Citizens Weekly

From the Series, “Sermon on the Mount”. When Jesus announces the arrival of God's Kingdom in Matthew 5, he starts with a list of "God sees you" to those who feel unseen – the poor in spirit, the mourning, those who feel run over and taken advantage of, and those hungering for justice. Next, Jesus announces "God sees you" to the pure in heart and says that they will see him. But what does that mean? Is this purity of heart achieved through behavior modification or is it something more? God sees deep within your heart, and he knows the reasons why you do what you do. So, to the single-minded, the ones that do things with the right motivations, Jesus announces that they will see God. 

From the Series, “Sermon on the Mount”. God reveals His character through His actions and through His Word and through His Son. Mercy is one of God’s characteristics that reveals His heart and purposes for us. God’s ways (His character) often can be overlooked by our fascination with His works. Similarly, we can become enamored with our own works while never truly allowing God to change our character. What is it we truly want from God? More dazzling stories of neat emotional moments? Or a truly transformative encounter with His character?

From the Series, “Sermon on the Mount.”
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Matthew 5:6
The question is ‘What do you want for your life?’ not ‘What is acceptable for my life?’ … we naturally defend what we hunger after. May we, God's church, be people that passionately hunger after holiness and purity of heart which will lead to true contentment. The only way to be fully satisfied in life is to hunger and thirst after God and His righteousness. 

From the Series, “Sermon on the Mount.” What if the American Dream and The Way of Jesus are incompatible? Why is the power grab, hustle culture the expected norm if it is a pointless path to nowhere? How would we react if the assertive, the aggressive, and the overachievers ended up empty-handed and the meek inherited the earth? And, who are the meek and why in the world do they inherit anything, especially “the earth”? 

From the Series “Sermon on the Mount”. In His longest recording teaching, Jesus spoke to a rag-tag group of miscreants about the Kingdom He had come to establish inside their hearts. Most of these degenerates were people He’d healed, who followed Him to the point of this teaching. For those who Mourn, the world may offer a plethora of options for “feeling better” that come with no promise of actual healing. In fact, the things that make us “feel better” often come with a price tag that compounds our grief. Jesus, on the other hand, offers true healing with no promise of immediately “feeling better”. Which is better? Which do we prefer? How do we put ourselves in a position to be healed and comforted by our Father – the Author and Perfector of our faith?

From the Series “Sermon on the Mount.” What is the good life? The blessed life? The happy life? The life of meaning, depth, and purpose? What is that like, and who gets it? Is it the one who does everything right always? The disciplined and hardworking? Jesus steps into the middle of humanity and defines who receives God's blessing in an ironic, counterintuitive, upside-down, paradoxical way that shocks hearers then and now. 

From the Series “Sermon on the Mount.” We’re all becoming somebody, consciously or subconsciously. Voices pull us in every direction, telling us who we should be. So how do we determine the voice that matters most? We need the voice of Jesus to reshape us, now more than ever before. 

As believers, our hope should cause us to walk and talk and live with an obvious difference- no matter our circumstances.  So what exactly is our hope? Tonight we look forward by looking backward at the birth of our Savior. The man who has had the greatest impact in the history of the human race.  The man whose life, death, and resurrection accomplished so much for us.  The man who enables us to have hope even when there is no evidence that things will get better.