Every day pray that everyone you know will either become a Christian or influence others to become a Christian, and please share this online book with others - www.areyousureyouaresaved.com
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=JEENmENsLrw
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 23
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW
Matthew 23:13-23
13But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. (They rejected Jesus as the Savior of the world and taught others false doctrine about how to recieve salvation.) 14Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
15Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. (Like the Pharisees, people (intentialy or unintentialy) go to great lengths to teach false doctrine. When people believe and follow their teachings, they go to hell when they die.)
16Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! 17Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? 18And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. 19Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? 20Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. 21And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. 22And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
23Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (The scribes and Pharisees were careful to obey small rituals, but they ignored the more important parts of the law—judgment (There is equal standing of God's children.), mercy (helping those in need and also displaying forgivness and not trying to punish others who did wrong to you and trying to make their lives miserable), and faith (This can have different meanings: 1. When you pray, you believe that God will answer your prayers. 2. When you are going through trials, you don't give up living the Christian lifestyle, and you believe that God is in control of the situations and something for your benefit will be the results. 3. People should “depend” on you. For example, people should depend on you to come to church regularly, help those in need, pray for others regularly, and do things for the Lord regularly.). 24Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. (This is referring to them straining their water so they won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, which according to the law was unclean, but figuratively they swallowed a camel. This was another way to say that being very cautious about following every detail of ceremonial cleanliness "on the outside" didn't matter, because their hearts "on the inside" were corrupt. Mark 7:14-23 explain this further -
14And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: 15There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. 16If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
17And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. 18And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; 19Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? 20And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth (makes someone sinful) the man. 21For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries (having sexual relations with someone other than their spouse), fornications (having sex before marriage), murders, 22Thefts, covetousness (wanting something that someone else has), wickedness (evil actions), deceit (misleading someone to get them to believe what is false or get them not to believe what is true), lasciviousness (having strong desires to sin and aren’t ashamed of it), an evil eye (being jealous of others and wanting something that someone else has) , blasphemy (making fun of and disrespecting God in your mind or out loud), pride (thinking that you are excellent in many ways. For example, you may think that your mind, body, possessions, accomplishments, job, country, and church are much better than others), foolishness (not making right and careful choices): 23All these evil things come from within, and defile the man (makes someone sinful).
If you have asked Jesus into your heart, believed that Jesus is your Savior, or trusted Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into heaven, etc., but you have not been living the way this message has described, please follow chapter 10 of this book - www.areyousureyouaresaved.com
If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you are not sure you are really a Christian (Hebrews 11:6, Matthew 21:18-22, 1 John 5:14, and Hebrews 11:1), please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven
If you have not prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, please follow chapter 41 of this book - www.areyousureyouaresaved.com