“So observe and practice all they tell you; but do not do
what they do, for they preach, but do not practice. “
Matthew 23:3
Jesus was speaking to the multitudes and his disciples about the
Pharisees. The things they did were so crazy.
“Now Jesus turned to address His disciples, along with the
crowd that had gathered with them.
The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in
God’s law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on
Moses. But be careful about following them.
They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it
into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all
spit-and-polish veneer.
Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer
shawls one day and flowery prayers the next.
They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking
in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance
of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting
called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend’.”
Matthew 23:1-9
They were all about the outward man. They
wanted to be seen, they wanted to be respected, and a whole
heap of other things but they missed something very
important – the inner man. They were not interested about who
they were on the inside. Let me share a scripture with you that
will bring more understanding of what I am saying,
“You’re blessed when you get your inside world-your mind and
heart-put right.
Then you can see God in the outside world.”
Matthew 5:8
How much time are you putting into working on the inner man?
How much time are you putting into changing the way you think?
How much time are you putting into developing your character?
How much time and effort are you putting into loving God with
all of you?
The Pharisees focused on the wrong things.
Because of that they missed Jesus.
If we are to grow in our relationship with God we need to take
more time focusing on the inner man.
We need to be real with ourselves about who we are and bring
it to Jesus. Where is your heart? Where is your mind?
Are you becoming like Christ daily?
Let’s not make the same mistake the Pharisees made.
Let’s get the inside man right first.
What’s the point of being in a position of power and influence
but you lie, cheat, steal, tear down people, and gossip??
Who are you helping if you have all the money in the
world but are rude, arrogant, brash, cruel, angry
all the time, unloving, uncaring and so on???
Let’s take more time working on the inner man. You are blessed
when you do that.
Bless you friends
Rolain
kingspeech 