Live 4 The LORD

Matthew 21:21-22

And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

{If you have faith (totally trust in God for) and do not doubt (God can and will) you can ask, believe, and receive what you ask for. 

This of course has to align with what God tells you to ask for. God directs us. We are here to serve and love Him for His Glory. 

If you ask for selfish things without being directed to do so, it will not happen. However He does want us to be participants with Him. 

So listen! Think of what Jesus is telling you to have faith for! Ask, believe, and receive it!}

Matthew 21:25-27

The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?” And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the crowd; for they all regard John as a prophet.” And they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

{They reason among themselves. They actually see the truth. They know He is God and must believe. They know He is a prophet. Or at minimum fear men that believe he is a prophet…how can they not reason themselves to believe? 

All unbelief is an attempt to not change. If we believe truth…we must change. If we know God came to tell us truth, we cannot ignore truth or we live in delusion. If we live in delusion we are making up our life in our mind and it will clash with reality. Eventually reality will invade us and we will have the consequences. Those consequences will not be good and we will be destroyed. 

God is always trying to wake us up to live in reality and freedom from slavery. Our delusions make us feel in control and happy when we are actually destroying ourselves. In the end we will get what we chose.

They say they don’t know because they know there are consequences and they are putting off the decision. They want their delusion. They have chosen and Jesus says he will not tell them…because he just did! They deny it.}

Matthew 21:44

And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”

{If I fall on Jesus and let him break my broken flesh to pieces and fill me with new life I will be free. If I wait and He falls on me, I will be obliterated and live in hell for eternity. He is calling us to be broken now and healed so we are not crushed for eternity!}

Matthew 21:45-46

And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He *was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to seize Him, they feared the crowds, because they were regarding Him to be a prophet.

{They understood the parables and rightly agreed the wretched would come to a bad end. They also understood he was speaking about them. They even knew all others thought he was a prophet…how could they not believe? 

They wanted to kill him. How can a good person want to kill anyone? They were not people of God at all. The leaders of the religion of God were not people of God?!?! 

How can someone be so close and intimate with the things of God and not know him? Was it just ritualized life and if so to what was the purpose, if it was not to be with God? Who would wrap their life around Godly stuff and not want God? What is the point of that?? Why not be worldly if that’s the case…Did they have prestige & power?

All unbelief is an attempt to not change. If we believe truth…we must change. If we deny truth we live in delusion and will be destroyed by it. We will get what we choose.}