I believe the Lord is getting ready to remove much of the mixture in the Church. He will deliver His Bride from her conformity to the world system and have for Himself a Church without spot or wrinkle (Eph. 5:27).
I believe we are in a season in which it is imperative that we return to the Lord. We must turn to Him with all of our hearts, in intimacy. We must turn to Him with all our minds, embracing His ways. We must turn to Him with all of our lives and actually live out the values of His kingdom. He wants His Bride to no longer ascribe to a value system that causes her to live in compromise, complacency and opposition to His purposes. He is sounding an alarm to His Church, calling her to return to His standard for her. He is removing the gray areas and bringing His Bride to passionate holiness in love.
At its core, this sermon is an urgent call to the Church to turn from the ways of the world system. It is a call to wholeheartedly return to the Lord and to embrace and live the values of the kingdom of God. This sermon is geared to pierce our hearts with conviction and call us to live a Sermon on the Mount lifestyle.
In order for us to live a Sermon on the Mount lifestyle, we've got to understand about our identity in Christ.
This is our status in Jesus Christ! So we are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26)
If we belong to Christ, then we are Abraham¡¯s seed, and heirs according to the promise.(Gal 4:6)
Because we are his sons and daughters, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ¡°Abba, Father.¡± (Gal 4:6)
So we are no longer a slave, but God¡¯s child; and since we are his child, God has made us also an heir. (Gal 4:7) In other words we are a Kingdom citizen in the Kingdom of God.
By believing in Jesus Christ we are privileged to become a child of God and to become an heir of the Kingdom of God. Therefore we should live an appropriate life as we are heirs of the Kingdom of God in the Jesus Culture.
As an heir of God and the citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, we are supposed to bear the fruit of the Spirit in a totally different culture which is the Jesus culture .
That's why Paul urged us to bear the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:23 as heirs who have received the Kingdom of Heaven. As we are walking with the Lord, we should bear the fruits of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
As we live as an heir of God's Kingdom, these inner fruits of the Spirit will bear fruit in our lives. When we truly understand who we are in Christ Jesus, then we will be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we will be living powerfully as a Kingdom Focused Leader in a totally different culture, which is the Jesus Culture.
In the past we were sinners, but we were transformed from our sinful natures into a new creature by the resurrecting power of the Holy Spirit. We became a citizen of the Kingdom of God.
Then what is a distinctive feature of a Kingdom citizen? We are to live by the principles of the Kingdom of God which are described in Matthew 5 to 7 that is the Sermon on the Mount.
We ought to bear the fruit of love as the heirs of the Kingdom of God.
Let us remember as we close our sermon. We are the heirs who have received the unshakable Kingdom of Heaven. This means that we are to live according to the Will of God. . We are the children of God, so that we should live as the princes and princesses of the King by bearing the fruit of the Spirit.