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=E_bJ_p0xYUs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYaz9yWLEWg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtTk9Kas9Cs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05hhZ0oFEIk
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
(The book that is refered to in this message is www.areyousureyouaresaved.com)
Matthew 10:37-39
37He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (If someone is thinking about becoming a Christian, they need to realize that they will have to love and spend so much more time with Him than their families, and even attention on themselves, as though it seems that they hate their families and themselves in comparison (This doesn’t mean that we can’t watch sports, study the Bible, and enjoy the outdoors, etc. with them, but whenever we feel that the Lord is leading us to tell someone how to become a Christian, for example, we need to leave and do that.) Their life will be all about Him, and there won’t be much room for anything else. If they aren't willing to live this way for the rest of their life (count the cost), they aren't ready to trust Jesus to come into their heart.)
(If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you haven't been living this way, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure)
38And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. (They have to be willing to tell or show people that they stand with Jesus even though they could suffer much verbal abuse and even be put to death for following Him.)
(If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you haven't been living this way, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure)
39He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. (This means that before someone gets saved, they need to consciously or unconsciously “lose” or “give up” every area of their life and be willing to let Jesus take over every area of their life (their thoughts, conversations with people who will listen (Deuteronomy 6:7), what they watch and listen to (explained in chapter 23 of this book), where they go, what they spend their time doing each day, future goals, physical safety (Matthew 10:28), and the way they handle their money (see chapter 19 of this book)). The purpose of life is for people to literally give up their lives and follow Jesus (For instructions on how to begin to follow Jesus, see chapter 39 of this book.). Just think how much better our world would be if more people lived that way. Life would become so less stressful if people would focus on doing that until they die because this is why people are on earth right now. This is definitely something to think about before someone makes his or her decision to become a Christian. God gives people all these years on the earth to test them to see if they will spend more of their time, other than work or school, etc., doing what they want to do or doing what Jesus wants them to do. Hebrews 11:24-26 have the same idea as Matthew 16:25-26 - Just like Moses could have done, we can spend our lives living like kings, or we can spend our lives following Jesus (explained in chapter 39 of this book).
(If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you haven't been living this way, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure)
Matthew 10:40-42
40He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 41He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. 42And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
Christians are Christ's representitives on the earth. Therefore, Christians should honor and accept each other. How they treat each other is how they treat Jesus. This doesn't mean that everyone who claims to represent Jesus is really a Christian. In fact, some people come into church settings in order to trick others into believeing what is false, so they will go to hell. This is why Christians are instructed to rigorously compare these speaker's messages with the Bible (1 Thessalonians 5:20-22). In 1 Corinthians 5:12,13 Paul teaches that church members should remove people from their church who claim to be Christians, but they refuse to stop their evil ways. This definitely includes proven false teachers who are pastors and Sunday school teachers. So, not every so called "representative" should be immediatly trusted.
(If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you haven't been honoring and accepting other Christians, 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 for the rest of your life, 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)