Kingdom Living: Integrity, Forgiveness, and Generosity

1) "We sang, as we sang this morning, songs lifting high our God, His glory, His kingship. If have a Savior, God eternal, Creator God who came down in the form of man to die in our place, to rise again on the third day, to demonstrate victory over sin, victory over death, victory over the grave, that He Himself had purchased us, taken on Himself our sin, that we might be redeemed, that we might be saved, that we might be delivered from our sin and rebellion against Him and be made heirs with Christ, be made part of His eternal kingdom. That is what we celebrate as we come together on Sunday mornings." [00:55] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "Jesus is not calling us to live according to the world's standards. He's calling for us as believers, as followers of Christ, to live as something different, to live as citizens of his kingdom, of his eternal kingdom. And it's so easy for us to get confused, to get mixed up, and instead live as if the kingdoms of this world are what are important. We should hear just as much amen for that as we do about Jesus calling us to live different from this world, but that's the problem. Right? It's so easy. It's so easy for us to fall into the ideals of the world around us rather than, not the ideals, but the teaching of the word of God." [11:54] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "Our words and our actions show our hearts. Our words and our actions show our hearts. The title of today's message is Jesus and Us because the words we speak and the way we treat people, when we feel we've been wronged, is how Jesus calls us to act in those situations. Jesus and Us. Our first point this morning, we'll look at verses 33 to 37, Jesus and our words. Verses 33 to 37 deals with oaths that are made, promises that are made, we could say. And he says, you have heard it said, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn." [13:14] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "Jesus is saying, listen what you swear by is not the issue here it is the trustworthiness of your word you therefore let your yes be yes let it be simply yes or no now have you ever promised to do something and then not fulfilled it every intention to fulfill it every intention to fulfill it but not fulfill anybody anybody all of us have done that that's not the context that he's talking about here now if we say we'll do something we don't do it we still you know we need to address that we need to deal with that but that's not the context the context he's dealing with is willful manipulation willful lying to people in order to get what we want out of them be people of your word and he says look at verse 37 let what you say be simply yes or no anything more than this comes from evil" [22:32] (68 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "Jesus says that what he is about to tell them about this issue has to do with their hearts and when our heart is turned towards Christ this is the way we live because the problem that had happened at this point in time what the religious leaders taught that this command eye for eye to tooth for to had nothing gone wrong with one another to do with a judicial system of governing people. It had to do with individual retribution against someone else when you thought you'd been wrong. You thought you'd been wronged. And so someone does something to you, someone puts out your eye, rather than it being a judicial matter that is handled in proper ways, proper governmental structure, because the nation of Israel had a governmental structure that they were called to abide by, the religious leaders were teaching rather than following what was right, if you have been wronged, you have the right to take it out on them." [30:51] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "Jesus is the perfect example of how this works. As it came to himself, the events leading up to his crucifixion, what did he do? As he was reviled, he did not revile against them. As he was beaten, he did not retaliate. As he was crucified and hung on the cross, what did he do? He prayed for them and said, Father, forgive them. He said, Father, forgive them. He said, Father, forgive them. If that was you and me, but I'm innocent. I didn't do anything. Unjust mistrial. We'd call for all kinds of stuff because it's against me. Jesus didn't defend himself. He went to the cross for us to bear the penalty of our sin, your sin, my sin." [45:42] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "The kingdom of God is not about you and me. The kingdom of God is about Christ and what he's done and what he's accomplished and what he's purchased. It's about him. And we make this life, we make this stuff, all about us. Jesus is saying, it's your heart. Where is your heart? Is it turned towards him or is it turned towards you? This particular statement would have spoken heavily against the zealots at that point in time who were heavily involved in encouraging and starting violent revolts against the Roman Empire. We do this as an example of loving our enemies and Jesus is about to address that." [49:31] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "Jesus does not prohibit the administration of justice. He will overthrow Satan himself one day and punish him. But as God's children, we share his supreme righteousness when we stop standing on our own rights, when we forego revenge and do good to all. We are strong for Jesus. We are strong for Jesus. Our words and our actions demonstrate our hearts. The Sermon on the Mount is tough. This is not a flowery sermon meant to make us feel good. This is a pointed message calling us to live as citizens of the kingdom of God now." [55:37] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)