Congregational Worship
Worthy of Your Name
Welcome and Call to Worship
Congregational Worship
Reign Above It All
Cornerstone
Kingdom Prayer
Congregational Worship
Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me
How Deep The Father’s Love
Lenten Devotional
Relationship or Religion? Mark 7:1-13
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had used the Bible, and gone way beyond it with their traditions, to create a religion of scrupulous law-keeping. Jesus understood the Bible to be THE means of coming into and growing in a relationship with the living God. He also understood that to read it correctly, we need to see him at its very center.
- The Pharisees’ approach to the bible is about religion (1-5)
Religion of externalism
Religion of self-righteous, separatism
Religion of legalism
(MULTILINE)
- Jesus’ approach to the bible is about relationship with the living God (6-8)
Jesus wants a pure heart more than clean hands
Jesus wants you to see the Word of God as authoritative – not the traditions of men
(MULTILINE)
- Examples of these approaches in contrast (9-13)
The Corban example
The ultimate example
(MULTILINE)
For Spiritual Conversation:
Have you fallen into any of these lethal misuses of God’s Word: externalism, separatism, legalism? What does it look like to repent from these religious approaches and refocus on your relationship with the Lord? How can you make sure you are reading and studying the word in a way consistent with Luke 24:27 “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”