Sanctifying Question

How can you graciously and persistently invite friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors to church?

​​​​​​

Prayer Practice

Pray for guidance in how to best offer Christ to people in your life.

​​​​​​

Readings

Old Testament:  Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

Psalm:  Psalm 14 (UMH 746)

Epistle: I Timothy 1:12-17

Gospel: Luke 15:1-10

​​​

Matthew 28:16-20

​​​

So the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain Jesus designated.​​

​

When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.  Then Jesus came up and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, tesching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

​

I Corinthians 9:16-23

​

For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason for boasting, because I am compelled to do this.  Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.  For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward.  But if I do it unwillingly, I am entrusted with a responsibility.  What then is my reward?  That when I preach the gospel I may offer the gospel free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights in the gospel.

​

For since I am free from all, I can make myself a slave to all, in order to gain even more people.  To the Jews I became like a Jew to gain the Jews.  To those under the law, I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) to gain those under the law.  To those free from the law, I became like one free from the law (though I am not free from God's law but under the law of Christ).  To the weak, I became weak in order to gain the weak.  I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I may save some.

 

I do all these things because of the gospel, so that I can be a participant in it. 

​​

​​

​​

A Little Context​​

​​​

The gospel of Matthew stands appropriately at the beginning of the New Testament, in closest proximity to the Old.  Like all the writers of the NT, Matthew believes that the Son of God himself who spoke to Israel in the past through the prophets has now spoken through the Son of God himself.  The gospel likely was written in the decade of the 80's or 90's.  The conviction underlying the writing of Matthew's gospel is that the God who has spoken through the Son still speaks to the hearts of those who listen attentively to the stories and words of Jesus.