Tag Archive | lessons from Matthew

Matthew 23 – Is it all a show?

Apr1

Good afternoon y’all. Welcome to April 🙂 .
Thank God for seeing us through the 1st quarter of 2015; and as we start the 2nd quarter, I pray we will know Him more and see His goodness in our lives, in Jesus’ Name . Amen

Today we are studying Matthew 23.

Holy Spirit we ask you open our eyes to see, our ears to hear and our hearts to perceive the truth in the word today. Without You we can’t understand what we are reading so we ask for your help. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Be blessed 🙂

“Now Jesus turned to address His disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them . They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer”. (Matthew 23:1-3 MSG)

1) As Christians, our lives should match what we preach and teach. We shouldn’t say one thing and do another. Doing that will make us a hypocrite and bad witness for Jesus.

2) We should allow the word of God have its place in our lives. It should fall on the fertile part of our hearts and transform us from the inside out. The religious leaders, in our text today, didn’t allow God’s word to have its effect in their lives. They were too busy with their outward show of righteousness.

3) We shouldn’t follow our leaders blindly rather we should imitate the good that we see in them and not the evil. People think its okay to do wrong because the leader or someone you place in high esteem is doing it. Just because they are, doesn’t make it right. Remember, we are all going to stand (individually) in front of God on judgement day. Saying, ‘… my pastor did it and that’s why I also did it’, just won’t cut it on that day. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:11 said “And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ” That’s how it should be.

“Everything they do is just to show off in front of others. They even make a big show of wearing Scripture verses on their foreheads and arms, and they wear big tassels for everyone to see. They love the best seats at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues. And when they are in the market, they like to have people greet them as their teachers”. (Matthew 23:5-7 CEVUS06)

4) We have to be careful that we are living our lives for God’s glory and not for the praise of men. It’s a very dangerous thing to live for the praise of men. Jesus says in Matthew 6:1, that those who act in that manner have no reward from God.
“Beware of  practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven”. (Matthew 6:1 ESV)

The religious leaders in today’s chapter, were all about the outward show (v 5-6). Their hearts were far from God. Let’s examine ourselves today to make sure we are not living for the praise of men.

5) Are we looking for respect and praise from men? Some religious leaders today get offended if you don’t call them with the right title. “The right most reverend apostle bishop man of God….” what is that???? Jesus is telling us not be concerned with those titles. If we humble ourselves, God himself will exalt us (verse 12).

“Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and He’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ. (Matthew 23:8-10 MSG)

6) Let’s not exalt our leaders above God. They shouldn’t be our standard: God should be our standard. This is why it is crucial we know God for ourselves. Message version says “Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; Let him tell you what to do”. Some people believe it is only when they have spoken to their pastor will they get answers to their problems. Their reliance is no longer on God but on their pastor. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to learn from our pastors but we also need to go back to the Source (God) to confirm what we have been taught is in agreement with Him.

Whose voice gets priority in our life? God or our spiritual leaders? Are they our first point of call or is it God? We have to be honest with ourselves and make the necessary changes. Sometimes we have made those leaders into idols without us even realising it.

It’s not too late to give God His rightful place in our lives. Let’s be humble and sincere in our pursuit of Him. John 4:23 -24 tells us we are to worship God in spirit and in truth

“But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter. “It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.” John 4:23-24 MSG)

Thanks for joining today.

Have a blessed day 🙂

***With God all things are possible***

Matthew 22- Are you ready and dressed ?

Mar31

Good morning y’all. Today we are studying Matthew 22.

Today’s blog will focus on verse 1- 14.

Be blessed 🙂

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“The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son.  When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come! “So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’  But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business.  Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them. “The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town”. (Matthew 22:2-7 NLT)

In the parable, the invitation was sent to a selected group of people but those select were too busy to attend (verse 3). They kept on giving excuses (verse 4-6). I would like to pause here for us to examine ourselves and see how we are fairing in this aspect. Are there things that Jesus has called us to? Have we made ourselves available or like the guests in the parable, we are giving excuses because there are other things that demand our attention, which we deem more important than God’s call?

As I kept on reading, it occurred to me that if I continue in my current pattern of always making excuses, I will soon be replaced by someone else! God will look for someone else who is ready to do the job. This is exactly what happened in the parable. The selected refused and the king extended the invite to everyone else including the good and bad.

“And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor.  Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’  So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests”. (Matthew 22:8-10 NLT)

Those select few missed out on Gods best for them. What was meant for them was eventually passed on to others. I pray we won’t be replaced by another in Gods kingdom, just because we are too busy to create time for God.

Reading on, I was struck by verse 11 and 12 where the king noticed one of the men who wasn’t dressed appropriately for the occasion. 

“But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding.  ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matthew 22:11-13 NLT)

I thought to myself that’s unfair, seeing as the man didn’t know he was going to be attending a wedding that day. Then I felt God telling me that’s not good enough! We are to be ready in season and out of season. We can’t choose which days we are on fire for God and other days where we just don’t care. We shouldn’t be christians who are only available for God on Sundays and every other day is out of bounds for Him. Christ could come back any moment and we can’t get away with the excuse of I wasn’t ready or wasn’t expecting You yet. This is one of the reasons why it is very important we get our priorities right and live our lives in agreement with Gods word/instructions.

The key thing in verse 11 and 12 was the clothing. In the CEV version verse 12 says

“The king asked, “Friend, why didn’t you wear proper clothes for the wedding?” But the guest had no excuse”. (Matthew 22:12 CEVUS06)

The man had no excuse! I had to ask a myself what am I clothed in?

Some of us pay so much attention to our physical dressing everyday that we forget that our soul and spirit also need to be dressed. Infact they are the most important because if our inside is well dressed then it will reflect on our outward appearance. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying it’s not good to look your best but we shouldn’t put all our effort on just that, most of our effort should go to dressing up or soul and spirit.

Colossians 3:12-14 tells us what we should be dressed in everyday; not just on sundays, but every single day.

“So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it”. (MSG).

Jesus ends by saying many are called but few are chosen.

“For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14 NLT)

I want to be part of the chosen. What about you? Are you ready and dressed?

Prayer:
Dear Lord we thank You for today. We thank You for your word. We ask for forgiveness for the times we have ignored your call. Pls give us the grace to always give You first place in our lives. Help us to be ready at all times and dress with the garments You’ve picked out for us. Thank You Lord. In Jesus Name we prayed. Amen.

Thanks for joining today. I believe you have been blessed 🙂

I am blogging through the bible with Good morning girls. Check us out at www.goodmorninggirls.org

Have a blessed day enjoying God’s presence 🙂

***With God all things are possible***