Get Right Church and Let’s Go Home
Mark 7:3-9 → Traditional Obligation
Luke 9:23-26 → Realistic Commitment
What do I mean when I say Get Right Church and Let’s Go Home, We must get out of a Traditional Obligation and develop a Realistic Commitment
We find in these scriptures that it was a time that that the Jews and the Pharisees had come to regard certain traditions to be as equal in authority to the Old Testament itself. They had become so wrapped up in being ritually righteous and ceremonially clean that they failed to understand that or realize that all they had was a form of what they thought to be godliness and denied the power there of. They began to question Jesus on why His disciples did not hold to the traditions of the elders and eat without washing their hands has well as work on the Sabbath.
Jesus begins to answer them and begins to explain that they only honor Him with their lips but their hearts are far from Him. He says to them that they are just hypocrites.
Hypocrite is a person who pretends to be what he or she is not; one that pretends to be better than they really are, they claim to be pious, virtuous, Holy, and righteous without being so. Back in history a hypocrite would be an actor that hid behind a mask, their true identity was not known. These people were hiding behind the mask of traditionalism acting as though they were Holy and righteous, offering up lip services but their hearts was far from the truth. They had a form of godliness, they appeared to be holy on the outside, they knew the law, but on the inside where it truly matters they were undevoted, unaffectionate, unreal, and just down right fake.
They had become so ritually righteous and traditionally obligated that they failed to realize truly what their commitment was.
Today we have people that have a form of godliness in the church; they have become so traditionally obligated to church, but have failed to develop a realistic commitment to God. They are hiding behind a mask of ritualism, but their hearts are undevoted, unreal, and fake.
The Bible says in Luke 9:23 “If any man come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
The cross represents commitment. When Jesus was crucified on the cross He sacrificed His life for you and me. If we look at a sacrifice it was a total commitment, the whole animal was given in the sacrifice not just a part of it. A sacrifice is the surrender or destruction of something valued for the sake of something else. I think about the story my father tells sometimes about the chicken and the pig. A chicken and a pig were going down the street when they saw a sign that said ham and eggs 2.99, the chicken looked at the pig and said aren’t you glad we had a part in that, the pig said you may be glad but for me it is a total commitment. In other words you must give yourself 100% to the Lord, like the song says 99 ½ just wont do.
When the Bible says If any man come after me, let him deny himself, this means give himself totally and take up his cross, this is a realistic and totally committed commitment, not just a form, not just lip service, but a totally true and 100% commitment and follow me.
The reason why the people of the church and I am talking about the body of Christ more than the building right now, do not have a realistic commitment is because they have forgotten the reason of their existence, which is to save the lost. The church is to be a beacon of hope, a place of refuge for the wayward. It is supposed to be the place where the world is transformed into the image and likeness of God; however, the church instead of transforming the world is being conformed by the world. WHY because they have lost their savour.
The Bible says in Matthew 5:13 says “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”
When we allow the church to conform to the world you cannot transform the world because you are now part of the world only with a different name.
We must not loose our savour; we are the salt of the earth. Salt changes everything it comes in contact with, but the salt itself remains unchanged. We are the salt of the earth, we (the church) are to change everything that we come in contact with, the world, is not to change us. But when you operate only out of tradition and you fail to develop a true commitment you become unstable and like water which ever way the wind blows you’ll find yourself going that way, but when you develop a realistic commitment you will be like the tree planted by the rivers of water. Then when the storm winds of life begin to blow you may bend, but when it’s all over you not only are still standing, but your commitment has become even more rooted and grounded in God and you say with confidence Nothing shall separate me from His love.
I know that someone may be thinking, “How can the storms of life cause you to become even more rooted and grounded in God?” WATCH THIS: - In the natural when a storm comes and a tree in rooted and grounded in the ground, the winds blow causing the tree to bend, it’s roots are in the ground, when the tree bends, it’s roots move ever so slightly, this does not mean that the tree is going to be up rooted, but what it does is loosen up the ground around the roots some, which allows water to seep down into the ground, the water causes the ground to become softer, which allows the tree to dig it’s roots deeper into the ground, causing the tree to become even more rooted and deeper grounded in the ground and when the next storm comes the tree is even stronger and more capable of handling this storm then the last one. When the storms of life come your way, it may seem as though you are bending to the point you are going to break, it may seem as though you are about to loose your grip, but just hold on when it’s all over you will be rooted and grounded deeper then your were before the storm, just hold on and don’t loose your savour, you are the salt of the earth.
Salt was a spice that was added to a sacrifice (remember sacrifice is a total commitment) that made it something special, it gave it a sweet smelling savour. Savour is: the taste or smell of something: a particular flavor or smell: a distinctive quality. We has children of God should have a distinctive quality about us that is the meaning of a peculiar people, that we are distinctive from the rest of the world. One of the distinctive qualities that we must have is that we must be seasoned with the salt of commitment.
Seasoned: The Etymology of the word seasoned is from the French “assaisoner” meaning to ripen, to give food more flavor or zest by adding seasoning or savory ingredients, to give a distinctive quality to.
I know what someone might be saying right now. Well I come to church on Sunday, I have other obligations that I must attend to down through the week, I have small children and they gotta go to bed before 9:00 I can’t do that, I can’t come to church all the time I need time for myself, besides I pay my tithes, I read my Bible and God knows my heart. SO!!!!!!!!!!
But I am reminded of the scripture that we just talked about in Luke 9:23 “If any man come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” You must deny yourself. To deny yourself is to get out of tradition, to get out of ceremonial ritualism, to stop doing things as usual. Because when you continue to do things as usual you find yourself in the same old usual place and are unable to get what you have need of from the Lord. I think about the men that carried the lame man on top of the roof and tore the roof apart and lowered their friend down from the top of the roof in order to get something from the Lord, they tried to go the usual way through the door, but the usual way was blocked, they had to get out of tradition develop a commitment to themselves and the lame man in order to get what they needed from the Lord.
If we want the church to grow, if we want God to manifest Himself in us we got to get out of traditionalism and develop a realistic commitment for and toward God. And the way we do that is to have a renewing of the mind. The Bible says in Romans 12:2 “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that, good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” The church can’t be transformable until we have a renewing of the mind.
Renew: - to revive, restore, replenish, to make effect.
In order for the church to be effective in this world we must have a renewing of the mind, we must change from a traditional obligation and develop a realistic commitment to God. Without a renewing there can be no transformation, for the church or the world until the church first has a renewing of the mind. We must be the first part-takers.
What are you talking about preacher: The devil looked and saw that the church was operating out of traditionalism. He saw that they were going through the routine of having church; he saw that they had a form of godliness, but denied the power thereof. He saw that the commitment, sincerity, and unity were no longer there. He noticed that the church had lost the fruit of the spirit, their love had began to wax cold, their peace was not the peace that passeth all understanding, their joy was not unspeakable joy full of glory, he looked and saw they were not long suffering, they hadn’t been gentle toward one another in a long time, goodness had left the building, temperance was replaced with a short fuse, meekness was mistaken for weakness, he said I know what I’ll do I’ll add slowfulness among them, I’ll make laziness appeal to them, frustration I’ll give them, then I’ll add a little depression for good measure, I’ll put jealousy among these two, I’ll cause that one to hate this one, wrath, envy, and strife I’ll put some of that in there also.
WHY because they have a traditional obligation, they are going through the motion, but they are not committed to God for real so I can just put this in there and they will become ineffective in the world as a matter of fact they will become so ineffective in the world that I can cause the world to change them all because they have lost their savour, they are caught up in traditional obligations, they are more worried about ritual righteousness and ceremonial cleanliness that they failed to realize God, so I can do my thing.
But God is saying Get Right Church I’m getting ready to come after you and I need you not to have any spots or wrinkles. I need you to get out of the traditional obligation, get out of having a form of godliness and develop a realistic commitment. Fail not to assemble yourselves together.
I think about my situation I began to question God, I said Lord why am I going through the things that I’m going through, I can’t understand why it seems like every job that I feel this is the one for some reason I don’t get it. I began to question God and say Lord what’s the problem, Lord what about the vision, Lord what about what you promised me, Lord why am I going through when my going through days should have been over by now. Then He slapped me in the back of my head and said I need to see if you have a total commitment to me or if you only doing what you are doing out of tradition. I said Lord but you said I would have this and I would be doing this, Lord why am I struggling now, He said I need to see and I want you to see that this walk is a committed walk. I need you to be rooted and grounded in commitment not tradition. I began to ask God what about the things you said I would have, I began to say Lord I’m struggling with this and it is effecting my life in many different ways, He said now you are beging to understand what it is I need for you to understand I need you to be effective in this world, I need you to be able to change the world and not let the world change you, I know the things I have promised you and I will give them to you like I said I would, but for now I need you to realize that I need a committed soul to work for me I need someone I can depend on I need you to not praise me because of tradition, but because of commitment, because of love.
Church God said I need a church without spot or wrinkle I need someone to have a committed spirit I need people that are willing to be the salt of the earth, to change the world not to be changed by the world. Get right church.
Wait a minute preacher how do we get right; we get right by having a renewed mind. When we get a renewed mind we can say like David said ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a right spirit within me.” Lord revive me. Lord replenish me. Lord restore me. Lord make me effective. Lord take me back, back to that place I was with you when I was totally committed.
It’s time to get out of tradition, it’s time to stop doing things as usual. We need to develop a real commitment for God. There are going to be times that we don’t feel like doing something, but because of the commitment we have for God we will do it, that’s what it means to press toward the mark, I am committed to getting to another level, I am committed to being the vessel God can use, I am committed to changing the world. I know if I labor God is going to give me a crown, but I must be committed to God and doing His will.
We need to get up off our seats of do nothing, get out of the tradition of coming to church and develop a realistic commitment to God. We are so into tradition that we know who will be at church on a Friday night and who will not, we so often times call them the faithful few, but they are truly the ones that are totally commited to doing the will of the Lord.
Get right church and let’s go Home.
Let’s become committed and let’s go HOME.
H – Honor Him
O – Obey His commandments
M – Magnify Him
E – become Effective in this world.
Elder Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
Boanerge Ministries
