Majoring in the Majors

Good morning everyone. Let's pray, gracious Lord, as we begin the next part of our our service. Lead and guide us in Jesus name. Amen.

I'd like to go to the book of Matthew as we close out our seven woes. Matthew 23, starting at verse 29. As we kind of alluded to what is most important in your life? What are you living for? What are the priorities that are in your hearts and your minds?

Where are you headed? Matthew 23, verses 29 and we'll go to 32. We all there. Okay. Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you build tombs for the prophets and you decorate the graves of the righteous.

And you say if we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in the shedding of blood of the prophets. So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead then and complete what your ancestors so started. This is kind of the final rebuke that Jesus shares with the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. And I think if I were to summarize this particular passage, I think it equates to Jesus calling out for their hypocrisy once again, because they say they wouldn't have done what their ancestors had done, who literally either killed a couple of prophets.

If you look back, there's only a couple that I can think of. But what they essentially also did is they killed the message of what God was trying to share through the prophets to the people. And by ignoring the message that God was trying to place on their hearts, it didn't resonate. And prophet may have received great honor amongst all the people here.

They were decorating fancy tombs for the prophets, they were celebrating them. But they weren't taking the message of what God was trying to place on their hearts. It was all meaningless. And maybe they decorated because of the guilt that they were experiencing towards the rejection of the prophet and or the message. What do you think the prophets or the Pharisees did appreciate?

I think that if you look through the Gospels, they appreciated the attention that they got, their ability to look good, maybe even their intellect, money, influence.

People look to them for wisdom. But was there a lot of love shown? I'm not also, to be fair, I'm not. I guess it's easy to just lump all prophets and prop Pharisees and teachers of the law, but then you have individuals like Nicodemus, some who had questions, they majored in the minors, they majored in the minor things and not the big things. They failed to major on the majors.

Love, grace, faithfulness, justice, humility.

Excuse me. I'm so sorry. I remember growing up, there was a particular family that I knew, and the parents. Excuse me. Expected their house to be clean and spotless.

Thank you, Bill. And everything was immaculate. There was not a speck of dust on any of the cupboards or the chairs.

Everything was in order. And when people would come over, guests would be impressed. Oh, what wonderful kids you have, that they're so clean. And this and that. But inside the home, there were no real conversations, good and tough conversations, honest conversations.

Everything seemed to be very shallow. There was unresolved conflict and ultimately built in resentment and emotional distance. Everything looks right, but the relationships, the major thing, was neglected. And as the parents got older, they retired. The kids grew up, had children of their own, and the parents wanted the kids to come over.

But the kids neglected their own parents. Now they didn't feel a closeness, a kidness, a trust. They had moved on, and the parents were alone. In their later years, when you look at the Pharisees, they honored the outward expressions of their faith, but they neglected that inner, inner transformation. I sometimes chuckle, too, when somebody says, you know, if I lived back then, I wouldn't have done that.

I would have done the right thing.

I personally can't say 100% for sure that I would necessarily do the right thing back then. Especially because, you know, it was different standards. I'm not saying it was right, okay? I'm not covering for past mistakes. But if you look back, like, you look back, I don't know, say, 10, 20, 50, 100 years, 150 years, do you think, you know, we look back, let's say, for instance, smoking, okay, 50 years, 100 years ago, it was completely acceptable.

And now we don't look at it as a good thing. Especially if you see a mother who's pregnant and smoking, everybody's gonna cringe, right? At least most of us.

Some of us would say, I would never give into peer pressure. I would never compromise my integrity for money. I would never treat people like that. I would never ignore God like that. I would never follow the crowd.

I will stand firm. I would never judge like that. The same roots of pride still exist, just. And more subtle forms. As somebody once said, you know, you look back to Peter, and all he said was, I would never betray Jesus.

And yet, how many times, three times, Obi Wan Kenobi once said, you have become the very thing you swore to destroy.

Are you majoring or focusing on the big things or on the little things? Are you focusing on grace, justice, humility, love? Are you majoring on the major things, or are you majoring in the minors? And as I think I would like to ask you, as I want you to reflect, am I honoring God outwardly while quietly, internally resisting the Holy Spirit?

Am I honoring God outwardly while quietly resisting him inwardly? And this week, as we also partake in the communion, I'd like to invite our deacons and our elders to come on up. I want to ask this. This is a challenge for this week. I want you to ask the Holy Spirit, where am I resisting your voice right now?

Where am I resisting your voice right now?