Welcome to Harvest Chapel PA podcast.
We're so glad you've joined us.
Each week you'll hear powerful messages, testimonies and conversations designed to
help you grow in your faith and encounter Jesus in a fresh way.
Let's dive into today's episode.
So good, you guys doing okay?
You guys excited to be in the house of the Lord?
Who's excited that it's starting to feel like fall?
Anybody?
Okay, okay.
Wasn't as much, wasn't a great reaction actually.
I thought I'd get a better reaction out of that.
Sorry, I apologize for those of you that enjoyed the summer, but we had a summer.
We had a summer and now we're in fall.
So we need to fully embrace the season we're in, amen.
And not, you know, crave the one that's coming, but fully embrace the season we're
in.
Honestly, that will preach.
Uriah and Anna send their love from afar.
Our little guy is in a season of sleeping when he's not supposed to.
And is awake when he's supposed to be sleeping.
So we're trying to figure that out.
He just hit a growth spurt and he's teething and all the fun things.
So nights at the Smith House just look a little interesting right now.
So keep us in prayer.
But yeah, we're so thankful just to be here.
Excited for what God has in store for this morning.
Actually had a dream a couple nights ago.
I don't feel like I'm supposed to release the dream, but I do feel like I'm supposed
to use it as an example for you to dream with God.
It was one of those dreams that when you wake up, like it felt so real,
you almost have to like ask yourself like, was that a dream or like, did that
actually happen?
And in the dream, what was happening was a situation that for that to happen would
take an act of God.
And I remember waking up from the dream and I just, I simply just said,
Lord, if you want that to happen, so be it.
And I yield to you and your plans.
And I just feel like God wants to remind some of you this morning that he's the
miracle worker.
He's the one that makes all things new.
And sometimes we can take on that responsibility, but he's actually the one
to do the stuff.
We have to have faith and we have to believe that all things are possible,
but he's the one that's ultimately gonna bring those things into fruition.
Our obedience is a huge factor in the matter.
But at the end of the day, he's the one that brings the increase.
It's our job to sow seeds.
I believe that God will bring people around you to water those seeds,
but he's the one to bring the increase.
Increase is not your job.
Obedience and faithfulness is.
And that's not even a part of the message.
That's just a freebie for this morning.
But yeah, I was looking forward to the fall harvest party.
I think the only job that you could be completely wrong and still have a job is
working in the weather.
Because us as a staff, we were looking at the weekend and yesterday I purposely
didn't go to the Apple Harvest Festival because I thought I was gonna get rained
out and it turned out to be a beautiful day.
For those of you that went, hope you had fun.
And then today it was supposed to be raining throughout the day, but it looks
like we got our rain in the morning and then it's kind of drying up.
But what we need to pray is for no rain on the 26th, okay?
I'd still love to be able to get together and just enjoy time as a church family.
So let's just pray.
Holy Spirit, we thank you for your presence.
God, I just ask that you would be the focal point of this message, God,
the focal point of every message.
God, that you would just have your way in this place in Jesus' name, amen.
So we are on week two of a series called The Blessed Life.
I felt led to walk us through the Beatitudes so you can open up your Bibles
to Matthew chapter five.
I will bounce around to a few other places, but you can camp out in chapter
five.
And I just wanna do a little bit of a recap from last week if you weren't able
to be with us.
So last week we kind of talked about our posture before God.
And we looked at the first four Beatitudes.
We discovered that the blessed life doesn't start with what we do for God,
but with how we posture our hearts before Him.
So if remember, Jesus said, God blesses those who are poor and realize their need
for Him, those who mourn, those who are humble, and those who hunger and thirst
for righteousness.
And that's kind of just briefly describing verses three through six.
But we learned from that that the poor in spirit, what that means is to be
completely dependent upon God.
God is not a source for you, He must be your source.
We can't conveniently incorporate Him into our lives at times.
He needs to be our life, fully.
We can't live this 99.9% life being with Jesus and wonder why things aren't going
the way that we would like them to when God requires all of our hearts,
not some of it.
We talked about those who mourn are comforted as they bring their pain and
repentance to Him.
That there's actually this beautiful thing that happens when we mourn with and in the
Holy Spirit.
How many know that when we lose someone we love the most, and that verse right there
isn't just talking about mourning in that sense, it's actually mourning sin and
repentance, and it's a holy thing.
There's a bigger context there, but when we do lose someone that we love
dearly, we do need to mourn, but we need to make sure that we have to mourn with
and in the Holy Spirit.
Because even for moments that I have gone through loss in my life, there's times
where the enemy will try to come into those moments and try to put a wedge or a
separation between you and God, and how many know that there's nothing
that separates you from the love of God, and He'll get you to try to think thoughts
like, well, why did God cause this, or why did God cause this to happen?
Let me tell you, John 10, 10 clearly says the enemy comes to kill, steal,
and destroy.
Jesus came to bring life and life more abundantly.
So if anything in your life is stealing, killing, destroying, devil, bad.
Life and life abundantly, Jesus, good.
So I know that that sounds super simple, but sometimes we overcomplicate a very
simple gospel.
We talked about being meek doesn't mean weak, that there's actually strength in
being meek, and for those that are surrendered to His will.
How many of you had plans and had things that you would love God to partner with,
but actually those were your plans, not God's plans?
Because we need to actually submit to God's plans for our lives, and we need to
make sure that we're in line and in tune with Him, and we're not praying for things
that maybe are outside of His will for us personally.
Amen?
We need to constantly be coming to Him and laying things down at His feet and
surrendering to Him and say, God, it's not my life, but your life now.
I gave you my life, I gave you my dreams, I gave you my desires.
God, what do you want me to accomplish?
What do you want me to do in and through you?
God, give me the strength to do that, not the strength to accomplish something
that isn't our will to accomplish.
We talked about those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are filled
because they crave what pleases God.
How many know that as Christians, as believers, we need to crave what
pleases God?
Not what pleases man, but what pleases God.
Sometimes it's really not comfortable to say certain things even from this position
because certain things aren't popular to say, but it's not my job to tell you
what's popular, it's my job to tell you what's holy and what's right and what's
true and what's actually going to transform your life.
There's this starting point of a blessed life and that's knowing God deeply.
You are blessed if you know God.
Would you say amen to that?
If you know God and God knows you, you are blessed, if that's true,
you will never hear, depart from me, I never knew you.
If you know God, and that's a big if.
I think a lot of us know about God.
A lot of us are around godly people, but when it comes just between you and the
Lord, does God know you personally?
Because that's what God wants, he desires that.
That's why he sent his son to die for you so that you would have that kind of
relationship with him.
But now Jesus starts to shift the focus.
Once our hearts are rightly postured before God, it begins to change how we
relate to people.
How many know this relationship is going to dictate all of these relationships?
If this relationship is off, your marriage is most likely gonna be off.
If this relationship is off, your relationship with your parents or your
children is probably gonna be off.
So you have to ask yourself that.
If you're having trouble with relationships, your first question must
be, God, how are we?
Are we in a good place?
Because if we're in a good place, that's gonna trickle into every other
relationship.
So there's this beautiful flow of the Beatitudes that we see.
First, they deal with our relationship with God.
It's more of an internal posture.
Then we see the shift, which we're gonna talk about today, that deals with our
relationship with others, kind of more of an external posture.
And then next week we'll end with things that deal with our relationship with the
world, endurance through opposition.
How many know we need that?
We need that.
We need endurance through opposition.
But this week, I just wanna dive right in.
We're gonna start at verse seven.
I'm in the New Living Translation, and we're just gonna read it, because it's
good, and sometimes you just have to read scripture and let it get inside you.
God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.
And God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of
God.
These three reveal how the blessed life transforms the way that we treat others
with mercy, purity, and peace.
So a lot of these verses are verses that we've read, we've studied perhaps,
but I don't wanna just know these verses up here.
If this is what Jesus is telling us, that this is what it means to have a
blessed life, I want to listen, and I want to listen with intent,
because I think sometimes what we define as blessing isn't really blessing.
Because blessings isn't just everything going the way that we would like it to go.
That's right.
Being blessed is being able to have Jesus Christ with you and in you as you go
through all things.
Amen.
The good, the bad, the ugly, the valleys, the mountain tops, all of it, you get a
different perspective when you're in Christ.
That's right.
Because if you're truly in Christ, you're never truly in chaos.
That's true.
The world around you can look very chaotic, can look very confusing.
I can't turn on the news without asking questions.
But my peace doesn't come from the news, it comes from the good news.
That's right.
And that never changes.
It's the same.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
And that's what sets us apart from a lost and dying world is that we're alive in him
now.
We don't have to wait to have hope until then, we have hope now.
We get to endure now with hope and with joy and with peace.
Still believing and contending for things, but those things happening in your life
aren't what dictate you having peace in your life.
I want to have peace in my life regardless of what's happening around me.
Regardless of your eye having a good night's sleep or not.
That doesn't get to dictate my peace and my internal joy.
Does that make sense?
So we see this beautiful flow.
And I think when Jesus is speaking, we need to listen up.
This is all the word of God.
But how many know like when Jesus is speaking, we say the red letters,
the red stuff.
Like let's pay attention.
Like what is going on here?
So let's just take this verse by verse.
Jesus begins with God blesses those who are merciful for they will be shown mercy.
We have to understand that mercy is compassion in action.
It's not enough to just have compassion.
It's not enough to just know what you should do.
It's actually partnering with that and putting feet to that truth.
That's right.
So that we can actually become the change that we so desperately want to see.
Look at our local community.
We may want God to do things in our local community and it's good to have prayer
life and pray those things into existence.
But God might look at you and say, I've placed that in you so that you can be
a part of the solution.
I want you to get on that board, that council board.
I want you to start praying for those principles by name.
I want you to start praying for your local police officers.
I want you to start praying for your local firefighters.
I want you to start praying for your local EMS.
And he wants you to be a part of the solution.
You see someone who's hungry, you feed them.
You see someone who needs clothing and you give them clothes or you send them to a
ministry that you know.
We have a beautiful relationship with New Hope Ministries locally here in our area.
And they have so many different branches.
And I love when people come to Harvest Chapel and they get with one of our
pastors and we pray with them.
We pray with them, we love on them.
We may even bless them with whatever's in our God's grocery cart.
But we're also giving them brochures of do you know about this local ministry that
will literally help feed you?
Because it's not about me just putting a meal in your belly today.
It's about helping fix this cycle so that you can actually get out of this pattern
and walk into who you're called to be.
So it's beautiful for us to have beautiful relationships with other ministries in our
area to say, hey, we can do this, but let me make a phone call real quick.
And how many know that person that needs to choose to go?
Because sometimes we come and we want the solution now and we want the blessing now.
But the blessing may be a part of a connection getting you there.
Because I know that they can actually help you.
They can actually help you find a job.
They can actually help you find a home.
That's what it looks like to partner with God, but we can't just have a compassion
that leads to no action.
This supernatural compassion must lead to us partnering with God to do things.
God wants to partner with you.
He doesn't wanna do it for you.
That's right.
It's not just feeling bad for someone.
It's doing something about their pain.
It's when you're walking in the grocery store and you see somebody that just looks
down.
How many know that?
Some people can hide it really well.
I mean, seriously, there's comedians that have died from suicide and depression,
but their career is making people laugh.
And you never know, but there's a lot of times where we're out and about and you
can just see someone that's down.
You see someone that's depressed.
And for you to have a heart that just says, God, would you use me?
And maybe using you that day looks like you stopping and just saying, hey,
I can't help but notice.
Are you okay?
You just seem like a little down and you have no idea.
Sometimes it's those moments where they're waiting for someone to care.
They're waiting for someone to just give them a little bit of time, a little bit of
attention.
And all of a sudden, it's not about us giving them attention.
It's us actually pointing them to Jesus who's going to be the one to set them free
because your salvation isn't found in me.
But if I can point you to Jesus, you're gonna learn how to go to Jesus
every moment of every day that you need him.
And that's every moment of every day because we never don't need him.
We always need him.
When your bills are paid, you need him.
When you have so much debt, you don't know how to do the minimum payments,
you need him.
When your health is amazing, you need him.
When your health is down, you need him.
We just need to live a lifestyle of realizing that we have a need for him.
We have to be dependent upon him.
This is truly what it looks like for when grace meets need.
Like we have received mercy.
Everyone in this room, if you've given your life to Jesus, you've received his
mercy.
But I believe we have to become better givers of mercy.
Ephesians chapter two, verse four through five says, but God is so rich in mercy.
And he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins,
he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.
God didn't just feel sorry for us.
He acted in mercy through Jesus.
When we realize how much mercy we've received, we can't help but extend it to
the people around us.
But you can't just receive mercy from God and then not give the people closest to
you mercy when they need it.
Sometimes it's easier to give a stranger mercy than a spouse.
Than a loved one, than a mother, than a father, than a brother,
than a cousin, than your neighbors, like people that really know you.
Like that's when it becomes challenging sometimes.
And that's when we need to just die to ourself and say, God, it's not about the
kind of mercy I can give.
God, I need to give them your mercy, not my humanistic version of mercy that
comes with a lot of hooks, that doesn't get anywhere.
God, I need you.
Luke six, verse 36 says, you must be compassionate just as your father is
compassionate.
Jesus showed us what does it look like to live a life that's filled with compassion.
Jesus was led with compassion.
Think about the story of the good Samaritan.
You don't have to go there, but it's in Luke chapter 10.
And the priest and the Levite, what did they do?
They walked by, but the Samaritan saw the wounded man had compassion and then acted
to help.
It's not enough to just see the need.
We have to actually get the person to the solution, which I believe the solution
always every day is Jesus.
If your marriage is off, Jesus is the answer.
If you're having troubles with your finances, Jesus is the answer.
If you're having troubles with whatever, Jesus is your answer.
It never changes.
We never graduate from Jesus being the answer.
Mercy moves, but it doesn't just move, it gets involved.
So how can we apply this to our life?
I love taking scripture and then asking that question because we have to learn
what does this look like to actually apply to our life here and now in 2025.
I believe that mercy forgives those who don't deserve it.
I know for a fact that there's most likely individuals in this room that have someone
that they should forgive.
Do you know that unforgiveness really is only hurting you?
That's right.
A lot of the times, the people that have hurt us in the past, one, don't even
recognize or realize they hurt you, or two, they're not walking with the Lord
to really care so it's not changing anything about their life.
But if you have this person that the moment I say that someone comes to your
mind, I would challenge you to walk through forgiveness with the Lord towards
that person.
Free yourself.
Unforgiveness is like you're sitting in the jail and the jail door's wide open.
You've been set free.
Jesus came, He unlocked that cell.
He said, come.
And you're choosing to just remain where you are.
What is that doing?
That's holding you back from stepping into the person that God has called you to be.
And this isn't easy to do, but this is easy when you go to Him.
You don't go to man.
You don't go to a pastor.
You don't go to a person.
You go to Jesus Christ Himself.
He's the only one that can love you, that can embrace you and say, I know
exactly how that person hurt you.
I knew exactly what they said.
And I'm gonna give you the strength and the courage to forgive them.
What does forgiveness mean?
Forgiveness means you look at that person as if they never hurt you.
That's right, come on.
Thank God that that's how Jesus looks at me because I've messed up time and time
again.
But Jesus, when I go to Him and my heart is pure and it's a heart of repentance,
and I say, God, forgive me.
He looks at me as if I never did the thing.
That's right.
That's how we're called to forgive others.
That's how I'm called to forgive Anna.
If we have a scuffle, that sounds funny, but whatever, a disagreement.
And I need to walk through forgiveness.
Or she most likely, I most likely am the one that probably needs to ask for
forgiveness in the equation.
But I've said this from the beginning of our marriage.
I said, Anna, if I come to you and I say, honey, I'm so sorry I said this,
I'm so sorry I did this, would you forgive me?
Don't just say you forgive me because you know it's what I want to hear.
That's right, come on.
Only say you forgive me when you can look at me as if I never said it.
Because that's what true forgiveness is.
True forgiveness is not putting it under the carpet and then it happens again two
months from now and you go, here we go again.
There is no here I go again.
Here we go again.
This is like it's the first time.
Because forgiveness resets the standard.
It doesn't just erase the whiteboard, it gives you a new whiteboard.
And that's how we're called to forgive, that's how we're called to extend mercy.
Mercy helps when it's inconvenient.
How many of you have ever gotten the text from a friend, hey, I'm moving tomorrow,
can you help?
One, I'm like, can we work on some time management?
How long have you known you're moving?
This is just practical, this isn't Biblical advice.
If you know you're moving, plan a month ahead.
Get the group of people a month of ahead.
Don't put that on your friends, but sometimes mercy moves when it's
inconvenient to move.
When you have a plan for your day and you'd love for your day to go this way and
then all of a sudden, God brings something into your path and you're like,
wow, this is inconvenient, but is my life mine or is it God's?
Because if your life isn't yours, you're like, okay, I'm yielded to you,
God.
It's about what you want to do in and through me, because I believe mercy
ultimately reflects the heart of the Father.
So just between you and him, just ask yourself, am I as quick to give mercy as I
am to receive it?
Because I think all of us in this room that are walking with the Lord,
you know how to receive mercy, but maybe you need to grow in giving
mercy, extending mercy to the people around you.
Next, we're gonna jump into the pure in heart.
I believe you can't say being pure in heart without saying living with undivided
devotion, because I believe that's what that ultimately means.
God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.
I don't know about you, but I want to see God.
I want my eyes to be clear that I can see him and I know who he is and who he isn't.
Because I grew up in a lot of religion in my life to where people said this is God
and no, that's actually religion.
That's not relationship.
There's a difference between religion and a relationship with the real living Jesus
Christ.
Do you know he's alive?
The king you serve is alive.
He's not an idea, he's not a past, he's alive.
He's here.
Come on.
Purity, it's not about perfection, it's about undivided devotion.
It's about you living a lifestyle that's undividedly his.
Nothing is gonna distract you from the gaze that you look into his eyes and
that's your motive of waking up in the day is God, I just want to look into your eyes
and I want to make every decision based on what you think.
A pure heart means a clean, sincere, and focused heart.
One that's not split between God and the world.
You can't afford to have one foot in the world and one foot in the church.
The truth is, if you have one foot in the world and one foot in the church,
you might as well just have both feet in the world.
In the world, that's right.
Because God doesn't have you.
Unless God has all of you, he has none of you.
He wants all of your heart, he wants all of your desires, he wants all of your
wants, he wants you.
And when we give him all of us, we get all of him.
It's not really a fair exchange.
We get all love, all joy, all peace, all hope.
He gets us.
And in his eyes, he's happy about that.
Psalms 24, verse three through four says, who may climb the mountain of the Lord,
who may stand in his holy place, only those whose hands and hearts are
pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies.
God wants to purify our motives, not just our actions.
He wants our hearts, he wants our hearts that are not double-minded or distracted
by compromise.
Guys, I'm not gonna make this entire message about this, but it's crazy to me
that like, oh my gosh, Pastor Matt, where do you stand on this or where do you
stand on that?
Like when it comes to Halloween and stuff, I'm like, well, I definitely don't think
we should be putting up demonic things in our yards.
Come on.
I don't think it takes a rocket science to say we probably shouldn't be partnering
with the demonic in our yards.
in any way.
Now, there's some people that'll tell you, just stay inside, brother, sister,
it's dark out there and it's, oh, this is the devil's month.
I'm not giving the devil any month.
Devil can't have October, he can't have November, he certainly can't have
December.
I ain't planning to give him January or February or March or April or May or June,
July, August, not even September.
He can't have a month in my world.
I'm not gonna avoid the grocery stores this month.
If anything, if you know that people are buying twisted things, go to those aisles
and hang out and see if God will actually prompt you to pray for somebody.
You go, wow, that's a pretty scary ghost.
I'm actually possessed by one.
They look at you all freaked out, like what do you mean, man?
Like, yeah, I'm possessed by a ghost, his name's Holy.
Holy ghost.
I have a relationship with him.
When I gave my life to him, his spirit came and lives inside of me now,
I'm possessed.
You're gonna get a lot of crazy looks, I promise you.
But what if we just choose to make this all about God and not give the devil an
inch of our time?
I have friends that set out grills out front of their houses when their neighbors
are participating in trick-or-treating or whatever and they just simply just bless
their neighbors.
And when they ask, they're like, why are you doing this?
Oh, because we love you.
You're here and you're out here saying you're hungry, right?
Yeah, yeah, well, have a burger.
And it leads to them getting prayer and being set free and prophetic words and we
can get creative with the Lord and not try to avoid the world but actually be in the
world but not of it.
Asher, Tyler's son, he only knows this environment.
He grew up in this environment from being in the children's ministry, screaming his
head off and we, and praise God we had teachers that were patient with him
because Pastor Tyler worked at Clark's overnight for a long season where Amanda
would bring the kids alone and Amanda's like, what do I do?
Like Asher's just crying and screaming back there.
But he grew up in this environment so they'll go on family walks during October
and Asher will just look around and be like, huh, this is weird.
Like what?
I didn't know our neighbors worshiped the devil.
You're like, what do you mean, buddy?
He's like, well, there's witches and there's warlocks and there's goblins and
he's like, I just didn't realize, I didn't realize.
It's a darker light issue when it comes to someone like Asher.
Someone who's young, someone who's grown up in the church is like, it's either
light or it's dark.
Why do we wanna get in the middle?
Why do we wanna get as close as we can?
Don't call the church asking for counsel because you have demonic dreams but yet
you just went to the haunted mill last night.
Cause I'm gonna ask some questions.
Oh, Pastor Matt, I just, I haven't been able to sleep in weeks and I don't know
what it is.
Oh, tell me about your life.
What do you like to do?
I love horror movies.
Maybe start there.
You're literally giving the devil an open door to your heart and you're witnessing
murder and demonic things and yet you're wondering why you can't sleep at night.
Come on, like there's a difference between you feeling called to go to that place and
be in the parking lot in love, be like preaching the gospel, whatever and
then if you get kicked out, you get kicked out cause it's their business there.
You know, like they actually have the rights to be there.
We can't just force them out.
Like they're there but you shouldn't be there participating like the world is.
That's right.
The youth would hate when I would say that but I didn't care.
I'm like, I'll tell your parents not to let you go.
Cause you're opening yourself and your spirit up to so many things you don't even
realize it.
The spiritual world is more real than this one.
That's right.
People are like, pastor Matt, I wanna see angels.
No, you don't cause you're gonna see demons too and you ain't ready for that.
Trust me, I know you're talking to the Lord.
You ain't ready for that yet.
You don't want that cause I can feel stuff.
I can go into a store and I can feel depression.
I can feel anxiety.
I can feel self-hatred.
I can feel the spirit of suicide cause I lived a lot of my life in that world bound
by those spirits.
So when I get around it, I'm like, okay the devil's showing his cards.
I know there's a spirit of anxiety close by.
Okay, which who is it Lord?
And he can lead me and guide me that way.
Anna sees.
I remember when we first married early on, we lived in a very small apartment on a
farm.
It was actually a barn.
We lived in a barn.
Our neighbors were little horses.
Like we'd wake up, time to get up.
It was an apartment for a horse hand but the people didn't have a horse hand and it
was really cheap.
So I said, sign me up.
Yeah.
And I would remember, I would feel stuff and one day we just started arguing out of
nowhere.
Like for no reason, we're just arguing and we'd stop.
We're like, what are we arguing about?
She's like, I don't know.
And she's like, I'm like, well, I kind of feel something weird.
And she's like, oh, it's funny you saw that.
Like I saw something like walk in the hallway.
I'm like, babe, can we, we need to communicate.
If you're seeing stuff and I'm feeling stuff, God's showing us so we can cast
that sucker out of here.
And I remember partnering together.
We prayed over that apartment and then we had no other issues.
It was a spiritual thing.
Guys, the spiritual world is real.
It's a bunny trail coming back to the Beatitudes.
Psalms 51 verse 10 says, create in me a clean heart, O God, renew a loyal spirit
within me.
When your heart is pure, single focused on God, you'll begin to see him more clearly
in your life.
You'll begin to recognize his hand in your circumstances, his presence in your
worship, his voice in your decisions.
You'll recognize him.
Picture this, like when water is muddy, you can't see a reflection because
something is hindering you from seeing that reflection, that mud is there.
But when it's clear, the image becomes visible.
Purity of heart clears the water so you can truly see God.
What does it look like for us to have a pure heart and a prayer that says,
search me, O Lord.
I think that's one of the purest prayers we can pray on a daily basis.
God, search me, search my heart.
If there's anything in me that isn't in you, God, would you show me what it is so
we can take care of it because I don't want to be stuck in that place.
I don't want to live in compromise.
I don't want to have mud during up the water of my heart and holding me back from
seeing you clearly.
I want to see him clearly, guys.
I want you to see him clearly.
So what does it look like to, again, apply this to our day-to-day lives?
We have to guard what captures our attention and affection.
Parents, you need to guard your kids' eyes, whether they like it or not.
I'm sorry, kids, I love you, but I'm giving your parents full permission that
if you're watching something and your parents come into the room and they go,
wow, that's twisted.
If it's twisted, specifically dad, priest of your home, grab the remote and
turn it off.
Oh, that's really gonna upset them.
Okay, you're there to protect their hearts.
You're there to protect their eyes.
You're there to protect their ears.
You can't control what they're necessarily seeing at school or hearing on the school
bus, but you better control what's happening in your own home.
That's right, that's right.
Oh, it's their room.
I don't care, they pay rent.
Okay, well, there's gonna be nothing in that room that shouldn't be in this house.
And parents, go in their room, pray over their room when they're not
there.
Holy Spirit, invade this room with your presence like never before.
Spirit of God, live in this place.
Spirit of the Lord, come into this place.
Let your presence be known in this place.
But again, we can't have that desire for our children, but yet we're on the couch
watching Netflix shows we shouldn't be watching.
This goes both ways, because I have a lot of conversation with a lot of kids and
they go, well, mom and dad watch that.
And I'm like, okay, now I have to have a conversation with mom and dad.
But this is all about, if we're walking this life out personally, it's gonna
trickle down into every relationship you have.
But for your kids that wanna have a God-fearing relationship, you as parents
need to have a God-fearing relationship with God.
Hey, we could go do this, but this is why we're not gonna go do this.
We got invited, I know that our friends, they're going to the haunted mill.
This is why we're not going.
Can I just explain to you as your father, this is why we're not going.
I don't wanna put you into an environment where your heart's gonna be exposed to
demonic images and see things you should never see and see people on weird
situations and clowns and this and that.
We're just not gonna do that.
I love you too much to do that.
Oh, I just don't get it, you're stupid.
Okay.
Okay, that's fine.
You'll get over it.
Take authority.
We need to choose integrity over image.
Because even in that scenario, what are they gonna think?
What are my friends gonna think?
I don't care, what does God think?
God needs to be the greatest soundboard in your life.
You're living to please Him and Him alone.
You let the Holy Spirit continually refine your motives.
I want my motives to be pure.
Not just my actions, but my motives.
And then jumping into what does it look like to be a peacemaker?
Not a peacekeeper.
We all know what's coming.
Thanksgiving dinner's coming.
You know what comes with Thanksgiving dinners?
Family.
It's sad that sometimes we go all year to be around certain family members,
but then we get together during Thanksgiving and we find ourselves being
with our family and then all of a sudden we're sneaking off to the bathroom going,
oh Lord, help me.
Oh Jesus, let me just keep the peace for another two hours.
Surely they won't stay for two more hours.
You know where we find ourselves in the bathroom three hours later?
Oh Lord, surely they won't stay another hour.
It's not just about keeping the peace, it's actually being a peacemaker.
It's saying, man, these family members, they're lost.
We all know that family members are lost, I admit to God, how can you use me to love
them today?
And that doesn't mean you go in there and say, hey, I have announcement to make.
Everyone sit up.
Everyone listen.
Everyone turn to this verse.
No, but what if you just sit down with them, you engage with them, you look into
their eyes, you put your phone away and you actually have a conversation?
Oh my gosh, we can do that this day and age?
We can actually have conversations with people?
Holy smokes.
You just, your whole world's not gonna fall apart if you actually keep your phone
in your car.
And my wife's probably watching right now saying amen.
Because I can get tempted to just be on that thing too much.
Because I want you to have access to me, but I also want my family to have first
priority.
That's actually biblical.
But your whole world's not gonna fall apart if you just choose to be present for
that couple hours and be with your family, hug them, embrace them.
We're not promised tomorrow.
I'm sure that there's people in your life you wish you would've had one more
conversation.
You wish you would've had them over one more time.
You wish you would've just said no to whatever you chose over them in that
moment.
But let's choose to be peacemakers, not just try to keep the peace.
Because God says he blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the
children of God.
Notice Jesus doesn't say bless our peace lovers.
Lovers of peace.
You can be in this room and love peace all you want, but that's not where the
blessing's gonna come from.
It's actually partnering with him to be a peacemaker.
Peace doesn't just happen, it's made.
It takes intentional effort to make it.
Romans 12 verse 18 says, "'Do all that you can to live in peace "'with everyone who
thinks like you.'" Nope, that's not what it says.
"'Do all that you can to live in peace "'with everyone.'" I don't know if you're
a high letter or an underliner, but I'm circling everyone, and then I'm
writing next to it, help me, Lord.
Try to keep peace with, try to make peace with everyone.
Being a peacemaker doesn't mean avoiding conflict.
Do you know, sometimes we try to avoid conflict.
You pull up to the grocery store, and you just, something in you said,
I need to go to the grocery store, and I always go to Giant, but for whatever
reason, I feel like I'm supposed to go to Walmart.
You get there, you pull in, you see the car.
You see the person's car.
And you're like, oh no.
And you're like, get behind me, devil.
When you just said you felt like something told you to go to Walmart, and now we're
in Walmart, and we're like, we've become like 007, like, da-da-da, da-da-da.
Are they in aisle three?
No?
Okay, it's safe.
We're not called to avoid conflict.
If anything, maybe God is putting you in a position to have a hard conversation.
For someone to actually see you that no, maybe they know they hurt you,
and all of a sudden now they see you, and you're free.
Big why?
Because you walked through forgiveness.
And now it's not the end of the world that you're running into them, and you're like,
wow, how you been?
And your whole heart is different.
You're looking at them different.
Because if you truly walk through forgiveness, you're looking at that person
as if they never hurt you.
It's probably gonna freak them out.
That you're not trying to avoid them.
We can do all things through Christ Jesus, because he's the one that gives us
strength.
It's about reconciliation, not just quietness.
When you're in conversations with people, and maybe they're hard conversations,
lean into the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, let me only say what Jesus is saying.
Let me only do what he's doing, God.
Let me be yielded to you.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit is you just keeping your mouth shut.
Anyone see that meme where it's like, I think it was the Golden Girls,
or a little clip from that show, and one of the girls has their hand over
her mouth, and it was like, the Holy Spirit.
Because sometimes it's just what we need is just to die to ourself.
I just wanna give him a piece of my mind.
Is it your mind, or is it Christ's mind?
Because we should have the mind of Christ.
If you feel that feeling in you that's like, oh, I just wanna give him a little
piece of my mind.
If it feels unhealthy, it probably is.
And just yield to him and say, man, God, I don't want that in me.
I don't wanna have to feel that way.
I don't wanna feel that way.
God, I wanna surrender that to you.
I don't wanna live like that.
Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 18 through 20 says, God has given us
this task of reconciling people to him.
We are Christ's ambassadors.
God is making his appeal through us.
Man, when we pursue peace, we reveal our identity as children of God.
We stand out, we look different.
We become like him.
We don't have to go there, but Acts chapter nine, it talks about Barnabas.
And Barnabas, he actually stepped in to bring reconciliation between the disciples
and Paul because Paul used to be Saul, and the disciples knew who he was.
The disciples knew what he did.
The disciples knew that he killed and persecuted Christians, and now we're just
all of a sudden supposed to invite him over for the family dinner?
Huh?
You want who to come over for dinner?
The guy that killed our buddy?
What?
And Barnabas steps in, and what does he do?
He begins to make peace because we can't now look at Saul as he's Saul.
He's Paul now.
Saul no longer exists.
We can't look at him as a murderer or a persecutor of our faith.
He's one of our brothers.
He's one of us.
He deserves the same grace, the same mercy that we've received.
Guys, we have to believe this is true, and he's encouraging them to live this
out.
Barnabas, he builds a bridge creating peace and unity in the early church.
What bridges is God asking us to build here now?
Maybe it's for your family.
Maybe it's for your community.
Maybe it's for your workplace.
We can't keep going to places that God has called us to because how many of you,
you've gone through a season in your life where you really needed a job.
You were fearful that you didn't know how bills were gonna get paid, and you're on
your face, and you're believing God to give you a job, and then he gives you a
job, and you know what that job comes with?
A boss.
It comes with employees.
It comes with people that don't believe like you, and now we're praying ourself
out of a job that God gave us.
Instead of us honestly just saying like, wow, this is my mission field.
Because if you come to me and say, hey, Pastor Matt, I just really have a
heart for the missions.
I'm like, great, when's the last time you talked to your neighbor?
I've never talked to my neighbor.
I don't know their name.
Maybe start there.
We want God to bless our mission journey to Africa, but yet we don't know our
neighbors.
You guys okay?
Because we're called to love our brothers and sisters.
We're called to reach out.
We're called to be the solution to dark problems.
We're in the light.
We can't hide what we have.
So ask yourselves, well, how can I apply this?
How can I be a peacemaker?
I wanna make peace.
In your relationships, are you the first person to forgive?
Are you the first person to go, hmm, I should really just let this go,
because this is really eating my lunch for too long.
The devil would love for you to be distracted.
If the enemy can get you distracted in this season, he's keeping you away from
doing the things you're called to do.
In conflicts, do we find ourselves listening more than we're speaking?
I wanna be quick to listen, slow to speak.
I don't want anything to come out of my mouth that God isn't saying.
I don't wanna give my opinions, if it's not God's opinions.
I need to actually submit all of those things to the Lord.
Guys, this requires dying to yourself daily.
This is not say the prayer on a Sunday morning, get the goosebumps and you're
good for life.
This is you picking up your cross daily and saying, gosh, this is difficult.
I don't wanna do this.
And God's like, I get it.
I didn't wanna die on the cross.
I didn't wanna take those lashes.
I didn't wanna wear that crown of thorns.
I didn't wanna get my beard ripped out.
All I'm calling you to do is make a hard phone call.
When we bring our things to the Lord and we think about all he's done for us,
it's almost like, man, God, I'm really, wow.
I'm complaining about a phone call that I'm called to make when Lord, you did all
of that for us so that we could be empowered to have those hard
conversations, pointing people to you.
I just think a lot of the things we bring to the Lord, he's like, man, do you
realize what you're complaining about right now?
And we have to understand that there's this fine line between praying and
complaining.
There's a difference between believing and then just talking about it.
If you have people in your life that are like your go-to people that are like,
they're gonna challenge you to believe right.
I have people in my life that if I'm off, they're gonna tell me.
If I'm believing a lie, they're gonna help me realize that's the lie you're
believing.
This is the truth that's gonna set you free.
Let's do this.
Let's pray.
That's a prayer partner.
I don't need someone to lick wounds.
I don't need to call someone and go, oh, well, you know, it is what it is.
Sometimes it's just how it is.
No, you need people that are gonna look at you in the eye and go, hey, you're better
than that.
You know better than that.
You're the righteousness of Christ Jesus.
Righteous sons and daughters don't do that.
They don't wanna do that.
So that feeling of you wanting to do that, let's deal with that.
Because everything that we give ourselves to, even in the context of sin,
sin is always a, it masquerades what we truly desire in the Lord.
Maybe you do this to get joy.
I can have joy in Christ and I don't have to pay for it.
I, we wanna have this real intimate connection relationship with Jesus.
So then we do this over here to kind of fulfill us for a moment, but then as soon
as that's over, what comes?
Guilt, shame, condemnation.
But when you pursue Him and you find yourself fulfilled in Him, you taste and
see that He is good.
Nothing compares to that.
In community type situations or when you're with your family, do you see
yourself as being a unifier and not a divider?
Are you one in the room that's like, hey, like let's, this is crazy.
Like, let's actually figure this out.
Enough is enough.
I just get this, I'm in the season of like, enough is enough.
I think the enemy has been touching too many of our families in different
situations and we need you to hunker down and just say, enough is enough.
We're not believing these lies anymore.
We're not doing this anymore.
Enough is enough.
It doesn't mean your life's gonna be perfect.
It doesn't mean you're gonna have the house you desire.
It doesn't mean you're gonna have the car you wanna drive.
That's not what blessing is.
What we're talking about is the blessed life.
Now I'm not saying God is, God also cares about the desires of your heart,
but watch this.
Your greatest desire has to be Him and Him alone.
And when He's your greatest desire, you can actually steward the stuff.
Cause I'm not opposed to you having good, nice things, but I don't want those things
to have you.
I don't want you to be ever driving a vehicle that if the Lord speaks to you
audibly and you know it's Him and He says, okay, you've received this blessing for
long enough, it's time to bless someone else with this.
And we give Him those keys.
All right, Lord, this isn't mine.
Anything that you're not willing to lay down at His feet has you.
That's right.
You have to love Him more than you love your spouse.
You have to love Him more than you love your kids.
Because how many know spouses and kids can become idols quickly?
That's right.
And they're good things.
They're good things.
Those aren't bad things.
But the way that Anna loves me does not get to dictate how I love her.
My love for her is coming from my love from Him.
You with me?
I have a relationship with God and He's loving me.
He's where I get my love from.
He's my source.
And then I get to love Anna from that place.
It's not that we're only good when everything's great and when she's doing
everything right and when the dishes are done and when the bed is made and when
this is that and this is that.
No.
I love her because I get to love her.
But I wouldn't be able to love her the way that I'm called to love her if I wasn't
receiving from love Himself.
That's why if this relationship is off, they're all gonna be off.
You're not gonna have the relationship you want with your spouse.
You're not gonna have the relationship you desire to have with your kids and you're
like, I wonder why my kids don't wanna be with me.
Where is your relationship with Him?
Are you satisfied in Him so that if you didn't have that, it wouldn't define your
love for Him?
Because in our process of infertility, I had to get to a point in my life that I
said, God, I'm going to continue to love you and serve you for the rest of my life
if I never experienced the gift of being a father in the natural.
Because if I wasn't willing to get to that place, I'll love God if He does this.
God, I'll continue to serve you as a lead pastor and I'll continue to love people
and try to shepherd them the best.
If you do this, that's love with a hook.
That's right.
I don't want that.
God's timing is perfect.
I'm so thankful that we have a son.
I want more.
I want that van full.
I bought my minivan in faith.
I bought my minivan in the process of infertility because God said, if you buy
it, I'll fill it.
I never bought a newer vehicle before.
I never walked into a dealership.
I never signed that much paperwork before.
And the guy's like, well, how many kids you got?
None.
Oh, it weird, but okay, you're buying a minivan, okay.
I drove that thing around for a year, looking in the rear view mirror,
imagining kids laughing and goldfish all over the place.
God help me.
We're not there yet.
God help me.
I canceled my subscription to Modwash, the tidal wave, too much.
I got money for that, but help me Lord, when it comes to that point.
But if it's just Uriah, I'm thankful for him.
He's a gift.
But even if we never stepped into the gift and the blessing of him, I still would be
up here giving my whole life to Jesus because he already deserves it.
He already gave me salvation.
He already sent Jesus Christ to die for me, to die for you.
Your love for him cannot be contingent on what he can do for you.
He's already worth all of your life laid down, but he's such a good God that he
likes to give his kids good gifts.
He likes to partner with you in your desires.
He likes for you to have things that, man, this is such a blessing.
I can't believe I have this.
He wants you to step into those things.
I'm gonna begin to close with this because I know we're talking about a lot of things
and I know that we're in scriptures that we've been in a lot and we're familiar
with these scriptures.
But as we read and as we study, I challenge you to read Matthew chapter
five on your own this week.
And as you're reading each verse, ask questions, God, am I living that kind
of way?
Am I believing you?
Because the blessed life is not about comfort or success.
It's about being transformed into the image of Jesus.
When our posture before God changes, it overflows in how we love and treat
others.
I promise you, when your relationship with God is in a good place, you're gonna see
it.
You're gonna see the way that you react.
You're gonna see the way that you respond.
You're gonna see the way that you talk to your spouse.
You're gonna see the way that you talk to your children.
You're gonna see it.
You're gonna see a difference.
Mercy, purity, and peace, these are not just Christian virtues.
They are an evidence of a transformed heart.
And I want there to be evidence.
I want there to be proof that I'm walking with God.
I don't want it to be a t-shirt I'm wearing that says, I'm a Christian.
I used to have a shirt when I was a kid.
It said, hell, don't even go there.
I think I got it when the Heaven's Gate to Hell's Flames was in town.
Oh yeah.
You guys remember that?
Yeah.
I was definitely giving my life to Jesus because I'm seeing those pictures of
people standing in front of the Lord and they go to hell.
And it was more of a fear tactic type situation, but hey, hell's real.
We can't forget that.
I believe that it's the goodness of God that leads man to repentance.
I don't want you to give your life to Jesus because it's just a ticket out of
hell.
What kind of life is that to live here and now?
God says, I'll give you eternal life.
You know what eternal life is?
It's knowing God here and now.
It's not when you die.
It's not when he returns.
It's having the ability to know him now.
It's being able to go through loss and be like, God, in the midst of this pain,
in the midst of this hurt, I thank you that I can feel and experience your peace
that passes all understanding.
It's hard.
It's difficult, but God, I thank you that I have joy in the midst of it.
God, I thank you that I can trust you in the midst of this hard challenge that's
going on.
I want to end with Micah chapter six, verse eight.
Oh people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you,
to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
So as we're closing and I do believe that the Lord is speaking to hearts,
I want us to just quietly stand together, and I want to just pray a few things over
us and then give you an opportunity to respond.
But I believe it's the blessed life.
The blessed life is seen when the grace you've received from God flows through you
to others.
Mercy and love and action, purity and love and truth, and peace, and peace is love at
work.
So I want to just, I want to pray for you.
I can't look out and just assume that everybody is in a great place with the
Lord.
I don't want to ever just assume that, because I remember a couple weeks ago,
and I share this as a testimony, we're preaching just like we always
preach, and I look back, and as I'm getting to this part of the service,
there's a gentleman well into his 70s with tears rolling down his face, giving his
life to Jesus for the first time.
I later found out through a friend that has been planting seeds and has been
meeting with him for lunches and coffees and just planting seeds, planting seeds,
pointing him to Jesus, and then he got him to get here one Sunday.
And it's not about even getting here, but how many know when you bring people
into the presence of God, it does give God the opportunity to move and do the
impossible.
It's not about a building.
We are the church.
You can see that happening on the streets, but it's beautiful when you get to witness
it and you look out, and there's a gentleman.
I know right where he's standing.
There's his back row right there, and his tears just pouring down his
cheeks.
Never, never came up to me at the end, but how many know that gentleman became a
new creation in Christ in that moment?
To where, God forbid, something happens to him.
He's with Jesus.
He's in the same heaven you're in, even though you maybe spent your whole
life with Jesus.
So God, right now in this moment, if there's anyone in this room that
doesn't even know why they're here, they don't know why they got here,
they don't even know why they chose to come today, but maybe their heart is just
thumping out of their chest and maybe they've never given their life to you
fully.
I just ask that right now, if that's you, I'm not gonna embarrass you, it's just you
having a conversation with the Lord right now that just says, God, I don't know
what's going on in my heart.
All I know is my Bible tells me that faith comes by hearing the word of God,
so you just heard the word of God.
So maybe faith is entering your heart for the first time and you don't know what to
do with it.
Right now, just between you and him, just, God, I give you my life.
God, I believe that you sent Jesus to die for us.
I surrender my life to you, Holy Spirit, I ask that you would come into my life,
you would fill me from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.
And God, I give you my whole self, my whole heart.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Man, if that's you and you prayed that prayer, I believe you're a brand new
creation.
And we have this beautiful freedom banner over here that before you would leave,
if you feel led to, you know, want more prayer and maybe you don't have a Bible,
we'd love to give you a Bible, we'd love to just point you to Jesus.
I said a few things during this service that really stood out to me and one of the
things was the unforgiveness piece.
If there's anybody in here that as soon as I said that you knew who I was referencing
in your life, that's just between you and God.
I can't make you forgive that person, I can encourage you to, because I
definitely don't want you in that jail cell with the door wide open.
So God, if there's anyone in here that has any bit of unforgiveness, God,
would you just soften their heart to let it go?
Even if you need to put it on your lips, God, I forgive and then speak their name
out.
God, I forgive, I forgive them.
God, would you help me to not see them as if they ever did that to me or ever said
that.
God, I thank you for freedom.
And maybe you're back slid and you would use that term, you're back slid or slide
back.
Just as easy as it was for you to slide away, it's as easy for you to slide back.
So if you wanna rededicate your life to him in this moment, God, I give you my
life.
I repent of the things that I've been doing, I repent of the things I've done.
God, I know you haven't gone anywhere, you haven't left me, but Lord,
I wanna live for you fully.
Just have that kind of conversation with him right here and right now.
I know it's a smaller service and we have a bigger prayer team in the first service,
but if you're part of our prayer team, I'm just gonna ask that you come forward
because if there's anyone in here that would desire to have more prayer or maybe
you're going through something specific that you would like a brother or a sister
just to grab your hands and just say, look, I'm standing here with you,
I'll believe for you, I'll believe with you.
But Holy Spirit, I just thank you for this opportunity to speak to this room full of
people, God, these sons and daughters, and I ask that you would lead them and
guide them in all that they do.
I just pray Proverbs three, verse five and six over them.
God, that they would trust in the Lord with all of their heart.
They would lean not on their own understandings, but in all that they do,
they would seek your will and you will show them which path to take.
So God, I just thank you for them.
I ask that you would have your way in them in Jesus' name, amen.
I love you guys so much.
There's a beautiful presence in here.
If you would like to come up to the altar and just have time with him, that's fine
too.
If you would like prayer, please come forward.
If not, have an amazing rest of your day, probably dry day.
Wish we were gonna be together, but it's okay.
Sometimes the war forecast is wrong, but we'd love to have you on the 26th.
If you could sign up at the welcome center, that'd be great, but we love you
guys so much.
Again, if you need prayer, please come forward.
Thanks for listening to the Harvest Chapel PA podcast.
We hope this message encouraged you and drew you closer to Jesus.
To stay connected, visit us at HarvestChapelPA.com or follow us on social
media at Harvest Chapel PA.
We can't wait to be with you again next week.