Podcast on The Way

Dale Tompkins

Listen to current and past sermons.

  1. 6d ago

    Matthew 6:16-18

    In a culture obsessed with visibility and recognition, Jesus presents a radical alternative: the hidden life of faith. Through His teaching on fasting in Matthew 6:16-18, He addresses a fundamental question that extends far beyond this single spiritual discipline - who is your audience when you practice your faith? Jesus warns against the hypocrisy of disfiguring one's face to be seen by others while fasting. The irony is striking: making oneself unrecognizable in order to be recognized, becoming invisible to appear more visible. This transforms what should be a God-directed discipline into a people-directed performance. The appetite for recognition becomes a form of spiritual gluttony, where we crave acknowledgment for our holy activities rather than genuine connection with God. The real test of our motives comes when our service goes unnoticed, our sacrifices aren't acknowledged, and our spiritual disciplines receive no recognition. If there's an ache inside us during these moments, it reveals who our real audience has been all along. Jesus offers a different path: practice spiritual disciplines in secret, appearing normal while fasting, and directing our righteousness toward the Father who sees everything no one else sees. The reward isn't a transaction but entry into relationship with God Himself. For those serving quietly without fanfare, Jesus promises that the Father sees and will reward the hidden life that builds treasure in heaven where it can never be taken away.

    44 min
  2. May 25

    Matthew 5:5-15

    Many believers struggle with understanding who they're actually addressing when they pray, leading to two fundamental errors that Jesus addresses in Matthew 6. The first mistake involves praying to the wrong audience - like the hypocrites who positioned themselves publicly to impress others with their spiritual performance. What often begins as genuine prayer gradually shifts from pleasing the Father to pleasing people. The second error involves praying to the wrong God - treating prayer like magic words that manipulate a distant, reluctant deity who must be convinced to care through repetitive babbling and lengthy prayers. Jesus corrects both errors with the same revolutionary solution: Our Father. In first-century Jewish culture, addressing God as Father was scandalously informal, yet Jesus extends this privilege to his disciples. These two words transform prayer from religious performance or magical formula into intimate conversation with a loving Father. Prayer isn't about communicating information to an unknowing God, but expressing relationship with One who already knows our needs and desires intimacy with us. The Lord's Prayer provides a deliberate structure that prioritizes God's name, kingdom, and will before presenting our needs. The petition for daily bread teaches dependence rather than security, while the request for forgiveness connects our ability to forgive others with our understanding of God's grace toward us. Those who truly grasp the weight of their own forgiven debt cannot cling to grudges against others. Prayer becomes not a stranger hoping for an audience, but a child talking to a Father who sees us coming before we even know we're coming.

    47 min
  3. May 11

    Matthew 5:38-48

    In a world consumed by endless retaliation and escalating conflicts, Jesus presents a revolutionary approach to breaking destructive cycles. The familiar principle of an eye for an eye, often misunderstood as barbaric, was actually a progressive legal restraint designed for courtrooms to limit punishment and prevent spiraling vengeance. However, by Jesus' time, this judicial principle had been misappropriated for personal vendetta, transforming what should limit public punishment into justification for private retaliation. Jesus' command to not resist the evil person doesn't advocate for passivity or allowing evil to continue unchecked. Instead, it addresses personal retaliation with the principle: don't become evil to fight evil. The posture Jesus calls for is meekness - not weakness, but strength under control. This is a mind so anchored in God that evil cannot provoke retaliation, making the meek person the only truly free individual in any situation. Through four escalating examples - responding to public humiliation, legal disputes, government oppression, and economic demands - Jesus demonstrates how Kingdom citizens break cycles of revenge. The ultimate example is the cross, where Jesus absorbed the ultimate blow without retaliation, praying for his enemies instead. This divine love that returns good for evil becomes the standard for followers of Christ, who are called to identify wrath in their hearts, absorb the next offense without retaliating, and actively return good for evil.

    47 min
  4. Apr 27

    Matthew 5:33-37

    In a culture dominated by contracts, legal disclaimers, and elaborate verification systems, Jesus presents a radically different approach to truth-telling in Matthew 5:33-37. He challenges believers to become people whose simple word carries such integrity that the entire system of oath-taking becomes unnecessary. The elaborate verification systems we rely on today exist because human words fundamentally cannot be trusted, with each layer of documentation serving as a confession of our unreliability. The Pharisees had corrupted God's good foundation regarding oaths by creating an intricate catalog of binding and non-binding formulas. They developed escape routes that allowed people to make solemn-sounding commitments while actually committing to nothing. Jesus systematically dismantled this system by demonstrating that every oath invokes God, whether explicitly or not, since He is sovereign over all creation. There are no compartments of life where God is not present and our words do not matter. Jesus is not establishing new legal codes about oath-taking but calling for character transformation. He wants disciples to become so consistently truthful that their yes means yes and their no means no, without need for additional verification. This impossibly high standard reveals our need for Jesus, who spoke only truth even when facing death. Through His righteousness and the Holy Spirit's work, believers can be transformed into people whose words carry weight, not through perfect performance but through genuine heart change that makes truth-telling a natural overflow of their character.

    33 min

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Listen to current and past sermons.