Hank Smith: 00:04 Hello, my friends. Welcome to another followHIM Favorites. My name is Hank Smith, and I’m here with the amazing John Bytheway.

  00:11 John, you know what it’s like for followHIM Favorites. We take a single question from this week’s lesson. This week we’re in Matthew six and seven, and John, I thought a good question would be, we were talking a lot about the sermon on the mount the last two weeks. Everybody’s, “Wow, sermon on the mount this, sermon on the mount that”, and I might be sitting here going, “I didn’t get anything out of the sermon on the mount.” So, what do you see that could be helpful for someone who just needs a quick version of the sermon on the mount?

John Bytheway: 00:37 I think a great way to think of it is we always talk about Jesus giving a higher law. I like to think of it as an inner law, because the folks in that time and place were very focused on outward, measurable physical law of Moses type things. And Jesus is saying, “Don’t do that to be seen. Do that inwardly, and your Heavenly Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” So it really focuses on what we’re becoming, not just what we’re doing, wouldn’t you say?

Hank Smith: 01:04 Absolutely. I think the Savior is saying, “Focus on your private life.” He talks a lot about not being a hypocrite. Not doing things outwardly without doing them inwardly. Often, we judge other people when we ourselves have problems that we should be dealing with on our own. Then he says, “You got to be a wise man and build your house upon the rock.” All of these tell me that Jesus says, “Get square with me privately and your public life will take care of itself.” You don’t need to serve in public and pray in public. You won’t have a need for that. You might be doing it, but you’ll be doing it for the right reasons. You won’t be doing it to be seen.

  01:40 If I had a major takeaway from sermon on the mount, it’s if you’re thinking to yourself, “How can I be more like Jesus? I’m, I’m pretty nice to people,” well, there’s a lot more to it than that. You need to go read Matthew five, six, and seven and take it slow, one at a time, and really try to understand it. I don’t think you’ll find yourself looking down thinking, “I’m the worst,” but you will be inspired to live better.

John Bytheway: 02:02 I love what you said, Hank. It’s like you get your act together inside, not so much worrying about appearances, but get things together on the inside, and we all need to work on that.

Hank Smith: 02:12 Absolutely.

John Bytheway: 02:12 Well, join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts, and then join us back here for another followHIM Favorites.