Being different is usually uncomfortable. We usually try to avoid getting ourselves into uncomfortable situations, right? We don’t want to go against the flow or stand out from what culture tells us to do because it usually means doing some hard and uncomfortable things.
But that is exactly what God wants us to do. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us exactly how we, as Christians, should live and it’s pretty different than what’s going on around us. This week, Pastor Ken continued his series “The Greatest Sermon Ever,” by talking about three of the contrasts in the Sermon on the Mount: oaths, revenge, and loving your enemies. For each of these topics, there is a way the world goes about them and a way God has called us as Christians to go about them. For example, Matthew 5:43-48 talks about loving your neighbor. However, Jesus goes on to say we must love our enemies. We can’t only love the people who love us. That’s easy--everybody does that. We must stand out by loving and praying for the people that give us a hard time. It’s hard and uncomfortable. But that is living like Jesus and that will set us apart.
God has sent us to be different from the world. Take some time to think about that this week. Are you different from the world? Or do you need to change your way of living to match how Jesus has called us?
Not of This World
Part 6
October 18, 2020 • Pastor Ken Cline
Do Unto Others
November 15, 2020 • Pastor Ken Cline
Pastor Ken's sermon last Sunday, "Do Unto Others", struck a chord with me. The first half of Matthew chapter 7, which continues the Sermon on the Mount, focuses on our relationships with each other and the world. And in this chapter is one of the most misused verses in the Bible: "Judge not, that you be not judged..." God is not calling us to not judge and discern—we do need to be able to discern what is good and holy—but to be careful as the rest of the verse cautions, because we will be judged with the judgement that we pronounce. It has been aptly observed that by this point in the Sermon on the Mount, no one listening to Jesus's words seriously would feel like judging anyone else, anyway. With so much chaos, sin, and vitriol in the country today in the wake of the election and divisive rhetoric surrounding other crucial issues, it's easy to get sucked into going beyond judging what is good and holy and starting to judge people, to the neglect of observing my own interior life. There is enough work for me to remove the planks in my eye, that I am at no risk of becoming bored enough to need to find specks in my brothers' and sisters' eyes. So let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
Giving Builds Faith
November 8, 2020 • Pastor Ken Cline
Pastor Ken’s sermon this week was on the spiritual tool of giving, given to us for the purpose of maturing us into spiritual adults. That’s right, the invitation to give is itself a gift. It keeps us grateful, keeps us humble, stretches our faith, and keeps our focus on what counts: God’s great generosity towards us in Jesus and beyond. Scripture says “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” I think you can turn that around and say “Where you want your heart to be, there place your treasure.” Have you ever noticed how the things you value are the things which cost you, not those that are free? Can you agree the you’re more likely to finish an online course you paid for over one that was free? Or that you’re more likely to take away value from the retreat you paid for over the one that cost you nothing? Your heart follows your treasure. Generosity is not only an overflow of a grateful heart, but is itself a tool to keep us treasuring what is truly valuable. Where you want your heart to be, there place your treasure.