Pete McKenzie 0:01
Give you another one to another 25 cents on the dollar for a kiss, we have to draw a line somewhere.
You know, I appreciate what Steve said about hearing from God. What I typically do is when I’m asking God what to teach, I just say, God, whatever it is, just give me a message from your heart to my heart to their heart. And that’s what I pray every week. And if I can own it myself, I really have a hard time teaching it. If it doesn’t, if it doesn’t strike me and my devotional life and I’m not living in are trying to live, what I’m teaching, then I have a hard time with that. And I know you do too. But what we started last week was a series on the Sermon on the Mount Kingdom living. You’ve probably heard a lot of messages on that over the years, you’ve even heard from me in the past, depending on how long you’ve been coming. You can’t get away from the Sermon on the Mount when you if you’re serious about Christian growth, learning to become like Christ having his attitude, his character, responded in every situation, the way he would respond. You can’t get away from the Sermon on the Mount. When Jesus says, came to introduce a new kingdom, people thought that he was going to be a king like Herod was a king. And he was going to take care of its place and he was going to run the Romans out he was going to establish Jewish people who were chosen by God, His chosen people, and better than others. We talked about last week, how they taught that you hate, you love your neighbor, but you hate everybody else. And the neighbor was answer Israel and Jews and everybody else you hated in it. Not only did you suppose to hate, it was your duty to hate. Jesus came to set all that on Etsy, or Jesus came to establish a new kingdom. And in john 1334, and 35, he said, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another. Even as I’ve loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciple. If you love one another, so he was establishing a whole new kingdom in the kingdom was going to build on the foundation of loving each other. And it’s not just a suggestion, it’s a commandment, a new commandment I give to you a command is something that you’re obligated to obey. So if you’re a believer today, and you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, he said, if you’re not loving others, you’re not living according to the kingdom I came this stablish. And that love is an unconditional love. It’s not the arrow. So the phileo the friendship, love, the romantic love of the family love. It’s, it’s God’s love. It’s a Ngapuhi. And that’s what the love is, if you look it up in the Greek, a new commandment, I give you that you got a one another, that means love each other, like I love you, and how to He loves us, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. So this is a giving love, not just giving a little bit but giving the best that you have. And all that you have, he only had one son, and he gave him. And that’s the kind of love He came to establish. The kingdom is common. It’s primarily something that is within you. And so that’s what he had a hard time getting over to the disciples and then to the churches, it began to grow after Pentecost that this is a this is a church that is within you. It’s not something that I’m going to have a palace over here and that’s where I’ll live although he has one in heaven and a throne in heaven. On Earth, he came to establish a kingdom that was inner kingdom is what’s inside of you. It’s a in so he told his disciples when I’m gonna leave, but I’m gonna send you a comforter, the Holy Spirit who will lead you into all truth. And that comforter will live inside of you. And I don’t understand all I know about that. But I know he lives inside of me. If he lives inside of you, you know it. And if you’ve been if you’ve indicated that you come to know Jesus and you’ve been back dies and you go to church and you do other Christian things, then that doesn’t mean that you know him. You know, and when the Holy Spirit is come into your life and that he used this term to Nicodemus, you must be born again.
And so there’s a lot of people that have walked aisles and prayed prayers and do Christian things and activities. But they don’t know Christ. And they are trying to their slaves to works. And they’re trying to live the Christian life in their own power. If there’s anything the Sermon on the Mount teaches us is That’s impossible. We cannot do that. You cannot live this life. And we’ll make that point as we go along here doesn’t mean that live like this and become a Christian. It means you become a Christian. And so now you’re supposed to live like this. When you come to know Jesus Christ, you will live like this, because the Holy Spirit will help you live like this. He will hold the mirror of Christ up before you and say this is your object, the object of your faith. This is who you emulate, this is who you want to be like, and I’ve given you a Holy Spirit to help you do that. So it’s my job to make sure I’m cultivating and nurturing that spirit within me. In the series, we went over about the wheel illustration in the basics of the Christian life with the vertical spokes of prayer and fellowship, prayer in the word and the horizontal spokes of fellowship and evangelism in the Lordship of Christ is a hub in the realm is obedience. All that is what nurtures us and nurtures a spirit within us when we’re when we’re doing those things. And constantly doing those things, and enjoy and doing those things. You know, the the good example of this is the hopeless broken vow center knows his only hope of Heaven is to freely be forgiven by God. The person who truly knows and believes that is the one who cannot refuse to forgive another. So if you say you have the Holy Spirit in you, but you won’t forgive others, then it’s questionable whether you really truly have the Holy Spirit. If you’re an unforgiving guy, you probably have been Unforgiven. In other words, if you’ve ever been truly forgiven in your heart, you’ve, you’ve repented. And that’s what Jesus and john the baptist both came to preach the gospel of repentance, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. That means I turned from myself. And I realized that I am a vow center, and apart from Christ, that’s all I can do. So when I came to know Jesus Christ, I received the Holy Spirit and he’s making a new man out of me, we talked about Joe over here is a lot of Joe’s in this room. And if you’re not a Joe, like Joe has just had that encounter with Jesus Christ has changed his life and delivered him from alcohol and drugs. And now to not only that, he’s lifted him up to ministry, just like he did all his disciples. And not one of them would have been chosen by anybody choosing leadership in the new kingdom. But it’s an upside down kingdom. It’s not a kingdom that works on earthly values in earthly right practices and earthly wisdom. So you got to ask the question, then, as we get into the Sermon on the Mount, why? Why study the Sermon on the Mount? Why? Let me give you three quick reasons. One is the Lord died to enable us to live the Sermon on the Mount, he wouldn’t have given us a sermon on the mount, if he didn’t give us the power and the ability to live it out. So he died, that we might, that he might purify for himself are peculiar people that are zealous for good works. And so that’s why we study the Sermon on the Mount. Titus two, for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and a godly in this present age, looking for the blessing of hope, in the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for himself or people for his own possessions, zealous for good deeds. So that’s why he died, and that’s why he preached the Sermon on the Mount. He didn’t just say go out there and live it. He said, here’s what it means to live it. Here’s how you live it, here’s what you live. He didn’t leave us wondering, Well, okay, what do we do? He said, This is what you do. This is how you live. And he lived it himself, and then he taught us how to live it. Second reason is, it shows is the absolute need for being born again for having the Holy Spirit in our life. And so I started with the Beatitudes, which we’ll go through. It’s like the back on the line. I know you’ve heard the Beatitudes before.
But it never hurts to go over them again, I’d run sprints before but some reason the coach thought hard to keep running them. In the run in the sprints one day enough, he didn’t think so he thought I need to run sprints every day. And if I wasn’t playing was worth a flip, I’d have to run more sprints. And so sometimes in the Christian life, we need to go back over and get back on the line and run some more sprints. And we’ll be better than we were when we just ran one sprint shows us the absolute need for the Holy Spirit in our life. Martin Lord Jones says it’s wrong to ask anyone who’s not first a Christian to try to live in practice a sermon on the mount, to expect Christian conduct from a person who is not born again is heresy. In other words, if you haven’t received Jesus Christ, meaning the Holy Spirit within you, then it’s it’s like, last night, I was at a party. And there were a bunch of people there that didn’t know Christ. And I can’t expect them to not be drinking and partying and doing the things that they do at parties. Because that’s what they do. That’s what I did. When I was partying, back in college, in my fraternity, and all the stuff it was going on. And so to expect them to live differently is unreasonable. They can’t live any differently than that. That doesn’t mean that everybody that’s not a Christian parties. Now, there’s a lot of people that don’t party and they’re not Christians. But whatever they’re doing, however, they’re acting, we don’t judge them on the basis of Christianity. Now, if a person is truly born again, and he’s shown the fruit of that he’s been involved in active, then you might expect him to live up to what he’s got inside, to live out what God has put in, in his life. But to expect someone who doesn’t know Christ, we don’t we don’t love them the way that we love each other in their body of Christ. There’s no church discipline for a non Christian, because they’re not in the church. So you give them Grace, Grace, to be who they are, and then share the good news with them, the best we can and have, or God gives us opportunity. So you want to study the Sermon on the mountain, to be reminded of how desperately we need the Holy Spirit in our life to live the life that God has called us to live and given us. A third reason is that the blessings that come from living out this life. And that’s what the Beatitudes are all about. blesses the poor in spirit. So what are all the blessings? Well listen to these blessings in the Sermon on the map. There’s is a kingdom of heaven, they will be comforted. They will inherit the earth, they will be satisfied, they will receive mercy, they will see God, they will be called sons of God, their reward in Heaven is great. Wow. Let me read that again. I don’t know if you were really listening. Here’s a blessing if you’re living out the Sermon on the mountain, and you’re living the life that Christ gave us to give. And I had a guy actually asked me this. Not long ago, as I was sharing the gospel with him. He said, What’s the benefit? What do I get out of it? I didn’t have this list in front of me. But next time I see him, I’m gonna give him this list. Here’s what you get out of it. Yours is the kingdom of heaven. Now the words that’s and that doesn’t mean squat, anybody who doesn’t believe in hell. But if they don’t believe in hail, they don’t believe in the Bible. They don’t believe in Jesus. And there’s a lot of people that don’t believe in hail. It’s comforting not to believe in hell, that you’re not going to be facing judgment. We’ll talk about that later. Here’s the kingdom of heaven. You will be comforted in this world. When you suffer, you’ll be comforted. You will inherit the earth. That means the earth you don’t have to live under the world’s laws anymore in the world’s pool, that you can inherit the kingdom of God, you can live out a different lifestyle. You’ll be satisfied, you won’t need a bunch of things that you need. Now, you’ll find peace. And once you have not watching, not trouble and what you don’t have, you will receive mercy. Be merciful to me, oh God, according to your loving kindness. So if you’re in the kingdom, and you’re living the Christian life, and you’ve received the Holy Spirit, you’re going to be shown mercy and grace. Everybody needs mercy and grace. Every desperate man needs mercy, mercy and grace, you will see God. Well, we’ll talk about that later, when we get to that.
But just the fact that you could see God that you could see who he is what he’s done, you could have a concept of God of God is gracious and good and loving and kind and compassionate. He’s merciful. You’ll see God, you’ll be called the sons of God. If you do these things, then no man will know that you’re my disciple. If you live these things out, and then your reward in Heaven is going to be great. He started with yours is the kingdom of heaven, they finish with yours, reward in Heaven will be great. We just need to keep in mind when we’re trying to live the Christian life. And it’s hard. It’s difficult to turn the other cheek and go the second mile and forgive those who have really hurt you and wounded you. That’s hard. But it’s only hard for those of us who have held on to the kingdom of self. We have been hurt, we’ve been embarrassed, humiliated, wounded. And we won’t let go of it. Because our self is so strong. But when we let go of it, we reward in Heaven will be great when we live it out. So that’s three reasons. One reason was the Lord died to give us that. Then the second one that he shows us absolute need for the new birth. The third is blessings. And here’s the fourth evangelism. The sermon on the mount and living the Sermon on the Mount is the best means of evangelism. We’ve talked about this before. You know, when we Christians are doing the Christian thing, we’re going to Bible studies, we’re showing up at church on a pretty regular basis. We’re giving the missionaries we listen to Christian music, go to conferences and retreats, and we do our Christian thing. And the world’s looking at that and go and stupid Christians are they go again, they’re not impressed. But when they see you turn the other cheek or forgive someone that doesn’t deserve your grace and forgiveness. When they see your pure lifestyle, when they see you miss a three foot putt and not break your cup club over your knee. But you have a good attitude. They’re impressed. They’re impressed when you live this life when you are giving grace and encouraging people and edifying when your temper is under control, and your mouth is under control, that gets their attention. They want to see the real McCoy they want to see us live it out. They want us to see us live what we say we believe and that’s the hardest thing for us Christians to live up to what we say we believe and in our temper and our anger and our language and our attitudes, the way we the way we respond when things don’t go our way. People are always watching you remember the guy that was watching me fail the home last year of playing ball. I had a terrible year and he came up to my locker and said whatever you got I’ve been watching you all year and whatever you got on me I’m thinking What have you got a lot of I got you need I just had the worst year ever had in my life. I felt terrible. I was dejected and and actually ready to retire which I did before they could release me it sounds better to be retired than fired. So we went to dinner that night and shared the guy with the guy had come to know Christ and the difference he had made and he ended up praying to receive Christ that night. I looked him up on Google not long ago and found that he had been a Hall of Fame high school baseball coach in Pennsylvania. So that was a blessing to see and to hear. The imbalances men are God’s method. The church is looking for better methods. God is looking for better man. Martin Lord Jones says the world today is looking looking for and desperately needs true Christians. I’m never tired of saying that what the church needs to do is not to organize more evangelistic campaigns to attract outside people, but to begin herself to live the Christian life.
We claim to believe that the Son of God has come into the world and sent his own Holy Spirit into us. His absolute power that will remain in men and make them live a quality of life like his own. He came I say in the lived and died, and rose again and send us the Holy Spirit in order that you and I might live out the Sermon on the Mount. If only all of us were living the Sermon on the Mount men would know that there is a dynamic in the Christian gospel, they would know that, that this is the real thing. They would not go looking for anything else they would say, here it is, this is real. And if you read the history of the church, you’ll find that has always been when men and women have taken this sermon seriously, and face themselves in the light of it, that the revival has come. We pray a lot for revival. But we have to live the revival is what he’s saying. We have to be the real thing. We have to turn the other cheek, we have to love the unlovely. We have to give grace and forgive those who will never ask and never humble themselves. And in our heart, we forgive him anyway. We take that Spirit of Christ, when people would promise like Peter did, I’ll lay my life down for you, will you Peter. And when Peter didn’t Jesus didn’t feel any animosity toward Peter are criticized, criticize him, or have a critical spirit toward him. He forgave him, because he knew Peter had good intentions, Peter minute when he said, I’ll lay my life down for you. But he didn’t have the Holy Spirit to be able to live up to what his passion wise. But he got it. He had to be broken, though, have you been broken? Because before we’re going to vow to the Lord Jesus Christ before we’re going to be able to live this, this sermon out this kingdom living out, we’re going to have to be broken, we’re gonna have to be humble, we got to become desperate. And if you’ve never been that broken, and hunger, hungry and desperate for righteousness, realizing that you can’t do it. And that’s how I came to Christ. As you may recall, I couldn’t live it. I kept trying to be a Christian trying to keep the rules. I was Roman, seven things that I knew I should do. I didn’t do I wanted to do, but I had no appetite. I had no power to do it. And the things I knew I shouldn’t do, I really love doing that and tried to quit them that I did quit a lot, but started up again a lot. And I was desperate. And I prayed that desperate prayer. And that’s what we have to get to that place in our life. And Peter had to get there every man that’s ever come to Christ had some desperation. The first time I walked out eight years old, I was definitely not desperate. I didn’t know what sin was. I didn’t know what salvation was. All I knew is I’m eight years old. And there goes Alford walking down the aisle, maybe I should walk down the aisle to. And I did. And all it did was create animosity in my heart, confusion, frustration. Because I couldn’t live it out. I wanted to be a good little Christian Baptist boy. But I couldn’t be in it. It drove me to a desperate place of praying a desperate prayer. And that’s how men come to Christ. And if you’ve never been desperate, you may be a Christian. But there’s got to be a desperation in there somewhere of realizing I can’t be a Christian in my own power. I can’t do it myself. There are a lot of guys that can keep the rules better than other guys. And they rule keepers. And they expect other people to be rule keepers. And they’re pretty hard on them when they’re not. I got three characteristics here of what a Christian is, is characteristics of a Christian, but I’m saving them to next week. Because if I start them now we’re going to go too long. And I don’t want to go too long. And have that think you’ve had long between what you’ve heard up here up front from the testimonies you’ve heard today and from the music and the sharing that Steve gave us today and the few things I’ve shared with you to talk about the Sermon on the mound and living it out. And that’s when revival is going to come and we pray for revival and we pray for revival and we pray for revival but it hasn’t come. Maybe it’s going to come when we start living the life. Maybe it’s going to come like Martin Lord john says when we start living out the life that God has put in us, we start truly being Christian and our spirit and heart and attitude toward others. God will bring revival people will start coming to Christ in our own homes in our neighborhoods. So let’s do it.
Your name may not appear down here in this world solid fame. You remember that point? It’s God’s Hall of Fame that we’re shooting for. He has a Hall of Fame in heaven. In our name is air if we’re living this out, see, we get a chance to prove our Christianity every day. When the hardship comes in, the suffering comes in the loss comes in the disappointment comes, there are opportunities. I had a guy yesterday that had millions of dollars. And they had a deal. And when they close this deal, his cut was going to be 7 million. And the people that they were doing the deal with backed out, he had told us his partners in business, he said, Look, we can’t trust these guys, that person that’s leading their organization got a lot of concern about and his partners didn’t listen. And then when they backed out and they lost, and now I’m not going to get a paycheck. They put everything they had into this deal. And we as we were talking, I just shared with him what I’ve shared with a lot of guys before, you know God just rescued you. He just delivered you from being in partnership with a bunch of people you saw from the beginning, they weren’t the kind of people you want to do business with and be partners with. And what God has done here, it seems like a loss, it seems like a terrible failure. But it’s really a rescue effort from God. God’s got other clients out there that you can still get to close deals with. And God will give them to you if you’ll trust him. And he’s in business with guys that are Christian, as far as he knows. But they wouldn’t listen to him when he said we don’t need to be partners with these people. I don’t think he’s gonna say I told you so. But he could. So what man made for it mean for evil, God means for good. And Joseph tada said, didn’t he? You guys meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And so that’s the way a Christian lives, he sees things differently. He doesn’t see it the way other people see it. They see it as a loss and they’re mad and angry and upset and scared and fearful. But Christians don’t look at the things that God puts in and takes out like that we have a whole different kingdom and lifestyle and view of life. We see things differently. We see God in him. We see what God’s doing in them and God is more concerned about our character and our integrity and our righteousness in the living that way then he is about us closing deals, deal smells for God. He uses those sayings to bit make men of God that start revivals book out, because the way they live. So Lord, and here’s a prayer I wrote down, God give us grace to face the Sermon on the Mount. Seriously, and honestly, and prayerfully until we become the living examples of it, and the glorious teaching that it is, so that revival may come and all men will know that Jesus is Lord. And we pray that in his name And all God’s men said Amen. Give them Heaven, guys.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai