Mathew 5 | Sermon Notes

Matthew 5:3 (ESV)
3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
  1. Abide in his Word
  2. Abide in Prayer
  3. Abiding in Christ is synonymous with abiding in Christ's love
  • Blessed are those who live in a profound dependence upon God
  • What is the most God honoring thing we can do?
    • To live in a profound dependence upon God
  • What is the most dishonoring thing that Israel ever did?
    • Independence
  • Do you realize that almost every saving activity of God does not begin until first he empties men of all hope of saving themselves?
  • Peter made a declaration of self confidence
    • He had to fall, it was necessary to rid him of his self reliance
    • Great Peter (the rock) denies Christ before a little servant girl
      • It was necessary!
  • Some say Christ spent 3 years emptying the disciples so he could fill them on the day of Pentecost
  • God can fill you just-like-that, the emptying part is problematic
  • How do you cling to Christ?
    • Continual dependence in his word
  • Do you despise the Bible?
    • If you neglect it you do. Just as if you would walk on past a street preacher as if he wasn't there. That man feels despised. He feels neglected.
  • Live in the word and you will begin to take on its characteristics
  • Spend your life renewing your mind in the word of God
    • Cling to the word as if your life depends on it because it does!
  • This isn't rocket surgery. You take the word of god and you read it and you read it and you read it.
  • You're not a reader? If you were told you'd get paid twice as much at your job if you memorized a big manual you would stay up night and day. Your wife would pour you coffee. Your kids would cheer you on. - AND you would do that all for more money. So you can buy stuff to impress others. Pathetic.
Matthew 4:4
[4] But he answered, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (ESV)
  • Every aspect of life should be governed, fueled, conformed, empowered by the word of God
    • Have you studied the bible on what it says on marriage? 
    • What about the music ministry you're involved in?
    • The way you dress? Talk? Relationships? Things you participate in?
  • You don't fear and you do trust in yourself
    • You prove it everyday by just walking in according what you think is right
Joshua 1:7
[7] Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. (ESV)
  • Most Christians don't even know enough to realized they're departing from the law
Joshua 1:8
[8] This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (ESV)

  • Does your 10 minute quiet time fulfill this command?
  • "Your way prosperous" doesn't mean finances, but prospering in the will of God
    • That's what being fruitful means
  • The reason modern Christians are so weak is because they neglect the Word
  • You want to be used of God? Prove it! Read your bible at all times!
    • Abiding in Christ is saturating ourselves in his word and seeking to obey him
    • Abiding in Christ is through continuous reliance upon prayer
  • If you constantly feed upon the Word of God you will begin to develop the mind of Christ
  • What is prayer?
    • A warfare walkie-talkie
  • Most people have a wrong concept of prayer, being:
    • I think I have a need and I ask God to meet it

Matthew 6:9-13 (ESV)
Pray then like this:
9 “Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.

  • "Hallowed be your name" Start with reverence for God
    •  If you're praying for healing, pray for it IF it brings Glory to God and advances his kingdom
      • It's not just "I have a want/need/desire - but "whatever will bring you glory."
  • The more you cut yourself off from the arm of the flesh the more you desire the advancement of his kingdom, and the more you live dependent on him in prayer you will see more miracles than you could ever imagine!
  • Get before God in silence and just listen
    • A man worked in an extremely loud factory and he lost a watch his father had given him that was very precious to him. The next day the men came to work and he showed them his watch. "How did you find it?" they all asked him. "I waited until the factory had shut down, and all the people had left and I laid on the ground and listened until I heard it. Tick tock, tick tock."
  • Do you ever have a night watch? Where you get up in the middle of the night and just sit with and pray? Just to be with God in silence?
  • To be fruitful we must utterly convinced or persuaded of Christ's love for us
    • Then we must live in continuous dependence upon Christ's love, constant reliance upon Christ's love, constant persistent imbibing of Christ's love.
  • Constrained by the love of Christ
    • When I sing "Oh how I love Jesus" I change the words to "Oh how Jesus loves me" because when I look at my love for Christ I don't see anything worth singing about, but when I look at Christ's love for me I see a whole lot worth singing about.
    • The strength of Paul Washer's life is not how much he loves Jesus, it's how much Jesus loves him. That little change will change everything.
  • When I got saved I thought I finally found something I could be the best at, all I needed was passion. I gave it my all working 18 hour days in Peru until one day I collapsed. When I was the most ashamed God showed me that he loved me.
    • Men of God in their best moment are only worthy of hell.
  • The thing that can really make you strong is not found in looking at your life and seeing all the things you're doing right - it's in giving up looking at your life to find something you're doing right and are worthy of being loved for and look at the finished work of Christ.
  • Look at Christ and understand that he loves you and you don't have to perform and no you were not saved to serve, you weren't even saved to love God. You were saved so God could love you.
    • Then out of that great love for you - you would be able to give some return on that.
  • YOU ARE LOVED
    • All you can attempt when you no longer fear failure, or disappointment?
    • You think the first time you look at Christ you're going to see a scowl?
    • He didn't shed his own blood on that tree so that the first time he sees you he would be able to show you his disappointment.
  • To know you're loved empowers you because you're free
  • One of the most pathetic things a preacher has to do is to tell his congregation they are loved of God, because they're no way for us to describe the greatness of his love for his people
  • If someone has been truly converted you do not have to manipulate them with fear, or coerce them.
  • If they've truly been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, the more they come to understand the glories of God in the face of Christ, the more they come to understand the love of God on their behalf, the more they'll be driven to holiness.
    • If they're not it's because they're not sheep - they're goats.
  • If people truly come to believe in the love of God they seem to blossom
Jude 21
[21] keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. (ESV)
  • That doesn't mean live in such a way so that God will love you. It means:
    • Keep yourselves basking in his love.
  • The devil is constantly trying to convince the believe that God's love isn't as the bible says, and when we begin to believe that we wilt and die
    • Keep yourself believing the truth about the love of God and it will cause you to prosper, to grow, to bear good fruit
  • Don't let your Christian performance become an idol
    • Even when you do your very best Christian work, giving all of yourself to it and sacrificing everything, all you've maybe earned is a cooler spot in hell.
      • A man at his best doesn't deserve the love of God
      • Your joy is based on your performance
      • My joy is based on the love of Jesus Christ
  • What is the Christian life like? It has to do with:
    • Revelation
    • Brokeness
    • Joy
  • A man is walking, he doesn't know Christ, he's unconverted
  • He hears the Gospel one day and the spirit of God renews his heart. For the first time in his life he sees a glimpse of how God truly is. In seeing that he sees something of what he truly is with his sin and it breaks him and he repents. 
  • But he's not left to despair. Why? Because he also sees in that revelation the great grace of God in the face of Christ and he's filled with joy as he believes.
  • Then he continues and see's God deeper which makes him see his failings deeper and he sees the need for brokenness and repentance, but he's not left to despair - he looks at the grace of God in the face of Christ and his joy is greater than the joy he had the day before.
    • You walk your whole life that way and see more of the love of God than you could ever imagine, and more of the darkness of your own soul, your more broken than you ever could have imagined, and yet your joy is greater than you ever could have imagined.
    • There's been a holy transaction. When you started your joy was coming from who you were and what you could do, now at 90 you're empty of that and your joy only comes from Christ.
  • That's how it's supposed to be. All our joy, all our hope, everything in Jesus Christ.
  • Look to Christ because he is greater than every one of your greatest failures, weaknesses and sins.
  • It was all finished at Calvary.

Paul Washer

Comments

Post a Comment