The Upside-Down Kingdom: Why ‘Good Enough’ Isn’t Good Enough

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:05:06] Good morning church, how are we doing this morning? It's good to be in the house of the Lord. The psalmist writes, come let us sing for joy to the God of our salvation. He's our rock, amen? Let's stand together, he's worthy. Come on!
[00:05:18] Those walls that we called sin and shame, they were like prisons we couldn't escape. But he came, and he died, and he rose. Those walls are rubble now.
[00:05:50] What do you think? Come on. Lift your voice to him. Hands together.
[00:05:54] Remember those giants we called death and grave?
[00:06:01] They were like mountains that stood in our way.
[00:06:07] But he came and he died and he rose.
[00:06:12] Those giants are dead now.
[00:06:14] You believe it. Yeah! This is our God.
[00:06:19] This is our God. This is who he is.
[00:06:23] He loves us.
[00:06:25] And this is our God, this is what he does, he saves us He bore the cross, eat the grave, let heaven and earth proclaim This is our God, King Jesus That took our breath away, weak that we could barely pray
[00:06:58] But he heard every word whisper Those altars in the wilderness Tell the story, did he fail?
[00:07:19] And he knelt Our God, he loves us

[00:07:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_16]
[00:07:31] This is our God, this is what he does

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:07:34] He saved, this is our God King Jesus He did all of our sin Nobody but Jesus Who pulled me out of that pit He did all of our sin. Nobody but Jesus rescued me from that grave. Yahweh, Yahweh gets the glory
[00:08:22] and pray. Nobody but Jesus rescued me from that grave. It's the glory. This is our God. This is what he does. He saves. Aren't you thankful? Yeah. You are in this place, Lord. We claim that truth.
[00:18:26] Let's sing this together, church.
[00:18:57] It's good to be together in the house of the Lord.
[00:20:27] He has some special things in store for us this morning.
[00:20:30] You believe that?
[00:20:30] We celebrate our 20th year anniversary this year, and we're so thankful for his faithfulness through every day, every moment, every year.
[00:20:38] Have a seat for just one moment and watch this video that we celebrate together.

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_15]
[00:20:44] Yeah, so we were at EMIS for about three years, doing the set up and tear down every week.
[00:20:50] And so at 630 in the morning, we would leave with trucks and trailers and pull into the EMIS parking lot.
[00:20:57] We transformed the gym into a worship center.

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:21:02] Me and Doug, we'd both go get a trailer full of all the equipment.
[00:21:07] There was trailers full of cabinets that rolled up into the trailers.
[00:21:13] So everybody had their own section for junkyard, for the nursery.
[00:21:17] We had carpet that lined the whole hallway.
[00:21:20] So we had a lot of stuff in one trailer.
[00:21:21] And then all the band equipment was in another trailer.

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_15]
[00:21:24] They actually had a room behind the stage that was the cafeteria.
[00:21:28] shared the stage with the worship center and so that's where we did our family service so people would be getting ready for the family service we had a family service every week called the junkyard it had actors and you know music and it
[00:21:42] was sort of like a total together family worship service that was always at 9 a.m.

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:21:46] junkyard was the kids production and so like it literally was a production like a whole trailer full of a complete set with a you know kids songs and skits every week that was our first service we'd have a kid service and then yeah but I remember we

[00:22:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]
[00:22:02] start we started it in our driveway painting all the scenes and even going to the junkyard the skits were fun me and Heather Phillips we would practice our lines riding bikes

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:22:15] each other and my character was Todd I was a surfer surfer dude in a junkyard makes no sense

[00:22:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_15]
[00:22:24] but it was it was a lot of fun and so people would be setting up classrooms they didn't let us rent tons of classrooms so we we had to sort of make do with what was there and i think uh for
[00:22:36] the first two years uh hallway was the nursery we would roll out carpet and transform it into a room with baby gates and they'd be 15 little kids in the nursery and i had when i taught the preschool

[00:22:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:22:50] It was called The Depot, and it was in the band room at EMIS.
[00:22:54] Yeah.
[00:22:55] It just made do with what we had.

[00:22:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_15]
[00:22:58] So it was a busy day.
[00:22:59] Every Sunday was a busy day.
[00:23:01] And it was amazing because it was a season for us where, even though it was so busy, there was so much life.
[00:23:08] And it was every person was required to make stuff happen.
[00:23:12] Everybody was an integral part.
[00:23:14] And so people found real purpose in that because they could see how the Lord was using their gifts to actually make Sundays happen.
[00:23:22] And the Lord kept growing the church.

[00:23:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_13]
[00:23:25] So when you're inviting people to come to church where they have to, you want to ask them to set up and tear down and it's not a nice, comfortable building.
[00:23:35] It is a little bit hard, but I really feel like the Lord just sent the people that we needed and he wanted there.
[00:23:43] And it was, for me, I thought it was a fast growth.
[00:23:49] They told us within one year we needed to be financially independent, you know, where we can pay the bills in one year.
[00:23:55] And God just blessed us and sent the right people at the right time.
[00:23:59] And we just have been able to pay the bills ever since.
[00:24:03] And look around now, and it's just night and day.
[00:24:06] It's amazing what God has done.

[00:24:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:24:09] Earlier when you guys were talking about getting up at 630 and being there, But as you walk through this whole timeline and you think about it, that's when you made your friends.
[00:24:19] That's when you go back and you cherish what was there.
[00:24:22] We can be in this great big building, and this is awesome, and I love this place, and I'm not going to leave this place.
[00:24:27] But when you think about what makes us special, that's what makes us special because this is still together, and that's awesome.

[00:24:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:24:37] Can you believe we've been together for 28 years?
[00:24:40] Totally.
[00:24:41] Some of us the entire time, some of us the majority of the time, as families that accepted the call to plant a church in Mooresville, North Carolina.
[00:24:50] And look what he's done.

[00:24:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]
[00:24:52] That's good.
[00:24:54] All the time.

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:24:56] Hey, man, church, would you just join me in celebrating really quick everything that God has done in the last 20 years?
[00:25:03] Man, it's just so exciting to watch that and see all of that.
[00:25:08] I mean, I started coming to youth group actually here in 2018, and man, like, it's so amazing what God has done since then, and now we're here 20 years since the beginning, and there's lots of things going on for our 20th anniversary, you'll see stuff in the lobby, so just make
[00:25:23] sure to join in and all of that, because everybody, whether it's your first time or your 800th time, you are a part of that, and we're so happy to have you here.
[00:25:30] If we haven't had the chance to meet yet, my name is Nick, I'm the youth director here at Christ Community Church, and on behalf of Pastor David, his wife Katie, and just our entire staff and team. We just want to say welcome in this Sunday morning. Thank you for
[00:25:42] deciding to worship with us this morning. Man, I'm so excited to be here in the house, and we've got some awesome things going on. And really quickly too, if it is your first time, like I mentioned
[00:25:52] earlier, there's just one thing that I kind of always ask. If you're a first-time guest, there's a little blue Connect card on the seat back pocket in front of you. If you would, just fill that out
[00:26:01] if it's your first time, and then take it to the black Connect booth. You'll see three little cards at the back of the lobby and someone will be there to greet you, to give you a gift on your way out
[00:26:10] and answer any questions you might have for your first time. Church, would you join me in welcoming our first time guest this morning? Awesome. And if you have been here lots or if it is your first
[00:26:23] time and you don't know what we are all about here, it's right there in our name, Christ Community Church. We exist to see people come to know Christ, to love through community and to live as the
[00:26:31] church. And if that's your heartbeat as well, welcome in, man. We're so excited to have you here.
[00:26:36] We have a few things going on, and I'm going to just briefly mention two of them.
[00:26:40] You can see everything on the screen behind me, but you can also go to our website to check all of these out.
[00:26:45] But the two things I'm going to mention today are, number one, the men's breakfast coming up on March 14th.
[00:26:50] Just come to that.
[00:26:51] If you're a guy and you want breakfast early at 7.30 in the morning on a Saturday, come to the men's breakfast.
[00:26:58] They are awesome.
[00:26:59] I've been to a few.
[00:27:00] I actually wasn't able to be at the last one.
[00:27:02] For those who were at the last one, was it pretty solid?
[00:27:05] Yeah?
[00:27:05] Yeah. Okay. I saw some thumbs up and yeah, I see some thumbs up, man. You guys can be louder next time. Maybe next service, next service. We got it. Then the next thing I want to mention for the
[00:27:15] ladies, we've got this spring Bible study coming up, I believe March 16th. Let me see. I got that right. March 16th. If you are a lady and you want to join in on that, that starts Monday, March 16th.
[00:27:26] That's a spring Bible study that our women's ministry is doing. So join that if you would like. Okay, so that's all I'm covering for announcements. However, I'm going to invite now a special guest, someone who does so much here, actually like a lot here with our Kids Crew
[00:27:43] ministry. I'm going to invite Marissa Ersparmer to come up and tell you guys a little bit more about Kids Crew and an opportunity to serve. Marissa, tell us about Kids Crew. Hi guys, good

[00:27:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:27:53] morning. You guys make me sweat. Your kids don't make me sweat this much. I don't like talking in front of people um your kids that are mine um so if you guys didn't know you guys have awesome
[00:28:01] children and i get to spend every sunday with them in the back and they are great i mean what's really cool watching that video back is that um when we were at this space after ems i've been here
[00:28:11] um for eight years eight and a half years and i've watched our kids crew grow i've i've um been pregnant serving in the back and teaching the kids uh for a long time now um and
[00:28:23] So it's really fun seeing like the new faces and the new kids that we have in Kids Crew.
[00:28:28] Kimber is one of our faces that we've seen in the last year.
[00:28:30] So she's going to be here helping me invite you guys to come and serve in Kids Crew.
[00:28:35] So because we are in this awesome space and because of the history that you guys have seen there and how much love has been poured into Christ's community, we have grown so much and we have so many kids in the back.
[00:28:46] We are averaging 100 to 120 kids in the back on a Sunday morning.
[00:28:51] and that is not just your children, just so you guys know. We have a very big foster community in our church, if you guys weren't aware, and so when our teachers get an opportunity to pour God's
[00:29:03] love into your kids, but they also get an opportunity to pour God's love into kids who this might be the very first time that they have ever heard about Jesus, and I want to share a
[00:29:13] story with you of the impact that our teachers have on the kids that we see in Kids Crew. So one of my really good friends um she's a foster mom and her family's a foster family and they had
[00:29:24] a little girl with them and she had never gone to church before she had never prayed before and they just like poured into her they just like loved her so much they brought her to church every
[00:29:33] Sunday and I will tell you after about a couple weeks um there was not a meal that went by that she was like I'm praying nope my turn I'm praying I'm praying um and they weren't even all sitting
[00:29:44] down at the table yet. Um, but they, the little girl would go on visits with her mom and they would write in the notebook and like tell the mom, like, Hey, we have a kid's crew, um, Christmas
[00:29:52] play coming up and we're practicing these songs and we want to invite you to come to church with us, you know? And the mom, she hadn't written back many times, but, um, one of the times that
[00:30:02] she did write back, she said that she knew her daughter loved coming to church here and that she used to go when she was a little girl and that she was considering, um, after they reunified,
[00:30:12] coming back to church here because her daughter had loved it so much. And so what we do here in our kids crew goes well beyond the walls or the things that we even see. So you guys get to see
[00:30:24] the kids running through the hallways and stuff, but there are things that go on behind these walls that when you sign up to be a kids crew teacher, you're signing up to sow those seeds and water
[00:30:33] seeds. And you might not get to see those harvests. You might not get to see how that impacts like the kids that leave these buildings but it is a very very very special um job that we get as kids crew
[00:30:44] teachers so this is my invite to all of you to be a part of that to um help sow those seeds to help water those seeds and those plants that were that we are um sowing in kids crew so do we have fun
[00:30:57] in kids crew kimber we have a lot of fun in kids crew do i beat you in four square and yeah no it's all right I know so I'm still undefeated but it's you know it's not a big deal um so Kimber
[00:31:08] is going to um pray us close and she's going to pray for all of you um to be willing workers and to sign up um we will be in the uh foyer so when service is over you can come and see me and I can
[00:31:20] help you find your spot um of where to serve and they're anywhere between like 13 um and up we would like to have you and if you have a child that's younger than that so I get a lot of those
[00:31:30] kids that like i've taught them in their fifth and sixth grade year i have a i have a rule i do not kick kids out of kids ministry they actually just come back and help me because they love it
[00:31:40] so much so if you do have a kid in that in between years and you're serving they can come and serve with you so just if you want to talk to me about it you can see me in the foyer but kimber is going
[00:31:49] to close us in prayer and pray for you guys um to come and sign up to be hang out with us right

[00:31:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:31:54] Kimber all right here we go dear Lord Jesus help these people dear Lord Jesus please help these people with these with this kids crew thank you for this opportunity for me to come pray to these people on Jesus name and pray amen

[00:32:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:32:33] that is so awesome you know we get to be a part of serving the Lord and it's all worship like we sing songs in this place and we worship the Lord, but we use our gifts and our
[00:32:45] offerings to worship him in other ways with our hands and our feet and with our words and with our actions. Amen. And so you have an opportunity to do that today and this week and next year and
[00:32:58] the next 20 years of what the Lord is going to do. I think of the goodness of the Lord and I'm so overwhelmed of what he's done in my life and the lives of others in this body and in our community
[00:33:13] and it's only just begun aren't you thankful for that church but i also want to remind us all as we stand together as we continue to worship and sing to him that it's all for his name it's all
[00:33:25] for his glory it's all for his praise he is our king and he is worthy of every ounce of our being Yes. Yes. Y'all need to wake up this morning. Come on. Yeah. Lord, may this be a sweet offering to you.
[00:33:50] Not just words or lyrics. Our heart's desire.
[00:33:53] If you're alive or mine, healed to the cross, you crucified. All my sin and shame was washed by your mercy.

[00:34:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_16]
[00:34:12] And all praise goes to Jesus, my King forever.

[00:36:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:36:06] We have the opportunity to lift our hands, our voices to Him in this place.
[00:36:18] May we lift up holy hands to Him.
[00:36:21] He's worthy. Come on.
[00:36:24] And I lift my hands up, lay my whole life down, my whole life down before You.
[00:36:34] and I lift my hands up lay my whole life down my whole life now is for you my hands up lay my whole life down my whole life down before you Lift my hands up, lay my whole life down.
[00:37:01] My whole life is for you.
[00:37:05] And all praise to the one who saved my life.
[00:37:17] All praise to the king of heaven, my king forever.
[00:37:27] And all praise to the king forever.
[00:37:50] Can we just lift our hands to him?
[00:37:52] and sing this one more time that we lift our hands up and we lay our lives down as an offering of service and of worship to him come on and i lift my hands up lay my whole life
[00:38:10] down my whole life down before you and i lift my hands up lay my whole life down my whole life now is for you. Lord, may that be true. Lord, may we mean the lyrics and the words that we
[00:38:33] praise you with our mouths. Lord, may we lay our lives down to you, Lord Jesus, here today because you're worthy of it all. And Lord, as we continue to worship you in this place this morning,
[00:38:45] as we open your word, God, speak to us. Lord, move in us, Lord, and talk and move through Pastor David.
[00:38:53] Lord you're worthy of our attention you're worthy of our focus and you're worthy of our obedience Lord so in this place may we be obedient to your Holy Spirit's direction Lord as only you can move
[00:39:07] have your way and move in us Lord Jesus we love you and we thank you and we continue to worship you and all God's people said amen

[00:39:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_15]
[00:39:18] you can be seated as you are tell your neighbor I'm really glad you're here today Well, I'm so excited to open God's Word together as a church family today.
[00:39:32] If you've got your Bibles, go ahead and open it to Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter 5.
[00:39:37] We're in week 3 of this series called Upside Down Kingdom.
[00:39:41] And if you look all across the world at all the kingdoms of the world, they really should be disappointing to us, right?
[00:39:49] Because they're not meant to be what the Lord has for us.
[00:39:54] he's bringing a different kind of kingdom and it doesn't matter where you go or what country you live in we can live in the greatest country on the planet with the most freedom and spiritual
[00:40:04] freedom and all the rest but but it's still there's so many things that when you look at the patterns of the kingdoms of this world they're so disappointing and it leaves us wanting something more wanting a better kingdom and so we've been looking at jesus's most famous sermon the sermon
[00:40:21] on the Mount, where he talks about an upside down kind of kingdom, a kingdom that he was bringing that was different than the rest of the world.
[00:40:30] And so week one, we said, hey, are you building your own kingdom here on earth, or are you bringing God's kingdom to the earth?
[00:40:39] Are we just perpetuating the cycle of everything that we see in the culture around us, or are we bringing a little slice of heavenly kingdom to earth so people know God is real?
[00:40:49] And then last week we talked about what the blessed life looks like, how it's so upside down in God's economy that the blessed life in Jesus' economy, the upside down kingdom, is a broken one.
[00:41:02] It's a broken one that shines out and that seasons life so people know that Jesus is real.
[00:41:09] and so today we're gonna jump into Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 but before we do I wanted to tell you a dad joke cuz I had an epic dad joke yesterday there was nobody there to hear it and if the cashier was the only one to hear it I
[00:41:23] figure you should be forced to hear it too so I'm going through Walmart and of course I don't have a buggy you know because a shopping cart for those of you not raised in the south I don't have I don't have one of those things you know
[00:41:36] the cart to put the stuff in so I just got everything in my hands right because it's a quick trip just trying to run in run out and I had like 14 different jars in my hands and I make it to the cashier because I'm not gonna check my own self
[00:41:48] out if I do I might miss some things you know I'm saying like you're gonna pay me for working but but I I go to the cashier and I drop everything on to the cashiers place right and she's it makes the loudest noise like it she is shocked
[00:42:02] and she's what what is happening and it was the jar of pickles like it almost busts on the thing it didn't thank God it didn't bust but it but it was it just hit really hard on the conveyor belt and she said oh my goodness and I said oh
[00:42:18] yeah that was the the pickles and then instantly the dad joke came to my mind and I said yeah if that would have busted it would have been kind of a big deal and then she she didn't laugh but that's fine but you don't have to laugh
[00:42:33] either you don't have to coddle me okay like I'm a big guy I could take it I've got four daughters and they let me know I'm not funny. All right, so this morning as we jump into
[00:42:42] God's word, let's pray. Would you just invite the Holy Spirit to be your teacher in this moment, in this time? I've been praying for us this morning because I really believe the Holy Spirit has a word he wants to say to every single person in this house and in every house that's watching
[00:43:03] on the live stream his word is alive we don't have to do anything to make his word come alive his word is alive and as we open god's word jesus promised us that we will find him when we seek him
[00:43:19] with all of our hearts and so in this moment would you just say holy spirit take away every distraction I want to lock eyes with Jesus.
[00:43:30] I want to hear his voice.
[00:43:34] Whatever he wants to tell me, I'm listening.
[00:43:40] Wash over my heart and my mind and my spirit with the word of God.
[00:43:48] And strip away anything that doesn't look like Jesus.
[00:43:56] Lord, would you guide our time?
[00:43:58] And all God's people said, amen.
[00:44:01] I heard this story about a guy who lived out in the woods, lived way out in the woods, and he ended up finding a little wolf pup that was by itself.
[00:44:11] It had been abandoned by its mom.
[00:44:13] And so he decided he was going to take that wild wolf pup to his house.
[00:44:17] And he coddled it and loved it and bottle fed it and raised it and all the stuff, and he was going to treat it like a dog instead of a wild wolf, right?
[00:44:26] And so all of his friends got a little nervous.
[00:44:28] like you know that thing has has instincts inside of it you know that thing is wild you are you sure that you can tame that wild wolf and any oh don't worry it would never hurt me I raised it right one night he forgot to latch the
[00:44:44] cage and the instinct that had always been there hidden beneath the affection and familiarity took over and by morning the house was in ruins and the man was wounded by the very thing that he had nurtured sin is just like that wolf sin is just like that wolf
[00:45:03] we never welcome sin as a monster into our lives we excuse it as a struggle we rename it a personality flaw we keep it close because it comforts us we coddle it and we even think we're
[00:45:17] in control of it but sin is not a house pet it's a predator and it wants to destroy our lives when we coddle sin we feed it with excuses we warm it up with secrecy we protect it from accountability
[00:45:30] we're nurturing the very thing that's seeking to destroy us and in the upside down kingdom just jot this thought down today in the upside down kingdom we don't coddle sin we kill it in the upside down kingdom like we we don't cherish our sin we don't celebrate our sin
[00:45:49] We don't minimize or compromise with sin.
[00:45:52] In Jesus' kingdom, in the upside-down kingdom, sin is taken seriously for the threat that it is.
[00:45:59] In the upside-down kingdom, we don't coddle sin.
[00:46:02] We kill it.
[00:46:04] And I want you to see what Jesus has to say to the people in the crowd, some of whom would have considered themselves the most holy people there were on the planet.
[00:46:14] They were the scribes and the Pharisees.
[00:46:17] And they thought that you could be holy enough to stand in the presence of a perfect God.
[00:46:23] They thought you could keep all the rules and you could be self-disciplined and you would be at a place where you've reached total holiness before the presence of God.
[00:46:35] They thought you could be good enough in and of yourself, but little did they know, outwardly they were keeping the rules, but inwardly their hearts were full of sin.
[00:46:44] and Jesus wants to make sure that everybody in the place knows sin is not something to be coddled it is to be killed and so look at what he says in Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 here's what he says
[00:46:56] he's just talked about a blessed life now we go into the next session look what it says don't think that I've come to abolish the law and the prophets Jesus isn't saying that he's doing away
[00:47:06] with the whole old testament look at what he says I haven't come to abolish them I've come to what fulfill them for truly i say to you that until heaven and earth pass away not an iota not a dot
[00:47:17] not a jot not a tittle as they said in the king james from the law will pass away until every single thing written in the law is accomplished jesus is looking he's saying it's it's not that
[00:47:30] i'm saying that the old stuff is gone he's saying look right here i'm coming to fulfill the old stuff because you never had a prayer you you never had a prayer of being able to fulfill it
[00:47:45] the law was supposed to show you how broken you are the law was supposed to show you you could never be perfect you could never be holy it wasn't a checklist for you to go through your life and
[00:47:56] think if i just keep all the rules then eventually i'm going to be able to stand before a perfect and holy god and i'll be just as holy as him he was the law was supposed to show you could never
[00:48:07] stand before a perfect and holy god unless he did something to welcome you into his presence and jesus says i didn't come to abolish all that i came to fulfill it in your place there's no way
[00:48:21] that you could ever meet the standard the standard isn't good the standard is perfect to stand before a holy god who's never sinned the standard is having never sinned also and he said there's no way you could ever have achieved that so i've come to fulfill it in your place
[00:48:40] just jot this down jesus set and met the standard of perfect holiness for you that is good news today amen you you can't meet it you can't do it all of us have sin in our lives all of us have
[00:48:56] brokenness that have been passed down we have generational brokenness that's been passed down and then we choose to do the same things over and over that bring ruin to our lives don't we like Jesus looked at us and he said there's no way you could ever fulfill it so that's why I came I
[00:49:13] pulled skin on so I could fulfill all of it in your place I set and I met the standard of perfect holiness for you look at what he says at the next verse therefore anyone who relaxes one of the least
[00:49:29] of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven read verse 20 out loud of me this would have sounded revolutionary you talk about dropping
[00:49:42] bombs on them this would have sounded like something so counter-cultural everybody would have had a audible gasp as jesus said it read this out loud what does he say verse 20 for i tell you
[00:49:56] unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees you will never enter the kingdom you're not even going to see it you're not going to see the kingdom of god unless you're more righteous than the scribes and the pharisees the pharisees and the scribes
[00:50:17] thought they were righteous have you ever met somebody like that it's usually those people who have the darkest hearts right outwardly that it's all about performance it's all about a show but inwardly man it's so evil and that's what it was for them they thought oh I can just
[00:50:35] put on a great face I can just achieve all the stuff I can just keep all the rules and then God will be pleased with me I'll be just as holy as God and in the midst of that Jesus
[00:50:45] looks at them and he says to the crowd unless your personal holiness eclipses the holiness of the scribes and the pharisees you're not even going to see the kingdom and the crowd thought well who is who who can see the kingdom jesus is like anybody can because i set the standard
[00:51:05] and then i met the standard for you the standard of perfect holiness and i'll gift you my performance on your behalf but but he looks at them and there's this other implication that the Pharisees and the scribes won't see heaven.
[00:51:24] They were the people teaching others how to get to the presence of God.
[00:51:29] And he looks and he says, they're not even going to make it.
[00:51:33] Can you imagine how angry that made, what do you mean?
[00:51:37] I'm as holy as they come.
[00:51:39] People look to me and my life as a pattern for how they should live.
[00:51:44] In this moment, Jesus says, unless you go above good and you see perfect holiness you won't even see the kingdom and i'm like what what does that look like and so jesus wants to show them to even be able to get into heaven you have to be more holy
[00:52:05] than your rabbis look at what he says verse 21 he's going to show them that none of them have a prayer on their own righteousness look at what it says verse 21 you've heard it said to those of
[00:52:16] that you shall not murder for whoever murders will be liable to what judgment like he's saying don't murder this is not don't kill people misstate it all the time like God's not against war that protects or war that helps rescue people God's not against self-defense if somebody breaks
[00:52:32] into your home you can send them to to meet him real quick for the judgment that's he's not against that right this this is thou shalt not murder right and he says that that if you murder someone
[00:52:45] then you're liable to judgment this was an old testament command but look at what jesus says jesus says you really think that's the standard that's not the standard of perfect holiness let me show you the standard of perfect holiness look what he says verse 22 but i say to you read
[00:52:59] this out loud with me everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment what uh we're going to arrest you officer what are the charges anger huh how does that make sense
[00:53:16] look at what Jesus says he goes on whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council whoever insults whoever calls him literally the word for insults there is fool empty head numb skull blockhead look at your neighbor and say don't be a blockhead right okay now you're
[00:53:37] all guilty we're gonna have a trial later today right none of you are perfect now so even if you were perfect walking in you're not perfect now you need a perfect savior right look at what he
[00:53:47] says he goes on he says whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire he says you attack someone and their character you attack someone and their identity you call them a fool
[00:54:05] that's where we get our word is moros in in greek it's it's where we get our word for moron right how many of you have done that this week on how many 150 right I mean I'm just I have public
[00:54:16] moment of confession like this is right like he says when you look at somebody and you insult them in this way and you call them a fool he says you were just as guilty as the people who ended up
[00:54:32] burning their children's bodies in the valley of Gehenna in idol worship he says you may not think it's a big deal but when you attack someone it's like making a dumpster fire out of your life
[00:54:47] it might seem small but if you coddle that i want to tell you it will destroy you he says you shouldn't accept any sort of sin in your life it's not just don't murder he says when you look at
[00:55:02] somebody and you attack them when you call them a name this is why listen people are like pastor David you're so sensitive about stuff and no you don't like names I'm like I'm a words person okay like a part of that's how God maybe and maybe I am too
[00:55:16] sensitive about certain things but I want to tell you this like Jesus is trying to say every person on the planet is made in the image of God and the way that God sees them is made in his image now the way the enemy sees them is made
[00:55:33] by their sin the enemy looks at you and he is the accuser and so what he does is he takes your sin and he makes it your whole identity so it's not just that you
[00:55:44] lied you were a liar it's not just that you weren't productive it's you were a lazy bum right it's not just that you cheated it's that you are carry on out the rest of this stuff like the enemy looks at your name and he calls you by
[00:56:01] your sin jesus looks at your sin and he calls you by your name and in the middle of this whenever you take on an attack of somebody else and you insult that you fool like have you made that
[00:56:15] mistake as a parent or you said something you can't take back to your kid and how that sticks with him and in that moment you take on the mouth of the accuser and here's what jesus says you're
[00:56:29] doing you murder a piece of the image of god they were made in that's why they call it character assassination it's because you're killing off a piece of who they are in the midst of this jesus
[00:56:46] says if you want to talk about perfect holiness it's not just that you don't like you know hey i didn't murder anybody right but did you call somebody a moron did you attack someone did you
[00:56:57] take their worst moment and make that the sum total of who they were god you're no good you're lazy what whatever it is he says when you do that it's the same as murder you're killing a piece of
[00:57:11] the image of god that they were made in jesus keeps going to talk about sin people are like we're holy in and of ourselves look at what he says so if you're offering a gift at the altar
[00:57:21] this is a sacrifice like this isn't coming and bringing like a tither offering this is they're literally offering a sacrifice in worship to god for the forgiveness of their sins he look at what he tells them to do and you remember that a brother has something against you that you've
[00:57:37] done something like you called somebody a name you did something that offended somebody else he says you leave your gift at the altar and then you go first get reconciled to your brother then come back and offer your gift he says god cares more about your repentance to the person
[00:57:56] then your confession to him to get rid of the sin in that moment like get it restored right now then come back and offer your sacrifice at the altar he says it's so important that you not play the mouth
[00:58:12] of the accuser in someone else's life that you're not the one who's repeating the words of saint do you know that that's what he does in an argument between husband and wife he whispers to you and
[00:58:22] And he says, she'll never ever change, right?
[00:58:26] And then you say it, and what happens?
[00:58:30] You've become the mouthpiece of the accuser, right?
[00:58:37] And Jesus is saying, that's just like murdering a little piece of the image of God in somebody else.
[00:58:42] Don't do that.
[00:58:44] Look what he says.
[00:58:44] He keeps going.
[00:58:45] He says, come to terms quickly, verse 25, with your accuser while you're going with him to court, lest your accuser hands you over to the judge and the judge to the guard, and then you'll be put in prison truly I say to you you'll never get out until you paid the last
[00:58:58] penny he says whenever you know someone has something against you you shouldn't be okay with it when you know you've hurt someone when you know you've offended someone as a believer you shouldn't be fine to just go through your day he said there should be an urgency about getting it
[00:59:16] restored you shouldn't be fine with having them against you you need to get it right to the best that you can all you can do is apologize whether they accept it whether there's restoration that's
[00:59:27] up to them but on your part look what he says verse 27 he keeps going he says you've heard it said that you shall not commit adultery look at verse 28 but i say to you read this out loud with
[00:59:40] me what does he say everyone that looks at a woman with a lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart jesus says you guys talk about rules for holiness their rules were so
[00:59:58] jacked up by the way they were so favored toward men and not women did you know that their view of adultery was if you were a married man you could sleep with an unmarried woman and it wasn't
[01:00:08] considered adultery but if a married woman did that that was adultery their their rules were so oh mess, this is what happens when you try to make holiness about rules. Jesus looks at them and he says, you're talking about like adultery in this place up here, but I want to bring it
[01:00:26] into your heart and into your mind. He's like, you want to talk about perfect holiness? It's not just about whether or not you were in bed together. It's about where were you at in your
[01:00:34] mind? He says, when you look at someone, male, female, it doesn't matter. The standard is the same when you look at somebody and you're undressing them with your eyes when you fantasize about something when you look at that person and you think something you shouldn't think Jesus says
[01:00:53] that's the same you're like well I would never cheat on my spouse yeah but what you watch does what you let in your eyes does what you think about when you see someone does right he looks
[01:01:08] at this and he says do you know why it's because his plan was for one man and one woman to only awaken those things with each other he said in the covenant of marriage the gift of sex is the
[01:01:23] greatest gift god has for a married couple is supposed to be in that context i grew up in a church it was a great church but they really didn't know how to talk about sex and so it was
[01:01:32] always don't do it don't do it don't do it don't do it and then you get married you're like now do it and you're like what I don't understand like what people heard was it's bad it's bad it's bad
[01:01:40] it's bad it's bad now it's good and what they should have said the whole time is it's amazing but it's only right in this context because it's so powerful that that's the only place where it
[01:01:53] won't destroy your life here's what Jesus is saying he's saying you have a person you have a person and you're only supposed to let the feelings of that way be aroused by one person when you think of a naked body you're supposed to have one person's image in your mind your
[01:02:16] husband your wife that's it no other images should come there right he says any other image that comes you're you're you're cheating on your person right this is why he talks about sex outside of marriage being so damaged not that he doesn't want you to
[01:02:33] have a good time it's today he doesn't want you to bring baggage into your marriage he doesn't want you to destroy he one of his greatest gifts this is why he talks about pornography in such a heavy way this is why he talks about
[01:02:45] sexual immorality this is why he talks about adultery in the same way because he says you're doing that in your mind with someone else's person and it's only supposed to be for your person so he says i tell you if you just look with a lustful desire you've already
[01:03:04] committed adultery in your heart he wants you to know if you think you can be good enough on your own bro you don't have a prayer jesus set and he met the standard of perfect holiness for you isn't
[01:03:17] that good news today look at what he says verse 29 he says if your right eye causes you to sin you should tear it out and throw it away for it's better to lose one of your members than your whole
[01:03:29] body be thrown into hell and if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off throw it away for it's better for you to lose one of your members than your whole body go to hell now we don't want
[01:03:40] anybody to take these words literally today right like we're gonna have a time at the altar there's cleavers uh you'll be like that's not what jesus is saying he's not saying literally tear your eyeball out but here's what he's saying i think in our culture we have this idea we can manage sin
[01:03:56] and jesus tells us to mortify it he tells us no it's not can i be in this environment and still be okay can i like let this come into my mind and see this and still not lost like that would be a
[01:04:13] great goal if I could just watch these things and then I wouldn't have less in my heart and Jesus is like are you serious tear your eyeball out don't watch it watch it with an angel do something
[01:04:27] different like he says are you serious about he says don't coddle sin kill it don't be like you know what I have this alcohol problem I wonder if I can get close to the bar no why are you why
[01:04:41] would you put yourself in the position he says you know your temptations you know your proclivities you know your stuff the goal isn't to be close to sin and whoo I made it he's like that's not the
[01:04:53] goal he says the goal is not to coddle it it's to kill it don't put yourself in the scenario like stay far away from it be serious about it he's like if gluttony is your thing don't do your
[01:05:07] own grocery shopping right have your spouse go with you and as you put the little debbie's in the thing not this week right like this is you know what i'm saying like he says whatever your
[01:05:20] propensity is for sin don't just think i can tame this thing it's not that big a deal because it will destroy you it'll destroy you look what he says he keeps going skip to verse 48 we're going
[01:05:36] to skip to verse 48 jesus says this as he wraps up this this passage look at what he says read this out loud with me this is an amazing statement and this blew them away look at what he says this
[01:05:49] is an upside down kind of kingdom here's what he says verse 48 you therefore must be perfect let me see verse 48 here we go you ready let's i skipped way ahead there were lots more slides but
[01:06:03] just skipped it advanced it's on me look what it says verse 48 would you read this out loud with me jesus to sum up the whole passage he talks about marriage he talks about divorce he talks about
[01:06:12] adultery he talks about lust he talks about going the extra mile he talks about letting someone slap you and you turn in the other cheek all different things that he's trying to give an example for
[01:06:22] them of you can never achieve the standard of perfect holiness on your own someone else has to meet that standard for you and look at how he finishes out the chapter look at what it says
[01:06:33] verse 48 you therefore must be what perfect you must be what perfect as your heavenly father is perfect he says you want to be in the kingdom you got to be perfect now you can disagree with jesus
[01:06:52] right there's so many people who do if you ask them hey are you going to heaven when you die yeah i'm a good person well who determines that me well how do you determine it well i i look at the
[01:07:04] good in my life and it outweighs the bad in my life and so i think it'll be like a scale thing you know and i'm that's not what jesus says no you don't have to believe what jesus says but he's
[01:07:15] pretty clear jesus said unless you're perfect you won't even see the kingdom and i want to tell you that's bad news for all of us who are human but the good news is that jesus was perfect in your
[01:07:30] place he came to fulfill all of the law and all of the prophets here's what he did he pulled skin on and he lived a perfect life do you know for 33 years every temptation jesus had he never gave in
[01:07:46] once he was perfectly holy he never had a lustful thought he never had unrighteous anger he never attacked someone and murdered the image of god that they were made in even though they were literally tearing his beard out of his face and slamming a crown of thorns in his head he
[01:08:10] He fulfilled the law perfectly.
[01:08:14] And then here's what he did.
[01:08:16] He went to the cross.
[01:08:17] He fulfilled all of God's righteousness.
[01:08:19] And while he hung there on the cross, he took all of your places where you didn't fulfill God's righteousness.
[01:08:28] The Bible says he became sin who knew no sin so that we could become the righteousness of God.
[01:08:37] so while he's hanging between heaven and earth he says pour out on me make it like i'm their substitute the hell that they deserve the dumpster fire of punishment that they deserve because of all of their choices over 85 years of life let it apply to me i'm the perfect holy one but you can
[01:09:00] treat me like the worst things that they've ever done so i'm punished in their place and at the very end of his time on the cross he said it is finished it's paid in full look at me
[01:09:19] every lustful thought he paid in full every attack on someone's character he paid in full every act of gluttony and envy and jealousy and pride every time that you weren't compassion all the things that you did wrong and all the things you didn't do that were supposed
[01:09:41] to be right he paid for them all and he said covered by the blood of news today isn't it church it's not a standard you have to keep he set the standard and he met the standard of perfect
[01:10:01] holiness for you and today he stands with a gift for any person who would receive it for any person who would acknowledge their own brokenness and say there's no way I can make it because I'm not perfect but I still want a relationship with God any person who would
[01:10:18] want Jesus's forgiveness he says you just ask me and I give it it's a gift this gift of faith so if you're here in the house today and you've never done that just bow your head close your
[01:10:32] eyes with me right now in this moment this is the moment of your salvation this is the start of your journey with Jesus this moment is the moment so right now if you feel a tug at your
[01:10:46] heart that's because the Holy Spirit of God is blowing on you he's drawing you into a relationship with himself and all you need to do is say yes is to say yes the Bible says if you will confess
[01:10:59] Jesus as Lord that means he's in charge you're not in charge that means you give your life to him your breath to him your time to him you want to follow him not be God over your own life he says
[01:11:14] if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord you believe in your heart God raised Jesus from the dead that what he did meant something on your behalf he says in that moment you're saved
[01:11:24] he set the standard and he met the standard of perfect holiness in your place for gift if you'd like to receive that gift just tell him jesus i want to know you that way i want to receive that gift of forgiveness in life that's a brand new way of living an upside
[01:11:49] down kingdom way of living if you pray that the bible says that the holy spirit of god has attached himself to you and he's awakening a part of you called your spirit that you didn't even
[01:12:01] know was there. And he's promised he'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you. And for the rest of your life, he's going to teach you how to live and look like Jesus. And so the first thing
[01:12:10] that you do is you tell somebody about that because it's the best news ever. So on that seat back in front of you, fill out that card, put a check mark. It says, I pray to receive Jesus as
[01:12:20] my savior and Lord. And then take that to the connect booth across the lobby. There's somebody who's waiting for you there they'll be so excited with you and and they'll give you a book about
[01:12:29] what you do now that you've started this journey with Jesus it's sort of your first steps now that you've started this with him but for those of you that are believers in the house let me just ask
[01:12:38] you are you coddling sin are you saying it's manageable I want to tell you it is like a lion crouching at your door waiting to destroy you it's waiting to ravage you sin isn't something
[01:12:54] that believers should coddle he wants us to kill it he wants us to take it so seriously so urgently that it's like the judge is getting ready to sit down and wave the gavel it's like we got
[01:13:09] to get it straight now we can't wait for tomorrow we got to get it right now if somebody has something against us we can't even worship we got to go now because we've got to get it right now
[01:13:25] we want reconciliation now he says we're not going to accept murdering the image of god with people by attacking their character and identifying them with their sin we can call out behaviors we can say you lied and we don't lie in this family right like you can you can
[01:13:44] attack behavior but you don't you're not going to attack the person he says he says we're only going to think this way about our person we're only going to be awakened in a sexual way by
[01:14:00] our person he's all the ways that jesus talks about in this passage he says don't coddle sin kill it kill it if you become too comfortable with your sin like some that i have in this
[01:14:21] moment, I'm just going to invite you to pray and just say, Jesus, today I renounce the way that I think about that sin. It's not small. It's not manageable. It's not going to stay small. It will
[01:14:37] grow and take over my life until it destroys me and turns it into a dumpster fire. Jesus, killing it today. I only want what you have. I'm not going to settle. I'm not going to compromise.
[01:14:57] i'm not going to coddle it i'm going to crucify it forgive me for walking around thinking i'm carrying out this standard of holiness you've forgiven me of it all and here i am walking around like i'm doing whatever i want to do and saying it's no big deal the thing that cost you
[01:15:26] so much i'm grieving you i don't want to do that maybe it's the same sin over and over guys maybe it's the same one you battled for 15 20 years it's not your identity it's not who you are
[01:15:50] you hear me jesus says your identity is you are a blood-bought adopted child of the king you are not what you did and he's going to empower you to have victory it starts with accountability you need to tell somebody anything that's in the dark has power find a trusted
[01:16:17] brother or sister in Christ and say, I want you to help me be accountable. This is an area where I've just gotten lax. I've gotten lax with my mouth. I've gotten lax with what I let into my
[01:16:27] eyes and my mind. I've gotten lax in my thought life. I've gotten lax in caring for my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. I've gotten lax in my standards of what I say or do, whatever it might
[01:16:39] be. It doesn't matter. I've gotten, I've gotten really greedy and I have a closed fist. I'm not a generous person anymore like God wants me to whatever it is find somebody today and say will
[01:16:54] you help me be accountable for this I want to get this out of the dark so it's not destroying me would you pray for me and I'll walk in victory Lord I pray that you would help us be grateful
[01:17:07] for the gift that you have given us and that we would also Lord not coddle sin we'd kill it so we can walk in victory and shine your light in a world that desperately needs to see
[01:17:23] authentic, real, in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, amen.
[01:17:32] I'm gonna invite our elder of the week to come up.
[01:17:33] He's gonna pray over us.
[01:17:35] Will will be out at the fireplace at the end of the service if you need some individual prayer and you just say, hey, I wanna talk to somebody.
[01:17:42] Will is somebody you can totally trust.
[01:17:44] You can just go up to him and say, hey, would you pray for me about this?
[01:17:47] Man, I don't want this in my life anymore and he would love to pray for you throughout the week this week maybe you want to put that on the response card for our prayer team we have an intercessory prayer team those stay private just
[01:17:58] with the prayer team and with the leaders the elders of the church maybe you want to put that request on there hey i want five people praying for me uh about what i'm walking through because
[01:18:07] i don't want this to grow into a dumpster fire in my life whatever it is come come and tell somebody today and let's walk in victory. Let's pray. Waking us up this morning. Thank you for your

[01:18:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_14]
[01:18:27] word today. Lord, I pray that whatever sin that we stumble over, I pray that we bring it to light

[01:18:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_15]
[01:18:38] and we kill it to see your name. Amen. Miss Karen, would you come up for food for days? Would you guys welcome Karen? Awesome. So food for days is our mission of the month. And so if you're new to
[01:18:59] the church family every month we highlight a missions opportunity to local national international that we support through our ties and offerings and all through through volunteering and so we want you to have a chance to be able to be a part if you give any sort of donations with your coffee
[01:19:12] donations this month it's going to go to food for days food for days does backpack ministry here in our community sending home food with kids on the weekends who might have some food insecurity at
[01:19:24] their house and so karen would you tell us just sort of the mission of food for days and what you

[01:19:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[01:19:28] guys do. Yes, so as David mentioned, Food for Days is backpack meals ministry here in Iredell County. Right now we are in 19 schools, all the Morrisville graded schools. We have nine of the Iredell Statesville schools and Iredell Charter
[01:19:46] Academy that we serve. This week we send home 433 weekend meal bags. This week we added seven students. This coming week we have two more. It is important that we are able to be a resource for our counselors and social workers and
[01:20:10] families in the school system here in Iredell County if a need arises that we are able to meet that need. One of the ways that we are able to do that is is through our church partnerships.
[01:20:24] We have 10 church partners, and Christ Community has been a church partner for a long time.
[01:20:30] Since before I started, I became executive director back in 2013, and the church was already a part of the organization at that time.
[01:20:46] So this year, Christ Community, you collected 3,081 items for us give yourself a hand and um you also sponsor um 21 students uh east iredale um east mooresville intermediate school we have two we have east iredale middle which is one of our
[01:21:11] schools but you're with east um intermediate school here in mooresville uh right now there's 75 students. So the volunteers from our church that come out on Thursdays and pack and deliver those bags are delivering 75 bags each week to that school. So I just want to thank you
[01:21:31] for partnering with us. If you'd like more information, I actually am a part, my family and I, of Christ Community Church. I am on Connect Booth today. So if you would like to talk to me
[01:21:46] after service please come back to the connect booth i will be there awesome so church whenever

[01:21:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_15]
[01:21:53] you give your tithes and offerings weekly like whether you do it online or you do it in the giving boxes in the lobby because you do that 21 kids go home with food for the weekend uh right
[01:22:04] here in in morrisville and so i just want you to know your giving makes a difference and so make sure that you continue to give faithfully to the lord we want to see increases in ministries
[01:22:14] and missions grow. Karen, what's one God story that you have, one way that you've seen God work

[01:22:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[01:22:19] and move through Food for Days and maybe meeting a child's name? So lots of stories through the year come to mind, but this last summer, I was actually in my community at our pool, and I was
[01:22:39] talking to a mom who had recently moved in was running a house and I had gone through a divorce with four kids and she asked me what I did and she was in the medical field and I told her what I did and she said my students received that
[01:23:01] weekend meal bag this year because it's been tough and so all to say this could be impacting your neighbor or your students classmate and and it just made me think about how grateful that I was that we're able to meet the needs of

[01:23:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_15]
[01:23:25] those around us so there's some ways that we can help food for days we do a monthly collection for food for days and so it's like whatever the item of the month is you can bring that in we have the food for days collection bin there
[01:23:39] in our lobby and so do you know that connect the collection for this this month I think it's on your paper there so I didn't I put Karen on the spot but bring that in whatever it is it's on the food for days collection for the month
[01:23:52] and it'll be in the email that goes out weekly but then also to you can volunteer and so on Thursdays they do packing of the bags and they need volunteers. So if you're available Thursday during the day, that would be fantastic. But we want to
[01:24:06] pray for Food for Days right now. So would you stand with me? Would you extend a hand towards Karen and the great work that they're doing there? And Karen, can we just say a prayer for you guys?
[01:24:16] Father, we thank you so much for Food for Days and the difference that they're making right here in all of Iredell County and the kids' lives. Lord, we are so grateful to be able to
[01:24:26] partner with them. God, give them more churches who would partner, who would see the hunger of kids as a priority. Lord, it's so hard to feed people spiritual food that are hungry physically.
[01:24:39] And so, Lord, I pray that we would be churches like you had in mind that meet people's physical needs and then help meet people's spiritual needs. God, would you bless Karen and Food for Days with
[01:24:51] every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, provide every bit of funding that they need to be able to expand their mission so there's not a single kid in need in our community over the weekends lord
[01:25:02] bless them and in ways that we can only imagine according to your holy spirit's power that's at work inside each of them and lord i pray that you would raise up additional volunteers that would
[01:25:13] help make this ministry continue to grow in jesus name and all god's people said amen have a great day