Matthew Chapter 10 Verse 27

• I love this message that Jesus is giving to His disciples. A strategy to exert power over others, especially people in a family or a group or an organization, one way to manipulate and to establish superiority is to withhold information. Happens all the time in companies, in politics, even in the media as agendas just run rampant! Even in churches and religious denominations this strategy is very much alive but Jesus just tears them down with His disciples. He says, “Don’t be after power and manipulation, “Tell them everything!” Hold back nothing of the good news and nothing of the doctrine of grace!
• I just love that! Man, that is just who He is! God holds nothing back from us in terms of His love and His grace and His mercy! No matter who you are, believer or unbeliever alike, He gave all He had for you! And so He tells them, GO TELL THEM! And in doing so, no separation, no elitism, no manipulation, no strategic agenda…just simplicity and equality in that all can and should know the Lord.

Matthew Chapter 10 Verse 28

• Notice this and know this. Jesus says that man can kill the body but only God can judge the soul. See that? Listen folks, there is dying and then there is perishing. Fear the latter. All will die, it’s just a fact of this fallen life…but not all will perish. Not all will take part in the second death…And so many burn so many calories fearing death when really our minds should be stayed on the White Throne judgment scene and we should fear God.
• And so Jesus says to His followers, you’re going to encounter push-back, hard-ship and folks that ferociously hate you! (It gets easier by the way as you walk with the Lord and absorb His word) While you’re afraid, remind yourself, man is not to be feared. God is to be feared. And check this out…if we fear God, then we will have no need to fear man! Spurgeon said it this way, “The cure for the fear of man is the fear of God!” But it’s going to take faith because that man or that woman is right there in front of you, threatening you, and like a Good Father, God is right there (Statefarm jingle, HA)…Holy Spirit on your side (Nationwide jingle, HA), but since your physical senses don’t see Him, you may feel alone…you’re not!

Matthew Chapter 10 Verses 29 – 31

• To God you are highly valued! You are worth the world to Him! He sees you. He is with you. And if He is silent or if He delays His coming then it is for the purpose of glorifying His name and strengthening you in the spirit. Don’t lose heart! And oh by the way, no need to test God! Just wait on Him and trust Him. We do silly things when we test God!
• Taking to a friend the other day, “After starting a new diet,” he said, “I altered my drive to work to avoid passing my favorite bakery. I accidentally drove by the bakery though one morning, just not thinking, and as I approached, there in the window the fresh donut light was on! So I prayed, “Lord, it’s up to You. If You want me to have any of those delicious goodies, create a parking place for me directly in the front.” And sure enough, on the eighth time around the block, there it was! God is so good!” HA!

Matthew Chapter 10 Verses 32 – 33

• Folks, while it’s true that if you don’t accept Jesus in this life then God will not accept you, cannot accept you in the next…while that is certainly true, let me just say, there is no one alive today and certainly no one in this room that is outside of the reach of God’s forgiveness. Peter denied Jesus 3 times openly and yet after Jesus had risen from the dead He called Peter to Himself and restored him.
• Remember to whom Jesus is speaking. And I love this message of promise that He is giving. When you open your mouth to align with Me, to confess Me, to live and to stand for Me, I will announce you in heaven and listen, heaven is not asleep. Angels will rush to see, My Father will be acutely interested in what you’re up to and the Holy Spirit Himself will boil in your blood, man! This is what is meant…stand strong and strong will arrive. I just love that promise, because man we need it…why? Because the message of the cross of Christ is foolishness to those who are perishing and it enrages the God of this age. Therefore…

Matthew Chapter 10 Verses 34 – 36

• This is very tough to hear isn’t it but here’s the thing. If there is truth, then there will be division. And look man, Jesus came to bring truth…and that’s just about the whole of it. Listen the message that Jesus brings is certainly peace but it’s not peace on earth…peace in the midst of sin is not possible…truce maybe, armistice maybe, but there is still aggression, disdain, distrust, and disunity…they’re just not acting on it…Jesus did not come to bring tolerance because tolerance is not peace!

• He did not come to bring peace between sinful man and sinful man…that’s armistice…He came to bring peace between sinful man and a Holy God. And that peace, individual, personal peace commands full commitment to Jesus Christ, even to the point of forsaking this life for Him and that is NOT of this world. He says peace on earth, not possible…gave that up a long time again…I have come to bring the sword. The sword of the Spirit, the sword of truth, the Word of God…and because of truth, sides must be chosen.

Matthew Chapter 10 Verses 37 – 39

• Who would you first forsake. Jesus or your mother. Jesus or your daughter. Jesus or your son? These are hard questions but in the end he who loses his earthly life for the sake of Jesus will truly find eternal life. Listen, don’t get so dag on down! Following Jesus will make you a better wife, a better husband, a better parent, a better child…but if it comes down to denying Jesus, not in our DNA man…no matter the cost. THAT is the testimony of a life given to God! Jesus says, “Take up your cross,”…and there’s only one reason to do that…and that is to get on it yourself for the sake of the Father and for the sake of the lost…

• You say, well how does being against even my own son in any way reach him for Jesus…well look man…if you readily take on the image of fallen man just like they expect then your witness to them is that even to you…you who carry your Bible around, you who go to church several times a week, you who won’t cuss and won’t watch those movies and won’t listen to any of this wretched music that is coming out nowadays…and yet you turn and violate what you preach and claim to be true when the conflict heats up…you PROVE to them that its nothing…I know it’ difficult, and so does Jesus…He likens it to the cross…and yet there will be some that refresh and receive you…

Matthew Chapter 10 Verses 40 – 42

• I love this linkage we have through Jesus to the Father…and notice, He says, anyone who gives one of these little ones a cup of cold water…that word for little ones is literally lesses…It’s such a huge thought…Do you demand that cup of cold water or are you humbly thankful…for even the least of leasts that you have…that will reveal where you’re at…If you just knew what has been done for you, how much you are loved even in light of how dark each one of us are…gratefulness would surge…