Shownotes
Step into a deeper understanding of the Kingdom of God by learning how to become a student of Jesus the Master Teacher. Explore how the Sermon on the Mount invites you into a blessed life that begins with listening, learning, and living out Jesus’ words. Experience practical encouragement and actionable insights for building a life of faith that stands firm.
Key Insights
- Jesus calls you to become a student before you can become a great teacher.
- The teachings of Jesus are alive and have the power to reshape your life.
- Embracing Jesus as your Teacher means accepting accountability for living out what you learn.
- The Sermon on the Mount reveals the true values of the Kingdom of God which you are invited to experience now.
- Building your life on the teachings of Jesus establishes an unshakeable foundation.
- Your identity and hope are shaped when you recognize that God sees you and loves you.
- When you act on Jesus’ words, you invite transformation into every area of your life.
https://springhousemidweek.captivate.fm/episode/rabbi-lessons-from-the-teacher-1
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Transcripts
Alrighty, then. It's a good thing that I was raised in the Pentecostal
Speaker:Deliverance Church of God that did not have microphones.
Speaker:The only difference was we had a really good G chord on the
Speaker:piano that stuck every time. So you always had a bass line going whether you
Speaker:wanted it or not. Oh, I miss those
Speaker:days. Anyway, I'm so glad you're here tonight. I am
Speaker:so glad that you have chosen to take this journey with me
Speaker:because I don't want to take it on my own. I've been
Speaker:traveling out ahead of you for a few weeks, and I
Speaker:want my friends to go with me and see what the Lord say.
Speaker:Oh, how are you doing? I'm so glad. Thank you. You're back in my
Speaker:51. A little personal business
Speaker:there for a minute.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:This is for the live stream. Okay, so
Speaker:should I start back at the beginning?
Speaker:God is faithful. Amen. All right, we are going to jump
Speaker:into the word tonight and allow the Lord to do
Speaker:my prayer. Is that he just messed you guys up just as much as he's
Speaker:messed me up with his word. I was gonna sing to you guys
Speaker:tonight, which is probably why the sound system is down.
Speaker:The Lord had had me pull an old song of mine
Speaker:called Seha Elohim, and it literally means lamb of
Speaker:God. And there are probably 35, 40
Speaker:names of God in that. And I had written it many years ago
Speaker:when the lor taking me on an intimacy
Speaker:journey to teaching me to sit at his feet and teaching me to come
Speaker:to know him in a different way. And the interesting thing
Speaker:about that song is that with all of the
Speaker:names that were listed, I got to the end and I went,
Speaker:lord, not one time did I call you my teacher.
Speaker:Not one time did I call you my teacher. The word
Speaker:rabbi was not in there. And I was challenged in my spirit. And
Speaker:I thought, you know, that is actually the exact point in time
Speaker:in my life when the Lord began a journey with me to teach
Speaker:me and to introduce me to the
Speaker:teacher, to the rabbi. And I'm excited about doing that with you. If you
Speaker:don't have a study guide, a study sheet, we have some in the back.
Speaker:If you'll just raise your hand, we will bring that to
Speaker:you. We will quiz you at the end.
Speaker:Not really. Okay, let's see if this will work.
Speaker:Is this gonna work on this if I take this off? Because
Speaker:it's gonna burn me up. Okay.
Speaker:Pay no attention to the man in the middle. All right.
Speaker:Thank you, Justin. These are at the front when you come in for The.
Speaker:I actually, I think I'll move them around in the ram each week
Speaker:so you get to look for them. All right, we are going to jump into
Speaker:this thing. Actually, this particular series began
Speaker:with something I shared with you. Sunday I was in the book of John,
Speaker:the third chapter. And it is Nicodemus the.
Speaker:The young ruler who had gone up to Jesus. And he shares
Speaker:this in verse 3. I don't think I've got
Speaker:it on there. Yes. Now, there was a Pharisee named
Speaker:Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He
Speaker:came to Jesus at night and said, rabbi, we know
Speaker:you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could
Speaker:perform the signs you are doing if God were not with
Speaker:him. No one could perform the signs. We
Speaker:know that you are a teacher sent from God. And as I was
Speaker:reading that, the Holy Spirit just begin to minister. This
Speaker:teacher sent from God. And not only does
Speaker:Nicodemus call him this, we see him referred to as Rabbi
Speaker:over and over in the word. Peter refers to him
Speaker:as Rabbi Judas. When he enters
Speaker:into the garden and goes to kiss him, he greets him with the name
Speaker:Rabbi Teacher. And
Speaker:the very first thing is that that means
Speaker:Master teacher. Master
Speaker:teacher. Now listen, guys, if you were given the
Speaker:opportunity to go and sit for free in one
Speaker:of the college classes, one of the professors, one of the TED
Speaker:talks of someone who was prominent and known to be an expert
Speaker:in their field, and you could just go and glean what an opportunity
Speaker:that would be, right? But we're talking about the
Speaker:master of all teachers,
Speaker:of all professors, of all doctorates, of all
Speaker:everything. He has mastered it all.
Speaker:It is one having complete knowledge and skill.
Speaker:Complete knowledge and skill, not partial,
Speaker:exhibiting dominion over. Oh my
Speaker:goodness, guys, this is so good. We are laying the foundation
Speaker:for why it's important that we know this teacher exhibiting
Speaker:dominion over the head, the lead, the
Speaker:owner, the keeper, the ruler, the sovereign, the
Speaker:maestro, the virtuoso,
Speaker:every category. You can name any subject
Speaker:matter that you can bring up, music and
Speaker:medicine, it doesn't matter. He knows he has
Speaker:mastered the subject matter and I want
Speaker:to learn from him. I was struck by
Speaker:this next passage of scripture as we lay this foundation
Speaker:for our master teacher, for our rabbi. Matthew 23.
Speaker:If you have your word, I hope you'll bring your word. And I hope you
Speaker:got an old school one that's got the red letters. If not,
Speaker:get a red highlighter because you're going to need one.
Speaker:And we're going to. Matthew 23, I'm
Speaker:going to Put it up here for you guys. But if you mark it in
Speaker:your word, then when you get home, you can go right back to it and
Speaker:you can glean a whole lot more than you can in this brief period of
Speaker:time. It says,
Speaker:then Jesus said to his disciples, the teachers of the law and
Speaker:the Pharisees sit in Moses seat. So you must be
Speaker:careful to do everything they tell you. But do not
Speaker:do what they do, for they do not practice what
Speaker:they preach. That's a message self, isn't it? They
Speaker:tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and they put them on other
Speaker:people's shoulders, but they are not willing to lift a
Speaker:finger to move them. Everything they do is
Speaker:done for people to see. They make their phacteries wide
Speaker:and their tassels on their garments long. They love the place
Speaker:of honor at banquets, the most important seats in the synagogues.
Speaker:They love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be
Speaker:called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called
Speaker:rabbi, for you have one teacher and you
Speaker:are all brothers. You are all brothers.
Speaker:Listen, all good teachers must first be good students.
Speaker:All good teachers must first be good students. You know what the wonderful
Speaker:part of this is? The very first time we see
Speaker:the connection between Jesus and teaching. He is 12 years
Speaker:old in the temple, and his parents have
Speaker:traveled a few days thinking he was there. I'm not going to make any
Speaker:commentary on their parenting scholars at this point in time, they may have
Speaker:just been going, oh, God, we got three days to ourself. We don't know what
Speaker:was happening here. But they go back and they find
Speaker:Jesus. And he is. The scripture tells us that he was
Speaker:sitting among the teachers. He was
Speaker:sitting among the teachers. First it says he was listening
Speaker:and he was asking questions. Right there you see
Speaker:the beginning. Seeds of an incarnation of a
Speaker:master teacher. Because a master teacher will sit
Speaker:and listen. You're not sitting there going, oh,
Speaker:if I were doing that, I would. I would say this now or I would
Speaker:say this. We are listening. If we're ever
Speaker:going to teach, we got to listen. Guys, let me tell you something. I am
Speaker:still listening. Every day of my life,
Speaker:I have got to hear from the Holy Spirit. I've got to know what the
Speaker:word of God says about anything. I pray that
Speaker:I would. Oops, I just hit that thing. I pray that I would never stop
Speaker:listening and learning because I cannot teach
Speaker:if I do not listen and if I do not learn. The
Speaker:best teachers are the best
Speaker:students. My prayer would be that in this time together that we would
Speaker:become the best students of this
Speaker:teacher. Not this teacher, of this teacher, of this
Speaker:master teacher. Just to listen to what he has to say. Say
Speaker:just to hear what he has to say. Now,
Speaker:this part I find so interesting. I'm probably going to say that
Speaker:with everything, because when I get into the Word, I get excited
Speaker:about it. There's life in it. And. And if you are struggling
Speaker:and if you are feeling like, man, I just feel
Speaker:lifeless. I don't have energy, I don't have drive.
Speaker:I don't have passion or focus. Allow the Lord to take you into
Speaker:his word and allow. It's alive. It
Speaker:is alive. And I don't know how to say that to you other than to
Speaker:go, it's got a pulse. The word of God has a
Speaker:pulse. And if you will align yourself to this, you will find
Speaker:that the rhythm of your own heart begins to pound with the
Speaker:cadence of the pulse of the Word. And it will change your
Speaker:life. I'm telling you, it will change your life. One of the
Speaker:things that I find is that, and Pastor Wayne and I had talked about this
Speaker:briefly this morning. We love in
Speaker:my song that you all, you would loved it.
Speaker:I cannot even tell you how much you would love that. Anyway,
Speaker:it embraces all of the words and the monikers and the saviors
Speaker:and the deliverers and the healers and
Speaker:all of the words, you know, the bride and morning star, all of those things.
Speaker:Because, see, we are so good at embracing the attributes
Speaker:of Jesus that minister to us. We are
Speaker:so good at embracing the names of the Lord, the. The
Speaker:monikers, the things that he has known by his characteristics
Speaker:when they're coming this way. But see, there's something
Speaker:about using the name of teacher that
Speaker:requires more of us. And when I was young,
Speaker:I used to think, well, if I don't know it, I'm accountable for it.
Speaker:I want to know it. And I want the Holy Spirit
Speaker:to challenge me so that I'm accountable for what
Speaker:he is teaching me while he is teaching me. The scripture
Speaker:tells us in James 4, therefore, to him who
Speaker:knows to do good and does not do it, to him,
Speaker:it is a sin. In case you want to write that one down
Speaker:in bold, it's James 4, 17.
Speaker:Oh, his words. Okay, so if these are going to be his
Speaker:words, and he is the master teacher, and he is the one who
Speaker:has dominion over all of the subject matter, the
Speaker:maestro, the virtuoso of all of this,
Speaker:then how cool that he lets us in on
Speaker:his first teaching, the first mass
Speaker:teaching of Jesus that we are told about is the Sermon on
Speaker:the Mount, also known as the Beatitudes. You're going to find it in Matthew
Speaker:5, Matthew 6, Matthew 7. It is a
Speaker:master dissertation. Just.
Speaker:What's the cool thing to me about this
Speaker:is that we're going to watch. Okay, I don't want to jump ahead, but let
Speaker:me take something here.
Speaker:It's his first mass group public
Speaker:teaching, his first one, and we're getting
Speaker:let in on it. And up to this point, I mean, we have
Speaker:seen so much of Jesus. We have. You know, I can
Speaker:imagine. I can imagine what it was like up to this point. I mean, in
Speaker:chapter four, the chapter before the Beatitudes is
Speaker:he was just stepping into his ministry. He had just begun to
Speaker:heal. He had just begun to teach, you know, in the
Speaker:small things. And he had just appointed his disciples. But
Speaker:man, in chapter five, he steps in full
Speaker:face. He steps all the way into this calling. And I find it
Speaker:so interesting. I believe it's in the second chapter of John.
Speaker:We see him at a wedding feast with his mother.
Speaker:And his mother says, you know, there, sees that they're out of
Speaker:wine and asks him to step in. And he's like, what has this
Speaker:got to do with me? My time has not come yet. We're
Speaker:getting ready to see his time come, and there's
Speaker:nothing like it. But, guys, he could have taught anything.
Speaker:He could have taught anything. He had a mastery of the law. He had a
Speaker:mastery of the understanding. He could have taught anything.
Speaker:But he stands up and he opens
Speaker:with this.
Speaker:Blessed, blessed, happy to be
Speaker:envied and spiritually prosperous, filled with
Speaker:joy and satisfaction. In God's favor and salvation
Speaker:are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker:Blessed are those
Speaker:blessed are those it says favor. Especially conditioned by the
Speaker:revelation of his matchless grace are those who mourn, for they shall be
Speaker:comforted. His first teaching, he doesn't step
Speaker:up and go, this is the law, and you're missing it. He doesn't step up
Speaker:and go, this is everything you're doing wrong. He doesn't step up with any.
Speaker:Anything other than to go, guys, I want to talk to you about a
Speaker:kingdom you have not heard about. I want to talk to you about a
Speaker:heart posture, a way to live that you've not heard about. Because
Speaker:they were bound up in the law. They were all
Speaker:failing. They were never meeting the Mark. And they were getting ready
Speaker:to meet the Mark. They were getting ready to meet Him.
Speaker:And so he takes this moment, this precious moment
Speaker:that reverberates even Now, Even
Speaker:now. And he goes, guys, I want to tell you how to live a good
Speaker:life. I want to tell you how to live a blessed life.
Speaker:I want to tell you how to be happy. I want to tell you about
Speaker:my Father's kingdom. I want to tell you what it looks like there so you
Speaker:can walk it here. I love that. That's what he
Speaker:does. And he goes on and he says this. A blessed life is
Speaker:a life of spirit specially conditioned by the revelation
Speaker:of his matchless grace.
Speaker:That's not what the world thinks, is it? That's not what
Speaker:the world thinks.
Speaker:A life conditioned,
Speaker:trained and reformed, caused and
Speaker:established over time. He's saying, I'm getting ready to
Speaker:retrain your thought processes. I'm getting ready to bring a
Speaker:discipline into your life, into your heart. I'm getting ready to show you something.
Speaker:I'm getting ready to show you something. And not only am I getting ready to
Speaker:show you something, I am going to implement it in your life.
Speaker:And all I need you to do is hear my words and do what
Speaker:I'm saying. Just hear my words
Speaker:and do what I'm saying.
Speaker:It would be enough. It would be enough. Because
Speaker:like I said in chapter four, you know, he's already
Speaker:all of this process. I think about him as a. Think about it,
Speaker:guys. You understand that until
Speaker:Jesus breathed his first breath on this planet, the
Speaker:passage of scripture that says all creation groans
Speaker:in anticipation of his return. And I think about it, groans in
Speaker:anticipation. Because I believe when he took his first
Speaker:breath in the manger, I believe the winds went.
Speaker:Carried that breath and went, he is here. I believe
Speaker:when his little feet stepped for the first time on soil, I
Speaker:believe the earth began to vibrate and go, he is here.
Speaker:And I believe when he was taken beneath the water at his
Speaker:baptism and that river washed through his hair and his
Speaker:beard, I believe that there was a rush that covered all
Speaker:of the waters of the earth. And in that moment, the skies and
Speaker:the earth and the waters begin to groan
Speaker:in anticipation for the return of this
Speaker:Jesus. I just. I see it.
Speaker:I see it. And here's the
Speaker:how blessed are we that we have a Savior, that
Speaker:we have a teacher who goes, I want to tell you this first.
Speaker:I want to tell you this first. And can I tell you in your life,
Speaker:listen for that voice. Listen for that voice.
Speaker:Because so often the voice of the accuser tries to sound like
Speaker:the voice of conviction, and it's not.
Speaker:Recognize his voice. Recognize his voice. Okay,
Speaker:okay, okay. So what
Speaker:was his now? If he wasn't ready if his time had
Speaker:not come, when he was sitting at the marriage feast and the wine was
Speaker:there, even though he stepped in and did it, what was his? Now you
Speaker:know what all of us called into ministry, called to do something. You're waiting for
Speaker:that now. You're waiting for that moment when it clarifies and God
Speaker:goes, now go do it. What was his Now, I think I know
Speaker:a part of what it might be, because it excites me and it
Speaker:ministers to me. Scripture tells us Matthew 5,
Speaker:Matthew 5,
Speaker:the very first verse. It says,
Speaker:now, when Jesus saw the crowds,
Speaker:he went up on the mountainside and sat down. His
Speaker:disciples came to him and he began to teach them.
Speaker:I believe Jesus is. Now was this.
Speaker:Jesus went to the crowd and he taught them because he
Speaker:saw them. He saw them. He didn't
Speaker:just, oh, see, there's a crowd. Yeah. Yes. Look at those.
Speaker:Yeah, there's some people. There's a crowd. No, he
Speaker:saw them. He saw them. Oh, I think I've got a Spurgeon quote in here
Speaker:I want to read to you. Do I have it?
Speaker:Listen to this. It says, this is Charles Spurgeon. He said,
Speaker:the occasion of this sermon is noteworthy. It was
Speaker:delivered when our Lord is described as seeing
Speaker:the multitudes. He waited until the congregation around him
Speaker:had reached its largest size, could see them, and
Speaker:then he took it at its tide, at its flood,
Speaker:as every wise man should. Listen, it says the.
Speaker:The sight of a vast concourse of people
Speaker:ought to always move us to pity, for it
Speaker:represents a mass of ignorance, sorrow,
Speaker:sin, and necessity far too great
Speaker:for us to estimate. I believe when Jesus saw
Speaker:that crowd desperate enough, hungry
Speaker:enough, they had heard word of what he had done. They'd heard word of the
Speaker:miracles. They've heard word of these things that had happened. And
Speaker:golly, guys, we will fill an auditorium
Speaker:when there's a healing preacher coming, right? Or if there's somebody that,
Speaker:you know, maybe they can help me. Maybe they can help me. This was someone
Speaker:who could help them. And I believe from the
Speaker:highest to the lowest, in the positions of society,
Speaker:I believe they found their way onto that mountain because it says 5,000 people,
Speaker:plus women and children. Plus women
Speaker:and children. And he did not have her microphone,
Speaker:but see something about God's voice that carries.
Speaker:There's something about the voice of Jesus that carries.
Speaker:And it reverberates and it just begins to permeate
Speaker:wherever it is sent. Wherever it is sent.
Speaker:Jesus chose to make his first message, one that spoke of blessings.
Speaker:He was speaking to a hurting crowd. He was Speaking to
Speaker:a desperate crowd, a hungry crowd,
Speaker:and the promise of a full and abundant life. Presenting the
Speaker:hope of an eternal kingdom.
Speaker:Of an eternal kingdom and teaching us its
Speaker:character and its values.
Speaker:He saw the crowd. He saw the
Speaker:crowd. 30 years, guys, he's been leading up to this
Speaker:30 years. He has been waiting for his Father's
Speaker:now. And the crowd was the now,
Speaker:in my opinion. Hmm.
:17. Jesus
:began to talk in these chapters. He begins to talk about a kingdom they
:didn't know about, a kingdom they didn't know about. And it says,
:17 says, for the kingdom of God is not
:meat and drink, but righteousness and
:peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
:What? What?
:There's a bigger picture than the one I'm living now,
:the one that has all of the laws and all of the rules and all
:of the failures and all of the fallings and all of the rest, where I
:do not have access to God. I don't
:have a high priest. And he begins to
:tell them about the kingdom of God. Guys,
:listen,
:I. You think you know, you think
:you know what the primary mission of Jesus or the
:primary message was. And it gets so messed up. It gets so
:messed up. I'm going to jump forward a second. When I was a
:child or a young person, if you had asked me what
:Jesus primary focus was on the planet, to me,
:it would have been sin and hell, because that's what I thought.
:I was 10 years old and scared
:to death of devils, and I could have talked to you about them.
:And I didn't understand anything. But the preaching and the teaching that
:I was getting was so much about that. I didn't know a
:God who loved me. I didn't know it. I
:was so busy and so fearful and so afraid
:trying to make my way toward this God that I knew I was
:going to disappoint. Anyway. I just.
:I was failing from the start, and I was young. Nobody ever
:told me that that wasn't the primary message of Jesus.
:Yes, it's love. Yes, this is. But if you go and you look at
:the passages of scripture all the way through the Word, the thing that is
:predominant and the thing that he teaches about is this
:King of God. The kingdom of
:heaven was the primary subject of Jesus public ministry almost
:130 times in the Gospels, in four
:chapters, about 100, around 130, 38
:times, you see him talk about the kingdom of God,
:the kingdom of heaven. He is establishing the values of a
:kingdom that we are being invited to be a part of.
:And he breaks it down for us. He's going,
:this, this is the blessed life.
:It's an enviable life. If
:you just come to the place where you can grab hold of
:the revelation, the revelation
:of God's grace, the
:revelation of his grace. And it's not a small grace, and
:it's not an empty grace, and it's not something that
:excuses everything that we do. It is a grace that compels
:and draws and forgives as we repent and we
:confess and we move toward him and toward the holiness and the
:consecration and the setting apart that he has called us
:to. And then in the middle of those moments when we mess up and we
:miss it and we're like, God, I'm so sorry. And
:we're not just like saying that God, I am
:sorry. We are able to grab hold of his word.
:This says, if you confess your sin, he is faithful and
:just to forgive your sin and cleanse you from all
:unrighteousness. That's the relationship you
:begin to step into with Him.
:The kingdom of God. See, he was letting them know,
:guys, I know it might be hard where you are. I
:know that there's a history of slavery. I know that there is bondages.
:I know that there are struggles your family is going through. I know that you're
:oppressed. But this is just the beginning.
:It doesn't end here. You get to become not a part
:of an eternal kingdom when you get there. You are a part of an eternal
:kingdom now. You are a part of it
:now. And he was offering them a hope. He
:was offering them a truth that nobody had told them about
:before. This master teacher,
:who knew it all, who was able to release all,
:began to share the important things. And it was, hey, guys,
:I see you. I see you,
:and I love you and I want a good life for
:you. And I'm going to lay out some parameters here for you.
:I'm going to lay out some choices here for you. And if you will make
:the choices to come under the words of the teacher, under the words of the
:rabbi now, not just come under them, obey
:them, submit to them, if you will submit
:to the words of his teachings, guys,
:the difference it will make in your life. You know, I'm all for
:the programs. I'm all for any help
:any of us need that we can get. But this
:is foundation. Build here,
:build here. And then see where the Lord leads you.
:The words of our Master Teacher, our Rabbi, are living
:words. Living words. They haven't gotten
:small, they haven't changed. In their potency. They haven't
:changed in their power from the first time they were released.
:They are still pounding through the earth. They are
:still pounding through your spirit, man. That the
:scriptures tell us that eternity is written on the hearts of men.
:Eternity is written on the hearts of man. I believe his words just begin. Have
:you ever seen one of those little books that the kids get and it's all
:black and you start scraping it in the rainbow? The pictures, the colors are
:underneath it. That's what the word of God does to the
:eternity on your heart. It begins to scrape away these
:things and it begins to reveal the beauty that has been there all
:along. If you will allow him access, if you will
:allow him to take his word and do that.
:The kingdom of God was his primary ministry. I want to read this to you.
:He was sowing seed of a king mindset of
:hope and eternity into hearts filled with the
:temporary and the temporal. He was literally letting us know
:that it does not end here, but begin here. He was offering truth and
:light and hope and all things eternal.
:His words. This one made me dance in my office just a little bit. Not
:good, but anyway. His words were
:sparks that would start the fires. That spirit still
:burn through the hearts of men today. His words were
:alive and active and already dividing the
:bone and the marrow. A spark when he was on that
:mountain and those living words began to be released,
:the fires started. The
:fires started this hill, this hill and
:this hill, and they begin to spread and to spread and to spread, and
:they are still covering the earth today because
:they are alive. They're living words.
:Hmm. They ultimately invite us
:and draw us toward that kingdom.
:Now, I thought this was kind of cool. Jesus teaches for
:three chapters, and we're going to dig back into some of these other chapters over
:the next weeks. But he shares all of this.
:I mean, guys, I'm telling you, we've got like six pages of red
:letters. It's the best. It is the best. Go home and read it
:several times. And oh,
:and it's. Then he goes. And he refers to
:his own words, to his own teachings, and he goes, oh, and let
:me tell you this. This is the addendum at the end of it.
:Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine
:and puts into practice. It's like a wise man who built
:his house upon the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose
:and the winds blew and beat against the house. Yet it did not
:fall because it had its foundations
:on the rock. What does that.
:Hearing these words of his, putting them
:into practice. And now conversely.
:But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into
:practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
:The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds
:blew and beat against the house. And it fell with a great
:crash. It fell with a great crash.
:What was the dividing line? What made the difference?
:Listening to the words of the rabbi, the
:teacher, and putting them into
:practice. We
:hear it all the time, but we have to put
:it into practice. God, I'm reading your word, but are you
:doing his word? We're reading it, Lord. Okay, and
:here's here. I love this. This little right here.
:When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowd
:was amazed at his teaching because he taught
:as one who had authority. Oh,
:you better believe he did. You better believe he taught
:as one who had authority. Not just authority.
:The authority. The
:authority. The authority. Jesus, help me.
:When I got called into ministry many years ago,
:well, he actually called toward ministry many years before
:I ever submitted to ministry because of exactly what I just
:told you in my home. Growing up in a pastor's
:home, there were two words that seemed to stick out a lot,
:and they were death and adultery. And because that's what my parents wound up
:dealing with a lot. And the people that I saw
:in my house, you know, with my parents ministering to them, were
:usually sad or broken or going through hardship or
:going through all of these things. And I just thought, lord, I don't
:want that. Because that was actually the
:God I knew, the Jesus I knew, absolutely.
:Was he God of the broken? Was He Jesus who spoke into the lives of
:broken people? Yes. But I was too young to understand that there was a
:flip side to that. You know, I wasn't thinking about the births or
:the marriages or the good things that my parents were also a part of, because
:what I saw was what was in my home. And
:I had a history of, like, sadness
:when it came to ministry.
:I just had it because I had listened to what other
:people said about him. I
:had listened to. Paid too much attention to what I
:saw. And so I. I refused to submit to the calling
:on my life because of what I had seen.
:I had written down my two most faithful friends in
:that season were fear and repentance.
:Both of those are extremely useful. The fear of the Lord and repentance.
:Absolutely, absolutely key tools in the
:kingdom. But I had written here,
:10 years old and already dreaming of devils, because I heard more about them than
:I. The goodness of God. I knew more about Satan than I did about
:Jesus. And no
:one ever told me that. The first time we ever hear Jesus
:teaching, he said, telling us about a blessed life.
:It didn't tell me that all of this. And it's so funny.
:When the Lord, when I finally started learning for myself,
:when I started reading the red words, when I started getting
:to know what Jesus actually said about himself, what
:Jesus actually said about his Father, what Jesus did when he
:released the Holy Spirit into the earth, all of these things, I began to
:go, this is a God I didn't know.
:This is a God I want to serve him. And
:part of my thing with the Lord was I would say, I don't want to
:make people feel bad. Lord, if you're going to call me into ministry,
:I don't want the ministry of sadness. I don't want that
:now. You sometimes have it, but it is what it is. I don't want that.
:Well, I had been running from the Lord probably a good, oh,
:decade. Let's just go there, okay? And. But
:then I started to learn about him. And as
:I was reading His Word started to wake me up at 2am
:every single morning, every single morning with
:one question, with one question. And looking back after
:all of these years, I can look at it now and go, okay, he was
:seeing if my heart had changed. He was seeing if my perspective
:had changed, if I had shifted into a kingdom mentality. And
:so here is the question he would awaken me with out of a dead sleep
:for. Let's just, we'll just say six months.
:If I send you, what will you tell them?
:And can I tell you at 2:00am I. I can come up with
:some of the most religious responses.
:And they would be the right answer if I was just going to answer, you
:know, pick and choose scripture, which some of us are really good at.
:And. But if I send you, what will you tell them? And I got it
:wrong over and over and over again, over and over
:again. Until one night
:I said, after six weeks, one night question came up and I came out of
:this deep sleep. I didn't even have time to think.
:And he said, if I send you,
:what will you tell them? And I sat up in the bed
:and I said, lord, I will tell them that you see them
:and that you love them. I'll tell them that you see
:and that you love them. When that happened, guys, can I tell
:you what I felt like? All of those fires that had started back
:on the mountain, all of those waters that had been rushing across the
:earth, the winds that had been kissed by his breath, all of
:creation, groaning in anticipation and longing for him.
:All of it just hit me and I would have gone anywhere
:he wanted me to go. He so filled my
:spirit. He so filled my spirit because I was able to go.
:God, I know what the important thing is. I know that they need
:to know that you see them and that you love
:them. That
:has been the foundational thing
:in my spirit in being able to step across the line
:into ministry. That means that no matter what, I
:can allow the Lord to show me your brokenness
:and that's okay. And I'll minister to the best of my ability
:with his help in those broken places. He allows me to see the
:joy in your journey and he allows me to stand and
:participate in that with you as well. All of it. This whole
:big picture of his anointing that goes, if I
:call you, what will you tell him? And can I tell you guys, when he
:calls you and many of you he has, tell
:them that he sees them and that
:he loves them and let him draw
:them. See, here's the most beautiful thing to me,
:everything. The teaching of Jesus
:stand as a perpetual testimony of
:Elroy, the God who
:sees me. That's what his name
:means. It's what his name means. He is the God
:who sees you.
:The enemy would love to tell you otherwise. He would love to tell
:you that nobody sees where you are. No one understands
:what you're going through. The teachings of
:Jesus press into these red words.
:They are the testimony, the life of
:a God who sees
:you. Over the next few weeks,
:we are going to dig in and we are going to watch
:the rabbi, him minister
:to his people. And you know what? We're going to be good students, right? We're
:going to do what? We're going to listen and we're going to ask Pastor
:Kevin the questions
:and we're going to trust. The God who sees us can offer you a
:blessing. May the God and father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
:the rabbi, the master teacher,
:the virtuoso, the maestro,
:breathe into and over your life and may it be changed
:in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you
:for joining tonight, guys.
