Opening Prayer - Heavenly Father we thank You for the opportunity to learn about Your Word. We pray that you will help us to understand these verses in Matthew so we can fulfill our purpose in life. May everyone who tunes in this evening receive a blessing and learn from your Word and be able to apply what we have learned in our daily lives. We're eternally thankful for this ministry, and we pray that we can share these websites with others and many people can begin to have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Worship music - Please click the links and sing along if you know the words (You can also click skip ad to go straight to the songs) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhUvFqOY00I&index=9&list=RDqNuQbJst4Lk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnvZL_zW2JI&list=RDqNuQbJst4Lk&index=16
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShVKTFS4CSs&list=RDqNuQbJst4Lk&index=27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5jowLv0mXY
For Wednesday evening services, the Lord has lead me to do a Bible study for practical Bible verses in Matthew. Please come back to these Bible lessons in order to review them and learn them. Whenever we have learned the meaning of Bible verses and think about them throughout each day, we will be in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3). Not only that, but when we are in a situation in our daily lives and are tempted to sin, we can think back to what we have learned from the Bible and say to ourselves, "The Bible says to not do what I am tempted to say, think, do, and/or desire right now, so I am going to refuse to give in to this temptation." This is what Romans 12:2 means, and it says, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." This is also the pattern that Jesus used when the devil tempted Him to sin in Matthew 4:1-11.
Chapter 6
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW
Matthew chapters 5-7 are Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 4:17 means if someone wants to go to Heaven, they need to be willing to repent (change the way they live and think) from this moment on and for the rest of their life. Matthew chapters 5-7 explains how someone needs to be willing to live and think, from this moment on, if they want to repent and go to Heaven. Also, if someone wants to become a Christian, they need to be consciously or unconsciously willing to follow (imitate and obey) Jesus "from that moment on and for the rest of their life". If someone is not willing to live the way Jesus' Sermon on the Mount explains, they are not willing to follow (imitate and obey) Jesus. Therefore, that person is not ready to become a Christian by trusting Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase their sins and let them into Heaven. For more information about being willing to follow Jesus and it's relationship to salvation, please see these websites - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/nocontridiction and http://chriswaug5.wix.com/theanswer
Matthew 6:14,15
14For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
If you are a Christian and someone says or does something sinful to you, and you continue to be angry and disagree with them, God will not forgive you when you sin and ask Him to forgive you. When someone becomes a Christian, God forgets their sins (Psalm 103:12), but when a Christian sins and doesn't ask God to forgive them, God will not answer their prayers until they ask Him to forgive them for those sins and/or sins that they didn't realize they had said, thought, done, desired, or when they didn't say or do what the Holy Spirit urged them to say or do (Psalm 66:18 says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:"). However, this person will still go to Heaven. If you are a Christian and someone says or does something sinful to you, it is good advice to forget about it and act as though it never happened so you won't fall into the trap of not forgiving another person.
(If you have prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven, but you have not forgiven someone who sinned against you, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure)
Matthew 6:16-18
16Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
These verses have the same meaning as Matthew 6:1-4 and Matthew 6:5,6. If someone is giving, praying, or fasting, they should not do it in order to show off. A Christian only gets rewarded for those things if they do them secretly in order to please God.
(If you have prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven, but you have not been giving, praying, or fasting for the right reasons, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure)
Matthew 6:19-21
19Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
If you get a paycheck, you obviously need to buy food, health insurance, pay taxes every year (based on your income), pay water bills etc., and save money for the future (Proverbs 21:20; 13:22; 13:11). Other than those types of things, God wants you to be free to give to Him.
(If you have prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus’ death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven, but you spend more of that money that is left over on things for pleasure and entertainment instead of things for helping others and for the Lord's purposes, your heart belongs to pleasure and entertainment. So, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure If you lose a lot of money and are depressed for a long time, then that isn’t a good sign either.) It is very important to be satisfied and happy with the things you have and not seek to have better and more expensive things, such as a new home, car, TV, cell phone etc. (1Timothy 6:8). When you can say, “The Lord has blessed me with material things for me to enjoy, and there isn’t anything else I need, except to keep paying my bills. Therefore, I am “able and free” to give money to evangelistic organizations, charities, and other things for the Lord’s purposes! And it makes me very happy to know that when I do this, I won’t only help people who are physically suffering and those who are not Christians receive salvation, I will receive treasures in Heaven that are perfect and will never become damaged or need to be replaced (Matthew 6:19-21)!
(If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you are not sure that you are really a Christian (Hebrews 11:6, Matthew 21:18-22, 1 John 5:14, and Hebrews 11:1), you need to be sure - please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven)
(If you have not prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, and you would like to do that right now, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven)