You are not alone

Now that would have been a body blow to the everyday Jew. They were already feeling overwhelmed by the 600 plus laws that the Pharisees had written on how to behave. And now Jesus was coming to them and saying, Hey, actually, you've got to go beyond that. Your righteousness, your good behavior, so to speak, has got to exceed that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. And can you just imagine, you know, you've just been sitting there going, Flippin' heck. I don't know if they said the word flipping, but let's say they did. Flippin' heck. We've got to be better than the Pharisees. How can we do that? [00:03:39] (54 seconds)  #RighteousnessBeyondRules

Now, I just want to be really clear about something, because we can get ourselves into a little bit of trouble here. I'm not saying what we're talking about this morning is necessarily a salvation issue. We don't, we're not saved by the things that we do, by works. We are saved by grace, by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. So let's keep that in our mind, because you cannot earn your way into heaven. So I just want to be really clear about that. [00:04:34] (35 seconds)  #SavedByGraceNotWorks

And so Jesus effectively raises the bar. He never lowers the bar. Let's be really clear about that. You find me a scripture where Jesus lowers the bar, where he makes sin more acceptable. you won't find one. Jesus raises his expectations of us, of the way as followers of Jesus we are to live. If you think back, the civic laws of Israel were to distinguish them as a nation from the nations surrounding them. [00:10:53] (41 seconds)  #JesusRaisesTheBar

Perhaps it would be good, it's good, isn't it, if people can go to church and know that anger isn't going to be an issue. Jesus is calling us to be different. Now, you might be sitting here this morning thinking this can't be done. Does Jesus know how I struggle sometimes with anger? Can't do it. I can't live up to that standard. Remember, this isn't a salvation issue. It's a lifestyle issue for us. Well, you are not alone. [00:12:17] (43 seconds)  #ChoosePeaceNotAnger

When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we receive the Holy Spirit. He comes and lives inside of us. And he becomes our helper, our advocate. And he, the Holy Spirit of God, inside of us will help us to live out these instructions, the commands of Jesus. Will we get it right every time? No. That isn't to set, that's not to be celebrated, that we make mistakes. But we live in a fallen world. We live in fallen bodies. And we will make mistakes. But we are not alone. [00:14:00] (47 seconds)  #HolySpiritHelpsUs

We are never alone. The Holy Spirit is with us. If we know Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we can be in the middle of nowhere with not another human being in sight. But we are not alone and we can talk to God. And the Holy Spirit will guide us. The Holy Spirit will prompt you. Now you have a choice around anger, around all of those things. [00:15:56] (30 seconds)  #NeverAloneHolySpirit

And one of the questions I shared with the men some accountability questions that I thought about during the week and one of the questions I wrote down was have you watched anything this week that you would not want to watch with Jesus sitting next to you? And here's the heads up, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit is sitting with you right now. Inside of you, if you are a follower of Jesus and whatever you are watching, whatever you are reading, whatever thoughts you are having, God knows them. [00:18:26] (50 seconds)  #WatchWhatJesusSees

God wants us to be transformed and as we get transformed we experience more of him and we will transform our communities, we will transform our families, we will transform our nation. but we have to be different in a good, not weird way. So this morning I want us just to pause and apply this to our lives. I want us to take a moment to reflect on these two questions. Are you only doing the bare minimum? Are you hiding behind what it just says do this? [00:20:29] (59 seconds)  #MoreThanTheBareMinimum