Left No Crumbs

Let's go. If you got a Bible, we'll jump right into Matthew chapter number five. Matthew chapter number five, say left no crumbs.
Did anybody grow up with that one parent that just made you clean your plate.
Now, it might be hard for you to tell, but my mother made me clean my plate. And still to this day I put that into practice at every meal.
I live with that person she said, no crumbs will be left behind. And as I finished, she would say he ate. She wouldn't say that at all. I totally just made that up. But y'all know what I'm talking about when you have that one thing. But how many of y'all have ever had to clean your plate when you didn't have an appetite for what was on your plate? Anybody? Maybe it's a bad day. It's a bad day when you have to clean your plate, leave no crumbs, when something is not appeasing to your appetite, preferences.
And I think that's the way that many of us live. And I think that's what Jesus wants to address with us today just about to be good. No crumbs left behind, left no crumbs. One day, the Bible says
as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up to the mountainside and he sat down and his disciples gathered around Him, and He began to teach them. Now we got to understand that this is actually Jesus very first sermon that he preached, okay, he, in a previous chapter, Matthew, chapter number three, he was baptized. And when he was baptized, he came up out of the water. And God said, This is my son in whom I'm well pleased before he ever performed a miracle before he ever preached the message before he ever did anything. God said, This is my son, in whom I'm well pleased. Fast forward, and we go to chapter number four, and then we go, I'll read chapter four here a few minutes. But chapter five, Jesus decides to preach a sermon.
And I think it's interesting in the sermon that goes all the way from chapter five to chapter seven.
Jesus is talking to us about righteousness. And what righteousness is righteousness is the understanding of right standing with God, and how it translates into a life change. For those of us who make a choice to follow Him. When we follow Jesus, our lives should transition should transform into right standing or righteousness. And that's what Jesus is preaching about. And I love this about Jesus. If you ever read anything that Jesus says, He is a masterful communicator. He begins every sermon with a hook.
Something that draws us in, that demands our curiosity, that stirs a desire on the inside of us for to know what is he saying?
So Jesus leads out with this, God blesses those who, and everybody in the congregation leader.
God blesses those who
and they want to know who, what, who, where, who went, who, how, who, what, who, God blesses those, the Bible says in verse number three, who are poor and realize their need for him, and for the kingdom of heaven,
is theirs. And here so we have to understand that God blesses those who
lean in
with the kingdom, the kingdom to come. And we talked about this, but we have to understand in the church world that the kingdom is not some far distant away thing or place for us to obtain one day, the kingdom is here and now the kingdom can be live here on Earth, but that goes and flies in the face of most of the preaching in our culture. Today we can live spirit filled Spirit empowered and life giving here on Earth today.
It goes on to say and I love this, God blesses those who.
And then verse four, God blesses those who more
for they'll become
Put in verse five. God blesses those who are humble for they'll inherit the whole earth and God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. God blesses those who whose hearts are pure for they will see God God blesses those who work for the peace.
For they will be called the children of God. God blesses those who
are persecuted for doing right for the kingdom of heaven is there as God blesses you, that's who.
When people mock you and persecute you will lie about you will say all sorts of evil things against you, because you're my followers. God blesses, you be happy about to be very glad, in fact, for a great reward awaits you in Heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way somebody say Jesus was eating.
He left no crumbs, there was not one crumb left behind. Jesus ate that message. Boy, I'm telling you what he brought that thing. That brother was pre Chen.
Preaching,
preaching, he was preaching.
Jesus was preaching about recognizing our need for righteousness, Jesus was preaching about our recognizing a need for him. The reality is this, all of us in our lives at one point or another, are going to come face to face with the fact that in and of ourselves, we don't have what it takes to get us into this next life
that He has for us.
And many of us are going to begin to see that because we're not living the life that He has for us here. And now on Earth.
Our good deeds will never outweigh our bad.
We are not and cannot be righteous in and of ourselves. We need him in the only way for us to get to him comes from a change of appetite, or a heart's desire. See, here's what Jesus was suggesting. In the midst of this message, he was suggesting a palate cleanse.
He was suggesting that we change our taste for life. He was suggesting that we need to get the taste of the world and sin out of our lives out of our mouths, so that we could truly experience the fullness of God's kingdom here on earth.
And here's what I love about Jesus because unlike many preachers of our day, Jesus only preached something that he had practice first.
He only preached something that he practice. First, let me show you. Matthew, chapter number four. The Bible says this.
He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. So some y'all let me let me just encourage you. Sometimes when you're going through it, God is taking you to it so that he can see you through it.
It's not so you can cry and whine and pout.
It's so that you can lean into God. Some of us are so sufficient in ourselves that God is trying to show us a need for him in the midst of this life, and he will by the power of His Spirit. how messed up is this show? I told you chapter three, Jesus is baptized. This is my son in whom I'm well please, please, please, pleased. The Holy Spirit descends from heaven like a dove restaurant, Jesus. And then the Spirit of God takes Jesus to be tempted.
How many y'all be mad at your dad?
It's some of y'all mad at God right now.
God's just trying to let you know it's time to be reliant on him rather than be sufficient in you.
Anyway, that's the only one I'm talking about. For 40 Days and nights. He fasted and became hungry. How many of y'all know 40 Days and nights? You fast? You're not just hungry, you hungry? You know what I mean? You are wholegrain
don't even know about that. During that time, the devil came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.
But Jesus told him no, because the Scriptures say people do not live by bread alone, but every word that comes
from the mouth of God, not from the words that come from my mouth, the words that come from the mouth of God, you can't be relying on a preacher. You can't be relying on a church, you can't be relying on a city group leader, you can only be relying on the voice of God. Now the things that happen, when you're in relationship, people will encourage you to the voice of God, they'll point you to the person of Jesus.
But you got to find God's word for your self.
You've got to get
hungry.
Some of us are disappointed with God. And he's just put us in a season where he's allowing us to get hungry.
Which in order to see the kingdom, I think there are three things that we can see from the Scripture.
In order to see the Kingdom Come here on Earth, we must become more intentional in changing our appetite. And the first thing we got to do is get hungry.
get hungry, everybody get hungry, get hungry, was the last time you're like, I gotta be, I gotta be in church, I got to get the word, I got to be in God's presence. I got to stay up all night and pray, I gotta fast, I got to be in a place where I can be with God. If God doesn't show up that I don't know what I'll do with the last time you were hungry in a way that you had to get to the person of Jesus and the power of God. See, here's the reality. I don't know if any of us can really even say when the last time was. Because we live in a cushy, comfortable culture.
And we call that the blessing of God. But it's not all the time, everybody.
We'll talk more about that next week.
get hungry. Be careful, though. Be careful though. Because if you're going to be sustained eternally, then you're going to have to adjust your appetite to eternal things.
Things of the kingdom things of God
relationships that have godly
conversation that's godly
Television, this godly music this godly,
I hear them saying,
come on. We have a split appetite. And we wonder why we're not seeing the kingdom come in our lives. Because our appetite split. Our palate is a mess. We can't get the full taste of the kingdom because we got too much other stuff in our mouth.
Y'all hear what I'm saying? We got to get hungry. Somebody say get hungry. I love that Jesus led the way he didn't just preach the message. He led the way he said, Hey, I'm about to get hungry. I'm laying some stuff aside for 40 days and 40 nights. And I'm gonna show you how to do it because Jesus is our example. Right? It's not a preacher. It's not a church. It's not. It is Jesus is our example. Am I right?
We got to get hungry.
But can I can I just encourage you when you get hungry? What You Eat.
Eat.
Eat.
Anybody got teenagers? Come home hungry. just annoying that
though. What do you what do you make for dinner? Then? Listen, brother, you're home at 1030 I may got another for you.
Find something. They look at the pantry, the fridge look. Oh, nothing to eat. Just not eat here. Like Shut up. There's lots of stuff to eat. You must not really be hungry if you're not willing to eat.
Here's what my mom taught me as she made me clean that plate. She said
you leave no crumbs on this plate. Because if you're truly hungry you will eat
you'll eat when I put before you
when you know what I'm gonna try to go to this little church over here. Because past mass not really feed me the meat of the word. Can I tell you something I've learned over the years preaching the gospel. Nobody's ever deep enough. Nobody's word is ever meaty enough. But here's what I really learned is that hungry people will always eat and.
And fall people will always complain.
You're looking for the meat of the word. Why don't you go give something away to somebody who is in need and come back hungry. Because when you get hungry you will eat
and you'll eat the right things.
But in order for us to eat everybody, we got to
cleanser palate, because you don't want to just eat nonsense you want to eat the right things. cleansing your palate helps you reset your taste buds and allows you to experience the full range of flavors in the food that you're eating.
I've never been to a real fancy place where I got to cleanse my palate, but some of y'all have just I've just seen it on TV
yes
cleansing your palette can be done in many ways, but some of the most popular
are taking a drink of water
either eating unsalted crackers or bread
or having a piece of fruit.
Come on your your your
they'll remember the series about the fruit of the Spirit, right. So if we're going to cleanse our palate of the things of the world, the appetite we have for sin, the appetite we have for addiction, the appetite that we have for for, for gossip, the appetite that we have for stealing the appetite that we have for cheating, the appetite that we have for sin, the appetite that we have for attitudes that are ungodly, if we're going to cleanse our palate to create a new appetite, then what we're going to have to do is drink of the water of the spirit, we're going to have to eat of the bread of the word, we're going to have to be in the presence of God eating the fruit of the Spirit. That's what we're gonna have to do. And that's what Jesus did.
Because the enemy came out and he said, Hey, if you are he said, Brother, don't even test me because the word says, You cleanse your palate by getting in the Word, you cleanse your palate by getting in his presence. Where are you worshiping God, you cleanse your palate by walking in His blessing or the fruitfulness of God by seeing those nine fruits of God's Spirit activated in your life.
When your appetite
is life giving your life will produce life giving fruit
which allows the kingdom to come in your world.
Your kingdom to come in your marriage, your kingdom to come in your family, your kingdom to come in your workplace, the kingdom not your kingdom. His kingdom, excuse me is kingdom to come. This is not this is not your kingdom. This is his kingdom.
Not Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. How's that gonna happen? It's gonna happen through people who cleanse their palate, and no longer have a taste for sin.
I got a taste for righteousness.
Is it a coincidence? Is it an accident that the first message Jesus preached was a righteousness? I don't think so. Friends.
I think he's calling us to a higher place. I think he's calling us further.
Jesus ministry began like this. I told you the first message that he preached. But here's the idea of the message that took root.
In Matthew chapter four, verse 17. From then on, Jesus began to preach, repent of your sins and turn to God, for the kingdom of heaven is
near
how does the kingdom of heaven come near? See, we preach that I think backwards sometimes, like gods come close. God, God's God's coming back quick, so you better get right. No, no, God is so close. He wants to meet you in your place of repentance. When you repent, and you turn toward him, God will meet you this word I love this
word repent. It means this
specifically to change our mind
and I'm gonna just put my mind because I don't want to worry about everybody else's sin. I want to worry about myself.
I want to change my mind. My mind used to be set one way towards sin because I had an appetite for it. But when I do
decided to cleanse my palate my mind changed. And I had a new appetite for something else.
But it's this to end doesn't stop there changed my mind. And let me say and
and
turn away
from your sin
I changed my mind toward it. But how many of y'all know that if I changed my mind toward it, and it still sits there and I'm looking at it in the face, it's probably gonna get the better of me again. You're here I'm saying. Repentance specifically means I changed my mind in such a way. And I'm so fed up with this, I've turned my back on it.
turn my back on it. I'm not I'm not looking. I'm not looking at my sin anymore.
Because the mom and I looked at sin, what's it looks good again, doesn't it? And I'm reminded of an old appetite.
We got to continue to cleanse our palate to keep our appetite pure.
So but it doesn't, it doesn't just
stop there. It's repent of your sin. But I love this. I love this. I love this. It's also turned toward God.
See, people try to like do
behavior modifications where you know, I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm gonna wear rubber band on my wrist and stop my wrist and now. Okay, that's fine. It'll last you know, a month, two months, three months, six months. I'm like this, I don't know, whatever. But if you're not turning away from something towards something else, or someone else, what hope do you have? Because in and of yourself, what did chapter five verse three said, those who recognize that they're poor in the spirit will inherit the kingdom of heaven.
They recognize their need for God.
Not in our self sufficiency. I'm going to turn away and I'm going to do good neural I need God so desperately because even in my most disciplined time, even in my most discipline moment, I don't have what it takes to stand strong against the tactics of the enemy. So I've got to fix my face on the person of Jesus. Like I've never fixed my face on the person of Jesus before
and that'll change my appetite turn toward God turn toward God
no crumbs left.
Repent of your sins turn to God.
And last but certainly not least.
When you eat, leave no crops.
Leave that play.
You heard I'm saying? Like, if y'all met my mother, you would know that she was recruited to play football for the University of Nebraska.
She's six four to 25 Back in the day she read like a four 640 She Was Bad to the Bone. My mom sadly no crumbs guess what I leave any crumbs?
Okay, so let's just pretend grandma boughs here for a minute.
That's my mom.
She's not my grandma. She my kids grandma we call it grandma bow now.
She said no crumbs.
No crumbs.
No crumbs left behind.
No crumbs of this past life no crumbs from this past sin, no crumbs leftover that would appease an appetite that used to be you. Only. What is the new you?
Who the person of Jesus I had a conversation this week with a friend.
He was talking me through some things that he's walking through.
And he shared the Scripture with me and I thought Man, what a perfect way to end our service. On the weekend after I've been praying about repentance after I've been praying about turning away from sin after I've been praying about
search all hearts believe it's not like you got please show us reveal them to us. So that we can experience the kingdom of heaven here on earth.
Listening the account of Jesus the prophecy
of the price Jesus pay.
Says he Jesus was despised and rejected. He was a man of sorrows acquainted with deepest grief.
We
everybody got to realize that we are part of we
turned our backs on him and look the other way.
He was despised and
We did not care.
Let me ask you something. When sin is in your mouth, when the appetite of sin is in your mouth, you're probably not having many thoughts of Jesus
because our backs are turned against him. Looking at our sin,
repentance as a change of mind, that will turn our lives so that we no longer despise or reject the price that Jesus paid. What we're doing is we're despising and rejecting the sin that has weighed us down, that has held us back.
Here's what I believe today.
More than anything.
I believe that the kingdom of heaven is near.
And not in a scary Jesus is returning tomorrow, the Eclipse and we're all going nothing, nothing.
Nothing.
In
your Father in heaven,
is offering you a marriage that you always dreamed
but aren't living in.
Your father in heaven is offering you that career of purpose that you've always dreamed of. Maybe you're working your dream job, but it's not quite the fulfillment of the fullness you thought it could be.
feel like something's just missing.
In the kingdom is so near.
Your backs just turned on the king a little bit.
And this is the moment this is the time in our generation.
To turn our back on the sin, we have no obligation to the sin. Romans chapter eight, verse 12 says we are no longer obligated, who are in the Spirit of God, to our sin or sin nature
is always going to be addicted. I've been dealing with this since I was six. I've been dealing with this since I was 16. When my mom dealt with it, my dad dealt with it, my grandfather dealt with it, I'm gonna deal with it. You don't have to deal with it. You make the choice by the power of the Spirit to change your palate
that happens when we cleanse our palate.
Now I want your word which presents I want your kingdom
come on with
every aisle.
Everybody, I don't care who's looking around.
If you would say Pastor Matt, today come on sewer chapel. Say pastor Matt today.
I need to turn my back on sin and turn toward the king. Would you just lift your hand right where you are.
There's some sin in my life that's just run crazy. And I just want to cleanse my palate. Thank you. Thank you. This is the church that we're a part of. These are the people that God has called us to be.
Thank you.
I got my hand raised with you.
Come on sitting right where you're at. What if you just open your hands to have it like this.
Love to pray for your Father in Jesus name.
Today, as we have recognized our need for righteousness, as we've recognized our need for right standing, as we've recognized our need to turn from our sin
and turn toward our key
fob Father, I pray in Jesus name.
That we would do the work. get hungry for the things of God.
Lean into the power of God.
Experience the presence of God.
As we do God, we're praying that your kingdom will come to earth as it is in heaven. Got us our lives.
Move in our lives move through our lives in a way that only you can
do.
We change our minds. We turn our hearts
toward you.
In Jesus name.
Amen.
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