Reflections on Matthew

[0:00] Um, Shoreline's been a church formally for about five years now, just over. And so for two and a half of those years, half of our lifetime, we have been walking with Christ through the book of Matthew.

[0:17] And that's a major milestone for us. It's a significant moment in the life of our church. And so we believe it's worthwhile for us to pause and to consider what the Lord has done among us, his word in that time.

[0:35] So today we're going to do two things. I'm going to share a couple selected readings from the length of Matthew's gospel that remind us of the large narrative.

[0:46] And members of the congregation are going to share what the Lord has done in their hearts throughout this series. And if you didn't sign up ahead of time, that's okay. There's still room for you.

[1:00] We're going to prioritize those people who have shared. So here's how it's going to work. Several people have let us know ahead of time that they are planning to share.

[1:12] They want to encourage our church family with something that the Lord taught them or convicted them of or did in them throughout this journey in Matthew. And I'll be reading passages. But if you would also like to share, if the Lord leads you to that today, you know, maybe a passage that was particularly important to you or a truth that the Lord buried in your heart or a realization that Christ's words brought you to.

[1:37] So you can kind of queue up over here in between segments and we'll get you in here, too. All right. And I'll direct the flow of our conversation so that nobody and nothing gets lost so that we can all benefit from what the Lord has been doing in and among his people for these two and a half years.

[1:59] So let's pray again over this time and then we'll get started with that. The Lord, our God, our Father in heaven, as we recall what you have been teaching us and doing in us and proclaiming to us these last two and a half years.

[2:23] Lord, we ask that you would remind us again what your son has done for us and what he has taught us.

[2:35] And Lord, as our brothers and sisters in Christ here share what you've done in their hearts and in their lives. Lord, will you please help us to rejoice in you? To love you.

[2:48] To love your people better. To love those who Christ came to save. Of every tongue, tribe, and nation. Lord, would you shape us by our remembrance of your glory and your grace towards us in Christ.

[3:06] We pray these things in his name. Amen. As Brad walks up here, I will...

[3:18] No, that wasn't a dig. He's good. I'm going to read our first reading from Matthew chapter 1. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

[3:29] When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

[3:44] But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

[3:58] She will bear his son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Switch. Cool.

[4:15] All right. Cool. I'm excited to get this party started. It's not a joke. That's a reference to the passage I'm talking about. Anyway, I'm excited.

[4:26] I always really enjoy when people get to share here. I think it's like a blessing, no matter how short, prepared, or unprepared, just to worship and celebrate. Like Dave said, what the Lord has convicted us about, or what the Spirit has just enlightened your heart to be able to see and understand more from the Word of God.

[4:47] So, let's see. I'm going to read the passage first, and then I'll talk for maybe a minute. It's Matthew 22, verses 1 through 14.

[4:57] It's the parable of the wedding feast. And it goes, And again, Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, Again, he sent other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen, my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready.

[5:28] Come to the wedding feast. But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.

[5:41] The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.

[5:54] Go, therefore, to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. And those servants went out to the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good.

[6:07] So the wedding hall was filled with guests. More than 50% capacity. But when the king came to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.

[6:20] And he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, Bind him, hand and foot, cast him into outer darkness.

[6:32] In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen. So this passage stood out to me for a number of reasons and really coincided with a lot of other different passages that were preached about along this time.

[6:51] This was December last year. And so what really, I guess, if I had to title my reflections on this, I was trying to think how could I summarize my initial response to this.

[7:03] And to me, it was like the answer to questions that I already thought I knew the answers to. So I grew up in a church and in a church, there's a lot going on. Many things about Christianity can be emphasized, overemphasized, underemphasized.

[7:18] So this passage stood out to me a lot because what Jesus is doing in this passage is he's talking to people who already have an idea about religion. Right. I think whether it's us as believers right now or maybe it's people that you're trying to share the gospel with, everyone has some sort of preconceived notion or idea.

[7:38] So Jesus is trying to lay this out, paint the picture a little bit better, and he compares it to a wedding feast. And so when I think of the question, I think it was mentioned in the sermon, but what is Christianity all about?

[7:54] Right. What does what does God care about? What is Christianity, the Bible all about? I think especially when you talk to nonbelievers, they can be like, oh, it's like about following rules. And then unfortunately, if you're in a church, you can think the same thing.

[8:07] Right. You can think, oh, it's about the rules. It's about doing the right thing. Look at this nice, thick instruction manual or like it's really good advice or whatever you can. Especially if you grow up in the church, it's really hard to maybe pick up on some of the smaller things.

[8:20] But through this parable, through the book of Matthew, I saw it's not about everything as much as it's about the one thing, Jesus Christ.

[8:31] Right. This is this is a wedding feast for the sun, the primary thing. And I think there's a lot of great things and there's a lot of blessings that are not terrible. Right. When we singing, preaching, learning community, all these wonderful things that are good to thankful for.

[8:47] But for me, what the spirit really put on my heart after this was what what was I really focusing on? What was I really thinking about when when I was thinking about sharing the gospel and and talking to people at work like, hmm.

[9:01] How can I really sell this really good book of rules to them? Right. That's not good. That's not easy. OK, well, well, how can I convince them that they're so guilty? And it's great because after this, they won't be guilty is like, OK, that's good.

[9:14] How can I make it better? How can I really spice this up? OK, you'll live forever. That's good. Right. But that's not the best. The best thing is the fact that we are we are given this eternal, joyous communion with with the Lord.

[9:29] Right. To celebrate his son. That's why we gather here today. We sing about a lot of things, but primarily we're here to celebrate the son, fall more in love with Jesus.

[9:40] So a couple other just reflections were on what's all about his son. What's what is it? It's a celebration. It's a celebration. It's not like this great class, college class that you take till you die.

[9:54] And then, you know, the great graduation in the sky. Right. This isn't why we literally live a life of celebration. And that's that's when we share the gospel.

[10:04] That's when we show up here. That's why we preach the gospel to each other, because we're here. Like like I said, I'm starting a party right now. And I mean, in the most reverent way possible, I guess. Right.

[10:15] We're about to share things that only the spirit could show to us. That's not in and of ourselves. We're about to share things that that have convicted us and changed us more into his likeness. I think that's that's pretty awesome.

[10:27] And just to reemphasize, what is the gospel? I think when we share the gospel, that was the last thing already said it. But I want to say it again is especially as we talk about Christianity explored that a couple of people are organizing here.

[10:41] And, you know, we think about these things and the Great Commission and launching into acts. I think what are we like, quote unquote, selling here? And I think what we're selling is is a relationship is someone.

[10:52] Right. We're not selling a thing. It's actually just a relationship by Christ through his spirit to the creator. I think that's that's awesome to think that the guy who was kicked out of the party was right.

[11:05] The wedding feast was the one who just showed up for the things besides Christ. He wasn't celebrating the son. So I know that passage meant a lot to me and it stuck in my head for a very long time.

[11:16] And so I wanted to get up here and say all that. So that's it. Looking forward to hearing from other people. While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

[11:41] And he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there, he saw two brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother.

[11:52] And the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. And he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Did your husband desert you at the last moment?

[12:07] Pandemic preparedness here. Here, Tim. I brought notes.

[12:34] Good morning. Good morning. When we were asked to share something that God had used to teach us through the book of Matthew, Matthew 27 came to mind right away.

[12:45] In short, it was when the rich man Joseph came to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body and he took it and placed it in a tomb. Pastor Dave had gone into how risky it was for Joseph to do this.

[12:59] He was risking his career, his honor, and maybe even his life. However, he did it anyway, and we were oppressed to think why. And it was because of Jesus' death.

[13:12] Christ died because he loved his broken, sinful people and wanted to restore them to his father. Joseph understood this and walked down the path that was risky for Christ. We were challenged to think about what is keeping us from taking risks for Christ.

[13:26] Christ. And while hearing this, I felt discontentment growing in my heart. That our family has taken a big risk in walking down the path of fostering and adoption four years ago.

[13:42] And that we felt led to jump back into foster care and are now also walking down the emotionally and physically stressful journey of this.

[13:53] And in that moment of discontentment, I was convicted of my idols, of comfort. Which has been reduced down to just 20 minutes of quiet time to myself.

[14:05] Or four hours of uninterrupted sleep. And although these idols might seem small, but they control my heart attitude towards my children.

[14:18] And my attitude towards them in general throughout the day. And I often forget why we took this risk in the first place.

[14:29] We did it because Jordan and I were adopted into God's family. Because he loved us. He took all the baggage and brokenness I came with and forgave me. And he still bears with me when I sin against him.

[14:42] This is the love of my Savior. And when I remember his love, I am transformed and enabled to love my children as I have been loved by Christ. And might I add that this risk is worth it.

[14:55] To see the mighty hand of God at work to redeem humanly impossible circumstances. And that he lets us be a part of that work. It just brings me to worship and adore and revere him all the more.

[15:08] And so my prayer for our family and for our church has been from Ephesians 3. And it says, And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.

[15:27] And to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[15:43] Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

[15:55] For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.

[16:12] But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

[16:26] And I just wanted to, you know, if you guys feel intimidated by the eloquence of Brad and Jess, you know, they prepared a statement. If you just want to share a passage that was important to you and just read it among your brothers and sisters, that's fantastic too.

[16:42] So don't feel pressure to share lengthy or eloquent little homilies. This is just a time for us to share with one another. I'll read as Tim approaches.

[16:54] I will read from Matthew chapter 9. And getting into a boat, he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed.

[17:07] And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven. And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, This man is blaspheming.

[17:19] But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? Or which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven? Or to say, rise and walk.

[17:32] But that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He then said to the paralytic, Rise, pick up your bed, and go home.

[17:43] And he rose and went home. When the crowd saw it, they were afraid. And they glorified God who had given such authority to men.

[17:55] Amen. Praise God for these past two and a half years, two plus years that we've been in Matthew.

[18:12] I want to bring us back to the beginning of Matthew's gospel in Matthew 1, 23. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.

[18:24] And then as Dave preached on last week, at the end of Matthew 28, Jesus says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

[18:35] Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you to the end of the age.

[18:48] God is with us. How great is this news? The gospel, it's not just good news. It's the best news that we have. And even from birth, Jesus was meant to be God with us, Emmanuel.

[19:05] And as Dave said last week, it's our purpose and power that God is with us. And we are to tell of that good news. And recently, I was thinking about this actually, just this past week, about what kind of good news have we shared this week.

[19:23] There was a text chain recently. There was some free ice cream going on. So we were telling each other about it. It's like, Oh, there's some free ice cream. Let's go get it. You know, there's a donut sale this Tuesday at Coast Guard Academy.

[19:34] I'm excited about that. It's just like this random news that we share. And there's even, you know, even more worthwhile things. You know, people are getting engaged, married, pregnant, having kids, job changes, life changes.

[19:48] There are many exciting things to share and news to share with one another. But that news isn't even meant for everybody. It's hard to believe, but not everybody likes ice cream.

[20:01] I don't know. But the news of Jesus Christ is meant for everyone. It is not just good news. It is the best news we could share. And I've been very convicted in the midst of, you know, we're starting this new Christianity Explored class that's been going on for a couple weeks.

[20:15] There's many things. We're ending Matthew. There's so many things that are, I've been convicted on, like why we need to share the gospel. And not just why, but the fact that it is exciting.

[20:28] And actually just Sunday evening after Dave preached on the power and the purpose of the fact that God is with us, Jesus is with us. I read this, I was reading this to Malachi and my family from the Beginner's Gospel Story Bible.

[20:46] It was a little, it was a story on Jesus' birth. And at the very end of it, there was this reflection, question, and statement. Will you share the good news? God is with us.

[20:58] Jesus' birth is good news and great joy for all people. On that wonderful day, Jesus was born. Jesus is God. Jesus is our creator who made everything.

[21:10] Jesus is the kind of God's people, the king of God's people, excuse me, and he rules over everything too. Jesus, our great God, was born as a little baby. We can tell the good news to our friends.

[21:22] Think of a friend who can tell you, who you can tell the good news to. Brothers, I pray that you would go forth in great joy sharing the blessed news of Jesus Christ.

[21:35] It's the best news we can possibly share and I hope you're excited to share it. Praise God that he sent his only son down for us and that he's still with us to this day, to the end of the age.

[21:46] Amen. At that time, Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

[22:09] Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father and no one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

[22:24] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

[22:46] I'm going to read something. The Reed family couldn't be here with us today but they wanted to share with us what the Lord has been doing in their hearts through this time, these two and a half years and so they sent in a statement and I'm going to read it for them.

[23:04] Shortly after we started attending Shoreline, almost three years ago, the Matthew series began and essentially our entire experience at Shoreline has been shaped by this wonderful gospel. We've been so encouraged and so challenged while being led through Matthew and we'd like to highlight some of that now.

[23:21] From the very beginning, the original Christmas story may have felt dull to us because we'd heard it several times but here it was brought to life for us. We had a new desire to dive into the Christmas story and what it really means for us.

[23:35] The gospel truths of the Savior's birth ignited a flame inside of us to truly know God and worship Him. From the beginning of this journey until now, we've encountered so many more truths that have sanctified us and grown us in ways we couldn't have predicted.

[23:52] Matthew 5 and 6 were incredibly impactful chapters for us both. We learned about forgiveness which brought us both to tears. We learned about loving our enemies and what Jesus means when He says to be perfect.

[24:05] We learned that fasting is not a transactional thing that we should do it for Him, not for recognition. We learned that what defines a treasure and what blessed are the poor in spirit really means.

[24:20] We were challenged with the fact that we will be accountable for every word we speak. We were taught how big of a deal it was that Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and that the crowd was shouting Hosanna to the Son of David.

[24:35] We learned what righteous anger truly is and what the wedding of Christ and the church is and what it means to serve our church and our family and what it means to lead our family towards God.

[24:48] We've rediscovered what it means for Jesus to have suffered on the cross, take on the full wrath of God on our behalf, defeat death, and rise to life.

[25:00] We've seen the courage Joseph of Arimathea would have had to ask Pilate for Jesus' body. And finally, we've been encouraged to trust in God and to do the most important work of evangelism.

[25:13] We've seen our own personal growth and sanctification as the clear fruit of walking through the Gospel of Matthew. We're so incredibly grateful who will treasure all of these things in our heart.

[25:25] Thank you to all those who've brought it to us for being faithful to preach the Word to us and lead us towards God. Amen. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked the disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is?

[25:51] And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am?

[26:05] Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

[26:20] And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

[26:37] then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. Pastor Mike couldn't be here today.

[26:48] He has an out-of-town guest in his home, and so they wanted to take every precaution with COVID. So instead of sharing in person, the Looses wanted to share this as a written statement as well.

[27:04] Throughout our time walking with Jesus through the Gospel of Matthew together, God has shown me his heart for the nations.

[27:16] This has grown in me a greater heart for the nations and a greater, more global perspective. All throughout Jesus' life and ministry, there is an undercurrent of love and kingdom advancement to the nations.

[27:30] The very location Jesus chooses as his ministry base is a location mixed with both Jews and Gentiles. In his healing ministry, Jesus reaches out and restores both Jews and Gentiles, including the Roman centurion's servant.

[27:48] In chapter 12, after Jesus heals many people, Matthew quotes from Isaiah 42, 1 through 3, showing how Jesus fulfills it. Behold my servant in whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.

[28:04] I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles and in his name the Gentiles will hope. In chapter 15, we see Jesus take an illogical detour up to Gentile territory to heal a Canaanite woman's daughter and leaving there, he heads to a predominantly Gentile area, the Decapolis, to heal many and for a second mass feeding.

[28:30] In this, he demonstrates how his all-satisfying love is being extended not just to the Jews but to all who seek him. In his parable of the wedding feast in chapter 22, we see how God's invitation to fellowship is being extended far and wide even to the Gentiles.

[28:50] A few chapters later in Jesus' final discourse to the disciples, he promises that this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come.

[29:04] And then finally, as we saw last week in the Great Commission, Jesus sends out the disciples to go in the power and confidence of his authority and his presence with them to make disciples of all nations.

[29:17] It's easy for me to become so engrossed in what's right in front of me that I lose sight of the big picture. This is a constant struggle and it's true in many aspects of life.

[29:31] I am the center of my universe and so my thoughts and activities and even prayers focus on me. But what we have seen throughout the book of Matthew is a selfless Savior whose desire is to spread his life-giving goodness and his all-satisfying love to all people, to the nations.

[29:52] And he has called us, his church, to that same great mission. It's like he's been saying to me, lift your eyes, son. My mission is not just for you. It's not just for Shoreline.

[30:03] It's not just for New London or just for Connecticut or just for the United States. It's for the nations. I'm doing something so much bigger than you know. So get on board. Watch my power at work among the nations and worship.

[30:21] Those are all of the prepared statements that people have volunteered ahead of time. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to finish reading a few more selected passages from the book of Matthew.

[30:33] If you'd like at any time to come up throughout that, just kind of come up here. I'll see you and we'll get you to talk. But we'll continue just a few more selected passages throughout the book of Matthew.

[30:44] and then we'll close in a time of prayer and song. And that will conclude our reflection on the book of Matthew if this behaves. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.

[31:06] They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks as he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

[31:19] And the crowns that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

[31:30] the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees. They gathered together. One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

[31:43] Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? This is the great and first commandment. A second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

[31:54] On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body.

[32:15] And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, Drink of it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

[32:27] I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. morning, everyone.

[32:45] I think I've met most everyone but my name's Chris, my wife's Nicole and looking back, we weren't supposed to be here. Initially, when I came up for orders, I'm like, I'm in San Diego, it's going to be fine.

[33:02] It's the second largest naval base in the United States so obviously I'm going to be able to stay there for shortity and that was not God's plan and this wasn't even my first set of orders for shortity, it was actually my second and it popped up because someone else didn't want to come here so a couple of different deviations to get here but when we did get orders out here, we didn't know anyone and I was actually kind of mourning the experience of leaving a church that we loved and had a lot of community back in San Diego and it was really not what I was hoping for and it's really changed as we came out here and we were here I believe Mother's Day 2018 was our first day at church and Matt Landek came up and said hi because I'm chronically early so we were there 15 minutes before it seemed like anyone else was there and that's just kind of how I am and I've kind of grown in that of being okay being a little bit later and a little bit more flexible and thus me not actually emailing but up here on a whim but as we've grown and spent time with everyone here we just really appreciated the community and the opportunity to have a family away from family because all of our family is on the west coast so it was a challenge that all military families face but especially for us because you know three are a time difference but walking into a church that was going through exegetical preaching and going through a book of the Bible made us feel comfortable because that's what we've been doing in San Diego and just realizing the truths of Matthew as we've gone through and it's been the entire time we've been at this church and so we just really have appreciated that and the community that's been around us and it's just been a time of kind of beginnings and endings of coming out here not knowing anyone and realizing that there's an end point to this where we'll be moving back out west and so the ending of Matthew kind of coincides with that a little bit of just recognizing the good while you're in it and the family that you have whether it's blood or just by God's grace and so we just really appreciate that and we're starting to get at least I'm starting to get sad already of realizing that

[35:24] I'm going to leave again which has been hard but we're looking forward to the next chapter as well now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour and about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying Eli Eli lama sabachthani that is my God my God why have you forsaken me and some of the bystanders hearing it said this man is calling Elijah and one of them at once ran down and took a sponge filled it with sour wine put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink but the other said wait let us see whether Elijah will come to save him and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit and behold the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth shook and the rocks were split the tombs also were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many when the centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place they were filled with awe and said truly this was the son of God hi sorry one of the passages that has really impacted like my heart

[37:14] I think it was I could be completely wrong but I'm pretty sure it was the first message on the woes it was Matthew 23 and he was talking about the Pharisees and he the passage was then Jesus said to the crowds and his disciples the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat so do and observe whatever they tell you but not the works they do for they preach but do not practice they tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger they do all their deeds to be seen by others for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long and they love and place honor at feasts in the best seats of the synagogues and greetings in the marketplace and being called rabbi by others but you are not to be called rabbi for you have one teacher and you are all brothers and call no man your father on earth for you have one father who is in heaven neither be called instructors for you have one instructor the Christ the greatest among you shall be servant whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted this is where I could be completely off base but Dave preached a message and one of the things that has stuck out in my heart so much is that he talked about as a preacher it's so easy to get up and talk about something that is not a struggle so you is this the same passage yeah so he got up and talked about how anger is not a personal struggle he does not just punch walls he doesn't go

[38:47] Andy Bernard on the wall he he like it's just not a struggle of his so he doesn't make a point to go and preach hard against that and and I thought that that really stuck with me because like if you've been in church for a while you have certain areas of your life very tame and controlled but other areas are struggles and it's so easy to preach against the ones that are not a struggle in your heart and I didn't say anything about this but it just really resonated in my heart and then I got to community group on Thursday and Justin Feltkamp just talked about the exact same passage and so I know if it resonated in my heart it probably resonated in so many people's hearts that that heart and this is the point I guess that makes so much sense to me is I'm very appreciative of a pastor who reads a passage of scripture and does not just internalize it or excuse me and does not just preach it but internalizes it and then preaches it because to make that statement showed me how much he processed that through his own heart and I really thank you as you preach expository sermons that that is going on because that is what

[39:55] I really feel like makes an impact in my own heart just to hear those things so hopefully that did the same for you as it did for me and Justin Feltkamp thank you brother now after the Sabbath towards the dawn of the first day of the week Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb and behold there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it his appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow and for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men but the angel said to the women do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified he is not here for he has risen as he said come and see the place where he lay then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold he is going before you to Galilee there you will see him see

[41:04] I have told you good morning family I'm Megan if you don't know me and I just wanted to take the opportunity to give praise to God and just tell him how grateful I am for him and for you all as our family here in Christ we can call you family because of his blood and his forgiveness and that's a miracle and I'm grateful for that just that simple truth that's thank you God one of the passages from the book of Matthew that really spoke to me there are a lot but this is back from March 2018 when we went back and looked at the Sermon on the Mount so I'm just going to read that and then just point out two verses chapter five

[42:08] I have experience with mics too okay and he opened his mouth and taught them saying blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy hey not blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you thank you so a lot of these words might be Dave's actually but I took them down and one of them is how do we respond to the sermon on the mount is a list of stuff so God will be happy with me and no

[43:40] I guess is my conclusion but the things I really that really touched me and were where the Lord was working through through his word to me were blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy and I wrote down mercy for each other comes from God's mercy to us and we have opportunities to give mercy each day and being a parent being a wife I'm quick to forgive people that aren't as close to me and I struggle with forgiving those that are closest to my heart and when I read that passage that just can't be you know the Lord has forgiven me and what I deserve is punishment but he doesn't he doesn't treat me that way he doesn't he he clothes me in his son's blood and forgiveness and not by my own merit it's filled with grace and and just love for me so the Lord is just teaching me and is still teaching me to do that to all people but also the ones that are really closest to me and then lastly blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and God himself is the great reward

[44:58] Amen And when they saw him they worshipped him but some doubted and Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me go therefore make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you behold I am with you always to the end of the age Friends I hope this has been an encouragement to you and a reminder as well it's been an encouragement to me hearing what you guys have said especially Matt thanks bud and it's been it's been a long journey oh Jordan you want to share okay Jordan wants to share sorry I missed the walk up

[46:18] I have a child that doesn't always agree with the agenda of the church surprise so I got to preach a sermon a little while back actually before I get there just we as a church have the great gift right the world doesn't necessarily have this right we have a beautiful story about a Savior who cared enough to send his Son to redeem us and to bring us into his own family right this is the story that drives our lives and so we always have this story to root our souls in right the world has all kinds of different narratives that are being flung at us and thrown at us but we can be anchored in this true story and in this story we find our identity and we find our life and we find our hope and we find direction and we find community and it's just so beautiful and we've got to walk through that with Matthew as Jesus lays out a world view a God-centered Christ-centered humble powerful kind loving we've seen his personality and his person as he's interacted with everybody and it's just a beautiful story

[47:28] I preached it's been really convicting to me I preached a sermon about Jesus' trial before the governor Pilate right so you had religious leaders you had the crowds and you had Pilate these are the three main players and you had Jesus in this story right and they all watched they walked and they saw Jesus live this beautiful story but it didn't resonate with any of them they all rejected him and the reason why was because of their idolatry right they didn't care they cast Jesus aside because they wanted something different Pilate wanted his position and his power the religious leaders wanted their power and their influence right and the crowd just wanted somebody to overthrow Rome right and so they were all blind to this beautiful person who is Jesus who came to them to redeem them and die for them and stuck with them in the midst of their constant rejection and their ignorance right and so as I think we have this beautiful picture as a church this story to anchor ourselves in but what keeps us from actually doing that is our love for other things other than Christ right and so when we think about this thing and we get to testify to what God has done for us in Matthew and it's very beautiful we also need to think hey what hinders us from really rooting ourselves in this story and finding life and finding all the hope that is packed into this right what keeps us from you know moving from Sunday to Monday well well we return to our loves of simple things right and so

[49:02] I've seen that in my heart I preach this sermon and then I've got to watch my own self battle these same idols that I had before the sermon right and it's a constant battle that we have so I would just encourage all of us here to be fighting that battle as we think about our beautiful Savior like Brad said right the book of Matthew is about this Christ who welcomes us to eternal fellowship with him and the Father you know it is a relationship that he calls us in with the greatest person and God in the universe the one who created all things right and we can call him our brother and our father and our friend and we can rely on him and know him and enjoy him for all of eternity and that's just so much bigger than the little things that we deal with every day but we let ourselves be you know trapped into all these things so I was really convicted by Dave's sermon if I can find it with so this is chapter 27 verse 57 I think it's 27 when it was evening there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph who also was a disciple of Jesus he went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus then Pilate ordered it to be given to him and Joseph took the body and wrapped it in clean linen shroud and laid it in his own tomb which he had cut into a rock and he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away

[50:24] Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there sitting opposite of the tomb and so what's really beautiful about this is right we have Pilate we have the crowds we have the religious leaders rejecting Jesus because they love something else and then we have this picture of Joseph who gives up everything right he took great risk to associate with a condemned criminal and for what purpose just to honor Jesus' dead body right he was so impacted by who this Jesus was he did this act of honor and love to value the Savior who he had come to trust right and I think that's the heart that we all need to have and a heart that we have to fight for because there's so many things that are going to distract us and compel us the world is really good at capturing our attention and we need to come back over and over again to this beautiful story and root ourselves again in the gospel of Christ so that we have we have the resource of that story to then go out and love others and share and be impacted so it's great to be reminded of this story we also need to fight the dying to ourselves and dying to sin so that it can have its desire to impact in our lives

[51:33] I hope that this has been an encouragement and a good remembrance for you for however long you've been with Shoreline maybe you've been here since day one and you've heard every sermon that you know has been proclaimed here or if you've only been here a few weeks or if today's your first day I hope this is an encouragement to you I'm just hearing everything that you guys have shared today I'm personally encouraged that what the elders were trying to communicate as we walked through the book of Matthew it seems to have come across we've called this series from the outset walking with Jesus through the gospel of Matthew because we want you to know and to love Jesus himself not just learn the rules not just learn the teachings but to learn who he is and to find him the great treasure above all and from that to spur us on into mission diving into the church diving into fellowship together and rooting out all the other gods in our lives the idols of comfort and pride and all those things but at that bedrock level the theme that has kind of kept coming up today over and over again is Christ he is so good and I'm encouraged that the Lord has shown his people through his word that great truth so there's nothing that I could have wanted more out of this these two and a half years than that we hope it's an encouragement to you and I hope that we as a church family know and love our Savior more and better and so as we look forward to our next sermon series that we're going to be four weeks in Ezekiel

[53:36] Lord willing and then into the book of Acts let's enter in with an expectation the Lord will do similar work in our hearts as we go forward into more of his word friends let's be hungry so let's pray together and then we'll respond in song our Father in Heaven thank you that we have been able to walk with Christ these two and a half years thank you for the gift of scripture through which we can know you thank you for allowing us to be a church family together and giving us this opportunity to reflect and share and show what God you have been doing in our hearts and in our lives these last years Lord as we look forward to what comes next we ask with anticipation knowing that as Christ said he will be with us every day until the closing of the age

[54:45] Father we ask that you would do mighty work in our lives you might excite us for Christ himself and for his mission and for his church we pray all these things to his glory and for our joy amen amen so while you're standing I'm so you're not off the hook yet I'm going to share something too I figured I wouldn't come up there you know the guy that's up there all morning coming up again to say something in the middle of the time when everyone else is supposed to be sharing I wouldn't do that to you so I'll wait until I was coming back up so one of the things that I'm so one of the songs that we've introduced so in the past two and a half years we've introduced a lot of new songs right ones that I can't even remember that are now normal part of the normal routine but this one

[55:46] I think is the most recent one that we've introduced is the song that we're going to sing next called Jerusalem before we do that Matthew 21 verse 9 Hosanna to the son of David blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest then we fast forward a couple chapters going to chapter 27 so Pilate saw that he was beginning he was gaining nothing but rather the riot was beginning he took water washed his hands before the crowd saying I'm innocent of this man's blood see to yourselves and all the people answered his blood be on us and our children then he released Barabbas having scourged and Jesus delivered him to be crucified so this song that we sing starts with these lyrics see him in Jerusalem see Jesus in Jerusalem walking where the crowds are once the streets had sung to him now they cry for murder Christ entered Jerusalem and they proclaimed Hosanna in the highest a week later not even a week later they're proclaiming crucify him the next the next line such a frail and lonely man his disciples had deserted him all of his friends had deserted him he had there were a couple people watching him be crucified such a frail and lonely man holding up a heavy cross see him walking in Jerusalem on the road to save us and then the rest of the song goes see the king who made the sun the moon shining stars let the soldiers hold and nail him down so that he could save them the next verse dust that formed the watching crowds you go back to Genesis

[57:30] God creates man from dust dust that forms the watching crowd takes the blood of Jesus and that's just like this really cool analogy this really cool lyrics feel the earth is shaking now see the veil is split in two and he stood before the wrath of God shielding sinners shielding us shielding the people that are spread out socially distant apart shielding us with his blood and then the beauty of the verse 4 is the beauty that we've been talking about the past couple weeks see the empty tomb today death could not contain him once the servant of the world now in victory reigning lift your voices to the one who's seated on the throne see him in the new Jerusalem praise the one who saved us the song starts see him in Jerusalem see you know look back at the Christ who was walking in before you know the weak and then it ends with see him in the new Jerusalem so the God that we serve is seated at the right hand of God see him in the new

[58:31] Jerusalem praise the one who saved us so we get this opportunity after lifting up our voices you know hearing a couple people talk and reflecting on our own lives about what's happened we get the opportunity now to lift up our voices to the one who is seated on the throne the work is done the work is complete I think this is one of my favorite songs that we've introduced over the past two and a half years it might just be the newest one and the freshest one on my mind so that's why I picked it to end this service out so let's stand open up your phones open up the piece of paper unfold it whatever you're doing and let's sing this song to him a little song to him a little song to him song to him