A.W. Tozer – “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

What are the different ways that love sounds?

Sometimes the love of God is less like a hug, and more like a “you’re about to run into traffic!”
If you’re about to run out into traffic, you should desire that the loving voice of your father turns up the volume

Very few people really want to be coached.
Held accountable.
Discipled and disciplined.
Most people would prefer to be left alone.

If you could have someone speak truth to you, even it hurts, shouldn’t we want that?

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Today's Passage Above - Matthew 23
Jesus expresses his ultimate frustration with some religious leaders.

Notes for the Passage
- Speaking to Jewish religious leaders
- This is not a condemnation of all of Judaism
- He’s speaking to insiders, not outsiders
- His anger is about what they are doing to other people
- Hypocrites is his major charge
- Gives them a name - Son's of Gehenna – Think city garbage dump
- **This is the end of his public ministry in Matthew. Read Matthew chapter 4:11-17 and notice the connections between the themes in how Jesus opens his public ministry and how he ends it.

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When you think about God, is there room for this voice?

This morning, I want us to focus on us hearing from this voice of Jesus.
One of the major themes Jesus uses in this chapter is that of Blind Guides.
Blind is a specific rebuke. It goes beyond "don't want to see" to, "you can't see".

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Questions for us to consider

1. Do you want more people in the kingdom of God?
2. Are you blind to the mercy and grace afforded to you but don’t want to extend it to others?
3. Are you blind to the kingdom of God because you're building your own kingdom? Is this about something bigger than you or smaller than you that you control?

Verse 16
4. If people looked at your life, what would they say holds ultimate value?
Are you blind to what you love?

Verses 23-28
5. Are you blind to holiness?

6. Are you blind to your love of the systems that benefit you and how they have won your heart?

NT WRIGHT - "The saying haunts all subsequent telling of Jesus’ story. Are we, the readers or hearers, really welcoming the true Jesus, the one who denounces evil and then takes it upon himself in the final great act of love? Or do we prefer, like the crowds a few days before, to welcome the ‘Jesus’ who happens to fit the imaginings and agendas that we have worked out for ourselves?"

NT WRIGHT - "They liked the idea of being rigorous about the Torah because it suited their nationalist ambitions. But when it came to the actual spiritual and moral struggle to make the inside of the house match the outside, they hadn’t even begun."

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Verses 29-33
Are you blind to Jesus?
"We would never do what that generation did…"

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Verses 37-38
If only they would yield and listen and let Jesus open their eyes.
How he longed to gather them in and take the full force of their punishment on himself.

Verse 39
They will not see until they yield to him.
You are blind, and you will not see until you trust that I am the one who holds the words of life.

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Application Today -> Surrender
Jesus doesn’t get more palatable by changing what he said. He gets more palatable by surrendering to him and discovering that he is the way the truth and the life.

What to do?
Surrender is to say "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord."
To welcome Jesus and his rightful place in your life.