How to Get Everything You Want
Sermon notes from John Stickl at Valley Creek Church on repentance, the Sermon on the Mount, and the good and beautiful life Jesus offers.
An invitation to a good and beautiful life
The Sermon on the Mount is not a try-harder, behave-better speech. It is an invitation to a good and beautiful life. This conversation is about renewing our minds, allowing God to wash us with his Word through both focused intensity and a high-volume, gentle flow.
Jesus preached one message: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. His teachings, healings, and demonstrations revealed different facets of that kingdom. Even after his resurrection, he continued speaking about the kingdom.
Repent: change your thinking and direction
Repentance is not shame, condemnation, or merely feeling bad. Changed thinking leads to changed living.
- Sin repentance: I recognize that my way is out of alignment with God, turn from it, and turn toward him. Worldly sorrow regrets getting caught. Godly sorrow recognizes sin against God and others and produces a readiness to do what is right.
- Revelation repentance: Something I did not know has been revealed. Now that I know it, my thinking and living must change.
Isaiah encountered God and acknowledged his sin. Peter experienced Jesus’ kindness through a miraculous catch and recognized his sinfulness. David was confronted by a prophet and acknowledged that he had sinned against the Lord.
Revelation brings responsibility. Like discovering an unexpected inheritance, learning what is available changes how you live. The Holy Spirit gives wisdom and revelation so we can know God better.
Unused revelation leads to a hard heart. Hearing the Word repeatedly without responding can build resistance rather than transformation. The issue is not whether we already know it, but whether we live it. Repentance is not merely emotion, feeling, or lip service. It is demonstrated through action.
11 Consider what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what vindication! In every way you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.
2 Above Him stood seraphim, each having six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
3 And they were calling out to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; all the earth is full of His glory.”
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”
5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we have worked hard all night without catching anything. But because You say so, I will let down the nets.”
6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to tear.
7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.”
2 The rich man had a great number of sheep and cattle,
3 but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms and was like a daughter to him.
4 Now a traveler came to the rich man, who refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.”
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan: “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!
6 Because he has done this thing and has shown no pity, he must pay for the lamb four times over.”
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
8 I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more.
9 Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own, for you have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.
10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
11 This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight.
12 You have acted in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” “The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.
25 For whoever has will be given more. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
The kingdom of heaven is at hand
The kingdom is the rule and reign of God, where his will is done. It is the with-God life: life from above, an interactive relationship with God, the good and beautiful life available here and now.
John describes the kingdom as inseparable from Jesus. Being included in Christ means being included in his kingdom, not simply waiting for a place to go after death.
Faith, trust, and surrender
- Faith: Through faith in Jesus, the Spirit brings new life.
- Trust: Receive the kingdom like a little child.
- Surrender: Surrender your kingdom to his. Jesus is addressing the righteousness of the heart, not merely the behavior of the hands.
We become new creations in Christ. Then we learn to put to death what belongs to our earthly nature, take off the old self, and put on the new.
At hand means within reach, available, and accessible. The woman who reached for Jesus illustrates that accessibility. The good and beautiful life is available to anyone who wants it.
Hear again, with a spirit of repentance
Faith grows through hearing. Repetition is not the problem; resistance is. We need to hear again with hearts willing to change.
We are not in a hurry to collect knowledge. We want transformation: to receive, believe, and become what Jesus speaks over us.
How to approach the Sermon on the Mount
- It is an invitation, not an obligation, but its pieces belong together.
- It is for me, not merely for someone else.
- It is ordered, and the order matters. When stuck, look back at what came before.
- It changes beliefs, not just behaviors.
- It declares and demonstrates who Jesus is, rather than merely demanding what we must do.
6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
7 When you lived among them, you also used to walk in these ways.
8 But now you must put aside all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices,
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
26 She had borne much agony under the care of many physicians and had spent all she had, but to no avail. Instead, her condition had only grown worse.
27 When the woman heard about Jesus, she came up through the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak.
28 For she kept saying, “If only I touch His garments, I will be healed.”
29 Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
30 At once Jesus was aware that power had gone out from Him. Turning to the crowd, He asked, “Who touched My garments?”
31 His disciples answered, “You can see the crowd pressing in on You, and yet You ask, ‘Who touched Me?’”
32 But He kept looking around to see who had done this.
33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him trembling in fear, and she told Him the whole truth.
34 “Daughter,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction.”
Who is blessed?
Jesus declared the kingdom and demonstrated it through healing and freedom. People whose brokenness and circumstances had pushed them aside were now gathered around him.
John presents the Beatitudes as invitations to the marginalized, not a new set of requirements for earning blessing. Jesus came with grace and truth, not another form of legalism.
The poor in spirit, those who mourn, and the meek can be blessed because the kingdom has become available to them. Blessing does not come from earthly wealth, circumstances, or status. It comes from access to the good and beautiful life in Jesus.
Which Beatitude do you resonate with? Even there, the kingdom is available to you.
These same people become the salt of the earth and the light of the world: living demonstrations of the life Jesus offers.
A surrendered heart
Jesus is not asking people to outperform the Pharisees at external religion. Their hands could appear righteous while their hearts remained far from God. A righteousness apart from the law is available through faith. The invitation is to surrender the heart.
Anger: whose kingdom am I defending?
Jesus begins addressing life in his kingdom with anger. John describes anger as destructive, rooted in control or fear:
- My will has been violated, and I am not getting my way.
- Something I value feels threatened, and I am trying to protect it.
We want to live in God’s kingdom while still ruling our own. But belonging to Christ means surrendering that rule. We no longer have to control everything or protect a fragile kingdom of our own.
John recalls an elder telling him that anger is destructive. He could not identify anything good he had accomplished through the spirit of anger.
Where am I regularly angry? Is that an area where I am still insisting on my will rather than surrendering to God’s?
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.
14 You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
22 And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction,
22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to the fire of hell.
23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,
24 leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
25 Reconcile quickly with your adversary, while you are still on the way to court. Otherwise, he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.
26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
From using people to loving people
Lust
John defines lust as using another person, emotionally or physically, to satisfy the cravings of the flesh. Love seeks the other person’s good.
We were created for intimacy, communion, and union with God. When we turn from that intimacy, we try to satisfy through the flesh what our souls were created to receive from God. Paul’s description of increasing darkness illustrates this movement.
Lust consumes; beauty is honored, protected, and appreciated. Marriage does not automatically remove lust. Even within marriage, using a spouse without concern for their good remains a problem. John describes sexual intimacy as a man and woman in covenant with God, giving and receiving for one another’s good.
Amnon’s treatment of Tamar shows how consuming desire can turn to hatred. Lust hurts another person to keep alive what is meant to be crucified in Christ.
Failure does not create or erase our identity as new creations. Yet Jesus wants freedom from lust itself, not merely freedom from its consequences.
Lying
We lie to get what we want or avoid what we do not want. Kingdom life invites truth rather than manipulation, trusting God to meet our needs even when circumstances are unwanted.
Where do I lie, and what am I trying to get or avoid?
Vengeance and loving enemies
Retaliation keeps escalating. The cycle ends when someone stops retaliating and lets the Lord be their defender. Love is expressed in action, not merely feeling.
Jesus’ illustrations about turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, and giving are not invitations to build another rulebook. They reveal the kind of person who can love an enemy.
Whose approval am I seeking?
In giving, prayer, and fasting, Jesus addresses motive. Living to be noticed by others brings their approval as its reward. Living to please God leaves the reward with him, whether everyone sees or no one sees.
Consider clothing, purchases, commitments, and social media posts. Is the motive to be seen and approved? The crowd that celebrated Jesus also called for his crucifixion. There is a better way to live than chasing the crowd.
28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to depart into hell.
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
27 Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.
31 They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.
32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.
2 Amnon was sick with frustration over his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed implausible for him to do anything to her.
3 Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab was a very shrewd man,
4 so he asked Amnon, “Why are you, the son of the king, so depressed morning after morning? Won’t you tell me?” Amnon replied, “I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”
5 Jonadab told him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend you are ill. When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare it in my sight so I may watch her and eat it from her hand.’”
6 So Amnon lay down and feigned illness. When the king came to see him, Amnon said, “Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand.”
7 Then David sent word to Tamar at the palace: “Please go to the house of Amnon your brother and prepare a meal for him.”
8 So Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon, who was lying down. She took some dough, kneaded it, made cakes in his sight, and baked them.
9 Then she brought the pan and set it down before him, but he refused to eat. “Send everyone away!” said Amnon. And everyone went out.
10 Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food into the bedroom, so that I may eat it from your hand.” Tamar took the cakes she had made and went to her brother Amnon’s bedroom.
11 And when she had brought them to him to eat, he took hold of her and said, “Come lie with me, my sister!”
12 “No, my brother!” she cried. “Do not humiliate me, for such a thing should never be done in Israel. Do not do this disgraceful thing!
13 Where could I ever take my shame? And you would be like one of the fools in Israel! Please speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you.”
14 But Amnon refused to listen to her, and being stronger, he violated her and lay with her.
15 Then Amnon hated Tamar with such intensity that his hatred was greater than the love he previously had. “Get up!” he said to her. “Be gone!”
16 “No,” she replied, “sending me away is worse than this great wrong you have already done to me!” But he refused to listen to her.
17 Instead, he called to his attendant and said, “Throw this woman out and bolt the door behind her!”
18 So Amnon’s attendant threw her out and bolted the door behind her. Now Tamar was wearing a robe of many colors, because this is what the king’s virgin daughters wore.
19 And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore her robe. And putting her hand on her head, she went away crying bitterly.
34 But I tell you not to swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;
35 or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
36 Nor should you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.
37 Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.
39 But I tell you not to resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also;
40 if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well;
41 and if someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
43 You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’
44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even tax collectors do the same?
47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even Gentiles do the same?
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
2 So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
6 But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
7 And when you pray, do not babble on like pagans, for they think that by their many words they will be heard.
8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
9 So then, this is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ’
14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours.
16 When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
18 so that your fasting will not be obvious to men, but only to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
23 “Why?” asked Pilate. “What evil has He done?” But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify Him!”
Treasure the right things
To be human is to treasure. Jesus does not tell us to stop valuing things, but to treasure what lasts: the kingdom, God’s Word, his people, his Spirit, and his presence.
You know what you treasure by what you pursue, keep, and protect.
We often treasure what we are meant to steward, such as money, time, and our bodies, while trying to rule over the God we are meant to treasure. These resources are entrusted to us for others’ good and God’s glory. God is the one we are to love with our whole being.
Look beneath the behavior
John asks why so few professing Christians tithe, describing the tithe as giving God the first and best ten percent of income. His concern is the heart, not simply the transaction.
If I treasure money, I need to look backward through the sermon. Am I seeking people’s approval through what money provides? Am I still ruling my own financial kingdom? Do I believe blessing belongs to the rich rather than to those Jesus calls blessed?
The love of money wounds both the person pursuing it and those around them. A parent’s devotion to money can pierce a family with grief. Even rage over a broken household item can reveal both unsurrendered anger and misplaced treasure.
Jesus says we cannot serve both God and money. John contrasts pursuing, keeping, and protecting money as master with doing money God’s way: tithing, stewarding, and using it to bless and build.
Jesus is the treasure
The man who found treasure in a field sold everything to obtain it. The treasure was worth the cost. Jesus offers a life more compelling than the one we are trying to protect.
If this teaching produces anger, ask whether it exposes control or fear. Bring debt, scarcity, past church wounds, and resistance honestly to Jesus. Only the Holy Spirit can remove money from its place of rule in the heart.
Respond now
Zacchaeus responded to Jesus with immediate generosity. His repentance was not postponed. Jesus came to seek and save what was lost, and our hearts can become lost in what we treasure.
Giving is a response to grace, not a way to purchase blessing. We give because we are blessed.
Do not let this moment end with hearing. Pray with someone. Wrestle with the Lord through the week. Bring questions, doubts, and frustrations into your circle, your team, or a conversation at the kitchen table.
The good and beautiful life is pursued as Jesus speaks and we follow. Ask the Holy Spirit for a spirit of repentance that responds now, with faith, trust, and surrender.
20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, who was very wealthy.
3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but could not see over the crowd because he was small in stature.
4 So he ran on ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see Him, since Jesus was about to pass that way.
5 When Jesus came to that place, He looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down, for I must stay at your house today.”
6 So Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed Him joyfully.
7 And all who saw this began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinful man!”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, half of my possessions I give to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will repay it fourfold.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
