Sermon on the Mounts

[Music] Welcome to the Venture Church podcast. This sermon was taken from the life of the church. For more messages like this, please see our website www.venturechurch.co.cde. We hope you enjoy this message. Part of the message, the sermon on the marks that's missing the last is. Because the one thing I came to the conclusion, when Moses went up to get the commandments, Jesus was there. The sermon on the mark, Jesus was there. So he was there when the law was given and he was there when grace was given. And John once said, in the beginning, was the Word. The Word was with us and the Word was God. And nothing was done without the Word. And I think sometimes we have the separation. So it was all God the Father, with Moses, etc. And then suddenly, maybe Jesus is born and Jesus is involved. But he's been present the entire way. Importing what happens. So mountains have always been important spiritually. In both Christianity, juridism, and every other religion. In Nepal, the Buddhist, the Buddhist, the monasteries, so how people are getting there. They literally do because they're unfit trying to get up there. But somehow, there's a connection between being high and God. Tower of Bible. It's bulled, it's huge tower. And I've seen the dimensions against buildings like the Empire State, building, etc. It was higher than those. And let's get to God. The most known mountain in the world is obviously Everest. And most young guys think, well, I'm going to go climb Everest. And then you read the facts and you come to your senses. And you say, it's better not to go. And one of the things on Everest right now, there are approximately 200 bodies that are lying there. Because over 8,000 meters you enter what they call the dead zone. Where there's only one third oxygen. You're almost at the heart, their commercial planes fly. They fly at 30,000 feet. And it's 29,000 feet. And your body is shutting down. Even with auxiliary oxygen. Plus you bitterly cold. The last part to get to the top of the summit, one of the last things is called the Hilary steps. And people have actually died standing in line to get to the top. From the cold, altitude sickness, etc. And for years there was a guy, that's the picture there. He had long green boots. And it's a long stone cave, ironically. And he was part of the Indian expedition of 1996. And the directions were, at green boots, turn left. Wasn't his name, it was just at green boots, turn left. David Sharp, a few years later, sat in that cave in dark. Ran out of, he's summited without oxygen. And on the way down. And it's the descent that normally kills people. Because it's taken everything to get to the top. And normally it's the last part, the 13 hours. And it's coming down. You've depleted everything your body had. And a few years later, the body had been moved. So it was no longer a landmark. There was a lady, the first American to summit Everest without oxygen with her husband. And she waited to the top, coming down, they got separated. And she died just to the left of the trail. Had a purple jacket on. And lay there for about 10 years. And she was called Sleeping Beauty. So mountains are dangerous. They're not for the week of height. In the bubble, there's some famous mountains. No, and Mount Ararat, where the ox settled. Abraham and Mount Mariah, where he went up to sacrifice Isaac. Moses and Mount Sinah, Elijah and Mount Carmel, the first Kung Fu movie we kill 650 people. One day, all by himself. I mean, when you look at it, 650 people, Elijah slay. Obviously, God came upon him and gave him strength. Imagine how much you've got to swing to kill that many people. Jesus, he went up a mountain with the devil and he came to it. He said, look at all these kingdoms. I'll give them to you, your worship. He went up a mountain to pray before selecting his disciples. The sermon on the mountain. And he's about seven to nine other times, which is Jesus went up the mountain to pray, to be alone with his father, etc. And then, lastly, he ascended from the Mount of Olives. So Moses and Mount Sinah, first of all Mount Sinah, 2,345 meters, Moses went up three times. And that's where people miss. And eight years of age, God sent him up and down three times. And I'm not 80. There's no way I could get up once. It's regarded as quite an easy walk. From the, there's a monastery on the Mount on Mount Sinah. From the, it's about two and a half hours to get to the top. The last seven, 150 stairs are very steep. So very steep, but you can do it. So God sends him, tells him to come to the top of the mountain, X is 1920. And then God says, those people are going to come on the mountain. Go back and tell them, and Moses, I don't want to go back down again. Says, "Oh Lord, they won't. God says, go back and tell them not to come on the mountain." So Moses tricks all the way back down, tells the people to stay off the mountain. X is 24. Moses goes up the mountain again, and God gives him the King commandments. And he's there for 40 days and 49. And that's the part we need to realize. Jesus was with him. It wasn't just God, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, and Jesus sitting in heaven having tea looking down at this. God is one. They were present when it was given. So Jesus knew everything that was given. He knew the Spirit in which it was given. Moses gets sent down because the people have made a golden calf. The stories, the tablets, and God says, "Okay, come back up again." So in total, was 13,800 meters, Moses clamped. And even if a mountain's easy to go up, it's not a straight 13 kilometer run. He had to go up there. Everest is 8,800. So he exceeded Everest if we add up all the distances he climbed. It gets the tablets the second time when he comes down. And I believe the essence behind what God had given them was lost when the people say, "Cover your face. We are afraid." And if they hadn't asked for that, he would have been able to share God's love. And God's grace, but they were afraid. And you go talk to God, come back and we will get the short version. I'm maybe you've done that. I do that with, used to do that with the kids. Get a new self-run. Yeah, come back with the short version. And then I've got two types of daughter, one who gave you that. And another one who's sitting explain it, "Lan for Lan with thee." Jamie always seemed to be the one that did that for us. So we get to the 10 Commandments, the law. So Moses, have he gone up and down this mountain by this point five times? He's still got one descent to come. It's given with much struggle and difficulty. When you compare that to the sermon on the Mount, Jesus walked up and sat down and gave grace. So the law was given with difficulty and struggle and distress around the whole thing. The primary part of what God gave him were the 10 Commandments. And every one of them almost starts with you shall have. You shall not. You shall not. Remember the Sabbath. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not have it. And the emphasis was always on you shall not. But contrast, grace was given with ease. So from you shall not, we now get to the sermon on the Mount, Jesus goes up, sits down, and as Frans is pointed out, he wasn't speaking to the messians. He was speaking to the Disappel. but the masses heard it. And he opened his mouth and began to teach him saying, "And if you look at what the beannitudes are, it's blessed are you when you are poor." And JB Phillips calls it "happy are you." And I think in our modern sort of languages and understanding, "happy" is a lot better than blessed. The emphasis is shifted from "you shall" to "submit to God." And it's a whole go to God, give him your heart, show him that you are humble. So the first one, verse 3, "Blessed are the poor and spirit where there's is the kingdom of God, of heaven." And that is submission. I've realized my condition. I can't make it. I'm not going to get to heaven with anything I can do. No matter how good I think I am, I'll fall short. And the hardest people to witness I've found are good people because they don't see the need or grace. I've been a good person all my life. I've given millions to charity. I've done this. I've done that. I've run 50 comrades to raise money for orphans. Why do I need Jesus? But it's a realization that there is nothing good within us and we can't get to heaven by ourselves. They make us go on our knees and submit and say, "Lord, only through you." But as for, "Blessed are those who mourn, will they shall be comforted." Sorry. I realize the condition on me. I realize I'm not going to get there on my own. There is nothing within me that can get me to heaven. Years ago there was a little illustration that flew around the internet where a guy's got a cross over his shoulder and he's walking with a whole lot of other people with a cross on his shoulder and dragging it along and it gets heavy. I don't even remember that pencil from way back on TV. That one. Almost like that. You know, "Money I got to God comes and cuts off a bit of his cross." So it's lighter and he's carrying his cross and this is much better. Gives him a thumbs up and if you go a little bit later it's got heavy again and he starts moaning again. God comes and cuts off a little bit more. Happy and he carries on and eventually he comes to this chasm separating man from God and he's crossed the bridge the other side. He's stuck on this side and even though grace is free it's not meant to just we've got to work with God to get there and part of that is sorry. Realizing there's something wrong. I'm not who I think I am. I'm not going to make it on my own. Let's it all the gentle with the actual inherit the earth. Salvation. So we know Bucky's birthed even it's a bit didn't make it there. They possibly have been excluded. But in gentleness I turned to God because that's who he is. He's gentle with us. He's like a mother. He's like a mother eagle. Not only does he kick you out the neck but you'll go next but you'll go and fly underneath and catch you. And if you've ever seen that happen it's incredible. You know watching this bird falling who's an absolute terror. Think he's going to slam it to the ground and the mother comes underneath it and catches it and brings it back into the nest. Little while ago there was a video where a person had a veranda in one of these pts with lots of high rises and they had cables, you know not a solid ballast grade across this veranda. And the German Shepherd was lying on the veranda stretched and rolled over and slipped. And they dig the front claws in but had no leverage to pull itself in. And you see the owner come flying out from the veranda and he used to get the dog and pull it. I'm sure the finale of that is a new ballast grade was put around the veranda. My other daughter a roxy, her cat ran on the veranda obviously after a bird or something and she three stories up and went straight over and survived. Nothing wrong with it. You know dogs not going to survive. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Will they shall be satisfied, satisfaction. So often you see people get born again it's a miracle, it's miraculous, it's touching, it's fantastic and then nothing happens. And God saying thirst and hunger for me. They're just, oh well now I'm going to heaven it's all, oh, get, try get to know me. Spend time in praise, spend time in fellowship, spend time in the Word. And when you hunger and thirst God has a way of revealing Himself. When you just sit there and you waiting for God, nothing happens. He requires effort from us, he requires us to walk through the door. And so you truly must pray for them to catch on fire because you can see what the problem is and they can't see it. I read my Bible every Sunday when Francis preaching. That's sufficient. I spend time with people on Sunday that are Christians. That's sufficient. It's not. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. The difference between the law and grace was in the attitude of the people amongst the most arrogant people on earth are Jews. And particularly back then they would, I'm a Jew, I'm a chosen person, I'm going to heaven. There was arrogance. It comes out in Jesus' story on the Samaritan, the attitude of the Jews to them. God's giving His law. Don't you think that He wanted them to go and share it with everybody? And they became a closed off little arm of Abraham. And it became a statement or pride rather than of love. Nice is blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. So I look at Hilton, I see He's going to hell. It's not worth a figure and I walk off this way. Let me, can I help you? Can I share the good news? There's another way of doing this. And when I do that, guess what happens? I get music. I get God's grace on my love. And you can't give God. You can only clog the system. So God pulls and we're supposed to be giving and you find people have become blocked up. Excuse me, constipated and not regurgitating the truth. God can't give anymore. We were never called to be isolated, living our lives and not concerned about other people. From the very start Jesus went to the people. And if you look at the beginning of X, they became a little closed off group again. 120 people gathering in the upper room. And guess what? God showed up and changed that forever. Let's set off the pure and hot for they shall see God. Sanctification. When I got saved to it now, believe it or not, there's been a change. And it's been a big change. I know from where I've come and I know I've got so far to go. And if you walk in that path, it's amazing how God comes down and lifts you up and carries you. But if you stop walking in sanctification, if you stop trying to purify your heart, if you carry on being the person you were, God can't work. Let's set off the peacemakers for they shall be called, uns of God, soul winning. We have one mission, win song. You Corinthians 5, how God has called us to work with him, reconciling man to God. So it doesn't matter what your job is, it doesn't matter what you do in life, that has to be the goal. And if you praying that and if you believing that God opens the door and opens opportunities, we need to do that. We have a heart call at the current group in our complex because all they do is moan. And they moan about moaning and Ivon's on the group and she started because I won't be and the leases in her name. But Ivon shares her whatsapp status and she's been sharing gospel stuff and there are people in this group who are thinking number one in line for hell. who read it every day. Just a little thing. And she's doing it and people are reading it. To each time I'm preaching again, our security guard, the toilet is coming to church with me. And he reads, and Joseph reads it, the other security guard. So you don't know who you're touching when you start to reach out. We have a Sunday Times newspaper seller on the way to church. We are stopped and head a check with once because the robot was read. Now we got past him. He sees our car and you get a wave and a fist bump. There's a bridge being built there. Hopefully one day God will lead me to stop and share the gospel with him. But we are soul women. It's the only thing we can take with us to heaven. Imagine getting to heaven and somebody comes up and you look from a lie and you did this and you did that and that led to me being here. That's all you can take with you. I've seen people get buried in their limousines with their wealth in the limousines. You can't take that with you. Roxy has got a jerk and she says, "Barget's tap on the shoulder and it turns around and angels says, "Tomorrow you're going to heaven." "What do you mean?" "Tomorrow you die." "Can I bring stuff with me?" "No angels, let me check. Guys back comes with, you can bring one suitcase." God doesn't pack his suitcase. Bulls are with gold. Next day, God goes to heaven with his suitcase. The guy at the gates says, "Can I check your luggage?" "Neither so why did you bring paving?" The streets are paved with gold. And what we put all our value in is meaningless in heaven. Listen to those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So our suffering ends when we get to heaven. If you have not been persecuted, it's tamper and evaluation. The devil is quite comfortable with you. You're not irritating him. And it doesn't mean everybody has to go out and preach on the streets. But each one of us is called to be a soul winner in the way that is unique and significant to us. I can talk to people that Francis caught, but there's some people he can talk to are caught. And the same with Lucy. And you know, wherever you go, you can reach people that other people can't. And the problem in church is we sit here relying on those two to grow the church. And that's not their job. They're jobless to empower us to go out and build the church. And it's week after week, we come here and stare at them, go home and do nothing. And it's been amazing watching people get involved in ministry, G&N went with the walls key and the impact that's had on people. You go to the picnics and you're hearing people talk who were broken months ago. The God has put together. But it took somebody to be able to stand up front for it. Now with her bread, just meeting people, you know, the name five loads people, I'm sure of what does it mean? What's the significance of it? There's a gospel message in there. Well, I still think they should be two fish. So when does our suffering end when we in heaven? While we are, yeah, we will be persecuted. We will suffer. And families, Christmas top, you get together with people that are bigger heathens than their malacharts were. The God said, kill, utterly kill them, destroy them. And then you sit with your family who are heathen and unsafe. And no matter how nice you try be, they're always pulling you down. They're always cutting you down, etc. And then your brothers and sisters in church that when the Christ Christmas bar, we're not family anymore. And all for you, go home. Blessed are you and people in Salty and Persecution falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. If you go read the biographies and autobiographies of every great man of God, woman of God, in there is always people insulted them, spread lies about them, try to bring them down, lawsuits, all of that. Some of them, it was true, but the majority were just pulled down because guess what? The devil is against you. And he is going to use people to do his work. So now this is the hard part. Rejoice. Oh, you've slandered me. Let me rejoice. Have hands. Be happy. And be glad for your reward in heaven is great. How hard is it to do that at that time? If the only reason that they're doing it is because you are threat to the Kingdom of Darkness. We're in the same way that persecuted the prophets who were here before you, they do that to you. And that is results in real surgery and in heaven. We will be in heaven with it. Where there is no more sorrow, there is no more weeping, there's no more aging. As you get older you do find we have an invisible oil check lot. And when you stand up don't move too quickly, wait for the oil to flow through the system. Because if you move too quickly doesn't end well. We've got a pedal at 16 and it's the funniest thing in his old and watching stand up. Okay, safe to go. In conclusion, Jesus showed us that we need to live humbly before our God with no pride or arrogance. Let me ask you this quick, what have you done to get yourself to this point? Salvation was free. Sanctification was free, just required a little bit of effort in reading and praying. Everything we have is free. It's been freely given. We couldn't pay the price. And having a concern for what is important to God. In Acts, the Holy Spirit falls on them, they're full of joy, power, etc. What did they do? They went back to work and shared the gospel. There was no church. It was the people going to work the next day. The fishermen, the baker, the candlemaker, the carpenter, sharing the gospel with those who came in place. And if you read Paul's journeys it started with going to the synagogue, going to the marketplace. He didn't seek out the church. He looked for people right where they were. And just in that, was able to share love, joy and grace. We know it's all God. The Jews didn't. They thought it was their obedience to the Lord. And that does play a part. Don't willfully go out and sit. But it's actually all God. Remember the Lord was you shall. Now it's literally by God's grace. God come, renew my mother, sanctify me, make me whole. Help me to love those I don't love. We have a prayer list. And there are a couple of people on their prayer list who I have to pray what I don't want to pray. I would love for fire and brunt stone to fall on their toes. But we've got a prayer and say, Lord bless them. Lord prosper them. Lord give them grace. Lord lift them up. Lord let them get to know you and then you think I'm going to spend heaven eternity with them. But that's what God calls us to do. And I can't do that in my own strength. It is only through God and bar God that we can do that. So no longer you shall. It's not by God's grace. Thank you for listening to this sermon. We would love to know how this message spoke to you. Please connect with us through our website www.VentureChurch.co.z/all through our various social channels. (gentle music)