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Most people in church love to hear the preacher say, “And finally”. Do you know what that means? Usually it doesn’t mean a thing, except for the fact that he’s trying to “land the plane”! Jesus LANDS THE PLANE this week in His conclusion of the greatest sermon ever preached. So once again, there are again a lot of RED LETTER WORDS to catch from Him, so let’s get started! The more I reflect on these final words of Jesus in chapter 7, I think I’d like to name the week “Things We Gotta, Gotta Do”. He’s leaving us a real challenging “TO DO” list as He leaves the crowd and the mountaintop. But before we start, please don’t forget to purchase your tickets for our Finishing Well Christmas event at “the GRAND” in New Albany this Dec 10th (Tuesday). We’re calling the program “MAKE ROOM”. MONDAY… “We Gotta KEEP ON” / Matt 7:7-12
Jesus tells us today we need to ask, seek and knock. We’ve heard that before, but the reminder todays is that we’re not to check these things off our list, but keep on asking…keep on seeking…& keep on knocking. And notice the promise is that in that PRAYERFUL POSTURE of PURSUIT, He says we will receive, find and the door will be opened to us. He’s not asking us to GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS of religious duty, but rather passionately desire the things of His Kingdom! Then He illustrates for us, just as earthly fathers want to give their children good gifts, our Heavenly Father wants to do that EVEN MORE! So let’s add to our list this implication….keep on being gracious in GIVING like God is! Now with that said, He then gets “quotable” in a big way. I mean the “ask, seek & knock” is very memorable, but brace yourself for a phrase of Jesus today that is right up there almost with John 3:16. Here it is….He goes for the gold. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” You might want to put those RED LETTERS in GOLD. I wonder who the first person was to call it “the GOLDEN RULE”? What a lifelong behavioral principle! What a mutually beneficial standard! What a challenge for our sinful selfish nature! To be RESPECTFUL of one another….all “one anothers”….in all situations….with those from a different economic, educational, spiritual, generational, or ethnic background. So today, may we be persistent in our prayerful asking, seeking and knocking….in our gracious giving….and in making our relationships “golden”….as best we can. Those are the things “we gotta do”! Love you guys! TUESDAY… “We Gotta FIND the Narrow Road” / Matt 7:13-14 Now this is a long shot, but some of you might be old enough to remember a church camp chorus, “Walkin’ on the Heaven Road” back in the 70’s. It simply said…. I’m walkin’ on the heaven road, I’m gonna lay down my heavy load, Cause Jesus said He’d walk along with me. I’m singin;’ all the way and the sun’s shinin’ everyday, So why not come along and join me on that heaven road? Kind of a happy song and invitational to others who might be carrying a lot of stuff that’[s weighing them down. Now it is a joyful road we’re on when we in faith trust the Lord to save us and direct us. But Jesus points out today for us to “enter through the narrow gate”. The more people listened to Him, the more they realized that HE was that narrow gate that led to life. Soafter reading the passage (hope you did) what can we conclude? Let me suggest 4 things….. 1…..There are 2 different GATES (narrow and wide). 2…..The gates take us to 2 different DESTINATIONS (one to life & the other to destruction). 3…..MANY take the wide gate and FEW take the narrow one. 4…..The gate has to be FOUND (discovered). Now to give us context today, Jesus has just concluded teaching about the GOLDEN RULE, and is about to hit FALSE PROPHETS and recognizing them by their FRUIT. So this is a little jolt in His teaching and kind of a wake up call. Not everybody makes the curve. Not everyone chooses faith. Many in life get caught in the “cattle drive” and miss the signage. Jesus was giving the people (and us) a HUGE SIGN. He was helping them to sober up and take this seriously. Many a cultural promise for “freedom” brings anything BUT freedom. We live in an era of time SATURATED with gates we are encouraged and even enticed to take. They are wide and destructive. For the people then, Jesus was most likely referring to the RELIGIOUS gate. Today, our culture’s sign is the SACRILEGIOUS gate (anything but God). There is more of a freedom FROM God push. But neither gate (religious or irreligious or sacrilegious) leads to life. Jesus was inviting them to keep listening, keep trusting, keep thinking. If they could accept His teaching and miracles, it would lead them to the conclusion He was the promised Messiah. But that is a narrow gate to go through…not only in our culture today, but certainly in His back then. So keep going through the narrow gate, my “finishing well friend”! Keep absorbing His RED LETTERS. Keep close in your relationship with the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”! Jesus pointed them to a personal relationship with His Heavenly Father as they gained access through Him. He later would drill that point home by saying He was “the way, the truth, and the life and no man can come to the Father except through Him”. That is one of the most EXCLUSIVE statements Jesus would ever make. And He said that because it’s true! He is that narrow gate! Don’t let anyone point you (or your kids, or your grandkids, or your friends and family) to another gate! So today, know you went through the right gate, you’re headed on the right path, you are right where you are supposed to be if you are in His Family. But you and I are surrounded by a culture that doesn’t like His gate or His path or His teaching. So lean in to one another as we make this journey together! Praying it’s a great day for you! WEDNESDAY… “We Gotta DISCERN and we gottaDISPLAY” / Matt 7:15-23 Take a moment and read these 9 verses. Every once in a while a Biblical paragraph stretches out and this one did some today. “Watch out for false prophets…..you’ll know them by their fruits….a good tree can’t bear bad fruit and a bad tree can’t bear good fruit…..every fruitless tree is cut down and thrown in the fire….” Those were highlights from the first 6 of the 9 verses today. Hopefully familiar to you on some level. I think we get it. We have to DISCERN things about people. The people would look to their oppressors, Rome, and see the hate in their eyes. They’d look to their Jewish religious leaders and see the hypocrisy in their lives. And now they have to discern truth and character. It’s hard. Seems like everybody is selling something. Now this brief teaching leads us to the next one. Jesus sharpens their focus on “consistency between our words and our behavior”. Our need for healthy productivity (bear fruit or get cut down). And now He’s about to make the declaration “words aren’t enough”. In verses 21-23, Jesus makes it clear “not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom, but rather he who does my Father’s will”. He goes on to say a lot of people will be mistaken, thinking they’re in only to discover they only THOUGHT they were doing things in Jesus’ name, because He will tell them “to depart because He never knew them.” They didn’t go through the narrow gate! Now this shouldn’t surprise us as it did them. It should shake us, however, but not scare us. But it did mess with the Pharisees, I’m guessing. Because they were all about religious pretense, an imposing and supposing spiritual image, and in general, exaggerating their depth, though very shallow and even hollow might be a better description. Now for our 2nd word…..add DISPLAY, to the word DISCERN. Not a posing display, but a vulnerable disclosure of who we really are. A revealing of what’s really in our heart. It’s what the Pharisees never did. Jesus exposed them. In today’s reading He hinted at it, but later He will bring down THE HAMMER on them in a a more dramatic way than that lawyer named Greg who stands on top of semi tractor trailers during his TV commercials! May we today be conscious of the real source of our salvation…..KNOWING Jesus. He only asks those to leave who PRETEND to know Him. For those who DO know Him and those who are TRYING to get to know Him, He says stick around….get to know Me better…..so you can DiSCERN and DISPLAY to the world what I’m really like! Love you guys…praying it’s a great day in the Kingdom for you! THURSDAY… “We Gotta DO WHAT WE NOW KNOW” / Matt 7:24-27 Jesus lands the plane (and the sermon) with an illustration that was taught in a song for me at an early age. You might have learned this song to at VBS or Sunday School as a kid. Some of you might even remember the motions! VERSE 1 The wise man built his house upon the ROCK (sing 3x) and the rains came tumbling down oh the rains came down and the floods came up (sing 3x) and the house on the ROCK stood FIRM! VERSE 2 The foolish man built his house upon the SAND (sing 3x) And the rains came tumbling down Oh the rains came down and the floods fame up (sing 3) And the house on the SAND went SPLAT! Now Jesus didn’t teach them this song, I don’t think. But he could have! He certainly taught them this principle. And in my opinion, He kind of ended His sermon with a song/type of thing so I personally find that very encouraging! Assuming you’ve read verses 24-27, let’s look at how Jesus tied this illustration in. He says, “Everyone who hears these words of Min, and acts on them, will be like a wise man who (did just what we sang about). See what He does. He ties this importance of a FOUNDATION to OBEDIENCE! In verse 26, He says, “It’s not enough to just HEAR my words and not ACT on them! If we do, we’re being FOOLISH!” And if you notice the collapse, Jesus mentions that will happen, it’s not just a little one. He says it will be huge. The whole house crashes. And that house represents our LIVES! So today’s assignment / mission if we choose to accept it, is to simply DO WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW TO DO. Too many times we think we need more information, more learning or more training. That’s not usually the case. We need more OBEDIENCE. We already know to love, forgive, pray, share, encourage one another, be responsible, pay our bills, honor the HOA guidelines and basic stuff like that. Now it gets tricky sometimes, but Jesus starts us off by simply saying FOLLOW ME. And when we do, we’re building on the SOLID ROCK! Ok….I’ve gone too long without hearing a song. The kids song is good but I couldn’t find a cool enough version. So let’s end (or start) the day and our time with a song that says you gottaGO to the ROCK before you can BUILD on the ROCK! I GO TO THE ROCK by Aaron Jeffrey FRIDAY… “We Gotta RESPECT HIS AUTHORITY” / Matt 7:28-29 Rather than review and reflect today, I wanted to save these last 2 verses that seem to be less RED LETTER and more COMMENTARY. “When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” Wow! What a post-game show! Sometimes, all you can say is “what just happened”? That phrase gets thrown around a lot today, but I have a feeling many asked that when Jesus had the closing prayer and they all left to go home. But Matthew seems to answer that question for us. He says Jesus taught with an authority that they weren’t used to hearing. I would imagine the scribes were condescending, which is a form of bullying. Probably manipulative and insulting to the intelligence of the common folks. I doubt if they answered many questions authentically. Primarily because they didn’t really know the HEART of God. A few pat answers. A few, we’ll know when the Messiah comes. The problem was He was right there among them, but they didn’t care to recognize Him! But the people were starting to, even if the religious leaders refused to. Maybe there are some folks around you today that area STARTING to recognize the wisdom and authority of Jesus. And maybe there are some who would refuse to at any cost. The problem is that the “cost of refusal” when it comes to Jesus is pretty high. It’s the ultimate cost….eternity. and could it be that the folks around us might KEY OFF our respectful response to Jesus if they could see it more clearly? My prayer for us in Finishing Well is that we might SENSE HIS AUTHORITY and respect it well in this RED LETTER RECALL series. May you continue to be amazed at HIS teaching in your churches this weekend! May you share that amazement with those close to you. As always….love you guys….whoever is following along out there…may you be richly blessed and highly flavored! (no….I meant to do that….just checking to make sure you’re paying attention….got that one from a friend Chris Marshall) Love you all, george
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