SEVEN WORDS OF THE CHURCH

Sermon Notes, August 14, 2016

Pastor Rick Hoosier

Rick Hoosier preached on Sunday, since Pastor Garry was at Family Camp in Buckingham.  His sermon was titled “Seven Words of the Church,” and the scripture basis for his sermon was Mark 7:1-23, where Jesus scolds the Pharisees for the way they follow tradition.  

The seven words Pastor Rick spoke of were “We’ve never done it like that before.” As in the days of the Pharisees, traditionalists are more interested in form than they are in the gospel, in evangelism, in winning the lost for God’s kingdom.  When we break tradition, things can happen.  In verses 1-5 the Pharisees were upset that the disciples were eating without following the elaborate traditions of hand-washing.  In verses 6-7 Jesus quoted scripture from Isaiah 29:13, telling them that they were setting aside the commands of God in order to follow the traditions of man.  The Pharisees were focusing on the little things and forgetting about the big picture.  They were giving ‘lip service’ to God but failing to do the right thing, as God commands.  They were so involved in the proper hand-washing tradition they lost out on fellowship with God.   Do we do that today?  We need to ask ourselves why we do what we do; is it just for tradition’s sake?

In verses 8-9, Jesus said that the Pharisees had a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe their own traditions.  Outward appearance is different than inner condition  In verses 10-13 the command of God to “Honor your parents,” was modified so that people could give to the church what might have been spent to help their parents.  “If I give it all to the church, then I’m not responsible for my parents.”  They nullified the word of God by their tradition.  Jesus said they had done this in many areas.

Then in verses 14-17 Jesus told the crowd that nothing that enters the body from the outside makes them unclean, but what comes out from the inside.  In verses 18-23 He expounds further to His disciples.  Nothing that enters the body from the outside defiles a person, because it doesn’t go into the heart, but into the stomach, and then out of the body.  What defiles a person is what comes out of the heart: evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  All these come from inside and defile a person.   Actions speak louder than words.

We need to ask ourselves “Why am I doing what I do?”  We can change, with God’s help. “We’ve never done it that way before” keeps us from changing.  We come to church to change.  Not because our parents and grandparents came (tradition).   We need to do whatever it takes to reach people for the Lord.