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Sermon on the Mountain Part 7 · The Rhett Palmer Show

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: And a friend was visiting from another state, and uh he was telling a story, and it was a positive story.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I put a little bit well, blah blah blah blah, but it was like a little bit of a negative bent on it.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: The specifics don't really matter.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: And he says, Brett, I don't want to talk about that.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm talking about something positive here.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I took Umbrage in my very own home, and this guy was correcting.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: So my feelings were hurt anyway.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I go upstairs a little while later, I'm still feeling hurt.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, I said, wait a second, what if there's some truth in what he said?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: And instead of just focusing on my hurt, and I went, you know, maybe I do have a penchant for looking at the negative in some situations and should learn from that.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I turned it around and presumed, you know, God can speak to people.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes that hurts a little bit.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it can, our feathers can get rustled.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, pride, pride.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Ooh, watch for the pride thing.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know, what part are you playing in the situation?
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think the principle that we get from this passage of the Sermon on the Mount, I think what Jesus is trying to tell us here is that as we find freedom uh from through God's wisdom and God's power to break down uh these strongholds of wrongful thinking and to abandon our habitual behavior and maybe to dissolve a trigger point that we should be treating others that God will bring our across our path with empathy, with compassion, with tenderness, with long suffering, because we're all in the same boat, doing the same things, okay?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: So now Jesus gives us a summary to this Sermon on the Mount with three contrasting images.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: First, we have a narrow gate and a broad path.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: We have a good tree and a bad tree, and we have a house that's built on a rock and a house that's built on sand.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So here are the three images, and here's the first one.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it, for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's this gate that Jesus is talking about?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what what's the broad way?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: What is the narrow gate, okay?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that's been a debate among scholars, among uh people for a long time, but I come back to this passage from John chapter 10, where Jesus says, Truly I say to you, I am the door or the gate of the sheep.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: I am the door.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the gate.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: If anyone enters through me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: I came that they may have life and have it abundantly, because I'm the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So my conclusion is the narrow gate is this walk with Jesus.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he's the gateway, he's the door to heaven, he's the pathway to eternal life, you see.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you and I know that the pursuit of pleasure, possessions, prestige, and power is an attractive boulevard for many in this world.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the actions of think about it for a moment, the actions of religious people also place them on this broad boulevard because they desire the things of God really without having a personal relationship with him.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: The walk of a disciple is narrow and it's a road defined by God's wishes for an intimate relationship with him.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um Proverbs 19, 105 says, Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: You see, God's word is the guide to our daily life.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the New Testament is filled with these references.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like Paul says in Ephesians 4, I, the prison of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have been called with all humility, gentleness, patience, and showing tolerance for one and the love of one another.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: You see, we've been called to be children of God in this universe.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: We're to be the ambassadors to his culture.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says this for this reason, since the day we heard of it, we've not ceased to pray for you and ask you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: For the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father who's qualified to share in the inheritance.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a great description of this narrow way, this walk, that we should walk out our day in a manner that's pleasing.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And this is such a great scripture to quote, at least for me, on my driving on my way to work, Lord, that I may walk out my way worthy of you, to please you in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, that I would experience your presence, know more about you, strengthen me, Lord, to make good decisions, okay?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is how we should walk out our day, and being victorious in our spiritual battles, noticing the focus on Him and being patient with those around us, and finally being thankful for what He's doing.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why the book of Proverbs is filled with these images.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Proverbs 4 says this about this narrow way, this narrow gate.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let your eyes look directly ahead, let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Watch the path of your feet, all your ways will be established.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Don't turn to the right or the left, turn your foot from evil.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the broad path, the broad boulevard.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And Red, I think here's the the passage, uh this passage gives me this understanding that we should be aware there are many things that will pull us off of God's path.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so we should be diligent to stay on the path.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now think of the relationships that you value most, Rhett.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And how you become very other centered doing what pleases them and what's best for that relationship.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: You see, taking our freedom to serve others often lead us off the path of this optimal relationship.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think when we take our freedoms to serve ourselves, they lead us off the path of this relationship that God is calling us to have with others.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So along our journey, we're gonna meet spiritual people who will often impress us with their spiritual gifts and popularity and sometimes they cause envy uh on our part, doesn't it?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna offer us advice on how we should relate to God, and the emphasis always seems to be on us rather than him.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says we're gonna know them by the kind of fruit that their ministry bears.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: So he goes on to say this beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but are inwardly are ravenous wolves.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: You will know them by their fruits.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So every good tree bears good fruit, but bad trees bear bad fruit.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So here's a second comparison.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we had the narrow gate and the broad path.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now we have the good tree and the bad tree.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: So then you will know them by their fruits.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: We have a lot in of people in our Christian culture that are proclaiming messages that are supposedly from the Bible, but are often seemed to be very self-centered and focused on ourselves living our best life, gaining the material possessions that we deserve.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And these are teachers who are among us, they claim to be teachers and speakers of God's word.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: They may appear righteous, but by their actions and words, but we're to judge them by their lifestyle and the effects of their ministry on the kingdom of God.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: Now hold on a second.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: But to what degree?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: This is where I have a little umbrage here.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: Remember, James and John were the sons of Zebedee.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: And they come along one morning and they say, Hey, uh, Yeshua Jesus, uh, you know, they were traveling with them now for a year or two, and and these guys are over here, they're preaching, but uh they're not preaching exactly like you.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, should we call down the fire from heaven to consume them?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: And Jesus says, uh, the son of man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save men's lives.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: But henceforth, after that, he calls them the sons of thunder.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: The next day they show, hey, sons of thunder, how are you doing?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Did you consume anybody with fire today?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: Ha ha.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: It shows you that they have a sense of humor.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I think we have to be careful because there you go.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: I remember from Dr.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: Norman Vincent Peel, who I had the pleasure of meeting.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: He said the river of the mind can only flow in one direction at a time, positive or negative.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so people get into a bent where they're picking on all these people.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know what?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: They're God, your God's servant, except now.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: If you ask me, then I might tell you what I think of your, but but your God's servant.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: All I have to do is watch out for people and watch and be aware of their fruit.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, if somebody else might be on TV or they might be on radio, I see things that people do and I take great offense, and you know, they want a$50 million jet, and I go, what?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: Why do you need a$50 million?
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: But you know what?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: He's not my servant.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: And so for the meantime, I want to just stay back and just go, okay, I'm not gonna send that guy a check.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you want to, that's your business.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um, this is what Jesus is is challenging us to be discerning as we hear uh people who proclaim themselves to be God's prophets and God's teachers.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the experiences that Laura and I had is we came back from Honduras and we'd been there for uh five or six months.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: We haven't we hadn't watched any TV.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: We've been kind of out of contact.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: We only have our shortwave radio, we're listening to Voice of America and BBC, and uh and we come back to uh Vero Beach and we're watching TV one night and we turn on the TV and we're suddenly uh there's a guy that's sitting um at a desk and uh he's reading letters and he picks up a letter and he said, Brother Bob, would you please pray for my pinto?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's breaking down and and I just need some prayer.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Brother Bob throws the pinto, uh throws the letter down on the uh desk and he says, I will not pray for your pinto.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have used car faith, I have new car faith.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if you send me your thousand dollar vow, I will pray for you and that God will give you a new car.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now we started laughing because we thought we had tuned into Saturday Night Live, but then Bob picked up another uh letter and read a very similar and said some things.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly we realized this guy's for real.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now, Red, just pause for a moment.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um I told this story to a dear, dear friend of mine, a ministry partner of mine, years later.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and I told him it was ridiculous, this uh this idea of sending Brother Bob a thousand dollar vow and expecting that God was going to do a miracle in your life.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And as I told him that, he looked at me with this uh sheepish sort of look and he said, I sent Brother Bob a thousand dollar vow.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: I said, You're kidding.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I really wanted to be a professional uh racer, uh driver.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was uh driving uh go-karts at the time.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I was had become a Christian.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: I tuned into Brother Bob's show.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: I sent him a thousand dollar vow, and within a couple weeks, I got hired at Bondurant Driving School.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And this friend of mine went on to be the winningest driver in sports car history, winning one of every four races he entered at one point in his career.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: He won the Rolex 24-hour race four times, and now he's the president of Motorsports Ministry, uh, doing chapels at these uh sporting, these uh racing events around the country.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I had to sit back and I go, golly, with faith, my friend Terry sent in that thousand dollar vow, and God really opened the door.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I I had to repent of my judgment.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is this we are to just discern the messages of the prophets and teachers, and then we're to look at their lifestyle, and we're actually to look at the people around them and see if there is fruit in their ministry or not.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Peter gives us an admonition here.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: He says, false prophets will arise among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: They will secretly induce destructive heresies, they even deny the master who brought them, bringing swift destruction among themselves.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know, Rhett, right now, there's churches in our community that have really moved away from the authority of the Word of God?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you're aware of this.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's been happening over the last 20 years.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have denominations now that have moved away from the biblical teaching on sexuality to where uh there is um confusion about how a man and woman of God should behave and what sexuality actually is.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: We say the Old Testament is old and out of date.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I heard a lady pastor that was wearing a rainbow um vestiment, and she said, uh, you know, uh Hebrews chapter 8, verse 13 says that the Old Testament is old and out of date, and my Jesus says that we don't have to pay any attention to those Old Testament commandments.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: But she is forgotten that Paul told his disciple Timothy that all scriptures inspired by God and profitable to teach us, to correct us, to reprove us, to train us in righteousness, so the man of God might be adequate and equipped for every good work.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when Paul wrote that to his disciple Timothy, what scripture was he referring to?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: All scriptures inspired by God and profitable to teach us, correct us, train us in righteousness.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Christian scriptures were being written, they didn't exist.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's referring to the Hebrew scriptures.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so the Hebrew scriptures give us a lot of uh of uh uh insight on God's feelings regarding sexuality, on uh uh relationships.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very obvious from the beginning that God's plan for humanity was a family unit consisting of a husband that loves and cares for and sacrificially gives to his wife, that a wife who honors and respects her husband, that they have children that uh honor and respect their father, and the father and mother care for and train up and don't exasperate their children.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is the family unit that God created for humanity.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so there's all these admonitions of anything that would infringe on or destroy the family unit.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like But at the same time, but at the same time, when you go fishing and you catch a fish, you don't clean the fish and then catch it.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: You catch it and then clean it.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: So my answer to this is anybody's welcome to the church.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: If I would have it.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody is welcome.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: When you and I when you and I came into the kingdom, we were probably doing exactly what we wanted to do.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: We were there was no no boundaries.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you were living with a woman, I was living with a woman.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: But the point is, if somebody said, Well, you can't come to church until you change that, you know.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: So the point is what I say is I will not call sin not sin.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: So so I, yes, I do believe homosexuality is a sin.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: But so, but come to the church.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not called to judge you, I'm just called to love people and tell them about Jesus.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: In due time, if God wants to, he can reveal that truth.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: We don't need to jump all over people.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, right.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, that's uh in fact, uh I'm uh reading a book right now called The Gospel Comes with a House Key, okay?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's written by a lady who is a hardcore uh lesbian.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: She became friends with a pastor in her neighborhood.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: She uh started going over to his house to sing on Sunday nights.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: And through the uh process of uh getting to know this family, she heard the gospel, she heard biblical teaching, and she suddenly recognized that God's design for humanity was uh a man and woman together in a committed marriage relationship, and that sex was to be uh the ultimate expression of uh intimacy as well as procreation, and that this was God's design, and anything outside of that was not his design.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I know many uh gay guys, I have friends, uh many.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I know lesbians, uh, I've worked with them.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Good people.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we love people.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: We we have invited them into our uh homes, we have invited them into our workplace.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: We've even hired them to work with us, and in the process of that, they have come to know uh who God is and they've understood God in his ways, and some have actually made decisions to start walking with him.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: But this is an individual thing, uh Red, and you're absolutely right.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: There is no way that someone is going to uh experience the presence of God unless we invite them into that presence.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so everybody is welcome.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Look who Jesus hung out with when he was on this earth.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: He hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes, and in the Roman Empire, during that time, there was lots of gender fluidity.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of a lot of outside of marriage relationships.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and yet Jesus came and invited them to the table.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it was three-butters.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, there's there's a guy who has a church in Viro Beach, I will name it nameless, and he's uh really been people talk about him saying, oh, he goes into the bar.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Well, he does.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: He goes into bars and drinks beer.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: But he's he's actually had some conversions.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: He goes in there and has fellowship with people.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: Well, if that's what he's called.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: They said Jesus was a wine giver because he's hanging out with these guys that are drinking wine.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: Don't judge another person's ministry.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: Well, here's a lot people.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, here's the thing, Rhett.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what was Jesus' first hallelujah?
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: You've been listening to Cup of Friendship with Rhett and Mike.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: If you'd like to order your own cup of friendship, visit us at cupafriendship.com.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: The Sermon on the Mountain series will continue in the next episode.