10/5/19 Seventh Day BAPTIST Edgewater, FL Pastor Keith “In His Image”

Posted : 5 Oct, 2019 12:41 PM

10/5/19 Seventh Day BAPTIST Edgewater, FL Pastor Keith “In His Image” Matthew 22:15-22

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Before the Civil War, about 1/3 of US money was counterfeit, phony money. Today our government is still fighting against phony money. On the $5.00 bill the government changed the images to guarantee that your money is real.



In our biblical text, Jesus was preaching and large crowds of people wanted to make him their King. They saw him feed and heal many people. At that time Judea already had a king, King Herod. So the Herodians got together with the Pharisees to trip Jesus up with a question. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Rome?” Now the Pharisees and Herodians didn’t agree together about paying taxes to Rome but since Jesus was their common enemy, they came together to trap Jesus. Jesus caught them in their trap by saying “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s“. The coin trap that they tried to use on Jesus failed.



The USA money we have in our wallets does not belong to us but to the government. There are federal laws about USA money. If we cut it or mutilate it, then that’s a federal crime and we can go to jail for messing up the money. It is not our money even though it is in our pocket! The image on our money declares who the bills belongs to. It says Federal Reserve note and United States of America. The words on the bills say who they belongs to. Jesus was saying the image on the coin says who it belongs to.



Give to God what is God’s. What do we give to God? Where can we find God’s image so we know what is God’s? In the book of Genesis it says we were created in God’s image. We are God’s. We need to give Me to God. We belong to God. How do we give ourselves to God? We need to give to God what belongs to Him. Jesus said this to ask the question “Do you belong to God or are you just pretending?” Pretending to be something you are not? Are you a hypocrite? Are you counterfeit?



1) We Need to Give Ourselves to Jesus:

Believe in Jesus. Put our Faith in Jesus. Then God will mark us as His own.



2) Repent and be Baptized:

This is how we should behave and what we should do. We repent of our sins, get baptized and then we get the Holy Spirit. Repenting of our sins means to change our life and turn away from sin. We must have an inward change.



Where are you in your walk with God? Are you leaning and growing with God? In Proverbs it says “Trust in the Lord”, “Fear the Lord”, “Depart from Evil” and “Honor the Lord”. The Bible also says “Don’t despise the chastisement from the Lord”. Whoever God corrects or chastises, these are the people He loves. We need to pray that we grow closer to God. We need to depend on God and yield up ourselves to Him because we are God’s own. We Praise God Our Father!!



Amen

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