In the final portion of his sermon, Jesus draws two conclusions to his message of high moral standards. The first is that the things that people do in life are a reflection of the person they are. As he says, "good" people produce "good fruit" and "bad" people produce "bad fruit". The lack of a middle ground, a grey area, is on purpose. Jesus is not interested in making people feel better about themselves if they are falling short of the standard of God's holiness. Remember, Jesus said we must love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, give to those who will not give anything back, be merciful, and do not judge. Such things are far beyond the normal definition of "good", does anyone really think they would be declared a good person when standing before God?
The second conclusion is that anyone who hopes to live a life pleasing to God must do so by building upon a firm foundation. The building metaphor works both ways: those who build upon the solid rock (the teachings of Jesus and the person of Jesus) will not only build a structure with inhabiting, they will also withstand the inevitable storms in life. Conversely, those who try to build with Christ as their foundation will ultimately find that whatever they manage to build falls apart and eventually collapses.
We must product good fruit if we claim to follow Jesus, to simply talk a good game is not good enough; we must be like Christ. The only way we can possibly hope for such moral purity is to place our trust, hope, and faith upon the power that we have been offered through the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth.
To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video
This blog serves as an outreach for Pastor Randy Powell of the First Baptist Church of Franklin, PA. Feel free to ask questions or send me an e-mail at pastorpowell@hotmail.com
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