​In Matthew 8 and Luke 7, we learn two important lessons about having and employing faith from an unlikely source—a Roman Centurion. 

First, we learn that faith is not about feeling worthy. Faith is not dependent on a feeling of worthiness we can muster up. Faith is about focusing on the authority and ability of God to do what He promised.

Second, we do not need to see to believe—especially if we understand God’s authority and ability to do what He promised to do for those who feel unworthy. We have to believe, and then God will show us. Our eyes can deceive us, but the Bible cannot. Scripture records the infallible track record of God doing exactly what He promised to do—each and every time.

When we understand His authority and ability and trust in His love and mercy, we choose to believe—even, and especially, if we cannot see. 

“Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
–1 Peter 1:8-9

​When you were forgiven and saved—healed and cleansed from all sin—how long did it take to feel like the stain and the stigma of sin were gone? Maybe you still struggle with it. After years of identifying as unclean, the leper probably struggled with this feeling too, which is why Jesus sent the man to the priest to perform a specific ceremony for someone miraculously cleansed of leprosy (see Matthew 8:4).

As described in Leviticus 14, every detail points to Jesus—wood, scarlet, hyssop, and blood. Each element in this ceremony shouts: “Because of blood, you are clean!” 

We who have been healed miraculously of the deadly disease called sin need to hear this as well: “Because of the blood—the shed blood of Jesus—you are clean!” Our identity is no longer ‘sinner’ but ‘son’ or ‘daughter’ of the King of kings. We must hear this truth repeatedly, or we will return to our old identity and behavior.

Because of the shed blood of Jesus, we are completely forgiven and cleansed. You are a new creation in Christ. Your sin is cast as far as the east is from the west—never to be seen again. Nothing and no one can take you out of your Father’s hand or separate you from His love. He is with you! He loves you! 

YOU are clean! 
YOU ARE clean! 
YOU ARE CLEAN! 

“They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.”
–Nehemiah 8:5

Simply teaching the Bible is as important today as in Nehemiah’s day. It’s not the ideas or personality of a pastor that will change people’s lives. It is the Spirit of God working through the Word of God in the hearts of the people of God. 

Simply reading the Scripture clearly and then explaining the Scripture simply with the hope of helping others to understand can be radical and transformational for an individual, a family, a fellowship, or even an entire nation.

As we gather in unity, eagerly invite the pastor to “Bring the Book!” Serve behind the scenes to support the service and be intentional about what you hear. Be attentive and respectful, eager and appropriately emotional, responsive and worshipful. And as the Word read, be obedient and joyful—not only in understanding but also (and especially) in applying what you hear.

Religion does not—and cannot—save you. Only Jesus can save you. Do you know Him? Does He know you? Have you genuinely asked Him to be the Lord of your life? Or do you casually, flippantly, disingenuously, and dangerously only claim Him to be the Lord of your life?

Only you and He know the answers to those questions. It would be best to have it sorted out now. At any time, we are all just a second away from eternity. Only Jesus can save you, but He cannot save you if you only know about Him intellectually or even how He could save you. You must place your faith in Him. You must believe Him and receive Him to be saved. 

The only way you enter a real relationship with Jesus Christ is to be born again of God’s Holy Spirit. This happens when you turn from your sin in repentance and turn towards Jesus in belief. Then place your faith in Him to save you from your sin and an eternity separated from Him.

Have you been born again? You can be—and have the assurance of eternal life! Simply acknowledge that you have sinned and ask Jesus to save you. Turn from your sin and ask God to forgive you. Believe that Jesus died for you on the cross and rose from the grave. Then put your faith in Him, invite Him to come into your life and take control through the Holy Spirit, and receive Him as your Lord and Savior.

Talk to God. Express these things in your heart. You could say something like this:
Dear God,
I know that I am a sinner. I want to turn from my sins, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ is Your Son. I believe that He died for my sins and that You raised Him to life. I want Him to come into my heart and to take control of my life. I want to trust Jesus as my Savior and follow Him as my Lord from this day forward. In Jesus’ Name, amen.

​Being a disciple of Jesus is more than what you say or appear to do. It’s who you are. Are you still only His creation? Then your relationship to Him is as Creator and Judge. Are you a new creation? Have you truly been born again? Then your relationship is with Him as Father. You have been given a new nature and have become one of His children!

Jesus saw us all poisoned by bitterness and bound by sin. He loved us too much to allow us to remain that way, so He came to rescue us. We know we all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard of righteousness. We also know that the wages of sin is death. That’s why Jesus came to die for us. God demonstrated His love for us this way—while we were still sinners, Christ died on our behalf.

Here’s the good news: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God…” (John 1:12). “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

You can identify the tree based on the fruit you see growing from it. If you see an apple on a tree, you can identify that the tree is an apple tree. 

Fruit grows out of identity. Like a tree, the fruit in our lives is more than just what we say and appear to do. The fruit we produce comes out as a result of who we are.

Jesus tells us that the fruit a person’s life produces will identify if they are a false prophet. Someone can say and do all the right things. They can (and will) have the appearance of a sheep, yet their identity is that of a ravenous wolf. 

Jesus wants His disciples to know how to spot the difference. The fruit in a person’s life will show if they are a genuine born-again believer who feeds upon God’s Word and displays the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control), or someone who claims to be a believer but uses the ministry to be in proximity to born-again believers to feed their ego, insecurities, and ravenous hunger to be in control.

Heed Jesus’ warning about such people—“By their fruits you will know them.”

​We have a good Father who knows how to give good gifts. He promises to give us all that we need to fulfill the clear expectations that He has for the beautiful worthy difficulty of ministry. So ask, seek, and knock. Do not give up, dismiss, or diminish the clear expectations for ministry just because it’s difficult. After all, Jesus told us it will be difficult! 

In our own strength and with our own resources, His clear expectations are impossible. This drives us to two options—the narrow gate and the wide gate. The narrow gate is difficult but the wide gate leads to destruction. Embrace the impossibility of ministry and ask, seek, and knock until you see His attitudes, actions, attributes, and motivations in your heart and life.

This is the adventure that He has called us to—the beautiful worthy difficulty of ministry. So ask Him, seek Him, knock on the door of His heart. His heart for you is to give you all of this so that you can have fellowship with Him as you are a blessing in the lives of others.

​It's alright for a follower of Jesus to have money, but it's a problem when money becomes their motivation. It’s okay for a disciple of Jesus to have food, but things are out of order if food controls them. It's the same with clothing and the necessities of life—those things are fine for believers to possess, but if those things have control in our lives, it leads to the life-taking bondage of hoarding, coveting, and worrying. 

When we see these creeping into our lives, we need God’s way to reestablish order in our hearts and minds. Thankfully, He has given us the antidote to these things—giving, praying, and fasting.

When you give, you tell money that you have control over it. Praying releases you from the life-taking control of constantly wanting what you don’t have. Fasting deflates the power of worry by temporarily setting aside the necessities of this life to seek first the reality of the next.

Setting down our way to pick up God’s way takes faith. It takes faith to give when your heart wants to hoard. It takes faith to pray when your heart wants to covet. It takes faith to fast when your physical body tries to control you with worry over the necessities of life. Step out in faith and trust that the life-giving way of the Lord’s will release you from life-taking bondage of hoarding, coveting, and worry.

​Why we pray is important. Jesus tells us that we shouldn’t pray to get noticed or to appear more spiritual to others (Matthew 6:5-7). Prayer is to further our fellowship with our Heavenly Father. We can talk to Him anywhere at any time about anything.

God, who is so good to us every day wants to talk with us—every day! And yet, Jesus recognized that this might be difficult for us. So to help His followers, Jesus provides talking points to help us construct our communication with the Lord—things that encourage dialogue.

This daily discussion is not to be filled with vain repetitions with words we mumble over and over, but a thoughtful exchange directed to a person (our Father) in a place (in Heaven) who is pure (“holy is Your name”). We can talk with Him about purpose (“You will be done”) and provision (daily bread). And we can ask him for pardon (“forgive us our trespasses”) and protection (“deliver us from the evil one”). 

Pour out your heart to God. Tell Him your hopes and fears, your concerns and burdens, your joys and sorrows. Ask Him questions, then read His answers in Scripture—not just to obtain information or attain spiritual status, but so that you can know Him.

​Jesus teaches us that motivation for ministry in everyday activities is important. 

If you give, pray, or fast to be seen or to seem more spiritual than others, that is all you will get. You trade an eternal and enduring reward for something fleeting. More importantly, you won’t experience a deeper fellowship with your Heavenly Father. Why would you pass up on something so valuable for something so fleeting as the praise and admiration of others?

When you give, pray, or fast, find the secret place where no one knows except for God. He will see you in the secret place and reward you openly with fellowship with Him. 

​Jesus expects His disciples to have certain attributes. His followers must be honest, have grit, and be more than a conqueror. But what if we don't have these attributes? What if we fail? What if we fall short?

Repent and cry out to Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit for help. This is the only way that we will have the attributes Jesus expects of His followers. Jesus would never expect us to do anything that He didn’t already intend to empower us to do. He expects us to have the attitudes, actions, and attributes He defines in the Sermon on the Mount, and so He will empower us to have these attitudes, actions, and attributes as we follow Him.

This doesn’t come from trying harder. It doesn’t come from minimizing or rationalizing our inherent inabilities. It doesn’t come from outsourcing this to “religious professionals”. It all comes from Him. As a disciple of Jesus, you are a living example of what it looks like to follow Him. Receive help from the Holy Spirit and rest in the loving power of Jesus. Only then will you see this manifest in selfless love that glorifies our Heavenly Father. 

​To be Jesus’ disciple, you must deal decisively with sin and where it begins—the heart. The problem is not your eye or your hand—it’s your heart. You need a new heart—you must be born again. Jesus promises a new heart to all who believe Him, receive Him, and are truly born again of His Holy Spirit.

What if you have been truly born again and yet you still struggle with lustful looks and lustful thoughts? You still must deal decisively with sin by confessing, repenting, and proving your repentance by not doing it again. Don’t minimize, rationalize, or entertain the sin, but have a plan of action.

The best plan of action is found in 2 Timothy 2:22:
“Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” 

When sin comes, flee! Then pursue righteousness. Replace sinful habits with righteous ones, which include living according to God’s Word (see Psalm 119:9). There is power in the Word of God to strengthen our spirits, renew our minds, and tell our bodies what we will or will not do. There is power in the Word of God to even take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Jesus. 

Forgiveness and reconciliation are two different things. Forgiveness can happen in a moment, but reconciliation is a process—a process that begins with repentance.

Genuine repentance accepts full responsibility for your actions and welcomes accountability. When you repent, you'll stop your sinful behavior without downplaying or dismissing it. You drop your defensive attitude and don’t resent the doubts of others about your sincerity. And you’ll make restitution where necessary. 

There cannot be genuine reconciliation without genuine repentance. But letting time pass without genuine repentance makes reconciliation more difficult. Which is why Jesus insisted on dealing with it right away:

Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 
–Matthew 5:23-24

​“You have heard that it was said to those of old…but I say to you…”  

Jesus says this six times in Matthew 5 as He references specific commandments from the Ten Commandments. He isn’t contradicting these commandments, but speaking to those seeking to establish their righteousness by the commandments. 

Jesus spoke to people who had only heard of these commandments from the religious professionals—those who monopolized on their teaching of the scriptures instead of translating the scriptures so the common, but illiterate people, could understand the scriptures for themselves. He’s helping people see that these commandments go deeper than they may have heard.

By using the law they depended on to earn their righteousness before God, Jesus is helping His listeners understand that they are sinners in need of a Savior. Not just any savior—a Savior wanting to forgive their sins AND give them His righteousness. 

This is what Jesus calls us to as well—that in believing Him and receiving Him and His righteousness, we can become sons and daughters of God, adopted with full rights and privileges forevermore!

​The scribes and the Pharisees thought they were righteous because they followed and endeavored to fulfill the law. But righteousness can’t be acquired by following and fulfilling the law unless you follow and fulfill all of the law perfectly. Jesus is the only person who will ever live a life of perfect righteousness.

The Bible says that we all fall short of following or fulfilling all of the laws all of the time. But right after that, it says that “all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (see Romans 3:21-26). In 2 Corinthians 5:21 it says, “God made [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” This verse helps us to understand what Jesus was talking about when He said our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. 

The entirety of the Bible is about God loving the world that He gave His one and only Son to live a perfect life to fulfill the law and the prophets and then to be the sinless substitutionary sacrifice for those who repent from sin and turn towards Him to receive from Him His righteousness. 

​In Acts 8, we read that Philip preached Jesus to an Ethiopian official. Does that mean that Philip stood behind a wooden box and raised the volume of his voice? No—but it does mean that he opened his mouth and, from the Word of God, talked to this man about Jesus.

Erase in your mind the cultural definition of a preacher because all that this word means is someone willing to open their mouth and talk to someone about Jesus.

When God sends a person by the power of the Holy Spirit to preach Jesus, you never know when or where that will happen—but God does! That’s the best part! He knows who He has been prompting and preparing—and then He sends YOU. And before you know it, you are speaking and telling others about Jesus. And just like that, another life is eternally altered and can be sent by God to preach Jesus to someone else.

​Before refrigeration, salt was the primary means of preservation. The use of salt stalled the process of deterioration or decomposition. This use of salt allowed society to grow and expand as it provided a way to transport food on long journeys. Salt was considered valuable because it was powerful.

Just as powerful is light. Light drives out darkness. You can go into a dark room and beat the darkness with a baseball bat—but despite all that effort, the darkness will remain. But if you simply turn on a light switch, strike a match, or light a lamp, the darkness is eliminated. 

When you live out the Beatitudes, you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. You live in such a way that the watching world takes notice as you influence the people around you for the glory of God.

​Ministry can only be a work of the Holy Spirit and not of the human will. If it were up to the human will, we would be in a constant state of victim mentality. If ministry depended upon our skills, abilities, or strength, happiness would evaporate the moment persecution comes along. 

And yet, Jesus told us that these things would happen. He said that persecution is part and parcel of ministry—and He said that we can be really happy when they inevitably do occur.

So when we are persecuted for righteousness sake, we are not victims. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37). We can face persecution and be blessed through it. We can survive it with the help of the Holy Spirit—for ministry can only be a work of the Holy Spirit.

​The heart of God is that all men and women would turn from their sins and find peace in Him. When this becomes our heart, we find ourselves as sons and daughters about our Father’s business, wanting to be found faithful to the task He has given us—testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. 

We have the ministry of reconciliation from God, who has committed to us this message of reconciliation: God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

This is the message we bring as ambassadors to as many as possible—that they might hear the good news and receive the gift of grace found in Christ Jesus, experiencing peace with God and the very peace of God. 

​The Lord is our shepherd. He cares for us. He guides us. He provides for us. He serves us. He restores us. He protects us. And because He, as the Good Shepherd, laid down His life for us, we also have eternal life awaiting us!

When you are tempted to wander from His care, wonder how good our Good Shepherd truly is! Each of us has two lists at any given time—one list is of the things that we don’t have, and the other is a list of the things we do have. Unfortunately, our enemy is a master of tempting us to focus and to obsess on things we don’t have so we fall for his trap and ignore what we do have. 

But if we take a moment to honestly and thoroughly work through those lists, we will quickly find out that the list of what we have far exceeds the list of the things we don’t. David put it this way in Psalm 23: “My cup runs over.” Our cup is not half empty. It isn’t even half full. It’s more than full—it runs over! Why? Because goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of this life and we will dwell in the house of the Lord with Him forever!

Is the Lord your shepherd? Can you make these claims about Him in your life? Maybe you’ve wandered from His care. Return to Him—He is looking for you! Cry out to the Good Shepherd—confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead. The Bible says that if you do this, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). Ask God for forgiveness. Believe that Jesus died for your sins and that God raised Him to life. Trust Him as your Savior and follow Him as the Lord and Shepherd of your life.

​There is no separate class of believers who are in “ministry.” We are all in ministry if we continue to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Him. And if we continue to be His followers, He will continue to purify us—then we will continue to see God at work in us. 

Consider this about all we have studied so far in the Sermon on the Mount. When we recognize our spiritual poverty, we get to see God’s power through our weakness. When we mourn over our sins, we get to see His grace. When we lean into meekness, we see Him as He defends us. When we let go of caring about what benefits or advances us and hunger for what’s right, we see God at work in us. When we find ourselves being genuinely kind to the unthankful and the evil without even a hint of the desire to defend ourselves without any bitterness, Jesus is purifying us and we get to see God at work in us and through us. 

As we continue to follow Him and as He continues to purify us, we get to see God! “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)

If we want to thrive and not just survive in ministry, we must understand what being merciful to those who mistreat us is and what it is not.

Being merciful is relinquishing your right to retaliation or revenge.

Being merciful is not being silent when sin is sin.

Being merciful is being kind when communicating the correction of that sin.

Being merciful is not being a doormat and enabling that sin.

Being merciful is being kind to the unthankful and the evil.

Being merciful is not being manipulated by the unthankful and the evil.

Being merciful is the active portion of being meek (not being touchy or retaliatory).

Being merciful is not being touchy or retaliatory but actively being kind to your enemies—especially to enemies as the result of doing the right thing in ministry. 

“But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.“ –Luke 6:35-36

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.”
– Matthew 5:6

As we follow Jesus, our metric for making decisions changes. It changes from self-focused to selflessness. We no longer consider whether something benefits us personally or whether or not something advances our agenda, but rather simply whether or not it is the right thing to do.

We hunger and thirst for this—whether or not a decision is right. We no longer take into account whether or not a decision personally benefits or harms us—because sometimes doing the right thing will cost us. Our whole metric for making decisions has radically changed!

For a disciple of Jesus who continues to count the cost of discipleship, this isn’t a work of the human will. It is a work of the Holy Spirit. Only by the Spirit’s power can we have the attitudes Jesus defines in the Sermon on the Mount.

​What does it mean to be meek, and why is it important? First, meek does not mean weak. To be meek means to be gentle and patient, not given to anger or resentment—critical qualities to have in ministry.

Meekness is the God-given ability to patiently endure without being touchy or retaliatory, relying on God rather than ourselves against injustices. We are hard-wired in our flesh to be touchy and retaliatory. But when we look to Jesus, we never see Him take personal offense or become bitter with resentment. He was meek—gentle, patient, and secure. This attitude is necessary if we are to survive and thrive in ministry. 

Are you meek? It doesn’t come naturally—it is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of the human will. You can ask the Lord for meekness—He wants to give good things to those who ask Him. Come to Him regularly and ask Him to change and transform you by the Holy Spirit.