Aligning Our Priorities with God's Word
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Sermon Clips
"Well, in today's passage, we're going to be in the first half of Matthew chapter 15, and Jesus is going to call out the Pharisees' wrong priorities. He's going to call out the Pharisees' wrong priorities. He's going to challenge them of what actually matters most, and then he's going to turn to his followers, both the crowd and his disciples, and help them shape their priorities. And I think what we're going to see in today's passage is that Jesus is going to challenge each one of us. What is really most important in following him?" [00:10:54] (28 seconds)
"Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don't wash their hands when they eat. He answered them, and why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father and mother must surely die. But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother what you would have gained from me as given to God, he need not honor his father. For the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites." [00:18:17] (35 seconds)
"Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me. Teaching as doctrines, as the teaching, sorry guys, teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men. Well, we last saw the Pharisees back in chapter 12, where we read these words in verse 14. The Pharisees, after Jesus has healed a man on the Sabbath, we read, went out and conspired against him how to destroy Jesus." [00:18:52] (30 seconds)
"Notice that Jesus argues that the written law of God, the word of God, is the authority, not the oral laws or the traditions that have gotten passed down. What's interesting is that same sort of premise ends up being at the heart of the Reformation in the 14 -1500. By that point, church tradition and oral tradition had become equal with the law of God, the written word of God. And the Reformers said that's not the way it's supposed to be. The written word is the foundation." [00:25:39] (29 seconds)
"Honoring is more than speaking honor. Honor is doing things. To honor others is to care for them in action. Husbands and wives, you honor one another when you spend time together. You honor one another when you give intentional, thoughtful gifts towards each other. You honor one another when you love in action. You honor one another when you give intentional, thoughtful gifts towards each other. Not just in words." [00:26:36] (21 seconds)
"Jesus here is saying, don't be like the Pharisees whose show of righteousness is more about show than it is about inward change of heart. Jesus as a result then calls up Isaiah. You might wonder, as I did this week, why does Isaiah keep coming up in Matthew? Why does he keep coming up in Matthew? A couple of reasons. Isaiah has more passages about the Messiah than any other Old Testament book." [00:29:46] (21 seconds)
"Jesus says, when it comes to doing what you're supposed to do to follow me, you've chosen tradition over the word of God. And he says, what matters most is God's written word. God's written word is the authority for life and godliness. It's the thing to which all of our traditions, our practices, our doctrines must be held account. Nothing supersedes this, even at the time of Christ." [00:31:38] (25 seconds)
"To be like the Bereans who took Paul's teaching. Paul, one of the most respected teachers of their day who came in and preached and taught them. And what did they do? They took all that he taught and they went away and they said, does this line up with God's Word? Because God's Word is the authority." [00:36:50] (16 seconds)
"That our lives are not to be lived to keep our hands clean. Our lives are to be lived out of a clean heart. Something we can't do, something he can do. For the lives we live reveal the revelation of the Lord. And so we need to understand that our lives are not to be lived state of our heart, the condition of our heart, where our heart is, especially in response to Jesus Christ and to God." [00:39:25] (18 seconds)
"Jesus says that these Pharisees were not planted by God. This is a hard word to hear. Throughout the Old Testament, Jesus talks about planting his people, and as we saw back in Matthew 13 in the parable of the weeds, that there are those who are planted as sons of the kingdom and those who are planted as sons of the evil one, and that both will be sorted at the end. And Jesus says, these Pharisees that are leading and teaching and you respect so much were not planted by my Father." [00:40:30] (25 seconds)
"Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don't wash their hands when they eat. He answered them, and why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father and mother must surely die. But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother what you would have gained from me as given to God, he need not honor his father. For the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites." [00:18:17] (35 seconds)
"Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me. Teaching as doctrines, as the teaching, sorry guys, teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men. Well, we last saw the Pharisees back in chapter 12, where we read these words in verse 14. The Pharisees, after Jesus has healed a man on the Sabbath, we read, went out and conspired against him how to destroy Jesus." [00:18:52] (30 seconds)
"Notice that Jesus argues that the written law of God, the word of God, is the authority, not the oral laws or the traditions that have gotten passed down. What's interesting is that same sort of premise ends up being at the heart of the Reformation in the 14 -1500. By that point, church tradition and oral tradition had become equal with the law of God, the written word of God. And the Reformers said that's not the way it's supposed to be. The written word is the foundation." [00:25:39] (29 seconds)
"Honoring is more than speaking honor. Honor is doing things. To honor others is to care for them in action. Husbands and wives, you honor one another when you spend time together. You honor one another when you give intentional, thoughtful gifts towards each other. You honor one another when you love in action. You honor one another when you give intentional, thoughtful gifts towards each other. Not just in words." [00:26:36] (21 seconds)
"Jesus here is saying, don't be like the Pharisees whose show of righteousness is more about show than it is about inward change of heart. Jesus as a result then calls up Isaiah. You might wonder, as I did this week, why does Isaiah keep coming up in Matthew? Why does he keep coming up in Matthew? A couple of reasons. Isaiah has more passages about the Messiah than any other Old Testament book." [00:29:46] (21 seconds)
"Jesus says, when it comes to doing what you're supposed to do to follow me, you've chosen tradition over the word of God. And he says, what matters most is God's written word. God's written word is the authority for life and godliness. It's the thing to which all of our traditions, our practices, our doctrines must be held account. Nothing supersedes this, even at the time of Christ." [00:31:38] (25 seconds)
"To be like the Bereans who took Paul's teaching. Paul, one of the most respected teachers of their day who came in and preached and taught them. And what did they do? They took all that he taught and they went away and they said, does this line up with God's Word? Because God's Word is the authority." [00:36:50] (16 seconds)
"That our lives are not to be lived to keep our hands clean. Our lives are to be lived out of a clean heart. Something we can't do, something he can do. For the lives we live reveal the revelation of the Lord. And so we need to understand that our lives are not to be lived state of our heart, the condition of our heart, where our heart is, especially in response to Jesus Christ and to God." [00:39:25] (18 seconds)
"Jesus says that these Pharisees were not planted by God. This is a hard word to hear. Throughout the Old Testament, Jesus talks about planting his people, and as we saw back in Matthew 13 in the parable of the weeds, that there are those who are planted as sons of the kingdom and those who are planted as sons of the evil one, and that both will be sorted at the end. And Jesus says, these Pharisees that are leading and teaching and you respect so much were not planted by my Father." [00:40:30] (25 seconds)
