Mathew 7: A Short Walk Through Some Difficult Teachings

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 24 Aug. 2013

By Captain Michael Ramsay

Today's sermon is going to be a little bit different than most of ours mostly because I haven't had a lot of time this week to find myriad stories to illustrate my points. I have been able to read quite a few different articles on this pericope so today we will take a little bit of a walk through Chapter 7. First I do have a story and a comic. The story is from Al Meyers:

With the new distracted driving laws in place across this country the RCMP are used to pulling over teenagers on their cell phones, making phone calls or even texting but what this one police officer saw was quite different. He saw an older lady knitting as she was driving down the highway. He put on his lights behind her but she didn't see him. She just kept driving so he pulled up behind her and yelled, “pull over”

“No”, She replied, “Sweater.”

This comic is one that was shared for us at Officer/family retreat this past week: There is this Baptist pastor about to baptize one of his parishioners. He goes to the tank. He holds his parishioner's hands. He says a prayer and then he looks at his friend and tells him that now when you are baptized all of you and everything that goes under the water belongs to God. This picture is the last frame of that comic.

We shouldn't necessarily judge the new convert for his actions in our story today - or should we? Let us look at our text today, Matthew 7:1-2: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (See Romans 2:1).

First thing here: What does it mean when it says do not judge? Does it mean that we are not supposed to discern right from wrong? Does it mean that we aren't supposed to make judgements at all? Does it mean that we are supposed to just go with the flow? No. The Apostle Paul is quite clear in calling us to judge the actions of other believers. 1 Corinthians 5, especially Verse 12, Paul tells us explicitly to do so.

Read more: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/08/mathew-7-short-walk-through-some.html

Matthew 6 Sence and Non-Cents

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 18 August 2013

by Captain Michael Ramsay

Some one-liners for you:

Ø      Venison for dinner again? Oh Deer!

Ø      I used to be a banker…until I lost interest

Ø      England has no kidney bank but it does have a…Liverpool

Ø      I tried to catch some fog but I…mist

Ø      Broken pencils are… pointless.

Ø      I know a guy who says he’s addicted to break fluid but he says he can stop anytime.

Ø      How long do marriages typically last? 16 years: 4 better, 4 worse, 4 richer, 4 poor

Matthew Chapter 6 is an interesting chapter. It is a portion of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount, which does address times that are for better, for worse; for richer or for poor. Matthew 6 contains in its lines, the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), further teaching on prayer (6:5-15), teaching on fasting (6:16-17) and some of Jesus’ very clear teaching on money and possessions (6:1-4, 19-34). Chapter 7, which we may examine next week, also adds to this some of Jesus’ other well-known insights on the matter (7:7-12).

read more: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/08/matthew-6-sense-and-non-cents.html