Join us as one of our national partners shares their story of partnering with Awaken City and how that encourages and challenges us as individuals and as a church.

Those who would be disciples of Jesus must understand the cost to follow Jesus. Trusting Jesus for salvation is not simply a thought, feeling, or action, it is directing our entire lives toward the reality that Jesus is Lord over our lives. Because of that, we will have to pay the cost of comfort, family commitments, and safety. Those who want an easy, predictable, comfortable life should not follow Jesus, because following Jesus leads to storms. Also, Jesus will be with those who follow Him. He will not lead us somewhere He will leave us.

Pastor Derek continued sharing the vision of where God is taking us into the future. Specifically, he taught on how the Bible teaches us to view our money. Money doesn’t truly give us satisfaction or security that it promises us. Jesus is after our hearts, not our money and stuff. We find our treasure by looking at where we spend our time and money. That’s what we treasure and that’s what we truly trust. Giving happens through the local church not to the local church.

Following Jesus was never meant to stop with us. In this message, we explore the call to make disciples and the real cost that comes with it—our comfort, time, and lives. Yet when viewed through eternity, we discover that the cost of not making disciples is far greater. As we take initiative, invest in others, and love people deeply, God works through ordinary obedience to accomplish “above & beyond” anything we could ask or imagine.

Jesus closes out the Sermon on the Mount with the challenge that in everything, especially with money to surrender to Jesus' commands and obey them. Jesus alone satisfies, and when we build our lives on Him we realize that truth. The foundation on which we build our lives matters. When our lives are built on the foundation of His Word, it is solid, unshakable, no matter what comes against it.

As Jesus wraps up the Sermon on the Mount, He proposes that there are only two options to respond to His teachings. People must choose the Narrow gate or the Wide gate. The Narrow Gate is difficult and few will choose it, while the wide gate is easy and many people will travel that way. To travel the narrow gate is to trust that we need Jesus' righteousness and our righteousness is not enough. We trust Him and do what He says. On that road, there are obstacles. The False prophets desire to set us on the easy road through the wide gate that leads to destruction. There is also the risk of being a fake believer, such that people can do impressive religious things for Jesus yet not even know Him because they don't trust Him and do what He says.

All through the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus established the standard for those in His Kingdom as higher than the culture around them. He revealed that the hearts of disciples must be right, not merely their external actions. With this section, Jesus confronts judgments people make toward one another. He does not prohibit disciples from judging others, only He directs them to look at their own hearts first. When they do confront people about wrongs done, they should assess if that person is ready to hear the truth. Jesus teaches the principle that Christians should judge only when they have done the necessary reflection on their own sin and before God.

Jesus addresses the question, 'who or what is worthy of our trust?' The Resurrection answers that Jesus is the only lasting treasure worthy of our trust. Everything else will fade away and come to ruin. Possessions, money, people will all fail us, but because Christ rose from the dead, He proved that He will not fail us when we base our lives on Him.