Sunday Morning Podcast | The Moody Church

Throughout this series, we’ve been working our way through Jesus’ illustrations of what that kind of perfect righteousness flowing from the goodness of a heart like God’s looks like. The kind of heart only Jesus can give us.   In this sermon, we come to the 3rd illustration of a heart made right in the Kingdom of Heaven, and again Jesus isn’t pulling any punches. The example of divorce demonstrates an underlying hardness of our hearts.   In a world full of miserable marriages, brutal betrayals, devastating divorces, and alarming abandonments, Jesus has a better Way. And it all starts with a new heart.   Three key points in our outline:   The Details of the Divorces Debate: The Old Testament grounds for divorce were adultery (Deuteronomy 24) and abusive abandonment (Exodus 21). Both of these texts form the backdrop of the New Testament’s teaching about divorce. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus interacts exclusively with Deuteronomy 24, which offers only one ground for divorce based on sexual immoral

Our culture can’t make up its mind about sex. We either strip it down until it has no significance, or we load it up with the weight of the sky. It’s nothing or everything, the culture can’t decide. The problem is the following. The more we try to pretend sex is nothing, the more damaged we become; the more we try to make sex out to be everything, the more disillusioned we become. In our cultural moment, sex has become a runaway train of over-amped desires careening off the rails. This is the way of the Kingdom of the Earth.   But what if there was a better way? What if our disordered hearts could be set right? What if sex could be beautiful again? What if hearts dominated by lust could become hearts dominated by love?   In this sermon from Matthew 5:21-27, we’ll explore three points:   The Monstrosity of Lust: The 7th commandment forbids adultery. But when Jesus references this commandment in the Sermon on the Mount, He pits himself not against the Old Testament law but against the Pharisees’ teachin

The world is full of anger. Sometimes our anger gets big and explosive, and everyone pays when it detonates. Other times our anger gets small, simmering and smoldering. Low-grade anger carried around in our bodies spills out like acid on those around us. And it’s so easy to be angry these days with pandemic restrictions, political hot-button issues, geopolitical tensions, and tragic injustice. No wonder so many people are so very angry over so many issues so much of the time.   But what if there was another way? What if the anger that dominates us could be arrested? What if anger could be diffused in our hearts before it ever gathers strength? What if Jesus can set us free from the bondage of a heart enslaved by anger? What if in the Kingdom of Heaven our angry hearts could truly become hearts of peace?   In this sermon, we look at three themes about anger from Matthew 5:20-26:   The Heart of Righteousness: Jesus teaches that righteousness is about more than just what we do on the outside, it’s about

Every speech has a central thesis, a big idea around which everything else is organized. In this passage, we come to the central thesis of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This is the blazing center, the beating heart of the upside-down Way of Jesus. In these 111 words (in Greek) we find the big idea that turned the world on its head.   This sermon address three organizing questions:   Why is Jesus explaining Himself? Jesus came not to “abolish” or “relax” the righteous requirements of God, but that they might be “fulfilled” and “accomplished.” And to drive His point home, Jesus affirms the enduring importance of the Law of God with two definitive statements: the Word of God stands forever and all of it will be accomplished; and, because the Kingdom of Heaven is “at hand” in Jesus’ coming, the righteous requirements of the Law and Prophets are upheld. So what must we do to become righteous? What is the righteousness God requires? If our righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees to enter t

“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” Some of you will recognize that line from the 2014 commencement address Admiral William McRaven gave at the University of Texas which went viral a few years back and was later made into a book. Admiral McRaven was reminding those graduates of the power of the little things: our choices, our habits, our influence.   Every one of us is entrusted with a sphere of influence. And the choices we make, the habits we form, and the influence we wield help shape and mold our little corner of the world for better or worse. It’s the little things that end up changing our world.   Jesus makes much the same point in his Sermon on the Mount: “If you want to change the world, start off by being Salt and Light.”   In this sermon from Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus is teaching us how to change our world. To do that, we need to understand three things:   The Overlap of the Kingdoms: Every moment of every day is an opportunity to be with Jesus and live in the rea

Words shape the course of history. Two thousand years ago a young Jewish carpenter-turned-Rabbi turned the world upside down with His Sermon on the Mount and He began in the most unexpected way. He announced the blessings of the Kingdom of Heaven we’re coming upon the least, the last, and the left behind.   As we consider these “blessed”, these “beatitudes” of Jesus from Matthew 5:3-12, we’ll focus our attention on three themes:   The Upside-Down Kingdom: The Kingdom of Heaven is turning the world on its head. In Jesus’ Kingdom, many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. And so, the Kingdom is “at hand” in Jesus for the least, the last, and the left behind. Anyone desperate enough to cast all their hopes on Jesus are welcome in the Kingdom of Heaven. The Paradox of Blessedness: Blessedness is getting more of God in life’s valleys. What if blessedness in the Kingdom of God is most readily found not when we are feeling strong, but when we know we are weak? The Inverted Way o

The Sermon on the Mount is the central, essential message of Jesus. It contains His most brilliant, incisive, and challenging teachings. If you want to know what Jesus is all about, look no further than the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is, at its core, about a Kingdom. A Kingdom that turns the world, and our lives, upside-down.   But let me warn you: to follow the upside-down Way of Jesus means going against the flow. It’s an inverted way to live. It’s cross-grain to almost everything else. Because this broken-down world is like a turtle flipped on its back that can’t tell which end is up; and Jesus is in the business of setting it right-side-up. To live in the upside-down Kingdom of Heaven is actually to discover the right-side up Way of life!   The Sermon on the Mount begins in Matthew 5:3-12. In this passage, we’ll see three things: Unexpected Kingdom: The Kingdom of Heaven is “at hand” in Jesus. Unusual Blessing: The favor of God is bestowed upon the least likely. Unparalleled O

As we enter the new year, what’s the most important thing we can fix our attention on? The highest priority of God’s people for 2022 is to passionately pursue the presence of God in our lives.   In this sermon, special guest Stephen Farish focuses our attention on the beauty of God in this passage from Psalm 27. Three questions about the beauty of the Lord from verse 4: What is the beauty of the Lord, and what does it look like? Where do we see the beauty of the Lord most clearly revealed? What is the right response by human beings to the Lord’s revelation of His “beauty” in Jesus Christ?   Psalm 27:1-6

The story of Jesus’ coming is full of curious surprises. Nothing is routine in this story! With every turn comes another twist, a reinforcement that this is no ordinary child.   And the events we’re about to examine today are no exception. Every first-century Jewish couple, upon having a child, were to go to the temple to offer a sacrifice for purification, and, in the case of a firstborn son, to pay the price of his redemption.   But when Mary and Joseph show up at the temple for what they must have assumed would be a routine, straightforward process, they were met with yet another curious surprise. Two curious surprises, actually: two individuals named Simeon and Anna. And although they’d never met them before, these two were waiting for their arrival.   In this curious and surprising account, we’re going to catch 3 glimpses of the redemption God:   The Portrayal of Redemption: God deserves the firstborn. Every time a firstborn son was born into a Jewish family, they would go to the temple and be

When things get personal, everything changes. It’s one thing to see someone on a screen. It’s quite another to encounter them in real life when things become personal, tangible, and real.   That’s what’s happened with Mary. All those years reading her Bible, and now it was happening to her! God chose her to bear a baby boy who will be the Savior of the World, the King of Israel, the Son of God. The Biblical stories of God’s saving intervention went from an abstract, distant, history to being personal, tangible, and real.   In this passage from Luke 1:39-56, Mary’s song of praise, called the “Magnificat,” is the first Christmas carol that overflows from her heart. This beautiful song shows us the kind of heart God wants to bring to life in each of us this Christmas as we pause and let the wonder in.   Heart of Faith: Mary’s heart is filled with faith because she realizes and becomes sure that God holds true to His Word. How about you? Heart of Joy: Mary’s heart is filled with joy because she understa

Every year, Christmas tends to rush us by. With all the shopping and events and family commitments and the long lists of to-do list, the frantic pace often leaves us barely catching our breath.   That’s why Advent is so good for our hearts. If you didn’t grow up celebrating Advent, it’s a time for us to slow down and reflect and prepare our hearts for the significance of the “coming” of Jesus. That’s what Advent means: Coming.   This Advent we’ll be walking through four vignettes from the Gospel of Luke that surround Jesus’ coming in a series are entitled “The Greatness of Christmas.” Throughout the series, we’ll explore four vignettes, four opportunities to pause, and let the wonder in as we reflect on “The Greatness of Christmas.”   In this sermon, we look at the Angelic Announcement to Mary when she learns that she would be the mother of Jesus.   The angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary gives three clues to who this child will be: The Savior of the World: Jesus will the savior who will lay down

In many ways, the Book of Philippians is kind of a thank you note from the Apostle Paul. Because of Paul’s financial hardships under house arrest in Rome, the Philippian believers pooled their resources and sent him a gift to sustain him. Epaphroditus was their courier entrusted with the gift. Now Epaphroditus is headed back to Philippi with this letter in hand we now know as Philippians.   So, this letter is a kind of thank you note. Except, Paul never actually says “thank you.” In fact, it’s one of the worst thank you notes ever. But as we explore this passage, we’ll see that Paul is giving us the inside scoop on how we can be truly rich.   Those who are truly rich value three things:   The Freedom of Contentment: The truly rich choose to live with open hands. In Christ, we have far greater resources than money can ever provide. The Power of Generosity: The truly rich know it is more blessed to give than to receive. Those blessings come both now (giving changes us) and later (storing up Heavenly t

In the fourth and final chapter of Philippians, we come to several well-known, popular “coffee cup” verses. The problem with “coffee cup” verses is that they are divorced from their context and setting. And this is often a recipe for misapplication.   These verses from Philippians 4:1-9 might at first glance appear disconnected and disjointed, but there’s a cohesive flow of thought running through these verses; once you see the connection, you can’t unsee it. Everything here is thematically linked together.   This passage opens with Paul’s entreaty that these women find a way to make peace with one another, and then his two paragraphs of commands which follow are each capped off by a promise of God’s peace which will be theirs if they follow the commands. Do you see the theme that’s connecting all this? Peace within the family of God.   Satan loves to sow discord and disunity into the church. He’s not creative, but he’s effective. So how can we move towards peace with our Christian brothers and sisters?

Who do you want to be when you grow up?  It’s not just a question for children, it’s a question for all of us. Because, if God has given us new birth by grace through faith in Jesus’ life substituted for ours on the cross, and if God has then filled us with his Holy Spirit who is teaching us to walk in His ways, and if every moment of every day is an opportunity to be with Jesus and learn from Him how to live so that we are transformed increasingly into the image and likeness of Jesus, then we are all in fact still growing up.   We all have a whole lot of maturing ahead of us if we are to become gloriously like Jesus forever.   In this passage, the Apostle Paul explores spiritual maturity with 3 vital insights:   The Pursuit of Maturity: Spiritual maturity is not a destination, but a pursuit. This side of glory, we will never fully arrive, because we’re a work in progress. This is the process of being progressively conformed to the image of Christ.   The Pattern of Maturity: Spiritual maturity is

On reformation Sunday, Pastor Lutzer returns to the pulpit for a special message from Romans 3. How can we be right with God?   Our corruption before God is seen by what we seek (v. 11), what we say (v.13), where we go (v.15), and what we see (v.18). Only God can solve our dilemma: we are saved by God, from the wrath of God, for the glory of God.   The cross, like a prism, reveals God’s incredible attributes to us: It magnifies the justice of God It magnifies the grace of God It magnifies the glory of God   The bottom line: God purchased us at high cost for Himself, saving even the worst of sinners.   Romans 3:19-26

One of the most important questions of life is: Who am I? We all wonder who we are at the core of our being. So much hinges on how we answer this questions: our sense of self, our identity, our being, all inform how we behave, which in turns forms who we are becoming.   In this passage from Philippians, Paul is going to take us back to the basics of our identity.   There are three basic identity formation strategies we can employ to attempt to gain a sense of self, and Paul is going to walk us through each of them:   Affirmation—Looking to Others: In this paradigm, we find our sense of self in the approval of others. This approach results in number problems, such as anxiety, exhaustion, and instability. Paul speaks to a better approach: your identity and joyous life is found, not in the approval of anyone else, in Christ alone. Achievement—Looking to Self: In this paradigm, we find our sense of self in succeeding on our own terms. This approach also has a number of problems, like fragility, inflated s

In this sermon we come to one of those sections of the Bible that we might be tempted to skip over. At the end of Chapter 2 in Philippians, Paul takes 12 verses to describe his travel plans along with the travel itineraries of two other individuals: Timothy and Epaphroditus. Why should we care? By the end of this message, you’ll be glad you didn’t skip over this section!   Timothy and Epaphroditus are sent to Philippi by Paul to serve on 3 different levels:   Emissaries: In the first century world, news traveled by means of couriers sent from place to place with letters in hand. So at the first and most basic level, Timothy and Epaphroditus serve as couriers on the Via Appia and Via Egnata, because they are reliable and trustworthy men who Paul can count on to get the job done.   Encouragers: These are no emotionally uninvolved postmen, simply conveying unknown letters from stranger to stranger. No, these are brothers in Christ who care dearly for one another and for their respective communities. So

Who is the greatest person you’ve had the privilege of knowing? Not the most glamorous, but the greatest. You see, there’s a difference between glamor and greatness. Glamor impresses from a distance; greatness impacts up close. Glamor is on the outside; greatness is on the inside. Glamor draws attention to itself; greatness focuses attention on others.   All the marketing in our society emphasizes glamor as the ideal for us to pursue. But at a funeral, we talk about something very different as an indicator of life’s significance. We don’t talk about glamor, we talk about the ideals of greatness: friendship, tenderness, selflessness, sacrifice, generosity, care, faithfulness, love. And all those things have one thing in common: humility.   Here’s what’s amazing: this kind of true greatness we so admire in others is the very thing God intends to grow in us by His Spirit, conforming us to the image of Christ, that we might share in His glory and joy forever!   God intends to make us people of true greatnes

Are we sure of God’s love for us? God wants us to be certain of His love for us.   In this sermon, special guest Dr. Ray Ortlund, Jr., walks us through a life changing passage in Romans 8. Here, the apostle Paul asks four questions about the personal and powerful love of God for the underserving. If God is for us, who can be against us? Will God give us all things? Who will condemn those whom God has chosen? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?   The gospel question for us is this: are you willing to be loved endlessly by almighty God above? This has nothing to do with our performance. In fact, God does not limit his love for failures like us. God loves you personally, limitlessly, and powerfully, so that you’ll love Him too.   Romans 8:31-39

Can you see the Apostle Paul in your minds’ eye? He’s under house arrest in Rome and manacled to an Imperial Guard. He’d appealed to Caesar, but now he’s wasting away, stuck in an endless line of bureaucratic delays. He has no idea how Caesar will rule on his case. He might be set free, or he might be executed. His very life hangs in the balance.   And yet, in this passage from Philippians 1:18-30, look at how joyous Paul is in the middle of so many life and ministry setbacks. He’s so resilient, vibrant, courageous, steadfast, and undaunted! And it’s not because he’s ignoring reality. He says, “I very well may die here.” He’s utterly realistic about his suffering, and yet over-flowingly joyful. This man knows how to live!   What’s his secret?   In this sermon, we will learn that to live a live worthy of the gospel means that Christ becomes our:   Reason for Rejoicing: We delight in the glory of Christ which has become our greatest joy in life and eternity. Purpose in Living: We invest in the missi