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=x6_F-NaryUY&index=16&list=RDkIEEz9yaukA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW89et5mKxs&list=RDkIEEz9yaukA&index=25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXx30llZ-rU&list=RDkIEEz9yaukA&index=40
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 10
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW
Matthew 10:32-33
32Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. (There is something wrong with someone who has prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but they will not tell people that they are a Christian.)
If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you refuse to or are ashamed to tell people that you are a Christian, you follow Jesus, or you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, etc., please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure
Matthew 10:34-36
34Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
It is very important that someone counts the cost (realizes what they are getting themselves into) before they pray or make a decision to become a Christian. Second Peter 2:21 says, “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.” So, someone who doesn't count the cost before they make a decision to get saved is actually making a big mistake. When someone makes a decision to get saved and later quits living the Christian life, other people make remarks such as, "I thought he was supposed to be a Christian; he is already back to his old ways." When this happens, many non-believers do not think very highly of God or Christians in general. This could have been avoided if the person who quit living the Christian life had counted the cost and knew that they was not going to change their mind and go back to their old ways (Luke 9:62) before they prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus’ work on the cross to save them.
This is important to understand because Matthew 10:34-36 tells us part of what to expect when we become a Christian and begin to live the Christian life (For instructions on how to live the Christian life, see chapter 39 of this online book - www.areyousureyouaresaved.com). When you live this lifestyle, people will persecute you by doing things such as try to ruin the good you were trying to do for God, make fun of you, talk bad about you, treat you unfairly at your job, scream at you, hit you, try to kill you, and put you in prison, etc. (Matthew 5:3–12). Another important point is that if you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you haven't been persecuted, then you need to follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure because 2 Timothy 3:12 warns, ""Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
In Matthew 10:34-36 Jesus is saying that these kind of things will happen to Christians, but their families could be the ones who will persecute them. If a Christian is being persecuted by their family, they shouldn't let that stop them from following Jesus (For instructions on how to live the Christian life, see chapter 39 of this online book - www.areyousureyouaresaved.com). If they give up living the Christian life and never return to living that lifestyle, they wasn't a Christian in the first place. Matthew 10:22 says, "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." (If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you have quit living the Christian life,
please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure)
(If you have not prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, you must be willing to repent "from this moment on and for the rest of your life" before you pray or make a decision to become a Christian (This concept is explained in these websites - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/theanswer and http://chriswaug5.wix.com/nocontridiction). If you are willing to live this way, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven)
(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)