 Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. Today, we look at the final words in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
This sermon is vital for a Christian to read because it shows us how to live as Jesus did. He covered everything: blessings, the Law (and how he fulfilled it), murder, adultery, marriage, oath-taking, going the extra mile for someone, loving our enemies, how to pray, praying for our enemies, fasting, money, worry, judging others, taking the narrow path and more. His ideas were, at the time, extraordinary and unique. They still are. Can you imagine any government that, instead of going to war, would sit down and pray for their enemies? What a world we would live in if we all followed Jesus. May His Kingdom come!
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 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. The above verse is one (of many) that prosperity teachers use to enforce the false belief that if we keep asking God for what we want, He'll give it to us because He gives good things to those who ask. Unfortunately, the dollar signs in their eyes make it hard for prosperity teachers to see the truths in this verse. So what was Jesus really saying?
 Read Matthew 7:1-6I think these verses on judging others in Matthew 7:1-6 are probably the hardest for Christians to tackle. Because whether we realize it or not, we always make snap judgments about people in one form or another. I once went into a jewellery store to buy my daughter a fancy present for Christmas. Three things you need to know first before I tell this story:
At the time, I used a walker to get around (I need a wheelchair now). When I stepped into that jewellery store, every person in the store turned to look at me. I mean, really, look at me. They looked me up and down and decided en masse that I was not worthy of their time. They judged me by my looks. They assumed I had no money to spend. I wasn't dressed appropriately for their "fine" establishment, and I certainly didn't fit the part of someone with money to spend. But I did have money to spend, yet no one in the store offered to help me or even said hello. Five sales clerks turned away from me as if I wasn't there. I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. And as Julia said, "They made a big mistake. Big. Huge." I went shopping somewhere else. Clearly, they judged me based on their standards. So these verses today got me wondering. How often do Christians do the same thing? John 7:24 says, "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment." That means we are to have discernment. Discernment enables us to listen to our "Spidey senses" if we meet someone and feel immediately uncomfortable or unsafe. Discernment helps us when listening to a preacher who says something contrary to Scripture. Discernment does not create division or hatred. Discernment is listening to the Holy Spirit and acting accordingly. It is not hateful, spiteful, arrogant or pushy as judging someone can be. But judging is when we try to force our views, expectations or opinions on someone else. Instead of judging by God's standards, we judge by our own standards and preferences, which often leads to disagreements within the church. This is not discernment. This is judging. As I discussed in previous posts, the Pharisees were religious leaders. In his parables and sermons, Jesus liked to use them as examples of how not to behave. They judged people by the law's letter, not the spirit, and so they judged others based on their own behaviour and beliefs. But Jesus said in Matthew 7:2, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Don't judge people at all. Because if you judge people the way the Pharisees do, you will be judged with the same severity." Jesus' intent is seen by his use of the words "speck" and "plank" in Matthew 7:3-4. Judgmental people are arrogant, prideful, foolish and spiteful. They lack discernment. They can't see a person for who they really are. They may, like the Pharisees, "know" the Scriptures inside out, but they don't know how to "live" them. An excellent example is a parable Jesus told of the Pharisee and the tax collector who went to the Temple to pray.  No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24, NKJV). Matthew six is about getting to the heart of our “heart condition.” Jesus called the Pharisees (religious teachers) hypocrites by pointing out all they did to gain God’s favour. They made a point of letting others know when they were doing something charitable (Matthew 6:1-4). They loudly prayed so everyone would know they were pious and devout (Matthew 6:5-7). They let everyone know when they were fasting (Matthew 6:16-18) by dressing in mourning garb and making their appearance look bad. Jesus called out their self-righteousness by saying they did none of this for God but to gain respect and admiration from their fellow man.
 The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! As Jesus continues with his sermon on the mount, we can see how he addresses the issues of his day and brings them all together. Matthew 6 begins by talking about the practices of the hypocrites (Pharisees) in regards to fasting, praying and doing good deeds in public. He notes that they do all these things to be glorified within themselves. They did not do any of these things for God at all.
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