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Summer on the Mount: Peacemakers

Ryan Plantz | Sunday, August 7, 2022

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. – Matthew 5:9. Ryan opens our new Summer on the Mount series with a message on peacemaking in our divisive and polarized times – not peacekilling, or even peacekeeping, but literally doing the hard work of making peace, as believers and as a church body.

Summer on the Mount: Salt and Light

Ryan Plantz | Sunday, August 14, 2022

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“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet." – Matthew 5:13. Pastor Ryan unpacks the rich meaning of this familiar passage: what salt and light tell us about who we are, how Jesus sees us, and our role in the world in which we temporarily reside.

Summer on the Mount: Retaliation

Ryan Plantz | Sunday, August 28, 2022

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“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." – Matthew 5:38–39. This is one of the most challenging teachings Jesus gives us in the Sermon on the Mount. Did the One who flipped tables in the temple really suggest that we should lie down and let others walk all over us? What’s Jesus calling us to do in this passage? Ryan puts this passage in context and shows us how voluntary acts of love can break the vicious cycle of revenge.

Summer on the Mount: Judgment

Ryan Plantz | Sunday, September 4, 2022

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“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye”? – Matthew 7:1-4. Today, Ryan closes our Summer on the Mount series with an honest look at what it takes to reform our naturally judgmental hearts.