The Moody Church Sunday Morning Podcast

How would you respond if you saw the risen Jesus face-to-face three days following the crucifixion? The disciples were notably disturbed, fearful, and shamed in this passage from John 20. Yet Jesus’ response to them was something that reverberates thousands of years later for believers today: "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." In this passage, we learn that in Jesus' presence we have four priceless things:Peace

Power

Perspective

Purpose Are you living your life like Jesus is dead? Are you feeling demoralized, or stuck? The resurrection gives you the chance to live in His presence with all the promises therein. Because when you’re in His presence it changes everything. How will you live in light of this? John 20:19-23

How do we make peace with God when our sin has damaged that relationship? In this passage from Psalm 51, written by King David, we explore five steps to the spiritual practice of confession: The Review

The Repercussions

The Roots

The RequestsDavid asks God for a CLEAN heart.

David asks God for a NEW heart.

David asks God for a MISSIONAL heart.The Responsiveness Psalm 51

What does it look like to return to the Lord with all your heart? In this passage from Joel 2:12-17, the context is that God had sent a great famine on the people of Israel, and they were in perilous conditions. And in that context, God, in His mercy, sends His prophet with one word: Repent! This passage teaches us what it looks like to repent and turn to the Lord. The nature of true repentance (vv. 12-13a)

The incentive for repentance (v. 13b)

The submissiveness of repentance (v. 14)

The urgency of repentance (vv. 15-17a)

The reason for repentance (v. 17b)

Life is learned, and we’re all learning how to live from someone. And at the end of the day, we will live our lives in one of three ways: by Default (replicating familial patterns), by Drift (doing what everyone else is doing), or by Design (building your life with intention). In this sermon, we explore two philosophies of life, one religious and one secular, and compare these to a third way, the Way of Jesus. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism: God set up the world to work best for those who live rightly; so, if you want a whole and happy life now and Heaven when you die, be good. The problem is if you try to build your life on this philosophy, it simply can’t support the weight of your life. It won’t be able to handle the pressures that come your way, and in the end, it’ll collapse. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is sinking sand.

Expressive Individualism: Life is about finding our deepest, inner self and expressing it authentically in the face of all expectations; so, if you want a whole and happy life, be yourself. The problem is if you try to build your life on yourself, it simply can’t support the weight of your own life. It won’t be able to handle the pressures that come your way, and in the end, it’ll collapse. Expressive Individualism is sinking sand.

Gospel-Centered Life in Jesus: We are made for abundant life with God, a relationship we lost because of our sin, but one that Jesus gave Himself to restore; so, if you want a whole and happy life with God now and forever, believe in Jesus. If I’m building my life on what I do, or if I’m building my life on who I am, at the end of the day, my life is built on myself. And I’ll never be enough because it’s a life built on sand. But if I build my life on whose I am, at the end of the day my life is built on Jesus. And He is always enough, so it’s a life built on The Rock. Takeaway: On whom is your life built?

The Bible often uses an analogy comparing two ways, two paths that people can take in their spiritual journey. In the Garden of Eden, God presents Adam and Eve with two ways, and two trees, one that’s fruit is life and the other that’s death.  At the end of Deuteronomy, Moses presents Israel with two ways, “See, I have set before you life and death, good and evil.” Then Joshua, having led the people into the land of promise, presented them with two ways, to serve either foreign gods or the true living God: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” In the Proverbs we are again presented with the two ways: the way of folly and the way of wisdom. You see, God is always bringing His people to the proverbial fork in the road, the moment of decision, the parting of the ways. And in His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus once again presents us with The Two Ways. In this passage from Matthew 7:13-29, we’ll organize our thoughts around three questions: What are the two ways? The Way of the Pharisees versus The Way of Jesus. The wide, easy, and popular gate that leads to destruction is the Way of the Scribes and Pharisees. The Scribes & Pharisees are the wolves in sheep’s clothing. They’re the diseased tree with the bad fruit. They’re the ones with the religious resumes that will never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. But the narrow, hard, and unpopular gate that leads to life is the Way of Jesus. He’s the authentic sheep, the true prophet of God who you can trust and follow. He’s the good tree with life-giving fruit. And on judgement day you will be known to Him and enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And if you build your life on His Word, the house of your life will stand through the storms of life.

What tells them apart? Religious Moralism versus the Gospel of Jesus. Do you see how different this is? When the storms of life come and beat against the life of a Religious Moralist their world collapses. The Religious Moralist can’t handle much pain and suffering in life. In contrast, when the storm comes, a Gospel Person drives the pylons of their foundation even deeper into the Rock which holds them fast. The hardships of life serve to anchor and tether us increasingly to the person of Jesus, who is our only hope in life.

What is at stake? Impermanent Life versus Indestructible Life. One way looks broad and easy, but it ends in destruction. You get eaten alive; the fruit is rotten; there’s no Kingdom of Heaven; and the storms of life will wipe you out. The other way looks hard and narrow, but it leads to life. Jesus is a guide you can follow; the fruit is life-giving; the Kingdom of Heaven opens wide; and the storms of life serve to secure your soul. Takeaways:Which gate will you choose?

Which guide will you follow?

Which fruit will you eat?

Which righteousness will you pursue?

Which foundation will you build? Matthew 7:13-29 Got questions about the sermon? We address those during our weekly podcast, Living The Message. Email questions to [email protected].

One of the foundational questions of moral philosophy down through the ages is: “What is a virtuous life?” When Jesus speaks about what a life of virtue looks like in the Sermon on the Mount, He’s not doing so in a vacuum. He’s joining an ongoing conversation in His Greco-Roman and Jewish milieu. And the clearest example of this dialogue is in Jesus’ articulation of what we now call “The Golden Rule.” In this passage from Matthew 7:12, Jesus is the first person in world history to make love the central, unifying virtue. This is a watershed moment that continues to shape us today. Not only does Jesus give us unparalleled moral clarity with His ethic of love, He also provides us an unprecedented power to live into that ethic. Let’s explore how Jesus ties the Sermon on the Mount together front-to-back with rhetorical genius. The Way of Love: Scholars of the Gospels have long observed that Jesus’ virtue of love both unfolds and deepens over the course of His teaching ministry; and it all begins with His teaching of The Golden Rule: treat others as you would want to be treated. In contrast to earlier concepts of virtue, Jesus’ ethic is one of loving service, empathy, compassion, and grace. A few years later, Jesus expands on the The Golden Rule with Matthew 22:37-40; love God, love others. Then, at the end of His ministry, Jesus went further in John 13:24-35; love others as I have loved you. With these revelations, Jesus’s virtue of love is unfolding and deepening: treat others the way you wish to be treated; love others as yourself; and love one another just as I have loved you. So, what is a virtuous life, the ethic of all ethics, the commandment of all commandments? The true ethic is a life of love like Jesus.

The Life of Love: It’s one thing for Jesus to give us this unparalleled moral clarity in His ethic of love. It’s another thing to empower people to actually live into it. Notice that the timing of when Jesus gives the New Commandment in John 13 is the night before He goes to the cross. In other words, the New Commandment isn’t given in isolation, it’s surrounded on every side by the New Covenant inaugurating the work of Jesus and the promised indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In other words, it is only through the redemption of Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit that we can begin to follow Jesus in His way of love. When we walk with the Spirit in Jesus’ way of love for others, the righteous requirements of the law of God are fulfilled in us. It is the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, that empowers us to live a life of love like Jesus.

The Heart of Righteousness: By grace, through faith in Christ, and by the Holy Spirit we now have the heart of righteousness. And this new heart of righteousness grants us access to the abundant life of the Kingdom of Heaven.Takeaway: In Christ and by His Spirit, our Father is loving us into loveliness.Matthew 7:12 Living The Message episode available here: https://youtu.be/XQ6OyjinzqY Got sermon questions? Questions for Living The Message can be emailed to [email protected].

What does God want from us? It’s a confusing and frustrating question, but we can find a helpful answer in Micah 6:1-8 where God gives Israel a clear answer. Three things the Lord requires: do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. So, what does this answer mean? Do Justice: In the original Hebrew, the term is “misphat”, meaning justice. Justice is advocacy, generosity, and action. The early church was famous for all three of these: advocacy for racial and gender equality, generosity in their provision for the poor, and action in rescuing babies from infanticide and women from pagan temple prostitution. Many scholars point out that the early church grew at an astonishing rate in part because of how the people of God reflected the beautiful heart of God in justice through these actions, and people couldn’t resist this beauty.

Love Kindness: The English translates this requirement as kindness, but the Hebrew word, “chesed,” can be translated as steadfast love. But perhaps the best approximation of this term between the English and Hebrew is “compassionate loyalty.”

Walk Humbly: True justice (misphat) and kindness (chesed) manifest themselves in true humility before God. True humility is only possible through a humble intimate walk with God, otherwise it becomes self-righteousness and false humility. So, what does God require? He requires all of you because Jesus gave us all of Himself. He requires not just your liturgy, but your life. Not just your works, but your heart. Not just your intentions, but your pride. Takeaways:Do Justice: Where do you see your world broken?

Love Kindness: How is your heart breaking for the world?

Walk Humbly: What would my God have me do? Micah 6:1-8

The passage from Matthew 7:1-12 is notoriously difficult to understand due to its complex thematic interconnections. What seems like a random collection of Jesus’ wisdom is actually a message about how we are to treat others. Jesus is identifying two radically different ways of treating others, which flows through two radically different hearts: a self-righteous heart like the Pharisees, and a kingdom-heart made alive by God’s grace. What kind of heart treats others rightly? The Heart of Unhelpfulness: A self-righteous heart is helpless with others. Condemnation flows from a heart of self-righteousness, and self-righteousness never helps anybody. If we’re condemning, blaming, shaming, and ostracizing others, there’s something much bigger than a speck of sin in our eye; we’re blinded by the log of self-righteousness. And self-righteous people shouldn’t try to help others deal with harmful stuff in their life.

The Heart of Helpfulness: Jesus describes another approach: to ask, seek, and knock on the doors of others. If someone is bothering you, what if you ask for their help? What if you seek them out to build a relationship? What if you knock on the door of their life? You see, souls open from the inside. You can’t force entry into another person’s soul. The only way to speak into another person’s life is if they willingly allow you in. That’s the approach that God takes with us. Scripture teaches us how to live well in relationship with others, and to treat others the way you’d like to be treated. And the only way that is possible is with the new heart of the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus is offering us by grace through the Holy Spirit. A heart that has received the grace of God, is equipped to extend the grace of God. That’s why a righteousness-graced heart is so helpful with others, because a heart that receives grace knows how to extend grace.

The Heart of Helplessness: The irony is that that most helpful heart is the one that realizes its helplessness. Only a helpless heart can help other helpless hearts. Takeaway: Grace floods out of a heart that is flooded by grace. You want a heart for others? Let the grace of God flood into your life and wash all the self-righteous entitlement and ego away until there’s nothing left but a poor, abject sinner beating his breast crying out to God, “Have mercy upon me, a sinner!” And in your helplessness, you’ll discover how supremely helpful you are to the helpless hearts around you. For in your gentle, lowly, and humble heart, others will sense the presence of Christ in your story of amazing grace. Matthew 7:1-12 Living The Message episode: https://youtu.be/L7tLS5Tk1Gg

Jesus hates worry and what it does to people. Worry is like a venom, stealing our life. The antidote is to remember that we exist in a God-created, God-sustained, God-filled, God-watched, God-loved, and God-kept universe. For those of us who worry, Jesus is inviting us into the abundant life of the Kingdom of Heaven that is “at hand” in His presence. We can be free from worry knowing that our life is perfectly safe in the hands of your loving Father, both now and forever. In this passage from Matthew 6:24-34, Jesus gives us six antidotes to a life of worry:You are a God-breathed soul in a God-crafted body.

You are priceless image-bearer in a God-sustained universe.

Your life and times are perfectly safe in the hands of Almighty God.

You are an immortal being designed to be clothed in radiance in the presence of God.

You are a beloved child known by a good Father.

There is a life beyond worry in the Kingdom of our Father, one day at a time. Takeaway: There is freedom from worry in childlike faith. With God as our Heavenly Father, nothing irredeemable can happen to us. Matthew 6:24-34 Living The Message episode: https://youtu.be/Negy3SOqbZU

In Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven is breaking into reality, establishing a beachhead of the new creation. And Jesus is inviting us to follow Him into this cosmic disruption. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, to get in on the ground floor of the greatest Kingdom the world will ever know. Here's our choice: Will we keep on investing our time and energy and resources in the Kingdom of Earth? Or, will we see this breakthrough for what it is, will we understand the opportunity, will we get in early and invest in the Kingdom of Heaven? In this passage from Matthew 6:19-24, we find three deep insights into what it means to invest in the Kingdom of Heaven.The Two Treasures: Our treasure is our trajectory. If the treasure of our life is an earthly one, the trajectory of our souls is heart-wrenching, because we'll always feel at risk of losing it all. But if our treasure is in heaven, our trajectory is different, because our future is incorruptible. A heart tied to heavenly treasures can weather any storm. Choose wisely, because our treasure is your trajectory.

The Two Eyes: Our beholding is our becoming. What we see and savor, shapes the character of our inner life far more than we realize. We can’t help that we are designed for worship, but we get to choose what we worship. And what we worship will either devour us or fulfill our deepest longings.

The Two Masters: Our loyalty is our lifestyle. Whatever we worship in life will win our allegiance, because our loyalty is our lifestyle. We serve what we seek; we live for what we long for. God is the only master who gives us our life back when we serve Him. Takeaway: What are you living for? Only what’s done for Christ will last. Matthew 6:19-24 Living the Message episode: https://youtu.be/fvZprHKq8eQ