McKay Vandenberg: Welcome to the Sandals Church podcast. My name is McKay, and I'm a part of the online team here at Sandals Church. We are so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this message with pastor Matt, teaching from our series, the gospel of Matthew. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people. Now let's get into the message.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: What do you think is the most controversial book that's ever been written? Do you hear the silence? Here's the answer, it's this. Every religion has an opinion on the Bible. Muslims have an opinion on the Bible, Buddhists have an opinion on the Bible, Hindus have an opinion on the Bible, you have an opinion on the Bible, your friend that's never been to church in their life has an opinion on the Bible.
The Bible is a controversial book. You ever wondered though, what does Jesus teach about the Bible? What does he have to say about the scriptures? That's what we're gonna talk about today is we're gonna look at what Jesus says in just three verses. Just three verses and let me say these are challenging verses, they're They're gonna be challenging for you to understand.
They're gonna be challenging for me to preach. They're gonna be challenging for all of us to process. These are challenging verses. But we're gonna look at Matthew five seventeen through 20, and then we're gonna walk through this and ask ourselves, what is God saying and then what do we need to do with what God has said? So let's take a look at Matthew 17 through 20.
I want you to open your bibles and let's take a look at this. I'm gonna read from here because I don't have my glasses on. It's not that I don't love God's word, it's that I need to read it in the big font. Can I get an amen, old people? Alright, here we go.
Matthew five seventeen through 20. Jesus says, don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God's law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.
So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But anyone who obeys God's law and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. But I warn you, Jesus says, unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never ever enter the kingdom of heaven. That's some scary stuff, right? Whenever you hear you're not getting into heaven, your ears need to perk up and you need to pay attention.
So this is some tough teaching today. This is some challenging teaching today. But let's kind of back it up and let's ask ourselves, what on earth is Jesus saying here about the Bible? So point number one is on your apps or if you're taking notes in your Bible, I want you to write this down. Jesus teaches that the Bible is essential to my Christian faith.
And some of you go, duh. Okay? And that's because you're alive today. The first couple hundred years of Christian history, this was not a duh issue. This was a controversial issue.
And so the question was really tension between gentile Christians, that's non Jewish Christians, and Jewish Christians. And here was the issue. In your bibles, as you open up to Matthew, if you just go back one page, there'll be a blank page, says the New Testament, depending on how much money you spend on your bible. Right? If you got a cheap one, there's no blank page.
It's okay. Cheap still works. You go to the book of Malachi and it says the Old Testament. Well, I want you to know that's very offensive especially to Jewish people today. We say the Hebrew Bible today because when we say old what we often mean is irrelevant.
It's not irrelevant, it's the Hebrew scriptures. And so in our Bibles as Christians, we have the Christian scriptures, the New Testament, and we have the Hebrew scriptures, what used to be referred to as the Old Testament. And so this was a huge debate in early Christianity. Do we have to listen to what the Old Testament says? And if you were honest today, some of you have never read the Old Testament.
It's very confusing, it's difficult, right? It's a different culture, it's a different language, it's from a different age. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew five seventeen. He's gonna answer the question for us. Don't misunderstand why I've come.
Here's the problem, we have. That's why there's so many denominations, so many different interpretations, and so many different belief systems within the Christian church. It's because we all, myself included, misunderstand some things. Okay? And any church that says they don't ever misunderstand misunderstands completely.
So we all get this wrong. Don't misunderstand why I've come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish or fulfill their purpose. Here's what Jesus is saying.
The Old Testament is still important. The scriptures are still important and you need to know that. You need to embrace that. And I get it. Some of it's challenging.
The the the stories and the narrative forms are easier for me. Like, I love first and second Kings, first and second Chronicles. I love the stories about kings and killing and adultery. Amen? You know?
It's kind of like Netflix in the Bible. But some of it's confusing, Leviticus, you know portions of poetry where like what on earth did that just say? I mean there's stuff that's really really hard to understand. But listen to what he says, he says, I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear not even the smallest detail of God's law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. We need to know that, we need to wrestle with that.
And here's what I want you to know, if you're going to be a disciple, okay? Some of you call yourselves Christians, what I'm hoping is in this series, you will learn to call yourself a disciple. I'm a disciple of Jesus. Because that's what he asked you to be. K?
Christian was a name given to us by non Christians in the book of Acts. Jesus called us disciples. So that's what we wanna call ourselves. So if you're gonna be a disciple, you're going to have to become a person of the word. And that's a challenge for some of us.
Right? How many of us don't love to read? Let's be honest. Okay? My favorite comedian right now is Nate Barghetti.
Anybody like Nate Barghetti? He is so funny when he talks about reading, right? He's like, it's just full of words. He's like, it's never ending. I'm drowning in words.
He's like, give me a give me a blank page so I can rest. And anybody who has ADHD and dyslexia, amen, you've been there. You're like, I can't breathe. I need a break. Where's the where's the scratch and sniff version of the Bible, Lord?
I need that. Something pop up, you know, wouldn't that be cool? And so for a lot of us, reading is difficult, especially in a day and age where we're entertained through cinema, right, through video games, and everything is visual. It's hard for us to think. And that's what God wants you to do.
So here's what I wanna challenge you. If you're gonna be a disciple, one of the things that you need to know as a disciple is you must be disciplined. Do you hear the word? Disciple, disciplined. Very, very similar words.
You've got to discipline yourself to read God's word. Now Now I gotta be honest with you, when I became your pastor at 25, 20 six years old, I'm not exactly sure how old I was, I had not yet developed a habit of reading God's word every day. Sometimes I was good, sometimes I was bad. I would read for a month in a row and then I would take a couple months off. That's just where I was, I wasn't a disciplined person.
But I realized, this is a problem. Like if I'm gonna call myself a Christian, if I'm going to teach Christians, I can't just study for what I'm gonna teach, I actually have to study for my life. And you have to do the same. So let me give you a couple reasons why you should study this book when there's so much to entertain yourself, when there's so much content in the world. Literally we're drowning in content.
Here's why I want you to read God's word, look at this. God's word is eternal. It's eternal. You know what that means? After you're dead, you wanna know what will still be here?
This. This will outlast you. This is more important than you in terms of your contribution to the world. Like some of you, you wanna change the world, you wanna make a difference, this changes the world. This makes a difference.
Listen to what the prophet Isaiah said in the scriptures that some Christians threw away. We don't need the Old Testament. Listen to what he says in the Hebrew Bible. Isaiah 48, the grass withers, amen SoCal? Anybody enjoying enjoying the green?
If you just moved here, it's a joke, it's going away. It's gonna be pretty for a week. Okay. The grass withers and the flowers fade. Man, if you're a young person, write that down.
That's a tattoo that you need to put on your body. There you go. But the word of our God stands forever. There was a philosopher in the nineteenth century, his name was Frederick Nietzsche. He was very, very popular, very, very famous.
And his most famous saying is this, God is dead. And he wrote that in a book called The Gay Science. Now nothing about sexuality, it means the happy science. And here's what he was actually saying. He was actually saying, you know what, we're so advanced, we're so technologically superior to where we've been, we don't need God's word anymore, listen to this, to be moral people.
He wasn't actually saying God is dead, what he was saying is we've graduated from this. And so then we go into the twenty first century, and what happens? We have more wars, more deaths, more sickness, more disease, than all of the previous known centuries combined. Isn't that crazy? Like, Adolf Hitler did not kill Jews because he was religious.
He was a scientist. And he decided they were less than, they were they had not evolved like the German people. And so he exterminated 6,000,000 people. Think about that. It's crazy.
And so here's the thing, I want you to know, Frederick Nietzsche is dead, God's word is still alive. Still alive. And And by the way, if you're a young person, Frederick Nijay died of VD. That was free. You didn't even need to You didn't even need that, but I just threw that out there for you.
Because what happens when we just follow our natural desires? It ends in a terrible death. Okay? Not only is God's word eternal, look at this. God's word is powerful.
How many of you have ever traveled to Asia? Raise your hands if you've been Asia. Okay. Some countries, this is legal. And in many countries, maybe they wouldn't say illegal, but it's heavily regulated.
Do you know China is one of the world's leaders in terms of technology? You know what you cannot buy online in China? This. It's not available. It's not for sale online.
Isn't that crazy? If you travel to China today, and you have more than one or two Bibles in your suitcase, guess what customs will do in China? They will take them away, they'll confiscate them. Because they will think you are distributing God's word. Ain't that crazy?
One of the most powerful countries in the world. Now think about, China has more people than everyone except for India, amen? Like as Americans, we're out. They got more people, they're one of the most powerful countries on in the world, they're one of the most technologically advanced societies on earth, and they say you can't have this. And why is that?
China understands what many of you as Christians don't. God's word is powerful. Look at what Hebrews says, Hebrews four twelve. For the word of God is alive and what? Powerful.
Underline that. It's powerful. Why do you think people who hate the Bible and hate God worked so hard to get it out of schools?
Dani Crowley: You so much for joining us today. If this message has served you in any way, I wanna invite you to give today to the work that we are doing here at Sandals Church. You can do that by going to give.sc at any time. But for right now, let's get back into the message with pastor
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Matt. Think of the crap that your kids study. Yep. Think of the crap that's in our libraries. They don't want this there.
Listen to this, this is why. For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two edged sword cutting between soul and spirit. Like books can move you, books can inspire you, this book cuts you. Listen to this.
Between the joint and the marrow, it exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. You don't just read the Bible. Listen to me, the Bible reads you. Come on. It reads you.
And that's why we struggle with this. But I got good news today. Some of you are discouraged about where America's headed. I want you to know that I have friends that sell Bibles for a living. I have friends that work for Bible translators.
And if you're old and America's going to hell and these kids today. I want you to know, these kids today are buying Bibles at record numbers. And Bible sales across the board in America are up. Up. And you know why that is?
Because, kids have had God taken out of school, and they're realizing there's a void in their life. And I'm seeing celebrities, and podcasters, and movie stars, and politicians, talk about God more as a 50 year old than I have seen them talk about God in my first fifty years. And this is why non Christians are recognizing this power. Let me ask you, if you're a disciple, why aren't you recognizing this power? And the answer is, because a lot of Christians today, can I just be honest?
They don't think they need to read God's word. I hear two things, I don't need to read God's word, and I don't need to go to church to have a relationship with God. I want you to know that this book says you're wrong on both counts. Right. Yeah.
Both counts. And let me tell you why you need to read God's word. Let me tell you why you need to come to church every single week and hear God's word. Here's the answer, because God's word is his voice. Yeah.
It's his voice. And some of you don't realize, I hear Christians say this all the time, I've never heard from God. When you read this, you just heard from God. Come on now. You just heard from God.
That's right. And I know it's not as cool and as instant as a text message or an Instagram post where you pour your heart and your feelings out. But I want you to know when I was a young man in the military, one of the things I longed for was letters from my mom. I would love to say from my dad, but he never sent them. But my mom did.
And I loved reading those letters. There wasn't FaceTime, there wasn't Instagram, there was no way to communicate. That was Star Trek when I was a kid. Okay? And now that's like seventh grader's life.
But you know what, when I read those letters I would cry. I would wait for them and I long for them because I knew my mom loved me. Listen to me, your father in heaven loves you and he's written this letter to you. And it's his voice. Yes.
It's his voice to you. Don't ever say, I've never heard from God. You hear from God every time this is preached, or every time you hear it. Right. Or read it.
Look at what Peter says, two Peter one twenty and twenty one. Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in scripture, none of it, ever came from human initiative. This isn't people like pontificating their ideas and their thoughts. Okay, this isn't a blog post. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit and they spoke from God.
Now the idea here is that of sailing. Does a sailboat move itself? Nobody knows. Okay. I know, we're in the IE.
Newport Beach would be like, no. That was a bad illustration for people of the desert. Sailboats are moved by the power of the wind. That's what Peter is actually saying here. Is that when these authors wrote, thought, spoke, they were carried along, they were the sail, but God's voice was the wind.
And it moved them, and it pushed them, and they spoke. Every single word is God's word. Now some of them are confusing words. Some of them are hard words. Some of them are controversial words, But they're all God's words.
And Jesus affirms that. He affirms that. And here's the thing, so much has been written about the Bible with all of its problems, all of its errors, and there are so many young people today that are walking away from their faith, and they're deconstructing their faith because they watched a series of TikTok videos. I just wanna challenge you. And I know some of you have kids that have walked away, and I'm sorry.
I just I I'm and I'm not meaning to come across as judgmental. Here's what I want your ask I wanna ask your kids to do, and maybe a family or a friend that's walked away from God. Are you gonna go with what TikTok says or what Jesus says about God's word? You're gonna follow some dude or some gal who's made a video sharing their story, or are you gonna listen to the story of Jesus? Because Jesus says, listen to me, every single word.
Actually, what he said is not every single word, every single letter. And, oh, by the way, even the smallest letter. The smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet is yod. And don't you know that the name of God begins with the smallest letter? Yahweh.
God says don't miss that. Don't miss the smallest letter because if you miss the smallest letter, what are you missing out on? God. God. Number two, look at this.
Jesus teaches that God's word is meant to be obeyed. Now, let's be honest, why don't you read it? Because you want freedom. You want to do what you want. Let's be honest, let's be real.
The reason you don't read this is so you can plead ignorance. I didn't know. Well I want you to know, God's told you to know. God's told you to learn. And God's told you to obey.
And some of you are just ignoring this and you think you get a free pass. Well, let's look to Jesus. Matthew five nineteen, if you got this in your Bibles, underline this word. So if you ignore, let's underline that. That's what many of you are doing.
Oh, I didn't know. No. No. You're ignoring it. So if you ignore the least commandment, and this is what's worse, you got a TikTok video stream, right?
You got an online audience and you teach others to do the same. Man, it's one thing for you to deconstruct your faith, it's another for you to take the faith away from others while you're learning. We had a leader in our church years ago that was struggling with his faith. I said, that's fine. Shut up.
It's fine for you to wrestle, but you're a leader. You're an influencer. Don't take others down with you who are weaker in their faith because God will allow you to wrestle, but God will hold you accountable for those you take down with your wrestling. Be careful. And some of you are like, well I don't influence anyone as your kids are looking to you right now.
Listen to this. So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. Now, let's go back. Here's what I want you to see. This is why we have so many denominations.
Like, right now as I speak, we are literally miles away from kind of the home base capital of the Seventh day Adventist church. And they worship on the Sabbath and Saturday. And they would say because they believe we are violating what the Scriptures teach. Now I can't get into all of this, and so I want you to know that there is room for disagreement. There's room for disagreement.
And there's a reason at Centals, we worship on Saturdays and on Sundays. Because I believe the scripture says us other in other places, God doesn't care when you worship, He just cares that you do worship. There's a specific verse in Colossians that says that. But just understand, people are going to have disagreements on stuff about tattoos, the days we worship, Sabbath, the things you eat, the things you drink. Christians are not in agreement on everything.
So we gotta do the best that we can. So if you ignore the least commandment and you teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. Okay? Now let's move forward. But anyone who obeys God's laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
So here's what he's saying, listen to me parents, when you teach your kids the Word of God, Jesus says you're a great parent. When you don't teach your kids the word of God, you know, and you say, well, I'm gonna let them decide for themselves. Jesus is saying you're the least in the kingdom of heaven. He's saying that's foolish. And let me say this to every parent, this is why you need to make church a priority and understanding the Bible a priority.
I want you to imagine that you're raising your kids one day to swim from Long Beach to Catalina. Don't you think you'd train them a little bit? And let me tell you something, how many of you believe that pool time in the backyard is gonna cut it? The water's gonna be cold? It's gonna be dangerous and there are sharks.
Listen to me parents, that's the world you're sending your kids out into. And if you've never trained them to swim, let me ask you, are they gonna make it to Catalina? Probably not. Probably not. You gotta train them.
Now do kids like practice? Right? In the nineties, every kid was Allen Iverson. Practice, talk about they don't wanna practice. It's your job.
It's your job to get your kids to do what they don't wanna do. I made my kids eat broccoli. They're like, I don't like broccoli. Grandpa doesn't like broccoli. I was like, grandpa's not my kid.
Grandpa's not my kid. And that's not what I wanted to say. I wanted to say some other things about grandpa, but I didn't. You know? I never had to tell my kids, you will eat this fudge ice creamsicle.
Right. Yeah. But I did have to teach them to eat things that were good for them. Yeah. Come on.
So many parents say, listen to me. You're like, well, they don't want to. That's why God gave them a parent. To get them to do things they don't want to do. My kids would say, I don't want to.
I'd be like, I don't care Right. What you want to do. Right. Listen to what he says. Jesus is saying, man, God's word matters.
And you gotta you gotta teach people. And here's what I hear all the time. How many of you have heard somebody say, well, Christianity, it's about a relationship and not rules. How many of you guys have heard this? Okay?
That means you've been in church for more than five minutes, because Christians love to say that. And why is that? We hate rules. But I want you to hear me, all relationships have rules. And if you don't agree, you have no relationships.
You are lonely, depressed, and afraid. So let's let's start let's start with the most basic relationship, work. Okay? You're like, well that's not a relationship. It is.
It is. There's just money exchanged. That's all that it is. So let's imagine at work you show up this week when you want and you do what you want. You're like, you know what?
I don't believe that relationships have rules. What's gonna happen to your work relationship? You're gonna get fired. Now in California, it's gonna take some time, because we gotta like document how terrible of a friend you are, And then we have to pay for you to leave. But that's California.
Literally, everyone in Texas is so confused right now. They're like, what? Okay. Now let's talk about friendships. If you just do what you want, when you want, you say what you want.
I've heard this so many times, I want zero expectations. Listen to me, you're gonna be lonely. Yeah. You're gonna be lonely. And by the way, parents, if you want your kids to have friends, you have to teach them how to be friendly.
There are rules to friendships. Yeah. You gotta teach your kids. You gotta share. You gotta listen.
You can't punch them in the face. Okay. Let's talk marriage. Guys, are there rules? Yes.
Come on. Are there rules to marriage? Single men, there are rules. They are unwritten. Right.
But there are real rules. Right. If you just do what you want when you want to, well I just believe in relationship not rules, Eventually, you will not be married. All relationships have rules. The Bible teaches us, listen to me, how to have a relationship with God.
Let me re translate the rules. Here are the things that God hates. And if you wanna be in a relationship with God, you don't do the things that he hates. And that's the same thing with a friend, with a with an employee at work, or or or your boss, or your husband, or your wife, or your kids. If you want to be in a relationship, you don't do what they don't like.
Yep. Yep. It's not rules, it's about relationship. God says, I abhor this. I don't like this.
This is an abomination to me. This I'm gonna vomit that out of my mouth. I think that's pretty clear. You know? I think it's pretty clear.
So let's talk about God's word. Look at this, God's word corrects me. Do you wanna know why your adult friends don't wanna come to church? They don't want to be corrected. Now I gotta be honest, I don't love being corrected.
I don't wake up every day and look at my wife, correct me. Correct me today. Show me where I have aired. Right? I kid you not this week, we went on a date and I had her drive home and it was so fun to be like the co captain driver while she was driving.
And she hit Like thirty seconds in, she's like, you're gonna tick me off. And I'm like, this is what happens to me all the time when I drive. But I had to stop because I wanna stay married. Second Timothy three sixteen. K.
If you're new to Christianity, this is a really important verse. Amen. Second Timothy three sixteen, it's super important. How much of scripture? Look at it.
All scripture. Amen. Is inspired by God and is useful to teach us, listen to me, what is true? There's a war for truth in our culture today. Matter of fact, many of you parents are saving money right now to send your kids to college where they're going to learn this, there is no truth.
That's one of the ways professors dismiss this. They just throw truth out the window. Truth is subjective. No. No.
No. There's truth. So all scripture is inspired by God, and it is useful to teach us what is true, and to make us realize, look at this, what is wrong in our lives? Amen. Let me pause there.
The reason you don't like some of the things that the bible teaches is because you're not God and you don't get to set the rules. And anyone who loves everything their God teaches has created their God. God says this is what I like and this is what I don't like. So when you read the word of God, look at this. All scriptures inspired by God.
It corrects us when we are what? Wrong, and it teaches us to do what is right. Raise your hand if you've got low kids, raise your hands. You will never have to teach your kids to say these two words, no and mine. No parent has ever said repeat after me, say mine.
Now say it with passion. Now say it like you're being robbed. Mine. You know what this book says? It's not yours.
The Lord says, it's all mine. It's all mine. Listen to this, and everything that you have, your life, your skills, your money is all given to you because the Lord has shared what's his. And he's teaching us to share. K?
But here's the thing. Here here's where we kinda try to get out of jail free. We say, well, I don't understand the bible. K? How many have ever heard somebody say that?
I don't understand the bible. I hear this in my small group. I hear this from my kids friends. I hear this from people in our church all the time. I don't obey.
Here's what I want you to do. I want you to focus on obeying what you do understand. Yeah. It's good. It's good.
So listen to me. This is this is how we play games with God. Well, I'm not gonna understand anything I do understand until I understand all the things I don't understand. Be obedient with what you understand. It's good.
That's what God's asking you to do. Next, look at this one. Ask God for wisdom for what you don't understand. K? Some of you listen to the debrief.
It's a podcast that I do. Did it last year with Donna. This year, my wife is joining me with the podcast. And here's the thing you need to know. Many of the questions that you ask me on the debrief, I have to look up the answer.
Let me tell you why. Because I didn't know the answer. Okay? I got a question this week on the debrief. I didn't even know where to look.
I was like, I had to do some real research. Thank God for AI. Amen? But it took me a while. It took me a while to find the answer.
I had never listen to me, I had never even asked the question. So here's the thing, I learn on the debrief through your questions. It's okay. It's okay. It Listen to me, it's okay to not know.
Be obedient to what you do know, and ask God for wisdom for what you don't know. At least you don't have to know everything, I'm supposed to. Right? And I gotta like play games, look over here. So that you don't understand that I gotta go Google it.
Okay. This is a big complex book, written over thousands of years. It's not always easy. And by the way, sometimes I knew it but forgot it. And I had to remember it.
So, don't be afraid to ask. I mean so many of you, you're in small group week after week, and you never grow because you're afraid to ask. I didn't understand what that meant. Don't be afraid to be a beginner. Don't be afraid to not know.
To not know. It's okay. I recently went back to school, and it's been the most humbling, humiliating experience in my life. I'm literally back in school, I'm like the oldest person by a thousand years in my class. And I kid you not, listen to me, I didn't understand the syllabus, I didn't understand what we were supposed to read, what was due, when we were supposed to turn it in, and even after they after they told me how to turn it in, I had to ask my 22 year old son what Canvas was.
The professor's like, turn it on a Canvas. I'm like, you mean, like, write it on a Canvas? I don't I I I don't know. And my son, he was so happy. He was like, Oh, I'll help you with that dad, dumb old father.
K? Now look at this. Here's why you need God's word. It doesn't just correct you. Look at this.
God's word directs me. How many of you can admit that life is challenging? Come on. We're watching our daughter and son-in-law take care of our new grandson, and they literally have no idea what they're doing. My my my favorite thing is watching them correct each other.
That's my favorite thing. You know? Right. So And to be fair, none of the grandparents know what we're doing either because we all forgot. Right.
Yeah. And there wasn't Google when they were born. So we made a lot of mistakes. You know, we didn't know. But but here's the thing, life is gonna be challenging.
Listen to me, relationships are challenging, parenting is challenging, friendships are challenging, life is challenging. So what you need is something to help direct you. And here's the reason I bring up my grandson is babies aren't born with directions. Ah, but they are. Come on now.
They are. Look at Psalms one nineteen one zero five. This is another verse. If you're new to Christianity, you probably wanna memorize. I memorized this when I was in the second grade.
Psalm one nineteen one zero five, your one zero five. Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Life is very, very dark and very, very confusing. And here's the thing. Here's why I want you to see this verse.
So many of us, we want the long term answers. What's gonna happen in my life five years, ten years, fifteen years? Here's what the Bible says, let's take a look at your next step. Because you wanna know how you screw up your life? You don't screw up your real life decades at a time, you screwed up steps at a time.
So God's God's lamp, what it does, it illuminates the path, listen to me, for your next step. Alright. Number three. Now this one's gonna feel a little controversial, but I promise you, this is biblical. K?
Number three. Jesus teaches that God's word cannot save me. Cannot save me. Listen, the Bible is the word of God, and it speaks the word of God. But we gotta be careful that we don't worship the Bible.
We worship the one the Bible reveals. Okay? Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew five twenty. This is really, really challenging verse. Matthew five twenty.
But I warn you, unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now for us, if you grew up in Sunday school, you're like, oh, yeah. Well, those were bad guys anyways. But to the people that were hearing this, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, they were the Mother Teresa's. They were the holiest of the holy.
Listen to me. They were the MVP of the religious elite of that day. And so Jesus is saying, unless you're better than them, you won't get get into the kingdom of God. Listen, imagine we're all gathered here today to play basketball. And Jesus says, unless you're better than LeBron James, who apparently is not aging.
Right? Unless you're better than Lebron James, you will never make the hall of fame. What is Jesus trying to say? You're not getting in on your own. You're not getting in on your own.
You see, the only way to get there is not through this, it's through Jesus. And he's setting up his audience, because a lot of people can get a false sense of righteousness because they know a lot about God. But they don't know a lot about themselves. So this week, Tammy and I celebrated twenty nine years of marriage. Can you believe that?
K? I know, I know. So when you're married like one year, you know, you celebrate, you go out to dinner, there's flowers. Five years maybe it's, you know, a fancy hotel. Ten years, you're in Hawaii.
Twenty nine years, we were in Trader Joe's. That's where we were. I'm not proud of it, but that's where we were. And everybody knows this about Trader Joe's, they ask inappropriate questions and a little too much. And so, but you know, we were near the beach and so it was a surfer guy, so I was thinking, well maybe during the beach, surfer guys don't ask personal intimate questions.
But he did, and he said, what are you guys doing today? And I said, celebrating twenty nine years of marriage. And he said, wow, how do you do that? And my wife said, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work.
And I said, and, and, listen to me. I said, it helps if you marry the right person. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Come on, brother. Listen to me. You're not gonna get into heaven because you did a lot of work.
You're gonna get into heaven because you picked the right person. Okay? And my wife needs to write that down. Okay, let's jump out of Matthew, and let's jump into the gospel of John. You search the scriptures, listen to Jesus.
You search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. Let's pause there. Here's what he's saying. You think if you just know enough, learn enough, and obey enough, you'll get in. But listen what he says.
Yet, you searched the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, but the scriptures what? Point to me. Yet, you refused to come to me to receive this life. Why? They thought they already had it.
Listen to me very carefully. Scripture will direct me, but it cannot perfect me. Only Jesus Christ can do that. I wanna warn so many of you who've been Christians for a while. It is so easy to get puffed up and full of what you know that you fail to remember what Jesus did for you.
Here is a letter to Jews who had given up their Judaism, their stature in their families, and in their culture to follow Jesus. This is a letter in the Bible written to Jews. That's why it's called Hebrews twelve one through two. He reminds them, and let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. K?
What is the race pursuing Jesus? We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus. Listen to this. The champion who initiates and perfects our faith. The moment you become full of yourself, you are empty of Jesus.
The scriptures should not puff you up, but humble you. Here's what Jesus is saying. The scriptures are not a to do list, they are a mirror. And what they reflect is how you fall short. You see, the Jewish people thought it was a to do list.
Jesus is saying it's a you can't list. And what we need to do as a church, each and every week when we hear the word of God, is we gotta fall on our knees once again, and say, we cannot do this, only Jesus can. And we humble ourselves, and we pray, and we worship, and we celebrate the author and the perfecter of our faith. We don't celebrate sandals, we don't celebrate the sermons that we hear at sandals, we don't celebrate our history, we don't celebrate our denominational makeup or where we've come from, we celebrate Jesus. Because he and he alone, amen?
Is the author and perfecter of our faith. Yep. Let me encourage you. As you study and as you grow as a Christian, my hope and prayer for you is that you would become more and more humble and more and more aware of your flaws. Because He's the only reason we're getting to heaven.
Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray in the name of Jesus, that we as Christians would have a deep deep love for your word. That we would study it, but that we would know that as we study, we can never, in and of ourselves, in and of our own discipline, and in and of our own efforts, we can never become what You've called us to be. Lord, we can only become what You've called us to be through faith in You.
Lord, you alone are good enough to get us into heaven. Help us never to forget that. And help us to remember, it's not about us getting into heaven, but it's about you coming down from heaven to get us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Dani Crowley: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have a YouTube playlist linked in the description.
And if
you want more information about who we are and what we do, you can go to sandalschurch.com.