FBCPS
Sermons, teachings, and podcasts from First Baptist Church in Powder Springs, Georgia.
FBCPS
The Sermon on the Mount | Matthew 7:24-27
In this compelling episode, we dive into the invaluable insights from the Sermon on the Mount, guided by Christian Henry, our youth and young adult pastor. Through engaging anecdotes and practical applications, Pastor Henry emphasizes the importance of building our lives on Christ, the ultimate foundation that withstands the trials and uncertainties of the world.
Listeners will explore the key lessons from the Beatitudes, discovering how the teachings of Jesus challenge conventional ideals and inspire a life of humility, mercy, and peace. With an engaging storytelling style, the episode specifically addresses modern worries like anxiety, social justice, and personal integrity, illustrating how these themes resonate deeply in our current context.
By reflecting on the metaphor of the wise and foolish builders, the narrative reshapes our understanding of faith in action, urging us to focus on the things we can control—our devotion to God and love for others. The episode culminates in a heartfelt invitation for those seeking to strengthen their foundation in Jesus, demonstrating that true faith transcends mere words and requires an active commitment to living out His teachings.
Join us in this enriching conversation, and don’t forget to engage by subscribing, leaving a rating, or sharing your thoughts with us! Your journey of faith is not just an individual pursuit; it’s one we share together in community. Let’s build a stronger foundation—together.
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Amen. How y'all doing this morning? Good, good, you're awake. Y'all are a lot warmer than our first service. I'll tell you that Literally our heat was out over there in that sanctuary so we were chilly. I was up preaching in a three-piece suit and I was still shivering as I was preaching. But hey y'all, it is good to be here this morning. I am Christian Henry.
Speaker 1:Just like Pastor Chip said, I get to be the youth and young adult pastor here, and so, since I have the mic right now, young adults come hang out at our house. This evening we have a young adult gathering. If you want to know the address and everything, just come up and ask me. Not that I think any of you will follow me home or anything, but I would just like to personally give you my address and kind of give you the information for that. But we're gonna have pizza, wings and video games. It's gonna be good. We're gonna have some retro stuff like Mario Kart. It's gonna be great. So I'd love just to open up our home. God has blessed us with a rental home here that we've been able to find and settle in, and we'd love to just be able to be good stewards of our house, and so we'd love to invite y'all over.
Speaker 1:So, as like y'all saw in the, we had a great D-NOW weekend. In fact we're gonna baptize Miss Hannah Perry this morning. She's up in our front. Everybody. Give Miss Hannah a round of applause. It's exciting. Man. The Lord is working. It's so good. There were students from that weekend who are choosing to rededicate their lives. They're choosing to even maybe follow into ministry. We've had some students that are interested in being a youth pastor or a student pastor, a pastor. I don't know who in their right mind would choose that line of work, but God calls us and he's into crazies. So I'm excited.
Speaker 1:This morning I get to preach on the Sermon on the Mount. So this morning you're going to get to hear a sermon on the Sermon on the Mount. All right, now it is an already perfect sermon, so I don't know who in their right mind would ever try to follow that. But I'm going to because it's the next sermon on our series and Pastorship asked me to. So I get the privilege to try to do that try to preach a perfect sermon. In fact, I saw recently where a pastor walked through the Sermon on the Mount with his church, verse by verse, and it took them over 52 hours. 52 hours, verse by verse, sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 1:So Powder Springs buckle up. I hope you brought your sleeping bags. I hope you're ready for a multi-generational lock-in. It's gonna be great. We're gonna be here for the next two days. And no, we're not. We're not doing that at all.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of spiritual prep that even takes me to do a youth lock-in, so let alone a multi-generational lock-in. I don't know that I have the bandwidth for that right now, but it is daunting. It's humbling to try to preach the Sermon on the Mount. It's an already perfect sermon. It broadens the horizons of everything Jesus preaches on every single topic that you can imagine in the Sermon on the Mount, and so it's both humbling and encouraging for the fact that God allows us to do this, that he gave us his word, and so this morning we're gonna be in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. If you have your Bible with you and I hope you do we're gonna be there.
Speaker 1:But, like I said, it's daunting to get into this sermon to preach already perfect sermon. It's like wearing putting on a number 23 jersey, stepping into a pair of Jordans having the last name Jordan, while being a four foot 11 skinny kid who can't make a layup right. That's kind of a preacher version of trying to preach Jesus' sermon on the mount. However, god is good and he delights in this stuff. There's something that he just loves about, in fact at D-NOW there was this really cool part of that weekend where we were singing and we were worshiping and the band just stopped playing all together and they just stopped singing all together and you could just hear 200, 250 plus students just singing out to the Lord, right To see that a generation is not lost, right. So I know so many generations would think man, this next generation, they're lost, they're hopeless, they're confused, but there is so much clarity found in Jesus. This generation's found, and so this generation is eager to learn, this generation is eager to grow, and you got them right here. You've got future pastors here. You've got future missionaries here. You've got future leaders of this church, and I would even say not even future leaders, but leaders now that we have students who are stepping up and doing stuff right now and young adults who are leading the way, and God delights in all the generations that come to worship.
Speaker 1:And so we're gonna start in an odd place out of the Sermon on the Mount. We're gonna start towards the end. Really, at the end we're gonna be in Matthew, chapter seven, verse 24 through 27. So if you have your Bibles you can read with me. It's building their house on the rock, it says. Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. Then everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against the house and fell, and great was the fall of it.
Speaker 1:Let us pray, heavenly Father. We pray this morning just to have humble hearts. God, as we open up your word, as we pray, as we seek you, god, I pray that that same spirit that empowered the church in the beginning, god, the same spirit that preached to us, that teaches us, that helps us, god, I pray that would just flow through me and that would give us a heart to understand and ears open to receive your word this morning. So I pray all this in Jesus' name, amen, amen, y'all.
Speaker 1:Well, again, last week Pastor Chip challenged us. We got a challenge last week about the invites, the power of the invite, and he used this parable, the parable of the king sending out invitations of this feast, of this wedding, of this great ceremony. And we saw kind of in that story there were a lot that rejected it, even to the point where they killed the son, and so they went on to just start inviting everybody right, it doesn't matter, don't worry about the ones that I sent the invite out to Just start inviting everybody. And so there were those that rejected the invite, and then there were those that rejected the invite, and then there were those who accepted the invite, and there was the one that we see at the end of the story that said you're not here for the right reason. You've taken the invite or, excuse me, you didn't even have the invite and you came into the presence uninvited and God banished him. And so we see this invite, we see this challenge that pastorship gave us and it challenges us this week.
Speaker 1:So odds are, if you're here for the first time this week. Welcome, welcome to First Baptist, powder Springs. But you may be here because of the challenge, maybe a friend invited you, maybe a family member invited you, and so we don't want you to think you're a project from that. We don't want you to think, oh well, they're just trying to mark off or check off a spiritual box of their to-do list. No, you are here and you are invited because they love you, right? If I truly believe that there is a life after this life and then there is eternal separation in hell from Jesus, without accepting that invite, right, without accepting that Savior, if I truly love somebody, I'm gonna invite them. And so, if you're here because of that invite, just know that you're loved, just know that you have a church that loves you and someone who loves you enough to send out that invite. See, but what comes with the invite?
Speaker 1:I think there comes another question who are we inviting them to? What are we inviting them to? Right, because, look, I know, just like the verse says, taste and see that the Lord is good, right, psalm 34,. I believe that word is true, just like the amount of recommendations that I've gotten on restaurants to go to here in Powder Springs, the amount of barbecue joints that I've been to. I'm a believer in the Martin's biscuit. That thing is that chicken biscuit's phenomenal right. So I know that y'all, when y'all say hey, taste and see about the restaurants and see that it is good, you send that invite out. But I also think that we're a church that says hey, taste and see that the Lord is good. I wanna give you an invite Come to Powder Springs, come to First Baptist with us. We want you to hear the good news.
Speaker 1:And so in this invite, I think of the story of the woman at the well. Maybe you're familiar with the story, the woman at the well. She would go to the well at the heat of the day, every single day, because she had lived in adultery, she had five husbands, she wasn't faithful, she had not followed Jesus at all right, Did not follow God, did not think honestly that worship reserved for a woman like her right To be a woman like her, not to be this high status Jewish person at the time. And she goes to the well, and who does she meet? She meets Jesus, and Jesus does not condemn her. He tells her that she shows her her sins, but then he invites her into something. He invites her to the life, the living water, to where she won't thirst anymore. And her response was not to keep that to herself, but she left and she told everybody.
Speaker 1:It says in Matthew or, excuse me, john 4, 29 through 30, it says come and see a man who told me everything that I did. Can this be the Christ Talking about the crowds? They went out of town and they were coming to him, and so her invite sparked all of that. Did not matter what she had done, it didn't matter what her status was, it didn't matter what she had done. It didn't matter what her status was. It didn't matter what she had done in her past life. No, the old her was gone and the new invite to be with Jesus was what mattered the most.
Speaker 1:There, I think of Luke, chapter 10, mary, the sister of Martha, sits at the feet of Jesus. Right, this Hebrew idiom to say that she didn't just sit at his feet, she walked with him wherever he went. Wherever Jesus commanded her to go, she went. Whatever Jesus said, she listened to Every single word. She clung to the feet of Jesus and sat at the feet of Jesus.
Speaker 1:So now let's look at the end here in Matthew, chapter seven again. It says now, all those who hear these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. You see, james, the brother of Jesus, who really started out as a skeptic, says in James 1, 22,. He says don't just be hearers of the word, but be doers of the word. You see, because if we come in here every Sunday and we hear these words and we go to Sunday school and we even read our Bibles one-on-one, we have quiet time with Jesus, but we only ever hear those words and we never do the words, then we're useless. Jesus wants us to be useful and has created us to be useful because we're created in the image of God. So obviously, because we're starting at the end of the sermon, we need to look back and see what those words are, and so I'm not gonna be able to cover all those things Right again. We'd be here for 50 plus hours, and as much as I'm sure you all want that we plus hours, and as much as I'm sure you all want that, we're not gonna do that this morning. So I just wanna look at nine, really nine areas that Jesus covers in the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 1:The first one that we see is social justice and inequality. We look at these Beatitudes, these attitude statements that we see in Matthew, chapter five, at the very beginning. We see where he has like this upside down kingdom. It's the peacemakers, it's the meek, it's the merciful, it's those who don't force and don't use power, it's those who submit their lives to Jesus. He says when you submit your life to me, then you'll be elevated To make much of Jesus, to make less of ourselves In a world and honestly, our world is still the same now. Our world is all about hey, make much of yourself and make much of your name, because when you can make yourself a brand or you can make yourself known out there, then the world will love you. But Jesus says no, no, no, it doesn't matter what the world says. When you submit to me, whenever you give your life to me, whenever you submit to others and love others, then that's how you're elevated in the kingdom.
Speaker 1:The second thing we see is influence and responsibility. Almost a byproduct of the Beatitudes is that you will have influence and responsibility. Once you've tasted and seen that the Lord is good, it is your job to go and tell others about how good God is, and it's not a job, it's an obligation. It's a wonderful privilege to go and tell people about Jesus. You know I don't want a rock to cry out for me to go and tell people about Jesus. You know I don't want a rock to cry out for me. I'll be glad to step up and go and tell people about Jesus Because it's not a have to, it's a get to. And so, in the influence and the responsibility of being salt and light means that we're gonna be exposed into the dark world. But to be light there and to be salt there means that we speak truth and life into a dark, decaying world.
Speaker 1:The third thing we see is ethics and personal integrity. With that responsibility, with that influence, with those beatitudes, there's higher righteousness that we, as Christians, are called to live a separate life, to be set apart. Even in the Old Testament, when God spoke to his people, he told them be holy, for I am holy. You see, as Christians, we're not to look like the rest of the world. What's the difference between us and them if we don't look different, if we don't act different? And again, not out of an obligation but as just a fruit of the Spirit, is to live that way.
Speaker 1:Number four we see here charity and economic justice giving to the needy, loving those around us that don't have quite enough, those who need us, who need something. Right, jesus was the best giver and we're called to be like Jesus and ultimately, obviously there's charity and economic justice, there's the financial part of it, but love, love is not a finite resource, right, we don't just love somebody and not love the other. We are called to love everybody and we're gonna even talk about that a little bit with loving our enemies. The other thing we see is mental health and anxiety. Do not worry, says Jesus. A lot easier said than done, and again we'll talk about that one here in a little bit.
Speaker 1:Prayer and spirituality that we are mind, body and spirit, that we are spiritual beings right, as many would probably say in our society, that almost have this post-Christian view of life, this post-Jesus view of life. We are a spiritual being too right, that we are given ways to connect with our Lord and Savior, and that's through prayer and fasting and the certain spiritual disciplines that we have, and those are good, but again, not a way that gets us to heaven. Another thing we see is materialism and consumerism. We are a very materialistic and consumeristic world, right? All of us, even those of us who may be a little more generous than others, we're still materialistic and consumeristic. We love our stuff. How many of y'all have ever watched the show on HGTV or I don't even know what it's on, but Extreme Hoarders right? Just YouTube that it will mess you up.
Speaker 1:And to think about some of the stuff that people just keep to the point where they can't even walk in their house. They're just keeping stuff and consuming stuff, and it's got to a point where it's a mess, and so in our hearts there's only so much room in our hearts. We're either gonna have it full of junk and full of stuff in this world or we're gonna let Jesus have our hearts. The other thing we see is fake news and leadership accountability. I'm not talking about fake news politically. I'm talking about false prophets, false teachers, those who do and say things in the name of Jesus but they don't know the person of Jesus. The other thing is foundations for a meaningful life, what I'm really gonna end and begin with about the wise and the foolish builders.
Speaker 1:So, again, when someone says that the Bible is this old, archaic book that doesn't speak into our world, then, quite frankly, they haven't read it for themselves. But good news for you and for me we can show them that. We can show them what it means to know Jesus. But Jesus speaks into every single modern day topic, modern day value, modern day fill in the blank, because Jesus is here forever. So Jesus covers and teaches on every single topic that you can think of.
Speaker 1:And so, again, what I really wanna do this morning is just kinda pick up where Pastor Chip left off last week with the invites. And what are we inviting them to Really, who are we inviting them to? And so the first thing that I would love to look at, being salt and light in this world and speaking some truth into a dark and decaying world, would be anxiety and stress. Matthew, chapter six, is where Jesus addresses anxiety and stress. And so what does Jesus say about this problem? It's simple really. He says don't be right, don't be stressed, don't be worried, don't be worried, don't be anxious. Again, much easier said than done. But that's not all that he says. He says some stuff before.
Speaker 1:But just to kind of use this example and I can because she loves me and she's in the front row my wife Laura, we are two different kinds of people and you probably know this. If you're married and even if you're not married, maybe it's like a sibling thing or just a friendship thing there is one who is usually an overthinker, and then there's usually Christian, who's an underthinker, right, who doesn't think probably enough. And so that was us in our relationship and that is us in our relationship. Most of the time is that she overthinks things and I underthink things, and together we balance each other out. But there are times where she'll be stressed and there'll be rightful reasons for her to be almost in that situation. And my thought to her, my words sometimes to her, which are not the right words, are why are you stressed? Don't worry about it, right? Just really, just honestly, just too chill, right. And so that's just been us, and so we've done a really good job in marriage at leveling each other out, right. She's given me, like this good innate sense of not worry but work, and I have, hopefully I mean she's done a pretty good job of it, you know, not stressing about the things that she used to stress about, and so that's the beauty of marriage there. That has nothing to do with my sermon there, but that's just another tip for you on marriage.
Speaker 1:And so Jesus says don't be stressed. He says don't worry. He talks about the importance of not worrying about food, about clothing, about your future. And the things that he talks about in our modern struggles would be mental health, job insecurity, financial stress, identity and overall stress Things, again, that are not reserved for just the 30-year-old who works in corporate America or on Wall Street or has a hamster wheel of a job.
Speaker 1:I mean, how many of y'all have ever seen a three-year-old lose their minds over not being able to tie their shoes Right, or like some of the toddler meltdowns that make no sense in our brains? That's just worry and stress. That's just how they channel it. That's just their worry and that's their stress. And I'm sure God looks at us the same way when we're stressing about money and we're stressing about finances. I'm sure God, in all of his love and his wisdom to us, is thinking I don't know why you're worrying about that. I got you son, I got you daughter, but we do, we stress. So it's for the 30-year-old, it's for the three-year-old, it's for the billionaire right, the billionaire who doesn't think he has enough money. Worry is just worship in the wrong direction. Worry is just worship in the wrong direction. Think about this.
Speaker 1:Satan used worry for the very first sin, when Adam and Eve were in the garden. All things were great and God had set up a rule and said were in the garden, all things were great and God had set up a rule and said hey, the garden is yours, but this one tree, this one fruit, don't touch it, don't eat of it, make sure you don't eat of it, but I've given you everything else. The serpent swoops in and causes her to worry. He causes her to stress. He says did God really say that you'll die, right? Did God really? Is he really trying to hold out on you? You've got everything but this one fruit. And so what was Eve's thought there? Well, I guess maybe God is holding out on me. I guess God does not want what's best for me, because this talking snake sounds pretty reasonable right now. Right, this fruit, I want it. And so he causes her to worry and stress. He want it. And so he causes her to worry and stress. He causes her to think maybe God is not going to provide for me which is maybe not a fruit for us, but maybe it's a paycheck. Maybe it's not a paycheck. Maybe it's the worry and the stress of I don't know what I'm going to do after college. I don't know what I'm going to do with my family member who I can't stand them and I don't know what to do with them and I don't know how to talk to college. I don't know what I'm gonna do with my family member who I can't stand them and I don't know what to do with them and I don't know how to talk to them. And it's just this worry of the what if. But we worry and we put all of our hope in that future that's not even written, instead of the Savior, who has already written our future right, who is in the end, who's already secured it all, and so worry again is just worship in the wrong hands. It's important to see what Jesus was preaching about before his words, prior to this, where he says do not be anxious. He addresses a few things before this. He talks about giving to the needy, about generosity. He talks about prayer as a lifestyle. He talks about fasting, about how you starve the flesh and you starve the world and you starve the enemy in order to be closer to Jesus these disciplines and then he talks about prioritizing God over money and possessions. You see, because whenever you're generous, when you think about others more, whenever you're living a life of prayer and you're spending that time with God, and whenever you're fasting and you're destroying the things of this world essentially and feeding the things of God and you're destroying the things of this world essentially and feeding the things of God and you're spending time with him and you've prioritized him over money and possessions, you're gonna worry a lot less, because the closer you are to the source of life, you're gonna have abundant life. But the further away you are from God and that source of life, you're gonna feel stressed, you're gonna feel like it's never enough. Because that's the way that we were created. We were created as image bearers of God, to be close to God. Then he says do not worry. See, there's a difference again between a godly, innate sense of responsibility and an ungodly sense of hopelessness and laziness. You see, because I kind of shared there that there are two kinds of people in a marriage. There were two kinds of people there in the first sin too. One was an overthinker in Eve, where she sinned, but right there with Eve was Adam the underthinker, the one who was passive, who didn't step up and protect his wife, who said nothing. He didn't step up and whenever all this was going on, he just kind of sat back and didn't let it consume him. You see, because we tend to be one of the extreme when it comes to worry, we tend to worry too much or we tend to not rely on God at all and just don't care. We just choose apathy or whatever. And so God has told us and gives us the gift of work, the gift of relying on God, the gift of his word. You see, pressure isn't sinful, that innate sense to provide and work is not bad, but it's when that feeling isn't being guided into godly responsibility. You have a problem. See, don't equate, don't worry with, don't work. See, god gave us the ability to. You see what happens whenever we don't work, or we overthink, or we're overanxious we tend to take it out on each other, we tend to butt heads, we tend to cause fights and worry. I mean all the fights in the past, wars and things that take place are all over what Power, over influence, over finances, over different things that we wanna have control over, and so they cause what we're gonna talk about next conflict and division, something that we can probably all relate to in some sense. In Matthew, chapter five, verse nine in the Beatitudes, he talks about the peacemaker. He said blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God or sons and daughters of God, saying those who make peace in this world are gonna be the ones who are heirs of the kingdom, which was totally opposite in this world. People, then, if you wanted to be an heir to the throne, if you wanted to have absolute power, you crushed people beneath you, you made a way for yourself, you did everything for yourself, you crushed those to get on top and Jesus said no, no, it's making peace in those places of conflict, it's making peace in those places of division. You see, in a world that was then and is now dominated by force and power, jesus' truth has not changed one single bit that he's called us to love each other. In Matthew 5, 21 through 26, jesus gives a section of a sermon to what conflict and division really does, saying that, even in a burst of anger at the red lights right, how many of y'all have been angry at a red light? Or in a traffic stop, or maybe at your spouse this morning as you were getting ready for church because the kids weren't getting ready. They were crazy, they were screaming and you just felt like neither one was helping out and it was just anger. Right, we didn't have that problem this morning because I was already here and she already got the kids ready, so we're good on that sense. But every other Sunday morning that's usually a point of conflict. So there's anger that occurs in all of this. There is anger that occurs in all of this. And see, what Jesus wants us to know is anger is not something that we can just kind of get rid of with, just turning well, it is turning the other cheek, but it's just getting rid of of not doing anything about it. He wants us to know that anger, right, has to be tackled. It has to be given to Jesus, it has to be God. I'm angry right now. I need to surrender this. It has to be God. I'm angry right now. I need to surrender this. It takes making peace in those angry times and, you see, anger is sin. That's, again, too often looked over. In Matthew 5, 43 through 48, jesus addresses what loving your enemies really looks like. It doesn't mean walking away and still wanting the worst for them right, because you can be 10 feet from them, you can be 100 feet from them, you can be 1,000 feet from them and you can still hate them. No, what loving your enemy means is, it's praying for them. It's actively praying for them, it's actively wanting good for them. It's actively wanting to see them at their best lives, because their best lives can only be found in Jesus. Our scripture tells us that we don't wrestle with flesh and blood. We wrestle against these principalities, we wrestle against darkness, and so I know that's hard. And how do all of these conflicts and divisions apply to us? Well, there's a few examples, modern examples that I can think of Political divisions, family conflicts and the good old social media outrage. Right, the good old hate text. And the good old social media outrage, right, the good old hate text. So are any of those familiar with any of you? No, not at all. I didn't think so. Right, of course not. You would never, ever, ever get mad at someone who had a different political view than you. Definitely not here, not anybody here. You would never, ever, ever get mad at a family member who does not remember your kid's birthday, but they show up when it's convenient to them. You would never get mad at them, right for that. You'd never get angry at them. And you would definitely never get angry on Facebook and spout off some rant of somebody who has a different opinion than you do. Nobody would ever do that. I would definitely never do that. I would definitely never get mad on anybody on the internet for a silly little reason. Right, we all do. Right, if we're all honest with ourselves, we all know that we get into that. We get into anger, we get into conflict, we get into division. And you see, anger, again, is not just a difference of opinions. Some people would like to think that it's just a difference of opinions, but anger is, in its sense, true sense, demonic. It's truly demonic. It's a little more covert than witchcraft. Anger and malice and rage is a little more covert than witchcraft. Right, because you see preachers get angry, you see good Christian guys and girls get angry. But it's still. Its destination is still destruction. Right, it's still. Sin is sin, is sin. And so what Jesus wants us to do is repent of our sins, whatever the sin may be. It may be witchcraft, it may be anger, it may be lust, it may be whatever it is, but Jesus has called us to repent. So repent of your anger, be salt and light, be useful in this kingdom, but be useful for the right reason, be useful for Jesus and the right reason that is fake spirituality and show-off religion is what we're going to talk about next Fake religion or fake spirituality and show-off religion? You see, jesus addresses this problem, along with a list full of others, but I think it's important for us to read and understand these Right. Spirituality and religion are not bad things, but when those things are not rooted in Jesus, then they become bad things. You know, some people will say, well, I'm not a Christian, but I'm spiritual. I don't want any part of that spirit. Right, if it's not the Holy Spirit, I don't want any part of that spirit. And some people will say, well, I'm spiritual or I'm not really religious, but I'm a Christian. And I would say it's both. Christianity is a religion in relationship, it's spending time with Jesus. There are certain things that we do as Christians that would categorize as a religion, but they're not bad things. You see, when they're rooted in following Jesus and his word, they're good things. In Matthew 6, one through 18, jesus preaches on giving and praying and fasting and all the spiritual disciplines, things that, by nature of following Jesus, come from spending real time with him at his word. You see, we don't do good things and we don't read it because we have to, we don't pray because we think that's going to get us to heaven. You see, and I kind of grew up in that sense Not that that was what my parents taught me or even my church taught me, but that was like this almost innate sense that I had that if I do good things and I read my Bible and I go to VBS and I perform my very best in church, then I will get heaven and then I'll be with Jesus forever. But never in this word does Jesus say that. This is why it's so important to know what, really who we're inviting people to when it comes to church. Don't live the life right, but never know the one who is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus. All these words Jesus spoke were targeted to congregation. Then Think about it. It's the Sermon on the Mount. There's a congregation, those that had heard God's words, those who hadn't, men and women, kids, it didn't matter, they were all a part of this congregation and Jesus was speaking to them then, as he's speaking to us now, and so I want you to just imagine Judas in this moment. You know we talked about this false spirituality, this fake religion, all these things. I want you to think about Judas in this moment. On the outside, judas was the star, you know, kid of the class. See, I'm sure he was at every single Bible study with Jesus. I'm sure he was at every single event that Jesus put on. I'm sure that he was in all the Sunday school groups that Jesus put on. I'm sure he did everything right and I'm sure he cast out demons and prayed and helped perform these miracles in the name of Jesus. But what we see about the life of Judas is that he never knew the person of Jesus, he never submitted his life to Jesus and you see, yet Jesus kept preaching to him, giving him chance after chance after chance. He loved Judas and Jesus loves you and Jesus loves that person in your life who maybe you see as a Judas, or you see as too far gone, or you see as someone who they're hopeless right and there's no way that Jesus would love that person. I promise you he does. I promise you Jesus loves that person. You see what the devil loves more than an out in the open worshiper of Satan is a follower or a false follower of Jesus, someone who does things in the name of Jesus, someone who thinks that they're saved and they're believed but they've never actually submitted their lives to Jesus. He loves that because it's more covert. See, imagine living your entire lives inviting people to church, attending every single service, leading Sunday school groups for the Lord, doing all of the good church things. Lord forbid being behind a pulpit and preaching every single Sunday in the name of Jesus, but never knowing the person of Jesus, because it's possible. What he says here in Matthew, chapter seven, in his Sermon on the Mount, are words that you and I never, ever want to hear. He says on that day, many of you will say to me Lord, lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them I never knew you. Depart from me, you, workers of lawlessness. You see, they thought they were following Jesus because they were doing good in the name of Jesus, but they never knew Jesus at all. And so what I don't want this morning is to be an existential crisis where you came in here and you thought, man, I'm on fire for Jesus, I know Jesus. And then you leave scared to death. That is not my goal at all. My goal is simple. It's just to tell you the good news. And if you already know the good news and you've given your life to Jesus, then you are a son and daughter of God. You are a rightful heir to that. And so here's the good news. In all this, the gospel is not exclusive at all. You don't have to look a certain way, you don't have to go to church for X amount of years, you don't have to do anything to get salvation. Jesus did it all. You see, jesus did not die for you to be good. He died so that you would be saved. He did not die for you to be good. He died so that you would be saved. Now, goodness is a fruit of the Spirit and you will be good from salvation. But goodness does not get you into heaven. You see, that's where we get it wrong, and I'm sorry if you grew up thinking that right, if you were like me and you, kind of like, formed that thought in your head that as long as, again, I didn't cuss or drink or smoke or fool around before I got married, as long as I gave money to the church, as long as I showed up to everything and looked the part and did the right thing, then I would get into heaven. Friend, I'm here to tell you that it says none of that in this book. The goodness is not the requirement to get into heaven. Money is not a requirement to get into heaven. Your deeds are not a requirement to get you into heaven. Only Jesus can get you there. Only Jesus saves. And so now these things again are good. Now please don't leave here and think, man, that new youth pastor's saying go live like a heathen. It's not what I said at all. I'm saying goodness again is a fruit of the Spirit, is that you will be good after salvation. But don't put the cart before the horse. You see, I think the gospel can be summed up by this story the crucifixion of Jesus. In Luke, chapter 23, we see the story of Jesus and the two thieves on the cross, and one thief was hurling insults at him and cursing Jesus and mocking him and saying hey, if you are the Messiah, if you are God, then get us down, save yourself, save us Almost like a you owe us because if you're gonna be God, be a real God to me, be my God right, be the God that I wanna create. And so the other one that was on the cross, who, as far as we know, didn't go to Sunday school or do anything good either, he just looked at Jesus and he said Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And the good news for him was he heard. Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise, because the gospel is this. It says in Romans 6.23,. For the wages of sin is death. You see, that other one on the cross who was up there and was hurling insults at Jesus, his wages, what he earned in his foundation, was death because he only ever trusted in himself and trusted in man and trusted in possessions. And so his wage, his earning, was hell forever. You see, the other man who was on the cross had the good news of Romans 6.23. It says but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. That was his wage, that was his reward, not because he did it, but because he put his faith in Jesus. Who did it? You see, this is why Jesus says if you build your life on his words and work with the cross. Your foundation cannot be shaken. So my question for you is where or who or what is your foundation? Because we all have a foundation of some kind. Your foundation may be your savings account, your foundation may be your beautiful family, your foundation may be your job, and all those things are good and can be tools for the kingdom of Jesus, but those are not Jesus, and so we're gonna look at this. My goal again today was to not give you an existential crisis, as it was. To say this If you believe in Jesus and you've made him your Lord and Savior, then you are saved, but if you're not, it's not too late. I wanna tell you a story to kind of sum this up. There was a tightrope walker in the early I guess it was 20th century, late 19th century. His name was Charles Blondin. You may have heard this story before, but he was a tightrope walker and he would walk on top from building to building and he would go from one end to the other and he would ask the audience. He would say how many of you believe that I can do this? And so he would take one end and he'd walk from one end to the other, get from one end. I'd hype the crowd up and he would say how many of y'all think I can do it backwards? And the crowd would go crazy and they loved it and he would walk backwards. And then he said how many of y'all think I can walk from one end to the other with a wheelbarrow? And they went crazy. They went wild. They knew he could do it. Like, we believe in you, we believe you can do it. And he said how many of y'all think I can put somebody in this wheelbarrow and walk from one end to the other? And they went crazy. And then he asked who's getting in? And it fell silent. The audience was silent, you see, because there's a difference in believing that he could do it and believing in him enough to get in the wheelbarrow and watch him do it. You see, some of us will believe that Jesus was a real person and that his words are good and that going to church is good and that doing all this stuff is good. But Jesus says it's believing in him is what saves us. It's putting our faith, our trust, our life in him is what saves us. You see, scripture tells us that even the demons believe and shudder, demons shudder, believe. Demons have doctrine. They know the word better than anybody. Demons shudder. They have emotions better than anybody, but they're not saved because emotions and theology do not get you into heaven. Jesus does. So my question is are you willing to get into the wheelbarrow? Are you willing to give your life to Jesus? Are you willing to trust him with everything? Because I promise you you can ask any other believer it's worth it To put your faith in Jesus is so worth it. I don't have enough faith to not have faith. I don't have enough faith to not trust in Jesus, because I can't imagine where my life would be without him. And so if that's you here today and you want to accept Jesus and you want to have that conversation and you want to spend time with Jesus, but you just don't know where to start, or you just don't know how to start, but you know that you need to give your life to him, I'd love to pray for you this morning. I'd love to just kind of answer any questions and I'll be here at the end of the service and Pastor Chip will be here and others that are on staff and leaders here, I'm sure, would love to talk with you about following Jesus. Can I pray for you this morning, heavenly Father, we love you and God. Right now, I pray that if there's anybody in this room who has not given their life to you, anybody who has not gotten in the wheelbarrow and said Lord, I trust you with my everything and you be my everything, lord, I pray that they would Lord, I pray that they would Lord, I pray that they would realize that in their wages, in their foundation of this world, it's all gonna crumble, it's all gonna come to an end, but, god, I pray that they would put their faith in Jesus. I pray that we give their life to Jesus, because only Jesus is the firm foundation that doesn't go away. Only Jesus is the firm foundation that can't be shaken. God, where sickness and financial stresses and death, lord, come in and shake us up. God, I thank you for being the author and perfecter of life and everything. Lord, I pray for that person in this room who is struggling with that right now, that person who is wanting to seek you and wanting to find you. God, I know that you are faithful because it says when we draw near to you, you will draw near to us. So draw near to us this morning. I pray this in Jesus' name amen. Well, y'all put your hands together. If there's anybody in this room that accepted Jesus prayed that prayer, and if you meant that prayer, we'd love to celebrate with you. And hey, the water's warm, we're gonna baptize this morning. If that's you, if God's put that on your heart, the water's warm, we're gonna baptize this morning. If that's you, if God's put that on your heart, it's not too late, we'd love to baptize you. We would love to walk through that with you. And so, again, it wasn't the words of that, it's not even baptism, as we're gonna see. It's not what saves us, it's Jesus. And then there are fruits that come after, and warmer. And thank y'all for making this place so special. Continue to invite, continue to sit at the feet of Jesus, because I promise you he's good and he's worth it. Let's pray, heavenly Father, we love you, we thank you, god. I pray right now as we go into a time of worship, god, that you would just be with us, god, as our hearts have shifted from the word to worship. I pray, lord, that we would not leave everything that you've spoken to us in the sermon this morning, but, god, we would take it. We would take both the invite and the invitee. Lord, I pray that we would just go out into our world that is so dark and decaying and just speak life, speak heaven into those places and speak the gospel of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, I pray amen.