🎙️ Sermon by Pradeep Kutty on Sunday, 11th October 2026 Matthew 6:19-24 👑 The Kingdom Within Reach “Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand” — the King’s rule, power, and wisdom are now within reach. The question Jesus poses: if the King is near, how should life look?Translating the Lord’s Prayer locally: “Your Kingdom come, your will be done” in our homes, conversations, finances, decisions, and hearts — not just one day in heaven.⛪ Church Isn’t the Kingdom Referenced an author (Leith Anderson, paraphrased): the New Testament is surprisingly silent on buildings, pulpits, sermon length, music style — those who seek to be New Testament churches should live its principles, not reproduce surface details.The church doesn’t represent itself as the Kingdom — it announces and displays God’s kingly rule, with Jesus as King.💛 Loving God “With All Your Very Much” The Hebrew ahava (love) originally meant loyalty, not affection — in ancient treaties, a king “loving” another king meant pledging loyalty, not warm feelings.“With all your strength” (Hebrew me’od, “very much”) meant loving God with all your increase — your resources, money, land, possessions.💰 Treasures (Matt 6:19-21) “Don’t store up treasures” — Greek thesaurizo (→ “thesaurus”): don’t treasure your treasures. Where your treasure is, your heart follows — not the other way around; what we invest in shapes our hearts.Addressed the guilt many working Christians feel about their 8-hour workday — the workplace is God’s space too; our work is part of worship.🎭 Masters (Matt 6:24) Mammon’s root means “to trust” or “rely on” — Jesus isn’t just talking about money but anything we trust as a rival god.Cited a brain-imaging study (Martin Lindstrom) showing strong brands triggered the same neural activity as religious imagery — illustrating how status symbols can function as rival gods without us realizing it.Challenged the instinct to define ourselves by what we do rather than who we are — proposing we ask each other “who are you?” instead of “what do you do?”A personal, vulnerable note: refusing the label “church leader,” insisting he and his wife are fellow followers, inviting the church to hold them accountable and ask to step down if they’re not leading toward Jesus.👁️ The Eye (Matt 6:22-23) Eyes recur throughout the Sermon on the Mount (pure in heart, lustful looks, doing deeds to be seen, the speck in the eye) — a deliberate thread.Greek haplous (“single/good eye”) connects to singleness, wholehearted devotion, and the words tamim/teleios (“perfect,” “wholesome”) used elsewhere in the sermon.A “good eye” means generosity; an “evil eye” means stinginess — traced back to Genesis: God’s generous eye in creation (ch. 1-2) versus the loss of generosity after the fall (ch. 3), culminating in the first murder.Giving (not “tithing,” a term absent from the NT) is a discipline acknowledging God owns our money — if we’re not generous, Jesus implies we don’t truly see Him as generous.💎 Matthew 19 — The Rich Young Man Jesus lists the Ten Commandments to the rich man but deliberately omits “do not covet” — then adds a new instruction Jesus himself supplies: “if you wish to be perfect” (teleios, same word as Matthew 5:48), sell everything and follow.The more possessions we cling to, the further from wholeness — not because wealth is evil, but because of what it reveals about trust and identity.Kingdom living means receiving material things as gifts, holding them as temporary trusts, not deriving identity from them, and using them generously.🙏 Closing Thought A practice shared: “Sit in your sin and let God love you” — not permission to keep sinning without guilt, but bringing sin before God with total vulnerability, no excuses, and letting His love shape who we’re becoming.Closing challenge to the whole community, especially men: how can I have a “good eye” and bring God’s Kingdom here, now, in Birmingham?
