This week, we look at what may scariest words in the entire Bible. Jesus addresses people who are convinced they’re going to heaven when they die but actually are not. They will hear the words, “Depart from me; I never knew you.” Can you imagine living your entire life believing you would one day see Jesus face to face, convinced you would enter heaven, only to be rejected by Him for eternity? One may not think of anything more terrifying.

This was actually Mike’s story before he truly gave his life to Jesus. “I had said a prayer, attended church, was baptized, went to Bible studies, and even had seasons where there appeared to be fruit in my life, but I didn’t have a real relationship with Jesus until later on. It’s sobering to think that Jesus says “many” will stand before Him and tell Him about all the things they did for Him, yet He will say He never knew them personally.”

This passage is desperately needed in the church today. Do we really know Jesus? Do we walk with Him daily? Do our lives bear the fruit of genuine faith? Or do we simply give lip service while our hearts are far from Him?

The good news is that Jesus doesn’t want us to live in doubt. He wants us to examine ourselves and have assurance that we belong to Him. Some people don’t need to doubt their salvation; they need to examine their lives and then rest in the assurance that comes from knowing Christ. And as the church, we don’t need to play the salvation police. That’s Jesus’ job, gratefully.

But there are also “many” who need to hear these words of Jesus, realize they are not headed to heaven, and lay down their lives in genuine faith and trust in Him for the very first time. Knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus are two very different things.

“I really do believe there will be people in the room this Sunday who need to surrender their lives to Christ. They need to examine themselves and realize there is no fruit, no desire for Christ, and no evidence of new life. I’m praying that God would save many people who are “unsaved Christians.” That was my story about 15 years ago. I’m prayerfully expecting what God will do this Sunday.”

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This week, we will look at Matthew 7:1–14. Jesus is beginning to wind down His sermon and has a few more things He wants to share with His listeners. He wants to encourage them not to be judgmental toward others. It’s hard nowadays not to judge others, especially if they do not think the same way we do or believe the same things we do. We will talk about what Jesus expects from us and what it actually means to be judgmental.

Jesus also asks His listeners—and us today—to ask, seek, and knock. He is calling us to be persistent in prayer. Isn’t it incredible to think that Jesus wants an intimate relationship with us? It is just as incredible to think about how good God is and how He desires to give good things to His children!

Jesus also establishes what we know today as the Golden Rule. His desire is for us to treat others the way we would like to be treated. We will talk about why Jesus mentions this at this point in His message, what it looks like to live by this principle, and what life looks like when we do not.

Finally, Jesus issues a warning. He talks about a wide gate and a narrow gate. Many people walk through the wide gate and follow the path it offers. Jesus says only a few walk through the narrow gate and follow the path it offers. We will talk about what these gates represent and what they mean for us today.

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We live in an anxious world. More people than ever are wrestling with anxiety. More people are seeing counselors, taking medication, and trying to find relief. We're all looking for answers to a struggle that seems to be affecting so many lives. We could share statistic after statistic, don't need to, we already know. This message is titled “Anyone Anxious?" because, for many of us, the answer is yes. We’re anxious about our kids, pregnancy, health, parents, our bodies, or anxious about anxiety itself.

This Sunday will be more pastoral than passionate.  Sometimes anxiety is connected to sin or circumstances, but often it's simply part of living in a Genesis 3 world.

Our hope for this message is to help lift your eyes, even for a moment, to see both the hand and the heart of Jesus. If you feel like you're sinking, overwhelmed, and just trying to survive, I want you to see that Jesus is reaching for you.

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This Sunday we continue our series through the greatest sermon ever preached as Jesus turns to the topic of… money.

Jesus talks about money more than almost any other subject, not because He cares about money the most, but because He knows we do. Money has a way of capturing our hearts. We think about it, plan around it, check our bank accounts more than our Bibles, wish we had more even when we have enough, and often let it keep us from following Jesus.

In this passage, Jesus teaches us what it really means to invest in heaven. So much of our world is consumed with investing on earth. We think about retiring early, making our money "work for us," building passive income, and growing our portfolios. None of those things are inherently wrong. But Jesus calls us to ask: What are we investing in that will last forever?

Jesus doesn't need our money, but He does expect generosity from those who follow Him. We can't say He has our hearts while refusing to let Him have our wallets.

As you can imagine, this message impacts every one of us. Many people have had painful experiences with churches or leaders when it comes to money.

To be clear, working hard, saving for retirement, investing wisely, or building passive income is bad. We should steward those opportunities well. We just want to make sure we are investing more in heaven than we are on earth.

One day, when we stand before Jesus, we'll discover what truly mattered and where our treasure really was. Jesus spoke about money more than almost any other topic because He knew it would reveal who or what we trust. We have a lot to cover this Sunday, and I'm looking forward to opening God's Word together.

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We live in a culture obsessed with image. Our world is convinced that acceptance is based on performance and appearance, and it urges people to follow suit. This is not only true in culture; it can also bleed into the church.
As we continue in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, Jesus corrects those who practice their righteousness to be seen by other people, seeking the approval of man. Instead, Jesus invites us to practice in secret, not for the approval of man, but from the security of God’s approval. He does this by inviting us to embrace a posture and a practice.
We pick up in Matthew 6:16–18, where Jesus teaches us about fasting and the posture of secrecy. Fasting is abstaining from food for a spiritual purpose. It is setting aside what sustains your body to seek the One who satisfies your soul.
Secrecy is not withholding truth, but withholding display. Together, fasting and secrecy cultivate an inward devotion that is not focused on outward appearance. Fasting deepens our dependence on Jesus and shapes our desires toward Him. Secrecy keeps our devotion from becoming a performance.
Whether you have fasted for years or have never tried it, this Sunday will be a practical invitation to take a next step with Jesus. We will talk about what fasting is, why it matters, how to begin, and how this hidden practice can deepen our love for God and for others.

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This week, we continue our series by looking at Jesus' Sermon on the Mount as He opens the topic of prayer. Prayer is essential for followers of Jesus. It's our lifeline. It's our connection. It's how we listen to and communicate with our Heavenly Father.

How we pray and how often we pray are important. However, maybe that's not the primary issue at hand. Jesus says, "When you pray," yet most of us don't have vibrant prayer lives. Why is that? It's not because we lack time, and it's not because we're unaware that we need God's help. Honestly, it's because we often don't want to pray. We've tried it before and didn't experience the benefit we expected, so we quit. Prayer gets boiled down to something we do before meals, as we fall asleep, or as a quick, passing thought throughout the day.

In the passage we're looking at this week, Jesus repeatedly mentions "your Father." We're going to pay close attention to that. We can have the kind of prayer life Jesus wants us to have if we see ourselves as He sees us, as His children, and see Him for who He is: our Father.

We're going to look at the most well-known prayer in history, a prayer that followers of Jesus and even many non-followers have recited for thousands of years. How often should we pray this prayer? What does it teach us? Prayer is an invitation to spend time with our Heavenly Father, and He wants to spend time with you. When was the last time was that He heard from you?

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It doesn’t take long to realize how much we care about what other people think. We all know the feeling of wanting to be noticed, appreciated, or recognized. Even when we do the right thing, there can be a quiet desire in our hearts for someone else to notice us.

Jesus sees our struggle and invites us to something far better.

In Matthew 6:1–4, Jesus warns us not to practice our righteousness to be seen by others. His concern isn’t only that we give, serve, or help people—it’s also why we do it. The Pharisees longed for the applause of people, but Jesus points us to something infinitely better: the approval of our Father in heaven. When we remember that we are already loved and accepted in Christ, we are freed from the endless pursuit of human recognition. And if you’ve never experienced that love, Jesus is waiting for you with open arms.

This Sunday, we’ll continue our series, The Jesus Way, as we discover what it means to live for an audience of ONE. I’m praying Jesus would free us from performing for people so that we can joyfully love him and love others with all we have!

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Most of us live within certain circles in our lives. We have relational circles, family circles, and even political and theological circles. Inside those circles are the people we love, trust, and protect. In other words, they are the people we let in. But outside those circles, if we are honest, are people we avoid or ignore—people we don't want in our circle.Jesus walks into our lives and observes the kinds of circles we live in. He sees who we let in and who we keep out, those we invite close and those we quite honestly ghost. When someone has hurt us, offended us, mistreated us, or simply disagrees with us, what do we do? Often, we block the number, cut the thread, or simply stop responding. For a while, it feels justified... but that doesn't make it right.In Matthew 5:43–48, Jesus does something shocking—He erases the circle!This Sunday, we will continue our series, The Jesus Way, and discuss what Jesus meant when He said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute (mistreat) you." Jesus' words call us to go against our human nature and resist the urge to get back at people when we are treated unfairly.WEBSITE: https://five39.church/FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/five39church/INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/five39church/

This week, we continue our series on Jesus’ Sermon, talking about the topics of oaths and retaliation. As we are learning throughout this series, Jesus’ words are anything but easy! Throughout Matthew 5–7, Jesus’ words are intentional, direct, and yet loving at the same time.

So far in our series, Jesus has laid out the Beatitudes (5:3–12), taught on being salt and light (5:13–16), made known that He has come to fulfill the Law (5:17–20), and given a deeper understanding of anger (5:21–22), adultery (5:27–28), and divorce (5:31–32).

God takes oaths, promises, and covenants very seriously, and so should we. Jesus has some incredible words of instruction regarding the religious leaders’ views on making and keeping promises—even to the point of telling His listeners, and us today, not to make promises. We will also answer the question of what it means to let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no.

We will also take a look at what Jesus says about retaliation. This topic hits all of us where we are. Jesus’ words call us to go against our human nature and resist the urge to get back at people when we are treated unfairly.

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This week we continue our series on Jesus' Sermon, talking about the topics of lust, sexual sin, divorce, and remarriage. It still bothers me that when we have crowds of people, we tend to talk about the “easier” topics, yet Jesus brings some of His most difficult teaching to them. I want to be more like Jesus; of that, I’m sure. Jesus will make sure no one escapes, and no one gets to point the finger and judge. I’ve titled the sermon “No Escape” because when we read this passage, we will all feel the weight and gravity of our sinful hearts.

Jesus is not necessarily prescribing a cure for sin, but revealing where we really need to be made clean: at the heart level. Sin is serious, and we need to address any and all sin in our lives. With God’s help, purity is possible. We’ll spend some time talking about how to walk with Jesus, fight the flesh, and address the heart of the matter, if you're struggling with sexual sin.

Then we’ll look at what Jesus has to say about divorce and remarriage. He says so little about a topic that affects so many people and carries so much shame. We’ll talk about when the Bible gives grounds for divorce and when it does not. We need to remember that Jesus is not addressing every divorce and remarriage scenario. He is teaching something very specific here, and it’s not about labeling divorced people in the crowd or making them feel bad about their past. I’m looking forward to talking about this with you. Staying away from this conversation is not helping people; Jesus addressed it.

Jesus spent significant time with people who had been divorced. The beauty is that He not only showed them love and care, but He pursued them. He wasn't done with them because they had been divorced. And the good news is that Jesus is NOT done with you either! We have much to cover Sunday, and I’m thankful our Savior meets us where we are.

I’m excited for what God might do this Sunday. There is a story in which Jesus stood and defended someone caught in adultery, and this Sunday we’ll ask people to stand and follow Him. That's what Jesus did every time He talked with people experiencing sexual brokenness. Let’s continue to see what God is up to this Sunday. Maybe bring a friend this week!

- Pastor Mike

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