The Church of Eleven22 - No More Games - Religion to Redemption - Matthew S6E4

Episode Date: August 30, 2026

Following Jesus isn’t a negotiation. We don’t get to set the terms, hold onto certain parts of our lives or simply swap a few habits. Jesus came for our hearts, and His invitation is to surrender everything. In this message from Matthew 22, we’re reminded that the question isn’t just what we believe about Jesus, but whether He is truly Lord of our lives. When we stop playing games, stop negotiating and give it all back to Him, that’s where true life is found. 📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week: • Full Sermon • Deepen Podcast • The Haines’ Story • Matthew Season 6 The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas.   To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here.

Amen, amen. Good morning, church. I'm Pastor Britt. Excited to be here. If you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, we're going to pick up where we left off last week in Matthew chapter 22. For many, many months, we have been working verse by verse, chapter by chapter through the New Testament book of Matthew. And we're going to pick up today right where we left off last week. And where we are in context is that for Jesus the Christ, the things in the kitchen are just getting hotter. We are on a fast track toward Calvary's Hill, toward a Roman cross where Jesus will be crucified. Jesus' adversaries are getting more and more combative, more and more confrontational. Jesus, his adversaries happen in four groups.

One is the Pharisees. This is his primary adversary. These are men who feel like they've been assigned to keep everybody accountable to the law of Moses. These are the religious elite, the fundamentalist, if you will. The second group would be the Sadducees. These are like the wealthy aristocrats. They don't believe in the same things that the Pharisees believe in. They only hold to the first five books of the Old Testament known as the Pentateuch,

and they hold to that loosely when it's convenient to them. This would be the modern equivalent of evangelical liberals who believe that they get to stand over God's word and tell it what to say versus under it and let God tell them what it says, right? And then the third group are the Herodians. You don't see them a lot in scripture, but these are Jews who are pro-Rome, thus the name Herodians. They're a big fan of Herodians, and ultimately they're just trying to get paid, and they're just trying to get power. The fourth group is the scribes.

The scribes are lawyers. If the Pharisees' job was to help everyone apply the law, the scribes' job was to interpret the law, and a lot of times we see them working together with the Pharisees. I tell you all that to say, we're going to run into every one of these groups today in our text, so it's just important to know where we are. Before I dig into the text, though, I do have to make a, I have to make a pastoral confession. I've been here serving at the Church of 1122 for the last 11-ish years.

My family's been raised here. It's been my life's honor to serve here under Pastor Jobi and the elders. And just over the last few months, something's really been weighing heavy on me. And, man, I just thought as family I would share it with you. You know, the Bible talks a lot about qualifications of the pastor and I don't think what I'm about to share puts me in any like disqualifying terms. I hope Pastor Job being the elders agree as well. That said, somewhere as a dad, I have two girls. Somewhere as a dad, I turned right when I should

have turned left. Somewhere as a dad, I don't know. I don't even know really what category to put this in, but over the last couple of months, I've just had to come to grips with the reality. And the reality is that my kids, they love Taco Bell. I don't get it, man. I don't get it. Is it sin? It may not be sin, but something's jacked. You know what I mean?

Like something at the core is just altogether. Y'all were nervous as heck just then. You should have seen your faces. You're like, what is going on? Look, maybe if y'all know me, you know I'm a Chick-fil-A guy. I have 100,000 Chick-fil-A points. That's a fact. And I'm trying to lead my kids in the paths of righteousness, glory of God on a bun, you know what I mean?

But no, you could put a filet mignon on a plate next to a crunchy gordita crunch wrap, a cheesy gordita crunch wrap, and a bean burrito. And my kids are going for the bean burrito every time. Can y'all help me in Jesus' name? It's jacked up. Here's the thing, man. What is it in charita anyway? Nobody even knows. My kids walk around in the aisle, so they're like, Yoniero, Taco Bell.

like wake up in the middle of the night, live moss. I'm like, what are we doing? Here's the thing, when you go to Taco Bell, you know you're a Taco Bell. Because it has a very distinct culture. It's got its own words. It's got us own value system. It's got us on smell. It's got its own product.

It has a very distinct culture. If you go to Chick-fil-A and you order a Chalupa, everybody's going to look at you like you're crazy. Why? Because Chick-fil-A has a very distinct culture. This is the picture that Matthew has been painting for us the entire book, that in this world, there are two completely different kingdoms at work. There is a kingdom of this world, and then there's the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of this world,

its invitation is one of two roads. One road is religion. That's mostly what Matthew's been about. Religion is an invitation to try to negotiate and barter with God, and based on your behaviors, try to get out of God what you want. That's the, that's the, that's the, the road of religion. The other is rebellion where you just say, forget God, forget morality, forget anything else in this world except for me. I'm going to be about me, mine, and more, and do whatever I want, and I'm going to go that path.

That's the two invitations of this world, but they both end in isolation and they both end, ultimately what the Bible calls, destruction and separation from God. The invitation of Jesus is a completely different invitation. His invitation is an invitation of grace first, and the reason that Jesus' invitation is grace is because he's inviting you to surrender to Jesus. Right? So religion, its invitation is to do your best for your own sake and point at God. Jesus' invitation is not a negotiation.

Jesus' invitation for you and for me is for us to surrender. His first words in his ministry will repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. It is a completely different invitation. Let's just look at some of the words that Jesus has shared with us so far in Matthew. Chapter 10, he says, whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my father in heaven. Do not suppose that I came to bring peace to this earth.

I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, A daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man's enemies, will be in his own household. Anyone who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. Matthew chapter 16 and then Jesus said to the disciples, if anyone would come after me.

If anyone would follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Now, these words all have a very specific meaning and a very specific context, but let me ask you this. Do these words sound like the words of a man who came here to negotiate? Do these words sound like the words of a man who came down here to negotiate? Absolutely not. Jesus did not come to negotiate. He came to take over. He came to take over.

Religion is, if I, then maybe God will. I've tried to play the game. I've tried the negotiation game with God. I'm not sure about you. I don't know if you are aware that you've done this or not, but I have. And it normally happens right around the time that I'm starting to feel sick.

Y'all know what I'm talking about. Right? When you get a little stomach bug, maybe you get a little food poisoning. I don't even know if a little food poisoning is a thing. But you know what I'm saying? All of a sudden you start to sweat a little bit, right? Your thighs start to quiver.

You're getting clammy. What do you do? First thing you do, you go willpower. You do, you just try to hunker down. You're like, I can talk myself out of this. I am mentally strong. It's just pain. That's what you start telling yourself.

Until you realize, wait, I can't get myself out of this on my own strength. Then what do you do? You start negotiating with God. You're like, dear God, if you will just take this demon out of me, then I will never cuss again. I will never judge anyone to their face. I will do only what you want for you, right? You know, it's a negotiation.

This is the religious spirit at work. If God, if you do your part, I'll do my part. If I do my part, you'll do your part. This is the negotiation of religion. Here we are. There's two areas where people find it convenient historically to try and negotiate away from what God has clearly said. These two areas are money and sex.

We are in a shame and honor culture in the first century in this text. And so it wasn't the best option for the Pharisees to debate sexual things publicly. So they went with money instead. We pick up in chapter 22, verse 15. Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle Jesus in his words. Now you've got to hear tone in verse 16. Last week, the Pharisees came frontal assault at Jesus. They're like, who do you think you would?

are. Whose authority do you think that you're operating on them? They came right at him. Jesus just kind of golf slapped them around a little bit and sent them on their way. This week they're trying a different tactic. They're going to try a flattery. Here's how it sounds. Oh, and the disciples sent to them along with the Herodians and they said, teacher, we know that you are true and that you teach the way of God truthfully. You don't care about what anybody thinks. For you are not swayed by Now, the crazy thing about this is that Jesus' adversaries, they don't like each other, but they like him less. And so they're trying to work together.

And so they're just buttering them up. It's just flattery. I coach my youngest daughter's fast-pitched softball team. And the girls in our team, they do this all the time. They'll be like, oh, Coach Britt, that's a really nice shirt. Coach Britt, I've actually never seen your eyes before. That you take your sunglasses on. Those are some pretty green eyes.

Coach Britt, have you lost some weight? That's what they'll say. And then right on the hills, they'd be like, Coach Britt, you're looking good today. Thank you so much. Can you rent us a party bus to go to our next tournament? That's how it goes. Yesterday they were negotiating trying to get me to be in their TikTok video. I'm like, no, not doing it.

I'm not doing it. Why? Because from their perspective as adolescence, our relationship is transactional. They think if they can butter me up, then they can get out of me what it is that they want. This is the Pharisees tactic, verse 17. And so they ask a question. They say, okay, tell us then what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

The question specifically is this, according to the law of Moses, is it lawful for us to pay taxes to a foreign ruler, which is Rome? This is double trouble for Jesus. Because if he answers yes, then the Jewish crowds and the Pharisees will stir up against him and see, he is for Rome, he is a traitor to the Israeli people. That's trouble number one. Trouble number two is if he says, no, then the Pharisees can go to the Romans or the Herodians can go to the Romans and they can say, look, we told you, he's a dissenter. He's trying to start an uprising by getting people to not pay their taxes. And it was nothing to the Romans to just have somebody killed. So Jesus is in what's known as a leadership double bind right here.

What we try to negotiate with God around tells us a lot about what we care about. What we try to negotiate around tells us a lot about what we care about. Here, the topic is money. Now, why do you think this specific law would be the one that they choose to trap Jesus in? Well, do you think that we're the first culture in the history of the world to love money and to look at it for significance? No, man, this has been going on for a really long time. Here's the thing about religion.

And anytime I say the word religion, I just want to be really, really clear. I'm not talking about it in the like culturally accepted, positive kind of category of self-help that you can add to your life if you want to be a little bit happier and a little bit more moral. In fact, I have never heard anyone from this stage contend

and I am certainly not contending today for you to be a more religious person. Hear me. We are not up here trying to convince you to be more religious. We're not trying to convince you to be trapped in the behaviors of religion to do a little bit more, to try to get a little bit more. We don't want you to be trapped in the spirit of religion. We want you to love God. We want you to love him, to see him as the highest and the best,

to be overthrown with the reality of his grace that he has done for you, what you cannot do for yourself that he has sent Jesus Christ to live your life instead of you, dying a sinner's death in your place, paying the just and full penalty for sin, so that your sins could be forgiven, and by grace through faith, you could be accepted into the family of God, and you could have a seat with Jesus Christ the king for all of eternities and enjoy him and the riches of heaven by God's grace. That's what we want, for you to be captivated with God. That's what we want. So I'm not talking about man-made, man-centered religion.

I'm talking about loving God. Religion says, I give God something so that God will give me something. It turns our relationship with him into a transaction. And money is a perfect example to use in context because it's tactile. You either pay your taxes according to the laws of the land that you live in or you don't. You either pay them the right way or you don't. you are either biblically faithful in money's use. You are a cheerful giver, as the Apostle Paul writes.

You give according to your means and beyond, as the Apostle Paul writes. You bring your first and your best to God, and you use everything else in your life as a steward unto God's glory. You're either that or you're not. Generosity is not a feeling. It is a measurable, tactile fact. And so it's a fascinating illustration that they have here. See, the difference is not so much the what as it is the why. religion says I give obedience to get a blessing.

The kingdom of God says giving is the blessing. You see how they're different? I give money, is what religion says, to get prosperity. I give morality to get God's approval. I give religious activity so that I can have a clear conscience. I give sacrifice to get God to owe me. I give God my best behavior, because I'm trying to get control back over my circumstances which feel out of control.

This is all religious transaction. Religion at its best is a habit swap. You're swapping one set of habits for another set of habits. Religion is at best a habit swap. Hear me today. We've said this many times. Jesus did not come first for your habits. He came for your heart.

He did not come first for your habits. He came for your heart. If religion is a habit swap, the invitation of Jesus Christ is a heart swap. You just get a different heart. Jesus, verse 18, says, but Jesus, aware of their malice, said, why put me to the test, you hypocrites? You see, he knows what's in their hearts. Mine too. Yours too.

Jesus says there are two things that reveal what's going on in someone's heart. Number one, he says, out of the heart, the mouth speaks. And number two, he says, where your treasure is, your heart will be also. These are the two telltale signs to see who is first, what's priority in your life. The words that come out of your mouth and where your wallet is. These are Jesus' words. 1 Samuel 16 says, for the Lord sees not as man sees. man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.

Inside the context of the topic of money, it says, the world would say, be rich. And hear me, Jesus doesn't just offer a different what, he offers a better why. It's not just a different what, it's a better why. The world says, be rich. And Jesus says, and I quote, be rich towards God. It's different. It's different. The world says money makes you matter.

Jesus is like, nah, man. No. You should use money as the tool that it is while you live your life for what God says matters. The world says money is your security. If you can just get to that number in your bank account, then you'll be able to rest easy at night. Jesus says absolutely not.

I am your security. You trust in me and you seek first the kingdom of God and all of these things will be added unto you. Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, but store up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and thieves cannot break in and steal. Do you see it's just different? It's a different economy.

It is a different way of looking at it. Verse 19, Jesus continues. And he says, show me the coin for the taxed. He's like, hey, right here, give me one of those coins. And so they brought him a denarius, a Roman minted coin. And Jesus said, whose likeness and inscription is on this coin? And then he said to them, therefore rendered a Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are gods. He grabs on to the coin and he says, hey, whose picture's on this thing?

And on one side, it would have been Tiberius Caesar, who was the emperor of Rome. And right above his head, it would have said, it said, son of the divine. That's what it said. You flip that coin over, and on the other side, it says Pontifex Maximus, which means high priest. Think about the paradox. The King of Kings, our great high priest, is standing there holding a coin with somebody else's face on it that says, he's the son of the divine and he's the high priest. Jesus says, whose picture's on this? And they go, well, it's Cesar's.

And he's like, all right, well, they can give to Caesar. What's Cesar's? Romans chapter 13 explains it like this. Let every person be subject to governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. For because of this, you also pay taxes for the authorities and ministers of God attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, and honor to whom honor is owed. is written in the context of the Roman Empire, which was completely brutal. But the key word

you have to grab on in Jesus' explanation here is the word render. You see, render doesn't just simply mean to give. It means to give back what is rightfully owed. It doesn't just mean to give something. It means to bring back what is rightfully owed. And so Jesus doesn't just stop at the government. He goes to a higher authority. He says, give to Caesar what's Caesar's and give to God what is God's. And so the question is, what things are God's? If I'm supposed to render unto God the things that are God's, what things belong to God?

Well, the answer is this. Everything. Everything belongs to God. To the Lord your God belong the heavens and the heavens of the heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Deuteronomy chapter 10. First Chronicles 29, yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the majesty, the splendor for everything in heaven and on earth is yours.

Colossus chapter 1. In Him, Jesus Christ, all things were created for Him, through to Him, by Him, and everything one day is coming back to him. It's all His. It's all His. We cannot give to someone what already belongs to them. We can't give to somebody what already belongs to them. can only bring it back or we can give it to someone else an error. So Jesus grabs the coin and says, whose image is on this? They say Caesar. Okay. Now, I wasn't there, and this is not in the text,

but in my mind's eye, Jesus puts his hand on somebody he knows shoulders. And he looks at them in the face and he says, and give to God, what is God's? What's he asking? If Caesar's image is on this coin, whose image is on you? Whose image is on you? Genesis chapter one, in the image of God we were created. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them. This is at the heart of surrender. I have to realize whose I am before I can begin to realize who I am. I have to know who I belong to before I can ever begin to realize

what I was created for. Whose I am is a far more important question to answer than who I am. God, let me encourage you with this today. God created you in his image and the links that he's gone through the gospel to win you back. And I want to be theologically careful.

clear about it. God didn't come to get you. He came to get you back. What was lost at the fall, what has been lost in man's separation from God because of our rebellion against him called sin, our resistance to his ways, our resistance to his word, our man-sitterness, when we decided to put ourselves at the center of the universe instead of see God as the ultimate and the highest good, in that something was lost, fractured, shattered, and we have been wandering around trying to find all of the things that we were created for. And by God's grace, Jesus Christ came to show us and to give us the abundant life that only can come from heaven. That's what he came for.

And we now look to God as the source of our purpose and meaning. God wants you back. Listen to me, with all of your insecurities, and with all of your worries, and with all of your anxiety, and with all of your past, and with all of your sin struggle. It's not a struggle. It's sin. With all of your sin and life struggles. with all of the things that make you, your successes, your hurts, your trauma, your loss, your wins,

everything that makes you, you, listen to me, God wants you back. You are as unique as your fingerprint. Think about that for a second. There is nobody on the earth who can glorify God in your time and space other than you. You're the only one who can do it. You are the only one who has your testimony, who has your story, who has your distinct purpose. You're the only one that has the opportunity to glorify God and to make much of Jesus on this earth in your lifetime. You're the only one.

It is unique to you. What a gift. Are you walking in that gift? Are you walking in the gift that you are as created by God in his image? Jesus, verse 22, it says, when the Pharisees and the Herodians heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. The same day, the Sadducees, Okay, there's some jokes about the Sadducees.

She's heard it. The Sadducees are very sad, you see. And this is how you remember. This is how you remember. Why are they sad? Well, because they don't believe in the resurrection. They don't believe in life after death. They only prescribe to the first five books of the Old Testament, kind of.

And most of the eternal life, everlasting life commentary in the Old Testament comes from the prophetic writings, namely the book of Daniel. and the Pharisees would have seen the prophetic writings as core doctrine. These are tenets of their faith, but the Sadducees, not so much. And it's important to know that because of the ridiculousness of the exchange this is about to happen. So the same day, the Sadducees came to him who say that there is no resurrection, and they ask him a question. Teacher. Moses said, if a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. And it kind of gets auctioning here, like an auctioneer.

Now there were seven brothers among us, the first Mary died, and having no offspring left us a brother. So the second, the third, and down the seven, all the woman died, and the resurrection, therefore, the seven, who's, like that, you know what I mean? You all impressed? All right. The second dies, the third dies down to the seventh husband dies. After them, the woman dies.

In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her. Now, it's a fascinating question considering they don't even believe in the resurrection. Right? They're asking about something known as Leverett marriage. It's outlined in Deuteronomy chapter 25. Now, I don't know why they picked this one specifically because they could have kept reading in Deuteronomy, which if you just want to have a wild time this afternoon, go home and read

Deuteronomy. It's the next law, I can't believe I've been going to tell you all this, but the next law is if two men get into a fight and the wife gets involved in the fight and she grabs on, well, I just can't even, if she grabs things that she's not supposed to grab to try to stop the fight, you can cut her hand off. That's what the next law says. Why not pick that law to go after Jesus, huh? Everybody's got a line somewhere, I guess.

Seems that mine in the Sadducees line's line's different, you know what I mean? But why this law? Well, here's the thing. The absurdity of their question is because they believe the idea of a resurrection after earthly death is absurd. They are trying to make Jesus look foolish. And Jesus, look, I love a good parable. I love it when Jesus paints these word pictures about what the kingdom of God is like. Of course, I love it.

But I really love it when Jesus just talks straight, when he just goes right at it. And it says it's verse 29. He says, but Jesus answered them, you are wrong. You wrong. Here's why, though. You're wrong because you neither know the scriptures nor the power of God. What an indictment. What about you?

Do you know the scriptures and the power of God? We live in a culture where the narrative right now is, well, I think God is like. I think God is like. I just don't think God would ever do that. I mean, I can't serve that God. My God looks like this, and all we're doing is just trying to create a God in our own image.

It's terrifying. Listen, the only place that we know and can go to to find what God is actually like is this book. Anything else is an opinion and frankly a terrible one. A terrible one. This book is the authority on who God is, what he's like, what's he's done. If it's here, it comes from heaven. This book is the authority.

Jesus said, you're wrong. You don't know the scriptures nor the power of God. Let me ask you this question. What is the decision that you have made in your life that makes all the other decisions. What is the decision that you've made that makes all the other decisions? Is it feelings? Is it popular culture?

Is it family traditions? Let me remind you today that there is a greater power than anything at work in this world that can drive your life. There is a greater power. Romans chapter 1, verse 16, says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation for all. who hear and believe anyone who places their faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ can be set

free from anything at any moment in time. Jesus can break any chain, any bondage, any generational sin, one drop of Jesus' blood from the cross applied by grace through faith can set people from ten generations of oppression completely free. It gives feet to the lame. It gives sight to the blind. It gives new hearts to dead sinners. It wakes the dead.

It opens people's eyes. It sets the prisoners free. And today you and I can be overthrown with it, and we can live in and under its power. The gospel is the most powerful force at work on the earth because it doesn't come from this earth. It comes from heaven. This gospel is worth our very lives. And it is certainly the only things that our life can be built on that will last. Now it gets super interesting right here.

Verse 30. I hope you brought your church seatbelt for this. Verse 30, it says this, you don't know God. That's what he just said. You're wrong. You don't know the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Leverett marriage, the idea was simple. You lived around your brothers and your sisters, probably shared land with your family. if a man dies, the widow became the responsibility of the brother. He was supposed to take her as his wife. If he didn't do that, then the wife could appeal to the town elders, and the elders would try to negotiate with that man, and if the man still wouldn't take her, then she could take his sandal off and spit in his face.

That was the law. It was this very shameful thing. Jesus is like, you've missed the entire point. In the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they're like angels and angels. heaven. All right, there's two groups of people here when they hear Jesus say, we won't be married in heaven. Some people are like, really? I never heard that. The other group's like, oh, thank you God. But hey, if that's you, just know we're here for you. Man, you can text care to 44, 11, 22.

We want you to have a God-honoring, joy-filled marriage, right? We're here to help. It's important to note that Jesus doesn't say that we are going to become angels. He says we are going to be like angels in the context of marriage. Nobody here is getting their wings or becoming someone else's guardian angel when you die. That's just not what the Bible teaches. I've done a lot of funerals as a pastor and I'm always honored to be a part. And one of the things I've heard a lot over the years at funerals, and I do appreciate the sentiment. I do appreciate the sentiment. But you'll hear people say some version of when they're giving testimony in behalf of the deceased, they'll say, well, I guess God needed another angel. And after it's over, I just want to walk up to

him and hug him and be like, he didn't. He didn't. And it's infinitely better. You see, the Bible says for anyone who's in Christ that they are far superior to the angels, that man being created in God's image is the highest of his creations, that we are God's treasure for the joy set before him, which was us. Jesus endured the cross despising its shame. Right? This is infinitely better because of what Christ has done on our behalf, when we are revealed this by grace through faith and we surrender our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we get all of the riches of heaven that Christ has earned. We are now seated with him in the heavenly places.

And so everything that's coming due to Jesus, all the glorious riches of grace, he freely shares with his brothers and sisters that are you and me and we get to enjoy the riches of heaven forever and ever. That's the better invitation. So we have become angels. We're like sons and daughters in the kingdom. of God, it's a completely different thing. But what does it mean to be like angels

in the context of marriage? Well, it means that we are eternal and complete. In context, it means angels aren't married and neither will people be. And I do put this in the category of Jesus' tough teachings because, and this is the reason why, and you're gonna write this down.

Because it is easy to think about heaven from an earthly perspective and it is hard to think about earth from a heavenly perspective. It is easy to think about heaven from an earthly perspective. It is hard to think about earth from a heavenly perspective.

Have you ever heard this statement? I used to hear this all the time when I was a kid. Well, that person is just so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good. They're just so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good. Well, if that's true of someone, I've never met them. I've never actually met a person who is so obsessed with heaven that they're no good on earth.

I don't think it's actually a possible thing. I don't think it's possible. It still raises the question, what happens? After we die, what is Jesus specifically talking about? Well, I heard a part of a sermon from an old Irish minister, and I can't say it better than he did. So I'm just going to read you. It's a long quote, and so I'm going to put it on the screens

because I think it's that rich. So the question is, what about those who are nearest to us on earth? If we don't marry in heaven, what will happen to these relationships? Will I still have a special relationship with my wife in heaven? Will I still treat my parents as father and mother? Will our close friends here be our close friends there? It's all very well to look forward to meeting tens of thousands,

but are we not created in such a way as to still want an inner circle? Such questions are natural, but they're not easy to answer. We will certainly know one another in heaven. King David looked forward to being reunited with his dead son there. I shall go to him is what he said. Paul urges bereaved Christians not to sorrow as others who have no hope. For God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. The reason for not grieving like unbelievers is that their parting is not permanent.

We will meet again. This is it right here. We cannot know less in heaven than we did on earth. We cannot know less in heaven than we did on earth. And so we will recognize there, those known to us here, that is surely comforting. We're also told that many aspects of marriage will no longer be appropriate in glory. Where to quote from Jesus, they neither marry nor are given in marriage. There will be no reproduction.

The husband will not need a helper, nor the wife someone to cherish her protectively. Children will not require parental care. the relationship between Christ and his church will be so obvious as to render unnecessary a human illustration. Does this mean that your husband or my best friend will be no more to us than anyone else among the multitudes of the redeemed? I don't think so. For every good thing will be better in heaven than on earth. If God has given you a Christian husband or wife, parent, or child, brother or friend, you can be sure. that whatever the parameters of our future relationship with them may be the friendship will be

closer there than it is now you will know them more intimately love them more intensely delight in them more fully it is impossible that we should lose anything good in that place where good abounds we can look at Christians whom we love and especially and praise god that we will continue to love them more and more forever and ever. Amen. Verse 31, Matthew 22. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what it was said to you by God?

I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead. He is the God of the living. And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his day. teaching. Jesus is referencing Exodus chapter 3. This is when the Lord

shows up to Moses in a burning bush and calls him to go and confront Pharaoh. This is what Jesus is what he's referencing. And he says that 500 years from Abraham to Moses,

he says when he's talking to Moses, he doesn't say I was the God of Abraham. He talks about it in the present tense. I am the God of Abraham because he is the God of the living, not the God of the dead. And the genius about what Jesus just did right here is he went to the first five books of the Old Testament to prove them wrong about the thing that they don't believe in. Some verses. To be away from the body is to be

present with the Lord. John 316, the most famous verse in the history of the world, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but will have eternal life. Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. John 17. Now this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God and believe in Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Whoever hears my word and does it believes him who sent me has eternal life. He will not be judged but has crossed over from death. to life, eternal life. We will spend it somewhere with someone. It is a guarantee. Jesus the Christ, the son of the living God, the one who was and is and is to come, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords.

What Jesus is getting at here, the heart of this is this, is he your Lord? The central issue of the New Testament is lordship. He is either the Lord, or he is not. Verse 34. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them a lawyer,

asked him a question to test him. Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And he said, you shall love. You shall love. You shall love the Lord God. With all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment,

and a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. This lawyer or scribe walks up to Jesus and says, okay, of all the words that God has ever spoken, what are the most important ones? Of everything God said, what do you put at the top of the list? And Jesus quotes the Shama from Deuteronomy chapter 6.

We've studied it hundreds of times as a church. It's the most prayed prayer in the history of the world. And at the heart of the Shama, there are some questions that we have to answer when we take the audit of our life, when we look at where we spend our time, where we look at what our life really is about, the Shama puts us down at the crucible of our own existence,

and we begin to ask these questions, is God the one thing that drives everything in my life? Is he a priority on my list, or did he write the list, and is he the page on which the list is written? I love it that Jesus doesn't say, hey, you know what? verse 37 he doesn't say and you shall agree with right ideas

he doesn't say you shall be able to articulate your beliefs he doesn't say that you're to be a good dad or a good mom or a good investor that you're supposed to be a good employee or a good boss all of these really good things are fine but what we do is we take good things and turn them into God and for the sake of the gift we miss the giver he doesn't say that what does he say He says, you shall love God. And you know, you wake up every day and you're doing it, man. You're living your life.

You're out there doing it. Let me just ask you this question. When you take audit, when you really look around your life, do you love him? Do you love him? You would say, I think so. I mean, maybe I want to. How would I know? Jesus says it like this.

John 1415. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 1 John chapter 2, verses 3 through 6 says, and by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments as a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him truly the love of God is perfected.

By this we know that we are in him. whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. To know Christ is to love Christ, to love Christ is to trust Christ. To trust Christ is to do what he says. Verse 41, whose son is the Christ? While the Pharisees were gathered together and we're going to close here, Jesus asked them a question. This is where the soundtrack in the movie turns.

The violin starts to rip in minor key. You know what I mean? It's like, you're getting a little nervous. Jesus like, all right, boys, I got a question for you. What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? And they said to him, the son of David. And he said to them, how is it then in the spirit?

He calls him Lord saying, quotes the Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son? and no one was able to answer him a word nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. I love that so much. Everybody knows David. He's the greatest king in the history of Israel. Everybody knows him.

And in Psalm 110 in the Spirit, David prophesies about the Messiah who is the Christ. The Pharisees, the religious leaders, held on to the belief that a king, a Messiah, was coming in the line of David, which Jesus was born in the line of David, and it was no secret, in the line of David, but he was going to come as an earthly ruler, and this is it. He was going to reestablish Israel back to the dominance and the prominence that it had when David was king. They were looking to the Messiah to do for them what they wanted, which is to be back in charge. Jesus came as a completely different Messiah with a completely different agenda. He didn't come to give people what they wanted. He gave to do for people what they needed.

He came to do what they needed. It's a completely different offer. Why would David, if it was all about his lineage being the king, why would he the king call his son the Lord? Jesus is like, it just doesn't make any sense. The truth is they were looking for a political solution to what they considered to be a political problem. Jesus is looking at his adversaries and saying,

you don't have a political problem. You don't have a leadership problem. You have a lordship problem. You have a lordship problem. You love and are trying to preserve your preferred way of life and you want the Christ to do it for you. That's not how it works. Religion's offer is do this and that to get what you want from God.

Jesus' invitation is surrender. Religion says, try this. And maybe you'll have that. Jesus says, forget all that. Surrender. Surrender. Surrender what? Everything.

Surrender everything. And when you do, you will find that true life is right there. That this is what life was always supposed to be about. Jesus says, give me your life. Give me your hopes. Give me your dreams. Give me your past, your sins, your future. Give me your family.

Give me your finances. Give it back to me. and you will see what it means to truly live. So I'm going to close, and I'm going to ask you the same question. What do you think about the Christ? What do you think about the Christ? What do you do when you get to the place where there's no more questions to ask? When you get to the end of playing games with God,

trying to negotiate terms, what do you do when God decides the negotiation is over? Well, you either walk away or you worship Jesus Christ. Those are the two choices. So I'm going to ask these questions and then I'm going to pray for us. Who do you think the sun rises for every day? What's that about? Who do you think the stars are shining for? Who do you think the birds are singing to?

Do we get to enjoy that? Yeah. Is that about us? I mean, who's the sun up there for? for? Who's the stars shining for? Who are the birds singing for? What is this breath in our lungs for? What are these words in our mouths for? What are these gifts and talents? What are these moments and these minutes? What is all of this for? The better question is, who is all of this about? The scripture's contented is about one person and it's not me and it's not you. It is about Jesus, the Christ,

the son of the living God. Who is your Lord? Let me pray for us. Father, we love you. We thank you. We need you. Jesus, you are the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. I pray that by grace we would receive the revelation of truth. That as you have done for us, more than we could ever imagine. God, I pray that our response would be surrender.

Maybe there's areas of our life where we're just trying to hang on, we're trying to negotiate. We believe, but help our unbelief. Father, we pray that in this place, that we would receive your words as an invitation to draw near to you, to grow into deeper relationship with you. You want to walk with us. You want to talk with us. God, we know that we just can't muster up love,

that love comes as a response to having seen who you are. So open our eyes, open our hearts. As we respond, Christ, we want the songs that we sing, we want the prayers that we pray to be about you. In Jesus' name, we pray. pray. Amen. At all of our campuses, would you stand with me? We're going to respond. We respond in three ways. One is that we sing true words about King Jesus, believing that when we say them out of our mouth, that they'll grab onto our hearts and our minds and be a part of this

takeover. We bring our first and best through financial generosity, our ties and our offerings, bringing back to God because it is rightfully his and we want him to know that we love him and see him. And then we confess through prayer. We put our bodies in the posture. We put our bodies in the posture that we want our hearts and lives to be in as we pray and surrender ourselves holy and totally unto the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Let's respond.