Fish Or Cut Bait

Teachings of Jesus: Sermon on the Mount, Part II

Read Matthew 6:5 - 7:29
Pastor Sim Fulcher
While visiting our daughter in Michigan this past summer, I noticed she was reading a new
book. It was not just another book on leadership. It was a study examining leadership books. I
was stunned to discover there are currently in circulation over 6,000 books on leadership with
more being added every week. This author said after reading 50 of them he felt as though he
had reviewed the same book 50 times under different titles.

“Leadership” is a hot word today. Maybe our obsession with the word is symptomatic of a
leadership vacuum in our society, our world, and perhaps even in our religious institutions.
When I was in college I remember Time Magazine over a ten-week period featuring the ten
top pulpits in America. This would NEVER happen today! Our president’s voice is seldom taken
seriously, much less the voice of our Christian leaders. Scandals, crime, immorality, greed, you
name it, have toppled our leaders to the point where over 6,000 people are trying to help fix
whatever it is that’s broken.

Leadership was a hot word in Jesus’ day, too. Then, like now, leaders garnered little respect,
and for the same reasons. Corruption had spread to include religious leaders; thus they were
not taken seriously. When the teachers of the law, the Bible teachers of that day, spoke, it must
have sounded like worn out rhetoric. People were looking for leadership.

Along comes Jesus. “The crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who
had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” (7:28, 29) The people had followed Jesus
out on to the mountain that surrounded the Sea of Galilee. These people (of whom Jesus said
later were “as sheep without a shepherd”) were looking for a leader - a leader who spoke truth
and lived it. Jesus was the real deal and they knew it. His words were so on target, so powerful,
so true, so inspiring and motivating, that they hit home to us today as powerfully as they hit
home to the first ‘hearers’. In these two chapters alone, Jesus (in rapid fire manner) delivers
over eight stern teachings. I’ve couched eight of them in the “fish or cut bait” manner in which
Jesus seemed to deliver them:

~Either pray or try to look spiritual. You can’t do both. (6:6, 7, 16)
~Forgive others or be unforgiven yourself. Your choice. (6:14, 15)
~Love God or love money. You can’t do both. (6:24)
~Trust God fully or worry. You can’t do both. (6:25-34)
~Work on improving yourself or plan to be worked on. Your choice. (7:1, 2)
~Ask for God’s help and receive it. Don’t ask, don’t receive. Your choice. (7:7-9)
~Take the high road to life, or the low road to destruction. Can’t do both. (7:13, 14)
~Build a life by God’s building code or plan for disaster. Guaranteed. (7:24-29)
 DAY 57

P R AY E R
Lord Jesus, You seem sterner at some times than at others. Thank You for Your tough love.
I acknowledge You as my true Leader. Give me what it takes to follow You and may I heed
Your instructions for my life. I know it’s for my sake You have given them. In Your name I
pray, Amen.

QUESTIONS
Of the eight paraphrased and condensed teachings of Jesus above, what are you strongest in?
What are you weakest in?

In what tangible way can you work to improve your weakest?

MY REFLECTIONS
Does any particular verse (SCRIPTURE) in today’s reading speak to you?

OBSERVE what this verse is saying to you?

How can you APPLY this verse to your life today?

My PRAYER for today is: