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The Rock Family Worship Center
Taking The Church Outside The Walls
The Rock Family Worship Center
Set Free from Empty Traditions
We explore how religious traditions can often blind us to the truth of our identity in Christ and how to set ourselves free from empty traditions that replace scriptural truth.
• Tradition itself is not bad, but becomes harmful when it replaces or dictates scripture
• The truth about our identity in Christ is what truly sets us free from performance-based religion
• Jesus confronted the Pharisees for holding to tradition while laying aside the commandment of God
• We are already complete in Christ - nothing needs to be added to what Jesus has finished
• Religious routines often come from a place of trying to earn God's approval rather than living from His acceptance
• Performance-oriented faith creates a mindset where we're always trying to "do" rather than understanding who we "are"
• When tradition hides God's love, excludes people He's included, or adds pressure to what Jesus finished, it's time to let it go
• Our actions should flow from our identity in Christ, not from trying to create an identity
• Traditional thinking says sin separates us from God, but scripture says He never leaves us
• Living from the finished work means understanding "I am already complete, already included, already free"
Ask yourself: What tradition in my life needs to be surrendered so I can experience the freedom of Christ? Am I living from a place of "it is finished" or from a place of "I must finish it"?
Last week when I talked about it. It seems like every week when I talk on something, it goes ahead and gives me a sermon for the following week Because something, one specific thing in there will hit me and I'll get to studying it out and then all of a sudden I've got a sermon on it or I've got a teaching on it. I don't even want to call it a sermon, it's a teaching. It's teaching us how to see our true identity in Christ and that's really what we're about on everything that we do. And this week it's kind of spurred from what we talked about last week. What we talked about. I shared with you a lot of the information that I shared at the men's breakfast. I talked about what it meant to not allow tradition to supersede truth, not allow tradition to blind us to who we really are. We talked about how tradition is not a bad thing. We don't want anybody to think that I'm saying that Tradition is not a bad thing. But tradition can be a harmful thing if we allow it to dictate Scripture, and a lot of times we don't want to admit it. Most churches don't want to admit it, but tradition pretty much leads the theology of the church a lot of times. You hear a lot of people say that, but it's the truth. Tradition has been turned into theology and a lot of times we say, well, that's the Bible. But yet we find a lot of these things, even though they're not bad things, we don't find them in the Bible because they're not. They're not biblical, there's just traditions that's been passed down. So today I want to talk about something, something that's related to that, because it really got me thinking about it, and it's how to be set free from empty tradition. How do we set ourselves free from empty tradition? And you may say, well, why does it really matter If I keep doing this? Is it really hurting anything? That's going to be up to you to decide. On a personal level, again, there's things that we do every December 25th. That's not in the Bible, okay, but we do it and it's a good tradition and it's a fun tradition and it's not hurting anybody. We do things on Easter. Nothing in the Bible tells us to go out and hide eggs and let the kids hunt them. It's a tradition that we do, okay, nothing wrong with it. It's not hurting anybody, it's not hurting the church. Hunting an Easter egg is not taking the place of what scripture is saying. So what I'm saying in that is you have to look at your own life and look at your own spiritual walk and say is some of the traditions that I'm holding on to replacing what the Word actually said? That's where it becomes a problem at, when it replaces the Word.
Speaker 1:So we're going to talk this morning about being set free from empty tradition. So we're going to talk this morning about being set free from empty traditions. There's three main scriptures. That's kind of a foundation for what I want to talk about here. I'm going to go ahead and give you those scriptures. We'll probably go back to them a couple of times, but I want to go ahead and give them to you and read them so that you can have them down and you can look at them, because I know everybody's going to leave here and you're going to study those three scriptures. There's only three of them.
Speaker 1:So the first one is very familiar John 8 and 32. So look at what John 8 and 32 says and while it's coming up here, I'm going to read it to you from New King James Version. But I'm also going to share with you real quick what it says in the Mirror Bible, but in the New King James Version it says and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. We miss to make you free. We misinterpret this so much because this is a very familiar verse, like I just done. It's so familiar that we say it in a way that really changes the meaning of it. We don't realize that sometimes. Okay, so, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Let me read to you what it says in the mirror Bible real quick. This mirror Bible is not big words so I'm happy to hold this thing back. It says in this abiding, because if you go up and look at the verses ahead of this, it talks about abiding in christ and he says if you abide in me, you know. So this this is uh, in 32 in the mirror bible. It says in this abiding, you will fully know the truth about who you are, and this knowing will be your freedom. That's what this verse should demonstrate to people that I have an understanding and I have the truth of my identity in Christ and when I have union and I attach to that identity and I take that knowing. That is what's going to set me free and make me free, not all this other stuff that we try to put on it. It's understanding my identity in Christ. I love the way the mirror Bible puts that.
Speaker 1:Second one I want to cover with you real quick is Colossians 2, verse 9 and 10. We've read these several times over the last couple of months, for in him dwells all the fullness fullness of the Godhead, bodily and you. Here's the key part of it and you are complete in him. I'm going to pause right here because you need to see that part. You are complete in Him. I'm going to pause right here because you need to see that part. You are complete. We got so many people, including ourselves, that's trying to do stuff every day to get holier, to get more righteous, to get God to love me more, to get God to accept me more. He says, right here, you are already complete. Now you may not see that in yourself yet. You know it's like I've said before, and I love what Jamie Englehart said, this and I stole it from him and I use it now Something can be true of you but not be true to you.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of things. Everything in this word, because it's a finished work, is true of us, but it may not be true to me yet, because I haven't come to the realization of it. There's people on the street out there that's not in church today. They may be an atheist, they may be an agnostic, they may just not want to come to church. It don't change the fact of what the Bible says about them. Everything in that Word, everything Jesus did on this cross, is still true of them, the same as it's true for you. You've come to a realization of it, you've come to an understanding of it. You know who you are. You know what he done for you. You know that what he done on the cross is absolutely finished and you're part of that work, that finished work. So you, we have to understand we are completing him, who is the head of all principality and power.
Speaker 1:Last one, right here, march seven, verse eight and nine, very verse we're going to definitely talk about this a little later. For laying aside the commandment of God, that right there, we can stop right there and we can preach a message on that, because somebody's going to say well, what is the commandment of God? We'll get into that a little later. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men. Now, you've got to understand. I'm going to get into this in just a few minutes, but I don't want you to misread or misunderstand what's being said right here.
Speaker 1:He is talking to the Pharisees. Jesus is talking to the religious leaders of the day. You got to understand number one who was speaking Jesus? Who was he talking to? The Pharisees and religious leaders, and what is he saying to them? He's getting right up in their face and he's saying you are laying aside the commandment of God and you are holding to the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers and cups and many other such things. He said to them all too well, you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition.
Speaker 1:I wonder what they felt like when Jesus stood up and told them that, because this all started, because when the disciples, when his entourage was coming with him and they was going into wherever, they didn't wash their hands the way the law says you're supposed to, so the Pharisees started this big thing about wait a minute. How can y'all be religious people, how can y'all be followers of Christ, but you don't abide by our rule? He said wait a minute. You will hold to a rule about washing hands and washing cups and you separate from the truth, you are holding on to man-made traditions instead of the commandment of God. That's what he was saying to them. See, it brings a whole new understanding when you really put yourself in there and say, you know, I kind of put myself right here beside Jesus and say, okay, let me listen to him. What was he saying? What was their faces looking like when he was saying this? I wonder what they thought. He probably got called a few names other than child of God. They probably said a few things about who does he think he is? But he come with a purpose and he had a reason for telling them this. And here's the thing about it that we got to understand. This is not an us and them. This is not us looking in here saying we got it all right, we're doing everything perfect, and them folks out there, they're not. This is not a competition. It's not us saying that we're better than anybody.
Speaker 1:We all have traditions. Every single person in this room has tradition. It may be in your home, it may be in your workplace, it may be in your church. All of us have specific traditions that we do on an everyday basis. But here's what we want to look at the things we do in our faith, the things we do in our faith that feel safe and familiar, that's tradition. That's a basic familiar. That's tradition. That's a basic definition. That's about as basic as you can get. Anything that we do in our faith that feels safe and feels familiar, that's tradition, and some of these, even in the church, are really good traditions. They make you feel good, okay, and some of these, even in the church, are really good traditions. They make you feel good, okay.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about this as I was going over some of this I was thinking about, I grew up in what's ACOG now, but it was 10th Street Church of God back then, when I was a little kid and I grew up in that church, you know, coming up in Sunday school and mom and daddy didn't always go, but we went with granny and granny was, you know, she was all into it. I remember, you know, we'd stay with her a lot. My brother had surgery on his leg and I stayed with granny for like months at a time, you know, and I remember hearing her and I was young but I still this impacted me and I still remember it and I remember she lived in a little old apartment and I remember being in the living room watching TV or something and I would hear something and she had a curtain hanging up that separated the rooms and I remember I had a little old thing. I'd walk in there and I'd peek behind the curtain I wanted to see what was going on, because I just heard her talking and, man, she was on the floor, she was praying and she was praying in tongues and she was just talking and having a conversation with God and I remember she'd let that old bun down off of her head and that hair would just fall. And I began to think about that and how I was brought up and many of us brought up the same way.
Speaker 1:And then I began to think about a lot of the traditions that come along with things. And I'm not saying let go of those traditions and throw them out and they're not important. I'm just saying we're at a place right now to where we got to evaluate ourselves. We got to evaluate ourselves as an individual and also as a church, to make sure that those traditions are not getting in the way of the truth of our identity in Christ, because there's a lot of things that we've done when I was coming up as a child. That was just simply tradition. That's all it was. We do that a lot with kids. That's all it was. We do that a lot with kids. That's where it starts at. How do we get them interested in church? I don't know a kid want to come in and hear Bible verses. They want to have fun. They want to come in and play games and eat pizza.
Speaker 1:When I was a youth pastor, I learned real quick because I was in the Word. Then I was a youth pastor, I learned real quick because I was in the Word and I was really teaching them about identity. But I had to learn real quick. I had to take that identity and move it into a party or to something different. That was fun and I had to learn to combine those two because they weren't going to come in and just listen to the Word. I had to engage them in some way and I'm a lot of. That was traditional stuff that I had to do and I began to think about that years later and although it wasn't wrong I mean youth groups do it all around. Every youth group does that, every children's church ministry does that. So I, church ministry does that.
Speaker 1:So I'm saying all this because I want you to see that I'm not beating down religion from the standpoint just to say it's no good, throw it away. I'm not saying that at all. There's good things that you can remember back on and they created a foundation for who we are today. We may have more understanding today of who we are in Christ, but some of those traditions helped create that foundation that I stand on today. So they're not bad. We're not saying throw them out. When tradition starts leading truth, we got an issue. When tradition starts leading and truth starts following, we can drift away from living free. Okay, when we drift away from living free in Christ, we get trapped in a place of performance mode. It all becomes about what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:I told y'all a little bit. I shared with you that I was going to start attending the men's group that they're having out there New Vision. I talked to Roy the other day when I went and got my hair cut and he was excited about it and he's like about the group and all and I said well, man, I think I shared with him a little bit about what happened. I said I think I'm going to join y'all if it's okay. He said yeah, man, we'd love you too. So-and-so, we talked about that and then he even asked a question. It was so funny because this is what kind of got me thinking about what I'm talking about today as well Because I was just standing there.
Speaker 1:He sat down in, he started getting his hair cut while I was sitting there. You know, we was just talking and he says what I can't figure out is he says I want this men's group to really run in a specific way. I said OK, I said what do you mean? And he said well, he said I look at what. What women's group do you know? Women's ministry groups? And he said then I always look and say, well, men's groups seem to always be a little bit different. And I said well, what do you mean by that? I already knew I was fixing to go with this and he said well, think about what most men's groups do.
Speaker 1:I said, yeah, they go out and they build ramps and they clean up people's homes, yards, and they do this and they do that, do, do, do. Do Nothing wrong with that good stuff that they're doing. Hear that. Now. That is great that they're doing that because it's needed. But what it does is it creates a mindset and a heart of performance. And I told him that. I said it goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. I said Adam was put in the garden to do what To tend the garden. Men are created with an innate nature to work. That's just the way men are created to to work. So when we get a men's group that sort of is what it goes into is what can we do to work? What can we do to do something for somebody?
Speaker 1:He wants to run this group more on, and I'm right there with him. That's the reason I'm doing it. He wants to run it more on who are we in Christ, rather than just doing, doing, doing. And I told him when he sat there in that chair. I said listen, I'm not knocking down the doing. Now, that's great things that the men's groups are doing, but let the doing come out of who I am and not to try to create an identity of who I am. Totally different mindset, okay. And he said that is. He said that's totally different. I said women's groups are different because women's not created in the same way. I said women's groups run totally different than what a men's group runs. I said so. If this group, if we can get in here and we can look at identity and we can help these men understand who they are in Christ, that's going to be a game changer for them and for the men's group. So I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1:But it really even the conversation with him is what kind of kick-started this right here too? Because to do that you've got to let go of some tradition and it's hard. It's hard to do that, but you have to let go of some tradition. So, jesus, as I said in Mark 7 a while ago, jesus confronted the Pharisee. His words show that God is not interested in just outward rituals or tradition that try to really earn His approval. Now think about that. Why do we have to earn His approval if we already live from His acceptance? Not for it. I'm not trying to earn God's love. I'm not trying to earn God's love. I'm not trying to earn get good enough for God to accept me. If I live from a place of finished work and inclusion, then I'm already included. He's already finished, I'm already complete in Him.
Speaker 1:And that's why I love these verses and I go back to them, because you can always argue my opinion. But you cannot argue when I throw Scripture in there. You can't do it. And I love to teach like that, because I'll say something and I know people's thinking I don't know about that, oh, he just threw a scripture in there, I can't argue with that. So I say what I want to say because I know it's going to be like wait a minute and then I back it with scripture. So if I want to argue with somebody, you've got to argue with God, because this is what his word says.
Speaker 1:Now, let's be honest. We can argue theology. Everybody is not and don't truly understand when we say what it means to be finished work. Some people are futuristic. Everything's going to happen one day in the future, and that's their theology. That's what they center. Everything they read in the Bible is centered around a future event. I'm different. I hope you're different, because the Word actually says it's done. That's why I believe in the finished work and that's why I believe a lot of misinterpretations come because we're looking at it rather than being complete, we're looking at it to come one day and that will really cause some confusion.
Speaker 1:So the Pharisees when you look at them here, they was trusting in man-made religion to do what? To try to feel close to God. That was their way of trying to have a relationship and to try to have union with Him. But Jesus said that their, their hearts, were actually far from him. Can you imagine? People walked out with some sore toes that day. So he was stepping on some toes that day. I mean because I don't know, I don't know how jesus done it, but I mean I think about me.
Speaker 1:If I was to walk in and somebody asked me to come in and talk to a group like this, you know that's probably what I would do. I would come in and I'd talk about some really good things they're doing, and I'd talk about this and that and I'd make them feel really good. And then I'd say but you're far from him because of what you're doing. Your, your heart's far from him. And then you would have to explain what you mean on that. And Jesus did here. That's exactly what he's explaining right here. He didn't just go in there and just lay it down on them and walk off. He explained to them. This is why I'm saying this to you and we've got to understand it.
Speaker 1:He said by clinging to certain rules and traditions that really voided the heart of God, which is always the heart of God. The commandment of God that it's talking about here is always about love, it's always about mercy, it's always about forgiveness, it's always about redemption, it's always about relationship. Those are the things when it says that commandment that you're not honoring, that you're walking away or you're turning away from the commandment of God. The main one is love. But all these other things flow out of that love. Relationships flow out of love. Honor flows out of love. Listen, if I don't love you, if I don't have a relationship with you, I don't honor you. That don't mean I disrespect you, but I may not have honor for you. I've got to really get to know you before I can say, okay, I really honor what this person is or what this person does or says. There's got to be a connection there before there's going to be any honor there, okay. So all of that flows out of the commandment to love one another. Love others as you love yourself. So all these other verses are, you know, even though they're not right here, they're all saying the same thing. They all connect together.
Speaker 1:So here's a couple of challenging questions just to think about. Think about these on a personal level, but also think about them on a church level, as a congregation, as a church. But don't just look at the church now. Look at yourself, because you are part of this congregation, and if every person individually is saying, well, I'm doing this or I'm doing that, it comes together and then the congregation, it's an overflow into the congregation does that make sense? Because this congregation is made up from individuals? That's why we always say we've got to be here, we've got to be on the same page, we've got to have an understanding of what we're talking about. I'm not saying you've got to believe exactly like I believe, or say it the same way that I say it, but we've at least got to be on the same page of saying you know, we believe this thing is finished and there's a reason why Because the Bible says so, because Jesus hung on a cross and he said it is finished and I believe it.
Speaker 1:So here's some questions to ask yourself have I ever followed a religious routine to feel close to God instead of resting in the union that I already have with me? Have I ever followed a religious routine? Everybody in this congregation right now should be to yourself saying, yes, I have, we've all followed religious routines. How many can stop at that back door before you come into church on Sunday and say exactly what the service is going to be like today? Before you even get in here, before the service even begins, you can write down the next three things that's going to happen. How many can do that? All of us could, because we get stuck in routines. Now, I'm not saying that routine's bad, I'm just saying it is a routine. We do it. I get stuck in a routine.
Speaker 1:Cindy got on to me the other day. She said why do you stay in your office? Well, I said because I'm reading. I'm just kind of going over this and so on and so. But office? Well, I said because I'm reading, I'm just kind of going over this and so and so. But you know, more than anything, it's become a routine. I get in there, I go over my notes, I do my paper, I write the verses down, I turn them in, I go back in there, I start reading, I do my offer. I mean I can tell you everything I do when I walk in. Why? Because it's become a routine. I want to break routine. I've started trying to come in a little bit earlier just to break that. Okay, there's no really specific reason. I've already went over my notes the night before and early this morning. There's no reason that 15 minutes in there is going to change anything. I probably don't need to do it anyway, because then I do start changing stuff. So it's probably good that God's saying break that routine, quit doing that, quit sitting in there, going over and changing everything up. But it's a routine.
Speaker 1:Do my actions flow from fear of not being enough or from the joy of already being complete in Him? My actions, what I do, that's what I'm saying. Nothing wrong with doing, nothing wrong with doing good for others, nothing wrong with doing good in our community. Nothing wrong with those things. But are the things that I'm doing, the actions that I'm doing? Are they flowing out of fear oh, because God's looking and I've got to make sure I do this right. Or are they flowing from a place of I know who I am and because of who I am, that love just naturally flows out of me, or that willingness to help people just flows out of me? That's the reason I'm, you know. You got to look at yourself and say why am I doing it? This is tough. That's why I'm not asking nobody to raise their hand in here today. Do this individually in your mind, because I know what the answers are going to be and I know there's a lot of us that's doing certain things just because I say it all the time I use the word.
Speaker 1:We do it in South Georgia because we live in the Bible Belt and it's the thing to do. A lot of people attend church because it's the thing to do on Sunday. Now, I'm not judging, I'm just saying that's a fact. People do it just because we're supposed to and we live in South Georgia. Those people live up north, they don't even think about going to church on Sunday and they don't feel guilty about it. There's the difference. And down here in the south it has become a tradition. So therefore, if we don't do it now comes guilt Because we feel guilty, because we should have been in church.
Speaker 1:So we start going just to do what? To meet the requirements of that tradition, or the traditions or habits in my life that might actually distract me from God's heart. Are there traditions or habits in my life that might actually distract me from God's heart? We got them. I'm asking these as a yes or no question type thing. But really I could say I could change that last question up and say how many traditions or habits do you have in your life that actually distract you from God's heart? Because we all got them. Don't take this in the wrong way. Every person in this room has them and we've all got things that we do. That's a tradition or a habit. Nothing wrong with it. It's not hurting us, it's not making us a bad person. But I'm asking the question is it distracting from what God's actually called us to do and who God called us to be? Jesus didn't come to add better tradition. That wasn't His purpose. He came to end the distance between us and the Father. Well, we thought there was separation. He's saying now there is no separation.
Speaker 1:Every time you slip and fall and you make a mistake and you do something wrong, guess what? We keep saying it and I say it all the time. We're distancing ourselves. Oh, we mess up again and we distance ourselves. We mess up again and we're distancing ourselves. All of a sudden we're like where's God? Well, guess what? When I slipped and fell and I come over here, god come with me. Slipped and fell again, I come over here. God come with me. Why? Because he's on the inside of me and he said he would never leave me, he would never forsake me. Those two verses right there either mean what. They mean what they're saying or they don't. I can't say well, the verse says he's living on the inside of me, we are one, we're joined together as one and he has made his dwelling inside of me and he said he would never leave me, he would never forsake me. I can't quote those two verses and then say well, every time I sin, I separate myself from it.
Speaker 1:Separation from God because of sin is a traditional mindset, weep, and it's used to try to do what To correct people's bad behavior. Stop messing up. If you'll change what you're doing, then you won't be separating yourself from God. Truth is, you're not separating yourself from God. I'm not saying God's happy with it, but you're not separating yourself. Why? Because he says I'm in you.
Speaker 1:So did you see where traditional thinking and then Bible contradict each other? I can't believe both of these at the same time. They don't go together. So I have to make a decision to say I'm going to believe and stick with tradition or I'm going to stick with truth. And the truth says it's a challenge to let go of some of it. But that's what I mean by.
Speaker 1:Is traditional thinking getting in the way of believing truth and walking in truth? And what does truth do? What are the words that it sets us free? Right, the knowing, the knowledge of that truth sets us free, but tradition can keep us bound. I can just give a prime example of it. Tradition can keep me thinking. When I'm saying bound, I'm saying bound in our mind. It can keep me thinking in a way that does that does not align me with the things of God. It can keep me thinking in a way that says you are not accepted fully Because you still got stuff in your life. You're still messing up here and there. You're still not where.
Speaker 1:Think about the old phrase. It's a really good thing that people used to say, and I used to say it all the time I'm not where I want to be, but thank God, I'm not where. I used to say, and I used to say it all the time I'm not where I want to be, but thank God, I'm not where I used to be, which means I'm somewhere in the middle. Sounds good if you look at it from the perspective of I ain't down there no more. But it's really not good, because what does it do? It takes away the fact of the finished work. I'm here. It's not finished yet. I'm still trying to get there, I'm working my way to it. So it leaves me somewhere in the middle, all confused.
Speaker 1:Mindset is powerful. A lot of these traditions put us in a mindset that contradicts words. That's what I want to break. That's what I'm always going to come up against. And I told Rory that when I was talking to him, I said now, man, I'm coming with a different mindset now. I said I want you to know that. And I said and it's okay, if you don't want me to come and be a part of it, you're not going to hurt my feelings, just tell me. I said I want you to know that. I said and it's okay, if you don't want me to come and be a part of it, you're not going to hurt my feelings, just tell me. He said no, I want you to. He said I think we need to be provoked to think. And I said well, I will do that. I mean, I'm not leaving this, but there's going to be conversations, is what I'm saying. So, during my part of the conversation, if somebody says what do you think? Oh, you just messed up. I'm just going to tell them what I think and I'm going to say, okay, I look at the Word this way and all it is is offering an alternative.
Speaker 1:Everything I do and I don't do this for show Everything I read in this Word, I look at from a finished work perspective. I really do why? Because I believe it's finished. If I did not believe it was finished, I wouldn't look at it like that, but that is my belief, that it is finished, and I believe it because he said it, and I believe it because he's not a liar. So that's why I believe it. So everything my view always goes, no matter what Scripture I read, my view goes to finished work.
Speaker 1:I've already went through and typed in Titus 2, verse 1-10, which is what this program will be based on and looked at every single verse from a finished work inclusion perspective. I can already tell you exactly how traditionally they're going to read those verses. What they're thinking is going to be based on their traditional way of thinking, and my only thing, what I want to do, is I'm hoping the door opens for me to offer another viewpoint. That's it. I'm not crazy. I'm not going to say you're wrong, I'm not going to do that. I'm not crazy, I'm not going to say you're wrong, I'm not going to do that. But I am going to offer a non-traditional viewpoint if the opportunity comes up, and there's already. He said when I asked him if it was okay for me to join, I think they ordered like 50 books, so they were going to allow 50 people to come in and they've already ordered 10 more, so there will be at least 60 people in it.
Speaker 1:But god, I sit right here last week and god says it's a seed. I don't, I don't know what's going to grow out of it, but a seed always produces. Anytime I hear the word seed it, I get excited about it. The truth sets us free, but tradition keeps us bound. Let's look again real quick at John 8 and 32. Let's read the verse again, because it's important. You've got to see that and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Speaker 1:Okay, think about truth for just a minute. Truth reminds us of a few things that you are already, and I'm saying truth now. I'm saying when I say truth, I'm thinking of Scripture, I'm thinking of the Word, I'm thinking of the Gospel. I'm thinking of the Gospel, I'm thinking of the good news. To me, that is truth. Tradition may be good, but it's not always the truth. It's not Scripture, it's not Gospel. So what does truth remind me of? It reminds me that I am already fully accepted in Christ, because I can take you to Scripture after Scripture, after Scripture. It shows you that. It also reminds me that I live from God's love, not for His love. I live out of His love, not trying to gain His love, and I can take you to Scripture after Scripture after Scripture. It shows you that it also truth. Also reminds us.
Speaker 1:Nothing, you add, can make God love you anymore. It's finished. He loves you as much as he's going to love you, which is unconditional, without condition, not based on anything that you've done. If we took the worst person in here that's done the worst thing in their life, he don't love you any less than he loves the person who's never made that kind of mistake. Unconditional, not based on how good we are. It's not based on anything that we can do. You can't do anything to make Him love you, care for you, any more than he already does.
Speaker 1:But tradition often says hold on, you've got to do this. You got to work harder, you got to do more, always adding something else to the gospel. That's where I have a problem with it. That's where I want to stop and say, okay, not bad what it's saying, but it's changing the mindset. That's where it starts at, when it starts changing the mindset. I've got to do this to be better. I've got to do this to make God love me. I've got to do this because if I mess up right here, then God won't be pleased in me and he might reject me. I've got to do this because if I mess up right here, then God won't be pleased in me and he might reject me. A lot of mindsets we begin believing simply because tradition brings it in.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about a backpack. I remember years ago in a youth group I did when I was a youth pastor. I was preaching one night and I wore a backpack in the church and I walked in the side door and I had that backpack on and I actually had a string hanging from the backpack and there was stuff that was. I had a beer bottle attached to one string. I had a magazine rolled up. You know, we didn't have the internet then, so you know, magazines people had a magazine rolled up in one. I had a magazine rolled up. We didn't have the internet then. So the magazines people had magazines rolled up in one. I had whatever, just different stuff, and I was pulling it along with me and I was coming out and I didn't say nothing. I didn't walk in and say, hey, everybody, look behind me. I just walked in and just started preaching.
Speaker 1:I walked around and that stuff is following me. Everywhere I'm going, it's just following me. And then I started getting into Scripture and I started getting into the Word and I started getting into the truth. And then when I walked by the pulpit one time, I grabbed some scissors and cut that one off. And come back by and cut that one off, cut that one off, because why this stuff don't follow me? I'm a new creation. Old things have passed away. So I got to get to a place in my mind of saying that stuff, although it may have been a reality at some point, it's not following me around anymore. And the only way, even when I cut them off, the only way that it will stay with me is if I put it in that backpack and I carry it and I don't have to do that. At the end of my sermon, I think what I've done is I took the backpack off and I don't have to load and carry that stuff around with me everywhere I go. And it made me think about that here.
Speaker 1:Truth gives you a light pack. Let's say you're getting ready to go on a trip somewhere and you're getting ready to go do something. It gives you a light pack, but it gives you everything you need. That's the truth. It gives you everything you need. Tradition sneaks up and starts putting bricks of guilt, bricks of condemnation, all this kind of stuff Rules, regulations. Until the backpack's so heavy you don't even want to go on a trip anymore Because I don't want to carry that load. Why don't we let go of some of this stuff? And that's all I'm talking about today is just to evaluate what some of the stuff is in your life that's weighing you down, that's keeping you in a certain place.
Speaker 1:Here's the question how do we get to a place of living free from empty tradition? That was the title of the message Getting free from empty tradition. Let's go back real quick to Colossians 2, 9 and 10. I know I read it a while ago, but I want you to see something here. Let's see what Paul says in here. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. We'll stop right there. We'll go back to that one. We'll just pull out one word right here Fullness, fullness, that word right there.
Speaker 1:You could take that word out and the scripture would not mean the same thing, that it means Fullness. What does that mean? I don't need to add anything to what Jesus has finished. Listen, if the cup is full, you can't put nothing else in it. If you do, you're just wasting it because it's coming out. So if it is complete and it is done and it is finished and it is full, nothing else needs to be added.
Speaker 1:And my life flows from gratitude, not pressure. Who I am, what I do, flows out of who I am. What I do flows out of who I am. What I say flows out of who I am. The way I respond flows out of who I am. But this word fullness right here.
Speaker 1:If I don't understand that part, then this verse makes no sense to me. For in Him dwells all the fullness, that's it. I've got to see that it's complete. There's nothing else that has to be done. So ask yourself again. I love questions so I'm going to be done. So ask yourself again. I love questions so I'm going to ask questions. Ask yourself these heart check questions here. This is about you. This ain't about the church. Don't be looking around at everybody.
Speaker 1:Think about yourself when you think about some of the traditions that you may have in your life. When you think about some of the traditions that you may have in your life. Does it reveal Christ or repeat a habit? If I'm doing something consistently, it's a habitual thing that I'm doing. It's a habit. If I'm doing it consistently, is it it actually? Is it something that's revealing Christ or is it just something that it's just repeating a habit? Me sitting in there studying a few extra minutes before I come in here? There's nothing about that revealing Christ. It's just a habit, really is.
Speaker 1:Does it welcome the people of God? It's just a habit, it really is. Does it welcome the people of God that he already loves, or does it create walls? I said the people of God, not just Christians. Does it welcome the people of God, not just Christians? Does it welcome the people that God loves, which is all, or does it create walls?
Speaker 1:There's a lot of religious institutions. That creates walls. And I'm not saying that from my own perspective. I'm saying because I hear people say I don't feel welcome there Because of things they've been through in their life or whatever. And they walk into a place and they say, like everybody in the church, looking at me and I just don't feel welcome there. Not because those are bad people, but the atmosphere has created walls and it's sort of like when that person walks in and they're not all cleaned up like the rest of them are, and they got dirty clothes on and they might smell a little bit because they ain't taking a bath every day or whatever, like everybody else has. What do people do? They naturally turn to them and they start looking at them and they realize they're different and walls of separation come up. Does it flow from freedom or does it demand performance?
Speaker 1:If a tradition hides God's love, excludes someone that he's already included, adds pressure to what he's already included, adds pressure to what Jesus has already finished, listen to that. If it hides the love of God, if it excludes people that's already been included, if it adds pressure to what Jesus has already finished, it's time to lay it down. Don't care how long you had it, don't care if your great-grandma taught it to you. It's time to lay it down, if it's doing those things Because it's getting in the way of truth. If Jesus stepped into this room right now, in the flesh, if he walked into this room right now, would he find a family living from His love or a people hiding behind church habits because his finished work invites us to live free, not to hide behind rules. It invites us to live free. But what would he find if he walked in here? I'm using us, I'm not using other churches. What would he find if he walked in here? Would he recognize his Spirit flowing through us, or would he only see the comfort of our routine? This will get you now. See, he didn't die and rise from the dead so that we could stay safe in routine. He came to awaken us to a new life. He came to change the way we look at things, change the way we think about things.
Speaker 1:I've preached a message on routine before. I don't think I called it routine. I didn't call it tradition then. But routine is easy. Routine takes no work at all. Routine takes no thinking at all. I don't even have to think about when I come to do on Sunday mornings. I know exactly what I'm going to do, so it's easy. So it's easy. But how much of God am I pushing out just to stick with my routine? I'm talking about me. You can worry about your own self. I'm not going to sit here and start picking some of y'all apart. I could, you could pick me apart too, but that's why I'm doing. Going to sit here and start picking some of y'all apart. I could, you could pick me apart too, but that's why I'm doing it to myself, so that you can't do it. I'm just being honest. There's certain routines that we get stuck in, and if we're going to stand up here and preach this and I got to start with looking at myself and then looking at our congregation, because if we're going to talk about this, then we've got to be honest enough to evaluate ourselves first. Are you going to look like a hypocrite? Go out here and start evaluating everybody else without evaluating yourself? They're going to start talking about you.
Speaker 1:If Jesus walked in and examined our worship today, would he see hearts awake in union and understanding that we're one in Him, or hands busy with tradition? It's a little bit different here because we're smaller. I can remember out there First, community or whatever other name we was under at the time. It was like going to work. Sometimes there was so much to do you was running, especially if you was anything with the sound or whatever. You was always doing something. There was always somebody here. Always somebody over here had to tell people where to sit at, had to tell people how to walk in the right door. You couldn't walk in that door because you might distract somebody. You got to walk in this door and you got to sit in this seat and it was crazy. I mean, we almost had fights in the church, didn't we, sherry? I mean, really, it was routine, it was tradition. And I said we don't do as much as that. We still have our own little traditions. We do, but nothing like that. But when we start looking at these things, we have to look at everything.
Speaker 1:True worship isn't in our hands or our lips first. It's in our hearts and that's why when people come in and say, well, I wish they'd sing a different, you can't worship to that song Because it shouldn't be about the song. It shouldn't be about well, I like Monica singing, but I don't like when Ronnie sings. It shouldn't be about which one's singing. It shouldn't be about who's preaching. I should be able to, even if I wasn't going to speak. I should be able to put whoever up here and it be the same. It shouldn't be about that person, and we talked this long ago when we talked about this. To me, the mission of the pastor, I should work myself out of a job, which means that there should be people coming up who is getting this and understanding this, that at any given time I can just say hey, right next Sunday you're going to preach, terry, I need you to speak a word on whatever you know and just pick people out and say hey, I know we're going to let Siri preach next week, bye-bye, but that should be the way it is.
Speaker 1:But tradition says one man stands up behind the pulpit. He tells you what he wants to tell you. That day. You sit there in reverence, be quiet, don't be making noises, don't be moving around, don't be All these rules and regulations of the sanctuary. We bring anything but water into the sanctuary. There's rules, there's all kinds of stuff, and we get so used to doing that that it becomes a routine.
Speaker 1:And I'll tell you I'll say it from right up here it gets boring sometimes it really does. Maybe I shouldn't say that, but it does. I don't want it to be boring, so I want to do whatever we can do, and I really do. I want to get to a point of saying you know, I'm telling you, I believe this. I mean, I believe a lot of people in this room is really grabbing on to some stuff. I really do. I believe that, and there are certain ones you can look at and you can hear them say something or whatever, and you can say, okay, ah, they got it. They got it when maybe you didn't even realize they did. But just certain things, when people say it, you're like, yes, they're getting that, they're seeing it differently, they're seeing themselves differently than they used to, and that's what you want to see. That's what this is about.
Speaker 1:It's not about one person standing up and saying here's my message for today, believe what I said. But it's about one person standing up, letting God work through him, to do what? Raise everybody else up, to teach everybody else as well as I learn along the way too, because I'll say some stuff up here and it'll preach to me, because it just hits home in that moment, you know. So it's not about one person. I don't have all the answers. There's questions you can ask me and I don't know. I'll search it, I'll research, but I don't have all the answers. But it's about becoming the body and not one person.
Speaker 1:And I think we've got to lose this tradition of the way that we do church. I don't want it to become a routine, and I said that when we moved into this building here. I remember on day one, that was one of the things I told her. I said we will not create a routine. You know what we've done over the last seven years. We fell back into routine Because it's so easy to do, but I also want to break it. Every way that we can break it, let's do it. And that starts with you too. That don't start with me. They start with me, but it includes everybody, because I can't do it by myself.
Speaker 1:And there's people in here who've got enough understanding that I would love to say you know, kim, you've really started picking up on this and you've got a good understanding because you didn't come from this background. You've got a different perspective of the way you see things than other people do and they need to hear that. And, renee, you just went through some stuff with your mom and all, and you had a level of faith. I'm not saying you didn't have faith before, but you had a level of faith that you stood on right now because you understood who you were, and people need to hear that. I mean, we talk about testimony. That is testimony, that right. There is testimony when you're at now, based on where you've come from and how you've grown and I just picked them two up because of the situation. But everybody in this room has made growth in areas and we need to hear about it.
Speaker 1:Y'all got to get tired of hearing from me. I mean, I get tired of hearing myself, but we really do. Sometimes it's good to hear, it's good for me to hear somebody say something, because I'm like got it, got it Makes sense. Because if it don't, sometimes I get up here and I say something, because I'm like got it, got it 8 cents. Because, if it don't, sometimes I get up here and I say something and y'all look like deer in a headlight. I'm like, okay, I done a really poor job of explaining that, or they just didn't even listen. So it does.
Speaker 1:It helps me, too to say, okay, where are we going? I may be thinking in my mind, we out here and we really need to back it up about 14 Sundays and go back and revisit, because all of this stuff connects. It really does. It connects and if I don't get this, this don't make no sense or don't make as much sense. So go back and listen. If something don't click, go back and listen to it, go back and study it, because I'm telling you, I don't know how God's going to do what he's doing, but he's going to do it and it's going to take more than one person.
Speaker 1:We are not going to be a traditional church. I was listening on the radio and I'll end with this. I was listening on the radio the other day and I think it was the I won't go into it. That church may listen to it. It wasn't even a church, it was in Douglas, but they was doing a commercial and a lot of churches do this and I understand why. At the end of their commercial they said come visit us at so-and-so.
Speaker 1:We're a traditional church but we also believe in. You know, I'm thinking why do you have to say that? You know, I mean, I know why, but I mean it was just caught my attention because it was like we have to say that we're a traditional church. Why? Because that's what's going to bring the crowding. But then we're also big into this. Why that's going to bring the young people in and the new people that's not churchified, not grown up in all that tradition. I'll grab these and we'll have a service at 10.30 or 9.30 for the traditional church and then we'll have a service after for these people because they're tired of tradition. And I'm not saying it's wrong. I think that's good that they're trying to meet the.
Speaker 1:I do it a little bit different. I'm saying I don't care who's in here, we're just going to speak the truth. Some people don't like it and they've left. I understand that that's going to happen. We're not going to divide it up into two different congregations. We're going to bring it into one and we're going to speak the truth into one meeting and not divide it up and say, well, they believe this, they believe this. To me that causes confusion. Let me close it Truly. Just evaluate yourself.
Speaker 1:If a tradition covers up your freedom, weighs you down with performance or distracts from Christ instead of revealing Him, it's time to return to truth, it's time to drop that and it's time to say okay, what does truth say? Here's a call to action what tradition in my life needs to be surrendered so I can experience Christ, the freedom of Christ, for the first time, or maybe again, but I want to truly experience, so I can experience Christ, the freedom of Christ, for the first time, or maybe again, but I want to truly experience that freedom in Christ. Am I living from a place of it is finished or am I living from a place of I must finish it? That changes things. And the final word I want to leave you with this, because it's the truth you are already complete, you are already included, you are already free.
Speaker 1:Man-made tradition should never blur the clarity of God's truth. Don't let what people add to the word drown out what God has already finished. And that's what happens a lot of times with tradition. It gets in there and it gets us away from the truth of God's word that's already finished, because it gets us over here thinking we got to do more, we're not good enough or whatever. And it's not the truth. We got to rely on the truth.