Sunday, February 1
2026-02-01
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_kX8T0rSQE

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Testing, testing, testing, testing. Testing, testing. We're getting like a crazy hum on that. Testing, testing. I don't know if it's picking up background noise. Maybe. Check, check, check. Testing, one, two, three. Testing, one, two, three.

Testing, one, two, three. Testing, one, two, three. Testing, one, two, three. Testing, one, two, three. Testing, one, two, three. Testing, test, test, test, test. ...in winter air and mountain rain combining. This icy course, both foul and fair, has a frozen harbor binding. So cut through the heart, cold and clear. Strike for love and strike for fear. See the beauty sharp and sheer. Slip the ice apart and break the frozen heart. Let it go. Oh, watch your step. Let it go. Beautiful, powerful, dangerous. Oh, nice as a magic can be controlled. Stronger than one. Stronger than ten. Stronger than a hundred men. Ha! Born of cold and winter rare. And mountain rain on fire. This harshly forceful, foul and clear. Has a frozen heart with mining. Clap through the heart, cold and clear. Strike for love and strike for fear. The beauty and the danger here. Slip the ice apart. Share the frozen heart. Come on, Sven.

Let's pray. The Spirit and the bride together testify. All things shall be made right. Amen. The lost shall be restored. The grave shall be no more. And all the church will roar. Amen. Prepare the way the King is coming. In front of praise, the King is coming. The lost, the first, the living world, His glory shall return. And we, prepare the way. As light upon the earth, we wait for His return. Amen. No fear of what's to come. Our hopes and in the one who said that it is done. Amen. Prepare the way the King is coming. It blows. Our pain is coming. The last, the first, the living word, the glory shall renew. We prepare the way. Jesus, we prepare the way. Jesus, we prepare the way. The trumpet soon shall start. You ride upon the clouds. In every need of love. Amen.

The honor and the faith. The glory, power and praise. Be unto Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Prepare the way the King is coming. In the world of praise, the King is coming. The last of us, the living words, the glory shall return. The great I am, the Son of Man, the Lion and the Lamb. The poor of the Son, who stands alone, in light will lead us home. We prepare the way. Jesus, we prepare the way. Jesus, we prepare the way. Jesus, we prepare the way. Thank you. Jesus, we prepare the way. Jesus, we prepare the way. Jesus, we prepare the way. Jesus, we prepare the way. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

This morning, let me turn on my mic. We've got some folks out sick this morning, but we are glad that you are here with us on probably the coldest Sunday we've had in a long time. So whether you are here with us or you're watching online, just a couple of reminders. There is communion and bulletins on the little stand as you come in. The door inside the bulletin is a short sort of abbreviated sermon outline if you'd like to follow along with where we are in the Sermon on the Mount. Just a note: if you are watching online, we're missing a guy in the sound booth this morning. And so if there are audio issues, I text Derek, specifically that's to Rachel. And we won't be able to do anything to fix it, but at least we'll know. So we are glad that you are here this morning.

So we are working our way through the Sermon on the Mount, and we're listening to Jesus. He calls us not just to outward obedience, but to a deeper righteousness that comes from a transformed heart. So I'm going to pray, and then we'll read from the 145th Psalm together. So let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for your grace. I thank you for your provision. I thank you for your spirit who is at work in our lives. I just ask that you would be with us this morning, that you would encourage those who are discouraged. That you would comfort those who are mourning and in sorrow. That you would restore those whose lives and relationships are broken. That you would encourage those who are discouraged with what lies in front of them. That if, for us, life is good and feeling victorious, that you would fix our eyes towards you, and that you would bring us to you in an attitude of gratefulness for your provision.

So be with us this morning. Take care of us as we worship. Help us to keep our eyes fixed on you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would, let's go ahead and be standing. We're going to read from the 145th Psalm together. It's actually where we ended up at the end of our service last week, and it's where we're going to open this morning. So let's read together. The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand. You satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and kind in all His works. The Lord is near to those who call on Him, and to all who call on Him in truth.

This is the word of the Lord. We're going to start by singing, "This is our God," and then we'll move into a time of assurance and forgiveness. Remember those wars that we call sin and shame? They were like prisons that we couldn't escape. But He came, and He died, and He rose. Those wars are rubble now. Remember those giants we call death and grave? They were like mountains that stood in our way. But He came, and He died, and He rose. Those giants are dead now.

This is our God. This is who He is. He loves us. This is our God. This is what He does. He saves us. Born across, beat the grave. That hell and the propane. This is our God, King Jesus. The woman that fears and took a breath away. Faith so weak that we could barely pray. He heard every word, every whisper. Now those alters in the wilderness tell the story of His faithfulness. Never once did He fail, and He never will. This is our God, this is who He is. He loves us. This is our God, this is what He does. He saves us. He bore the cross, beat the grave, and again in love broken. This is our God, King Jesus. He pulled me out of that pit. He did. He did. Who paid for all of our sin? Nobody but Jesus. Who pulled me out of that pit? He did. He did.

Who paid for all of our sin? Nobody but Jesus. Who pulled me out of that pit? He did. He did. Who paid for all of our sin? Nobody but Jesus.

This is our God. This is who He is. He loves us. This is our God. This is what He does. He saves us. For the cross, read the grave. Let heaven proclaim. This is our God. King Jesus. For the cross, read the grave. Let heaven proclaim. This is our God. King Jesus.

The temple, the seraphim, each had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And they called to one another and said, "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory." And as Isaiah beholds the glory and the righteousness of God, his response is to see his own brokenness and sinfulness. And he cries out, "I am lost! Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." We're going to sing, "Holy, holy, holy." Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy.

Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. All the saints adore Him. Casting down the golden crowns around the glassy sea. Children and seraphim falling down before me. Who was there not and ever more shall be?

Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness hide me, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see. Only thou art holy, there is none beside me, but the temple in love and purity.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, all thy words shall praise thy name in love that sky will sing. Holy, holy, holy, blessed Lord Almighty, God in repressive, blessed tracy. You may be seated. One of my favorite contrasts in the book of Ephesians is in Ephesians chapter 2, where Paul describes the brokenness in which we once walked. He will say, "Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived, in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." And then here's the contrast. "But God, being rich in mercy, and because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, and by grace you have been saved."

Let's pray. Father, as we come to you in repentance, as we come to you seeing your holiness and your glory, we see our own unworthiness and our own brokenness. We know that you are our only hope and our only strength and our only transformation. So we thank you for the good news of the Gospel, and we thank you for Jesus. And we thank you for forgiveness. We thank you for the gift of your Spirit. May you help us to walk in righteousness. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As we prepare to come to the table, we're going to sing "Turn Your Eyes."

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace. Turn your eyes to that hillside. Where justice and mercy embrace. There the Son of God gave His life for us. And our measureless death was erased. Jesus, to You we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our Christ. We adore You, behold You, our Savior ever true. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. Jesus, to You, our Savior ever true. Turn your eyes to the morning and see Christ the lion away. What a glorious dawn fear of death is gone, for we carry His life in our veins. Jesus, to You we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our prize. We adore You,

behold You, our Savior ever true. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. Turn your eyes to the heavens. Our King will return for His own. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will shine. All glory to Jesus, Lord. Jesus, to You You lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our blood. We adore You. Behold You. Our Savior ever true. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. Jesus, to You You lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our blood. Our glory and our prize. We adore You. Behold You. Our Savior ever true. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. It's pretty easy in life sometimes to do things halfway. Back before the weather was bad, and our family was sick, and the kids had a ton of appointments. I used to work out with Dave. Hopefully we'll be back to doing that again soon. And one of the things I like to do

is whenever he left the basement gym and came back, I'd be there. On the way it's going, "One thousand!" It's like, "Well, there's my set for the day. I've got it taken care of." Or if you've ever used the phrase, "Close enough for government work." Or when your parents are coming to visit, "I never did this," but you stuff everything in a closet so your house looks clean. We are oftentimes masters of making the outside and the surface look pretty well. And in Matthew chapter 5 and 6 and 7, Jesus is calling us to a righteousness that goes deeper. That's more than just the outward picture of doing good things and not doing bad things and looking really, really good. What Jesus is calling us to is a righteousness of the heart. And if we've had any experience in life, we know that that kind

of righteousness does not come very easily or naturally to us. And one of the reasons I think it is important for God's people to come to the table is to be reminded that our righteousness is not found in our own goodness, but it's found in the goodness of Christ. The one that 2 Corinthians chapter 5 said knew no sin, but he became sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Last week we spent some time in the book of Ezekiel on our very snowy Sunday. And I would just remind you of these words from Ezekiel chapter 36. Maybe I have the wrong remote. Where Ezekiel says, "From God, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and to be careful to obey my rules." And at this table we are reminded that that promise is fulfilled. Right? The bread reminds us that Christ has given his body for us. Right? Not just to sort of improve us or make us look better, but to redeem us completely. The cup reminds us that his blood

His blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sins, cleansing us from the inside out. When we eat and we drink, we are not declaring our own righteousness or goodness. We are declaring that we belong to Jesus. That our hope is not in our righteousness, but in His. And as we come to Him, He continues to work in us. He softens what is hard in our hearts. He heals what is broken. He shapes our hearts to look more and more like what He intends us to be. So we come to the table, not because we are perfect, but because we know the One who is. And so we come hungry, and with repentance, and trusting the One who gives us a new heart. Let's pray. Father, we thank You that You have taken our heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh, that You have given us Your Spirit, and You have done so through Your Son,

giving Himself in our place. As we remember this sacrifice, as we eat the bread, and we drink the cup, remembering His broken body and His blood that was poured out for us, may we first of all see the weight of our brokenness. And may we see the glorious reality of Your forgiveness and redemption in the cross. May we see the hope that lays ahead all of us as Jesus has conquered death and sin and all of our fears. We ask that You bless this bread and bless this cup. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would take the bread with me, as Jesus shares with His disciples and says, "Do this in remembrance of me." If you would take this cup, the new covenant in the blood of Christ, let's remember Him together.

And as often as we eat this bread and we drink this cup, we proclaim Jesus until He comes again. At this point in our service, what we're going to do is we're going to dismiss the kids to Children's Church. Miss Tiffany and Miss Susan are downstairs and they're ready for you. And then we up here are going to begin to move into our time of prayer. And so I'll have Russell come and lead us in prayer. Thank you. Thank you. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Jesus said, "Follow me." Let's pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

. . . . . "For must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." This is God's Word. So these verses, they're long. They take a while to read through and have been the source of struggle and debate, because Jesus says some difficult things. Some difficult things that are difficult culturally. They may be difficult in terms of what we already believe. They may be difficult in terms of our personal life situations. Some of this is helpful, some of it's hard, some of it's confronting. Some of us are a little bit like Jacob, as he goes to meet Esau and meets the angel of the Lord in the middle of the night, Jesus, and begins to wrestle with him. And when you read commentaries on this section, there is a lot that comes through that's sort of like,

"Yes, but..." I know what Jesus says, but what he really means, and we try to qualify Jesus' words, because when we hear these words, we struggle with righteousness. So I thought a lot about how to deal with this text. Each of these six examples that Jesus walks through, this text could be a sermon, but more likely a series, right? In a culture of outrage, let's not just talk about murder, but let's talk about what unchecked anger ultimately does. In a culture that's filled with lust, as an entire industry, more than a hundred billion dollars, the pornography industry is more than a hundred billion dollar industry, bigger than all of the major sports combined. Lust being used in advertisement, entertainment, huge problem. Let's talk about marriage, and what it means, and what do we expect, and what is God's design for,

about words, and oaths, and how your life is speech, and your obedience should be your yes and your no. Let's talk about retaliation. And loving your enemies. Each one of these couldn't just be a simple sermon, but we could spend an entire series on each one of these. And so what I want to do this morning is not necessarily unpack every verse or every controversy or every little bit of this text. I want to give you an overview because I think sometimes we miss the righteousness that we are called to. You see, Jesus in this, very specifically, he is calling us to righteousness. And you can't mistake this, I think, throughout this text is that Jesus' purpose in saying this, he says, "Here's what that righteousness looks like. The righteousness that ultimately the Beatitudes lead to, that can lead to cultural opposition.

The righteousness that must be greater than the scribes and the Pharisees." Listen to how it comes through this sermon. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Right? The Beatitudes lead us to righteousness, and Jesus' next words tell us not just the importance, but warn us of both the passive and the active struggles. If the salt loses its saltiness, right, there is a sense where we can sort of put righteousness in the corner, deprioritize it, and it sort of disappears from our life. But in the same way, we also face cultural opposition, and it's very easy to hide our light under a basket. And so Jesus will say this, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven." And Jesus says this very startling

thing. "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." And that's at the very beginning. Right before we read this morning, that's what Jesus said, "Your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees." And the last verse of our text is this, "You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." So in between verse 20 and verse 48, there are six examples of deeper righteousness. And there can be no misunderstanding. And it's easy as we look at these pictures of righteousness, simply to see them as a contrast between the law of Moses and the words of Christ. There's a pretty easily seen pattern that you may have picked up on as I read through it. Jesus will say, "You have heard it said,

said, you have read, you have heard it said of old," and then he'll insert, for example, "Don't murder, don't commit adultery," these kinds of things. And then he will say, "But I say to you," and then you insert sort of a deepening and widening of that command. And it's easy just to simply look through this entire text and go, "Jesus is just contrasting the law of Moses with the way in which he calls us to walk." There's a way that people could walk, there's a way they should walk, and we want to walk like Jesus. But I want you to see something deeper here. Jesus is not only contrasting the external part of righteousness, the actions, with the internal part, the heart righteousness. He's also in this text, and in almost every one of these, some is very obvious, some you have to dig a little deeper, but

he's sort of showing us a diagnosis. And so, for example, he'll say, "There's a symptom, and that symptom is murder." But murder isn't the ultimate problem. Underlying murder is a hatred and unforgiveness and anger and insults that fill your heart. And so, if you want to get rid of this symptom, which is murder, you have to deal with the actual diagnosis, which is the anger and unforgiveness that fills your heart, and there is a treatment. He says, "Reconciliation." Right? Even if it's your brother's problem, if you're standing at the altar and your brother has a problem with you, you go to him, leave your gift there, walk out, go deal with it, and come back. You see, there is a pattern that runs through these where Jesus will show us the symptom. He'll deal with the heart cause of it, and then he'll help us

to get back on track with righteousness. And in some cases there's a bit of extra wisdom or extra benefit. This happens with lust. Adultery is the symptom. The diagnosis is the lust. The treatment is to get as far away from you as possible, like Joseph. Leave your coat and get out of town. Head for the hills. Divorce is the symptom. The diagnosis is treating marriage in a small and flippant way. And the solution, Jesus says, is stop doing it. Speech, oaths, loving your enemies, and retaliation. It all goes sort of hand in hand. Jesus isn't just going, "There's a way you were told, and now I'm showing you a different way that's a little deeper and a little wider." But he's saying, "The law diagnoses the symptoms of your heart, and now let's dive into your heart, and let's work on bringing that

into righteousness." Jesus is saying this. He's going to deal with your heart, but not alone. And so what we find, first of all, is there is a symptom that's sort of general to all of us. And it's simply this. We minimize righteousness. Think about how we approach laws. Probably most of us, whether we admit it or not, some laws are a little more binding than other laws. Maybe speed limits. Maybe inspections on your cars. I mean, I don't know. In the early 2000s, there was a thing that played before every movie in a theater and on DVDs, and it's like, "Well, you wouldn't steal a car. You wouldn't take a purse. Why would you download a movie off the internet?" And I'm going, "Well, I might do those things." But what they were doing is saying

that these things are as bad as other things. We have a tendency to look at different sins and different righteousness and sort of establish maybe a badness value and go, "Well, at least I don't do that." And maybe the issue is comparison. Maybe the idea is we minimize it. It's not as bad as we think. Or we justify it. There's a reason for this. Or maybe we hide our sin. Jesus will talk about this later. The Pharisees are like these whitewashed cups. Like a coffee cup sitting on a desk. I don't know anything about that because I immediately return all my coffee cups, right, Debbie, to the kitchen to be cleaned. Never leave them on my desk. A coffee cup looks clean on the outside until you look inside, and it's just it's been there for a while.

You see, this list in many ways is a self-diagnosis. Because we tend to look at this list and for me, I go, "Well, I haven't murdered anybody." And Jesus goes, "Yeah, but where's your heart in terms of anger and unforgiveness?" And maybe we go, trying to justify, "Well, it's not my fault. It's their fault." The same is true for adultery and for lust. And sometimes our hiding isn't just being sneaky. It's a culturally accepted way of excusing sin. Right? That's what's happening in Jesus' day with his teaching on divorce in this text. Right? There were people in that day using the law as a way to sin while still looking righteously. And what Jesus does as he confronts our heart, is he doesn't allow us to minimize our sin. He doesn't allow us to hide it. He doesn't allow

us to assign a value to it. He confronts us with words that are difficult. And so as you hear the words of Jesus, you go, "Man, I don't know about that." Right? Sometimes that's the rock of the Word of God confronting a hard heart that needs to be softened. Jesus, first of all, diagnoses our problems that we tend to minimize righteousness. And then he begins to diagnose. The problem is we make sin small, and so he says the real issue is, first of all, sin is big, and secondly, it's in your hearts. The issue here isn't simply the practice of external sin. It's the sinful heart that bears sinful fruit, right? Murder, lust, problems in our marriages, speech, attitudes, actions toward our enemies. The real problem is sin that's rooted in our hearts, right? This is what we just talked about. The cup that's

dirty on the inside. And here's the reality. Many of us, when we come to sin, we don't ever deal with the roots of sin. We like to prune sin. Right? Cut it back so it looks acceptable. We grew up with a lot of apple trees in our backyard, and if you want the apples to produce, there are branches that grow with no fruit, but they're also unsightly. So you gotta come in and prune. And a lot of us are expert sin pruners in our hearts. We take away those unsightly branches. You know what the problem is with pruning? Is that what happens next year, those unsightly branches just pop back up again, right? There's really only one way to deal with it. Is you have to deal with the root of the problem. And so many

of us often seek to prune the appearance of sin rather than dealing with the depths of it, right? It's far easier for me not to murder than it is for me to forgive and reconcile. It's far easier to do the bare minimum, carrying the Roman's bag. That's the context of going the extra mile. And to do so with resentment in my heart than to put my heart in it. It's very easy to let society set the standard for righteousness, and that's what Jesus gets at with love. It's easy for us to love those who love us. Very different situation when it's your enemies. Right? This is all more than action. It's the center of our being. The real issue with righteousness is not that you do sinful things. It's that you are a sinful person.

That's what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2. And so Jesus, first of all, as he gives us this list, as we're sort of flying over broadly, he says that we tend to minimize sin. He doesn't allow us to do that. He then diagnoses that the problem is the sin in the depths of our heart. And the treatment, I think, is two-fold. The first one is this: the city uprooted. Not simply pruned, but uprooted. And I've shared this with some of you before, but our neighbors, back on the other side of the fence it's like three neighbors ago. In fact, they lived there when I first moved here back in 2004. They had a giant mimosa tree. And for a lot of years it was alive, and then it died and it was still there, and finally got cut down.

And the crazy thing about mimosa trees, and I'd never heard of a mimosa tree before moving to Virginia, is that they can send out their roots like 30 to 50 feet. And the way that they are so invasive is those roots anywhere can pop up mimosa trees. And I think I shared a couple years ago that the tree had been dead for like 10 years, but those roots are still producing mimosa trees. And we had gone through our driveway, and I think Derek helped us out with this. And we cut down like 25 mimosa trees. Everything from little sprouts to one that was like this big around. And guess what? Next spring came, 25 more mimosa trees. I don't even know how many there were this year. The neighbor kids all and our kids went out and built

a shelter out of mimosa tree branches that they cut down. And the problem is not that they keep popping out and we cut them down. The problem is that root system that spreads out somewhere between 30 and 50 feet from where the center of that tree was. And as long as that root system is there and alive, those little mimosa trees are going to keep popping up over and over and over again. The same is true with your heart. You can cut out the visual sin as much as you want, but until you deal with the depth of the root of your sin, that's a big part of the contrast that Jesus makes. That easily seen pattern where he says, "You have heard," and then we can insert that sin there, and then he says,

"But I say to you," when Jesus does that, he's deepening and widening these commandments, and it's a direct attack on the sin that's rooted in our hearts. He's saying, "You have heard how to deal with the symptoms. Now, let me show you how to tear those roots up." And it's only possible by the grace of God. Right? You've got to uproot your anger. You've got to uproot your lust. You've got to dig down into the selfishness that impacts our families, our marriages, that impacts our words and our treatment of others. To not just speak firmly, but live firmly. Not just doing the bare minimum, but going the extra mile, because your heart has been transformed, and that bitterness has been rooted out. And so, first of all, that bitterness and that sin must be uprooted.

Now, often times, that's kind of where we stop. Let me get in there, and let me dig out the sin that has been rooted in my heart. The problem is, that only works temporarily. Remember, Jesus talks about a man who had a demon cast out of him, and the house was clean and put in order. And that demon went out and roamed around and finally came back and found the house and it was empty. It was all swept and cleaned up, and so he gets his worst friends and moves back in. The reality is that it is not enough to uproot the sin, that it must be replaced with something else. That sin isn't simply removing it from our lives, but something else must be present. Thomas Chalmers writes a wonderful sermon. I encourage you to go look up the PDF and read it.

The expulsive power of a new affection. He's a Puritan and his premise is simply this: that the only way we truly change is for sin to be displaced by the affection for something greater. Listen to how Jesus ends this last part. He says, "Therefore you must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." This is a pretty difficult set of words. Right? So difficult that we often try to explain these away, or dismiss them, or say, "That's not what Jesus really meant," which is just another way of saying what the serpent said in the garden is that, "Did God really say that?" So instead of doing that, instead of dismissing, let's see how these words replace that uprooted sin in our heart. Let's take this as what Jesus says. Let's take it based value. A call to

live in the same way that our Heavenly Father lives. The same standard, the same righteousness, and the heart surgery that is necessary. So before we do that, rather than just taking it as a whole, what I want to do is kind of go right to the middle of this. And it's not in the middle in terms of the text, but it is, I think, in terms of our understanding the text. It's just two words: Heavenly Father. Jesus uses the word Father in this sermon, it's been like 15 times. Over and over in these three chapters, Jesus talks about our Father, our Heavenly Father. He's talking about God, the Father. Let's get some context as to what Jesus says about our Heavenly Father. In the very next chapter, He's going to talk about how those who pray

with words that sort of overflow. The quantity over quality of the prayers. Right? I'm not going to pray deeply, but I'm going to pray a lot. And He says, "Don't be like this." In fact, listen to what He says. "Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then like this: Our Father in Heaven. Hallelujah." Jesus says that when we come before the great God of the universe, the one clothed in majesty, the one of whom the cherubim and the seraphim sing, "Holy, holy, holy." Come to Him as your Heavenly Father. In fact, just a few verses later as Jesus talks in chapter 6 about anxiety. Look at the birds. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not

of more value than they? In the midst of prayer, in the midst of anxiety, Jesus says, "Take a look at your Heavenly Father." These two words that Jesus addresses in the midst of this command that for us is so often difficult is this great truth. That there is a loving Heavenly Father who cares for you and who sees you and who knows you. Now take a look at the very end. This one characteristic that Jesus mentions here. Perfect. The word teleos means perfect or mature. This is the God who is holy and who is righteous and there is no shadow of sin. There is a standard that is greater and deeper than our view of morality. It's one that doesn't take shortcuts. It's one that doesn't justify bad behavior. It doesn't make excuses. It doesn't do the bare minimum

and we see it in our Heavenly Father. So there's a Heavenly Father. He is perfect. And look at what Jesus says. You, therefore, must be perfect. As your Heavenly Father is perfect. And we hear that and go, "It's impossible. I can't." Alright, we've seen the middle and we've seen the end. Look at the beginning. The call here, Jesus is saying, is to live like your Heavenly Father. Like a child saying, "I want to be like my Dad." Think about how that works. Especially as a child. I was once a child to have a Dad. Begins by knowing your Dad, and seeing your Dad, and seeing what he does. And then there comes a point in every young man's life who knows it, they begin to imitate their Dad. And that never starts really well, right?

Your Dad's out building something with a hammer, and you're still struggling with the nail. But what happens? Over time, and spending time with your Dad, you begin to imitate Him more closely. Paul says it this way: "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." Now the next thing I know in relation to my Dad, is I'm turning 45 in a couple days, and I do so many things, it goes, "Oh, wait, I'm my father," right? And it's not a bad thing, and I'm so thankful for that. Because of His character, and His righteousness, and His love for the Gospel, what happens? I know Him. I see Him. I want to be like Him. And what happens to the trajectory of my life? I become more and more like Him. This root, this word, this Greek word "tel" means

sort of reaching the end. One of the illustrations they used to use of this Greek word is a telescope, like a pirate's telescope. You grab and you stretch out to its end. And it's fully there. It's fully extended. It's where it needs to be. And the picture, "You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." It's not a lowering of the standard, but also it's a call to know that there is a heavenly Father who is perfect and to know Him, to be near Him, and to live like Him. Like this. Right? In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. I want to go back to this just one more time. "You therefore

must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." I want to give you a little bit more context. This comes at the end of this sermon. This call to live like our heavenly Father. But notice where it comes in the sermon. "But I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good. He sends His rain on the just and the unjust." These words occur in the immediate context of loving your enemies, doing good to those who hurt you. And Jesus who is speaking is doing exactly that. Romans 5 talks about He came not for the righteous, but He came at the right time. For while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. You see, these words about our Heavenly Father and being perfect in our life, it comes in the midst of this illustration of loving your enemies and doing good to them. You see, sin must be replaced in our lives by filling with this vision of our Heavenly Father. It's what Jesus means when He says, "We hunger and thirst for righteousness." If I am hungry and thirsting for righteousness, it's going to be so much harder to pursue anger and rage and lust and selfishness and words that deceive and a heart that is full of bitterness and anger and resentment. This is a serious call for God's people in regard to righteousness. But it is a call that is so wonderfully filled with grace. That those who hunger are filled. That those who are poor

and spiritually bankrupt will be in the Kingdom of Heaven. A heavenly Father who loves you and who leads you and who transforms you and strengthens you. Christians, let's fix our eyes on the greatness and the goodness and righteousness of God and take this call to righteousness seriously. And if you are not a Christian or you're struggling, you're hurting, my call is to come home to a Father who loves you. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, help us to see the seriousness of our sin. Not to dismiss it, minimize it, or excuse it. Help us to see the root of our sin. May your Spirit be at work in our hearts transforming us. May those roots be removed and may we be filled with righteousness. Found made possible by the cross and through your Son who stood in our place

so that we can be brought into your family. Fix our eyes on your goodness. May we see you as our heavenly Father. May we know you and may we seek to be like you. That people would see us and glorify you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand and sing for his glory and our good. Amen. Amen.

So, in faith I follow Jesus. For I know that He is working for His glory and my Lord. To our God be the glory. To our God be praise He alone. The name above all names. I will boast ever only if the Lord my Lord be told. His glory is my good.

See the open arms of Jesus upon the cross that day. What they understood as weakness deserves my every praise. For the child that was against me, it was never to the word. Yes, I want you to save me glory and my good. To our God be the glory. To our God be praise. Be alone. The name above all names. I will boast ever only in the Lord my God. For I know His glory is my good.

Would I gladly be made nothing, that Christ would be made more? Would I seek the only kingdom, that far outweighs them all? I will stand before my Father, where the faithful saints have stood. And with joy in my heart, praise Him glory and my good. And with joy in my heart shall praise Him glory and my good. To our God be good glory. To our God be great. He alone, the name above all names. I will boast ever only in the Lord my God. For I know His glory and good. To our God be the glory. To our God be great. He alone, the name above all names. And I will boast ever only in the Lord my God. For I know His glory is in my good. Yes, I know His glory is in my good.

We are thankful that you are here this morning. We'll be back Wednesday night, 6 p.m. We've been talking a little bit more in detail, and so we'll be in this section of Scripture again Wednesday night, but digging into some of the details and some of those harder things that Jesus has said. So that's Wednesday night Bible study at 6 p.m. this Wednesday. Also coming up the 15th, which is not next Sunday, but the Sunday following, we're going to do another winter soup Sunday, day after Valentine's. So I guess bring your most romantic soup. So I don't know if that's like a lady in the tramp with like some noodles in it or something like that. But yeah, soup Sunday. It's always a good time. It's always an encouraging time of fellowship. Invite a friend, bring your soup. Just come and spend some time together with us.

I'm going to go ahead and have a word of prayer. We'll read from Micah 6:8, and then in a moment we'll sing the doxology. Father in heaven, we thank you for your goodness and your glory and your greatness. And we're thankful that because of your Son, we can stand before you. We just ask that as we go out to face the joys and the difficulties, the victories and the struggles of this coming week, that you would strengthen our hearts for righteousness. That we would be lights that shine in a dark world, the salts that melt the hearts that are frozen by sin. We thank you for Jesus, and it's in his name we pray. Amen. Micah 6:8 says this, very familiar, "He has told you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you,

but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." So church, as we go from this place, I want to remind you that we are not sent out to earn God's favor, but to live as children of our Heavenly Father. And so may the God who gives new hearts continue his work in you, uprooting your sin, shaping your lives, and forming in you a righteousness that reflects his own character. It is my prayer that your anger gives way to reconciliation, your fear gives way to trust, and your love extends to where it is costly. And may your lives shine in such a way that others see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. And so as we prepare to go, go in the grace of Christ, and in the love of the Father, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above Him and the Most. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. Amen.