Sermon Tone Analysis

Vision Moment:

Band of Brothers this Saturday at Jason Harris home

Next Sunday - Mother’s Day and Parent-Child Dedication (reception)

Church in the Park - May 20

Scripture:

Matthew’s focus has been on showing his readers this picture of the way that Jesus taught his first followers what living as a disciple in the kingdom of God looked like.

Jesus taught them “What the life of human flourishing was” in the Beatitudes

He taught them that with that understanding of the good life was, that they/we would be salt and light in the world, reflecting the nature and character of God.

That true righteousness was not outward observance to a set of laws, but an inner righteousness.

An inner desire to know and do the full range of God’s will.

Introduction

Recap

He taught that even the way we practice our devotion (generosity, prayer, fasting) to God was to flow out of an inner confidence that God as Father knows and sees us.

Matthew’s focus has been on showing his readers this picture of the way that Jesus taught his first followers what living as a disciple in the kingdom of God looked like.

Jesus taught them “What the life of human flourishing really was” in the Beatitudes

He taught them that with that understanding of the good life was, that they/we would be salt and light in the world, reflecting the nature and character of God.

That true righteousness was not outward observance to a set of laws, but an inner righteousness.

An inner desire to know and do the full range of God’s will.

Introduction

He taught that even the way they were to practice devotion (generosity, prayer, fasting) to God was to flow out of an inner confidence that God as Father knows and sees all things.

Jesus wants to go deeper with His disciples, he wants to unearth every space in the heart.

Not so we could lead some miserable life here on earth and hopefully one day, enjoy a disembodied sphere.

Jesus believed that the life of flourishing was the life beginning NOW in the Kingdom of God.

So what’s left to talk about?

Tension

How many of you have ever heard the phrase, “In order to keep the marriage fresh, you need to keep dating your spouse?”

Whoever said it first was getting at the point that after you get married, you’ll be redefining what normal is.

You won’t have to say goodnight and then get in your car and go home.

But when you’re married, you do everything together at least at first.

As time goes on, one goes and plays softball, the other goes and sings karaoke and you start to actually grow apart instead of deepening the relationship.

What determines whether that happens or not?

Before our family moved to Roseville we lived in Southern California for six months.

While we were there, I met a man who had just gotten out of prison and was desperate to get out of the lifestyle that he was in.

It doesn’t normally happen this way, but the very first time I met him, God allowed me to share the Gospel with him and he was so eager and excited that he put his faith in Christ.

That next Sunday, I picked him up and brought him to church where he got baptized.

What happened over the next six months was nothing short of miraculous.

His whole demeanor changed, he was so excited about his new life in Christ, it was almost uncomfortable to be around him.

Every week we would meet at least twice so I could show him the basic tenets of the faith.

It was an awesome outpouring of God’s Spirit and grace.

He was heartbroken when I told him that our family was moving to Roseville, but was so dedicated to Christ that he ensured me that he would be just fine.

And he was for a while.

We would chat on the phone once or twice a month.

But he had met someone and he really liked her and wanted to marry her, so he began to pick up extra shifts at work and before you knew it, he was not only out of church entirely, he had stopped practicing any of the disciplines he was so eager to learn.

What happened?

What happened is one of the things that Jesus has left to talk about.

Jesus knows first hand that the first area that the evil one is going to tempt us in is in our priorities.

We need to talk more about this, but guys, there is a real source of evil in our world, Satan, the devil, the evil one and he hates God and he hates anyone who fears and loves God and he’s after you and he’s after your family and your relationships, he’s on the hunt looking for prey.

And he will stop at nothing to get you to believe that as long as the stuff we’re doing isn’t explicitly evil that we’re good.

He would love to keep everyone from becoming a follower of Christ, but if he can’t do that, he’s going to try to keep everyone from moving out of the infancy stage of spiritual growth.

What Jesus is saying to us this morning is totally counter-cultural and perhaps the most demanding words he’s said so far.

So I want to stop and reflect on one thing before we move on...

Ps 113:

There is a daily struggle to keep God and His Kingdom as the highest priority in our lives, and if we’re not intentional about it, we will be derailed by the lowest hanging fruit.

Matt 4:9

There is a daily struggle to keep God and His Kingdom as the highest priority in our lives, and if we’re not intentional about it, we will be derailed by the lowest hanging fruit.

So how do we keep God and His Kingdom as the top priority in our lives?

Align our affections, attention, and allegiance to God and His Kingdom.

When you hear the words: money, sex, and power do you think of them positively or negatively?

Think about the last section Jesus spoke about.

Practicing righteousness/Spiritual disciplines, right?

There is a continuity to the Sermon on the Mount and if you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss it.

It really depends upon priorit

All of the sections work together to give us a better understanding of what being a disciple of Jesus living in this already/not yet state.

A large part of practicing righteousness or developing spiritual disciplines is working towards this alignment.

Generosity, prayers, and fasting are intended to sort of bend us to God’s will, not bend God towards our own.

If we’re not careful we distort the purpose for spiritual disciplines away from what God intends for them to be.

So let’s look at this set of three heart attitudes we need to develop in order to have this alignment with God and His Kingdom.

The first is affections:

Matt 6:19

Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Where are your affections?

And to determine our affections we drill a little deeper and ask,

“What do we protect, secure, and cling to?

What do we get excited or filled with emotion about?”

And we all get excited about something.

Whether it’s getting a raise at work, a new bike or toy, a confirmation about a vacation, the news of a child or grand baby.

We all express emotion, we all work to protect, secure, and cling to something or someone...

The heart provides the value system for our lives.

It provides the lenses or worldview through which we make those decisions.

So, Jesus states very mater of fact, but using an intentional literary method (think Proverbs) to say that ultimately there are two paths or two ways that we relate to money and material possessions:

We’re either laying up treasures on earth or we’re laying up treasures in heaven.

The key phrase in His teaching is WHERE we’re laying up treasures for ourselves.

Either on earth or in heaven.

What does money and material possessions have to do with our affections?

To “lay up” can also be translated “store up” or in the HCSB “collect”.

Jesus is not confronting quantity, He is not saying, “You may not be wealthy (which we all are) and flourish in the Kingdom.”

What he is saying is that “Flourishing — opposite of the wisdom of the day — is not defined by how much stuff we have collected, but if we use what we have for Kingdom purposes.

And what are Kingdom purposes?

One scholar said it this way:

“Direct your actions toward making a difference in the realm of spiritual substance sustained and governed by God.

Invest your life in what God is doing, which cannot be lost.”

Another scholar said this:

“Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of His creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow human beings and of course  every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world – all of this will find its way, through the resurrection power of God, into the new creation God will one day make.

This is the logic of the mission of God.

God’s re-creation of his wonderful world, which began with the resurrection of Jesus and continues mysteriously as God’s people live in the risen Christ and in the power of his Spirit, means that what we do in Christ and by the Spirit in the present is not wasted.

It will last all the way into God’s new world.

In fact, it will be enhanced there.”

SO, even though laying up treasures on earth gives the appearance of wisdom, EVEN THOUGH PROTECTING, SECURING, AND AVOIDING ANY RISK appears like wisdom; Jesus reminds his disciples what will happen to those things that are laid up for yourselves here on earth… the moths will eat them, rust will destroy them, and thieves will take them.

The second heart attitude that we must develop is aligning our attention to God and His Kingdom

This is a difficult question for most adults to answer.