Some of the most tragic lives are those who know the Word but fail to apply it.

The Shared Human Experience

• Everyone encounters God.
• Everyone builds something.
• Everyone experiences storms.

The Distinctly Different Outcome

• The outcomes of our lives are contingent upon whether we ignore Jesus or not.
• The choice between preservation or devastation is not the amount of information but the degree of application.
• You cannot avoid storms, but you can prepare for them.
• Most of the brokenness in our lives comes from our sin or someone else’s sin.

The Greatest Sermon’s Recap

• Beatitudes: You will not find lasting happiness fighting against Jesus’ direction (Matt. 5:3-12).
• Salt & Light: Your faith ought to be observable by those around you (Matt. 5:13-16).
• Law & Prophets: If Jesus is who He says He is, then we need to be who He has called us to be (Matt. 5:17-20).
• Anger: Unaddressed anger must be confronted in our lives (Matt. 5:21-26).
• Lust: Personal victory over lust requires an intentional fight (Matt. 5:27-30).
• Divorce: Marriage should never be cast aside as some temporary or conditional agreement (Matt. 5:31-32).
• Oaths: Our credibility is determined by the trustworthiness of what we say (Matt. 5:33-37).
• Payback: Don’t give others what they deserve; give them what they need (Matt. 5:38-48).
• Generosity: Don’t seek to be noticed when you have the opportunity to give (Matt. 6:1-4).
• Prayer: Prayer should have more to do with God and others than yourself (Matt. 6:5-13).
• Forgiveness: When others cause emotional pain in your life, forgiveness is the only restorative option (Matt. 6:14-15).
• Fasting: Fast to remind yourself how much you desperately need God (Matt. 6:16-18).
• Worldliness: The danger of decadence is how it numbs us to our need for God and others’ need for us (Matt. 6:19-24).
• Anxiety: Unchallenged anxiety is a symptom of practical atheism (Matt. 6:25-34).
• Judging: Don’t refrain from accountability but abstain from hypocrisy (Matt. 7:1-6).
• Fatherhood: Remember that our Father desires to give His children good things (Matt. 7:7-11).
• Golden Rule: Christians ought to specialize in doing good to others (Matt. 7:12-14).
• Make-Believers: Salvation is not contingent upon what you know about Jesus but what Jesus knows about you (Matt. 7:15-23).
• Obedience: The only homes that can withstand storms are those who built according to Jesus’ direction (Matt. 7:24-27)

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