Opening Prayer - Heavenly Father we thank you for this Christmas eve! Jesus is truly the greatest gift this world has ever received! We thank You for the opportunity to praise and worship Your Son. Please bring peace this Christmas and bless each family. We thank You for the oppertunity 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 from the Christmas music 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=sM1YEgtRZ08&list=PLE9A8CB3DEF963A22&index=10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElJ0fiD0lkc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fbgWa5pH3g
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, or do 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 5
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. 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 get saved, 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 5:3-12
3Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (These are people who realize that they are lost and need to be saved.).
4Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted (These are people who are very upset when they sin and see and hear evil around them.).
5Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth (These are people who can avoid sinning when people say and do mean things to them. Instead, they will ask God to bless them and not retaliate. If they still only had their old sinful nature, they would have been rude to the person who was rude to them, but now that they are meek, that doesn't happen as much. You shouldn't worry about retaliating because Job 13:5 says, "O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom." God will take up for you and fight your battles for you.).
6Blessed are they, which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled (These are people who realize that the only true purpose in life is to live like Jesus lived, and they want to spend their lives trying to live like He lived.).
7Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy (These are people who are forgiving and don't try to punish others who did wrong to them and make their lives miserable.).
8Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God (These are people whose only purpose and desire each day is to spend their time doing what God wants them to do—witnessing to or helping others, and when they aren’t doing that, thinking about Him.).
9Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God (These are people who try to help those who are mad at each other solve their differences.).
10Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (These are people who witness to and do things to help others in order to make God look good, and as a result, people do things like try to ruin the good a Christian is trying to do for God, make fun of them, scream at them, try to kill them, and put them in prison.).
11Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you (When someone is persecuted because they genuinely try to live a moral life and try to witness to and do things to help others in order to make God look good, they actually receive evidence that they are really saved.).
(Please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure 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 are not living these ways.)
If you have not prayed or made a decision to get saved, and you would like to get saved right now, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven