Title: Walk the Talk
Scripture: St. Matthew 15:7-8
So often, there is a huge disparity between what we say, and what we actually do. The Bible makes the connection or links “believing” to “behavior.” The two appear to be inseparable. When we try to divorce these two terms (as they relate to Christianity), what we end up with is a mixture of truth and error. There is no doubt a great importance is placed on what we say - the scriptures will bear this out:
• PROVERBS 18:21 “DEATH AND LIFE ARE IN THE POWER OF THE TONGUE…”
• ST. MATTHEW 12:37 “FOR BY THY WORDS YOU WILL BE JUSTIFIED AND BY YOUR WORDS YOU WILL BE CONDEMNED.”
• ROMANS 10:10 "WITH THE HEART MAN BELIEVES UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS – WITH THE MOUTH CONFESSION IS MADE UNTO SALVATION”
• II CORINTHIANS 4:13 "…I HAVE BELIEVED, THEREFORE, HAVE I SPOKEN…”
The problem comes when we place all of the importance on the confession, and not enough emphasis on the obedience implied in the confession. There are an abundance of texts which would serve a similar purpose; it appears as though many of the New Testament writers spent some time focusing upon this particular point. Many Bible scholars believe that the error of Gnosticism is at the forefront of many of the New Testament writer’s agenda. Regardless of the title of the error - one thing becomes patently obvious to the reader- it is not merely what we say – but what we do. I read some weeks ago a paper that talked about a religious experience the person had and subsequently a conversion experience. Made you want to shout as you read the account. However, when viewing persons life, there should be a visible change – that’s where it counts. It is more important to – Walk the Talk.
I read some time ago a very interesting statistic which stated that approximately 75 million Americans profess to be Christians. You would think if the number were that high, there would be a lot fewer acts of violence – immorality – greed – idolatry. Instead, we see thousands of babies aborted, road-rage on every major highway – just last weekend a young 21 year old man was killed in our city - Stabbed in the chest repeatedly because he cut someone off on the highway. We can repeat a litany of the latest murders and kidnappings on the nightly news, and countless other atrocities. Something is terribly amiss if we live among this many true Christians. John comes out of the gate in his gospel narrative stating that our “walk must match our talk.” In our text this morning, Jesus quoted a prophecy from -Isaiah 29:13 -during his earthly ministry which stated “This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” We live in a very religious world, but true religion is defined by our walk. Should not be defined by our Talk. Leaders falling all around us not because of their talk, because of their walk:
• Oral Roberts University Leaders
• Paula & Randy White Ministries
• Bishop Weeks and Juanita Bynum Ministries
• Not their talk that shed negative light on them – but their walk
Many people make the claim "I’m saved." I suppose if you were to conduct an informal person-on-the-street poll today, you would find that most believe they’re on their way to heaven. Very few would honestly say that they weren’t sure or that they knew they were on their way to hell. John says that a saved person lives like Jesus lived. Peter admonishes us to walk “in His steps” (I Peter 2:21) and we read in Matthew 7 that “not every one who says Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom, but the one who does the will of the Father.” The spiritual application of our text is easy to understand. Jesus said of the Pharisees and scribes, "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me." In essence what Jesus was saying is that the Pharisees and scribes do nothing more than – talk, talk, talk. And remember in St. Matthew 21:30 - the son who said he would go in his father’s vineyard to work, and went not? The apostle Peter in St. Matthew 26:3-35 - said he would never be offended because of Jesus and that he would never deny Him - talk, talk, talk.
Today, you sometimes hear those around us challenge someone to – walk the talk.
• I’m going to pray more - walk the talk
• I’m going to be more involved in personal work - walk the talk
• I’m going to study my Bible more - walk the talk
• I’m going to be more hospitable - walk the talk
• I’m going to be more cooperative with the Pastor, deacons, and the teachers - walk the talk
• I’m going to attend all of the church services this year - walk the talk
• I’m going to go to heaven - walk the talk
I remember a time when people used to put a lot of emphasis on the spoken word. Churches used to be full and overflowing on Sundays with people who came to hear the Word instead of coming to be Entertained. During my Great-Grandparents era, a sermon could go on for over an hour and not a soul would leave till it was over. And then they’d go home talk about it some more over lunch together. Word’s were very important in another age. I remember a time when everyone loved books -- reading was a common past-time. Co-Pastor and I still love to read. But then along came the visual revolution – Tv’s – VCR’s – DVD’s – Cable Satellite - and now reading and libraries are passé for many. You will ask someone today, ‘Have you read the book?’ ‘No, but I’ve seen the movie!’ words have dropped in value in our day. And this is all the more reason for us to walk the talk in our faith journey. Words won’t cut it - you can’t just say something and expect to have credibility - you have to live it as well. You have to walk the talk.
Too many who wear Christian attire would have you rather listen to them rather than watch them. They want to place more value in what they say. At first appearance we would think that no one is watching us. We tend to think that people are too busy. Believe it or not, people do watch and they are impacted by the way you walk. You might think that it’s not so – that people around you don’t care – they’re disinterested in you, they’re preoccupied with their own lives and don’t notice. Take our teenagers for example - they put on their headphones and turn up the IPod music and seem oblivious to the rest of the world. But don’t be fooled – the teens are not as oblivious as they appear. They’re watching - out of the corner of their eye perhaps, but they’re watching and learning more from your example than you might suspect. Last Sunday we went to a local restaurant after church. Table in front of us dressed in Sunday best. Had problem with restaurant staff and acted so ungodly that I was ashamed. Behaved no different than worldly person, to the point I thought there would be a physical altercation. Destroyed his and our witness, not only to wait staff, but also any unsaved that were around. I have heard over the years many in the church lament that clergy, those that dawn the pulpits are not given the respect and prominence they once received, that society needs to once again lift local clergy to positions of leadership in the community. Well, speaking as a member of the clergy, if our respect in the community has diminished, and I think it has, maybe it is deserved. Respect must be earned, and maybe this fraternal order of clergy, to which I belong, have not earned it, or at a minimum lost credibility.
• Community is tired or reading about their Pastor’s on the front page of the paper
• Community is tired of Preachers changing wives like we change our socks
• Community is tired of Drinking, Cussing Pastors
• Community is tired of mixed up Pastors, don’t know if they want to be with men or women
• Community is tired of Pastors with their Big Cars and Low Lives
• Community is tired of Pastors too busy to go to Nursing Homes, Hospitals, Sick and Shut-In
• Community is tired of Pastors too big to be Inconvenienced
It is not an easy life by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, clergy are in a fishbowl where we are the fish and everyone’s eyes are glued to the outside. Not only are the clergy examined, but if the clergy person is married and has a family they are too. We live in a day and age where we like to simply say, well…we are just human – and we are, however, this is not an excuse for moral failures. When Jesus quotes Isaiah in our text, He is distinguishing between what we have in our hearts with having “outward piety” and having loyal devotion to God.” For those of us who are living in the “Bible belt”, where church membership is sometimes used as a way of fitting in or being popular, this passage challenges us to be authentic and to avoid the temptation of superficially honoring God with our lips or even well-meaning spiritual disciplines. The text calls us to earnestly seek God and His loving ways.
The text for this morning’s consideration is about traditions that have gone awry. By the first century, Judaism had become a religion of traditions. There were traditions concerning most aspects of life: birth, marriage, burial, worship, types of food to eat and not eat, and washing rituals. It was the hand-washing rituals that were the initial cause for the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees. The Jews placed great importance on the difference between being clean and unclean. This was only distantly concerned with the idea of physical cleanliness. They were actually only concerned with ceremonial cleanness — the state in which a person might rightly come before God in worship or prayer. The religion of traditions stated that a person could become unclean in any number of ways:
• Touching a dead body
• Having an issue of blood
• Drinking from a vessel that was unclean in a ceremonial sense
• A person could be unclean simply by touching another person who was unclean
• A person might unknowingly become unclean by passing through the market or down a busy street and inadvertently brushing up against a ritually unclean person
• Even touching the dust that a Gentile had touched would make a Jew unclean
I don’t want to leave you with a bad taste in your mouth as it pertains to the Pharisees’s because they were much like we are today. The Pharisees had probably started with good intentions and were sincere in their endeavor to please God, at least in the beginning. They were so zealous for God that they wanted to protect his laws. What they decided to do is build a wall around the law. This wall consisted of 100 to 1,500 additional man made laws added to the former commandments. Over time they were so steeped in tradition that traditions became more important than honoring God’s law. Doesn’t that sound familiar? Churches today won’t even fellowship with one another because of our traditions. I watched as well as read in the paper about a community outreach held on the Northeast side. Churches left the building and played softball in the community and had a two day tournament. The issue was - only Baptist Churches were involved. You can’t have a community event by setting up a barrier. Then it becomes -- If you don’t believe and think like us then we really don’t consider you to be part of our community.
Contention grew between Jesus and the religious leaders as they sought his approval of their traditions to be considered equal with Scripture. Jesus was clear he was not going to approve of their man made traditions saying - “you lay aside the commandment of God and hold higher the tradition of men.” The Pharisees with their laws set up a barrier between God and man making the commandments of God to no effect. Because they stopped people from seeing the word of God and they were not convicted of their sin. Jesus was telling them, I understand what you are doing but you have to walk the talk. It is when we are not able or simply don’t want to abide by the Laws of God that we begin to place these barriers up because we don’t want to walk the talk. We build these barriers when we:
• Don’t preach Jesus – Preach how to Make Money
• Don’t preach Jesus – Preach live your best life now
• Don’t preach Jesus – Preach how to get along at the workplace
• Don’t preach Jesus – Preach how to lose weight, exercise and be healthy
• Don’t preach Jesus – Preach how to invest our money, and impress those around us
• Don’t preach Jesus – Preach Money cometh to me know
We wonder why we have such a difficult time living Holy, we very rarely hear the standards of Holiness being preached, I stopped by to tell you walk the talk. Jesus always brought their traditions to the ultimate authority -- the word of God. When he quoted from ISAIAH 29:13 “THESE PEOPLE HONOR ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME…” By adding traditions alongside the word they watered down the truth. Their traditions became more important than what God said through Moses. Jesus was saying:
• You shout real good – but heart far from me
• You speak in tongues real good – but heart far from me
• Praise and Worship is all that – heart far from me
• One Church in Ten Locations - heart far from me
Today the church makes its own numerous rules and regulations that are neither in the law or in principle found in scripture. They exert conditions that do not help but actually can restrict and stumble those they actually want to be helped. My life should match what I preach. My actions should be a reflection of my beliefs. My integrity, or lack of it, is on display all the time. Therefore, I must be keenly aware of my actions and ready to make course corrections when necessary. One of the potential pitfalls is hypocrisy. If I think I’m so good and show off my goodness from a self-righteous motivation then I am guilty of the same thing as the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. They were admonished in no uncertain terms for their false righteousness and hypocrisy. If you feel like you aren’t measuring up, don’t be discouraged. We are in the process of transformation. God is renewing us through Christ. Be honest and change what you can and don’t just say the right things - it must be more than that.
• Don’t just say you will change, you have to walk the talk
• Don’t just talk a good game - walk the talk
• No more do as I say, not as I do - walk the talk
• No more excuses about being wrapped in flesh - walk the talk
• No more sneaking and drinking - walk the talk
• No more hiding under cover of darkness - walk the talk
• No more Finger Pointing - walk the talk
