Will we ever make ourselves sinless and perfect? Not in this life. Our hunger and thirst for righteousness is meant to be ongoing
But this really is God's plan for us. He wants to make us perfect by his Holy Spirit.
We were made for perfection, but gave it up. Like a rebellious child who needs to learn from their own mistakes. But we were in such trouble, we can’t help ourselves out. God intends for us to enjoy his care, kingdom again.
Made it possible by coming to earth as Jesus, the perfect man and perfect God, and destroying the power of sin and death to separate us from him. He's working on perfecting us, to be ready for his return.
He will make us perfect.
Open ourselves to him...ask him to...allow him to.
To do the impossible.
To love our enemies.
To do everything else in the Sermon on the Mount so far!
The underlying truth behind everything he's said is that he intends for us to be perfect.
Become perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.
Become acceptable to him, to live in his kingdom of heaven.
Back to Day 1: How do you react when you fall short of that standard? One way is to look for help.
Jesus says he is the help we need: “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me”.
If you’re finding perfection, fixing yourself, trying to make yourself holy far too challenging, impossible….Jesus says, "Try me!, I’m the way!"
He is the way, and the destination. He will help shape your life move in this direction as well…as long as you are willing to follow him.
Challenge: Go through the last few weeks worth of examples. Anger, Lust, Lying, Retaliation, Loving Enemies. Rate out of 5. Which lowest? Recognize imperfect, and ask God to begin perfecting that area of your life.
There is some teaching, especially when it’s unoriginal and shallow, that you can take under advisement. You can simply say, “That’s interesting” and then move on with your life.
We read stuff like this all the time. Magazine articles. Newspaper. Blogs. Facebook posts. Some people are very skilled at rehashing other people’s research in entertaining and interesting ways.
I often read things that are of little value to me. They’re just interesting, and not going to change my life.
I hope the Sermon on the Mount we’ve been studying is not that way for you.
We saw last week – hearing and living these words is like building upon a stone foundation for life. Hearing and ignoring these words is like building on a sand
foundation that washes away.
How you hear the Sermon on the Mount is like the difference between a wedding announcement and invitation.
With a wedding announcement in the newspaper or on Facebook, you say, “Oh, look, they’re getting married, how nice”.
An invitation is quite different, since it has your name on it. It’s for you. We want you to come.
The Kingdom of heaven is often described as a party, and it would be a party with the most original, profound teacher ever at its centre. The very source of truth, wisdom is the attraction.
His way of life would now be the only reality. The kingdom he’s been describing, would be there in living colour.
He’s issued that invitation to you. Come to my kingdom, my celebration, my party. And this is not just a future reality, somewhere else. It’s something we are called to start practicing now, really living it out, to be ready for the full production .
Life on earth is meant to be a practice party, and you’re invited.
We’re establishing a new church, or Christian community, in Ajax – and it will be built on the model of a party with Jesus at the center.
It will be like nothing you’ve ever experienced before. We’re planning our first party for this fall.
Challenge: We’re running a poll right now, that you can find in our app or here on our web site: bit.ly/15B2yry Tell us what kind of party you could RSVP to!
