October 25, 2015
Morning Service

Good Morning!  Continuing with Pastor appreciation month, I like how last week Steve said that it was his turn in the barrel and this week is mine.

To recap on this chapter, which is one of my favorites, we are told not to judge.  We should ask, seek, and knock.  We should treat others the way you want to be treated, and to enter by the narrow gate.

PRAY

A Tree and Its Fruit

¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

Obviously the tree is a person or us, and the fruits are our works and actions.  Search your tree and if you see any limbs that have bad spots or are not producing good fruit, prune it off, get rid of it. The bad fruit trees are getting burned.

I Never Knew You

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Oh how one day I want to hear him say, “That one is mine.” I thought of an airport terminal.  When you are waiting on a loved one to return from a flight and there are many busy people moving in all directions who you probably don’t know.  Searching thru the crowd, you are eager to see your loved one.  And when you finally see them and make eye contact, you smile, wave, give hugs, saying “that one is mine”.

Build Your House on the Rock

²⁴ “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

I think today that many of the situations, families, schools, marriages, and events would be much different or better if they would have been built on the rock.  Scripture 27 tells us that if you do not have the rock for your foundation, when floods come or “tests”, what you have built will fall.  It doesn’t say “it might be ok”.  We have to have the rock!

The Authority of Jesus

²⁸ And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, ²⁹ for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

The people knew Jesus was different and his teachings were real.

 

Father, help us to examine ourselves, take your word to heart, and to seek you first.