Chase: Hello and welcome to the Point Church Podcast. We're really glad you're here. Before we jump in, if you'd like to stay connected, you can download the Point Church app. It's a simple way to find messages, resource, and what's happening. And if this podcast is helpful, take a moment to like, subscribe, and share. You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Let's get into today's episode. Hello everyone and welcome back to the Point Church Podcast and happy April Fool's Day. Today we're we're walking through the gospel of Matthew verse by verse with Pastor Sam here. And today we're gonna do something a little different. This chapter is Jesus talking, and we're just gonna let him speak for it. So we're gonna read back and forth, and then that's gonna be it. And we just invite you into a time of prayer to really kind of walk through it for yourself of what Jesus Is saying listen to this monologue. ⁓ he's taking like you said cuffs off religious hypocrisy so seriously, but this is language we need to think on. ⁓ in verse one it says, Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples. The scribes and the Pharisees are seated in the chair of Moses. Therefore do whatever they tell you and observe it, but don't do what they do because they don't practice what they teach. They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and put them on people's shoulders, but they themselves aren't willing to lift a finger to move it. They do everything to be seen by others, they enlarge their philosopheries and lengthen their tassels. They love the place of honor at banquets, the front seats in the synagogues, greeting in the marketplaces and to be called rabbi by people. But you are not to be called rabbi because you have one teacher and And you are all brothers and sisters. Do not call anyone on earth your father, because you have one father who is in heaven. You are not to be called instructors either, because you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven and people's faces, for you don't You don't go in, and you don't allow those entering to go in. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you travel over the land and sea to make other one convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a child of hell as you are. Woe to you blind guides who say whoever takes an oath by the temple, it means nothing. But whoever takes an oath by the gold of the temple is bound by its oath. Blind fools. For which is greater the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold? Also, whoever takes an oath by the altar it means nothing, but whoever takes an oath by the gift that is on it is bound by its oath, blind people. For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore the one who takes an oath by the altar takes an oath by it and by everything on it. The one who takes an oath by the temple takes an oath by it and by him who dwells in it, and the one who takes an oath by heaven takes an oath by God's throne and by him who sits on it. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You pay a tenth of mint dill and and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These things should have been done without Ne ⁓ neglecting the the others. Blind guides, you strain out a a gnat, but gulp down a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You clean the outside of the dish and cup, but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence. Blind Pharisees first clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside of it may also become clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. In the same way on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous and And you say if we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the prophet's blood. So you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your ancestors' sins. Snakes, brood of vipers, how can you escape being condemned to hell? This is why I am sending you prophets, sages, scri and scribes. Some of them you will kill. And crucify and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and per and pursue from town to town. So all the righteous blood shed on the earth will be charged to you, from the blood of righteousness, Abel to the blood of ⁓ Zachariah, son of Bershuda, whom you murdered between the s ⁓ sanctuary and the altar. Truly I tell you, all these things will come on this generation. And it ends like this Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. See your house is left to you desolate, for I tell you you will not see me again until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Our prayers go to you, and we hope you pray and meditate on this scripture. And thank you for tuning in, and we'll see you next I'm on chapter twenty four.