January 19, 2023
“Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds” (Matthew 13:18 NLT). In Jesus’ parable of the sower, He described four heart conditions that determined their receptivity to the gospel. Jesus explained the meaning of the parable to His disciples. He explained that the “seed” is the message of the Kingdom,
January 18, 2023
“For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart” (Matthew 12:34-35 NLT). Jesus responded to the words of the Pharisees who had accused him of healing by
January 17, 2023
“But Jesus knew what they were planning. So he left that area, and many people followed him” (Matthew 12:15 NLT). Jesus and His disciples were preaching town to town, when they entered a certain town on the Sabbath and entered the synagogue there. The Pharisees heard that Jesus was there and in order to accuse
January 13, 2023
“The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields” (Matthew 9:37-38 NLT). Jesus told His disciples that multitudes of people were ready to be led into the Kingdom, but there weren’t enough workers to
January 12, 2023
‘Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts?”‘ (Matthew 9:4 NLT). When Jesus forgave the sins of the paralyzed man, some religious teachers who witnessed it said to themselves that he had committed blasphemy. For only God can forgive sin. Yet, Jesus “knew
January 8, 2023
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25 NLT). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus discussed the human activity of worry. Clearly, worry is sinful because
January 7, 2023
“May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10 NLT). That which is called the “Lord’s Prayer” might rightly be called the Lord’s teaching prayer or model prayer, for He gives it to us to teach us how to pray. Even the order of the
January 4, 2023
“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined” (Matthew 4:16 NLT). After Jesus’ baptism and 40 days in the wilderness, He didn’t return to Nazareth. Instead, He began His public ministry in a town on
January 3, 2023
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry” (Matthew 4:1-2 ESV). Have you noticed how many times the numbers three and forty appear in the Bible? Both numbers are significant in today’s One Year® Bible
December 18, 2022 | Matthew 2:1-12 |
What is worship? It’s whatever you value or love the most. It’s what you spend your time, talent and treasure for as your greatest source of significance and security. That’s worship. It’s whatever or whoever you ascribe the greatest worth to. Ironically Christmas might be the most difficult time of the year to truly worship God because we are tempted to put more of our affections on material things and spending money.
Don’t you feel the tension? Don’t you feel the pressure to spend more money than you have in order to give your kids everything on their list? You want everyone to be happy and you want to be happy, so you spend, spend, spend… And the more you spend, the less it feels like Christmas. Or what it’s supposed to mean. In the gospel of Matthew, the story of the birth of Jesus is told within the political backdrop of the times. From the beginning there was a battle between worshiping the true King and the false king Herod that had usurped His Throne. The challenge for us is to remove our worship from the false king and to put our worship on the true King, Jesus Christ.