Character and Influence

hi Pastor Matt listen thank you for downloading or streaming this sermon pray that it blesses your heart two quick things that I want to lay before you before we get started in the proclamation of God's Word the first is and I love that you're dialing in to hear what the Lord's put on our heart here at TVC but I ask that you would only consume these messages as supplemental and in no way replacing your commitment and your listening to your local church pastor these are good gifts of God's grace for the people of God to grow in and yet they are not to replace ever meant to replace our belonging to a covenant community of faith where we are the the second thing want to lay before you is is that there are a lot of man-hours that men and women here at the village church put behind not just the creation of this but the creation of all kinds of resources that are meant to help you grow and develop as a disciple of Jesus Christ and so if this blesses you or the other resources that have been created have blessed you would you consider giving back to the village church to support not just these things but the creation of even more resources for you and really for anyone who wants to indulge in them now I pray that God stirs your affections for Jesus Christ as you listen now to the proclamation of God's Word [Music] the kingdom of God is as multifaceted and mysterious as our Creator a kingdom we only see now through a glass darkly though we can't picture it fully God's kingdom is the story told in Scripture from the garden to the city and in the middle of the story God chose to reveal his kingdom in a new way the gospel is not only Jesus coming and dying to save us from our sins it's also the story of God establishing his dwelling Dominion and dynasty in the world we live as both citizens and strangers prisoners of hope in this shadow kingdom all while knowing it's not our true home that something better is coming that God's perfect Kingdom is come [Music] well good morning if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab those are gonna be a Matthew chapter five and so the next six weeks for us here in our citizens and strangers series on the kingdom of God shifts its emphasis from what the kingdom is and who the king of the kingdom is now to the implications on the citizens of that kingdom and so our plan is to dive into the Sermon on the Mount over the next six weeks which is ambitious you could do twelve fourteen thirty weeks on the Sermon on the mouth now and so we're gonna we're gonna put a lot in each one of these weeks just a heads up like the the Sermon on the Mount is gonna be like looking into a spiritual mirror and they're gonna be some things that you see that you like and there could be some things that you see that you don't like and yet what we're confident in is that the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ rests on us regardless of how we see in the mirror you with me so if I could summarized the next six weeks I would just quote dr. Thomas Shriner here's what he says disciples have a distinct profile over against the world they admit that they are poor in spirit there are peacemakers and merciful they endure persecution they do not hate those who mistreat them they are not marked by lust and abuse of women they love their enemies that are not practice religion for the praise of others they trust God for their physical needs and do not judge others they communicate their difference from the world and shine as witnesses in a dark world so if I could summarize six weeks there it is you don't get off that easy though we're gonna dive in alright not long after my conversion to Christianity I had this profound experience of the grace of Jesus Christ and and an understanding of who Jesus was they wanted to have a relationship with me and so then now what I wanted was that I wanted my friends to know this also I liked what I had experienced the freedom that I felt I wanted my friends to know and so I would I would invite him on invite Jimmy I didn't by Jennifer Devore I would in my Gina DAGs I would invite my friends I'd bite friends from the team and then we would go to church and rather than the gospel they were meant what I would and they were met with what I'll just call moralism and so I'd get him to church I just want him to hear about Jesus and instead they would hear to not have sex I would get him to church and I want him to hear about Jesus and they would hear that you shouldn't party I'd get him there and they would hear about how this or how that and and yet that not experience for me for a long time put this weird sense that I couldn't trust the church to introduce my friends to Jesus Christ it literally put a bit of a barrier between me and Church work for a long time in fact if one for Steve hard down in Dallas I don't know that I would be a pastor I was happy doing ministry outside the walls of the church rather than inside because of this moralism issue anybody else does that resonate with anybody else I experienced that I I felt that I understand that right and and yet there's there's a difference between moralism and morality and so let me kind of tease that out moralism is any teaching that would say in order for you to be loved by God in order for you to be accepted by God here are the behaviors that you must conform to to be one of the good guys it's a checklist mentality that would say if you behave this way God will then bless you this way that's moralism look at me God hates that it's nonsense so if you've got a background where your understanding of Christianity is that you've got to behave a specific way in order to be loved and accepted by God and that is raised up in you hostility towards God as you have fallen short of that list I'm telling you you have not heard the good news right and so we are not moralists but we do believe in morality now here's what I mean by morality morality is being transformed by the spirits power to God's revealed will for human flourishing so Christianity has a moral component that is linked to God's design for us and we read about this throughout the Bible in in passages like you have made known to me the path of life I mean this is David saying the boundary lines have fallen for me in Pleasant places there's a moral aspect to our design as human beings that when we get into the path of life those boundaries that have fallen in Pleasant places human flourishing actually occurs in a way that it does not and I would argue cannot outside of those boundaries that there's there there are hints and shadows of this from creation on in the Bible I want to highlight some of them before we dive in to Matthew 5 we see even in creation some shadows of the morality that God has built into us as human beings in Genesis 1:27 through 28 says this so God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth so this is design in the beginning right he gives man and woman work so that we see very early on that one of the moral implications of being a human being is that if humans are going to flourish we're going to work right now if you flip that on its head to refuse to work to be lazy to expect other people to work on your behalf would be immoral because in God's design you've been asked you've been designed you've been created to work right now if you're out of a job right now if you're like I'm not talking to you right I'm talking now if you sitting on your couch play an xbox expecting everybody else to make ends meet then I am talking to you right now fortnight's a great game but you got to get a job right you got to get a job it we see then not just around vocation but around relationships Genesis 2 23 through 25 then the man said this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of the man therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh and the man and his wife were both naked and were unashamed now this text is clearly about marriage and yet there are all sorts of moral implications built into this God's good design sin is not enter the world at this point nothing is fractured and broken the man and woman are naked and unashamed which means they're not hiding anything so what do we see in regards to morality in this text what's the shadow that we're looking at before sin enters the world always some of it before you that we are as husbands to love our moms but cling to our wives that there is a leaving and a clinging that occurs in marriage that is good and right for human flourishing that means two things that means brothers your responsibility is to your wife not to your parents wives look at me I don't need your help today do you hear me I just don't need your help in fact I would say a surefire way to short-circuit the spirits work and your husband's heart is for you to take on the role of the Holy Ghost all right like you get in the car you like I don't know what you heard there but I hope you heard that first seven minutes stop texting your mom and listen to me right so I'm saying do you you don't step into that role you let the Spirit of God conquer that right so we see that we we see that it's a man and a woman right there in the text that's that's a moral design that that's in in our design from day one but we see if we would take this outside of marriage to just apply it to relationships this this concept of naked and ashamed that it is moral and right to be known fully and it is immoral to hi-8 and live duplicitous lives and so you can begin to see that men human flourishing actually occurs when we line our hearts up with God's good design right if you're known fully known you're not in the dark you're walking in the light think about the depth of your relationships like how can you be truly known how can you be truly loved how can you walk with any sense of peace if you're constantly hiding aspects of your life from your roommate your single friends your spouse's your let like think of kind of the disjointed weariness that comes when you live counter to the shadow of God's morality here it's also important to note that all of this is happening in the unfettered presence of God this morality is being lived out because God is there they are with him this this concept of dwelling communing right not just connecting not just knowing about but being in the presence of God is shaping this and then again in the book of Exodus hopefully you're aware of some things I'm gonna I'm gonna do a pop quiz here in a second I'm gonna give you a real easy hint for my good I learned at the five o'clock I need to give a real easy head to not despair but God saves his people out of bondage delivers them from slavery in Egypt takes them to Mount Sinai on the cusp of the Promised Land which is this piece of land that sits right in the middle of all the ancient powers in this period of human history and here's what he has Moses tell them now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests a holy nation would have priests - they bring people into the presence of God these are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel now what does God immediately give his people after this there's 10 of them yeah good job 9 o'clock right he gives them the Ten Commandment he gives them the law and so I want you to see God's wisdom here God has now called his people to himself he has positioned them around the great powers of the world and he has now given them what a moral law to follow for what reason so that they might be for him a kingdom a priest that the empires that surrounded them even though they were small and weak in comparison would be able to look into how they lived how they loved how they raise children how they viewed the opposite sex how they worked how they how they took a Sabbath day off meant that alone was so revolutionary in human this moment in human history has to be confounding - ancient Near Eastern thought and he positioned him there so the nations would see be compelled by and be drawn in by how the people of God dwelt with her God and lived out of that dwelling a morality that was tied to God's design for human flourishing it is important to note that what's among the people in Exodus is what the tabernacle we're back to it God with us I'm just gonna keep hammering away that the key to the Christian life is dwelling communing with Jesus and then I need to say this because it sets us up to understand our experience for fallen people like you and me rules commands an external Authority always threatens our autonomy right we want others to do good to us but don't want to be told that we have to do the same to them but this is this reveals I think in a very clear way what's broken inside of us like we don't want anyone to tell us what to do like who knows what's best for me other than me like I know what's best for me I know what I need I don't need to be told by anyone what's right for me this is the god of our age no authority but me no right or wrong except what I decide and even when confronted with what is clearly seen in Scripture we will oftentimes under compulsion justify disobedience to God's revealed will we think that the Bible has a lot of asterisks and if we cross-reference those asterisks we see a picture of ourselves we begin to lie that it meant if God only knew me if you only knew where I came or if you only knew God certainly didn't have me in view in this situation that I'm in in view when he gave that to all humankind across all time and space this is why we see Adam and Eve rebel this is why we see the people of God rebel and this is why you and I have rebelled so Jesus shows up and any if you've been here he does what he comes and he begins to preach the good news of the gospel of the kingdom so he gathers his disciples and then he begins to preach the good news of the gospel of the kingdom let's look at it together Matthew 5 starting verse 1 seeing the crowds he went up on the mountain and when he sat down his disciples came to him then he opened his mouth and taught them saying by the way this is called the Sermon on the Mount it's not the suggestion on the mouth it's not hey think about these things email me back what you want to consider let's negotiate here I don't want to be unreasonable this is the Sermon on the Mount from Jesus Christ Co eternal with the Father second person of the Trinity the king of kings and Lord of lords and he opened his mouth and taught them saying blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you this is huge falsely and on my account right so if you're being reviled hated people are lied about you and it's true and not because of Jesus you're proudly a jerk and need to repent right you can be like the world hates me because I'm so no no no it's pretty clear in the text right that it needs to be false and it needs to be because of Jesus otherwise I love you look at me I love you you're a jerk and you need to repent alright verse 10 oh no I was at eleven now let's just go to 12 could be a long one let's go rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you you are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste how shall its saltiness be restored it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet you are the light of the world a city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven if I could lay before you there's what the Sermon on the Mount is it is a proclamation of the kingdom for the citizens of the kingdom and so this mirrors in a very real way what you're gonna see in the book of Exodus as Moses heads up on to the mountain and the people of God gather around the mountain to hear from the Lord through Moses except now God himself has come and will teach his people Jesus is the greater Moses I hope that language isn't confusing he surrounded by his disciples that they may be taught as Israel was taught by Moses to be holy but Jesus is doing more here than just giving the disciples something to legalistically obey that's not what this is in fact it's something brand new he is beginning to lay before them a transformation of heart that is not outside in but in our dwelling and communion inside out he is laying before them heart transformation that leads to a conformity of moral life that lays before all who are watching the path to life and that the boundaries have fallen for us in pleasant places it is not good nor right to look at the Beatitudes as a replacement for the Ten Commandments nor to view either of those as salvific your obedience to the Ten Commandments first of all which you won't be able to do even if you could do it would not save you it'd be a salvation via works and not grace and faith and therefore isn't a legitimate salvation your your obedience to the Beatitudes what you're gonna see when we talk about heart level stuff is impossible it does just say you were able to do with white-knuckle discipline first I think you'd be miserable secondly that still doesn't save you no no salvation is by grace alone through faith alone and so when Jesus is preaching the sermon on the mount he's preaching these Beatitudes he has not brought a new law but rather a mirror for us to gaze into and pull where we fall short into his presence and ask for transformation you with me so far okay so now let's dive into the this text the the Beatitudes are gonna you have like they're built in quads right there there's four that have to do with our relationship with God that spills over into our relationship with others and then we've got the last four that just deal with our relationship with others okay that's kind of the build build out there there's some guys actually now other tries here I just don't think they're right and so let's look at this in regards to relating with God verses 3 through 6 blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied so let's just take these one at a time don't panic I promise we're gonna be fine here's the folks blessed are the poor in spirit now one of the things that we see throughout the scriptures is that those who have a humble heart those who are lowly and know they are in need those who know that they are spiritually bankrupt outside of God filling that tank that they experienced God in a unique and beautiful way and and this I think one of the ways that you can kind of hold a blessed are the poor in spirit is to flip it upside down and you could do this we don't have time to do this but you could do this by going over to Matthew 23 and looking at the woes or going back into the Book of Isaiah and looking at the woes there what we see in the scripture would be woe to you who think they have no need of God woe to you who refuse to become like children woe are you and you think you've got this and you can handle this and you could do this it's the poor in spirit that are blessed it's the God help me I can't it is the weak the weary the worn-out that are blessed see this kingdom ethics it flips things on its head we celebrate strength God says no no it's not folk strength because that's all it can be it's not foe strength its honest weakness that is blessed and then he moves from poor in spirit to blessed are those who mourn so those who mourn either because of economic injustice or personal sorrow have God's ear alright this is a refrain in the Bible if you remember back to our study in Exodus God's people in slavery for hundred years are crying out to God and when God calls Moses through the burning bush what does he say I have heard their cry those who suffer under economic injustice or in by the way I'm pulling these definitions from isaiah riding up pulling them out of the air so what i'm talking out economic injustice i'm pulling that from isaiah that has a lot of ties to the Sermon on the Mount those who suffer under economic injustice or personal sorrow they have the ear of God now this then should for those of us who have monetary abundance or emotional reserves this calls us into action blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted so blessed are those who mourn you will be comforted how are those mourning comforted by those I believe that have emotional reserves or who have monetary reserves do we step into those spaces and we love those who are bankrupt in this space now what struck me personally what convicted me personally upon studying this is that God is blessing a group of people that I tend to try to avoid right I mean people who are emotionally bankrupt can be exhausting Oh y'all just gonna let me sit up here and like y'all are all awesome alright anybody want to come finish this sermon then since y'all so holy I'm just saying someone who's emotionally bankrupt right like you you can't fix that you can be present you can pray you can encourage but sometimes that brokenness is so deep that you're talking about a long time years of faithful presence and prayer while guarding against a measurement and other things that aren't good for the person blessed are those who mourn and then he says blessed are the meek and and so meekness is freedom from pretension all right freedom from pretension and and this is what I mean by that like it like if you have experienced the grace of God and if you are safe by grace alone through faith alone then you got no right to have any swagger I mean you should know like what you do you got saved who did that look at me not you who rescued you ransomed you pulled you out of the muck in the mind you didn't pull yourself up by your bootstraps you got yanked out of the muck and the mire by the ghost this eradicate spre tension it lowers me and makes me weak meek because I didn't do it God did it and God blessed and God gifted and God called and God established all right this should make us meek people not weak people meet people and here's where I'll quote Aristotle not because I'm smart enough read a bunch of Aristotle but just because I know this quote meekness is strength under control then I love how he ends up this section this quad around relating to God blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled blessed are those who have tasted and seen but the Lord is good and they want more of it right I'm hungry for more if God is an inexhaustible well there's always more to be had than I want more now the promise is here we will be filled to things if you're in a dry season if you're walking through the desert you with me you're in that season where your prayers feel like they're hitting the roof like nobody's there you've got no kind of experiential you're just walking by faith which is amazing and awesome never never hate that God Zakai strengthening your inner man for a pour in that's coming later look at me you will be filled don't lose heart God has not betrayed you forgot you he lives inside of you how could he Spirit of God dwells inside of you how could you be forgotten about or abandoned God cannot abandon himself and he dwells in you take heart brother sister and then here's the second thing if you're hungry if you're thirsty look at me eat here was yesterday morning set the alarm and I've been running it's a hard season for me and so man I wanted this sermon in my bones so I got up and you made some coffee and I'm at our garden I'm just reading over this and I'm adding in I'm like this is too long I gotta cut this I gotta move this will push that to next week or no push it to the week after that because I was already too long and I'm just I wanted this sermon in my bones and then I had to get out to the football field got read all dress when we went out to his game and when I got to the game I realized I had four cups of coffee and nothing to eat and realize X I was trying to change the down marker and I realized that either I'm developed a tremor or I need some food and so then after the game I went and I got in my car and I was like I am starving now I did not think once I got to my truck this will work itself out are you listening to me I didn't think you know I'm not gonna get it I'm just gonna go eventually food will appear no listen to me I stopped and I got something to eat Chipotle was delicious now in the same way let's consider if you hunger and thirst for righteousness then eat open up the book it's been given to you the temple veil has been torn the presence of God is available to you stop and eat well I don't know what read the Gospel of John well that confuses me pick a song I don't know if I understand the Psalms get a message Bible just eat right get in the book God's giving it to you nobody like I don't like paraphrases I like the Greek brother you ain t nothing right have a salad eat you hungry you thirsty to walk in God's ways then get in his presence and eat it's available to you it's right there Christ's life death and resurrection has offered it to you come to the table and eat the blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness you will be filled and then he moves to how we are to relate to people starting in verse 7 blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you and others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven I need to just like I'm gonna need to lean in here on some of these and so I love you I'm for you I'm for us but I'm gonna lean in a little bit here when we talk about mercy we're talking about exhibiting compassion for the unfortunate as an ethical act of worship so that language is new language for us but it's rooted in the book yet again of Isaiah in fact we might have to just add Isaiah to a book that we need to preach through because of some of these definitions that I think that will help us especially in 2018 and so there is an ethical component to worship that is tied to being pure of heart and what we see here is that mercy is compassion extended to others as an ethical practice of worship to God not just singing but engaging so maybe this language will help there are two components of what it means to be a Christian there's Orthodoxy right belief and there's orthopraxy right practice it is important to note that God and Jesus both reserve their harshest judgement not for those with right belief but with those with a wrong belief but those with right belief who have divorced right practice you want to watch God pronounced woes you want to watch God press on his people it's always because they've got right belief and wrong practice that they know what's right but they don't walk in it this is why I'll give I'll let dr. or Kent Hughes be blunt for me if we have no mercy towards those who are physically and economically in distress we are not Christians notice I did not say we become Christians by showing mercy towards the unfortunate but that we are not believers if we are unwilling to show mercy so that that's a heavy quote in it like I'm not even sure that I fully agree with him but I like the weight of it I think what he's trying to draw attention to he is right belief without right practice is not can not be Christian right why because even the demons believe what's true about God and they shudder but we will certainly not be worshiping Jesus with them in glory so it is right belief which is important that leads to right practice you cannot call yourself a Christian if you have a fruitless life if you have not found your heart more and more and more surrendering to the things of God over an extended period of time now I'm not saying everybody needs to move to South Sudan right now I'm not saying I'm just saying without the capacity to be merciful you're revealing a pretty significant fruit of the Spirit that is not in your life mrs. Hughes argument then he says blessed are the pure in heart so those who help the unfortunate with honesty sincerity and integrity truly worship God they see God bless him of the pure in heart they see God I want a pure heart and I don't end to be skeptical and cynical and and and men I always was got to run things through a grid that I think in the grid of the Bible but my own my own bents and prejudices now here's one that I want to talk about because it like I really want us to do something here that it seems our world cannot do but I believe by the power of the Ghost we can do it blessed are the peacemakers in fact I want you to look at this one look back with me and verse 9 blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God God's people have experienced a profound peace with their creator now this experience of peace should settle peace in our hearts in our dwelling and in our communion with God that then leads to lives of peacemaking right that Jesus's disciples are meant to citizens of the kingdom are meant to work through polarizing hostility and seek peace so here's what I want to ask us to do I want us by the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit to refuse to participate in the violent polarization of our day can we talk partisan politics for a second I've got this time a week to answer your emails maybe actually I don't but go ahead cinnamon as hard as it is for many of you to believe their Bible believing Jesus loving fully surrendered men and women who are Democrats and as hard as it is for you Democrats to believe their Bible believing Jesus loving seriously biblical people that are Republicans now I am NOT asking any of us to agree that's not unity what I'm asking is that you take this command seriously and seek to understand the position of another rather than characterizing and putting on blast on your Facebook page what would it be like for us to refuse to participate what would it be like for us to seek to understand right cuz I'm gonna tell you there are some places people and that they perplex me like I don't get it but here's the charity that it's Christians we should give one another okay you love the Word of God you love Jesus goodness we're a part of the same community of faith I don't get it help me understand and you come with humility because you've got meekness and you seek to understand and then when you understand if you disagree you can disagree charitably while showing love based on Christ's oneness in our midst we have got to stop cannibalizing one another unless you just think you know everything and you ain't got none to learn now you can giggle at that but many of you posts like that there should be among the people of God a lowliness that never cannibalizes our own but seeks to understand and in seeking to understand we acknowledge that this person is made in the image of God there my brother and my sister and I don't get it I want to try to get it so I'm gonna ask you to help me understand and I'm gonna shut up and listen and not just wait for him to finish talking so I can latch on about how Hilary's a demon and how you know you want to kill babies and it like this nonsense has to stop just don't give in to it why because if we don't give in to it the Bible says they'll see where the sons of God it what happens when we're peacemakers they shall be called the sons of God did you read that I had just go look at it so you would see it right so that when your co-workers like I tell you you're able to go you know here's a minute I think I land where you land I was a little bit confused of how you could land there but but I know not everybody on that sides you know insane and and so man I got this guy at my church we sat down we kind of talked about it and here and here was his perspective I don't I don't think I completely agree but I kind of understand where he's come from now a little bit more and man but you know I'm walking with him and I mean just think about discombobulating that is in a time where there's heightened language and a ton of character cheers and a lot of misunderstanding and I'm just asking it's can we not participate in that can we not can we just stuck we just pump the brakes on that because it's slandering the name of Jesus in our day it's slandering the name of Jesus in our day I'm grateful that you're passionate I'm never gonna get you dial back on the passion I just want your passion to be appropriate to Jesus so it's funny me you get all geeked up about this stuff and can't get all geeked up about the king of kings and Lord of lords I ain't trying to shame you I'm just saying a lot of energy and reading of what I would consider on both sides nonsensical blogs and posts and write I'm just asking you pleading with you let's not participate let's seek to understand one another love one another disagree charitably I am under no illusion that we're all going to agree I'm not asking you to agree gosh I have pastor friends who I love deeply who theologically philosophically and in practice or in a different universe than I am they are my brothers they are my friends they will be in glory with me so I will not slander them well not slander then I'm gonna ask and you don't participate don't give yourself over blessed are the peacemakers and then lastly blessed are you when you are persecuted reviled or evil as spoken of you so I've been thinking about I think it's because where I am in life right now as a pastor and a leader and where God's God has positioned me by His grace about Plato's cave theory and so if you don't know what Plato's cave theory is Plato used this illustration to explain hostility and so in Plato's cave theory and by the way I just remember this from a leadership class I had in college so I'm not if you've got this picture of me smoking a pipe and reading Plato you've got you've got the wrong picture all right I just happen to remember this it kind of settled into my mind and heart back in college so so Plato said that that you could explain hostility a little bit like this that they were a group of men I'll make it more egalitarian there's a group of men and women and they are chained in a cave and there's a fire behind them and the fire casts a shadow on the wall that dances because of the flame and and Plato said let's just say one of those broke free from the chains and went outside and when he went outside he saw blue skies and green grass and he saw rivers and he saw stars and he saw color and is this citement he wanted the others to know that he was out there and to break out of their chains and come out and check it out Plato argued that if that man came back in and tried to convince the others who were chained up that they would turn on him and kill him that their reality being the shadows on the wall would so have conformed their thinking that anything that might be different than their thinking would be seen and received and responded to with hostility anger rage wrath then again I think this is connected a little bit to peacemakers but here's what I want to lay before you it is a new idea that Christians are not going to be persecuted and that we shouldn't be and then we should be culturally accepted we should be like that that is not our history for the majority of our time singing the praises of Jesus we've been arrested killed you know on and on fed to Lions sawed into boiled alive put in prison had our stuff looted according to the book of Hebrews our house burned to the ground it is a new idea that you and I will be able to be cool enough and argue well enough to be accepted by men and women in fact Jesus goes as far to say hey you're in a bad spot if everybody speaks well of you if everybody speaks well of you chances are you have held back living and saying what is true you have conformed to your environments in a way that is unhealthy for you and and really undermines being salt and light so I just think that we should expect to be misunderstood to be peculiar to be lied about to be falsely accused even as I started our service saying it like the things that have been said about us on more than one issue there they're absurd they're they're not true and and yet we should expect such things if we're gonna walk in the light we're gonna live the truth of the word of God fully right okay now let's let's look at this by the way I'll tell you it is not the outside world their criticisms and lies and reviling bit stings it'll be those inside the church that does the most damage to our hearts let's look at this 13 I got to wrap this up I know those of you been here was like okay so he's got 26 more minutes no no I promise I'm gonna try to do this quickly 13 you are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste how shall its saltiness be restored it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet you are the light of the world a city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that you may see so they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven so if you wanted to do a little bit of research on how salt is used and viewed in the first century here's if you just google it all right or open up your logos Bible study app or you got your ESV Study Bible or whatever you got here's what you would find that salt is used as a preservative a flavoring agent it's a substance to treat wine skin it was an agent used to slow down fermentation and manure so it could be used as fertilizer and on and on and on it goes so what Jesus is doing is he's laying an absurd example he's using an absurd illustration to make a point and here's his point salt can't lose its saltiness or it ain't salt that's his point like salt is salt it cannot be not salt because it's salt so the illustration is one of trying to point out that if you are citizens of evidence you are citizens of heaven or you are not citizens of 'event therefore you are not citizens of ever if salt loses its saltiness would have been met with an odd chuckle how is that even possible because salt cannot lose its saltiness it can be diluted but it can't lose its saltiness because it's salt and so Jesus's argument here is that citizens of the kingdom in varying ways and on a spectrum of growth and progressive sanctification look like this they're not perfect they're in need of grace but all of these things were given to you and given to me upon our conversion and now they are cultivated by the Spirit of God and by what I'll call grace driven effort I don't seek to become these things because God will love me if I do I seek to become these things because God has put them in me and has empowered me to walk in them and I'm gonna fall short of those things and and I'm not gonna beat myself up for falling short of those things I'm gonna bring that into the presence of Jesus and ask for help I surrender to these things specifically corporately as a church not just as individuals but as a church brings forth a picture of the future for the world to see did you hear me a community that is serious about these things and walks in to the presence dwelling communing with God becomes a picture for the world of the future that is to come the coming of the kingdom when all said and done so this already but not yet concept that the church is meant to be the salt and light that shows what the kingdom will be when it arrives in full power not not in our perfection but in our willingness to get up off the ground when we failed and step back into the presence of Jesus because he's enabled us to be able to do so by the power of the Holy Spirit so let me tell you what I think will be helpful and won't be helpful what I don't think will be helpful for you as we look in the mirror it's free to grab your Panama like a little peacemaker I stink at that golly I've got I have posted some crazy blog so I need to go apologize this guy called this this guy this series of names I have you know or man I have not been meek I have been arrogant you know let me let me go let me kind of add these things to my life take these things out of my life I just want to listen I am NOT trying to in any way ask you to not own your sin before God and to others right I think you do need to do that but more than white-knuckling transformation here's what I'm gonna ask you to do pay attention to compulsion underneath what's causing that all right so when it comes to I'll stay on peacemaker because it tends to resonate and be the most awkward all right like people are like you can't you're not allowed to say this no one's gonna come back here but I'm just telling you I'm more committed than ever to finding those who want to over an extended period of time walk faithfully with Jesus and imperfect hope that Christ will do something special among us just more committed to that then ever so if you can't handle it's kind of awkward weird conversation I think you're gonna hate it here so if we're to take that like what is it that makes me so angry when these conversations come up that's the compulsion right now you act on that anger but I'm I want you to stop it or what what what's causing that compulsion what erupts inside of me that makes me give myself over to lust give myself over to anger give myself over to pride give up and then what we want to do is we want to take that compulsion and we want to bring it to Jesus and we want to ask Jesus to do what Jesus is promised he would do I'm gonna bring that compulsion to Jesus and go I don't understand this about me will you help me will you shake me will you change me will you do something significant in me and then take steps of obedience we repent we own our sin to others but we're doing it out of Jesus help me not let me do these things so God will accept me for the next five weeks we're gonna stare in the mirror that Jesus puts up in front of us my hope is at the end of it all what you'll see when you look in the mirror is Jesus he's the one that's fulfilled all this for us he is the one who His grace is lavished upon us in such a way that no matter how time how many times we stumble he's there to pick us up and encourage us to keep walking let's pray father we bless you I thank you that all of these things that we've talked about today salt and light man they are rooted in communing with you dwelling you with you knowing you being shaped by you thank you for your mercy and grace on our lives and just ask father but as we look in the mirror we wouldn't lose heart if we know you we wouldn't wrestle with whether or not we know you're not but rather that you would encourage us and build us up in ways that we might be that salt and light we might be as the village church in this area along with other Christian brothers and sisters and other churches we might be a picture of the future that is to come help us we need you it's for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 105,865

Rating: 4.8278146 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, Character and Influence, Citizens and Strangers

Id: WQhq7Zvhmcw

Length: 51min 44sec (3104 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 09 2018