Legalism is:
Legalism is NOT:
4 Reasons I Don't Want to be Trapped in Legalism:
- I don't want to be a CRITICAL person. (Mk 7:1-5)
- I don't want a MEANINGLESS religion. (Mk 7:6-7a)
- I don't want to dishonor God's WORD . (Mk 7:7b-8)
- I don't want to MISREPRESENT God. (Mk 7:9-13)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-01:19
Open up your Bibles to the gospel according to Mark and we are going to be in chapter 7. How many people here have been to Idyllwild? Everybody! Looks like everybody here for the most part has been to Idyllwild. Well last summer they were having Marvel Comics Days at Idyllwild. So guess who wanted to go? Me, Right. I had to like pull my kids aside, like look, they're having Marvel characters in Idlewild, we've got to talk mom into this. Alright? United front. So we talked Aaron into taking us all to Idlewild to see the superheroes. And as we are walking in, we're walking in with this guy who had short dark hair, dark stubble, very thin man. He looked like he weighed about a buck twenty. We get talking to this guy just as we're walking into the park and I said, "Do you work here?" He got this little grin on his face and he said, "Yeah." I said, "Do you run one of the rides or what do you do here?" He's like, No, it's not that.
01:20-01:27
He said, I'm part of the entertainment that we do here.
01:28-01:30
And I'm like, are you one of the characters?
01:32-01:35
And he's like, oh, I can't say.
01:36-01:39
Later on in the day, and I have pictures if you want to see.
01:40-01:44
But later on in the day, it was meet the Marvel heroes.
01:46-01:51
Of course, Kate and I were like first in line to get autographs.
01:51-02:01
You're like, "Pastor Jeff, you're a big nerd." And I'm like, "Yeah, tell me something I don't know." But we're in line to meet these heroes, meet the mighty Thor.
02:01-02:02
Now, do you know who Thor is?
02:03-02:04
Anybody seen that Thor movie?
02:04-02:14
We're talking tall, blonde, huge, muscular, mythological god character with his big hammer.
02:16-02:17
Guess who Thor was?
02:18-02:19
That guy!
02:20-02:29
He had on all this stuff, and he had on all this armor, and all these pads, and buckles, and all this stuff.
02:30-02:33
And he had on this blonde Barbie wig.
02:34-02:35
I'm like, you're not Thor?
02:37-02:38
No joke.
02:39-02:43
I told Aaron at the time, I said, how funny would it be?
02:45-02:47
with all these kids in line to see these superheroes.
02:47-02:49
'Cause I knew this guy was like a buck 20.
02:50-02:59
Like how funny would it be if I just ran up on that stage, grabbed him by the seat of the pants and the scruff of the neck, and threw him about five rows into the seats.
03:00-03:02
You're like, why would that be funny?
03:02-03:08
Because think of the story that those kids in line are going to tell for the rest of their lives.
03:08-03:13
Mom took me to Idlewild this one day and this guy like beat Thor up.
03:13-03:14
And it was so awesome!
03:15-03:19
And, uh, like, where are you going with this story?
03:19-03:23
Well, Cade wasn't disappointed, but I was.
03:24-03:26
Because I'm like, man, that guy just wasn't Thor.
03:28-03:34
And he put a lot of work into making himself look like Thor.
03:36-03:40
He put a lot of work into making himself look like Thor.
03:42-03:43
He wasn't Thor.
03:45-03:50
And I wasn't interested because nobody likes a fake, right?
03:50-03:52
Nobody likes a fake.
03:53-03:54
Phonies let you down.
03:55-04:03
And this morning as we turn to Mark 7, we're going to see that the same can be said of God Himself.
04:04-04:06
That He's not interested in a fake.
04:08-04:10
God is after authenticity.
04:12-04:25
See, as we talked about last week, faith is to be this personal, internal, inside-out relationship because you embrace the truth that Jesus Christ loves you and He cares for you.
04:27-04:28
But there's a fake version.
04:30-04:32
The fake version is impersonal.
04:32-04:34
The fake version is external.
04:34-04:37
The fake version is about the outside-in stuff.
04:39-04:48
This fake version of faith, of religion, of spirituality, it's not just bad, okay?
04:50-04:50
It's dangerous.
04:52-05:11
And I stand before you ready to share a passage that frankly is extremely scary in my mind because I'm wondering, can I accurately convey how destructive and dangerous this subject matter is?
05:13-05:17
This fake version of faith can destroy a church.
05:18-05:20
It almost destroyed ours.
05:21-05:27
This fake version of faith can make your children hate the church.
05:28-05:36
This fake version can send someone to hell when they think that they're going to heaven.
05:38-05:40
Today we're going to be talking about legalism.
05:42-05:52
We're going to be talking about a religion that's based on tradition and ceremony and ritual and keeping the rules without heart transformation.
05:54-06:14
One of the things that is so scary about legalism, one of the reasons it is so hard to preach about legalism, is because inherently there is an appeal, a sinful, excuse me, a sinful fleshly appeal when it comes to legalism.
06:16-06:17
There is an appeal there.
06:18-06:24
There's something that our flesh likes about legalism.
06:26-06:28
What is that? I was thinking about that a lot this week.
06:29-06:31
The appeal is you want to look good to other people.
06:32-06:34
And you want to feel good about yourself.
06:36-06:43
But when you're trapped in legalism, you're just like that guy who was playing the role of Thor at Idlewild.
06:44-06:48
You kind of look like one thing, but deep down, You're something completely different.
06:50-06:52
Like, well, you've mentioned legalism.
06:52-06:53
What do you mean by legalism?
06:55-06:56
Well, jot this down.
06:58-07:07
Legalism is the belief that adhering to rules or traditions...
07:07-07:08
We'll pause.
07:08-07:18
It's this belief that when you adhere to rules or traditions, It, first of all, makes you righteous.
07:20-07:21
What must I do to get saved?
07:22-07:24
What must I do to get saved?
07:25-07:26
Here's the list...
07:26-07:30
You got to do this, You got to do this, You got to do this, You got to do this, You got to do this, You got to do this...
07:30-07:31
It's belief that...
07:31-07:37
"Keeping these rules makes me right before God." But legalism isn't just that.
07:37-07:38
Legalism is also...
07:38-07:42
The belief that adhering to rules or traditions keeps you righteous.
07:44-07:45
Church...
07:45-07:57
There are many Christians that will stand and say, "I believe that Jesus Christ saved me by grace." But then they have this belief that it's up to them to maintain their salvation.
07:58-08:13
Now that I am saved, I have to do all these things, and when I do these things, God's happy with me, and if I don't do these things, God's mad at me, and I've got to start doing these things again, so God's happy with me again, and it's never enough.
08:14-08:15
It is never enough.
08:17-08:22
No matter how many rules or what kind of rules you make for yourself, you can't even keep your own rules.
08:23-08:30
The legalism is the belief that adhering to rules or traditions, one, makes you righteous or and/or two, keeps you righteous.
08:30-08:36
By the way, the difference between the gospel of Jesus Christ and every other religion in the world, do you know what it is?
08:38-08:40
You can look at every other religion in the world.
08:42-08:50
They all teach that there are some things that you have to do to make God happy, or the gods, or whoever the divine being is up there.
08:51-08:53
"I've got to do this stuff to make Him happy.
08:54-09:01
I've got to say these prayers, or I've got to whip my back, or I've got to…" Every other religion teaches that.
09:01-09:04
What can I do to make God happy?
09:04-09:06
What can I do to be made right with God?
09:07-09:10
The gospel of Jesus Christ is completely opposite of that.
09:10-09:19
The gospel of Jesus Christ is God has done the work on your behalf to make you right with Him.
09:20-09:25
So it's either the religion of human accomplishment or it's the religion of divine achievements.
09:26-09:30
And both of them are mutually exclusive.
09:32-09:33
I'm going to put it this way.
09:35-09:37
How would you fill in this little math equation?
09:37-09:42
Jesus plus blank makes me righteous.
09:44-09:49
Whatever you put after the plus, whatever you put in that blank puts you in the realm of legalism.
09:51-09:55
Because the truth is Jesus plus nothing makes me righteous.
09:55-09:57
You bring nothing to the table when it comes to your salvation.
09:58-09:59
That's what legalism is.
10:02-10:02
Drop this down.
10:02-10:04
Legalism is not.
10:04-10:05
Okay, legalism is not.
10:05-11:27
going to get this clear too. Legalism is not personal convictions, okay? Legalism is not "I have a personal conviction about this, this is what I choose to do for myself." That's not legalism, until that's enforced upon other people. If I said to you, "I have this conviction that I like to spend the first half hour of my day praying before I eat breakfast or anything else, that's a personal conviction. But if I start enforcing that on you to say, "Darren, I can't believe that you don't do what I do. I'm really praying for your salvation. You don't do what I do. If you want to be spiritual, you have to do what I do." That's when it gets into legalism. But having personal convictions, that's not legalism. Enforcing it among others is. Secondly, legalism is not obedience to Jesus' commands. When you come to Jesus Christ, He changes your appetites. You used to love sin and hate righteousness. But coming to Christ, He transforms you and now you love righteousness and you hate sin.
11:29-11:31
Part of that change is you want to honor Him.
11:33-11:47
In the Great Commission, Jesus said, "Go and make disciples, teaching them, baptizing them, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." And for the born-again believer, there is something, that something is the Holy Spirit.
11:48-11:53
He gives you that, "I want to be obedient to Jesus Christ.
11:54-12:01
I want to do what Christ wants me to do, even when I don't want to do it." What do you mean by that?
12:01-12:08
I've got to tell you, a few weeks ago, about three or four weeks ago, this matter hit home really personal for me.
12:11-13:28
Because there was someone who you could say would consider themselves my enemy, and they were going through some hard times and they were asking for prayer. I was up all night wrestling over that. I've got to confess to you, with permission to speak freely, I was up all night. I don't want to pray for them. And I was bouncing back and forth. I was telling God, "God, I lift this person up to you in this situation and I'm praying for this, but I'm really struggling because I don't even want to be praying this right now. I just brought that to God She that's where the wrestling was I believe the Holy Spirit just would not let me sleep because that was an area of obedience to Christ that I didn't want to wrestle with But the Holy Spirit made me Because Jesus said to do what for your enemies Pray for them All night. I just kept hearing that in my in my head and in my heart, you know Pray for your enemies pray for your enemies and I don't want to God pray for your enemies I'm like, "Okay, I'll try." And legalism is not, "I want to obey Jesus' commands." But that becomes legalism when you believe that that's what keeps you saved.
13:29-13:35
Because it doesn't keep you saved. You're saved by grace, and your salvation is maintained by grace.
13:37-13:40
And finally, legalism is not personal disciplines.
13:42-14:05
As I mentioned earlier, if you have personal discipline, "I routinely fast to seek the Lord, here's my Bible reading plan, here's the time of the day that I like to spend time praying, these are just part of my personal walk with the Lord." That's not legalism, until you believe that that's what makes God happy with you.
14:07-14:11
"I miss my morning Bible reading time, so God must be mad at me.
14:11-14:13
Now we're entering into the realm of legalism.
14:14-14:16
That's what it is, that's what it's not.
14:17-14:21
As we go through the text today, I want you to see here's four reasons I don't want to be trapped in legalism.
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Four reasons I don't want to be trapped in legalism.
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Mark chapter 7.
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Let's look at the first five verses.
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It says, "Now when the Pharisees gathered to Him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of the disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed." Then Mark inserts this parenthetical thing, like a little commentary here.
14:55-15:02
He says, "For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders.
15:03-15:06
they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.
15:07-15:14
There are many other traditions that they observe such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.
15:16-15:28
And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, asked Jesus, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" Let's stop there.
15:29-15:30
Four reasons I don't want to be trapped in legalism.
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Number one, I don't want to be a critical person.
15:35-15:37
Verse one tells us where they came from.
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They came from Jerusalem.
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Verse two tells us why they came.
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These were people coming that wanted to discredit Jesus Christ.
15:48-15:57
Now this parenthetical statement that Mark makes, you're probably wondering like I was, what's up with this hand washing, cup washing, pots and pans washing thing?
15:59-16:04
Some of you might even be like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I'm kind of with the Pharisees on this one, like, shouldn't you wash your hands before you eat?" Right?
16:05-16:10
We have to understand that this wasn't a hygiene issue.
16:12-16:12
Okay?
16:13-16:14
This wasn't a hygiene issue.
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This was tradition that came from ancient rabbis who created rules to put a fence around the law.
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They had all these rules.
16:30-16:35
If you keep these rabbinical rules, keeping these rules will help you to keep the Mosaic Law.
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And they collected all these rules into a volume called the Mishnah.
16:41-16:42
And that wasn't enough.
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They actually wrote a commentary on the Mishnah called the Gemara.
16:50-16:54
And then they combined these into a book called the Talmud.
16:55-16:57
How many of you have heard of the Talmud?
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Okay, that's what that is.
17:00-17:14
Okay, you got that? There's all these rabbinical traditions, and then there's a commentary on the traditions, and I go, "Let's put them all together into the Talmud and many other writings." Even during Jesus' day, these were still happening.
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Here's an interesting quote from the Talmud.
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The Talmud actually says, quote, attend to the words of the scribes more than the words of the law." It was this belief that, "Look, here's what God's Word says, and if you're going to obey God's Word, we're going to give you rules that will keep you very far from transgressing God's Word." Did you know, in the Talmud, there are 30 chapters, 30 chapters about washing pans.
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30 chapters about washing pans.
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How does that happen in your house?
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You know how washing pans happens in my house?
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Step 1, open the dishwasher.
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Step 2, throw the pan in.
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Step 3, close the dishwasher.
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Step 4, open the dishwasher back up and put soap in.
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Step 5, close the dishwasher.
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Come on, how many other people, right?
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And then step six, like push the button.
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I can tell you how to wash a pan in under 10 seconds.
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30 chapters, here's how you wash your pans.
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If you're going to wash your pans...
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They were so afraid of this defilement, of being ceremonially unclean.
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If you'd like a copy of that, I can get you.
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It has to make for some fascinating reading.
18:42-18:49
They had an entire volume, an entire volume on how to wash your hands.
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An entire volume.
18:53-19:01
I thought, I always thought it was extreme that the blow dryer, you know, in the public restroom has instructions on it.
19:02-19:04
There's one button on that thing.
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And when you push that one button, that thing does one thing.
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It's got like this whole list of, "Here's how you do it." I'm like, "Really?
19:12-19:13
That seems a little overkill.
19:14-19:21
How about an entire book on how to wash your hands?" So do you get the mindset that these people were coming from?
19:22-19:36
They come down and they're like, "We have all of our rules about what's proper for a good God-fearing Jew to do, and oh, your disciples aren't washing their hands the way we think that they should." But sadly, we do the same thing.
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We put up fences.
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We make up rules that make us think that we're following the Bible.
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We do the same thing.
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Let's get controversial.
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What does the Bible say about drinking?
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The Bible warns of the dangers of alcoholism.
19:59-20:03
The Bible warns of the addiction.
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The Bible certainly tells you not to get drunk.
20:10-20:18
So the church looks at this warning, and by the way, it's about excess, right?
20:19-20:34
I think it's so funny sometimes, the person that wants to condemn alcoholism is the same person that is gluttonous with food and dangers in the excess.
20:36-21:51
So the Bible warns against the addictive nature of alcohol and the drunkenness. So you have some people that say, "Don't touch it. Don't touch it." Whereas the drummer from Guns N' Moses says, "The pastors here hide the beer." Okay, like, "Don't touch it." I know a guy that actually took that a step further. He had this little soapbox all the time. He said, "I can't believe that there are some Christians, I can't believe that there are some people that are a part of that church that actually eat at Pizza Hut." Like, why? They should serve beer at Pizza Hut. I can't believe that we have Christians that eat at Pizza Hut because they serve beer. I mean he was dead serious and that was like his sermon. They serve beer at Pizza Hut. How dare Christians eat there? Like you know what else they serve at Pizza Hut? Pizza. That's why I'm there, right? But do you You see how the fences become legalistic and frankly they become silly.
21:52-22:23
So the first sign of legalism we see here in verse 2, "They saw some of the disciples ate with hands that were defiled." I have a friend from high school that it was always a running gag that when guys would come out of the bathroom, if one of the guys did not wash his hands, as soon as we'd come out of the bathroom, this friend of mine would say to everybody in earshot, this man right here did not wash his hands.
22:24-22:25
And embarrass everybody.
22:26-22:28
So we were always making sure that he saw us washing.
22:28-22:34
But seriously, aside from that guy, how many of you actually notice when people wash their hands or not?
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You're not really taking notes, right?
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You don't walk into the restroom with a clipboard.
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Did you wash your hands?
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Did you use soap? Did you run your hands under there for at least 30 seconds?
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I have a feeling that these guys were looking for problems, don't you?
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They saw.
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They were watching.
22:53-22:53
They were watching.
22:55-23:00
And church, that's a sign that you're entering into legalism, is when you start being the lookout.
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I'm watching.
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I'm watching to see if you keep my rules.
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Are you keeping my rules?
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Because I'm watching.
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Why don't you wear a tie?
23:12-23:13
Why don't you get a haircut?
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Why don't you shave that thing off your face?
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Keep my rules.
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We had a guy, rest his soul, he's in heaven right now, he's with the Lord.
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And he's having a great day.
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We had a guy at my old church.
23:33-23:39
Usually at my old church I would wear, you know, like, dress pants, dress shirt and tie, no jacket.
23:40-23:44
This guy, almost every Sunday, would get in my face.
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Like, you know, back when I was an elder at this church, shirt, tie, suit coat.
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Shirt, tie, suit coat.
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Like, yeah.
23:58-24:05
Shirt, tie, and he would just, I don't know what he wanted me to say, but he'd get in my face and just keep saying that over and over and over.
24:05-24:06
Shirt, tie, suit coat.
24:07-24:26
We were laughing the one day, Aaron knows exactly what I'm going to say, but it was like right after worship and it was like right in the, like how do you do time, shake hands, meet and greet, and he turned around, we were sitting behind this guy, he goes, "You know Jeff, when I was an elder, shirt, tie, suit coat.
24:27-24:28
Yep, every week that was him.
24:28-24:37
"Church, tie, shoe coat." Like, "Yeah, yeah, you've mentioned that before, thank you." And then we sat down and the senior pastor started preaching.
24:37-24:54
And as soon as the senior pastor said, "Open your Bibles," this guy was out snoring, like... (snoring) And Erin leans over, she's like, "I wonder what the elders in his day said about sleeping in church." Did you see how legalism works?
24:55-25:00
This guy was looking. This guy was always on my case for the dress code.
25:02-25:03
Another instance came to mind.
25:04-25:09
Back when I was in Bible college, I was doing a carry out for someone at Walmart.
25:10-25:15
I wasn't smart enough to run the cash register, but I was strong enough to carry the heavy stuff.
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I'll never forget this one lady.
25:19-25:22
I carried this piece of furniture out for her, whatever, put it in her car.
25:22-25:53
And she turned to me, she goes, she was an older woman, she turned to me, she goes, "Are you married?" I said, "No." And she said, "If you were, would you let your wife wear pants to church?" And I said, "Versus going to church without pants on?" She's like, "No, a skirt." I'm just like, topping the list of things I've never thought about.
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I don't know, I guess I wouldn't care what she wore.
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And she like gave me this big lecture, but I'm like, "Wow, you're criticizing a wife that I don't even have yet." Have you ever been around a critical person?
26:08-26:19
You're like, "I don't want to be around that guy." And I would say, "You don't want to be that guy." Harvest Bible Chapel, if you come to church And your focus is all out here.
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And your focus is not in here.
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And you're missing it.
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You're missing it.
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If you're coming to church to look at what so and so is wearing, or how they combed their hair this week, you're totally missing it.
26:38-26:40
There are four reasons I don't want to be trapped in legalism.
26:40-26:42
Number one, I don't want to be a critical person.
26:43-26:45
Number two, I don't want a meaningless religion.
26:46-26:48
I don't want a meaningless religion.
26:50-26:52
Look at verses 6 and 7, the first part of verse 7.
26:54-26:56
Okay, so the Pharisees, the scribes, they come to Jesus.
26:56-27:05
"Why do your disciples not walk in according with the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" What do you think about that, Jesus?
27:06-27:21
Verse 6, "And He said to them, 'Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, "This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
27:23-27:28
In vain do they worship Me." Let's stop there.
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Number two, I don't want a meaningless religion.
27:33-27:42
"In vain do they worship Me." All of the ritual, all of the ceremony, all of the recited prayers, all of the rules, it's all according to Jesus.
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All of that stuff is a big waste of time.
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It doesn't mean anything to God.
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And did you know God would rather that you not go to worship than for you to go to worship and just go through the motions?
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Did you know that?
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Like, "I could go pretend to worship today, or I could just stay home." Do you know what God would pick?
28:08-28:12
God's like, "Just stay home." A little homework for you. Read Isaiah chapter 1.
28:12-28:14
That's exactly what God told Israel.
28:15-28:19
God told Israel, "Just stop. Stop. Stop your worship. Just stop it.
28:20-28:24
God says, 'I just can't take it anymore because you're a bunch of phonies.
28:25-28:36
You're going through the motions. You're all external, but you're no internal.'" Isaiah chapter 1, among other places in Scripture.
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We're going to get to this down the road, But Jesus was asked, "What's the greatest commandment?" You know, these people that have all these rules, and they're looking at the Mosaic Law, and they're looking at the Talmud, and they're looking at all these pharisaical writings, and Jesus, of all these laws and commandments we have, which one is the greatest?
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And do you remember what Jesus answered?
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His answer came from Deuteronomy chapter 6.
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He said, "The greatest commandment is to love God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love your neighbor as yourself.
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That's the greatest commandment.
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In church, you can go all through the Old Testament and the New Testament, and you will see the resounding testimony that God has never been about putting on a show.
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God is about the heart.
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God is about the heart.
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And I can tell you it would not work in my marriage if I said, "Aaron, my alarm just went off on my phone to remind me that this is the time of the day that I am scheduled to say the things that I think you want to hear. How fired up is Aaron going to get about that? Like, "I am so smitten." She'd be like, "Just don't bother. If that's what it is to you, don't bother." So do you think God is impressed with just trying to say the right things, Trying to look the part when our hearts are far from Him.
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I don't want a meaningless religion.
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I don't want to go through life trying to keep all of these rules and then find out at the end that God was like, "That stuff didn't mean anything to me, ever.
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In vain do they worship me.
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I don't want a meaningless religion.
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Number three, I don't want to dishonor God's Word. I don't want to dishonor God's Word.
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Second part of verse 7 and then verse 8, Jesus said, "In vain do they worship me." Here's the key, "Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men." You take your little rules and you preach them as if they They came from God, leaving what God actually said in the rear view mirror.
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That's why you see it throughout this passage.
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Legalism is rooted in tradition.
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Six times in this passage, tradition, tradition, tradition.
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That is not the Bible.
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We are not talking about biblical standards and convictions.
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The Bible says that Jesus Christ has set us free from the Old Testament law.
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Romans chapter 3 talks all about that.
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We couldn't keep the law in the first place.
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So what has the church done?
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We replaced the Old Testament law with a new law, man-made unbiblical rules.
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If you want to be holy, you don't play cards, you don't dance, your hair can only be this long, guys, and you have to wear these kinds of clothes.
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And I had a friend of mine this past week tell me that he attended a church where the pastor's wife actually told my friend's wife, "I can't be friends with you because I've seen you wearing shorts when you're out in your yard.
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I can't be friends with you." Meanwhile, that lady's husband, the pastor, was having an affair with five other women at the time, but she was on top of the dress code. So what is legalism and what is not?
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I don't want to dishonor God's word. Do you want to dishonor God's word? I sure don't.
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I thought, you know what would be fun? You know what people really love? This is universal.
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I've been all over the world. You know what people really love? Taking tests. So we're going to take a test.
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All right?
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I'm not going to collect these.
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Everybody keep your eyes on your own paper.
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It's a simple test.
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This is the legalism test.
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I'm going to be the preacher.
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And I'm going-- this is a stretch for me in this role.
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But I'm going to say some things.
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And you're going to tell me if it's legalism or not legalism, OK?
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You don't have to shout it out.
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I'm not going to pressure you.
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Write it down.
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OK?
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Everybody ready?
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Anybody need a pencil?
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All right.
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Legalism test.
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Number one, I choose not to drink beer because I have a personal conviction about that.
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What is that?
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That is not legalism.
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I am expressing a personal conviction.
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All right, did you get that one?
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I'm expressing a personal conviction.
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Number two, if you are a Christian, it is a sin for you to have a beer.
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If you are a Christian it is a sin for you to ever have a beer.
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Is that legalism or non-legalism?
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The answer?
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That's legalism.
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That is a matter of conviction.
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Okay?
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That is a matter of conviction.
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That is not a command from Jesus.
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Number three, you should get baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
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when you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior?
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You should get baptized when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
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And the answer? That is not legalism.
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That's straight from the Bible, right?
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The Bible says when you receive Christ, you outward display of the inward commitment.
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You identify with His death, burial, and resurrection.
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That's not legalism.
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Okay, next. Dancing is sinful.
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Christians should never dance. Is that legalism or not legalism?
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Answer? That's legalism. That's not in the Bible.
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A better way to say this is, "Pastor Jeff, you shouldn't dance." You're right. That is just called truth.
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In fact, that might even be in the Bible.
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No, it's not. It's not. And I do dance.
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In the privacy of my own home.
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Next, "When I sin, I have to say a certain type and a certain amount of prayers to be right with God." Is that legalism or not legalism?
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Answer?
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That is legalism.
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Jesus made the way for you to be and to stay right with God.
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Next, "You should prayerfully decide how much money to give your local church to support the ministry." Is that legalism or not legalism?
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That is not legalism.
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That comes straight from 2 Corinthians 9.7.
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Next, "Give all of your money to me." What is this?
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This is a stick-up.
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Just seeing who's still paying attention.
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Next, "It is wrong to eat meat on Fridays during Lent." Here's a very timely one.
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Is that legalism or not legalism?
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If I stood up before you and said, "Church, it is wrong for you to eat meat on Fridays during Lent," the answer is what?
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That's legalism. That is not in the Bible.
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That is not in the Bible.
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Next, "It is a sin for you to wash your car on Sunday." It is a sin for you to wash your car on Sunday.
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Is that legalism or not legalism?
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That is legalism. That is not in the Bible.
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That is not in the Bible.
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How about this?
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"I choose not to wash my car on Sundays, but rather just relax with my family." Is that legalism or not legalism?
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That's not legalism.
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Again, that's expressing a personal conviction.
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And finally, "You should look for ways to help those less fortunate than you." Is that legalism or not legalism?
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The answer is that's not legalism.
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That comes straight from the Bible.
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"But Pastor Jeff, I kind of see a pattern through that." There is a pattern.
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If it comes from the Bible, we heed the Word.
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When it's some man-made rule that's not in the Bible, we ignore it.
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Because Jesus warned that we can teach as doctrines the commandments of men.
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How'd you do on the test?
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Finally, number four, I don't want to misrepresent God.
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The four reasons I don't want to be trapped in legalism, I don't want to be a critical person, I don't want a meaningless religion, I don't want to dishonor God's Word, finally, I don't want to misrepresent God.
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This is the life application of holding on to unbiblical rules or tradition, and Jesus illustrates.
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Jesus illustrates here.
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He said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.
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For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles his father or mother must surely die.' But you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, "Whatever you have gained from me is Corban," that is, given to God, "then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother." Thus, making void the Word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.
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The Jesus illustration comes from Exodus 20 and 21.
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Old Testament Israel was commanded, "Honor your parents." And certainly part of honoring your parents is meeting your parents' needs, right?
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Your parents raised you, and your parents age, and you see that your parents have need.
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It is your job to help take care of your own parents.
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But what Jesus was talking about here was this little loophole that they did.
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He says, "Here's how destructive legalism is.
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The Bible says you should honor your parents, and here's what you do.
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What's this Corbin thing about?" Well, Corbin was this idea that this thing is dedicated to God.
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And it was a loophole for not sharing your stuff with someone else.
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You see that?
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You know, so I see that Ken doesn't have a coat, and he's very cold, and I have three coats in my closet.
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And Ken's like, "Can I have one of your coats?
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I'm freezing." And I'm like, "You know what, Ken, I'd love to help you, but that's Corbin.
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Those are God's coats.
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I just can't give them to you.
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They're God's, sorry." You stop over at my house and you're like, "Hey, Pastor Jeff, what are you doing?" And there's like a bag of Doritos sitting on the table and like, "Oh, Doritos." And I'm like, "Dad, Corbin, sorry, you can't have those.
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Those are God's.
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It wouldn't be right for me to give you God's Doritos." Well, that's what was happening here.
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People instead of taking care of their parents were like, "Sorry, Mom and Dad, this is all God's stuff, so I really can't give it to you.
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Corbin, sorry." And Jesus is like, "You have a fine way." ignoring something clear that God said to be self-serving. We are Christ's ambassadors and legalism is a blasphemous misrepresentation of who He is. Is God about rules or is God about loving people? This is part of your test. Is God about rules or is God about loving people? He's about loving people, amen. That's why legalism is misrepresenting, it's damning and it blocks the very thing that God cares about most, and that's relationships.
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Your relationship with him and your relationship with other people, legalism will destroy that.
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Finally, note this, verse 13.
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Just jot this down.
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Here's one of the biggest dangers with legalism.
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It becomes a lifestyle.
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Look at the last thing Jesus said, "And many such things you do." Jesus was like, "That's just one example.
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Many such things you do.
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What lifestyle do you want?
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Do you want freedom and this love relationship with the God who created you and saved you?
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Or endlessly and vainly keeping a list of rules that God never commanded?
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Do you want the real inside out thing?
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Or do you want the fake external thing?
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On the back of your insert that you're taking notes on, I want to flip that over.
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I want this to be your prayer this week.
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And if you think just reading this counts as praying, that's legalism.
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I said my prayers today God, I read this paragraph to you.
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The content of what's in this prayer, you need to personalize.
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You need to personalize this.
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And I would encourage you to take these concepts and make this the prayer of your own heart this week.
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What about your heads?
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We'll start this right now.
Personal Reflection Questions:
Read Mark 7:1-13
A simple prayer for you to pray this week. Personalize this, and bring this before God:
Father, I want to hunger for you more, I want to thirst for You and the things that You are about. Show me any areas of hypocrisy in my life, and let me have a genuine walk, a living and powerful relationship with You that comes from the heart. I know that there is nothing I can do to earn Your love and forgiveness, because You have already provided it in Jesus Christ. Please give me the faith to embrace all that He says He is.
