Matthew 5:17-20 From Animal Sacrifices To Jesus

A lot of people love Jesus until they hear what he actually asks for. When the Sermon on the Mount hits perfection, purity, enemies, anxiety, and integrity, it can feel unrealistic or even harsh. We lean into that discomfort and ask the question hiding underneath it all: if holiness is the standard, what hope do normal, messy people have?

We start with a blunt teenage question that many adults are still afraid to ask out loud: why does “sin” in the Old Testament seem to require so much bloodshed? Cows, goats, doves, repeated sacrifices, and a constant sense that failure has a price. From there, we trace the thread to the center of the Christian faith, atonement and the gospel. The reason sacrifices stop is not because God got less serious, but because God got closer. Jesus becomes the final sacrifice, the bridge we could never build with our own effort, and the proof of love through his resurrection.

Then we walk through three ways Jesus changes how the world understands holiness: he is the only perfect example, he warns that small sin contaminates far more than we admit, and he still rewards obedience without turning it into a paycheck system. We talk about hypocrisy, the heart, unity across churches, and why real change often shows up as a struggle, not instant victory.

If this conversation helps you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. What part of holiness do you most wish Jesus would make clearer for you?

Transcript

Sermon On The Mount Vision

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Jesus gathered his disciples and walked to a high spot as a crowd swelled with students. Curious onlookers and possible enemies wanting to hear this religious leader who seemed different. Could it be the Messiah they have been waiting for to save them from their enemies? Could the old kingdoms of this world be passing away? Was this Jesus finally ushering in the kingdom of God? And then he spoke a verbal attack on unrighteousness and self-righteousness, an assault on I'ma get me and mine. And it was a message for the broken. Blessed are the poor spirit, the spiritually bankrupt, those who recognize desperate need for God. And starting with this deep truth, he dispensed world-changing, life-rearranging understanding. Love your enemies, be generous to everyone. Come on. For real?

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You will never be good enough by working harder. Pray this way. You are the light of the world. Do not worry about your life.

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Be realistic, Jesus.

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Ask, seek, knock. Stop performing. Enter the thing. Enter through the narrow gate. Fill your foundation of something that lasts.

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Today, many likers of Jesus listen to these words and they say, He probably didn't mean that, but if we truly assume Jesus meant what he said, a better kingdom would shine brighter in a darker world. Together we can look to the Savior on the mountaintop and soak in the teachings of life. Join us for uncommon sense, joyfully living out the challenges of Jesus' sermon on the mount.

Why So Much Bloodshed

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Second, why does like every single sin require so much bloodshed? Like it was hard for me. Like if you sin this way, the Bible would say, kill a cow. Kill a cow, you know. If you sin that way, kill a sheep or a goat or two turtle doves or a partridge in a pear tree. And if you knew me when I that did not get a laugh the first service, I'm so excited already, you guys. It was just like crickets. But we had like seven for the first like 10 minutes, and then it was like full. I don't know what happened. Um bring it back in, Dale. Okay, so my 16-year-old self started asking people questions though about the Bible. Like, and my first question was this why? Why? Why does God want to kill these innocent animals? That that bothered me. You know, I was raised by a mom who's a vegetarian. Um, you know, I got I just like, why would these animals need to die for me, for my sins? Like, and the other problem I had was that like if you knew me when I became a Christian, man, like as I was considering Jesus, when I was reading, because I I read the Bible uh from page one on. So I didn't get to the good news for a minute. And so as I'm reading through it, all I'm reading is like, dude, if you got these sins, you gotta do this. Dude, if you got these sins, you gotta do this. If you got these, and I just know for me, I was thinking, I need like a stable, man. Like, this is a problem. Like, you get a goat, you get a go, you get a goat, because I was no good. So my 16-year-old self asked these questions, why do we need this though, God? Why do we need to do gross stuff because of our but of what you call a sin? And then, as people started to explain to me, like, sin is costly, sin is painful, sin hurts our relationship with God, it separates us from God. Then I started asking people, well, why don't we do that anymore? What what how how come I don't see like like the streets running red with blood? I I I had never really heard about people sacrificing animals to God except for like on like weird, like old movies late at night, you know. But guys, if our sin was so bad that it required costly blood to be shed for people to be forgiven, my question was, why do we not do that still? Well, there was a simple answer, and I just hadn't got further along in the book yet. I was reading the Bible front to back. So the the fact was is we don't sacrifice animals anymore because God sacrificed himself. That's why. Yeah, that's what I would clap for. And and so where an animal offered like a temporary covering, like you know, you would go, you would buy the goat, you would get in a fight with the guy who you're buying the goat from, and then you would sacrifice the goat, and then you'd be all cussing out the guy who sold you the goat, and you need to go back to the guy who bought the goat from, and then you would need to buy a goat, and he would keep going. That's a problem. It's temporary, it's it's not fixing anything. But when God the Father sent the Son, God the Son to live a sinless life and die on our behalf, he justified us in the eyes of the Father once and for all. This is why we don't sacrifice animals anymore, because Jesus was and is and will always be enough. See, Jesus didn't tear down God's design for holiness. No, no, no, no, no. Instead, he built the bridge between our failure and God's holiness. And now, as we walk his path, our desires for mercy, for justice, for integrity, they will increasingly mirror his.

Why Sacrifices End With Jesus

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So today I'm gonna offer you three ways Jesus changes the way the world understands holiness. And as I was reading this out loud for the first time in the first service, I was like, well, that's a not a great sentence, uh, but it's too late. Three ways Jesus changes the way the world understands holiness.

Righteousness Beyond The Pharisees

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And our first way is this Jesus is our perfect example. Jesus is our perfect example. I'm gonna go backwards in the text today. Verse 20. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. If we can't be perfect, um, we can't be good enough for God. And so we fall short of God's perfect design. That feels like bad news, but uh we'll get to the end of the book. When Jesus was talking about perfection, there would have been no more iconic person, iconic people group than the scribes and the Pharisees, especially the Pharisees. We would think about the Pharisees and go, those were the guys. Um here's the thing. Uh I asked this question at the first service, and I was thankful for one person. But when I was growing up and I was playing baseball, we had a term for a guy who like just like was the best guy on every team, no matter where he went, and we called him a dude. Did anyone else use that term? Oh my gosh. So one out of like a hundred? Okay, one, two, two, all right, cool. We're batting uh real low average. But if we saw a guy that just like every everything he tried, he succeeded, he was a dude. That's what we called him, I know. Um but here's the thing when we read the Bible, sometimes we misunderstand what Jesus is saying because we have lived with the words of Jesus for thousands of years now, and so we interpret everything through that. And the problem with that is that Jesus was saying some really crazy things that we don't hear that way anymore. We don't hear them as crazy anymore. See, uh, think about it this way um uh the good Samaritan. Um we often think of the Samaritan as our example of good. So somebody's car breaks down on the side of the road, somebody pulls over and tries to help them change the tire, right? And we would call that person a good Samaritan. Why? Because they're good. So we call them a Samaritan. But when Jesus used the illustration of the Samaritan, he tried to pick out the guy that everybody would go like, that guy's a scumbag. It would have been the story of the good scumbag. That's what it would have been. And if that doesn't work for you, for some of you, it's the good MAGA, for some of you, it's the good liberal, for some of you, it's the good racist, for some of you, it's the good pedophile. Now that word starts to change. Jesus was saying something revolutionary. Um, so in the same way, when Jesus says Pharisee, we interpret it through history in a in not a good way. Um, because we're missing the intent of what Jesus was saying. When somebody is called a Pharisee today, what do we what do we say? We say liar. What do we say, actor? We say faker. That guy is a religious dude who is overly religious about everyone. He's a Pharisee. But when Jesus was talking about a Pharisee to those people, he was not saying a bad dude. Not in this case, not in this case. Jesus was saying, these are the best. Like he's saying, you need to be better than the best around. Larry Osborne says this. He says the Pharisees weren't looking for loopholes, the easy way out. They were striving to live up to the highest possible standard. If the Pharisees showed up in our churches today, many of us would probably have respected them. They knew their Bibles, took holiness seriously, prayed, fasted, tithed, and were deme deeply committed to God. The shocking thing is that the people who looked most devoted to God ended up being the most opposed to God's Son. But but who could surpass the holiness of these Pharisees, these guys, these dudes? Only Jesus. Jesus and only Jesus. Now the Apostle Paul he said, Imitate me as I imitate Jesus or Christ. But even Paul was consistently aware of his own sin and he wrote about it constantly. Only Jesus can be our perfect example. And so when we seek to follow Jesus, we have to understand first and foremost we are imperfect, we fall short of the glory of God. And it doesn't mean that we don't have good in us by the common grace of God. But what it means is we have to be willing to look at our sin honestly and soberly. We have to know that we are not Jesus. No pastor, no matter how awesome you think they are, is without sin either. Guys, I always want you to know when I get depressed. I always want you to know when I get discouraged. I always want you to know that I sin, that I sin against my family, I sin against you, I sin against others. There'll be times when somebody calls me something online and I'll be like, man, come at me. But here's the thing, I'm working on it. But like, it's not in ways uh so far God willing that disqualify me from pastoring, but I want to continually let you know that I fall short. Because I never want you to put a pastor on a platform because those guys will come tumbling down just as easily. Only Jesus is meant to be up here, okay? And and if I if I had the money, we would put the we would put the building up like that, and we would have the speaker down here so that you look down on us instead. But we nobody's got that money, okay? That's the thing. That's what we would do. We just want you to see the speaker. But guys, no person ever beyond Jesus has been perfect. And that's not bad news, it's news. Now I always want you to know that those people who stand here on the stage are broken people. But the problem is not only brokenness and sin. It's not just my brokenness, it's sin. The real problem is when I think that my sin doesn't hurt God's relationship with me, when I think that my sin doesn't hurt the people around me, that's the real problem. We have to be willing to look at our lives and say, I will always need Jesus. The moment you arrive, friends, is the moment you have not arrived. Because Jesus has already said at the beginning of his sermon, Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the spiritually bankrupt, blessed are the humble and the meek, those who understand their need for God. Because God is pursuing relationship with his children. And if we go out, though, and we do all the right things, but we sin in one little way, we cannot be in relationship with God without Jesus.

Small Sin Contaminates Everything

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But Jesus didn't tear down God's design for holiness because sin is destructive. Sin is a virus, sin is sin is a contaminant. Even the smallest amount of sin can ruin something large. There's a reason that we don't share toothbrushes. I have rarely ever seen, besides maybe a child in my family that eats like goldfish crackers, I have rarely ever seen a toothbrush that looked nasty, but it was nasty. It was nasty. There are germs, microscopic biomes in there. There's a reason why American surgeons have been sterilizing their scalpels before every surgery since the late 1800s. But there was a time when they used to wear the same smock, the same instruments, they wouldn't wash it. Actually, they wouldn't wash it because it looked like I've done a lot of surgeries, I have experience. But then they learned that the things that they couldn't see were infecting all of their patients. And that's the problem with contamination. It just takes a little bit. Now, God from the jump actually started teaching us about this when he taught us about yeast. When he taught about this tiny little thing that could get into bread and make it awesome. And right before the Jewish Passover festival, though, God would tell the people to get into their homes with these little brushes and little like brooms and try to get all the yeast from the house because even just a tiny bit could change everything. Guys, if you don't see the symbolism yet, let's keep going. When when you go to, say, like a Korean or a Filipino house and you walk in the door, what's the first thing you gotta do? Take them shoes off, right? And and if one person doesn't take their shoes off, then everybody's socks are gonna now be covered in who knows what. So it just takes one time. It's the same way with our sin, just takes a little bit to contaminate something. Now I don't know um if many of you remember when the roomba came out. Um, but those things, I was amazed. I was so excited for them. I was like, this is the Jetsons. The Roomba is a little vacuum that's a robot, okay? Um, and it's on wheels and it like goes around. And the first roombas, what they would do is they would like go into something and they would just get trapped constantly. They still do a little bit, but not like they used to. And and they would just get trapped and trapped and trapped, and so nobody really wanted a roomba except for the people on TV who were like selling them. But for the rest of us, we didn't really want a roomba, and and they were so dumb. Like the new ones now are great. They'll like see like a like socks and they'll like pick it up, you know, they'll like give you the score of the baseball games, they'll do all kinds of crazy stuff. Um, but the old ones were dumb. And so what would happen is, and this is what back when we had something called Reddit and Imager and all these other websites that you probably haven't heard of, but like people would post things about the roombas online, and they would say, Hey, uh my cat got into the house and um he left a little thing in the corner, and then they show the whole house what happens when the roomba gets going. And what happens is the roomba spreads this tiny little amount of of cat turd. Can I say that? Well, it spreads it all around the house, right? And you're like, but it's just a small amount, but it infects the whole place, and you have to clean it, or you just have to tear that up or just burn the place down and move on, right? Just something small that affects the whole place. Friends, nobody drinks something and says it's just a little bit of poison. Okay, that's a bad example, because a lot of you drink something and you say it's just a little poison, and that's what cigarette companies tell us, so let's move on from that one. But but just for a little bit, when you look at something small, you have to know that it can it can poison the whole thing. Like if you talk to a husband who says, I didn't cheat all those other days, I just cheated on my wife this one day. Nobody's gonna be like, Oh, okay, cool, cool, cool, cool. No, no, no, no, no. It just takes a little bit to ruin it all. Ecclesiastes 10 says, Dead flies make a perfumer's oil ferment and stink. So just a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor, is what it says. But this is not just about not sinning, is it? In our actions. Because if you looked at the Pharisees, many of them were not visibly sinning. But Jesus is interested in something much bigger than that. Our hearts. Blessed are the meek, the humble, those who understand their need for Jesus. If we think we can earn it, then why would we even have needed God ever? Like, why would we have needed Jesus to die if we can die if we can earn it? We can't. Because no matter how hard we try, we will always miss the mark. But what we do after that is what matters, guys. You lose hope or you try harder. Both of those paths lead to hell. Instead of it, we trust and we trust in Jesus alone, not in trying harder and we don't lose hope. Godly actions are awesome. Don't don't mishear me. Forgiving someone, oh, it's amazing. Apologizing, rejecting your own sin. These are needed things. Actions are often a sign of an internal change, but they are also a sign of faking the funk, right? Now, Zambian pastor Joe Coppolo he says, um, the Jewish leaders studied the Old Testament with great care, but too often they focus solely on the outward observance of rules while missing the intended point. And friends, if you're just here and you're saying, That's them, just like me, you might miss it. Now, I think we do this as Christians often, right? Like we point out the sins of others, but not our own. Sometimes we study the Bible well, but we're not listening. Some of us are right to attend Sunday worship services weekly, but it can easily become about us and our needs. It's the heart that matters. Sometimes we will worship with our hands in the air and sing at the top of our lungs while thinking evil thoughts about our neighbor. Sometimes we see worship music only and we miss what Jesus wants to do with our hearts. We give to be seen, but are we giving for Jesus? Jesus loves our serving others, giving to others, and worshiping Him. Yes, but He loves when He sees it in our hands and feet after He sees it in our hearts. His name is Samson Uten Let. And he says, There is no question that righteousness includes external behavior and actions. But for Jesus, there is something more to righteousness than what other people see. See, God cares about your actions. Don't get it wrong. But he wants your heart. The crucible is for silver and the furnace is for gold, but it is the Lord who tests the heart, friends. And so we are gonna get it wrong. And our hearts are messed up, but do we give up? No. Is it worthless to make an effort? No. And this is the second way Jesus changed the way the world understands holiness.

Obedience Still Matters To Jesus

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Jesus rewards obedience. That's our second point. Jesus rewards obedience. Verse 19 says, Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Now he says these commands. Now, y'all remember how I love you having these Bibles, like big old Bibles. Um, there's a reason. And it's because when you're reading this and you're reading it on a phone and you have eyesight like mine, you're only like halfway through one sentence when you're like, okay, let's see what's next. You know, you're missing out on the context. But if you're reading the entire, you have both pages open, you see what he's talking about. You actually see that Jesus is about to go into a new section of his Sermon on the Mount, which we will continue through this summer. And he's talking about these commands. So what are these commands? They're coming. Um, but I can tell you uh commands for honesty, generosity, prayer, godly marriage, divorce, adultery, anger, murder, loving your enemies, fasting, greed, judgment, and building our foundation on Jesus alone. These are the things that he's talking about. Jesus said, if you break these commandments, you'll be the least in God's kingdom. But if you honor them and teach them, you will be great in his kingdom. Now there's one thing I find incredibly cool about this idea. He's saying, whoever screws this up and teaches others to do the same will be in the kingdom of heaven. So those who belong to Jesus that teach wrong things or get things wrong, that get some certain sins wrong, I have hope for my friends that get a lot of the Bible correct but are off in some of their theology. It also gives me hope, since one day in heaven, I am likely going to learn from God all the ways I was off in my theology. Praise God that it does not write me out of the kingdom here. Now there are many things your church considers what we call closed-handed issues, okay? Um, Jesus is the only way to the Father. Why? Because he said it. Um, and this is not by works, but but it is his works that earn us salvation. There was only one God, he exists in three persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible is God's inerrant words. These are things that we say, mm-mm no, no, no, no, not gonna not gonna give this up so quickly. But there are many other things that we believe that while important to us, we have to hold them really loosely. Why? Because we get things wrong. And we're we're intended to be unified, these churches, because they are part of the same kingdom of God. The church across the street, they are our friends and they are on the same team and they are in the same kingdom. The firstborn, the church of the firstborn across the street, those are our friends. We love them. Um the church uh down the street, we have uh uh Pastor Bennett, not Pastor Bennett anymore. Uh we have um what's that church called? Somebody help me. Macedonia. Uh they are our friends and they are our team. We are on the same team. So so the thing is that we have to know that like as your pastor, it's it's my responsibility to teach you God's word and teach you how to learn God's word the best I can. And it's knowing that some days it's gonna make you mad, or some months you're gonna make me get mad at me. I don't get it. But but whoever is obedient still will find greatness in the kingdom. And I intend to be obedient in the way I teach you the Bible. Because Jesus didn't tear down God's design for holiness as much as I want to tell my friends he did. But now we get to walk his path, and our desires for mercy, justice, and integrity should increasingly mirror his. So, friends, do you break commands because you believe Jesus is no longer serious about them? When Jesus tells us to go and sin no more, do we take it as a suggestion? But what if he didn't want you lusting after anyone outside of Christian marriage? Not because he wants to have rules over you, but because he actually cares for you. He knows better than you. What if Jesus only speaks against our sin, not because he's mean and angry, but because he loves us? Our God is a gardener. Everything started with a garden and fresh fruit surrounding the first humans, Adam and Eve, and then one day we will once again call a lush garden home. In Revelation 22, it says there's a river flowing through the middle of the new Jerusalem that comes from the throne of God Himself. And you have trees growing on both sides of The river, trees that God calls the tree of life with new fruit every month and leaves for the healing of the nations. God is a gardener. The kingdom of God is much like a garden. And we plant alongside our good gardener. We water and tend to the fruit alongside our good gardener. And God pulls weeds and he prunes. And when we give our lives to God in the end, we will enjoy the fruit of the kingdom. If there are poisonous weeds in the garden of our hearts, he can pull them out by the roots with our permission. And it's gonna be painful. But he wants to do that because he loves you. But we have the chance to participate in the cultivation and growth alongside him. Now I have trees in my backyard that I have pruned for over a decade now, and I didn't plant them, but I get to enjoy the fruit. They're big and strong. But I not only enjoy the trees someone else planted, but I got get to enjoy the garden all the more because of my involvement in making what it is. I have trees that I planted nine, ten years ago now. They are towering over as birds make their nest in them. But in God's garden, in God's garden, I'm barely the assistant to the regional gardener. I'm a lowly servant. But I can still look around at the shade, at the flowers, at the fruit, and say, I got to be a part of that. I'm gonna be in the garden anyway, but I would love to be able to say, I had a peace in this Lord. Thank you for letting me be a part of it. There was a day when the kingdoms of this earth will have expired, and you will get to enjoy God's kingdom in heaven. It's a free gift, and you do nothing to earn it. But when we reject our sin for God's perfect way, and we help others along the way, we can sit back in that garden of heaven and say, I got to be a part of that. See, the law has not changed, friends. And we are still held to the standard of perfection. And while Jesus paid our bill once and for all, today Jesus supernaturally gives us strength to reject sin in ways that we never thought we could. Pastor David Guzick, he says, Jesus added nothing to the law except one thing that no man had ever added to the law perfect obedience. And that brings us to our final

Jesus Fulfills Law With Mercy

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way. Jesus helps the world understand holiness. Jesus demands and provides our holiness. Jesus demands and provides our holiness. If you're in the room and you're like, I'm not good enough, you you got that part, but you have to be ready to say, He is good enough for me. So verse 17, don't think that I came to abolish the law of the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished. That smallest letter. It's translated to iota, to jot and tittle. Jesus says nothing except who pays the price here. Don't accept grace and then try to abolish the law, friends. Don't receive the grace of Jesus and pretend he doesn't care about holiness. He cares about holiness down to the very smallest thing, the microscopic sin. Because it separates us from God, just like a microscopic uh organism can hurt us. Holiness, though, is a foundational uh piece of our relationship with God. He cared so much that he died to bridge that gap. Jesus loves the law, Jesus loves justice. I'm so glad he loves justice because when I see people suffering, I know God is not for oppression. But he also loved us enough that he didn't want us to be oppressed by sin either. And this is the beauty of the gospel that when he saw us in our sin, in our struggle, in our pain, suffering on our own, trying to build a way to God, trying to build a bridge to God, but we're only using like jello to build something you could step on. It's never gonna work. No matter how much jello you you pile on top of jello, you can't build a bridge with jello. That's what we try to do with our good works, though. It's never going to be foundationally strong enough. It has to be God building the bridge. And so Jesus came to this earth, lived the perfect life that we could never live. And he died on our behalf. Not because we deserved it, but because we didn't, and because he loved us. But then he had receipts for it too, didn't he? When he rose again on the third day, he showed that he was bigger than sin, bigger than death, bigger than the devil. He was bigger than all that stuff, and he did it because he loved us. And so I say to you, if this is something that you've been thinking about or you've been wondering about, and you're just like, man, I'm just not good enough, you're not. Good news. Good news, you're not. And he is. And so I encourage you, don't walk out of here without saying, you know what, Jesus, I'm ready to give you my whole life. Doesn't mean you're gonna get it right. It means you're gonna get it wrong a lot still. And it means sometimes someone will come alongside and be like, hey man, we don't, we don't really do that anymore. Come this way, and it'll be okay. No one's gonna be mad at you, they're gonna help you. Guys, when you embrace Jesus, he shows us a better way forward, and you will find his law will be at odds with the rest of the world. But he didn't scrap the law. Instead, we allow the Spirit of God to cleanse us from unrighteousness, help us to follow the law, and we allow him to change us slowly from the inside out. Yeah, Jesus paid our bill with his blood, he made a sacrifice on our behalf, but not so that we would go on sinning. By no means. This sacrifice is free for us, but expensive for him. He paid with his life. Our sin is costly. Remember that blood stuff that we were talking about early? It's costly. All those poor animals, man, but they tasted good, I'm sure. But those poor animals. He made a sacrifice on our behalf, much better than any animal. His sacrifice is free, it's expensive. Um, and now we move forward with a desire to be obedient. Not to earn anything, but out of gratefulness. That's what we do now. You're in the kingdom if you belong to Jesus. But wouldn't it be awesome to keep moving forward what he's doing? Wouldn't it be awesome to keep cultivating this garden that he's cultivating? With an eye not only towards the kingdom of God on earth, but also in heaven. See, Jesus didn't tear down God's design for holiness. Instead, he built the bridge between our failure and God's holiness. And now as we walk, uh his path, our desires for mercy, justice, and integrity, they increasingly mirror his.

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Dr.

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Tony Evans said the Old Testament was intended to point to Christ, who'd bring it to God's intended consummation. He, in fact, is the theme of the Old Testament scriptures. Pastor William Barclay, he says, Men might say, Christ is the end of the law, now I do what I like. Men might think all the duties, all the responsibilities, all the demands are gone, but he would say no. Guys, as we grow with Jesus, we find ourselves liking the things of Christ, which is crazy to me. Craving the things of Christ, disliking the things that he dislikes. Our desires begin to align with his heart. To my Christians in the room, um, have you ever re-watched a movie or show that you used to think was fine, and suddenly now that God has been working on your heart, you watch it and you're like, whoa, man, I went back and watched like Summer Friday, and I was like, I can't watch this. I need the USA network to filter this out for me. I went back and I watched Coming to America. Man, I quote that with my kids all the time, only the oh clean parts. But I watched that again. I'm like, this is bad, man. This is like, this is wrong, some of these things. But like the movie never changed. I did. Maybe you you you are still making mistakes, friends. And you've tried certain sin and you've like run away from a sin, but then recently maybe you've run back to that sin. Things that you used to love, but don't they just like feel different now? Like maybe weed or sherm or gossip or liquor or sex outside of marriage just don't give you the same rush that they used to. You still did those things, maybe even before you got here, but they left a bad taste in your mouth. You that means you're growing in Jesus. And also because you're here, that probably also means you're growing in Jesus, even though you've chosen sin, because you know God is good and kind to forgive you. Some of you are struggling with the same old sins you've been struggling with for a long time. But here is how I know God is working in you. You are struggling. That shows me that you hear God speaking to you, and your desire is starting to go closer and closer to his desires, even if you haven't arrived. Keep seeking God, repenting, finding grace. That struggle is a sign of something good going on. Now I was using Barclay. Barclay continues. He says, in one sense, there can come a time when a man can say, I have done all the law demands, my duty is discharged. The law has no more claim on me. But the motive under which the Christian lives is the motive of love. The Christian aims to show his gratitude for the love of God. See, Jesus met the demand of God for your righteousness. It's done. But in his compassion, he wants your heart, he wants

Gratitude That Changes How We Live

SPEAKER_01 30:28

your whole life. Uh here's a good example. Today is Father's Day. Um, and my baby girl is 1,600 miles away from me in St. Louis, and I'm dying. And my son is here, which I'm pumped about. But I will tell you, a long time ago, when we used to celebrate holidays with my toddlers, we would help the kids get us gifts. I don't know if you guys know about this. Um, but basically, this is what happened. My wife would go to my kids and say, Hey, you want to get dad a Father's Day gift? And they'd be like, Yeah, okay, sure. And then so what would they do? They would go to Target, right? They'd go to Target, and um my wife would say, Okay, what do you want to give dad? And the same answer, I don't know. Whatever, so no. That, I don't know. And she would say, Okay, let's stop. What is what are things that dad likes? Uh I don't know. I don't know. What's your dad's name? Uh dad. Okay. So my wife would have to help, she would have to walk them along through this process, right? So she would say, Okay, what does dad like? Okay, how about the padres, the Simpsons, or back then it was the Chargers before they ruined things. And she'd be like, Do you do you want to does dad like those things? And be like, Yeah, okay. So then my wife would find the aisle. You know, she would do the she would walk them down the aisle to find the padre gear, and she'd be like, Okay, pick out my my she'd tell a toddler, pick out something um for dad. So, of course, what would they do? They would find me the Padres, the one Padre shirt that's like a extra small crop top, hot pink, right? And my wife would go, let's put this one back on the aisle, okay. How about this one? There's like a Philip Rivers thing. Let's get daddy that, okay? You know, like Ladanian Tomlinson, let's get that. And and then she would uh go pay for it. So my kids didn't even pay for the gift, right? Um, even from their allowance that I give them. And and then she would take it home with them, and then what would she do? She would wrap it for them. And I'd always be like, Wow, uh kids wrapped it this time, huh? And then I'd get in trouble every time. I'm just kidding, I wouldn't say that. No, never. But she did all the work, right? She did all the work. Now, let me ask you this. What if my kids got this great gift to give to dad that was that was they did nothing to earn, and they just put it in their closet and left it there. What an insult. What an insult to the work of mom that did that work with them. What an insult to dad. But guys, you you know that Jesus has gone to all the work to present your righteousness to the Father. And sometimes we find ourselves going, well, that's good for him, but I'm gonna keep the rest of everything I want in my closet. I don't really care. I'm not interested. I'm gonna treat the gift of Jesus cheaply. Guys, God has given you a great, beautiful, foundational gift that can change your life and the life of the people around you. His mercy, his grace, his holiness, blood. Receive it not as a cheap gift, it's expensive. Sometimes I will hear a question of why God would make demands for us that we couldn't keep and then send us to hell for not keeping them. What kind of good God would do that? That's the question that I would hear a lot. But that's not it, is it? Jesus could have demanded justice from us. He could have. But instead, he made a way for us with a sacrifice that was costly. And he and he revealed to us and he showed his love for us because he gave up everything so we could have it. Endured pain so we could have it. Have you ever heard of some God, some Zeus, some whatever, enduring pain for the people that he loves? No. You've also never heard of them being resurrected in the way that Jesus was. You've also not heard of hundreds and hundreds of witnesses who saw him resurrected. This is what we have in Jesus.

Invitation To Give Jesus Your Life

SPEAKER_01 33:59

And if you're if you're asking yourself, man, is this pastor trying to get me to be a Christian? The answer is 100% yes. And I'm so glad somebody else did that for me. And I and honestly, I would want you to be a Christian, whether you lived here or lived somewhere else. I don't need our church to grow. I want to see the kingdom of God grow. I want to see the garden of God grow. I don't care any other way. So, friends, Jesus could have demanded justice from us, but instead, he provided mercy. So I say this to you, City Life Church and guests. Jesus didn't tear down God's design for holiness. No. Jesus loves holiness. Instead, he built the bridge between our failure and God's holiness. And now, as we walk his path with the help of his Holy Spirit, our desires for mercy, justice, and integrity increasingly will mirror his. Let us pray.