We all desire greatness. We want to be important, respected, and significant. We are tempted to manipulate our circumstances in order to achieve earthly greatness. But Jesus says that greatness in His kingdom can only be found through humble service. Will we follow the example of Christ, who willingly became a servant for the sake of God's kingdom?

Jesus is fully God and fully man. We ought never to believe that His humanity diminishes His deity, or that His love diminishes His holiness. Jesus is everything that God is. However, He allows us to approach Him to receive eternal life, and a relationship with God. We are called to approach with confidence, but also with reverence.

As Jesus lays out the Lord's Prayer and tells us to pray "Thy Kingdom Come", by praying this we are anticipating, representing, and proclaiming the future Kingdom of God.

Christ's response to Peter's belief was to call him (and us) into a new way of life.

The leaders of the nation of Israel rejected their Messiah, because He did not meet their expectations. You and I have the choice to accept Jesus as He is, or to reject Him. Will we accept and trust Jesus, even when He does not meet our personal expectations for who He should be?

Our Father's love knows no limits. As He has forgiven us, and because He has forgiven us, we can forgive others. And as we forgive, others experience the love of our Father through us. Let us then learn to forgive.

When Jesus returns He will turn the world upside down. What the world values now will not be valued then; and what the world dismisses now will not be dismissed then. Discover what to do now so you can have a life worth celebrating when Jesus returns.

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the hardest portions of Scripture to understand. At its heart, though, the Sermon on the Mount tells us that we are nowhere near good enough to enter God's kingdom on our own. The good news, however, is that Jesus is good enough and gracious enough to get us in.

Jesus' character and nature demonstrate that He is uniquely qualified as the Messiah. The question of Matthew's gospel is, "Will we accept Him as our King and submit to His terms in order to enter God's kingdom?"

Matthew's gospel presents Jesus as the One True King, the Sovereign over all. Will you follow Him, or will you give your allegiance to another? Will you follow Him, or will you choose to rule over your own life? He promises us fullness of life, a life that can be found in no other.