Applications For Kingdom Living

“Does the Big Mac come from Village Park”?

This morning, elder Andy posed this obvious question to drive home the basic idea that good trees make good fruit and bad trees make bad fruit. We looked at the final part of the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 7:13-29, where we see that the sign of genuine teachers is repentance and good character, and not necessarily the great works.

Jesus said that we must enter the kingdom by the narrow gate because the wide gate leads to destruction. He also taught about how we should be like the wise man who built his house upon the rock instead of the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. Both these teachings are Jesus’ call for his followers to practice true righteousness, not just to hear and disregard them.

As we concluded our series on the Sermon on the Mount, we are reminded again in today’s scripture passage that Jesus emphasises the heart and internal actions over and above the external. May we as a church always choose righteousness over anything else, especially when the choice to do so is the harder one.