The Good Life
A People in Search of a King: A Bible Study on Joshua, Judges, and Samuel
Talk 1: You Lack One Thing
Welcome to our brand-new Feast series, The Good Life.
We start a 10-week adventure into the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest talk ever told, preached by the greatest Preacher of all time.
The key message of Talk 1: You lack one thing.
Talk 2: Salt and Light
This is the second installment of The Good Life, our exciting teaching series on The Sermon on the Mount.
Found in Matthew 5-7, the Sermon consists of 111 verses, with 2,500+ words in the original Greek manuscripts. The core of the Sermon we pray daily: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, May your kingdom come, May your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10 NIV)
The Our Father is the password that unlocks the entire Sermon. Jesus is bringing His Kingdom down here into our broken world.
The key message of Talk 2 is: You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world.
Talk 3: Lord, Help me Forgive
Welcome back to our Feast Talk Series on the Sermon on the Mount called The Good Life. In the Sermon, Jesus presents six laws from the Law of Moses and then offers His radical interpretation of it.
The six laws He picked on are: (1) Murder; (2) Adultery; (3) Divorce; (4) Oaths; (5) Eye for an Eye; and (6) Love Your Neighbors.
We’ll be covering these six in the next three talks.
Jesus’ take on these six laws was so revolutionary, and must have been surprising to His Jewish audience, who thought holiness was just about behavior. By picking the six laws, Jesus was telling His disciples that in this new Kingdom, the law wasn’t enough. God doesn’t want behavior modification but inner transformation.
Talk 3 of The Good Life series centers on the message: Forgive those who do not deserve to be forgiven.
Talk 4: Lust Kills
We continue our Feast Talk Series, The Good Life, which centers on the Sermon on the Mount. In the Sermon, Jesus presents six laws from the Law of Moses: (1) Murder; (2) Adultery; (3) Divorce; (4) Oaths; (5) Eye for an Eye; and (6) Love Your Neighbors.
In Talk 3, we learned Jesus’ radical interpretation of the Law on Murder. Talk 4 tackles the Lord’s radical interpretation of the Law on Adultery. It’s an uncomfortable topic but Jesus talked about it because since during, or even before His time, and to this day, Adultery has been a hidden worldwide pandemic.
According to Jesus, the virus behind the Adultery Pandemic is lust.
Jesus is asking us to fight sin, and when we do, it will involve a lot of sacrifice–but it’s worth it.
Lust says: “This is your body which I’m taking for my pleasure…”
But the selfless love of Jesus says: “This is my body, this is my blood…”
Why did He suffer for you?
His answer is the key message of Talk 4: “You’re worth it.”
Talk 5: Pursue Peace
We continue our Feast Talk Series, The Good Life, which centers on the Sermon on the Mount. Part of the Sermon is Jesus presenting six laws from the Law of Moses: Murder, Adultery, Divorce, Oaths, Eye for an Eye; and Love Your Neighbors.
In Talk 4, we learned Jesus’ radical interpretation of the Law on Adultery. Today, in Talk 5, we’ll learn that to Jesus, the Good Life is about having peace in your relationships. The only way to create real peace in this world is when we treat every human being—including our enemies—as God-Containers.
The key– disturbing– message of Talk 5 is: Love your enemies.
Talk 6: Habits of Love
We continue our Feast Talk Series, The Good Life, which centers on the Sermon on the Mount. As part of the Sermon, Jesus presents six laws from the Law of Moses: Murder, Adultery, Divorce, Oaths, Eye for an Eye, and Love Your Neighbors. Jesus pointed out the spirit of each Law.
Last Feast Sunday (August 24, 2025), in Talk 5, we learned that to Jesus, the Good Life is about having peace in our relationships.
Today, in Talk 6, we learn that He’s not yet finished emphasizing the spirit over the letter of the Law. Talk 6 focuses on what really matters: not how people regard us, but how, in God’s eyes, we truly are.
The key message of Talk 6 is: The Father sees you.
Talk 7: The Prayer of The Revolution
Welcome back to The Good Life, our teaching series on the Sermon on the Mount.
The Sermon on the Mount has 3 main sections. The center of this multi-layered structure is The Lord’s Prayer–which follows the two greatest commandments—Love God and Love your neighbor.
This is the prayer of a revolution.
When we pray The Lord’s Prayer, we’re dethroning ourselves as king of our lives, and we’re enthroning Jesus as our new King.
Our God-mission is not to go to Heaven but to bring Heaven down to Earth. To expand the boundaries of His Kingdom in this world. Christianity isn’t the Great Escape–but the Great Expansion.
Talk 7 explores The Lord’s Prayer line by line, and we’ll see how revolutionary this prayer is.
The key message of Talk 7 is: Expand God’s Territory.