The Attributes of God:

Why Worry Matthew 6:25-34 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”               Today we live in a culture of fear.  Fear sells magazines and gains an audience on TV.  Politicians try to create fear to sway the electorate by demonizing the opposition.  Coming out of the pandemic, the talk quickly turns to the fear of the next pandemic, when it will strike, and how bad it will be. When faced with the struggles of life, it is easy to become anxious.  Every day we are reminded that we are finite and incapable of dealing with the issues we are confronted with.  While people often present a public persona of strength, confidence, and composure, it only hides the reality that we often are plagued by fear, doubt, and apprehension regarding the events in our life that seem out of control.  Even as Christians, we often...

Realigning our Priorities   Matthew 6:19-24 “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”               It is easy to become distracted from the Kingdom of God. Christ came to deliver us from sin's devastation and establish his kingdom.  The Kingdom agenda of God is a theme throughout Matthew's book.  When John came to prepare the way for Christ’s arrival, he announced that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand (3:2).  This was the same message central to Christ's ministry.  In 4:17, it states that “Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”  In the Lord’s Prayer, we are to affirm and pray for the arrival of his kingdom.  The goal of the Christian life is not about the present but about participating in the coming Kingdom.  However, in the pursuit of his kingdom, we can become distracted and our focus derai...

The Quest for  Authenticity Matthew 6:16-18 “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face.”               It is easy to fall into the trap of externalizing our faith.  The longer we are a Christians and go to church, the more we can become complacent in our faith.  We know the lingo and rituals, and we can speak “Christianize.”  As a result, we can start just going through the motions of obedience.  Such was the problem with the Jews of Jesus’ day. In the quest to fulfill the law's requirements, they focused on the rituals.  They went to the temple on the prescribed days and offered their sacrifices.  They followed the dietary regulations.  They went to the synagogues to listen to the instruction of the local rabbi.  They became very adept at obeying the rules.  But their faith was exterior rather than interio...

The Foundation of Prayer Matthew 6:7-15 “Our Father who is in heaven, hollowed be Your name.”               The Lord’s Prayer is, without question, the most popular prayer in the Bible.  It is often used to close service and adorns the walls of many churches and homes.  Yet when we look closer, we discover that what we call “the Lord’s prayer” is not a prayer but a lesson on prayer.  In this prayer, Christ is not asking us to pray repetitively in the church. Instead, he is giving us a pattern for the content and focus of our prayer.  Examine the bulk of our prayers today, and the focus is on our daily needs and God’s provision and protection. Indeed, Jesus encourages us to pray for our daily needs, as seen in verse 11.  However, examining the prayer closely, we discover that almost half of the prayer does not focus on our needs but on our awareness of God and submission to ...

A Façade or Authentic Faith Matthew 6:1-6   “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise, you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” (vs. 1)               It is easy to reduce the Christian faith to a façade.  We can follow the rules, talk the talk, be involved in the church and be active, but we still lack authenticity in our faith. Our faith becomes merely an external show rather than a continual inward transformation of our life.  Throughout the sermon, Christ continually confronts us with the necessity of continual and inward change.  But in this verse, he identifies the danger we face in our spiritual lives.             Godly living involves the acceptance and obedience of rules of conduct.  It is estimated that there are 613 commands in the Old Testament and anot...

Resetting the Bar Matthew 5:43-48 “Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”               Growing up on the farm, we often focused on getting the job done.  Because there is always so much to do, especially during the harvest, the focus is on getting things going.  It doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to get the job done.  We accepted that things were not perfect because we had many other priorities.             Often in our Christian life, we take the same approach.  Because we are never perfect and still struggle with the daily battle with sin, we can become complacent and begin to accept our shortcomings.  We compare ourselves to others, and if we are as good (or better—at least in our estimation) as other people, then we are content. As long as we are as good as other people ...

Responding to an Adversary Matthew 5:38-42 “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”               How do we respond when someone personally attacks us?  When they make false accusations or verbally assault our character?  The mantra today is to “stand up for your rights.”  If someone has personally attacked or wronged us in any way, we are to go on the offensive and ensure that our rights are not violated and that they respect us. If we feel we are wronged by them, we must make sure they pay.              The first thing we should note in this passage is that the person is genuinely mistreated. The adversary is not just someone who has mistakenly done something against us; we are to overlook it.  In this case, the person is not only clearly ...