Welcome And Series Roadmap

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Hey friends, glad to be back for episode six in the Stog series. You're halfway through the series, working through Matthew chapter five. We've been in the Beatitudes. We are examining what it means to live a blessed life? What is Jesus' invitation into the good life? What does that mean? How do we experience it? I don't know about you, but when I first came to follow Jesus, I was like, what are all these truths? What are all these promises? How do I experience them? How do I make this real for me? This peace that passes human understanding. And when Jesus preached his Sermon on the Mount, he was showing us the way into his peace, into his joy that is with us regardless of circumstances. So if you're new here, we are Brave Girls Gather. This is our podcast, be the brave ones. And we exist to encourage you to gather together with the girls in your life, be a community, grow together in Christ, and go and make disciples. And so we are working through different sections of scripture here on the podcast. And right now we're in Matthew chapter five. It's the first chapter in the Sermon on the Mount. There's two more. So when you're done with this series, guess what? You have some great content to gather around with the girls in your life and have some more meaningful discussion around scripture in Matthew 6 and 7. But today, before we dig in any further, we're going to stop and pray. Let's invite the Holy Spirit to join us here today and speak to us and teach us what He wants us to know. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for every girl, woman who's made it to the other side of my voice. Be here with us today. Speak to my heart, speak to their hearts, teach us unsearchable things that we do not know. This is a topic, Lord, where I have seen even myself get tripped up. And I see girls get tripped up and I see women get tripped up about what we're going to talk about today. So, Holy Spirit, if you don't reveal the truth to us, we're going to struggle. But if you reveal it to us, we're going to be set free. So we're asking for freedom today through you, Jesus. We pray. Amen. So we've been in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five, we've talked about Beatitudes. Last week we talked about identity and our identity in Jesus. Two aspects of it is that we are salt and light. If you didn't hear that episode, go back and listen. Today we're talking more about Jesus' identity in Matthew 5, 17 through 20. He's telling us about himself here and what that means for us. And it's in the area of wait for it, obedience. And sometimes when we hear that word, we can be like, oh no, that feels restrictive. I'm not about the rules. For others of us, we're like, oh no, rules, tell me what they are so I can win the game. For others, we feel guilt, we feel shame. We're like, oh no, rules, I can't measure up. All of these responses are responses that call us out of our identity in Jesus. And Jesus has a different way. And that's why we want the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth to us today. You see, these people who were listening to Jesus preach the sermon, they wanted to know what he had to say about the rules. That whole first half Old Testament part of this book, they wanted to know what is he gonna say? Is he gonna tell us, you know what, throw the rules out? Is he gonna tell us, hey, this is this is what you got to do, and I mean it? Like, what is he gonna say? Is he gonna hold us to the same standards that these religious leaders um hold us to and lay heavy burdens on us? What is Jesus gonna say about the law? And this is what he says. He says something very surprising. He says, I have not come to abolish the law, I have come to fulfill it. He's come to fill it up every crevice, every space, every place where it wasn't enough. He's come to come over it and to fill it up and to see every single piece of it fulfilled in him. So he doesn't lower the bar, he doesn't throw the bar out. He raises the bar. And so for some of us, when we go, raises the bar, what do you mean? Like, how how am I gonna live it if the bar is even higher? What am I gonna do? That is the point. That's the point, is that in him is the only way. Because we're never going to be able to achieve and accomplish what is meant to only be achieved and accomplished through him. We can go back to the Beatitudes where it says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be what? They will be filled. And what will they be filled with? Righteousness. So that righteousness that we want, it doesn't come from climbing ladders. It doesn't come from writing down every rule and following it. It comes from our hunger and our thirst for Jesus. I want to give you guys something to consider today as you're listening. Wherever you are, I want you to take a minute and I want to envision that you are sitting across the table from Jesus. Like, please go here with me. What a thought, right? You're sitting across the table from Jesus, and all of a sudden, you are transported back with him prior to his death and resurrection. And he's sitting there across the table from you, and you've just had an amazing meal. You've just had the best time, your heart is filled with joy, you feel like you can do anything, your heart is filled with hope. You know that he's the Messiah, and that all is just good, and it feels so right, and it feels so perfect. And he tells you in that moment, he says your name, and he says, There's only one problem going on here. And that problem is a sin problem. And I love you so much, and my father, our father in heaven, loves you so much that he made a plan for that problem. And so tonight and tomorrow, I'm gonna walk out the plan for the problem. And then he begins to walk you through what his evening and the following day is gonna look like for him as he willingly submits himself into the hands of his enemy to be crucified, to die a brutal death. And he says, When I do this, the sin issue will be solved once and for all. And you'll no longer have to live with shame or guilt. And there'll never be a moment where you're separated from our Father. And even more, in my death, my spirit, the same spirit that you've seen raise dead men to life, the same spirit that you've seen heal the sick, the same spirit that has made the blind see, the miracles that you've witnessed, the feeding of the five thousand, that same spirit that's in me is now going to be in you through my death. And then he turns around in agreement to you, and he hands you a pen and he says, All you have to do is sign right here.

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And if you sign right here, you're in. Many of us would have a problem signing that paper to say, okay, go to your death.

Letting Jesus Serve You

Love That Produces Obedience

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Do it. And I think that's why there wasn't a paper. I think that's why Jesus wasn't like, it's not about what you say or do. This is about me following in obedience to my father because I love him and I love you, and he loves you. I don't need you to sign a paper. I'm going to go do it. And now we sit here on the other side of the cross, and all we have to do is receive it, is to believe it. When Jesus was about to go to the cross, he was with his disciples, and there was this scene where he had to wash their feet. Many of you, if you've been around church, if you are in your Bible, you know the story. And his disciples thought this was absurd. They're like, no, you're not going to wash my feet. That's not happening. Because they didn't want Jesus to sink down that low. You see, they would have had a problem signing the paper. If we read scripture, we probably can easily see that they would have a problem signing the paper if they were given a paper to sign. They didn't want their feet washed, but Jesus said, You have to have your feet washed. If you want to enter into my kingdom, you must let me wash your feet. And now for us, it's we must believe and receive what he did at the cross. And when we really take in what he did there, the weight of what he took, the cross that he bared, the price that he paid. When that becomes real in here, in our hearts, we feel so grateful. Love is our response because we realize we recognize the price he paid for us. Love becomes our response. And out of that love comes obedience. The love brings the obedience when we love God, when we recognize we receive the gift, the response is love. And out of love we obey, and out of obedience and love come transformation of the Holy Spirit in us. It's about your hunger, your thirst, your love. Out of that hunger, out of that thirst, you will be filled. So our connect with God moment today is for this to be made true in our hearts. For the Holy Spirit to wake up our hearts right now. If there's any part of us that needs to understand the gospel at a deeper level, we get to ask God for that. So we're gonna do that right now. And if you need more time than I'm gonna give you, you can pause the podcast. You can pause it right now.

Prayer To Drop Performance

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Come back after you've had that time with the Lord. Father, reveal the mystery of the gospel. Unveil our eyes to see the price you pay for us. Remove from us this need to get it right. Remove from us these beliefs that we're not good enough and replace it with the understanding that you are good enough and you have given good enough to us.

Study Tools And Next Steps

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The places we miss it are the place we need the cross. The places we fall short make your sacrifice even more worth it. It becomes a reason to praise. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, that you paid the price. Thank you that you covered my sin. Thank you that when I fall down, I get to stand back up again. And I get to approach the throne of grace time and time and time and time again. I'll never outrun your love. I can't perform well enough. And I don't have to. Thank you, Jesus. You removed the striving. You removed the performance. You did the work. And we can rest secure in that. I pray for each woman, each girl on the other side of my voice, that she would have the strength to know how high and how wide and how deep and how long your love is. In your name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Again, if you need more time, pause. Sit with God in this. Finally, our dig deeper moment for this part of the study. And if you're like, what are you talking about? There's a study. Yes, there's a study. You can go to the Bible app and there's a reading plan called So Blessed. And you can also go into our website, bravegirlsgather.com, and you can download the study for free. Gather with the girls in your life, walk through this stuff together. Today has a dig deeper section. And this dig deeper section encourages you to consider who is someone who you know loves God? And how do you know? What is it about them that lets you know that they love God? And that's for something for you to sit in to remember that it's about your loving God, not about what you do for him, but about your love for him. When you love him, he'll do the work. And there's some scriptures that we have for you too. Uh John 14, 15 and Matthew 22, 36 through 40. These are two scriptures that you can take a look at before you jump into the next section, day seven of the study. If you're looking for something for your quiet time tomorrow, boom, there it is. John 14, 15 and Matthew 22, 36 through 40. In the meantime, I pray the Brave Girls Gather team prays that you will gather with the girls and the women in your life, that you will grow closer to Jesus and each other, and that you will go and make disciples.