{"id":13181,"date":"2022-08-24T15:14:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T15:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=13181"},"modified":"2022-08-24T15:14:00","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T15:14:00","slug":"notes-from-matthew-11-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/13181\/notes-from-matthew-11-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes from Matthew 1:1-17"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was so good and so sobering.\u00a0 I am copying these notes from my notebook because they are too good for just me.\u00a0 This Matthew** study was dated August, 2020, when we were still in the middle of the pandemic.\u00a0 You told us Jesus had stopped the whole world to get our attention. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus leading up to his birth.\u00a0 These are some highlights of what you told us:<\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew and Luke are the only two gospels that have the genealogy leading up to Jesus\u2019 birth.\u00a0 You said you understand how some people would read this genealogy and be bored, but the way you prevent that is to know the people involved.\u00a0 We know them, for the most part.\u00a0 We know their stories and their failures and their successes, and there\u2019s a feeling<\/em> that comes with knowing them.\u00a0 And because of that, the genealogy in Matthew has feelings in it.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

There are discrepancies about the exact number of generations from Abraham to Jesus.\u00a0 And the number of generations from one to another in Matthew doesn\u2019t match with Luke\u2019s record, so it becomes confusing, trying to figure all of that out.\u00a0 You said that\u2019s why Paul told Timothy not to pay attention to myths and “endless genealogies that give rise to disputes” rather than to the order of God which is by faith.\u00a0 All we can do with these discrepancies is argue about it, and Paul told Titus to avoid arguing about genealogies and the Law, etc., because they\u2019re “worthless and vain”.\u00a0 There\u2019s no value in it, and here\u2019s why: \u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

All those geologies are of Jesus\u2019 flesh.\u00a0 They are\u00a0not<\/u>\u00a0the genealogy of the Son of God.\u00a0 The Son of God is no longer of the flesh because He\u2019s been glorified!\u00a0 That\u2019s who we know now.\u00a0 That\u2019s who is sitting at the right hand of the Father.\u00a0 We don\u2019t even know Jesus after the flesh anymore.\u00a0 Therefore, if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature!\u00a0 Old things are gone!\u00a0 Everything is new!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Your past is harder for you to get over than it is for God to get over.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Get over your old self!\u00a0 That thing is dead!\u00a0 Sister Natalie once said, \u201cThey can dig up that old girl, but they can\u2019t make her live!\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

You can be happy if you\u2019re really you in Christ!\u00a0 You can feel sorry for that fool that used to be alive on earth.\u00a0 You don\u2019t even know yourself in the flesh anymore when you\u2019re walking the Spirit. \u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This is the point.\u00a0 And it\u2019s Jesus\u2019 point for us:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

You were born into a living hope through the resurrection of Christ.\u00a0 How many people hold things against you from when you were born the first time?\u00a0 Your failures.\u00a0 Your ignorance; darkness.\u00a0 Nobody in the kingdom of God with any wisdom holds anything against you that you\u2019ve ever done in your life before you were born again.\u00a0 It\u2019s over with!\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to get over yourself.\u00a0 You\u2019re not a product of that union anymore.\u00a0 You\u2019re a new creature! \u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re kept by the power of God!\u00a0 Your new body is waiting for you as your inheritance.\u00a0 It\u2019s incorruptible, pure, and permanent.\u00a0 It\u2019s an eternal home. \u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

However, the deceitfulness of riches can reduce your awareness of how desperate you are for God\u2019s saving power every day.\u00a0 Pastor John gives an example of working construction in the Henderson Country Club area many years ago.\u00a0 While working at a rich man\u2019s house, the man walked outside, and Pastor John almost fell backwards because he\u2019d never seen that look of confidence and peace in a human who wasn\u2019t full of the holy Ghost. \u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

*This slow down on earth [the Corona virus shut-down] can sucker you into losing your zeal for holiness.\u00a0 You must understand that you\u2019re not doing well in God\u2019s sight just because you\u2019re\u00a0doing okay on earth.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

You can be lulled into a false sense of confidence if the power of God isn\u2019t in your life!\u00a0 When is the last time you felt the power of God?\u00a0 That\u2019s the only thing that matters!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John says he loved Bother Jerry\u2019s testimony about God saving his eyesight at the shooting range.\u00a0 Jerry didn\u2019t think he needed safety glasses, but while he was thinking that, his feet were walking back to the car to get them.\u00a0 That was the power of God saving Jerry!\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t his brain thinking he needed to go to his car.<\/span><\/p>\n

We have to have enough of the power of God living in our souls to save us from what we think! \u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t have that power living in your souls, if you\u2019re not feeling it, you are not being saved, even if you received the holy Ghost some years ago.\u00a0 That\u2019s a testimony against you, not for you, and if it\u2019s not alive right now!\u00a0 He\u2019s a right-now God!\u00a0 And if, right now, He\u2019s not in you living and breathing and talking and guiding, you\u2019re godless!\u00a0 And it\u2019s worse for you to be without that than it is for a sinner to be without it, because you have the Spirit right there inside you, and are not using it. \u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

When was the last time some of you spoke in tongues?\u00a0 When did the Spirit speak through you the last time?\u00a0 When was the last time you felt the quickening power of God that’s going to raise you from the dead?\u00a0 If it\u2019s been a while, you\u2019re in trouble!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the word of God for some of us in 1Corinthians 4:18:\u00a0 “Now some are puffed up, as though I (Jesus) were not coming to you.\u00a0 Jesus is coming!\u00a0 Some fences are going to be torn down.\u00a0 There will be nothing to sit on anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The kingdom of God is not in word; not in talk.\u00a0 It\u2019s power!\u00a0 It\u2019s feeling!\u00a0 It\u2019s experience!\u00a0 That\u2019s the salvation of the Lord!\u00a0 It’s your experience with the holy Ghost.\u00a0 Your testimony!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

When\u2019s the last time you testified to anybody?\u00a0 You overcome the world through your testimony, and the blood of the Lamb (that\u2019s the holy Ghost).<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.\u00a0 I come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly!\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t want you to just \u201chave the holy Ghost\u201d.\u00a0 He wants you to have it abundantly!\u00a0 That\u2019s when he\u2019s saving you!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Some people who have been taught the truth have gotten so dead that they talk about getting the holy Ghost the way Baptists talk about getting saved.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a dead phrase that means nothing to God, and really means nothing to their souls.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Having the holy Ghost is a bad thing if you don\u2019t use it.\u00a0 And Jesus is determined that we\u2019re going to use it.\u00a0 He is about to take some fences down.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t know what else he can do to warn you, but what he has done!\u00a0 He\u2019s stopped the whole world to get your attention!\u00a0 You\u2019re going to do the will of God.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In Ephesians chapter 5, it says do not be drunk on wine \u2013 or we could say on television, on movies, on sports!\u00a0 Entertainment is a huge thing.\u00a0 But be filled with the Spirit!\u00a0 And if you\u2019re filled with the Spirit, this is the kind of life you\u2019re going to be living:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n