So we have been rolling along through our big summer series studying one of the most profound and popular sermons ever preached…Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. I have to tell you this series has been such a big deal to me in my own personal life. I have been amazed at how as we study God’s word just how much it applies directly into my everyday life. Whether it’s how I respond to people, or as I walk . . . Read More »
How Do I Know If I Think I am ‘god’
Today, when someone says, “Don’t judge me,” that basically means, they want unlimited approval of everything they do. Every thought. Every belief. Every bad decision. Every moral decision. Accept me for who I am. Approve of me, no matter what I do. Validate me, no matter how badly I perform. And if you don’t, you are mean. You are judging. You hate. Any negative feedback, anything less than 100% approval, is called judging and it is offensive and . . . Read More »
Why Worry?
Good morning! Last week, Ken talked about everyone’s favorite subject: money. Have you ever thought about the fact that the reason we hate talking about it so much is because of how much of an influence it has over our lives? We work each and every day for: money. We do or don’t do things because of: money. What we want we have to buy with: money. So we always seem to need more, so that we can . . . Read More »
The Idol of Money
The one sentence overview of the Sermon on the Mount would be: God sent Jesus to establish His kingdom in our hearts. The whole point of this sermon is the transformation of our hearts. I just warn you though; God’s kingdom is radically different than the kingdom, the culture, we live in. In the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, Jesus explains how God’s kingdom changes us from the inside out. He talks about . . . Read More »
“This, Then, Is How You Should Pray.”
So last week as we kicked off Matthew 6 and I told you that these next three weeks or so are really going to get fun as we dive into Jesus’ words here in this chapter and here is why. He gets very practical, and in some ways really gives us a ‘how to’ lesson on some important things like prayer which we are going to really dive into this week, and materialism and giving next week, and . . . Read More »
Get Real
So today we continue this teaching on Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount…and I have to tell you, for me this has been a huge deal on a personal level. Jesus is literally laying out a foundation of how we are to live our lives as His followers and here’s the deal, it’s a better way to live. Think about where all just the first chapter of this sermon has taken us and what our lives would look . . . Read More »
Raising The Bar On Love
So today we are going to continue our study of Jesus’ famous teaching, “The Sermon on the Mount.” I really enjoy these summer moments where we really get to dive into Scripture like this, and to be spending the summer really engaging The Sermon on the Mount well, it just feels big! I think it feels so big because Jesus is literally laying out for his disciples (and all of us) a new way to live…a better way . . . Read More »
Getting to the Heart of the Matter
So last week I think we really started to hit our stride in this study of Jesus’ very famous Sermon on the Mount and that is really going to continue today. So by this fourth week of the series it’s probably becoming pretty apparent to you that Jesus is really pushing in hard on us and how we live. Jesus has a way of thinking and living that is just completely opposite than the way we humans think . . . Read More »
Dirk Willems
Do you know the name Dirk Willems? He was burned at the stake in the Netherlands for being re-baptized on May 16, 1569. His story was remarkable. The Church of that day had him arrested because Dirk rejected the belief that your soul was saved when you were baptized as an infant. He wanted to be baptized as an adult to show his love for God. What makes his story amazing was what he did when he escaped . . . Read More »
Some Important Questions About This Salt and Light Thing
You know, I’m pretty excited to be teaching today on this particular part of the Sermon on the Mount because these couple verses are a really big deal to me…and I hope really wrap into the identity of us as a church and us as disciples of Jesus. When we planted MRC in Dillsburg, Pa. 17 years ago Mashawn and I were…well we were younger, I will tell you I had a little more bounce in my step . . . Read More »