The Three C's of Life

Notes: The Three C's of Life

Matthew 7

SPEAKER: Pastor Greg Laurie

MUSICAL GUEST: Marty Goetz

SERIES: God Came Near

Sunday, December 14, 2014 — 10:00 a.m. 

Jesus Christ is a solid foundation that helps the Christian survive the storms of life. In today's message, Pastor Greg Laurie speaks from Matthew 7 on the three C's of life.

Greg is talking about all the things of Christmas and how we spend so much time shopping.

1. It's not about Christmas it's about Chrsit.

2. Not merriment its the Messiah.

3. Not about good tidings but God.

Mary stepped up as she was asked to be the Niger of the Messiah. She had to bare the reputation of being an immoral woman.

Joseph responded to the calling as well.

We face hundreds of choices everyday ourselves. Our days can be overwhelmed.

The three C's: challenges, choices and consequences.

The Bible is filled with people making the right and wrong choices.

Moses, Joseph, Daniel all made right choices.

Adam, Saul, Judas, Pilot all made wrong choices.

The Bible says there are two roads we can take in life, one is narrow and one is wide.

There are two choices of where we can spend eternity. Heaven or Hell.

Matthew 7:13-14 ESV

[13] "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. [14] For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Matthew 7:21-27 ESV

[21] "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. [22] On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' [23] And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' [24] "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. [25] And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. [26] And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. [27] And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

This scripture shows that there will be followers of Christ and posers right next to each other following Christ.

There will always be real believers and fake believers.

1. just because you say "Lord, Lord" doesn't mean you are a true believer.

The men in this message are not your typical nonbeliever's. They call on the Lord, yet they are not real believers.

To be a real Christian, you must believe in His virgin birth. If He was not, then He was not the Messiah and His dying for our sins would not have mattered.

You must personally believe.

Even demons know Christ is God. They are afraid of Him.

Matthew 7:22 NKJV

[22] Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'

The devil can imitate certain miracles. Those would be false miracles. The anti-Christ will perform false miracles.

Matthew 7:23 NKJV

[23] And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

One who practices lawlessness from the Bible is a fake.

1 John 3:6 NKJV

[6] Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

It does not mean you won't sin, but you won't habitually commit the same sin.

A true Christian will build his house on the correct foundation. The foundation is the most important part.

Greg is talking about the leaning tower of Pisa. How it will eventually collapse.

Greg advices not to build your foundation on a church, your relationships or your beliefs.

You must build your foundation on Christ or it will not remain.

Matthew 13:20-21 NKJV

[20] But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; [21] yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

He is talking about dieting and how we all discover in time, that we have to eat less and exercise more.

It is the same with the Christian life. We will find we need Christ and His word.

If you build your life on Jesus Christ you will be able to withstand what ever comes your way.

Greg relates how he lost his son and how Christ is what helped him tolerate that loss. It is painful but he gets through it.

In suffering we can turn to God or turn away from him. 

Character is not made in crisis it is revealed.

Matthew 7:13-14 NKJV

[13] "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. [14] Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

If you want to build your life on the right foundation then you need to get on the right road.

You are not to be narrow minded, you need to narrow your mind to focus on Christ.

You could sum all the religions in a simple way. One leads to Gods grace and the others lead to men's accomplishments. There is God's Grace and life or men's works and death.

The narrow road that leads to life is not the popular way today, but it is the only way.

Greg is talking about the Donner party. How over 40 of them died. He said they ended up in that place because a man told them of a short cut that killed them all.

There is no short cut in life or to Heaven.

God can redeem your life no matter where you are right now. Just because you have made bad choices up to this point does not mean you have to keep making them.