Sunday 3.24.19
Published on Mar 22, 2019
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MORE DECKS TO EXPLORE
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Songsters
"If On My Soul"
Photo by David Calderón
Gathering
Sargent Major Quinn
Photo by Benny Jackson
Installation of Soldiers
Tithes & Offerings
Photo by Mathieu Turle
Leader: Jesus’s conflict with the religious leaders of his day did not stop. Mark relates an incident in which Jesus and these leaders were disagreeing about the cleanliness laws, the dietary laws, the regulations that had to do with ritual purity. It would be easy to assume that the controversy over such laws is surely not relevant to us today. But actually it takes up matters that are profoundly relevant for human life in any culture, any century. Here’s what happened:
Women: 1The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were “unclean,” that is, unwashed.
Leader: 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)
Men: 5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” (Mark 7:1-5, NIV)
Leader: Jesus couldn’t have agreed more with the religious leaders of his day about the fact that we are unclean before God, unfit for the presence of God. But he disagreed with them about the source of the uncleanness, and about how to address it. Mark records:
All: 14 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” (Mark 7:14-15, NIV)
Leader: According to Jesus, in our natural state we’re unfit for the presence of God. Jesus shows us why we can’t shake that sense of uncleanness. The story continues:
All: 17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean. (Mark 7:17-19, NIV)
Leader: Jesus’s language is quite graphic here: Whether you eat clean or unclean food it goes into the mouth, down to the stomach, and then (literally) out into the latrine. It never gets to the heart. Nothing that comes in from the outside makes us unclean.
All: 20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” (Mark 7:20-23, NIV)
Leader: What’s really wrong with the world? Why can the world be such a miserable place? Why is there so much strife between nations, races, tribes, classes? Why do relationships tend to fray and fall apart? Jesus is saying: We are what’s wrong. It’s what comes from the inside. It’s the self-centeredness of the human heart. It’s sin. In fact, these evils that come from the heart make us so unclean that Jesus later tells the disciples:
Men: 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.
Women: 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
All: 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where “‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’” (Mark 9:43-48, NIV)
Leader: Sinful behavior and sinful desires are like a fire. It can’t be allowed to smolder. It will overtake you eventually. Sin is the same way: It never stays in one place. It always leads to separation from God, which results in intense suffering, first in this life and then in the next. The Bible calls that hell. That’s why Jesus uses the drastic image of amputation. There can be no compromises. We must do anything we can to avoid it. But Jesus has just pointed out that our biggest problem, the thing that makes us most unclean, is not our foot or our eye; it’s our heart. But we can’t cut out our heart. No matter what we do, or how hard we try, external solutions don’t deal with the soul.
"Amazing Love"
Photo by Trey Ratcliff
I'm forgiven because You were forsaken
I'm accepted, you were condemned
I'm alive and well, Your spirit is within me
Because You died and rose again
2X
Amazing love, how can it be
That You, my King, should die for me?
Amazing love, I know it's true
It's my joy to honor You
In All I do I honor You
In all I do, to honor You
You are my King
Jesus, You are my king
You are my King
Amazing love, how can it be
That You, my King, should die for me?
Amazing love, I know it's true
It's my joy to honor You
In All I do I honor You
"Sanctuary"
Photo by Joshua Eckstein
Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and Holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving I'll be a living
Sanctuary for You
Message - "The Stain"
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
