October 20, 2023

   Dear Road Church Friends,

Pastor Norm and Barbara are returning home and will be back for worship this Sunday.

SERMON TITLE:  Render Unto Caesar

SCRIPTURE

Matthew 6:24

Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Matthew 17:24-27

          The Temple Tax

24  After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.

     When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”

26 “From others,” Peter answered.

    “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him.

27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

     MATTHEW 22:15-22

     Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar

15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 

16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 

17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 

19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 

20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.

     Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away. 

Blessings to you all

This service on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/fS7eFWvFRJ4?si=K2QiZnmLqOlrc_aW