Episode Transcript
[00:00:15] Hi, my name is Andrea Bumpstead, and I am a member at Restore Temecula. If you are new, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. We believe the church is not an event, but a family that you belong to, so we would love the opportunity to connect with you.
[00:00:32] If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help in any way, please visit our website at www.restortemecula.com and click on contact.
[00:00:44] We also have a mobile app with resources, including our Sunday messages, information about upcoming events, and other ways to connect. You can download our app on the Apple or Android App Store. With all of that said, we hope you enjoy the message. Okay, before I ju. Ben, I want to share something with you. It's pretty important.
[00:01:09] So we've been gathering at Margarita Middle School for really since we launched in 2018. Launched Sunday mornings at least. And then Covid hit and we had to figure things out. And we, you know, you guys know the drill. We goodness. We tried to do things online, which was just the worst. And then we were at Warm Springs for a year because they let us into their school. Temecula was a little different than Murrieta as far as school districts go. And.
[00:01:34] And then a year after that, we got back into this space, and it's been great. So we've been, like, so thankful for our relationship with Margarita Middle School. They've been amazing.
[00:01:44] But it's looking as though our ability to meet here is in jeopardy.
[00:01:49] We're still kind of waiting to hear back on specifics. I would love to share more with you than what I just did, but it is looking like it's going to be in jeopardy fairly quickly.
[00:01:58] And so what I want to do is I want to ask you to join us in seriously praying, like, pressing in, interceding God like, he loves us. He cares about us. He planted this church like he, Jesus, loves his church. He's growing his church. The gates of hell will not prevail against his church. So I'm not worried, but I am concerned, and I want to invite you join us in, like, pressing into God, see what he highlights, see what he prepares. We want to be people who are consistently asking and seeking and knocking in pursuit of what God might have for us. And so I want to put that in front of you. One of the unique things that you want to be aware of is that, I mean, you guys know this, but our church is filled with a lot of littles, a lot of children. And so what that does is it makes certain spaces just not work if it doesn't have space for kids. And so as, I mean, we have the staff consistently looking, the elders consistently looking.
[00:02:53] There's different committees in the church that are consistently looking. But I want to invite all of the church. This isn't up to just a select few to make this happen. We're going to need all of the saints, all of the hands, all of the feet of Jesus to really up our game and trying to identify a space that would work for this unique expression of the family of God. Okay. And so ask, seek, knock, explore, anything. You have permission, you are deputized to try to help us find a gathering space.
[00:03:24] Yeah. Pray, pray, seek, ask, knock, all the above. Sound good?
[00:03:28] All right, grab your bibles. Matthew, chapter 15.
[00:03:31] I will start my clock.
[00:03:34] We are continuing on in our series the King and His Kingdom.
[00:03:37] We want to learn as much as we can about King Jesus and his rule and reign.
[00:03:43] When I say the kingdom, kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, those phrases are synonymous.
[00:03:48] You've heard me say this a hundred. Actually, you've heard me say this 73. 74 times. Yeah, 73 times. That when I talk about the kingdom of God, I'm talking about what it looks like when God gets his way. The rule and the reign of the king of the universe. All right. There's so many implications there. We have so much to learn. And so that's what we're giving ourselves over to here in Matthew. We're gonna be in Matthew chapter 15, like I said. But before I read this passage and before we jump into this morning's message, I want to pray. I want to invite God through his spirit to teach us. And so I'd love for you to join me. Let's pray together.
[00:04:35] Father, I don't want to treat prayer as though it's like a pause life to pray and then re enter life.
[00:04:42] That's just not a biblical understanding of prayer like I want us to. Consistent. Like we sang this morning, we want to abide in you. We want to remain in you. We want to stay connected with you.
[00:04:55] That's prayer.
[00:04:56] Relationship with you always ongoing, all the time, enjoying you, obeying you, operating like you, Jesus, friendship, fellowship, communion, unbroken.
[00:05:07] That's the way we were designed to operate. So right now we pray, and I want us to pray the rest of the gathering. But, like right now, we just come before you and we ask you, Holy Spirit, would you show us the beauty of Jesus?
[00:05:20] Would you teach us in areas where we might be, like, either having misunderstanding or gaps or even just like, fears and worries and insecurities. I pray that you would help us see the glory and the beauty of Jesus to free us.
[00:05:35] I pray that we'd be able to experience salvation this morning, everybody in the room.
[00:05:41] And I pray for if by chance there's anybody in the room who's not yet yielded to your lordship, who doesn't yet know you, not just as, like a distant God, but as a personal savior, as a friend, as a redeemer, I pray God that you'd show them.
[00:05:57] You'd show them that you love them.
[00:06:00] All of us.
[00:06:01] So teach us, we pray. We love you. We bless you, Jesus, you're wonderful to us. You're so kind.
[00:06:07] And pray these things in your name. Amen.
[00:06:10] Okay, so Matthew, chapter 15, starting in verse one, as Matthew, has a kind of a habit of going, then this happened, and then this happened. And that's what we see here in verse one. The very first word, it says, then Jesus. Then what? Let me give you a little bit of context. Jesus has just miraculously fed, like, essentially about 10 to 20,000 people. We already talked about that. But he does this incredible miracle, right? And then after that, he walks on water.
[00:06:35] Pretty significant. I don't know if any of you have ever done that. It's pretty spectacular.
[00:06:40] Savior of the world walks on water, and then he miraculously heals like multitudes and multitudes of people.
[00:06:46] All right, that's where we pick up here in verse one. Then, after all of those things, Jesus was approached by Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem, Underline Jerusalem, who asked, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? Underline tradition, for they don't wash their hands when they eat.
[00:07:11] Sickos.
[00:07:12] Verse 3. That was a joke. You can laugh at it.
[00:07:16] Verse 3.
[00:07:18] Jesus answered those Pharisees and says, why do you break God's commandment? Because of your tradition.
[00:07:24] I love Jesus, for God said, honor your father and mother, and whoever speaks evil of father and mother must be put to death. But you say, whoever tells his father and mother, whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift that's actually committed to the temple. He does not have to honor his father in this way. You have nullified the word of God because of your tradition.
[00:07:50] Hypocrites.
[00:07:53] Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
[00:08:01] They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines, human commands.
[00:08:07] That's our passage. This morning's gonna be so much fun, guys.
[00:08:11] Super light. Super, like, just really light and airy. Sermon.
[00:08:15] Okay, There's a ton here. What's going on? Okay, you got the hand washing thing. The Pharisees upset.
[00:08:22] Are Jesus disciples just really like that? Bad hygiene or they're not washing their hands before dinner is what's going on here. No, this is. Believe it or not, this is not primarily about hygiene at all.
[00:08:34] Let me give you a little bit of context that will be helpful if you don't already know this stuff. We're gonna geek out just a little bit. But you guys know this. God gives people the law in the Old Testament, right? Here's the law. Here's the rules, if you will. And they're not just, like, rules to, like, keep you in this box and make your life miserable. No, no, no. They're the do's and the don'ts of human flourishing.
[00:08:55] Anybody in the room want to flourish in life?
[00:08:57] Yeah, me too, right? Like, I think so. Oftentimes in very religious environments, we look at God's law, we look at God's commands, we look at God's rules, We look at these things and we look at it and they can feel like, oh, this is stifling me from the things that. Actually, I think some of these things I want. And God's going, no, no, no, no, no. That's not why they exist. They don't exist to harm you. They exist to help you thrive.
[00:09:20] Okay? So these are the do's and the don'ts for human flourishing. Okay? Now, one such law from the Old Testament had to do with priests performing duties in the temple, okay? And one of the things that they would do is they were required to wash their hands and feet before they performed these specific duties, or else they were. Do you know what it's called?
[00:09:40] Unclean. We've talked about this a little bit before.
[00:09:43] The Jewish people, they had this concept of unclean versus clean. And it wasn't about hygiene. It wasn't about physical cleanliness.
[00:09:52] Listen, it was entirely ceremonial.
[00:09:56] It served a purpose. It had a point. Okay, let me give you some background. William Barclay, one of my favorite Bible commentators. He helps me so much. He says this quote, for the people to be clean was for them to be in a state where they might worship and approach God.
[00:10:12] For them to be unclean was for them to be in a state where such a worship and such an approach were impossible.
[00:10:20] This uncleanness was contracted. Listen to this. It was contracted by contact with certain persons or things. For instance, get this. A woman was unclean if she had a hemorrhage, even if that hemorrhage was her normal monthly period.
[00:10:38] She was unclean for a stated time after she had had a child.
[00:10:43] Every dead body was unclean, and to touch it was to become unclean.
[00:10:48] Every Gentile, non Jews, unclean.
[00:10:53] This uncleanness was transferable.
[00:10:57] It was, so to speak, infectious.
[00:11:01] I want you to get the picture here, okay? To be clean is to be in a state where you're able to worship and approach God. Okay? To be unclean means you're not.
[00:11:13] There's something that needs to take place. There's a spiritual cleansing that needs to take place. Now, listen, that might sound really, like weird and harsh, and it kind of is. But this was rooted in a very real reverence for God's holiness.
[00:11:26] And as much as some of these things bother me, there's some beauty in folks who have a high reverence for God's holiness. Because the truth of the matter is he's very different than I am.
[00:11:39] The scriptures talk about how his thoughts are higher than my thoughts. His ways are higher than my ways.
[00:11:48] God's holy. He's set apart. He's altogether lovely. He's brilliant. He's different, okay? He's holy. And that can be dangerous for sinners. We've talked about this often. Like it can be dangerous. Not cause he's bad, but because he's so good. It's like getting too close to the sun, you know?
[00:12:06] So this is rooted, this idea of clean versus unclean. It's rooted in a very real reference for God's holiness. And this hand washing that we're talking about here was all about being clean, not physically, but spiritually. Right? Now this might sound kind of silly for us. We're like, okay, whatever.
[00:12:25] But everybody does things to feel clean spiritually, like everybody.
[00:12:35] Now, you might not be the person that kind of engages in the spiritual, you know, the ceremonial hand washing type thing, but you certainly do other things.
[00:12:49] Do you know what they are like? Do you know the things that you do, whether instinctively or thought out? Do you know the things that you do to try to feel spiritually clean?
[00:13:03] We all do it.
[00:13:06] So this ceremonial hand washing, they even developed a process for how the hands needed to be washed. So they're getting really serious about trying to present themselves as clean so that they're not unclean. And again, the reason they're presenting themselves as clean is why?
[00:13:22] So that they can approach God and worship him.
[00:13:25] So again, intentions aren't bad. They're actually, on the surface, the intentions are really good.
[00:13:30] But check this out. I want to give you one more Quote, we're gonna nerd out for just a second more.
[00:13:34] Their process for how the hands must be washed. This is Charles Quarles. He says this quote, I'll try to act it out too. A person would first pour water over his hands with the fingers pointing up and with the water reaching the wrist. Right. So you get the picture. Then he would point the fingers down and pour the water again, this time allowing the water to drip off the fingers.
[00:14:02] If one mixed up this order and poured the water both times with the hands pointed down or the hands. Oh, yeah, both hands pointing down or up. The hands were still ritually unclean.
[00:14:16] Each hand had to be rubbed with the other, but this could not be done until the other hand was clean.
[00:14:23] To neglect the first or third washing was considered a serious sin, possibly a deadly one.
[00:14:30] Can you imagine dying because you didn't wash your hands properly?
[00:14:34] Such washing was not prescribed by Old Testament law. This is important. But was a tradition passed down to 1st century Jews by their elders, unquote.
[00:14:48] Are you getting this concept?
[00:14:50] So in an effort to avoid any possibility of being unclean, the religious leaders from back in the day, they installed a tradition.
[00:15:00] Okay? They installed the tradition. Now, I just want to be clear. There's nothing wrong with the tradition. Like, nothing. Not inherently.
[00:15:07] I mean, even our church, Our church has plenty of wonderful traditions, right? We have the Christmas party every year.
[00:15:13] Right. Some communities, they like a Christmas Eve service. We do a Christmas party. It's awesome. We love it. It's a tradition for us. We do tacos on our church's birthday every year. Like, we have these wonderful traditions. Traditions in and of themselves. Please, please hear me say this. They're not bad.
[00:15:26] They're not bad.
[00:15:28] Okay?
[00:15:30] But I think it's really critical that we understand what's happening here.
[00:15:35] Okay?
[00:15:37] These Pharisees, did you catch where they traveled from? I had you. I had you underline it. So the first verse.
[00:15:43] Yeah. Jerusalem. Okay, now for those of you that have really been following along the last few weeks, do you know where Jesus is at geographically right now?
[00:15:54] The Sea of Galilee. So he's ministering in like the north end of Galilee.
[00:15:59] So if you open the maps portion of your study Bible at home and it's got all the maps in the region. Jerusalem is south from Galilee.
[00:16:08] It's a four day journey from Jerusalem up to Galilee. They're not ubering.
[00:16:14] Okay? They're not taking their uber blade. Their copter. They're not doing. No, they're walking. Right. And if they're really rich, they're on top of like an animal or whatever, right? So that's a four day journey. Do you remember the last time that you spent four straight days to get to someplace?
[00:16:30] Yeah, four straight.
[00:16:32] That's intense, right?
[00:16:34] That's an arduous journey. It really, really is.
[00:16:38] I remember the closest I've come to that. I typically will do some ministry in South Africa once, maybe twice a year. And typically it's about 36ish hours to get there. It's a long, long plane ride. A couple years ago, me and my eldest daughter Millie. Where is she? There she is. We go and multiple flights get delayed and canceled. It took us almost four days to get there. It was absolutely miserable. Okay, four days to travel.
[00:17:09] You know, many times on that trip we were like, let's just go home. This is not worth it. It's a long time. So I want you to get the picture that these Pharisees, they have their mind set. They're going, they're going to meet up with this guy Jesus in Galilee. Okay? Four day journey.
[00:17:26] So they travel four days, they get to Jesus, they confront him and what do they say to him? They're like, Jesus, Jesus is a rabbi, right? Which means teacher. He has his disciples and they confront him. They're like, you're teaching your disciples to break the tradition of the elders.
[00:17:44] In essence, what they're saying is, don't you care about being clean, not hygiene?
[00:17:56] What are they doing?
[00:17:57] They're attempting to enforce something, aren't they?
[00:18:01] What are they attempting to enforce?
[00:18:06] Yeah, tradition, Not God's law, tradition.
[00:18:14] Look back at verse two.
[00:18:17] Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders now? I think that word tradition kind of misses it with us. Like it, I feel like modern Christians, Western Christians, if you will. It kind of feels like a foreign word. You know, we don't really, I think oftentimes we think like we don't really have traditions that we get really dogmatic about. Like they would have.
[00:18:41] You know, I want to propose to you that. Oh yes, we do.
[00:18:47] Oh yes we do.
[00:18:50] Just take some. A handful. Let's just take Sundays.
[00:18:54] Sunday worship gatherings, right?
[00:18:58] That church service, man, that worship service, if it goes past an hour or on the flip side, you go to some other part, other streams of Christianity and look at our two hour gathering. They laugh at us. They're like, oh my God, you guys only worship God for two hours.
[00:19:13] So regardless of where you are and that everybody's got like an idea. No, this is what it should be.
[00:19:19] This is how long the worship gathering should be. I got a hot take for you really quickly. You've heard me say this before. I'm gonna say it again.
[00:19:27] Far too many Western Christians, they treat Sunday worship gatherings as though they're primarily for them.
[00:19:35] I've been guilty of this.
[00:19:38] But far too many treat the Sunday gathering as though it's for them. Right?
[00:19:44] Who's the Sunday gathering for?
[00:19:47] It's for Him. Like, who are we gathered to worship? We're gathered to worship God. Like, the whole point is it's for Him.
[00:19:54] We're coming together to worship and praise and adore and learn more about him, to express devotion to him, to praise him, to enjoy him, to talk about him. To be in his presence corporately together as the family of God, brothers and sisters with the same heavenly Father. Right? Amen. Right? It's for Him.
[00:20:12] But if that gets twisted, then things can kind of shift, right? Your approach to Sundays can be totally different. Listen, this is just an example, okay? Attendance on Sundays doesn't matter that much if it's for you.
[00:20:24] Cause there might be other things that you got going on that you need to get to, understandably. I'm not throwing shade at you. I'm not trying to make you feel bad if that's you. But I'm just saying, like, it changes our whole approach, okay? But if it's for God and I love him and I worship Him, I'm not missing, it's for Him.
[00:20:44] I'm certainly not, like, looking at my watch being like, when's the gray hair God get me done? I'm hungry. You know what I mean?
[00:20:54] How about this one? This one happens all the time. Music, right?
[00:20:59] Music.
[00:21:01] It should be this style.
[00:21:03] I can't really get as engaged if Kylo's not playing drums. I like it when Kyla plays drums.
[00:21:09] I like it when Vinnie plays the Cajon.
[00:21:13] I like it when Mark sings. I like it when Courtney sings. You know what I'm talking about? Like, ah, it's not as.
[00:21:20] Be careful, like, who's it for? Right? But either way, like, music should be in this style. It should be at this volume, not this volume or that volume, right? It should have these kinds of instruments, not those ones.
[00:21:39] Youth ministry, kids ministry, right? It should look like this. It should be run this way, not that way. And again, the opinions are, like, all across the board.
[00:21:49] It's all over the place.
[00:21:54] Felt really convicted by this one this week.
[00:21:59] I think a more modern word, because we think tradition and we think, oh, that's them. That's different type of people. I think a more modern Word for man installed tradition that would be helpful for us is just preference.
[00:22:12] Like, this is the way things should be.
[00:22:17] And again, like, this is the way things should be. Not based on what God's word says, based on what man prefers.
[00:22:30] And that's what we see with these Pharisees. They're like, jesus, you're not doing things the way that things should be done.
[00:22:36] Do you care about cleanliness?
[00:22:39] Do you care about the tradition of the elders?
[00:22:47] I had a bit of a realization this week.
[00:22:50] It's not new, but it's fresh.
[00:22:53] I'm so much more like these Pharisees than I think I am.
[00:22:58] I suspect I'm not the only one.
[00:23:02] Like, it looks different, right? It looked different for them than it does for me. But, guys, we try to enforce our preferences just as much, if not more than they did.
[00:23:14] So these Pharisees, right? They confront Jesus.
[00:23:19] How does he respond? He responds by calling them out, and he does it in front of everyone.
[00:23:30] I want to make sure that we understand what he says to them. He goes.
[00:23:35] He wants them to see. No.
[00:23:36] God says, honor your father and your mother, okay? And then he goes, but when mom and dad, when they're in need, what you Pharisees do is you say, well, I've dedicated these resources to. To the temple, so I can't help you with them.
[00:23:54] Let me summarize that for you. Essentially, he's saying Jesus is like, you claim to follow God while you're breaking God's law.
[00:24:02] It's like a total contradiction, right? It doesn't make sense. It's like. It's like, you know what I'm saying? I'm not gonna come up with some arbitrary example for you. You know what I'm saying here? You claim to follow God while you're breaking God's law. You claim to follow God, but what you're really following is your traditions and your practice preferences.
[00:24:21] And then what does he call them?
[00:24:23] Everybody's favorite word.
[00:24:25] We all love to be called it, right?
[00:24:28] Hypocrite.
[00:24:31] Does your Bible have an exclamation point after that word, like mine does?
[00:24:37] That's heavy, huh?
[00:24:39] Hypocrites.
[00:24:43] If you ever want to get called out by Jesus, just start practicing hypocrisy, like, legitimately. You read the New Testament. There are few things that bother Jesus as much as hypocrisy.
[00:24:58] Hear me, this is especially among people with influence, like these Pharisees. They're the teachers of the law.
[00:25:10] They're like the influencers of the age.
[00:25:13] They would have the YouTube channel with millions of followers.
[00:25:16] Like, no. Like, really they would.
[00:25:19] These people have influence in Jesus, especially among people with influence, when they are acting in hypocrisy because of the influence they would have, the ways that they would model that and teach that to other people, like Jesus.
[00:25:31] If you want to get called out by Jesus, just start practicing hypocrisy.
[00:25:38] These Pharisees, they're teaching people, they're influencing people.
[00:25:43] Allow me to introduce something to you that was very convicting for me this week in regards to this.
[00:25:51] Can I just address the Christian adults in the room? If you're not yet a follower of Jesus, you're just investigating things. Just, you know, sit tight. This doesn't apply to you. And here's the thing. Christian adults in the room, not just parents, the kids are watching us.
[00:26:08] I see you now. She's like, yep. No, it's true.
[00:26:11] It's so true.
[00:26:13] The children, they're watching us.
[00:26:16] What are we teaching them?
[00:26:20] What are we modeling for them? Right?
[00:26:23] Are we modeling, like, hypocrisy, or are we modeling, like, a humble repentance? Like, yeah, I acknowledge it.
[00:26:35] I've been living kind of hypocritically in these areas, and I want to turn away. I want to repent for that. I'm going to take responsibility, and I'm actually going to stop doing that because I want to follow Jesus again. There's a difference there, guys.
[00:26:45] One requires humility and one rejects humility.
[00:26:50] It's not just the Christian adults. Christian youth in the room.
[00:26:53] Love you guys, believe in you. You guys are the future. You guys are incredible. My favorite people in the room. No offense to the adults, but Christian youths, those little ones in those rooms, they're watching you, too.
[00:27:05] They look up to you. And I don't say this to, like, load pressure on you. Like, try harder, be better. No, no, no, no, no. That's not what we're doing here. But they are watching you. Regardless of your age or your stage in life, I want you to know you have influence over people. And that influence is a beautiful, important, good thing.
[00:27:26] God's entrusted it to you to steward well, and nobody does it perfectly.
[00:27:31] I sure as heck don't.
[00:27:33] But I want you, regardless of your age or stage in life, I want you to know God's given you important influence over people.
[00:27:45] I'll share just one little bit.
[00:27:48] Parents, you'll know this. Our kids, they're really, really good at identifying our hypocrisy, aren't they?
[00:27:56] This happened maybe a couple months ago, and it's happened multiple Times I'm gonna confess to you, I look like an idiot, okay? But I need Jesus.
[00:28:04] So we've tried to install a rule, you know, like, dinner table, no screens. Like, we're not doing that, you know, and if you do that, I'm not throwing shade at you. Our household operates a certain way that I just. It's for us. It's unique to us. It's fine.
[00:28:18] But we've said, you know, no screens at the dinner table.
[00:28:21] And a few weeks ago, I was very backed up on responding to messages on my phone.
[00:28:29] And so I'm. I think it was lunch, so it wasn't technically the dinner table, you know, so I'm on my phone, I'm responding to messages, and Vivian's like, hey, dad, you said no screens at the dinner table.
[00:28:46] And she was right. You know, she totally caught me.
[00:28:50] I think that's how it goes, though, with hypocrisy.
[00:28:54] I think that's how it goes. I think hypocrisy is way more sneaky than we think it is. I think it's so easy to recognize it in other people. Dude, it's so much harder to recognize it in yourself.
[00:29:06] At least that is for me. Maybe that's not your experience. It's way harder for me to recognize it in myself than it is for me to recognize it in other people. People.
[00:29:15] So here's what. I got about 20 minutes or so left. Here's what I want to do. I want to.
[00:29:19] There's some things that we can learn from this passage about hypocrisy that are really, really helpful, okay? And I'm going to give you these. There's three indicators here that can help us recognize hypocrisy in our own lives. Now, listen, not in the lives of your neighbor, not in the lives of your spouse, not in the lives of other people.
[00:29:39] Yes, you know, we can, but I want us to. If we can, I want us to kind of go. Let's focus first and foremost on trying to recognize it in ourselves. Because like I said, if you're anything like me, it's harder to recognize in you. Okay, I'm gonna give you three indicators really quickly here that can help us recognize hypocrisy in our own lives. A little caveat again. If you're not a follower of Jesus, this doesn't apply to you, okay?
[00:30:01] If you're here, just visiting, checking things out, glad that you're here, you get to see a Behind the curtain look at, like, Christianity. This is what God expects of us. Those kinds of things. But either way, let's go through this three indicators that can help us recognize hypocrisy in our own lives that we see in this passage. The first one, if you're taking notes, is this. Hypocrites prioritize preference over precept.
[00:30:22] You're welcome with the alliteration.
[00:30:24] I may or may not have used chatgpt to help me with that third P word.
[00:30:29] I'll say it again. Hypocrites prioritize preference over precept.
[00:30:33] Now that alliteration is really impressive to you. But precept, if you're not familiar what that word means, it just means a rule.
[00:30:39] A rule, right?
[00:30:42] So to prioritize preference over precept is essentially to break God's rules in favor of preference. Your preference, right? What did Jesus say to them? He says, hey guys, Pharisees, God said, honor your father and mother. But you say, you don't have to look back at verse six.
[00:31:02] He does not have to honor his father and mother in this way. You have nullified the word of God. Why?
[00:31:09] Because of your tradition.
[00:31:12] Because of your preferred worship style.
[00:31:16] Literally, the hand washing is all a ceremonial act of what worship? In their mind, that was their preferred worship style, like legitimately. So he's going, hey, because of your preferred worship style. Because of your preference.
[00:31:32] Guys, that's what tradition is. Hear me? That's what tradition is. It's preferences handed down and adopted over time.
[00:31:41] Not bad. Some of them are wonderful, right? Incredible, beautiful, life giving, Godly even.
[00:31:50] The issue is not preferences in general. The issue is when preferences are prioritized over God's precepts. Do you get the difference?
[00:31:59] That's what's happening here with these Pharisees.
[00:32:03] Let me give you a handful of modern day examples, okay?
[00:32:11] No one in this room has ever done this overeating.
[00:32:15] No one in this room has ever done this over drinking, right? Even though God says don't do that, it's not gonna be good for you. God says don't do that. It's a preference that's prioritized over God's precepts, over his rules. Get the picture?
[00:32:29] How about this one? Withholding forgiveness.
[00:32:32] Even though God explicitly says forgive. And I know it's hard, people wrong you, people hurt you. Some of you have been, some of you experienced evil.
[00:32:42] Like evil.
[00:32:45] Jesus knows what that feels like. He's been the recipient of wickedness and evil.
[00:32:52] But he knows that you harboring bitterness is actually not going to be good for you.
[00:32:57] So God says, forgive, withhold forgiveness. Even though God Says to forgive. That's a preference that's prioritized over God's precepts. You might be thinking, well, Tom, I don't want to be bitter.
[00:33:08] I hear you.
[00:33:09] I don't want to withhold forgiveness. I hear you.
[00:33:14] But don't let yourself off the hook.
[00:33:17] We get to make choices.
[00:33:19] Some of them are hard. I want to be sensitive to that. It is. It's hard.
[00:33:24] But God has a better way.
[00:33:28] Again, how about this one? No one in this room has ever done this. Gossip.
[00:33:32] Gossip is when you talk unfavorably about another person behind their back.
[00:33:38] Like, even when God says, don't do that.
[00:33:40] It's only gonna. It's only gonna, like, poison the water around you, right? What is that?
[00:33:46] I'm gonna do it. I prefer a preference that is prioritized over God's precepts. And, guys, the list goes on. Lying, dishonesty. We could just go through the Bible of, like, all the commands, right?
[00:33:59] This goes on. You know you're practicing hypocrisy when you prioritize preference over God's precepts. Okay, I'm almost done. Look back at verse three.
[00:34:10] I'm going to read this quickly. He answered them. Why do you break God's commandment? Because of your tradition. This is Jesus talking to them again, right? For God said, honor your father and your mother, and whoever speaks evil of father and mother must be put to death. That's pretty intense. Verse 5.
[00:34:23] But you say whoever tells his father and mother, whatever benefit you might have received from me as a gift committed to the temple, verse 6, he does not have to honor his father. He's, like, quoting them. Okay, in this way, you have nullified the word of God because of your tradition. Okay, so what I want you to see here, not only did the Pharisees prioritize their preferences over God's precepts, they also make an excuse for why they do it.
[00:34:47] Did you catch that?
[00:34:49] They make an excuse for why they do it. I've already dedicated these resources to the temple.
[00:34:55] I can't break an oath. That would be against the law. I can't break an oath. Therefore, I can't honor my father and mother. Are you seeing their thought process there? Are you seeing this? They're making an excuse for why they can't follow the law.
[00:35:13] It's an excuse justified by their preference.
[00:35:18] The second point for you, the second indicator of hypocrisy. Hypocrites make excuses for breaking God's rules.
[00:35:28] Hypocrites make excuses for breaking God's rules.
[00:35:32] Now, I know that, like I said, this doesn't apply to anybody in the room. We're talking about everybody out there, okay?
[00:35:39] No, we're talking about us.
[00:35:43] You ever make excuses?
[00:35:55] God doesn't treat sin casually. So what I'm about to tell you, I'm going to confess some more to you.
[00:35:59] I'm not trying to, like, downplay sinning against God, but I want you to know that, like, I'm just like you.
[00:36:07] I need Jesus to help me.
[00:36:17] The past few weeks have been pretty stressful for me.
[00:36:22] I.
[00:36:24] We've been in this kind of, like, uncertainty about our living situation, like, whether the house that we live in, whether the landlord's going to let us renew our lease.
[00:36:34] And so we've been, like, actively looking and applying to different rentals and different things and trying to make something happen.
[00:36:39] And, you guys, one of the things that drives me crazy is that they will charge you an application fee to run your credit, you know, and some of them will charge you, like, okay, this is what it costs. Some of them charge astronomical prices for an application fee, knowing they're not going to, like, select you like a money grab, you know, that was bothering me. So we've applied to different places, but I'm feeling stressed about this. I'm like, what's going to happen? I think we're going to be okay, just to let you know. But this last few weeks, I've been like. I've been feeling that, like, oh, my gosh, my family, we might have, like, a week to get out of our house and then starting to hear stuff from the school district about the school and that's in jeopardy. And I'm like, oh, great, That's. That's cool. That sounds great, too. Like, my family is gonna. Might not have a place, and, oh, our church might not have a place. This is fantastic, you know, so I'm just, like, feeling it. I feel like God's held me. It's been good, but there's been moments of temptation where I'm like, the stress is real.
[00:37:39] And on two occasions the last few weeks, I legitimately mistreated my wife and I mistreated my girls.
[00:37:53] And my first internal thought was. And I'm not proud. My first internal thought was like, well, I'm just stressed.
[00:38:05] Luke 6. 31.
[00:38:07] This is such a famous verse.
[00:38:10] Do to others as you would have them do to you.
[00:38:19] I'm a hypocrite, man.
[00:38:23] It's not my identity, but I'm guilty of it.
[00:38:28] That whole. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. That's so simple, huh?
[00:38:33] Super simple.
[00:38:35] Not exactly the easiest thing to do, though, especially when you're stressed.
[00:38:43] And you can use that as an excuse, like I did, at least internally.
[00:38:48] I don't think I said that to them.
[00:38:53] Maybe you can relate.
[00:38:56] Hypocrites make excuses for breaking God's rules.
[00:39:04] The final one for you.
[00:39:07] Hypocrites prioritize appearance over the heart.
[00:39:10] Look back at verse 7.
[00:39:13] Hypocrites prioritize appearance over the heart.
[00:39:18] Jesus calls them hypocrites. And he quotes Isaiah. He says isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said, these people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
[00:39:30] That's what hypocrites do. Hypocrites prioritize appearance over what's going on in here.
[00:39:41] We're going to spend some more time on this next week.
[00:39:44] We'll go into the next verses here, but it all kind of.
[00:39:47] So we're going to spend more time on this a week from now. But the essence of hypocrisy is to mask yourself.
[00:39:55] It's what's happening, okay? Hypocrisy. It is living a lie. It's a contradiction, right?
[00:40:03] Where the real inner you like the real inner you, right? And the you that you present on the outside, those are not the same person. Person.
[00:40:19] So three indicators.
[00:40:21] They can help us recognize hypocrisy in our own lives.
[00:40:26] Hypocrites prioritize preference over precept.
[00:40:30] They make excuses for breaking God's rules, and they prioritize appearance over the heart. The external instead of the inner world. The inner man, the inner woman.
[00:40:41] So here's my proposition to you this morning.
[00:40:46] My proposition to you this morning is that all Christians, every Christian you've ever known, every Christian you've ever met, all Christians are guilty of hypocrisy, okay?
[00:40:59] The world sees it.
[00:41:02] They say it's kind of what we're known for, huh?
[00:41:08] Because it's really easy to recognize hypocrisy in others. It's so much more difficult to recognize it in yourself.
[00:41:15] Thankfully, Jesus loves people enough to confront them in their hypocrisy.
[00:41:25] Friends, Jesus is still confronting people.
[00:41:28] He's still confronting hypocrisy.
[00:41:32] And I believe that the question for the Christian is how will we respond when he does?
[00:41:41] Will we humble ourselves, Right? Acknowledge it? Okay, Yep. I'm not living consistent.
[00:41:48] Humble ourselves, acknowledge it, and then repent. I'm turning away from that. Or do we double down?
[00:41:54] I've done this in fights with my wife. You know, where you double down, you just. Nope, I'm stubborn. I'm gonna hold onto this, you know, I'm gonna justify my behavior.
[00:42:03] You're the problem, lady. You know, whatever.
[00:42:08] How are we gonna respond to Jesus confronting us with hypocrisy? Humble ourselves, acknowledge it and repent? Or do we double down? Keep prioritizing your preferences over his precepts, his rules. Keep making excuses, trying to justify. I'm just stressed. I just got a lot going on, you know?
[00:42:26] Keep making excuses, keep trying to justify it. Focusing on our appearance to others while our hearts wither inside of us because we're not living consistently. It's like the double life. It's like the contradictory. It's like the lie, right?
[00:42:45] I really believe that we're more like these ancient Pharisees than we think we are, guys.
[00:42:55] But I think Jesus has something for us, a better way.
[00:43:01] I want to call the band up.
[00:43:03] I'm going to close here in just a minute. One of my favorite verses in all of scripture. I read this to you guys fairly often. I'm never going to stop. This is one of my favorites. I'm going to quote it to the day I die.
[00:43:15] Romans, chapter five, verse eight.
[00:43:22] We will never.
[00:43:24] We will never get to the bottom of the glory and the gold that is here, okay? But God proves. Can everybody say proves?
[00:43:35] He proves it. He demonstrates it. He models it. Right? God proves his own love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is not a new verse to you. I know that.
[00:43:49] But allow it to refresh us this morning.
[00:43:54] God proves his own love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Do you know what that means?
[00:44:03] That means Jesus died for hypocrites.
[00:44:08] That means Jesus died for hypocrites like me.
[00:44:11] And Jesus died for hypocrites like you.
[00:44:16] I had a.
[00:44:20] I had a powerful experience with Jesus this week.
[00:44:25] On Tuesday, in fact, in the prayer room.
[00:44:36] It was.
[00:44:38] It was me and Mark and the ladies and.
[00:44:47] And Jackie was praying. Is Jackie in the room?
[00:44:52] Maybe she knew this was coming.
[00:44:55] Jackie, if you can hear me, we love you.
[00:44:57] I'm not gossiping. It's not behind your back. It's good. It's favorably about you.
[00:45:02] So we're in the prayer room, and if you guys know Jackie's story, you know that she's been through some stuff. She's like, suffered. And she still has this beautiful faith in Jesus.
[00:45:17] No one has a perfect faith, right? But like, hers is beautiful.
[00:45:21] And so she's Praying. And she's like, thanking God for the cross.
[00:45:25] Really cool, like.
[00:45:27] And as she's praying, I have this experience with God and I see all the others in the room there with me. There's probably eight of us or something.
[00:45:38] And I see tags on everybody.
[00:45:43] And you know, like, you ever gone shopping? Where, like, you go shopping? Hey, Jack, I was talking about you.
[00:45:53] Listen, back on the recording.
[00:45:56] I was. No, I was. I'm talking about the prayer room. But either way, I see tag tags on everybody, right? You know, you ever gone shopping, whether you. You're just shopping for something, I don't know, clothes or something, right? And you see something that catches your eye and you're like, oh, that's cool. That's nice, whatever it is. And you go and you look and there's like a tag there. And you grab the tag and you flip it over and you're like, oh, never mind.
[00:46:21] Like, too many zeros.
[00:46:23] Not in my budget. Not going to happen. Don't have enough for that one.
[00:46:40] I'm in the prayer room and I see everybody with tag.
[00:46:46] It's a price tag. And the price tag on it is the blood of Jesus.
[00:46:51] And when Jesus realized what it would cost to save and redeem you and me, he did not have the same reaction that I do for the expensive shirt.
[00:47:04] He sees the price and it's his blood, nothing more valuable.
[00:47:12] And he goes, yeah, I'll pay that.
[00:47:21] Do you realize how valuable you are to Jesus this morning?
[00:47:26] Like, the real you, man, not the hypocrite. Actually. Actually, yes, the hypocrite. Like, even the hypocritical you, when I say not the hypocrite, not the mask, do you. You know, do you realize how even the hypocritical you, the real you, do you realize how valuable that you is to Jesus?
[00:47:49] Listen to me. When that truth, when it migrates from information to experience, you feel it in your soul, in the deepest part of who you are. It absolutely changes everything, man.
[00:48:02] It sets a person free.
[00:48:04] You're like, oh, my gosh. Like, I actually am not gonna give myself over to fear anxiety. Why? Because Jesus died and he rose and he loves me. He paid the price for me, man.
[00:48:13] It's freedom. It's incredible. It's amazing. And you don't feel the shame when you're like, man, I was hypocritical with my family this week, or I was hypocritical with my employees this week, or I was hypocritical with my neighbors this week or whatever. It's like the world goes, hey, you. You Christians, you guys are hypocrites. You can go. I know, I know, man. But Jesus died and he rose. He paid it.
[00:48:34] He paid for me with his blood.
[00:48:38] So it frees me to turn away, to acknowledge my hypocrisy, take responsibility for it, and turn away from it every day.
[00:48:49] It's literal freedom from hypocritical living. It's freedom from religion is what it is.
[00:48:58] Gosh, man. When that truth, when it's more than. You guys have heard this, some of you have heard this so many times, I pray right now, in this moment, it wouldn't just be information, it would be truth that you can attach to that you can believe.
[00:49:12] Because it will change absolutely everything for us. Guys. The one who said, you're worth my blood becomes the thing that's worth most to you.
[00:49:23] More than preference, more than appearance, more than anything, huh?
[00:49:30] More than anything.
[00:49:36] This weekend I'm looking at this, I'm like, okay, this passage, you know, hypocrisy, we'll talk about it.
[00:49:41] Thanks, Lord. I get to tell them about hypocrisy. That's gonna be fun.
[00:49:45] Listen, this passage might seem like it's about hypocrisy, and it certainly is, right?
[00:49:49] But hear me, it's ultimately about worship.
[00:49:53] It's ultimately about worship.
[00:49:56] Hypocrisy is always a worship issue.
[00:50:01] That's what Jesus is getting. That's what he said. Look back at it. Verse 8. This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. What does he say? They worship me in vain.
[00:50:14] He's connecting it to worship.
[00:50:19] Guys, here's why this matters so much.
[00:50:23] When we see these indicators of hypocrisy in our own lives, hypocrisy is always an indicator that our worship is no longer aimed at God.
[00:50:31] It's aimed at something else.
[00:50:34] That's no way to live.
[00:50:37] You weren't meant to live that way.
[00:50:41] So maybe you're here and if you're honest, you're like, lately I've been worshiping God in vain.
[00:50:47] How do I know hypocrisy?
[00:50:51] Maybe you've been worshiping God in vain. Maybe you claim to be a God follower while not following God like these Pharisees, right?
[00:50:59] Or maybe you claim to be a God worshiper while actually worshiping, ascribing, ultimate worth, other things.
[00:51:08] Or maybe that maybe you claim that Jesus is your Lord and your Savior while you disobey his lordship.
[00:51:16] Or why you look to other things to save you, to give your life meaning.
[00:51:20] My life will be better if I just had.
[00:51:26] If that's you, because it was me this week.
[00:51:30] If that's you, I've really, really good news for you.
[00:51:35] Jesus died for hypocrites like me. And like you.
[00:51:39] He flipped over the price tag and he said, I'll pay that.
[00:51:44] There's nobody like Jesus.
[00:51:47] There's nobody like Jesus. Friend, will you stand with me if you're able? I want to pray for Jesus.
[00:52:18] As disciples together in this space, we humbly acknowledge our hypocrisy.
[00:52:34] Sometimes we choose our preference over your rules, over your precepts.
[00:52:40] And sometimes, in our stubborn pride, we make excuses for why we break your rules. And sometimes we give way more attention to our appearance than we do to our inner man. But God, you say you see our heart and you judge our heart.
[00:53:00] But you also say that you are filled with mercy and compassion and grace and Jesus, the simple reality that you went to the cross, it never gets old.
[00:53:20] The moment it gets old, it means we've literally drifted from what existence is all about.
[00:53:27] And so I pray for every person in the room who struggles with hypocrisy.
[00:53:33] I pray that we'd be freed by your gospel this morning.
[00:53:36] I pray that we would put pride and arrogance aside, humble ourselves, acknowledge the reality, turn away from it, and experience the man, oh, man, the unending pleasure of being free, of salvation, of being forgiven. Jesus, your blood in our place paid it all.
[00:54:01] So I pray for freedom from hypocrisy. I pray that we would live a different way, that we'd be men and women who consistently seek you and. And how to. That you would guide us and lead us, and then we would recognize, oh, we've drifted off, flesh is getting in the way. That we would be the first people to go, like, acknowledge it. Yep. Dang it.
[00:54:20] But men and women who cling to the gospel, you're our only hope, Jesus.
[00:54:25] And so I pray freedom for the room. I pray the pleasure of the gospel over the room. And I pray for like, new life in Christ. I pray anybody in the room who's not yet yielded to your lordship, just who's not yet said, Jesus, I need you to save me from living life my way, which is hypocrisy.
[00:54:42] I don't even live up to my own standards, Jesus, let alone yours. But yet I hold other people to them.
[00:54:50] I pray for salvation for this entire room, for the Christian who's been a Christian for decades, and for the person who's not yet said, Jesus, I need you to save me. I want Your blood to be applied to me and my life and my soul, my future.
[00:55:04] I pray for every single one of us that would experience the joy of salvation.
[00:55:10] I thank you, Jesus, that while we were yet sinners, you gave your life for us. You paid the price.
[00:55:19] We love you. We bless you. We thank you.
[00:55:23] It's in your name that we pray.
[00:55:25] Amen.
[00:55:28] If you are on the prayer team this morning, would you make your way to the front, please?
[00:55:32] At this time, we are doing really good on time, but for the next 15 minutes, we're gonna have a time of response. Okay? The band's gonna lead us at a time of praise.
[00:55:44] There's. There's trusted and trained men and women who are making themselves available to pray for you. You can come forward at any time for prayer. If anything that God's put on your heart, anything, whether for you or anybody else, I think that God's trying to speak to you and he wants to. To minister to you. And so often, the majority of the time that the way that God ministers to people is through his hands and his feet. That's his body, that's his church. That's real people that would love to pray for you, to minister to you. If God's doing something, if he's highlighting something in your life, it means he wants to guide you. It means he wants to father you, means he wants to touch your life.
[00:56:17] Come receive prayer. You can come at any time. Ben's going to lead us, and then we will close here and, I don't know, 15 minutes or so. Okay, guys?
[00:56:26] Love you very much. Enjoy him.
