In this 8-part series, Dr. Michael Youssef helps us discover the complexities and implications of Jesus’ profound Sermon on the Mount message—where Jesus shares the keys to happiness by giving us the Beatitudes and teaching us how to embody or appropriate them in our everyday lives.

Preaching verse by verse, Dr. Youssef demonstrates how Jesus came to fulfill all that God taught His people in the Old Testament—showing us how to be salt and light, how to control our anger, and much more. He truly has given us all that we need to live a blessed life in Him!

don’t ever forget this privilege of being able to choose is deeply rooted in the christian faith. The bible challenges every human being to make a choice. Either choose christ and his redeeming work on the cross or choose to reject him and face the consequences of eternal torment and health, which will you choose coming up next on leading the way through your partnership, leading the way is expanding to meet the growing spiritual needs of our nation and world. This month, generous ministry partners have committed a special June gift challenge where they have pledged to match up to $1.2 million dollar for dollar. Will you join us on the forefront of this crucial ministry by participating in the special june gift challenge contact us to give a generous gift today. Yeah. Don’t ever forget the privilege of being able to choose is deeply rooted in the christian faith. This privilege of choosing is the hallmark of biblical Christianity. In fact, the bible from cover to cover is a book of choice from cover To cover the bible challenges every human being to make a choice either choose christ and his redeeming work on the cross and be eternally saved or choose to reject him, ignore him and face the consequences of eternal torment and health. So turn with me please to Matthew chapter six and you’ll see how jesus makes that question of choice plain and simple, plain and simple Four choices he gives us and as we continue in this series of messages. In fact it will complete it next week appropriating the happiness that is in you Here. Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us four choices. I don’t want you to miss this. Four choices. Four choices. They’re all interdependent on each other. First choice verses 19-21, Matthew six, Jesus gives us a choice between two investment banks. Which one will you use? Secondly in verses 22 and 23 Matthew six, he gives us a choice between blindness and vision. Which will you choose? And then he build up to the 3rd stage verse 24. There is a choice of masters. It’s a choice between two masters. Which one would you choose? Fourthly and finally the culmination in verses 25 to 34 he gives us a choice between two ambitions in life first, he gives us a choice between two investment banks where you invest your money. Hey murat please on this one this is important, jesus is not, not not saying that there is anything wrong with money or making money. In fact, he assumes that you’re gonna be making money because you’re going to be investing it. How else would you invest if you don’t make money. Nothing wrong with possessions. Nothing wrong with saving for the future. Nothing wrong with buying insurance and insurance people are gonna love me. But but I’m saying that for a reason I’m saying this for a reason. In Matthew 25, Jesus commends good business practices In Proverbs 6 6 and eight. It says learn from the aunt that’s not your aunt the ant, the insect that works hard in the summer to save for winter. In 1st Timothy 58 it says anyone who does not take care of his family is worse than an infidel. In the letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle paul makes it clear if you do not work, you should not eat. Oh, isn’t that harsh? Yeah. In this kind of a sentimentality age, we live in here. The truth is truth. There’s nothing wrong with working and making money. The problem with possessions when they begin to possess you, that’s the problem. And that’s what jesus is saying here. The question is which investment venue will you place your money, the investment in the kingdom of God and will help the real needy or are you investing yourself and put it all on the shelf? I believe that our Lord is saying exactly that if you deposit all of your wealth or holding all of your wealth and accumulating for the sake of accumulation. The end is treachery. When you put all your eggs in the earthly basket, it’s not only risky, it’s unsafe. In fact, if you want to ensure what you have here on earth, be generous in investing in the bank of heaven. If you want to continue to be blessed here and now and I’m going to show you from the word of God then make your real investment where you will be spending millions of years, not few decades and jesus said where your treasure is? There is your heart. People always reverse that. You noticed you want to know where your life focuses, look at your finances. If or even by chance you managed to keep your money and save it from loss in the end you’re gonna lose it. Anyway, beloved, I have never seen a u haul truck following a hearse, have you? You leave it behind as we have been seeing throughout the sermon on the mount, Our Lord is speaking to believers, not non believers. He’s speaking to believers because I can tell you this, Non believers can give everything away and still be not saved. I’m telling you because salvation is by grace alone. Through faith alone in christ alone. This has nothing to do with Salvation. This is for the believers who are saved already. First choice, The investment venue, which one the bank of Heaven Or here on Earth. Secondly, he goes immediately from that choice gives us a second choice versus 22 and 23 and the second choice is having a vision for life or going around blinded for life. Look, look with me please with those verses because it really is a choice between light and darkness. That’s really the choice. It really is a choice between spiritual blindness, not physical blinds. Spiritual blindness and spiritual vision for life has nothing to do with your physical eyes with your site. See hoarding all of your blessings or using it all on yourself plunges you into darkness. Hey murat please when you have good eyesight, physical eyesight, it will help you know where you’re going, right you look and you see and you take steps and you know where you’re going physically. If you’re moving this direction or moving this direction or moving in this direction when you have good spiritual eyesight, when you have a spiritual vision, uh it will give you a spiritual perspective. It will give you a spiritual insights, It will give you eternal perspective, it will give you purpose, it will give you joy in your work. It will give you joy in seeing God’s vision for your life. It will give you confidence in christ provision and you don’t have to live in worry and fear and anxiety as he shows us in the next few verses but also the reverse is true. The reverse is true. If your vision is clouded by more and more and hoarding and accumulating for the sake of holding and accumulating if your vision is clouded by worldly values and worldly endeavors Oh you are in a world of hurt. Two investment banks. Two visions. Thirdly two Masters look at verse 24 two Masters see his building up is building up is building up, this is this is not casual stuff, this is real. Our creator God is building up the case. Two masters listen, every one of us. I don’t care who you are. You have a master. Did you know that you have a master? Every one of us don’t get uppity on me. And I don’t know of no monsters. Yes, you do. You can wiggle out of this one. The ultimate choice is between two masters who are behind the scenes. Either jesus or satan. Yes. So am I gonna. I’m the captain of my ship and the master of my destiny. Then Your master itself. Hello! In reality, satan is the hidden master Behind the scenes. This is very important. Any master other than the Lord, jesus christ. You’re going to find satan behind the scene being the puppet master and he has you by the throat. Even if you don’t know it, I can tell you with pride and with joy and proclaim it to the whole world that I have a master. His name is jesus here, and jesus is saying, you cannot have two masters at the same time. He is saying that behind the choice of your investment firm, Behind the choice of vision for life, there is a choice between two masters. God or mammon. Mammon is an old Aramaic word, not hebrew, it’s an Aramaic word means holding material And it all boils down to one choice between the creator or a created being. And you cannot be on both sides of the issue. Some people try that. They get hurt. You cannot walk to the right and to the left, all at the same time, you can work for two employers, but you cannot be the property of two owners. It all boils down to a single ownership. A single vision, singleness of service! In the essence of your choices. All preacher used to say, You cannot serve God and moment, but you can serve God with moment him. Right. God is the kind of master who wants exclusivity when it comes to you. He does not want to share you with the devil. He wants you to himself because he loved you enough to die on the cross for you. He has had once exclusive ownership, exclusive allegiance, exclusive devotion, exclusive attention. God said. I am the Lord. That’s my name and my glory. I give to northern to share loyalty with God. The bible calls that idolatry. Listen, listen to me. There is no contest to me. There is no comparison to me. The choice is very clear. Hands Down. I would choose the one who died for me as Master. Hands down. I would choose the one who loved me. When I reviled him. Hands down, I would choose the one who knew me by name before the foundation of the earth. Hands down. I would choose the one who loved me. When there was nothing in me to be loved. Hands down. I will choose the one who redeemed me, and gave me hope. Hands down. I would choose the loving master who said, come unto me, come unto me, come unto me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. Who would ever choose satan the cruel master who pays with bitterness and goal, who would choose Satan who promises much and pays severe pain. Choose Between two investment institutions between two visions between two masters and all of that is going to lead you. Finally, the consequences of these choices, Going to lead you. 4thly, 2, 2 ambitions in life to ambitions, Our Lord jesus waits until we comprehend the first three, And then he comes up with the 4th 1 and folks, This one is a Biggie. This 4th 1 is the biggest, the most desperately needed in our day. And in any day, for it is only when you comprehend the choice between what is dependable and what is fleeting between blindness and vision between a great master and a slave driver. Only then can you choose to live in victory and joy and contentment, regardless of your circumstances, because you know that he’s taking care of all the details of your life. Now worry and anxiety. Once you made those three choices clear when you choose to place your investment in the bank of Heaven. When you choose a bright vision for your life. When you choose a loving God for your master then, and only then will you be able two not worry about a thing when you choose a loving master, your attitude and your holy ambition is going to follow suit. Why? Because by the time you make the first three choices, you will not be anxious. You will not be fretting. You will not be worried. Because you already rejected the competition. That makes you worry. Makes you anxious. It makes you fearful. You rejected that. You have made the decision to master your mammon and not allow mammon to master you. You have chosen the master who is concerned about every single hair on your head. Why worry about your needs? He is taking care of every bit of your needs more than that. You’re even conscious of, listen to me, all of us, all of us, all of us, all of us live for something. All of us, all of us seek after something. All of us are made to set our hearts and minds on something. All of us are made with ambitions on the inside of us. For life, ambition, by the way, it’s not a dirty word. Ambition is a beautiful word. In fact, ambition is a neutral word, being a neutral word. Therefore, there is Godly ambitions. There’s a worldly ambitions. There is a selfish ambitions. That is self less ambitions. A person’s ambitions is what motivates them for life. This is not prosperity Gospel. Some people perverted this, but jesus is the one who said give and will be given to you. But when it’s given to you, it’s gonna be shaken and peel piled over and it’s run into your bosom. That’s what jesus, he said, when you so generously, you’re gonna reap generously see God is looking for channels, he’s looking for conduit so he can bless you to bless the kingdom of God and the work of God. He’s not looking for reservoirs where the water goes in and stays in. Yes, and I’m privileged to know people and have friends like that. Just so humbling and challenging. For me personally, john Wesley used to say, make all you can give all you can save all you can. And what is jesus doing here is reducing all of life goals into two buckets. Two, Listen, reduce all the gibberish, all the talk, all the stuff into two. If you choose the heavily bank, If you choose an enlightened vision, if you choose God for your master, you do not ever, ever as a ever, ever have to worry everybody else around you is terrified. I see terror in the eyes of people all the time. Why? Because God obligated himself when you do this, He obligated himself just think about this. Some rich man obligates himself to you said, wow! You know, I can go to sleep now I can rest. This is God you’re talking about, right? He’s the richest in all of the universe. He obligated himself to provide for your every need. Can I get an amen? Listen carefully. He is not denying or even despising your physical needs. He’s not he’s not don’t miss don’t miss this. He’s not. He made our bodies. He cares for our bodies. He he makes provision for our needs of physical needs. And he is saying that if you choose well in your first three choices, you will not have to be anxious or worried about your physical needs because he takes care of them and therefore don’t be preoccupied with your physical needs because he promised to take care of them. When you invest in the heavens bank, you can sleep soundly because your investment is protected by mighty angels waiting for you on the other side when you get there and you’re gonna spend all of eternity there. When your vision is enlightened, you will be thinking about where you’re going to be spending all of your eternity, not just a few decades on this life. And when God is your master, you will get he will provide every one of your needs every one of them, right? When you need them. I always say, the Lord is never too early and it’s never too late. In other words, you’ll be at peace now that God owns everything anyway, God controls everything anyway, and God provides everything anyway. Therefore stay cool. Everything comes back to a choice. Let me tell you this. As I conclude, heard a story about a wise old man always had answers at his fingertips. At every challenging question that he was asked one day, a cocky, arrogant young man said, I’m going to put the old Sage to a test. And so he came to him. Is it Sir? Is the bird in my hand alive or dead? If he says it’s dead, he will just open his hands and the bird will fly. If he says alive, he will squeeze his hands and will be dead. So the old sage never looked at his hand, but he looked at his eyes. He looked at his eyes and he said, My son, the bird is whatever you wanted to be. The bird is whatever you want it to be. And so it is with each one of us and our choices. If you want to live a life of worry and anxiety, then spend everything on yourself. Keep blinders on your spiritual eyes for the rest of your life become a servant to the puppet master. These your choices will affect your forever and ever and ever. Mhm. Now you can. My name is Noel Anthony originally from Pakistan, but I’m living in South London. I’m a designer. I was on the tube. I was listening to Dr Yousef and he was talking about self righteousness and in order for the Holy Spirit to remain. You have to get rid of self righteousness. As you were saying those words. It felt like I got shot. it really pierced my heart at that moment. I was really convicted to repent and change my ways. Okay, I’ve made this decision now, what am I gonna do? Jesus is a central figure from beginning to end, he is the beginning and the end and everything in between. He is the only true revelation of God. So event and discipline is very key aspect of Christianity and I believe dr yusuf, he believes in that strongly to disciple with programs that are going up internationally. I’m really encouraged to see the brothers and Yemen and rocket even in Pakistan who are going out in the rural places to proclaim the gospel okay, I’ve got the opportunity here with freedom, you know, to proclaim jesus, I should take advantage of this for me, it’s going out on the streets sharing the gospel, it was just trusting God or he would just lead you in doing things would be difficult but I believe it’s way more important to share with them the truth dr yusef, I mean he’s been a blessed individual who has influenced my life and really start my journey to be born again, walking in the will of God. I know that he’s a he’s a noble man, he’s directed me to christ and that’s what I love about him this month, generous ministry partners have committed to june gift challenge, which means the impact of your contribution will be doubled, I want to encourage you to give generously a one time gift so that we finish our fiscal year. Strong. Thank you and God bless through your partnership. Leading the way is expanding to meet the growing spiritual needs of our nation and world and God is reaching more people through our ministry together than ever before. Over this past year, leading the way experienced a surge of new television viewers, website traffic and live stream viewers, not to mention brand new prayer partners and the creation of online discipleship groups in hard to reach areas. God is blessing and dr Yousef is pressing on to reach more people with the gospel than ever before. We are expanding to new stations, increasing navigator distribution and growing embedded field teams across the U. S and around the globe. Large evangelistic events are on the horizon and you can be a part This month, generous ministry partners have committed a special June gift challenge where they have pledged to match up to $1.2 million dollars given to leading the way, dollar for dollar. You can double the impact of your giving and help leading the way, expand further into new areas for jesus amid this complex and broken world. You can help bring the good news of christ’s love to people in desperate need of the truth. Will you join us on the forefront of this crucial ministry by participating in the special june gift challenge. Contact us to give a generous gift today. Mhm passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth. Leading the way with Dr Michael Yousef thanks you for your faithful support through your continued prayers and gifts.