Romans 8:28-30; One author said, “Two things are always true about the doctrine of predestination: 1) It’s important 2) It’s controversial. Because it’s hard to understand, predestination tends to become a point of contention, but it shouldn’t! The truth that God is a predestinating God should comfort us. What is your destiny? God has a plan for your life and he will accomplish it!

Romans 8:28-30; We all know the promise: “All things work together for good to those who love God” - but do we all know the reasoning? This message is the first of five sermons exploring the logic behind our comfort, joy, and assurance. The unbreakable chain of God’s saving action! This teaching discusses what it means that God “foreknew” us.

This is our final teaching from The Sermon on the Mount. Jesus ends his sermon with a breathtaking and vivdly illustrated conclusion - there are two wasy, a way that leads to life and the other that leads to death.

Matthew 7:12; "Do unto others as you'd have them do to you." This teaching is well loved, universally appreciated, and cherished. But do we understand how it relates to the next line: "for this is the law and the prophets?" What we discover is that Jesus was not trying to be another sage simply showing us a higher way of living, but he was rather summing up the entire law, condemning the self-righteous, and instructing the repentant.

Matthew 7:7-11; The Kingdom of heaven is not a Kingdom of self-righteousness or self-reliance. It's a Kingdom of utter dependance on God, a Kingdom of asking, seeking, knocking. Jesus here has left us we what some call the most comforting promises in the Scriptures - that those who ask will receive, those who seek will find, and to those who knock, the door will be opened.

Matthew 7:1-6; Do not judge. It seems that at the core of being human is a spirit of condemnation. So many of us have found ourselves judgmental of people - even judgmental of those that are judgmental. What do we do with this and how does Jesus help us?

Matthew 6:25-34; What do you do with anxiety and worry? Anxiety has gripped humanity to such a degree that we are paralyzed by it. What is the root of anxiety and can Jesus’ words really help us in this area? This teaching continues our study through the Sermon on the Mount and listen to the words of Jesus, “do not be anxious.”

Matthew 6:19-24; What does your soul gaze upon? Wealth? Popularity and praise? Youth and beauty? Comfort? As fallen human beings, we tend to gaze upon the temporal things of the earth, Christ wants the citizens of the Kingdom to turn their gaze to the eternal - storing up treasures, not in earth, but in heaven.

Matthew 6:7-15; To some degree, our world idolizes prayer. It’s not uncommon to hear a political leader, an athlete, or even an atheist ask for prayer - why is this? Who are we praying to and what prayers are acceptable? Is there a general power in all forms of prayer? This morning we continue to study the Sermon on the Mount and find Jesus’ teaching on prayer. “When you pray,” he says, “pray like this...”

Matthew 6:1-18; Why do we do religious acts ? What is our motivation? As Jesus continues to address the citizens of the Kingdom of heaven in this “Sermon on the Mount,” he turns toward religious activity. This teaching asks the same question and seeks to find it’s answer in the glory of Christ and the Gospel.