Whoa.
Long time no see. It's really nice to be back with all of you. Miss this pulpit is very comfortable also
As Fred said, I fell in love with one of you guys. And August 11th, that was the day that I proposed to Serena. And we were in Albania.
And before Albania, we were in Italy. We went to a missions camp, and I was reading through Mark.
the Gospel of Mark.
And then the same that I proposed.
For some reason, we ended up reading Mark 7, and that day we were reading together this portion of the scripture, and that's going to be our text today. I just remember this.
But you know, thinking of like our lives and what moves us and what
inspires us, our desires and everything. It's been a season for me where I really like
ask myself like, what am I doing, Lord? What is this all about? What, like…
We do missions. We are a church. Jesus, God, everything.
that we kind of like grow up knowing in our minds
But what is it all about?
was the heart of things, of what we do, of who we are as followers of Jesus, as children of God, as
Church, right? What's…
What is the Lord doing in our day today? It's always that question. And when you're in the missions field, and maybe don't see like the results that you expect and then
you see division and then you see like a lot of stuff like
between brothers and sisters is like really disappointing. And then you're like what
what's going on? What's the problem?
But we know that the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart.
And, you know, we say, I love you with all my heart. And there's all these things that we talk about the heart. But what is the heart, really?
And thinking of like.
the Jewish traditions for a thousand of years every morning and evening.
The Jewish people have prayed these well-known words.
that probably you and I memorized when we were little kids. They're called the Shema and taken from Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5. Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God.
The Lord is one, and as for you, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength. If I were to ask one of the little kids here or the young people here, I'm pretty sure they've memorized it. I memorized it as being a kid, but what does it mean with all our hearts?
Honestly, what's their heart? And Hebrew is the word lev. And if you think about every culture, Colombia, like any kind of culture, Africa you go to, there is this like concept of the heart, but what is the heart?
refer to in God's word. And that's what I want us to think in this morning.
It's interesting that the Israelites had no concept of the brain or they didn't have a word to describe it. They imagined that all humans, intellectual activity takes place in the heart.
For example, they know with their hearts, they understand in their hearts, they have wisdom in their hearts.
And the hardware you think that and make sense of the world, basically. In the Bible, the heart is where you feel emotions, you feel pain in your heart.
Like Hannah, like she felt this pain in her heart when she couldn't have any children. And in fact, this phrase that, a broken heart, you broke my heart, or like this very famous phrase that people use comes from ancient biblical Hebrew, and I didn't know that. It's very interesting. Broken heart. You also experience fear in your heart.
Your heart can melt or be distressed. Your heart can be even depressed.
But then on the flip side, your heart is also where you experience joy.
In Hebrew, to be happy is to be of good heart.
Or to have a heart of joy.
So the heart is the generator of physical life. It is also the center of your intellectual and emotional life.
And there is more. If you think of this theme of the heart, the reality of the heart from the beginning of the world.
From the beginning of the scripture, in biblical Hebrew, the heart is where you make choices motivated by your desires.
Think of 1 Chronicles 28 when David says that it was in his heart to build a temple for God.
So your heart is where your affections are centered. What is in your heart is going to move you. The Lord Jesus Christ.
I said in Matthew 6, where your heart is there, your treasure is also.
They are called the desires of your heart. But what is it? My question for you in this morning, it's really like.
How's your heart this morning? Let's go to the heart of things today.
This morning, if you really want something and you go after it, it is like Nathan. You know, Nathan said to David, whatever is in your heart, go and do it.
So then in the Bible, the heart is this
center of all parts of human existence, as in the well-known proverb that we also know very well, guard your heart.
Because from it flows your whole life.
But now, nothing is very good and beautiful about the heart. The prophet Jeremiah, remember in chapter 7, I think, he believed that the human heart was
fundamentally broken. He said the heart of a human is deceitful above all, irreversibly sick. Who can understand it?
The answer is I, the Lord, who search in the heart. He had watched a whole generation turn away from God. They started sacrificing their own children as if that was a good thing.
So this is why, in the imagination of the Hebrew prophets, the only hope for humanity is the total renewal of the human heart.
Think about Moses. He reacted that if Israel was ever going to love the Lord with all their heart, they would need to be circumcised. And that's very vivid and surprising metaphor about removing evil and stubbornness from the human heart.
David, remember David, after he committed murder and adultery, he pleads with God in Psalm 51 to create in me a pure heart.
The prophet Ezekiel, hope for one day out there in Ezekiel 36, that God will remove the heart of a stone and give his people a new heart of soft
flesh which is very similar to Jeremiah's hope that God would write the commandments of the Torah on their hearts of his people.
And that brings us back to the Shema.
this phrase that we all memorized growing up that used for years, for centuries, every day and night they repeat
to love the Lord with all their heart, but what does that mean? How does that look like in your life, in my life? How's your heart today? Why do we do what we do why
Why do we come to church? Why do we sing? Why do we do everything that we do? Why do you go to work? Why do you love your spouse? Do you have something with
In a relationship against somebody. This is what it means to love the Lord here. We see that all that brings us all the way back to the Shema every day God's people are called to devote
to God, their whole body and minds
their feelings, their desires, their future, even their failures. This is what it means to love
the Lord your God with all your heart. Just as a reminder, remember that our Lord said in Samuel, in 1 Samuel 16, 7, it says, but the Lord said to Samuel.
Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, talking about David.
Because I have rejected him. Sorry, about Saul. For the Lord sees not as man sees.
The Lord doesn't see in how the man sees. And it's interesting that every Sunday, you know, I don't usually wear this blazer. I'm already hot. But, you know, it's easy because, like, I mean, you're preaching, you gotta, like, dress nice, but, like.
You know, I mean, before you guys say like, okay, he's wearing decent clothes right now, but man like it's just like the Lord sees no as man sees. Man looks on the hour appearance.
And you know this very well, but the Lord looks on the heart. And trust me, you don't want to see what's in my heart. I'm pretty sure like our hearts are full of
So much stuff. So what is happening here? So come with me to, let's open up to Mark chapter 7.
That's our passage for today. With this short intro of understanding what the heart is. It's the center of everything that we, who we are, what we do in our lives.
And let's look at what Jesus has to say. Actually, the word heart is going to be in this text like
Three times.
But yeah, let's look at what the Lord has to say here. It's very intense conversation with the Pharisees, of course.
So let's…
is realistic, just…
Five seconds. We're gonna come before the lord
He's worried. He's living word. Sometimes we just are quick to read it and
We know that our God is speaking to us through this text.
Mark 7, starting verse 1.
Now, when the Pharisees gathered to him.
with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is unwashed.
For the Pharisees and all the Jews.
Do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.
And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.
And the Phariseesian describes, ask him
Why do your disciples now walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defile hands?
He said to them, what did I say, I prophesy of you hypocrites? As it is written, these people honors me with their lips.
But their heart is far from me.
In vain do they worship me, teaching us doctrines.
The commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.
And he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.
For Moses said, honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.
But you say, if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is Corbin that is given to God, that 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 and many such things you do.
And he called the people to him again and said to them, hear me. All of you, and understand.
There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.
And what he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them.
then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him since it enters not his heart, but his stomach and it is expelled?
Does he declare all foods clean and he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him, for from within, out of the heart of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery.
coveting wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envious, slander, pride, foolishness.
all these evil things come from within and they defile a person.
Lord, we come before you this morning.
Just humbling ourselves, you.
We can dress nice every Sunday and come here and with our appearances of godliness
But you know our hearts. You see our hearts. And I'm afraid for you to see what's in my heart, really. You know what's in there.
But we don't want to focus only on the reality of our hearts and how messed up they are. I pray that you would speak to us to see Jesus in this. I need to see him. I need to come before you, Lord, and ask you that you would clean my heart, that you would renew our hearts individually here and as a church too.
I pray that this chapel would be a chapel in all generations from the little ones to the older ones.
that love you with all our hearts, that the reason why we live, exist, do things or not do things
It's out of love for you. Please speak to us. I know you will, but I just pray that I would listen. I need to listen to your words here. And thank you so much for Jesus Christ, whom we've remembered all morning. And we won't get tired of
just coming and meditating on who you are and what you've done to give us a new heart.
Whoever, Lord, you know the hearts of my brothers and sisters here. If there is something that is hindering them from loving you.
I ask you, please show that to them so that they would bring it up and come before you.
And live a life with loving you and surrender.
Thank you so much for your patience and loving us.
Thank you so much for your heart for us in Jesus name. Amen.
I want to touch on four different
points here this morning. We're going to look at the Pharisees and their question versus from verse 1 to 5. Then we're going to take a look to Jesus's response. We see that from verses 14 to 6 to 13.
Then we're going to look at the heart of the problem.
Verses 14 to 23, and then we're going to dress up with a conclusion for this.
So let's just start with the pharmacies and their question. It says in verse one, now when the Pharisees gather to him, with some of the scribes.
who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of the disciples stayed with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. So picture this.
The Pharisees, the scribes coming to me, Jesus, they're looking for him. He's coming, like if you take a look to the previous chapters, he's doing all these amazing miracles. He feeds the 5,000. He walks on water. He heals the sick. And so these people are like, who is this Jesus again? This is what, like, who is this? Is this the Messiah? But like, wait, why are they…
not walking according to the way that we are supposed to work. And so this verse and scribes come to Jesus, coming to Jesus with this attitude of
questioning and doubting. And, you know, I didn't know, but Pharisees that they…
they start this group, you don't read them in the Old Testament, right? There is these 400 years where the Lord doesn't say anything, right? And it's during this time where all these Pharisees after Babylon, Pharisim means set apart.
So they have the best of intentions. You know, when we look at description and we look at the forens, it's like these are the bad guys but
Initially, they were not. They actually had this fear. They were like, we cannot go back to Babylon. We need to change this. We need to do things the right way. And so they didn't start as the bad guys. Actually, with the best intention.
They didn't want to go back to idolatry, but
As we're going to see throughout history, they got to an extreme, to a really legolistic extreme. And so they come with the scribes, you know, who started with this group of scribes? Esra.
After they went back, also they started to focus on God's word and like deliver it so that people would actually live it out. So what we're seeing here is
to a group of people that are the best of intentions, right? They have this fear for God.
But then they're going to focus so much on themselves and on the rules and on their appearance.
Instead of relying on the commandment of God, trusting, putting their faith on what God had to say.
Maybe that's the point that I want to see. Maybe you and I have fallen on that too. We just follow with the best of intentions. He's focus so much on like not missing this, not seeing it. And instead of loving the Lord with all our heart that he's gonna
lead us to that. So they come here and they see Jesus disciples eating with defiled hands, which means unwashed.
These are going to be keywords, the file and watch because we know what the Lord is going to do with that later
The word will see that they're paying attention. What are the disciples of Jesus doing? Why are they doing this that way? And that's interesting, right? Like you as a follower of Jesus, wherever you are, watch out, like your classmates, your friends, your people at work, it's like, what?
What is he doing? What doesn't he talk this way? You know, people are watching the way we live. And the way of living of the Pharisees that we see here, and Jewish at this point, it says that in verse 3, for the Pharisees and all the Jews, all of them.
Do not eat unless they wash their hands.
properly, holding to the tradition
of the elders. And it was not that they were through COVID or something like that that they had to wash. No, they had these like roles that they needed to be as clean as possible. The way of living, think about the way of living of these Pharis and Jews.
At this point, they don't eat until they wash their hands properly. It's not that
But the disciples didn't wash their hands to eat. Of course they did. But it says properly.
What does that mean? They had like this ceremony, like this weird way of washing their hands. I was doing some research and they had to put their hands up.
And they put some water in it and let it go down to right here and then like
Then switch them. It's so weird. So it was like this ceremony, like, I need to be super clean and everything has to be nice and
And if they had any context with any like Gentiles.
They would have to take a whole shower even.
It's like, and that was the way. It says that holding at the end of verse 3,
holding to the tradition of the elders. These were holding. It's like what we appreciate the most like right that we're clinging to this. This is what really matters to us.
I don't know what way are you living? What are you holding to today? But this is a good question. They were holding to the tradition
Tradition is a key word. All these practices and rules.
And, you know, we got to think here for a second, because where does this tradition comes from?
There was something that was called the aura law, right? It was like a fence around the law of God to protect him.
that they have come up with. And these people at this point, they were considering this oral law, this aura practices, as important as the law of God.
It was like same equivalent. It's crazy. All these thoughts of many interpretations of men to say like all these practices were as important as the law of God, as the Torah.
And that's what the Lord is saying. That's what we see here. They're holding to the tradition. It's really important. They consider this oral law as important as they love God.
And so that's why they're doing all this.
hands washing and body washing and then, you know, and it goes beyond. Look at that verse 4. It says, and when they had come from the marketplace.
They do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions.
that they observe, such as the washing of cobs, pots, cup reversals, dining coach, everything, everything.
You know, one of the things that I appreciate from my mom is like she was very like she's a very clean person. You know, every Saturday, I like basketball practice and then come back and I had to make sure that it was my responsibility every Saturday, like clean, make sure. And every time my mom would come, you know, in the house, she was like looking at the floor like that.
It was really rough because she saw like some spots. Oh, no, like, you don't want me to call like this. Like, Juan Esteo, that's my real name, not Juanes. Juan Esteo. So, like, I already knew, I was like, oh, man. So I had to go back and do it again. And so it was the same in school.
If I missed like on my notebooks, she's like, rip it off. And start again. And it was like, and I appreciate those things because at the end, they kind of led to something important. They taught me a lot of like, man, I need to be before the Lord. Every time my mom would come to when I was in college already, had my apartment, it was a mess. But I know my mom was coming, so I was like, I had to clean the bathroom, the kitchen, everything, because I knew my mom was coming.
And I realized that, man, why am I so lazy and like don't clean my room, make my bed or, you know, have it ready for like for when my mom comes. It's like, man, that sounds like I know the Lord Jesus is coming. I better like clean up all my mess, right? But it's all like in the heart. That's the point. It's not that like
You know, keeping our appearance, it's evil. Of course not. But what really matters is the heart.
And so that's what the Lord is going to see here. And so they had all this appearance, all the external, relying on their works, boastful, keeping faithfully the tradition of men.
I mean, we're Christians now, believers, followers of Jesus. But when I was looking at this passage, I was like, man, Lord.
Am I relying on my own strength to keep
my relationship with you in the right way? Am I trying to avoid seeing this passive, like, man, I messed up, Lord, I…
Lord, and then rely, I know myself.
Instead of coming and relying on the grace of God and on my love for him and his love for me, first of all.
But then how wide
You know, like, I just think like we grew up thinking like, hey, don't watch this, don't say this, don't do this. All these things, like I've always seen it, but…
we're missing the point of like loving the Lord. That's holiness. Holiness is not avoiding sin. It's loving the Lord with your heart. Naturally, the Lord said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments in John 14, 15.
So what's, again, it all goes back to the heart.
What's your heart today? What are you trying to do? Like by coming to church, by doing ministry, what are we doing? Why do we do ministry? Why do we missions? Why do we send missionaries? Why was I back in Colombia doing what I was doing?
And it's been, I'm telling you, like after coming back, it's been a season of like questioning, like, Lord, like.
Really, what are we doing? It's so easy, I'm telling you, to lead a Bible study, to start a youth group, to go back to Columbia, do missions, and yet.
The heart? You know, what's the difference? What's the difference, really?
And that's what the Lord has been teaching me, and that's why I'm sharing this with you this morning. This passage has been something that the Lord has been impacting me with. So let's continue in verse 5 here. The question that the
that these viruses have.
And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of elders but eat with the fire?
Hence, I love that word walk. Why do they walk? Are they doing every day?
And, you know, follow me, this contrast of like, you follow the law or follow traditions, right? Like it's this, why do they walk according to tradition of the elders? What do they eat?
with defile hands. Again, why don't you rely on what we have said and
What are they doing? So now let's look at Jesus's response. This is our second point from verse 6 to 13.
And he said to them, what did I say, I prophesy of you hypocrites?
I see this written, these people honors me with their lips.
other heart is far from me.
In vain do they worship me, teaching us doctrines.
the commandments of men. There is a lot here. The Lord Jesus Christ is quoting something that they knew.
really good in their hearts.
The prophets, the Netuvim for those who came to Selah, the Tanakh, the Old Testament, they knew the Torah, the prophets, the scriptures. They knew it by heart.
And the Lord is like courting what they knew. He's bringing Isaiah chapter 29, verse 13, which is the same verse here.
And he's telling me, you guys, you guys are hypocrites. That's crazy. And I was doing some research about this word. He's an actor.
Somebody that has like an old face, like a stage player, like a pretender
Man, that's so easy. I'm telling you. And that's what I want us to see and what the Lord has put in my heart is like.
Let's look at our hearts today. We can put up a face.
We can show everything is well, everything is nice. How are you doing? Good. And you? Good. And everything is good.
you're really broken inside, you know?
And so…
We can just put up a face and act like, man, that was after the messaging can't come to me and say like, man.
That was a good message, but maybe I'm not doing the best, which is true. It's these questions of saying like, man, how's my heart really? I can put up a face like, oh, yeah, I can come out like, yeah, there was a thousand converters in Colombia last year. No, like, you know, there was division. There was like issues happening.
There is some things that hurt and it's okay. The Lord is looking at that, you know, and that's why like we
We cannot be actors and stage players and pretend that everything is fine and showing the face of somebody that is not them. We can do that.
And that's how the Lord is calling them, like, hypocrites, you guys. And then it says in the next part, I say, I says.
These people honors me with their lips.
But their heart is far from me.
wow, these people honor me with the lips.
How many Sundays after Sundays we come
And sing hymns and…
And beautiful words, you know, something that I really miss going back to Colombia and it's like.
the sovereignty that we have of the hymns written years ago, but it's not about like the hymn or if it's like a mother and son like it's
Again, they're hard. If you can be singing a hymn and still like not
Now trust and like actually mean what you're seeing in there. On Friday, we're singing in cell and it's like this like passive voice is like, come on guys, actually trust that this is amazing grades do we actually, that our God is greater as we sing?
You know, it's easy. That's the easiest thing to come and
And do something with our lips every day or sing. But how's our heart? Do we actually, when we open that handbook.
Man, Lord, like, this is for you. You actually like, man, that rugged cross, you were actually there. It's a challenge.
But I encourage you all and myself and the young people too, like we don't come here just to sing with our lips.
Man, that's what the Lord is saying. It's easy to honor him with our lips.
But our hearts are hard to gain.
can be far from him. How's your heart? Are you feeling close to him today?
That's the question here. How is that possible? How can someone's heart be far from him?
And this part of hard, remember, devoting to something. What are you devoting yourself to? Remember, we saw in the introduction that these hearts, what they were called to do was to devote to God with their whole body and minds and feelings and desires and failures and future, everything, Lord, like I'm surrendering to you. Like, I can't do this.
It's all about you. You are God. I'm not.
You know how much time do we meditate in him and his work throughout the day? How much time do I even pray? I know the powerful prayer. I've preached so many times. I've come here and yes, worship the Lord. Yes.
But man, am I actually doing it? You know, that's what we need. All of us need to go through this morning. Just not the outside appearance, but throughout the rest of our days.
Sometimes we don't even say anything to him. We don't worship him in the spirit and in truth. I'm confessing a lot of the stuff. It's easy to travel, to go and say to Australian churches and
And am I actually doing it? And that's what I need you guys to keep myself accountable. That's why we need each other. Like, man, let's come worship. Like, how are you doing? How are you doing? Are you actually like, you know, that's why we need each other, our hearts. And then the Lord says here in vain.
Do they worship me? In vain do they worship me.
Teaching us doctrines, the commandments of men, worship in vain, how does that look like?
Man, again, this worship word that we know, we can think of a worship time, worship group.
So many things for worship, but worship is to bow down before somebody, right? To keep somebody's hand. What are we worshiping? What am I worshiping?
Even my own success of ministry, even my own wealth, even my, what am I bowing down before?
And it's saying here, worship in vain, not being aware of what I'm singing or preaching. Don't taking the Lord seriously throughout my week. Don't even tell him how much I love him. Don't even say like, Lord, I need you every time as you're driving, as you're in school, as you're presenting an exam, as you're like on your computer.
As you're taking a shower, you know? It's a worship in spirit and in truth.
And this is very exhorting for myself, and I hope it is for you too.
Teaching us doctrines the commandment of men, the Lord says, and doctrines here are instructions, right? Interesting that a synonym of the Torah, Genesis, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
the first books of the Bible, they're called the law, but if you do some research, the closest word that what it should mean is instruction.
And doctrines is that same word. They're teaching as instruction the commandments of men and rejecting, leaving aside the commandment of God. That's what verse 8 sees. So they live in the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men, replacing the external for the internal, devoting to the tradition, the practices that throughout the years they've done.
the way they were doing things.
But their hearts, they were like loving each other. We can focus so much on so many things, right?
The lights in the basement or the way that we can have maybe a box drum or not or all the things on the outside and yet like our hearts are far away, you know, because, oh, that's not how we do things but
Again, it's our heart, our heart. Our heart is what like the Lord is looking at us right now and
You know, we cannot replace the commandments of men by the commandments of God. You know, something that I've
The Lord has been teaching me too, you know, you go to Bible school and you learn so many awesome things and different doctrines and
the systematic theology and all these awesome tools that we can have, you know, and still hold to them in your head.
In your heart, there might be a disconnection. I can tell you what's the doctrine of salvation. I can tell you…
Ask me. But again, it's not holding to that. If I'm not loving the Lord, loving you.
What's the point? It's so simple. What I'm trying to say is like.
The Lord said like, man, the commandment of God, everything is summarized in loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and love your brother as yourself.
It's such a simple, deep, and hard commandment that the Lord has given us. Sometimes we just like.
You know, make everything too complicated. That's what the Lord is saying here. So we see here that the Lord is…
Encouraging them. They're telling them, don't replace that. Do you actually love God with all your heart?
Do we even trust him when he says who he is? Do we worship an idea of God?
Do we actually worship him in spirit? It's not something that we can see. And now the Lord goes on to the example in verses 9 to 13. The Lord says.
And he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition again.
you're focusing so much on your tradition that you're forgetting about
was the heart of things.
And then he gives the example in verse 10, for Moses said, Honor your father and your mother. And whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.
right that's found there in the law that they boast so much on.
But you say, you say, one thing is what the Lord says, but they're boasting and holding on to what other people have said.
If a man tells his father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is Corbin. That's a little confusing, but pretty much what it means is that
You know, after your parents are in an old age, you should honor them. So they were supposed to care for them, you know, watch
Caring for the resources, like just help them. But then they say like, you know what? That should be Corbin. The money that you have, actually, don't give it to your parents. Give it to the Lord.
Doesn't that sound like a prosperity sort of like preaching, right? Like just caring for the resources more than caring for the parents. Again, missing the point. Like all this business, some sort of prosperity that hopefully the Pharisees movement would
I don't know, it doesn't say that. Again, the point here is focusing on the outside and not on the heart. The Lord Jesus is telling me, look, you yourself are like…
coming up with all these new rules in your hearts and you're making this obey, dishonor people. You're making people dishonor their parents, the law of God.
So, man, it's really rough.
And that's how we go to the heart of the problem here.
The Lord says in verse 14, he called to the people and said, hear me.
all of you and understand there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defy him. But the things that come out of a person
are what defile him. And when he had entered the house and left the people, you know, he went farther. Like he said something to the people, but then
He takes his disciples to the house and the disciples are like, hey, what does this parable mean, Lord?
He said to them, then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him? It's such an obvious thing, right? It's like, duh. But it was what their way of living was based on this. And it enters not his heart, but his stomach and it is expelled.
And then that's what the Lord declares all foot clean. All the Leviticus rules that you find there is like, it's all good, right? And Peter is going to go back and ask
then I think that he's still like, no, Lord, I'm not going to eat that. No, remember, like.
It's all good. It's not about the external. It's about your heart the game.
And he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him.
Again, the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. And then if you look at that list, verse 21, 23,
Man, I think we all have
Well, for sure. In one of them, in all of them.
That's the reality. We are defiled people. We have fallen maybe evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and they defile
a person. So, all right.
We get it. And the Lord Jesus Christ leaves it there, right? And then he goes on to the next one.
And he's going to heal somebody's his daughter and then heals a deaf man. And he continues.
But I was thinking about this passage, and this is kind of the end of the portion that we're looking at today.
But we know that even though Jesus leaves it there here.
He's not going to leave the situation there. It's okay. I know the reality. We know the reality. It's not something new that I'm speaking to you. Maybe today…
you know the passages that I'm bringing this morning, but for me, it's been such a challenging and exhortation and looking at my heart of why we do what we do. Who am I?
And the one who created everything doesn't just identify the problem. Jesus here is not like.
I define the problem and that's it. He's going to do something with it.
We already know the reality of our hearts, but my focus is more is like, okay, yes, look into your heart, but at the end
Let's look at Jesus. Let's look at what he has done. I need to do this. It's so easy to look at Jesus and beat myself up like, Lord, like, yes, but…
hey, we have a savior. We have a shepherd. We come every Sunday and say, we have hope.
What is God doing in my heart? You know, we can look at the Pharisees and the scribes and say, wow, they're so terrible. They focus so much on the outside.
But look at you and me. We are terrible too. We can put up a face here every Sunday, go to all the youth groups.
But what are we doing when we are by ourselves in our rooms? How are we treating each other?
Man, there is attitudes of us that are like, man, Lord, like, what are we doing, you know?
We can be like these hypocrites and just put up a face and actors here.
But is there any hope? Is there any solution for this? That's what I've been, Lord, please, there is this song, run to the Father. And it says, my heart needs a surgeon.
I need something, Lord, like, please, I cannot do this.
And so we can relate a little bit like Paul, sometimes like, you know, when he says in Romans 7, 21 to 25, he says, so I find to be a law that when
I want to do right. Evil lies close at hand, for I delight in the law of God.
In my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Oh, wretched man that I am.
You can say that and me too. Man, I'm so wretched, Lord. Who will deliver me from this body of dead? Like, who can, like.
The answer, always, verse 25.
Thanks be to God.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, open my flesh, I serve the law of sin. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. So think about this. They were unwashing their hands. They were not washing hands. They were defiled because they were not washing their hands. But we're talking about the heart.
So my heart is not washed. My heart is messed up, right? Why would we thank God for Jesus Christ then?
And from the beginning, this defilement of humankind is a reality. But again, let's look at what Jesus has done. I'm going to just read some verses here. I'm not going to ask you to go, because there is a lot. Thinking of this unwashing
hard, dirty, hard, defiled hard.
But there is one, Jesus Christ who identified and did something for it.
1 John 1, verse 7 says.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light.
We have fellowship with one another.
And the blood of Jesus, His Son.
cleanses us. Remember, this word cleanse, like clean us from all sin. The point here that was like defilement, dirty, unwashed.
Washing your hands, washing these, but they're hard.
We remember him every week. 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to
cleans us from all unrighteousness.
Hebrews 9.22. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood.
And without the shedding of blood.
There is no forgiveness of sins.
Again, we can say like, Paul, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. Like.
Ephesians 1.7, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. Matthew 26, 28, for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9, 14, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offer himself without blemish?
With a pure heart, he had the right, beautiful, holy heart.
purify our conscience.
from dead works to serve.
They're leaving God. 2 Corinthians 7.1, since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves.
from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion into the fear of God. Revelation 1.5, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us.
and has freed us from our sins
by his blood.
The Lord didn't just identify the problem. He did something with it. He went to that cross.
Praise God. Praise God. Thanks be to God for the Lord. Like, yes, we're wretched. Yes, our hearts are messed up, but
Man, praise God that every morning when you wake up, when I wake up, we can look at Jesus and say, like, Lord, help me and just surrender before. Like, there is nothing else that we can do.
humble ourselves before him, love him
But there's only one, another verse that I just think of
These…
issue of Jews and Gentiles and the heart. If you look with me to Acts chapter 15, just…
We're closing here. Acts 15, 7 and 9, please. Acts 15, 7 and 9.
They're talking about, again, outward appearance. Should they be circumcised? They shouldn't be circumcised. Should their Gentiles do this or do that? No.
And so Peter here.
Acts chapter 15, look at what he says, and pay attention to the word heart. Now the question is, we know the reality of our hearts.
But what has God done in our hearts through Christ?
This is what Paul, I mean, Peter has to say Acts 15, 7 to 9, it says and after
Actually, let's read verse 6. The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.
The one thing of like, should the Gentiles circumcise or not? And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them.
Brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you
that by my mouth the gentle should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
And God, who what? Who knows the heart
bore witness to them.
By giving them the Holy Spirit.
Just as he did to us. And he made no distinction, pay attention to verse 9, he made no distinction between us and them.
Having what?
I mean, what? Help me here. Having…
Cleanse their hearts by faith.
Made no distinction.
By faith. By faith. That's why we come
Surrender, Lord, we trust that he his
Sacrifice on that cross. When we trust him, when we look at him, we ask lord please
And we receive his Holy Spirit that is going to cleanse us from our heart. And, you know, we have this hope that Paul talks in Romans 5, 5, where he says, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love
has been poured into his word?
Our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has given to us
2 Corinthians 3, 2 and 3, you yourselves are a letter of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all. What's happening in your heart is going to be known by everyone else in your work, in your school, everywhere you go, and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us.
written not with ink. Again, he posts in like written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone.
I don't tablets of human hearts. The Lord has given us a new heart.
We should praise him for that. The Lord has done something to cleanse me. I need him.
He goes to the heart of things. It cost him everything.
I just want to ask you, how's your heart today?
Now, we know this.
We need to respond to it somehow.
One is to be brought before the Lord this morning. They say, Lord, like I've been an actor.
I've been just putting up this face, but you know how broken I am, you know? What an opportunity to be close to him that we can say, like, my heart is not far from him anymore.
Remember James Ford, draw near to him and he will draw near to us. That is like, you need, we need this so that our worship
Wouldn't be in vain so that every Sunday we come, we would worship him with our hearts and love him with our hearts.
Let's look at Jesus and ask him for help.
When we go to the heart of things, dear brothers and sisters, I'm telling you, everything is going to change how we live our lives, the reason why we go to work.
What are we doing as church? Everything is going to change.
maybe we need to like call one another again, go back to the basics of these New Testament church that we so much
love and cling to them. But let's actually do it. Let's actually love one another. Let's actually go for meals. Let's continue to pray for one another.
Let's continue to have this
Hopefully on Wednesday, come and have our families come together and
And worship and pray and
Do what we're meant to be, first of all. Be this church that loves the Lord with all their hearts.
So I just want to leave you with this verse.
And after that, I will give you one minute just
Well, I mean it, but I hope you can have more time with the Lord.
to like search in your heart and ask just as David asked the Lord in Psalm 139, verse 23.
After…
David is saying, oh Lord, in the first verse of Psalm 139, very well-known Psalm, O Lord, you have searched me.
had known me. The Lord knows your heart today.
So what should we say?
The last verse of this Psalm 139, well, verse 23 and 24, it says, search me.
Search me, O God.
That's all you can do. Lord, search me.
And know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts.
And see if there be any reviews way in me.
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Let's just spend one minute. You and the Lord, where you are.
doing this, asking the Lord to search and then I'll pray.
We come before you.
And just help us to be aware of
Who we are.
Call me before.
Our God Almighty, we were singing earlier.
Behold our God.
It's here on that throne.
We need to really believe this, not just know it. We know this
We're singing thousands of hymns for years.
And yet, Lord, sometimes our hearts are so far from you.
or forgive us and have mercy on us, on me.
We can just do so much.
Be in a rush, go from place to place.
And yet forget what was the heart of things, Lord, then.
And we should love you with all our hearts. But we can love you because you love us first.
I can still really understand and comprehend that
amount of love, Lord, it's so easy to say that your son died on the cross for my sins and yet
I really like believe it in my heart and I really like
Ask you, Lord, to show me more of what that means. And I pray that this your church. You bought us, each one of us here.
by the precious blood of your Son, Jesus Christ.
That we may be that church that
just doesn't do a bunch of activities and
And seeing thousands of songs, Lord.
that all the dawah we do
would be out of our hearts.
that comes before you that has been purified by you every day, Lord.
Thank you so much for just Jesus Christ.
Like, I know the reality of my heart. I can look at my life and say, Lord, what a wretched man I am.
But Lord, we don't want to focus on that only we we just
come and pour out our hearts to you at the end of the day to come before Jesus Christ.
His death, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension and say, Lord, here we are
Search me. Look in my heart, Lord, please, and show us.
In what ways we are not
Loving you in the right way.
Thank you, Lord, for the hope.
that does not put us to shame. It's a living hope.
We're constantly seeing as well.
But that we would like treasure this reality, Lord, of your sacrifice for us every single day of our lives.
Please, I ask if there is anything
In me, please lead me and lead us.
in the way everlasting in jesus name
Amen. Thank you.