Someone ask you a question tonight as you're turning to Matthew 5. As you're turning there, the question that I want to ask you this evening is this. What is most important to you? I don't want you to haul or anything out.
I don't want you to tell me. I want you to just want you to resonate with that for a couple of moments. I want you to think about that. I don't want you to think about it just tonight because if you just think about it tonight, you're going to give me the box answer.
And what I mean by that is you're going to give me the Christian answer. You're going to give me the faith answer because you're in church. And so you're going to say, oh, God's most important to me. Well, a lot of people say that, but according to Jesus' own words, their life won't always live that out.
Right? And so I want to ask you the question, what is most important to you? And have you challenged yourself with that question? Have you examined your heart and your mind and come to grips with what is most important to you?
We've been studying the Beatitudes and how the Lord tells us how the world reacts, but how we're to be. He gives us a picture and he paints an example for us as to how we are to be in the midst of the world. Right? And so we're to follow the example of what he told us, Matthew 5, if you're turning there.
And a pastor, somebody sent me this video recently and said, you need to watch this. This was interesting. And so I watched it. And the pastor in the video, this is what he said.
He said he went to, and I wrote it, so I got it right because I was called GPS. Chat GPT. How many know what that is? Some of you know what that is?
He went to chat GPT. And he said, this is what he said, if you were the devil, which you might be, what would you do in the world today? And I can't recite all of it for you. I'm just going to paraphrase a couple of things to you.
He said, I put these in the hands of everyone. Because if these were in the hands of everyone, they wouldn't have time for this. He said, I would put these in the hands of everyone. He said, I wouldn't ask them to worship me.
I just convinced them not to worship him. I'd make them too busy for this. I'd make them too busy for Sunday nights. Because we convinced ourselves we couldn't do Sunday night services any longer.
Because we got to get up for work on Monday mornings. So we couldn't go to church on Sunday nights. So long time ago, Sunday nights went away. I prophesied it.
I prophesied it very young in my ministry that Sunday nights would go away. And people laughed at me. And they mocked me. And they told me I was nuts.
That would never happen. And I'm not glad that it happened. I wish that was something that I said that didn't come true. But it did.
And I said, I said, I said, a number of years ago, and some of you here would have heard me say it, that if we are not careful, say careful. If we are not careful, mid weeks will go away. You know, mid weeks have gone away for many. There are very large, very large, 10, 15,000 member congregations that don't have mid week because they can't get enough people to come to midweek.
Susan and I were at a massive church in Florida, massive church. The sanctuary was on the second floor and they had escalators going up. And multiple sets of escalators went in. It's massive lobby, bigger than our entire building.
Massive lobby and escalators going up and elevators going up to the upper floor and the sanctuary was on the upper floor. But at the base of the escalator was this double doors. And when I opened it, it was probably about the size of our sanctuary and it said chapel above it. And I said to one of the ushers, I went over and I said, hey, I'm kind of curious.
Like what's the chapel for? The sanctuary is upstairs. What do you have in church? This is what I was thinking.
And he said, oh, that's for midweek. And I said, well, what are you doing there in midweek? He goes, oh, we have Bible study in there. And I said, well, can I ask you, why don't you have upstairs?
He goes, you know what, it costs to operate that up there. He's like, we can't turn on the lights and do all that for a Wednesday night. And he said, well, how many people go here? He said, I don't know.
He said, I think the sanctuary holds about 10,000. I said, wow. I said, well, can I look in there? He said, yeah, he walked over with me, we opened the doors about the size of this.
I said, well, how many show up on Wednesday night? He said, oh, we don't even feel this. And I scratched my head. I scratched my head.
If we're not careful. But so Pastor puts it in chat, GPT, and he says, if you were the devil, he said, I'd make them too busy. He said, there'd be all kinds of things on Wednesday nights. Teams like this, you'd be hard to get them together.
People like you, it'd be hard to bring them in. The only one would be required to be there because they'd say, well, we pay him, right? I've told you before, I've preached for free money. It's not all I preach.
Listen, busyness. Among the signs of the last days will be people are just doing life and they're too busy for God. He said, people are too busy on Sundays. And he went on to label a lot of different, you name it, the sports, all the things that we're busy with today.
And I know there's a number of these things. I was told there's a number of people that have done something similar to this and some of change and some of that. But the point was, the enemy was saying, or the chat thing was saying, that people would lose sight of what was most important. What was most important?
And I want to encourage you, this has been, in my estimation, one of the most incredible teachings that we've done in the 25 years that I have been here. It has just been an incredible series. I've enjoyed every single moment of it as I pray you have. I pray you have grown through it.
And I pray that even when we end the series, which will be probably a few more weeks, because I've got a few more things that I've got to say to you at the end of the Beatitudes. You know, there's a little more set after the Beatitudes. But I'm thankful for you being here tonight. Let's start Matthew, Chapter 5, the beginning, verse 1.
We're going to move through that real quick and get to the verse we need to get to tonight. And seeing the multitude, he went up into a mountain and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And he opened up his mouth and he began to teach them, meaning Jesus. And he said to them, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is, verse 4, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be blessed are the meek, for they shall, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain, blessed are the pure at heart, for they shall, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is, verse 11.
Are you with me? You don't have to recite this one yet. I'm just going to read it to you. Blessed are ye.
Some translations say you, blessed are you because he was speaking to his disciples at this particular point. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets which were before you. I'm going to share with you some things that the Bible has to say tonight, Philippians 2 verse 5, we're going to get back to Matthew. Philippians 2 verse 5 says, let this mind, you've heard me say this probably so many times it isn't even funny.
It may be to the point where it's agitating to you to hear me say it again because I've said it so many times, but the point is if the spirit continues to prompt that there is a reason and a purpose for it, amen. Let this mind, you've heard me say this is perfect, personal, this is intentional, this is directed at each and every one of us, this is an act of our own personal will. Let this mind, what is most important to you? He said, let this mind which was also in Christ Jesus, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, so we're directed to have the mind of who?
Jesus, we're to have the mind of Christ and then we see in the book of Romans chapter 12, the book of Romans chapter 12 I'm going to be reading these out of King James version to you tonight. Romans 12 verse 1 and 2. It says this, I beseech you therefore, brethren, who's he talking to? He's talking to those who are the household of faith.
He's talking to believers, right? I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. You would not have to think what he's saying next. He would be saying to the believer.
You wouldn't think you'd have to be saying this to the believer. Okay, I'll say that over here. You wouldn't have to think he'd be saying that to the believer, right? First word, acknowledge, let this mind.
Think about it, folks, let this mind let what Jesus said be in you. Think the way he thought, act the way he acted, do the things that he did, respond the way he responded. Let his mind let the life of Christ be in us. Then Paul says, brethren, I beseech you by the mercies of God that you would present your bodies.
How many here have a body? You certainly do. You're here tonight. That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, living sacrifice, dying to self and allowing Christ to rise in you.
Amen? Holy, acceptable unto God. If we had the mind of Christ, would we be holy or would we be worldly? Holy.
We would be holy, right? Acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service? And then he says this, and this rattles a lot of people today, you know, because we have the commercials that say things like this, he gets us. My wife and I were watching the chosen the other night and I looked at my wife and he said, he didn't get us and he didn't get us.
He didn't get them and he doesn't get us. He doesn't get us. The world's trying to comfort. The world's trying to tell you it's okay to do what you want and live the way you want because he gets you.
That's contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said when we come to him, we become new, old things are gone away. Church, how long does the Lord have to say those things to us? Then we stop doing those things and living the way that he's called us to live.
Come on, he knew how to hear. Let him hear. He said be not conformed any longer. Do not go the direction any longer.
Do not act like any longer. Do not walk like any longer. Do not talk like any longer. That's what he's saying.
Be not conformed. You've known someone for a couple of hours or for five minutes or ten minutes or a week or a month or a year or five years. They should not be surprised when they find out you are a Christian. They should know within moments of meeting you who you represent because you are an ambassador for the kingdom of God.
You and I are ambassadors for Christ Jesus. The old is passed away and behold all things become made new. Some of that transformation comes over time, doesn't it? We grow and we mature in our faith.
It's a continual process throughout our life. But the key is that we continue to progress into the image and likeness of our Creator. If we don't know any more verses of Scripture today than we knew six months ago, we have digressed. If we're not comfortable speaking about our faith, something is not right because as we are growing and maturing in our faith, the boldness of the Holy Spirit and we hear things like, well, I can't pray out loud, really.
We say to the one who bled and died on a cross. But thank you very much for that, but I can't do this for you. We miss the point. Come on, stay with me.
Stay with me. Stay with me. It's no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me and the omshen of the Holy Spirit. And we hear things like this.
I don't know how to pray. To say you don't know how to pray is to say you don't know how to talk. Every one of you know how to talk because most of every one of you talk to me walking up the sidewalk tonight. I know you know how to talk.
So if you know how to talk, that's what prayer is. You're talking and communicating with God. Oh, but I can't do that in light of what he did for us. We can't do that.
That is important to us. What's important to us should be the kingdom of God and bringing others into the kingdom of God. Amen. Our top priority should be bringing others into the kingdom of God.
But I'm shy, but I'm an introvert. No, you once were shy. You once were an introvert. You now are a child of the most I got the most creative in all of the world.
And he's called you to be an ambassador. Not to be quiet. Not to be shy. Not to be introverted.
He's called us to proclaim. Oh, no, that's your job pastor. Well, you're reading a different Bible than I'm reading, then. They are called to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ regardless of where we go.
Well, what if they reject me? It doesn't matter. Well, my feelings will be hurt. Get over it.
They rejected him too. Ours is not to worry about rejection. That's not ours to worry. Ours is to plant the seed and then allow the Holy Spirit to develop that seed and then maybe he'll send somebody else to put a little water on that seed and then maybe somebody else will come and put a little more water on that seed and then maybe someone else will come and speak more life to that seed and it will start to take hold and maybe the first thing you say to them won't be the thing that will turn them.
But all you have to do is what the Holy Ghost tells you to do. And that's to share Jesus. That's to speak Jesus. Amen?
So in the midst of that, so we're not be conforming to the world. We're to be doing what Jesus told us to do. And we do a lot of things. We perform a lot of things as the modern day church.
But we should be doing the things that Jesus told us to do and not being shy about that, distancing ourselves from the world. The more we grow like him. Yes, we're in the world. We function in the world, but we're not to act like the world.
Yes, we go places and we're not telling you to be a recluse and shut yourself in the house or dig a cave somewhere. No, that's not what I'm saying to you. What I'm saying to you is wherever you go in the world, share Jesus. If they're cussing, you shouldn't be cussing.
If they're gossiping, you shouldn't be gossiping. If they're destroying somebody's life, if they're talking about somebody, you shouldn't be doing that, right? We should be careful of those things. They're taking things into their body to defame the Holy Spirit or the temple of the Holy Ghost.
Should we be doing those things? No. Why? Because we're not conforming to that.
Society and culture says it's okay. And because liberal television stations put up commercials that tell you he gets you. Well, Pastor, you and I can agree to disagree on some of those things. I feel that it's okay to do that.
The Bible says if we become a stumbling block to someone, we would be better to tie a mill stone around our neck and cast ourselves into the sea. That's how important it is that we don't become a roadblock to someone else because someone else may not know that. And then they see that and they go, oh. And because they've seen you do it, it may be acceptable to them.
And now maybe they may do it and it may destroy their life or it may cause them not even to want to follow God at all because they say things like hypocrite. Remember what hypocrite was? Anybody remember that? Come on.
Somebody's got to remember that. What was a hypocrite mean? An actor. A hypocrite is like a state of portraying something.
Anybody here ever been in a play? Have you ever been in a play and you portrayed something that you weren't? That's an actor. We're not called to be actors.
We're called to be authentic. We're called to be joint heirs with Jesus. The Lord spoke this in my heart. He said, some want to be in the family, but they don't want to act like the family.
How many got some in the family that don't act like the family? No, we're not going to meddle tonight. We all know, right? To be in the family, they want to be in the family because they want the benefits of the family.
They want the benefits of the family, but they don't want to resemble the family. We've got the DNA of our Lord and Savior running through us tonight. Amen? Because of his blood.
He's built for us. And thank God for that. So, with that said, you and I, when we come to salvation, if there's nothing different in our life from the time we accepted Christ till now, that's not a good thing. That's not a good thing.
If we still do all the things that we've done, still act all the ways that we've acted, and some of those ways and things may have been fine. I'm not saying there are some things in your life that it was probably good before and it's good after. But how many understand what I'm trying to say tonight? There should be a noticeable difference in the way we conduct our lives.
And that should be the way Jesus has instructed us to conduct our lives. Do you not be conformed to the world? To be transformed? Changed?
Oh, thank God he changed me. Thank God he changed me. Thank God he changed me. I can remember being as a little boy.
Honestly, I remember as a little boy. I can see it in my mind's eye. I can see it. I can see myself in a living room, in a house, and I can see something taking place in me huddled in the corner of a couch.
Everything to myself is a young child. I never want to be like that. I never want to do that. I never want to be like that.
I never want that to be a part of who I am. Have you ever said to yourself at any point in your life, I don't want to be like that. And I remember at a very, very young age making that choice, even before I bowed my heart before the Lord at 12 years of age, I already said in my heart, I didn't want to be like things that I seen, but I didn't know what to do about it. And then he spoke to my heart and then he called me and then he put his anointing on me.
I understood what it meant to turn from that. We have a neighbor, boy, they were the biggest drinkers on the planet. In fact, that was when the cops would come and say, well, just get in your car and go sober up. How do you remember those days?
Just go get in your car and go sober up. That's what they tell them. Because back then there was no, you know, they didn't do things the way they do today with the UIs and all that kind of stuff. How many remember the days before that?
And his beat his wife to a living pulp. And the kids would come beating on our door. Can you call the cops? Can you call the cops?
Call the cops? So we call the cops and the cops would come and say, oh, get in your truck and go sleep it off. You want to press charges? She'd say no.
And say, OK. And sometimes my mom would have to get in the car and take her to the hospital. And I remember 190 broke her arm with a beer bottle. He broke a court beer bottle over because he could handle it.
He could handle it. We all say we can handle it. But they'll come a day when you can't handle what you think you can handle. And he broke a court beer bottle over her arm.
He busted her arm. And my mom had to take her off to the hospital and get her arm fixed. And no, no, she went and pressed charges. And sometimes we'd hear screaming and yelling.
And my mom would go out on the porch and see, see, see, the kids huddled in the corner. Because the bedroom roof came out onto the rooftop of the garage. And the rooftop of the garage was flat. And they could climb out of the bedroom window onto the rooftop because it was just a short little distance.
And they'd be huddled in the corner crying because of what was going on in the house. Listen, I understand what dysfunction looks like. I understand what craziness looks like. I've seen it firsthand.
And I've declared that that ain't happening in my house even. That's for me and my house. We will serve the Lord. And you call us crazy.
I saw the son-in-law of this family. This is honest truth. Standing in the driveway, stripping off all his clothes, throwing him in the window of the car because he was so drunk. This isn't funny, right?
This isn't funny. This guy's out of his mind drunk. He's taking his clothes off and throwing them in the window of the car because he thought it was the washing machine. That's how drunk he was.
He was down to the last bit of undergarment. When those who were laughing at him, laughing at him, Brett, his own family. Oh, look at him. He's not the drunk.
He don't even know what they did. It's so funny. I remember Matt looking at the window thinking, I don't know if that's funny. It kind of looks crazy.
It looks like a young kid. I mean, I'm a young. I'm very young. I'm thinking that kind of looks crazy.
Some of you have some memories, maybe similar to that. You've seen some crazy stuff. And they have to go and grab you and say, come on, get in the house before you take the last piece of clothing you have on your body off. But they all did it.
And so when the next kid was, it didn't matter if they were of age or not. As soon as they were big enough to swallow it, they'd give it to them. And it repeated and repeated and repeated for generations to generations. They had a gravel driveway in the neighbor across the street.
You had to park on the menu. It was parked on the street. And the neighbor had company. And he didn't like that there was cars right across from the entrance of his driveway.
So he went out the end of the driveway and he hit the gas and he spun the wheels and he threw gravel all over the car. They were across the street. Just put gravel dents in the side. And nobody would do anything because they were afraid of what he would do.
They were afraid of him. I was in the yard one night. And he always called me John. He never called me Sean.
Sean is the Irish form of John. He said, hey, John, come here. And I said, what? And I stood on the end of the drive.
He said, come here. I want to bet you something. I said, what are you talking about? He said, see this little thumbtack?
I bet you I can throw it and stick it in that dartboard over there. It was just like a thumbtack. You know? I can't throw that thumbtack and stick it in that board.
He said, oh, yeah, I can't. I'll bet you 20 bucks. I can do it. He took out a $20 bill later on that stand.
I didn't have 20 bucks. I said, OK. My first thought was I'm bigger. He's going to chase me home.
So he takes that little tack and he starts putting tape around it, cardboard on it. He makes a dart out of that little tack. And I'll never forget. I said, Lord, don't let him hit that board.
He let that thing fly and it dropped right before the board. I grabbed that 20 and took off like a thief. He's screaming and you give her $20 back. And my mom heard all the commotion and she came out and she's like, make him, you know, he's screaming, make him give me my money back.
My mom's like, you got to give him that money back. And his wife said, no, he has not given him that money back. Well, she paid the price for that that night. I gave him $20 back though because I had to talk a woman.
If I understand this function, somebody can go home tonight and say, well, pass around and increase childhood. I seen some things. My will was rather lock me in the trunk of a car and drove, I don't know, six, seven miles to see his girlfriend because he was supposed to watch me and he didn't want to watch me. So he put me in the trunk of the car and he said, tell me when I shut the lid if the light goes off.
Well, at that time I was just probably like seven, eight years old. So I got in the car. I was just a dumb old kid. I got in the car and I shut the lid.
I'm like, that's funny. You know, and I hear the car start up. And what do you know? All of the sudden car starts moving.
We go the whole way to his girlfriend's house and they're sitting up on the porch. I get here and talking. I'm beating on the trunk lid. Screaming, hey, let me out, let me out.
His girlfriend says, what is that? He's all that's my stupid brother. She's like, where's he at? He's like, I walk him in the trunk of the car.
She said, give me your keys. Boy, did I skunk him that day. She came down with the keys and she unlocked that lock and you know where I sat the rest of the time he was with her on her lap as she petted my hair. I told him how cute I was.
And I just look over at him like, they taped me on a chair and stuck me out of the second story window and shut the window on the back of the chair. And I was on the seat of the chair in front of the chair hanging out the window. It was hours. I don't even know how long I was out there.
So finally we were leaving and the place where my dad said, where's your brother? And they're like, did you get him in? No, I didn't get him in. Did you get him in?
No, I didn't get him in. I understand what this function is like. I understand what it's like. It's really wonder that I have any normalcy in me.
So when I said a moment ago, thank God he saved me. You don't know how glad I am JD. He saved me. I am so glad he saved me.
Right? And so I saw things. I told you the good ones. There's some that are way worse than that.
I can tell you. But I ain't going to tell you them. But God. He can take what's intended for bad and he can turn it and use it for good.
And I decided I made a decision because we have the right of refusal and we have the right of acceptance in Christ. Amen? He's given it to us. And I said, I'm not going to be like that.
I'm not going to treat people like that. I'm not going to talk like that to people. I'm not going to act like that to people. I'm not going to do those sort of things.
I'm going to be different than that. I didn't know how. I didn't know what would make the difference until then I met Christ. The answer.
And he's still the answer. Be transformed. Thank God that he transforms us by the renewing of our mind. Oh, isn't that good?
Isn't that good? That he transforms us by the renewing of our minds. What's important to you? I knew at a young age what was important to me.
I knew I wanted to be different. I knew there was something about my life that was to be different. I didn't know what it was at that moment. God had his hand on me and he was taking me in the right direction.
You may not know everything there is to your story at this point, but trust in the one who knows that he will lead you and he will guide you and he will direct you. And he will be your God because he's promised to be. And Matthew 6, you know it so well, we're going to have to close with this. I didn't even get back to Matthew, so we're going to have to do that next time.
But it's important. The setup is important. Matthew 633. But seek ye first, say first.
What's that mean? You know it's not like a King James translation, new international translation, you know, ESV translation, it's the passion. It's not like there's some mix up in the wording somewhere that somebody did. He's telling us what should be priority in our life.
But seek ye first, what? The Kingdom of God. And his righteousness, well you need to be transformed to do that. Because a natural mind will not do that.
You can't let this mind which was in Christ now be in you unless you're seeking first. The Kingdom, that means you've given your heart to the Kingdom. That means you trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior. That means you begin to walk away from old things.
You let go of bitterness and anger and strife and hatred and all of that stuff. And you don't gossip about people anymore and you don't want to talk about people. Sometimes it literally agitates me. Sometimes in those settings, and I hear combers, sometimes I literally am agitated.
But ours is to seek first the Kingdom. What's your priority? We are to seek first the Kingdom. We are to present Jesus.
We are to bring people to Christ. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and is what? Righteousness. And everything you have need of, your Bible says.
Everything you have need of. God will add it unto you. Isn't that good? Matthew 5 verse 11.
I'm just going to read it and pick up here. Bless it are you. Go back and look through the attitudes we've already. There's a switch.
There's a shift of focus. Bless it are you when people insult you. When they persecute you. When they falsely say all kind of evil against you because of me.
Meaning Jesus. How many of you say something about them? That wasn't true. I'll tell you right now you cannot be in ministry and that not happen.
I promise you that. I promise you that. You can't be a child of God and that not happen. It will happen.
We will be persecuted because of him. But he's promised to be with us. To never leave us nor forsake us. And guess what?
You know what he calls it? He calls it us being blessed. Does that make sense? Well I'm going to show you next week how it makes sense.
He's good, amen? Are you glad you came tonight? I'm glad you're here tonight. We'll look forward to seeing you on Sunday morning.
Father in the name of Jesus. Thank you for your word tonight. Thank you for a safe place that we can come and gather in your name. Thank you for encouraging us.
Thank you for teaching us tonight because we understand and know that teaching destroys ignorance. And Father we thank you for that. We thank you that you speak to us and you teach us through the power of your word, that our lives and our hearts and our homes and our families can be transformed for your glory and for your honor and that we can share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. Father we thank you so much for that privilege and that honor.
Be with us as we leave this place tonight. We love you. We give you all the praise in Jesus name. Amen.