The Porch (Video)

When we feel wronged by someone, we want to hurt them back. Instead of an eye for an eye, Jesus calls us to extend forgiveness and seek reconciliation with that person. As Christians, our response should be to reconcile, to love those even if they hate us, and forgive like God has forgiven us. God has extended us reconciliation and forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and as followers of Christ, we become more like God when we respond in love and pray for our enemies.

Every 20 or 30-something struggles with commitment. We want to keep our

options open. But when we're flaky, we damage our reputation. In Matthew

5:33-37, we see that Jesus simply wants us to commit, not make soft

commitments or back out, but give a yes or no answer. God is faithful and

trustworthy and never breaks a commitment; as Christians, we are called

to do the same and be salt and light to everyone around us.

A lot of us write off adultery because we think, "Oh I haven't cheated, I'm good”. However, Jesus redefines it in the Sermon on the Mount, saying even if we have looked at someone lustfully, we have committed adultery. Even though society is always pushing sexual sin in front of us, we have to remove it because it kills relationships – with God and the people we care about. We have to treat marriage as it was intended, a metaphor for Christ's love for the church. We have to remove the things that tempt us and follow Christ. When marriage gets hard, we must trust in the power of Jesus to save more than the power of sin. God loves us as we should strive to love in marriage — a lifelong pursuit — where He paid the price for us through Jesus Christ.

How we handle our anger matters to God. Jesus says in Matthew 5:21-26 that we are subject to judgment for being angry like those who murder are subject to judgment. But through anger, we have the opportunity to respond in such a way that we show we are God's children. We can own our part in conflict and ask for forgiveness to settle it quickly, pursuing a path of peace. Ultimately the big picture that saves us all from our anger is Jesus. He gave His life for our anger so that we don't have to be angry and face judgment for it when we believe in Him.

In Matthew 5:20, Jesus shockingly says that we will not be allowed into Heaven unless our righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, meaning we'd have to be perfect. But luckily for us, it doesn't end there. Jesus fulfills the law: he clarified what it means, he lived a perfect life, and he fulfilled the law's demands for us. By accepting Jesus' free gift of paying our debt through the cross, we can rely on His righteousness, not our own, and spend eternity with Him. And until that time comes, we have God's unchanging moral laws guiding us toward a fulfilling life, seeking after Him here.

In the most famous sermon of all time, Jesus shows us in Matthew 5 what it looks like to seek God's righteousness and not our own in the Sermon on the Mount. God is calling us to Him and He can save us. He wants us to be supremely happy. If we look past ourselves and recognize that we fully rely on God, He will fully satisfy us. Jesus shows us what it looks like to be saved, what those who are saved do, and what they can expect through God. There is nothing greater than Him.

We come up with weird ideologies about sex and tune out what the Bible has to say we justify our actions. How far is too far? If we're asking, we've probably gone too far. But as believers, God's will for us is sanctification from sexual sin. His way is that we avoid sin through self control and God's warning is that there is no safe sex. God made sex -- it's intended to be good but within the boundaries of marriage. When we let sin warp our view of sex, we suffer the consequences of rejecting God. As believers, we are called to be set apart, to honor God with our bodies and to pursue character in Christ as encouraged by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4.

Like Nicodemus, some of us miss what Jesus, the Messiah, meant when He said we must be born again. But Jesus explains to Nicodemus that the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes may have eternal life. Ultimately Nicodemus is born again when he sees Christ raised up on the cross and believes. It always has been and always will be about Jesus Christ. We've all sinned, but we can't achieve salvation- we have to trust in God. Because God so loved the world that He gave His only Son and if we believe in Him we have eternal life, no matter what our lives look like, and that is the picture of ultimate grace.

As we end Colossians, Paul shows us that there's no point where God stops chasing us, even when we run away. In his farewell speech to the Colossians, Paul mentions Onesimus � a slave who stole and ran from his master, just like we run from God. But God chased him. Onesimus believed in Jesus and God changed him from a mess into a missionary, making him the pastor of the largest church at that time in Ephesus. No matter what our past is, Jesus loves us, wants us as His, and uses our stories for His ministry.

A lot of us think that faith is just a private idea that should meet our individual needs, but God calls us to live our lives on mission for Him. In Colossians 4, Paul shows us what people who live on mission look like: they are devoted to prayer, have needs that matter, have opportunities that matter, and have conversations that matter eternally not just for this world. Ultimately God does the saving, but we are provided with opportunities to work for Him that may make an eternal difference in someone's life. Are you living on mission for God?