Heart Transformation: Jesus Raises the Righteousness Standard

And as Christians, we need to understand that Jesus is telling us here that this righteousness and integrity, they go together because we can't fake god out. We need to try and try and try to live this out and to have that integrity. Jesus didn't raise the bar so that you could try harder. He raised it so you would realize that you needed him. [01:07:16] (30 seconds)  #IntegrityOverPerformance

Well, he starts out with, you've heard not to murder. And then he says, but I'm telling you that if you're angry Here's what Jesus is doing is he's tracing murder back to anger. He's saying anger is the murder And it's not just an outward murder, it's a heart murder. Sin doesn't start with our actions. It starts in our heart. We get that bitterness in our heart. We get that resentment in our heart. We get unforgiveness in our heart and it's unresolved anger is just sin waiting for an opportunity to explode. [00:55:56] (40 seconds)  #AngerEqualsMurder

And what Jesus is talking here, he's not talking that we literally cut our eyes, gash our eyes out, and cut her off our hands. What he what he's trying to tell us is the things that make you sin, cut them out of your life. And not just the not just the sins but the things that cause you to sin. It's kind of like if you're if your sin is pornography and every time you get on a computer, it leads you into this this sin. The computer is not the sin but it's leading you. Cut the computer. Just get rid of the computer. [01:01:30] (31 seconds)  #CutOutSinTriggers

Thank god this isn't literal because we'd be, there would be a whole bunch of us running around with no eyes and no hands, right? But Jesus is saying, you've heard to not commit adultery but I say to you, anyone who looks with an intent of lust has committed adultery. This is deep. This this is this is hard. This is stuff like I thought you're gonna make this easier. [00:59:14] (39 seconds)  #HeartLustIsAdultery

In the upside down kingdom, it's not about looking good Jesus is saying in this upside down kingdom, it's not about you looking righteous It's not about us showing up on Sunday and and being perfect on Sundays. Putting on that appearance Sundays like nothing's going on. We're all good. It's about being made righteous. There's a word integrity that we use and that word integrity means that we do the right things when nobody's around. That we do the right things when nobody's looking. [01:06:39] (37 seconds)  #RealIntegrity

Sometimes, I hear people talk about, well, I'm a New Testament Christian. So, being a New Testament Christian, I don't have to worry about the Old Testament. Well, that's not what Jesus is actually doing here. He says, I have not come to abolish but to fulfill this law, to to look at it. He doesn't come to erase god's standard. He came to meet it. [00:46:50] (25 seconds)  #JesusFulfillsTheLaw

The Pharisees look good. They look right. They look holy. They look disciplined. They look like they had obedience figured out. The Pharisees look like they had a going on religiously but that was a surface level. That's what the people saw. Isaiah tells us this and the lord said, because these people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me. And their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. Jesus is saying, people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. So, you can still look good and still be way, way, way far from god. You can play the religious part. [00:51:15] (52 seconds)  #StopReligiousLipService

Well, if we're doing that, we're not taking sin serious because we can't manage that because it's going to kill us. If you play with sin, it'll eventually destroy you. Here's what Jesus is doing. He's raising the standard so high He's raising it so high that nobody can in the room can meet it. Not not not one of us in this room can meet these standards that god's that Jesus has given us. Not one of us. Not even his disciples, not even the Pharisees, not not anybody here in this room can can meet these standards and that's the point that Jesus is trying to make. [01:03:52] (42 seconds)  #OnlyChristMeetsTheBar