A Movement for All People - Impossible to Possible - Matthew S5E4

Amen. Amen. Amen. We doing alright church? Everybody good? Good. I'm Pastor Britt. It's good to see you. I get the chance to open God's Word every now and then here and I'm excited to do it. We have been for months now studying through the New Testament book of Matthew and we're going to continue in that tonight. We're going to finish chapter 14. We're going to do all of chapter 15 and a big chunk of chapter 16. So I hope you brought a blanket and an energy drink because it's about to get real up in here. You know what I mean? Alright, chapter 14. Let's get it. We got a long way to go. Question one is this. Do you know what you're looking for in life? Like what are you after? When you wake up every day and you give your time and your energy and your pursuits, what are you chasing after? Is it to do better? Is it happy? Is it something new? Is it something different? Is it just a change? Is it to be left alone? Maybe you want less stress. Maybe you want more responsibility. The question then is how far are you willing to go to find what you're looking for? Well, I'm going to jump to the end and I'm just going to go ahead and tell you where we're going to land the plane tonight. This weekend, where we're going to land the plane. And the plane is this. It's that Jesus is who you're looking for. He is who you're looking for. The kingdom of God is actually what you're looking for. It's not an add-on to our life. It is something that takes over our life. All of our pursuits and all of our passions terminate on the glory of God as revealed to us through the person of Jesus in the kingdom of God. That's what we are after. And Jesus, the God man, rolls into this town and he just starts doing what he does, which is healing people. And some men of that town recognize him and they begin to bring out people that they care about in order to encounter this great rabbi, this great teacher, this great healer. Because that's what good men do. Good men take responsibility for others and godly men take responsibilities for pointing others to Jesus. Amen? And I just want to echo what you've already heard in the service, which is dads, men, I'm proud of you, man. I'm proud of you. As a pastor here, as one of you, I am proud of you. I see fruit, kingdom fruit, falling off the trees all over this place. Lives are being changed. Thousands of people being baptized. People are being healed. Marriages are being reconciled. People are stepping out of darkness into life through Jesus. And much of that I attribute to Pastor Joby calling men last year to stand firm and act like men because where men lead and love well, everyone flourishes.

And what we're experiencing as a church right now is flourishing in the kingdom of God. And praise God for it. Praise God for it. So, Happy Father's Day. That's all you get. Let's keep going. The context of Matthew is that Jesus is Israel. That he is what Israel was always supposed to be. You see, Israel, in a promise God made to Abraham, said, I'm going to bless you and make your name great and you will be a blessing. They were blessed, chosen by God, in order to be a blessing. But they misplaced their zeal for God's blessing and it began to terminate on themselves. Instead of being blessed to be a blessing, they thought, we're blessed to be blessed. And they began to become very inwardly focused. Jesus shows up on the scene and says, this is what God's promises was always supposed to be about. That this is why we're here, which is to point people to Jesus. And Jesus had some adversaries. So, as he's healing all these people in this town, the Pharisees show up. Here's what it says. Then the Pharisees and the scribes, and this is where you would hear, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Like a Star Wars reference for all you people who aren't cool. But that's where you would hear that in the soundtrack. The Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? Jerusalem is the headquarters of the Pharisees. Gennesaret, where they are doing ministry right now, is 75 miles away. And so these brothers show up 75 miles away and they ask Jesus this very important question. Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? You see, when you are obsessed with being seen as right, you'll go a long way to prove it. This is what Pharisees and scribes did. hypocrites do. They are trying to protect and to promote their ideas by being skeptical about what is undeniable. This is what Pharisees do. They are skeptical about what is undeniable.

Anywhere Jesus is at work changing people, you will find skeptics and critics. It was true back then, it's still true today. And I'm just here to tell you, it's no way to live. As someone who spent many years saying, I'm not a pessimist, I'm just a realist, which was a mask for me covering up my own skepticism. And my skepticism in life was completely rooted in my pain. And so what skepticism was for me was a wall to protect myself, because if I could discredit you with a little bit of skepticism, when you disappointed me, it didn't hurt as bad, because I found myself out to be right. Do you see how it works? Anywhere Jesus is at work, you will find skeptics and critics. And that's even true in the church. The Pharisees are kind of like this. Have you ever been on vacation and it's like nice, right? Like you just decided for whatever reason you're gonna ball out on this one vacation. I'm not talking about like you're rolling in at the Holiday Inn Express. I'm talking like, it's got good, if the Holiday Inn Express is nice to you, then we're so glad you're here. And I mean that. I mean that, we are. And I get it.

But let's just say you're at a vacation and you spent the money. It was your money, you earned it, and you spent the money. And you're there and somebody in your family starts to complain and whine. But why is it so hot? When the pool temperature's too warm, the waiters are too slow, the chicken fingers are too fried, and blah, blah, blah, blah, right? That's what you start to hear. Well, this is what the Pharisees were to Jesus. Jesus is on the earth offering them the kingdom of God, and what they wanna do is to try to protect their traditions. Now, side note, a parent hack for you is if you want to raise kids with grateful hearts, it's not just going to happen. Can I get an amen? You gotta be a little bit intentional about it. One of the things that we've done as parents, and I'm not saying, I'm still raising my kids, so I ain't acting like the authority that's got it all sorted out. That said, I'm seeing a little bit of fruit in my kid's life, okay? If you wanna raise kids with grateful hearts, here's a pastor tip for you, is when you teach your kids how to pray,

the first thing you teach them how to pray is you say, God, thank you for. These are the first words they learn how to pray. God, thank you for, but not, before you get to thanking God for the stuffies and the puppies, it's God, thank you for Jesus. If you teach your kids to pray that first, God, thank you for Jesus. Why is that important? Because if you can be thankful for Jesus, who is the greatest gift that's ever been given, if you can be thankful for him and enjoy him, then you can enjoy everything that flows from him, every good and perfect gift that comes down from the Father of lights. God, thank you for Jesus. So with ungrateful hearts, the Pharisees show up, and Jesus is changing things because that's just what he does. Now, in the first century culture, it's a shame and honor culture, and the way the scales of balance worked was that there was only so much honor to go around, and so the more that Jesus' honor went up, the more the Pharisees felt that their honor, chances for honor, was decreasing, and so it was not just confusing, it was very competitive between them on the Pharisees' side. It's important to note that Jesus never went looking

for trouble with the Pharisees, so what was the big deal? What was the big deal? We see it in this text. Well, the big deal for the Pharisees was the words they just said. It was the tradition of the elders. What is that? Spoken and oral tradition that some rabbis created along the way trying to help the people of Israel obey God's commands, to do the things that God told Moses in the Old Testament. They created this entire system of prescribed behaviors known as the tradition of the elders, and then it was later codified into Jewish culture and put on plane in regards to authority that it has as much authority in people's lives as the Old Testament did, or as the first five books of the Old Testament did, right? And so they created this entire system, and the way it would be explained is that they used the tradition of the elders to build a fence around the law to keep you from breaking it. And so they were trying to get you to not break God's law, and the original intent, if I'm just being generous, the original intent seemingly was a good idea, but what happens is that this spoken tradition begins to create new rules, burdens, and it produces guilt and fear.

The only way that I can explain this is like on a technical, legal level, because for them... in the first century there is no separation between the law of Moses and the law of the land this was they had the Roman law but inside of Jewish culture they had the law of Moses and they're trying to figure out how to how to obey it so technically legally speaking the only way I can get my head around this is if it's just like if we took the Bill of Rights as we understand it and we began to prescribe to each other or some series of teachers began to prescribe that this is how you are supposed to practice free speech not just that free speech is a thing but this is how you're actually supposed to practice free speech or you have the right to bear arms but you can only bear arms Friday and Saturday nights after 11 p.m. because everybody knows that after 11 p.m. on the weekends there's only vampires victims and villains out and you don't want to be a victim so you can carry a gun you don't I'm saying y'all tracking with me y'all never heard the vampire victims thing I guess all right now here's what you would think the Pharisees roll up and they go why are your disciples breaking the tradition of the elders you think the next thing they would say is why are you letting them kick children for fun or like something just terrible but this is what they say why do they break the tradition of the elders for they do not wash their hands when they eat okay I gotta be honest with you when it comes to public restrooms I judge people who don't wash their hands I do man it's just gross and ladies I just got to tell y'all y'all married to some nasty animals I'm just letting you know I'm sorry boys I'm sorry to out you like that I'm just saying you should wash your hands because it's gross not to right you should wash your hands that said if you don't wash your hands it's not a sin it's not a sin you came 75 miles to check on hand-washing that's what's going on well it's more than that you see there was a ritual for purification connected to hand-washing that on the outside they were trying to wash their hands as prescribed by the

tradition of the elders to uphold a version or an interpretation of something that God said to Moses regarding Aaron his brother who was a priest in the Old Testament when Aaron and his sons who were priests in the temple were going into the Holy of Holies God told them that there was a certain way you had to wash their hands according to the law well that got added to and bent and twisted and then morphed and given some human reasoning which makes sense if you heard it and then it turned into a prescription that everybody had to follow and if you didn't then you were in sin you see it's complex it was a purification ritual on one hand and on the other hand there was a first century Jewish superstition around a demon named Shepta and the idea about Shepta was that Shepta was a demon that would attach himself while you were sleeping by grabbing on to your hands and you got to keep in mind we're in Rome we're in the first century mythology was a huge part of the culture which is very different than we live now so they would wake up in the morning and they would do this ritual hand-washing and they would also do it before they ate it was deeply connected to who they were but the disciples didn't do it until you ask the question why didn't the disciples do it well Luke chapter 11 is why the disciples don't do it Luke chapter 11 verse 37 through 38 it says this while Jesus was speaking a Pharisee asked Jesus to come and dine with him so he went in and reclined at table the Pharisee was astonished to see that Jesus did not first wash his hands before dinner the disciples didn't do it because the master didn't do it that's the only explanation that they needed continuing on back to Matthew 15 and he answered them so they asked Jesus why do you break the tradition of the elders Jesus fires back and he says okay why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition for God commanded honor your father and mother fifth of the Ten Commandments big deal and whoever reviles father and mother must surely die Exodus 21 verse 17 but you say if anyone tells his father or his mother what you would have gained from me is given to God he need not honor his father so for the sake of your tradition you have made the Word of God void what's going on here well taking

care of your parents was a matter of honor in the first century I would still consider it to be that but it was a huge deal back then they didn't have assisted living facilities they didn't have nursing homes there's no 401ks there's no pension plans and so the kids were completely dependent the kids were depended on by the parents care for them in the late stages of life, right? This was just what was expected and what was honorable. Inside of the tradition of the elders, there's a thing known as the Corban rule. And what the Corban rule said was, is that if you dedicated your assets to the temple when you die, while you were still alive, you could keep those assets as a steward, but you didn't have to use them to take care of your parents. This is some religious trickery. What they've done is created a loophole to keep their stuff and not do what God said to do with their money. They didn't want to honor and take care of their parents as they wanted to be selfish. And so there was a loophole that provided for them to do it. And Jesus is saying, in so doing this, using religion to get your own way, you are making the word of God void. I want you to think about that statement. In John chapter one, it says that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Who's it talking about?

We're at church, one guess. Jesus, you nailed it. You nailed it. I'm so proud. Pastor Job is gonna be proud. It's talking about Jesus. So the Logos, the word of God, the revelation of God to man is saying to people, you have made the word of God void. This book, old and new, it's not just true, it's trustworthy. It's not just filled with hope, it is holy. It's not just something we read in history, it is something we hold onto for life and death. You understand? This book is the revealed word of God to man as how we know him and it is through faith and what this book teaches that we become one of his children. It's a big deal. And for Jesus, the word to say, you have made the word of God void, what an indictment. What an indictment. Now, we were recording the Deepened podcast a week or two ago and Pastor Vinke made this really profound statement. He said, the word of God is either everything or it's nothing. It is either everything or it's nothing.

Now, when it comes to Christians trusting and obeying the commands, the promises, the precepts of God, I have, as a Christian for a long time now, a pastor for 25 years, Christian longer than that, I have seen kind of three postures people take that would self-identify as Christians. And number one posture is that people take the posture of duty. Maybe they grew up in the religious south, maybe they grew up in a religious tradition, maybe Catholic where there was a lot of instruction around what you're supposed to do and what you're not supposed to do. And so your understanding of God is about rules and rights and wrongs and you're just trying your best to try to navigate it and to do a little more right than you do wrong. And the posture that you take when you live from that place is that you look at God's word and you see it as something that you were dutifully obligated to. And while this can keep up a moral life, at least in some measure, what it can never do is produce love. And so it has no staying power. At best, it's just sheer power of the will. Success is about how successful you decide to do something. I guess in this book about this it says that the relationship between religion and God is a relationship about your ability

to deal with and with those around you. Think about that. You gotta take a religion 1 when you're coming to work, take a religion 1 when you're ready to resign because you don't know it yet. But now that you've arrived, you know that a little bit more about where your attitude to life is. That's posture one. Posture number two is, is delight. Delight is when you realize that what Christ has done for you. How far he has come to rescue you. And now you look at all of life and you go, it's not that I have to do this, it's that I get to do this. I get to follow Jesus. I get to enjoy his new mercies every morning. I get to walk as a child of grace. I delight in him and in his kingdom. And the third posture, which is one I pray we all can live from on the regular is design. It's when you are living your life enjoying God's gifts, enjoying Jesus as the ultimate gift and then you wake up one day and realize, wait, I wasn't just created to follow, I'm not just here to follow Jesus. It is the very reason for which I'm on the earth. One is religion, it's dutiful obligation.

The other is relationship. It's enjoying God because that's what he wants. The other is reason. It's the reason you're on the planet. The Great Commission is not just something we do, it is someone that we are. This is way more about identity. than it is about activity. It's about who we are. So Jesus is being challenged by the Pharisees, and he says, so for the sake of your tradition, you've made the word of God void. And then he says this, you hypocrites. Now this is a word that gets thrown around all the time. It is a Greek word prescribed to actors who wore masks in Roman theater. And so this is used 23 times in the New Testament, mostly by Jesus. And let's just sum up the thought with this. Jesus is not a fan of spiritual hypocrisy. He goes on in Revelation and says, because you're neither hot nor cold, you're lukewarm, I spit you out of my mouth. Jesus is not a fan of spiritual hypocrisy. And I just want you to know this. Look, man, maybe you roll in here and you would be aware enough of your life and your situation, and you would say, I really am just playing religion. I'm just trying to check some kind of box

to feel better about what, I don't know what, yourself? You're trying to check some box. And I would say this, regardless of the reason you're here, we're really glad you're here. And while you're here, you can take off the mask and you can trust Jesus because he wants the real you. You can take off the mask because Jesus out on a real cross for the real you. He says, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, these people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. What a devastating statement. You say the right things in the right places, but you love all the wrong things for the wrong reasons is what Jesus is saying. I think that this is any pastor's greatest fear because unlike Jesus, we can't see hearts. I can barely discern my own heart half the time, much less stand a chance at discerning what's going on in yours. We can't discern hearts. The greatest fear is that churches would be full of people who are fans of Jesus, but they're not followers. Because Jesus did not come to recruit Instagram fans, he came to make dedicated followers who were holy and consecrated unto him. That's why Jesus Christ came to the earth. He uses this interesting phrase.

He says, you've created the doctrines of men. Now, we don't have a lot of hand-washing police running around in our world today, other than me. We don't have a lot of that going on. But there's some modern-day doctrines of men that have been assumed in our culture, and I just wanna point out at one. If you've been around American evangelical Christianity for a while, there could have been a prescription that's been given to you that maybe you gave ear to and you think it's what Christianity is, and it's got a real fancy-schmancy name. It's called moralistic therapeutic deism. You wouldn't have heard it that way, but it is a prescription that is taught regularly from pulpits all over the country, and ultimately, what this idea is is that there is a God who exists who created the world and watches over it. It's kinda rooted in some truth from the Bible, but it is far from that. God exists who created the world and watches over it. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair, that the main goal of life is for people to be happy and to go around feeling good about themselves, and that God is not particularly involved in daily life unless he's needed to solve a problem, and that ultimately, good people go to heaven when they die. It all sounds nice and it all sounds wonderful. It just doesn't have anything to do

with New Testament Christianity. This is not what the New Testament prescribes at all. See, that idea is all about you. It feels good, it sounds good, but I'm just here to remind you, you do not need a motivational speech. You need a new master. You do not need a smooth-talking recruiter. You need a rescuer. You do not, we don't need charisma in pulpits. What we need is Christ Jesus. That's what we need. You may be looking for more. You may be looking for different, but what God offers you in Christ is love. He offers you the real thing. You see, religion peddles fear and guilt and control. Jesus Christ offers you love, and his perfect love casts out fear. Goes on and says this, "'And he called the people to him "'and said to them, hear and understand. "'It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, "'but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a person.'" Jesus starts doing heart surgery here. And I just wanna say, you can trust Jesus. When Jesus starts pruning in your life, when he starts digging beneath the surface, because that's what he does, by the power of the word of God

that is a double-edged sword and the power of the Holy Spirit, he goes to work on his people, transforming them into. His likeness, which means he's gotta cut away some of the old stuff so that they can walk in the joy of the freedom of the new stuff, right? When Jesus goes in to do surgery on your heart, when he goes in to do surgery on your affections, the things you care about, when he goes in and starts doing surgery on your marriage, when he starts doing surgery on your mind, you should let him in as deep as he could possibly go because trust me, my friend, the surgery is worth it. There's some pain involved, but the surgery is worth it. What Jesus is ultimately saying is, Pharisees, everything that you think about God is about outside in. Change your behaviors, modify this, do right, do wrong, measure, measure, measure, measure, count, count, count, count, count. And what Jesus said, the kingdom of God is not about outside in, it's about inside out. Make no mistake, Jesus is not after your habits first, he wants your heart because he knows if he gets your heart, your habits will surely follow in time. Jesus is after hearts, and so how's your heart? Maybe it's broken, maybe it's a little disillusioned, maybe it's tired, maybe you're lonely or in a dark place, you're battling addiction, you're covered in shame. I just want you to listen with your heart

to this cry from someone who understood the heart of God. And I want you to hear how different it is from the religion and control that the Pharisees are peddling. They're saying, why don't you wash your hands? What Jesus, what's at the heart of God is something much deeper. There was a man who walked the earth and he was a king in Israel. And it says that he was a man after God's own heart and he said these words, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He leads me into green pastures and beside still waters. He restores my soul. His rod and his staff, they comfort me. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me, you comfort me and you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with your oil. My cup runs over. My life overflows with your blessings, God, because you found me. Goodness and mercy will follow me. It not might follow me. Goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 24, the earth is the Lord and the fullness of it, the world and everyone in it. He founded the world upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Here's the question. Who shall ascend the holy hill of the Lord? Who will stand in his holy place? It is he who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not lift up his soul to another, who does not swear in vain. Who can stand on the hill of the Lord? Who can go into the holy place? This is the question we're all asking. How can I be made right with God? And the Pharisees are saying, it's by washing your hands. It's a good question. Who has clean hands and a pure heart? And the answer is no one except for Jesus. And he is who you're looking for. And when we surrender our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, he takes all the bad that sin has to offer and he gives us all the good that heaven can afford, including his hands and his heart. And we are completely covered in his finished work. So we can now ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in the holy place with confidence.

It is very, very different having a relationship with God than being trapped in a religious system. Jesus continues and it says this, or the Bible continues and it says this. And then the disciples came and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? And I can just imagine Jesus being like, really? You think they were offended? We should go find them and apologize. I don't think so. Jesus doesn't apologize. The most offensive truth I've ever heard, I've thought a lot about this preparing for this sermon. If you didn't notice, Pastor Joe became like 80 verses. And so I had to think a lot about this. The most offensive truth I've ever heard in my life, if I get really, really honest, is Jesus's claim that he makes of exclusivity. When he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And you would say, well, Pastor Brett, that's true. And you believe it. I do now. I do now. But when I first encountered it, I had an existential crisis, do you know why? Because I grew up incredibly religious. I grew up very, very religious. I remember as a child being at the church cleaning baptisms. This is what I did.

The kid, the people at our church used to have a joke about the Britt boys, that the Britt boys had a drug problem. You've heard this one? They got drugged to church on Monday, they got drugged to church on Tuesday, they got drugged to church. I was practically born on the altar. I had an extensive religious resume, and here, do you know what the terrifying thing about the Bible is? It's not that wickedness will be judged, because we all want that. We want bad people to be held accountable for their actions. We just might not have the same measuring around bad that the Bible does. But the terrifying thing about the Bible is not that wickedness will be judged, the really daunting thing is that the Bible says our righteousness is a filthy rag. That of all of my religious resume, of all the church that I've attended, of all the school that I've taken, of all the classes I've been through, of all the Bible studies we did as a family, of all the ministry accomplishments of my father and my grandfather, my brothers, the pastor of a mega church, my father-in-law is a missionary in Africa for 20 years, and I can go on and on and on and on and on, and none of those things merit me one single sin cent in the kingdom of God. They don't merit me anything in the kingdom of God. Do you know what merits me worth in the kingdom of God? It is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone. He is my only hope. He is my only defense, it is Christ alone. He continues and says, the Pharisees were offended, Jesus said, every plant that my father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone. Blind guides, and let the blind lead the blind, and they will fall into a pit. Have you ever followed the wrong person to the wrong place? So yeah, for like a decade, right?

There's been much debate on this stage about what's the best Christmas movie of all time. Pastor Joby would argue Die Hard, respect, okay, that's fine. I'm a Home Alone guy, and I don't know what's better, the first one or the second one, probably the first one, but do you remember in the second one, they're rushing through the airport because they missed their alarms again, and Kevin, the kid, is like messing around with some recorder toy that he has, and he's looking down, and he's falling behind from his family, and he gets distracted, and then he looks up, and he sees someone wearing a coat that looked like his dad's, and he begins to follow that person, only to end up on the wrong plane and end up in the wrong city, and then the rest of the movie takes off from there. Here's the thing, he followed someone from a distance that looked like his dad, but it turns out he wasn't his dad. Religious people sound like they know something about God from a distance, but if you keep following religion, you will end up in the wrong place. You will end up burdened, and you will end up chained up. He was following at a distance. God's invitation for you and for me is not that we would follow him from a distance, but that he has invited us into holy consecration. God's invitation is not that we would appreciate him, but that we would be consecrated unto him. What is consecration? Consecration in the Bible is not a word we talk about enough. It means to be set apart for God's purposes. It involves both God claiming something or someone as his own, which he has for all who believe in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, and then those people responding to him by dedicating themselves to him fully. This is consecration. Peter didn't understand either, and that's why he asked this. He said, explain the parable to us, and then he said, are you still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into your mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? Jesus is saying, coffee go in, coffee must go out.

You eat food, you got to go number two. It's just the science. But what comes, this is heart surgery, but what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. And this defiles a person. For out of the heart come to evil thoughts and murders and adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone. And Jesus went away from there, and he withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. He's leaving proper known Israel, and he's going to a totally Gentile population. I think this is as far as Jesus ever traveled from his hometown. and there's a whole history there, I ain't got time for that, but let's just say it's hostile. And behold, a Canaanite woman, condemned ancestrally, a condemned woman, a cast out, someone seen as not good enough by the Jews, someone that would have been judged by the Pharisees, a Canaanite woman, comes from that region, came out and was crying, have mercy on me, oh Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. Right out of the gate, not being a Jew, she calls Jesus Lord and then calls him by his messianic title, which is son of David, this woman is looking for something. And she's been looking for it for a minute. My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon, but he didn't answer a word. And his disciples came and begged him saying, send her away, for she's crying out after us.

And he answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So at first, it seems pretty harsh, this interchange. It's a doozy, I ain't gonna lie. But it's not really sarcasm so much and it's not really crass, it's more of a word picture that Jesus is painting for this woman and for the disciples' sake. The disciples are annoyed with this woman. She's interrupting their time off, she's sitting in their seat, she's parking in their space, you get what I'm going? The disciples were still learning about the kingdom of God, but they were struggling. They were struggling to understand that the kingdom of God was Jew first, but it was never intended to be Jew only. That the promise was that all people would have access to this gospel. And he is, Jesus is at least in part testing this woman's faith. Adrian Rogers, a pastor I used to listen to when I was growing up, he said this, a faith that hasn't been tested cannot be trusted. And so this woman hears Jesus respond, he says, I was only sent to Israel, that I'm here to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies of the son of David so that I can forgive people from their sins and accomplish God's purposes. But she persists and she comes and kneels before him

saying, Lord, help me. When's the last time you prayed that prayer? And I promise you this is close to the heart of God. Lord, help me. When we're praying, are we saying, Lord, help me, or are we saying, Lord, will you give me? And he answered, it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. And she said, yes, Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. And then Jesus answered, oh woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you desire. And her daughter was healed instantly. Couple of things. Because you read that and you go, okay, did Jesus, the son of God, the Christ, just call this woman a dog? Well, yes, he did. And I'm not gonna apologize for him. But here's what he meant. In Greek, there's two words for dog. One is wild and unruly, and this is what the Jews called the Gentiles. This is what the disciples would have been thinking about this woman, that she is a wild dog that is undeserving of our attention. Jesus, when he says dog, he uses a different word. And it's the word that they would use for like household pet. It's like calling her a puppy is what he's saying.

I'm not saying you should feel better about that. I'm just explaining what the text means. Here's the word picture that he's painting. Greek is a word picture language. Here's the picture that he's painting. I have two dogs at home. One's named Piper, one's named Penny. I didn't want either one of them, but here we are. Do you know whose seat at the dinner table both dogs know to come to? Mine, do you know why? Because the most amount of crumbs fall off my side of the table. There's this word that describes worship, and it's called proskuneo. And the word picture that this word paints is it's like a dog nudging his master's hand for attention. But that's one of the ways that worship is best understood. It's a tail wagging dog nudging the master's hand saying if I only have your attention, I have everything I need. This is the word picture that Jesus is painting. Don't forget that this is the point why God chose Israel. He chose Israel to show his glory to and his glory through them so that there would be a people on the earth who would worship God knowing they have his attention and that they would show the world how to enjoy the only God, the God of Abraham. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that was the point

of God's covenant promise with Israel was that a people would enjoy God and his blessings so much that the rest of the world would know that there's only one God, that that's good. That was the point. And you say, well, that's amazing, Pastor Brett, so cool. Jesus is Israel, I get it. We've said it 100 times, that's awesome. Well, let me ask you this. What if you showed up here next week and thousands of Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists in traditional garb were here and they were surrendering their life to Jesus, that we were honoring the gospel and that we were doing a healing and anointing services and the lines were out the door? Before I ask my question, let me say it like this. In Jesus' name, let it be so. May we be a movement for all people to discover and deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ and all mean all. And if God is doing a great work here and we celebrate and we give him praise, but would he use us to reach every type of person in our city and around the world by God's grace? Let it be so. But what if it were so? Let's be honest. What if it were so? Would you love it?

Or would it make you uncomfortable? That's what the disciples are feeling. That's what the disciples are feeling. How uncomfortable are we willing to be for this gospel? If he is who he says he is and he's done what this book says he's done, it's worth our lives. Jesus went on from there and he walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and he sat down and great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others. And they put him in a stable and they put him in a manger. And they put him in a manger. And they put him in a manger. And he healed them there. And so that the crowd wondered and when they saw the mute speaking the crippled, the healthy, the lame, walking the crippled healthy, the lame, walking and the blind saying period and they glorified the God of Israel. Notice this is what God's people want more than anything. What we want is for God to get the glory that he's due. That's what we want. We want for people to see him and to treasure him and to worship him as the ultimate treasure. We don't want attention. We want all the attention on God.

This weekend is the US Open. What if when Scotty Scheffler wins it, imagine that the reporter walks up to Scheffler at the end and walks right past him and goes to his golf bag and grabs his nine iron. And she begins to have a conversation with the nine iron and she's like, oh, nine iron, you did such a great job this week. I've never seen a ball fly that far off of a nine iron and it stuck on the greens and left the most beautiful divots I've ever seen and it spun back to exact location. Everybody would be sitting there going, why are you talking to the golf club? Why are you talking to the golf club? You have missed the point completely. Here's the thing. We don't praise the instruments. We praise the one holding the instruments. While we are thrilled to be used by God, while we encourage one another, and it says that all over the Bible, we encourage one another in the Lord, we don't get lost on the part that we played because we know the person who wrote the story is bigger than the part we play. We praise the one holding the instruments. We don't get lost and miss the point. And then Jesus called to his disciples and said, I have compassion on this crowd.

Again, still largely Gentile. I have compassion on this crowd. Pastor Jobe preached a beast of a sermon last week. Always does, nailed it last week. 12 out of 10. Last week he said some version of compassion is not just something you feel, it is something that you have. The scriptures say, and Jesus had compassion on the crowd. He didn't just feel for them, he did something. Compassion is love in action, and I want to commend you, church, you put love in action last week and 6,947 compassion children were sponsored. And those are children now that have been released from the chains of poverty, and they are set free. From the chains of poverty, and they are set free in Jesus' name and being discipled in a local church. Good on you, good on you. He had compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat, and I'm unwilling to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way. And the disciples said to him, where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd? And Jesus said, How many loaves do you have? Does this sound familiar? And they said, seven and a few small fish. Directing the crowd to sit down,

he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, gave them to disciples. Disciples gave it to the crowds, and they all ate and were satisfied, yum. And then they took up seven baskets full of broken pieces left over. Those who ate were 4,000 men, besides women and children. And after sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and he went to the region of Magadon. Now here's the significance. Last week, feeding of 5,000, feeding of 4,000. Two different miracles, very similar in nature. What's the biggest difference? 5,000 was primarily among the Jews, 4,000 was primarily among the Gentiles. This gospel can satisfy anybody from anywhere. The daily bread is for everyone who will believe. That's the significance. The disciples asked this question, where are we to get enough? And you would say, hello? Weren't you at the feeding of 5,000? This is like a month ago. How dumb can you be? Let me, here's the truth. When the pressure's up, when we feel like we're going to disappoint others, when we feel fear, insecurity, when we're tired, when we get worried, what happens? Anxiety, worry kicks in.

Why do we worry? Why do we forget? It's because we don't just forget, we forget to remember. We forget to remember. So far in Matthew, the disciples have seen this. Every disease and affliction healed. Pains, demon possession, epilepsy, paralysis, leprosy. They saw Jesus heal a centurion servant from a distance. He healed Peter's mother-in-law. He cast out demons. He calmed the storm by rebuking the wind. He cast demons out of a man into a herd of pigs. He healed the woman with the issue of blood. He gave sight to two blind men. He gave disciples authority over their own. He gave disciples authority to do the same thing among the house of Israel. He heals the man with the withered hand. He fed 5,000 and now 4,000. What's going on? The disciples are forgetting to remember. They're forgetting to remember that God is faithful. When I look over the shoulder of my life through human history and even my history, I see two things. I see a lot of happy days and I see a lot of hard times, but you know what I see behind all that? God's faithful hand holding it all together. He is faithful. The Pharisees and Sadducees came.

Boy, oh boy, I'm running out of time. The Pharisees and the Sadducees came and tested him. They said, ask him for a sign from heaven. All those things I just listed, they saw a bunch of them, but they want another sign, okay? They said, and he answered, when it's evening, you say it'll be fair weather for the sky is red. In the morning, it will be stormy today for the sky is red and threatening. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. What's the sign of Jonah? Matthew chapter 12, we just studied this. Jesus says this, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. What's the miracle he's talking about? The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the centerpiece of our faith. You are either all in on the reality of Jesus' resurrection and its implications, or you are not in at all. You can bring all your questions,

but eventually it all boils down to did Jesus Christ, who claimed to be God's son and have the authority to forgive sins, did he die on a cross and did he raise from the dead? If he did that, he is worth your life. If not, do whatever you want. The apostle Paul goes on to say, if Jesus is not raised from the dead, then we're all wasting our time here because our sins are not forgiven, but praise God by the power of the Holy Spirit, on the third day he is alive. He did raise from the dead. And because he rose from the dead, we don't need another sign. We don't need another miracle. He's not done yet. He's still doing his work. He's still advancing his kingdom and Lord knows there's coming a day he's gonna split the sky open. He's gonna show us what the kingdom really is all about. But even if he didn't do anything else the rest of our life, he resurrected from the dead and he said he would, it is enough. It is the miracle of all miracles. And so I'm gonna close with this. Jesus left them and departed. And when the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.

They hungry. And Jesus said to them, watch and beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And they began to. Discussing and among themselves saying we brought no bread But Jesus aware of this said oh you of little faith Why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand and how many you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I don't speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees then They understand that he did not tell them to be aware of the leaven of the bread But of the teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees the way leaven works is it's like a yeast or a fermented dough and you add a little bit to the flour and It is what eventually makes bread But here's the thing about leaven is it doesn't take very much and you add in just a very small amount and it's alive and In time it will take over the entire dough it'll take over the whole thing So, what is Jesus saying He's saying that Religion, religious activity, trying to earn and merit your way to God Rebellion, choosing to walk in the things of this world, choosing sin Choosing to pursue the things that you know lead nowhere good, choosing these things that you let these things into your mind and into Your heart and eventually it will poison you on a soul level Beware of the leaven. So my question in closing is this Where have you given your ears or eyes to something that is leading you away from God? Where is this leaven or poison growing in your mind or soul? Maybe it's obvious Maybe just on immediate recall you can think of a repeated pattern of behavior and you know, it's not leading anywhere good

Why let it continue to grow You can leave it here tonight, you can leave it in this place. Why let it grow? Maybe it's not so obvious, but in your conscience, it's clear. You're you're walking in unforgiveness. That's turning into bitterness You're not trusting God in a certain area of your life. You have your reasons you have your skepticisms You have your criticisms But you know on a soul level that there is an area of your life that you are covering with religious activity But it is far from bringing glory to God Will you lay it down? Will you remember to remember God's faithfulness in this place Will you trust him and When you do you'll find out again and again and again and again when we bring and confess our sins to him He is faithful and just to cleanse us of our sins and to heal us of all unrighteousness He paid for you He wants you You matter to God. So as we respond we're going to worship We're gonna give God the attention that he's due through Singing songs that are true about him if you've got business to deal with God You've got areas of your life where you know, you need to confess and repent We invite you to come and put your body in the posture that you want Your heart to be in and then we're gonna bring our first and best like we always do Through tithes and offerings as God would lead and so if you would stand with me at all of our campuses I'm gonna pray for us and we're gonna respond to the good news of the kingdom of God The freedom that comes from following Jesus Christ father. We love you. We need you We pray we join with the the Canaanite woman and we say Lord help us Help us to love you Help us to see you rightly help us to respond to you in grace Help us to be overcome with your kingdom help us to break off the shackles of tradition and Religion help us to be free from the things in this world That's so heavily Burdenous help us to to rid ourselves of the addictions and the hang-ups and the habits that would lead us far from your heart

Lord help us our hands are open and so are our hearts Jesus we invite you in to do surgery beneath the surface and we want you to dig deep We want you to dig deep maybe this not be a time of Religion father, but may it be a sweet personal time where we just enjoy our relationship with you Thank you God thank you for Jesus And it's with grateful hearts that all God's people said, amen, amen. Let's respond.