Category: Sermon on the Mount

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WHAT IT MEANS TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN

What It’s All About

1. God created you with a physical body which has life, and with a spirit which also has life.

2. You live twice, once in the physical body and once in the spiritual body.

3. You have no choice but to live on earth in the physical body. You do have a choice as to where your spirit will live when your physical body dies.

4. God created you because He loves you. He loves you genuinely without any holding back or ever changing His mind. His plan is for you to live with Him forever in His heavenly home so He can love you more, and you can love Him. True, forever-after, genuine love, can never be forced or manipulated. Love is always a choice. Therefore, God does not force us to choose to love Him. The very essence of genuine love is choice—if you have no choice, it is not love. God leaves the choice to you. 

The Choice

1. Because God is perfect and His heavenly home is perfect, He cannot let anyone in who is not perfect. If He did, it would no longer be perfect because it would have imperfections in it.  Get it?

2. When God created people, He knew for them to love Him they must choose Him.  Therefore, He did not create them as puppets with no will, but gave them a free will. He gave the first two people He created a way to use free will. They chose to follow after sin. Since we all came from them, we are all sinners.

3. Because God’s love is genuine and never changes, He made a plan to take away our sins and make us perfect so we could be with Him forever.

4. That plan was to have a perfect being take our sins upon Himself. As many as believe in the perfect being have their sins removed as far as the east is from the west.

The Perfect Being

1. Since there were no perfect people on earth, God sent His own Son from heaven as a human who would take away sins.

2.  God’s son is Jesus Christ. In order for Jesus to take away our sins, He had to die. It cost His physical life. When He died on the cross, all the sins of all the world died with Him. That does not mean there is no more sin. It means we can have our sins forgiven and break the power they have over us.

3.  When we become Christians, we make two choices: 1) we choose Jesus as our Savior who died for our sins because we were not perfect and could not die for our own sins, AND 2) we choose Him as Lord. 

The Savior

1. For Jesus to be our Savior means just what it sounds like. He saves us.

2. To be saved means we are saved from the kind of death that keeps us apart from God and His heavenly home.

The Lord

1. For Jesus to be our Lord also means just what it sounds like.

2. A Lord is another name for a master. 

3. If we choose Jesus as our Savior, we must obey Him as our Lord.

4. The only way to obey Jesus is to learn to love the Bible. It is truly an awesome book and contains all the answers to life (understanding those answers is a lifetime process).

5. Now we have a new life in Christ. Christianity is a lifestyle you live, not just words you speak.

6. A disciple follows a master—believes in his teachings and lives life in accordance to those teachings. A Christian is a disciple of Christ.

Hindrances

1. Sometimes people think they are too young to become Christians. You are never too young. God loved you before you were born. He was very excited about your birth and wants you to choose Him as soon as you know who He is.

2. Sometimes people think they are too old and it is too late in life for them to become Christians. You are never too old. God was hoping you would choose Him when you were young, but He has never given up hope. His arms are open wide. He wants you!

3. Sometimes people think that they have done terrible things and they are just too bad to ever become Christians. Remember Christ is a Savior, it’s all about having the sins taken away—it’s all about forgiveness, no matter what.

If you are ready to become a Christian below is a prayer to pray. After you have prayed, sign the paper, and date it. Praise God and tell someone right away! Find a Bible teaching church and join in fellowship with other Christians.

Dear Heavenly Father,

I confess I am a sinner and I need a Savior. I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and has cleansed me from them. I ask Jesus to come into my heart and be the Lord of my life. As Jesus rose from the dead to live with You, I believe that from this moment on I have that same eternal life. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Signed______________________________________                   Date________________

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A Secure Future

AUGUST 29

MATTHEW 6:34_Take therefore no thought for the morrow…

Is the future high on your worry list? Everyone should think about the future. Certainly you should think about your eternal future. Do you know for certain where you will spend eternity?

Deuteronomy 30:19 (KJV), God tells His people, “…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” Because God does not want you to spend time, energy, and health in worry, He made a way to secure your future. 

John 3:16-17 (KJV), “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

God wants the world saved. Choices must be made individually. You must open the door to your heart. Jesus stands knocking.

Within the next 15 minutes you will receive a Salvation post. If you are ready, pray the prayer. Print the page, sign, and date it.  Next, tell all your family and friends, and praise God that your future is secured.   

PRAYER

Jesus Savior, Praise You for giving Yourself to secure my eternal future! In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

Christ gave Himself for me—He is my Savior and Lord!

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Under His Shelter

AUGUST 28

MATTHEW 6:33_ and all these things shall be added unto you.

What are all these things? Jesus has taken time to list the needs of food and clothes. But isn’t something missing? What about shelter? Do you find it odd shelter is not mentioned?

The more you study the Bible you will find God often mentions Himself as our shelter: a refuge, under His shelter.

Psalm 91:1 (KJV) “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

To dwell with God in your heart is shelter.

I believe far more than food and shelter shall be added unto you. First and foremost is love. This is not just about God’s love for you. The ability to give and receive love is a powerful gift from God to you.

Broken homes and divided families would be a minimum if believers latched on to their God-given ability to give love. And allowed themselves to receive love.

When you make God your shelter and trust Him with food and clothes, you can trust Him to add all these things unto you!

PRAYER

Holy God, Help me trust You with everything in my life. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

Christ provides ALL needs—I will trust Him!

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Jesus Lures

AUGUST 27

MATTHEW 6:33_and his righteousness…

Jesus gives you something specific to seek in the kingdom of God: righteousness. God’s righteousness is to obey His principles and live in them.

When you seek God’s kingdom you discover His righteousness. One more example of you can’t have one without the other. You are designed to seek that relationship. Jesus lures you to it.

This relationship has been compared to courtship. Jesus proposes—He hopes you will say yes. If you do, then just like finding gold at the end of the rainbow—you find His righteousness. Notice, the seeking turned from Jesus seeking you to you seeking Him—and His righteousness.

God’s principles are steadfast. They have been since the beginning of time. They do not weaken or fade with time. They are as solid in the book of Genesis as they are in the book of Revelation. They are foundation material—something on which to build your life. 

Deuteronomy 33:27 (KJV), “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms …”

Wow! The everlasting arms are the foundation material upon which to build your house!

Righteousness is something God rewards, II Samuel 22:21 (KJV) “The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness ….”

You can’t be righteous on your own—seek God’s righteousness!

PRAYER

Righteous Father, I want Your righteousness for the foundation of my life. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

Christ is righteousness—He will teach me!

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Your Ticket Out

AUGUST 26

MATTHEW 6:33_the kingdom of God…

If you seek God first, at a young age, you’ve made a wise decision. You are on the right path. If you are toward the end of your teen years, or mid-way through adulthood, or even in your senior years—it’s never too late. Jesus has been knocking on the door of your heart all these years. He is not one to walk out on those He seeks because they don’t welcome Him right away. Jesus patiently seeks you, wherever you are.  Whether that’s the pit, the gutter, or the dead-end street, Jesus seeks you. Don’t think you have to come out from those places for Jesus to want you. Jesus is your ticket out!

Know the most important thing in life and seek it.

Seek the first thing first.

Make the main thing the main thing.

Build a firm foundation on truth.

Proverbs 24:27 (KJV), “Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.”

Work is seeking, the field is the world, and the house is your life. Build your life in accordance to God’s plan, not your own.

Another way to seek God first is in the earliest part of your day. Begin each day with Jesus. Become more aware of His presence.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, Help me seek You in the morning to be aware of You all day. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

Christ seeks me wherever I go—He finds me!