SERMON ON THE MOUNT
Walking through the Gospel of Matthew chapters 5-7 to study the words of Jesus as he taught his disciples.
JUNE 26, 2022: MATTHEW 7:21-29
In the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus points to the wisdom in Proverbs of inner transformation vs. outward conformity. The storms of life will come, and how and what we worship will help us survive the storm. Do we actually take the Word of God and put it into action? The reward for a life lived without Jesus is an eternity separated from Jesus, so we seek to be in proximity with him, listen to his word, and receive his inner transformation.
JUNE 19, 2022: MATTHEW 7:15-20
Happy Father's Day! Jenna Greenwell guides us through the talk Jesus gave about good fruit and bad fruit. How do we tell good fruit from bad? Does it bring glory for God or glory for ourselves? As we follow Jesus, he is forming us and bringing inner transformation. A natural product of that inner transformation is good fruit. Jenna discusses ways to connect with Jesus to build that relationship and lean on him.
JUNE 12, 2022: MATTHEW 7:7-14
As the Sermon on the Mount draws toward a close, Adam Greenwell highlights Matthew 7:7-14 with the arching theme of loving people well, even when they do things that make them hard to love. Our Father gives love, and as we learn to image our Father clearly, we are transformed and can share his love with every person we come in contact with.
JUNE 5, 2022: MATTHEW 7:1-6
Adam continues our journey through the Sermon on the Mount with Matthew 7:1-6. This common passage, which discusses the log in your own eye vs. the speck in your friend's eye, is an important teaching on judgement. Should Christians speak to the brokenness they observe in others? Religious minded, outward conformity would have us call out the behavior of others (which isn't helpful), but inner transformation allows us call others up toward the love of God as we share our own stories of healing and restoration.
MAY 29, 2022: MATTHEW 6:16-34
Adam continues our journey through the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus taught us to measure our motives as they relate to spiritual activity. Announcing our fasting, for example, makes it not about God but about us. We must also look at who or what we worship and serve. Is it God, or is it something earthly? Where is our faith? Is it in God, that He is working for our good, or is it in ourselves through worry and attempting to fix our own situations? This section of the Sermon on the Mount gives much to contemplate.
MAY 22, 2022: MATTHEW 6:13
The Bible says God doesn't tempt us, so why do we need to ask Him not to lead us into temptation? Adam talks about the Greek word that means "trials." Under trial, we prove what we believe and where our hearts are. We show what is outer conformity and what is inner transformation. We also need to know that the enemy is active with a strategy to get us to doubt God.
Trials are hard. Hard things are cool.
MAY 15, 2022: MATTHEW 6:12
Adam continues through the Lord's Prayer by talking about forgiveness. Without forgiveness, there is no righteousness, no faith, no relationship. Often, we hear of needing to forgive ourselves, but Jesus has already covered us with his perfect sacrifice, and that was enough. In the second part of this verse, how do we forgive those who have sinned against us?
We had technical difficulties, so we only have an audio version of this sermon. We apologize for the inconvenience.
MAY 8, 2022: MATTHEW 6:11
Brad Hudson continues our journey through the Lord's Prayer, where Jesus teaches us to ask God for our daily bread. Food is our most basic need, and God provided for that need in His creation. We can presume it is available for us and just go get it, but that excludes God from the equation. He wants relationship with us as the perpetual Sustainer. But why should we have to ask God for anything? Doesn't He already know what we need? By having us ask for our needs, God maintains our dignity of personhood as free individuals. Praise God!
View it on YouTube here.
MAY 1, 2022: MATTHEW 6:10
Harlan takes us into the next verse in the Lord's Prayer, which focuses on the Kingdom of God. Since the fall in the Garden of Eden, people have been trying to rule our own kingdoms, which brings the chaos and destruction of sin. However, there is power in God's Kingdom to free us from our bonds. In our prayers, we tend to ask God to do our own will, not His. Jesus gave us the perfect example of praying for God's will to be done in the garden of Gethsemane.
View it on YouTube here.
APR 24, 2022: MATTHEW 6:5-9
Prayer is our communication with God, and communication is the beating heart of relationship. The Creator God's purpose for all of creation was relationship with us. He wants to talk to us. When we hear the words "Our Father," what does that stir in you? How we image God has a significant basis in our earthly father and our relationship with them. Adam talks about finding healing and an accurate image of Father God.
View it on YouTube here.
APR 3, 2022: MATTHEW 6:1-6
Brad takes us into Matthew 6 and talks about our motives. Why do we do the things we do? The Holy Spirit wants to bring us into wholeness, but we cannot get there if our motives are based out of sins like pride. Pride reproduces pride. But when we pray and give in privacy, it shows a purity of motive. What do we get from that? We are transformed, and God gives us Himself.
View it on YouTube here.
MAR 27, 2022: MATTHEW 5:38-48
Jesus encourages us to reject the outward conformity of the law, focusing on its true purpose: internal transformation. Retaliation and resentment are not compatible with the character of a Christian. All human relationships should be predicated on the mission of God: reconciliation.
Also, today our family celebrated a baby dedication!
View it on YouTube here.
MAR 20, 2022: MATTHEW 5:33-37
We live in a world plagued by deceit. The point behind lawful vows was to enhance relationship, and there are implications Jesus gave in this part of his sermon. First, we are called to honor lawful vows, keep them holy, and take them seriously. Second, we are called to live lives of radical honesty and integrity out of gratitude to God for all He has done for us.
View it on YouTube here.
MAR 13, 2022: MATTHEW 5:27-32
The Pharisees and scribes had used the law to create outward conformity instead of allowing it to create internal transformation. Jesus was not creating a religious code on adultery, divorce, and remarriage. He was not creating a call to shame or a life of rigid self-denial. Instead, through his Sermon on the Mount, he asks us to examine our posture toward relationship with him and with other people.
View it on YouTube here.
MAR 6, 2022: MATTHEW 5:21-26
Through Matthew 5:21-26, Jesus talks anger and murder. Anger leads to dehumanizing others, and when we dehumanize them, we murder them in our hearts. Dehumanizing is robbing someone of their humanity and worthiness to be served, taking away that person's ability to be in relationship with us. We can argue that they should get what they deserve, but we didn't get what we deserved when Jesus took our punishment on the cross.
View it on YouTube here.
FEB 27, 2022: MATTHEW 5:17-20
Adam walks through verses that are key to unlocking oppressive legalism, freeing us from the prison of religion. These verses explain the heart of why Jesus came as the Son of God. He didn't come to abolish the law or to initiate "Plan B." Jesus fulfilled the law that initially showed Israel how to live with God as His people in right-relationship. When Jesus fulfilled the law, he reframed it as "Love God and love others."
View it on YouTube here.
FEB 20, 2022: MATTHEW 5:14-16
We see a theme of light throughout the Bible, most notably in John 8, when we see Jesus reveal that he is the light of the world, as are those who follow him. When we serve others through the love of God, we are being lights in the world. However, we must remember the light doesn't originate with us; we don't serve or do good works to earn anything; our good works are the natural consequences of God working in us.
View it on YouTube here.
FEB 13, 2022: MATTHEW 5:13
As we move further into the Sermon on the Mount, Adam talks through Matthew 5:13. Being the salt of the world is an important part of our existence as Christians in the world. As part of the ancient world, salt was extremely valuable, preserving food and keeping things alive. As Christians, we are the preservatives of humanity. Our relationship with Jesus keeps cultures and communities from going rancid.
View it on YouTube here.
FEB 6, 2022: MATTHEW 5:10-12
Adam finishes out the beatitudes by discussing persecution. In order to gain the kingdom, we have to sacrifice self, which looks strange to those around us. Persecution is harassment or violence against those who are different from society, and Jesus followers are different from society! Though it may be difficult, our hearts must be inclined toward those who persecute us; Stephen gives us a great example in Acts 6-7.
View it on YouTube here.
January 30, 2022: Matthew 5:8-9
Jenna brought us the message on these two verses, but our computer that records sermons so we can post them online completely died about 45 minutes before the service started! We apologize for the inconvenience, but we were unable to record today's message. We will be working this week to ensure our recording capabilities are available for next Sunday.
JAN 23, 2022: MATTHEW 5:6-7
Jesus taught about righteousness, encompassing all things material, physical, ecological, relationships with others, and our relationship with God. In the second verse, Adam talks about mercy; it means not giving someone what they deserve. Showing mercy and forgiveness can be difficult, but if we show mercy, we receive mercy.
We had technical difficulties towards the end. We apologize for the inconvenience.
View it on YouTube here.
JAN 16, 2022: MATTHEW 5:4-5
Harlan discusses the encouragement of the beatitudes before diving into today's verses. Blessed are those who mourn, which refers to the mourning of sins. In mourning and repentance we are comforted by the Gospel. Blessed are the humble. We find true humility in self-giving and self-sacrifice as Jesus displayed.
View it on YouTube here.
JAN 9, 2022: MATTHEW 5:3
Adam goes through the first of the beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit. What do we put our hope into? Do we feed worry instead of faith? Do we see material possessions or what we do as what can sustain us?
We are poor in spirit when we realize our utter dependence on God.
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JAN 2, 2022: INTRODUCTION
Adam Greenwell begins our journey through the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew. It's important in these 3 chapters that we do not take it out of the context of the entire Gospel. This section does not sum up the book of Matthew nor the disciple's faith. There is also a danger in looking at the Sermon on the Mount as about being worthy or creating a law that Jesus already fulfilled. This series will not be about "do this to be saved," but "a surrendered heart looks like this."
View it on YouTube here.
