WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:05.839 So in Matthew 5, we're going to work our way through this Sermon on the Mount, this core of Jesus' teaching. 00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:12.640 And Jesus wants to tell us about two destructive poisons this morning: anger and lust. 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:17.920 Both of which come from legitimate good desires, if we think about this. 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:22.960 Anger really comes from a desire for justice, a desire for things to be right. 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:26.879 Something was taken from you, something was taken from somebody you love. 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:30.559 That's justice, the desire for things to be right. 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:33.439 And yet we can move into anger so quickly. 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:39.759 Lust is the illegitimate way of understanding and practicing our sexual desires. 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:40.880 Those are good. 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:44.880 Those are God given, God created, and those are good. 00:00:45.119 --> 00:00:48.560 But lust in and of itself can become a destructive force. 00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:56.560 So let's work our way through these two passages that Jesus teaches and moves us past just behaviors. 00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:00.079 It really makes us look at our hearts of what's going on inside of us. 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:03.119 So Matthew 5, 21 and 22. 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:08.959 You have heard it that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:11.200 Okay, so there's the old way. 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:13.680 And Jesus says, I'm going to take it a lot deeper, verse 22. 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:22.239 But I say to you that everyone who is angry, right, so the stuff that's inside of us with his brother will be liable to judgment. 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:28.400 Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel, and whoever says, you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:38.079 So certainly Jesus is leveling the playing field here, moving us past behavior, and certainly helping us understand that we need a redeemer outside of our own behavior. 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:42.560 Because right away we realize we're all doomed at this point. 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:43.760 We're all doomed. 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:45.680 We need God's grace to us. 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:46.959 We need God's grace to us. 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:51.439 Point number one is this dealing with anger is a work of the heart. 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:54.319 So it's not just a work of behavior, it's a work of the heart. 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:58.239 Yesterday we were headed home from one of our kids' soccer games. 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:04.079 Beautiful 95-degree fall weather out there on the soccer fields. 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:22.560 I had yelled for an hour straight at young children to be more motivated in their soccer skills, and so I was just sweaty and tired and get in the car and have one kiddo with me, and we're headed down from Big Shanty, coming down to Stilesborough, and we're gonna head by the mountain, okay? 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:31.759 And I know like Visitor Center on Saturday, you know it's gonna be a little crowded right there, but I also know another thing, and that is my favorite traffic sign. 00:02:32.240 --> 00:02:37.439 And all of traffic signs exist there on that corner, and some of you already know it because you know this traffic sign. 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:39.520 Keep moving, right? 00:02:40.479 --> 00:02:44.800 I mean, it's it's one of the only positive traffic signs out there. 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:53.599 I look forward to in a very strange, quirky way, every time I turn right there off Salzburg, around that visitor center, and it says keep moving. 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:54.800 I'm like, yes, I will. 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:56.159 I'm gonna speed up. 00:02:56.319 --> 00:03:01.439 I will increase my speed throughout this turn because I can legally. 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:02.319 I can do this. 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:24.000 And I look forward to it, I want it, I can't wait for it, and so I'm coming up, and I know traffic should be moving smoothly because we should all keep moving here at this right-hand turn, but sure enough, like 23 cars deep, just dead stop, and I can see, I can see across that lawn and beautiful flags. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:29.120 I can still see through the flags, and I can see the car way over there, dead stop, dead stop. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:32.639 And it doesn't look like they're broken down, they're not frantically outside the car, you know. 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:34.159 Like it looks like dead stop. 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:39.120 We know what they're doing, taking 97 pictures of the flags, of which they should, right? 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:45.039 Beautiful flags, but there are two parking lots for this exact reason. 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:47.840 So I'm simmering just a little bit. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:50.639 I'm hot, I'm hangry, not angry yet. 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:53.280 Maybe, maybe I'm angry, but I'm definitely hangry. 00:03:53.360 --> 00:04:07.360 Um, and I'm simmering Christian passive anger, but inside verse 22, you fool is certainly an operation toward the car I see across the lawn, and I can't wait because I'm gonna cruise by. 00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:10.080 I'm not gonna stop because I'm not like I'm not like them. 00:04:10.159 --> 00:04:14.479 I'm not stopping, but I will cruise by at just the right speed to give them a little bit of a stink eye, right? 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:16.160 Hope it's none of you, right? 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:16.959 That's part of it. 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:26.240 Hope it's nobody comes from church, but just a little bit of a disapproval, and we turn that corner nice and slow, and at this point it's been it's been a while, you know. 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:29.120 It's like, how many pictures do you need, right? 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:34.000 And we pull up, and I'm like, you idiot. 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:37.040 Like, keep moving, right? 00:04:37.279 --> 00:04:38.480 Keep it said it. 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:39.680 Just keep why are you parked? 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:40.560 It's not parked. 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:46.879 Two sweet grandmothers, probably one of them lost their grandson in 9-11. 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:50.560 I was probably some sweet story, like legitimate, like, right? 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:52.720 I mean, this is probably the reality of what's going on here. 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:55.439 It's two sweet little grandmas, right? 00:04:55.600 --> 00:05:04.240 And I'm angry because I feel like something was taken from me, and of course, I feel like I'm superior to them in all ways of parking and driving. 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:09.199 So we get angry about stupid, silly stuff like that, right? 00:05:09.279 --> 00:05:10.160 And you do that too. 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:11.279 Like you have your own thing. 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:12.000 That's my thing. 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:18.879 Like you can cut me off on 75, I don't care, you can call me a bad name, I don't care, but don't mess, don't mess with keep moving. 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:20.399 That's just my thing. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:41.519 And here's what Jesus says when we're aware we're angry at a sister or brother or a neighbor or you know, sweet little grandmas taking pictures, I mean, your boss, your neighbor, a friend who's done something and they shouldn't have done it to you, and they did it and you can't believe it. 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:45.680 Jesus says, and it's such intense language, this whole passage. 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:54.879 I mean, that that's part of the point, is he's using intense language to kind of get us to awaken to like move into your heart and recognize how destructive this stuff can be. 00:05:55.759 --> 00:06:01.759 And then he, you know, he really goes into like he says, This is so important, you should alter your worship. 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:03.920 Like you should change your worship. 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:09.920 Like right now, you you should just like kindly just walk out of the sanctuary and go make the phone call. 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:11.199 That's what Jesus is saying. 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:12.720 Verses 23 through 26. 00:06:12.800 --> 00:06:18.959 So if you are offering your gift to the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:21.519 First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:26.160 So, in other words, uh, if I'm recognizing it even now, I should do something now. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:30.399 Like now is the moment to do something and to move towards somebody in reconciliation. 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:33.439 Verse 25, come to terms quickly with your accuser. 00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:39.519 So now if you've been accused, so you've been accused of something you did, you want to right now, now. 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:44.240 Come to terms with your accuser. 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:52.879 Point number two is this we must deal with our anger, or it will deal with us, won't it? 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:56.879 We deal with our anger, we want to be reconciled. 00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:02.879 I mean, Christians, we tend to use words like uh stressed, disappointed. 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:05.439 I was disappointed in the two grandmothers. 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:08.560 I was so disappointed with those two sweet little grandmothers. 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:09.759 No, no, I was angry. 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:16.879 Like I was silly, stupid, angry at two little grandmothers taking 137 pictures of the flags, right? 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:18.160 But no, no, no. 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:20.079 I was just disappointed in them, right? 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:21.839 But really, we're angry. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:26.079 We're angry because someone took something from us. 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:33.839 I grew up watching Ferris Bheelers Day Off pretty much every afternoon, my entire high school life. 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:37.600 I spent more time in Fairy Spieler's Day Off than the Bible by far. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.399 And it's a movie, 80s movie. 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:43.920 And Cameron, if you remember the storyline, there's Cameron. 00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:49.120 And Cameron, at the beginning of the movie, he is depressed. 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:53.120 And I'm ruining the movie just a little bit, but you've had about 40 years. 00:07:53.279 --> 00:08:06.720 Okay, so Cameron, at the beginning of the movie, he's so depressed that he's in bed and he's just sulking and he's just, he's just, it's like he's always feeling sick. 00:08:06.959 --> 00:08:12.560 And all of this we come to learn throughout the movie, is it's because he because his dad doesn't care about him. 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:15.279 Because we know at the end of the movie, he ventilates the anger. 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:24.000 If we show the picture again, at the end of the movie, he ventilates the anger, and he just beats the beats the Ferrari to death, if you've seen the movie, right? 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:32.639 He goes to town on his dad's vintage antique Ferrari because he loves the Ferrari more than he loves him. 00:08:34.639 --> 00:08:36.000 And so he ventilates it. 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:43.519 But the Bible's more profound than uh we have to compartmentalize and package it down inside of us. 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:46.000 Or we have to ventilate it and let it out. 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:54.960 The Bible's more profound than that, and it teaches that any sort of anger, that passive anger or the ventilating anger, both will eat us up. 00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:56.159 Both will eat us up. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:57.759 We have to go to the heart. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:05.039 We have to go to the heart that we understand our anger's there because we feel like, we feel like somebody took something from us. 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:11.200 Here's what Frederick Buchner, author, says this about anger. 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:13.120 Anger is fun. 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:30.000 To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll your tongue over the prospect of bitter confrontations yet to come to savor the last to some morsel over the pain you are given and the pain you give back. 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:33.360 In many ways, anger is a feast for a king. 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:37.679 The chief drawback is what you are wolfing down as yourself. 00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:40.240 The skeleton of the feast is you. 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:43.039 We know this by experience, don't we? 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:49.200 When we live out of anger toward somebody else, or a family member, or a friend, or neighbor. 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:52.559 We we love it for a little bit. 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:56.320 It makes us feel like we're in control over the one who took something from us. 00:09:56.960 --> 00:09:59.440 And then we realize we're eating our own selves. 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:05.200 Hebrews 12:15 says this see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:06.399 Oh, that's nice. 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:17.440 Okay, so relish God's grace to you, that limitless favor and delight and love that God has for you, not because of anything you've done, but because of what Jesus has done for you. 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:19.519 Undeserved, isn't that good? 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:29.759 And here's what it connects to in this thought that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:42.080 So the way in which we root out bitterness, and we say anger, is by relishing that grace of God, and we do that so that we wouldn't become defiled. 00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:50.559 Not that you become not worthy, but that you become troubled, right? 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:52.639 You eat your eat yourself up. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:59.200 The implication of the grace of God is that anger no longer has to rule your heart for you to feel whole. 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:01.679 We don't have to use anger in that way. 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:09.440 For me, this leads to the question just a contemplative question to say, Holy Spirit, what am I still angry about? 00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:12.480 Where's that still inside of me? 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:24.080 And then you just get really quiet, you go for a walk, journal, and you try to get to the root that's inside, inside of you, so that we're not destroyed by it. 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:27.440 Now, here's why we can do that. 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:31.600 The reason why we can do that is, like I said, that first part of Hebrews 12, 15. 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:32.799 And that's this. 00:11:32.879 --> 00:11:37.679 Point number three, we are loved by God in our anger and loved by God out of our anger. 00:11:37.840 --> 00:11:38.960 And we need both of that. 00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:39.519 We need both. 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:41.519 If we don't have the first part, we don't have the second part. 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:48.639 We need God to love us in our anger in order for us to be freed from it in order to love us and for us to process out of our anger. 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:50.799 Verse 22 says this interesting verse. 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:54.879 I probably, when I read it, maybe you could kind of caught your attention. 00:11:55.039 --> 00:11:59.440 But I say to you that everyone who's angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. 00:11:59.679 --> 00:12:00.879 Oh, okay. 00:12:01.279 --> 00:12:05.679 I mean, you we can read this and think, like, oh, we're all like we're all going to hell, right? 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:07.840 Like, I mean, you can read it and just be like, oh, goodness. 00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:09.120 Like, because you've been angry. 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:11.519 I mean, I was angry at two grandmothers yesterday, right? 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:13.519 And you're like, oh no, it's all it's all gone. 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:14.799 Heaven's all gone for me. 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:15.360 You know. 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:20.639 I don't think that's what it's saying at all for those of us who know Jesus. 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:28.240 God already sees us as righteous because of Jesus' righteousness, not our ability to never be angry. 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:31.919 So God's not waiting to zap us every time we get angry. 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:37.919 This is about us living in the implications of grace and not in the ways of judgment. 00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:47.039 The ways of judgment is the ways of checklists and scoreboards and paybacks and is exhausting and it's cyclical. 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:58.000 Uh we're trying to use it to feel like we're more in control rather than living out of the grace of God, which is a way of rest and heart transformation, that we're finding our wholeness there. 00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:07.120 And so while Jesus is sort of devastating us in this passage, he does it again, we're going to read it here about lust. 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:08.480 Devastates us. 00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:11.360 It's in the bigger context of who He is for us. 00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:14.879 He's devastating us on purpose to help us recognize, diagnose us. 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:23.200 To see, we have anger and we have lust, and we we need to deal with it, but we also need to not use our own behavior or heart motives as our justification with him. 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:26.159 All right, the second poison is lust. 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:28.320 Matthew 5, 27 through 30. 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:30.799 You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. 00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:33.279 So there's the kind of Old Testament, the old law. 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:35.759 People are living by it, and they can feel righteous on their own. 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:38.000 They don't need God, they don't need God's grace. 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:40.960 But Jesus says, Oh, I'm about to about to level you. 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:48.639 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:54.799 So we can switch his and her there for us to understand this is not just a male problem. 00:13:55.279 --> 00:13:59.679 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:04.240 For it is better for you to lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell. 00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:12.559 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it is better than you lose one of your members and your whole body to go into hell. 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:18.320 So this is not about somebody who has lust going to hell. 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:33.279 This is about, in the context of the meta-narrative of the scriptures, this is about leveling us to understand when we use these ways to feel justified or whole, you are on a path that is far from God. 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:37.120 That Jesus is always our redeemer. 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:44.960 This commentary is the intensity of the issue of lust and affairs and adultery and the destruction it produces and the shame it creates. 00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:48.720 I read this years ago and it hasn't left me. 00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:52.399 Maybe the most insightful words I've ever read on adultery. 00:14:52.720 --> 00:14:53.039 Dr. 00:14:53.200 --> 00:14:56.159 Esther Peelers, researcher and sexual therapist. 00:14:56.399 --> 00:14:59.120 I think I read it about five years ago in a sermon. 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:02.720 Very often we don't go elsewhere. 00:15:02.879 --> 00:15:09.200 And I think when we say elsewhere, I think to me that that could mean longing for somebody else. 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:13.440 It's not your spouse, or even pornography. 00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:17.759 Very often we don't go elsewhere because we are looking for another person. 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:21.919 We go elsewhere because we are looking for another self. 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:28.639 It isn't so much that we want to leave the person we are with as we want to leave the person we have become. 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:35.200 So in this way, adultery, lust, pornography, this is sexual idolatry of the heart. 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:58.480 And what I mean by that is, like we've been talking about all these different idolatries throughout the Judges series, sexual idolatry can say something like this if I can have that experience or that pleasure, then I will finally be enough, fulfilled, or affirmed. 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:01.919 And it's never ending. 00:16:02.159 --> 00:16:02.480 Right? 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:03.120 It's never ending. 00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:12.080 It's never ending with anger, it's never ending with lust, it's never ending with power, it's never ending with all these things that become idolatry of the heart. 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:23.120 The lust actually lies to us and it erodes the meaning of sexuality, sexual desire, and it erodes the integrity of our own souls. 00:16:23.279 --> 00:16:30.639 Now we can hear this text and we could hear easily that sexual desire is wrong and uh you know hellbound. 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:41.279 But the biblical sex ethic is God given sexual desire, there's a reason why it's there, for the highest form of relationship. 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:53.279 Our sexual desire is for the highest form of relationship, for the building up of marriage, for covenant marriage, and for the mutual pleasure of both the husband and the wife. 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:56.320 And that is good news. 00:16:56.480 --> 00:16:58.080 That is not shameful news. 00:16:58.159 --> 00:17:00.559 That is like good news to celebrate. 00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:04.559 Because what it means is it's not a sh it's not a shame issue. 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:12.559 The biblical sexual ethic is true because sex is that good and is that powerful. 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:21.680 And that sexual desire inside of us is that good and that powerful when it remains as desire in the right relationships. 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:28.880 But lust turns it as a consumerism and erodes the meaning of sex and the integrity of the soul. 00:17:29.039 --> 00:17:33.119 Point number four is this lust resides in the heart and erodes meaning. 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:46.160 It's sort of like that water that comes down your driveway or down the hill in your backyard, and it's just eroding away that hillside you need, or maybe it's along the side of your house and it erodes away. 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:53.279 You need the soil to grade a certain way, but that water keeps channeling that way, and it just erodes and it erodes and erodes. 00:17:53.359 --> 00:17:57.680 And the good that was once there is slowly going away. 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:05.119 Now, if you've lived a season of life or a long period of life controlled by lust, you know everything I just said. 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:07.680 You know what that feels like. 00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:19.279 Because it erodes an integrity of who you are, it erodes the goodness of something that's supposed to be so good and powerful inside a covenant of marriage. 00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:29.519 And it keeps, lust keeps making these promises and it never delivers for us to really fulfill affirmed or whole or enough. 00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:34.480 So our sexual desire has to find its proper place and home. 00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:40.960 And then we also get to recognize this other thing, and that there is a desire for us under the desire. 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:46.400 Like a desire for meaning and acceptance and affirmation and joy that sex is never gonna give us. 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:48.559 As good as it is, it's never gonna give us. 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:53.119 So it's deeper than even the most sublime experiences in the world. 00:18:53.279 --> 00:18:56.079 And this is our soul's cry for our Creator. 00:18:56.960 --> 00:18:59.440 Psalm 63, 1 through 4. 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:01.599 I keep returning to this passage. 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:04.240 I think it feels like life in many ways. 00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:05.839 Oh God, you are my God. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:07.039 Earnestly I seek you. 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:13.359 My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 00:19:13.599 --> 00:19:16.880 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power, glory. 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:21.519 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:23.759 So I will bless you as long as I live. 00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:26.880 In your name I will lift up my hands. 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:34.079 Point number five is this we have a supreme joy beyond any good of this world. 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:37.039 There's a lot of good in this world. 00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:44.000 And we have a supreme joy that is the meaning under the meaning, the desire under the desire, the love under the love. 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:50.000 This week Christy and I went on a day date to crumble cookie. 00:19:50.079 --> 00:19:52.880 You've been to crumble cookie, you know crumble cookie? 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:53.759 It's a big deal. 00:19:53.920 --> 00:19:55.039 Crumble cookie's a big deal. 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:56.079 I don't know if you picked up on it. 00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:57.119 It's not an Oreo. 00:19:57.200 --> 00:19:57.839 You know what I'm saying? 00:19:58.079 --> 00:20:00.480 Like, it's not an Oreo, not a Nutter Butter. 00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:01.839 I know about the Nutter Butters. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:04.400 I know about the pepperage farm Milanos. 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:08.240 If you get fancy with your cookies, you know, you know about those. 00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:13.680 And we had a staff, Redeemer staff analysis of cookies this week. 00:20:14.079 --> 00:20:15.599 And it's not even fair. 00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:21.440 Like, it's not fair to compare like Kroger bought cookies to the Crumble Cookie. 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:27.680 But then also, it's not what's not fair, it's not fair to talk about like your grandma's cookies and compare it to the crumble cookie. 00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:31.759 So we can't do that because it's a store, crumble cookie is a store-bought cookie, okay? 00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:33.440 We're aware of what crumble cookie is. 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:39.440 It's a little storefront you go in, they're baking cookies, really expensive cookies, okay? 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:42.000 12 bucks for like four. 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:43.920 I think it was four for twelve. 00:20:44.079 --> 00:20:45.359 It was a date, okay? 00:20:45.519 --> 00:20:46.799 That's a date. 00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:48.319 It was the whole date. 00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:49.279 This is what that was. 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:51.519 The entire date was the cookies. 00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:56.000 But I got home, got that chocolate chip cookie. 00:20:56.319 --> 00:20:59.200 Put it in the microwave for about nine seconds. 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:03.200 You know what I'm talking about because you know how many seconds your microwave takes to heat up. 00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:08.319 Just a cookie or a brownie, you're like, yeah, ten seconds is too much, but nine's just right. 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:11.759 Pull it out, you know, it's not overcooked, it's warmed up enough. 00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:13.759 And that crumble cookie warmed up in that microwave. 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:14.559 I mean, that was a legitimate. 00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:16.640 Now, it's not grandma's cookies homebade. 00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:20.079 We're not not that, but that for a store-bought cookie. 00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:23.519 That was, it was a little taste of heavens what it was, right? 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:25.680 You've had it, some of you. 00:21:26.559 --> 00:21:27.359 Even at$12. 00:21:31.359 --> 00:21:35.359 Now the majestic Teton Mountains that I love so much. 00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:39.119 I can't hike to Amphitheater Lake enough. 00:21:39.279 --> 00:21:39.599 Okay? 00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:41.039 I can't do it. 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:42.240 I can keep going. 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:42.640 Over. 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:46.559 I can't, I can't hike up there and have a quiet lunch enough. 00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:50.079 I can just keep doing it over and over again. 00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:52.000 I love it that much. 00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:57.119 Like the taste of beauty in heaven that is the love of my wife. 00:21:57.359 --> 00:21:59.680 Swimming in the ocean with my children. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:12.160 Like a really great long meal with friends where you have just wonderful food and wine, and nobody has to be home. 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:14.559 Like, okay, and nobody's paying for babysitters somehow. 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:17.200 Like the grandparents are covering all the babysitters. 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:19.599 So you're not even that pressure's gone. 00:22:19.759 --> 00:22:21.519 Nobody has to wake up in the morning. 00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:30.960 Just a long, great, wonderful Uber's picking everybody up, meal, like just that freedom and that discussion. 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:38.160 You're laughing, and then you cry, like you cry at some point in the meal because somebody talks about something that's horrible going on. 00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:39.599 They haven't talked about it in a while. 00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:41.359 And oh, you're like, I had no idea. 00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:43.039 And then you laugh again. 00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:44.079 Right? 00:22:44.240 --> 00:22:48.559 Like a taste, those tastes that are just so good in life. 00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:49.759 So good. 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:53.839 The most amazing taste we have in this world. 00:22:54.799 --> 00:22:58.079 There's just tastes of a greater love. 00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:00.319 The love that's under the loves. 00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:03.920 Now I could end the sermon there. 00:23:04.079 --> 00:23:06.480 That was kind of where the sermon ended originally. 00:23:07.119 --> 00:23:09.359 Then I realized there's one big problem. 00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:17.440 And that there's a lot of us who feel guilt and shame over anger and lust. 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:23.359 Maybe because I grew up. 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:27.039 Maybe because of that one time. 00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:29.839 Maybe because it's still going on. 00:23:30.160 --> 00:23:32.640 Maybe because of that season of life. 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:39.759 And like I said, as Christians, when we read the Bible, we have to remember any text and context. 00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:46.960 Jesus just said in Matthew 5.17 that he fulfills the law for us. 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:52.319 So we're heading into weeks of reading how we should be. 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:57.759 And we better remember 5.17, or else we're toast, right? 00:23:58.160 --> 00:23:59.599 We need Matthew 5. 00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:03.279 We need Jesus to be the fulfiller of the law. 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:05.119 That He is. 00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:08.480 He is our forgiveness of our sins. 00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:11.039 We do not have to earn any more forgiveness. 00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:12.960 We are fully forgiven with God. 00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:14.720 Isn't that amazing? 00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:17.440 He is our righteousness. 00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:22.400 Righteousness, full, complete righteousness, is imputed to us because of his work for us. 00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:23.920 That's God's grace to us. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:26.160 And God loves us, loves you. 00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:32.640 God loves you and delights in you as he does his own son. 00:24:34.319 --> 00:24:43.200 So my brothers and sisters, God is welcome you to himself, to the love that is under the love, deeper than the love. 00:24:44.079 --> 00:24:45.680 To a love that's better than life. 00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:47.279 Let's pray together. 00:24:47.599 --> 00:24:49.759 God, thank you for your grace and mercy. 00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:56.559 May we obtain this grace of God that we might root out anger and lust. 00:24:58.160 --> 00:25:11.119 May we relish more in a love that is greater than this life, that does fulfill, is enough, and that we are enough before you because of your love for us in Jesus. 00:25:11.279 --> 00:25:21.839 May this be so fulfilling, so affirming, so welcoming, that our forgiveness is sealed, our righteousness is sealed. 00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:25.039 Would we not have to use anger and lust? 00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:27.839 Would we not have to use them? 00:25:28.319 --> 00:25:41.759 May we be aware of them more, confess more, live in the implications of grace, to come more alive to your love for us and to live to honor you out of our heart and with our lives. 00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:43.519 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:25:43.839 --> 00:25:44.400 Amen.