When you read Matthew 5:7 at first glance, many people take this to mean that "Be kind and nice to others, and they will be kind and nice to you." But this is not always true. It does not match the reality of life. So what exactly does Jesus mean? What is He saying to us? Think about these questions as we continue our study of the Sermon on the Mount.

Today we are going to discover that the truly contented person, the truly satisfied person, and the blessed person has a hunger and thirst for righteousness. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." - Matthew 5:6 (NIV)

In one aspect of kingdom living, Jesus, in His sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5 verse 5 says this, "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth". What does Jesus mean when He says "meek"? What is meekness? Because it sounds like "weakness". What does it mean, from a biblical perspective? Keep all of this in mind as we continue the next part of this teaching series, "Kingdom Living".

If I was to ask "If I am going to speak about 'mothers', what passage should I preach on that just gives the most stuff about mothers or a wife or a woman… what would you say?" Proverbs 31 would be the top answer. Turn your Bibles to Proverbs 31 and listen as we study what God has to say to us on this day called "Mother's Day".

What God's word has to say about parenting is completely opposite to what the world has to say about how to be a parent. Turn your Bible to the very beginning in Genesis chapter 1 and listen as we ask these questions and learn what God has to say to us about children and parenting.

In this message, we are going to look at what God says about parenting and the privilege and responsibility of both mom and dad. And so we are going to focus in this message which is titled "Four Dimensional Parenting". So turn your bibles to Luke chapter 2 as that is where we are going to start today.

In today's message we are going to look at what the Bible tells us what "thanksgiving" actually means. We are going to look at what it stands for and why it is so important to the Christian life.

In our previous teaching time, we talked about the beginning part of Ephesians 6:17 which described to us the "helmet of salvation". Today we are going to continue reading this scripture where we learn about the final piece of armor, the "Sword of the Spirit".

We have read that truth, righteousness, peace, and faith are crucial qualities of the Christian life. But these are not the only things that God tells us that we need. In Ephesians 6:17 we read "Take the helmet of salvation...". Gather your Bible and open to Ephesians 6 as we continue our study together.

The Armor of God. It is designed to protect us in the spiritual battle that we face each and every day in our Christian lives against our determined, personal, real enemy whose name is Satan. Today, we continue the teaching series "Heroic Living" where we are studying Ephesians chapter 6 with a focus on verse 16 where we are introduced to the Shield of Faith.