God seeks to raise up leaders for His Kingdom purposes. Thus, God removes leaders who abuse their power, refuse to repent, and forget their purpose. In their place, God calls leaders who faithfully abide in His presence and humbly accept His call.

When we are given the life we never wanted, we are to hold on to our bitter faith because bitter faith is still genuine faith. Bitter faith turns to God in honest prayer and bitter faith turns to God in surrendered trust. And under God's sovereignty, we have hope because bitter faith will one day give way to joyful praise.

(1 Samuel 1:1-2:11)

The faith of Rahab serves as an unexpected reminder of our faithful God who is always doing the extraordinary in the ordinary. As such, we should take time to pause and remind ourselves that it is God who conquers and keeps His promises. And we should put our faith into action as we trust that God does the extraordinary even in our ordinary.

The local church displays the good news of the Kingdom through being a collective witness. As citizens of God's Kingdom, who have received the Gospel, we also have the awesome privilege to share the Gospel together. The local church serves as a collective witness through our love for one another and through our love for our neighbors.

Another important role that the local church plays in helping us live the Kingdom Life is through being a covenant community. As Christians are in covenant relationship with Christ, we are also in covenant relationship with one another. Life together in the covenant community helps us to grow as Kingdom people.

The local church plays an important role in helping us live the Kingdom Life, and one of the major roles it plays is through corporate worship. Corporate worship forms us into Kingdom people because the more we look at Jesus, the more we will look like Jesus. Some of the major elements of corporate worship in the local church are preaching, communion, and praise.

As we close our series through the Sermon on the Mount this week, we will be directed to the important truth that the entire sermon is not merely about principles or rules to follow, but rather about a Person - Jesus Christ our King. True believers are those who see and submit to the authority of the King, and this shows in our active obedience to the King. Rather than simply being concerned with the outward appearance of Christ-likeness (building our house on sand), we must build our lives on the solid rock of Christ by being conformed inwardly to His image.

After unpacking the Kingdom Life, Jesus issues the call to follow Him on the difficult journey into the Kingdom. While there may be dangerous detours by false prophets and deceptive displays of false worship, this is the way Jesus calls his disciples to follow Him.

Christians have a living hope that is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ (past), that points to the lasting inheritance awaiting us in heaven (future), and that is secured by God’s power through faith here and now (present). This is the living hope we have in our living Savior!