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________ Rich Mullins played a song on his hammer dulcimer entitled “My One Thing.” When too many things occupy our attention, our devotion to Christ becomes compromised. The real, greater, fulfilled righteousness in Christ that Jesus taught about in the Sermon on the Mount should be our single focus. When it is, generosity will mark us, and worry will flee from us. Jesus was one of the most colorful speakers ever. In this latter half of Matthew 6, Jesus employed at least 18 different metaphors or images to drive home his point. He spoke of treasures, moths, vermin, and thieves. He spoke ...

This “Application” column goes with the ________ Last spring my wife, Candy, put a decorative wreath on the front door of our house. A little brown wren decided the wreath would be a good place to build a nest. Some say it’s a sign of good luck when a bird builds a nest on your front door. To me, it meant there was going to be a mess on our porch. It was interesting, though, to watch the mother bird gather sticks, moss, grass, and straw, and weave them into a sturdy round nest tucked expertly into the wreath. Every time we opened our front door it disturbed the bird, but she persevered...

This “Application” column goes with the ________ Remember the part of the Lord’s Prayer that says, “Thine is the kingdom”? It’s tempting to say “mine” instead of “Thine.” Every day I have to choose between the kingdom of God and the chaos of self. Every day I need to ask, Am I in charge, or is God? Often I find myself trying to run my own little kingdom—the “kingdom of Dave.” I know that sounds ridiculous, but it won’t sound any better if you substitute your own name in the phrase. If I don’t guard against it, the kingdom of Dave will dominate my life. When it�...

________ Lesson Aim: Focus on building character, who you are even in private, more than you focus on your reputation, what others think of you. ________ There is a subtle danger of letting your righteousness surpass that of the religious elite (Matthew 5:20) and in striving to be perfect (5:48). The danger is religious hypocrisy, which is the worst kind of hypocrisy. True kingdom people will do their best to live out the real, greater, fulfilled righteousness that Jesus spoke about in the six antitheses (5:21-48). The danger comes when these true kingdom people practice their righteousness j...

________ 1. What new challenge did you face last week? 2. In what specific way did you live by Jesus’ higher standards over the past week? Ask three people—two readers and one reteller—to help. Ask the readers to read Matthew 6:1-18 one after the other, preferably from different Bible versions. Ask the third person to summarize the teaching in one minute or less. (After the reteller finishes, others can fill in any parts the person may have missed.) 3. In what ways are a person’s motives important to how they practice their faith? 4. Let’s dig deeper into this passage:      �...