Sorry this is a little hard to read, but it's the written version of a spoken message, so it never works quite right.
"The rut of the Pharisees was this. They believed in isolating themselves completely from the society they lived in. Not only did they isolate themselves, but then they took the bible and they didn’t just obey the bible but they added to the bible other things that had to be done to be deemed ‘holy’. And so what they said was in order to be holy, in order to be a man of god, in order to be a Christian you’ve got to look like this, act like this, do this, don’t do this; even outside the bounds of scripture. And so some of the things that they believed in and taught didn’t necessarily come from scripture, but rather they invented for themselves in response to their culture, and said ‘this is what holiness is.’ ‘Is that what the bible says?’ ‘No that’s what I say.” And that was the Pharisees.
And if you don’t think this spirit is alive and well today, you haven’t spent a lot of time in church. Let me show you some of the ways I think it plays out. I think it plays out like this, in some of the worship wars we’ve seen in churches. There’s this great debate over what style of worship should be preached, as if you can find any biblical merit to argue style. In a church that’s young like us it wouldn’t be ‘God can work through a piano and a guitar,” we ere on this side “Well they’re a dead church”, “what do you mean by that” “well they’re traditional.” Well dead and traditional don’t mean the same thing. Don’t say that in front of my grandmother, she’ll choke ya. . . in righteousness. My grandmother loves the lord deeply but she would not like the way we do worship. And that’s ok, but you can’t make that a biblical issue.
Ok, look at me. I’m not trying to be controversial here I’m just pointing out the spirit of the age. Anyone who would teach that in terms of alcohol and smoking that the bible teaches total abstinence has stepped outside of the bounds of scripture and created for themselves a holiness that is not of the bible. For anyone to say ‘for you to drink a beer at dinner, for you to drink a glass of wine with supper, for you to smoke a cigar on your porch is sinful,’ has stepped outside of the bounds of scripture and has said ‘This is holiness.’ Is that what the bible says? “No, that’s what I say!”
Now look at me, because I didn’t just say ‘hey go get a 6 pack’. I’m saying that you can not judge spirituality through beer and cigarettes, and if you do, you’re in the rut of the Pharisees. Now let me save myself some work. If you email me this: “The bible says the body is a temple.” I will send to you so much empirical data that says that the cheeseburger you’re going to eat this week causes more damage than the benefit of a glass of wine or a beer or even the occasional cigarette. So let’s not become the hypocrite. Let’s not pick and choose what we want to pick and choose.
What I’m saying is that if you judge spirituality by drink or smoke than you are in the rut of the Pharisees because you have no biblical support whatsoever. You do against drunkenness. You do against anyone being mastered by anything. And on that point, then, how many of us should be drinking coffee this week? See, we’re hypocrite’s man; hypocrites who have decided what is holy with no submission to the word of God at all."
-Matt Chandler-
And if you don’t think this spirit is alive and well today, you haven’t spent a lot of time in church. Let me show you some of the ways I think it plays out. I think it plays out like this, in some of the worship wars we’ve seen in churches. There’s this great debate over what style of worship should be preached, as if you can find any biblical merit to argue style. In a church that’s young like us it wouldn’t be ‘God can work through a piano and a guitar,” we ere on this side “Well they’re a dead church”, “what do you mean by that” “well they’re traditional.” Well dead and traditional don’t mean the same thing. Don’t say that in front of my grandmother, she’ll choke ya. . . in righteousness. My grandmother loves the lord deeply but she would not like the way we do worship. And that’s ok, but you can’t make that a biblical issue.
Ok, look at me. I’m not trying to be controversial here I’m just pointing out the spirit of the age. Anyone who would teach that in terms of alcohol and smoking that the bible teaches total abstinence has stepped outside of the bounds of scripture and created for themselves a holiness that is not of the bible. For anyone to say ‘for you to drink a beer at dinner, for you to drink a glass of wine with supper, for you to smoke a cigar on your porch is sinful,’ has stepped outside of the bounds of scripture and has said ‘This is holiness.’ Is that what the bible says? “No, that’s what I say!”
Now look at me, because I didn’t just say ‘hey go get a 6 pack’. I’m saying that you can not judge spirituality through beer and cigarettes, and if you do, you’re in the rut of the Pharisees. Now let me save myself some work. If you email me this: “The bible says the body is a temple.” I will send to you so much empirical data that says that the cheeseburger you’re going to eat this week causes more damage than the benefit of a glass of wine or a beer or even the occasional cigarette. So let’s not become the hypocrite. Let’s not pick and choose what we want to pick and choose.
What I’m saying is that if you judge spirituality by drink or smoke than you are in the rut of the Pharisees because you have no biblical support whatsoever. You do against drunkenness. You do against anyone being mastered by anything. And on that point, then, how many of us should be drinking coffee this week? See, we’re hypocrite’s man; hypocrites who have decided what is holy with no submission to the word of God at all."
-Matt Chandler-
I suggest more, and it can be found at sermonaudio.com
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