Matthew 7:21-23
It is not enough to profess God’s name. It is not enough to go to some worship service and raise your hands high and sing praises to God. It is not enough to write beautiful words in a blog or social media message or on some card you distribute at Christmas. We also must seek to do God’s will. We must seek God’s guidance when we want to react to something hurtful or annoying someone else has said. We must seek God’s guidance when we are confronted by someone in need and we are hoping we won’t have to help them. We must seek God’s guidance when He draws our attention to a newcomer in the group and we are asked to step outside our cliquey comfort zone and befriend them. We must seek God’s guidance when it all seems too hard and we do not know what to do.
To seek God’s will we must have a personal relationship with God through Jesus. This is the sort of contact we have in close relationship. A relationship where we are constantly in conversation with the other. Where we seek them out often. In the case of God we do this through reading the Bible and prayer. I don’t mean hours spent in intercessory prayer, although that is a very important part of life that some can manage and others can’t. I mean those constant conversations we have with God. That constant asking for help, that interruption to admire something beautiful you just saw, that quick prayer for God to be with that family you just heard about on the radio. That conversation that runs a lot of the day. We must live every moment with a desire to seek God. We need to be willing at any moment to seek God, be willing to see God in everything around us, and be prepared to ask God for advice on the way we should behave. We need to delight in Jesus. As Keith Green put it, we must be “bananas” for Jesus. If we do not spend time getting to know God through Jesus then how can He know us?
Matthew 25:31-46 relates the passage about the Sheep and the Goats. In this passage, Jesus talks about the time when He will come in his glory to judge all people. At that time He will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. To the sheep He will say “welcome” and bring them into His Kingdom. To the goats He will say I never knew you and will cast them into hell. He relates that the He will tell the sheep that they gave him water when thirsty, food when hungry, welcomed Him despite Him being a stranger, clothed him, tended Him when sick and visited Him when in prison. Jesus then relates that the sheep will say “when did we do that” and Jesus will reply that whatever they did for His people they did for Him. It is not enough to believe in Jesus. We must do more. We must seek to have a relationship with God through Jesus and seek to do what He commands us to do. If we turn our backs on those in need then when God has asked us to help them, then we are being goats.
So aim to be a sheep and follow the good shepherd. Remember, as His sheep we will know His voice. John 10 is a good summary of Jesus’ teaching on the Good Shepherd whose voice His sheep know and the bad shepherds who seek to lead the sheep astray. Those who know the Good Shepherd’s voice are not led astray. So be on your guard against the false prophets, seek Jesus more than daily through prayer and reading the Bible, and seek to do the will of God.
 

Matthew 7:15-20
The Dalai Lama arrived in Australia this past week. There was much fanfare and news coverage. People spoke of the wonderful Buddhist philosophy. It saddened me that Jesus’ philosophy is so much greater, yet people do not hold His words in awe. Why is that? Why are members of our society happier to embrace the teachings of a man than of God? At one level, it is about not being willing to acknowledge God. Far easier to follow the teachings of a person that you can modify to suit yourself than to follow Jesus’ teaching and the leading of the Holy Spirit. If you do that then you will have to change! Heaven forbid!
Sadly, much of the reason people don’t embrace Jesus’ teachings is that the ‘church’ has consistently failed to teach Jesus’ teachings. For centuries the ‘church’ was about secular power, not about Jesus. People became priests and nuns, not because of a deep faith in God but because it was ‘a good profession to have’ or a family expectation that a family member must be ‘of the cloth’. For so long the ‘church’ was about power and manipulation and not teaching people but keeping them under control. Teaching people, as Jesus wanted, was dangerous because people who thought for themselves were harder to control. Also, how can you teach people about Jesus when you don’t Him yourself?
This was happening at the time Jesus walked on this earth. The Jewish faith was being administered by a group of secular men who were more interested in power and legalism than God. Sadly, that has not changed. Much ‘church’ hierarchy is still about power and control. We only have to consider the current Royal Commission here in Australia into sexual abuse in institutions to see how the ‘church’ was more concerned about secular power and influence than about the lives, bodies and souls of the people, especially the children. When secular power is the driving force in a ‘church’ then the teaching of Jesus is not taught and not seen. Small wonder so many people race after the teachings of other religions.
In all this lack of teaching there is a vacuum that allows the false prophets to enter in. They enter into churches where there is lacklustre faith and teaching and they enter into the homes of those who do not believe, offering meaning in a meaningless life that should be full of the knowledge of God. These lives are empty because we as Christians do not speak openly about our faith. We don’t speak out because of fear of being ridiculed or because we do not want to ‘offend’. Yet others speak out about what they believe. So stop being afraid. Speak your faith openly and be proud to acknowledge Jesus as your saviour. That is the best defence against false prophets.
 

Matthew 7:13-14
Life is about choice. Every day we are called on to make a multitude of choices. In these two verses, Jesus calls us to choose. What are we to choose? If you look at Deuteronomy 30:19 and Jeremiah 21:8 (which verse 14 is referenced to) were are to choose life. In Joshua 24:15 it is about choosing whom you will serve. They all amount to the same thing. We have a choice in life. We can choose two ways to go. We can choose to serve Jesus or we can choose to serve our own desires.
There is the broad way that leads to death that many take. It is pleasant and wide and there is much scope to indulge your every whim. You can do what you like and never feel you have to account for anything, unless the law catches up with you! Then there is the narrow way. There is pressure and difficulty and the way is hard and long, but at the end of the way there is life.
If you think of life, the elite athletes with their gold medals worked long and hard to achieve that reward. The successful people of this world had many years of hardship and poverty to reach the pinnacle of their success. The good things in life are never easy to acquire and there are no short cuts to acquisition. It may be possible to think they are easy to come by, but those things which are easy are usually brief and dissatisfying. The way to true life in Jesus is a hard way and involves long hours of dedicated service, but the reward at the end is the most precious gift anyone can receive.
As Jesus’ disciples we are called to choose the narrow way. It will not be easy. We will need to persevere in the face of many temptations and difficulties. We will be called upon to make a myriad of choices about how to respond to difficult situations, to horrible people, to temptation. We will often fall off the path and have to scramble our way back on to it. It will often be dark and the only light will be Jesus as the lamp to our feet. We will tentatively step forward, not able to see the path ahead through the darkness, just knowing that our feet are on solid ground. At the end of this path, however, is our reward, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And when we reach there, we will rest, at peace in His loving arms and know that it was worth it.