Opening Prayer - Heavenly Father 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 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=05hhZ0oFEIk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxbju9ymtuQ
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 5:38-42
38Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 39But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. 41And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 42Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away (Giving money to and allowing your enemy to borrow things from you could actually make your enemy feel ashamed and cause them to stop hating you. This is taught in Proverbs 25:21,22 which says, "If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee." This doesn't mean, however, that your enemy can demand that you give them a bunch of money or demand that you let them drive your car so they can damage it.).
The purpose of Matthew 5:38-42 is to show that Christians shouldn't retaliate and seek revenge on anybody. These verses do not mean that you should let your enemies hit you, molest you, force you to become their slave, rob you, or vandelize your possessions without going to the police for help because those things are against the law. Also, your enemy could demand that you give them all of your money, your house, and your clothes so you will be naked (Public nuditity is against the law.), but clearly there would be no logical reason for you to do those things. For example, if Jesus was preaching to the multitudes, and one of His enemies ran up to Him and demanded that He stop preaching and start walking one mile because he or she said so, Jesus obvioulsy would not have obeyed His enemy's orders. Jesus gave extreme exampes like these to make the point that no matter how horrible your enemies treat you, you should not turn around and treat them in a negative way.
They could verbally abuse and say horrible things about you to others, but that would be a perfect oppertunity for you to please God by obeying the Bible and try to immitate the Lord Jesus Christ (your hero and the One who died so you can live in Heaven for eternity) by being happy and thankful to God when your enemy or anyone else is rude and mistreats you (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). The devil wants you to get angry and think bad thoughts about the people who are rude to you, but that would be an oppertunity to defeat him and glorify God. Also, you will know that you are truly saved if you live that way (Matthew 5:45). So, these are major reasons to be glad when others mistreat you and you face trials (James 1:2-4). To summarize, when someone is rude to you, try to not be rude to them. Then, be secretly happy and thank God for the oppertunity to rejoyce (prove that you are a follower of Jesus) instead of being angry and thinking bad thoughts about the person who was rude to you (prove that you just sinned). After you have followed this example, it will be easy to ask God to bless the people who were rude to you (Matthew 5:44).
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 living this way, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure
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