Exceeding Righteousness: Embracing Scripture's Authority

### Quotes for Outreach

1. "If we don't know what we're going for, if we don't know what we're supposed to do, we could actually miss entrance into the kingdom of heaven. This is the topic. This is what Jesus is saying. The thesis is that we're going to miss entrance into the kingdom of heaven. The thesis statement is if less yours, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you won't make it in his whole purpose of this sermon is to tell you how to make it in, how to live the life that makes it in." [05:39] (23 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "We think, that because we're advanced, because we're modern, because we are contemporary, we have advancements in science, advancements in technology, advancements in learning, that we are therefore morally superior to historical generations. That we're better than them because we have an advantage that they don't have. Or we have tapped into things that they don't have access to. As a result, we think of ourselves as more evolved. We're more progressive. We're more intelligent. We have more money. We have more blessing. We have more stuff. We have more access. We have more than the Neanderthals of 200 years ago." [07:00] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "There are no shortcuts. There are no back doors into the kingdom of heaven. You can't sidestep the standard of Jesus. I mean, think about it. Do you guys know? I think it was the 1996 Olympics, the USA team, fastest team in the world, four runners running hard as possible, got disqualified from a gold medal. Why? Because one stepped on a line. They were arguably the fastest. Last team we had put forward and they ran the race and won the gold medal, except they didn't. Why? Because they didn't meet the standard. You got to stay in your lane. And they stepped on the line and was disqualified." [16:47] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "If you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, you got to find the ones that give you the verse and little opinion, because guess what? In the big scheme of things, my opinion don't matter. Nothing. What matters is what God said. Amen. So you need to know the word of God for yourself, but you gotta, you gotta understand that this is not something to trifle. This is not something that's optional. This is not something for you to pick and choose and edit as you will. This is the word of God." [24:56] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "If you believe that it's God's word, if you want to enter in the kingdom of heaven, and I kind of have to say that straightforward and point blank and kind of in your face. Why? Because in our touchy feely society, your, your truth is what you want it to be, but that's not true. That's not accurate. No one in, in historical generations will be like, yeah, your reality is real. Punch you in the face and say, well, I didn't hit you. I mean, that, that's nonsense. My reality is that, no, it's not your perspective might be that, but reality is reality. And you don't decide that you don't determine that the standard has been set not by you." [26:20] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


### Quotes for Members

1. "Jesus said, whoever therefore breaks one of these, one of the least of these commandments and teaches men. So shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Listen, it's critical that we accept the authority of God's word, but that in and of itself is not enough. Jesus then focused on the doing, the applying the obedience required to keep the scripture. What did he say? He said, whoever does and teaches, did you catch that? What was first right. I mean, how many of us have tried to use, uh, you know, we knew what the right thing to do was, but we didn't do it right. You could tell somebody what the right thing is. It's kind of like, you know, don't do as I do. Just do what I say. Jesus said that ain't cutting it. That ain't enough. It's what you do matter." [27:53] (62 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Jesus said, for I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Now Jesus makes what people call an antithetical or basically a contrasting statement here. He does that a lot. He says, well, I tell you this or you've heard this, but I'm going to tell you this. I, you, you think it's this way, but I'm going to tell you it's this way. This is what he's doing. He's setting us up. He's trying to express the importance of believing and practicing the scriptures, but then he's pulling out the best example that anyone can think of the scribes and the Pharisees and says, unless you do better than these guys, you ain't making it." [35:04] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Jesus said, I didn't come to get rid of this. I didn't come to invalidate this. I didn't come to do away with the word of God. He said, not even one pen stroke, not even one punctuation mark. He said, you look at this and you look at even the, the dots on the I's and the cross of the T's. I ain't getting rid of none of it. I'm not editing, editing any of it. It all matters. This is Jesus talking. You would think that if he came to give a new way, he would say, I'm getting rid of the old, but he didn't say that. He held the Old Testament scriptures in the highest esteem is the word of God." [20:59] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "We need the righteousness that comes from God, not our ability, not our strength, not by us trying to keep the standard in our best power in our best way because we've all tried that and we know it don't work. Jesus saying unless you learn to receive the spirit of God, unless you learn to receive help from God, unless you receive that new covenant in your heart that doesn't depend on the arm of flesh or your capability or your reserves or your tenacity when it doesn't depend on you but it depends wholly on your response to me in partnership with me then you won't enter the kingdom of God." [39:51] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "So if we want to attain the resurrection for the dead and enter into the kingdom of heaven, then we also have to receive the righteousness that is by God, in Christ through faith. So let's look at this thesis of Jesus's sermon on the mount so we can begin to discover the standard that we have to meet. Okay, so if you're taking notes, point number one is going to be accept the authority of scripture. We need to accept the authority of scripture." [19:29] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)