4. Living Beyond the Rules: Getting to the Heart of the Problem

We've all had this experience where you go to the medical clinic with some type of physical problem. You take a few minutes to describe the symptoms and maybe even suggest some type of self-diagnosis--only to have the doctor begin to ask seemingly unrelated questions. Even poking around in an area where there are no apparent problems. What the doctor knows that you obviously don't know, is that the true problem often lies some place else. The same can be said with our pursuit of righteousness. We may think that to be righteous we must keep the rules and generally be a good person. However, according to Jesus, that's like putting a Band-Aid on a person suffering a heart attack; it doesn't get to the source of the problem!    In this sermon we will move into a very challenging section of The Sermon on the Mount where Jesus exposes people and their assumed "righteousness". Instead, Jesus like any good physician, goes to the source of the problem...the heart.