Jesus Had Nothing to Prove | The Temple Tax and Kingdom Humility

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Today, we are going to finish up the Superior Kingdom Series in Matthew chapter 17 Next week, we will start the Kingdom Community Series in Matthew chapter 18
But I want to talk this morning real quick before we start, I want to talk about something that we're going to talk about a little bit from the text today. And that is finding the adjustment from praise to performance. From praise to performance. See, we're taught in America, maybe in other countries, I can't really necessarily speak to that, but definitely in America, we're taught to perform. It could be sports, it could be soccer, it could be baseball, it could be basketball. We're taught to perform in school. We're taught to perform in every area of our life. Obviously, if you hold a job, you want to perform, otherwise you hold no job. And so, performance is in every element of our society. And it's one thing of performance is in something that you choose, an extracurricular activity of your life. Jeremy likes to run, he's fit. And so, he wants to perform at a high level when he runs. It's different when you get to choose to engage in a hobby in the performance versus waking up every day and feeling like there's some element of performance you have to obtain. The Bible is constantly fighting against performance with praise. Why? Because a lot of us in this room love all the commandments of the Lord. Genesis to Revelation. It's on our website. We love the Bible Genesis to Revelation. We don't call ourselves as a part of some of the movements that are out there anymore just for many reasons, but we love the commandments. The problem with the commandments in the Bible is they either pull us closer to God or they make us think more that we can act like God. And the truth is we cannot perform like God because we are not God. And today we are going to see as we close out Matthew chapter 17, we're going to see this very cultural interaction again. There is going to be the kingdom of heaven coming and engaging with the kingdom of earth. The kingdom of heaven is always trying to do what the Lord's prayer we just heard. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of heaven is constantly trying to bring the kingdom of heaven to the kingdom of earth. And many, many times, we're trying to engage in the kingdom of earth as if we can somehow influence the kingdom of heaven. Somebody today in here came through the door, maybe it's just me, maybe I'm just preaching to the choir, exhausted from trying to prove that you belong. You've been trying your entire life, you've been trying to prove that you belong, whether it's proving that you belong in your marriage, proving that you belong in your family, proving that you belong in your workplace, proving that you belong in your friends group, proving that you belong. You're exhausted from it. Every day you wake up and you feel like, I have to obtain some level. You're exhausted for performing for people who were never going to accept you anyways. Anybody ever found themselves in that atmosphere? 20 years in ministry, I found myself performing 80 hours a week, at least, for people who were never going to accept me anyways. Pouring in for people who were never going to accept me. I loved Jesus too much for them to accept me. I wasn't concerned as much with my works as my level of holiness as I was with His holiness, and so I replaced my performance with my praise, and they were never going to accept me. Anybody ever find yourself constantly performing for people who you know they will not ever accept you, deep down in your heart? And yet, every day you wake up, and you go, and you plow that field, and you go, and you just try, and you try, and you try, and you're exhausted. You're exhausted from paying dues, emotional dues, spiritual dues, relational dues, to a system that keeps moving the goalpost. Kids, you can come up and get your flags. Come on up and get your flags. Come on up and get your flags. Come on up and get your flags, until you constantly move the goalpost. They're never going to get the flags. Because the goal is not for them to get the flags. Your goal is for them to never obtain the flags. We saw the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes. We see it now in our workplaces, in our marriages, in our friend groups. The goal is never for you to get on the same level or for you to reach the same plateau. It's that you will never get there because that's what evil leadership does. Evil leadership sets some sort of expectation that, Cora, you and I, we're going to be equals, and we're going to operate together, and I sell you a bill of goods, and you continue to work to try to get there. Only I know that I'm never going to allow him to reach that. So while I speak with my mouth at Brent, we're going to go together and we're going to accomplish this together, I'm working backroom deals to make sure you can never get there. One step forward, two steps back.