Tag: mean

  • To Him Who Has, More Will Be Given

    To Him Who Has, More Will Be Given

    Did you know that there are stories in the Bible that did not really happen? Christianity’s critics accuse Christians of believing stories that are not literal. They accuse the Bible of being false and unreliable because it contains stories that are not literal or historically accurate. Here, a clarification needs to be made about the…

  • Jesus Broke The Rules

    Jesus Broke The Rules

    Jesus is teaching about the kingdom of Heaven. He has opposed legalism. He has invited those who are burdened by legalistic religion or expectations and their inability to keep the Law into His rest. After Matthew mentions Christ’s rest, he records Jesus’s teachings about the Sabbath, or the official day of rest according to Mosaic…

  • Be All Things To All People

    Be All Things To All People

    In 2014, I worked third-shift at a grocery store. Most of my coworkers did not know Jesus. One coworker loved the television show Breaking Bad. If you don’t know Breaking Bad, it is a television show about how a chemistry teacher becomes a meth synthesizer and dealer. I neither had interest in watching the show…

  • Are People Healed Because of Their Faith?

    Are People Healed Because of Their Faith?

    We prize servanthood. We believe that we ought to serve one another. There are a couple ways that the call to serve becomes too much for the person and really becomes sinful. As Jesus sets the example for Christian service in this passage, He makes a perplexing statement indicating that a woman’s faith is the…

  • Is Change Part of God’s Plan?

    Is Change Part of God’s Plan?

    Last year at this time I was at a church preaching. It was my first Sunday preaching at the church that would become my home. The Church at Sunsites really has become a home for Kati, Elijah, and me. This group of people looking for a preacher has become part of our family and has…

  • The Fermentation of the Believer

    The Fermentation of the Believer

    After Jesus calls Matthew and claims, “I did not come to call the righteous but sinners,” Matthew takes the time to explain Christ’s work of sanctification a little more. In the previous passage, we saw that real sanctification follows true conversion. When the Holy Spirit regenerates the heart of the person called by Christ, that…

  • If Salvation is By Grace Alone, Why Are There Requirements?

    If Salvation is By Grace Alone, Why Are There Requirements?

    We are in the middle of this section of miracles in Matthew’s Gospel, and Jesus makes some statements about what it costs to follow Him. Costs? We hear often about free grace and about how nothing is required of us. We teach that salvation is a free gift. We teach that salvation is by grace…

  • Do Women Really Have To Remain Silent? (1 Timothy 2:12)

    Do Women Really Have To Remain Silent? (1 Timothy 2:12)

    Submit your questions using the contact form, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. This question was left over from a Stump the Elders panel at The Church at Sunsites and is not a new one, but it has been recently revived in our own culture and in a few societies around the world. Sadly, many…

  • Jesus Instructed Us To Stay Salty

    Jesus Instructed Us To Stay Salty

    Jesus is sitting on the side of this mountain teaching His disciples in view of many other people. He has introduced this “Sermon on the Mount” by declaring blessing to the oppressed, poor, and downtrodden. In this section, Jesus begins the instructive portion of the sermon. He is explicitly addressing His disciples (v. 1), those…

  • The Beatitudes

    The Beatitudes

    Last week we finished the prelude to Jesus’ preaching ministry and began looking at His public preaching ministry. Today we will begin working through what has become popularly known as Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.” This sermon is probably the most famous and most quoted from sermon in the whole of the Bible. Jesus has…