Welcome And Opening Prayer

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Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the Be the Brave Ones podcast. We're on episode seven of the So Blessed series, walking through Matthew chapter five, the first part of Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount. We've talked about the Beatitudes, the Blessed Bees. We've talked about our identity, well, aspects of our identity in Jesus. We've talked about Jesus' identity. And today we are going to go deeper into the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter five to discover some truths that can either weigh us down or set us free based on how we see them. And I hope that it is the latter way that we walk away from this conversation today. But before we get started, I want to make sure that if you're new here, that you know that we exist because we want to see you gather together with the girls and women in your life. We want to see you grow closer to Jesus and each other. And we want to see you go and make disciples because this is not just about coming together for good information. This is about coming together to be transformed. When we gather, we want to experience transformation that leads us to see multiplication of what God is doing in and through us. So before we go a second further, we're not going to see that unless the Holy Spirit is present and working. So let's take a moment to put our heart before the Lord and ask him for that. Heavenly Father, we love you so much. You are holy, you are good, you are God. And we need you. We need the eyes of the Holy Spirit to teach us today to see what we can't see and minister to our hearts what is deep and true and from you so that we can experience transformation and go out and share and be who you have called us to be. It is in your name, Jesus, we ask and pray. Amen. Another aspect of what we do here at Brave Girls Gather that we always want to emphasize with you is the power and impact of intergenerational relationships. If you don't have somebody in your life who's a little bit older, lived a little bit more, walked a little bit longer with Jesus, who you can reach out to when you need to, I want to encourage you to start praying for that. Or if you don't have someone who you can pour into, I want to encourage you to start praying that God would show you who that person is. And so today we are moving through Matthew, we'll continuing to move through Matthew chapter five, and we are getting into verses 21 through 37. So if you remember from last week, the section of scripture we we read, the last part of that, Jesus said that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and the scribes, then you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. And what it seems like is he's raising the bar really, really high there. And he is, but he's making a point. He's making a point that we need Jesus. We need him. He is our righteousness. And we're gonna see more of that today in these verses. Jesus is taking these Old Testament rules and laws and these things that have been communicated by the Pharisees and scribes, and he's going to bring some light to them and he's gonna build a case. That's what he's doing here. He's building a case for holiness and righteousness, and he's building a case that we are desperate for him. If you can envision this crowd of people that he's talking to, and as he moves through these different aspects of what righteousness and holiness is when it comes to God, they're probably the people there who are listening, just kind of like groups at a time of them, are being awakened to the fact that they're a sinner. And I'm just wondering, I just imagine Jesus looking at them and like kind of seeing their face with each thing that he lists. It's like if you got past the first one, which I don't think really any of us could, and you keep going down the line, he he's getting you. I mean, he's probably gonna get you multiple times. And you have this awareness of, I am not righteous. There's there's no way that I'm righteous. And so when we look at people, right, in the world today, we can look at the outside. And that's very much what the Pharisees, when they would communicate about the law, it was about what do I look like on the outside? And we're used to this in today's society. We probably even do it ourselves, right? These you say, don't judge a book by its cover, but we do it. We we look and we go, oh, this person is this or this person is that. This person's successful, this person's accomplished. Oh, look how righteous they are, look how good they are. They must just have the perfect life. We look on the outside and we make these judgment calls. And it's like labels that we wear, or we put labels on other people. But Jesus is going to take us deeper here. That's the point, is he's going to show us what he's looking at and what the father is looking at, which is our heart. And he's not doing this to say, oh, you, you know, you're bad and there's no hope for you. He's doing this to say, this is who I am. This is my character, this is my holiness, this is my righteousness, this is what I look like. And I have made you to bring glory to me, to reveal my heart to the world. And that's why I've given you the law, is so that you might love me and that you might love others and that you might show others who I am. This is how good God is. And if we go back into the Old Testament, there was a great high priest over the people. And this great high priest was the only one who could go into the most holy of holy places in the temple where the presence of God was said to be. And in order for this high priest to go into this holy of holies place, there were these rituals that he had to perform. There were these things that he had to do, there were these garments that he had to put on his body in order to get into the most holy of holy places. And this was another place where God was saying, This is how holy I am. This is how good I am. And in Jesus, he's going to show us that we don't have to put on the special garments. We don't have to perform the rituals that the high priest had to perform. We just need Jesus, our great high priest who's done it for us. So I want you to keep those things in mind as you read through this section of scripture if you haven't already, and as we talk about it today. And as we consider these labels and we consider these places that we look at others or even look at ourselves and put labels on ourselves, the Father and Jesus are looking at what are the things that we're thinking? What are the things we resent? What are the things we're lusting after? What are the things we try to justify in our own minds? In those places when we truly examine that, we come up with the answer that I'm not, I'm not gonna be righteous in my own strength. And this is new to this crowd who's listening to him because under the current structure of the way things were, so much of it was about what you did. And Jesus is saying, nope, we're gonna go deeper here. We're gonna dive beneath the surface. And he hits on these hot topics. And the first one is murder. And we hear murder and we go, oh, well, I haven't murdered anybody, right? And I'm good. And Jesus is like, No, it's the things that you've thought about your brother, it's the things that you've said about your brother, even if you've only said them in your own mind. That is a way that you have made yourself guilty of murder, is by the way that you think. That's the level of righteousness that your father is at. He's not thinking those things, and that's the level of righteousness that Jesus hands over to us in him. He covers those places where we can't be who God is, so that we can be before God, so that we can enter into the most holy of holies, so that we can approach the throne of grace. And it makes us bow down because we go, I'm not worthy. I've thought the bad things. And then Jesus goes into adultery. And you're like, oh, well, I've never done that one, or maybe some of you have on the surface level, is what I'm talking about. But Jesus takes it even deeper and he says, even if you've thought lustful thoughts, that counts. That makes you just as guilty. And when we look at all of these, I want you to consider that all of these are sin. And we might even be tempted to look at them and go, well, this one's worse than that one. But Jesus is saying, it's all sin, it all falls short of your father's character and glory. And so that is why there's this absolute desperate need for me and what I'm about to do for you. He's setting the stage, he's building the case for our need for him, he's building his case for what's to come, the cross. And then he talks about divorce. And see, so you have the Pharisees who's who've set these standards and kind of created like these opportunities to get through loopholes and with the oaths, the one that comes after that as well. And they've created these structures or these systems or these rules for how you follow the rules. And Jesus is taking it all the way down to the simplest form. He's taking the law and he's taking it down to the simplest form, which is to examine deep down to the deepest place of our hearts to expose that there's sin there. And all of this is sin. There's no hierarchy of sin. Like this one's worse than this one. If there's any sin in us at all, and there is, and the things that Jesus says, he's exposing that. And the way that he exposes it too, all of these sections, if you take a look, they start with, you have heard it said, but I say to you. And so he's exposing what's been said, and he's saying, This is what I say. And you'll see that pattern throughout this section of scripture. And again, the point is that Jesus is getting to is that my standard is really, really high. And not one of you is worthy, as we talked about last week. Not one of you is righteous in your own way, in your own right by what you do. These Pharisees who you think are following the rules and doing the things and crossing the T's and dotting the I's, they are also guilty. They also don't measure up to the high standard that I have set. And that can make us feel, if we'll allow it to, maybe even uh shame or guilt of like, I can't, I can't do it. I can't, I can't measure up. I can't, I can't be good enough. And I think that if we're all honest, we do struggle with moments of guilt and shame. And we can live in that place. And that's walking away from the gift of what Jesus has given us in him. And you know, we might not say walking away, but it's sitting it to the side. And it's not walking in the freedom that he has given us, which is what he has done, his righteousness at church this past Sunday. The pastor talked about labels as well. He did it in the form of name tags, you know, the Hello My Name is. And we we've heard that song as well. If you've been around the Christian world, you've heard that song, Hello, My Name is Child of the One True God. Uh, but in this example, the pastor put uh one of the labels that he put on was shame. And I think of all the labels, this is one that we can walk around with. It's a mindset, really, that we don't even recognize we're wearing the label. And the final label that the pastor put on is forgiven. My name is Forgiven. And forgiven is not only to understand that I'm forgiven, but it's a mindset to live out of. Because if I'm walking around with the shame label on myself, I'm not going to glorify the Father in heaven. I'm not going to express his love. I'm going to run from my sin. I'm going to run from my wrongdoing. I'm not going to, as Jesus talks about when he talks about murder and the thoughts that we have about our brother, well, I'm not going to immediately go to my brother and make things right because I don't recognize that the sin or shame that I'm wearing or the sin or shame that they're wearing is covered under what Jesus has done for me. And so when I recognize, when I wear the label, when I wear the name tag, hello, my name is forgiven, then I approach my sin differently. I'm not scared of my sin. I don't run from my sin. My sin propels me to the Father. It propels me to the throne of grace where I can receive the grace I need to stand back up and walk in the freedom. And maybe it's not even I need to uh lay down and get back up, but I immediately know that you know what? I'm not perfect. And Jesus, I'm indebted to you for what you did for me. And the price you paid was so high, but the gift you gave was so great. Jesus, I thank you. In my sin, I recognize the gratitude of the fullness in my heart towards Jesus and what he did because I recognize that what he did was needed. And I think that that's something that we often forget, at least sometimes forget, is that our sin is not a reason to shame ourselves or feel like, dang it, I'm just not good enough. I can't get it right. But it's to send us to Jesus to say, Jesus, here I am again, thanking you for the cross because of what I just did and my need for you and my need for what you did for me. And when we have that heart, when we wear the name tag, hello, my name is forgiven, we experience the freedom and we experience the transformation. That is the purpose of what Jesus did is that we would live transformed, forgiven, and free, so that we might walk in that freedom and display his heart to the world. This is such a key thing. And I pray that every woman and girl, and maybe if you're even if you're a guy and you've landed on this podcast, I pray that this truth, the truth of the gospel, would sink so deep into your heart by the time we get done with this series, that you would know who you are, that you would know what Jesus did for you. And it would just click. Holy Spirit, make it click in every mind here who's listening. God, make it click. Holy Spirit, make it make sense. Because when we get this, we truly are set free from the striving and performing and the walking around with our head down and feeling like we're not good enough and feeling like God's not near us anymore because we really blew it this time. The opposite is true. We will sometimes leave God on the sidelines, but He's He, we didn't even leave him there. He came with us. He's like, Hey, I'm still here. You think you left me, but I'm still here. I found you. I'm never, I'm never gonna lose you. So each day of each one of our studies has a connect with God moment towards the end. And if you're like, what study, Mandy? I don't know what you're talking about. You can go to brave girlsgather.com and download the So Blessed Study for free, or you can jump onto the UVersion Bible app and find us there. And there's a 10-day reading plan that you can walk through this content and then come back and listen to this podcast alongside of it and share it with others, gather and share it with others. But the Connect with God moment for today is to spend time in John chapter 15, verses 4 and 5, examining what it means to obey God through the power of Jesus and bear his fruit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Ask him to give you that moment to make it click. Let's pray for that right now. I'm gonna pause for just a short period of time as I pray. But if you need more time to sit with God, if you're like, I'm gonna have that connect with God moment right now, just pause the podcast and take that time. Father God, we thank you so much that you gave us, Jesus, that we don't have to figure this out on our own, that we don't have to be good enough because we never would be. Uh, that you gave us the best thing ever in Jesus. And through his death and resurrection, his righteousness was handed to us. And even more, Father, you gave us your Holy Spirit to minister truth, to teach us, to counsel us, to help us bear the fruit of you and what a character you you have, God. A kind heart, a loving, patient, self-controlled, faithful Father, you are. We thank you for that. And we ask you to make it true for us right now.

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Minister to our hearts in whatever way you see fit.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

And then finally, we end each day of our study with either a connect with others moment or a dig deeper moment. And today it's connect with others. And how you can connect with others is maybe as you move through this content, or maybe as you even listen to this podcast, some things were stirred in your heart. And because we wear the name tag I am forgiven, we can look at that full in its face and say, this is going on in my heart. This is going on in my life. These are the thoughts I'm thinking, these are the things that I'm doing, these are the ways that I'm seeing others that God doesn't want in me. Or these are actually the things that I'm doing that God says are not the ways that He wants me to be and not the things that He wants me to do. I want to encourage you to be super brave and reach out to someone and confess and ask them to help you to set some boundaries in your life, to help you stay on course and to pray with you and ask the Holy Spirit to give you the grace and the power and the strength to live it out. And until you get back here next week, our hope and prayer for you is that you would gather with those in your life, be together with faithful followers of Jesus, that you would grow together in Christ, and that you would go and make disciples.