Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Good morning.
[00:00:10] Can we take a second just to appreciate the incredibly talented musicians that God has given us? What an awesome time of worship this morning.
[00:00:21] A lot of churches have talented musicians, but sometimes churches struggle with having people up there who actually care about leading the people in worship and not just performing. And we just have such amazing people on our band. Thank you, guys.
[00:00:39] All right, we are going to be continuing in Matthew chapter 21 today.
[00:00:45] If you don't know me, my name is Jesse. I'm one of the pastors here. And right now we are in kind of. We're working our way through the Gospel of Matthew, and we're in this little section of it that we've titled Jesus versus Religion. In these chapters, Jesus is entering into and teaching in Jerusalem, and we get to see these direct confrontations that he has with the religious leaders and the people in the temple.
[00:01:15] This is really. We feel like this is kind of really irrelevant time for us to spend in this. In this section of chapters, because really, we live in a culture where organized religion is very mistrusted and disliked and sometimes for good reason. There are a lot of people who use religion to abuse others or to gain power. And Jesus is speaking to these topics. He's directly addressing these things as he confronts these religious leaders. And we're going to be looking at that today. So turn to Matthew chapter 21. We're going to be starting in verse 23 and reading through the end of the chapter.
[00:02:00] This is a long section of scripture, so buckle up.
[00:02:06] If you don't have a Bible with you today, there should be some scattered around under the rose. We really encourage. We say this every week. We really encourage you. If you don't own a copy of the Bible, please take one of ours or come and talk to one of us pastors, and we'll give you a nicer one. It is just incredibly important to be able to engage with Scripture.
[00:02:38] All right, as you're turning To Matthew chapter 21, let me just kind of set this context and the scene really briefly.
[00:02:45] So we've seen Jesus enter the city of Jerusalem, and he did this to take part in the Passover celebration. Passover is one of the major festivals for the people of this time. And at this point in his ministry, Jesus has begun to amass this large crowd of people who are following him, Many of them, probably because of this journey to Jerusalem. They are at the point where they view Jesus as a potential for this role of the Messiah that they are desperately longing for. And so they are gathering around him, and they view this journey of Jesus to Jerusalem as important.
[00:03:31] So he enters the city in kind of a dramatic fashion. The crowd that has begun to follow him meets the crowd that comes out of the city to meet him. And they perform this kind of dramatic ceremony of laying down their cloaks and laying down palm branches for Jesus as he's entering the city. This was historically a way for the people to acknowledge a conquering king entering the city. They were trying to get him to take on this role of the Messiah, this what they thought would be a king, to come in and save them from Rome.
[00:04:11] They were screaming at him to save them. Now as he was entering the city, as all of this is happening, the religious leaders of Jerusalem, who already had a grudge against Jesus because of his teaching and because of the confrontations they've had, were obviously upset and alarmed at the people's backing of Jesus.
[00:04:35] They have this fear of him taking on this role and becoming this king because that would put them into direct conflict with Rome. And then Jesus makes it worse. He enters into the temple and he starts literally flipping tables and driving animals and money lenders out of the temple.
[00:04:58] He's causing this incredible scene of chaos as he's driving people out of the temple and overturning the entire economy of the temple at this time. He's not hiding. He's directly confronting what's happening. And then he goes back to the temple and he begins teaching.
[00:05:20] He's actually engaging in these conversations with the people about himself as the Messiah. He's not hiding from this thing that they're trying to make him.
[00:05:35] And really, we see over these chapters that Jesus is beginning to talk about doing something new. He's beginning to turn the entire concept of God's chosen people on its head as he's talking about sinners and he's talking about the destruction of the temple and the destruction of what's happening. And he's talking about sinners coming and following. And even with the Gentiles clearing out the Gentile court, he's beginning to do something new. And we're going to see him continue to talk about that today. All right, well, so let's. Let's jump into this. We're going to read the first section, chapter 21, verses 23 through 27.
[00:06:20] It says, when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority? Jesus answered them. I will also ask you one question, and if you answer it for Me, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Did John's baptism come from heaven, or was it of human origin?
[00:06:44] They discussed it among themselves. If we say from heaven, he will say to us, then why didn't you believe him? But if we say of human origin, we're afraid of the crowd because everyone considers John to be a prophet. So they answered, jesus, we don't know. And he said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
[00:07:07] So the religious leaders, well, let me pray before we get too far into this.
[00:07:13] Jesus, please prepare our hearts.
[00:07:18] Please open us up to your word, Jesus, I pray that you would have your word speak directly into our hearts, directly into our circumstances, and that we would be changed, that we would turn and repent and follow you, Jesus.
[00:07:37] Amen.
[00:07:39] All right, so Jesus is in the temple. He's teaching. And I know that the story of Jesus flipping tables isn't, you know, part of our passage, but I think we really have to keep it in mind as context for what's happening.
[00:07:55] It's always stood out to me about that encounter in the temple that, you know, nobody tries to stop Jesus. He shows up, he's flipping over tables, he's driving people out. There are religious leaders present. There are priests, there are temple guards. And they all just stand back and let him do it.
[00:08:15] I think we see from the religious leaders that they're afraid of Jesus. And not just Jesus. They're afraid of this crowd, of the people supporting him.
[00:08:25] But they do gather whatever courage they have, and they come to confront Jesus as he's teaching in the temple.
[00:08:34] I think we see at this point, the Pharisees haven't yet decided to kill him, but they are upset. They want to draw the crowd away from him. They want to undermine Jesus to the point where the people will abandon him.
[00:08:51] So we see that their question is really, that's what they're trying to do. They're trying to immediately attack his authority. They ask him, by what authority are you doing these things? And I have to assume that by these things they mean his teaching, but also entering the temple in the dramatic way that he did.
[00:09:14] But Jesus isn't willing to let them lead their conversation. So he turns the question back at them. He asks them, where did John's authority come from? This isn't a simple question. As simple as it seems, Jesus himself was baptized by John.
[00:09:31] The claim that Jesus was the Messiah is partially based out of John's ministry. John baptized Jesus. John called Jesus the Messiah, the messianic Prophecies talked about a prophet coming again before the Messiah to prepare the way. And John called himself that. People believed that John was a prophet and they were beginning to believe that Jesus may be the Messiah.
[00:09:59] These religious leaders knew that Jesus had brought the conversation around to trap them in this question and they lose whatever courage they had built up and they give a non answer. Instead of answering they say, oh, we don't know. Because they were afraid of acknowledging Jesus authority and at the other side afraid of the people and saying that John was not given authority by God.
[00:10:29] We talk a lot about the way that Jesus interacted with these religious leaders, their arguments throughout the Gospels, the ways that he engaged with them, the things he called them. And this interaction is very similar to a lot of those things. But I think one of the main things that characterizes Jesus interaction with the religious leaders is his incredible grace and mercy that he shows to them constantly, over and over.
[00:10:57] He just keeps giving them the chance to turn and repent.
[00:11:02] This interaction is no different. Jesus cleverly traps them with their own question, but he does so in order to force them to confront their own sin, in order to force them to answer his his questions and actually engage with the topic.
[00:11:18] He's trying to get them to acknowledge what God is doing.
[00:11:24] The people of this time were supposed to be desperate for God to move and act.
[00:11:29] Throughout their history, they had constantly been in this cycle of sin, then bearing the consequences of their sin and refusal to follow God, then turning and repenting and God having mercy and restoring them. This cycle became so intense that finally God allowed the people to be taken, their nation to be destroyed, them to be taken into captivity. But eventually they did turn and repent and God re established them as a nation.
[00:11:57] These specific religious leaders were tasked with leading the people of God back to Him.
[00:12:03] Their job was to establish his law, to lead the people in how they were supposed to be responding to God, in how they were supposed to be living lives of hope, holiness.
[00:12:17] The people were supposed to see that they needed help. The people were supposed to be in this place where they knew they couldn't save themselves. They needed a Savior. These religious leaders were supposed to be preparing the people for a Savior to come.
[00:12:38] In reality, they were in desperate straits. Their nation was conquered and enslaved by Rome. They were stuck in this constant cycle of sin. They were allowed to continue worshiping God, but at any moment their overlords, the Romans, could come in and stop their worship. They needed a Savior. And these religious leaders were supposed to be the first to recognize Him. When he arrived. But they were comfortable in their leadership. They were greedy. They were happy to be in charge. They liked the system. They didn't want to upend it.
[00:13:10] Isn't that often the temptation and downfall of religious systems, where people are given too much power without the right checks and balances?
[00:13:19] That's another sermon. But these religious leaders were supposed to be the ones to see Jesus and recognize him.
[00:13:30] And he continues to confront them with this, continues to try to force them to see what they're supposed to see. But they were cowards. They refused to accept the chance that Jesus gave them here, instead deciding to push the question off. So Jesus continues, he tells them a parable. So let's read this first parable.
[00:13:51] This is verses 28 through 32.
[00:13:55] Jesus says, what do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, my son, go work in the vineyard today.
[00:14:03] He answered, I don't want to. But later he changed his mind and went. Then the man went to the other and said the same thing. I will, sir, he answered, but he didn't go. Which of the two did his father's will? They said the first.
[00:14:18] Jesus said to them, truly, I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn't believe him. Tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him. But you, when you saw it, didn't even change your minds then and believed him.
[00:14:40] So in response to these religious leaders questioning his authority and then refusing to answer his question, Jesus tells this parable. I know you've probably heard it a million times by now, but let's make sure we're on the same page as far as parables. A parable was a simple story set in a context or a description that the people would easily understand. And it was meant to tell one or a few very specific points.
[00:15:10] You're not supposed to spend hours of study with a parable. You're supposed to read it, understand it, and understand that there is a simple point.
[00:15:19] Some helpful questions to ask in a parable is usually to determine who the central character or idea is of the parable and then ask two questions. What does this parable teach if that central figure is Jesus? And what does this parable teach if that central figure is me?
[00:15:37] Now, this specific parable is pretty obvious to us. The meaning is pretty clear, I think, in the context of where Jesus is, what he's teaching, the situation that he's responding to. But I think the religious leaders here struggle to get It. So Jesus tells this story of a man, his vineyard, and two sons. He says that this man tells his first son to go and work in the vineyard. The son says no, but then eventually chooses to go and obey. Then he tells the second son to go work in the vineyard. He says yes, but then he doesn't actually go. Jesus asks the religious leaders to tell him which one of these sons actually obeyed his father's will. And they say, correctly, the first.
[00:16:23] It isn't clear from this passage, but I really think the religious leaders here think they're the first Son. And on the surface level, that makes sense. The Israelites certainly had a long history of not obeying God and then turning back to him and obeying.
[00:16:39] Plus, I'm sure the religious leaders here had no concept of anyone other than themselves being the ones who obey God.
[00:16:48] But Jesus isn't done. He makes it clear that they are actually the second Son.
[00:16:54] A few chapters before this, in Matthew chapter 15, Jesus said about the Pharisees and those who follow their teachings. He said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines, human commands, just like this second son. The people here said that they followed God and would obey him. But when it came time to actually obey, to accept John's teaching that they must repent and be baptized, when their Messiah was right in front of him, they did not obey. Their hearts were far from God.
[00:17:30] And these religious leaders were a part of the problem. They had substituted their own human teachings for God's law. They were saying that their interpretation of God's law was X, Y, and Z, saying that what God had really meant was for the people to follow their own teachings.
[00:17:50] Jesus uses this phrase here. Tax collectors and prostitutes. And it really was a phrase used to represent basically the worst of the worst kinds of sinners. But here Jesus compares them to the first Son, the one who said that he would not obey, but then eventually did.
[00:18:09] And Jesus condemns these religious leaders for not even seeing the example of these sinners and then changing their course to follow John's teaching to repent and obey.
[00:18:21] Jesus here begins to answer his own question from a few moments ago. He says that John came to them in the way of righteousness.
[00:18:31] He's answering the question of where John's authority came from. Because the religious leaders refused to answer. He says that John's authority was based in him following the way of righteousness.
[00:18:43] This would have been a clear phrase to these religious leaders throughout the Scriptures, what we call the old Testament God clearly presented that there were two paths that could be followed. The way of righteousness and the way of wicked. Of wickedness. The way of the righteous was the one who followed God and lived in obedience to Him.
[00:19:03] The way of the wicked obviously is the opposite, the one who does not obey God.
[00:19:10] Jesus is saying that John was following God's will. He's establishing that John's authority came from God because he lived in righteousness.
[00:19:21] Once again, I think Jesus is presenting these religious leaders with this incredible merciful chance. The judgment of their wickedness hasn't happened yet. They could still choose to repent, to turn, to join the sinners who were repenting and following Jesus.
[00:19:40] But of course we know that they don't.
[00:19:44] I think this parable is a part of Jesus overall teaching that we've been seeing. He's really doing something new. He's turning this idea of God's chosen people on its head. He's ushering in a new kingdom, one that would be populated not by people who said that they followed, but then did not, but actually followed, populated by people who recognized that they were sinners in need of a savior and actually turned and repented and followed him.
[00:20:15] This is one of the main themes of these chapters that we're studying right now. It's part of why he cleaned out the Gentile court of the Temple. It's one of the meanings of him cursing the fig tree that should have had fruit but didn't. And now it's part of the meaning of this parable. The people of God, the Israelites that he had chosen, that he had rescued, that he had covenanted with and constantly rescued from their own sin, were now missing the Messiah. They were ignoring their promised Messiah because he wasn't what they wanted.
[00:20:44] The Son of God had arrived, but the chosen people of God were ignoring him, were turning away from Him. But the sinners, the outcasts, the Gentiles, these were the people who were choosing to repent and follow him.
[00:20:58] This was the kingdom of God beginning to be revealed. An upside down kingdom that was made up of the sinners instead of those who thought themselves righteous.
[00:21:07] A kingdom filled with people who actually knew that they needed help. They knew they needed a savior because they couldn't save themselves.
[00:21:18] Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, we've seen several times where the author compares and contrasts how people respond to the miracles of Jesus and how they treat him and what they call him. I love how Matthew sets this entire scene of Jesus entering into Jerusalem, but he starts it with this story of Jesus Encountering these two blind men on the road, Jesus has this entire crowd of people who are following him, anticipating his entrance into Jerusalem, anticipating a conquering king entering, and helping them to take over Rome and helping them to save their people from Rome's oppression. And Jesus encounters these two blind men. These men know they need help, and they experience their God coming down the road past them, and they scream out, lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.
[00:22:18] The people. The crowd tries to quiet them, not wanting to have Jesus be distracted by this. But these men scream out all the louder.
[00:22:28] They knew who Jesus was without ever seeing him or probably even encountering him before.
[00:22:36] And that is how Jesus is establishing this new kingdom. The people who are actually aware of their helplessness in need begin to see who Jesus is for who he really is, not who they hope he will be.
[00:22:52] Because those people are forced to look past themselves, knowing that they can't save themselves, knowing that there's nothing that they can do. And they need someone to save save them.
[00:23:05] This is what Jesus is doing.
[00:23:09] All right, let's Read on. Verses 33 through the end of the chapter, Jesus continues. He says, listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. He leased it to tenant farmers and went away. When the time came to harvest fruit, he sent his servants to the farmers to collect his fruit. The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Again he sent other servants, more than the first group, and they did the same to them.
[00:23:42] Finally, he sent his son to them. They will respect my son, he said. But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, this is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance. So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?
[00:24:03] He will completely destroy those terrible men, they told him, and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his fruit at the harvest.
[00:24:11] Jesus said to them, have you never read in the Scriptures? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is what the Lord has done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.
[00:24:22] Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit. Whoever falls in this stone will be broken to pieces. But on whomever it falls, it will shatter him. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew he was speaking about them, although they were looking for a way to arrest him. They feared the crowds because the people regarded him as a prophet.
[00:24:49] There's a lot in there.
[00:24:54] So Jesus tells these religious leaders a second parable. He says, a landowner had a vineyard. He put a lot of work into it, caring for it, protecting it and preparing it for the harvest. He leased it to some tenants to farm it and then left. When the time came for the harvest, he sent his servants to gather in his share of the fruit and the farmers killed his servants. So he sent a second, larger group of servants and they killed those servants as well. Then finally, he sent his son and the tenants killed his son.
[00:25:28] Here. Jesus is not just using a random story to illustrate his point. He uses very specific language that these religious leaders would be familiar with. This vineyard is the exact same picture as the vineyard in Isaiah, chapter 5.
[00:25:44] In Isaiah chapter 5, it is a prophecy of the upcoming destruction of the kingdom of Judah. And the author uses the exact same language of this vineyard with a watchtower and a winepress. He sets the stage exactly the same as Jesus does to talk about the kingdom of Judah of God's chosen people and how they were not producing good fruit.
[00:26:14] The prophecy says that the people refused to yield the good grapes that God had sown and worked hard to create.
[00:26:21] These religious leaders would have been familiar with this prophecy. And if they hadn't gotten the point up until now, they were beginning to have no option to miss it.
[00:26:31] Jesus confronts them and asks them to tell him, what will the owner of the vineyard do to these tenant farmers when he arrives? They have to answer this time. And so they do. They say he will completely destroy those terrible men and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his fruit at the harvest.
[00:26:51] Once again, we see this amazing example of Jesus mercy for these leaders. He once again gives them a chance. He doesn't leave them in confusion. He tells them these parables until they get it.
[00:27:08] He gives them this story and he makes it clear that they would have known that this landowner was God, that he was sending his servants who were the prophets, and that his son was the Messiah.
[00:27:24] And he makes it clear to them that that son is going to be killed. This hasn't even happened yet, but Jesus knows it's going to happen.
[00:27:35] Where? His previous questions and answers had really joined him with John in talking about his authority. Now Jesus steps out from under the shadow of John and gives them clearly that his authority comes from God. He said he is the Son of God, the Messiah, and he calls himself the cornerstone.
[00:27:59] Again, Jesus is quoting Scripture that these religious leaders would know from Psalm 118 about the cornerstone.
[00:28:07] In Scripture, the cornerstone is used symbolically both to indicate the important foundation and the most important head piece of a building.
[00:28:18] Jesus is making a claim here that Psalm 118 is really a messianic prophecy about Himself. Jesus claims to be the cornerstone of this new kingdom.
[00:28:30] We see this throughout Scripture, including in Colossians 1 that Pastor Sam read for our call to worship.
[00:28:39] Jesus is the cornerstone. His authority comes from God, because He is God. He has the status of firstborn over all creation because it was all made by him and for Him. He existed before all things. He created all things. His power holds all things together. And he is the head of the new Kingdom, his church, and he has first place in everything.
[00:29:04] All of the fullness of God is pleased to dwell in Him. And through his work on the cross, he would reconcile everything to Himself. Through his shed blood, he brings ultimate peace to all things.
[00:29:18] And with these religious leaders, again, there's a warning here in the imagery and parable that Jesus uses.
[00:29:26] Not only is this a prophecy about Himself, but he combines this cornerstone imagery with the parable to show that the kingdom is going to be taken away from these fruitless people and given to a new people who would bear abundant fruit for his kingdom.
[00:29:42] Jesus plants a clear flag in the ground here for these religious leaders. They have a clear choice. Either they turn, repent, accept and follow him as the Messiah and Son of God, or they will be destroyed by turning against Him. They will stumble over the cornerstone, it will fall on them and they will fail.
[00:30:04] Jesus doesn't leave a middle ground here. He gives them this clear choice.
[00:30:12] We see that Jesus, clear confrontation of these religious leaders causes them to want to arrest him, but they're still afraid of Him. They're afraid of the people that are following Him. They failed in turning the people against Him. So they retreat. They don't do anything at this time. They're trying to escape the clear opportunity that Jesus gives them.
[00:30:38] All right, so that's the word of God for us this morning. The question, as it needs to be with every sermon, is what do we do with this? What message does Jesus have for us sitting here in this room?
[00:30:51] We're not going to spend a ton of time on this because I think the application is actually really clear for us.
[00:30:58] Man. You can go ahead and come on back up.
[00:31:01] Listen, if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, if you're in this room and you're hearing this and you haven't actually chosen to repent and turn and follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then this should be a clear challenge and call to you. Jesus is the King of the universe. He is the cornerstone, the head of his new kingdom, a kingdom that is taking back his creation. And he offers a clear choice to each one of us. This morning In Acts chapter 4, the apostle Peter gives a sermon to these very same religious leaders after they arrested Jesus, had him killed, and he is resurrected and goes back to heaven.
[00:31:44] Peter says this. Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders which has become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.
[00:31:59] Jesus is offering salvation to you.
[00:32:03] If you're in this room and you have not accepted Jesus, please listen and consider it.
[00:32:09] You aren't going to find salvation from anywhere else. There is nowhere internally or externally that you can find to save you. Nothing else will satisfy. Other things may feel good or feel like they work for a short time, but it's not going to work. There's an empty hole in every single one of us that cannot be filled by anything other than Jesus, because we were made by him and for Him.
[00:32:36] Only he can satisfy us. Only he can save us.
[00:32:43] Listen, if you're even slightly interested in this, if there is something in your heart that is listening and perhaps responding, please don't step past it.
[00:32:56] Find me or one of the other pastors. Talk to somebody in the room. Any of us would love to chat with you about this and talk about Jesus and how good he is and how he has changed our lives.
[00:33:10] If you are already a believer in this room, I think this is a clear challenge and call to us as well. Jesus gives a clear warning in these parables that the kingdom of God is being given to people, producing the fruit of the kingdom.
[00:33:27] The APostle Peter in First Peter, Chapter 2 has this to say.
[00:33:32] Let me read this to you.
[00:33:36] He says, therefore rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants desire the pure milk of the Word so that you may grow up into your salvation. If you have taste that the Lord is good as you come to Him. A living stone rejected by people, but chosen and honored by God. You yourselves as living stones. A spiritual house are being built to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, for it stands in Scripture. See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and honored cornerstone, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.
[00:34:17] So Honor will come to you who believe. But for the unbelieving, the stone that the builders rejected, this one has become the cornerstone and a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over. They stumble because they disobey the word. They were destined for this. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
[00:34:54] Jesus offers us a clear warning and choice. Jesus, if you are a believer, has brought you into his kingdom. He's saved you. He's made you new. And it isn't so that we can go back to the same old sins and struggles every day. He's saved us. To join him in the work of his kingdom, we need to seriously ask ourselves, are we producing the fruit of the kingdom in our lives? Because he is very clear that this kingdom is being given to people who produce fruit.
[00:35:25] Jesus says we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that we may proclaim the praises of the One who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
[00:35:38] We are called and commanded to be proclaiming his praises. He's the cornerstone. And that cornerstone can either be the foundation that we build everything in our lives upon, or it can be a stone that we stumble over time and time again as we fail to obey Him.
[00:35:58] We're called to bear the fruit of the kingdom, and Peter tells us how to do that. He says, seek holiness in our lives. Rid ourselves of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. Desire the pure teaching of the Word of God. These are the things that will build us up into our salvation to be the temple of which Jesus Christ Himself is the cornerstone.
[00:36:25] This was a long sermon. There's a lot. Let's spend a couple of minutes just in reflection. Let's ask Jesus to. To really speak to our hearts. Let's ask him to tell us what we need to get from this. Are we producing fruit in our lives?
[00:36:46] Let's not let this pass us by. We say this every week. If Jesus is doing something in your heart, do not ignore it. It's so easy to just move right past it, to make it through the last couple of songs and then be able to walk out the door. But if God wants to do something in your heart, let him open yourselves up to it. Ask Jesus if you're producing the right kind of fruit. And if you're not how you need to change what you're doing. Respond to Jesus. He is the cornerstone. He's worth it.
[00:37:19] Let's spend a couple of minutes in prayer.
