A prayer of thankfulness and a call to humility and openness to God's Word.

Prayer and Thankfulness

Acknowledgment and appreciation for the speakers who have shared the Word in the past weeks.

Appreciation for Speakers

The story of William Wilberforce and his efforts to end slavery based on his Christian beliefs.

William Wilberforce and Abolition of Slavery

Reflections on the authority of Jesus and the significance of living according to the Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount

The call to live as a community that reflects the light and salt of God, offering reconciliation and flourishing.

Living as a Community of God

The importance of spiritual growth and maturity, and the fruit of becoming more like Christ.

Becoming Mature in Christ

The decision to choose the narrow road and proper models of mankind and messages on the journey.

Choosing the Right Path

Challenges the pursuit of miracles and recognition over becoming more like Jesus.

Questioning the Christian Life

Highlights the privilege of gathering to hear God's word and grow in small church settings.

The Privilege of Small Church

Emphasizes the impact of individuals who embody the character of Jesus.

Manifesting Christ

Stresses the importance of building a life on the foundation of Jesus.

Choosing the Proper Foundation

Explores the consequences of choosing the wrong path and the importance of finishing life on the right foundation.

The Ultimate Finish

Calls for living holy, righteous, and blameless lives as a testimony to others.

Living Worthy of God's Call

Encourages introspection and commitment to obeying and flourishing in Christ.

Reflection and Commitment

Relates the story of the leper to convey the invitation to become a member of God's family.

Becoming a Member of God's Family

- The speaker leads a prayer, thanking God for the privilege of meeting together and for the Word
- They express gratitude for the speakers who have shared the Word in the last few months
- The story of William Wilberforce, a British politician who worked to end slavery, is shared as an example of living according to God's will
- A passage from Matthew chapter 7 is read, emphasizing the importance of doing the will of God to enter the kingdom of heaven.

- Jesus teaches about the importance of putting his words into practice
- He emphasizes the difference between building a house on rock vs sand
- Jesus speaks with authority and gives his disciples the authority to make disciples of all nations
- The Sermon on the Mount is a prelude to Jesus' final instructions to his disciples
- Jesus wants his community to live according to the principles in the Sermon on the Mount
- Christians are called to be the light and salt of the world, showing God's reconciliation to others
- The goal is to live out the principles of the Sermon on the Mount and show the reality of Jesus through our actions
- The focus is on living the Beatitudes and experiencing the gentleness and goodness of Christ

- The speaker discusses the concept of righteousness and perfection in Matthew, emphasizing the importance of living according to the principles of the Sermon on the Mount for the benefit of the community.
- The audience is urged to make decisions about their destination and the evidence of their journey, with a focus on choosing the right path and avoiding false prophets.
- The importance of spiritual growth and maturity is highlighted, with an emphasis on becoming more like Christ and being a positive influence on others.
- The audience is warned about the influence of bad prophets and the danger of seeking quick fixes or material rewards in their spiritual journey.

- The speaker emphasizes the importance of living a Christian life focused on becoming more like Jesus
- He stresses the value of small church communities and the privilege of being able to gather and learn from God's word
- The importance of building a foundation on Jesus and living a life that reflects holiness, righteousness, and blamelessness is highlighted
- The ultimate goal is to live in a way that glorifies God and encourages others to do the same

- The speaker encourages the audience to live lives worthy of God's call
- They emphasize the importance of being holy, righteous, and blameless
- The audience is urged to think about their choices and the road they are on
- The speaker compares Jesus healing the leper to how Jesus can touch and clean our hearts
- The audience is invited to become part of the family of God and obey His commands

The speaker leads a prayer, expressing gratitude for the privilege of meeting and for the Word. They discuss living according to God's will using examples from the story of William Wilberforce and passages from Matthew. The focus is on living out the principles of the Sermon on the Mount and becoming more like Christ, while avoiding false prophets and seeking material rewards. The ultimate goal is to live in a way that glorifies God and encourages others to do the same, and the audience is urged to think about their choices and the road they are on.

Few times this morning, but we're gonna pray again.

So let's just bow our heads and speak to God.

We thank you for the privilege that we have to meet together.

We thank you, Lord, for the Sunday, for the first day of the week that you have given us.

We thank you, Father, for the way that you are working in hearts, that people will come to you, that people are going to be baptized, they're going to decide to become your disciples and to follow you and to call you Lord.

We thank you too for our years, for our minds, for our hearts, for our wills.

And Lord, all of these things usually are not necessarily according to your will.

And We just pray that this morning as we humble ourselves before your word that you would speak to us Father.

That your Holy Spirit might fill this community that's gathered here and that Lord our hearts might be touched with the truth.

Not father that we can say we know something more, but we can say like those that will be baptized, you are Lord and we are your people.

We thank you Father in the name of Jesus.

So today we're continuing with what we've been doing for the last, what is it, 8 weeks now?

Personally, I want to thank all of the people, the speakers that have shared the word with us in the last couple of months.

I'm privileged to be on a Saturday morning Zoom call with them.

And I am witness to how much work they put in to be able to speak to us.

And so, you know, I, in my name, in the sense that I am very thankful and I think that the same would be said of the elders and also of the congregation.

We thank you also for the study that you took.

And we thank the wives for the time that they permitted their husbands.

And let me tell you, I know at least 1 person that was up until 1 30 every morning for at least a week before he spoke.

You don't realize how much work is put into it.

And you know, I have taken courses that have taught us how to prepare and how to speak.

But I've also taken a course on how to listen.

And in a way, we are called as much to open our ears, to open our hearts, to open our minds.

Because today we're coming before God with His Word.

You realize that the book that we have before us or the phone or the iPad or whatever.

It is absolutely true that this morning, God can speak to you personally according to your needs.

You can become, if not already, a child of God.

You too can participate in the ever-growing flourishing of the kingdom of god next 1 alleged that's it anybody know who that is who isn't No.

In the late 1700s, this British politician named William Wilberforce made a big choice that changed things for a long time, even until today.

After a big shift in his spiritual beliefs, Wilberforce chose to spend his life working to improve society, especially by trying to end the buying and selling of slaves.

Even though many people with money and power were against him and many people accepted slavery, Wilberforce didn't stop fighting against it.

He used his job in Parliament to introduce new laws and get people to support him.

He kept working hard for more than 20 years, even when things didn't go his way.

In 1807, due to his hard work, the British government or Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act, ending the slave trade in the British Empire.

After his death in 1833, The slavery abolition act was passed, freeing all slaves in the British Empire.

Wilberforce was against slavery because of his Christian beliefs.

His hard work helped to stop slavery in many places.

His story is the story of a man that decided that God's will in this world was found in his work and he was going to live in a way that he made the choice not only to act for himself, but to act in a way that would change the world even until today.

I don't know if you've read Wilberforce's biography.

They have a small version, they have a bigger version, it's very interesting.

When we understand how prevalent and how important, how absolutely it was an accepted norm that there would be slavery for many different reasons.

He decided to go against all that following his heart warmed and taught by the Spirit of God and the word and he wasn't alone there were others so he did this with others but the way that he lived had an impact much farther than himself, his family right until the world.

Slavery is what it is today in a lot of countries because there was a man of God 1 day that decided to make the right choice.

Let's read Matthew chapter 7 and verses 13 to 20.

Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction.

Many enter through it, but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.

They come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles.

Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Thus by their fruit you will recognize them.

Not everyone, verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only the 1 who does the will of my father who is in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?

Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you.

Therefore, anyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like as a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house.

Yet it did not fail because it had its foundation on the rock.

For every 1 who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house, and it fell with a great crash.

When Jesus had finished these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as 1 who had authority and not as their teachers of the law.

That last verse was the verse that has stayed with me ever since I started study in the Sermon on the Mount with my brothers and sisters several months ago.

When Jesus had finished these things, talking about what he had said on the mountain in all of the sermon, the crowds were amazed at his teaching.

Because he had taught as 1 who had authority and not as their teachers of the law.

Authority refers to the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.

It can be derived from a position, role, expertise or social construct.

This is the power granted in the individuals at institutions by the law to make legal decisions and judgments.

This is the power or right of parents to make decisions concerning their child's welfare and upbringing.

This is the power or influence an individual has due to their expertise or knowledge in a particular field.

That is what man or humanity understands by authority.

It's a power power to give orders, to make decisions, and enforce obedience.

Matthew 28 and verse 18 to 20, next slide, Elijah, That's it.

This is from Matthew 28 and verse 18 to 20.

The words that are said here are very very similar to what Jesus says at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

In fact, it is so similar that Jesus, where is he when he gives the Sermon on the Mount?

Where does he give his last instructions to his disciples?

He came to them and said all, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to what?

Everything I have commanded you and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

The Sermon on the Mount in reality is somewhat of a prelude to what Jesus says at the end of the Gospel of Matthew.

Jesus wants a community like the community that's exposed in Matthew chapter 5 to 7.

The power of God to influence other people, to influence humanity, is based upon the community of God living as we see in the Sermon of the Mount.

Look at this last verse that we have and we see in this last verse.

He's not talking to the second person singular.

Yes, he's talking to me, but he is talking to us.

And Jesus knows from the Sermon on the Mount and the way that he has asked us to live that if we live that way we become what we have learned is the light and the salt.

The Jews in the first century believed that the light, what they called the light, was the temple.

Because when they came down from the mountain and they came down toward the temple, The temple was so glorious and brilliant that it shone with the sun.

And the Jews believed in the first century that they were the light.

Where salt is used the most in Scripture is in the temple and the sacrifices.

Talking about the reconciliation that the priests give us through the sacrifices that are salted.

We as a community, we are asked, according to Matthew 28, to go out and be the light and the salt that people can see, that people can experience the reconciliation that God has given and that we can show the world exactly what Jesus came to do.

Paul talks about the Christians being citizens of heaven.

He says that in Philippians, he also implies that in Corinthians and other places.

And the idea that he has in his head is that there were colonies of people all over the Roman Empire.

And the people that were brought in to live in these colonies were former, mainly former soldiers and that had been given Roman citizenship.

But they came together in the colony, they became the leaders, and their goal was in that colony to make sure that all the values of Rome were experienced and also exposed to everyone around.

God wishes that we live the principles that are within the servant of the mountain.

That we too RBC, we might become a colony of God's people that shows forth the light of God and offers reconciliation to the people around us.

They look at us so that we can show them what it means to flourish in God Flourish like we have heard twice Believe it was Stephen and maybe and also it was it was done probably too and it was David last week The idea of the tree in Psalm 1 that is so well watered, so well taken care of, that it just flourishes, flourishes.

Can people look at RBC and say, my goodness, my goodness, this is the most beautiful bush that we see all spring among us.

Most evangelism is done by showing people the reality of Jesus.

And that reality we have learned from the sermon through everything that has been preached is for the people that practice the Beatitudes or live the Beatitudes.

They live as people that are not trying to impose authority, but that are experiencing trouble, persecution, tribulation.

But even in the way that they're living, they're showing forth la douceur, the gentleness and the goodness of Christ.

We've learned that in Matthew and starting with Stephen, that the whole idea of righteousness is to be perfect.

So what God is telling us, become an adult.

An adult lives according to the principles of chapter 5, 6, and 7 of the Sermon on the Mount, the principles which all have as the beneficiaries or the recipients of these things, the community.

Everything that's said in a Sermon on the Mount is not for self, it's for other.

There's not 1 thing said in the Sermon on the Mount that does not have some way and somehow application toward God and application toward mankind.

First decision we have to make is we have to choose our destination and also the dynamic of our journey Jesus has said it large is the the road that leads to to Sorry I'm sorry Yeah, it Leads to oh my goodness gracious I'm getting too old.

I really am getting too old My my son Daniel says dad stop preaching don't remember anything anymore Hey if Louie can do it I can do it With destruction the word I was looking for was destruction 1 road leads to destruction like you can see the road on the left everything is ugly everything is dying everything is cloudy and the road on the right everything is flourishing where do we want to go most people in our world where they want to go is On the left Because the road is huge not only that they got all their friends with them how many times have I preached?

The gospel to people that don't know Jesus, and they said less.

I don't know anything about that I said why you want to go to hell?

He says well if I go to hell all my friends are there we're gonna have a big party anyway How many people have said that to us?

But in reality the destination 1 destination on the large road is not a nice place to find ourselves.

Jesus tells us that on this journey, It will be not an easy journey.

Because those are the people that have decided what is important is not what everything in the world gives us.

What is important is this flourishing that God offers to each Christian and offers also to the community of God to RBC.

Choose the proper evidence of your journey now he's going to talk about The false prophets or the bad people that are trying to take us off the right road.

But he talks about fruit, he talks about trees, and you know I ask myself, what is he getting at?

Is fruit being able to recite certain verses of the Bible.

Yeah, it's fruit in a way, but that's not what he's getting at here.

The fruit of the Christian is in becoming perfect, in becoming mature, in living and experiencing the reality of God, in seeing a person that's a baby in Christ become an adult.

Next week we're going to see those people that are baptized.

What we're wanting, we're praying that not only they will decide on that day to become disciples but they will grow in their discipleship and as they grow they become more like Jesus Christ.

Making disciples is helping people become more like Christ, especially as he is portrayed in Matthew chapter 5 to 7.

The fruit that I want to produce is fruit for God, but fruit in the sense that people look at me and they say, that there is Leslie that has grown.

That there is Leslie that has become an adult.

Before she stumbles out of the door later on you can speak to her and she'll tell you oh my Leslie when he was a young Christian oh did she go through the wide road, let's put it that way.

And then I got older and by God's grace being in the Word of God, trying to understand the Word of God, encircling myself with men and women of God, all of a sudden I started to change.

Now I'm far from perfect in the sense that we say, you can ask my family that's sitting right there and a lot of my friends too.

I'm not perfect, far from it in the sense of the world but God is producing in me this perfection where people say I like to be with Leslie and why because we are looking after and for others.

It's not doing something it is being someone Someone that is more and more like Christ.

We have to choose the proper models of mankind and the messages on our journey.

You know, he talks about these evil people, these bad prophets that are are doing really bad for us But when we you know we look at them, and you know they're saying Lord Lord They're prophesying which means they're doing what I'm doing this morning They're performing miracles and they are among us and God says no be careful be careful of these people in what way well 1 of the ways is what they speak what they teach And I'm sorry to say that there are too many Christians, please forgive me for my, Nick was here he'd say I was judging but I'm, Please forgive me in the sense that there are too many babies that are Christians.

Whenever they hear something whenever they see something ah that's what we got to do that's where we're going huh they look for the quick fix little and I have worked with others and establishing churches in the province and all of a sudden something came about.

And people would say, oh, we can't stay less.

The mega church down there, have you heard the preacher there?

Have you seen the youth workers that we have have you seen the money that we have have you seen all of the music that we have and they leave the small church and go to the big church but why they want everything to treat everything given to them with a shovel into their mouths that they can say huh they're not asked to be disciples I'm not saying that the pastors or the workers in these churches don't want disciples.

It's not the problem with the pastors or the workers.

The problem I'm hitting on this morning is us.

What kind of Christian life are we looking for?

Can you imagine someone saying, Lord, Lord?

How many people out there are looking for these things and thinking that that's where it's at.

Where it's at is in the message that Jesus gives us to become more like him.

To do that it's better in a small church than a big church.

And I consider our Rosemont Bible Church to be a small church With a lot of smaller churches within it But I really do We have the possibility here Do you realize what a privilege is to come in every Sunday and listen to what God has spoken to the gifts that he has given us you realize what a privilege realize what a privilege it is to have our our midweek groups or our sorry our small groups being able to get to know 1 another, being able to get to love 1 another well, being able to rebuke 1 another, being able to help 1 another, but also being able to understand what God wants.

And it's not a question of knowing, it's a question of being.

I've heard some great teachers in my life.

I've heard some tremendous insight but I'll tell you the truth the people that have impacted me are the ones that portray and manifest and look and act like Jesus Christ.

I'm comfortable with those people and I'll tell you brothers and sisters you have some of them among us.

Look for the people that flash because they look like Jesus and they act like Jesus.

Choose the proper foundation for your journey.

You probably heard that there are people that have said on their tombstones they want written, sorry, who they were, what they did, and that it would have impact, that their life was not for nothing.

I know it doesn't look like it, but I'm 73.

And, you know, even at 73, I can screw up so well.

Even though I've been with the Lord now for 54 years.

And I realize even more, even more as we studied the Sermon on the Mount?

How you can finish your life with the house on the right and not the house on the left?

You want it to flourish like we've been learning in the Sermon on the Mount.

And the right foundation according to the Sermon on the mount is Jesus himself.

This is something, it's 12 o'clock, I don't care, I'm gonna go for at least 5 more minutes.

So quiet your stomachs, Try to show a little bit more willpower with the chubby little guy up front.

The most important teaching that we have in these verses, Chapter 7, Verse 13 to 29, Jesus in every example that he gives, he talks about an ultimate finish In the first 1 on the left We can take the wrong wrong Road, and what happens?

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Flourishing in the Kingdom of Heaven