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Family, I want to start this message by raising to your attention a powerful concept: freedom. The word freedom is built into the fabric of our Constitution, our culture, and even our preaching. Jesus himself preached about freedom, saying, "If you are truly my disciples, you would abide in my teaching. And if you stay in my teaching, you will know the truth. You know the rest of this, and the truth that you know will set you free."
God wants us to be free. He wants us not to be bound. He wants us to have liberty in our spirituality and freedom from strongholds in the mind. But here's what I need to say, and I want to say this ONE MORE TIME: God absolutely desires for his people to be free, but he does not desire you to be free from everything.
There is one perversion of freedom that is not the will of God for you to be free from: the false freedom that our warped desire keeps trying to find in total autonomy—the idea that one can live completely free from any type of external governmental authority. It's the undercurrent that gives birth to statements like "I don't care about the Bible, you live your truth" or "That's the white man's religion to control Black people, so I'm trying to be free from the white man's religion."
Total autonomy is dangerous. Total autonomy is damaging. Total autonomy is destructive. It causes one to believe that people can actually live independent of the wisdom and constraints of laws.
Let me give you some practical examples. If I was driving here and I ran a red light, would that be okay? Try giving a child total autonomy and see what kind of adult you get. Try living in a city with no judicial agency—no police, no judges, no courtroom. You ever been to Camden, New Jersey? Try living in a world with nuclear-armed nations with no global treaties and pacts governing warfare. Try living in a society with no spiritual absolutes, no absolute truth.
You want to know what's the end result of that kind of thinking? Unprecedented self-harm, unprecedented harm of other people, chaos, moral decay, and social and religious anarchy.
God doesn't want us to live with total autonomy. Even in the Garden of Eden, when God gave Adam a garden and said, "Look across the whole joint. You could go in any room you want, eat whatever you want, drink whatever you want. But that one tree right there—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—don't touch that tree. For in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die."
From the very beginning, God was teaching man that you don't have the moral capacity for total autonomy. You and I don't have the moral capacity to steward total autonomy. So God in his wisdom gives us laws and restraints to keep you from hurting yourself, to keep you from harming others, and to keep society from total chaos and anarchy. It is his wisdom and his love to give human beings laws.
The best evidence of this is found in history, hundreds of years before Christ was born. Abraham was the progenitor of the first Jewish race. His family grew in Egypt from a small family to 2 million people. The Pharaoh enslaved the Jewish nation for 430 years. Babies were born in slavery, then their children were born in slavery, and then their children were born in slavery. You had a perpetual generation of human beings with a slave mentality.
Then God sends a man named Moses—a stutterer, because God can use you with your insecurities—and brings a nation of 2 million people out of slavery after 430 years. He brings them to a mountain called Sinai. And the first thing he does is give them laws.
2 million people coming out of slavery with no rules or regulations for how to live amongst one another. How to do marriage. How to do friendship. How to do business. What do you do when you're mad at somebody? What do you do when you come home and find somebody in your crib? The first thing God does is bring them to a mountain and he gives them laws.
He starts with the 10 Commandments. He gives them moral laws, ceremonial laws, judicial laws. He teaches them how to do relationships, how to do business, how to do marriage, how to parent, how to farm, how to be generous, how to handle their money. If you read it, the first four laws are how to connect with God. The second six laws are how to deal with people.
Without those laws, 2 million people would have anarchy. People would be killing people, stealing from each other, taking everything. The Lord is for you. He wants to help you. So he gives 2 million people laws to teach them how to live amongst themselves without killing themselves.
Even atheists know that murder is wrong. Something in the heart of man—even the unbeliever—knows that this is wrong. The laws of God are programmed into our humanity. God in his wisdom gives them laws.
Now watch the genius of Jesus, the greatest preacher of all time. He calls his followers to himself on a mountain. He looks out over the crowd of his disciples, and he starts to preach them this powerful sermon. He says to them, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Blessed are you when you're persecuted."
He teaches them about all these blessings. First, he teaches them about character. When you live this way, you flourish. Then he talks to them about your identity: You are the salt and the light. Then he says, "Now how am I going to anchor them to make sure that they can have character and stand on their identity? I'm going to anchor them in the Word. The strongest foundation anywhere in the world."
So the great teacher talks to them about character, talks to them about identity, and then the next thing he does is Matthew 5:17.
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I solemnly say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, the smallest letter, will pass from the law until all has been accomplished."
This is so powerful. This is the most important statement in the entire sermon. Let me repeat that to you. For all my students, listen to me carefully. This is the most important statement in the entire sermon.
Jesus said to his followers, "I talked to you about your character and about your identity. Now I'm about to ground your identity on a firm foundation." By the time Jesus is preaching this, the religious elite had perverted the moral laws of God. They had twisted them. They were in a society just like ours, where they had preachers preaching bad doctrine, twisting the scriptures, teaching people lies and heresies.
Jesus enters the scene in a culture where people are being fed lies and heresies, and he says to them, "All that stuff y'all be hearing, do not think for one second that I came to abolish the law and the prophets." When Jesus says "law and prophets," he's talking about the Old Testament. Every time you see the word "Scripture" in the New Testament, they're talking about the Old Testament.
Listen to you who like to throw out the Old Testament: when Jesus was alive, there was no New Testament. All they had was the Old Testament, Genesis to Malachi. He said, "Don't think for one second I came to take that first half of the Bible and toss it out. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I came to fulfill it. I came to affirm it. I came to let you know it's not going anywhere. I came to raise the standard on y'all."
How does Jesus fulfill the Old Testament, the law and the prophets? The whole Old Testament is a prophecy about Christ. From Genesis to Revelation, it's screaming the coming of Christ. Everything in the Torah is all pictures and signs and types of Christ. The temple in the wilderness was in the shape of a cross trying to give them a signal of Christ. Everything inside the temple was pointing to the righteousness of Christ. All the things the prophets were prophesying about was all pointing to Christ.
When he came on the scene, he says, "That stuff y'all been reading, now it's fulfilled in my coming. I am the walking, living embodiment of all the Old Testament. I am the complete fulfillment of the moral law, so high in a standard you can't keep it, so I got to keep it for you. So that when I die, I can take my righteousness from the cross and give it to you. Take your unrighteousness and nail it to the cross. So that when God sees you, he doesn't see you through good behavior; he sees you through the blood of Jesus."
This is how you can keep messing up and saying, "Lord, forgive me," and it's over. Let me tell you how thankful I am. Anybody sin in the last 7 days? A bad thought? A lie? Cuss somebody out? Imagine without Christ, every time you messed up, you had to kill an animal. Every time you committed a sin, you had to slay an animal and shed blood.
There would be no stray cats. There would be no stray dogs. People would be hiding their pets. We'd be running out of pets. I want you to think about a world where every time you committed a sin, you had to kill an animal. Jesus is the fulfillment of that now. I am the last lamb that got to be slain. Y'all ain't got to slay another lamb for the rest of your life. Instead of slaying lambs, I just talk to one.
Watch what he says. Look at verse 19. He says, "Not one dot, not one iota." These are Greek words for Hebrew things. An iota and a dot in Hebrew writings—the parchments, the original scrolls of the Bible—this would have been equivalent to an English period, comma, colon, or semicolon. God was saying: Every paragraph, every chapter, every sentence, every verse, every period, comma, and colon, all of it was inspired by God. All of it matters.
If you read a sentence and there's a comma in there, God put the comma in there to make you think about the text. Every period, every dot, every jot, every comma, every exclamation mark—when you see that, it means something. It's all inspired by God.
Watch what he said. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away first before anything in that Bible passes away." All this foolishness about "the Bible's not real, the Bible's fake, it's the white man's religion, it's trying to control people"—that's what man said. But listen to what Jesus said. I'm going to take his word over your word.
Y'all can say what you want, post what you want, write what you want, blog what you want. Heaven and earth is going to pass away first before my word passes. And when it's all said and done, the only thing that's going to remain is the truth of my word. It's never going to pass away. It's more sure than the ground under your foot. It can be trusted. It can be believed. It can be stood on.
The Quran is going to pass away. The Pearl of Great Price is going to pass away. The Book of Mormon is going to pass away. Every religious writing is going to pass away. And only one is going to be remaining when it's all said and done. The most read document in the history of the world. The document that has conquered nations and transformed generations. The living, breathing, inherent, eternal words of the living God Almighty.
His revelation of himself to mankind. His thoughts. His ways. His loves, his hates, his attributes, his promises. Everything we know about God. His way of dealing with human beings throughout history. What he will do and will not do.
You need to stop listening to bad preaching. You can't just stand up here and tell people God's fixing to do this and God's fixing to do that, but it ain't in the word. He ain't fixing to do nothing that's not in his word. He's not going to violate his principles for you and your emotions and your tears.
I remember hearing a story about a dude who had a Bible sitting on his table for his restaurant. Some anarchists came in there and burned down his restaurant. The whole joint crumbled to dust, and when they cleared the dust, the only thing that wasn't burned was the word. Fire all around it, the word untouched. God says, "I exalt this above my own name. It could be believed."
People say, "I don't believe it was written by men. I cool, cool. It was written by men. Yeah, let me tell you who wrote it. Forty men. Thirty-nine Jews and one non-Jew. They lived over a period of 1,500 years. Some of them were born before the others died, and some died before the others were born. They lived on three different continents. They spoke three different languages, and yet from Genesis to Revelation, there's a unity of thought.
That's an impossibility apart from the inspiration of God Almighty. You can't get 20 people in a room and tell them to write an essay about one topic and get agreement. I'll put 20 of y'all in a room, give you a topic. Let's write about marriage. We're not going to get agreement. Let's write about singleness. We ain't going to get agreement. Let's write about the market. We ain't going to get agreement. I'll put 20 y'all in a room and give you one topic. You can't get agreement. 1,500 years? 40 men, three continents, three languages, complete agreement. God even let the council of men take the books that are inspired and put them in here. Anything between the maps is God's word.
"Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever teaches them and whoever does them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven."
Jesus said to them, "If anybody takes my laws and you water it down, you are called least in the kingdom of heaven. But they got a big Instagram following though. But they got millions of dollars though. But everybody goes to their conferences though. Whoever takes my word and waters it down will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever teaches it and teaches others to do the same, they will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
Now, he did not say this to pastors. He said it to all his followers. So he's telling you your concern is to know it and to teach it to other people. You don't need a mic and a platform to tell somebody, "Thus says the Lord." You can do that in a squad, on Zoom, in a post, on social media, with your children. He says know it and teach others to do the same also. And when you do that, even though you got 20 people following you, in his eyes you are great in the kingdom of heaven.
Now, whose eyes do you want to be great in? Just the eyes of men or the eyes of God? So why we keep propping up people that be relaxing his word though? "Oh, he dope and she be spitting fire, but ain't no Bible."
Unless your righteousness goes past the scribes and the Pharisees, you can't even come into my kingdom. So we should be asking ourselves: who are the scribes and Pharisees, and what was their righteousness?
The scribes and the Pharisees were the religious elite of the day. People were envious of them because in their minds, they thought, "If you a scribe, if you a Pharisee, these are our models. These are our role models for righteousness." But these men were perverting God's laws and relaxing God's laws. These men were creating their own laws and calling it the laws of God.
People preach things from the pulpit and strap you with heavy burdens and say, "This is God's laws." Like you can't wear pants if you're a woman. Can't have an earring. Can't wear makeup. You can only worship on the Sabbath or Saturday. You create all these man-made laws to choke the life out of people, and then you put God's name on that.
We live in this time right now. People grew up in churches like this. Man-made traditions that strap heavy burdens to your life that you can't even fulfill them, and then they put God's name on them and they're not in the book.
I remember when I was a Muslim, you can't eat this pork. You got to pray five times a day and all this stuff. But the Lord said, "Nothing that goes in you defiles you. Bless your food and eat. Only what comes out of a man defiles him." The whole book of Galatians is about that. Y'all be strapped with all these traditions and religion and all this stuff that God didn't even tell you to do. You be listening to man-made regulations. Some of y'all be grieving your own self over God ain't even mad at.
I see some women that be so sad. They're wearing dresses their whole life. Can't put on no jeans. Don't have no rips. God forbid your knee is sticking out. You going to hell if you got a rip in your jeans. Your knee is sticking out. No, this is some of us have been raised in traditions where you've come out of heavy burdens. Like Paul said, that God didn't even put on you.
I thought it was Jesus who said, "Take my yoke upon you. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." But your favorite preacher said something different. Some of y'all break a fast, and you think God be mad. Some of y'all miss your quiet time, and you think God is mad. You think because you was busy and you missed your quiet time, God is mad at you. But that's not in the book of the Lord.
Who said that prayer should be done without ceasing? It should just be like breathing. I could be in the shower and talking to God in my mind. I could be driving on the way to work and just talking to God in my mind. Yes, I miss my quiet time, but I can talk to him on the way to work. Some of y'all so filled with bad doctrine, you be trying to carry your own burdens. So when you mess up, you kill yourself like God is mad at you.
But Jesus took the wrath of God towards the believer and nailed it to the cross. So no longer are you an object of wrath, but of complete love and mercy. You be thinking God be angry at you all the time.
When my wife and I lived in Ohio during Bible College, I remember this experience that changed my life. My son, Malachi, was about five years old. We came home and he was writing on the wall with crayons. Then he went and got the dish washing detergent and put the whole thing on the wall and was trying to wipe off the crayon.
I'm a father, so I sat him down and said, "Son, you can't be drawing on this apartment. We got to pay for it. We broke. I got to get this deposit back. We're eating beans and rice and we got holes in our shoes. You can't be writing on these walls, son."
And then he starts crying. And I say, "Malachi, it's okay." I help him clean off the walls. I say, "All right, go upstairs. Don't worry about it."
It's like 10 o'clock at night. I get up and I hear whimpering downstairs in the bathroom. I go downstairs and the light from the moon is shining in. No light. And I see his face in the bathroom, and he's curled up in a fetal position by the toilet. And he's crying.
I say to him, "Malachi, what are you doing here?"
He says to me, "Daddy, I was writing on the wall."
When he said that—because he looked just like me—I saw myself there. Still persecuting himself for something I let him go for. Although I had forgiven him, he could not forgive himself.
And I thought about how difficult it'd be for me to forgive myself. Because I'm a perfectionist and I'm anal about things being done right. That's when I mess up, I'm hard on myself. When I saw his face, I saw my face.
The thing that hurt me the most was not what he did earlier in the day. The thing that hurt me the most is that he was still condemning himself. As a loving father, I was more hurt by the fact that he would not just move on and enjoy the rest of his day. I was hurt in my heart because my son was condemning his own self.
If I, as a father who is fallen in nature, would feel that type of love for my son, how much more does your heavenly Father feel wounded when he sees you with the inability to let go of yourself? Son, daughter, "I forgave you for that years ago. You still thinking about it. I'm trying to get you to move on from it."
Every failure, every mistake, every sin, every mess up—if it's under the blood, it's a weapon now. Release yourself.
Jesus gave them six illustrations of bad doctrine. Too often we just focus on the illustration instead of seeing what he's trying to say underneath them. It's like you giving somebody a principle and then here are six examples of my principle.
Example One: Murder and Anger
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not murder.' And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says 'You fool' will be liable to hell fire."
Jesus is saying: It's not enough to just not take a life. But also, don't kill people in your heart with hate. To kill people with hate in your eyes is the same as murder. Don't insult people to the point of holding hatred. That's evidence of unrighteousness that leads to damnation.
"If you are offering your gift at the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift at the altar. First, go be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift to the altar."
What Jesus is saying: When you have visceral conflict with other people, whether you are the offender or the victim, just do your part to make things right. Because when you hold hate in your heart, you put your own self in a prison. And you'll never get out that prison until you release that hate.
Example Two: Adultery and Lust
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
He's saying: It's not enough just to not be wilding out while you're married. He said, "Stop having optical intercourse with everything while you're married." You ain't never wild out in your marriage, but you having optical intercourse with everything while you're married. I'm not more focused on your external behavior. I'm more focused on your heart.
Man, every time you swipe, you're sleeping with something. He said, "I want you to work on that. If you work on that, it'll transform everything else."
Let me be honest about lust. That's a man problem, really. We all struggle. Especially brothers. We all sometimes see something and man, we feel some type of way. Some of y'all in here praying, "Lord, take lust away from me," and he might not. You're going to see some hips and some lips. You're going to see some tall, dark and handsome. He might not take it away.
Some things got to be managed with discipline. Just read the back half of Romans 7. "The thing I don't want to do, I keep doing. What I should be doing, I don't do. So when I find myself doing what I should not be doing, this wrestling is the sin in me." This flesh in you ain't getting out of it until you die. So some things is going to take discipline.
"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away. For it is better for you to lose one of your members than your body to be thrown into hell."
Jesus is not advocating for self-mutilation. He's just saying: Whatever is hurting you, get rid of it. A relationship is causing you hell? It's making you wild out and sin? Cut that person off. The app is messing you up? Cut it off. This dude right here messing you up? Cut him off. She tearing you down? Cut it off. Whatever you got to do, run from it, flee. That's just having some discipline. It's a matter of the heart.
Example Three: Divorce
"It was said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you, everyone who divorces his wife, except on the grounds of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. Whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."
You take this bad teaching and strap that on every person who's been divorced and condemn them for divorce, because you don't understand context. He did not say this to condemn people who had a divorce. In that time, men were frivolously throwing away wives for anything, following two rabbis who had better teachings than Jesus.
If your wife couldn't cook, get rid of her. She put too much seasoning on your food? Get rid of her. She got her head uncovered outside? Get rid of her. Men were divorcing for any little thing. The culture was rampant with divorce for any little thing.
All the Lord was saying: Man, unless you really have to get out, stop throwing them away for no reason. The Greek word for sexual morality is "porneia," where we get the word "porn" from. That doesn't mean a singular act or mistake. It means rampant recklessness with unrepentance. But he said he would rather you forgive and work on something than just be throwing stuff away all the time.
Example Four: Oaths and Honesty
"Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform all your oaths to the Lord.' But I say to you, do not take an oath at all. Neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of God, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair black or white. But let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No.' Anything more than this comes from evil."
I've been guilty of this. "Yo, I swear to God I ain't going to do that no more. Yo, word to my mother, I ain't going to do that no more. Yo, I swear to God." He said, "Yo, you don't need all of that. Chill out. You swearing by things that are solemn."
What the Lord is saying here is: Your life should be so strong that your word is your bond. When you speak, you're believed. The character of your life should be so that people know there's congruency between what I say and what I do. So when I speak, they just believe me.
So, Philip, are you going to be there? Yes. You going to be there? No. Can you help me with this? No. But why not? No, I can't. Can't put it in my schedule. No. But you promised. No, I ain't promised nothing. No, I can't do it.
He said your yes should be yes, and your no should be no. When people know you, they know you mean what you say.
Example Five: Retaliation
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."
Ooh Lord. The Lord is still working on me. I ain't going to lie. I ain't there yet. I ain't there yet. The context is you getting smacked. I don't know which is worse, the forehand or the backhand. Which one is more disrespectful? Like, you know, backhand—that's you're being disrespected. I'd be eyeing people like, "Are you wanting me to turn my cheek? Some of us we like, 'Lord, you, I'm on my way, Lord, but I ain't there yet. He going to get smacked back and I'm going to be repenting later when I get home."
"And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles."
In these days, Romans could walk up to a Jew and say, "Carry my armor." And by law, you had to carry it one mile. But Jesus tell them, "When you finish that mile, since you one of my followers, go a second mile with that Roman." So when the Roman looks at the follower of Jesus, they go, "You going another mile that you're not you don't have to?" Like, what kind of person is this? Now you shine like a light in darkness. That's where Chick-fil-A got second mile service from. Go the extra mile.
That's a great principle. You want a promotion on your job? You want to move up? Go above the call of duty. Especially Black people, stop doing the minimum to get by. Stop doing the minimum. Be people of excellence. Go the extra mile. Be different. Be different.
In context, this was for the courtroom. It was for handling judicial disputes. The Pharisees took something from the court and brought it into personal relationships to say, "If somebody do something to me, I'm going to get you back." But in its proper context, in the Old Testament, it was for the courts. It was for the judicial system. It was not meant for personal relationships. It was not meant for vengeance back and forth.
So the Lord is saying: Don't take what was meant for the courts to decide and just be in the streets revenging one another. Don't do that. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. It's a matter of the heart.
Example Six: Loving Enemies
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, 'Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.'"
"So that you may be called the sons of your father who is in heaven. For he makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust."
God blesses people that don't even know him. God is amazing.
"For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that? And if you greet only your brother, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect."
He's saying: If you only love people who's easy to love, you don't get no props for that. Can you love someone who is difficult to love? He's saying your neighbor—he said don't hate your neighbor. They turn neighbor into like people they don't like. So he said, "Nah, don't hate people and don't just love people who's in your squad. I want you to learn to love people that agitate you. When I see you loving people who are difficult to love, you get mad props from me. You don't get no reward for loving somebody who's easy to love."
Stop hating on each other in the church. Stop hating on everybody that offends you and piss you off and you holding grudges and grievances. Like, the Lord is watching that. So you were this big Christian. You don't get no props. You only love people who don't rub you wrong. I'm watching to see how you handle this person that makes you feel some type of way. Can you love that person, though?
I love all kind of people that piss me off. Can you love family members that piss you off? Can you love brothers and sisters in Christ who rub you wrong and piss you off? Like, you won't get no props.
The reward comes when you can love outside of that group. The person that agitates you.
This whole thing is so dope to me because all Jesus is saying is: All this external stuff y'all be doing to appear more religious than other people—the Lord said that stuff don't impress me. What the Lord is really impressed with is the condition of our hearts.
And he says the foundation for training your heart is the word of God. Here is your character—the Beatitudes. Here is your identity—salt and light. Here is the foundation for how you hold that up: the word of God, the laws of God, the things that I gave you to train your heart in righteousness.
So that you don't have total autonomy from the word of God. That's one freedom you don't get. I took that freedom off the table from you. The freedom to be autonomous from the wisdom of God and the laws of God and the word of God and the teachings of God and the truth of God—I took that off the table from you.
You don't get autonomy from that. I gave you these for wisdom to train your heart to be wise and righteous. What I'm after is your heart, not just your good behavior.
Look at me, brothers. This is why unbelievers don't want to come and gather. They don't want to go to church. Their issue is less with God and more with the people that represent him. Because we're hyper-religious, but our hearts are messed up.
And what the Lord is saying: "Listen, true faith in me, doing this for real, is not all your external behaviors and you went to church and you sing on a team and you serve in the booth. All this external—thank God for all that—but what I'm really looking at is the condition of your heart towards other people."
The faith is a matter of the heart. So Jesus came to exalt his word and said, "Man, this thing trains you for your heart." And if we're going to have any foundation for character and identity, it has to be found in this word that trains our heart.
So one of the wisest things you could ever do is keep submitting that to God. All of your mistakes and all of your failures, all your insecurities—just keep submitting them. "Lord, my heart is dark, help me here. I'm struggling with lust, help me there. I'm struggling with hate, help me here." Just keep telling him what's in your heart. It's like there's nothing you're hiding that he doesn't know anyway.
The Lord is for you and not against you. He wants to help you and not crush you. So he's trying to do that MRI on your heart. And if we're going to have real faith, it can't just be all this pious behavior that makes people think you more holier than other people when he's really looking at the condition of your heart.
So, Jesus is saying, "Man, if you're going to serve me and walk with me and do church and do squads and do all this stuff, man, what I really want from you is a faith born of the heart. That law of mine brings order to the heart. That's what this whole thing's about. It's about the heart. True righteousness begins in the heart."
God is for you. He wants to help you deal with your heart.
I want to pray for everyone in here who has matters of the heart. Issues in your heart. Hatred in your heart. Whatever in your heart.
Eternal God and wise Father, I pray for my brothers and my sisters and everyone under the sound of my voice. We all got issues in our heart. Relational tension with other people. All manner of things represented in the room right now. I pray for all my brothers and sisters, all your sons and daughters.
That you will help us not to have just an external religion that makes us more holy or more pious than others, but you will help us to have a faith that is born of the heart. Help us to keep pursuing you to have a pure heart. Help us to have righteousness not in just good deeds and behavior, but righteousness in the heart.
And now Father, I pray for every one of my brothers and sisters who's dealing with some issue in their heart. Some insecurity. Some problem with another person. Some issue with a spouse. Some issue with a friend. Some torment of the heart. Some pride. Some arrogance. Some stone. Whatever it is.
I pray God right now in the name of Jesus, you would work and move in the depths of my brother and my sister's heart. We pray God for a transformation right now of a heart. We pray right now for the healing of a heart. We pray right now for the resuscitation of a heart. We pray faith would come to a heart. Belief would come to a heart. Confidence would come to a heart. Joy would come to a heart. Hope would come to a heart. Forgiveness of self would come to a heart. Condemnation would be released from a heart.
I pray love would flood a heart. Forgiveness would flood a heart. Mercy would flood a heart. Desire would flood our heart. And I pray Father we will not just be men and women of external actions, but we will have a righteousness that is born of the heart.
I pray for law and order in our hearts right now in Christ's name.
And while heads are bowed and eyes are closed, I'm talking to you, my brother. I'm talking to you, my sister. Your heart is wicked. It is dark. It is sinful. Because God says the thing that is most wicked is the heart. And from it flows all the issues of life.
And my brother, my sister, your biggest issue is not that you got problems with somebody that you know. Your biggest issue is that you got a problem with God. You've done religion, but you have not done relationship. You don't really belong to God. He sees you creeping in and out of these gatherings, but you don't belong to him.
And my brother, my sister, here is the scriptures. Here is the gospel. We all have sinned. We all have messed up. We all made mistakes, even the person with the microphone. And the scripture says: "If you die in your sin, if you die in a car accident on the way home, and you're not under the blood, you're going to be separated from God for all eternity."
You said, "Preacher, I don't believe that." Die and find out. Hell, you're not ready for hell. But God, in his love, not wanting you to perish, sent his Son, the Lord Jesus, into the earth. And he says, "If anyone would just keep it real, no cap, put your faith in me, ask for forgiveness, I will forgive you of your sins. I will wipe away your past. I'll make you my son, my daughter. You can leave out of here today a brand new man, a brand new woman."
It ain't no magic pixie dust. This is what God was trying to do in you before the foundation of the world. He already knew you would be here in this moment.
My brother, my sister, he's calling you. He's calling you to a life of purpose. He's calling you to be a son or daughter. He's calling you to be fully loved, fully forgiven, fully known.
For me, this happened in 2003 over a toilet seat in a bathroom.
I'm talking to you, sister. You already know who you are.
I'm talking to you, my brother. You already know who you are.
I want to pray for you. I see hands going up already. I want to pray for you. You want to leave here and say, "I want to be a son or daughter of God. I feel him already stirring in my heart. I already know God is saving me right now in my seat."
If that's you, I want to pray for you. I just want to see you. I'm going to count to three, and if that's you, God is already saving you in your seat. I just want you to throw your hand in the air and throw it back down. Nobody can't see you.
One, the Lord Jesus is calling you. I see hands going up already. Two, today is the beginning of the rest of your life. Three, throw your hands in the air.
I see that hand. Keep it up. I see that hand. Two, three, four, keep it up. Five, six, I see that hand. Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, I see that hand. Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, I see that hand. Seventeen, I see that hand. Eighteen, nineteen, I see that hand. Nineteen, I see that hand. Twenty, I see that hand. Twenty-one, I see that hand. Twenty-two, I see that hand. Twenty-three, I see that hand. Twenty-three, I see that hand. Twenty-three.
Twenty-three lives about to be radically changed forever. Hallelujah. You twenty-three people just ask the Lord to forgive you. Tell him you're sorry for all your sin. Just tell him you're sorry. He's already saving you in your seat. No magic prayer or pixie dust. Just say, "I'm sorry, and I surrender. I give my life to you."
Twenty-four, I see you in the back. Just tell him I give my life to you. Twenty-five, just tell him I give my life to you. Twenty-six, just tell them I give my life to you.
Twenty-six. And now Father, I pray over these twenty-six souls who you already saved from the foundation of the world. These are your sons and daughters. Fill them with your Holy Spirit. Let their hearts be filled with the graces of the Beatitudes. Teach them that they are salt and light. They belong to you in this moment. You knew that they would be here before the foundation of the world.
Man can't save them. This is a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit. All twenty-seven of them, God. I pray God, Lord, you would draw them to yourself. You will help them to feel that freedom from the condemnation of their past. And I thank you that today is the beginning of the rest of their lives.
Now Father, you said when one sinner repents, all of heaven rejoices. So Father, right now we rejoice. We celebrate. We rejoice. We celebrate. I said we rejoice. We celebrate.
Family, I want to start this message by raising to your attention a powerful concept: freedom. The word freedom is built into the fabric of our Constitution, our culture, and even our preaching. Jesus himself preached about freedom, saying, "If you are truly my disciples, you would abide in my teaching. And if you stay in my teaching, you will know the truth. You know the rest of this, and the truth that you know will set you free."
God wants us to be free. He wants us not to be bound. He wants us to have liberty in our spirituality and freedom from strongholds in the mind. But here's what I need to say, and I want to say this ONE MORE TIME: God absolutely desires for his people to be free, but he does not desire you to be free from everything.
There is one perversion of freedom that is not the will of God for you to be free from: the false freedom that our warped desire keeps trying to find in total autonomy—the idea that one can live completely free from any type of external governmental authority. It's the undercurrent that gives birth to statements like "I don't care about the Bible, you live your truth" or "That's the white man's religion to control Black people, so I'm trying to be free from the white man's religion."
Total autonomy is dangerous. Total autonomy is damaging. Total autonomy is destructive. It causes one to believe that people can actually live independent of the wisdom and constraints of laws.
Let me give you some practical examples. If I was driving here and I ran a red light, would that be okay? Try giving a child total autonomy and see what kind of adult you get. Try living in a city with no judicial agency—no police, no judges, no courtroom. You ever been to Camden, New Jersey? Try living in a world with nuclear-armed nations with no global treaties and pacts governing warfare. Try living in a society with no spiritual absolutes, no absolute truth.
You want to know what's the end result of that kind of thinking? Unprecedented self-harm, unprecedented harm of other people, chaos, moral decay, and social and religious anarchy.
God doesn't want us to live with total autonomy. Even in the Garden of Eden, when God gave Adam a garden and said, "Look across the whole joint. You could go in any room you want, eat whatever you want, drink whatever you want. But that one tree right there—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—don't touch that tree. For in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die."
From the very beginning, God was teaching man that you don't have the moral capacity for total autonomy. You and I don't have the moral capacity to steward total autonomy. So God in his wisdom gives us laws and restraints to keep you from hurting yourself, to keep you from harming others, and to keep society from total chaos and anarchy. It is his wisdom and his love to give human beings laws.
The best evidence of this is found in history, hundreds of years before Christ was born. Abraham was the progenitor of the first Jewish race. His family grew in Egypt from a small family to 2 million people. The Pharaoh enslaved the Jewish nation for 430 years. Babies were born in slavery, then their children were born in slavery, and then their children were born in slavery. You had a perpetual generation of human beings with a slave mentality.
Then God sends a man named Moses—a stutterer, because God can use you with your insecurities—and brings a nation of 2 million people out of slavery after 430 years. He brings them to a mountain called Sinai. And the first thing he does is give them laws.
2 million people coming out of slavery with no rules or regulations for how to live amongst one another. How to do marriage. How to do friendship. How to do business. What do you do when you're mad at somebody? What do you do when you come home and find somebody in your crib? The first thing God does is bring them to a mountain and he gives them laws.
He starts with the 10 Commandments. He gives them moral laws, ceremonial laws, judicial laws. He teaches them how to do relationships, how to do business, how to do marriage, how to parent, how to farm, how to be generous, how to handle their money. If you read it, the first four laws are how to connect with God. The second six laws are how to deal with people.
Without those laws, 2 million people would have anarchy. People would be killing people, stealing from each other, taking everything. The Lord is for you. He wants to help you. So he gives 2 million people laws to teach them how to live amongst themselves without killing themselves.
Even atheists know that murder is wrong. Something in the heart of man—even the unbeliever—knows that this is wrong. The laws of God are programmed into our humanity. God in his wisdom gives them laws.
Now watch the genius of Jesus, the greatest preacher of all time. He calls his followers to himself on a mountain. He looks out over the crowd of his disciples, and he starts to preach them this powerful sermon. He says to them, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Blessed are you when you're persecuted."
He teaches them about all these blessings. First, he teaches them about character. When you live this way, you flourish. Then he talks to them about your identity: You are the salt and the light. Then he says, "Now how am I going to anchor them to make sure that they can have character and stand on their identity? I'm going to anchor them in the Word. The strongest foundation anywhere in the world."
So the great teacher talks to them about character, talks to them about identity, and then the next thing he does is Matthew 5:17.
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I solemnly say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, the smallest letter, will pass from the law until all has been accomplished."
This is so powerful. This is the most important statement in the entire sermon. Let me repeat that to you. For all my students, listen to me carefully. This is the most important statement in the entire sermon.
Jesus said to his followers, "I talked to you about your character and about your identity. Now I'm about to ground your identity on a firm foundation." By the time Jesus is preaching this, the religious elite had perverted the moral laws of God. They had twisted them. They were in a society just like ours, where they had preachers preaching bad doctrine, twisting the scriptures, teaching people lies and heresies.
Jesus enters the scene in a culture where people are being fed lies and heresies, and he says to them, "All that stuff y'all be hearing, do not think for one second that I came to abolish the law and the prophets." When Jesus says "law and prophets," he's talking about the Old Testament. Every time you see the word "Scripture" in the New Testament, they're talking about the Old Testament.
Listen to you who like to throw out the Old Testament: when Jesus was alive, there was no New Testament. All they had was the Old Testament, Genesis to Malachi. He said, "Don't think for one second I came to take that first half of the Bible and toss it out. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I came to fulfill it. I came to affirm it. I came to let you know it's not going anywhere. I came to raise the standard on y'all."
How does Jesus fulfill the Old Testament, the law and the prophets? The whole Old Testament is a prophecy about Christ. From Genesis to Revelation, it's screaming the coming of Christ. Everything in the Torah is all pictures and signs and types of Christ. The temple in the wilderness was in the shape of a cross trying to give them a signal of Christ. Everything inside the temple was pointing to the righteousness of Christ. All the things the prophets were prophesying about was all pointing to Christ.
When he came on the scene, he says, "That stuff y'all been reading, now it's fulfilled in my coming. I am the walking, living embodiment of all the Old Testament. I am the complete fulfillment of the moral law, so high in a standard you can't keep it, so I got to keep it for you. So that when I die, I can take my righteousness from the cross and give it to you. Take your unrighteousness and nail it to the cross. So that when God sees you, he doesn't see you through good behavior; he sees you through the blood of Jesus."
This is how you can keep messing up and saying, "Lord, forgive me," and it's over. Let me tell you how thankful I am. Anybody sin in the last 7 days? A bad thought? A lie? Cuss somebody out? Imagine without Christ, every time you messed up, you had to kill an animal. Every time you committed a sin, you had to slay an animal and shed blood.
There would be no stray cats. There would be no stray dogs. People would be hiding their pets. We'd be running out of pets. I want you to think about a world where every time you committed a sin, you had to kill an animal. Jesus is the fulfillment of that now. I am the last lamb that got to be slain. Y'all ain't got to slay another lamb for the rest of your life. Instead of slaying lambs, I just talk to one.
Watch what he says. Look at verse 19. He says, "Not one dot, not one iota." These are Greek words for Hebrew things. An iota and a dot in Hebrew writings—the parchments, the original scrolls of the Bible—this would have been equivalent to an English period, comma, colon, or semicolon. God was saying: Every paragraph, every chapter, every sentence, every verse, every period, comma, and colon, all of it was inspired by God. All of it matters.
If you read a sentence and there's a comma in there, God put the comma in there to make you think about the text. Every period, every dot, every jot, every comma, every exclamation mark—when you see that, it means something. It's all inspired by God.
Watch what he said. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away first before anything in that Bible passes away." All this foolishness about "the Bible's not real, the Bible's fake, it's the white man's religion, it's trying to control people"—that's what man said. But listen to what Jesus said. I'm going to take his word over your word.
Y'all can say what you want, post what you want, write what you want, blog what you want. Heaven and earth is going to pass away first before my word passes. And when it's all said and done, the only thing that's going to remain is the truth of my word. It's never going to pass away. It's more sure than the ground under your foot. It can be trusted. It can be believed. It can be stood on.
The Quran is going to pass away. The Pearl of Great Price is going to pass away. The Book of Mormon is going to pass away. Every religious writing is going to pass away. And only one is going to be remaining when it's all said and done. The most read document in the history of the world. The document that has conquered nations and transformed generations. The living, breathing, inherent, eternal words of the living God Almighty.
His revelation of himself to mankind. His thoughts. His ways. His loves, his hates, his attributes, his promises. Everything we know about God. His way of dealing with human beings throughout history. What he will do and will not do.
You need to stop listening to bad preaching. You can't just stand up here and tell people God's fixing to do this and God's fixing to do that, but it ain't in the word. He ain't fixing to do nothing that's not in his word. He's not going to violate his principles for you and your emotions and your tears.
I remember hearing a story about a dude who had a Bible sitting on his table for his restaurant. Some anarchists came in there and burned down his restaurant. The whole joint crumbled to dust, and when they cleared the dust, the only thing that wasn't burned was the word. Fire all around it, the word untouched. God says, "I exalt this above my own name. It could be believed."
People say, "I don't believe it was written by men. I cool, cool. It was written by men. Yeah, let me tell you who wrote it. Forty men. Thirty-nine Jews and one non-Jew. They lived over a period of 1,500 years. Some of them were born before the others died, and some died before the others were born. They lived on three different continents. They spoke three different languages, and yet from Genesis to Revelation, there's a unity of thought.
That's an impossibility apart from the inspiration of God Almighty. You can't get 20 people in a room and tell them to write an essay about one topic and get agreement. I'll put 20 of y'all in a room, give you a topic. Let's write about marriage. We're not going to get agreement. Let's write about singleness. We ain't going to get agreement. Let's write about the market. We ain't going to get agreement. I'll put 20 y'all in a room and give you one topic. You can't get agreement. 1,500 years? 40 men, three continents, three languages, complete agreement. God even let the council of men take the books that are inspired and put them in here. Anything between the maps is God's word.
"Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever teaches them and whoever does them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven."
Jesus said to them, "If anybody takes my laws and you water it down, you are called least in the kingdom of heaven. But they got a big Instagram following though. But they got millions of dollars though. But everybody goes to their conferences though. Whoever takes my word and waters it down will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever teaches it and teaches others to do the same, they will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
Now, he did not say this to pastors. He said it to all his followers. So he's telling you your concern is to know it and to teach it to other people. You don't need a mic and a platform to tell somebody, "Thus says the Lord." You can do that in a squad, on Zoom, in a post, on social media, with your children. He says know it and teach others to do the same also. And when you do that, even though you got 20 people following you, in his eyes you are great in the kingdom of heaven.
Now, whose eyes do you want to be great in? Just the eyes of men or the eyes of God? So why we keep propping up people that be relaxing his word though? "Oh, he dope and she be spitting fire, but ain't no Bible."
Unless your righteousness goes past the scribes and the Pharisees, you can't even come into my kingdom. So we should be asking ourselves: who are the scribes and Pharisees, and what was their righteousness?
The scribes and the Pharisees were the religious elite of the day. People were envious of them because in their minds, they thought, "If you a scribe, if you a Pharisee, these are our models. These are our role models for righteousness." But these men were perverting God's laws and relaxing God's laws. These men were creating their own laws and calling it the laws of God.
People preach things from the pulpit and strap you with heavy burdens and say, "This is God's laws." Like you can't wear pants if you're a woman. Can't have an earring. Can't wear makeup. You can only worship on the Sabbath or Saturday. You create all these man-made laws to choke the life out of people, and then you put God's name on that.
We live in this time right now. People grew up in churches like this. Man-made traditions that strap heavy burdens to your life that you can't even fulfill them, and then they put God's name on them and they're not in the book.
I remember when I was a Muslim, you can't eat this pork. You got to pray five times a day and all this stuff. But the Lord said, "Nothing that goes in you defiles you. Bless your food and eat. Only what comes out of a man defiles him." The whole book of Galatians is about that. Y'all be strapped with all these traditions and religion and all this stuff that God didn't even tell you to do. You be listening to man-made regulations. Some of y'all be grieving your own self over God ain't even mad at.
I see some women that be so sad. They're wearing dresses their whole life. Can't put on no jeans. Don't have no rips. God forbid your knee is sticking out. You going to hell if you got a rip in your jeans. Your knee is sticking out. No, this is some of us have been raised in traditions where you've come out of heavy burdens. Like Paul said, that God didn't even put on you.
I thought it was Jesus who said, "Take my yoke upon you. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." But your favorite preacher said something different. Some of y'all break a fast, and you think God be mad. Some of y'all miss your quiet time, and you think God is mad. You think because you was busy and you missed your quiet time, God is mad at you. But that's not in the book of the Lord.
Who said that prayer should be done without ceasing? It should just be like breathing. I could be in the shower and talking to God in my mind. I could be driving on the way to work and just talking to God in my mind. Yes, I miss my quiet time, but I can talk to him on the way to work. Some of y'all so filled with bad doctrine, you be trying to carry your own burdens. So when you mess up, you kill yourself like God is mad at you.
But Jesus took the wrath of God towards the believer and nailed it to the cross. So no longer are you an object of wrath, but of complete love and mercy. You be thinking God be angry at you all the time.
When my wife and I lived in Ohio during Bible College, I remember this experience that changed my life. My son, Malachi, was about five years old. We came home and he was writing on the wall with crayons. Then he went and got the dish washing detergent and put the whole thing on the wall and was trying to wipe off the crayon.
I'm a father, so I sat him down and said, "Son, you can't be drawing on this apartment. We got to pay for it. We broke. I got to get this deposit back. We're eating beans and rice and we got holes in our shoes. You can't be writing on these walls, son."
And then he starts crying. And I say, "Malachi, it's okay." I help him clean off the walls. I say, "All right, go upstairs. Don't worry about it."
It's like 10 o'clock at night. I get up and I hear whimpering downstairs in the bathroom. I go downstairs and the light from the moon is shining in. No light. And I see his face in the bathroom, and he's curled up in a fetal position by the toilet. And he's crying.
I say to him, "Malachi, what are you doing here?"
He says to me, "Daddy, I was writing on the wall."
When he said that—because he looked just like me—I saw myself there. Still persecuting himself for something I let him go for. Although I had forgiven him, he could not forgive himself.
And I thought about how difficult it'd be for me to forgive myself. Because I'm a perfectionist and I'm anal about things being done right. That's when I mess up, I'm hard on myself. When I saw his face, I saw my face.
The thing that hurt me the most was not what he did earlier in the day. The thing that hurt me the most is that he was still condemning himself. As a loving father, I was more hurt by the fact that he would not just move on and enjoy the rest of his day. I was hurt in my heart because my son was condemning his own self.
If I, as a father who is fallen in nature, would feel that type of love for my son, how much more does your heavenly Father feel wounded when he sees you with the inability to let go of yourself? Son, daughter, "I forgave you for that years ago. You still thinking about it. I'm trying to get you to move on from it."
Every failure, every mistake, every sin, every mess up—if it's under the blood, it's a weapon now. Release yourself.
Jesus gave them six illustrations of bad doctrine. Too often we just focus on the illustration instead of seeing what he's trying to say underneath them. It's like you giving somebody a principle and then here are six examples of my principle.
Example One: Murder and Anger
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not murder.' And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says 'You fool' will be liable to hell fire."
Jesus is saying: It's not enough to just not take a life. But also, don't kill people in your heart with hate. To kill people with hate in your eyes is the same as murder. Don't insult people to the point of holding hatred. That's evidence of unrighteousness that leads to damnation.
"If you are offering your gift at the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift at the altar. First, go be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift to the altar."
What Jesus is saying: When you have visceral conflict with other people, whether you are the offender or the victim, just do your part to make things right. Because when you hold hate in your heart, you put your own self in a prison. And you'll never get out that prison until you release that hate.
Example Two: Adultery and Lust
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
He's saying: It's not enough just to not be wilding out while you're married. He said, "Stop having optical intercourse with everything while you're married." You ain't never wild out in your marriage, but you having optical intercourse with everything while you're married. I'm not more focused on your external behavior. I'm more focused on your heart.
Man, every time you swipe, you're sleeping with something. He said, "I want you to work on that. If you work on that, it'll transform everything else."
Let me be honest about lust. That's a man problem, really. We all struggle. Especially brothers. We all sometimes see something and man, we feel some type of way. Some of y'all in here praying, "Lord, take lust away from me," and he might not. You're going to see some hips and some lips. You're going to see some tall, dark and handsome. He might not take it away.
Some things got to be managed with discipline. Just read the back half of Romans 7. "The thing I don't want to do, I keep doing. What I should be doing, I don't do. So when I find myself doing what I should not be doing, this wrestling is the sin in me." This flesh in you ain't getting out of it until you die. So some things is going to take discipline.
"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away. For it is better for you to lose one of your members than your body to be thrown into hell."
Jesus is not advocating for self-mutilation. He's just saying: Whatever is hurting you, get rid of it. A relationship is causing you hell? It's making you wild out and sin? Cut that person off. The app is messing you up? Cut it off. This dude right here messing you up? Cut him off. She tearing you down? Cut it off. Whatever you got to do, run from it, flee. That's just having some discipline. It's a matter of the heart.
Example Three: Divorce
"It was said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you, everyone who divorces his wife, except on the grounds of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. Whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."
You take this bad teaching and strap that on every person who's been divorced and condemn them for divorce, because you don't understand context. He did not say this to condemn people who had a divorce. In that time, men were frivolously throwing away wives for anything, following two rabbis who had better teachings than Jesus.
If your wife couldn't cook, get rid of her. She put too much seasoning on your food? Get rid of her. She got her head uncovered outside? Get rid of her. Men were divorcing for any little thing. The culture was rampant with divorce for any little thing.
All the Lord was saying: Man, unless you really have to get out, stop throwing them away for no reason. The Greek word for sexual morality is "porneia," where we get the word "porn" from. That doesn't mean a singular act or mistake. It means rampant recklessness with unrepentance. But he said he would rather you forgive and work on something than just be throwing stuff away all the time.
Example Four: Oaths and Honesty
"Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform all your oaths to the Lord.' But I say to you, do not take an oath at all. Neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of God, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair black or white. But let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No.' Anything more than this comes from evil."
I've been guilty of this. "Yo, I swear to God I ain't going to do that no more. Yo, word to my mother, I ain't going to do that no more. Yo, I swear to God." He said, "Yo, you don't need all of that. Chill out. You swearing by things that are solemn."
What the Lord is saying here is: Your life should be so strong that your word is your bond. When you speak, you're believed. The character of your life should be so that people know there's congruency between what I say and what I do. So when I speak, they just believe me.
So, Philip, are you going to be there? Yes. You going to be there? No. Can you help me with this? No. But why not? No, I can't. Can't put it in my schedule. No. But you promised. No, I ain't promised nothing. No, I can't do it.
He said your yes should be yes, and your no should be no. When people know you, they know you mean what you say.
Example Five: Retaliation
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."
Ooh Lord. The Lord is still working on me. I ain't going to lie. I ain't there yet. I ain't there yet. The context is you getting smacked. I don't know which is worse, the forehand or the backhand. Which one is more disrespectful? Like, you know, backhand—that's you're being disrespected. I'd be eyeing people like, "Are you wanting me to turn my cheek? Some of us we like, 'Lord, you, I'm on my way, Lord, but I ain't there yet. He going to get smacked back and I'm going to be repenting later when I get home."
"And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles."
In these days, Romans could walk up to a Jew and say, "Carry my armor." And by law, you had to carry it one mile. But Jesus tell them, "When you finish that mile, since you one of my followers, go a second mile with that Roman." So when the Roman looks at the follower of Jesus, they go, "You going another mile that you're not you don't have to?" Like, what kind of person is this? Now you shine like a light in darkness. That's where Chick-fil-A got second mile service from. Go the extra mile.
That's a great principle. You want a promotion on your job? You want to move up? Go above the call of duty. Especially Black people, stop doing the minimum to get by. Stop doing the minimum. Be people of excellence. Go the extra mile. Be different. Be different.
In context, this was for the courtroom. It was for handling judicial disputes. The Pharisees took something from the court and brought it into personal relationships to say, "If somebody do something to me, I'm going to get you back." But in its proper context, in the Old Testament, it was for the courts. It was for the judicial system. It was not meant for personal relationships. It was not meant for vengeance back and forth.
So the Lord is saying: Don't take what was meant for the courts to decide and just be in the streets revenging one another. Don't do that. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. It's a matter of the heart.
Example Six: Loving Enemies
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, 'Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.'"
"So that you may be called the sons of your father who is in heaven. For he makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust."
God blesses people that don't even know him. God is amazing.
"For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that? And if you greet only your brother, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect."
He's saying: If you only love people who's easy to love, you don't get no props for that. Can you love someone who is difficult to love? He's saying your neighbor—he said don't hate your neighbor. They turn neighbor into like people they don't like. So he said, "Nah, don't hate people and don't just love people who's in your squad. I want you to learn to love people that agitate you. When I see you loving people who are difficult to love, you get mad props from me. You don't get no reward for loving somebody who's easy to love."
Stop hating on each other in the church. Stop hating on everybody that offends you and piss you off and you holding grudges and grievances. Like, the Lord is watching that. So you were this big Christian. You don't get no props. You only love people who don't rub you wrong. I'm watching to see how you handle this person that makes you feel some type of way. Can you love that person, though?
I love all kind of people that piss me off. Can you love family members that piss you off? Can you love brothers and sisters in Christ who rub you wrong and piss you off? Like, you won't get no props.
The reward comes when you can love outside of that group. The person that agitates you.
This whole thing is so dope to me because all Jesus is saying is: All this external stuff y'all be doing to appear more religious than other people—the Lord said that stuff don't impress me. What the Lord is really impressed with is the condition of our hearts.
And he says the foundation for training your heart is the word of God. Here is your character—the Beatitudes. Here is your identity—salt and light. Here is the foundation for how you hold that up: the word of God, the laws of God, the things that I gave you to train your heart in righteousness.
So that you don't have total autonomy from the word of God. That's one freedom you don't get. I took that freedom off the table from you. The freedom to be autonomous from the wisdom of God and the laws of God and the word of God and the teachings of God and the truth of God—I took that off the table from you.
You don't get autonomy from that. I gave you these for wisdom to train your heart to be wise and righteous. What I'm after is your heart, not just your good behavior.
Look at me, brothers. This is why unbelievers don't want to come and gather. They don't want to go to church. Their issue is less with God and more with the people that represent him. Because we're hyper-religious, but our hearts are messed up.
And what the Lord is saying: "Listen, true faith in me, doing this for real, is not all your external behaviors and you went to church and you sing on a team and you serve in the booth. All this external—thank God for all that—but what I'm really looking at is the condition of your heart towards other people."
The faith is a matter of the heart. So Jesus came to exalt his word and said, "Man, this thing trains you for your heart." And if we're going to have any foundation for character and identity, it has to be found in this word that trains our heart.
So one of the wisest things you could ever do is keep submitting that to God. All of your mistakes and all of your failures, all your insecurities—just keep submitting them. "Lord, my heart is dark, help me here. I'm struggling with lust, help me there. I'm struggling with hate, help me here." Just keep telling him what's in your heart. It's like there's nothing you're hiding that he doesn't know anyway.
The Lord is for you and not against you. He wants to help you and not crush you. So he's trying to do that MRI on your heart. And if we're going to have real faith, it can't just be all this pious behavior that makes people think you more holier than other people when he's really looking at the condition of your heart.
So, Jesus is saying, "Man, if you're going to serve me and walk with me and do church and do squads and do all this stuff, man, what I really want from you is a faith born of the heart. That law of mine brings order to the heart. That's what this whole thing's about. It's about the heart. True righteousness begins in the heart."
God is for you. He wants to help you deal with your heart.
I want to pray for everyone in here who has matters of the heart. Issues in your heart. Hatred in your heart. Whatever in your heart.
Eternal God and wise Father, I pray for my brothers and my sisters and everyone under the sound of my voice. We all got issues in our heart. Relational tension with other people. All manner of things represented in the room right now. I pray for all my brothers and sisters, all your sons and daughters.
That you will help us not to have just an external religion that makes us more holy or more pious than others, but you will help us to have a faith that is born of the heart. Help us to keep pursuing you to have a pure heart. Help us to have righteousness not in just good deeds and behavior, but righteousness in the heart.
And now Father, I pray for every one of my brothers and sisters who's dealing with some issue in their heart. Some insecurity. Some problem with another person. Some issue with a spouse. Some issue with a friend. Some torment of the heart. Some pride. Some arrogance. Some stone. Whatever it is.
I pray God right now in the name of Jesus, you would work and move in the depths of my brother and my sister's heart. We pray God for a transformation right now of a heart. We pray right now for the healing of a heart. We pray right now for the resuscitation of a heart. We pray faith would come to a heart. Belief would come to a heart. Confidence would come to a heart. Joy would come to a heart. Hope would come to a heart. Forgiveness of self would come to a heart. Condemnation would be released from a heart.
I pray love would flood a heart. Forgiveness would flood a heart. Mercy would flood a heart. Desire would flood our heart. And I pray Father we will not just be men and women of external actions, but we will have a righteousness that is born of the heart.
I pray for law and order in our hearts right now in Christ's name.
And while heads are bowed and eyes are closed, I'm talking to you, my brother. I'm talking to you, my sister. Your heart is wicked. It is dark. It is sinful. Because God says the thing that is most wicked is the heart. And from it flows all the issues of life.
And my brother, my sister, your biggest issue is not that you got problems with somebody that you know. Your biggest issue is that you got a problem with God. You've done religion, but you have not done relationship. You don't really belong to God. He sees you creeping in and out of these gatherings, but you don't belong to him.
And my brother, my sister, here is the scriptures. Here is the gospel. We all have sinned. We all have messed up. We all made mistakes, even the person with the microphone. And the scripture says: "If you die in your sin, if you die in a car accident on the way home, and you're not under the blood, you're going to be separated from God for all eternity."
You said, "Preacher, I don't believe that." Die and find out. Hell, you're not ready for hell. But God, in his love, not wanting you to perish, sent his Son, the Lord Jesus, into the earth. And he says, "If anyone would just keep it real, no cap, put your faith in me, ask for forgiveness, I will forgive you of your sins. I will wipe away your past. I'll make you my son, my daughter. You can leave out of here today a brand new man, a brand new woman."
It ain't no magic pixie dust. This is what God was trying to do in you before the foundation of the world. He already knew you would be here in this moment.
My brother, my sister, he's calling you. He's calling you to a life of purpose. He's calling you to be a son or daughter. He's calling you to be fully loved, fully forgiven, fully known.
For me, this happened in 2003 over a toilet seat in a bathroom.
I'm talking to you, sister. You already know who you are.
I'm talking to you, my brother. You already know who you are.
I want to pray for you. I see hands going up already. I want to pray for you. You want to leave here and say, "I want to be a son or daughter of God. I feel him already stirring in my heart. I already know God is saving me right now in my seat."
If that's you, I want to pray for you. I just want to see you. I'm going to count to three, and if that's you, God is already saving you in your seat. I just want you to throw your hand in the air and throw it back down. Nobody can't see you.
One, the Lord Jesus is calling you. I see hands going up already. Two, today is the beginning of the rest of your life. Three, throw your hands in the air.
I see that hand. Keep it up. I see that hand. Two, three, four, keep it up. Five, six, I see that hand. Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, I see that hand. Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, I see that hand. Seventeen, I see that hand. Eighteen, nineteen, I see that hand. Nineteen, I see that hand. Twenty, I see that hand. Twenty-one, I see that hand. Twenty-two, I see that hand. Twenty-three, I see that hand. Twenty-three, I see that hand. Twenty-three.
Twenty-three lives about to be radically changed forever. Hallelujah. You twenty-three people just ask the Lord to forgive you. Tell him you're sorry for all your sin. Just tell him you're sorry. He's already saving you in your seat. No magic prayer or pixie dust. Just say, "I'm sorry, and I surrender. I give my life to you."
Twenty-four, I see you in the back. Just tell him I give my life to you. Twenty-five, just tell him I give my life to you. Twenty-six, just tell them I give my life to you.
Twenty-six. And now Father, I pray over these twenty-six souls who you already saved from the foundation of the world. These are your sons and daughters. Fill them with your Holy Spirit. Let their hearts be filled with the graces of the Beatitudes. Teach them that they are salt and light. They belong to you in this moment. You knew that they would be here before the foundation of the world.
Man can't save them. This is a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit. All twenty-seven of them, God. I pray God, Lord, you would draw them to yourself. You will help them to feel that freedom from the condemnation of their past. And I thank you that today is the beginning of the rest of their lives.
Now Father, you said when one sinner repents, all of heaven rejoices. So Father, right now we rejoice. We celebrate. We rejoice. We celebrate. I said we rejoice. We celebrate.
