20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Anger
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother1 will be liable to judgment; whoever insults2 his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell3 of fire.23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.4
Lust
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Footnotes
[1]5:22Some manuscripts insert without cause [2]5:22Greek says Raca to (a term of abuse) [3]5:22Greek Gehenna; also verses 29, 30 [4]5:26Greek kodrantes, Roman copper coin (Latin quadrans) worth about 1/64 of a denarius (which was a day’s wage for a laborer)
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Anger
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother1 will be liable to judgment; whoever insults2 his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell3 of fire.23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.4
Lust
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Footnotes
[1]5:22Some manuscripts insert without cause [2]5:22Greek says Raca to (a term of abuse) [3]5:22Greek Gehenna; also verses 29, 30 [4]5:26Greek kodrantes, Roman copper coin (Latin quadrans) worth about 1/64 of a denarius (which was a day’s wage for a laborer)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Connor Coskery:
If you
Joel Brooks:
have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5 as we continue our study on the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to look at 2 sins this afternoon, that fortunately no one here likely struggles with. That's anger and lust. I'd actually thought about maybe just skipping over this because it was irrelevant, but for the few of you out there that this applies to, I thought we would look at this text.
Joel Brooks:
Actually, over the next few weeks, we're going to be looking at 6 of Jesus' commands, and these commands are gonna utterly expose us. They are gonna reveal, the dark recesses of our heart. I have this image in my mind as I read through these texts, and it's actually of my house. I live in a house that's over a 100 years old, which means has lots of, to politely put it, character. And, and I'm doing lots of projects all the time.
Joel Brooks:
And one of the projects I did was I had to tear out an old window and put a new one in. And I remember when I put in the new window, I got the level out. I actually had two levels, and I just made sure it was absolutely perfect. And then I stepped back to look at it, and it was completely off. It looked absolutely terrible, and I thought, gosh, I thought I had leveled this.
Joel Brooks:
And so I went back, and I I rechecked it, and it it seemed fine. And once again, it was it looked terrible. So I thought something's wrong with the levels that I was using. And so I brought in a new level, and I said it again. And I stood back, and it looked terrible.
Joel Brooks:
And then it dawned on me, it was my house. It was actually my entire house was crooked, and the window was the only thing that was level. And so I didn't really know what to do at that point. You really only have 2 options. You either just get rid of the level and you just step back and you eyeball it to just try to make it generally fit in everything.
Joel Brooks:
That's what I did because that was really the best option. That's not the option that Jesus is going to do though. Jesus is going to demolish the house and rebuild it perfectly level, perfectly square. Jesus is the plumb line if you will. We look at Jesus and that's what a upright man looks like.
Joel Brooks:
The Pharisees and the scribes at the time, they all thought that they were living upright lives. Everybody thought they were living upright lives, and then Jesus comes in as the level, as the plumb line, and then all of a sudden everybody turns sideways. And they realize that their entire lives are wrong. And I either need to just get rid of Jesus and do what they want and just kinda make it fit or everything has to be restructured around what he says is righteous. What he says is true.
Joel Brooks:
And so that's what we're gonna be looking at these next few weeks in Jesus's commands. We're gonna be given this new level of righteousness, if you will. What it means to be an upright person. So let's read Matthew chapter 5 beginning in verse 20. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Joel Brooks:
You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you're offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.
Joel Brooks:
First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Joel Brooks:
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:
And this is to God. Pray with me. Our father, we pray that through your Spirit, you would allow us to hear and to receive these words, that you would give us the heart that is necessary to obey these words. We recognize we cannot do this on our own, that we are in desperate need of you. We are indeed poor of spirit, so we ask that you would come and bless us.
Joel Brooks:
I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So last week, we saw how Jesus defended what we know is the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament. And how he said he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law.
Joel Brooks:
And how not a dot or an iota are gonna pass from the law. How we are not to even think about loosening or relaxing the law or the least of these commandments. And then after saying all of that, Jesus quotes one of the commandments and tells us something else. He quotes from Exodus 20, thou shalt not murder. It's a pretty straightforward command, but then Jesus immediately says after that, but I say to you.
Joel Brooks:
Kinda sounds like he's abolishing the law, doesn't it? It kinda sounds like he's he's doing the very thing he said that he wasn't going to do. It's a shocking statement, but Jesus isn't abolishing the law here. He is fulfilling it, and he's taking the law deeper. What we see here and what Jesus is pointing out is the law dealt with the fruit of sin.
Joel Brooks:
But what we need to deal with is the seed of sin. The law was perfect and good as it pointed out the fruit of sin, but it's the seed that's the problem. The seed that will grow into that poisonous fruit. And he says if you deal with that seed, you'll take care of the fruit. And so we need to be thinking about what's ultimately going on in our heart.
Joel Brooks:
If we don't do do this, we can actually think because just because we haven't committed the actual sins of murder, or we haven't committed the actual sin of adultery, that we're doing okay. That somehow we're better than those who have done those physical acts. And Jesus says, not so fast. You very well might have the same seed. That seed of anger and that seed of lust that grows into murder and grows into adultery is in there.
Joel Brooks:
And who knows if you have been planted in a different soil, what that seed would have grown to? And so sure you might boast that I would never commit murder, but yet you have hatred towards your coworker. What would happen if you were in a different soil where you had time alone with your coworker, no one watching and you knew no one would ever find out? Could that seed grow to murder? You look down on people maybe who've committed adultery, but but Jesus is saying, but you have that seed in you and and who knows what that seed would grow to if you were in a different soil.
Joel Brooks:
Perhaps the woman you lusted after was a co worker, and you were on business trips with her or spent a lot of time alone with her in the office and that was your soil and nobody would find out. What could that seed grow to? Jesus is saying, don't boast just because you haven't done the physical act. It's the seed that's the issue. It's the seed that needs to be dealt with.
Joel Brooks:
And so that's what Jesus takes on here. The commandments really have to do with the heart, not with an outward conformity. And so let's look at these sins. Let's look at the sins of murder and of adultery, the the sins of anger and lust. Jesus says that whoever is angry with his brother, or you can add sister.
Joel Brooks:
The meaning is both there. Whoever's angry with his brother or sister will be liable to judgment. Now there's 2 words that you can use for anger. There's a word that could have been used that meant, an instant flash of anger. A losing of the your temper or an eruption of anger, but that's not the word that Jesus uses.
Joel Brooks:
Instead he uses this word,orge, which is a slow burn. It's a slow burning anger. It's a anger you carry with you. An anger that remains with you. You could translate this as nursing a grudge or a brooding anger.
Joel Brooks:
I think one of the best translations I read was a resenting anger. This is when you harbor resentment in your heart towards someone. And Jesus is addressing this resentment that we might be carrying around towards someone else and he's saying this is something we need to absolutely let go of. And he says this resentment, it can manifest itself through name calling, through insults, and whoever does that is liable to hell. Jesus doesn't mince words here.
Joel Brooks:
Paul captures Jesus's meaning later in Ephesians chapter 4 when he says, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. And do not give any opportunity to the devil. And what Paul is saying there is sometimes anger is okay. Be angry.
Joel Brooks:
There's times where angry is right, but don't let it, your the sun go down on your anger. Don't carry it with you. Don't let it linger. Don't keep fanning it into flame because when you do so, you've opened up your heart for the devil. So that's Jesus's command here.
Joel Brooks:
It's an overwhelming command to try to live a life without any resentment. And it's just one that just Jesus kinda drops on us. And this is gonna be the first of 6 of his commandments That are gonna feel just like heavy weights and burdens thrown on us at the moment. But Jesus says, he's not gonna leave these in the theoretical. And 5 of these 6 commandments, he's gonna give us one practical step we can do in obedience to it.
Joel Brooks:
And so here he gives us this one practical step we find in verse 23. He says, so if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. It's only right that we think about relationships during worship because God has redefined our relationships. God has given us the family we have through Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
And so it's right that when we come to worship God and we love God, He reminds us of the love we need for our neighbor and for our family. And what Jesus is saying here is when those times of worship come and God brings to remembrance resentment that somebody has against you, you need to go and deal with it immediately. If somebody has a just cause against you, you need to deal with it. And I use the word just cause here because that is what Jesus is alluding to here. When he gives the illustrations, the illustrations are if you don't deal with that resentment this person has you, they're gonna go to a judge and the judge is going to find you guilty.
Joel Brooks:
Meaning that person does have a just cause against you that needs to be dealt with. He says that dealing with that is way more important than singing another song. It's more important than saying another prayer, making whatever sacrifice you're making at church. You leave and as soon as possible, you make amends and you seek forgiveness. There there is an urgency here.
Joel Brooks:
So that's what Jesus tells us to do, but we also need to understand what Jesus is not telling us to do in this. We need to be clear on that because I have seen this verse greatly abused over the years. Jesus does not say, if you have something against your brother, you are to go to them. He doesn't say if you have something against another. He says if you are aware that someone else is harboring resentment towards you, then you go to that person.
Joel Brooks:
This verse here is not a license. In other words, for you to go to somebody and say, you know, for 5 years now, I've been harboring deep resentment in my heart towards you over something you said. For 5 years, this has really been brooding in me, and I just need to get this off my chest and ask for forgiveness. And what happens when you do that is you you say that and you get it off your chest, and you walk away so light. You're like, oh, I feel so much better.
Joel Brooks:
Yet you just dropped a bomb on that person. That's not reconciliation, that is retaliation. That is making that person feel the punishment. It's inflicting a pain on that person in which they were unaware of the situation. That is not what Jesus is saying that we're doing here.
Joel Brooks:
He's not giving you a license to do that. If you do ever feel that the Lord wants you to talk to somebody about perhaps some deep resentment or some deep hurt that you've had towards that that person has done to you, the first thing you need to do is really pray about it. And see if this is something that you should just quietly forgive. Quietly forgive. And then if you do feel this is something that the Lord does want me to address that person, go with utmost humility, gentleness and only after taking the log out of your own eye.
Joel Brooks:
And do that and then the spirit goes before you and He will honor that time. So that's anger. Let's see what Jesus has to say about lust. Read with me verse 27. You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery.
Joel Brooks:
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So once again, Jesus mentions the fruit of sin, adultery, but then He takes on the seed, which is lust. And lust is what we need to deal with. And Jesus goes so far as to say this, that if you've looked at a woman with lustful intent, you have committed adultery in your heart. Now this is not actual physical adultery which would have a slew of physical consequences.
Joel Brooks:
Physical consequences, social, civil consequences, perhaps divorce, perhaps even the death penalty that was prescribed in the Old Testament for an adulterer. That's not what Jesus is saying there. He's saying this is adultery of the heart which is still sin, which is still makes you liable to hell. This is not something that is swept under the rug. Now the reason that Jesus deals with this sin right after He deals with the sin of anger is because they are closely related.
Joel Brooks:
Remember Jesus wasn't talking about a flash of anger. He wasn't talking about losing your temper that or the sparks that just immediately fly, but he was talking about that slow burn. An anger that you hold on to. And here Jesus is not talking about a flash of sexual desire towards somebody. That can't be helped.
Joel Brooks:
It's actually the way that God has wired us. What Jesus is talking about is a slow burn. It's talking about a sexual desire here that we hold on to and we fan into flame. Notice that Jesus does not say here, everyone who lusts after a woman has committed adultery in his heart. He does not say that.
Joel Brooks:
He says, everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has committed adultery in his heart. The sin is not the lust. The sin is the lustful intent. Or some of your translations might say this, everyone who looks at a woman with the purpose of lusting after her. So just to be crystal clear here, Jesus is not talking about when when you look at somebody and you just have this sudden sexual desire.
Joel Brooks:
That's not what Jesus is talking about. If if a woman walks by and you look at her and you think, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You know. And you you just you have that thought and she walks by. That's that's not what Jesus is talking about.
Joel Brooks:
The sin is when you decide you need to meditate on how this person's been fearfully and wonderfully made, and just look and gaze and ponder and stir up a sexual desire that there is no way you can righteously fulfill. That's lust. Fanning into flame that sexual desire that you cannot righteously fulfill. So he's not talking about looking. He's talking about looking to lust.
Joel Brooks:
1 just happens. The other is something we allow it to happen. So when David was on the rooftop and rooftop and he saw Bathsheba,
Connor Coskery:
that was not a sin.
Joel Brooks:
But it's when he lingered and he stared and he began to entertain those sexual thoughts. And that's when it was sin. And the adultery in his heart, that seed actually did grow into full blown opportunity or full blown adultery because he had the the the world just doesn't get it. When we talk about lust, they're like, I mean they scoff, they they sneer at something like this and they think, what what is wrong with these Christians? Can't you just lighten up a little bit?
Joel Brooks:
I mean, the the first job I had when I came here to Birmingham, or second, my first job I mowed lawns. I worked with the lawn ranger. So my my I I But there's 2 of us. Anyway, so my second job, I worked at a warehouse and, drove forklift around, made deliveries and stuff like that. Did that for about 3 years, and the guy who I worked with in the warehouse, he went to church every single week.
Joel Brooks:
But what he had put, at our workstation all over the wall he had taken out pages from Sports Illustrated swimsuit and he had posted them all up. Like, dude, you gotta take that down. I I can't have that there. And he goes, why? It's just eye candy.
Joel Brooks:
That's all it is. It's It's not like we're doing anything. It's just just eye candy and and he couldn't understand what was the issue. He thought I was being so prudish or that I had some hang up about sex and that's not the case at all. The Bible in no way is prudish towards sex.
Joel Brooks:
God created it. The entire Bible rejoices in it. Think about this. The very first poetry we have in the Bible is from a a naked man standing before a naked woman and him saying, at last this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This is the first couplet we have.
Joel Brooks:
The the first poetry in all of scripture. And from that point on, poetry has been made and created or cheesy songs sung all about love and about sex. We have an entire book of the Bible, Song of Solomon, dedicated to love and to sex. I was actually gonna read, some sections from chapter 6 or 7 or 8, and, I couldn't do it. For 1, I have kids who come to this church, daughters.
Joel Brooks:
I mean, I can't do that. It is so graphic. It it it'd make me blush. But it's the Bible exalting in this. This is God's gift to us.
Joel Brooks:
The Bible in no way sees sex as as something to look down on, but something to rejoice in. But it does recognize the power of sex and that is to be done only between 2 committed covenanted people and in that exclusive marital relationship. And within that relationship has a great power to unite. Outside of that relationship has a great power to destroy. And even the world recognizes that there is a unique power to sex.
Joel Brooks:
There's a reason that when you're in your car driving to work and you're listening to the radio, you don't hear any songs about work. You don't hear any songs about the office. Any songs about eating food, or the great workout you had, or really any other part of your life, but every song it seems is about sex or love. And this I mean, this has been going on since since man was created that they're singing about sex and love, but but notice the lyrics. Even the world notices the power in it.
Joel Brooks:
And the lyrics come across as incredibly cheesy, but they are profound. And so you can have you know the lyrics like, if you're not having sex, it feels like you're locked out of paradise. Having sex or going to the bedroom is like going to church. I would love for y'all to actually believe that, you know, that that church is like that. Or you have the, that when I look in your eyes, I I see the stars, or my love for you will outlast the shining of the stars or the sun.
Joel Brooks:
And we give this eternal quality to love and to sex. We don't talk about anything else that way. So even the world recognizes that there's something unique about it. And we as Christians are like, yes. It's unique because it was God's gift to us.
Joel Brooks:
And there's an incredible power in that to unite a people who have covenanted together exclusively in marriage. Outside, it has incredible power to destroy. And I know the world wants to sneer and scoff at what we believe about lust, but I want you for a moment to just imagine a world without any lustful intent. No one looking at anyone with lustful intent. This is what that world would look like.
Joel Brooks:
It'd be a world without any AIDS or really any STD's. A world without any unwanted pregnancies or abortion. A world with no adultery, no affairs, no sexual assault, no rape, No sex slave industry. No prostitution. No porn.
Joel Brooks:
No exploitation of women. No treating them as objects, but treating them with the dignity and respect that they deserve as image bearers of God. Women, would you like to live in a world like that? I could tell you what, as a father of 3 daughters, I would love a world like that. Man, would you love a world like that?
Joel Brooks:
What Jesus is saying is, we live into that. That is the world he is creating. That is what the kingdom of God looks like. And yes, it is a alternative society. It's an alternative kingdom.
Joel Brooks:
It's something that the world can't look like and understand, but if we were to truly live that way, it is beautiful. It's a city on a hill. It's attractional to the world. And Jesus is saying, live into that. These are the new rules for the kingdom.
Joel Brooks:
Now that's the commandment that Jesus gives out there. Once again, it's this overwhelming commandment, but then Jesus is good enough to us to give us at least one practical step. We find that in verse 29 and 30 where he says, if you have an eye that's causing you to sin, pluck it out. If you have a hand that's causing you to sin, cut it off. Throw it from you.
Joel Brooks:
Now, Jesus is not prescribing here self mutilation. That's actually a sin. That's not what he's prescribing here. He's using hyperbole. To be completely blunt.
Joel Brooks:
If Jesus was gonna ask you to remove, a physical part of your body to get rid of sexual desire, He would've told you to remove something else. Not your eye and not your hand. He He's he's using hyperbole here. But what he is saying here is, you gotta treat this as serious. I'm not This is not anything we actually joke about here.
Joel Brooks:
This is a serious sin. You need to treat it as such. Decisive action needs to be made against this. He's not saying giving you this gradual plan. That's not what he gives.
Joel Brooks:
It's not it's not a gradual action. He commands surgery immediately. He doesn't say here's a band aid. He says you need amputation. You gotta cut this gangrene out of your life before it destroys you, because that's what it will do.
Joel Brooks:
And there's a 1,000 ways you can apply this. Listen to me, if you are going to Netflix with lustful intent, You need to get rid of Netflix. I mean some of us say that that's like cutting off an arm. It's just getting rid of Netflix people. If your computer if you're going to your computer with lustful intent, you need to leave your computer at work.
Joel Brooks:
Husbands, you need to give your wives the passwords to change all of your settings so that you no longer have access to them. You do whatever is necessary. Jesus is saying this is not something you fool around with because it has the power to destroy. Now, I I realize that the purity that Jesus is calling for here is enormous. One commentator I read said that this is nothing short of heroic.
Joel Brooks:
And it's gonna be a struggle. Paul in 1st Corinthians 15, he talks about this struggle. 1st Corinthians 15 is is a glorious chapter in which he expounds on the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus and then our own resurrection to come. But then at the end of that chapter, he for some reason, he talks about the wild beast of Ephesus.
Joel Brooks:
And how he's having to fight the wild beast at Ephesus. The wild beast is a common idiom for lust. And g Paul is saying, I've had to fight these wild beasts at Ephesus. And then he goes, I die daily. That's the context of that verse when he says, I die every day.
Joel Brooks:
He's dying to those desires. And the reason it's in that chapter on resurrection is he's saying, because what feels like death to me actually becomes resurrected life in me. And Jesus breathes in me new life as I continue to crucify my old self there. But it is a struggle. I'm reminded of Saint Augustine's words.
Joel Brooks:
Saint Augustine, if you didn't know, he was a sex addict. You can read his confessions and he he he fully confesses that. And he wrote this. He prayed this. He said, Lord, command what you will, but give what you command.
Joel Brooks:
Command what you will, lord, but give what you command. You've commanded these serious, heavy, overwhelming things, but I realize it's only through Your power can I ever obey it? And the good news is that Jesus does give the very things that he commands. One commentator that I read said that you really should read the Sermon on the Mount like this, the beatitudes pick you up. Jesus blesses you and picks you up and carries you and moves you forward.
Joel Brooks:
And then you hit the first command and it knocks you down to where you see a need to go back to the beatitudes, to be picked up and carried a little further where you're knocked down, where you see your need for the beatitudes and to be blessed, where you're picked up and you're carried a little further. But as you are knocked down, you realize, I am indeed poor in spirit. I'm so poor in spirit, but yet that drives me back to where Jesus says, but you are blessed. It drives us to the gospel, these commands. And it really, we're gonna see in a moment, it drives us to this meal.
Joel Brooks:
When we take this meal, the Lord's supper, I want you to be thinking of one of the beatitudes in particular. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Think about that. You don't hunger and thirst for something you have. You hunger and thirst for something you lack.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus does not say, blessed are you who are righteous for you shall be satisfied. He's talking about your lack. Blessed are you who are unrighteous, but you hunger and you thirst for a righteousness that is not your own. A righteousness that comes from Jesus. Jesus who lived the perfect life that he has called you to live, Jesus lived it.
Joel Brooks:
But instead of being blessed, Jesus received a curse so that he might bless you. Just like he did on the Sermon on the Mount. And just like he has blessed you with his spirit transforming your heart. We hunger and we thirst for righteousness that is not our own. A righteousness that comes for Jesus from Jesus and he says that he will satisfy.
Joel Brooks:
These commands always drive us back to him, back to the gospel. If you would pray with me. Jesus, we want to loudly and clearly say, we need you. We completely need you. We are poor in spirit.
Joel Brooks:
We don't have a righteousness of our own, but we want it. We hunger and we thirst for the righteousness that you give. And, Lord, we read your word here and these commands, they overwhelm us. But we do say, Lord, command what you will, but give what you command. Give us the ability through your spirit to obey these things.
Joel Brooks:
And when we fail, may we go straight to the cross, where you lived that perfect life for us. Yet you were cursed that we might be blessed. Thank you, Jesus. We pray this in your name. Amen.