Sermons on Matthew 4:18-6:21:

The Heart Of Happiness Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 12, 2021

No one claims to be adequate for the task of even explaining this beatitude. Preachers apologize for their audacity in even presuming to try and preach on this text.

Two soldiers were on a transport going overseas. Standing on the deck they gazed out across the vast expanse of water. One who had never been near the ocean said, "That's the most water I've ever seen in all my life. Did you ever see so much water?" His companion responded, ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:8

Fighters For Peace Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 12, 2021

The peacemaker must take the same risks as the warmaker. It costs Jesus His life to be a peacemaker, and this is the price many have paid to bring peace between God and man, as well as between men.

One of the paradoxes of life is the fact that the peacemaker must be a fighter to be effective. Edwin Markham just before his death in 1940 remarked that his fondest hope had not been realized. He had wanted to write a poem that would dispense the armies of the world. Unfortunately, peace is ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:9

The Burden Of The Cross Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 12, 2021

In this last beatitude Jesus provides His disciples with a defensive weapon to penetrate the fog of persecution. He promises great reward in heaven to those who will press on in the dark, knowing the light is still shining beyond.

Florence Chadwick was the first woman ever to swim the difficult and cold 21 mile stretch of water between Catalina Island and the California coast. She failed on her first attempt because of poor vision. After 15 hours and 55 minutes of numbing cold she asked to be taken out of the water. A ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:10-12

. Happy New Year Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 12, 2021

Jesus knew the importance of being happy, and that is why He begins His greatest sermon with a list of ways to be perfectly happy on earth for those who would follow Him and be citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

Edwin Markham in his poem The Shoes Of Happiness tells the story of a king in Istanbul who was ill. He called his wise men together to find a cure. They studied the situation and announced that only one thing could cure him, and that was for him to wear the shoes of a perfectly happy man. Off ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12

The Power Of Prevention

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 13, 2021

Remember, it is not just what happens, but what does not happen that makes life victorious. God's providential prevention is a part of every life that is truly blessed

A great cholera epidemic sweep through London in the 19th century. John Snow observed that those who pumped water from the Broad Street pump tended to get cholera, but those who took their water from other pumps did not get it. He knew nothing about germs, bacteria, and polluted water, but he ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:13-16

The Luminous Life

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 13, 2021

Jesus has a plan to penetrate this world's night of ignorance with the light of knowledge. The plan is very simple. It is to advertise. Every Christian is to be a living commercial for the Producer of the program of life.

William Sangster, the great British preacher, tells of one of the strangest taxes ever imposed. He asked his father one day why so many of the homes in London had blocked up windows. His father explained that back in 1695 every house that had more the 6 windows was taxed for the extra ones. Many ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:13-16

The Law And The Lord

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 13, 2021

Christ was the event toward which the whole history of the Old Testament moved. Without the Old Testament we cannot know what it was that He fulfilled, and, therefore, the Old Testament is a vital part of the Christian faith.

Misunderstanding is a part of life, and much of the laughter of life is due to it. One little guy surprised his whole family one evening at the supper table by asking which virgin was Jesus' mother? Was it the Mary virgin, or the King James Virgin? He had misunderstood one word and was ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:17-20

The Trivial And The Tremendous

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 13, 2021

As the light of the world, it is the Christians job to help the world see the difference between the truly trivial, and the trivial that can be tremendous.

On April 18, 1906 San Francisco went through the worst catastrophe of California history. An earthquake devastated the city, and a fire broke out that left that once thriving metropolis a heap of smoldering ruins. The cost in lives and property was beyond calculation. Yet, in the midst of all this ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:18-19

Legalism Versus Love

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 13, 2021

We are in a world of great religious competition. We will all tend to follow one of these two strategies: The legalistic or the loving, the rule book power, or relationship power.

We live in a world where competition is a master motive. When the news reach Russia in 1945 that the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Stalin ordered secret scientists to find a way to catch up to the U.S. Andrei Sakharov was only 24 years old then, but his brilliant mind was ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:20

Respect Versus Contempt

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 13, 2021

All that is hateful and unloving is to some degree evil. Jesus says we need to be aware of this, and deal with it in its early stages, and so prevent all the serious consequences of thinking that negative attitudes are alright as long as you don't murder anyone.

Alexander the Great conquered the world, but anger conquered him, and turned him into a murderer. Like so many of the murders of history, it was not intended or designed. It happened because men do not understand that anger is the beginning of murder. Clitus, his best friend, was teasing ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:21-26

Life On Mission - Share

Contributed by J Jeffrey Smead on Mar 13, 2021

It is all about those who call themselves followers of the Christ. "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him who they have not heard? And how shall they hear without someone preaching?" It is all about you.

Let us pray...... Hear God's word: BIBLE "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him who they have not heard? And how shall they hear without someone preaching?" END (Romans 10:14) Beloved this is all about ...you. It is all ...read more

Scripture: John 4:29, Matthew 4:19, Isaiah 53:7-8, Acts 1:8, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Matthew 28:20, Romans 10:14, Acts 8:5-8, Acts 4:12, Acts 8:26-40  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Anglican

The Now Life

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 13, 2021

The Lord's Prayer in chapter 6 is a now prayer. Give us this day our daily bread. All of its petitions are for now. Hallowed be your name-now. Thy kingdom come now. Thy will be done on earth-now.

Marguerite Higgins, Pulitzer Prize winner for international reporting, stood by a marine during the Korean War. It was 42 below zero, and the soldier was weary and covered with frozen mud. She asked him, " If I were God and could grant you anything you wished, what would you most like?" ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:21-26

The Lure And Cure Of Lust

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 13, 2021

It is no wonder the Pharisees wanted Him out of the picture. He just made the majority of the human race murderers by making anger equivalent to murder, and now He makes the majority adulterers by making lust equivalent to adultery.

Show me the man who has never looked at a woman with lust, and I'll show you a man with a white cane who was blind from birth. None but a blind man could get through life and not be captivated by God's crowning work of creation-woman. Anyone with an ounce of artistic appreciation knows ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30

The Cause And Cure Of Divorce

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 13, 2021

Where lust is in power divorce will rise. Where lust is controlled by love divorce will subside. There is a direct connection between lust control and divorce.

Jo Fleming in her book His Affair reveals that almost every sinful emotion and action known to man is kindled by lust that is not controlled. Her husband of 26 years went to the apartment of a woman he worked with to return some books. This was an action he could have avoided, but he chose not ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32

Simplicity Versus Complexity

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 13, 2021

We need to see that the primary problem of the Pharisees was that they were too religious. Some people go bad because of their vices, and others because of their virtues.

Human nature loves to magnify the minute and give significance to the insignificant by the simple method of stretching the truth. An army cook, for example, feed a mob of men with scrambled eggs, and then he sat down and wrote to his girl friend: "Dearest, for two hours shells have been ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:33-37