Sermon on the Mount - Part Two

so we're going to do it right we're studying The Sermon on the Mount and

uh one of the things I told you last week is the reason the Sermon on the Mount is so hard

for us to understand is the fact of who it was written to when Jesus preached

The Sermon on the Mount he was preaching to a Jewish congregation and the way they interpret

scripture is different than the way we interpret scripture so as we get into this we're going to be

taking a look at what Jesus said first and then we're going to look at what Paul said because Paul was sent by

Christ to be the Apostle to the Gentiles which all

of us sitting here are part of and so each thing that Jesus shared with this

group is a huge group uh Paul had to come back and re-explain

because Gentiles had no idea what Jewish Traditions what Jewish law what any of

those things were so he had to share it to them in a way they would understand it and the Reason God chose Paul I don't

know if you know this or not but the reason God chose Paul was not just because he knew so much about the law he

also spoke at Le four languages he spoke Hebrew he spoke

Aramaic he spoke Greek and he spoke Latin because he was a Roman citizen so

he was uniquely qualified amongst all the apostles to be able to take what Christ

said and take a gospel message to Gentiles who had no idea who that he was

even the Messiah they had no idea there was a messiah they had no idea that Christ came they they had no prophecies

that are all listed in the Old Testament these were people that had no fundamental knowledge of God

they worshiped many gods they did some despicable things in

the name of their gods and Paul came and to share with

them the truth that Jesus brought that we all believe right we all believe it

so go to the next slide Mikey okay so last week I told you about

five tools you need to be able to interpret scripture correctly homiletics Heron etics ex aesus Theology and

ex Jesus is understanding people at the time that the scripture was written in

the circumstances the people were living in um and to understand their culture to

be able to understand what he wrote go to the next slide

Mikey so Christ's Sermon on the Mount this is his longest sermon covers three

chapters in The Book of Matthew and in that sermon he set the doctrine

and theology for the New Testament Church which we're all part of and to be

able to understand it we needed someone like Paul to come by and explain it the Jews understood it

and they were astonished go to the next slide mik

Mikey go to the next slide go to the next

one one more okay The Sermon on the Mount um

good to the next slide Mikey one

more chapter 5 that's where we're starting because that's where Sermon on the Mount starts it's the Beatitudes

and what the Beatitudes are is the type of attitude you should have when you're dealing with other Christians in the

world and your relationship back towards God the salt of the

earth teachings on murder and anger teachings on Temptation on divorce on

oath on forgiveness and on loving your enemies that's all in chapter 5 and we're not going to get through all of

those today go ahead

mik so so today I want to share this with you first of all the

Beatitudes and the salt of the earth they correspond to Romans chapter

12 so when you're reading the Beatitudes it says blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they

shall inherit the earth blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be F

blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God blessed are the peacemakers for they

shall be called the children of God and blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sakes for theirs is

the Kingdom of Heaven blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute

you and shall shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake and

rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your word in in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were

before you and we're going to go all the way through verse 20 you are the salt of the

earth but if the salt have lost its Savor wherewith shall it be salted you ever had stale salt that's what he's

talking about there comes a point when salt sets out that it loses its salt flavor that enhances the food and you

wind up having to throw it away that's why we put salt in airtight containers because it'll ract moisture

and and flavor tastes out of the air into the salt and then you use the salt in the food and the food tastes horrible

so you wind up having to throw the salt out that's what he's talking about you want to keep yourself from those things

because you don't want to spoil who you are in God so that when you speak into

somebody's life they're receiving the pureness that God wants them to have so that's why it's very important for us to

start to understand these things he says you're the light of the world a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid

you ever tried to hide the light of a candle or a lamp if you're in the darkness it doesn't matter how you your

hands will glow if you got the light inside it you can't hide that light and that's what he's tell don't hide it put

it up let people see it so I want you to go over to Romans chap 12 because this

is important now the Jews clearly understood what Jesus said but the

Gentiles didn't and so Paul when he wrote the book of Romans that's his uh

greatest work it covers everything Jesus said and it took him 16

chapters but we're going to start in chapter 12 now the Beatitudes and the salt of the

earth and Romans chap 12 is about the perfect will of God it says and he

starts out Romans 12:1 he says I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a

Living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable

service and be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the

renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and

perfect will of God for I say through the grace given unto me to every man

that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly according as

God hath dealt to every man The Measure of Faith for as we have many members in one

body and all members have not the same office so we being many are one body in

Christ and everyone members one of another having then gifts differing

according to the grace that is given to us whether prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith or

Ministry let us wait on our ministering or he that teacheth on teaching or he that exalteth on

exhortation and he that giveth let him do it with Simplicity he that ruleth

with diligence he that showeth Mercy with children from the are you starting to see something common going through

what Paul's writing in verse chapter 12 of Romans to what Jesus said in the

Beatitudes and the salt of the earth in other words he's taking something Jews

automatically understood him to say and explaining it to people who have

no idea what Jewish teachings were about have you have you ever have you ever

been to a Jewish temple never been to a je have you okay so if you've been to a Jewish temple

they start service out the same way do we do by singing and they sing

Psalms literally The Book of Psalms and they start their services out by blowing

a chaar which is a horn it's a trumpet made out of an animal horn that's about

that long and it's it's twisted like that the priest or the rabbi comes out and he's got his head all covered with

this white and blue towel and he blows on this thing to call them to

order and then they open with a prayer and then they begin to sing

Psalms literally The Book of Psalms in our Bible is what they sing that's their

Himel and they sing a specific way and then once they do that then another one

of the rabbis comes forward and he reads from the

Torah this is he rolls out a scroll and he reads from the scroll and then he

leads them in a prayer to submit to what's in the scroll and they have different things they do candle lighting

they they will pass incense and abraser over people and things of that nature

and then as the service comes to close they blow a chauff far again and all the people are dismissed out of the temple

you might be wondering why I know all that cuz I used to help a guy do food up at Beth temp uh Temple Beth Israel in um

Fresno when I was a chef and so I would go over there and cook in the back and so I got a bird's eyee view

of how Jews worship it's not that much difference than our but there's a whole

lot of ceremony involved in everything they do they have to they have to R wash before they go into the temple and I

mean there's just step after step after step after step they have to take just to get in there to hear what the rabbi

has to say aren't you glad that Jesus set that

straight Jesus did it he's the one that told him it's not don't clean up the

outside of the cup clean up the inside of the cup and the outside will take care of itself he said you come bold

before the throne of grace you come before God in because Jesus Paid the way

you know when he was crucified the very last thing that happened before they buried him is it says the hand of God

split the veil in the temple from top to bottom and that thing when we talk about the temple veil that was split we're not

talking about something that was thick as my shirt we're talking about something that's that thick it's almost

impossible to cut it yet it split from top to bottom and what it signify was

there's no longer need for a priest you have direct access to

God animal sacrifices don't count anymore Jesus Paid the

price that's what this whole thing is about he says let love be without

dissimulation in other words don't make it selfish you don't love someone because they love you you love someone

because Christ loved them first even when they're

unlovable because he certainly went to the cross for them in their current

state now that doesn't mean you have to be their best buddy and go hang out with them but you do have to love them you do

have to share the word of God with them you do have to show them the way because if you don't somebody else may not

either he says be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love this is how you relate to your fellow man your

fellow believer now we're getting into the actual Beatitudes

he's uh not being slothful in business having being fervent in the spirit

serving the lord putting God first rejoicing in Hope patience in

Tribulation anybody went through tribulation you ever had tribulation it

sucks it sucks dirt like a Kirby vacuum cleaner but I guarantee you if you trust God and you hold on to

God and you hold on to the horns of that altar God will get you to the other side he never promised you you wouldn't pass

through it he just promised you he would be there with you as you walk through it and he would bring you to victory on the

other side I hear people all the time saying oh man I don't want to if God

really loved me he wouldn't make me go through this you live in a in a physical

world what what do you mean why are you blaming God you have an enemy he's the God of

this world you have to deal with him you have another enemy that's right in here your brain it tells you all kinds of bad

stuff and it causes more problems than the devil does because all he can do is

bring doubt if he can make you doubt what God said he's got you whooped the your biggest enemy stares

back at you in the mirror every day cause you to doubt who God says you

are and that's the thing if you want Victory if you want to serve God if you

want God to do all the things he said he would do and all the promises are listed in the Bible you're going to have to

overcome that doubt you you have to cast it out of you and how do you do that you

have to replace it with what the word of God says and if you don't replace it

with the word of God says you are going to have an unsuccessful walk with with

Christ an old friend of mine he was an older man I used to talk to him about

the Bible leted him to the Lord and I would go back to have Bible study he

goes no no no don't do that and I go what do you mean he says all I care about is squeaking through the gate and getting inside that's plenty he I don't

care about nothing else he was in his 80s by then don't be don't be Tom yeah

that's what his name his name was Thomas no no offense Thomas not same I promise

you but here's the thing all he wanted to do was to make it through the

gate and we should all want to get through the gate but we should have stored up

Treasures in Heaven and those Treasures in Heaven are based on what we do here who we share the gospel with how

many we share the gospel with how many people we bring the love of God to and

joy of the Lord to Tim was talking about Joy during uh Sunday school today do you

know what Joy actually is according to scripture now it does say Joy the joy of

the Lord is my strength but do you understand what Joy

is it's the absence of Torment

and it's the absence of

fear are you comfortable in your relationship with Christ content that if

you die right now you're going to spend eternity with Christ if you're

not that means you're you are missing Joy you're not content you're not at

peace you have things that are going to trouble you IUN into Christian people

who been going to church all their lives that are so scared of

dying that they're immobilized

completely and they're Believers somebody in their family gets cancer oh God

cancer he gave you authority over that stuff he told you it's better to get

into heaven whether you're SI whether any of these things are happening in your

life it's better to get in that way than in any other

way because if you're worried about whether your body's going to be whole if you're going to lose an eye you're going to lose a hand you're going to lose any

of those things what are you focused on certainly

not on Christ he said it's better to enter into heaven minus a hand

minus an eye having been sick than it is to Mish

Heaven completely and because people don't like the idea of not

being whole or complete or that they might die and

being in sickness to die from cancer or whatever they're they're

scared they're scared their spirit is like quaking in

fear but the Apostle Paul what did he say he

said to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord so

why are you afraid if I know where I'm spending

eternity then I'm not worried about anything that's going to happen to me while I'm walking on this Earth man I've

been threatened with knives there's all kinds of things happened in my lifetime

as I was standing up for what God

Said and if somebody had taken me out in fact when they accosted me I was over in

Bay I was at at the the oval Park I lived on the other side of was walking

through there at 11:00 at night had these two gang yeah I know you shouldn't be doing that but you know what I I

ain't got no fear I'm not afraid so I go cutting AC cross over Park I'm on my way to my apartment these two gang bangers

that costum in the middle of the park they they had a pretty good sized knife too and the guy says man why are you

walking through my Park I said it's public park he goes no this my Park I said okay if you say so

he goes you ain't afraid I go of what he said man I got a knife in my hand I'm going to stab you and I said you know

what if you're going to stab me make sure you kill me because if you do that means my ministry here on Earth is done

and I've gone on to be with Jesus and his eyes got about this big round he goes what and I said if you're going to

stab me make sure you kill me so that means my work here on Earth is done he dropped the knife and him and his

partner took off running out of the park cops tracked him down about five blocks north on North Court got him up by

Houston Avenue in Court Street bar back to the park and asked me if I want to press charges and I looked at him goes

for what he said well he he threatened you with a knife I said does he look like he's a threat to

me and the cop looks there and he goes no he's in fact he asked me not to bring him back down here to the park and I

said the knife's laying over there but no I don't want to press charges I said Jesus took care of it cop says are you

serious I said absolutely I said it don't matter he

goes well what if they had killed you and I said praise God my ministry here on Earth is

done it's that simple it's not complicated and that's

one of the things I can tell you you that Jesus did is he took a very complicated set of laws and he untied

them and wrote those laws there's only 10 of them on your heart and says a

man without faith cannot please

God so we walk by faith and not by sight it's to God we give the glory for

every breath we take and that's what the Sermon on the Mount is about we got four more weeks to

get through it there's a lot of teaching in there that Jesus did and he covered

every aspect of a believer's life and I mean absolutely every aspect of a

believer's life and if you stop and think about

it if he told you ask you shall receive seek and you shall find knock and the

door shall be opened unto you he taught you how to pray correctly rather than

doing these long grout prayers standing on the corner he taught you how to pray he taught you how to

pray the Lord's Prayer you ever prayed The Lord's Prayer it's a format we're not supposed

to pray the prayer we're supposed to use it as a format to formulate our prayers to God because it recognizes everything

that God does Our Father who are in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is

in heaven give us this day our daily bread forgive us our debts as we forgive our debts lead us not into uh evil but

Deliver Us from Temptation for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and

amen that was not a long prayer right it covered all the bases right you

covered your relationship with God you covered God's sovereignty you covered your sins you covered forgiving other

people you made sure you prayed for what for your food for God to take care of you did he did you miss any of your

needs that's what Jesus was trying to tell you when he shared the Lord's

Prayer he says pray ye after this manner he doesn't say pray this prayer he says

pray you after this manner in other words use this format to pray guarantee

it'll change your life Jesus Christ same yesterday day

today and forever he hasn't changed the word is still the word the

things he said still matter once he spoke them they can't be undone he came for

us he came to teach us to show us the

way that's why he came he came to show us God's love for

each and every one of us so that we can live a life that is based on

him now that doesn't mean God doesn't want you to have fun it doesn't mean that God doesn't want you to to that

that God's expecting you to spend every single waking moment of every single day

doing nothing but scripture he calls people like me to do that he wants you to enjoy your life he

wants me to enjoy my life too he gives us space to do things what

did Jesus do besides preach yep he was a carpenter I know

quite a bit about woodwork my grandpa was a carpenter do you have things you enjoy

doing do the things you enjoy doing have the ability to bring glory to

God because that's the only requirement God would have on something you enjoy doing is can that thing you're doing

bring Joy bring glory to God if he can bring glory to God he is not going to

tell you no unless you allow that to become an idol and come between you and him but he wants you to enjoy yourself

you like old cars like I do too I had a

1970 Dodge Challenger RT special edition with

383 out of 1956 Chevy 3200 Apache cat

I had a 65 olds 65 Bonville and a 73

Malibu SS I had a lot of hot

rods and brother Tim asked me he says you drive fast not anymore not since I

sold my last hot rod now I take it easy wherever I go but you know what God didn't have a problem

with me having the cars the only problem he would have had was if I had allowed those cars to come

between me and him he doesn't have a problem with me doing woodwork as long as a woodwork

doesn't come between me and him I was a chef for over 30 years I worked in one of the highest

grind people Industries there is and I did really well in that industry I was

pretty well known on TV a lot did a whole lot of stuff but I count all of it as Dum

before God because ing the lost and seeing Soul saved for

the kingdom of God is the absolute most important thing that I've ever done in my

life teaching discipleship classes seeing people learn about Christ and

learn how to live victoriously for Christ it's the most important thing I've ever

done and I guarantee you that's exactly what Jesus was talking about when he's

in The Sermon on the Mount because everything when you read through The Sermon on the Mount is all focused on

your relationship with God and having a Godly relationship with other

people that's the focal point of a Christian's life to have a relationship

with God and a Godly relationship with other

people you work in education you're a surgical nurse what

do you do Trina that's cool she works with the Looney

Tunes Gary what did you do for a living before you retired Construction Construction Thomas

works at smart and final he he works in retail

grocery all these different things God can use and he will to build

his kingdom but he's going to use you and your talents to do

it he doesn't leave anyone behind we all have something to contribute brother Tim

you're an optical technician right is that your job title Optical Technic okay

so he he builds these he made these for me these are my new ones um that's what he does and

anybody wearing glasses knows that you know it's prescriptions wrong you can't see

nothing so God uses all these talents everybody's are

different and he uses them in your relationship with other people to give

you an opportunity to testify to other people about the goodness of

God and to show them there's a better way than they're living and they don't have to continue living in that way

I share with you guys on a regular basis about all the homeless people and drug addicts and other things I run into in

the ministry because not only my pastor I also run a men's sober living Ministry

uh in velia and the street I happen to live on Thomas can testify to this one

you walk out of my front door any single day of the week you can see somebody talking to themselves and mumbling while

they're walking down the street that's a fact you're going to see them

pushing shopping carts down my street you're going to see him camped at

night on my street and at my house there's a big

yellow and black sign right above the front door and it says as for me and my house we will serve the

Lord people in the in that block know that if they need something to drink they can knock on the door and we'll

give them a bottle of water if they come up to my door and ask for a cup of coffee I'll give them a cup of coffee I

always have coffee on in that right Thomas always have coffee on they come

up on to my door and knock on the door and ask for a meal they'll get a

meal if they need the police we'll call the police for

them you got to live what you believe or people don't believe you so when I tell you getting people

into the kingdom of God is my focus I guarantee you that's my

focus if I tell you you can pick up the phone and call me when you need to that

I will answer the phone I will answer the phone it's all right Gary

so what we have to do and this is the bottom line for all of

it Romans 8828 who can quote

it 8:28 who can quote

it um all things work for the good of something of God

well you got half of it all things work together together for who love the Lord

God I don't know it says all things work together for good to them that love the Lord and are the called according to his

purposes that's everybody sitting in here if you've accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior that scripture applies to you

you are the called according to his purposes that means no matter what you're going through it's going to work

out in your favor at some point to continues taking steps every Journey

starts with the first step you can't go on a journey unless you take that first step and so we all have things we come

that we face all of us we have trials we have tribulations we have temptations we

have bad days believe me I have bad days and when I have one it's a good thing I go to my

room and close the door like it because nobody needs me to explode on them that

doesn't promote Jesus at all because that's what they need to see they need to see Jesus

in me it's the only good thing in me and it's the only thing that will change

them you have to do that too does that mean you're not going to have a bad day

nope does it mean you're not going to blow it nope but if you do blow it at

least have the courage to go back to the the person you blew all over and say I was

wrong I am sorry I was having a bad day and I Got

My Eyes Off Of Christ and my ugly old self showed up and I didn't put him in

his place and ask him to forgive

you and if they don't don't sweat it you did your part you asked for the

forgiveness and you just keep moving forward as though they forgave

you are you starting to see the value of The Sermon on the Mount is it starting

to make sense why Jesus spent three chapters of the Book of Matthew teaching on this

stuff we all need what's in the sermon on the mountain working in our lives

every day and Jesus knew it

so I want you guys to to keep this in mind between now and next

week Jesus knows every single thing about you from the time that he knit you

together in your mother's womb until you take your last breath he knew everything

that was going to happen he knew the choices that you'd be presented and he

knows what would happen based on whichever choice you made that's a pretty big God

who can figure all that out and see it all from the the beginning to the end at

the same time he also knows what it will take for you to turn and surrender your

life to him and he presents it for you as often as he can until he gets you to

accept it you don't need somebody up here yelling and screaming and and

uh old school Pentecostal holy you know Hellfire and brimstone preaching never

got anybody truly saved got them

scared but what got them saved was somebody showing them the love that God

had for them God truly is going to judge the world but we're not living in that

dispensation this is the dispensation of Grace and he does all of the things for

us through Grace and what Grace is is unmar favor he knows you screwed up you

know you screwed up but he's willing to forgive you anyway and reward you for your

repentance that's mercy and that's what this is

about it's about realizing God's grace and God's mercy that he gave us through

Jesus Christ and that every single one of us needs to share

that with someone not your dos and don'ts don't care about your does and

don'ts if you can't chew gum that's fine but don't give it to me okay you have your own you have your

own things you have to work out with fear and triming so do I and we all have to work at them on a

regular basis and we all have to say you know Lord you know what do I need to

do I don't want to become salt it's lost my flavor I need to be able to speak you

into somebody's life and I need you to show me if there's things in there that's going to hinder the message and

that's what you work on it's not whether you ladies wear makeup or not it's not whether you wear

pants it's not whether or not you cut your hair it has nothing to do with whether or not you wear jewelry it has

absolutely everything to do with what Jesus did on the cross and for you guys

same things apply same things apply and to put it as

plainly as I can both Peter and Paul said the same thing do all things in

moderation that's pretty easy don't go to an extreme on anything do it in

moderation and you're fine make sure you know what God

considers a death penalty sin don't do them and if you stumble and fall ask God

for forgiveness 1 John 1:9 get up dust yourself off and keep on walking that's

what's that's most important not how many times You' Fallen but how many times you get back up I've

fallen plenty of times man I should have permanent uh carpet rash on my

forehead but I don't why because Jesus loved me in spite of

myself and gave me an opportunity to repent and get back up and keep going forward and that's what this is about

it's not about how bad you were it's about how good he is

it's not about how many mistakes you made it's about the fact that his blood paid for all of

it it's not how many failures we've had in the past it's a walking in faith that

he is more than able to overcome everything that we've ever faced and

trusting him to do so and that's the bottom line so between now

tonight and I hope everybody that can comes back tonight uh so we can listen

to Michelle's speak I have no idea what she's speaking on don't actually don't care I know her well enough to know it

will be scriptural um but you know what this church has a lot to offer

people yeah we're a small church but Israel was a small country and look what

they did the church started with

120 people and on the first day of its

Inception it grew to 3,000 a few days later it grew to

13,000 that in the book of Acts doesn't matter how what the size of

this congregation is it matters what the heart of this congregation is you want to you want to see it change uh I will

preach as many times as it takes on Sunday morning to minister to as many people as we possibly can that means one

service two service three service Etc I don't care same God same

God so as you leave today and you're going home I want you to think about the very

thing that I've been talking about be the salt of the earth live the

Beatitudes make them yours because there's somebody watching you and there's somebody waiting on to

hear the good news that you have to share and they're waiting on you God

seed the seed but they're waiting on you to come buy and water it and so is God you don't have to be educated in the

Bible you don't have to go to college you don't have to do any of those things you just have to be honest and

believe and share with someone that their life can be different and better

through the the Lord Jesus Christ can to get everybody to stand if you're

able Lord Jesus we just thank you and praise you God