Pastor Ernie preached from Mark 7:1-23.
Every family and society has a tradition of its own. To start with, the Pharisees created traditions out of a good intention.
They wanted to
1. Impose their vision of morality and obedience to the law so that Israel would be holy and set apart
2. Make holiness (Lev 19:2) something that was attainable in everyday life
Pastor Ernie also spoke about two types of sin
1. The sin of Commission – we take action to commit, whether in thought, word or deed. It can be intentional or unintentional
2. The sin of Omission – not doing something that God’s word teaches us to do (James 4:17).
The consequences of sin are that it:
1. Affects our relationship with God
2. Affects us, the sinner
3. Affects our relationship with others.
Pastor Ernie spoke about where the Pharisees fell short (Matthew 15:8-9). The Pharisees began to live their lives based on man-made standards of what they understood from the Bible, and it became their measure of how holy and pure they were -> the end goal was “to feel good about themselves”. In their hope to ensure that others lived up to the standards of holiness, they had lost sight about caring for and interacting with the widows, the poor, the sick, the Romans, Samaritans and Gentiles.
God is more interested in the condition of our hearts than our external acts (Mark 7:15, 1 Sam 16:7 and Jer 17:9).
Pastor Ernie exhorted us to examine our motivations – are we serving or tithing to feel good about ourselves or out of a desire to please God? Pastor Ernie also exhorted us to step out of our comfort zones to relate to others of different faiths / value systems – the key principle is that we must be in the world but not of the world. He also challenged us as a church to consider our priorities and how we deal with people in the church who have messed up. We should examine ourselves in order to move out of a “Pharisee” mindset.
Discussion Questions
1. In the midst of implementing good intentions for the Jews, the Pharisees lost sight of what was truly important in God’s eyes. Share a time when you had lost sight and later reminded of what truly matters. [10 min]
2. What is God’s intention for us to examine our hearts in what we do? Reflect on how by examining your motives, it would affect the way you interact with and serve others. [15 min]
3. Share with the cell on your struggle / how you overcame relating to someone with different values or faiths. [10 min]
4. Share with the cell about one action step you would like to take in “being in the world but not of the world” [10 min]
