lusts and unacceptable ones, we need to be a people who lives in con who live in confession together.

In kingdom thankfulness, we are called to be pure in heart, to be people of faithfulness.

What things make you okay outside of Jesus?

Where's your heart divided?

Where do you seek relief and comfort apart from him?

Walking away from that thankfulness for what Jesus has done to find your comfort yourself.

In verses 31 and 32, he says, It has been said, anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.

But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery.

And anyone who divorces a married or marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

In Mark 10, Jesus is asked about divorce.

And he makes it clear that the certificate of divorce allowed by Moses was because of the hard hearts of the people.

The point of this passage is not contempt or condemnation of wives.

It is not a directive to stay in abusive situations.

It is Jesus speaking against men in the first century and the casual casting off of marriages for loss of interest or unwillingness to repair relationships.

To be a blessed, thankful kingdom of heaven, people of God, we must be people who enter into covenants seriously, who do not enter into marriage lightly, but with full intent to do the hard work of healthy relationship.

We need to be people who mourn when we wound others, who are merciful when we are wounded, and who are persistent in seeking peace in our marriages.

As to oaths, in verses 33 to 37, Jesus says not to make oaths at all, that we should be people of transparent honesty, rather than be people of careless words who try to emphasize our promises by swearing, by swearing by things we can't control, have no power over, that we should simply let our yes be yes and our no be no.

James, in the book of James, he echoes this in chapter 5.

He says, Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, not by heaven or earth or by anything else.

All you need to say is a simple yes or no.

Otherwise, you will be condemned.

We tend to live in half-truths.

Half-truths and distrust.

We want confirmation and emphasis from people that they're going to do the say that the things that they say they're going to do.

To be a blessed, thankful kingdom of heaven, people of God is to be an honest and transparent people who do not need to swear or make oaths, because our word is plainly spoken.

It is to be the same person in each of the spaces of our lives.

In this we trust that God is our witness.

So if we are falsely accused and persecuted, we know God's justice and the kingdom of heaven is our truest reality.

Are there places in your life where you're hiding?

Where you live in those half-truths and distrust where you avoid being known or accused?

There are two more.

I didn't read the last one.

There are two more.

In them, Jesus brings one of the most ancient codes of conduct, right?

It's in the it's in uh the the law of the code of Hammurabi.

It's listed three times in the Old Testament with examples after each one.

Eye for eye and tooth for tooth is essentially equal consequences for an action.

And it's intended to limit retribution.

But Jesus predictably flips it around.

He says, do not resist an evil person, let them slap you again.

Give to them more than they demand, walk the extra mile, do not cling to the things that you have, but lend them freely when they are asked of you.

We're not called to be a vengeful, defensive-hearted people demanding justice for ourselves.

To be a blessed, thankful kingdom of heaven, people of God, is to know that God is our defender.

And we can walk in vulnerability.

We are called to be the meek who do not take power for ourselves.

Is it hard to trust that God will be there?

In those moments, we made vows of control and defense to avoid being vulnerable.

I'm reminded again um of the sunrise at the ranch.

In the dark that came before it, the you know, the dark before the dawn, right?

Where it feels like it's the darkest out.

I remember walking with confidence on that path because I knew the stones had been moved.

I knew the stones had been moved and the path had been made level.

It had been well maintained, and I knew the work at least that I had done to dig up these stones and the people who had been with me.

Jesus has done that hard work.

He's made it possible for us to draw near with confidence.

All of the things that we've just talked about are impossible if we strive to perfect them, to earn the favor of God or men.

And in that case, we will be a path fraught with hurdles and rocky places and tripping hazards.

This is what it means to make level paths, to have our eyes fixed on Jesus in thankfulness.

As a kingdom of heaven people, we can step into the confession of anger and lust in our lives to do the hard work of covenant relationship to speak in truth and walk in vulnerability.

What gives you the most fear here?

The most trepidation as you consider the hard work, the speaking the truth, walking in vulnerability.

Which of these places is it hard to trust that Jesus has done that work?

Has removed the stones?

It's hard to trust that Jesus will be present in it.

With our eyes fixed on Jesus in thankfulness, as kingdom of heaven people, we can step into the confession of anger and lust in our lives, do the hard work of covenant relationship, speak in truth, and walk in vulnerability.

I'm thinking about the first and the two great commandments that Jesus said sums all this up.

And I think what touches me the most is that these difficult ways of loving others are my way of helping Jesus feel my affection.

Yeah, I love that.

Thanks, Emily.

Wow, I'm floored by this message.

I I've never well, for one, I I I don't think I've ever seen the parallels between the Beatitudes and the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.

But yeah.

So thank you.

Uh yeah, I I'm curious about the you know the making level paths more, and I'm it occurred to me that maybe the the table of decision might be a way of doing that.

Yeah, I think as we walk together in the table of decision, part of what we're doing is saying, Hey, I tripped there.

Why did I trip there?

Let's dig up that stone and figure out what it's doing there.

Um which then I think like the cool thing about it is that like we don't just trip by ourselves, right?

We trip in community, right?

If I trip, someone else falls next to me, or I run into someone.

There's always impact.

Even if it's walking in in this hiddenness over here, there's always impact.

And so digging up that stone doesn't just make it so that I don't trip, it makes it so that when I trip, I don't, I'm not I don't trip and run into someone else.

I'm not wounding the people around us, which brings about that closeness to God.

I like that.

Um, I find this very encouraging because I being an environment, there's a lot of deep discussion about the law, the theology, what is right, why my view is better than your view.

How can one how can we win this debate?

I think it's very encouraging to be reminded.

It's not about whether you get it right, it's about how does it impact me, and then how can I leave it out.

I think that's that is very encouraging to hear, and then just kind of like a reminder of why I do what I do, and then how can I prevent to become a Pharisee?

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, I I think that piece for me, well, that was where I sat the most this week was thinking about if I begin in thankfulness for what God has done, then the law out of that becomes closeness with God.

Or if I begin trying to perfect the law to be close to God, to earn that, then I I then it's about whether or not I got it right and wrong, and then I look at other people and see if they're getting it right.

Um so beginning in that place of thankfulness, I think, is really pivotal when we talk about the law.

Just based on what she had said too, I think that when we are trying to perfect the law, we're focused on ourselves rather than when we're being grateful and thankful, we're focusing on Jesus, fixing our eyes on him instead of ourselves.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thanks, Monica.

Yeah, we'll yeah.

Tom's mention of the table of decision brought to mind uh it kind of got me thinking about the confessions of anger and the lusts in our lives.

And what are any of those except the recognition or the belief that God is not enough, that Jesus is not enough for us?

The anger, at least in me, so often arises out of fear, and that just comes from the fact that I don't I'm not aware, not trusted.

Trusting that God is in control in this moment.

And then the lusts, the things that we want, the things that we're the idols that we're putting above God and saying that He's not enough, that I need this too, or this instead.

Yeah.

So yeah, um, and then that confession of those things is well, first of all, confession with him, but confession with others is the first step in in getting the right order of things.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I mean, it is to walk in thankfulness for what God has done.

Because when we bring that to him, we're saying, hey, you've taken care of this already, right?

Like this is I'm confessing this not to get it right, but because you've already taken care of it.

You've already dealt with this.

And we can do that in freedom because he's he's done it already.

As a prayer today, um, I'd like to close by reading um Psalm 19 as a reflective prayer on on what we've just some of what we've just talked about.

So let's pray.

The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language where their voice is heard, is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course, it rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other.

Nothing is hidden from its heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.

The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.

They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold, they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.

By them is your servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward.

Who can discern his errors?

Forgive my hidden faults, keep your servant also from willful sins, may they not rule over me.

Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Jesus, give us hearts of gratitude, that we might live in thankfulness for what you have done.

And sin your name we pray.

Amen.