Well, as we get started for the morning mindset today, I want to ask you what constitutes

righteousness in a person's life. In other words, how can you tell if a person is righteous?

Well, today, as we are here in episode number eight of our kingdom series,

we are going to be answering that question based on some teaching that Jesus gives us in

Matthew chapter 5. So take out your Bibles. We are here for the morning mindset. We are ready

to get our minds aligned with the truth of God's word for this day.

I want to welcome you wherever you're listening from.

We have listeners all over the world in Bangladesh, in Sudan, in Great Britain.

Thank you for listening to the morning mindset.

Okay, before we begin to Matthew 5, verses 17 to 20, I want to invite you to pray with me.

Lord God, it is our privilege to hear you instruct us today.

We ask you to align our hearts with you, enable us to not be hypocrites in the way that we take in the word of God,

but to be doers of the word as much as we are hearers, we ask in Jesus

name, amen. Okay, Matthew 5, 17 to 20 is where I'm about to read from. This is Jesus speaking. He says,

do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot,

will pass away from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches

others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them

and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness

exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will

never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, you notice here all of the times that Jesus refers to

the kingdom, and he's speaking of it in context of the righteousness of the kingdom and the

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