0:00 Father, I just thank you so much for what you've already done this morning, what you're revealing to us. And Lord, as we look into your word, Lord, reveal more. Continue to show show us, Lord. Teach us about your righteousness and 0:11 your ways. We love you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. All right, that's a castle. I I needed something with kingdom. I wanted to mention the kingdom. Um, it goes into this verse. Um, if you don't know the reference, that's 0:27 fine, but I hope you all know the verse. It it's one of I think it's one of the most important verses in the Christian life. It was the verse that was on my heart when I moved to Austin uh years ago. Um is it ringing the bell? Do you 0:40 guys know Matthew 6:33? It says this. It says, "Seek first or seek um his kingdom two things and his righteousness and everything else everything that everybody else in the world seeks after will will be added to 1:00 you." And so it makes it very clear the two things that as a as a disciple of Christ that I should be focused on and I should be seeking that there it's it doesn't seem to be automatically giving given but I need to seek after it and learn and it's his 1:17 kingdom and through the new covenant through what Christ did on that cross we're able to enter a kingdom that has a different set of values than anything we've we found so far in the world or in the Old Testament. And then it says, 1:31 listen, seek my righteousness. And the problem is I've, you know, when we come to the Lord, we already have a sense of right and wrong oursel. And so we have to be willing to let go of that and say, I don't know right from wrong. 1:47 When I lean on my own understanding, it doesn't seem to work. So I need you, Jesus, to teach me about your righteousness. So, I want you to keep that this verse in mind that we're looking specifically at that second part. What is his righteousness? And I 2:03 guess we need to define that big word. And I like I like pointing this out because it's really really very simple. Righteousness is simply doing what's right or doing the right thing. When you're when you're confronted with a 2:15 situation and you have a choice to make, you make the right choice. And brothers and sisters, we want to like our our forerunner and our savior and our lord, we want to in the situations that we're brought into, we want to do the right thing like he would 2:33 do and we're learning to do that and we're growing in that. Um, and I hope you all have a heart for that. I hope that is like, you know, stirred within you. Like I always want to do what Jesus would do. I want to do uh if he were in my situation today in 2:49 2021, he would do like when he's in the same situation, I want to have a sense from what I know of him and what I've seen in his word, what he would do. And and I I'm reading through the scripture and I come across a situation like this 3:04 where the Pharisees come up to Jesus and they say, "You're not righteous." In other words, Jesus, you're doing the wrong thing. You're not doing the right thing. and and I guess I it's one of those passages I read pretty quickly 3:18 past and I didn't pay much attention to and I'll go into why in a little bit but they accuse Jesus of doing the wrong thing and Jesus responds and I'm very curious how my Lord responds to an accusation that he's not doing the right 3:30 thing. So go to Matthew 12 and I want to read through together six verses. I think it'll help explain what I mean when by by this situation. So verse one it says, "At that time 3:50 Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath and his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look, your disciples do what is not lawful, what is not lawful 4:10 to do on the Sabbath." Here it is. Here's the accusation. Jesus, you're not doing the right thing. You're allowing your disciples to not do the right thing. You're not doing the right thing. So, here's the accusation. And here's 4:21 his response. Jesus says, he said, but he said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he became hungry?" Oh, David. Yeah. Yeah. King David. Go. Okay. He's he's referring to David. He and his companions. So, David and those who were 4:38 with him, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for them to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone. Okay. Verse 5, he says, 'Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the 4:56 priests in the temple break the bread and are innocent. And then he then he says, "But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here." Now, this is a passage I read very quickly. I'm a Gentile, right? I'm not I'm not as 5:14 burdened with this. You know, the doing things on the Sabbath isn't, you know, as heavy to me as it was those in Jewish culture in that day. and even maybe uh you know those that are Jewish today. So I read it like this. I I I go quickly. 5:27 Okay, the disciples are eating on the Sabbath. David ate the consecrated bed. Jesus is the Lord of everything. Case closed and we're done. Right? Like I don't have much issue here. There's not much in it for me, right? I I don't 5:41 really wrestle with this issue. So I don't see what the big deal is, you know? And the problem is I don't really see the the Pharisee in myself either. And I believe it's trying to expose that. I believe that Jesus knew that 5:52 generations beyond the Pharisees would read this and I believe there's something in it for me. So I wanted to go a little deeper. In other words, my my, you know, my reading of this was always, okay, it's a done deal. You 6:04 know, that's the end of it. Jesus settled the matter. Don't really need to wor be worried about working or eating on the Sabbath. I can move on with my life and find something in scripture that's a little more relevant to me. But 6:15 I noticed that this uh this story is actually in three different places in the scriptures. is actually in three different gospels, right? It's in Matthew, it's also in Mark chapter 2, and it's also in Luke. And so, when I 6:28 see things in multiple places in the Bible, well, maybe it's a little more important than at first glance for me, the the gentile Josh, because I want I want to be a disciple of Jesus. And if Jesus has a nugget out there for me, I 6:41 want to listen. And so, when Jesus says, "Have you not read these Josh? Have you not read these passages?" Well, yeah, I have read them, but I read them very quickly. And Jesus maybe said to me, "Well, did you pay close attention to 6:54 the Mark uh passage because there's something in there that I think you should pay attention to." And I highlighted what I think is important. He mentions David eating the showbread. He also mentions that David had companions with him, right? And he 7:08 mentions that David also gave the bread to the companions. And he mentions one other fella in the story, Abiar. Does that name ring a bell to everybody? It didn't to me. I had to I have the advantage of going and preparing that 7:22 you may or may not have. Maybe you are familiar with Abiar and that's good. But Jesus mentions him in this passage and to me it means that I need to go since since that doesn't stand out for me, maybe I need to go follow from the time 7:35 of the showbread all the way to Abi Abiar. And maybe there's something that's more important that I didn't see when I first read this. So as we go through this, here's some things I want you to keep in mind. One, Jesus loved 7:47 the Pharisees. I believe Jesus loved the Pharisees as much as he loves anybody. And he sees an error in them. And what he does, he says, "Listen, did you guys not look at the scriptures?" In other words, his correction to them, as 8:02 hard-hearted as they may be at this moment, is, "Hey, did you not see what's in the Bible? What's in the the the ancient text? Did you are you familiar with this?" And and I believe that these Pharisees were very familiar with the 8:15 with the text. So Jesus makes a point, hey, remember the story of David and the showbread? And I think they all knew where he was going. What's a little harder for me is I may not be as familiar and may not know where he's 8:25 going, but I want to see if I can get there and if there's something for me. And again, Matthew 6:33, the reason I started with that and the reason I bring it up now is because I really want you to think about his righteousness. I want 8:37 you to as we go through the story, I want you to do the very best you can to put yourself in that situation and then do what's right or wrong. And if what you would do differs from what they did, h let's reflect on that a 8:52 little bit. I want you to do that if you can this morning. Imagine yourself in that situation and I want you to continue to think, well, what is the right thing to do and what would be the wrong thing to do? And then here's 9:01 something about the Old Testament that I' I've found fascinating with me. If you guys know this the story in these three verses, you know, we um it's one of those puzzles to me where I I read that and I'm not sure what was right and wrong. Right? So, in 9:17 the story, it's just it's just a very very short little snip of a couple verses and it says that some young young guys come up to Elisha the prophet and they call him Baldy, Baldy, Baldhead, right? And so what what he does, he 9:31 turns around and he curses them and he sends bears to to maul 42 guys. And then it just moves on from there, right? Like wait a minute. I I don't know about you, when I research, I go wait, Lord, was that right? Right. I I I get I suppose 9:47 the lesson for me is like be real careful what I say against the Lord's anointed. I I got that, but is is Elijah right to curse them and send the shears? And I I leave that passage just going, I don't know. So understand that as we go 10:00 into this text and as we read through this Old Testament story, we might come to the place where we're not entirely sure what was right and what is wrong. Do you understand? And I believe the Lord is intentional about that. He's 10:14 going to bring us to a place where we're like, we're not sure what was right and what was wrong. We're not sure what his righteousness is in this situation, but he but Jesus points to it. So I think it's good to take a look at that. And 10:25 then finally, I don't want to go through this passage just to get more knowledge, you know, right? Where, oh, now I know who Abby Athar is. Oh, now I know that story a little better. That is not my intention. I want to know it so that I 10:39 can become a better disciple of Christ. And this verse says that the scribe really the goal is that a scribe becomes a disciple, a follower of Christ. In other words, it's not just that he learns righteousness, he executes 10:52 righteousness, he does righteousness. The goal of this, brothers and sisters, that in looking at this text, we become more righteous like Christ. That's what I want this morning. So, let's delve into it. Now, it's it's two full 11:05 chapters, right? So, I don't have I we're not going to read it all together, but I encourage you, especially if you're not familiar with it, go back and read it and challenge everything I presented against the scripture. Be like 11:17 a Brian. Okay, Josh said this, but is that really what's going on? I'm going to give you some my thoughts and I'll I'll be honest right at the very front. I'm not an expert at discerning what was right and wrong in the situation, but I 11:28 think there's value because Jesus pointed to it in examining uh this issue and I and I'll get into the issue. Now, the background of the story when we enter chapter 21 is that David has killed Goliath, right? David is uh you 11:42 know like a chief officer within Saul's army. And you know that we've already heard the story about how da you know Saul killed his thousands, David his 10 thousands. David is a successful officer under Paul's uh under Saul's kingship, 11:57 right? And then we see the story of Jonathan and one of the most beautiful stories in the whole Bible is that that new covenant relationship that those two have with one another. And in fact, it's that relationship where where where uh 12:10 where D uh where Jonathan tells David, "Run, get out of here." So David is now on the run. That's where we start the story. So David is running for his life. And so he goes in verse one, he goes, remember he's running for his life, 12:25 finds himself hungry, and he goes to the the priest. He goes to the priest and his name is not Abi Abiar. So we'll come to him later. His name is Amelc. And he goes to him and he says, "Hey, I'm on the run. I need some food." Right? And there's 12:43 something interesting. This scares a Halech. Like he sees David show up. Now, if if David shows up, I think you would be excited to see David, right? Like if David somehow showed up this morning, I'd be excited. Tell us about Goliath, 12:57 right? Tell us about your kingdom. I would be excited to see David. He is not excited at all. He's scared to death. Trembling is the word the Bible uses. Why is he scared? And if you know the story, I think you know why he's scared 13:10 or you'll get there. But what's interesting is that about four chapters later, David's going to go to another man very hungry and he's going to say, "Hey, give us something to eat. Me and my men, give us something to eat." And 13:19 that man's going to tell David, "No." And David's going to armor up and go kill him. Do you understand the rock and the hard place that a Hemlikch is in? What do I do? And again, put yourself in the situation. David shows up all by 13:34 himself, all alone, and says, "Give me some food." What do you do? Do you give David food or not? What's the right thing to do, brothers, sisters? Give him food. I don't know. I wonder. So, what happens next? David tells a lie. 13:51 He says, "Oh, I'm on a secret special top secret mission for for King Saul." That's so so secret secret mission. He lies. Now, remember, let's go back to what why we're even looking at this p passage, right? The Pharisees come to 14:07 Jesus and said, 'You not doing the right thing. Your guys aren't doing the right thing. They're hungry and they shouldn't be eating the grains of wheat. They're not preparing a three- course meal. They're eating the grass 14:18 along the side of the road. And the Pharisees say they shouldn't be doing that. And Jesus says, "Haven't you read this story? David also was hungry." And I think what Jesus is doing, he's saying, "Listen, David's your hero in 14:32 that story. He tells a lie. That's fine. And no problem. My disciples have done nothing wrong. Right? In other words, you guys have a biased sense of righteousness. And I think if we examine ourselves, I think if we honestly look at our hearts, the 14:47 Lord will show us, Josh, sometimes your sense of righteousness has a bias to it. You'll give some people a free pass and you'll be hard on others. Lord, I don't want to do that. And so we did. Did Did you read the story? I think when you guys read this, 15:01 you immediately put David as the hero. What? We'll come to the villain of the story in a little bit, but David's the hero. Is he okay to tell a lie? Is that right? Is that Jesus's righteousness? Is it okay for David to lie? Why didn't he 15:14 just level with the priest and say, "Listen, here's what's happening. Saul's trying to kill me and I'm on the run." That would have been the truth. But David doesn't tell the truth. Are we okay with that? And then David says, "Okay, you got anything? Got 15:28 any food?" And so what uh so what happens is we know that he doesn't have any food. He only has the consecrated bread. And Jesus himself points out, right, that in in the book of Leviticus, you you'll find that the only people 15:43 that are supposed to eat that bread are Aaron and his sons of the priestly lineage. That's the only people that should be and even Jesus himself points out it's not lawful. So, we have David asking the priest to allow him to do 15:58 something that's not lawful. Are we okay with that, brothers and sisters? Is that okay? Everybody good? Everybody doing the right thing in the story? We Okay. Right now, remember, King Saul decided to do something that only a priest 16:10 should do when he offered a or sacrifice. And Samuel came up and prophesied, "Listen, you messed up big time. The kingdom is going to be taken away from you." David would have known that. We still okay with David coming to 16:23 a priest and saying, "I'll take the consecrated bread. It's okay. I know I'm not a priest. Give it to me. Give it to me and my my guys. I don't know." a little confused at the story at this point, right? I'm trying to see what 16:35 Jesus where Jesus was going with this. What What are you saying? And then what Heckch does, he knows it's wrong. He knows it's only for the priest. But he adds a he kind of adds a law. He said, "Hey, David, did the men that's that are 16:48 with you, are they have they have they been with women or have they been, you know, if they haven't been with women, I think it's okay." In other words, he kind of adds a he adds something to clear his conscience. That's the way I 16:59 see it. Like I know this isn't right. Remember, he's trembling. He's scared for his life. He's scared to death. He says, "I think it'll be all right as long as as long maybe we'll combine some laws. We'll take parts of one, and if 17:10 they if they've been free uh and haven't been with women, then I think it's okay that they're going to eat, too. I think that works. Is that good? Righteous? Right thing to do?" And so, David says, "Of course." Again, another lie. 17:23 Continues the lie. Of course, these men, you know, they they've been with me. We they haven't even had a chance to be with a woman. So, I think we're good there. But here's my question. What men? What men? At this point in the story, if 17:36 I understand it right, maybe again, I don't consider myself a Bible scholar, but I have to go. David's letting this lie continue. What men are with him? He fled alone. That was the problem that he showed up at Ahemch and he said all 17:49 alone, right? What what men are with David? So, David continues this lie. I assume Ahemch says that, you know, David's asking for a lot of bread. He must have an army to feed. Under Saul's authority, David's army must need to be fed, so 18:02 I'll feed him. Like, what's going on? I'm kind of confused. Like, there's seems to be a lot of unrighteousness in this story. So, David says, "Yeah, no, no problem." Of course. So, it's like lie number two. So, the priest gives 18:16 David the bread, right? So, David lies to a priest and he gets the food that he needs, which he's not supposed to eat. That's where if there if you guys have any other reading of this, please come up and talk to me later, but this this is what I see. 18:31 Right. And I think it's on purpose. Then we then the villain enters. I'll call him Doug. I don't know if it's Doe egg or what, but here's the bad guy. And you'll see why later why he's automatically the bad guy. If you've 18:43 ever even cursedly read this, you know, through this story, you know, oh, Doug is bad, bad news. I don't want to hang out. You kids, don't hang out with a Doug. hang out with a David, right? I think we all know that. So Doug's there. 18:57 Doug enters the picture and David says, "Hey, hey, hey priests, you guys got any weapons? I I I had to that top secret mission line number three. That that that top secret mission, I had to get out of there. Saul really wanted me to 19:12 get on the road. Forgot my weapons. You guys got any around around around here? Do you priests keep weapons? I I didn't realize that it's like an armory, but David asked this question. They say, "Oh, yeah. We got a Goliath sword. We we 19:26 have it here. I don't know why it was in knob." Again, I have more questions. Those are more curiosity than anything. But David decides to ask for a weapon. And he told tells a third lie. Remember righteousness. I want to know. I want to 19:39 know the righteousness of Christ. And he's pointing me to the story. And he's asking me to examine my own heart as I imagine myself in that situation. And I don't know. I don't know, Lord. I'm a little confused now. And so David goes to he grabs the sword 19:55 and he goes to Gath, which is an enemy of Israel. In fact, Goliath's hometown was was Gath. Was was David supposed to go to Gath? Is he in the will of God, I guess, is what I'm saying. And so he goes to Gath and he realizes like, uh, 20:12 this probably isn't good for a guy that killed his 10,000s to hang out with the the country that I killed their 10,000s. And he gets scared. So David starts acting like a madman and drooling all over himself, foaming at the mouth, and 20:27 acts crazy. I'm still scratching my head, brothers and sisters. Lord Jesus, is that the right thing that David was supposed to do? I believe this is very intentional what Jesus is doing here. You guys that think you're so righteous 20:41 and you have such an understanding of the law, he's your hero, but you're criticizing my disciples. I don't know. David escapes to a cave and then he calls his brothers. I'm assuming that he he calls his family because they're in danger, too, because 20:57 of Saul's anger towards David that maybe they're in danger. So he brings him to a a a cave and then David gathered. Here's where the men come into play. Gather David gathers 400 men. And I always thought, great. Remember David's the 21:11 hero. Finally, our hero is getting the army together. This is good news, right? But look who look who he gathers. He gathers those that are in distress, those that are in debt, and those that are not content with their current circumstances. 21:29 Oh, wait. Is that is that good, Lord? Is that who we want to gather together for your name, for your purposes? Those that are in debt or discontented or just not satisfied. Is that really who we're is that really who we're supposed to be in 21:44 fellowship with? And to be on the good team, is that is that the right people? I I don't know. So, he does that and then he leaves his family with a Moabitete king. All right, you guys will be safe here with an enemy of Israel. 21:58 Is that is that right? Is that how that works? Because David's great-g grandandmother was Ruth, right? And she left she left that to join Naomi and and and serve the true God. But now David's taken his family back to to Moab saying, 22:12 "You guys you guys hang out here." Like, what is going on in the story? This is crazy. And then Saul gets a a group of his Benjamites together. Benjamites and Doug. Remember Doug the bad guy? So they're all sitting around. Paul's 22:27 having a pity party. Oh, nobody loves me, right? My son covenants with David. Nobody tells me what's going on. Poor me. Poor King Saul, right? I don't know. I don't know if that's the tone. I don't know what's going on in this meeting 22:43 under the Tamaris tree, but that's what it sounds like to me as I read it. And then Doug, remember the villain? Doug tells the truth. I saw David. I saw David. He was with the he went to the priest and yeah the the priest gave him 22:58 a sword. He tells like like he tells the truth. David lies three times. Good guy. Doug tells the truth. Oh that rotten Doug, right? This I'm just telling you how I read this text, right? With the bias 23:15 Doug. But but isn't he being loyal to the king, right? He's the one guy. He's an Edomite. He's not a Benjamite like Saul. And he says, 'Oh, king, I've acknowledged you're the king. Well, actually, I did see David. Is that was 23:29 that wrong to do to tell the truth? Should he have lied? Should he stayed there quietly? What was Doug supposed to do? Now, I'm kind of making light of it, but this is more serious, and you'll see that this is a big deal. It's a very big 23:43 deal. So Saul, because of what Doug told him, brings all the priests to him. All of them, not just Aheimch, not Abiar. All the priests come to Saul and he he asks Aheimch. He said, "Why did you do 23:59 it? Why did you help David?" What do you say? Imagine imagine you're that priest and the king says, "Why did you help David?" What would you do? I think he gives the 24:16 best answer he could possibly give. Why wouldn't I help David? This is your son-in-law. This is an officer in your army. Why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't I help him? Of course. Of course I'm going to help David. And Saul says, "You're going to die. 24:37 You're a dead man." And then he turns to the guards and he says, "I want you to kill every priest in this room. What would you do?" Now, this is a king. I think we live in a a democracy, a republic here in the United States. The 24:52 weight of this doesn't quite get us. The king says, "I want you to kill them. What would you do? What is the right thing to do?" And they didn't do it. They told the king, "Uh, no, we can't do that. We're not going to kill priests. I 25:03 don't know what happened to them. The narrative doesn't tell us, but I don't think it was good. I don't think those guards were around much longer. I think they were executed." So he turns to Doug, remember the bad guy, the the faithful truth teller, and 25:18 says, "Doug, you kill them." And Doug does it. He doesn't just do he doesn't just kill the priests. He goes and he kills their families and their livestock. And if you read the text, and you guys you guys tell me what's in your 25:30 Bible, but he kills their wives. He kills their children. And the Bible text makes the distinction of children and infants. This is the type of tragedy that if it happened in our community, it would grieve us for a long, long time. Yet, 25:48 it's in one verse 19 of scripture, and I just kind of read past it very quickly. Lord, your righteousness, it's where I started. Where where is this going? Where is it going, Lord? I thought we were just going to talk about showbread. 26:06 Thought we were talking about showbread, but this is deeper. This is much deeper than I ever thought it would be. And then one priest escapes. Remember Jesus, remember what Jesus said. I pointed out in I think it was Mark 25 26:19 and 26. You need to look at the story of David and Abi Athar. Well, here's Abiar. So, we have we were to be thorough, we had to look at the whole story and to look at our accusations of righteousness and unrighteousness. I 26:32 have to. So, he escapes and David David basically says, "Yeah, I knew that Doug was a stinker." I I know I'm I'm not trying to make light of it, but that's the way when I read it. David says, "I knew it, man. Because of me, all those families got 26:50 killed and massacred." And then he says, "Abi, stay with me." Like, it's it just kind of transitions. We read this very quickly and we transition and suddenly we're like, "Hey, stay with me in my army." And then the chapter ends, 27:04 right? And again, if you guys saw other things in there, then you know, go to the Lord and say like, Lord, what are you trying to tell us? And so, where does that leave us? Like, where are we now? Okay, Lord, you said whenever you were 27:18 confronted on issues of Sabbath and of following law, you said, "Have you not read?" Well, Lord, I think now we've read what you pointed us to. We went to that passage and we looked at it. So what do we do? And and he concludes it. 27:33 He says, well, here's here's my point in asking you to look at it. I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. And then he makes his main point and I I I'll I'll come to this. This is his main point. And then he says, the son of man 27:51 is the Lord of Sabbath. So sandwiched between two uh verses verse 6 and verse 8 are basically Jesus saying look at me in your search to learn what's right and wrong you need to look to me and he says 28:08 I'll diagnose your problem very quickly that I desire from the beginning of time this is an Old Testament verse he said from the beginning of time I have desired a people that would be compassionate and not just sacrificial. 28:25 And you read that that text and you're you're you're immediately going to write a wrong and inside your heart, there's not a lot of compassion. And that's not just Pharisees, brothers and sisters. I believe this is for us. I believe this 28:37 was intended for us as disciples of Christ to look at our own hearts and say, "Do I just am looking for what's right or is there a spirit of compassion in what I say?" And Jesus says in verse 7, he says, "If you had that compassion, 28:52 you would have been more critical looking at that story than you would have accusing my disciples who did nothing wrong except they were hungry and they ate some weeds along the side of the road." You're hard. You're religious. You know 29:07 the scriptures. And brothers and sister, we we're learning this Bible. And there's such a danger in the more knowledgeable we come that we don't transition to the disciple, we just become harder in our religion and less 29:19 compassionate. And Jesus is saying it can happen to any of you. So here's the recap. We started with righteousness and we know our charge is very clear. We're going to live for the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And we're seeking it 29:34 and we're learning every day. We're learning. None of us is there, but we want to grow in this. And we see a situation where the Pharisees come to Jesus and they say, "Jesus, you're not doing righteousness." And instead of reading o quickly, we 29:48 decide to look a little closer. And as we look a little closer, we find one of the three passages where Jesus said, you know, look at David, his companions, and Abiar to get the full text of what I'm pointing you to. And as we look at it, 30:02 we we go through it with the eyes trying to put oursel in each of these situations and try to figure out what's right or wrong. and we leave it a little bit confused. And the reason we're confused is because there's something lacking in it. And 30:15 it's found in Matthew 12:7 that Jesus when it comes to righteousness, he says, "Listen, righteousness is not in what you give up or sacrifice for the Lord or, you know, doing that right thing according to the law. It's being compassionate to 30:30 somebody else." And we read, we read a terrible, terrible story where there doesn't seem to be a lot of compassion in it, don't we? And we see what can happen when there's a religion without a compassion. People die is what we what we saw this morning. 30:46 And so here was the point and I believe it's the point for all of us. Jesus is saying in your quest to seek my righteousness, if you're not compassionate, you're going to miss it. If you're just religious, even if you're 31:01 zealous, you're going to go down a a very crazy road and it's not going to go well. And I don't believe this was just for the Pharisees or I wouldn't have taken this much time to go through it. I believe it's for us. And I believe it's 31:14 good to go back and read the text and to read them slowly. Slow down a little bit and imagine we're in each of those situations and we're seeking righteousness and ask God to reveal it. Lord, what what was missed right here? 31:27 What was missed right here? That's all I have. Um we'll have some other brothers come up and share and then uh uh son will close the meeting. Thank you.
