Hindrances To Revival #…Dishonesty

Day 6 of 24

SCRIPTURE

‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’

~Matthew 15:8-9, NLT

THOUGHT

What is there to gain in being dishonest with your physician?

~Yaakov

Can you imagine the long ride home after the Pharisees confront Jesus concerning His disciples not washing their hands before they ate. They rode up to Galilee, a place they despised, to find fault with Jesus and He pulled Isaiah 29:13 on them…

“These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me
    is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.

The Pharisee were frauds; they were full of phony bologna. They were pretenders or actors which is why Jesus called them hypocrites. They were not real. They pretended to love God but in truth they loved money and power. Everything about them was tinsel. Jesus said they were like polished tomb stones on the outside but like dead men’s remains on the inside. Jesus said, “Their worship is fruitless, vain, a waste of time… joke or farce.” Pharisees don’t worship, they are too busy finding fault with those who do. No man can worship who is captivated by his own self-awareness and self-interest.

Technically Jesus is REVIVAL. We need more Jesus and less religious pretense. The Pharisees could have had more Jesus but they were dishonest in their approach and Jesus saw through their pretense. We will not have revival until we come clean. If we get honest, we will have revival. If we keep pretending and playing church, we will not. We cannot play games with Jesus: He sees our hearts. Remember, He is what we need but He demands our honesty.

• Today we Thank God for Holidays and we pray for TEACHERS.
• Chanda had a great picture of Clara crossing the ramp on her Instagram or Tweeter.
• This Sunday we are to pink it up!
• Today is the last day to sign up for Supper. You have done great this Fall. We have a break coming up October 29. We will have stew and chili for everyone [free] and hayrides for the kids. We will give our AWANA workers a much deserved night of rest.