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WELCOME TO GOD FOCUS THIS MORNING

The title of today’s episode : TRADITIONS OF THE ELDERS

We often talk about sticking to the old paths. We are taught to respect the elders of the church. The word shows us to honor those who have served God for a long time, because they can be a great help in our spiritual walk. We can glean all sorts of encouragement and wisdom from them and the old paths. But the true old path is the one found in the word of God and not in man’s ideas and doctrines.

I Cor.11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

Paul said follow me as I follow Christ. Do not take advice from someone who doesn’t follow Christ. This is why we need to know Christ and the word of God for ourselves. This is how we discern what path to take.

In Mark Chapter 7, Jesus teaches the lesson of inner purity. A group of Pharisees came along and saw that some of the disciples were eating bread without washing their hands. They were all up in arms that the disciples were not holding the traditions of the elders.

To the Pharisees that was the most important thing, the appearance of holding to the traditions of the elders. These rules of how to live had been handed down from generation to generation. They were all created to keep them from defying the original ten commandments given to Moses. But over time even their rules watered down the original ten commandments.

Mark 7:5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?

Many are like the Pharisees today, they are caught up in traditions of the elders. Things created by man to show everyone how holy they are, or in our case what a good Christian. They were not even concerned with what God thought, they had a form of godliness, but kept man’s traditions. They prayed to be seen of men, so that they thought highly of them.

Mark 7:6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

Jesus reminded them of the scripture found in Isaiah 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

We want to have a genuine fear of God. That deep respect that shows him that we honor him as our heavenly father. We don’t want to appear to have the respect for God that man’s doctrines have tried to create.

Mark 7:7-9 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

They rejected the commandment of God in order to keep their traditions. How many denominations are that way today? They would fight and die for their denomination before they would admit that they may be holding onto a tradition of the elders.

God wants unity in his body. This is a subject I cannot get away from lately. We cannot be so stuck in our “traditions of the elders” that we miss the move of God. It is time we ask God to search us and remove any man-made ideas from our belief system. I don’t want to walk in traditions of men. Man cannot save me. I don’t want to be aligning with a denomination, when aligning with God’s word is all we need.

I hope this doesn’t come across as being judgmental. The last thing I want to do is to sit in the judgement seat. That is not my job. But I see things that trouble my heart and my spirit.

I always search my heart first, when I come across something that I feel like God is giving me. I ask God to search me and help me see if I am stuck in man’s traditions. I have been guilty of going through the motions, so to speak, at worship service. We are human and sometimes things are on our mind so heavily that we cannot focus on God. Having an off day is different than being caught up in man’s ideas.

When we worship, is it just something we do? Do we give it all we have, in surrender to God? Are we going through the motions? “We have always sang three songs and then had two testimonies before the preacher speaks” What if God wants to mix things up, what if he wants you to sing the same song twice or have four songs and no testimonies. Some people would flip out about how things are not in order. What if we came together and just focused on God? What would happen? We may realize that God doesn’t fit into a box. He needs freedom to move people’s hearts. He cannot draw people to him, if people are focusing on traditions of men.

I really want you to get what I am saying, it comes down to us giving it all to God. We say we surrender all, but do we? Are we hungry for the preaching and teaching of his word? Is it life and bread to our soul? Is the message a feel-good cupcake that will not sustain us when the troubles of life come our way?

Jesus explained to the Pharisees that it wasn’t what someone ate that defiled them, but what come out of them. At another encounter with the Pharisees Jesus told them it was what was in the heart that counted.

Matthew 12:33-34 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.  34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 

Whatever we have in our hearts will come out. If we carry bitterness and other things, at the right moment it will come out. Just like evil things, wicked imaginations. They too will come out of man, if it is within him.

Matt 12:35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

This is why it is so very important to hide the word of God within our hearts. This is why we pray for forgiveness and forgive others. We want to do everything we can do to have a pure heart. This is not works, this is by prayer and yielding to God.

He wants our hearts, he doesn’t want our traditions of going through the motions. He doesn’t want our lip service that we use to show man “what a good Christian I am.”  It is time the body of Christ unite and yield to our head which is Jesus Christ.

When Jesus returns for his bride, I don’t want him to look at me and say, “I know you did a lot of religious things in my name. I know you gave me lip service, but your heart was far from me. Depart from me, I really don’t know you.”

We all want to hear him say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into rest. You walked in my love and discipled many, you didn’t give me lip service, but you gave me your heart. You didn’t walk in the traditions of men, but as my servant.”

I have to ask, are you walking in the traditions of the elders? Are you just going through the motions and giving God lip service? I pray you surrender all, to him and walking in the power of His love.

Until next time,

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

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