In Jesus’ powerful sermon we call “The Sermon on the Mount”, Jesus teaches us the way God always intended for us to act and the way God always intended for us to live in our relationship with Him and with one another. Jesus also lived out these teachings as He modeled for us the life God intended for each of us to live before the catastrophe of the Garden of Eden broke God’s creation through the sins of Adam and Eve.

These final closing thoughts of this powerful sermon challenges, invites and asks us to consider whether we put or trust in the world or our trust in the Lord. He asks us to examine ourselves and find out if our lives resemble being a citizen of the kingdom of heaven or a citizen of the world. Because if we live our lives as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven then that means we experience heaven each and every day of our lives in the present. It means we experience the presence of Jesus guiding us, loving us, healing us, and transforming us, NOW – not just later when we get to heaven, but here on earth as well.

In these challenging final verses of Jesus’ sermon we are asked to consider what foundation we have built our lives upon – the world or Jesus. He then invites us to examine our lives and determine what we will do with all that Jesus has taught us. Will we hear His words, nodding our heads, believing what He has said and walk away unchanged? Or, will we hear His words, nod our heads in approval, and incorporate the principles of Kingdom of Heaven living in our everyday lives? If we respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and allow Jesus’ words to penetrate our hearts and transform us then Jesus says we are wise for our lives are rooted and grounded in Him. However, if we chose to listen and not respond then our lives are rooted and grounded in the world.

Jesus also teaches us that no matter what foundation our lives are built upon each of us will face storms in our lives. If we are rooted and grounded in Jesus then we will withstand the carnage of all the evil the world brings against us. However, if our lives are built upon the morals and values of the world, then when the storms come against us we have no anchor to hold us up and often our lives fall apart when we face the evil of this world. What is your foundation and who are you anchored to? If it is the world and not Jesus, then I invite you to ask the Holy Spirit to examine your hearts and reveal the dark places of your life that resist God’s love. I pray for you to cry out to Jesus and ask Him to heal you and help you surrender yourself to Him.