Matthew Weekly Studies

We have a tendency to accept and reject certain things about God based on our beliefs and opinions. We put God in a box rather than spend our time studying and letting God's Spirit take the Scriptures and form within us knowledge of God's ability and capacity. That is where the growth takes place.

If Caesar put his image on it and he wants you to pay that back as part of a census, then give it to him. It's his.  Whose image is on it? What inscription is on the back? And yet is one of our greatest possessions, supposedly. With money we can buy anything and go anywhere. We can do what we want to do. It possesses us, rather than we possessing it.

The only hope anybody has of sitting down at this banquet - the final banquet with the Lord in heaven - the only chance, the only requirement is the person be in Christ. Christ be in them. Not believe in Him, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't put on Christ, then you are rejected.

Either fall upon the stone and be broken or the stone will fall on you and grind you to powder.  Those are the choices.  One is brokenness and one is judgment.

I hope that's clear because it's not just about going to church. It is not just about having religious beliefs. It is about seeking the will of God for every situation in our life and then surrendering to Christ for His authority to perform it. That's what it's like to walk with the Lord.

We are constantly seeking the Lord to get rid of our circumstances, rid of the hard times. When the Lord is saying, "Okay you quit, you get out from underneath it now, I've got another one waiting for you because we are trying to produce endurance here." We are trying to produce a trust in the Lord.

God's house is a house of prayer. A place of healing. A place people can come and hear the Word of God and receive the ministry that God has for them. It is not to be a distraction. Nor is it to be an organization that is a money making industry producing to make God proud of us. It is for the salvation of lives.

This is not the triumphant entry into Jerusalem - the triumphant entry of Christ will take place at his second coming.  This is a donkey ride not a white horse ride.  He came riding on a donkey in order to be the Passover Lamb to die for the sins of the world.

What seems first to us in our human evaluation is last in the eyes of the Lord. And what seems last in our human evaluation is first in the eyes of the Lord. Our human judgment and ability to evaluate is from our culture and from our flesh, and goes against most, if not all, of what is of the Lord and what is right in His eyes.

The Lord has a will.  He has a plan.  He has a design for everything in our lives.  For all of the people that are in our lives, the events that come up in our lives, Jesus has a plan.  He has a will.  It is not a religion, it is a relationship.

We try to take time out to make it to church on Sunday, or make it to Bible study; but the rest of the time we give ourselves completely to advancing ourselves, progressing ourselves, getting more money, making life better for ourselves, and not realizing that this is not a Sunday morning walk with the Lord only. We are to walk with Him and seek Him and serve Him, daily.

Jesus is revealing there's something about his life and his lifestyle that prevents him from having a right relationship with the Lord. Even though he was a good guy and did some good things for people. Even though he had wealth and helped his fellow man with his riches. He still lacked one thing; devotion to God Himself. And I can say to you honestly from experience, most people who profess to be Christians don't have that kind of one-on-one relationship with the Lord.  Interacting with Him.  Seeking Him as to what we are to do or where we are to go or how we are to function in this earthly life.

God works everything for the good. It doesn't say everything is good or that God works good in everything; but the end result is to experience the goodness of God. Sometimes just being devastated, you put yourself in line to experience the goodness of God.

Of course you have difficulties, you got married. You are living with another human being. The real question is do you have the ability to endure the differences between yourself and other human beings? Denying yourself is the key to getting along in relationships.

Let's find a way to stay married, not try to find a way out of marriage. What God intended for marriage should be the motivating factor, not what people want or don't want.

Jesus is outlining for us how important it is to humble ourselves, and even to administer severe discipline on people who will not repent. There must be repentance.

That is why in so many churches there is so much disunity and why the function of the church is so dysfunctional; because there is so much sin that is not being dealt with. There are so many people that have so many different opinions there is no harmony, there is no unity in the Spirit in the church.

After all these years, I found out the most spiritual position you can be in is to admit that without Him you cannot do one thing. Others brag they can do it but in reality, I can't live life, I can't understand the things of the Lord, I can't even follow Him without His Spirit being there to give me the ability to do it. And confessing that to Him is the highest standard of spirituality.

For the believer the great measurement of spiritual maturity is sacrifice. Sacrificing yourself and your self rights and your self wants for the betterment of others so that they would not be offended.

God measures faith. Whatever He wants us to do, He gives us the faith to do it. If you have to force it then it is not the faith of the Bible, it is not the faith of Jesus Christ, it is psychology. It is you forcing yourself, influencing yourself, to be a certain way to get God to bless you. That is not the faith of the Bible.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. God's chosen way to bring His persuasion and His influence and His ministry is when believers gather together to hear the Word of God.

It is faith that works, not people working faith. Faith is producing the works, it is not people. If you say you have faith then the faith should have activity to it.

We think humanistically rather than spiritually.  We think a God of love will not cause people to be hurt or offended over our decisions to be obedient to Christ and that is not true.  When people are hurt and offended over my obedience to Christ, that is my testimony and I know my testimony is bringing conviction.  There is going to be separation because people are making spiritual choices.  You either belong to Jesus Christ or you don't.  You're either following Jesus Christ or you are not.

Christians wrestle with their performance but our performance is not the basis of a right relationship with God. The basis of a right relationship with God is having Christ the Son living inside of me. Him in my spirit is the only thing that is acceptable and well-pleasing to God the Father.

You can't have suffering and you can't have the surrendering of your life to Christ without knowing that in the future there is going to be glory, and there is going to be transformation.  These two chapters together present the proper perspective of life.  Most of the time our perspective is incomplete; we only see the human, the suffering, the hardship, the difficulty.  It is very important that we see both the human and the spiritual.

This is Jesus being up front with people, telling them, "This is what it is going to take to be a disciple." There are consequences for surrendering to Christ, you have to give up your life. You can't just believe and go on your way. You must come behind Him and in order to do that, you must reject yourself.

I'm convinced that Christians have the most difficulty, not because Satan is fighting against them, but because they are fighting against God. We are trying to get that flesh off the cross. We are trying to get our life back. I want to be in charge. I want to accomplish the things that I want to accomplish. Jesus said, "You must deny yourself and take up your cross and follow behind Me."

Our view and understanding of success, even as a Christian in this world is a lot different than how the Lord sees success in this world. The Lord sees His success, His mission as coming, suffering, being killed, and being raised. Whereas the disciples thought that they were going to go with Him into Jerusalem and just take over, win the victory.

Salvation isn't religious, it is spiritual. Literally, the Spirit of Christ comes in and unbinds Satan's control over a person's life and then binds that person to the Spirit of God.

Wherever Christians were gathered together, they used the word 'assembly,' not 'church' as we know it today.

This is one of the most debated verses in the Bible. Many have just thrown their hands up in the air over a text like this and given their personal opinion, because most pastors and most Bible teachers are too busy to do extensive research to find out what the text is saying.  Is there a way to determine exactly what it is saying without getting into personal beliefs and opinions? I say to you there is, and we are going to unpack this for you.

The reason why the truth of God must be revealed from heaven is because God has purposely chosen to make the truth a mystery that cannot be understood by human ability. All things are secret with God. It's a mystery. You can't join a religion and find out the truth of God. It must come directly from His Spirit.

I am not talking about a mystical revelation where people come up with things from out of the clouds. I am talking about revelation of the truth of the text itself and it becoming alive, just like Hebrews 4:12 says. That's not knowledge, that is living.

God Himself in human form has taken up His rightful position to inherit all things and to be the preeminence in all things. God in human form has taken His rightful position in the social and legal structure of His day, the One who is the head of all things. Jesus Christ as the Son of Man inherits everything of the human race.  Everybody has to answer to Him. He is the Christ, the Anointing.

We are deceiving ourselves. Our opinions, convictions, and beliefs, do not establish truth. Truth establishes itself. That's why, when we are studying the Bible, we need to study the text, not people's beliefs about what the text says.

Paul says in II Corinthians 5:7, “We are those who live by faith, not by sight.”  Faith and sight are opposites and there are people who are chasing signs and wonders in order to see things, in order to experience things, stimulations.  People today are being taken […]

Jesus offended the religious leaders and the text indicates that He meant to do it.  He did it on purpose.  He offended them because they were following their traditions and their commandments of traditions instead of the Scriptures themselves.  The reason He offended them is given in verse 13, 'That which is not planted of My Father must be rooted up.'  They are going down the wrong path and Jesus says, 'I put a hindrance there.'  Put something there for them to stumble over while they are making their way down the wrong path.  Gave them something to think about, something to challenge them with.  And in that sense, the offense is purely acceptable; in fact, something the Lord does all the time.

Now, there are people who teach from these texts that if Peter had enough faith, he would not have sunk into the waves. What they're really saying is that if Peter had enough faith, he would have no need to call to Jesus. He wouldn't need the Lord. Peter says, "Lord save me!" That is what the Lord is there for. It exhibits the weakness of man. It exhibits the faithfulness of God.

Life is getting harder, in case you didn't know that.  The world is getting worse.  Times are getting more difficult.  It is time to seek the Lord.  Time to stop trying to be a stronger Christian; but rather in my weakness trust Christ for who He is and let Him carry me through the storm.

We all have problems. We all have difficulties. We all have circumstances. This is one of the great sections in the Bible about the principles of problem solving; as the Lord reveals what is behind all of the difficulties and situations that we are in.

I cannot follow Jesus and follow what I want at the same time.  It is impossible.  To 'deny' in the Greek text means 'to reject.'  I still function, my ego still functions, my human fleshly desires still function; but the Lord calls upon me to reject those so that I can follow Him.

I cannot overemphasize this.  I cannot go too far if I emphasize it every week.  Remember this morning I started off with saying we are two thousand years removed from the actual person of Jesus Christ being here, from an actual identification with Him Himself and we have a book called the Bible.  And it is through the Bible that we relate back two-thousand years, but we've lost the reality of a personal relationship with Him as they had back then.  We have Christ with us today, but we would rather study a book.

The reason Jesus is saying these very hard things is because all of life is looked at as being from a spiritual basis not a religious, human basis. In the human it hurts.  In the human it is hard.  But in the spirit realm there are only two kinds of people in the world: those who belong to Christ and those who do not.  The two do not go together, spiritually speaking.

  we experienced technical difficulties with this study and are working to make it available thank you for your patience

Since we only have the capacity to have the attention of our minds occupied with one thing, He says, "Seek first the Lord and His kingdom" and He in turn will add to you whatever your needs are.  You don't have to seek them, don't have to strive after them, don't have to plan for them. I can only seek one thing.  I cannot seek the Lord and seek worldly things at the same time.  If God has not given it to me, I don't need it.  I don't have to go seeking for it.

Matthew 6:10 ~ Understanding the Salvation Experience

Matthew 6:8 ~ The Doctrine of Prayer Part 3

Matthew 6:8 ~ The Doctrine of Prayer Part 2

Matthew 6:8 ~ The Doctrine of Prayer Part 1