Blessed Are The Persecuted

When you pray, is it difficult, or are you excitedly expectant? Jesus said, "Don't be like the pharisees." As we continue our School of Jesus series, a verse by verse look at the Sermon on the Mount, Pastor Mike Patz opens Matthew 6:1-7. There is a key to being rewarded in your prayer life. Meet with God in the secret place! God has not left us as orphans, and He longs for us to be attached to Him. This happens in the place of prayer. When we use prayer for religion, we always come up empty. When we use prayer for relationship, it always leaves us full. Our desire is to be a body of people that wake up believing we are meeting with the God of the universe, because we are!

We welcome Pastor Joel Romelus to the pulpit, for a continuation of the School of Jesus series. In the Sermon on the Mount, we see a different realm of God's kingdom. In Matthew 5:43-48, the sobering words of Jesus challenge us to "love our enemies!" It's like a final exam; will you make a passing grade? God's plan is for love to be a bridge bringing peace, justice, and connection to our world. Loving our enemies means choosing to reject the us vs. them mentality. Embrace others the way Jesus has accepted you. Choose the way of love! 

Has someone ever really done you wrong? The Old Testament taught "... an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." In our School of Jesus series, we continue our verse by verse look at the Sermon on the Mount, with Matthew 5:38-42. These verses are an expansion on "blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy" from the Beatitudes. When we're offended and angry we will often make the wrong choice in responding to others. If the devil can stir up our rage, he's got us! Pastor Mike Patz admits that many times we may want to pass out the death sentence judgment for low-level crimes. But revenge is not justice. It is not the way of Jesus if it does not include the mercy of Jesus. Let's live a surprising life filled with mercy!

Everything sounds good until you hear the rest of the story. We have become very comfortable with lying. In the School of Jesus series, as we go word by word through the Sermon on the Mount, Pastor Mike Patz unpacks the words of Jesus found in Matthew 5:33-37. According to Jesus, deception is from the evil one. You were made in the image of God, and you will only thrive when you're moving in the nature of God. He is truth, goodness, kindness, and we must live like Him. Tell the truth, and the truth shall keep you free!

This message is sobering as we go word by word through the Sermon on the Mount. Pastor Mike Patz continues our School of Jesus series by looking at the words of Jesus found in Matthew 5:31-32, the issue of divorce and remarriage. Our world is filled with people who have been impacted by the brokenness of relationships. Marriage is hard! The statistics are stacked against couples staying together in holy matrimony. Jesus has authority over marriage, because Jesus is the Author of marriage. The question is, "does Jesus have authority over you?" When He says things that are hard to live with, can you accept them? So many of us want a lord we can control but not a Lord we must submit to.

What is lust and what did Jesus say about it? Pastor Mike Patz continues in the 'School of Jesus' sermon series by diving deep into Matthew 5:27-30 and makes the distinction between love and lust. Culture's ideas of sexuality and marriage contradict the teachings of Jesus.

We live in a society of outrage, so easily set off. Our society is polarized and very divided. Yet we are family! Greenhouse welcomes Pastor Malik Murray to the pulpit as we continue the School of Jesus series.  He challenges us with the words of Jesus found in Matthew 5:21-26. At this point in His ministry, Jesus has a huge following, and goes up on the mountain and begins to speak to the people. Jesus is doing exegesis on the Old Testament command "you shall not commit murder" saying, "you don't talk to your brother and sister like that!" He ups the anty! Christianity is not a bare minimum faith. Anger can be a slippery slope, and if you stay long in that place of anger it can disintegrate us. When we embrace our identity in God's family, anger loses its grip and reconciliation takes root.

There is a Pharisee inside each one of us! Pastor Mike Patz continues our School of Jesus series by challenging us with the words of Jesus found in Matthew 5:17-20. We regularly misunderstand His words of condemnation towards the pharisee. They are not necessarily the evil, wicked, and bad people we see in our minds. In the days of Jesus, the Pharisee was trained to know the law. Yet they missed the mark because their method was to just try harder to live up to the laws of God, cleaning up the outside and ignoring the filth on the inside. The deeper work that Jesus brought was to clean up the inside and then allow the transformation to move to the outside. The law can restrain the heart, but it will never transform the heart. Jesus is not creating new laws, He's creating new people!

The Sermon on the Mount will change your life if you will dig in! People may ask, "God, what are You going to do about the decay all around us?" We are God's answer to the Law of Entropy upon the world we live in. Pastor Mike Patz continues our School of Jesus series by shining the spotlight on Matthew 5:13-16. The answer is true disciples! Disciples are called to be the preserving entity on the people we encounter. We are called to shine brightly in a dark place. It only takes a little bit of salt to make a really big difference. It only takes the right kind of light to make a great difference. Jesus calls us to be the salt and light, for this is who we are!

In the School of Jesus series we are learning kingdom of heaven principles from the King. It is an upside-down kingdom that is counter-cultural to worldly kingdoms. In this sermon, Pastor Matt Ulrich unpacks the hard truth found in The Beatitudes in Matthew 5:10-12. This promise from Jesus is clear, but not often preached in Christian circles today: Persecution. We believe the good life equates to comfort, but persecution is one of the classes. Is it true persecution, for righteousness' sake? Sometimes your life is going up in flames, but its just your fault. When we live our lives for Christ, we will be slandered and ignored. True happiness is promised for those who are persecuted for the sake of the Kingdom of God.