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Heart Over Habit · In the Stillness Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey y'all, it's friendly. Welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:05
  Happy hump day. We've officially hit the middle
• 0:07
  of the week and I'm really hoping that this episode helps
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  reset your focus and can carry you throughout the rest of the
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  week study. But today we will be continuing
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  through Matthew. We're going to be in chapter 15.
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  And as much as I wish I had time to read the entire passage, I am
• 0:27
  just going to read parts that I truly want to emphasize to you
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  all, but also want to encourage you go back, read it all the way
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  through on your own. Because I do believe God wants
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  to open your eyes to see things specifically that are for you.
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  And He always meets us personally in His words.
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  So I am going to start in verse one.
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  This is Jesus teaching about inner purity.
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  Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from
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  Jerusalem and asked, why do your disciples break the tradition of
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  the elders? They don't wash their hands
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  before they eat. Jesus replied.
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  And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your
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  tradition? OK, I'm going to skip over it
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  says Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your
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  tradition, you hypocrites. Isaiah was right when he
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  prophesied about you. These people honor me with their
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  lips, but their hearts are far from me.
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  They worship me in vain. Their teachings are merely human
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  rules. And then he says, what comes out
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  of their mouth, that is what defiles them, and then I'm going
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  to get to the end of it. Are you still so dull?
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  Jesus asked them. Don't you see that whatever
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  enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the
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  body? But the things that come out of
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  a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.
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  For out of the heart comes evil thoughts.
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  Murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false
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  testimony, slander. These are what defile a person.
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  But eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.
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  OK, so in this chapter, the Pharisees and the Jewish
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  teachers, they are confronting Jesus.
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  They are so extremely focused on what the law says in the
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  tradition and outward obedience. But The thing is that over time,
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  their devotion to this tradition, it turns into
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  legalism, and they're so committed to maintaining these
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  ritualistic things that they lose sight of why they were even
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  created and what the purpose is. And so this is what Jesus is
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  bringing back-to-back to us. It's not about what you do for
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  God, it's about what God did for you.
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  And I'm going to say that again so that it really sticks because
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  it's so important. It's not about what you do for
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  God, it's about what God did for you.
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  And I believe that when you understand this, it completely
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  reframes how you view faith. So let's go into traditions.
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  The purpose, things like church and communion and Bible studies,
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  they are awesome things. They're good, they're meant to
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  guide us, but they do not replace a relationship.
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  They help us understand God's law more fully so that we can
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  better love Him and serve Him and obey Him.
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  But they are meant to be a way to express gratitude to our holy
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  God. They're not a way to earn
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  approval or our salvation. And the thing with the Pharisees
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  is that they follow the traditions as the end goal
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  instead of allowing them to point toward the heart of God.
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  So Jesus, he is not afraid to call them out.
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  He calls them hypocrites. And The thing is, they knew a
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  lot about God, but they didn't actually know him personally.
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  And this is something that I relate to and is a part of my
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  own testimony because I grew up in a Christian household.
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  Praise God. I'm so thankful for that.
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  And I got to go to church and go to Sunday school, but I didn't
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  truly pursue a personal relationship with God until much
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  later. And I wish I had done it so much
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  earlier. I was more concerned with doing
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  all the right things than seeing Jesus rightly and letting my
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  worship and things that I was doing be out of a pure heart and
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  pure motives. And so if that's where you are
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  today, I just want to say, don't wait because you have an
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  invitation and an offer on the table into a true, real
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  relationship with God right now. And Jesus is making it clear in
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  this passage that God cares so much more about the condition of
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  our hearts than what our outward image looks like.
• 5:00
  So I want to ask you right now reflect on this, How healthy is
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  your heart? Just like we go to physical
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  checkups with the doctor and we do this yearly, we need to
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  examine our hearts regularly. And frankly, we need to do it
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  daily because what you're feeding your heart, it matters.
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  And what you take in through your eyes and through your ears,
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  that is what is coming out of your heart and it shows up in
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  your life. And we're often so careful about
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  what we put in our bodies physically.
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  So much of our world today is taking a deeper look into what
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  are the foods we're eating, the oils.
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  I'm sure y'all have heard about all of that.
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  But we should care even more about what we're feeding our
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  hearts. Because y'all, that's what
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  impacts us forever. It directly translates into our
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  eternity. So Jesus, it's not that he's not
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  saying external things make us unclean.
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  It's what comes from within. It's what we're thinking about
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  and what we're speaking. That's what shows what's
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  happening in our hearts. And when we're consistently
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  watching things or listening, listening to things that are
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  unholy, this produces unholy actions.
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  It might seem like not a lot at first, but it is a slippery
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  slope to go down. And personally, I noticed such a
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  major difference when I started analyzing and paying attention
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  to the music that I listened to and the shows I was watching.
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  I used to think of this was so extreme.
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  I had heard people say like, yeah, I cut out all secular
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  music. And in my head I was like, OK,
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  yeah, that's not for me. I was like a Top T Swift
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  listener. And not throwing shade on her,
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  but when I did start paying attention to OK, this is the
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  song I'm listening to. Or like I'm watching a show that
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  is maybe not honoring the Lord. Like my emotions changed and so
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  did my cravings and my desires. And God is in the business of
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  transforming us from the inside out.
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  So when his Spirit is daily at work and you sanctifying you,
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  that is just a fancy term for setting you apart.
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  You naturally grow, attract less attracted to worldly things.
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  And this is kind of similar to like how your body might react
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  to super sugary unhealthy foods. Like personally, my body rejects
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  it. Your habits begin to change when
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  you let Him transform you. So my challenge for us today is
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  instead of obsessing over perfectly keeping all the rules
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  and the traditions, let your focus be more on knowing your
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  perfect Savior more intimately. Because when the heart is
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  changed, then your life and the way you just live your
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  day-to-day, that will follow. So I want to pray over us.
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  Dear God, we ask you to give us a stronger conviction and a
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  clearer conscience. Would you expose things in our
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  lives that are unclean and are just dishonouring you?
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  Lord, we need your strength to resist the desires of our flesh
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  and help us pursue godliness in our day-to-day lives.
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  Would you help us better understand your heart, Father,
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  so that we can grow to reflect Jesus more clearly?
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  Lord, we want our lives to be set apart for You as Your holy
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  and blameless and pure children. We want to naturally point
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  others to Jesus, so keep us from being distracted from all of the
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  rules and the regulations. May they be upheld as a natural
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  response to who you are. And would you grow our desire to
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  truly know you as our perfect Savior.
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  We pray this all in your holy name, Jesus.
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  Amen. OK, so that is today's episode
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  and I hope that it spoke to you. And I'm praying for you guys,
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  for every single person listening.
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  And I'm so excited for recording tomorrow.
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  See y'all later.