Awake!

For the month of June, we have a Special Mini-Series titled Awake!          

Talk 1, titled Reject Sin, tackles 4 practical ways how to reject the evil  that is sin. 

We cannot fight sin alone. We need the Presence of the Holy Spirit within us to strengthen us in resisting temptations to sin. 

The good news is God has been in the business of waking people up to His Presence. 

He wants us to know that He is present, ready to help us, in every situation we find ourselves in. 

All we have to do is look up to Him for help in our effort to reject sin.            

The talk’s powerful message is: Turn to Jesus. 

We are now in Talk 4 of our Feast Talk series, Depths of Mercy – about how Jonah tries to disobey God, but God mercifully gives Jonah a second chance to change his ways. 

Jonah is fueled by impure motives, relating to God with passive-aggressive obedience. 

But aren’t we all complex? This is why Jonah is so real and relatable.

          But the Book of Jonah not just spotlights the flawed character of Jonah but the mind-blowing character of God as well.

          This is the focus of Talk 4, titled Preaching vs. Repentant People.

 The key message: God can turn your bad into good.

We are now in Talk 3 of our Feast series 

Depths of Mercy.

Titled In the Belly of the Beast, Talk 3 centres on the key message: There are blessings at the bottom.

People have known this a long time ago. 

In the 14th century, Italian poet Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine Comedy, and in his masterpiece, he said, “The path to paradise begins in hell.”

      Meaning? Sometimes, a person needs to hit rock bottom before he can even start climbing out of his pit.He needs to be brought to a place where he has no alternatives. Once there, he realizes his pride vanishes, his stubbornness evaporates, his deafness is healed, and for the first time in a long while, he starts listening.

This is Talk 2 of the Feast Talk series for May titled Depths of Mercy — a five-week journey and study of the life of this Old Testament character by the name of Jonah. Jonah who ran away from God’s calling. 

Talk 2, titled Sleeping on Stormy Seas is special. It has two big messages:

  First, See Him in the storm.

  Second, God loves them more than you do.

LAST Sunday, March 20, 2022, we started a new Feast Talk series, CITIZEN: How To Build a Nation.

Talk 1, titled God Likes Politics, presented God as being very active in

nation-building. 

He is concerned about the welfare of the world—because He cares for you.

Today, Talk 2 is titled We Have Dual Citizenship.

The key message: God Made You Filipino for a Purpose.

(If you’re Indonesian or American or Singaporean or Indian, or other

nationality, please change “Filipino” to your own nationality.)

TODAY, we start our new series, CITIZEN: How To Build a Nation.

Politics during Lent? In this Talk series, we are looking at political issues from lens of faith.

Our key passage today is perfect for Lent. Because during Lent, we fast. 

But today, instead of us just avoiding sweets, God is inviting us to a deeper kind of fast.

The key message: “God is The Restorer.”

We’re in the climax in the Book of Matthew.

        We tackle Talk 6 of our Feast series Fulfilled, titled Condemned, as it is about the time when Pilate sentences Jesus to death.

        Talk 6 presents those four responsible for the execution of Jesus and how they deal with their guilt— 

four ways we may also be dealing with our own guilt.  

        The key message: Get up.

For the past two years, we’ve been unpacking the Gospel of Matthew.

After the long-running Feast Talk series The Clash, we now have a new Feast Talk Series titled Fulfilled, based on Matthew 26— about the steps that yes, fulfilled, Jesus’ mission toward the Cross.

         Talk 1, titled Anointed, was about the first step, how Jesus started His

way to Calvary.

         Talk 2 of Fulfilled, titled Betrayed, was about how we arrive at the

start of the climax of His journey: The last meal of Jesus with His disciples

before He dies.

         Talk 3, titled Denied, was about how Peter the Apostle sadly fails to

acknowledge that he is part of Jesus’ team-- and Jesus’ response to this

painful denial.

         Talk 4, titled Crushed, continues the pain—getting more severe—as

Jesus shows He is Man yes, crushed during His Agony in the Garden. So, we can relate with Him, understand Him better, and thus we will be able to do what He wants us to do.

         The key message: “Want what God wants.”

We’re in our new Feast Talk Series titled Fulfilled. Based on Matthew 26, the series is about the steps that yes, fulfilled Jesus’s mission toward the Cross. Talk 1, titled Anointed, was about the first step-- 

how Jesus started His way to Calvary.

Next, we discussed Talk 2 of Fulfilled, titled Betrayed—

we arrive at the start of the climax: 

The last meal of Jesus with His disciples before He dies.

Today, we tackle Talk 3, titled Denied—how Peter the Apostle sadly fails to acknowledge that he is part of Jesus’ team. What’s Jesus’ response to this painful denial? The key message: God still trusts you.

For the past two years, we’ve been unpacking the Gospel of Matthew.

After the long-running Feast Talk series The Clash, last Sunday, January 16,

2022, today, we started a new Feast Talk Series titled Fulfilled, based on

Matthew 26— about the steps that yes, fulfilled, Jesus’ mission toward the

Cross.

Talk 1, titled Anointed— was, yes, about the first step, how Jesus started His way to Calvary.

Today, in Talk 2 of Fulfilled, titled Betrayed—we arrive at the start of the climax: The last meal of Jesus with His disciples before He dies.

The key message: God wants you to eat and drink His love.

We are still on the study of the Gospel according to Matthew. After the long-running Feast Talk series The Clash, today, we start a new Feast Talk

Series titled Fulfilled, based on Matthew 26— about the steps that yes, fulfilled, Jesus’ mission toward the Cross.

Talk 1 is titled Anointed— yes, the first step, how Jesus started His way to Calvary.

For two weeks, we’ll give Matthew a Christmas vacation. We’ll resume studying his Gospel on January 9, 2022. 

       Today, we’re going to unpack a beautiful passage from Luke.

      Here’s the Christmas message we want to preach to you today: 

Receive The Gift.

Coming on the heels of the Feast Conference, the Special Talk expounds on the Conference theme, Joyful, Joyful.

The Special Talk is titled Be a Bringer because the key message is that to

have real joy, you must obey two mandates:

1. Bring your life to Jesus:

Bring your life to Him. Bring your sins to Him. Bring your pain to Him.

Bring your burdens to Him… Be a Bringer.

2. Bring His Love to others:

Receive His love. Receive His joy. And don’t just receive a portion of it. But

allow Him to fill you up to the brim-- so that His joy will spill over and you can bring it to the people around you. Be a bringer.

Today, we tackle Talk 10, titled Tearing Down vs. Coming Down.

      The talk is about the End Times or the end of the world.

      There are clashing interpretations about the End Times:

      Instead of debating over the End Times, we should focus on loving Jesus and what He wants us to do during our lifetime.

      The key message of Talk 10: Stick to your assignment until the end.

Talk 8, titled Master vs. Servant, is about the clash between the

religious leaders’ idea the Messiah as a powerful person who would free

them from slavery under the Romans then conquering Israel, and Jesus, the real Messiah, the One who carried the Cross.

The key message of Talk 8: God feels your pain, but His plans are bigger than your problems.

Talk 7, titled Love vs. Love, is about the clash between the two major

commandments of God: Love God and Love Others. 

Some Love God but neglect Loving their fellowmen— even their own family. 

Look at the people around you. Look at their face. 

Listen to their heartbeat. God is there in your loved ones.

And so, the key message of Talk 7 is God is waiting for you there.

We continue our Feast series titled The Clash.

The key message: Give to God what belongs to God.

We continue our Feast series titled The Clash. The word is familiar with the millennials who followed the hit television series, Clash of the Titans. 

Our talk is about clashes-- the aggravating events that led to the crucifixion.

           Talk 4, titled Invited vs. Chosen, is about the clash—the difference

being invited and being chosen by the Lord to be with Him and receive His

abundant blessings. 

Talk 4 is based on the parable of The Wedding Feast (John 3:16 NKJV) where guests ignore the invitation of the Groom to be guests in the wedding banquet. 

           The Groom symbolizes Jesus, while The Feast symbolizes His Church.

The key message: Come to The Feast!

We continue with our study of Matthew.

Today, we discuss Talk 2 of our Feast series for September.

The key message is: “God’s mercy is bigger than all your mistakes.”

The Talk gives hope that your future is brighter than your past.

WELCOME BACK to our deep dive in Matthew’s Gospel.

For Talk 1, today, we enter a new section we’ll call “The Clash” because it’s about the aggravating events that led to the crucifixion. 

And which is why the Talk today is called Prophet vs. Provocateur. 

Because Jesus provoked. A lot.

Why not do it gently? 

Because God didn’t want to repair— He wanted to restart.

Friend, are you frustrated because you’ve been trying to fix this thing and that thing in your life?

Good news: The key message of Talk 1 is God doesn’t just want to repair, He wants to restart your life.  He wants to give you a total replacement. A total overhaul. A brand new you.

And that is what God is offering to those who are humble enough to run to Him.

Today, you’ll hear a very simple yet powerful message, “Love people before things.” 

Here’s a Warning: When we love things more than people, we destroy relationships, families, companies, churches, ministries, friendships. 

We destroy ourselves.

Think about it. Our worst problems—corruption, war, crime, drugs—all come from this one decision of loving things more than people.

I’m not against money. For crying out loud, I’m a financial teacher.

You cannot put food on the table or live under a roof or send your kids to school without money. 

You cannot build an orphanage or send out missionaries or broadcast God’s messages through media without money.

But you must follow this one rule of loving people over things.

T.D. Jakes preached about how unforgiveness is like choking.

When you have bitterness, resentment, or in Tagalog, sama ng loob, it’s a blockage in your spiritual windpipe. 

God’s supply of love, joy, peace, and power cannot flow into your life. 

Unless you remove the obstacle, your spirit will ultimately die.

That is why our one big message is “Spit it out”. In this talk, we explore 4 very important reasons we should spit out unforgiveness from our life. 

If we don’t, we die.

Our big message today is, “Love is tough.” 

Love must be tough. If it’s all gentleness, it’s not real love. 

If love is not tough, it’s not real love but selfish emotional attachment. Here’s what you’ll learn in today’s powerful talk: Love means being tough enough to correct the people you love. And when correction fails after many attempts, your love must be tough enough to surrender him to God’s mercy. To respect your boundaries. To accept the fact that you’re not the Messiah. To accept the fact that God is assigning another person to bless him, not you.

Our big message today is, “God wants you to grow up”.

Many Christians are still spiritual babies, acting life selfish brats, throwing a tantrum when God doesn’t deliver their expectations on schedule.

Spiritual babies still need to be weaned from idolatry. They basically want to control God, so when they can’t do that, they craft their own gods.

Bottomline, they don’t trust God.

Welcome back to our exciting adventure through Matthew’s Gospel.

We focus on the main question, “Who do you follow?”

For most of us, the choice is not “A. The Devil” and “B. Jesus”.

After all, we’re religious people.

For most of us, the choice is “A. Our Version of Jesus” or “B. Jesus”.

WE continue our beautiful study of Matthew.

Talk 5 is titled Unleavened Bread and False Teachings because it focuses on the controversy about unleavened bread and how it was used to give false teachings about God. Because of their pride, the Sadducees and Pharisees were so blind, they could not see the True Bread was just in front of them.

Pride will prevent us from seeing God. The key message of Talk 5 is God is healing your blindness.

FOR the first time in a very long while, the Coronavirus Disease (COVID) has given us time to stop from our very busy schedules in the outside world. 

And yet...some would say that the stress levels are still high. Anxiety is higher than it was when the whole world was still open.

       What's the problem? Time. The key message of this talk is: Make Time.

OUR Big Day talk is about The Power of Hope.  

     Every living thing in this world has been given the instinct to survive. 

From the largest species to the smallest organism, every living thing wants to live.

Think about it: A year after our battle against the Coronavirus Disease, COVID 19 is STILL plaguing the world. 

    But no other species on this Planet has the greatest will to survive than the human being. 

Human beings have existed and persisted since the Creation of Man.

We are survivors. Why? Because we have hope.

    The simple message of our Big Day talk is: Get Your Hopes Up.

WELCOME back to our happy excavation of Matthew.

Today, we discuss Talk 2 of our new Feast series, Side A, Side B.

Talk 2 is titled Sinking Feet and Desperate Cries because it is about Jesus walking on water (Matthew 14:22-33 NLT).

The key message of Talk 2 is God will rescue you.

No matter what happens, He will be there for you.

We continue our amazing “Matthew Expedition” which we started last December 2019.

Today, we start a new Feast Talk series titled Side A Side B— these are terms used to refer to two sides of cassettes--most of the talks are about twos—two stories, two kingdoms, two kings, two parties...  

One of Matthew’s messages is that “Jesus is the New Moses”. To press on this point, Matthew did something ingenious: He divided the teachings of Jesus into five chunks to parallel the five teachings of Moses (which are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). 

The key message of Talk 1 is Come and eat.

WELCOME back to our OG Tales. OG means Original—as in the original

stories as told by the original storyteller: Jesus who preached through parables. 

Today, we spotlight Talk 4: Story of Mustard Seed and Yeast.

There are two stories, both of them have one message: God likes small. 

He likes big too.  He’s a big God.  And He built a big universe. 

But our problem is we tend to over-like big.  And we downplay small. 

Which is a big mistake.

We go back to the original stories as told by the original storyteller: Jesus

who preached through parables. 

        Talk 3 is about the parable of the Treasure and the Pearl.

        The key message” “I found something more valuable.”

We’ve been mining the Gospel of Matthew for one year and two months now. 

And to think that we’re still in the 13th chapter-- 15  more beautiful chapters to go. 

We call our series OG Tales because we’re going back to the original tales of Jesus—the parables.  

The key message of Talk 2 is Let God handle it.

We continue our deep dive into the Gospel according to Matthew, with a brand new Feast Talk series--borrowing its title from popular animated series of Bible stories for kids titled Veggie Tales.  

But our new series is titled OG Tales—OG for Original.  

We’ll go back to the original stories as told by the original storyteller: Jesus who preached through parables. Talk 1 is about The Story of The Sower. 

The parable describes the way a farmer plants—he scatters seeds on the ground, and some seeds fall into the hard path, rocky ground, and thorny bush. 

Just like God gives His Love to various persons whatever their situation is. The Talk’s key message:  God will meet you where you are.

In this section, Matthew continues to describe the way people were responding to Jesus, and many of them were negative.  

Talk 5 is titled A Demand That Reveals because in our Bible story today, the Pharisees “demand” that Jesus produce a miracle, revealing the emptiness of the soul apart from God. The key message of Talk 5 is “God is inside you.”

Talk 4 is titled A Lord That Saves because here, we learn Jesus had a ministry of compassion, while the religious leaders of that time had a ministry of condemnation--stemming from their pride and insecurity.  The key message of  Talk 4 is “God loves broken people.” 

The January 2021 Feast talk series brings us back to our study of the Gospel of Matthew.  Matthew describes the different ways people respond to Jesus:  1) Some are positive, believing in Him and saying, “You’re the Messiah!”; 2) Some are negative,rejecting Him and saying, “You’re the king of demons!”: 3) Others are neutral, still asking, and doubting.

Last week, we talked about those with a Neutral response-- like the doubting John the Baptist.  

Talk 2 is titled  A Road That Gives Rest because there are burdens on the path we take in following Jesus.  We experience rest not when we take matters into our hands, but when we take matters into God’s hands. 

The key message of  Talk 2 is “Your burden fits you well.” In Tagalog, “Bagay sa iyo ang burden mo.”

The January 2021 Feast talk series brings us back to our study of the Gospel of Matthew.

We discuss Chapters 11-13 where Matthew describes the different ways people respond to Jesus:  

1) Some are positive, believing in Him and saying, “You’re the Messiah!”; 

2) Some are negative, rejecting Him and saying, “You’re the king of demons!”: 

3) Others are neutral, still asking, and doubting.

One is John the Baptist.

 This is the last talk of our amazing series, Ascend.

We “climbed” three mountains so far: Eden, Ararat, and Moriah.

And today, we explore Mt. Sinai.

Talk 4 is titled The Mountain of God because Mt. Sinai is the Mountain of God.

In the other mountains, God met one guy or a bunch of guys. But in Sinai, God met an entire nation. How wild is that?

The key message of Talk 4 is“God will meet you where you are.” 

Welcome to our third installment of our series, Ascend.

Last week, we talked about Noah’s Ark.  

Talk 3 is titled Towers and Thistles because of two familiar stories—

1) The Tower of Babel 

2) Abraham offering Isaac on top of Mt. Moriah, and God providing a Ram caught in the thistles.

The key message of Talk 3 is “God will show up.”

Talk 2 of our Feast series, Ascend, is about Noah’s Ark.

Noah’s Ark is not just a cute children’s bedtime story. 

It’s a profound theological story of why God allows evil to run its course — so that we can restart our life. 

It’s also a powerful story of how God still sees good in us that’s worth rescuing.

The talk is titled Rain and Rescue because during our rainy days — our bad days— God comes to the rescue, to save us.

WELCOME to a brand-new series, Ascend.

This entire series is all about mountains.   There will be four talks, and each talk explores one of these four mountains: Eden, Ararat, Moriah, and Sinai.  

Why talk about these mountains?  Because powerful “God Encounters” happened there.  

And through this series, encounter God in a very life-changing miraculous way.

Talk 1, titled Provision and Promise, discusses what happened in the first mountain: Eden—how God provided for Adam and Eve the Tree of Life which gives everything they—and the rest of mankind—will ever need. 

Plus, God’s Promise on how we can have access to this Provision. The key message: You have access.

WELCOME to Talk 8, Make Me See, of our Feast talk series, Miracles and More,  based on the Gospel according to Matthew— which we started in December 2019. Talk 8 looks at two miracle stories: Jesus made the blind see and the mute speak.   Here’s a hint:  Many times, physical ailment is a symbol of a spiritual condition.  For example, when are we unable to see God?  When are we unable to speak His Word?  The same Jesus who healed 2,000 years ago is the same Jesus who is still healing today.

WELCOME to Talk 6, Make Me New.

We started with Matthew 1 last December 2019, and today, 10 months later, we’re in Matthew 9.  

We have 19 more chapters to go. 

In between the nine miracle stories after the Sermon of the Mount, Matthew inserts two “Follow Me” stories.  

Because the purpose of the miracles is to follow the Miracle Worker.

God wants to change this world, and He’s forming a Team. And Jesus wants you in His team.

You may feel unworthy, ungifted, and unqualified. But He’s picking you anyway.

Jesus sees something beautiful in you. And He’s inviting you to be part of His Team.

WELCOME to Talk 4, Make Me Calm.

We’re in this exciting part in Matthew where Jesus is not just describing the Kingdom-- Jesus is doing the Kingdom.  

Through healing, deliverance, and miracles, He is making the Kingdom a reality before the apostles' eyes. 

So it’s clear by then that Jesus is a great Healer. But is He just a healer?  Or is He more than that? 

That’s the big question Matthew is asking.  It’s the question that Jesus is asking us today too. 

          “Who am I to you?”

WELCOME to our series within Matthew titled Miracles and More. We’re now on Talk 3: Make Me Follow. 

Talk 3 defines what it means to hear God’s Call and what it means when we answer that Call.

The talk points out that instead of wanting God to fulfill your dreams, you want to fulfill His dreams.  

Your dreams and God’s dreams become one. 

Instead of praying, “Lord, make my dreams come true,” you pray, “Lord, make your dreams come true through me.”

       The key message is Go all-in.

We’re digging deep through Matthew, mining spiritual treasures, and we’re now in the second miracle story after 18 Talks about the 

Sermon on the Mount. We’re now on Talk 2: Make Me Believe. Talk 2 presents what the statement “I believe” means. Some people think Faith is “mental assent”.  You agree that God exists.  But that’s so limited.  

Because in the Bible, faith is relational.  Faith is trust.  Faith is a covenantal relationship with God.

We just finished 18 Talks on the Sermon on the Mount, Chapters 5 to 7, and we’re now going to study the powerful healing and miracles stories in Chapters 8 to 9. Welcome to our new series in Matthew titled Miracles and More. Our God is still a God of miracles.  The same Jesus who 

performed miracles 2000 years ago is the same Jesus who is working in our life today. Our message today is Talk 1: Make Me Clean.

Talk 18 is special because we’re on the last Talk about the Sermon on

the Mount, part of our Feast series on Best Preaching Ever of our deep dive

into the Gospel of Matthew.

         Talk 18 is titled Avoid These Four Dangers! because at the end of His

Sermon, Jesus unloaded four crucial warnings of real dangers that He

believed can destroy one’s life.  So yes, this is a serious talk with life-and-

death consequences. 

The radical message of Talk 18 is “Choose only Jesus”.

We continue with our deep dive into the Gospel according to Matthew.  Before we dissect our key passage, note that

we’re now almost at the end of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. That’s why this Feast talk series is titled Best Preaching Ever.

We can divide the Sermon on the Mount into three Sections:

Section 1: Who Are Invited to His Kingdom

Section 2: How We Are To Love Others

Section 3: How We Are To Love God

Welcome to Talk 17: Selflessness Is The Best Way To Love Yourself. 

We’re still in our Feast talk series titled Best Preaching Ever, about the

Sermon on the Mount which is about the Beatitudes— blessings which our

Lord Jesus proclaims we will receive when we truly live the Christian life. 

        Talk 15 discusses Chapter 7 of the Gospel according to Matthew which

we are unpacking this year. Talk 15 specifically discusses verses 1-6, about

being judgmental. Jesus says before you worry— or judge— about a speck in

your friend’s eye, you must first get rid get rid of that speck in your eye. If

not, you have an Eye Problem— the title of Talk 15.

We learn about true Christian Living at The Feast. So, the key

message of Talk 15 is God doesn’t only want you to attend The Feast, He

wants you to BE The Feast.

We’re still working our way through Matthew and unpacking the Sermon

on the Mount. 

Talk 14 is about worry, and one of the characteristics of worry is

overthinking.

Crisis or no crisis, worry has always been a huge problem.  But this

pandemic multiplied our worries through the roof.  It’s ironic because the

human body wasn’t designed to handle persistent overthinking over the

long-term.  So many don’t get sick because of the virus. We get sick

because of worry over the virus.

The key message of Talk 14 is Include God in the picture.  The way to

stop overthinking is to always include God’s Love in your thinking.

  Let’s locate where we are: In Matthew, Jesus was talking all about His Kingdom. For six weeks, we saw Jesus deepen our understanding of six specific Mosaic Laws—all of them about how we should relate with each other.

Hey, let’s face it. Life is about relationships. If you want to be happy, you must have happy relationships. 

Today, we continue the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus was still zeroing in on how we should relate with one another. 

Today, we’re going to talk about this giant thing called motives.

Talk 11 is titled Cotton Candy-- taken from an anecdote of a boy, Picky Ricky, who wanted to eat only sweets. You’d see Picky Ricky on his way back from school walking home munching on a huge pink ball of cotton candy. Oh, he loved cotton candy. He could eat it the whole day. 

Despite his rounded cheeks and belly fat, the boy was malnourished. Because we have two physical hungers: Stomach Hunger and Cellular Hunger. The reason the 7-year-old didn’t want to have lunch and dinner is he was already full. He had satisfied his stomach hunger.

Sadly, not his Cellular Hunger. Every cell in his body was craving for real nutrition to grow—proteins, unprocessed carbs, healthy fat, minerals, vitamins, enzymes… Stuff he wasn’t getting. Because of that, his cells were starving.

This exact thing is happening in our soul. We also have two hungers there: Emotional Hunger and Spiritual Hunger. 

  The Gospel of Matthew is all about Jesus inaugurating His Kingdom.  Here’s another way of explaining this: Jesus was raising a New Humanity— New Human Beings that follow King Jesus.

All throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Malachi —which is the last book of the Old Testament— time and time again, story after story, whenever humans take matters into their own hands and define for themselves what is good and bad apart from God, they fail. They crash. 

And that’s what the Bible calls the World. Whenever you read the word World in Scriptures, it doesn’t mean Planet Earth.  It means the entire system that supports that lifestyle of “taking matters into our own hands and defining for ourselves good and bad”—that’s the World.

I the subsection of Matthew called Sermon on the Mount, Jesus juxtaposed World vs. Kingdom using the lens of the Six Laws: The laws against 1) murder; 2) adultery; 3) divorce; 4) oaths; 5) revenge; and 6) hating your enemies.

        In the past weeks, we already talked about the laws against 1) Murder, 2) Adultery, 3) Divorce, 4) Oaths,  and 5) Revenge; In these six areas, the people who belong to the World and the people who belong to His Kingdom live very differently. So far, we’ve covered five of these Laws, and today, we take on Law 6: Love Your Enemies. 

Let’s locate where we are in our teaching series: We’re working on the Gospel of Matthew.  And we are now studying the Sermon on the Mount, which, as our title for this part puts it, is the Best Preaching Ever.

In this Sermon, Jesus peeled away the outer wrapping of six specific laws to expose God’s heart.  The laws against 1) murder; 2) adultery; 3) divorce; 4) oaths; 5) revenge; and 6) hating your enemies.   Note:  All these laws are about human relationships.  More than anything else, God values our relationships.  God values our families.   If there’s a family member beside you, tell that person, “I treasure you more than anything else.”  That’s God’s attitude towards us, and He wants us to take on that same attitude.

In the past weeks, we already talked about the laws against 1) Murder, 2) Adultery, and 3) Divorce.  

Today, we discuss Talk 8, about Oaths, titled Spicy Rotten.

The title stems from an experience of Bo Sanchez when he was invited by a friend to dine in a restaurant that happened to have a bad reputation. The friend warned Bo not to order spicy dishes— because the restaurant uses ingredients about to become stale for their spicy dishes.  Because the spice will cover up any bad flavor. Yes, the dishes are Spicy Rotten.

And that’s what people do—they use vows, oaths, and flowery words to cover up their lies. 

IN the wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic and the subsequent Enhanced Community Quarantine, we continue The Feast Online—the happiest “online space” in the world—because God is here.  And welcome to Talk 7: The Antidote.

Let’s locate where we are in our teaching series: We’re working on the Gospel of Matthew.  And we’re now studying the Sermon on the Mount.  

In this Sermon, Jesus peeled away the outer wrapping of six specific laws to expose God’s heart.  The laws against (1) murder, (2) adultery, (3) divorce, (4) oaths, (5) revenge, and (6) hating your enemies.   Note:  All these laws are about human relationships.  More than anything else, God values our relationships.  God values our families.   If there’s a family member beside you, tell that person, “I treasure you more than anything else.”  That’s God’s attitude towards us, and He wants us to take on that same attitude.

In the past weeks, we already talked about the laws against (1) murder and (2) adultery. 

Talk 7 is about (3) Divorce.  

Divorce means failure of the family. And research shows the failure of the family is the root cause of the failure of a society. 

The key message of Talk 7 is “God loves your family.” 

Talk 5 is titled The Mask Called Anger because it presents anger as a disguise or cover-up for something else-- mainly for fear. 

Talk 5 discusses the negative as well as the positive facets of anger and how one may manage both sides.

The key message of Talk 5 is God’s Love is bigger than your anger.

Talk 4 is titled More Than a Makeover because we need more than a makeover.  We need a heart transplant.  

The key message of the talk is Jesus’ declaration that He came to accomplish the purpose of the Law.

  Talk 2 is titled The Anawim  because the Anawim was the kind of person Jesus was talking about The Beatitudes. 

Last week, we covered the first Beatitude—Blessed are the Poor in Spirit.  We said that in ancient Jewish society, the materially poor were also poor in their religious structures.

The audience in front of Jesus was composed of the sick, the possessed, the epileptic, the paralyzed, the poor. Jesus was connecting that crowd in front of Him to another crowd some 600 years ago. They were called the Anawim.  Anawim in Hebrew means “the poor of the Lord”. 

Talk 1 is titled Upside Down Kingdom because as we will learn about the Beatitudes, the standards in God’s Kingdom— God’s measuring stick— is not the same as the standards or metrics of the world. Yes, God’s Kingdom is upside down.

The key message: Use God’s measuring stick.

Let kindness be the infection that you spread in the world. I hope this message blesses and inspires you :) 

 How do you know when it's time to let go of a project, a task or an endeavor? Allow me to share some reflections on this topic from a powerful parable preached by Jesus. 

 In a world full of noise, knowing God's voice will help you make the right choice. Be blessed with this message. 

 You ever wonder why there's so much waiting in life? Why there are gaps inbetween your prayer and God's answer? Because it's in the waiting where God works on you. May this message bless you today. 

 We all have moments in life where we fail in our spiritual walk, no matter how long we've been following the Lord. It's normal. Don't give up. Keep hoping. Keep praying. Keep believing. And keep moving forward. Let God change you slowly and surely. 

 My first (hopefully of many) vlog entries. I pray it will bless and minister 😁   PS. Sorry if its a bit blurred at the end. Lesson learned: don't shoot outdoors at 6pm.