Sunday is always fun day! It is the Lord’s Day! This Sunday is especially fun in that we have a couple of guests who are family at The Rock. Josh Kaufman is joining Paul for worship which is always a treat. And Chris Cannon is preaching. These friends who are family are a great blessing to us at The Rock! Also, this is the first Sunday where the Jr./Sr. High teens are starting their own class!

In the Bible, light is connected to knowledge, truth, revelation, and love. The Old Testament prophesies that an ultimate light will come into the world. The New Testament records Jesus saying, “I am the light of the world.” And then in a stunning proclamation, Jesus says to Christians; “You are the light of the world.” This is a lot to unpack! And we will this Sunday. In the meantime, I pray you would be encouraged by this reality - you are light! I pray it would affirm your great purpose in this world - to be light! And I pray you are built up in Jesus regularly - you are light to others!

The last Beatitudes Jesus preaches in the Sermon on the Mount are Matthew 5:10-12. The end result is to “rejoice and be glad.” This sounds great until we understand that we are to “rejoice and be glad” because; “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” This does not sound like something I might rejoice in! In fact, I have questions. I will answer some of my questions, and probably yours, this Sunday! And after service we have 2 celebrations at the Milewski’s house after church. First, we have a baptism! And second, we will celebrate Lori and my 10th anniversary at The Rock!

The last Beatitudes Jesus preaches in the Sermon on the Mount are Matthew 5:10-12. The end result is to “rejoice and be glad.” This sounds great until we understand that we are to “rejoice and be glad” because; “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” This does not sound like something I might rejoice in! In fact, I have questions. I will answer some of my questions, and probably yours, this Sunday! And after service we have 2 celebrations at the Milewski’s house after church. First, we have a baptism! And second, we will celebrate Lori and my 10th anniversary at The Rock!

At what point in history would the following quote make sense? “Our world is a mess. The violence and hatred have become out of control. We need to fight back against our enemies!” Would it be our world today? Or would it be the world Jesus lived in when He preached the Sermon on the Mount? Either answer would be correct! So Jesus’s words should make sense to both modern and ancient people. But both have struggled with Jesus’s words. And both have benefitted when they have taken Jesus’s words seriously and made them a part of their lives. The specific words are, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

We are continuing in our Sermon on the Mount sermon series this Sunday. I look forward to gathering for worship, communion, fellowship, and after church communion dinner. We will also continue our discussion on Children’s discipleship at The Rock. On August 17th we introduced our new ministry to Jr. High/High School age students. The first step is a separate class for this group led by teams of two people. This Sunday I will continue to ask our adults who have a heart to invest in these kids lives to form teams. Who do YOU want to team up with? Let’s keep talking this Sunday! We have pushed the start up date back - It is TBD when we will start, but it will be in the next few weeks.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Christian life is that one day we “shall see God.” Seeing God is at the pinnacle of all religions. It is a human’s greatest goal. How to do this is the most historically debated religious issue. The Bible, of course, answers this question for us. We will see God if we have been made right with God. And the only way to be made right with God is faith in Jesus. Faith that Jesus has forgiven our sins and faith that Jesus has also lived a righteous life for us. Faith (belief) in Jesus guarantees this exchange of our sin for Jesus’s righteousness. This is how we become “pure in heart.”

Eating healthy is a big deal in the South Bay. We are obsessed with health, fitness and clean eating. This also means we have a good understanding of what junk food does to our bodies. It is a relatively simple formula - eating healthy = being physically healthy (another formula is - eating unhealthy = being physically unhealthy). God knows we understand eating (historically - not just in modern South Bay!). That is why eating metaphors are used throughout the Bible. In The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us to hunger and thirst for righteousness - have a healthy spiritual diet. And if we do, we will be satisfied. This is profound in a world that tries to find satisfaction in life through an unhealthy spiritual diet. And are left unsatisfied.

“Stranger Things” was a mega-hit TV show during the pandemic. It portrayed a group of young kids in a cosmic battle between good and evil. The key to the show was that things were not as they seemed. In fact, there was an “upside-down world” that was unseen. Understanding this “upside-down world” was the key to winning the battle between good and evil. Does this sound familiar? Of course it does! The entire Christian life is a battle between good and evil. Between the forces of darkness and light. This battle is unseen, but by no means not understood. In our sermon series on The Sermon on the Mount this week I will examine another “upside-down world.”

The final words of Paul’s letter to Timothy are a summary of the themes of the entire letter. The first theme is to protect & guard the sound doctrine that God has given the church. The second theme is to avoid the false teachers that are wishing to draw Christians away from that same sound doctrine. Paul’s call to Timothy applies just as much to us today as it did to the Ephesian church in the 1st century. After all, the very last phrase of the book is; “Grace be with you.” The “you” here is in the plural. It is meant for the entire church in Ephesus in the letter. And I believe Paul’s words continue to us today in our modern world.

Fatherhood in the Bible is mostly connected to character. And character is connected to imitating Jesus. So being a good father has everything to do with being a godly man. Godliness is the goal of Christian men. Combining this in contemporary American life is tricky. Christian men are bombarded with stereotypes of men that are in competition with God’s ideal for men. As we gather this Sunday on Father’s Day, I will preach on what Godly masculinity is all about.

As we move into the Summer months, we look forward to some topical sermons. I Timothy is coming to a close and a Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) sermon series begins in July. So let’s gather to hear all God has for us in the next few weeks!

Paul has just given some final instructions to Timothy and the Ephesian church in I Timothy 6:11-16. He even concluded with a soaring prayer & benediction about God. And to top it all off, he said; “Amen.” It seems that the letter has come to a conclusion. But Paul needed to say one more thing! And I imagine that this one more thing was important. Why else would he keep going after he said; “Amen?”