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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] I see you all here for our civilian service. Could all please grab one of these, the handouts, angles we have heard on high. This is how everyone does that. Door round. Does everybody have one? Excellent. That's the song we're doing. Angels, we have heard on high. ["Angels We Have Heard on High"] ["Angels We Have Heard on High"] ["In Excelsis Deo"] ["In Excelsis Deo"] ["In Excelsis Deo"] ["In Excelsis Deo"] ["In Excelsis Deo"] ["In Excelsis Deo"] Amen. We're the Fabians. Pray for us. Amen. Thank you, brother. We've got another handout. They're around. God rest you very gently. Does everyone have one of these? Everyone good? Looks pretty good, huh? Looks like it looks pretty. ["O Come All Ye Faithful"] ["O Come All Ye Faithful"] ["O Come All Ye Faithful"] ["O Come All Ye Faithful"] Amen. This is going to go with the announcements. We'll be following. We'll be giving a song of your choice. Well, again, we don't have any announcements this evening, but just because, like I mentioned this morning, it was a very hectic morning. Didn't have really time to print off the bulletins. There really wasn't a lot to put in there. Hopefully, there will be in the next couple of weeks. Got some other things planned. A homeschool field trip and things like that. But I'm sure everybody's wondering how Oscar the dog is doing, and I'm glad to report that he's back on all four feet, and he's his normal self. He's still a little weak. We believe it was an allergic reaction that he had. His face is even a little droopier than normal. But he's on the mend. I won't go into any other details besides that regarding his ailments. Other than that, again, a Merry Christmas to everybody. Glad everyone's here. Glad everybody came out and spent both the morning and the evening with us. Hopefully, everybody's having a good Christmas, and is prepared to have a great New Year. That'll do it for announcements. We'll go ahead and sing one more song. All right, let's do those hands. Let's do back hands. Let's do one hand. What you got? He just raised his hand. He doesn't even have one hand. 433, a Wayne Amanda. Perfect. I'm already on that page. How'd you go? Is that cool? 433, everybody good? So we'll go 433, Wayne Amanda. The way the angels heard the prayer for heaven The little Jesus laid down his sweet head The stars, the skies, the clouds, everywhere The little Jesus spoke sweetly of heaven Up heaven far away, the baby of grace The little Jesus broke by her feet I love you, Lord Jesus I am from the sky And still I'm praying Until morning is nigh Be near me, Lord Jesus I ask you to sing Yes, I will forever Pray for me, I pray Yes, all of you children In life and again And take us to heaven To live in peace and glory All right, it's time to pass the offering plate. As the plate goes around, let's turn off I'll find this to you in Mark chapter 7. That's Mark chapter 7, as always. We'll read the entire chapter. Please follow the old salary. I'm going to give you a resource for Mark, chapter 7. Mark chapter 7, verse 1 of the Bible reads, They came together unto an affair certain of the scribes Came from Jerusalem, when they saw some of the disciples Eat bread with the fire, that is to say, without washing hands They found fault for the Pharisees and all the Jews Except they washed their hands off, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders When they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not And many other things there be, that they have received to hold As the washing of cups and pots, racing vessels and tables Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him Why not thy disciples, why walk not thy disciples According to the tradition of the elders When you bread with them washing hands? And he answered and said unto them, Well hath the scribes prophesied with you hypocrites? As it is written, this people honor it for you with their lips For their heart is far from you Howbeit in vain you will worship, in teaching for doctrines The commandments of men For laying aside the commandment of God You hold the tradition of men As the washing of pots and cups And many other such like things you do And he said unto them, full well you reject the commandment of God For you may keep your own tradition For Moses said, honor thy father and thy mother And who so cursed his father and mother? Let him die to death But he said, if man shall say unto his father, For his mother, his core man, that is to say, a gift To what so ever thou mightest be confident, by the way, He shall be free When you suffer him no more, you ought for his father or his mother Making the word of God none effect from your tradition Which you have delivered, and many such like things you need And when he had called all the people unto him He said unto them, hark unto me every one of you And understand, there is nothing from a thousand of them That enter into him that defile him For the things which come out of him For those of they that defile the man If the man have ears to hear, let him hear And when he was entering into the house of the people His disciples asked him concerning the parable And he said unto them, are you still without understanding also Do you not perceive that whatsoever thing from a thousand Enter into the man that cannot defile him For they enter not into his heart, into the belly And go without into the drop, purging all meats And he said, that which cometh out of the man That have defiled the man, who from within Out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, adulterous Fornications, murders, thefts, publicisness, wickedness Deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness All these evil things come from within to defile the man And then he arose and went to the border of the tire outside him Entering into the house that no man knoweth That he could not be hid For a certain woman whose young daughter had a unclean spirit Had heard of her, and came and fell out of his feet The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by nation And she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter For she had sentenced her to the children first before There is not meat to give the children the bread And cast them to the dogs And she answered and sentenced her, yes Lord Yet the dogs under the table eat with the children's crumbs And he said unto her, let this saying go thy way The devil has gone out of thy daughter When she was come to her house She found the devil had gone out and the daughter lay upon the bed And again, departing from the coast of Tyre and Sidon He came unto the sea of Galilee And the midst and the coast of Decapolis And they bring unto him one that was deaf And had an impediment in his speech And they beseech him and put his hand upon him And he took him aside from the multitude And put his fingers into his ears And he spit and touched his tongue And looking up to heaven and aside And saith unto him, Ephraim, that he is to be opened And straightway his ears were opened And the string of his tongue was loose And he staked plain He charged them, they should tell no matter But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal He published them, and were beyond measure Astonished, saying, He hath done all things well He may give both a deaf to hear and a dumb to speak Brother Adam, would you pray for us? Heavenly Father, thank you for today Lord God Thank you for salvation we have of your son, Lord God Thank you for taking care of us We acknowledge you, Lord God We give you glory and honor for supplying our every need, Lord God Can you speak to us in the spirit, Lord God? Let us speak, Lord God Give us the years of understanding, Lord And he is going to be praying for us Amen, so in Mark chapter 7 I'm just going to be looking here for a few minutes In the beginning, just in those first few verses We'll begin in verse 5, it says And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders But eat bread with unwashing hands? He answered and said unto them Well hath the Isaias prophesied of you hypocrites? As it is written, this people honoreth me with their lips That their heart is far from me Howbeit in vain they do worship me Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men For laying aside the commandment of God Ye hold to the tradition of men As the washing of pots and cups And many other such things Excuse me, such like things ye do And I just want to preach tonight on this idea of holding traditions Of holding traditions, that's the title of the sermon Holding traditions You know we could read this isolated passage And maybe walk away thinking that having traditions or having customs Are an inherently bad thing When actually that's not the truth We'll see hopefully by the end That some traditions, if they're right Can actually be very beneficial in our lives And they could be even traditions that benefit generations to come So let me just start out by saying this Is that when it comes to a tradition or a custom that you have Whether you find one in the scripture Or maybe it's something you've just kind of always done in your own family You always have to take that in context You have to kind of ask yourself What is the source of this tradition? What is the motive behind what we're doing? Now obviously here with the Pharisees The problem that they have is that Their tradition is usurping the commandments of God And they're kind of being hypocrites Because they're trying to throw this in Jesus' face And saying hey you know your disciples They don't wash their hands but we do And he's saying well you're a hypocrite Because if you're trying to talk about who's more righteous You know you are forsaking the commandments of God for your traditions And if you would keep something there Go over to Romans chapter number 10 And this is something This is ultimately the problem that the Pharisees had Is that they did not As it says in Romans 10 Submit themselves under the righteousness of God But they went about establishing Trying to establish their own righteousness And this is one example of it in Mark That we're reading Where they are teaching for doctrines The commandments of men They're saying hey if you want to be right with God You have to do X, Y, and Z When it's something that's not even found in scripture This washing of pots and other things You know they're just making things up They're just having all these customs That they're just pulling out of thin air And saying this is the commandment of God You must do these things And that's why they're attacking Jesus Over this custom that they have Now that doesn't mean all customs are bad It just means that when a custom or a tradition Is both kind of the same words When those things come in conflict with the word of God That's when we say okay this is bad It's got to change That's when we get rid of it If you look there in Romans 10 Beginning in verse 1 It says brethren my heart's desire And prayer to God for Israel is That they might be saved For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God But not according to knowledge So zeal of course is always a great thing isn't it It's a great thing to have zeal We want to be a zealous people But we want to have a zeal that is according to the knowledge of God And this is sometimes something you'll see in Christians Especially newer Christians Who are very zealous about serving God and living for God But sometimes because they lack the knowledge of scripture They don't know what the Bible teaches in some areas You know they might go overboard in certain areas Or their zeal might be misplaced in the wrong area Here with the Pharisees the Israel that Paul is referring to They have a zeal but it's not according to the knowledge of God Verse 3 for they being ignorant of God's righteousness And going about to establish their own righteousness Have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God So that's the problem there with their tradition Is the fact that their tradition is taking place of the commandments of God Their zeal to establish their own righteousness Is supplanting the righteousness that they need Which is the righteousness of God It says in verse 4 for Christ is the end of the law For righteousness to everyone that believeth So we understand that that you know salvation comes by faith That was something that the Pharisees choked on and couldn't get over And of course when we get a custom or a tradition That is opposed to the word of God If we're going to teach for commandments the doctrines of men You know we're going to find ourselves with the same end result As the Pharisees go back to Mark 7 And we'll see what was ultimately the end result of their custom Their tradition Well it was hypocrisy and false teaching Hypocrisy and false teaching And these are things that we want to keep far from us We don't want to be hypocrites Obviously we're all going to have some level of that Because nobody is perfect But we should always be on guard for that It's always something we're correcting and working out of our life And we shouldn't just be blatantly hypocritical in our lives That's one of the great excuses that people throw out there I'm not going to church it's full of hypocrites Yeah well so is everywhere else The whole world is full of hypocrites Obviously the Pharisees here are taking it to a whole other level Because of what they're doing Because they're trying to establish their own righteousness And not submitting the righteousness of God Because they're teaching for doctrines the commandments of men They are becoming all the more hypocrites They're becoming all the more false prophets and teachers If you look there in verse 6 He said he answered and said unto them Well hath Azias prophesied of you hypocrites as it is written This people honor with me with their lips But their heart is far from me What's the hypocrisy there? They sound like they're saying all the right things But their heart couldn't be any further from God Their motives are wrong Their motives are wrong They're not genuine they're not true they're not real They don't really love God They just want to have an air of righteousness And sometimes this is something that people can run to With an extreme in the Christian life They can get some tradition or custom Which in and of itself is fine But then they use it as almost like a badge of righteousness They use it as a badge of saying I'm better than somebody else Because they have some standard Or because they have some custom That they've worked into their own life Then they can kind of stand on that and try to look down on other people And really that's hypocrisy because they're doing it for the wrong reasons They're not doing it out of a love for God They're doing it kind of like the Pharisees here Where they're just trying to throw it in somebody's face And just kind of say we're better than you And that's because again that's kind of the hypocrisy there They honor me with their lips But their heart is far from me there's no love there And it goes on in verse 7 Howbeit in vain they do worship me Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men So not only are they hypocrites But they're also false teachers They're teaching and saying this is the commandment of God This is the commandment you must follow it It's sin if you don't do this And that's something that we all have to be on guard against But especially those of us that preach and teach the word of God To be careful that we don't get up And just preach things that are our opinion And don't have any scripture to back them up It's okay to express your opinion But what I've found is that unsolicited opinions Typically just make people upset It really just aggravates people It's not really something that is always in the best interest of the body to do Nothing wrong with it as long as we understand that when we're expressing that We might not get the results we want And two, you know We're in danger of perhaps going too far and expressing an opinion saying No, this is the commandment of God You've got to be careful about that There's many examples I'm not going to go on and on about that tonight But what I'm pointing out is this When we read passages like this We could walk away and say Traditions are dangerous things We shouldn't have customs But honestly if you think about it We probably all already have traditions and customs that we do There's probably things that we just do habitually All the time, every day even That are just habits I mean that's really all a tradition or a custom is It's just something that you just kind of do habitually It's this time of year We do X, Y, and Z It's this time of day Whatever Seasonally, annually, daily, whatever We all have things that we just kind of do out of tradition It's just our custom It's just what we do That doesn't mean that those things are necessarily sinful But we have to keep that in check And make sure that we're not going too far with those things So we kind of looked here at the beginning At a negative mention of a tradition And again we saw that the problem Was not through tradition itself But that the tradition was being taught as a commandment That was the problem there As he goes on and says there Well we already read it Let's just move along Go to 2 Thessalonians 2 And we'll just look real quick I won't take too long tonight And we'll just look real quick At a few positive mentions Of traditions in the Bible Go on to 2 Thessalonians 2 Look at verse 15 He said, Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions Which ye have been taught, whether by word or by epistle So Jesus back in Mark 7 was saying You hold the traditions of men And teach them for doctrines As the commandments of God Say, oh we shouldn't hold traditions Well Paul here is telling us to hold to certain traditions That we've been taught whether by word Or by epistle from us Or our epistle, excuse me So which is it? What's the deal with traditions? Are they good? Are they bad? Well traditions are kind of neutral It's a gray area You have to really examine the tradition itself And see what are your motives What are you trying to accomplish with the tradition Does it come in conflict with the word of God And of course this time of year We all have a lot of traditions That we probably put into practice Notice there it's things that they were told verbally Even in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 15 It says, Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions Which ye have been taught, whether by word So there are even things that were spoken By the apostle Paul and perhaps others That were not necessarily recorded in scripture There might have been things that he said Hey Thessalonians you need to consider this You need to do this You need to hold to this tradition for you Meaning that one tradition for one person Might be good for them But maybe not for somebody else Maybe something somebody else does Is beneficial to them But it's not really something That's going to apply to other people Well why aren't these things that are written That were taught in word recorded Well maybe they were just traditions That really weren't going to benefit us In the here and now Maybe it was just more specifically For those people at that time So he says they were taught by word Meaning they were told verbally Showing us that some traditions only profit Certain people in certain circumstances So maybe you have a tradition That's good for your family Maybe it edifies you Maybe it edifies you as an individual or family But maybe it's not going to edify somebody else Maybe it's not going to be a beneficial tradition For other people You can even apply this to churches A lot of churches will do different things That other churches don't do For example Some churches are going to put on a candlelight service Like we did Some people are going to say I don't want anything to do with that It's too catholic Well when you're in Tucson That might not be a bad thing To kind of say This is kind of familiar Bring them in I promise I won't get up here And address with my collar on backwards And insist that you call me father I won't get up here And shake out a vacuum bag or anything Or burn incense And all that goofy stuff But that's a tradition that we just kind of started Something I did in my church in Michigan That I liked I didn't know it was catholic-ish or not I don't know I don't really care I just said I like it Everyone else here seems to enjoy it I always get compliments after it They look forward to it And we're going to keep doing it But you know what Other churches might look at that And say that's not for us So what? They're not going to look down on us for it We're not going to insist that they do it It's just something we do here I love the liberty that we have In the local New Testament church That God hasn't just spelled out Exactly how we have to do every single thing He's given us guidelines, principles The word of God To govern the church But also has given us a lot of liberty To kind of just do as we see fit And glorify God in different ways Another church Maybe they don't have the candlelight service But they put on the Christmas play Right And you know that's not something I'm really interested in doing And let me just say this while I'm on this If there's things in this church That people want to do If ladies want together and do things I'm all for it But don't hold your breath And wait for me to plan everything That you want to do I'll set up I'll purchase things I'll tear down I'll clean up But I'm not going to sit down And schedule the ladies wreath making Or you know all these other things There are certain things that I will do Throughout the year for the church That we just kind of do traditionally You know the mother's tea party And other events But that doesn't mean Just because I'm not promoting something That if you have an idea about something You want to do By all means do it But just understand it's you That's going to do it Okay the building's available I'll help where I can But I'm not really interested in planning Every single little thing So I'm just kind of throwing that out there Because that's just something You know I've been thinking about lately You know I'm totally open to other things If people want to do things They just kind of have to be the ones To take the initiative on it But you know a church might have Something like A Christmas play or something Where they have the kids I'm not really interested in doing that Just because that's another thing I don't want to wrangle cats with children You know like that And I don't know maybe I feel like maybe our kids Are a little more introverted I don't know if they're up for standing up In front of a whole group of people And all of that And plus probably once we got Most of the kids up there We'd really thin out the crowd anyway So I don't know It's just not for us Which is a shame Because most of the kids I don't know It's just not for us Which is a shame Because we have these high ceilings You know we could get We could get you know Little Corbin swinging in here Like an angel you know I mean we could really Go to town with this platform I'm not going to call it a stage All right Because this isn't a performance Well it kind of is But you know We could really go to town And have a pretty good play And you know what Maybe one year we will Maybe someone will just say Brother Corbin I'm for it I've been talking to the other parents The kids are down We really want to put on a Christmas play You know and I'll run it by You know the proper authorities And if it's approved Then you know what I'll say have at it You know And have fun with that And I'll sit back there And I'll enjoy the show You know That's just not something we do here Does that mean if some other church does that That you know They're out of order You know That we have to Evict them from the new IFB or something Because they did something That other new IFB churches don't do No Of course not It's just what they do It's just a tradition that they have It's not good It's not bad It's just something they enjoy doing You know That applies to churches That applies to families Individuals All of that Okay So traditions always have to be taken One by one And considered You know What's the motive Is it benign What's the context You know Are they in violation of scripture No Let's go over to 1 Corinthians chapter number 7 1 Corinthians chapter number 7 You know Some traditions You know Are only going to profit certain people In certain circumstances There's another example of this Over in 1 Corinthians chapter number 7 And this is one I've actually seen people Even today kind of latch onto And try to kind of preach as something That you know We need to take We need to You know Practice When it comes to this idea of You know Of putting off marriage You know I've heard Thankfully not a lot of it But it is out there I've heard it from time to time By people who typically have tried to Have kind of had this air of self-righteousness Who have kind of been You know Considered kind of arrogant people And have looked down on others They've kind of I've heard them preach You know 1 Corinthians 7 In this way Now if you look there in verse 25 He says We'll back up to verse 24 Brethren let every man wherein He is called there and abide with God Now concerning virgins I have no commandment Now let me just emphasize that I have no commandment Meaning what he's about to say Is his opinion He's not saying I have no commandment Of the Lord Yet I give my judgment As one that hath obtained Mercy of the Lord To be faithful He's saying Look This isn't This isn't Black and white doctrine here What I'm about to express to you Is just my opinion Okay And he says in verse 26 I suppose therefore That this is good That this is good For the present distress I say That is good for a man So to be Art thou bound unto a wife Seek not to be loosed Art thou loosed from a wife Seek not a wife And some I've heard some of these And I'm careful not to pick on Young single guys Okay Because Sometimes I've heard preaching Where they just go out They just want to paint With a broad brush And say every Unwed single man Is just somehow Just you know A liability You know And I have not found that To be the case Look there's exceptions For every person Regardless of their Marital status Or whether they're either Going to be A profit to somebody Or a liability And you know what That's all I'm going to say About that Okay But I have seen And I'm careful to say this I have seen People just Latch on to this And then preach like Well if you're not married You should just not Get married We should all just Be like Paul Well the problem is that If we did that There wouldn't You know There wouldn't be Any Christians left We'd all get outbred By the Muslims Okay The world would out breed us With their 1.8 children Alright If we all adopted That philosophy You know In a few generations There'd be nobody to preach to Alright So it's kind of Self-defeating It's a very stupid You know Look If it is good For a man to be so If thou art loose From her wife Seek not a wife But you've got to Get that into context Verse 26 I suppose therefore That it is good for What This present Distress And we What's the present distress That they're being Persecuted back then That there's You know Famine There's just Other things to consider During For the Corinthian people At that time For that present Distress Or a tradition Or a custom Or something that they need To consider In light of their current conditions And is not something That we need to lift out Of scripture And bring it into our present day And try to apply it To other people And say well no This is better Or one's better Than the other You know Because part of having A family Is that you have to be Able to provide For that family And if you're in a church Maybe back then Where it's like Real persecution Where like Dad could die Or you know It's potential But you have to consider And just say you know In the current conditions Raising and providing For a family Is just not feasible You know And look There's a whole lot We could just preach Right out of that When it comes to the idea Of marriage And providing for a family And just practical considerations When it comes to Getting married And raising a family You know That's a big money Is a part of it It should be a factor Can you provide I don't think you have To be able to provide For 10 children You know On the wedding day You know And then one more And then hopefully Another one And then another one And so on And people usually prosper In that time But I'm preaching A separate sermon now The point is this Is that there are traditions That are applicable For certain people And certain circumstances You know There are certain things We're seeing being taught In scripture even That we don't want to just Lift and apply to everybody As it said back there In Second Thessalonians I'll just read to you There were things They were taught by word And traditions that were Taught by our epistle This would be one That is taught by the epistle I believe You know This epistle that we're reading This is a tradition That he taught A custom that was taught In scripture Not necessarily something We should hold as You know The commandments of God You know To not marry Because the Bible Very explicitly says It is not good for man To dwell alone That man should be married That's the ideal These things that are Instructed in the word of God What's another example Of a positive custom Well When Jesus You know Went into the synagogue And as his custom was On the Sabbath day He stood up for to read Right That was a custom that he had So we can't just step back And say All customs All traditions You know Are bad It's benign They are neither Good nor bad It's Unless You know We have to consider What context they're in What are they being used for All of that To determine Whether or not They merit You know Being Practiced Or forsaken And there's just A broader idea Maybe this is something You can kind of lift Out of the sermon tonight And apply more broadly In your life And it's something That I've noticed In my own life And other Christians Is that sometimes people You know In their zeal Can start to live their life And they want to live Every aspect of their life And every decision That they make They want chapter and verse Every single thing That they're going to do Well what's chapter and verse What's the Bible And look That's a noble thing It's good It's good to always Consider our decisions In light of the scripture But here's the thing Some decisions in life There isn't I can't turn you to chapter and verse I can teach you principles I can give you examples From the word of God That are recorded there But you know Not everything in life Is just going to be Black and white Chapter and verse And sometimes people They want to make decisions And they refuse to do it Until they have chapter and verse That's not a good way to live And here's the thing You know What I would say to that Is that You know When you have an instinct You ever just feel with Because you ever have to I mean the Bible talks about in Romans How the Gentiles Who have not the law Do the things which are written Do that which is According to the I'm losing it When they do those things In the word of God Those Having not the law Do the things contained in the law These having not the law Or a law unto themselves Right Meaning that they have the law of God Written in their heart Right God has given even The unsaved instincts Right People know What's right and wrong And a lot of times When they come to the preacher When they come to You know Some spiritual authority In their life And they're just kind of They kind of put it A question to them What they're really hoping for Is that they get the answer That they want They don't really want to hear What they need to hear They just want to hear Oh yeah Yeah go ahead You know what There is no chapter and verse on that You got me Go ahead Make whatever decision That's what they want But what I've often heard them say In their own words And sometimes Without them realizing it sometimes Is that they know What they're trying What they're contemplating is wrong Their gut tells them that Their instinct You know God has given us Instinct for a reason You know That we have God-given instincts To guide us as well We have the law of God Written in our heart You know That's kind of a broader concept You know That could reach out Beyond the scope of this sermon But I wanted to throw that in there You know We can't We can't live our life Chapter and verse Is this tradition Good or bad You know Well where is it In the Bible Where is it In the Bible Where is there Flannel Black and red flannel Where is chapter and verse On that And look I know there's people That wore it here today You're not the only ones Alright I got on Facebook today And scrolled through It's been a while You know Christmas I'll scroll through Facebook See how everybody's doing A lot of black and red flannel Out there folks A lot of pajamas Around the Christmas tree Fireplaces Where did that come from No one in here Even knows They just do it Right Show me chapter and verse Where it says Black and red flannel On Christmas That's a You know And that sounds ridiculous But You know And it is ridiculous But you know I'm just using an example Sometimes that's how people Live their life Or they'll look at other people Things that other people Are doing So show me in the Bible Where you're allowed to do that And who says you can get away With that Well you know It's not It's not in the Bible But my gut isn't telling me It's wrong I don't have chapter and verse Telling me not to either You know And people use things As a And it makes them Hypocrite Okay And look I'm not against anybody Wearing black and red flannel I like it You know I might get some Myself I might In fact next year I might have a new Christmas suit And it'll be black and Oh see You're sporting it You got it Several of you I don't know You know We were wearing it this morning And then apparently Something happened Right You still got it on Alright Okay So I'm not against it I'm for you too I'm not against you Not wearing the black and red flannel On Christmas No one says you have to You wear whatever you want Within reason Okay Why do people do things like that? Why do people just have traditions? You know Sometimes we can just do things in life Go over to Ecclesiastes chapter 2 You know Sometimes it's Let me just come out from behind the pulpit And just say this It's okay to enjoy life You know You can actually enjoy your life You know You can actually Even as a Christian You can smile And be happy And be glad And do things that bring you pleasure And I don't want to be one of these Christians That just thinks that the Christian life Has to be this austere Just life that's void of any you know Pleasure or happiness You know That's out there That kind of thing That kind of mentality That kind of thinking is out there You know These people that want to go live In monasteries And things like that In the name of Christ And they just want to You know You know I mean good night They do it here Down at this church Uh San Xavier I've heard about this Where they have people that literally crawl Through broken glass Am I way off Out at lunch here? Maybe it was at San Xavier But I know somebody whose Catholic mother did that On some holy day Catholic church You know They went and they literally crawled through Broken glass Well I mean Over in the Philippines Where they're like literally whipping themselves And crucifying themselves You know And look People We might not go to that length But sometimes people I think Just cut themselves off from things In life that would actually bring them joy And pleasure Just because it's like some badge of self-righteousness Well I just I refuse to have any fun Just because I'm just so holy And then what they start to do Is they look at other people and say Oh well that person's You know They must not be that serious about God Because you know They enjoy these other things That aren't chapter and verse in the Bible Well you know Excuse us Holier than thou You know Teach us You know how to live A righteous and godly life And never Never crack a smile I'm like I've been around preachers like this In the past Where they've literally Got to say things like I have the ministry of correction And it's just like These type of guys They could tell you what's wrong with the sunset They'd say Don't look at that rainbow Don't you look at that beautiful sunset You know They just criticize everything They just find a problem They just find a problem with everything And it's That's a hard way to live And I have no interest in living my life like that You know There are things that I want to enjoy And the Bible In fact I do have some Some scripture on this That says it's okay To just enjoy life To enjoy the work of your own hands To enjoy the fruits of your labors That God You know As in Acts You know Paul told them That God You know Has sent us rains from heaven Giving us what? Fruitful seasons Filling our hearts with joy Foods to eat God gives us things to enjoy on this earth Okay So let me just lighten the mood a little bit here Let's go to Ecclesiastes chapter number 2 and verse 22 Right It says there in verse 22 Uh For what uh What hath man of all his labor and the vexation of his heart Where it hath he labored unto the sun? Look life's hard enough as it is folks We don't need other people coming along and saying Well you can't have That looks like you're having too much fun You can't do that You can't do that You shouldn't do that And this is something that I've noticed You know You know And I try not to rag on them too much Because there's a lot of good things that I learned there But it's something I could never really put my finger on in the old IFB But the more I've been around the more I'm seeing it It's just they're very good at being very Clean cut And just upright And just They're just so holy And at the same time they're just so cold They're just so holy and righteous And sometimes it just comes across as cold Where it's just like no fun Anything you do that's not you know ordained by the Baptist Church is just off limits And it just comes across as cold And you know what It's just it's laying a burden upon people And sometimes you know that's why I care I don't want to get up and just preach against everything that people do Because maybe that's thing that somebody enjoys You can't call it a sin You know but maybe that's something that they find enjoyment in Like what Here's one Okay for an example I know I'm being kind of vague Playing cards Playing with the devil's tickets to hell Oh you laugh but I've heard that Oh you like playing cribbage with your husband On Saturday nights In the comfort of your kitchen You sinner Don't you know the Joker in that deck of cards Is a picture of Satan himself That's what he was doing at the casino You know some lady who's just trying to have fellowship with her unsaved husband You're just going whoop Now go have fun I don't want to be like that If people have things they enjoy if it's not sinful Let them enjoy it And I'll tell you this right now When my mother-in-law comes to town God bless her we play cribbage And I'm not ashamed In fact there's four decks of poker cards in that AV room And we have game night You know we break out the dice around here Ahh But you know what there would be people that would call me on the carpet over that kind of thing How could you have dice in the house of God Well you know if I catch you guys out back You know shooting craps and throwing down bills Then we'll have something to say about it ok But if we're just going to play a harmless game and have a few laughs If we're just going to play some stupid you know P-knuckle or whatever game you play with the deck of cards Who cares Let people have some fun And quit being so overly righteous over everything And just coming down on people and taking away things that they just are trying to enjoy their life Because life's hard enough Without us adding more to it Is that what he's saying here What hath man of all his labor in his vexation of his heart Where in he hath labored under the sun What's he saying you know what's the point of all of it Why work so hard You know sometimes you just feel like all I am is a social security number for the IRS To just tax You know why why bother For all his days are sorrow And his travail grief Yea his heart taketh not rest in the night This is also vanity I mean sometimes life can just seem pointless It's just work until the day you die Look at verse 24 There's nothing better for a man Than that he should eat and drink And that he should make his soul and joy good in his labor Oh well that's just that's just Solomon saying that No he said this also I saw that it was from the hand of God He's saying a man working and enjoying eating and drinking and enjoying the fruit of his labor is from the hand of God You know people should just be allowed to enjoy their life And if people have traditions or customs or things that they enjoy doing Unless unless it's blatantly sin who are we to call it out and say you shouldn't do that You know let me just take a little bit more of your phone away Let me just you know put the screws to you a little bit more Life's hard enough Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number five This is kind of an occurring thing I mean I will point out the fact that he calls it vanity It's all vanity All is vanity It's all meaningless Right Even the even the the grief and sorrow Vanity all the things we're gonna enjoy Vanity it's all vanity Okay The only thing that matters is the work that we do for Christ It's the only thing that's going to last Ecclesiastes chapter five if you look at verse 18 Behold that which I have seen It is good and comely for one to eat and to drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor You know maybe I'm preaching this because I have an overabundance of tamales right now I've just I've come into a plethora of tamales So I'm trying to convince myself that it's okay for me to spend this rest of this week Having tamales for breakfast and having tamales for lunch and having tamales for dinner Having tamales with eggs having tamales with sour cream and just tamales tamales tamales I'm getting some head nods so you know what I'm gonna have some tamales this week You know and if someone wants to go oh you're such a glutton You know what well I'll go back to my tuna and sauerkraut at the beginning of the year But can you just let me have some tamales for one week I don't want them to go bad Let's just give them all away Or just let everybody else enjoy the tamales No I want some Okay And I'm gonna have them You know someone got me a bowl of popcorn Oh I mean a tin You say oh it's a tin To me I look at it and say that's a bowl of popcorn Meaning I'm gonna eat that in one sitting I'm just kidding I graze at the popcorn until I get to that point Anyway I should have eaten before I came here Behold that which I have seen It is good and comely for one to eat and drink Verse 18 And to enjoy the good of all his labor That he undertaketh the sun all the days of his life Which God giveth him For it is his portion You know God has just given us things to enjoy this life And look if we have traditions and customs That we do seasonally throughout the year whatever And it's things that bring us joy So be it As long as they're not sinful Go ahead That's what I say Enjoy those things Look at verse 20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life Because God answereth him in the joy of his heart Look ultimately it's all gonna You know turn to dust anyway It's all gonna burn And look we could go to chapter after chapter We could go to chapter 12 We could look at that But you know you get the point I gotta move on here I wanna look at another example And this is Uzziah If you would go back to 2 Chronicles chapter number 26 And I think Uzziah serves as a good example of somebody That was permitted to enjoy things in his life But then ended up at the end of his life Crossing a line Where he went beyond the commandment of God God prospered him God blessed him God even allowed him to enjoy things Even as a leader in his life But then later he crossed that line So you know that's kind of a lesson to us You know we wanna We don't have to live our lives chapter and verse But we still wanna respect chapter and verse And look if we're into a tradition If we do have something That we enjoy and it's pointed out Black and white in the scripture that this is sinful Then yeah it's gotta go It's gotta go But otherwise you know it's fine If it's just something we It doesn't even have to be something that is necessarily You know Spiritual Dare I say Maybe it's some carnal thing that's not sinful We just enjoy it just because it makes us happy Because it releases endorphins Or it just puts a smile on our face I say enjoy that You know I say that's the lot you have in life Life's hard enough Let's look at the example of Uzziah here If you look at 2 Chronicles chapter number 26 Let's just look at verse 1 It says then all the people of Judah took Uzziah Who was 16 years old And made him king in the room of his father Amaziah He'll be Eloth Well let's just jump ahead For the sake of time But look at verse 5 And he sought God in the days of Zechariah Who had understanding in the visions of God And as long as he sought the Lord God made him to prosper So he starts out great you know He's starting out in his reign And he's seeking the Lord and God is making him to prosper Verse 6 And he went forth and he warred Against the Philistines and break down the wall of Gath And the wall of Japheth And the wall of Ashdod And built the cities of Ashdod among the Philistines So he's out there doing his kingly duties He's going out, he's fighting the wars He's pushing back the enemies of God Verse 7 So he's becoming strong He's prospering, he's becoming famous The heathen are respecting him God is blessing him And he says in verse 9 And he built towers in the desert And dig many wells For he had much cattle both in the low country And in the plains Husbandmen also and vine dressers In the mountains and in Carmel So he's going out and he's Performing his kingly duties He's doing what he's supposed to do and God is blessing him for it And he's strengthening him But notice that last part there Where he has the husbandmen Which are people that are into horses, husbandry And vine dressers in the mountains In Carmel and that tells you why For he loved husbandry This is something that he's into He's prospering, he's strengthening himself And there's this thing that he enjoys in husbandry That he allows himself to enjoy that And I think that's something that's Important for us to understand That it's okay to have things that you do just because you enjoy them You know And it's something that I've kind of had to convince myself of Because Honestly I don't want to be somebody that burns out in the ministry Because I just never allow myself To enjoy anything that's not church related Okay Look I love the church, I love working for the church It's a privilege to get up here and preach the word of God But you know Forgive me if this just sounds super Unspiritual, sometimes you just need a break From church life Sometimes you just need to be a normal person You know maybe I experience that a little bit more Because every time I get around Somebody I'm the deacon and again I'm glad to be that But you know what I've found is that it's very stressful To always try to just be the deacon 24-7 And sometimes it's nice to just what you know like have a hobby You know and maybe this is something you can work into Your own life Maybe the reason why you're not Fulfilled in life is because You don't have things that you enjoy It's just work, work, work, work, work, work, work Church, church, church, church, church And look I'm all for working I mean Isaiah here is out doing The job he's supposed to do God's blessing And we strengthen him but you know what He was allowed to have this thing on the side that he enjoyed It was a part of his life Obviously it was not the whole You know that's why when I'm driving By here the other day that little You know makeshift swap meet that meets up down there Right at Sentinel peak I'm done calling it A mountain folks I'm bringing back Sentinel peak I'm done giving that university of abomination Any credit from this pulpit It's Sentinel peak okay Not A mountain I'm going off but you know when they had that little swap meet There that meets up anyone that's driven by there on a Saturday Or a Sunday has probably seen that I've been wanting to pull off and go just walk Around and see what they're selling see what junk I can find and I found An old couple old bracing bits Which is that old time you know the old Screwdrivers the old hand drills I've been wanting one of those for so long Because I've got a book of like Just simple woodworking projects that I've Been wanting to do for a long time But you're the deacon you shouldn't be doing Anything like that you should be reading your Bible Every minute of every day And you should be writing sermons Every minute of the day and you should be sowing it It's like well wait a minute can't I just have something On the side that's just that I do that I enjoy Well of course There's nothing wrong with that there's nothing wrong with any of you Doing that if there's some activity That you want to do you know Go do it enjoy it and I know there's Plenty of people here that they don't need to be told That I'm probably preaching this more for myself Than anybody or you know Excusing any myself from anyone that would Take issue with me having a hobby But you know he's enjoying his life here You know and I'm just I'm determined In my heart that I'm not gonna just Dismiss things that I'm passionate about in life Just because I'm so Holy or something or because that's just what's expected Of me because of somebody else's Tradition right some other preacher Says well you just shouldn't do things you shouldn't have Hobbies you shouldn't do things Because you know you just should never have time for that stuff You know what you need to make time for yourself We all need to do that or you'll burn out Okay and this is important And you know I'm trying to counter some To be honest I'm trying to counter some of the preaching I've done in the past Because I feel like I've preached Things in the past that I don't even agree with Anymore about this hyper productivity Type of mentality that's out there Where it's just get up late Or get up early stay up late and just Go go go go That's a sure fire way to just crash and burn in life You know so I'm trying to kind of counter Some of that preaching right now And say hey look it's okay sometimes Go ahead and let yourself have a day off And find something you're passionate about That isn't even spiritual Okay Now we have to be careful Because like in the story here and I'll move along quickly With Isaiah you know he had this thing that he enjoyed But then he kind of got lifted up Right and he crosses a line Towards the end there if you remember we read about him Earlier this week On Thursday when he was the king that was Smoked with leprosy at the beginning of 2 Kings 15 It says in verse 16 But when he was strong his heart was Lifted up to his destruction So he's got this liberty You know he's made room for himself You know he's freed up the land He's even got Mount Carmel back And he can go ahead and have his hobby out there His hobby horse you know literally But you know when he's strong his heart is Lifted up to destruction for he transgressed Against the Lord of his God And he went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense Upon the altar of incense And Azariah the priest went in after him And with him four score priests to the Lord That were valiant men and they withstood Uzziah the king and said unto him And appertainingeth not unto thee Uzziah To burn incense unto the Lord but to the priest The sons of Aaron and they Are consecrated to burn incense Go out of the sanctuary for thou hast trespassed Neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God You know what he should have done right there and said Right I'm sorry You know he's just feeling kind of fat and sassy In life and just decides well You know I've got these other things that God's allowed me to enjoy Now I'm just going to take other things upon me That aren't mine to take on You know he's taking on these priestly duties Maybe because he just liked the smell of incense I don't know what possessed this man To go and do this But he crossed a boundary with God Now he's gone from enjoying something in life To violating scripture Okay there's a line there I want to make sure we know where that line is And he should have when he got called out on it Just said you're right But that's not what he did Verse 19 Then Uzziah was wroth and had a censer in his hand to burn incense And while he was wroth with the priests And he's angry with them he's lashing out He was leprous in his forehead And they thrust him out thence Yea himself hasted also to go out Because the Lord had smitten him I mean they literally just as he's just like You know cussing these priests out And his leprosy just starts to spread And it's interesting that it starts there In his head You know because it reminds me of Romans 12 Where Paul admonished the people not to Think more highly of themselves Than they ought to think You know and that all takes place up here I kind of thought of that when I was reading the story He's thinking more highly of himself Well I can go and burn incense And God smites him for the pride of his mind And that's where that leprosy starts You know and our pride And ourselves and our actions Can become a leprosy to us And they can get us run out even out of the house of God So I thought that was a good story To kind of tie in here You know Uzziah was somebody That did well, did his duties He was allowed to enjoy life He was allowed to pursue his passions But it was his pride It was him crossing that boundary That was his undoing It wasn't the fact that he had his hobby horse That wasn't his undoing it was his pride Most traditions that people have Are benign Meaning they're not harmful In fact they're even favorable And I was just thinking what are some traditions That people have Because this is something I've been thinking about lately Because when you get older You understand the saying You can't go home again Who's ever heard that saying, you can't go home again What they mean by that is that What you experienced in your childhood Growing up, that's a one time thing When you become an adult Families grow apart People leave and things like that You can't really relive that And sometimes people find themselves Longing for that That's something I've gone through I remember growing up and going to the family Christmases Aunts, uncles We all had the family Christmas And the traditions that we had with my mother That's all kind of gone And it's kind of left me floundering Around this time of year wondering Just kind of longing for that Trying to recreate it sometimes Even to the point where I've gone out and bought oysters To make mom's traditional oyster stew Well it turns out That's harder than it looks We just ended up eating the oysters Right out of the half shell Which was a pretty good tradition in and of itself It's not what I'm going back to But I was just telling my wife I think we're just at a point in life where We just have to start making our own traditions We just have to start doing things for ourselves And forging a new path So I've kind of thought What are some traditions that we have Well if you've already heard I've latched on to a local Tradition here in Tucson in the eating of the tamales That's something They're selling them out of people's houses People are bringing them to me As gifts Every Christmas now I'm getting tamales Okay that's a tradition I'm going to run with And then there's the tradition of putting the green olive In every tamale And people, you know, we were joking around Last night, well who started that tradition You know that's how tradition starts, someone just does something And then everyone goes, oh there's a green olive I'm going to put green olives in mine And then just for generations they're putting green olives in the tamales And I thought, you know, how did they get the green tamale Or the green olive in the tamale You know, it might not even have been on purpose It was probably some old You know, Mexican grandmother Who didn't even have teeth You know that's why she makes the shredded beef And she gets the corn mash Whatever you call it, and they're easier to eat And she's making the thing And then she's just popping green olives in her mouth And maybe one bounced off the lip And fell into the pot And she went hmm And just ate another one and someone ate it And then she noticed at the dinner how everybody liked it And she stroked that one long whisker she had coming out of the bottom of her chin And said hmm, green tamales So next year she puts them in And that's how the tradition started Grandma missed her mouth with the green olive And now we're all eating green olives in our tamales Right? I don't know, that just seemed like a good story Woke you up anyway So that's what I've taken on And if that just grosses you out To where you can't eat the tamales anymore Just bring them to me I don't have a problem with that story Now you know why I told that story What about pulling off the side of the road when they're selling oranges And just getting a big bag of oranges around Christmas I already talked about the popcorn tins You know Things we do with the church family The stuff we do here at the church Things like that I've even started a recent tradition Of trying to warm up Before I preach On the way here Of trying to say things that Not only kind of help me with my enunciation But also kind of put a smile on my face And so I'll say things like The balding bear barely had any hair One could faintly find his fine fur Right? You know, people say that to kind of warm up, right? They say things like that to kind of Say certain syllables and things like that To help them enunciate better The fanciful fish flopped in the dog's dish Making his final wish No? Never heard that one? Of course you haven't because I made it up on the way over here So My daughter dared that I couldn't I wouldn't say those things about myself This whole sermon is just Pause Pause This whole sermon has just been One long ploy for me to say Those phrases That's closing a word of prayer But you know, there's things we do You know, we just do things Because we enjoy them We just start new traditions Maybe you're not going to start saying tongue twisters Like I am on the way to church But you know, maybe You might be going through some things That we kind of all experience Around this time of year You know, there's a relationship we don't have anymore There's an old tradition That has gone by the wayside We could sit there and lament that Or we could just seize the opportunity that we have To create new traditions With those that are around us And kind of relieve that homesickness So let me just close by saying this Traditions are things that are Fine to be held to You know, if they're godly Even if they're not godly As long as they're not ungodly I was going to have you go to Jeremiah 36 But we're not going to And talk about Jehonadab If you remember, Jehonadab was the one That commanded his sons to dwell In tents and to not drink wine Remember that story? And Jeremiah ends up Bringing him in before the man of God And the other prophets And uses them as an example To the nation of Israel And they say, why don't you drink wine? Remember he sets the water pots of wine in front of them And they say, we're not going to do that For our father Jehonadab Commanded us not to drink of the wine There was a whole litany of things I'd have to turn there, but that was the main thing They're saying, we don't do these certain things Because that's what dad told us And if you remember who Jehonadab was He's the guy that Jehu took up into His chariot, remember that? He said, come with me and see my zeal for the Lord That was Jehonadab, the guy that commanded His sons to not do these things And what was it that Jehu Said to Jehonadab? Come and see My zeal for the Lord And truly, Jehu was A zealous person, wasn't he? They went to Samaria And destroyed the whole rest of the house of Ahab So we know he was zealous But isn't it interesting That Jehu, his lineage Only lasted for four generations We just read about it this last week Where his lineage came to an end He said, you'll sit on the throne When you get to Jeremiah 36 Jehonadab's children It says of them that there will never be There will always be a man to stand before me At the end of Jeremiah 36 I'm just paraphrasing because I'm trying to close the sermon So what is it In the long haul that really preserved The generations to come Was it just some temporary Just zealous fervor That really made an impact On generations, or was it a godly Tradition And the obeying of it That lasted for generations That really brought the blessing Well, we would say Jehonadab The things that he commanded The things that he instituted in his family Maybe they weren't right for everybody But they were godly, they were good And they led to later blessings It was something that led to His descendants being blessed For many generations His zeal outlasted Jehu's Through, not through So tradition, customs These can be very powerful things These things that we can use to our advantage I think it's good for us As families and as churches To have traditions that are unique to us And things that will be Endeared to us and to Future generations Use that as a leverage To keep the things of God in front of people If you're following me I know I'm kind of rushing because I'm trying to wrap this up Traditions have to be considered In the light of scripture Don't be one of these people that runs To extremes They feign Their holiness because they Don't have any fun They don't allow themselves to do anything Everything everybody else does is wicked But don't also run to the extreme Of, well, everything's On the table, we can do anything we want All things are lawful But not everything edifies You want to know what traditions Are good? Ask yourself a few questions Do they bring you joy? Are the things, the traditions that you're doing Maybe you're kind of going through a down season Saying it just doesn't feel very Like a joyful Christmas Maybe it's time to think of some things That will bring some joy to your life Some traditions that will make you happy I highly recommend tamales If you haven't caught on to that yet But maybe there's something else Does that tradition bring you joy? Then what's the harm in it? Does it draw you closer to God? Does it turn your heart to the Lord? Well, chapter and verse or not It's a good tradition in my book If it's something that brings you joy If it's something that draws you closer to God Then why forsake it? Why not hold to that tradition? Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer Lord, again, thank you for the liberty That we have in Christ As church, as individuals Lord, thank you for the blood That bought it for us Lord, thank you for the many traditions You have given us in your word The doctrines that we have The things that we know we ought to do And the things we ought not to do Lord, help us to always be observing those things And living our lives according to them And Lord, thank you for allowing us Lord, to enjoy this life That we can do things that bring us joy That we can do things that bring us closer to you I pray you'd help us to do that This holiday season, Lord And in the year to come Alright, we'll sing one more song before we dismiss tonight Oh, tell it on the mountain Over the hills and everywhere Oh, tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born Now shepherds in their washing For silent hearts by night Keep me over the good days There shall no hope behind Oh, tell it on the mountain Over the hills and everywhere Oh, tell it on the mountain Oh, tell it on the mountain Oh, tell it on the mountain Oh, tell it on the mountain Oh, tell it on the mountain Oh, tell it on the mountain Oh, tell it on the mountain Oh, tell it on the mountain Oh, tell it on the mountain Over the hills and everywhere Oh, tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born There in all the holy nature There humble Christ was born May the spirit of salvation That blessed Christmas O Lord Oh, tell it on the mountain Over the hills and everywhere Oh, tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born Merry Christmas