December 3rd - High School

Passages for teaching and Cross-Reference

Matthew 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers!’”

James 2:19: “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”

James 2:26: “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

Luke 6:46: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

1 John 2:3-6: We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

Philippians 3:7-11: But whatever were gains for me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Quotes and Notes from Commentaries and Books

“Counterfeits today will look very much like they are carrying on the work of Jesus.”

“In 7:21-23 we have seen at least three ways the counterfeits try to get by without actual obedience:

Lip service: claiming loyalty to Jesus as Lord and God

spectacular signs

performing these signs in Jesus’ name, in essence claiming them to be the work of God.”

“What he has said with such power and precision in the Sermon derives from who he is.”

So if he means nothing to you, then his words will mean nothing to you. But it’s not my job to make Him mean something to you. It’s my job to show you who He is and what it means to actually follow Him. We have enough people out there already saying they’re Christians when they’re not actually committed to Jesus and it’s turning people away from Him. We have enough “Christians” who follow God when he gives them what they want and blame Him when He doesn’t. Faith is about loving and serving God always. If I only obey God when it works out for me or is convenient for me, there is nothing ture or compelling about a faith like that. But when I honor God and serve Him with my life even when it costs me relationships with my family, costs me the job I wanted to have or the relationship I wanted to pursue or the choice I wanted to make—that is when people go, “There must be something about your God I don’t understand. Tell me more.”

“I fear that so much that passes as Christianity will shrivel up in the day of judgment and be found to be bogus and worthless.”

We can be big doers and still miss it. “It is possible to do ministry for God without God.”

“A miracle is a display of his own power through the medium of another. An act of healing the sick is also a display of his power through the agency of another. In neither of these cases is there any necessary connection with moral character.”

You can do miracles in His name because it is HIS name! HIS name is powerful whether you have submitted your life to it or not.

So you want to know what to do? Know Him. And as you know Him, you must obey Him.

“I know not a more decided proof that Christians do not fall from grace than this text. It settles the question; and proves that whatever else such men had, they never had any true religion.”

This makes me think of my family. Though my sister went to church and sang worship and got baptized, it was a decision to believe what she was being taught at the time. She never loved God.

Same with my mom. She would pray and fast and serve and go to church, but it was never about a relationship with God. My family was a family that was good at looking like Christians. But it turns out I was the only one who was in it for the relationship with God.

I had a conversation with my mom last week. She said she never believed in hell and she never cared if there was heaven. The peace she got from her religion and from praying for peace is what was heaven to her. This affirmed for me that she never loved God.

“The context shows that the confession of Jesus’ deity is a prerequisite for kingdom entrance, but it alone does not guarantee kingdom entrance.”

“The ‘will of my Father’ is not a reference to God’s secret plan regarding the chouce of a spouse, career planning, etc. This is a reference to his moral and ethical will expressed in the standards of the Old Testament law as interpreted by Jesus.”

This is something so many people misunderstand! We sit on our hands too afraid to do anything because what if “we miss the will of God”? Are you living in obedience to what you already now? That is the will of God.

“The affirmation that Jesus is Lord is meaningless if it is not backed by obedience to God’s will.”

Because even the demons believe this!

My Thoughts and Notes

There’s an author and pastor who teaches about the importance of daily spending time with God. He uses the illustration of the Israelites in the desert. They were hungry and needed sustenance. So God would put manna on the ground at night for them to gather in the morning. They could gather as much as they wanted, but anything leftover: “it bred worms and stank” (Ex. 16:20). So Robby Gallaty says we need to read this passage about God providing daily sustenance and walk away with two vital principles:

“Each individual had to make time… and then put forth the energy and the effort to collect it.”

“The bread they gathered was only good for that particular day.”

His point is that if you want to be nourished and sustained then that is going to require you making a deliberate choice to give your time, energy, and effort towards it. Want to grow? Start reading your Bible. Daily. There will never be an easier, less demanding, more interesting option that will lead you to know God the way He can and wants to be known. You will have to make the choice.

I imagine we all had a big meal for Thanksgiving last week. How many of you also ate something on Friday? A poptart. A bowl of leftover mashed potatoes. You feasted on Thursday but still had hunger on Friday because our bodies are built to need constant nourishment. God designed your soul the same way. Your spiritual moment with God at Camp is not meant to feed you for the next two months. It is meant to be one moment that drives you to the daily habit required for your continual spiritual nourishment.

Do you know God?

When I started Seminary, i was spending 3 hours a day reading about the Bible, studying commentaries, researching historical context and Greek words and writing about it all. I knew a lot about the Word of God, but I didn’t feel any closer to God personally. I was reading for information, not for relationship.

When I tell Lily, “Don’t touch the candle; it’s hot and could burn you,” I’m not judging her for wanting to touch the candle. I am giving her advance notice that something painful could happen if she touches it because I LOVE her. I think that’s what Jesus is doing in Matthew 7.

In the manna story, God did His part. He put the manna on the ground for them to collect. He was close. he was providing. The people had to do their part to collect it and receive what God had given.