1. GETTING REAL: LIVING AN AUTHENTIC CHRISTIAN LIFE Lessons for living God’s way in a godless world from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7)

2. MOSES – MESSENGER OF GOD God spoke to Moses and gave him His message for His people. The Ten Commandments and the rest of the Law of Moses was about how to live lives pleasing to God and how to have a relationship with God and each other. This message made the people very aware of their sinfulness and their need for the mercy and forgiveness that God offered.

3. JESUS – SAVIOR OF MANKIND Fast forward about fifteen hundred years. Jesus’ life was the fulfillment of the Law of Moses (Matthew 5:17). His birth, his life, his death and his resurrection were all part of the marvelous plan God had put in place before He created the earth. God-in-the- flesh had come to actually show us and teach us in person how to have a relationship with Him and with each other.

4. Very early in his ministry, Jesus taught his disciples the way that God wanted them to “be” in what we now refer to as his “Sermon on the Mount”. In these teachings, he explained to them that living for God wasn’t just about their behavior, but more importantly it was about their hearts – that what they did wasn’t important if their hearts weren’t right, that God sees and measures a person by what is in their heart.

5. Like the Law of Moses, the Sermon on the Mount is a message of deliverance and hope for our sinful condition. It reveals to us how to live genuine Christ-like lives: refreshingly righteous lives, lives that draw us closer to God’s presence, and lives of grace and love for others that attract them to our Savior.

6. As we participate in this study of the Sermon on the Mount, let us do so with a desire to understand God’s will for our lives and with a heart to live what we learn. May God bless us as we do.