Bible Study for July 10: Transformed by My Choices

Matthew 7:13-27

Derek Berry, pastor

Tabernacle Baptist Church, Hiram

In life, everywhere we turn we have a choice we must make. We cannot go anywhere or do anything without making a choice.

Matthew 7:13-14 – Who will you follow?

Choose the path that leads to life in Christ.

Everyone has a choice to make about accepting Jesus and following Him as well. These verses show us the way to heaven and the way to hell.

The foundation on which we make our decisions must be built upon Christ, says Hiram pastor Derek Berry. ROBERT DALY/Getty

The broad way is the easy way. It is the popular way that leads to hell. More people are on the easy road. But remember, the majority is not always right.

The gateway to eternal life is called “strait,” an old word for “narrow.” This does not mean it’s difficult to accept Christ and become a Christian, but that there is only one way to live eternally with God. Believing in Jesus Christ is the only way to get to enter the gate of heaven.

God’s people have always been the minority. The reason is because the way of life is narrow, lonely, and costly.

We can walk on the easy road and keep our baggage of sin or we can enter the narrow road. If we chose the narrow road, we must give up the baggage of the world.

Matthew 7:15-23 – To whom will you listen?

Choose to live in obedience and bear fruit for Christ.

False prophets were very common in the Old Testament. They would go around and prophesy only what people wanted to hear, claiming it was from God.

False teachers in our time are just as common. Jesus says to beware of those whose words sound religious but are motivated by power, fame, or money. You can spot the false teachers by how they minimize Christ and glorify themselves when they are teaching.

God created everything in nature to reproduce after its own kind. This too is true in the spiritual realm. Good fruit comes from a good tree; therefore, bad fruit comes from a bad tree. The tree that produces rotten fruit is cut away and thrown into the fire.

We are known by the fruit we product. What kind of fruit have you been producing?

Matthew 7:24-27 – Who will you imitate?

Choose to build your life on Christ and His teachings. Jesus Christ was a carpenter by trade and profession. He knew houses and the building trade.

Every person has a house (a life) to build. How you build your life determines your destiny, not just for this life but eternity. How you build your life makes all the difference between success and failure, life and death, reward and loss, acceptance and rejection, standing and falling.

There is only one Foundation for every life: Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:11). He is the Rock upon which both individuals and churches are to build (Matt. 16:18).

Everyone either builds his or her life upon this world or upon Christ. Jesus teaches that there are two kinds of builders. A wise builder hears the instructions and obeys them (Matt. 7:24-25). A foolish builder hears the instructions and does not obey them (Matthew 7:26-27).