01-Misconceptions: “Are Topical Sermons UnBiblical?”

Chapter 1: Intro: Why We Need to Address Misconceptions

Well, since we finished the Gospel of Mark last week, I was wondering what we should do in the weeks leading up to Easter, which is coming closer and sooner than than you might think. I uh and we also have our purpose, mission, and vision series coming up uh soon. But I thought, what what could we do uh in the meantime? And I remembered a series that I had done back in 2024 that was not a complete series. It's really one of these series that can continue on until well you're finished with them.

And that's this this idea of misconceptions. Misconceptions that we have developed within the church. You know, what you thought you knew about the Bible might not actually be from the Bible. I don't know how often you ever think about that. And so I decided that I would irritate us all with a a three-week series on these misconceptions, which almost invariably is going to irritate some.

Almost every time I ever do a topical series like this, I have someone invariably come up to me and tell me, you know, I really like it better when you go through a book and go verse by verse, which plays perfectly into today's topic.

Chapter 2: Misconception 1: Are Topical Sermons Unbiblical?

So there's a misconception that quietly shapes how many Christians listen to preaching and that's this idea that topical sermons are inherently shallow, that they're dangerous or even unbiblical. The assumption is is that unless a sermon moves verse by verse through a single passage, it must be driven by human ideas rather than by God's word. But that that assumption itself must be examined in light of scripture because the most biblical topical sermon of all time that's ever been preached, one that confronts misconception after misconception after misconception after misconception was preached by Jesus himself. I don't know if you've ever thought about that. Jesus's preaching, Jesus's teaching were one topical sermon after another.

Now, in the sermon on the mount, Jesus does not walk through Moses line by line. Instead, he addresses ideas. He addresses assumptions and cultural distortions that had grown around the law over the centuries. He exposes where God's people had sincerely, but wrongly, learned how to think. This is not a departure from scripture.

It's scripture literally correcting misunderstanding. That is what this series is about. Not preferences or styles, but allowing the word of God to confront what we think that it says. And humbly letting God correct us where drift has occurred. Now, as we move into the body of this message, I want you to understand this that today we're going to touch on nine distinct misconceptions.

They did not arise from rebellion, but instead they arose from familiarity, from tradition, from culture slowly reshaping theology. Now, some of these are going to be ancient. Some of them are going to be offshoots, some of our modern variations that we've done to misconceptions that they had. And some may be closer to home than you might expect. And this first misconception is the one that frames everything else.

And that is this this question of are topical sermons unbiblical. If the one that frames everything else that we're going to be going through. So here's the thing that we need to understand about a topical message. This is what is going to make a topical message right in the eyes of God. that when the preaching when the preaching is grounded in scripture, it's governed by scriptures or the Bible's theology that it's faithful to its context. Topical preaching is not only legitimate, it's biblical.

Right? So when we look at Jesus in the sermon on the mount, everything that Jesus preaches, though he doesn't necessarily make direct references back and said, "And Moses said in Leviticus chapter 19, this word and this thing, every single thing that Jesus says is in perfect alignment with the word of God." Amen. Now, we don't have time to address every misconception in the sermon on the mount. So, we're just going to pick some of them as we go through. And as I mentioned, there's going to be some

Chapter 3: Misconception 2: Did Jesus Abolish the Law?

offshoots that are going to happen. But the very first one that we often make and they often made in the first century is this misconception that Jesus is replacing or relaxing the law. Jesus is not replacing, he's not relaxing the law. In fact, he addresses this in chapter 5 of Matthew. He says, "Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.

I did not come to destroy." He says, "I came to fulfill." So, right off this the bat, this misconception that was developing and actually continued throughout Jesus's ministry was that Jesus was there to destroy the law. Even today, I mentioned this a couple weeks ago that there is a group of Christians, a group of Christian thinkers and pastors and churches right now that are just saying the law is absolutely irrelevant at this point. It has absolutely nothing to do with our lives whatsoever. We can completely toss it aside. It's all about Jesus.

Jesus, Jesus. Well, that's a fundamental misunderstanding of how things are going because Jesus is the fulfillment of the law, which is to love God and to love people. Jesus is the fulfillment of those things. In Jesus, we find the ability to love God. In Jesus, we find the ability to love people.

This is one of the things that I love to remind people who try and say, "Well, the law has no relevance to us." It's like, okay, let me ask you this question. Post crucifixion, post resurrection, is God now okay with you using his name in vain? Is God now okay with you committing adultery? Is God God now okay with you lying or stealing or coveting? Is God okay with you having other idols?

Well, no. Okay, those aren't salvific things. Those are how do we love God and how do we love people? And so Jesus here is trying to clear up this misconception that he's not replacing the law. He's not destroying the law.

He is instead fulfilling the law. Okay, Jesus's correction. So, he's revealing a a truth, a deeper truth. He poses this interpretive distortion. He doesn't uh he doesn't attack Moses in any way.

So, he gives us an example here in Matthew 15. Then the scribes and the Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus saying, "Right, okay. This and this goes to this cultural drift thing that we're going to be talking about how how this occurred." He said, "Why do your disciples transgress the now get this? The what? Tradition of the elders." Let me ask you a question.

I want to set this context so we we connect with the first century. Do any of you that have been in the church for any length of time know of traditions of the elders? Things that come to your mind that your church necessarily taught in the past that it's like, "Oh, I got to do this thing. The church has always done this thing, and if we don't do this thing, we're not in alignment with God." Just keep this in your mind. I would name some right now, but that might lose some of you because there's probably some that you've had that you're not even thinking about.

So, he continues on, for they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. So, this is what they're holding Jesus's disciples to is they're not following through the traditions of the elders, not of God, of the elders. He answered and said to them, "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?" He's calling them out. He's like, "You're placing your tradition over my word. your tradition placing your tradition by above the word of God. He says, "For God commanded, saying, honor your father and your mother, and he who curses father and mother, let him be put to death.

But you say, whoever says to his father and mother, whatever profits you might have received from me is a gift to God, then he need not honor his father and mother, thus you have made commandment, the commandment of God of no effect for your tradition." He's basically saying, "Look, you guys are saying like your traditions override God's traditions." So, he's saying, "Look, I didn't come to replace anything. You guys are really the ones who are replacing things with your own traditions because they end up being more convenient." In this particular case, it's like, "No, we want to put our money where we want to put our money. We don't want to be responsible for our parents." Can I just say, sorry, Pastor Chris a little angsty this morning. He's like, "You people suck. You and I take care of your parents, right?" And Jesus is calling them out for this.

So now our third misconception is drawn from what is known as the biatitudes. This actually comes earlier than that that uh verse 17 thing. And the question and this one is

Chapter 4: Misconception 3: Does Blessing Only Belong to the Strong?

going to be very relevant to us. These next few are going to be extremely relevant to us is that blessing belongs to the strong, the successful, the secure, the visibly righteous. Okay. The cultural drift had occurred that honor shame culture equated to prosperity. So if you look like you were honored, well, you're prosperous.

If you were being shamed, well, you're not in alignment with God. So honor, riches, alignment with God. Destitute, poor, not in alignment with God. Perfect example of this would be found later in the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus is addressing the rich young ruler. Okay.

So Jesus tells this young man what he must do to inherit eternal life. He says, 'If you want to be perfect, he says, 'Go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me.' Now, the young man, you might remember, when he heard this, he was sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Now, we're going to talk about this more likely in in another one of the misconception things and and I I'm just going to sew the seed so you're prepared when we get there. But one of the things you'll notice in this context, this young man leaves, Jesus does not follow him. Jesus does not lower the standards so that he can pad his followers.

Right? Jesus is not like so many of us which was like, "Oh, I got to chase after this person and I got to lessen the requirement because I got to fill a seat in the church and if I say something, if I speak the truth and a person leaves, well, that's that's anathema. You can't do that. We got to fill the we got to fill the seats." And Jesus like, "No, no, no." In fact, he doesn't even pay attention to it. He just lets the young man walk away.

Pay attention to that again. He lets the young man what? Walk away. He doesn't chase after him. Many of us today, I'm giving you some bonus bonus misconceptions.

Well, what's the pastor's job? You got to chase after him. Well, family, if Jesus didn't chase after him, should we? No, we let them go. We're always ready to welcome them back in, but we let them go.

But this isn't where our current misconception is found. what what what happens next is where we really need to take focus rather um Jesus says assuredly I say to you it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven and again I say to you it's easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the king kingdom of God the disciples they're looking through their cultural and their religious lens and they are a ghast they're just like What? Well, how do we know that? Because of verse 25, when his disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved? If this guy can't be saved, I I don't understand." So why would they be a gasast, shocked, and amazed? Because of their worldview, they thought the fourth

Chapter 5: Misconception 4: Is Wealth Proof of Salvation?

misconception that wealth is evidence of God's favor and of salvation. in their mindset, in their cultural mindset, if you are a blessed individual, you have to be right with God. Therefore, you must be saved. And what Jesus is telling them is completely shattering everything that they have been taught. Because he is saying this young man's wealth means nothing in light of God's economy. It has nothing to do with salvation.

But for them, they're thinking wealth equals blessing equals God's favor equals salvation. Do we have a movement today that teaches the same thing? We sure do. It's called the prosperity gospel. If you want to be right with God, just give more.

Give more. Give more. Give money. Give money. Give money.

Give of your blessing. Give of your of your riches and your wealth. And if you're not being blessed is because you're not giving enough. And the way that you know that you're saved is because God is pouring out his blessings upon you. Family, that is categorical nonsense.

That is not truth. That is a lie from the pit. So if this insanely again if this insanely wealthy guy doesn't measure up as blessed as he is in their mind how can any of them measure up to God. But again this is where their cultural drift had led the Jewish people of the first century to develop misconceptions of how we are to have relationship with God and ultimately how we're to have eternal life. And now we look at this from our modern perspective through our modern cultural glasses and we see where Jesus is coming from.

Right? We know now because we look around, we see plenty of uber filthy rich guys. And how many of those guys, and I I paused at not putting faces up here, but most of you have people coming into your mind right now of that kind of a person, like obscenely wealthy individuals. You're like, their life shows no fruit, shows no nothing that would say this person is saved by the grace of God through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We just don't get it.

But here's the thing. Here's the thing. Okay, let me let me make sure. Oh, yes. Here we go.

I'm sorry. My ADD is like on full effect. Just going full today. So, this is what we understand. We understand in our minds right now that God allows the rain to fall on the just and the unjust, right?

Because again, we see it all the time. We see the rich, we see the poor, we see the blessed, we see with the seemingly unbed, we see the pe the suffering and all of these people. We understand this thing except and I'm going to tell you that there actually is an area a fifth misconception that I'm putting up. This is one of these more modern ones and I'm drawing from this where we actually

Chapter 6: Misconception 5: Are Big Churches Always Blessed?

falter and many of us fail. And that is with this that large resourced flashy churches must be God's work. So we might go like no I know the super uber rich guy is not saved but over here man look at God's blessing upon this church. I mean surely that must be a work of God. Look how big the building is.

Look how much flash. Look how much whisbang is going on. Look at the celebrities that are coming there. Look at the global reach. Look at all the people.

Look at all the money. They must be in alignment with God. Must be. And pastor, all you got to do you you want to be in alignment with God? Do exactly what they're doing.

Pastor, just do what they're doing. Pastor, you realize that there's a whole industry on trying to get smaller pastors to do all the whisbang things of the big churches. Do you realize that? Now, I'm not going to tell you that every big church is not in alignment with God. I've seen some.

They're definitely there. But again, if we're chasing after some of these things that are wrong, that are not right, that are not in alignment with God, we need to take stock of that. So, what I'm going to do to help offset the wisdom. I'm not going to tell you any churches that I might think are are this, but I want to give you the metric for what is a biblical church, big or small, so that you can look at something and not get caught up with the glitter because we love the glitter, don't we? Right?

We're chasing after people. It's like, "Oh, this person, look, they have millions of followers. I just got to do what they do." We do that. We chase this all over the place. Chasing social media, chasing music, chasing YouTube, chasing all the things. is the things we do consistently and constantly over and over and over and over again and we do it in the church at the detriment of what the church is actually to be.

And so I want to shatter this misconception with what the church is supposed to actually be. The church first of all is

Chapter 7: The True Biblical Model of Church (Acts 2)

supposed to be devoted to the apostles doctrine. That's the communication of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ paramount above all things. We read this in Acts two. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. And what fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

And that leads to the second thing. This this radical coinia this deep fellowship that we are supposed to have. This goes beyond. And this is where most of us as Americans and American Christians and American church attenders lose it. The church is more than just a surface level socialization.

The church is to have deep spirit-driven connections with one another. That is what the church is. So showing up on a Sunday and rocking out because of the amazing band and then leaving and living your life the rest of the week, family, that's not the church. Whether you're in a big church or a small church, that's not the church. This is an example of the church.

They sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. Now let me ask you a question. Who did this? The people did this. They were all involved in the ministry together.

It wasn't like, "Oh, you got a need. Hey, you know, go go talk to pastor. He'll take care of it." Oh, I did my part. Feeling really good about myself right now. Oh, yeah.

That's not the church. The church takes care of itself. Every single individual. And we're going to see that as we continue on more because it goes so much deeper. The saints are also being equipped for the work of the ministry.

We read this in Ephesians 4. And he himself, that's Jesus, gave some to be apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors, some as teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Who is supposed to be equipped? The saints. So there are people that are helping to equip the saints for what?

The work of ministry family. There's not a single person in this room who claims the name of Christ who is exempt from the ministry. Now some of us we like to in our churches again this is that modern cultural drift. It's like a that's why you went to school pastor. That's why we hired you.

That's why I throw that money in that box or do that autogiving is so I don't have to do that. That's you. Henley, that's disobedient to what we're supposed to be as the church. Every single. And I want you to I want to ask ask you this question.

How much more effective is a church when everyone do does their part as opposed to expecting it to be done by a few? So much more effective. Now, we'll probably talk about this in in coming weeks. You think about what happens a little bit after the that Acts 2 thing is the people come to the apostles who basically function as elders. They're like, "Hey, we got a problem with the the henistic Greek widows.

What are you going to do about it? What do they do? You guys figure it out. It's our job to preach the gospel and to pray." The people did the ministering family. We are the church.

It doesn't mean that I'm not part of it. It doesn't mean that I'm not part of it, but we all have to be part of it. That's one of the things that I love about the life groups. There's been so much more ministry accomplished in the last few years than I'd seen in all my ministry. Not just because of me, but because of what I've watched these life groups do.

As they are actually acting as a church and caring and loving for one another. And there's some of you in this room right now that can attest to that because you've seen it. You've seen it accomplished and it's amazing. Okay, continuing. Till we all come to the unity of faith of the knowledge of the son of God.

There's that unity thing. Some of you have been part of churches that are not unified. The church needs to be unified. If you're sitting there and you're slandering leadership in the church, guess what you're not being? You're not being a source for unity.

Trying to look over the heads again, right? to to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we should no longer what be children. Family, Paul was dealing with Christian adults who are acting like babies. Have you ever ran into Here we go again. Have you ever ran into somebody in the church who acts like a child? This is a 2,000-year-old problem, right? and people who are tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, the cunningness and craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love.

And again, this is not just the pastor. This is every single person in the church may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working. If you see that a church is being nonfunctional, it's likely because the people have chosen to be nonfunctional, right? to not be part of seeing the ministry going forward according to the effective working by which every part does its share and that causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Family, it doesn't matter how big the church is. It doesn't matter how flashy the church is.

If it's not doing these things, it's not acting as Christ's church. Regardless of all the whisbang, regardless of all of the money, regardless of all of the programs, regardless of all of those things, if these kinds of things are not being developed and move forward, the church is not being his church. It is being a gathering, but it is not being his gathering. If we are not representing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, we are not being his church. Now it doesn't mean that we have attained the fullness of it but we need to be moving towards those things.

So whether again you're large whether again you're small right you can have churches that are small that are completely in opposition to Christ you can see and some of you have seen this churches that exhibit this from proverbs pride goes before the fall and a hotty spirit before the fall. What is a hotty spirit you ask? I'm glad that you asked. A hotty spirit is an attitude of pride that makes a person think that they're better than others and they don't need God's help. Some of you have seen this in churches.

You've seen this with people who claim the name of Christ and they have this kind of pride and this arrogance because they look at you as a lesser individual. You can see this again in big churches and small churches. It doesn't matter. But if you have this spirit that says, "Hey, I'm better than everybody. I don't need God's help because we are accomplishing these things." Then you are not living. you are not working in alignment with the Holy Spirit of God and with the ministry of Christ.

This is also leading them to trust in their own success instead of God's grace. Family, I have talked with people who have said, "Look at our church and how big our church is. This is God's revival." And none of what we just talked about is evident in that church. That is pure and abject nons. Now, we head back to the first century and we move to our sixth misconception.

Chapter 8: Misconception 6: Is Suffering a Punishment from God?

And it's again something that's going to be very relevant to us today. That suffering is an indication of God's displeasure or punishment. Some of you have had that thought in your mind yourself in your life. Obviously, I'm suffering right now, so I must not be in alignment with God. Or you look at somebody else and you say, "Obviously, they're not in alignment with God." Job had to deal with this.

The oldest book in the Bible, Job had to deal with this. This is just one of the examples in Job 8:6. This is Job's friends friends to Job. If you were pure and upright, surely now he, that's God, would awake you and prosper your rightful dwelling place. So obviously, Job, because you're going through what you're going through, you can't be in alignment with God except the very first verse of the book of Job.

There was a man in the land of ooze whose name was Job. And that man was what? Blameless and upright. and one who feared God and shunned evil. Now, this mentality existed again in the time of the apostles. Uh we read this recently in Acts 28.

You know, Paul had been shipwrecked. He had been a prisoner on a Roman slave uh prison ship. He's on his way to Rome. There's a shipwreck. He ends up on Malta.

He's making a fire. He ends up having a viper latch onto his hand. What do the people respond? No doubt this man is a murderer whom though he has escaped the sea yet justice did not allow to live. Family, what do we call this today?

Karma. Do good, get good. Do bad, get bad. Oh, obviously Paul did bad. He's getting bad, right?

This is the kind of thing that's been around forever and ever and ever. And even though we call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're like, "Hey, this is like obviously you must there must be some secret sin in your life." I've stood in this very room and been asked, "Well, what secret sin are you hiding, pastor?" I mean, obviously you if you were in alignment with God, you wouldn't be suffering the way you're suffering. mainly that's just absolute nonsense because that ties into misconception seven that you're aligned with God your life will visibly improve.

Chapter 9: Misconception 7: Does God Guarantee a Better Life?

I mean on one occasion I I had a pastor friend excoriate me because I in a moment of just you know feeling comfortable around him I lamented about something that I was struggling with and he excoriated me and said that everything must be my fault because I obviously wasn't in alignment with God. The situation I was struggling with would be a non-issue if I was in alignment with God. But I'm going to ask you a question. What was the greatest spiritual success in all of history? the cross. Now, when you look at the cross, that's the father's will literally for the son at that moment.

I mean, we recognize this now, but what about during Jesus's day? They didn't look at it that way. They see Jesus hanging on the cross. They think it's an abject failure. He's obviously not in alignment with God because if he was in alignment with God, he he would be able to save himself. he'd be able to come down from the cross.

And if he was able to do that, then then they would believe. But they're like, "You obviously you're not in alignment with God because you're suffering in the manner you are. You're you're suffering the indignity. You're suffering the pain. You're suffering all of these things." And even the disciples struggled with this because we remember what happened on the first day of the week.

Where are they? They're hiding behind closed doors because they're looking at Jesus Jesus's suffering. And obviously you're not in alignment with God, Jesus, because you you suffered in the way that you did. You ended up dying. But Jesus's primary goal was coming to seek and to save the lost.

But along the way accomplishing this, Jesus was also about restoring what had been lost. You see, we change over time. Those we know change over time. Our bodies change over time. Our buildings change over time.

Our governments change over time. Geology, geography, all those things change over time. But our God, the Lord Jesus does not change over time, right? He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This is why what Jesus says here at the beginning of the biatitudes is not new. that God has always favored the humble, the dependent, and the repentant.

This has its foundations in the Old Testament where we read that the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite heart. And with all of that being said, we're going to jump from chapter 5 of Matthew into chapter 7.

Chapter 10: Misconception 8: Does Judging Others Make You Mature?

And we're going to read a passage that's one of the most misunderstood passages in all of the Bible. And it starts in chapter 7. Judge not that you not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye? But you do not consider the plank in your own eye. Or how do you say to your brother, "Let me remove the speck in your eye." And look, a plank is in your own eye. Hypocrite, first remove the plank in your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Now, why does Jesus even need to speak these verses?

Because there had been this misconception in his day and I think also is is very familiar to us these days that judging others somehow develop demonstrates a spiritual maturity. If I am able to judge you I'm I'm spirit spiritually mature. That must be the case. This had developed in this time. The irony is again this is the same thing today though I'd say this is not the majority misconception regarding judging but we're going to get that here in just a few minutes.

Now as with our previous sections by the time Jesus was walking on the earth there had developed a cultural drift from what God intended in how we are to properly judge one another. Judgment had become tied to comparative righteousness. Put simply, I'm righteous because I'm not like those people. We see this in Luke 18 where Jesus tells this parable that there was a Pharisee that stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

Now, this was a parable, but just a few chapters later, Jesus is going to give a real life example of this at play. And we're going to see how the disciples are involved in this. This is in Luke 21. Jesus is in the temple and we're told that he looked up and he saw the rich putting their gifts in the treasury. He also saw a poor certain poor uh widow there putting in two mites.

Now, it would be easy for us to picture this as something close to what we have here at Sunrise. And I grabbed this is the extra giving box. I don't know how many of you are familiar with this. Um but this is one of the giving boxes. We have one back there.

But you know, you could see you see something like this a lot in churches around. But it wasn't quite like this. Theirs were more like this. Now, this is kind of an artist's rendition of this. It's probably not perfect, but they literally had a box for what we call designated funds.

So, it could be for widows, for upkeep of the temple and so forth. And there were 13 of them. And the way this worked is people would walk up and they would throw their coins in and would make a racket. So, the more money you gave, the louder it was. And what? the more righteous you were because you're giving more.

What What do we have today? Do we not elevate people who look wealthier? Do we not honor people by naming entire wings and buildings after them even in our churches and we give them incredible praise again because obviously God's blessing them must be from God. And we often can look down on people because maybe they're not giving as much. Now, I'm just going to tell you right now, I don't know what any of you give.

I only know what Holly and I give. I don't even know what my girls give. I I think they give. They tell me they do. But again, I I don't I don't know what any of you give.

That that part's between you guys and and God and how all of that works. But for these guys, they were making a big show about it. And so here you have this woman following these rich guys who likely, you know, they come up and they make all kinds of racket. I mean, they could be doing it given in all the different boxes and all these things. And she walks up and she just like the smallest little coins.

Just imagine a couple dimes that she pops in there. Probably could have made absolutely no sound at all or the littlest of sounds. You can imagine the judgment, the scorn, the self-righteousness. Like, I mean, look at what she's doing. Look at what's done.

But, but I want you to realize something. Jesus doesn't focus on the the the rich at this moment. He turns and focuses on his disciples. And I think that's very purposeful. Jesus is not telling these guys just so we can get this 2,000 years later.

He is rewriting their own attitude about this woman and about these people and what true giving is what true righteousness is. He says, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all. For all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood she had." And now with this in mind, look at Matthew 7 again. Judge not that you be not judged. Jesus is rewriting to his disciples what actual giving is.

You need to reset your metric. And before you end up judging, you need to understand truth. He says, "For whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you used, it will be measured back to you. These religious men thought they were awesome for giving huge sums.

We've seen this in in other places. But the relative to their wealth, they gave little. This woman, however, relative to her wealth, which was really non-existent, she gave everything that she had. Jesus is not establishing a new standard. He's reminding his disciples of the true standard.

Now, we're told that these men uh we're not told that these men in any way mocked this widow, but we can certainly imagine a situation in which they could. And if they did, this is where Matthew 7:4 comes into play. Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me remove the speck from your eye and look, a plank is in your own eye." this idea that you need to give more, you need to do more, you need to serve more. Maybe you've seen this, experienced this in churches, but that's not necessarily for me to say. I can guarantee you there's some of you right now, and here we go.

Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's working on your life and telling you those things and telling you whether or not you need to give more, if you need to serve more, that you need to do more. That's coming from the Holy Spirit of God. But here's the thing. You get these people who come and they start saying these things to us, right? All the while they have a plank in their own eye.

Like in this case, these guys give out of their massive wealth. It's like nothing to them. Again, it's like a person who's a billionaire giving a million dollars. We think that's something, but for them, it's virtually nothing. As opposed to someone who maybe makes $50,000 a year, but they're giving it 20% of that every year.

It's extreme sacrifice. You see what I'm saying? that there's a difference that's there. But this is where Jesus then steps in in verse five of chapter 7. He says, "Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." This widow was righteous in the eyes of Jesus. She was exactly where she needed to be, giving those two little coins.

And the point still stands that before anyone came judging her, they needed to be right before God. Now this leads us to a misconception from today and that's our ninth misconception that somehow Jesus forbids all judgment.

Chapter 11: Misconception 9: Did Jesus Forbid All Judgment?

Jesus does not forbid all judgment. I mean this statement is certainly true that Jesus says do not judge lest ye be judged. Right? Jesus says this but believers are to judge. we went to 1 Corinthians 5, we would see specifically that believers are to judge one another. The question is, when are we free to judge?

You see, unfortunately, judgment is both a first century and 21st century. What's and now we can come and we can address those things in others lives. Proper humble lovefueled judgment has always been God's heart. I want you to look at this this verse from 1500 years before Jesus walked the earth. You shall do no injust justice in judgment.

You shall not be partial to the poor nor honor the person of the mighty in righteousness. But you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness in right alignment with God. You shall love your you shall judge your neighbor. Actually properly judging one another is loving your brother is loving your sister. But coming in arrogance that is not that is out of alignment.

And that's so often what we see and why so often we're turned off by judgment because we're being condemned and judged by people that we have no respect for and are maybe in many ways doing the very things that they're telling us not to do. But if you have a person who comes in love and humility and correction and pointing us towards God, that is something that we should absolutely desire. So this brings us to our conclusion. Chapter 12: Conclusion: Sincere vs. Accurate Faith What Jesus shows us in the sermon on the mount is both comforting, but it's also unsettling.

Comforting because God has not abandoned his people to misunderstandings and unsettling because sincere belief does not guarantee accurate belief. The thing is is we can be sincere but we can be sincerely wrong. And so we need to go to the word of God and ask ourselves, is my belief, is this belief actually in alignment with the word of God? And if it's not in alignment with the word of God, then I change. The word doesn't change.

See, we live in a culture that wants to change the word. It's like, well, obviously this is what the majority of people believe and so obviously God. No, that's not how that works. We adjust to the Lord. Jesus is did not come confront pagans here.

He confronted religious people, people who loved scripture, people who were certain they understood God, yet had allowed culture, tradition, and convenience to quietly reshape their theology. And again, the same danger exists with us. The question is not whether or not we believe the Bible. Question is whether we're willing to let the Bible correct us when it confronts our assumptions. whether we're willing to loosen our grip on ideas that we've inherited. Maybe we've repeated or grown comfortable with.

When Jesus says, "You've heard it said, but I say to you, we need to adjust to Jesus." So, the invitation today is simple, but it's serious. Come to Christ not as a defender of what you already believe, but as a disciple willing to be taught. If you live your life assuming that you have everything understood, you're in a bad place because that means that you're not teachable. And we are in the process of being conformed to the image of the savior. And a person who is being conformed as in the image of the savior understands and recognizes and is humble enough to know, I have not yet arrived.

And I pray that each and every one of us would have a heart that is moldable and pliable in the hands of our savior. We need to lay down the need to be right. We need to lay down the comfort of familiarity and allow the unchanging word of God to be that which reshapes our thinking, that reshapes our humility, that reshapes our obedience. Because the goal is not to win an argument again. It's to be conformed into the image and the likeness of Christ in whose name we pray.

Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, thank you so much

Chapter 13: Closing Prayer

again for your amazing love and the blessing of this word which is challenging or there's so much there's so much more that's that's that's even in here. And I pray that you would take these things and that you would indeed shake us up and that you would make us moldable and pliable in your hands. Lord, if there are any of these assumptions, any of these these things we've developed misconceptions and that you would indeed shake those things up and we'd be willing to let them go even if we've held on to them for decades. even if they've been told to us by somebody that we've loved and cared for and respected for decades. Lord, if it's something that's proven wrong because of the word of God, Lord, may be we be willing to let that thing go. And may we be willing to yield to you, yield to your word above all.

And we praise you and thank you in your name. Amen.