We had a really good class with Stephen Manley tonight about John the Baptist preaching to the Pharisees. John had been commanding repentance to everyone and they were all getting baptized and co feeding their sin (Matt 3).
Then the Pharisees showed up.
It was almost as if they didn't think John's message was for them to obey also. Good grief, why should they? These were the elite. They performed their sacrifices. The memorized the Pentateuch. They ate the right foods, washed the right way, spoke the right words, wore the right clothes. They were above John's call to repentance. They were past it.
They could just stand in the back, fold their arms, and observe. No need to see how this message applied to them, they were just their to critique it. Positioning themselves in the role of spiritual authority, they didn't need to take John's command to repent personally. They were going above and beyond spiritually. They had the God stuff covered.
How often do we do this? How often do we separate ourselves from the "audience" and position ourselves as spiritual peers, or even spiritually above the speaker? How often do we ignore making a personal application of a message because we esteem ourselves as better than the focused target audience.
What do we look to in our own to justify our lack of need to repent? Do we stack our Bible reading, prayer time, spiritual conversation, church life on top of each other and say, "I'm covered. Keep preaching though, *they* need to hear it."
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There's also a picture of a birdman. David drew it during church with his sister Savannah. They are children of one of the guys living at the house here.
Then the Pharisees showed up.
It was almost as if they didn't think John's message was for them to obey also. Good grief, why should they? These were the elite. They performed their sacrifices. The memorized the Pentateuch. They ate the right foods, washed the right way, spoke the right words, wore the right clothes. They were above John's call to repentance. They were past it.
They could just stand in the back, fold their arms, and observe. No need to see how this message applied to them, they were just their to critique it. Positioning themselves in the role of spiritual authority, they didn't need to take John's command to repent personally. They were going above and beyond spiritually. They had the God stuff covered.
How often do we do this? How often do we separate ourselves from the "audience" and position ourselves as spiritual peers, or even spiritually above the speaker? How often do we ignore making a personal application of a message because we esteem ourselves as better than the focused target audience.
What do we look to in our own to justify our lack of need to repent? Do we stack our Bible reading, prayer time, spiritual conversation, church life on top of each other and say, "I'm covered. Keep preaching though, *they* need to hear it."
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There's also a picture of a birdman. David drew it during church with his sister Savannah. They are children of one of the guys living at the house here.
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