TBW 2011 - Perfection: The Goal of God’s Plan - Being Perfect - Matthew 5

A talk by Joe Wiltshire at St Tom’s Big Weekend 2011 on the topic of 'Perfection: The Goal of God's Plan'. This talk is entitled 'Being Perfect' (Matthew 5) and is the third in the four-talk series. Talk outline:

• The impossible expectations
• The kingdom of heaven
• Why is it that we can't just darn well obey?
• Jesus' sermon and the Law
  • It shows us how sinful we really are
  • It points us to the need for a Saviour
  • It shows us the right way to live as people who are on the side of righteousness
• Sinless perfectionism?
• Implications
  1. Keep reading the Bible with a self-critical eye, not a Bible-critical eye
  2. Keep putting sin to death
  3. Confession is important
  4. There's a danger of moralising
  5. We need to have very realistic expectations of others
  6. We need to set an example in both righteousness and confession for others
  7. The danger of pride
  8. We need to devote our whole life to the service of Christ and work on being perfect