As Jesus begins to turn the corner & put a wrap on the Sermon on the Mount, He issues a series of invitations and warnings to His hearers. Last week, He warned us to choose the narrow gate & the hard way over the easy way & wide gate. This week, He warns us to beware of false teachers. How can we identify the wolves who come cloaked as sheep? By examining their lives, their message, and their walk with Jesus. We need to live in lock-step with the Good Shepherd… immersed in His Word, and led by His Spirit, we can walk in safety & freedom, even among the wolves!

When we begin to live out of a vibrant relationship with God, trusting that He will meet all of our needs, we will inevitably experience the freedom and impulse to live out the golden rule. The truth is, a relationship with God changes every other relationship. But, we have to make sure we enter His Kingdom through the narrow gate. The world offers a wide and easy gate, but it leads to destruction and death. The narrow gate of the Kingdom is less traveled, more difficult, and few find it. And yet, it’s the only pathway to abundant life in this world and the one to come.

In this section of His most famous sermon, Jesus gives us a command and a promise. If you really believed that God is deeply good, and that He answers the passionate and persistent prayers of His beloved children, how would your prayer life be different than it is today? Ask, seek, knock…our God already knows, and He’s highly relational. He likes to be asked, so be bold, be consistent, be persistent. God is good & God answers the prayers of His children…so pray! Ask. Seek. Knock.

“Judge not, lest you be judged!” is one of the most quoted verses in the Bible by Christians and non-Christians alike. But did Jesus really mean it’s never good for us to make judgment calls or use discernment about other’s actions? What we see in this passage is Jesus teaching us how to judge without being judgmental. That begins with getting the log out of our own eye, so we can help others with the speck in theirs!

“Do not worry” is repeated three times in this classic teaching of Jesus. It sounds nice - but in our day and age, is this realistic? With all that is going on, how can we not worry? Jesus gives His disciples reasons they don’t have to worry, and a way to focus our attention and activities in a way that will have eternal value.

Money and possessions reveal the human heart like nothing else does. The lie of our day is: the more I have in my hands, the happier I’ll be in my heart. But both studies and our own experience tell us that’s simply not true. Money is a tool, much like a knife. Is a knife good or bad? It depends on who’s wielding it (a surgeon or a madman?). Jesus teaches us that as citizens in the new kingdom, it’s important for us to have the right treasure, right lens, and right master. The message is clear: invest your life in what really matters!

It’s amazing that out of everything the disciples could have asked Jesus to teach them how to do (walk on water, turn water into wine, resurrect the dead, cast out demons) they ask Him how to … pray? What follows is a pattern of prayer that’s remarkable not for its length, but for its exquisite depth. Jesus teaches us that prayer is personal–we come to God as our Father, not as a distant deity. We come to Him in adoration and worship for His greatness and love. We petition for heaven to breakthrough in our lives, marriages, families, careers and neighborhoods. We ask for our daily needs with boldness, seek forgiveness with confidence, and beg for deliverance from the snares of our enemy. In this way, we plug into God’s presence and power in our lives. May we increasingly become a people of prayer at New Life as we learn the ancient ways of Jesus!

As we step into chapter 6, Jesus is going to shift into some practical instruction surrounding 3 core spiritual disciplines: giving, prayer, and fasting. The primary focus here is on taking off our spiritual masks and learning to genuinely love God rather than trying to impress people. As citizens of the new kingdom of Jesus, we should give generously & quietly. We should pray sincerely and for the approval of our Heavenly Father. And finally, we should fast to please God and tap into His presence and power, rather than to impress our peers. So many of us fall into the subtle trap of hypocrisy, but Jesus came to free us from the chains of mask-wearing and people-pleasing!

The last couple of weeks in the Sermon on the Mount have been pretty intense as Jesus has peeled back the layers on several controversial topics like anger, lust, marriage, and divorce. This week, we’ll hear Jesus finish the last 3 of his “you have heard it said, but I say to you…” statements as He tackles oaths, retaliation, and love for our enemies. As people who belong to the Kingdom of Jesus, we are to be truth-tellers, entrust justice to God, and love the very ones who detest us. In these ways, we show that we belong to another Kingdom…and the only way we can live so radically, is with the help of Jesus as we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus discusses many hard things. Among them, is the topic of marriage and divorce. This week’s sermon will focus on the beauty of marriage, the devastation of divorce, while pointing to the healing and hope found in Christ. We’ll look at the prevailing views for biblically permissible divorce, while also driving home the truth that marriage matters to God because of what it symbolizes, namely Jesus and His bride–the Church.